On Outliers

Quite often, along my health journey, I encounter people who feel the need to remind me (sometimes with a tone that borders on smugness) that all this "healthy stuff" I’m doing won’t stop me from getting some awful disease or avoiding a serious accident. They confidently assure me that my day will come, regardless.

They’ll then launch into tales about someone they read or heard about. Perhaps it’s the woman who, despite a lifetime of smoking, indulging in pie and chips, and enjoying a nightly tipple, lived happily past 100 and died peacefully in her sleep...with a smile, no less.

Or maybe it’s the story of the super-fit ironman athlete who tragically dropped dead of a heart attack in his early 40s.

They share these anecdotes almost gleefully, as if to suggest my efforts are futile or naive.

And here’s the thing: they’re not wrong. Stories like those do exist. There are people who live indulgently and seem to defy the odds, and there are others who lead the healthiest lives and still face cruel twists of fate.

But these examples are outliers. The pie-and-chips centenarian was dealt an incredibly lucky hand, while the young athlete was terribly unlucky.

The point of living a healthy lifestyle isn’t to guarantee immortality or immunity from misfortune. It’s about increasing your odds and stacking the deck in your favor for a longer, healthier, and better quality of life.

Sure, you can still be unlucky. But even if you do encounter illness or a serious accident, being fitter and healthier gives you a far better chance of survival and recovery. For example, efficient surgery often depends on certain physical conditions being met. And let’s not forget, obesity increases your risk of almost every disease you can name.

Let me explain it another way.

Imagine standing by the side of a busy road, waiting to cross. You’re blindfolded and wearing earplugs. Cars are speeding past in both directions.

An unhealthy person is stepping into a highway jam-packed with cars, zooming by with barely a gap between them. The chances of being hit are incredibly high. But every now and then, by pure chance, someone will make it across unscathed.

A healthy, active person, on the other hand, is crossing a much quieter road. Maybe a car passes every 30 seconds. It’s not empty, and there’s still some risk, but the odds are significantly better.

So yes, you can’t eliminate risk entirely, but you can choose which road to cross.

Living a healthy lifestyle is about choosing the quieter road. It’s about tipping the balance in your favor and increasing your chances of a longer, better life.

So when someone shares another tale of improbable luck or heartbreaking misfortune, remember: it’s not about guarantees. It’s about odds.

And those odds are worth fighting for.

Keep going.