Way back when I was in my medical residency, I lived with my parents for the first 2 years to save money. I chose to sleep in my recently deceased brother’s room. It added some comfort and connection and felt right.
My parents’ room was directly above and like many residences and hotels the space in between (their floor my roof) actually magnified sound. It didn’t take long before I realized my father had a definitive routine. He would fall asleep with the TV on sometime around midnight. Around 2 am he would wake up like clockwork. He would allow his shoes to drop one at a time. I’m not sure why but it seemed like one would fall and hit the floor loudly booming into my ears. Perhaps 10 minutes later the other shoe would drop invariably waking me again in rapid succession.
The coup d’grace came when he lowered the Lazy boy foot rest. In spite of my imploring and protestations he ALWAYS let it down suddenly creating a loud soul wrenching clank that exploded in my sleeping conscious.
Invariably it took an hour or more to fall back asleep as I was never 100% sure if more projectiles were headed to the floor!
What does this have to do with health?
Well, recently I noticed that many if not most of the people I come into contact with go through a kind of “true confessions” moment with me. They admit they drink too much, or they eat poorly, or they don’t exercise, or my personal favorite, they forget to make their supplements a daily habit.
This is usually accompanied by a statement such as, “I know I shouldn’t be doing that but I hope it doesn’t affect my health too much.
You should or shouldn’t depending on which habit we are talking about and it DOES affect your health.
In all ways we are the sum total of our habits. Poor life style choices and poor nutritional/supplement choices and habits are bound to affect your health adversely.
Saying you hope it doesn’t happen is like waiting for the other shoe to drop!
Make a choice, make a commitment and stick to it.
Be your own best friend and honor your body. If that is not enough, then think of the people who love and depend on you!
Happy Habit Forming!
Dr Dave