All’s fair in love (we’re not talking about war)
I observe people around me and I see an increasing number of people who are overweight/obese and find out more and more people getting lifestyle diseases these days.
I am also seeing a small but increasing number of people who are making lifestyle changes (for whatever reasons) to be healthier. This is very encouraging to see.
This week, the company has arranged for healthcare consultants from a reknowned hospital in KL to be at our office, to provide basic healthcare checks like glucose and cholesterol level readings, BMI and weight checks, and blood pressure readings. My results came out normal and so did Mich’s but 2 of our male colleagues’ results came out high on cholesterol and blood pressure, one is in his late 20s, the other early 30s.
While driving home from work that day, a thought triggered in my mind. You know the age-old marriage vow, “for better or worse”? I was thinking that these days, it should come with a disclaimer — for better or worse, as long as each party takes responsibility to remain in best health for both our sakes.
Before anyone starts yelling bloody murder and countering this with “when you get married, you must be prepared to accept all that your other half comes with”, think about it for a moment. These times are not the same as our parents’ times even, where most of the time, the relationship is rather one-sided with the husband playing the breadwinner role and making most of the decisions, and the wife being the homemaker taking care of house and children, and usually just accommodating the husband’s decisions. So in the event that the husband gets ill from damaged kidneys due to overdrinking or stroke from high blood pressure because of his diet, there is no question that the wife will care for him till death do they part.
I’m not saying that this doesn’t apply now (of course it does). I’m merely of the opinion that each party (husband AND wife) has to take responsibility to do all they can to keep in the best of health so that they minimize the occurence of lifestyle diseases and subsequently, the events that follow. I hardly think it’s fair when one party is doing all s/he can to be a little bit healthier while the other disregards it and doesn’t make an effort to do the same. Life is already hectic nowadays, what with work and kids and other activities. Do you really want to have to deal with diabetes and high blood pressure and heart disease?
In this aspect, I am very glad that both my parents understand the importance of exercise and maintaining a healthy diet because it takes off a bit of the worry that I would have if they were to do the opposite. Although my dad was (and still is, sometimes) the constant skeptic and cynic, and he used to give my mom a hard time whenever she exercised and when she made diet changes, he has come around each time when some health issue plagued him. He’s been exercising regularly and eating healthily for a while now (he’ll be the first person to chide me if I were to eat junk 
) and I hope both of them will have many more healthy years to come.
I know I sound like a broken record but I can’t stress enough on people taking better care of their health. I keep a relatively active routine but even then, I have to deal with health conditions that are not lifestyle-related and there didn’t seem to be anything I could have done to prevent it, so all I can do now is to control it with medication.
The main point of my rambling here is that, there are many ways to have a healthier life. And there is no excuse whatsoever to get out of it because at the end of the day, it’s your life. You’re responsible for it, no one else.
Note : The medical conditions here refer to only those which are lifestyle-related.
I shall let my family and friends tell you about me. These comments may be rather old but I think the gist of them still hold 
