Moving on to Mark Manson's second advice from 10 Life Lessons to Excel in your 30s, let's see how I fair here.
2. Start taking care of your health now, not later.
This, I know, is something I'm completely failing at. Health is not something I have given much thought to in the past. Having grown up skinny, I always ate what I wanted and whenever I wanted. I wasn't into sports and the most exercise I got was probably a bike ride down to the park, if even. No one ever questioned my health and I never cared myself. Now I know what you might be thinking, there's an obvious fault to my logic and that's associating being skinny to good health. Being young, I didn't know better. Health, back then, was to avoid being called fat.
The first time I took concious notice of my health must have been when I was 27. At age 27 I came down with a case of shingles. To those who are not aware, shingles is chicken pox with vengeance. The chicken pox virus you picked up during childhood stays dormant in your body until one day when your immune system is out of whack, it creeps back and causes ravage to your nerves. Ouch. What shocked me and put this whole ordeal into perspective was the fact that you usually only hear about shingles affecting seniors. Frail old people who have compromised immune systems get shingles NOT young, healthy twenty-somethings. Oops, looks like that's where I was wrong. At the time I contributed this outbreak to the pressure and stress I had been enduring at work. A study I was working on was pushing for results quick. Days were long and sleep was minimal. It was a period comparable to the Chinese saying "There is only time for death but none for sickness." Shingles, inevitably, put me out of commission for a couple days as it's contagious to those who never had chicken pox before. During this time, I thought about what had happened and decided I needed to not work so hard and take work less seriously. As you can see, I blamed work. I never once thought about changing my eating, exercising, or sleeping habits so as to repair my immune system. This attitude put me in a negative mindset towards work which I have yet to totally recover from. Yes, although this experience did put the spotlight on my health, it did not prompt me to do anything about it in a positive way.
At 28 I went on a diet and exercise regimen for the first time. I had to attend a family wedding in several months and wasn't prepared to hear comments on how I got rounder. Never having had to watch my weight, witholding the consumption of food and sweating it out daily was a real eye opener for me. It was so hard! I'm a sugar addict and candy is my weakness. Soft and sour gummy candies with sugar coating (cue Sour Patch Kids, Shigekix, Haribo, Jelly Tots). And honestly I've never been a fan of exercise. I admit that I feel good and more energized immediately after but this short lasting adrenaline is barely enough to bring me to begin my next workout. Ugh. The only thing that got me through this routine was my goal. I had my eye on the prize and my obsessive nature would not allow me to fail. In the end I was successful. I must have lost 8-10 lbs during this intense period. I learned I could no longer take my metabolism for granted and in order to maintain what I felt was a reasonable weight, I had to make an effort and put in hard work! Notice I still have not mentioned anything about health and fitness. This was not at all about that, it was me trying to lose weight. I didn't care if I looked like I was dying, I just wanted to fit in that dress. Health, even two years ago, was to avoid being called fat.
Today I am again back on a strict diet and exercise routine and not surprisingly, for the same reason. However, the mindset is somewhat different this time. Yes, I still want to look good in my dress but I don't want to just look skinny. I want to look tone and fit. Yes, I don't want to be called fat but I actually want to be called fit. If I can accomplish this, this would be my biggest health related feat EVER. To help myself along, I have immensely decreased alcohol and tabacco consumption. I was delighted to wake up sober Sunday morning and find myself with plenty of time and energy to go out to shop and stroll. And having the feeling of a lighter lung while exercising was quite elevating. By changing little things, hard work was made just a little bit easier.
This time around, diet and exercise isn't just about the number on a scale. It's about keeping an ongoing resolution for a healthier and more balanced lifestyle. I want to feel good by looking good and look good by feeling good. Being more aware of my health habits has helped to put the way I was neglecting my body into perspective. Recognizing the problem was not the hard part, it's not getting up to do something about it that often holds us back. In my 20s, I never bothered to take notice of my health. There was always something more important in life that had to be looked after. In my 30s, I hope to put my health in higher regards. Health is always being taken for granted until one day we lose it. I need to find a way to follow through with my exercise schedule and sustain a life with healthier food options. Bottom line, I should take care of my health and take care of it starting now.
Self-rating - Start taking care of your health now, not later.
2/4 stars Accomplishment: Realizing I'm not taking proper care of my health. Action item: Caring about my health and actually do something about it.
