Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Living with Less: Health & Guilt

So I've never been a particularly "healthy" person.

I was sick a lot of my childhood, and had some immune system issues that forced me to basically be home schooled my junior year of high school.

I'm still that person who catches a cold and is on death's door for a week.

Add that to the fact that I'm clumsy and fall down a lot and hurt myself pretty often, and it doesn't make for someone who is generally "healthy."

I can't control how clumsy I am.

No really.

I've tried.

But I've decided that I can help with the immune system stuff and just general health by getting in shape and eating better.

This doesn't mean I'll stop going out to eat and reviewing places and all that. Just that I'm trying to make better choices most of the time.

I recently joined a gym, French Riviera Spa (it's not a spa - it's a really nice but relatively utilitarian gym - but I like it a lot). I'm going to review it soon, as soon as I decide whether to creepy take pictures or tell them that I'm taking them for the blog.

I basically paid $19 a month for 15 months, so about $289 for over a year of gym membership. Not a bad deal, considering I can use any location and they have free tanning, which, yeah, I don't use, because I like not getting skin cancer/looking like a lobster, but it's nice to have it included. Also a friend of mine works there, and he's really helpful.

I'm getting a "workout plan" from my roommate, which, if it doesn't kill me, should be helpful.

I talked to the nutritionist at the gym who had some kind of unrealistic expectations (I hate when people measure health in weight) but who gave me some really good advice about eating and general health.

And I'm going to start taking my delicious gummy multivitamin again.

They're shaped like dinosaurs.

So I'm really working on this.

I've also decided that volunteering is something I should stop doing. I finished my comps (yay!) and then immediately jumped into editing a book, which is exciting, but which is kind of difficult and is something I could have said no to. It's a great experience, but no more volunteering.

Maybe the healthiest change I'm going to try to make is being less polite.

Not that I want to be rude.

Or inconsiderate.

But I do want to think about myself too.

As my friend Ashley pointed out, and as my roommate has noted, I rarely say no to people. I give 110% in all of my relationships, and only in a few do I get that back.

So I'm going to start saying no. Living with less guilt about saying no, and really working on creating a core group of people who give reciprocal care to our relationship. And living with less guilt about taking care of myself, including my health, rather than the people/relationships/things that don't take care of me back.

2 comments:

  1. Good for you for taking care of your overall health! That's great!

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  2. I have a book you should read, that two of the instructors here gave me for Christmas--it's all about how to be a bitch, although its not really about bitchiness but about how toxic niceness really makes you unhealthy and overtaxed, and how saying "no" or standing up for yourself is good for you, even if it gets you a "bitch" label.

    I'll bring it on our taco date. :-)

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