Optimal Long-Term Health
Copyright © July 1, 2025 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
Good health is a necessity if a person truly wishes to enjoy life.
This article will discuss the three fundamental necessities of good health.
Discussion
In order to live a long life and to enjoy the activities that you participate in each day, you will need to invest some of your time and energy in keeping your body healthy in each of the following three ways:
- Basic Nutrition: This includes the consumption of healthy foods that contain the nutrition, vitamins, and minerals that your body needs. It also includes avoiding or minimizing the consumption of foods that can cause long-term health problems. Each of us is unique and although we all need the same basic types of nutrition, each one of us also requires more or less of some things, such as vitamin D. For example, a person who spends a reasonable part of their day outdoors may get all the vitamin D the person needs from their normal exposure to the sun. However, if a person is only briefly outdoors each day when they walk from their vehicle to a building, then the person may not get enough vitamin D from the sun. If you visit your doctor on an annual basis for an annual physical exam, then your doctor probably sends some of your blood to a laboratory to determine what your body actually needs. Based on that laboratory analysis of your blood, your doctor may recommend that you consume more of some types of vitamins or minerals or specific foods, and that you limit your consumption of one or more specific vitamins or minerals or foods. Unless you have a very good reason to do otherwise, you should follow your doctor's advice.
- Reasonable Exercise: Most people will not need to become a member of a "gym" to get enough physical exercise to keep them healthy. The amount of normal exercise that a person gets each day depends on the normal daily activities that the person participates in. Some people get a reasonable amount of exercise keeping their home clean and taking care of their children. Some people get enough exercise on their normal daily job. If your daily job requires you to stand up, and to move around while you are doing your job, then you may get enough daily exercise at work each day. However, if your daily job requires you to sit down in one place to do your job then you will not be getting enough exercise each day at work. People who walk a half mile or further to work (or school) each day will get a reasonable amount of exercise walking back and forth to their daily job (or school). People who ride inside a vehicle to and from work each day will not get enough exercise while riding in a vehicle. People who enjoy participating in sports may or may not get enough exercise depending on the type of sport and the frequency that they engage in that sport. For example, walking around an 18-hole golf course is good exercise. Sitting in a boat while you are fishing is probably not the best type of exercise. Adequate exercise is absolutely necessary to facilitate all of your internal body functions, and it is necessary to keep your joints and muscles limber and flexible. If you do not get enough regular exercise then you will notice a gradual decrease in your mobility as you get older. Therefore, if you would like to avoid having to ride a "scooter" around the grocery store to do your shopping then you should give some serious thought to the amount of exercise that you are currently getting during your "average" weekly activities. If you need to get more exercise then may I suggest that you push a "shopping cart" around the inside of a store for at least 60 minutes at least 3 times per week. You should push the shopping cart at a normal speed up and down "every aisle" in the store at least 3 times in order to get enough exercise. You can put stuff in your shopping cart when you see the items that are on your shopping list. May I suggest that you add refrigerated and frozen items to your cart on your last trip around the store.
- Intellectual Awareness: A person who is able to make good decisions will enjoy life more than a person who cannot make good decisions. Although it is really easy to "talk about" how to make good decisions, it is not easy to "actually make" good decisions. Most of our daily decisions do not have an impact on the quality of our lives. For example, a decision to have Mexican food or Italian food for lunch does not impact the rest of our lives. However, our choice of friends can seriously impact our future happiness. A person who has high moral standards would have a better influence on our life when compared to a person who has no moral standards and who does anything they desire as long as they can avoid getting caught and being punished. It is also extremely important for a person to be able to differentiate between "good advice" and "bad advice." Good advice may or may not align with what we actually want to do. For example, some good advice for most of us is that we should limit the amount of "candy" that we eat each day. If a person is really, really interested in knowing where they can get the "best possible good advice" then the answer is the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible is the best book that was ever written. The Holy BIble contains the truth from cover to cover. The Holy Bible explains how we can have a personal, intimate Father/child relationship with the creator of the entire universe. The Holy Bible can teach us how to pray so that we can rely on God more often, and with more confidence, when we have to make a really important decision that will impact the rest of our life, such as who we should marry and who should be a parent to our future children. The Holy Bible clearly tells us that if we will accept Jesus Christ's death on the cross as the full and final payment for all our sins, then we will receive forgiveness for all our sins and we will be guided by an angel into heaven when we die. The Holy Bible clearly tells us the things we should not do, and it also tells us the things that we should do. The entire Bible can be summarized into two commandments: Love God, and Love other people. If you really desire to have a good life while you are alive here on this earth, and if you wish to have lots of rewards waiting for you when you get to heaven one day, then you should find the time to read at least one page in the Holy Bible every day. If you wish to know more about the Holy Bile then please click here.
Conclusion
Good long-term health is something that can significantly enhance our ability to more fully enjoy our lives today and in the future.
May God Bless,
Grandpappy.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com