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Beyond
Walking
By Ronda Gates, MS
Ronda
Gates, MS, is a pharmacy grad who traded her white coat for a pair of
athletic shoes and never looked back. Her health promotion business,
LIFESTYLES, provides motivational speaking, program development, and
fitness assessment services to support people making a lifestyle change.
She has developed health promotion programs for many organizations nationwide.
Visit www.rondagates.com for
a complimentary subscription to Ronda’s weekly email newsletter.
An
early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
— Henry David
Thoreau |
Resolutions That Make a Difference
January
Risk the experience of a new exercise strategy that assures a well-rounded program of aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, flexibility, coordination, and balance.
February
Add one fruit and/or vegetable to your daily diet.
March
Adopt a stress management skill such as deep breathing, meditation, affirmations, or visualization.
April
Schedule an annual physical with your physician as part of a pro-active approach to your health.
May
Take yourself on a date that will restore your spirit; for example, visit a gallery or see a play.
June
Volunteer to help someone in need achieve a better life.
July
Anonymously, do something that makes the world a better place.
August
Buy and use a journal to record daily emotions and feelings.
September
Explore the “pay it forward” challenge. When someone does you a favor, instead of paying them back, pay it forward.
October
Develop a habit that saves energy: using special light bulbs, walking instead of riding, carpooling or riding a bus to work, turning your heating system down one degree or not wasting water.
November
Schedule a self-care experience such as a massage or spa treatment.
December
Give up worrying in favor of enjoying the moment. |
Ask 10 folks, “What does resolution mean to you?” and you’re likely to get 10 different responses. The computer guru describes fineness of detail on a monitor and uses words like pixels and image clarity. An attorney describes it as a court decision. Physicians view it as a successful reversal of an abnormal condition such as a subsiding fever or inflammation. My analytical friend who tackles problems describes it as the solution to those problems. But most of us, especially at the beginning of the year, see our resolutions as a proposed course of action to make change. We “resolve” to do something that will make our life better.
Some years ago, my love of language triggered deep thought about the use of words that begin with the prefix re-. Add re- to creation and you have recreation: an opportunity to recreate. We recover something we’ve lost — such as our health or balance.
Reconstruction allows us to put things back together. When we are revitalized we impart new life or vigor to our way of living. Resolution, to me, allows me to resolve — to look at a puzzling aspect of my life and solve it or put it back together. This involves precisely creating a formal plan to reach a SMART goal. Personally, I quit making New Year’s resolutions many years ago when I resolved to live in such a way that there would be no need to wait until January 1 to abandon a bad habit or set a healthy one in motion. Instead, I resolve every morning to live well one more day. Every evening I review my day, count my blessings, note the three best experiences I had during the day, and go to sleep with a smile on my face, eager to begin the process again the next morning.
My approach is atypical. Instead, most folks prefer to resolve or commit to make change when there is a new beginning to support the new way of living. The new year is a natural time to move into the third of the five stages of change: action. After much contemplation (stage 1) and preparation (stage 2), we pledge to act to achieve peak vitality, physical fitness, or appearance, or to reduce the use of alcohol, tobacco, or recreational drugs. After acting to achieve our goal, we move on to maintaining (stage 4) our success, and finally to completing (stage 5) the change process.
There’s nothing wrong with resolving to stick to a plan you’ve begun but abandoned in the past. If you do, add muscle to your commitment by reviewing past efforts to change and pro-actively plan ways to avoid self sabotage this year. Additionally, I offer a challenge to Walk About readers. Consider a different kind of resolution for 2008. Here are 12 suggestions — one for every month in 2008.
Even if you implement only one of these (or make up your own), you will be able to look back at the end of the year and say, “Yes, this year my resolution made a difference. I have the clarity of the computer guru, the decisiveness of a attorney’s court decision, the reversal of unhealthy patterns that would please a physician and, best of all, I’ve solved a problem.”
Specific: Instead of writing the vague, ”I want to be healthy,“ write, ”I want to be healthy enough to accomplish any physical task that comes my way.“
Measurable: Define what success looks like. Instead of writing, ”I’m going to lose ten pounds,“ write, ”In six weeks I’ll weigh 10 pounds less than I do this morning.“
Action Oriented: What will you do to attain your goals? This can include starting a beneficial habit, stopping an unhealthy habit, or keeping a current wholesome habit. For example, ”I will participate in one fitness walking event every month,” or, “I will schedule a 40-minute walk with one of my friends four days a week.”
Realistic: Life is filled with constraints on your time and priorities. Regardless of the urgency you may feel, don’t expect change overnight. Instead of saying, ”I’m going on a diet,“ say, ”Instead of nightly dessert, I’ll add a serving of vegetables to dinner this week.“
Timely: Is this a good time in your life to commit to your resolution? Can you make the time in your day necessary to accomplish your goal? If you can say, ”Yes, I can do this now,“ this is a good time to commit.
By adopting one or all of these strategies, you’re more likely to sustain enthusiasm for your resolutions. When you reach your goal, you’ll look back and say, ”Yes, this year was different.“ |
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