By Angela Kerrisk from Activate Fitness

For too long we have been led to believe that genetics play a huge role in our destiny. The bag of goods we have been sold is that it is genetics that determines your health!

While they do determine our script, we control the narrative of this script by what we do and how we operate in our environment. You have more control over your health than you have been led to believe so take ownership of these things because it matters!

How we eat, move, sleep, think and connect; these five factors of health play an intrinsic part in our overall health and longevity.

While some of the decisions we make don’t immediately show (inflammation in our body can take years to manifest), everything is connected and all these systems have rules to operate at their peak. Most importantly we control how we operate these systems.

We can take ownership and mitigate health issues by changing our lifestyle choices!

All of our internal systems operate better when we eat good food, focus on eating whole foods, quality and quantity also count.

Move more

Try not to sit down for long periods of time. Get up and move around as much as possible. Get outdoors as much as you can

Sleep well

Sleep quality matters, create a sleep routine.

Improve your mindset

If some area of your life isn’t working, take ownership and work at changing the situation, don’t complain or moan!

Reduce stress

Create a social support network and connect with those around you. Poor social support has a detrimental effect on your health.

Practice gratitude

This has been proven to rewire your brain to see and appreciate the positives in your life.

We all know we should do this but the action is the part we struggle with.
In today’s society everywhere we look there is an abundance of food, noise, screens, of stress.

In the light of this abundance lies the fight between comfort and discomfort.

Fundamentally we are built to seek comfort but we have to go up against this and lean into the discomfort because it is through this discomfort you will find health. Many rewards in life will elude you if you're not willing to be a little uncomfortable at first.

This is the first generation that is expected to live shorter than their parents.
We have gotten smarter but less healthy.

We usually don’t make these changes until we reach rock bottom or get a wake-up call.
Why not start now and re-shift your focus and identity to be the person that eats well, moves well, sleeps well, thinks well and connects well!

Make the decisions now that will enable you to be the older person that is an asset, not a liability. Make the harder choices now and set yourself up with the optimal choices to succeed as best you can, these choices will matter. Try to change the narrative now for our current generation and the generations to come.

Like the saying goes ….

Easy choices, hard life,
Hard choices, easy life.

If you would like help with making any of these changes please contact us at www.activate.ie.