Getting Back On The Horse

I was miserably sick for about a week recently, and it really stunk.  I didn't exercise, I ate a ton of "comfort foods" and was barely mobile for a few days.  I went to the doctor and got diagnosed and treated for step throat.  I don't know why they call it strep throat when you feel the pain from head to toe.  As you may now notice, I also didn't have the time or energy to write for this blog.  So I thought it appropriate to discuss getting back into a routine after being away from it for a period of time.  Getting back on the horse, as it were.  Interestingly, I found that I really missed my running routine.  I find this particularly interesting because, for the longest time in my life, I really did not like working out.  I found it to be too time-consuming and frustrating.  As I look back now, I understand why.

Our society, with its immediate gratification orientation made it impossible for me to see the benefits of working out. I'd try to go for a run or go work out having completely unrealistic ideas about how far I should be able to run or how long and hard I should be able to work out, and with what weights, etc. I would get winded quickly, be VERY sore for the next few days and give up. Here was my mind set, "I'm young and fit; I should be able to do this." So, without any regard to the fact that I had never worked out or run on a regular basis before in my life, I would try to run a 5K or lift fifty pounds for twenty reps for three sets. When this didn't give me immediate results of fitness, it would reinforce in my mind that working out wasn't really worth the effort ,or that it was only for those people who were really out of shape and unhealthy, not me. Luckily, I know better now. When I was sure I felt well enough, I got ready for a run. I realized that, not having been out for two weeks, I should go for a shorter, more gentle run, and start working my way back up. I ran for about half of the distance I would have gone before and went more slowly and, guess what, it worked!! I struggled a bit, was breathing harder at the end and was a little sore the next day, but not discouragingly so. It was the feel-good kinda sore that lets you know you did well. I am now almost back up to two miles per run about three times a week and I'm still enjoying it. Can you say, "healthy addiction?"

As for eating comfort foods, getting back on that horse wasn't too hard, believe it or not. So, I ate a lot of carbohydrates while I was sick. Noodle soup, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, deep-fat-fried Chinese food… While I was sick, I didn't feel like cooking and I ate what felt good. Once I felt better, it was easy to switch back to eating more fruits and veggies, some leaner meats, and more healthful starches like rice and potatoes, and all in smaller portions.
I am finding that a lunch of a baggie of raw nuts (no salt), a sliced-up apple, a few pretzels, and carrots and a juice or water is really all I need most days. I even had a salad from McDonald's when the occasion arose to take my kids there. I normally really like to have the hamburgers there and since we don't go there all that often, I used to think, "What the heck? I won't kill me. At least not today…?" But now I have successfully broken that habit too! Can you hear me patting myself on the back?

And finally we come down to the writing I am doing right now. I am absolutely certain that if I never wrote another blog post again, the world would continue to turn. Nobody may even miss it enough to say, "Hey, you haven't written a post in a while!" And that would be okay if I had something more meaningful to do to fill this time. But I enjoy writing about my experiences and it is helping me stay focused on the fact that my health and life balance are very important to me. It feels good to do this and so I am finding the time. And that is the crux of it right there. Finding the time to do the MOST important things in life. Finding time for your own fulfillment and creating a sense of peace in your world and realizing that it is a long-term process. This is also a continual process. I'm finding I need to remind myself of the MOST
important things so that I do those instead of filling my time with other things that are simply being squeaky wheels at the moment. The squeaky wheel can get the grease, but not until I've finished my run. I wrote a post a while back that extolled the virtues of saying "no" (see post entitled Moms with Toddlers... yep, it's a problem.). This has also been a key to getting back on my personal wellness horse. Because I haven't taken on more than I could chew in a while, I was able to recover from being "out of the box" pretty quickly instead of feeling like I was really behind and having to pull an all-nighter to catch up. I feel like now, in general, I am only juggling about six balls instead of ten or twelve, and it feels much better. I am convinced that there is an optimal level of tension that we all should strive for. Without enough to do, or without enough things that are personally fulfilling, we tend to do nothing, ignoring our health and hence even the well being of our families. With too much to do, we create stress in our lives and forget to do only what's important in favor of doing everything that we are capable of doing. I have called this "the curse of competence" and I will write about it some time, but I bet you can already read the post in your head, no?

So that's how I did it. I got back into the saddle by not having an overwhelming amount of things to do which would have made it easy for me to keep putting off my health. I then made conscious decisions and took deliberate actions to get back on the right track. In the book Seven Habit of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey points out that the word "responsible" can also be broken down into the parts response-able. We are all able to respond to outside forces in many ways. We can allow them to discourage us or we can make a plan to respond in a positive way. I got back on the horse!!!