With Your Health, Work on the Big Things

Big things make the most difference in your health and life.

If you want to improve anything in your life, work on the big things first. The big things are often harder, so we usually put them off. Students will spend hours deciding on a font for their term paper rather than starting to write the paper. If a kid is failing math, he’ll do anything before he starts working on his math homework. When trying to learn a complex piano piece, I usually play the easy parts many times before I even get to the difficult sections. We all want to do the easy things first.

With health, we do the same. Everyone wants to make easy changes, but most cannot or will not do what it takes to get healthy. If you’ve read my book, The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, I talk about this. To lose weight, you have to cut out the bad carbs. That means all of them. If you want to lose weight, you can’t eat the bun and the fries in the photo above.

Most people will do anything but what it takes. They will cut back on carbs, eat a little more protein, go for a walk in the afternoon, take off the top bun of a burger, or a host of other things. They won’t do the important thing: giving up all the bad carbs.

People want to be healthy, but often ignore their most important health problems. Someone with a drinking problem talks about their evening walks. A walk may help your health, but heavy drinking causes cancer, heart disease, liver disease, stroke, and cognitive decline. I have seen many smokers who believe, or at least say they believe, that a glass of wine at night helps their heart. A glass of wine might help a little (I doubt it), but smoking is the worst thing you can do for your heart and your general health.

I support veganism for ethical reasons and environmental benefits. Being a vegan is healthy if you take the vitamins you’re missing and avoid bad carbohydrates. However, the small health benefits of veganism don’t negate smoking, drinking too much, a lack of exercise, or obesity.

What about organic and non-GMO (genetically modified) foods? There may be a small benefit to eating only organic food. I am unaware of any substantive data showing a significant risk of consuming GMOs. If there is a benefit to eating organic and avoiding GMOs, it is small. Yet, people eat organic, at a significant financial cost, and don’t accomplish the important things, like losing weight. The reason is simple. Eating organic is easy—pay a few dollars more. Giving up your favorite bad carb foods is hard. Working out five days a week is hard.

I like the financial analogy of credit cards. Clipping coupons can save you money—several dollars a week. But, if you have a credit card debt with 19% interest, that is the important thing to work on. Keep clipping coupons, but work on your credit card debt right now.

As Franklin said, “There are no gains without pains.” If you want to get healthy, it takes hard work. Ten percent of Americans smoke. That is their biggest health problem. Over forty percent are obese. If they don’t smoke, then obesity is their biggest health problem. Lack of exercise is likely the third biggest health problem in the United States. It takes hard work to do the important things and correct these problems.

Do it anyway. The best day to start doing the work and getting healthy is today. Start with the biggest thing.