“The First Wealth is Health” – this is the famous phrase by an American Poet named Ralph Waldo Emerson. It does give a general realization on how life should be handled. In our busy world, sometimes we tend to forget the importance of health. We try to enjoy everything that is good, YOLO right? Well, you should note that I am writing this for myself as well. Who does not want to enjoy life? But it’s true that you will only know and realize it when you get busted or when one of your body system crashes and gives you pain big time.

A year before the time of this writing, I was forced to undergo Ureteroscopic kidney stone removal. The kidney stones went under medical treatment for two years before that wherein one instance led to flashing a stone out while I was urinating. The pain was excruciating as I can remember. Then everything went back to normal, so as my eating habits and bad lifestyle. Until I met that incident last year that made me not urinate even a single drop, so I was rushed to a hospital and they found out two 9mm stones blocking my urine tube.  The surgery removed them and this event taught me to be more careful and wiser with my lifestyle now.

I recalled the old lifestyle I was enjoying before my kidney almost gave up on me, and having a list of what I was used to be doing back then, I gradually took more effort to remove any bad habits. So this was my life routine:

• Skipping breakfast
• Having heavy lunch
• Smoking every after meal
• Drinking sodas to make me awake
• All day in the office
• Eating salted snacks with soda
• Going home and eating big dinner late at night
• Drinking coffee outside
• Most of the time, alcohol sessions with friends
• Sleeping for 4 to 5 hours maximum
• Then meeting the same routine

I realized that it was really unhealthy, the happiness was there though.  But the lifestyle itself was threatening I believe. Having the same routine in years brought my kidney to almost stop functioning, to remind me that what I was doing was not good at all. Exercise was not there and so as drinking lots of water. It was just like trying to skip boredom of the routine life I had. Well I worked overseas for 7 years and that explains it. But I wish I had spent a much healthier routine…

So what did I learn?

• There should be nutrition balance in my food intake everyday
• Drinking lots of water should be put onto practice
• Alcohol consumption is neither beneficial nor good for my health
• Smoking is really bad and I should try to minimize until I decide to quit doing so (it takes time)
• Sodas are good to have but they won’t make you stay healthy in the long run
• Having good long hours of sleep is better than trying to force productivity in my system
• Skipping breakfast is really a bad habit
• Having no exercise at least once in a week is really unhealthy
• Lastly, working all the time without adding some effort to freshen yourself physically makes you feel unproductive in the long process

Never neglect this from now on

Well, the list should go on with smaller details. But the bottom line is that I was doing it the wrong way. Maximizing what life has to offer is just second to prioritizing what makes me young and healthier. For every good and fun things happening in your life, there should be a thought process of keeping yourself healthy all the time. Awareness is the key to a perfect health. We feed our bodies with food that should give us energy to consume everyday. We also feed our soul with peace and inspiring words to help us get over all the negative thinking. Finally, we should feed our heart with proper nutrition and light emotions and reactions to help us keep moving with excitement to pursue our goals.

The lifetime goal is to be successful in what we do. Making this possible would mean making our health a supreme priority. You can be successful and at the same time sick and would not enjoy the fruits of your hard work. But you can be healthy, productive, reliable and successful if you choose to have a better lifestyle now.

You are wealthy enough to be called if you stay healthy and even find ways to make yourself healthier in this busy world.