I’m sitting alone (well at least I have no children sitting around me) in a random Starbucks contemplating all of the things that I am going to get accomplished this year.
Yep, it’s that time of year again. The kiddies are back to school, everyone’s back to a different schedule, and I am back to the same place I was a year ago (metaphorically speaking) when I wrote Change is Inevitable, Progress is Work.
It’s been a while since I wrote a post, so be prepared for all the info I’ve stored up! I am changing my schedule now, so I will be writing to you on Tuesdays from now on.
I have no idea why (perhaps it’s the very caffeinated iced coffee I am drinking despite the fact that I really don’t like coffee) but I have the strangest urge to type out all of my goals for myself, my family, and my work for the year. Like so many of you other virtual assistants, my life requires balance in three very distinct areas. Today I am going to write about how I have incorporated new habits to keep myself healthy and in top “working condition”.
1. Finding Balance for Myself
I must be healthy. This means:
to eat right
I wrote a post a few weeks ago about a documentary I watched called Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. I had to write a post about this film because it has so many great points about how we jeopardize out healthy every time we don’t choose the foods we consume wisely.
We eat so much over-processed and vitamin/mineral depleted foods that our bodies are fighting a losing battle to stay healthy. Check out that movie to watch real people reverse the damage that years of poor eating habits caused.
to get enough sleep
“I found this great new medicine… It’s called sleep!” – I told this to my doctor during a checkup and she laughed and wrote it down and told me she had to use that.
Even though I said it with humor, I meant it earnestly.
Last September, I did a sort of health experiment with my sleep and actually made myself sleep 8 hours every night for a full month. Beating insomnia was well worth the effort.
After a few months of sleeping eight hours every single night, I felt amazing. Of course I have slacked off since then, but I am not nearly as bad as I was. 
Sleep is the time of the day when the body rebuilds, repairs and re energizes for the next day. The skin is the largest organ of the body and without the proper levels of sleep, it will also be the largest age-showing part of your life. At the surface of the skin are millions of cells that die off each day due to environmental influences, dry skin and sun damage. While lotions and cream may ease the effects of these factors, sleep is the only regenerative cycle that can truly undo the effects of the day. Without enough sleep, the skin will be unable to rebuild those dead and dying cells and this is when aging occurs.
- Sleep and Anti Aging excerpt from the Top Anti Aging Website
and to exercise often enough.
In a post called Exercise? Blah, It Just Sounds Like More Work I wrote last November I wrote about exercise videos, and then last April I wrote about more spontaneous styles of exercise in Time for Recess.
I think the trick for exercise is simply keep changing it up so we don’t get bored. I love to run, so I’ve been running at least three times a week all summer.
What about you?
What do you have to do to keep yourself in top working condition?
You know I’m always trying to learn new, more efficient ways to take better care of my health. Sometimes, it’s the old ways that benefit us the most.
I have always loved music. Most people do. In my teens, I would listen to music all the time. I’m not really sure when I stopped listening to it all that much.
My mind is constantly going and my predisposition to continually seek a challenge is also the bane of my existence when it’s time for spring cleaning.
] not sure if it’s because they think Santa might be watching or it’s just Christmas cheer. But, whatever it is – I like it!