Health Challenge

While talking to an assistant manager this evening I inquired as to his health.

            "I'm in pretty good shape," he told me. "Everything except for my blood pressure. And my doctor's mad at me because it's through the roof. She wants me to quit smoking and lose weight."

            "You smoke?" I asked.

            "Yeah, but not much. A pack of cigarettes lasts me three or four days."

The conversation went on this way for a few minutes as I encouraged him to quit.  I also gave him ideas about how he could lose weight by changing his diet and doing just a little exercise.

Even though he didn't solicit my suggestions, I felt an obligation to help. After all, he'd been sober for some time. And I believe that part of successful recovery is enjoying good health. Finally, though, I shut my mouth because I didn't detect a lot of enthusiasm from him regarding my suggestions.

Because I lost many family members to emphysema, and because I had so much difficulty quitting smoking myself 28 years ago, I have strong feelings about smoking. However, I also believe it's futile to encourage anyone to quit unless they're motivated. In fact, I believe that discussing someone's smoking habits might encourage them to smoke even more because it raises stress levels.

My belief is that until one suffers enough they won't change bad habits. I didn't quit many of my bad habits until I stopped enjoying them - and realized they were harming me physically.