How often have you heard that saying, “you are what you eat” and really given it a second thought? It can not only determine how you look and feel, but can form a direct connection between a ballooning food and medical budget and an expanding waistline!

In our country, the “Big Three” of goal-setting revolve around saving money, losing weight and getting healthier. But what most people completely overlook is that a lot of these work hand-in-hand together! As we become a microwave society, with chemical-filled “convenience” waiting around every corner and on every shelf, we load up on lots of empty calories and bypass a lot of actual nutrition.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, Americans have doubled their calorie intake in the last 20 years! In this same time frame, obesity rates have tripled in American children, with 3 out of 4 children now classified as obese.

We’re not just talking about a waistline, either! Obese youth are at a greatly increased risk for acne, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and poor self-esteem. I know you want to give your kids every opportunity, and probably don’t even realize that some of the habits they learn early in life could be setting them up to fail.

You are 100% in control of any healthy lifestyle changes you would like to see in your household. You can take charge of this responsibility and start your family moving in a new direction — the choice is yours!

I recently made a change in my household to only buy non-GMO (genetically-modified organism) foods. I have gotten mixed comments about my decision, but you know what. It doesn’t matter to me, since this is my family we’re talking about! You can’t control everything your kids consume, especially as they enter their teens. But you can control what you buy at the store, what you stock in your cupboards and where you go out to eat.

And while we’re making these healthier choices, we need to consider the whole person — body and soul. Nurturing healthy attitudes also means building positive self-images. We are all created unique and kids should not be “fed” the lie that their happiness should be tied to a certain clothing or waist size.

This can feed a whole other set of even bigger issues, where overeating is just the first step down what can be a very slippery slope of laziness, emotional eating or addiction.

Unfortunately, too often we choose to treat the symptoms with a simple “Band-Aid” instead of eliminating the root cause of the problem. Instead of trying to take just one issue to fix, like your weight, you can take a look at and attack the bigger issues:

• Your family’s habits.
• Your food budget.
• Seeking healthier ways to cope with emotional stress.
• Not watching TV for 4-plus hours a day.
• Getting enough sleep.

You might find a lot of things that used to be problems — like stress, weight, money, health — improve together as a unit. We have become a society addicted to all these sources of stress, making decisions based on emotion. As we “hurry up” to deal with all these influences, we eat on the run and sacrifice sleep, both of which are proven to contribute to weight gain according to the CDC.

Today’s message is important for the health of you and your family. And the responsibility is yours. So start the change in your household, sit down and discuss it tonight with your spouse and kids. In this season of excess, choose what is healthy.

And while we briefly touched on the links between your growing waistline and family budget, that’s a whole other thing I could go on and on about. So, enjoy your weekend and then meet me back here on Monday when we talk about how making some of these healthy choices can also put you on the path to wealthy! Leave your comments for me below, and be sure to “Like” and “Share” it.

As you sit down to discuss healthy changes in your life, consider making a commitment to join us this Sunday night for The Dani Johnson Show. We’ll be there at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT for more tips, strategies and skill sets to improve your daily life and achieve your goals.

In great faith,

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