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?
