(As seen in Leland Magazine)
I was speaking with one of my clients the other day about some repairs I need to have completed at my home, thanks to Hurricane Florence. We were far luckier than most but still ended up with work to be done.
The roof needed to be replaced and ceiling repairs need to be made where water had leaked in. Currently our ceilings are covered in popcorn, not the same popcorn that is commonly found on the floor thanks to our 5 year old, but the kind the builders liked to use 20 years ago so they didn’t have to actually complete the ceiling to a smooth finish. After 20 years the popcorn is losing its grip on the ceiling, is stained from the water that leaked in and quite honestly isn’t our favorite look.
Since we needed to have the ceiling patched in a couple of places, I thought why not find out what would be involved to actually have all the popcorn in the house removed completely and not replaced. Needless to say, the quote was quite a bit higher than we had expected. We honestly had no idea what something like that would cost.
This is where the conversation with my client picked up. “Well is this house going to be your forever home?” Fair question right; I mean if we are only planning to be here for another couple of years, we probably won’t get the return on investment…but what if we are going to be here for 10 years…or longer. What if we would be here for that forever period?
So many other questions and decisions ultimately surround this over arching question. “Is this our forever home?” Will it be large enough to accommodate the family and their needs as they grow up? Is there an upgrade of space and function desired in our near future?
If not our forever home, why put all the extra effort and money in to numerous updates? Simply maintain it. Or should we continue to try to improve it for our enjoyment and appreciation while we are living here…and then hope we are able to reap a return of our investments.
This probably sounds like a strange topic for a fitness article. But here is where the switch happened in my head. As I was thinking about the question, “Is this house our forever home?”, I had a realization. Not about the house. But about my forever home, I was already living in it.
My body is my forever home. Just like everyone else. As they say home is where the heart is. But ironically we tend to spend more time thinking about the required maintenance and updates for our house then we do about the maintenance and development of our body; where our mind and heart live.
We should consistently be doing things to maintain and care for our true forever home. Things like protecting our skin from the sun, ensuring the foundation of our body is solid and stable, keeping our circulation system running smoothly, and maintaining our overall structural strength.
I imagine that none of us want to envision ourselves living in a broken down and busted up “forever home”. So why not take the necessary steps to be sure to keep your true forever home in perfect working order.
The keys to your solid forever home:
Consistent daily exercise and movement; use it or lose it.
A focus on healthy, nutritious foods to provide the body with everything it needs for a strong immune system, energy, maintenance and repair.
Proper hydration has so many important benefits it has been ranked by experts as second only to oxygen as essential to life. Like watering the lawn, I’ll bet some of you pay more attention to that than watering (hydrating) yourself.
Quantity and quality of sleep are the foundation of a strong immune system, mental clarity, energy levels, weight management, and overall mood.
And of course, maintaining a stronger outer shell (skin) with moisturizers and sunblock, and please don’t forget the occasional power washing…think of your neighbors.
As we start off this New Year, when many of us are starting to focus on numerous resolutions to improve our life, I encourage you to stop and think about the fact that your body is and always will be your forever home. Hopefully this will give you a strong enough reason to set some fitness related resolutions and actually stick to them this year. :)
I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year in your Forever Home!
As always, if you have additional questions regarding this month's article or have a topic you would like to see covered in future articles; please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email.
BrianTully@BetterTogetherFitness.com