Various Internet sources estimate that an adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day. While this is a crazy big number of choices, you see how fast they can add up to a very large number if you break down all the types of choices. Each day we make 226.7 decisions on just food alone, according to researchers at Cornell University (Wansink and Sobal, 2007). That’s just food!

Then add responsibility in life with your career level, size of family and your hobbies, as well as social activities! This becomes a vast smorgasbord of choices that you are faced with each day. God has given us a free will and a multitude of choices to make in this life. Some with greater consequences than others, but some simple ones are:

· How much screen time – cable or streaming? Facebook or Pinterest?

· What to buy - in the store or online?

· What we believe – TMZ or Billy Graham?

· What jobs and career choices we will pursue? Army or animal shelter?

· How we vote?

· How we’ll spend our free time – active or sedentary?

· What we’ll have for dinner – farm to table or freezer to microwave?

· What we say and how we say it – PC or no filter?

Each choice carries certain consequences – positive and negative. This ability to choose is an incredible and exciting power that we have each been entrusted with by our Creator and for which we have an obligation to be good stewards.

A few things to remember about choices are:

1.   They compound. The accumulated choices of fast food eating all work together over a lifetime to take us to various outcomes of obesity or weight gain, high blood glucose, high cholesterol, diabetes or even more serious health risks of cancer or a heart attack. Individual choices that concern only us– such as what to eat for lunch – will seemingly only impact us personally. It’s our time, our expense, our taste buds, our energy levels and our health.

2.   Decisions create a ripple effect for spouses, families, work teams, communities, states, nations and even the world-at-large. When you make negative choices, they impact others, whether you believe that to start or not. When you make the choice to fill your pantry with canned goods and freezer with sodium-filled pre-packed meals…you are making a choice that will affect your health. When you develop high blood pressure, you affect the healthcare system, your family, and others you work with as you have medical appointments and prescriptions to fill. The ripple effect goes out beyond you.

3.   Choices can be new each day! The refreshing thing to remember is that choices can be made new, right, and positive each day! Each day brings new HOPE! You can start making good choices that compound positively and send new ripples out today! There is no waiting in line. Stop procrastinating and saying, “I’ll start the first of the month”. There is no 14 quarantine time or required holding period for making better choices! Begin today!

My expert advice: Start small! Ask yourself questions like, “Did I move and eat right this week?” If you can answer “NO”…start tracking your activity and food! Apps like My Fitness Pal are easy to use and most wearable some with a built in log for activity and food intake. When you add in logging how these changes make you feel, you’ll be more aware of your patterns and motivate yourself to make another good choice because of its positive feelings after making it. You will be aware and mindful of what you are doing. That will allow you to make conscious choices that will positively affect the next choice you have and avoid choices you are trying to weed out.

If you are tired, get up and move instead of eating chips…you’ll get more energy and feel like you have a clearer head to make the next choice. If that’s daunting, maybe you need to address your sleep habits first and get to bed 15 minutes earlier to feel rested. Skip that soda and have water instead, or start smaller with 1/2 a soda or making it a treat verses a staple of each meal…this will make you feel better overall and refreshed. When you make healthy choices like this you will have energy for a workout after work/before work because you made good choices all day long. The workout (call it activity if workout sounds negative) will then remind you to make a smarter dinner/breakfast choice, because you just worked out. You’ll want to fill your body with fuel, not junk food. You may then decide later that - “I don’t need five hours of TV” - I think I’ll take the dog for a walk and the kids can ride their bikes for some family time…or maybe you’ll go shoot hoops and have a free throw contest instead of more mind numbing TV. See how your choices can easily become positive and create those great ripples to others?

Raising your awareness and being mindful of your choices is my goal for you this week. If you find yourself floating toward impulsivity or a bad habit...stop...hear my voice! You’re one choice away from the next right choice. Ask yourself is this a good choice? Is there a better choice or is this the best choice?

Approach each choice with thought and remember that you pay the consequences or reap the benefits of each choice you make. Remember God has called you to be a good steward of all He has given you. Start being a better one, one choice at a time. He’s given us guidelines and free will…the choice is yours.

So...that is the pep talk for today...make the rest of your life, the best of your life…one choice at a time!