The Importance of Planning--for Real People

By Lissa Wohltmann

A physical fitness health plan for an organization will not absolutely ensure a successful program, but will help clarify how that organization can move forward with its mission and help support healthy behavior change. This is research and education-speak for plan your day to engage in some sort of physical activity.

You have all heard the worn-out, hackneyed line about people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan. As old as this cliché may be, it’s worth a second, third, or even 17th look. A plan can help give you direction and a path for your ultimate destination. If you have no goal, you won’t be able to determine success. However, if you aren’t necessarily enamored with the term “success” but want only to have fun when you move, then start planning for more fun. After all, that’s really what exercise, or physical activity is—one big fun-fest. And, while you are having fun, you can be saving your health and attempting to put those medical doctors out of business by not visiting them so much (hey, you’ll only need them for a check-up so they can say “everything’s good; see you next year").

After all, you already know that regular physical activity has consistently been coupled with a decrease in a variety of physical ailments such as cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers, and a host of others. So, save your money, have more fun, and go play. You might just enjoy yourself so much, you’ll want to do this every day.

Smoking hurts the non-smoker more

By Lissa Wohltmann

Smoking or chewing tobacco has been known to cause an overabundance of health problems, yet despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, people still smoke. OK you aren’t a smoker? Then this next little factoid should really tick you off. The intended user (read: smoker) ingests only 15 percent of tobacco smoke while the remaining whopping 85 percent of it is dispersed into the environment where all can “enjoy.” According to T. Oriola in his 2009 article entitled, Ethical and legal analyses of policy prohibiting tobacco smoking in enclosed public spaces, this second-hand smoke “is literally nothing short of assault on nonsmokers.”

The financial burden of smoking and chewing tobacco, along with some accompanying diseases, are passed on to more than just the users. Although the federal government is aware of this, it has made little progress in making tobacco an illegal substance nor has it made any laws of where tobacco can be smoked. Local regulations are quite different in two states: Oklahoma and Tennessee. These states still disallow their villages, towns, and cities from creating ordinances restricting smoking in public places more than the state laws do. Does this make sense to you?

Blizzard circa 2011 and exercise: you can have both

By Susan Clark

Snow day two, going on three. The local university where I work is headed into its third day without the usual student, faculty and staff crowd beating down its sidewalks. We have been home because the skies opened and we got around a foot of snow and huge drifts. We all knew the storm was coming (some weren’t believers) and we stocked up on enough food to last a week plus movies, wine, paperbacks. We all had visions of being trapped on our own individual islands for a few days with the onset of this unscheduled winter vacation.

I came home before the storm and hopped on the dread, er treadmill and did my 25 minutes which was my new goal this week. Twenty-five minutes of fierce walking (remember I’m the 10-year couch potato), thinking I better do it now before even a flake of snow or sleet hits the ground. I knew ahead of time that even though I might have two to three days ahead of me with complete control over my time, there was an unseen threat, a magnetic pull towards that couch and a good book.

What is it when it sleets and snows and the fireplace is roaring that makes you want to hibernate like a bear. You have hours now that you could pull out that yoga tape, walk or run a marathon on the treadmill, grab those weights.

But, that’s not what you want to do. You want to be a total slug—it’s part of the whole drama of being “forced” to stay at home. I read people’s Facebook during this winter “break” and all people were talking about were movies with the kids, what they were cooking on the stove (chicken and dumplings, beef stew, lots of chili, adult beverages) and lots of photo postings showing massive snow drifts against the front doors and garages leaving them with no means of escape. Oh, and a whole lot of photos of dogs drowning in or rebelling because they were thrown out into this freezing, white canvas. The only people on FB I noticed who didn’t give into the “force” were the athletes. My sister-in-law ran photos of her and my niece doing hours of yoga in the living room,,,oh please.

Long story short, the night of the storm I cooked like a fiend, stayed up late and watched movies, had some wine, slept in and on my first full day off from my busy job, I hibernated like a bear. The only way I let that be ok was to tell myself day that the next day I would be productive.

And I was….I left the treadmill workout to the end of that afternoon but once again felt energized within the first five minutes. I beat the “force” that had toyed with me so strongly the day before. I still did my cooking and caught up with other stranded friends and family on the phone that day, but I got on that treadmill.

It was another force—the force of my own will. I know I’m still in the stage where I have to make myself do what I put off doing for ten years, There will be a time someday where I will feel like I’ve missed something if I don’t walk or run or do yoga. Just like my sister-in-law and a few others I know. But today, I still have to push myself and that’s ok. I know it’s a journey and I promise you, I’m not getting off the bus……hope you all are enjoying your winter break. I’ve gotta get back to my movie…