No joke folks. You’re in for an adventure the next three days. I was reminded by my eldest son Ben while getting our visas in Panama last month that it was he who had suggested I read Tom Rath’s book, Eat, Move, Sleep: How Small Choices Make a Big Difference. I’ve promoted it to all the the associated health professionals I encounter since introduced, and I may have mentioned it briefly prior in several of my 312 prior blogs, but now, I’m literally compelled to PROMOTE it to you, as I do believe we are in for some changes very soon that we are not at all prepared for that will affect us in every known, even unknown, dimensions of life monumentally, simply by the way we eat, move, and sleep.
So here goes. And the clincher I maybe should throw out here is, Ben did retire at 41 from the only employer he actually ever had beginning in his second year at University of Cincinnati while Co-oping with Great American. He tells his brothers though he’s fortunate to be able to live now on income from former investments so he could leave the corporate race, and that he is really more of a starving artist in that he and Jill are working together on another future income producer. Actually, his first job began with me when he was five by closing bottles and placing labels on thousands of bottles in the milk testing lab, in order to buy his first bike, and continued in various capacities through his first year at Wayne College prior to co-oping. The upshot of it all is I’m still working PT in my micro lab at 75, though it too, is my choice.
I recall only loaning two people my copy of Eat Move Sleep. I am waiting on the first person to spontaneously with out me asking, continue the initial conversation after reading it which had prompted him making the decision to discontinue a hobby business that he was really enjoying BUT, it was damaging his health… A month ago I gave a copy to a local fellow after I noticed he had a desk like mine that you can adjust its height to either stand or sit at. He was primed already. I’ve been back twice to see him and he’s never at his desk! I just ordered two more copies so I can prospect more readers in person. It’s just who I am. Enjoy.
Eat Move Sleep
Introduction
Choices count. You can make decisions today that will give you more energy tomorrow. The right choices over time greatly improve your odds of a long and healthy life.
No matter how healthy you are today, you can take specific actions to have more energy and live longer. Regardless of your age, you can make better choices in the moment. Small decisions — about how you eat, move, and sleep each day — count more than you think. As I have learned from personal experience, these choices shape your life.
A Personal Perspective
At age 16, I was playing basketball with friends when I noticed something wrong with my vision. There was a black circle in the middle of my visual field. I assumed it would go away. Instead, it got progressively worse. I finally told my mom, who immediately took me to an eye doctor.
That black spot turned out to be a large tumor on the back of my left eye. The doctor said it might lead to blindness. As if that was not enough, I needed to get a blood test to rule out other medical problems. A few weeks later, my mom and I went back to the doctor’s office for the results.
The doctor told us I had a rare genetic disorder called Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL). While VHL typically runs in families, my condition was a new mutation that affects just one in every 4,400,000 people. This mutation essentially shuts off a powerful tumor suppressor gene and leads to rampant cancerous growth throughout the body.
I still vividly recall sitting on one side of a large wooden desk as my doctor tried to explain what it would be like to battle cancer for the rest of my life. It was one of those moments when your stomach sinks and your mind races for an alternate explanation. My doctor then described how I was also likely to develop cancer in my kidneys, adrenal glands, pancreas, brain, and spine.
While the thought of losing my eyesight was tough, these longer-term issues were even more daunting. That conversation with the doctor forced me to wrestle with much larger questions about my life. Would people treat me differently if they knew about my illness? Was there any chance I would get married and have kids? Perhaps most importantly, I wondered if there was any way I could live a long and healthy life.
Doctors tried everything to save my eyesight, from freezing the tumors to cooking them with a laser. But the sight in my eye never returned. Once I got over this loss, I turned my attention to learning everything I could about the other manifestations of this rare disease.
I quickly realized that the more I learned, the more I could do to increase my odds of living longer. As new information emerged, I discovered I could stay ahead of my condition with annual MRIs, CTs, and eye exams. If doctors caught tumors early, when they were small, the tumors were less likely to spread and kill me. Learning that was a huge relief. Even if it required some difficult surgeries, there was something I could do to live longer.
I have had annual exams and scans for 20 years now and currently have small tumors in my kidneys, adrenal glands, pancreas, spine, and brain. Every year, I “watch and wait” to find out if any of these tumors are large enough to require surgery. In most cases, they are not.
Waiting around for active tumors to grow may sound nerve-racking. It could be, if I dwelled on the genetic condition that is beyond my control. Instead, I use these annual exams to stay focused on what I can do to decrease the odds of my cancers growing and spreading.
BOTTOM LINE:
As each year goes by, I learn more about how I can eat, move, and sleep to improve my chances of living a long and healthy life. Then I apply what I learn to make better choices. I act as if my life depends on each decision. Because it does.
NEXT UP: More of the same..