This post appears in the April 2013 edition of Truck News
Last month I introduced
you to my personal doctrine that has improved my health and quality
of life on the road. This personal wellness program has three
principles. First you have to answer the question; 'do I really want
to change'? If you answer yes then you should move forward and
identify your own personal desires, passions, and ambitions that make
up that lifelong aspiration for change. I talked about
this last month. The second principle is to develop a flexible
plan,
I'll address that today, and the third principle is to
develop a support network.
The trick that I have
learned over the years is not to set my sights too high. I've learned
that all my short term goals are subject to change and need to adapt
to the constant changes that occur in a truckers daily life. This is
the essence of a flexible plan. The last thing you want to do is to
add even more stress to an already stressful life.
My first goal was to
quit smoking on my 40th birthday, I viewed this as a
birthday present to myself. After multiple attempts over the years I
finally got that monkey off my back I promised myself that first
year that I wasn't going to worry about what I ate and I wasn't going
to start a high intensity exercise program. I focused on quitting
smoking and didn't worry about the rest. I did have a second goal on
that birthday morning and that was to be in the best shape of my life
by the time I reached my 50th birthday. I didn't know how
I was going to reach that goal exactly, but I had 10 years to figure
it out. That's definitely not setting your sights too high.
Six months in I felt I
had the smoking habit beat. I'd been packing on some weight but I had
given myself the freedom to not worry about that hadn't I? But If I
could beat the smoking habit I could control my diet couldn't I? I
started to think about what I was eating and how much. At 9 months in
I bought a calorie counting program for my PDA (before the era of
smart phones) and started tracking what I ate. I wasn't dieting, I
was just eager to establish some new goals when I reached my 1 year
non smoking anniversary. Success was building my self confidence in
reaching the 10 year goal I'd set. I still had 9 years left and I was
on a roll. But then I hit a big obstacle.
Changing my eating
habits was far more difficult than quitting smoking. I never have to
smoke again but I have to eat everyday and I love food. It looked so
easy on paper when I input my weight loss goals into a software
application. But that application doesn't account for the deep
emotional ties I have to what I eat and why I eat it. Cutting my
calorie intake down from over 3000 calories a day to around 2000 per
day was a big shock. In our line of work how do you lose weight and
change eating habits you've developed over a lifetime without setting
your sights too high? I struggled with this problem for years.
Calorie counting showed me that empty calories, fat, sugar, and salt
were coming from the comfort foods that had become staples in my
diet. Common sense told me I should be eliminating these foods and
replacing them with healthier fare. But I depended on these foods to
pass the time, to keep me awake, and to reward myself for the long
hours I worked. It was years before I came to accept that the short
term sensory pleasure I gained from these foods was the primary cause
of my long term suffering with obesity. Not setting my sights too
high when it came to weight loss and changing deeply ingrained eating
habits was a long and difficult lesson to learn. I'm still learning.
What I eat is one
factor in the weight loss equation, the other factor is exercise, not
just to aid in weight loss but to improve my cardiac health and
overall physical health at the same time. How did I find the time to
exercise in a truckers day? Again I was faced with the challenge of
not setting my sights too high, and constantly adapting to find the
right mix.
I attained the goal of
being in the best shape of my life by age 50 but it wasn't just
because I had a flexible plan that adapted to my daily circumstance.
That plan is sandwiched between two powerful sources of motivation.
First is the passion, desire, and resolve to live a healthy life.
Second are networks of support to get me through the daily grind.
That's what I'll look at next month.
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