Staying Fit, Staying Healthy

Many months ago, I read a blog post written by my friend Molly's trainer. She talked about what made a successful athlete. As I read it, many of the things she mentioned resonated with me, and I realized they made sense even to a non-athlete trying to stay healthy and fit and be successful in her life.

Being healthy was never something I had to work hard at. I seemed to be blessed with healthy blood draw results, healthy blood pressure, healthy immunity and a healthy heart. Staying fit took work, but this was never a big deal since I used to live close to a gym and had no issues working out at 9pm and falling dead asleep at 11pm. Workouts made me sleep better even that close to bed time.

But over the last 2 years, things turned upside down. The time commitment it took to be a responsible mother, and the health impact of my recurring back & spine problems completely derailed my efforts at health, sanity and fitness. Over the last few months, I have been working hard at getting it all back together and when I read this post by Elizabeth, it made me do more than just tie my shoe laces and run.

1) She talks about being dedicated to oneself as "eating right, sleeping enough, surrounding yourself by a supportive system". Many of us, especially young parents trying to squeeze it all in and still feel like we have a life, tend to sacrifice sleep to be able to hang out, read, workout or simply have a good time. But I've noticed the difference sleep makes, and I've decided to be party-pooper extraordinaire and nod off at 10pm if that's what my body is telling me. For more than a year, I've been exercising twice a week with a friend, and this helps me get at least those 2 days in even if I slack off on other days, and it helps me average 3-4 times a week. That's my support system.

2) A logical training plan, injury recovery, etc: I'm guilty of pushing myself through injury and sickness. But this time, I've made myself accept that I'm not exercising to be back in "running form" as soon as I can. My back has taken a beating and my muscle loss from the nerve impingement will take time to reverse. Instead, I'm accepting that I am in rehab. I'm working on things critical to my problem (core strength) while doing easy cardio and replacing running with swimming and biking.

3) Pacing and varying your pace: A few days ago, in bootcamp, we did hill sprint drills. It was my first day and someone remarked that I paced myself very well because I only ran out of breath at the very end, while some participants did the sprint too hard / walk too slow routine. Pacing is highly relevant to both physical and mental wellness. I tend to put a lot of things on my plate - full time work, photography work, reading, playing with my kid, workouts, playing with the dogs.. there is always one more item jostling to make it on my list. At times I feel overwhelmed and I know I need to decommit from something, be that a walk, a book club meeting, or cooking. At other times I am restless and read 2 extra books, cook a lot, or work like crazy on my photography business stuff. Life is indeed all about variable pacing and malleable planning.

Reading Elizabeth's post, I realized that a lot of the things it takes to be a successful athlete are also things that you need to be successful in day to day life: Managing your commitments and pace as a parent, taking care of your health as an individual, paying attention to being your best as a person or employee or spouse, or anything else in your life.

I know this is a long post, but I hope some of you will read through it and read Elizabeth's post as well. And perhaps out of that group, a few of you will come away with ideas for making your own lives more successful, how ever you happen to define that success.