Staying healthy ... that's the goal. The ticker needs to keep ticking, and it's really up to no one but you to make sure that happens. Fortunately, there are a myriad of resources out there for you to tap; from websites like www.fitday.com and, of course, www.thatsfit.com to such books as Bill Phillips' Body for Life and Tosca Reno's The Eat Clean Diet. Diet, exercise, stress management -- there's info. out there about all of it. It's just up to you to look. Fortunately, doctors are really starting to take a more proactive approach to keeping their patients healthy, so you may not have to go at the whole getting healthy thing completely alone. In fact, two family physicians from the University of Michigan Health System have published a practical guide for primary care clinicians to use in helping their sedentary patients become more active.

As one of the authors stated, "Sitting still is making people sick. We know that a sedentary lifestyle contributes to chronic disease and conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, major depression, and some types of cancer." The amount of inactivity in the U.S., coupled with increasingly poor diets, has resulted in drastic spike in conditions that the author spoke of, as well as a score of others. This is why it is so very important that we implement some form of exercise into our daily lives. It doesn't have to be an hour at the gym or bunch of laps around a track. It could be something far more basic, yet still provide the health benefits needed to help stave off illness and overall physical deterioration.

The U-M authors suggest at least doing the following:

~ Take a 10 minute walk during your lunch break.

~ Organize a walking group with friend or family members and take strolls together.

~ Walk on a treadmill while tuning into your favorite TV shows.

~ Walk to work, or if possible, park as far away from the entrance to your building as you can.

~ Walk inside a local mall, many of which open early for this very purpose.

~ Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Even these low and moderate-intensity exercises will benefit your health. As valuable as things like your car, your house, your big-screen TV, your boat, and whatever else you consider valuable may be to you, the single-most important thing should be your health. Without it, you unfortunately will not get to enjoy these other things for the amount of time you probably want to.