The Road to Health
“Life gets in the way.” I’ve said it. My patients have said it. Somehow our best intentions to eat healthy and exercise regularly get discarded like a candy wrapper on the side of the road. So how do we stay of the road to health instead of veering off into the ditch of disease? The answer is different for each one of us. Regardless of what our road looks like, we need a roadmap to help us navigate those times when we are too busy to cook, exercise, or de-stress.
You can develop your own emergency roadside assistance kit with the help of a dietitian, your doctor, a therapist, friends, and family. Your assistance may come in the form of a lower calorie frozen entree for dinner when you don’t have time to cook. It may include trying out cook-for-a-week or cook-for-a-month plans so you can have healthy foods in the freezer at all times. The 7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies is a great resource to help plan menus. Your “kit” may also include cutting up all your fruits and vegetables on Sunday and taking them to work to snack on all week, instead of eating out of the vending machine, aka the wheel of death. If you find yourself away from home you might want to try www.healthydiningfinder.com to help you find a healthy meal option.
My motto is, “Something is better than nothing”, when it comes to exercise. Your exercise may come in the form of short walks or taking the stairs several times at work, versus going to the gym. Taking a quick 5 minute walk with your MP3 player may be a good way to deal with the stress of the day. Devotions, journaling, or chatting with a friend can also help you deal with everyday stress.
Even if you do get off track and start to veer towards the ditch and you forgot your emergency roadside assistance kit, don’t fret. Stop and ask yourself, how did I get here? Find out where the You are Here spot is on your map, and figure out a way to get back on the road. Once you know the answer you will be better prepared when this same situation comes up, and you will have a solution in place. Then you can kick it into 4 x 4 mode and get back onto the road to health.
These blogs were written by the CHI Health Weight Management Team.
Loretta
OMG..this article has really hit home with me. The last couple of weeks has been very stressful. I think article states it very well. I think the things I have put in place - preparing a head and setting up a plan for food and exercise has really gotten me through the last two weeks and as I continue to go day by day. With the commitments at work and home, I was not able to exercise as much, but I would still get up at work and walk for a minutes or two (whatever I could spare) or stand (instead of sit) in my office. Life is a journey, good planning gets me through each journey!
Ty Franzen
The more small steps you take, the easier it is to take more steps. The more I move, The more I feel like moving even more!!
greg
hang in there and results will follow.
Lee Van Nurden
I have overcome many obstacles on my journey to a healthier lifestyle, to good health. My biggest contributor to success is a very well structured weight management program that my teacher (s) and classmates have taught very well. I heard a lot of success and failure stories that definitely has helped out and steered me in the right direction. Accountability to yourself, Good Planning, and Family Support are my key elements that will help me to continue on that road to great health.
suep
A good thing to practice on the Road to Health is the "what if game"? And to think of all of the failures you had in the past, and to ask " what if " for soluitons. What if I had packed a cooler? When my road to health veered because of a food commercial I just heard on the radio, and I reached in it and took out a treat instead of turning into the fast food takeout. "What if" I had all those fruits and veggies cleaned and when the commercials came on TV, and I opened the fridge to a plethora of quick "good to go" healthy food choices already cleaned and cut. "what if " I overslept and missed my workout time, what have I done in the past, what's in my Kit that I have practiced successfully that I can repeat today? There is no charge for overfilling your kit with good practices that you can pull out when you are veering off towards the "ditch of disease".
Timothy Pontti
Fortunately life will always get in the way unitl you die. But instead of turning your road blocks into excuses find ways around them to be consistently successful. For example, if it starts to rain when you are planning a brisk walk; go to the mall instead and walk there.