Stay Healthy Saturday

I haven't done one of these posts in a while. Life can take over sometimes, and that's part of the reason I wanted to stop and reflect on what I can do to stay healthy. This week was more of a wake up call. Tuesday morning while I was in the dentist chair, Jason's father was having a heart attack. I found out about an hour later and it seems like the roller coaster hasn't stopped since then.

Grandpa was discharged from the hospital yesterday and is resting at home, but what does this mean? In the last ten months - just 10 short months - our family has had a wake up call to heart disease. My father, my brother, and now Jason's father. A year ago I probably would have blown off any concern about heart disease. That always happens to other people. Now, I'm rethinking things.

For Jason and I diet has been an easy area to work on and in the last few months we are eating oatmeal over regular cereal, adding soy and flax seed to our diet, and reducing our meat. Fitting regular exercise in has been more challenging, but now that the snow is melting, hopefully we'll make time for getting out and moving. Stress management is another big one to work on. We have been reading more, playing games together, trying to find time to wind down and turn the brain on to something else. For a while I didn't think I had stress in my life simply because I don't have a "real" job, but that is far from the truth. Everyone has stress in their lives and it is important to find a way to deal with it to stay healthy.

So what have I done this week to stay healthy? I talked with Jason, my family and friends about my worries and concerns. I turned to friends and asked for help when I needed it. I found time each day to connect with my kids with a kiss, or a cuddle. Finally, I thought long and hard about what I can control and what I can't. If I expect myself to do and handle everything, then I will only feel like a failure when life throws a curveball at you. And the curveballs always come. That's one thing I'm sure of.