Just Another Monday - The Patient Promise

I have several half-written posts (the second half of Thanksgiving, weekend in Toronto, iPhone) but there's so much to write about that it gets overwhelming.  That's pretty much the same reason why I still haven't written about our Honeymoon, Indiana Bahá'í Summer School, or the remainder of our 3 week summer road trip.  The way I seem to mentally justify the lack of posting is "well, it's for us so if we get to it...we get to it" but really, I have a terrible memory so I'd really like to get these down on paper in this medium.  Thanks to those who follow this regularly; it's more motivating to know that our family actually reads it since we miss everyone so much and want them to feel like they're right here with us (from the comfort of their own home).

This past Monday was just a normal day.  Kyle went to work.  I stayed home to study (trying to change up the study location and save some $$ on gas) which motivated me to finally get off my butt and exercise!  I know, I know - shocker!  I've been "trying" to get in the habit of exercising for about 2 years now.  It's really important for my health, but it's also something that I used to enjoy doing - it made me feel a million times better both during and after the activity.  My athletic history: one season of T-ball in 3rd grade, two years of track (sprinting) in middle school, two years of soccer in high school, pick-up soccer in college for three years, one year of club ultimate frisbee (we were so close to going to Nationals!) in college...and it was downhill from there.  In Ethiopia Kyle and I joined a gym down the street for three months but used it only a handful of times (I think we ended up using it more for the awesome hot showers when our power was out than for the actual gym; it was by far the best gym I have ever seen - no joke).  It wasn't exactly safe to go running in Ethiopia, and definitely not biking (not that we had bikes).  The only exercise I had that year was the long walk to school, but we started getting lazy/not waking up early enough and took taxis/public transportation the last half of the year.

During medical school I have attempted several times to get running again, but let's face it - it's never been a top priority.  Here's how my priorities have been: Kyle/study, food, sleep, everything else.  Yes, Kyle is tied with studying, but I think he agrees that's what's best and I'm committed to making that tied until I'm done with residency.  After that: family, work, food, sleep.  Bam.  A couple months ago I took The Patient Promise; the way I see it is - it's time for me to "walk the walk".  When working with patients, it's easy to say "you need to exercise for 30 minutes a day, five days a week" or "you need to quit smoking" but it's not actually that easy to do.  I had always understood why smoking was so hard to quit (I don't smoke so I don't literally know how it feels, but I understand why), but I did think "why is it so hard for people to exercise 30 minutes a day?"  When I tried it as part of a challenge through a new student organization on campus (Student Wellness Organization - they support increasing med student wellness by nutrition, exercise, and stress management) I realized it is so hard to exercise for 30 minutes, five days each week.  Kyle and I would go on a brisk 30 minute walk (hey, we both need to take care of our bodies) and that was easy peasy.  The challenge was getting out there five days each week.  With our schedules, it was difficult to find a good time for us to both go.  I don't like to workout at school for multiple reasons: seeing people I know, not knowing how busy the gym is at whatever time, I study at school so I don't want to have to shower there (I don't even know what the shower situation is like), I don't like to break up my study day so that means getting up earlier than usual (which I failed at last week) or getting home later than usual (which I dislike because that is our "together" time).  With all of these personal barriers - whether you judge them as real or merely excuses - I was not able to keep up with the challenge for more than two weeks.  Since I felt defeated, I gave up on exercise all together and focused all of my time and energy on kicking butt in I&I (success!).

The Patient Promise is about more than just exercise, though.  It includes the nutrition and stress management, two things which I have been really good at over the past two years.  Granted, I like to chow down on an entire tub of ice cream in one sitting, or finish every cookie that I made the previous night, but I've been getting better at not doing that!  I started using MyFitnessPal sometime this past year and it helped me to gauge how much I was actually eating each day.  The first day I used it, I measured out exactly how much cereal & milk I was eating for breakfast.  Holy wow.  I was eating a healthy cereal, but basically at twice the serving size...and I ate that same amount as a snack later in the day (sometimes two snacks in a day).  In a nutshell: I was eating almost half of my daily caloric intake in cereal!  And you know I wasn't skimping on the other foods in the day to make up for my cereal habits.  I had always had the problem of feeling perpetually hungry, so by measuring out and planning what I ate during the day (it's easy to plan your meals for the day when you pack your lunch) I began to fight my hunger and eventually it went away.  I also started seeing where I was taking in useless calories (in my case: carbs...I ate way too many carbs and not enough protein) and used those for better purposes.  My friends, I did not stop eating treats!  I was able to plan for those - woo hoo!  I want two of those chocolate chip cookie dough truffles?  No problem, I'll just pack a salad (without cheese this time) and I'm good to go!  Anyway, the point is: I have been keeping up with the healthy eating side of The Patient Promise and I've generally had good stress management on my own.  I can only remember one time that Kyle has been concerned about me due to stress (at least, there's only one time I can remember that he commented on it - correct me if I'm wrong, Kyle).

So back to Monday.  I finally got off my butt and exercised!  I had been thinking for a few weeks about challenging myself to complete a sprint triathlon this year after I read this blog post; I figured "if she can do it, I can do it" and it would be something really awesome to have under my belt.  Wouldn't you like to be the person that says "my daughter/niece/granddaughter[-in-law]/friend completed a sprint triathlon"?  I think it would be pretty cool to be that person (hint hint, anyone want to do one with me?).  I almost signed up for the CNN Fit Nation just as additional motivation (if I was picked) but Kyle had some good advice on not doing it on someone else's schedule, especially considering the fact that I'm in medical school and heading into the most important exam of my life to date.  After Thanksgiving break I decided I should start small and work up to something as grueling as a sprint tri.  Cycling isn't a challenge for me, but running...whew...  Enter the Couch to 5k!  Thank you to whoever came up with this idea.  Using this C25K app (free) I completed Day 1 of Week 1 on Monday!  I felt so great afterwards.  I don't know if it's because I completed the workout without stopping, because I actually took a step in exercising, or because I always feel great after working out.  Whatever it was, I'm thankful that it was a great experience because it's further motivation to continue.  If this app works, I'll be running a 5k in 8 weeks.  I chose this app simply because it was free and it came up first in the App Store on my phone.  I've heard the app by Active.com is nice but it costs $1.99 and I didn't want to invest any money until I knew I was going to go through with this.  This is actually the same reasoning I use for buying new running shoes.  I still have the same pair from my senior year in undergrad (which had the crap beat out of them during indoor ultimate season); I will only justify making the investment in a new pair once I am in the habit of running.  It's not worth it to spend $60-100 on a pair of shoes if I end up not using them (because let's face it - my running shoes are not the type of shoes you can pair with any outfit in my closet), so if I'm still running in a month or two, I might make that leap.

Yay for exercising!  You'd think that was the highlight of my day (since I devoted four paragraphs to it) but the real highlight of my day was Facetiming my lil sis!

Bad timing, Amber!

I really didn't mean to get a picture of her doing something weird...but since I did, it had to be shared.  We had been commenting on something on Facebook and I was getting ready to head to an important meeting on Main Campus with some wonderful ladies who work with alumni donations.  Amber realized that I obviously wasn't doing anything important since I was on Facebook so she Facetimed me!  What a pleasant surprise! :)  She also helped me pick out which shoes to wear.  Isn't technology wonderful sometimes?

So that was my normal Monday.  I guess it was pretty abnormal considering the fact that I exercised.  And that Amber Facetimed me.  Oh, and Kyle and I watched Die Hard (in preparation for the new one coming out this winter; we actually finished all four by last night...oops).  All in all, it was a wonderful Monday.  And so much for this being a quick post; I guess I really have zero excuse for not finishing those drafts I have waiting.