Top Priority: My Personal Health and Wellness

This is it. 

Have you ever felt off track, maybe not a full-blown detour, but like you keep struggling to get back in your groove? I have felt that way for months now, and as of today I am facing it head on, because it's driving me crazy.

The thing is, I can help other people all day long with multiple facets of wellness. But I always seem to push my own to the back burner. This means I tend to end up not meeting my own goals, even though I may be working daily to help other people meet theirs. Don't get me wrong - it's very rewarding. But if I don't take care of myself, I can't keep helping other people. This is how I know I'm off-track. It's a hard lesson to learn. I think we all do it to a degree. We think it's selfish to set aside time for ourselves to take care of even the most basic needs, let alone work toward a major milestone. Parents are particularly bad about this. But it's time we realize that we can't really be effective, and we certainly can't be the example we need to be for the next generation, if we don't take care of the bodies and spirits that we've been given. I want to be around for the people in my life that I love. But it's not enough to me to just exist or survive, I need to really live. And you do too. So I hope that whatever just hit me in the head this weekend pushes you to think about it too.

So from this point on, you're going to hear a lot more about my antics. My ups and downs, my adventures, the goals I hit and the ones I miss. When I do well and when I suck. There will be some people in my life that hear me say the word no every now and then (gasp!). I want to hear about you too. Is anyone else feeling the same way? If you are, tell me about it, and let's tackle this together.

I have some very specific goals that I want to meet this year. Surprisingly, they have precious little to do with scale weight and just marking things off a to-do list. I'm focusing on healthy habits, my performance, how I feel, what kind of impact I'm making on the world, things like that. As I work through these healthy habits, I'll share them here. I'd love for you to share your thoughts with me too. Tell me when you think I'm crazy and when you feel the same way. Let me know what you are doing to make your life DIFFERENT. Let's live and not just exist!!!!

Fitness and Nutrition: How Does It Fit with Health Care?

I've been in various roles in health care for 23 years, starting in traditional nursing roles and quickly branching out from there. As I think about my current concentration on fitness and nutrition, I reflect on what role it has had in the last 2 decades. Obviously there have been great strides in fitness and athletics, increasing knowledge regarding nutrition and a truly healthy diet, and remarkable progress in multiple facets of health care. At the same time we've had controversy among sports, too many diet books, pills and quick fixes to count, rapid progress of processed food, and the snowballing impact of an ever increasing epidemic of obesity and sedentary lifestyles. Our country is currently in turmoil about how to fix the health care problems, the obesity rate has doubled (at least) and while we know more and more about how to eat we're still not doing it.

In the last few years since I started my own war against fat, lack of fitness and general aging, I have realized my desire is to help people (including myself) get healthy and stay healthy. One body, one life, one shot at it.

Where do fitness, nutrition and health care meet? Logically they should fit together like completing a puzzle, but they aren't. What are we going to do about it? Regardless of the outcome of the current health care debate and how it's approached, we're still not taking care of the core issue. Until we determine that we're going to fight the sedentary, unfit, unhealthy lifestyles we've created we're not going to solve the problem. The fiscal, moral and operational responsibilities will continue to shift from one group to another without ever triggering true change that solves the root problem. I don't have the answer to this current crisis and do not pretend that I do. Quite frankly, it seems frightening and overwhelmingly monumental.

We always must help the sick get well, and we must figure out the best way to do that. For those who can't get well we need to provide the best support and quality of life as possible. But we can no longer afford, on multiple levels, to not focus on helping every individual reach full potential of being well and staying well. It is in this way that I believe fitness and nutrition are a critical part of wellness, a too-often neglected part of health care.

When are we going to move from an illness model to a wellness model?

I can't let myself get so far into my own journey that I don't remember that many people don't know what a good source of protein is, or what a carb is, or how hours on the couch without activity can impact their weight and health, or how to start exercising, or what a true portion size should be, or that without exercise and activity they may be facing myriad disease processes later (or should I say way too early) in life.

I wish I had the answers. Right now I believe we must start with the youngest living generation. To do that, it means we must reach the parents and grandparents. So there it goes, feeling monumental again. Instead of feeling defeated, I do believe we can change the world, one bite at a time, one activity at a time, one choice at a time. It's going to take all of us and a lot of determination. We must educate ourselves, assist each other and make a difference. I want to be a part of helping the world get healthy and stay healthy, starting with my own circle of influence.

What do you think?