Wellness

My health goals for 2013 are more of a continuation of my overall wellness journey. 

From previous posts, you may have figured out that I run for fitness.  I can’t explain why I chose running.  I guess it just works for me.  I’ve settled into a winter fitness schedule that I am actually happy with for now.  I run about 8 miles per week.  Surprisingly, I haven’t let the cold weather interfere too much.  I suppose I would like to add a stationary bike ride during the week or some abdominal work/weight training for my arms, but I don’t feel any pressure to add to my current routine.

For this year, I would like to continue running.  I would like to run in another 10k.  I would like to do more trail running.  Unfortunately, my ankle hasn’t been up for the trail runs for the past couple of months.  I guess I need to put some ankle strengthening exercises on my agenda.

I have a confession to make.  I do not eat enough fruits or vegetables each day.  The other day I realized that I often don’t have any fruits or vegetables until dinner.  Now, before you start getting on me for this confession, I want to let you know a couple of things. 

1.  My kids do not have the same issue.  Our fridge is stocked with produce (when I actually get it together and make a list and go to the store).  Fruit is readily available for breakfast.  I make sure that they get fruits and veggies packed in their lunch.  Snacktime and dessert time around here is usually a piece of fruit.

2.  I don’t fill in my fruits/vegetable gap with junk food.  A few years ago, we started looking at what we eat and buy.  I used to buy soda, chips and cookies regularly.  We still have those occasionally but when I bought them on a regular basis, we consumed them within a day.  Seriously, we have no self-control (referring to Billy and myself).  When we have junk food around here, it is gone in a day.  If I make a sweet dessert for us, I try to only make it on the weekend, and I usually cut the recipe in half.  We are that bad.

Knowing that I need to add more produce to my daily consumption, I have been searching the internet to figure out exactly how much I should be eating.  I’m a bit behind.  For this year, I am going to try my best to upgrade my diet.  I expect that there will be days when I lag behind on the fruits and veggies, but that is ok. 

Because I am also trying to create simplicity, I don’t want to make this an impossible goal.  I decided to follow what I already provide for the girls.  A fruit at breakfast, veggies with my lunch, a fruit for a snack or dessert and veggies with dinner.  Sometimes I throw in veggies in a main dish for dinner (in addition to a side dish), but I’m not sure what that equals in the overall total.  I think maybe doing some prepacking will make it easy for me to follow through. Hopefully this will get me to my 4 ½ cups of fruits/veggies per day.  Did you know that adults should be eating that much?  I didn’t.  Perhaps you eat more than that.  Good for you. 

Fitness and diet are the obvious go-tos when we think of health.  We can’t overlook our mental health though.  Sanity is important.

At the end of the week, I often feel completely drained from my job.  Ok, if I am going to be completely honest, I often feel completely drained at the end of each day.  Renewal is incredibly important, especially in social work.  I know that I can’t help others if I haven’t created an opportunity of renewal for myself.

What works for me?  Fitness and diet go a long way.  Running in particular is a great stress reliever for me. 

While activity is important, doing nothing can often be as important.  I enjoy reading and getting lost in another world.  I like crafting and how that engages my brain without any real thought.  And sometimes, I enjoy mindlessness-tv, movies or simply staring into space.

Since I am already doing some of these activities, health may not seem like a true goal for 2013.  But I think that health is one of those things that we always have to work on. 

And it is work.  When I went running today, the temperature was 7 degrees.  It would have been easy to stay inside in my pajamas.  But I knew that I would feel better if I went running.  So I did.  And then I took a hot shower and got into fresh pajamas.

 

 

This post is part of my focus for 2013 to be awake.