In January 2014 I made a conscious decision to take back control of my health. This wasn’t some flippant New Year’s resolution, I was way more committed than that. It was time to look after me.
The year 2013 saw some of the happiest times of my life, along with some of the most devastating. I understood so clearly the words of Charles Dickens, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…’
A tragic event at the end of last year, merged with the most magical time of our Wedding and honeymoon meant that my own health and wellbeing shifted to the bottom of my priority list.
I’d just turned 40, was extremely busy at work, I had a Wedding to expedite, a 10 year old daughter to look after and the usual financial pressures that accompany such activities. I wasn’t sleeping well and days in the office were so frantic I was only eating one meal a day. On top of that, I desperately needed to spend some time with my daughter when I wasn’t arguing with her about her homework.
Something had to give. You know you should be looking after yourself and it’s relatively easy to do. Problem is, it’s pretty easy not to do.
My motivation wasn’t to lose weight or become an athlete it was simply to start moving instead of sitting, to take a mental break for my own sanity and to start being grateful again.
I was already getting up early and going to bed late so there was no realistic room to ‘add on’ another hour of the day.
Someone gave me an activity tracker for Christmas (the Fitbit Flex) and being the technology and social media junkie I am, I promptly acquired the Fitbit Aria Smart Scale ‘to match’. I wanted to understand what was going on with the 40 year old me and hooked myself up via WiFi and the Fitbit App.
The Flex tracks steps, calories burned and active minutes while the scale measures weight, BMI and body fat percentage. Yikes!
Fitbit’s Flex tracker has a goal default setting for 10,000 steps a day. I was interested to see what kind of incidental exercise I was doing just going about my day. By nature, I am not a ‘weigher’ so stepping onto the scale was confronting. To see the muscle mass I had lost through inactivity was pretty disappointing but most importantly I learned how certain foods and meals affected me through measuring my daily weight.
The final piece to the puzzle was making my nutritional intake a priority. I ensured that when I packed my daughter’s lunchbox for the following day I would pack one for myself.
Making small changes to my day; like taking the time to eat nutritious food at intervals throughout the day and actually taking a lunch break to go for a run or walk was relatively easy and nothing drastic happened because I stopped for a few short moments.
So this is my journey.
I’m not a chef, an athlete or a motivational guru. I am one person, trying to make a difference to my own health and wellbeing and, just maybe, inspire a few people along the way to do the same.