100,000 steps

09 Monday Jan 2017

Tags

2017, exercise, fitbit, health, moving, running, walking

Ever since I received a fitbit for Father’s Day last year, I have worn it pretty much non-stop. 2016 was a rough year for me physically – I pulled my left hamstring…twice. The second time caused me to be on crutches for about a month. I took my time with recovery and eventually eased my way into walking and then short running distance. Then, bam! I had plantar fasciitis in my left heel. Ouch. The only way to heal this is to rest the foot. No running. Eventually I felt well enough to run again in November. All during this, I kept my fitbit on. I watched as I had day of 1,000 steps. Ugg. I watched my weight go up too. More ugg. I’m the type of person who also gets a bit cranky if I don’t get a chance to exercise – it’s how I get my frustrations out of my system.

The holidays are a rough time to be healthy. And this year was no exception. Some more weight, less exercise, a cold that turned into a sinus infection and ear infection. Down again.

Then I was finally healthy. It only took 11 months to feel completely healthy, but it came. It happened to be the end of the year too. 2017 started and so did I. I’ve been going to the Y and doing my exercise routine, which includes running. Right now, I’m planning on running outside again next week and slowly building my distance.

But the amazing thing for me was hitting a milestone. Yesterday I looked at my seven day step total. I was at 99,818 steps…for seven days. It was about 9:30pm. I so badly wanted to see 100,000 steps on the screen. So I got up and walked around the house several times, until I hit and surpassed the magic number.

Now here’s the thing. You might be sitting there thinking that either I’m crazy or that I should stop bragging.

Actually I tell you all this for a reason. This is a personal accomplishment for me and gives me a signal that I’m headed in the right direction. I’m feeling great, lost the holiday weight, and enjoy what I’m doing.

Does this mean everyone should make a goal of doing 100,000 steps in seven days? Nope. This is my thing. I want to encourage you to find your thing. Do that thing that you really enjoy, that is actually good for you too. Maybe it is taking a walk. (I advise getting a dog, you’ll get plenty of steps in this way – trust me, I know from personal experience). Maybe it’s running. Maybe it’s swimming, or cycling, or just playing with your kids. Only you know what that thing is that makes you feel alive and well. Make this the year you suck it up and get moving. After about two to three weeks it becomes a habit and a commitment.

The commitment and habit turn into trust – trust of your body and of you. You start to work as a team and you enjoy it.

True for exercise and health, but also true for many other things in live. What’s your 100,000 steps that you want to celebrate?

Goals for 2017

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by laceduplutheran in Blog, Family, Health, Seminary

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

2017, career, family, goals, health, writing

We’re three days into the new year. It’s time to declare my goals for the year. Only, this year is a bit different. I have goals, but the goals a bit different. They are more like themes that will guide me. Or maybe it’s the idea of setting up systems that will help me accomplish what I am setting out to accomplish. To keep it simple, I’ll keep calling them goals.

I actually took some time over Christmas break and mapped out these goals through 2022. Let’s get real for a moment. Do I expect everything to go according to plan? Of course not. In fact I expect that there will be changes along the way. Graduating in May and then being ordained, and starting ministry will definitely bring some changes – changes I can’t even foresee. But that doesn’t mean I just sit around and wait. Instead, I can try some things out, see how they work, and determine if they are something I will continue with.

So, here’s my goals, or themes, or systems, or whatever you want to call them for 2017:

Health – Run two half marathons in 2017. I feel as though all of my injuries from 2016 have finally healed up. I’ve been to the Y two days in a row, doing different workouts – running, cycling, lifting some weights. I’ll be getting back to outdoor running soon. The system here is that I created a schedule for myself, with what I’ll be doing each day. Part of this is also eating healthier as well. I want to weigh 165 lbs – which means as of yesterday, I will drop 14 pounds. I’d really like to drop a pound a week, which means I eat considerably less and healthier. I started this yesterday and already feel healthier. I’m glad the holidays are over for one simple fact – better eating is easier now.

Career/calling – graduate in May and be ordained. My last semester of seminary starts soon. I’ve heard from the registrar that as long as I pass the classes I have signed up for, I will graduate in May. After graduation – then it’s ordination. I’m looking forward to seeing where God will be putting me to work.

Family – several things here. Take a trip with the family for up to two weeks after graduation. We’re looking at a few options of where this might be and I’m really excited about the possibilities. I also want to play more games with them and spend open time with each one and as a group with nothing at all planned – just being present with them. Also, I’m committed to cooking a nice meal once a week – my hope is that I find enough recipes that are unique and that I learn some things from this.

Writing – yes, writing gets it’s own section. There’s a lot of things I want to write about. I’ve actually created a schedule for writing. This may be over the top, but I’ve got five different ideas that I want to write about. Here’s the thing – I don’t expect that I’ll be writing about all five by the end of the year. I do expect that I’ll be writing about three of them. I’m not sure what they will lead to, and frankly, I don’t care. I just want to write about these ideas. The topics include church, politics, and prayer. Also, I’ve been doing a bunch of social media stuff (twitter, blog, etc) that are all very focused. I want to determine what I’m keeping and what I’m shedding and then some direction of where it might be taking me. In other words, narrow in on a focus for this – probably in line with the topics I will be writing about.

That’s enough to focus on for the year. What are your goals for 2017?

Stewardship of the Body

27 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by laceduplutheran in Church, Health, Society, Sports

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Tags

body, church, death, exercise, fear, God, health, Jesus, running, stewardship of the body, wholeness

I bet you could easily list the topics that aren’t spoken about in church. I bet you could easily name the topics that are typically talked about in pretty negative tones too.

Today, I’m going to touch one of those “topics-that-shall-not-be-talked-about.” Actually, it a category of topics – stewardship of the body.

Please understand, I’m not hear to tell you what to do. That’s not my job, my role, nor do would I ever enjoy that. Plus, the odds are that you’ve heard that speech before. And even better odds are you went away from that speech feeling like crap, angry at the speaker, or just dismissed the person because they acted like a Pharisee – “do as I say”…

Instead, I want to ask a few questions and offer some reflection.

Why don’t churches talk about stewardship of the body? This seems like something important. Maybe it’s because we would have to open up about “difficult” topics like sex, food and eating, drugs, exercise, addiction, etc. These are tough topics for Americans to talk about. It’s so much easier to laugh about them when someone cracks a joke about any of these on a sitcom isn’t it? It eases the tension. But it doesn’t actually make us face our own fears.

What is stewardship of the body? As I reflect on this, my definition of stewardship of the body is this – I’ve been given this body by God to go through life. It is not just a part of who I am that will go away after I die, as if I can escape it. It is me, just as my mind is me, my spirit is me, and my soul is me. All of them together make up who I am – a unique creation. Stewardship of the body means taking care of my body in a way that respects what God has given me.

I believe the church has a big opportunity when it comes to stewardship of the body. Health is a big focus and rightly so. You can read some great articles about health in the workplace – here’s one example. Pretty innovative stuff. But there is something missing. Just as there is something missing in all of the health-related articles out there. Before I get to that, let me share with you one more thing.

If you think people in church aren’t interested in health, think again. Just one example – the interest in organized running races. It’s no secret that marathons and other distance runs have grown in popularity over the last several decades. People care about their health and they are will to do some crazy things. Think I’m lying? Check out this picture:

This is the picture at the start line of the Helsinki marathon in August, 2014. But it could have been the picture of the start line of any major city in the world. The crowds at these things are amazing. And the beauty of this is that these are “average” people, not super athletes, or professionals. They have jobs like everyone else. They are moms and dads, sons and daughters and even some grandparents.

Here’s something else to note – 99.9% of the people running these races aren’t running them to win. They know they don’t have a prayer, nor do they really care about that. That’s not what it’s about. They do it to test themselves, to be healthy, as a challenge, etc. There are probably as many reasons as there are people.

A few paragraphs ago I said that there was something missing. What’s missing in all of this is the wholeness of the person. So often, work-related health initiatives, marathons, exercise programs, diets, etc focus solely on the physical side of things – the body. Science is really good at explaining so many things about the body. But science can’t tell us about the intangibles of a person and how they relate to the body.

We have big challenges in the US – we have girls who have an unhealthy view of their body. We have a weight problem. We have food portions that are larger than ever. We have people obsessed with exercise to the point that it is their religion. We have all sorts of challenges when it comes to the body. And we have a church that oftentimes seems to think about health as if this many people are interested:

The people are interested. But also scared and uncertain. We, as a church, have an opportunity to walk alongside people on their journey of life. We have an opportunity to broach the subjects that everyone is afraid to talk about. When we do, I bet we’ll be amazed at the sigh of relief that people will have. Not because we have all the answers, but because we are willing to face the fears that people have with them. We’re willing to show our own humanity too.

Ultimately, the biggest fear we all have and one that relates specifically to the body, is death. If we stop kidding ourselves, this is the reason why we do all the health-related activity – to delay death. We fear that death is final and that there is nothing after it. This is where the church has a unique opportunity because we claim to believe that Jesus overcame death. We claim that death can be beaten because of what Jesus did.

When we start with that in mind, it makes the conversation about the body a bit different. We don’t have to do all sorts of crazy things in order to save ourselves and beat death – Jesus already did that for us. We can look at who we are, what our capabilities are, what we are called to and then look at how we are called to stewardship of the body.

A healthy organization?

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by laceduplutheran in Health, Society

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

conflict, health, organization, politics, responsibility, transparancy

What’s a “healthy” organization? This is the question on my mind these last few days. Is an organization that is focused on survival “healthy?” I don’t think so. Is an organization “healthy” if it relies on just a few people to do the majority of the work that needs done? I don’t think that either. In fact, I would argue that an organization that relies on just a few people to do the majority of the work is dying – but it may not realize it yet. That doesn’t mean it will die immediately either.

And yet, this seems to be the state of many organizations today – a few do the majority of the work. But what happens in this situation – Those that do the work start to feel empowered to demand things and the organization usually accommodates their wishes thinking that they will have trouble if they don’t. What if the person leaves? Who will pick up the slack – there is so much to do. It’s just easier to accommodate.

So what’s an organization to do? What does an organization that wants to thrive, and not just survive, do to correct this? I have a few thoughts.

1. Limit how much any one person can do, how much they can represent the organization and how much responsibility they have. This is for everyone’s benefit.

2. Everything should be transparent – everything down to and including money. Yes, money. If we can’t be honest about our financial state, then what else are we hiding? What do we have to fear? Vulnerability, that’s what. But healthy organizations are vulnerable organizations that are willing to risk in order to build relationships. You can’t build relationships with secrecy.

3. When conflict arises and people start playing politics in an organization, it is best to address it head on so that the truth can come out. The truth is what should be considered one of the highest values in any organization. This goes with integrity and honesty as the key ingredients to a thriving organization as I mentioned earlier. Honesty and openness kills politics and sneaking and secrets every time. No one want to openly be the “bad guy” or the mean one or the one who is running a secret campaign to undercut a person. Everyone wants to be the “nice guy.” Openness and honesty creates accountability.

There are more aspects of a “healthy” organization. What would you add to this list?

Image

Bike ride!

06 Tuesday May 2014

Tags

bike ride, health, nature, seminary

Today was too nice of a day not to be outside. I took the opportunity, put down my studies, the papers that are due, and the reading and decided to go for a bike ride. It was absolutely gorgeous and perfect outside for a ride. I’m not sure how far I went, and it really doesn’t matter either. I just rode and rode for about an hour and half. I went on my favorite trail and had a blast.

Getting outside and running or cycling has a great effect on me. I always feel better afterwards – even if the run was crappy or difficult. Being outside is a way to rejuvenate.

So come along and cycle with me. Start pumping with me for half a minute and then look up and enjoy the scenery.

Posted by laceduplutheran | Filed under Health

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Health Insurance

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by laceduplutheran in Finland, Health

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

health, insurance

Today is “We’re buying health insurance for our trip” day. This is going better than I expected. It took me about 15 minutes to get student health insurance. Yes, that’s right 15 minutes. And that’s from the start of the process up to and including paying for it for the year and receiving an e-mail confirmation with the insurance information in it along with a printable insurance card. Amazing! Truly amazing.

I’ve never had such a good experience with health insurance before – In my entire life. Whatever these people at the insurance company are doing, they need to tell others. In fact they need to be hired to run http://www.healthcare.gov. I’ve heard too many horror stories about people applying for insurance. I’ve experienced these things myself.

So while today is a happy day in that getting insurance is another confirmation that we are going, it also an expensive day. But there is no way around that. It is what it is. It’s a part of the process. I choose to look at the bright side of it – it makes it so much better.