Nick Cannon‘s kidney failure is fading into the rear view, but Mariah Carey‘s husband is certainly taking an active stance regarding his family, his health and his diet moving forward.

Cannon told MTV that the health scare forced him to refocus on his family, which is rounded out by twins Moroccan and Monroe, who will celebrate their first birthdays in April. Cannon said, “Right now my kids are everything — they’re always going to be everything, but when something like this happens to you, everything else is shut out and you’re just focused on them.” It’s a time of rapid growth for Roc and Roe, and Dad doesn’t want to miss a moment by being holed up in a hospital or anything like that. He said, “I love everything that they do and just want to be a part of everything.”

In order to continue to be there for every precious minute, Cannon has vowed to change his diet and make his health a priority. To do so, he has to limit protein, salt, phosphorous and electrolytes as part of a renal diet. “I always considered myself as someone who was in great shape, but I was doing too much [to my body] so my immune system got confused and just started attacking my kidneys,” Cannon said about how and why he went into mild kidney failure earlier this year.

He may have looked in shape, but internally, he was a wreck. He acknowledged, “I was putting the wrong stuff into my body, speeding all the time, not sleeping and eating properly. It’s all about taking time and really caring about yourself and how you fuel yourself.”

Sounds like Nick Cannon has learned that there can be a barrenness and a sickness that comes with a too-busy life. He’s slowing down and remembering that Roc, Roe, and ‘Riah come first!

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