Baby steps

So yesterday I wrote about being strong. Maybe you wonder where to start. I'll try to expand on that. First, health comes before strength. We don't want to sacrifice wellness for strength. Who cares is you can lift 500lbs but blow out your back or shoulders after a year of training. Or what good is it if you can run 20 miles but die of heart disease at age 50. Health is a triad of physical, mental, and chemical wellness. Physical is covered by chiropractic, strength, flexibility and endurance training. Mental is about having an attitude of gratitude, stress relief, and clearing emotional baggage. Chemical encompasses having a healthy metabolism (not necessarily fast), balancing excesses and deficiencies of nutrients, eliminating toxins and having balanced hormones. I'll elaborate on these separately in future posts.
One of my favorite movies is "What About Bob?" starring Bill Murray as Bob. He is paralyzed by fears and phobias. When his therapist is out of town he is forced into action by taking "baby steps". This is the best way. If you wait until you have time to exercise or can afford to start eating right or whatever excuse you come up with you will never start. Baby Steps. If you can't walk 100 yards without wheezing, then start with 5, then 10 next week or whatever you can handle. Or if you want to lose weight, you don't have to start some super organic diet if you are sucking down 5 liters of diet cola and a dozen Krispy Kremes. Or if you can't deadlift 300lbs start with 20lbs, then 50, and keep making forward progress. If you aren't moving forward, you are moving backwards, there is no sitting still.
Set your goals, gather some basic information on how to achieve them, start where you are and take baby steps.
To those who are already working toward your goals, are you seeing results? I've seen a lot of people come to the gym week after week but they don't look any different and they aren't lifting more weight. Or people who are following a "great diet" but they still have 30% body fat. In everyone's defense there is so much misinformation out there that it is ridiculous. But if what you are doing isn't working then find something that works. I can put my seal of approval on the legitimacy of the links and books to the right. They follow sound principles that are based in history and physiology. I've heard the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
This country has been mislead for so long about what health is that we have no idea how fulfilling and enjoyable life can be when we eat, move and think the way we were designed.
So do your homework, start reading up on the areas you wish to change. Start your baby steps by walking to the mailbox, drinking a glass of water, eating a vegetable, picking up a 5lb dumbbell, keeping a gratitude journal. Keep moving forward and tell me how much better your life is 1 month from now, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years. It won't be easy, and you won't always have the right tools. But persevere and keep searching and it will happen.
I struggle and I emerge