We must become more pro-active with our own health.

If that means preparing better and more wholesome meals at home, so be it. If that means watching our sodium intake, sugar intake, cholestoral or blood-pressure, then we must do it. If that means no more junk-food, then count me in.

I'm absolutely amazed at people who polish their cars until they gleem; scrub their homes until guests could eat off their floors; spare no expense on their or their childrens' clothing and then watch them gobble down a super-sized grease-ball lunch at the local grease-ball restaurant and then spend the afternoon smoking cigarettes. C'mon people, wake up! Stop treating your toilet better than you do yourself.

Do you want to see your children graduate? Do you want to be around for your daughters' wedding? Do you want to be around for your grandchildern? Do you want to be around to collect your own retirement? And how about the example you're setting? Are your kids going to do as you say, or do as you do?

Starting today, make a commitment to yourself that you will begin a new and healthier way of life. Say, 'I will eat better, live better, excercise more and I will experience that long and happy life I deserve.'

It's not that difficult. No one hated exercise more than my Dad. Exercise to him was lifting a beer and a greasy burger to his lips followed by a cigar. And on his side of the family, the males die young from heart disease. The writing was on the wall.

It took a major heart-attack and a quadruple-bypass to get him on his bicycle and to start doing yoga. But he was lucky. He survived that heart-attack. He was given a second chance. When you are confronted with repent or die, most will choose repent.

But why run the risk? Why roll the dice? Why wait until you've damaged yourself in order to change your ways? Dad now exercises regularly and he enjoys it! He quit smoking, eats right, watches his sodium and fat intake and he will live a longer life.

It's never too late to begin. But if Dad would have taken better care of himself beginning in his late twenties instead of his late fifties he might live to have seen his great-grandchildren. The choice was his. The choice is mine. The choice is yours.