“Every nanosecond is a moment in history after it’s passed.” – Lt. Commander Data, Star Trek, The Next Generation
Motivation – don’t we get just a little weary of hearing that word in the month of January? We barely get through the holiday season without being reminded that we should feel guilty about “overindulging” and the reminder to do something about it! Every infomercial on dieting, exercising, organizing, taking a class, running a race, etc. just loves to tell us we need to get motivated!
The unfortunate thing is that it is true.
I have heard, overheard, and participated in many conversations the past few months about getting motivated in January. The object of that motivation is usually losing weight and/or getting more fit and healthy. Both good objectives for most of us out-of-shape Americans!
The demands of family, work, relationships, home ownership, pets, and anything else imaginable seem often to take precedent over those goals, however. Looking back at the months gone by, for example … already passed, gone, done. We cannot go back in time. We can, however, assert control over healthy goals for our present and future.
What are you going to do with your “nanoseconds” today, tomorrow, and beyond? We humans often say that we don’t have “time” to focus on preparing meals and eating healthy (do you have time to sit in a long line of cars in a drive-thru?) or that we just cannot seem to “fit in” that 20 to 30 minutes for a workout several times each week, but we seem to manage to carve out time for American Idol or NCIS, social media, video games – you get the picture.
I can say with experience that through our youth and mid-years that those nanoseconds don’t seem very important for most of us. However, as we begin to pass the “middle years” we realize that apart from health conditions beyond our control, most of us have not been the best stewards of our bodies. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, one of the most recent and careful global estimates finds that roughly 500 million adults are obese (defined as a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or higher). That’s almost 10 percent of men and 14 percent of women – and it’s nearly double the rate of obesity in 1980. Nearly 1.5 billion adults were overweight or obese (defined as a BMI of 25 or higher.) If nothing is done to reverse the epidemic, more than 1 billion adults are projected to be obese by 2030.1
Obviously, there is nothing we can do about the passing of time, but each day we all have a total of 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds, and a LOT of nanoseconds (One nanosecond is to one second as one second is to 31.71 years – so you do the math!) Each day provides another opportunity to focus on some aspect of your health and wellbeing – these opportunities may be short in duration around your busy schedule, but they do exist.
As we take on this new year of 2023, remember that you can be in charge of increasing your fitness level, developing a healthier eating plan, and finishing up the year knowing that those nanoseconds have been well cared for along the way!
Wishing you all the best in your health and fitness goals in the year ahead! You can do it!
1Kelly T, Yang W, Chen CS, Reynolds K, He J. Global burden of obesity in 2005 and projections to 2030. Int J Obes (Lond) 2008;32:1431-77
Sharon McMahon, CNWC
The opinions expressed in this article are not intended to replace advice of your personal physician or licensed health professional. Please consult your physician for any issues you may have related to nutrition or fitness activity.