A Million Ways To Succeed

When someone decides to get healthy, where do they go? What do they do to reach their goal? I do not believe in dieting, so I will not address any diet that is touted. I really believe that health derives from a lifestyle- a daily commitment to love yourself enough to take care of yourself - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When I received my diabetes diagnosis, I went to the hospital class, led by a Certified Diabetic Educator.  Even though I am a nurse, I was now a patient. I needed to see the disease from a whole new angle. I learned a LOT. It was a two day class, and I left with a basic knowledge from a patient's view, and perimeters for my nutritional needs. 

That was the beginning. 

I also knew I had to get consistently physically active. How do I motivate myself to do that? I work full time, commute 60+ hours a week, and my days off were times of exhaustion and recovery. 

I decided to follow my own advice - I used to tell my kids,when faced by a seemingly insurmountable task, this silly parable: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. 

I started with walking - I settled on "5k a day". It sounded good. The year I started this was a scorchingly hot, brutal summer, so I assigned myself times to go...and I went. 

There are a plethora of exercise applications for your phone - I randomly picked the Nike one. One thing that is important to my healthy lifestyle is goals. Measurable goals lead to measurable results. I like to see the miles adding up. It encourages me to hit milestones.  It is also a part of being accountable. 

There are also a lot of free websites that can help you.  The one I picked was www.livestrong.com. I liked it because it broke down everything I ate into protein, carbs,fat, calories, etc. By being accountable and putting every morsel of food into that data base, I could see my progress. I could tweak my carbs. I could also graph my blood sugars, and the app will graph carbs to blood sugar responses. For free! 

Any program - be it Weight Watchers, Livestrong, My Fitness Pal, etc., can be a tool to help you stay healthy, but they all share one major component: the need for total accountability!  You have to face what your weight is...put it in there. You have to admit to eating things that might not be the best choice...put it in there. Eventually, for me, knowing I would have to input that junk food I emotionally ate gave me pause. You've got to be brutally honest with yourself!

When I started my journey to be healthy, it was just me and determination. No gym membership, no friend to hold me to my word, not a vast amount of time to work with. 

When your ready to stop making excuses and accept that you need to change, you're ready. 

There are a million ways to succeed once you start seeking them!

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