Your Health Bank Account

I’d say that almost everybody wants a healthy bank account. Opening your bank statement online or by mail and seeing that you have money to cover life’s expenses with a bit extra for ‘fun’ provides a sense of security. Financial experts suggest having six months’ worth of expenses saved up to cover when life goes sideways.

Money cannot buy you love or happiness, but it does buy you freedom. Please hold on to that thought.

Consider your health as a bank account where you and your life make deposits and withdrawals. You want your health account to have a nice balance. That allows you the freedom to live life more on your terms and do what you want when you want. Because on the other side of the ledger, when you don’t have a surplus in your health bank account for reasons in and out of your control, some of that freedom disappears.

Let’s examine health and fitness through the lens of a health bank account and consider how to stockpile some for when life comes at you.  

A Poor Health Bank Account

Those of us who are fortunate are born and grow up in the early years with a surplus in their health bank account. But unfortunately, my grandmother was not lucky. Growing up in the great depression before the Second World War, she picked up an infection that damaged her lungs. Medical experts developed a vaccine afterward, but it was too late.

Over the years, it became harder and harder for her to breathe, and in the last few years of her life, she was tethered to an oxygen machine. This pulmonary disease is what eventually ended her life. However, she put up a great fight when she was alive and didn’t let much slow her down, and she rarely complained.

Eventually, the drain on her became too much.

However, I see the aftereffects of poor health everywhere I look. As I said, if we are lucky, we have a vast surplus in our health bank account, but some take it for granted, whether through poor choices or poor choices forced upon them.

Slowly, their health bank account drains and health complications rob them of their quality of life. Remember when I said having money buys you freedom? The same goes for your health. Some think making less-than-optimal health choices is okay because they don’t see the immediate effect.  

But over time, the loss of freedom further on down the road is happening, sweetheart.

A Surplus Health Bank Account

Let’s discuss what I’m talking about. Here are a few factors that add to and subtract from your health bank account.

Subtract

Stress

Lack of sleep

Illness

Injuries

An unbalanced diet

Chronic and acute pain

Spending time with people who you don’t like

Smoking

Illicit drugs

Add

A balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and protein

Resistance training

Most forms of cardiovascular exercise, including walking.

Most forms of movement

Sleep

Mindfulness practice, including meditation

Spending time with friends and family

It’s not an exhaustive list, but you should get the idea. Not everything on the subtract list is in our control because life happens, but you have control over most things on the add list. Remember when I said having six months of savings was a great idea? You should think about your health and fitness in the same way.

Creating a surplus by doing things on the add list will not stop illness, pain, injury, etc. However, when life comes for you, it might not make you feel better at the time, but you will bounce back to normal faster.

Let me give you an example.

Before I met my wife, she was a motorcycle passenger in a serious crash that destroyed her foot and required multiple reconstructive surgeries. Before those surgeries even happened, she was asked if she was a smoker, and she said no. They noted that if she was a smoker, there was a distinct possibility her foot would’ve been amputated.

That’s how important your health bank account is.

Wrapping Up

Reframing your health and fitness like your bank account helps you see the value of keeping a surplus in your health bank account. Because when life comes for you, which it always does, you’ll have enough saved up to weather the storm.