By Ashley Lemke
There are days when we feel like being proactive; when we’re inspired to strive. We are like emeralds – resilient, precious, and admired, but what about the days when we feel like a sad lump of green jello? Our butts are fused into office chairs for a good part of the day and the thought of exercising might sound like unnecessary suffering. (Ever notice how those exercise machines sometimes look like sadistic medieval torture devices?)
Being healthy seems to take a lot of effort. How do we live healthy lives? Furthermore, how do we live those healthy lives at work, up to our necks in an ever-rising swamp of work? Every day there are new workout routines, powders, diets, and devices that promise shortcuts to our better, healthier selves. Many of us get caught up in the possibilities and make drastic changes to our lifestyle in the pursuit of health and happiness; the sad truth is those changes rarely last for the long term.
I’d like to share a success story that shows how a healthier life can be simpler and less demanding than we sometimes think, with a lot less of a time commitment.
Name: Laurie
Occupation: Purchasing Coordinator at a major cosmetics company
Laurie didn’t start on her journey to improved health by obsessing about losing a certain amount of weight or making radical modifications to her daily habits. She focused on things more deeply personal and meaningful: the desire to be active into old age and to live her best life. Those things have more power than the little numbers on a scale do. She also had gotten off her asthma inhaler and didn’t want to go back.
This approach has led to Laurie losing 60 pounds and keeping it off. She didn’t need to spend eternity in a gym to do it. She didn’t need to do a specific workout every day, or drink only lemon water and cayenne pepper. All she had to do was what worked for her. All she had to do was take little (but impactful) steps every day.
Laurie has overcome many obstacles to maintain an active lifestyle: asthma, arthritis, raising a family, and having a demanding, sedentary job. All of these could have discouraged her from making healthy decisions, but she has thrived thanks to finding five minutes here and ten minutes there in her busy work day.
She decided to take things slow. At work Laurie would make it a point to pop into the corporate wellness center for a few minutes any time she passed by it. She also attended exercise classes at work even if she couldn’t stay for the whole session. Laurie doesn’t let lack of workout clothes stop her, because she doesn’t exercise long enough to need a shower. And the little teasing from co-workers (really disguised envy or respect) she might have gotten from running on a treadmill in her dress was well worth it. After all, “Serena runs in a dress, too.”
Lessons From Laurie:
- “Work with your limitations. Finding time can be a major challenge. I run a mile on the treadmill on a break at work.” In addition to not having a lot of time, Laurie also has arthritis in one of her knees. She works within her limitation and knows what she’s able to do.
- “Every day do something small. Attend part (if not all) of a workout class or have a healthy snack. It may seem insignificant at first, but it all adds up.”
- “Use your breaks. You might only have a few minutes to get up from your desk, but if you use those breaks wisely to move or grab a healthy snack or meal, they can make a huge impact over the long-term.”
- “Start with exercise – nutrition follows. When exercise becomes part of your routine, you subconsciously realize how your diet can sabotage the hard work you went out of your way to accomplish.”
- “Help other people with their journey. Talk to people who are trying to make change. Stop by their desk or send them an email to invite them to a workout class. Encouraging people around you on the same journey will empower you to make the effort with them.”
It’s from Laurie’s story we can see that our barriers don’t have to be roadblocks; they can be our detours to the places we want to be if we work around them. Sometimes we seem to think life isn’t supposed to have roadblocks. Life is more complicated than that. There will always be deadlines, nights we can’t sleep, washing machines in need of fixing, and a family in need of loving. The end-all objective shouldn’t be transforming into robotic fitness-obsessed junkies. It should be to live our best life.
