Much obliged…

As all of us move through our own levels of improving our health status, we are sure to meet others in their journeys. Some are ‘ahead’ of us, and some have not yet reached the levels that we have achieved. Woefully, we will meet those who have not even begun, or perhaps worse yet, don’t realize that they can begin.

For me, this begs the question, “are we obligated, in any way, to ‘pay it forward’”? Surely someone at sometime helped ignite the spark that sent us on our journeys. For some it was their doctor, others a family member. Movie scenes can do it, or even just waking up one day sick and tired of not being able to keep up with the kids.

Yesterday I stumbled across a video from TEDMed that spoke to this issue at the end of an interview with Lance Armstrong. Love him or hate him; I don’t really care. It isn’t debatable for me. To each their own, but I often find that he has interesting things to say regarding cancer (eff you, Cancer, by the way) patients, treatments, and recovery. The entire video is almost 25 minutes long, and can be seen here. Near the end he tells a story about leaving the hospital after his first rounds of therapy. It was on my birthday, and as he was getting ready to go, his doctor told him about the ‘obligation of the cured’

“…you can walk out that side, nobody knows you left, nobody knows you were here, you don't have to tell anybody you had this disease. or you can walk out the other side, and you tell everybody you had the disease, and you do whatever you can, as long as you live, to affect change when it comes to this disease."

For me, it doesn’t matter that I don’t have cancer or some other disease that I have conquered. What matters to me is that there are other people out there who might just need a boost, a tug, or a push (I actually typed ‘punch’. hmmm) in the direction of better health. A few months ago I found myself in a discussion with my wife during which I was complaining about how unhealthy people seem (at least in some large part) to just sit around and do nothing about their health except complain and shift blame and responsibility. The discussion was getting a little heated until she said something along the line of ‘instead of complaining yourself, BE THE PERSON who helps them. Many people probably just need a little reassurance and guidance but don’t know where to get it. Give it to them.’

I ruminated on it for a few days, and then began to do just that. Every day, in some small way, I strive to be a catalyst for change in others. Sometimes it is just leading by example, other times it involves lengthy conversations. I encourage all of us to think about how we can be that light for others. Consider for yourself if you have an obligation.

Comments encouraged and welcomed! –gene-

This is just ME talking....

I am NOT a dietician. I am NOT a personal trainer. I am NOT a therapist. I am a husband, father, brother, son, etc. etc.....I don't have expert advice on anything, but i DO have expert OPINIONS on a great many things. Some of these are fitness, eating, and societal trends. And America.
To wit:
Everyone has their own acceptable level of comfort. Some can't fall asleep until they are in the 'exact' comfort zone, while others can be fine sleeping on tank tracks. Some people can't be satisfied with their fitness levels until they look like a particular person, do better at someone at some event, or catch the eye of that certain someone. Others, well, we know them, too, who are simply content that they wake up each day, and are often surprised that they made it through another night. Still, they aren't moved enough by this to DO something to change their lives, they just accept that this is what it is, and hope for the best.
(side note: i am WAY off track again. i'll try to get back...)
Lemme address eating. Or diet. Or food choices. Whatever you want to call it. "things i put in my pie hole, including pie". I don't care. I am going to call it 'intake'. For those of us who struggle with the amount of intake being greater than the amount of our output, we may find ourselves searching for that be-all-end-all answer to better health/weightmanagement/body composition. I have done it. Sometimes I still do it. Life here in America is about choices. We all have the right to make choices, even bad ones. While I don't necessarily agree that vegan is the way to go, I'm not going to try to stop anyone from doing it. Same with paleo or any of the other diet trends that are out there. Unless i see it as potentially harmful or fatal (phen phen, anyone?), I'm content to just sit back and watch how things unfold.
One thing that I do believe, however, is that trying to make your new intake regime drastically different from your current one in order to lose weight (or obtain some other goal) can be setting yourself up for failure. What? Let's take ME as an example. I consider myself a true omnivore. Except for slugs, insects, and snakes, I'll pretty much eat anything in the 'normal' American (and, well, Japanese for that matter) diet. Ok.

 lemme qualify that. i WON'T eat things like Little Debbie snack cakes, Hostess products, frozen entrees, cheezy poofs, pork rinds, etc. ok? clear on that? good. whew......LAST thing I need is SMART FOOD sending me a case of their stuff to 'try and review' for my blog. umm...no, thanks. ANYWAY.....

If, after reading some book or article, I come to the conclusion that I must change what I eat and limit myself to only 'beans and greens', as my office mate has done, I will FAIL MISERABLY in my endeavor. I tried it for a day earlier this week. Even though my salad made me feel full, it only had about 200 calories. I 'need' 1800 a day to reach my weight/composition goals. SO. if lunch was to be where i wanted to get most of my calories, i would be hard pressed to reach 1000 calories by eating salad. Even with pinto beans or black beans or garBANZO beans. That, and I'd supply enough natural gas into our room that we'd surely have to evacuate this wing of the hospital.

However, if i take a look at my usual intake trends (either in by using a food diary or by counting calories), I may (will) be able to identify certain trends, and can tweek THOSE to help me reach my goals. Oh, lookie here! I eat 750 calories AFTER dinner, in the shape of ice cream and cookies. Hmmm....maybe i should shift that to earlier in the day, when i am still burning calories. I mean, even if i eat 750 calories worth of salad (holy garden, batman) at 10pm, i am still not doing myself much good. That, and I'd supply enough gas under the covers that the blame would readily shift from the dog to ME, and that's not good. (So far, I don't think my wife knows about dutch ovens, and I hope to keep it that way.)

So what am i driving at here? Simplicity. If you make drastic changes to your current MO, you set yourself up to fail. Hello? Have you never seen Criminal Minds or NCIS? Once the criminal gets sloppy and breaks from their normal patterns, BAM! Busted. Don't let that happen to you. Unless, of course, you are my cousin. I don't think she'd mind getting busted by Derek Morgan. Just sayin!
Keep it simple, but keep it steady. (TWSS)