Last time I wrote a little bit about change. At bottom, what I’m doing here is begging, imploring, pleading, telling you to make a change, to make an improvement.
Why?
Because I did. And if someone who is as stuck in his ways as this 50 year old engineer can change, anyone can. All it takes is a modicum of inspiration, a system and schedule, and the discipline to show up.
The benefits, well, the sky’s the limit. Look better and feel better. Eat better, get healthier and live longer. Conquer stress and improve your relationships. Sleep better, reduce your migraines. And the list goes on.
The best part of it all? The changes persist.
Tuesday I told you about my lost 6 weeks. I was sick and work got stupid busy, so I wasn’t eating right, I wasn’t sleeping well and I wasn’t exercising. At the end of it, when I finally got back on track I expected my first couple of workouts to suck, which they did.
I had the usual gasping for air, weakness from exhaustion and, “I’m old, why am I doing this to myself?” thoughts running through my head. But that’s another story.
What I didn’t really expect was that after 6 weeks of missing not just my workouts, but also my daily back maintenance routine, when I got back to it I’d be…just fine.
For the Dominion Day long weekend, I took the kids to my Dad’s cottage. Three glorious, internet-free days playing outside. Along the way, I stressed my unexercised back with:
- Long drives
- Running barefoot on the beach
- Canoeing
- Splitting wood for marshmallow roasts
- Sleeping in crappy cottage beds
But, and here’s the good part, after all that, upon coming back to real life, my back was…just fine.
Five years ago, when I embarked on my journey to fix my back, if I missed a single week I paid for it. Heck, when I began I did yoga for posture on Mondays and Wednesdays. Normally, by Saturday I was already feeling stiff and sore, and looking forward to Monday to get things fixed.
Now, after years of regular, back healthy workouts, after developing my personal back maintenance routine, the changes persist. They’re not permanent, and after 6 weeks I felt some soreness creeping in, but it’s minor. But since I’m back at it, I’m off the glide path to pain, and climbing back up to better health.
The changes persist.
So, make a change. For me, it was my back, and I gained a ton of other benefits along with.
And those changes persist.
I’ve been so healthy for so long, that being sick for a month was a shock. I’ve been fit for so long, that having a hard time surviving a double yoga/Pilates class was a shock. But then I think back to the beginning, and how hard it was to do a single class. I’m older, and a little slower, but with a healthy lifestyle, and a healthy back, I can still do more than when I was 40.
The changes persist.
