Health Beer
Health Savings Accounts Motivate 2008 Health Goals
People who have a Medical Savings Account (HSA) benefit from the reduction of premiums health insurance and reduced income taxes. But the best long-term benefit for many is the large amount of money they have in their health savings accounts when they enter in their retirement years. The best way to accumulate a significant amount in your HSA is to fund each year, getting a good return on your money, and avoid making withdrawals. And the easiest way to avoid withdrawals from your HSA is to stay in healthy.
People have much more control over their health than most of them have. If you want to take more personal responsibility for your health, forget your New Year's "Resolutions" (if you're like most, you probably already have!), and make some real goals to improve their health and prevent future degeneration.
You have the power
The first step on the road to optimal health is realize that, indeed, have the power to influence your health as you age. While the genes you inherited from your parents affected their risks, most diseases this influence is small compared with the role of lifestyle play.
Here is how he plays for the average American: the time they are in their 30 or 40 more are in at least one regular prescription drug – including medicines for cholesterol, blood pressure medications, and / or Viagra. In their 60's, most people are falling apart, on multiple medications, and suffering from arthritis pain, obesity, depression, insulin resistance, and a host of other ailments. Within 10 years, many are dropping like flies.
But of course, need not be well.
Imagine the future
How do you imagine your life playing out? Pour yourself a beer (do it now, before they get to the part where I really write goals in life), relax, relax, and sleep. Imagine that you are 70 years old. Are you still in vibrant health, playing tennis, running on the beach? Or old and fat, with enough energy to get off the couch and make it to the refrigerator and back during the Wheel of Fortune commercial?
Then imagine its control Health Savings Account balance. Do you have $ 325,000 in it, or $ 325? If you're not in the best health, it is likely that your HSA will not be either.
If that is too far in the future, imagine January 2009, and where you want to be. It's mostly your choice.
How are you going to go?
Once you imagine the future perfect, it's time to get serious to get there. And the key is to focus on lifestyle habits, not end results.
Diet
Nothing is more important for long-term health than eating a healthy diet. So his approach as much as possible, should be the quality of your diet.
Base your diet on real, whole, unprocessed food. Fruits, vegetables, fish, lean meats, nuts. Until about 10,000 years, humans have no access to bread and potatoes, and it is only in the last 100 years we have started eating large amounts of sugar, corn syrup, white flour and other modern foods.
If losing weight is one of its objectives, dieting is not the answer. Chances are you've tried before, and knows that does not work. But what does work is permanently changing their eating habits and, most of the crashes is that people start with a feeling of rejection. Whether your wings and beer, or Twinkies and root beer, what you eat and you got to this point is probably what you feel you "deserve" to eat, and you may feel that its not "fair" is not going to eat this way anymore.
Get over it. The fact is that no one eats that way without consequences. Instead, choose to eat good food. Not temporarily, or only to lose weight. Do not tell anyone who is "dieting." Tell them that this is the way to eat, period.
Exercise
We are made to move, and anyone can improve the functioning of your body moving more. The basics: muscle strength, cardiovascular condition and flexibility.
Namely what your prescription should be:
1. Lift weights 3 times a week. Join a gym, or simply buy some 20 and 30 lbs weights. Each week, be sure to work arms and shoulders, chest and back, and legs.
2. Do something aerobic 3 times per week for 20 minutes or more. Do not just take a walk, but in reality do something that makes you breathe hard – whether jogging, skating, basketball, or whatever.
3. Stretch every night. 5 minutes or less should.
The power of written goals
So at this time should have two ideas in his head. One is a picture of you at some point in the future. How you look, how you feel, and how it works. The other is the permanent lifestyle changes you plan to implement to get there.
Now is the time to put in paper. This is a powerful exercise that will make your thoughts more "real" and more likely to come to fruition.
First, write a detailed description of their future, as you would like to be.
Then write your lifestyle positive wording. What type of food you are eating? What kind of food will have around the house? Where and when to eat out, and what kind of food do you order?
Remember, it is very difficult to make changes if you have feelings of denial. Fighting hunger is virtually impossible. Instead of focusing on what not to eat, watch so far to eat, and the final result. And if you want to splurge on some Ben and Jerry's once in a while, go ahead.
How much you have in your HSA when retire?
In 2008, the maximum annual HSA contribution is $ 5,800 for families. If a family makes the maximum contribution of each year, receives an 8% return on your money, and has $ 500 € per year in medical expenses, will have $ 261,885 in their HSA after 20 years. If you have $ 3000/year in medical expenses, you only have $ 138,354 after 20 years.
Stay healthy, get rich. Certainly go hand in hand. And with the imminent insolvency of Medicare, you probably want to have most of their own money available to pay future medical expenses when they happen.
At one time it was not uncommon for me to have wings and fries for dinner, accompanied by a couple of beers. At other times it was beer for dinner, supplemented by a few wings. Surprisingly, the human body is capable of taking raw materials, and produce the heart, lungs, eyes, and everything that sustains us. But if we were able to look more closely, we'd see poor ingredients produce a malfunction of the body.
If optimum health has not been a focus in the past, that 2008 be a year changes. You'll be glad you did.
About the Author
By Wiley Long – President, HSA for America ( http://www.health–savings–accounts.com ) – The nation’s leading independent health insurance firm specializing in individual and family coverage that works with a Health Savings Account.
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