It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
All of our past posts have been placed HERE if you want to go back and read one.
I'd like to spend the next few weeks sharing some things I've learned over the past year and encouraging you to consider engaging with me as we prepare for a New Year! Each of these things has implications for both our personal lives as well as our professional lives. Here are the 4 conversations:
December 10th: RHYTHM: The Pace of Life
December 17th: IMPACT: Measuring the Results
December 24th: HEALTH: The Power of Your Body
December 31st: PRIORITIES: Learning to Say No
Let's continue....
#3) HEALTH: The Power of Your Body
Bad timing! It's the week of Christmas Week and I'm talking about health! Part of every Christmas Celebration is all of the food tradition that we enjoy with our friends and family. I'm not going to tell you to stop eating. I simply want to share some things I've learned this year.
I've been on a "health quest" all year. I began the year by working hard and losing 25 pounds of weight. I spent time at a gym with a trainer, I worked on my morning routine which incorporated some new stretching. I've worked hard to balance my sleep, my movement each day and have felt pretty good.
I then hit a 2-month stretch of time that had me making 4 trips on 4 different continents (South Africa, Philippines, Ecuador, and the USA). I fought jet-lag, I didn't eat the way I knew I should, my exercise routine got messed up and I pretty much gave up and ignored the things I had learned throughout the year around my health.
As I look at the past year, I know that when I incorporated some things into my life, it made a difference. I slept better, I had more energy, I didn't groan every time I got up, and I was more "alive".
The past 2 months, I've reverted to what I used to be: I'm not sleeping, I'm allowing myself to eat things that don't help me, I'm sluggish, and my body is in pain. I don't feel alive. I feel worn out. While I haven't gained back all of the weight I lost, I have returned to the bad habits I've spent 50 years perfecting.
So, this week I began 'REMEMBERING' the things that brought me health, and I can sum it up pretty simply with these things that I've written about, spoken about, and shared with you before:
#1) SLEEP When I sleep between 7 and 8 hours a night, I feel better, I'm more productive and I get up ready for the day.
#2) MOVEMENT When I keep moving, it helps my aches and pains. I continue to walk and move everyday, but I haven't been as disciplined about it. When I brought stretching into my morning routine, it made a difference.
#3) EAT When I cut down on sugar, each natural and more plant-based foods, and avoid the fast-food and white flour and drink lot's of water I feel good. I drop weight, I have energy, I feel better about myself, and it brings discipline back into my life.
Tom Rath wrote a book years ago called "Eat, Move, Sleep". It's a great book that just provides some tips and tools to incorporate these things into your life.
I KNOW what to do. I've simply allowed travel, a hectic schedule, lack of discipline, and 1000 other things get me off track, however for almost 10 months of this past year, I enjoyed a new level of health. I want that again, and I know what it feels like.
I'd like to ask for your tips, suggestions and ideas about how to maintain HEALTH in the midst of HEAVY TRAVEL and a BUSY SCHEDULE. I think many of us deal with this, and while I've had some success in managing it, this is what messes me up.
Share you ideas HERE and let's help each other find HEALTH! Post on the comments, or send me an email HERE
Now, Christmas is coming. I can enjoy the Ceviche my wife is making, but I can also limit the cookies and get outside and move a little more. Finding health is a journey, it's a lifestyle, it's an ongoing pursuit that will have great wins and great failures. I'm moving towards health again for the full 12 months, not just the 10.
"Health is the greatest of human blessings." Hippocrates
"It is health that is the real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." Mahatma Gandhi
"...Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19 - 12 (ESV)
To read the previous posts CLICK HERE
Send me your thoughts, ideas, questions HERE
or comment on the blog post HERE
