Getting healthy and fit in real time, in real life…

So it’s the last hurrah, the curtain call, the final straw, the end of the road.

My fitness assessment was this past Thursday at 8:30am.
Yep, that’s right 8:30am. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting me yet, saying that I’m not a morning person is the understatement of the century.
So the fact that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

Allow me to summarize for you.
1. I lost a kg. So I didn’t break the bank there, but losing was better than gaining in my case, so I was content.
2. I gained 2 inches on my sit-and-reach. This one I’m amazed at, since I’ve only been to yoga once in the last 3 months and I’m usually pretty stiff in the mornings, so I wonder how good my sit and reach would’ve been at noon.
3. Blood pressure: still normal. (Yay!)
4. BMI: decreased by 0.3, still in the excellent category. And while I disagree with the reliability and usefulness of BMI, (it’s the kin student in me…) it’s a pretty standard measurement during fitness assessments.
5. I’ve started supplementing vitamin D for winter.

Over the last 6 months, I’ve become more aware of my fitness and eating habits, and even though I often know what I should do or eat, sometimes I don’t; and I’ll probably continue to do that. The way I see it, I’m trading physical and nutritional health for mental health. Sometimes you need that chocolate bar to make you happy, and as long as that’s not a daily occurrence, I don’t see the harm in it.
One thing I’ve noticed from blogging on a weekly basis, is how reliant I am on the weather. If it’s cold and/or raining all week, I’ll reduce my exercise levels. That’s something I still need to work on. I’ll start planning ahead for January so I can combat the holiday slump as I like to call it.
I’ve got one last bootcamp class, but I’m not certain it helped prepare me for the holidays. It mostly just made me want to be lazier so to avoid muscular pain.

The bad news: I didn’t get any taller. Harrumph!

Happy holidays everyone! 

Beware of the chocolate covered anything and the mint-flavoured whosie-whats-its.

It’s with great sadness that I have discovered that this is our last week of blogging! I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by, and how much blogging like this has taught me.  I am looking into the idea of starting a new blog in January…so you’ll have to keep up to speed on that by reading our e-newsletter called Healthy UBC.

So let’s check the map: Where am I now, compared to where I began?

Look back at my blog entries and the way I’ve spent my life since we started.  

We find:

• yoga classes at different UBC providers
• how I’ve overcome feeling down
• not much stretching (despite receiving a C in my midterm-ish report card)
• lots of coffee after very little coffee, then a more moderate amount of coffee and an truce on the coffee battle
• more water
• Gratitude via my best things like: laughter, friendship, new opportunities, courteous bus riders
• very few headaches
• my renewed love for my favourite pillow

So you know what? This blog has been good for my health. It’s regular reflection and a way to hold myself to my goals.  I have loved it.  And I have seen a real improvement in my health.  I also have seen a real improvement in my love for my work as well- because through this blog I have known what it is that is on the minds of my colleagues.   I also am planning on using any of my Christmas money (aka gifts) towards signing up for a regular yoga class and a climbing pass.  Because I’ve realized that money is so much better spent on my health than on another piece of clothing or more stuff for my house.

My best thing today:  “White Christmas” sung at the Seasonal Concert today brought me to the verge of tears because it was sung so beautifully.

My best thing since I started blogging: Writing about my health and realizing that people actually cared enough to read about it and comment about it.  I’m so grateful to work at an institution where people care about people!

Welcome to the most festive or should I say feastive time of the year. By now, you would have already seen many commercials or print advertisements of imaginative, innovative and marvelous-looking examples of men and women at their culinary best accompanied by some distant memory of someone talking about losing weight and being quickly drowned out by a tidal wave of chocolate.

Believe me, they are still there, treading chocolate and waiting for the Christmas season to pass. 

Last week, I talked about portion control and maintaining a healthy diet. The reason is remarkably straight forward as eating a carrot as apposed to a candy bar: In order to have a healthier, more active and happier life style now and to keep the prognosis positive for the future.

Recently, my physician told me that the older you are, the longer you will take to heal from a medical issue. At the same time, we also discussed that the healthier you are, the quicker you can potentially heal from a medical problem.

Ergo – if you are older but have maintained good health, you can potentially anticipate healing at a relatively good pace from a medical matter. Ask any professional athlete, either twenty-six or thirty-six. We have read their stories.

Either way, I would prefer to walk the length of Granville St. and count all the restaurants than stop in at one, a few blocks down, consume a month’s salary worth of food and bus home.

It’s not worth it anymore. 

Then we would not have to make a New Year’s resolution about losing weight and could focus on the one that we say to our significant others every January:  That we will watch less NFL football this year.

After the Super Bowl of course.

Next week: The Christmas Party Tray Invasion.

Have a week of good health.

Rick

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