Saturday, July 7, 2012

Personal Health

This post is slightly different than my usual, focusing on personal health.  I recently received a wonderful gift for Father’s Day, a pedometer which links via bluetototh with my smartphone.  Given my interest in quality improvement, this has really helped me with measuring exactly how much I am exercising.  What I love about it is the opportunity to compare day to day, and to set and achieve different goals.  Personal accountability is a great thing.
In addition, it has been a privilege to watch my two girls advance in their dance class and learn self-confidence by performing on a stage.  This has prompted me to actually join in as well; I have taken the plunge, and began taking tap dancing lessons (for those that know me, I have two left feet, so this does not come easily to me at all).  I absolutely love this class, despite never having taken any dance lessons ever!!  It is such a great opportunity for me to get away from work (even if for a short time) and focus on myself and my own health, while learning a new skill.  But it provides the added advantage of the girls seeing their father exercise (believe me, this class is a total workout), prompting them to want to exercise more themselves.  I am not even mentioning the opportunity to get to know better the other adults also taking the class with me.
I do believe that we can better counsel our patients about the importance of exercise if we actually exercise ourselves: these are just a few ways that I have done so.  So what do you do to focus on your own health that you talk to your patients about, and what exercise regimens get you jazzed up?

2 comments:

  1. Go, Alex! I agree completely. My patients know I was a competitive swing and tango dancer. They also have been my biggest cheering section as I try to regain my fitness level after a grueling triple cervical laminectomy. I have never regretted choosing MedPeds as the most effective way for me to influence the health of a child is to influence the health of their parents. I take a particular interest in the health of entrepreneurs and business owners as THEY create the culture of their companies. Each health decision they make for themselves ripples through their employees and communities.

    Thank you for speaking about this, Alex. We have more influence than we realize.

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