How Your Friends Make It Easy To Be Healthy: Working on Exercise & Diet
This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month.
Since it takes 21-30 days to develop a new habit, making a goal for the month ahead is an effective strategy.
Chris and I agree that making these monthly goals together and posting our results here for you to see helps us to improve our health. I’ve always found that if I say out loud to someone what I plan on doing, I’m more likely to do it. Because if I said I would, I feel responsible to follow through.
In March, my goal was to go to the gym two or three times a week and cut out all sweets and wine (my downfall!) for a few weeks. Chris’ goal was to cut down on chips (his downfall!) again because he had been eating the corn chips when going out to the Mexican restaurants he loves.
My Experience
I am happy to report that I did not have any sweets or wine or alcohol of any kind for three weeks! That was to make up for all the extra goodies I had over the holidays. (I actually had twice the amount of sweets and alcohol for a total of three weeks over the holidays. I counted!)
The problem is: the day after my diet from sweets and wine, I went to a wine-tasting/auction. I was so excited to have such a celebration to go to after accomplishing my goal. There were high-quality wines of all sorts to try. I think I tasted about six different glasses of wine that were only one-third to half full, and I never get drunk no matter how much I have. But it must have been the mixing of the different types of high-content alcohol that got me. After I went home, I got so sick I don’t think I ever want to see a glass of wine again! (We’ll see…)
And yes, I did go to the gym a couple of times a week. As I went, I talked to another personal trainer and googled upper body exercises to do. I printed them out and took them to the gym with me in addition to the other exercises I already had. It just gives me a lot more variety.
Chris’ Experience
Chris was trying, once again, to cut down on chips which seems to be his biggest downfall. He had cut down on them last year, but was tempted by them whenever he went to his favorite restaurants: Mexican. I have since discovered through online research that chips are addicting.
Last month, Chris slipped a little here and there on the carbs and fried foods at the beginning of the month. But he did well over all, especially during the second half of the month. He is now taking boxing training a few times a week. One week he only made it there once, but he had his first acting part on Broadway to prepare for. Congrats, Chris!
His diet and exercise program are excellent after a year of sharing health goals with me. He is now leading the life of a healthy actor, keeping his instrument in shape! Chris can’t think of any new goals, other than continuing to stick to the ones he has accomplished so far. In other words, he has developed a healthy new lifestyle.
I, on the other hand, feel like I could go on forever making new health goals, fine-tuning the previous ones more and more over time. As long as I come up with new ones, I will continue this diary. For April, I am cutting down on sweets and wine further: from one of them each day, to one of them every other day.
What are your health goals? Do you have a buddy to share them with? How has your progress been? Is there anything that seems harder or easier to accomplish? Let us know in the comments box below.
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To your good health, Angie
Great content!!
Thanks, Maryse! My new post tomorrow will be about Spring and Summer wardrobe basics. Hope to see you again soon! 🙂 Angie