The Difference Between Knowing and Doing

In reading an article for one of my classes, I came across the following statistic:

Since the release of the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health in 1964,
Americans have consumed 17 trillion cigarettes and approximately 10 million people in the United States have died from smoking related causes.
• American Cancer Society

That means that since finding out how detrimental smoking is to your health, millions of people continue to smoke. In fact, young people begin smoking at a rate of 3000 a day. As sobering as these statistics are, I think that they illustrate the point that knowing is much different from doing. We know that smoking is bad for us, but people continue to smoke. We know that exercise is good for us, but we remain on the couch. We know that eating an apple is healthier than a bowl of ice cream, but which do we choose for dessert more often?
Why is it so hard for us to do the things we know are good for us? While I do believe that knowledge is power and that it's important to be educated about issues relating to health and fitness, I don't think that's enough. We can't just know; we have to feel.
Think about taking a trip to the doctor and being told that you have heart disease/diabetes/another chronic disease. Is your reason for changing your diet and beginning exercise simply wanting to see the numbers on a test go down? Or is it because you want to have the longest, healthiest life possible to spend with your family?
So when it's time to motivate yourself to start getting healthy, knowledge is great, but think about the real reasons why you want to be fit and healthy. Those are the things that will keep you going when you'd rather sit on the couch than hit the gym or eat a bag of Oreos for dinner instead of having a healthy meal.