Health – ExceptionalGeneralist.com

Getting in shape – BEFORE the holidays

Beginning January 1, millions of people will chase their New Year’s resolution of losing weight or becoming more fit. I haven’t researched any data, but I would bet that fitness related businesses see a huge boom in sales during January. I’ve been there before… once spending over $700 for a family membership to the local YMCA that I rarely used. It was a complete waste of time and money for me, and a source of embarrassment. I felt like every time I walked into the Y, people knew that I was new and that I probably wouldn’t last more than a month or two (they were right!). I’m not sure why I didn’t succeed. Maybe I wasn’t motivated enough; maybe I was felt like I was a fatty that would look like a loser compared to the real gym rats. I don’t know for sure, but I do know that the worst part for me was that raging thought in the back of my mind that everyone was watching me (and laughing to themselves) as I struggled through my workouts. I know that it was just a psychological weakness on my part, but it was real to me.

Now, as I approach another resolution season, I once again want to get back into fighting shape. I’m not grotesque or anything, and most people look at me and think I’m healthy, but I could stand to lose about 30 pounds. I would like to get the definition back in my stomach, arms, and chest while losing a few pants sizes. It’s not really too much to ask, and I should be able to do it fairly easily – provided I actually stick to it this time. So here is what I have decided to do to combat the paranoia I feel when I step into a gym in January: I’m going to start in December. I already know that I want to get back into shape, so why wait? This gives me a one-month head-start on my fitness level, and allows me the opportunity to get to know other people before the rush of newbies come in after New Year’s Day. That way, I’ll hopefully feel more like part of the club instead of an outsider who won’t last more than a couple of months. And to top it off, I’ll get a jump on my weight loss before all of the requisite Christmas social events arrive. This year, maybe my mother-in-law won’t think that I’m such a fat ass!

[tags]Weight Loss, Christmas, Resolutions[/tags]

Good luck on God’s ‘parent test’… I hope you pass.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…. Then, God said ‘Let there be light… and croup.’ You probably won’t find that last part anywhere in the Bible, but it should have been put in there. Croup, I believe, is God’s test for parents. When your child has his or her first croup attack (and pray they don’t!), it is one of the scariest moments of your new parenthood. If you haven’t heard of croup already, let me tell you a little story.

My first experience with a croupy child occurred about two years ago. I was in bed sleeping, when I heard my youngest son coughing and struggling to catch his breath. At first, I thought he was just getting sick… maybe a little cold. But the breathing got progressively worse over the next few minutes, until he was hardly breathing at all (or so it seemed). There was a few second delay between each labored breath (that I later found out was caused by swelling around his airway), and his coughing sounded like the barking of a baby seal. The coughing and breathing troubles made my little guy cry, and all that did was make the situation worse. It was horrible for me. Here was my baby, suffering, and I couldn’t do anything to help him feel better. Since I didn’t know what to do, I immediately took him to the emergency room. On the drive there, the symptoms got much better and they were hardly noticeable by the time we checked in (because he was breathing in the cold winter air, as I will talk about later). After a steroid shot and a hospital stay of a few hours for observation, we were released. The rest of the night, my son slept in my bed so I could keep an eye on him. He slept fine after that, even if I couldn’t sleep a wink.