How Adam Sandler Taught Me to Eat Healthy

The other day a friend of mine told me I just HAD to watch the movie "Click" starring Adam Sandler. Seeing that I was, as he put it, "into all that personal development stuff" he said he thought I would like it. Well, since Adam Sandler has never struck me as a "personal development guru", this was enough to intrigue me enough to watch the movie...

The show is actually quite good, and has a great moral to it (although let me be quick to point out that it's delivered with plenty of Sandler's usual vulgar bathroom humor...so don't say I didn't warn you). Long story short - it's a modern-day "It's a Wonderful Life" where the main character realizes that his career is not worth the price of his family...good feel-good kind of stuff.

However, this was not the part of the movie that stuck most in my mind.

It was actually just one little line in the script that came and went so fast that it wouldn't register with most people. But it was profound...

It goes like this...

Sandler's character, Michael, it seems, has a penchant for Twinkies and other junk food. His strange new friend named "Morty" (Christopher Walken - the one who gives him the magic remote control that can "fast forward" to the future), makes a simple, yet powerful observation about his eating habits...

He says, "Michael, THAT FOOD (speaking of the junk food) is contributing to your DEATH, not your LIFE".

What's especially poignant about this statement is that later in the movie, it's revealed that Michael's new friend "Morty" is a really an Angel...

...He's the Angel of DEATH.

Don't worry, this is not just another lecture on junk food. It goes deeper that that, I hope. The reason that this statement from Morty, the Angel of Death, hit me (other than the fact that I was eating popcorn and drinking a soda when I heard it...yes, I do have "free days to enjoy my favorites") was that I realized there is NO neutral middle ground or "coasting". Every small thing that we do either takes us closer to the life that we really want - or closer to destruction.

The fact is - all food that you take into your mouth has either a positive effect or a damaging effect. Fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods help the body, while junk food destroys it - slowly.

However, the reason so many people fall victim to "it's just one twinkie" is that it takes so long to notice, that most of us think that nothing bad is happening. Since we can't see the plaque lining up in our arteries, or since we don't feel bad, we figure we've got "good genes" (or some other lie that we tell ourselves) and we're somehow going to cheat the truth. But that's not how it works. By the time we realize what we've done, it's often too late. We can end up 50 lbs overweight with a heart condition, cancer, diabetes, etc.

And on a side note...this way of thinking can also work against us in ALL other key parts of our lives, if we let it happen:

- Like when we hang around "toxic" negative people. Little by little, we take on their attitudes and before we know it... we're one of them.

- When we yell our kids for the 10,000th time, and withhold our praise for the good things they do. Slowly but surely, the walls go up and our behavior helps to turn them into the "nightmare" teenagers that we feared...yet created.

- When we simply TALK about achieving higher financial success, but never get around to DOING anything about it.

We spend our lives working to make someone else's dreams happen, only to end up bitter and resentful and on a fixed retirement income.

The GOOD NEWS is that you can chose to change your behavior and attitude about food and exercise (and all parts of your life if you chose) which will lead to inevitable success.

How? By consciously making the small, seemingly insignificant right decisions day-in-and-day-out. This is what the successful minority DO and unsuccessful majority WON'T DO.

The truth is, there is enough "how-to" weight loss "gurus" and "plans" in the world RIGHT NOW for anyone to become incredibly confused. People don't need more "How-To" weight loss programs. They need more "DO" solutions. Think about this for a moment...66.3% of Americans are overweight and that's estimated to shoot up to 75% in 2015 if we don't change our ways. Look, it's EASY to do the things day in-day out that it takes be successful at weight loss. Problem is....it's also EASY not to do them. Which do you choose?

So what's it going to be? Put yourself in Adam Sandler's characters' shoes...are you going to continue to do the things that lead to your destruction? Or are you ready to make the necessary changes that will ensure you stick around, happy and healthy, for a very long time?

Choice is yours....