Driving for a living is bad for your health. I know nobody’s reading this, but I feel like I should put this out there.

I have been driving bus for nearly 14 years. It is physically and mentally demanding. It has me away from home for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. It pays a very good wage, but that comes at a cost. I gained 30 pounds that I didn’t need. I deal with gallstones on an occasional basis. I have lower back pain that sometimes flares into sciatica so bad I can’t sit to tie my own shoes. I also deal with anxiety attacks sometimes, triggered by things that almost happen but leave a residue in my mind. I’m glad nobody’s reading because it’s hard to admit that much in public. There’s more that I will keep to myself.

If you don’t pay attention these kinds of things will kill you. It’s easy to become complacent about your health. You come home mentally exhausted and there’s no energy to fix a healthy dinner or go for a walk before bedtime. It’s easy to grab fast food on the way home. It’s easy to just sink into the routine of the machine that you have become a cog in. But I know better than most that this is how you die. My husband drove bus for 14 1/2 years before his heart attack killed him. That will not be me.

There is never any energy to take care of your health when you have to choose to every day. Instead it must be made a part of the machine that drives your existence. Grocery shopping has to include the items that will go into a lunch that feeds your body without harming it. Exercise has to be scheduled like an appointment and turned into a habit. It’s still a daily battle to not fight off the plans I have made for my health. I have to stop hitting the snooze button on the alarm that tells me to get up and go for a morning walk. I have to not carry cash that lets me buy candy from the vending machine in the breakroom. I have to choose the long term good over the short term pleasure. I don’t always make the best choices, but at least I am thinking about it.

I do not want fitness to look good, though that is a nice side benefit if it happens. I want fitness so that I can feel good. I want health so that my body will do what I need it to when I need it to work. I want health so that I can live a life that does not revolve around my next doctor’s appointment. That is worth making the little choices ahead of time and making myself follow through. There is life outside of bus driving. I’m ready to grab it.