In order for your health to stand the test of time, it’s important to have a solid foundation.
To help demonstrate this point, we are going to turn to everyone’s favorite nursery rhyme pals, the Three Little Pigs.
Key: House – Your health, Piggy – You, Big Bad Wolf – Life
Let’s say you’re the first piggy, and you decide to build your house out of straw. Straw is just laying around the yard, it’s easy to get, it doesn’t require much effort. Well the big bad wolf comes around and huffs and puffs and blows your house down. Now you’re dropping $500 a week to stay at the Piggy Hotel.
What if you’re the second piggy, and you decide to build your house out of sticks? You’re thinking, well sticks are at least a little bit better than straw. I guess I’ll just use these sticks laying around the yard, it won’t take me very long to build my house and, lucky me, it doesn’t need a lot to keep it maintained. Score! Well, until the big bad wolf huffs and puffs and blows your house down. Good news for you though, Piggy #1 said you can be roomies. Enjoy your stay!
But what if you’re the third piggy, and you decide to take the time and make the effort to build your house out of bricks? Sure it takes a little more time, it takes a little more energy, it might not be as easy to build, and it probably costs a bit more money too. But when the big bad wolf comes to huff and puff and blow your house down…he can’t. You’ve built a strong foundation.
When it comes to health, think about building your foundation like building a house out of individual bricks.
One brick for making sure you get enough sleep every night, one brick for drinking plenty of water, another brick for getting in exercise, add another for maintaining healthy relationships with friends and family, and tack on another brick for good nutrition too. Each of these things is fairly small on its own, but put them together and you end up with a strong house that doesn’t fall over after a rough patch.
Houses aren’t built in a day, so go one brick at a time. Focus on nutrition, and once you have that down maybe move to getting more sleep. Once you master that, tackle getting in that exercise.
And just like any other house, it requires maintenance and work. But since you’ve decided to create a strong foundation, it’s okay for one brick to need some clean up.