My dear grandma who is 97 and energetic, who bakes 6 loaves of bread by hand in one afternoon, who does her own laundry and makes her own meals, also says “you have to use it or you’ll lose it.”

Now, I understand that 97 years ago, life was much different than it is today. My grandmother lived on a farm in Alberta. She birthed and raised 11 children. She REALLY KNEW what physical labor was all about. She never complained about how she toiled. She told me a story recently about a friend of hers who came to her home this year and asked her in a surprised voice, “you still make your own bed?” This is what inspired me with the idea for this article.

My grandma strongly believes that when you stop making your own bed, you stop being able to make your own bed. If there is any bit of wisdom I can pass down from the awareness that my grandmother has shared with me here, is that if you desire to be good at anything, you must first begin to do that thing for which you desire to be good at. And then once you have begun, you must never stop. If you wish to be healthy in your old age, then you must continue to do the things that keep you healthy.

Many people get into a habit of watching too much television and then they get up from the sofa and they feel aches in their joints and they then blame their aches on aging. Now, I’m not saying that aging is always the easiest thing. There are a lot of realities that I am not aware of and many I’m certain are distressful to say the least. But the one thing I am aware of is that my grandmother is accurate in her wisdom. She understands that when you stop moving, your ability to move becomes lessened in that period of time, or for a lifetime if that is the way one continues to live.

I’m asking you to think of the health you want to obtain in this lifetime, and then ask yourself if what it is that you are doing is helping you to move in that healthy direction. If you need to make changes, make changes one at a time. Negative habits aren’t erased. They must be replaced with new positive habits. This is the reason why when people stop smoking cigarettes, they start chewing tobacco, or they start shouting at their children, or they start eating badly. People think that stopping smoking will make them put on wight. They don’t understand that smoking is a negative HABIT that needs to be replaced by another habit. It’s easiest to pick up another negative habit such as eating poorly, which is what most people do. But when we’re conscious enough to THINK about what we want, and then to choose a positive habit that will move us in the direction of what we want, then life becomes a whole lot better. Replacing an old habit with a new one takes 21 days of conscious effort. After the 21 days it begins to feel natural to eat healthy, walk daily and smile more. After the 21 days of doing it, you will probably actually miss doing the new healthy thing if you stop. So keep doing it and know that health is here for you!

Let us take my grandma’s wisdom and apply it to our lives. What type of health do you want to live daily? Use it or lose it.

Wishing you the very best of life,

Nadine Staaf