One of the favorite things I have heard from a patient is: you’re a doctor, you don’t have to worry about blood pressure. Implying, of course, that doctor’s don’t struggle with their health.
I most certainly do struggle with fitness and health, like many other Americans with sedentary jobs and a proclivity to eat treats. One of my goals is to make sure that I get my 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise (or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise, which probably won’t happen). I will see for how long I am willing to document my progress Saturday to Friday.
This week I faced office work and holiday travel, neither of which was particularly conducive to exercise. Plus, that whole thing about spending time with family–it seems a little anti-social to run away and work out, though that eventually happened. I did fit in a “walk” with the kids: we went about 1/8 of a mile in 30 minutes as we checked out leaves, branches, and chunks of old snow on the side of the road. Great for bonding, poor for physical fitness.
- Saturday: A good day for exercise. My husband and I walked to a museum, saw an exhibit, ate out (this is sounding like a date!) and walked home. 52 minutes walking.
- Sunday: Slept in, did lots of shopping on the Internet: holiday cards, car rentals for an upcoming trip, etc. Exercise just wasn’t happening.
- Monday: A short clinic day, with a meeting in the late afternoon. I took a walk, which apparently lasted 22 minutes, before the meeting. It was nice to get away from my desk.
- Tuesday: This was a long day at work, with lots of scheduling baloney (or maybe malarkey). There was no exercising today.
- Wednesday: We hit the road, along with most of the USA, for our trip to the homestead (or Grandma’s house). We traveled far, but didn’t exercise much.
- Thursday: Lots of family time at Thanksgiving. My Fitbit claims I had 8 minutes of walking with my niece and nephew.
- Friday: Too much time cooped up in the house = escape when the weather warms up. My husband and I walked to the town center and back, for a total of 112 minutes. It was so nice to get moving, visit my hometown, and see a full moon rising over the trees.
Total: 184 minutes walking (plus 8 minutes of meandering with the small fry). Despite some long days of travel, and social duties with family, I still got my 150 minutes this week. A win!