Make Every Day Great

          Welcome to afitnewyou!  So we are one week into the new year...are you still carrying out your resolutions?  If you are, that is great!  If you have already faced some adversity with them, don't fret; remember last week I said to take the long road approach, so you still have time to have at them.  With there being 365 days in a year, and only one week down, there is still plenty of time to reach your goals.  And the number of days in a year brings me to what I want to address this week.  Depending on where you are in life, your frame of time, and how fast it comes and goes may differ.  As we age, the consensus seems to be that time goes by faster and faster.  But wherever you are in life, a day is still just 24 hours, and a year is a little more than 365 of them.  These are facts and two other facts that are often stated in many cliches is that the number of days that we have are finite, and we do not know how many of them that we get.  If we knew exactly how many we had, most of us would most likely live a little differently.  (Find the story 1000 Marbles on your search engine of choice for added perspective on this) For most of us, there would probably be a shift in priorities.  With that said, there is no better day to make your own health a priority than today, because doing so MAY increase the number of the days you do have, and it will CERTAINLY increase the quality of them.  It is never too late to start, but ask anyone who has ever started working on their health and most will tell you that they wished they had done so sooner!

          At the school where I work, teachers are encouraged to educate through the environment that we set up and this is very evident in all of our classrooms in what is put up on the walls and displayed.  To help facilitate this, many teachers will hang posters with motivational sayings.  One of the posters that I had recently read had a statement that reflects the sentiment I want to convey here today.  It reads "Today only comes once.  Do something wonderful."  How simple yet profound!  When I read it, I immediately thought of all of the things that I felt I could of, would of and should of been doing that would have been absolutely wonderful.  Who would argue that pulling my kids out of school and taking them on a vacation wouldn't be wonderful?  Unfortunately with the realities and responsibilities of life, I had to reign it in just a bit.  You see, it is the responsibilities and needs of our lives that we prioritize, and on which we act rather than do just whatever it is we would want to do.  However, we also have to keep in mind the long road approach I spoke of last week...I know it is in my children's best interest of their long roads that I bust their wonderful bubble when I tell them we cannot have Twizzlers for dinner.  Doing something wonderful doesn't mean that it has to be tons and tons of fun, but it does mean that it should be something good for us and/or those around us.  And although we have to meet the responsibilities of everyday life so that one day we can enjoy that vacation, the responsibilities shouldn't become the excuses we make to not keep our health at the top of the priority list.

          Any first responder could tell you that in an extreme case when triage is employed that you need to take care of yourself before you can help others.  And you cannot have great days and spend quality time with your family if you are in poor health.  So it is imperative to put taking care of yourself and improving upon your health at the top of your priority list.  One way that you can show you value your health is by doing something every single day to promote your own health.  It doesn't have to be something dramatic or drastic everyday, it could be something simple like doing a set of push ups or squats that you wouldn't normally do,or getting yourself to the gym regardless of what is going on in your life.  You can sit back at the end of the day and say it was great if you did in fact do something to benefit your health and fitness.  If your goal is to improve your body composition think about how you would feel about having a piece of a decadent cheesecake after the immediate gratification had worn off...you would probably be disappointed in yourself.  On the other hand, think about how great you would feel if you went out for a run in the morning or took a walk around the block after dinner.  You presumably would feel great!  So do something today and everyday, no matter how small, to enhance your health!

          A client of mine recently had me taken aback when she scheduled a training session on the night of her birthday.  When I told her that I was surprised that she wasn't going out to dinner to celebrate, she told me that she hasn't celebrated her birthday in many years and rather just forget about it.  I told her she was being silly, with 365 days on the calendar it was important to find a reason to celebrate each one...especially ones that are meant for us.  It is even more important to take each day and cherish it, as we do not know how many we are going to get.  Beyond that, we need to not focus necessarily on the quantity of days, but on the quality of them.  To do this, we need to do something everyday that is beneficial to our own health.  Your health needs to be your priority and doing something to improve it each day is the key to making all of your days as good as they can be.  Putting your health at the top of your priority list every day is a great way to reach a fit new you!