One Step At A Time

Both Lindy and Pam have written wonderful posts this week listing helpful information and realistic guidelines to help us live a healthy lifestyle without feeling overwhelmed or deprived. I’ve adopted and tried to internalize several of their suggestions already.

For me, being healthy – particularly physically – is both an instinct and a struggle. I love to exercise. I have always enjoyed the feeling of exerting myself, of my heart pumping and my muscles flexing and my breath coming more quickly. I even love to sweat! All of it together makes me feel alive, vital, strong and even intensely mortal in that “I may be here on earth for a limited time, but I’m HERE NOW” sort of way.  Even so, getting started with an exercise program (for the first time, after a hiatus, with a new program) can be frustrating or even downright disheartening.

I spent my older childhood and early adulthood trying and failing several times to get healthy, to become a regular exercise devotee, to eat better, to establish a work-life balance… the works. I’m still working on it, but here are four tips I follow that I believe can help anyone who wants to make a positive change of just about any kind:

·         Set Bite-Sized, Short-Term Goals: It may feel really motivating at first to declare something impressive like “I’m going to lose 50 pounds!” But the challenge with setting inflexible and generally huge goals of that nature is that they are destined to leave you feeling like a failure when they take a long time to accomplish. Instead, if you want to lose 50 pounds… well, first make sure you should lose 50 pounds. Then set yourself a goal of 5 pounds. It’s a more readily attainable goal, and once you hit that goal, your sense of accomplishment can sustain you should you decide to go for another 5 pounds. And another. And another… You kind of have to lose 5 pounds at a time (or 1 or 7 or 10), so why not?

·         Walk Before You Run: I know it sounds trite, but it’s true. Your body needs time to adjust to any new exercise regime – strength, endurance, flexibility, movement. You may be eager to get started with something new, but if you start too quickly and aggressively and end up injured, you may end up unable to do much of anything. Even fun stuff. When I was 20, I started walking a few miles every day. After a few weeks, I felt antsy and energetic during my walks, so I started running for short stints interspersed with my walking. I kept slowly building up my running, and at the age of 27, I ran my first marathon. Do you see that span of time? 7 years. (Okay, you don’t have to build up that slowy…)

My budding runner. He walks a lot during his races, taking things at his own pace.

·         Reward Yourself: Pam touched on this in her post. Essentially, unless you have a medical reason to do so, try not to deny yourself your favorite treats. In fact, you can use them to your advantage. I happen to be a huge milk chocolate addict with a particular affinity for plain M&Ms. When I was in my early 20s, I was still in the early stages of my budding running habit, a habit that had yet to really stick. So I made a deal with myself: during the work week I would eat only healthy foods and run at least 4 days, and on Saturday and Sunday I would allow myself rest time and as many M&Ms as my heart desired.  Not only did I stick with my running routine, but my general eating habits improved and the number of M&Ms I felt compelled to ingest slowly declined. (Don’t get me wrong… I still eat them. Nightly. No joke.)

·         Listen To Your Doctor: This one is vital, my friends, at so many levels. Get regular check-ups. Like Pam, I have a poorly functioning thyroid. I take my medicine every morning like clockwork and follow the instructions to the letter. It took over a year for my condition to be diagnosed, and I don’t want to feel like that ever ever ever ever again. Speaking of which, if you feel off in any way, don’t try to be a hero, don’t be a martyr – go see your doctor. Soon. On my personal blog, I just wrote what amounts to a eulogy for my mom’s best friend, a fabulous woman who would tell you herself, if she could, that she’d likely still be here if she’d gone to the doctor earlier. But I digress. What does this have to do with kicking off a new exercise regimen and sticking with it? Well, if you have an underlying condition (like my thyroid condition), knowing about it and regulating it could help ensure you can continue your regimen once you start it. And let’s face it, some diagnosable conditions threaten not just your exercise regime… Get. Checked.

Get regular check-ups or I'll send my daughter after you...

Before I close, I want to mimic my good friend with an honorary mention about Jaycee Dugard. It’s fitting for this post and the topic of health, because in my opinion all the exercise and healthy eating in the world are generally pointless if you have a crummy outlook on life… and after all that Ms. Dugard went through during her years of captivity, she still maintains an amazingly upbeat, positive attitude. I’m going to wrap up with a condensed version of her lessons on being a survivor in life:

1.       Hold On To Hope

2.      Find Meaning in The Day, Even if it Is a Day in Hell

3.      When There Is No Way to Escape, Adapt

4.      Do Not Forget What Real Love or Goodness Is

5.      Stare The Past Down With Strength, Not Shame

If she can do this, can’t we all? What do you think? Are all of these tips realistic? What have you done to help yourself kick off new exercise goals or to maintain a positive attitude amidst adversity? We’d love to hear from you!

Author: Megan Stanish
Website: http://aboutthesame.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/aboutthesame 
Twitter: http://twitter.com/megstanish

Laying the groundwork

Yours Truly at the conclusion of the Peachtree Road Race last year

The groundwork for all happiness is good health.
~Leigh Hunt

As Lindy pointed out yesterday, there is a plethora of information out there about health and well-being. Do I really have anything more to contribute to the conversation?

Well, I don't have credentials as a weight loss expert and I am certainly no fitness guru. But I AM an expert on my own experience as a human being struggling to live a reasonably healthy lifestyle in a world filled with junk food, tobacco advertisement, and mind-crushing stress. The fact is, every day I am faced with a series of choices. Do I eat the doughnut or the oatmeal for breakfast? Do I go to the gym or do I skip it, just this once? Do I stay up late watching Letterman even though I know the alarm will go off at 5:30 the next morning?

I believe the secret is tipping the scales in favor of choices that lead to overall health and fitness. Here are a few of the rules I strive to live by:

1. Eat healthy. For me, this means never skipping breakfast, limiting portion size, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and avoiding foods with ingredients whose names I can't pronounce. I do treat myself - at least once a day - but I have learned to be content for the most part with a Nonni biscotti (110 calories), a fat free fudgesicle (80 calories) or a small McDonald's pineapple mango smoothie (210 calories). I have struggled with my weight all my life; I weigh ten pounds more than I would like right now but I am good according to the charts, so I am trying to learn to love this post-menopausal body the way it is and not obsess about a number on the scale that I may never see again.

2. Exercise regularly. I try to hit the gym at least five days a week (Fitness 19, $14.95/month) where I do 35 minutes on the elliptical machine. I also have a body bar workout DVD that I like to do a couple of times a week, but that tends to fall by the wayside during the summer months. For the record, I do NOT love going to the gym, but I force myself to go anyway. It's kind of like brushing my teeth at night or washing my hands before eating; I don't really give myself a choice in the matter. And yes, I do miss a day now and then, but I try never to miss two days in a row.

3. Drink plenty of water. I start every morning by drinking a big glass of water with my thyroid medication - I have an mildly underactive thyroid - then I fill a 32-ounce container with water and try to finish it by the end of the day. I also take a bottle of water with me to the gym.

4. Get plenty of rest. I am an insomniac AND a morning person, meaning I often find myself burning my candle at both ends, a direct path to burnout and illness. But this summer I am making a sincere effort to get at least seven to seven and a half hours of sleep each night; it will be harder after school starts again, but I am hoping by then this will be a fully formed habit. And I have eliminated caffeine after noon, which seems to be helping with the insomnia.

5. Wear sunscreen. I have never been a sun worshipper, but I do enjoy being out in the sun and I tan easily. But last year I had a "pre-cancerous" mole removed from my stomach, and my dermatologist warned me to be careful. "You have great olive skin," he said, "but you're not invincible." Point taken.

6. Practice preventive maintenance. I am always appalled when I find out that someone I know and love hasn't had a PAP smear in ten years, or had a mammogram EVER. Go to the doctor, people. Get those checkups. What you don't know can kill you.

7. Don't smoke (duh) and drink alcohol in moderation. Enough said.

8. Develop a spiritual practice. Whether it's going to church on Sunday and worshipping with a body of like-minded believers or sitting in the lotus position doing breath work and meditating on "OM," find a way to center yourself and explore your connectedness with the Universe, whatever you perceive it to be. This does all kinds of good things for your head.

9. Find work that you love. 
10. Purge toxic people from your life.
Both mind-numbing work and soul-crushing people make me want to eat potato chips and drink gallons of wine while staying up all night watching infomercials; in other words, they make me care less about myself and making positive choices. Do you hate your job? Then find your passion and make it happen. Is someone making you crazy - or worse, harming you or making you feel like you are stupid or worthless? Do yourself a favor. Say goodbye and don't look back.

It has taken me literally YEARS to figure some of this out, but what I know for sure as that the more positive, healthy choices I make each day, the better I feel, and the better I feel, the better I function. Each of us faces unique challenges as we travel our paths across this planet. What is your number one tip for good health? Leave a comment - we love chatting with our readers! And remember come back tomorrow and find out Megan's perspective on this week's topic. Three writers, three points of view - that's what Writers LiP.P. is all about!

Author: Pam Asberry
Website: http://pamasberry.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/pamasberryfanpage
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pamasberry