As we start the holiday season, I have been reflecting on some friends and family members that are no longer with us. The loss of these people has prompted me to take some time to write about how we show love.

This is the time of year that people cook and bake and bake and bake as a way to say I love you. When we have family members with health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure, it may be that we need a different way of saying, "I love you,"--maybe something that won’t kill them in the long run. When these treats come around, especially our favorites, we can’t help but over-indulge.

Before I go too deeply into this, let me just say this:

Fitness is a lifestyle; it's not just a part of your life.

The goal for me is to get you to look at the way you live your life differently so  that each one of you can get all that you can out of this type of lifestyle.

Over the last couple of years, I have lost people that I cared about deeply, mostly because of their lifestyle choices. We live in a society that uses food as a way of communicating affection. From the time that we are young, cookies, cake, and pies are ways of showing love, both for the giver and the receiver. Typically, heath issues don’t happen overnight, they take time. By the time we have a problem, it's because we have been making bad decisions for a long time. If you look down from the standing position and you can’t see your shoes, and you can only see your belly, then more than likely you have a problem or you’re going to have one. This could be the precursor to heart disease, diabetes, or any other health issues that come with carrying weight in front like that. And if that's the case, then maybe your family needs to find a different way to say “I love you,” other than your favorite pie, cake, or brownie.

Don’t get me wrong--I’m not saying you can never use food as a gift or to never give someone you love their favorite food. What I am saying is that maybe we need to ask ourselves if that favorite food is truly an appropriate gift or a sign of true love.

I think tradition often dictates what we do instead of wisdom.

Then we rationalize it by saying it’s just this "one time." But the one-timers add up over time until one day, the cumulative effect takes over. We end up losing someone who we love and we don’t consider how we may have contributed to their demise for the sake of tradition. At the end of the day, ask your self if it's worth losing them over a pie, cake, or their favorite drink.

Please understand that I don’t write any of this to be mean, but because I have lost too many friends and love ones because of problematic lifestyle choices that they and their love ones could have fixed and maybe they would still be with us. Maybe the best way to let someone know you love them is telling them and spending quality time with them, not giving them something that they'll over-consume and may kill them in the long run.

Remember that in order for fitness to work in your favor, you have to start doing things differently; you have to live it. You have to leave the things of the world (i.e. the internet and television that influence us so much) behind because they do you no good. Take care of your temple--keep it strong, feed it high-quality fuel, and it will serve you well. Neglect it, and it will let you and everyone around you down.

Every day I’m blessed to come to work hoping that I can influence someone to adopt the fitness lifestyle, rather than letting it be something they do a couple of times a week. I understand that changing your lifestyle is no easy task, so if there is something I can do to help you, let me know. It’s what I’m here for. Your success is very important to me.

I wrote this because of the loss of my Uncle Sonny who I lost when I was in my twenties. I felt like he was taken from me unnecessarily because of his lifestyle. If this post helps one person change the way they do things this holiday season and in the future, I consider it a success.

Bill