Health Goals

Though I have exercised sporadically throughout my life, I have largely neglected my health in between. By early 2013, I didn't like the way I look and wanted to change. The five years hence have been my most concerted effort to stay on a healthy path. I got into the habit of a daily walk first thing in the morning, which helped keep me calm through my divorce, and started me losing weight. Feeling the need for cardio work, and with no prior experience, I took up running at the eve of my 42nd birthday, and went on to complete three half-marathons and many shorter races. Nowadays, I augment my running with yoga, weights, hiking, biking, swimming, housework, …, whatever I can do to stay active. I lost 50 lbs. in the last five years, and am enjoying the financial pangs of downsizing my wardrobe twice. 

What made this stretch so resilient is my realization that any health program I follow has to uniquely work for me, for my own strengths and weaknesses, taking into account my own limitations, dietary restrictions, and allergies. Furthermore, the plan needs to be adaptable to last. Life changes on us, sometimes fast. My program has to evolve with the ebb and flow of injuries and everyday stresses. 

To be successful, therefore, in constructing my health program, I need to be clear about its goals, as do you with regards to your goals before you start a health regimen. These goals can change with time, so review them often. 

My Health Goals:

1.      Maintaining fitness. Now that I am near my ideal weight, it is harder to get motivated to exercise. The sense of urgency is not so much there anymore. However, I know how easy it is to slide back, and I don't want to go there. Weight itself doesn't tell the whole story, either. I like to tone my muscles better, continue to eat better, and become healthier.

2.      Sex. I am in a long-distance relationship with a wonderful woman I met on this online support for sexless marriages. We were both on our way out of emotionally abusive marriages that lacked both emotional and physical intimacy. Our repeated attempts to fix our respective marriages had come to nothing. The shared experience of sexless marriage brought my girlfriend and I close to each other, although we live 400 miles apart. Tending our children the rest of the time, we only see each other every other weekend. 

Those weekend dates typically morph into long sexathons that leave us nursing our fatigue and overuse injuries. As a result, I need to build more strength that will help me avoid injuries, and more endurance as well. I upped my endurance considerably with running, but my strength has faltered.

3.      Effect on my mood. In addition to its effect on my health overall, exercise gives me energy and keeps me centered. When I don't exercise for a few days (e.g., because of weather), I notice I get irritable and restless. Exercise was the day I maintained my sanity through difficult times and I like it's effect on me.

4.      Set a healthy example for my daughter. My divorce left me a (part-time) single father of a small child. I wanted her to grow up healthy. By eating healthy at home and discussing nutrition on the table, I brought her up to understand what healthy choices are, and that we continually have to make them. When I started running, she was excited about the medals I got, putting them around her neck. I started training her to run when she was 5 years old, and she went on to win second in her age group on her first 5k race when she was 6. She is proud of her accomplishment. So am I.