Garbage In…

As I said before, I run. I am not fast. I am not into long distances. In fact, I have yet to say that I really enjoy it. I do it, mainly, because I need to exercise. And, I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I am finished.

I have a friend that runs with me. It really helps to have someone with you to encourage and challenge you. I highly recommend it. My friend recently did a healthy eating challenge and he would tell me his progress before and after we ran. He did very well! He stuck to it for the required forty days. And he experienced some great results.

He lost weight. He went down a few jean sizes. He had more energy. When he ran, he experienced fewer difficulties. He was glad that he did it. However, once the forty days was up, he reintroduced some of the foods he avoided. He started eating meats, dairy, fast foods, processed foods and drinking sodas. Nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, we all probably eat this stuff on a regular basis. I will be honest, I do.

Once his diet changed back to what he used to eat, he started noticing a few things. His energy level was down. His stomach and digestive track were not functioning well. His overall sense well-being was not what it was while eating clean. He started having more difficulties with our workouts. This led him to really take a look at what he is putting into his body. He has not gone back completely to clean eating, but he has modified his diet to include less of the things that are not good for him to eat.

The more I thought about this, the old saying, “Garbage in, Garbage out,” came to mind. Or the saying, “You are what you eat.” There is a ton of truth to these statements. Think about it, the amount of junk we put into our bodies is amazing. No wonder our health care expenses are so high. We are literally eating our selves to death. We need to take better care of ourselves by watching what we allow to enter into our bodies.

But it does not stop with our stomachs, what we allow to enter into our minds has an impact too. If we are not careful, we can allow ourselves to be filled with all kinds of things that can be detrimental to our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Movies, videos, literature with graphic scenes portrayed for all to see, can and do have an impact on us. Music impacts are feelings. Have you ever listened to a song that gets you worked up? Sure, we all have.

I am not going on a warpath against movies, literature, and music. What I am saying is that we need to be more careful about what we allow to influence us. The things we allow to enter into our bodies either through our stomachs or our minds do add up and do have influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

So the next time your sit down to eat that double bacon cheeseburger, large fries, and extra-large coke. Or the next time you sit down to watch that movie that has numerous graphic death scenes. You may want to ask yourself, “What is the lasting effect this will have on me?” Or “How will I feel in the morning?” If you don’t like your answers, do not do it. Find something more worthwhile to do with your time. And go to bed knowing that you will wake up in the morning with no regrets because you kept the garbage out.