Living A Healthy Lifestyle On Purpose     The primary goal of anyone should be to understand what being healthy means and how to live a healthy lifestyle.   If you do not understand what being healthy is and the ramifications of poor health you will have trouble finding the motivation inside of you to start living a healthy lifestyle.   Living an unhealthy lifestyle can lead to many different health complications including heart disease, lung disease, strokes, kidney disease, peripheral vascular disease, cancer and many more.   There is no doctor, book, motivational speaker, or video that can force you to pursue a more healthy lifestyle. All these things can educate you as to why living a healthy lifestyle is best; however, ultimately it is up to you to make the decision.   Twenty years of practicing internal medicine has given me the opportunity to see the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle as well as the side effects of living a less than optimal lifestyle.   Many people have to have something that “clicks” inside that motivates them to pursue a healthier lifestyle.   A good example of this is individuals that have been diagnosed with lung cancer after smoking for years. Most all of us are aware of the potential side effects and dangers of smoking; however, the addiction to nicotine maintains a strong hold, psychologically and physically, on smokers. I have witnessed many smokers that just up an quit without any smoking cessation counseling or nicotine substitutes prior to their lung cancer ever being diagnosed. A typical response was that there was just something that told them they needed to quit. This something may have been just a feeling they had or side effects they had not experienced before during their years of smoking. Some quit after experiencing complications from smoking such as severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiac conditions, strokes, and peripheral vascular disease.   The patients that really stand out are the those that just up and quit and were later diagnosed with lung cancer weeks or months later. Most of them said something inside triggered their decision to quit and once they made the decision it was easy.   This trigger was most likely the fear of developing an ominous complication from years of smoking and in their case it was lung cancer.   You owe it to yourself to do some self education in regards to living a healthy lifestyle and understanding the potential complications of living an unhealthy lifestyle.   Understanding the pitfalls of ignoring your health will help you to experience that “trigger” that motivates you to take action for achieving optimal health.   Hopefully, you have not reached the point of experiencing health problems as a direct result of living an unhealthy lifestyle. If you have made the decision to start improving your health then make it your goal to focus on improving your health as well as all other aspects of your life.   Make it your daily resolution to start living a healthier lifestyle on purpose.