What gift do you intend to give to your family? The best gift you can give to your family is ‘Healthy You’. When you think of how best to love your husband, wife, children, grandchildren and others – consider this: When you remain healthy they are happy because you can take care of them.
That’s why so many of us travel to see family and friends over the holidays – it’s a time of sharing our lives, sharing ourselves with those we love.
Then think of the first year that you celebrate the holidays after your parents or grandparents passed away. Your feeling is that ‘if only they could be back – even for a short time…’ Unfortunately, we can’t bring them back and so we move on as best we can.
What about us? If spending one more Christmas with our loved ones is the greatest gift we can give, then what are we doing to help make that a reality.
Researchers at Oxford University completed analysis of almost one million people from around the world to find that weight loss can add up to 10 years — so 10 more Christmas seasons with family — to your life.
Their research found that even moderate obesity reduces life expectancy by about 3 years, while severe obesity shortens a person’s life by 10 years!
While obesity does increase death rates for some types of cancer, life expectancy is reduced primarily through heart disease and stroke. In fact, 1 in 3 heart attack / stroke deaths and 1 in 12 cancer deaths in the US are related to being overweight or obese.
This is not quite the happy message that you want to hear at this time of the year, but it is a fact of life.
This Christmas tell those you love that you want to see them for as many Christmases as you can and that you plan to do that by losing some weight and maintain your health.
Being around for those extra Christmases is the best Christmas gift that you can give!
To give this gift, be sure to tell those you love most what you plan to do and then ask them to check with you in the New Year to see how it’s going. Don’t be afraid – just remember that you are giving the best gift ever!