I Need a Ticker

Have you seen the blogs, where the blogger has a little ticker at the top, or in the sidebar, wherever, to keep track of how much weight they’ve lost, or counting down to an important event? Well, they have them for health and fitness, too, and for all sorts of interesting and odd things. I signed up for Black Belt Mama’s challenge, but so far I haven’t been doing so great…so here’s what I need. I need a ticker to keep me honest, to remind me to:

1. Floss my teeth at least 6 days a week (because you don’t have to floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep!)
2. Sit up straight (it’s affecting my back, all of this slouching in front of the computer)
3. Do sit-ups (a stronger abdomen will support my back better)
4. Do 10 minutes of yoga a day (at least, to start some upper body strength and bone building)
5. Take my calcium supplements (again with the bones…my grandma broke her hip at 40*)
6. Do exercises to strengthen my quads, which will give better support to my bum knee. (I forget about the knee until we go somewhere with a lot of walking up and down hills..the ups are fine, but the downs are a killer)

*(My grandma also dieted excessively and smoked like a chimney, which surely contributed to the extremely early onset of her osteoporosis…but still)

Why is it so hard to do these things? None of them are difficult, or painful, or bad. They are just habits. And creating good habits, getting rid of bad habits, that, I think, is the key to good health.

Getting a bit more philosophical about this, I would argue that not only physical habits like sitting up straight (the slouching cost me $100 yesterday, for a deep tissue massage to alleviate the pain) and doing sit-ups, but also mental habits like maybe meditation, and at least getting rid of some of the negative thoughts that plague us, can help us to be happier, healthier people. If, when thinking of our body, we gave it credit instead of blame; if, when thinking of our relationships (not just spouse, but also parents, children, coworkers, friends), we give credit rather than blame…if we give ourselves credit, instead of blame, how much healthier we would be.

Is there a ticker for all that? Cause I need one.

Now please excuse me…I’ve done all on the list above, except the sit-ups. Time to get the ‘exercise ball’ out of storage, ’cause that ugly thing really helps.