Over the last two days, I’ve finally gotten back to talking daily walks in my neighborhood. Because of the winter we’ve had, it’s literally been months since I’ve been able to get out. I realized the first morning how much I’ve missed it.
Even though, throughout the winder, I continued to exercise either at the gym or in front of my t.v. watching an exercise video, nothing beats getting out in nature.
When I was first diagnosed with Type II diabetes, I came to quickly understand the importance of daily exercise.
For me, my exercise of choice was and is walking. Not only is it cheap, but it also gets me outside when the weather is nice. Right now, its freezing outside, so a trip to the mall is how I get my daily walk in, making a big loop inside, where it’s nice and warm.
I was in Chicago last week for a conference, and the wonderful weather just enhanced the visit.
On the way downtown, my taxi driver told me that there should be quite a bit of snow on the ground by now, chalking it up to global warming. No matter what the cause, I enjoyed the walk each night from my hotel to the lake.
I was out on yahoo’s homepage yesterday, and I saw a little news item that caught my attention. It read, McDonald’s drops pink slime.
How could you not open that little window to see what they were talking about? Heck, we all eat at McDonald’s from time to time, right?
Well, I think they’ll be a few less fast food customers after watching this video clip.
I had the chance to have lunch with a young friend today. He’s been working on finding a job for several months now, and he’s finally gotten an offer. I was really happy for him, and to celebrate, I took him to a local Italian restaurant.
It will take some time for him to actually start, but right now, the offer letter is something to get excited about.
Despite the heat and high humidity, I’ve been trying to get out and walk twice a day. When I first changed my diet and began exercising, walking was my method of choice.
First off, walking doesn’t cost anything. You just throw on your shoes and go. After making the decision to get healthier, I did just that. I still remember that first walk. Even though it wasn’t strenuous, within minutes I was struggling. How did I let myself get to this point?
I realize that because I blog on topics related to living a better life, and with a positive perspective, that I could easily be seen as someone who is either wearing rose-colored glasses all the time or just doesn’t have to deal with anything difficult.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I admit that my glasses are rose-colored more often than not…but that is a choice. And one that ANYONE can choose. There is a positive and negative to everything, why not choose to look at the positive? It is generally a healthy way to view things and it sure feels a lot better! As I have related in past blogs, written in my books, speak about in my seminars, and share with everyone I coach and mentor…it has taken me years to grow from someone who could always point out the negatives and why things are bad for me, to someone who sees the world the opposite way.
Life Happens to me just like it happens to you. I don’t ignore the challenges and adversities in life…THAT would be unhealthy. I do however, focus on how to overcome. It is true that it is not what happens to us that matters, it is what we do about it, and with it, that really matters. I was just overseas on an amazing trip. One in which I received a major award, saw tremendous fruits from my efforts and spent time with incredible people. I left home on a great note as well. While I was away, there was a major “life happens” event in our family. It was handled incredibly well by my wife and my sister, but it is not something that will go away any time soon. It will require adjustments. This is what you do…when things happen, you deal, and then you adjust. You don’t spend time wallowing or wishing it wasn’t so…this is how things get worse, not better.
As I write this, I am using my wife’s computer. Mine crashed the morning after I got back. This cost me many hours of productivity yesterday and will over the next several days. I have to admit…I was a little…upset…yesterday for a few minutes…but after I realized the situation, I have no choice but to work around it. Life Happens.
The key to dealing with “life Happens”, is mental outlook and living a balanced and productive life. When you feed your mind positively you are more up to the task when something confronts you. Balanced productivity means that you are never in neglect in the important areas, so a temporary interference won’t cause you too much issue. These are bigger topics and not for today’s blog.
Seven weeks ago, I made a New Year’s Resolution to complete a Fitness Challenge at my local YMCA. The program is loosely based on the Biggest Loser television show, which puts people into workout teams and they compete to see who can lose the most weight.
Well, I’m at the midway point in the ten week challenge, and things are going pretty well. I’ve lost about ten pounds and am moving towards my goal. More importantly, I’ve been working out just about every day, and that’s where I’m seeing the most improvement.
Over the weekend, ten of my co-workers and I visited with a nutritionist at one of our local grocery stores. I’ve been really impressed that Martin’s Foods has a full-time nutritionist in six of their stores.
The goal in our meeting with Lisa was to help us find easy ways to stick to the Full Plate Diet, which encourages participants to eat at least 40 grams of fiber per day. According to the American Heart Association, the average American gets less than 15 grams per day. She gave us so much great information that I’m sharing it with you over a couple of days. Today, I’m focusing on fruits and vegetables.
Since I started this blog last March, I’ve been writing about the great need to work on improving our overall health. I’ve brought up the shocking statistic that by the year 2050 one in three Americans will have Type II diabetes.
Those with ethnic backgrounds will have it even worse. Unless things improve quickly, a full fifty percent of Hispanic and African-American children born in the year 2010 will develop the disease.
If you doubt these numbers, I want to tell you about the tiny island of Nauru. It has the unfortunate designation as the fattest country on the planet. Only 8.1 sq. miles, it has a population of around 10,000. It’s the smallest independent republic on earth, but the waistlines of those who live in what should be an island paradise are anything but small.