Health and Happiness

The key obstacle for making healthier lifestyle changes is self-control.  Self control requires us to make decisions that go against our basic instincts such as putting off eating or deciding to spend time and energy on exercise.  Without self-control, people can quickly descend into bad habits that negatively affect their health.

Healthier lifestyle changes typically involve eating healthier, exercising daily, accomplishing life goals, or quitting a bad habit.  They are healthier changes because they improve the quality of life for the person they affect.  Eating healthier can involve maintaining a balanced diet, which can in turn lead to more energy, healthier skin and hair, and good sleep.  Exercising daily or getting into a workout routine can give similar benefits including increased strength, higher metabolism, and good sleep.  These changes give benefits to one’s quality of life, but must be maintained to keep the healthy benefits.  While the benefits of changing to a healthier lifestyle are undeniable, getting to a place where you can maintain the good habits is more difficult.

Eating healthier doesn’t always come naturally for everyone.  It may mean eating some foods that people don’t always like, or having to prepare meals that you don’t have time to make.  The fact is that people have to make themselves choose the healthier decisions, because it isn’t in our nature to regulate our diet.  Carnivores don’t typically pass up on a good meal just because they have to watch their calories, they eat when they can get it.  The difference lies in the fact that people usually have access to food all the time.  Hungry? Pick up a sandwich at Subway.  The issue lies in our self control to refuse the food that is constantly being offered to us.  The food being offered isn’t good for us either.  Food that’s full of salt or sugar, the usual preservatives that make us constantly hungry for more.  By refusing the food, we exercise our self-control, the more we exercise it, the easier it becomes.  Eventually people get used to eating on their own schedule

Works Cited

O’Donoghue, Ted. “Abstract: The Economics of Immediate Gratification.” Abstract: The Economics of Immediate Gratification. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.

Serenity, Channa. “Health Is Our Authentic Wealth: 7 Tips to Make Positive Lifestyle Changes.” MindBodyGreen. MindBodyGreen, LLC., 06 Aug. 2012. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.