Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Real World Wednesday

Take Care of Yourself.

If you're a twenty/thirty-something like me, keep in mind that this world is ours for the leading...if, that is, we can keep ourselves healthy enough to do any leading.

Ruby shared her sciatic nerve issues with us all...and now, the official diagnosis for my ongoing back pain is the same as Ms. Ruby's. I'm only 28, and I've got a bad back...seriously, this so not okay.

I know EXACTLY when the pain started. It was all because I was being a stellar girlfriend and getting a certain someone a 60 pound wine refrigerator for Christmas. Carried up the stairs, did I? Oh, no, don't be silly. I simply tried to wrap the thing. And my back objected.

The pain in the back, as well as recent conversations about life being "over" when a woman has children (my quotes around "over" clearly express, I hope, my disagreement with the concept that life ends with childbirth), has gotten me thinking about how we treat our bodies.

My ongoing train of thought is: If I can't take care of myself now, how will I manage to take proper care of my body when I'm a parent, when I have far less spare time. Let's face it, say what you will about having children, but one thing we can all agree one is that children don't exactly offer the opportunity for more alone time.

Let's start with simple, daily decisions (rather than rousing speeches about rushing out to join the gym).

Each morning, I decide to spend 15 minutes browsing facebook of stretching or otherwise preparing my body for a hard day of sitting on my butt at work. Of course, that's exaggerating. I shuffle. I bend. I squat. I leap out of my chair to discipline a wayward customer. But, for the most part, I sit, anxiously awaiting the questions of my "eager" customers.

I can choose, though, to walk on my breaks. I can choose, even, to friggin' make sure I take my breaks at all. This is the only body I have, and I need to treat it with respect. I need to feed it and exercise it and keep it as healthy as possible.

I have to say out loud, and in print, that I will make exercise and fitness a priority. I've run a 5k. I've played inter-mural soccer. I know what it takes to stay in shape, but I also know that I can no longer push exercise so far to the end of my to-do list that it falls off all together.

I challenge you to make one healthier decision this week. Will you go for a walk? A jog? Will you say no to starbucks or Tim Horton's (that's for all my Canadian readers :Þ).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh gosh, I hope you're ok and have someone taking care of you. Take lots of meds! And if you have a hot tub or a deep tub you can soak in please do it as often as you can, it helps so much! And if you can sleep without a pillow under your head but two under your knees that helps too. I'm sending good back juju your way. Sorry you're hurting.