Living healthy in an unhealthy world

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak at workshops for the Georgia Teen Institute at Oxford College in Atlanta. One day was high school leaders, the next day was middle school leaders. They were awesome! They were very active and interested in learning how to live healthy. They had lots of questions, esp. the younger ones. They still had that child-like innocence of not being afraid to ask questions or tell you things.

I was going through the workshop evaluation forms and it truly made me smile. Here are some of their responses when asked what they learned during the workshop:

• I've learned how important it is to be healthy.
• That most things are in the head and become habits but seem like necessities.
• How to eat less food so you can lose weight.
• That we should moderate the way we eat. We should do more activities in our life related to health.
• I learned that pills and other substances aren't the best way to lose weight. A healthy food plan and a good workout is better to lose weight.
• Don't always eat fast foods, change it up.
• Sometimes you can overcome your weight problem with a healthy lifestyle if you start from the inside. [no coaching on this one, I promise, it's what she wrote :)]
• I learned that you could also suffer from having too much healthy food as well.
• When your body stops growing and if you are not active, you may gain weight.
• The "ose" in "fructose" means sugar.
• That not everything that looks good for you is good for you.
• There's a solution to everything. [I love this one!]
• If you go to a fast food place, look on the website to see what you need to get.
• As you get older, you can't eat the same things you ate when you were younger.
• I learned that eating right and working out and not taking weight loss pills will help you lose weight.
• Weight loss stuff can hurt you in many ways.
• Diet pills can kill you.
• Your workshop changed my life. [I really love this one!]

From the mouths of babes, people. These are from our future leaders.

Do any of them apply to you? 

We don't have to make everything so complicated, even weight loss. It's not about being skinny, it's about being healthy and doing everything you were meant to do in your life.

I thoroughly enjoyed sharing with these kids and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to talk with them about how to live a healthy life. Now, how about you?

Can you live healthy in an unhealthy world?