My workplace is sponsoring a Live Well. Eat Well. Challenge through our local supermarket chain Wegmans. I'm leading a team. We're competing against other teams throughout the city government I work for. The goal is to eat a minimum of five cups of fruits and vegetables per day and to walk at least 10,000 steps. I got off to a bad start today. I have a house full of relatives visiting for my daughter's birthday, and she wanted pancakes for breakfast. Of course, you can't have pancakes without bacon and eggs. So I didn't even look at a vegetable until afternoon. I did end up exceeding the fruit and veggie goal, however, with a healthy dinner of braised carrot soup, salad, and 12-grain sourdough bread and a post-walk apple. Yum!
The steps were more of a challenge for me: Even with an after-dinner walk I only hit 8,522 steps. I used to exercise a lot--weight-bearing exercises three times week at the gym and regular walks in the neighborhood with my husband. Then came my two children. Besides stretching out and weakening all of my abdominal and other stabilizing muscles, they've taken a severe bite out of my workout time. I'm lucky if I can even make it to the gym once a week--lately, it's more like once a month! So the exercise part of this challenge will definitely be the hard part. But for me it's the most important part. I have a long history of chronic back pain that I used to manage well through exercise. The pain is starting to return. In addition to hurting, it makes me tired and cranky. I don't want to be that person. I want to be healthy and happy for my children, so I desperately need to get back into a regular exercise routine. I'm hoping this challenge will be what I need to jump start that process.
Wish me luck! And stay tuned for my progress!
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