Women's Health

This last week was National Women's Health Week and my first thought was why is it just a week?  My friend's Alexandra and Kymberly who's life mission is to get people healthy and have fun while you are doing it, hosted a Tweet Chat about Women's Health and while I watched and learned I really didn't participate. I was encouraged to write a blog post by May 19th but my thought was I don't take care of myself at all how could I write a post about health?

Then I started thinking about the recent weeks where, a dear friend and some family and friends of friends, have had serious health issues.   A 38 year old woman died of heart failure leaving behind an 11 year old son.  Another woman had a shunt inserted after suffering a heart attack at 37 years of age.  What the heck?

Last summer I had my own health scare and after 1 night in the hospital I thought never again.  I even took a picture of the bed and 1 slice of dry toast I was able to have for breakfast to remind me of this horrible experience.  I came home - and did nothing.  Why?

I really have been thinking about my health since the Tweet Chat and wondering why I don't take the time or energy to be healthy myself.  I don't drink soda or eat a lot of sweets but I also don't eat dinner or what one could call dinner (hello popcorn). I don't take the time to cook.  I hate exercise.  My BFF loves to exercise - I mean loves it.  I hate it.  I get bored.  Recently I was reintroduced to Ping Pong after not having played for 30 years.  I love it!  I wish I lived closer to my friend, who has the table and challenges me greatly on each shot, so we could play more often. Ok that is exercise and I like that.

I reached out to Alexandra this week because I tend to overwhelm myself with how much I need to do to get healthy.  She responded with small steps.  Small steps cover the same ground as a full outright run. Stand when I am on the phone at work instead of sitting.  That was the change this week - that is it.  I could do that. Oh and she suggested I be kind to myself too. Gulp - really? Why is that so hard?

Women tend to take care of everyone else first and put themselves last.  I tell my BFF all the time that she needs to take care of herself first so she then can take care of her family.  Hmm do as I say and not as I do comes to mind.  The last few years has brought stresses to my generation that we have not dealt with before.  These stresses weigh on us every second of every day and if we don't take care of ourselves then yes major medical issues will happen.  Women under 40 have heart attacks.

Besides eating healthy and exercise joy needs to be more prevalent in our lives. Simple joys that don't cost anything but time.  Last Monday, for many reasons, every fiber of my being said leave work and drive 2 1/2 hours to see my BFF.  For two hours I fought it but finally at 9:30 am I left the office and had lunch with my BFF.  I have never done anything like that in my life.  We had a wonderful afternoon and chatted about life.  At one point she looked at me and said remember that Winnie the Pooh quote "If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you"  well get with it!! Crap be kind to myself again.  That afternoon allowed me to face the rest of the week with a much better attitude.  I think it did the same for her.  It was a simple joy and we need to do it more often.  Hmm little steps.

This morning, for the first time in a long time, I got up and exercised.  Nothing all out heavy duty just got on my stepper for 13 minutes and then some yoga.  I watched commencement addresses on YouTube to get the day started off on a positive note.  And then I sat down and wrote this blog post.  I don't know where this will go but for today, these small steps, are enough.