I can’t imagine there’s a single reader out there who wouldn’t like the opportunity to turn their health around in a mere six weeks. I for one, have quite a few things I’d like to change. I let stress get to me, I don’t get enough sleep, I don’t exercise enough, I eat more than I should and indulge in foods that are bad for me.
Years of those bad habits have taken their toll. I have regular neck and shoulder pain and a tight lower back. I have bone spurs on both my heels, and I get shin splints when I run outdoors. All too often I find I am too tired, lethargic, and mentally fuzzy to be as productive as I want to be. And I am a good 30 pounds over my ideal body weight.
Through my mid to late twenties I was slender and very active as dancer, a figure skater and a swimmer. I lived in cities where I walked every day to and from school, work, and the grocery store. But after graduate school, purchasing an automobile, moving to the midwest, and spending increasing amounts of sedentary time behind a computer, I now find that I’m less flexible, not as strong, and I lack have the stamina and energy I once had. My 35-year-old body now moves with more effort than grace and that leaves me feeling somewhat depressed about the years to come. But like a lot of people reading this, I wasn’t quite sure how to change things—or if I even could – at least not permanently. I began to wonder if my lifestyle and my body had changed in ways that I was going to have to learn to accept, rather than fight.
So when the Cleveland Clinic called me to try to sell me on a story about a health and wellness program they call Lifestyle 180 – I was intrigued. According to them, they were showing people with chronic diseases how to reclaim their health; how to live better, feel better, and look better by changing their approach to diet, exercise and stress. Patients with arthritis, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis and heart disease who had been through the program lost weight, reported less pain, and even reduced or eliminated their medications. And I thought, if they could do it, why couldn’t I? I asked them if I could join the program, and report on my own experiences as well as others in the class. I wanted to see for myself what it took to turn things around in 6 weeks – and if I could really do it. Over the next six weeks I’m going to share what I’ve learned with you, and you can judge for yourself.