Blog 3170 – 07.05.2024

Here’s To Small Victories

Today, I achieved a small victory in my battle to achieve a healthier life style that will hopefully enable me to live long enough and to be healthy enough in body, mind, and spirit to see my eleven month old granddaughter grow to adulthood and perhaps also to see and hold a great grandchild someday. That was a long sentence. Here is a short one. I just weighed in at 180.0 pounds. On June first my weight was 197.2 pounds.

In addition to the weight loss and adding a thirty-minute walk or bike ride to my daily routine, I am genuinely adding healthy food items to my diet and removing those that I discover to not be healthy. There are a lot of opinions out there. I am trying discern in all the information bombarding me what is the truest and best for me.

One might ask, “How do we do that?” First, I think we must try to ascertain the motives of the messenger. If personal profit is his or her primary motivation we should take their advice with more than a grain of salt. Salt, by the way, has gotten a bad rap. It is an important element that our body needs to survive and to thrive. Too much of a good thing, even water is not heathy for us. Drinking too much water can dilute the salts in our blood and lead to health problems. Thirst is a sure sign one needs a drink of water.

Secondly, after determining there is more than the messenger’s personal profit behind the message we should ask for supporting evidence of their claims other than anecdotal evidence, cool sounding stories that support their assertions.

Lastly there is the, “Does it work for me?” test. Beliefs that no longer work for us should be discarded along with the products that we bought thinking they would help us, lose weight, look younger, and feel better, as they claimed. The placebo effect can only take us so far or as the Apostle James put it so succinctly, “Faith without works (actions) is dead.

Is eating a serving of sauerkraut and taking one and one half tablespoons of apple cider vinegar daily for a month good for one’s health? Check back with me on my Granddaughter Emma Grace’s first birthday, August 5th, and I will let you know if doing so helped me lose weight, look younger and feel better.

Here’s to your health.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White