Your Body Is Your Most Valuable Asset

Guest Blog Post by Dave Hubbard, 1/12/12

The quote-machine, and king of common sense, Yogi Berra, once said, “Predictions are very difficult, especially when you’re talking about the future.” Many years ago, Thomas Edison made the following prediction; “The doctors of the future will prescribe no medicine. Rather they will concern themselves with the maintenance of the body and prevention of disease.”

It obviously made perfectly good sense to Mr. Edison as he predicted the evolution of medicine and health care in America. He believed the intelligent approach to good health, would be to do everything possible to prevent potential health problems from ever occurring in the first place. Certainly everyone knows that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

But once again Yogi wins the day, and it’s a good thing Thomas Edison couldn’t play the Lottery! No prediction, that I’m aware of, has ever been further off the mark. Today in America, without question, the prescriptions written by most doctors, are for medicine, not prevention. The result of this uncommon sense? America is now the fattest industrialized nation on the planet, and the cost of health care is off the chart!
Health care spending in America continues to rise at a rapid rate seriously crippling the income of both businesses and families. Harvard researchers found in 2008, that 62% of all bankruptcies occurred because those filling could not pay their medical bills.
Consider these facts; 70% of all health-care costs are the direct result of behavior. 74% of all costs are confined to four chronic conditions; (1) cardiovascular disease, (2) cancer, (3) diabetes, and (4) obesity. 80% of cardiovascular disease and diabetes is preventable. 60% of cancers are preventable. And, 90% of obesity is preventable.

A SIMPLE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

On CNBCs “Meeting of the Minds: The Future of Healthcare”, Michael Milken said, “If everyone in America lost weight, and returned to the same weight levels of 1991, we would save 1 trillion dollars. We would cover all the uninsured, and we would be able to quadruple the amount of money we spend on research.

Why are so many people so stubborn when it comes to the relatively simple task of taking good care of their most valuable asset−their body?

It’s not necessarily about maintenance and prevention to live longer. It’s about spending as little time as possible, sick, at the doctor, in the hospital, on medication, etc. Especially in today’s economy, it’s about spending fewer dollars treating ailments and diseases that could have been prevented.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

We need desperately to take personal responsibility! There is a principle that is older than dirt, and everyone knows it’s true: You reap what you sow! This universal law of cause and effect simply says, use it or lose it, or as it relates to our bodies—move it or lose it!

After stepping out of professional football and into a sedentary job—then seriously injuring my back in a near fatal parachuting accident—put me in a fitness crisis. I needed to get my act together. I needed to lose weight. I needed to lower my body fat and blood pressure. I needed to get healthy.

Gone were the two to six hour workouts every day. And, it’s a funny thing, the exercise stopped but the eating did not. I began to cut back, but when you’re eating as much as I was accustomed to, it’s not easy to eliminate several thousand calories a day all at once.

I went from pushing weights to pushing pencils. I felt like I had exercised enough for several lifetimes. One day I was startled to read that the average life span of an ex-NFL athlete was only 53 years of age. Right then and there I made a commitment to get serious about my health.

Drawing from his past successes and failures with fitness, and through the use of dramatic true life stories, unexpected humor, and masterful motivation, former NFL athlete Dave Hubbard, known today as America’s Fitness Coach®, helps people better manage their most valuable asset – their body!