Cultivate Opportunities for Exercise

Does the very mention of the word exercise make you shrink back like a vampire facing the sunrise? Lifestyles today tend to eliminate even the most minute forms of exercise. We no longer get up to change the channel or level of sound on the television, and don't lift our arms as we move dishes from the sink to the strainer to drain. No, instead we push buttons. Our fingers are in good shape.

Why don't you exercise?

I live in Florida and a few of the common reasons here to avoid exercise are that it's too hot or the mosquitoes are bad. Another familiar one is that, "I'm too tired," or "I'm not motivated," or even the, "I'll start Monday," excuse.

Last week a fried of mine died at age 62 of a massive heart attack. Within the past year I've lost friends to strokes and heart related problems. If they had the opportunity to pass on something they've learned, I bet it would wipe out any of our excuses.

The first step: incorporate exercise into your daily life. Take the stairs, walk when you don't have to drive, park at the outer limits of the parking lot. Don't squash opportunities to exercise. Cultivate them.

Can You Legislate Eating Right?

I've come full circle. Gained weight, dieted (counted calories and limited high fat, sugary and processed foods and snacks), exercised regularly, went off the diet, wobbled and am fighting to find the answer.

Does this sound familiar to you? How many times have you dieted, lost weight only to regain it? Why does this happen?

One reason is that when we diet this eating "program" eventually ends. Can we really make enough rules to lose weight and keep it off? How many times have you heard the phrase lifestyle change? That's really what it's all about.

Where do we begin?

That's the journey I'm on now. The first step for me (and I hope it works for you) is to keep a journal of the victories instead of focusing on what I'm eating or how much. The focus needs to change. I can't follow rules 100% of the time and when I don't I go totally the other direction. Perhaps if my focus is no longer on rules but the victories of making right choices I'll be encouraged to go the right direction.

Walking a Tightrope

Staying on the straight and narrow with eating and exercise reminds me of walking a tightrope. Writing projects press in on me as deadlines draw near, while my day job and family obligations put a crunch on the remainder of my time. It's not easy eating right. It takes planning and work. Adding exercise to the mix takes more discipline.

Without planning, walking the tightrope of discipline is like trying to stay on the rope without wearing the right shoes or using the pole to help balance. You fall off. Once off, it's easy to want to stay off because it's much easier to walk in the land of eat-what-you-want. Althought it's easier, it's not the best. A 60 year old friend of mine had a pacemaker surgically implanted yesterday. The surgeon walked in the room and commented how much he loves overweight people because they are putting his children through college.

We may joke about extra pounds or even justify them, but in the long run our health suffers. Are you really willing to pay that price?

It's easy to think it won't happen to you, but statistics don't back up that thinking. Yes, we think things like this happen to other people, but if we continue to feed our bodies fat-laden, sugary, high calorie foods, one of these days it will be us.

Like Riding a Bike

Over time I've learned enough about eating right that no matter how long I stray from making good choices, I still know eating fried food is not a good thing. It reminds me of when I was a kid riding my bike. I'm not much of a risk taker, but I'd press the limit. I remember one day peddling my cousin's bike. She had a wire basket screwed to her front handle bars. My bike didn't have a basket.

I placed my baby brother in the basket. He was probably about 12-14 months old at the time. It was sooo cute. He held his mouth open to let the wind make a low whistling sound. We went around three blocks. The first time around, I avoided a pothole.

The second time around, I wondered if he'd think it was fun to hit the pothole.

The third time, I decided to give him a thrill. My front tire hit the pothole and the basket bounced up throwing my brother to the shoulder of the road. His forehead was scraped, he had gravel in his mouth and I knew that I knew...I should never have done that.

Dieting is just like riding that bike. I know when I know that I shouldn't do that. Today is the second day that I'm counting calories (again). I'm peddling past the pot holes. Hope you are too.

Get Ready, Get Set...

Tomorrow's Monday. I'm not one that tends to start things on Monday. I find starting a diet on a Friday usually works better, because I make it through the weekend while I have fresh will power, which motivates me to keep going through the rest of the week.

Why am I starting tomorrow? Because my support group is ready to get back on track. We'll be meeting, weighing and discussing why we fell away from what we knew we should be doing. Instead of focusing on all the wrong we've done, we'll look at what we will be doing.

Most of all, we'll be sure to bring God's Word into our plans. We slipped from trusting Him to trusting ourselves. It didn't work. It never does. It's so easy to be deceived into thinking I can handle things. Truth is, I can't do it without Him. It's great to have the support of others too.

Eating an Elephant

This past month imploded with busyness. My book, Pumping Your Muse hit the market, I joined in a project involving author Chris Volgler (Writer's Journey), my column, editing business....

On top of this, I've had guests for the last three weeks, three differet sets of guests. This is the thing that threw me off track. I hurried and scurried from one thing to another and didn't make a plan as far as my eating. Restaurant hopping invited disaster. You've heard of power walking--well stress eating is similar. Once I headed down the yellow chip road, I found myself in the land of Eat-what-u-want.

I thought about how I juggle all my responsibilities. I break things down in small "doable" tasks. I need to do the same to get my eating back on track. This week, I'm going to ease back into the exercise routine (even in the hot humid weather). You know bouncing on an exercise ball while sitting at the computer is better than nothing!

And at least for the first half of the day, I'll curb my appetite and "do the right thing." It's not a perfect plan, but it's a plan. A little bite of the proverbial elephant.