What is wealth without health?

Most of you would know by now, how health conscious I am. I had several conditions which would have been aggravated much worse if I did not maintain a watchful diet and exercise. These conditions had gradually change my outlook on life and made me appreciate the importance of good health.

Alot of people fail to realise that staying healthy is the most important priority and asset to possess. No matter how good looking you are, or how senior your role is in your company, or how many friends you have, or how loving your partner/family is, or how rich you are, or how intelligent your are, or how .... well you get. Many of these will not matter much if our health fails.

When we are healthy, we take it for granted and start indulging in fast food / junk food / unhealthy food. When we fall sick, we start taking notice and need to maintain healthy meals to cure ourselves. Once we recover, we start this cycle over again. How ironic. Why fall into the trap of unnecessary indulgences in the first place? Some say its to pamper ourselves, some say 能吃是福. Indeed, it is hard not to be tempted by the remarkably wide range of cuisines, restaurants, hawker centres, cafes. For me, the key to this "problem" is substitution, balance, self discipline. 

Substitution - If I suddenly felt like wanting to get some fast food, I immediately think of the other options I have, that taste just as nice for me, yet much healthier. Over time, my brain had automatically collected this list without me trying too hard.
 
Balance - If I have to join friends or family members or social gathering where I have no choice but to eat unhealthy food, I try to reduce the intake. If your daily food consumption has always been healthy, then an occasional, small portion of this indulgence should not do much harm. If your daily meals are already oily, salty, too sweet, saucy, or spicy, then you better avoid having such food. Of course, balance also means many other aspects such as exercise, what you drink, sleeping habits etc.

Self discipline - Your body is yours. Your health is yours. What you eat makes who you are. What others eat is for them to decide. No one person has the same health condition. So learn to cultivate a constant awareness of your body signals and past health experiences you had. 

Above all, cherish your health and do not abuse or "stretch" the limits of your body too much. Health is one of the important treasure most of us have, yet it is one which we often lose it without us knowing.