Has your doctor ever told you that you are normal and that you’re healthy? Normal is not healthy. In this day and age, normal is far less than healthy. Even normal lab results are often a poor indicator of good health. Studies have shown that it’s really bad to be normal. I’ll explain exactly why.

What exactly is normal health?

A study published by the Mayo Clinic in 2016 laid out four simple criteria for being healthy. 1. Not smoking. 2. Have a body fat percentage less than 20% for men and 30% for women. 3. Have a good diet. And 4. Get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. (or about 22 minutes per day).

Body fat was measured. Moderate exercise was also measured and acceptable activities included brisk walking and even gardening.

For the diet they wanted to see low sugar consumption, plenty of healthy fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins. But it was self-reported, and it even allowed for daily alcohol consumption of one to two drinks.

In spite of all of this, guess how many people, out of the 4745 studied, met all 4 components of health?

Not many.

Less than 3% of the people in the study met these criteria for being healthy. Or more specifically, 128 people out of 4745 people.

Those 128 were not normal. They were the highly unusual.

It’s not normal to be healthy. It’s normal to be one of the 97% of the people in the study who didn’t meet these four relatively simple criteria that are pretty reasonable.

It’s not like they were asking people to be vegetarians and run marathons.  

But apparently these aren’t simple asks. They are incredibly difficult things to ask people to do.

If they were simple, then lots more people would be doing them.

So, let’s get real. This isn’t easy for everyone. It isn’t easy even easy for most people.

Because you are surrounded by just the opposite.

Every day, everywhere you go, people, advertisements, commercials, billboards, grocery stores, friends, and family members are going to challenge you to do things that are not healthy.

And it’s easier to just do the same thing that everyone else is doing.

So, to be healthy, you are going to have to be different.

You are going to have to be the one to set the example. And not everyone will like it.

Let’s be honest. You are going to get a lot of pushbacks.

People will admire your eventual good health, but most of them likely won’t want to participate in the journey to get there.

And they’ll often ignore you or assume that you aren’t really truly serious about being healthy.

And they’ll tell you things like “life is not worth living if you can’t ________________________.”

Have you heard that before? I certainly have. Or have you even said it?

Being healthy is hard. Really hard. That’s why only 2.7% of the population is meeting these criteria.  

But you can do it.

We can do it together. We need to be the change that we want to see in others.

The only way we are going to improve this number is to acknowledge that it’s hard, and that in order to do it, you have to be exceptional.

You will have to be the leader. No one else is going to do this for you. Ever.

Strive to be exceptional, even though all of society is pressuring you to be normal.

Pick one thing that you can do. Just one. And commit to it for 2025. Don’t make it something that you can’t do. Make it completely realistic, so that you don’t have any acceptable excuses.

And recognize that it will challenge you to explore who you really are, and why you are doing things that are self-defeating, or not doing things that are healthy.

Because often that is why it’s not easy to change your behavior.

Because it’s not just about the action of doing something different, it’s about understanding why you aren’t doing it in the first place.

And that takes real work. Deep work. That kind of stuff that most of us avoid doing but has a huge payoff when we do.

That’s what it will take to truly change and become healthy.

You can do this.

To help you with your new goal, write it down. Tell other people. And comment on it below.

This will help you to stick to it and give you some accountability.

Oh, and it is fun to be healthy. Only people who aren’t healthy tell you that it isn’t fun.

And it feels really good.

What are you going to do to be healthy in 2025?

References:

Healthy Lifestyle Characteristics and Their Joint Association with Cardiovascular Disease Biomarkers in US Adults

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