The Countdown is On!

February 1st is only a few days away, and the excitement is building for the Fitness Challenge. Well, in some ways. The idea of a month-long fitness challenge with lots of people challenging themselves to a more active lifestyle is great. The execution sometimes loses its lustre when we actually experience the work in our workouts.

But short-sighted (metaphorically, not literally) people only look at their immediate surroundings and can fail to see far enough ahead to the longer-term results. You will probably feel tired, unmotivated, discouraged, frustrated or even a bit physically sore if you are starting some new physical activity. I'm not going to sugar-coat it: these things may be the price of admission, so to speak, to the active lifestyle. If you read my recent "Stay In The Saddle" post, you probably caught the idea that you can generally avoid the startup discomfort by. . . staying active. I'm not hear to lecture or scold. But I do find reality to be instructive, if not forgiving.

And so to get back to the point, the 2017 countdown really is on. Two days from now, we start in earnest. As you prepare for it, get some good rest, drink plenty of water, and try to eat sensibly.  Remember, if you have ANY concerns about your physical readiness, talk with your doctor and let them know you are planning to ramp up your activity level.

Be sure to keep a notepad (or spreadsheet) handy so you can record your progress. Being active at something for a month should result in some improvements in your agility, stamina and strength. Keeping track of your progress will help you see that you are getting better! Anything that can encourage you will help.

The consensus from last year's participants with whom I have talked is that, this year, they are going into the challenge in better shape, and they are pumped about what they will accomplish this time around.

The organization where I work has been very supportive, and I have made a few personal challenges to folks in other organizations. If you have "connections" like that, why not issue them a challenge?

Talk to you soon, and thanks so much for your interest and participation.

Richard

Pledge Form

The Hospital Foundation has created pledge forms which people can use if they would like to collect sponsors. Anyone who leaves their full mailing address and donates more than $10 will get a receipt from the RUHF.

Basic Instructions:

1. Click here to download the RUHF pledge form

2. Have your sponsors complete the information about their donation, including their full mailing address

3. At the end of the challenge, collect the donations, and send the form and the donations (a check or money order is best through the mail) to the address below:

The Royal University Hospital Foundation 

103 Hospital Drive 

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7K 0W8 

Attention: Trina Hritzuk

Cheques/Money Orders should be payable to "Royal University Hospital Foundation"

TTM. . . Change. . . and You!

The Transtheoretical Model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983; Prochaska, DiClemente, & Norcross, 1992) is an integrative, biopsychosocial model to conceptualize the process of intentional behavior change.

To those of you still reading - thanks for being a good sport and humoring me! You probably wonder why would I lead off with that! Well, I came across the article containing the statement above while searching for something interesting about decisions, making changes, stages of physical fitness and that sort of thing. One thing led to another and. . . TTM, the Transtheoretical Model.¹

I think the article resonated with me personally because it discusses the idea of change over time. When you stop to think about it, it should be obvious that changes take place over time, but I think we easily get stuck with (and frustrated or discouraged by) mental pictures of dramatic changes in our fitness or wellness that just. . . suddenly. . . happen. Here's what I mean.

I start jogging and, in my mind's eye, I see myself jogging along smoothly and quickly, almost. . . effortlessly. I am smiling. . . Or, I take an exercise class and my mind's eye sees me doing all the exercises flawlessly, at full intensity, for the full number of reps the coach says. Maybe that happened for you, but MY mind's eye has delusions of grandeur. I did not start out "great" at any kind of activity, so there is a massive disconnect between my wishful-thinking mental picture and reality. And when I referred earlier to how frustrating or even discouraging that can be, I really meant it. It can be fatal to our attempts to engage in and continue with activities which, in the final analysis, WILL move us toward a state of greater wellness.

The TTM (Transtheoretical model) pulls together thinking about behaviour change from different theoretical vantage points.  It merges those ideas into a coherent view not only of behaviour change, but also of the processes at play in each stage of change. If you want to know why it is so much more difficult to get started in a new wellness activity, this model explains it quite well. In fact, it does such a good job that it deserves more thorough treatment than one short blog post. So, I will finish this post by laying out the five stages of change according to the TTM.  In upcoming blogs, I will drill down into some of the concepts relevant to our purpose here of moving toward greater wellness.


Five Stages of Change (TTM):

1. Pre-contemplation (Not Ready). People do not intend to change in the next six months.

2. Contemplation (Getting Ready). People intend to change in the next six months.

3. Preparation (Ready). People intend to change in the immediate future (within a month).

4. Action. People have made specific changes to their lifestyle within the last six months.

5. Maintenance. People have made specific changes to their lifestyle and are working to prevent relapse.


The Transtheoretical Model sees change as a progression which happens over time. It accounts for how the "decisional balance" between pros and cons shifts as a person progresses from one stage of change to the next. So stay tuned and prepare to have your thinking about personal change challenged. Remember - there are about ten days left before we start the fitness challenge!




¹If you want to read the full article, click here.

Reference:

Pro-Change Behaviour Systems. (2016). Transtheoretical model (or stages of change) - health behavior change. Retrieved January 23, 2017, from Pro-Change Behaviour Systems, http://www.prochange.com/transtheoretical-model-of-behavior-change.

At Last - File Downloads!!

Thanks to the Sage (Google), I have recently found a way to distribute .pdf files through the blog. I wanted to get this figured out because that's the kind of thing I like to know; unsolved problems really nag at me. . .

So here is the Vision-Casting worksheet that I developed with help from my good friend and fitness buddy, Ron.

Click here to download the Fitness Vision-Casting Exercise Worksheet (4 pages).

This worksheet will help you develop your personal fitness vision. Please email me if you have any thoughts, questions or feedback about the form. If you read the "Vision" blog, you understand how I see vision-casting and goal-setting as an interactive process. The neat thing is that, once you get started, your ideas will start to percolate and you will probably come up with some great new ideas.

Please note:  You will need a .pdf viewer such as Acrobat Reader to view these files.

Stay In The Saddle!

It’s hard to believe that we are just a few weeks from the 2nd annual "10,000 Kettlebells for Parkinson’s" challenge! That means we have had nearly a year of experience after last February’s fitness challenge. So. . . has your wellness journey been a good one? I have heard many anecdotes from last year’s participants, and I hope to get some of their stories for you next month. Overall, though, I think this year has been great!

When I look back over the year, one of my most striking observations is that I really came to enjoy being active. I tried a number of different activities, and some variations of familiar ones, but activity became more of a lifestyle for me. That may sound cliché, but it is totally true. A side-effect which I had not expected was that I also cut down on a few food excesses, namely bread and potatoes (both of which I totally love). I didn't do this simply to "diet", but rather because I realized that I was eating more of them than I needed. So, I think I am learning to fuel up with the kind and amount of food I need. My food intake is more strategic and, I hope, more sensible.

One experience which caught me a bit off-guard happened a few weeks ago when I dragged out the kettlebells to get ready for the challenge. Last year, I developed a bit of a dislike for those things. The novelty had worn off. They had overstayed their welcome. Familiarity had bred contempt. . . I would put them out on the mat, and then go into all manner of avoidance manoeuvres: taking forever to get into a good stance, doing that again, taking a deep breath, staring at the kettlebell, looking up to see what was on the tv, adjusting the music, drinking some water. . . I could drag it out forever. Once I got started, things went fairly well, but getting started was brutal. I even carried some of this enthusiasm over by delaying even getting the kettlebells out until just last week. And then. . .

I set them up for the first time, walked over, and just started. No fuss, no muss, as they say. Just kettlebells. It wasn't until I had finished that I realized the avoidance had disappeared. And it didn't come back in my next few workouts, either. So what do I make of that?

Here's what I make of it. Activities and exercise involve putting a bit (or a lot) of stress on your physical system, which basically adapts to that stress. I have tried whole lot of different activities and workouts in this past "year of experience", and I think I must have adapted to getting down to business. I think I have somehow learned to be more efficient in my workout time. I know I'm far from perfect at it (especially if there's something really interesting on TV) but I think I must have have adapted over this past year to being active.

Even though I'm from the prairies, and I can ride a horse, I don't do it very often - about once every 20 years or so. If you've ever had that same experience of trying to get back in the saddle after a long time away from it, you will know that you're in for some sore butt muscles. Even if you don't fall off! But regular riders rarely have that experience because they get adapted to the saddle and basically stay adapted. So I think one of the big lessons I have learned throughout this interesting, year-long wellness journey is this: staying active prevents you from having to experience multiple activity-startup periods which are generally unpleasant. And unrewarding. And discouraging. Remember last year when many of us were starting out? By about Day 3, the fun was starting to get sucked right out of it. It was just turning into work. I think I've learned that staying in the saddle, so to speak, allows you to generally avoid all that startup angst and yields a more enjoyable, more rewarding experience on an ongoing basis.

My encouragement as we get ready to launch the 2nd annual "10,000 Kettlebells for Parkinson's" fitness challenge in a few weeks is this: Stay In The Saddle! Use this February to establish yourself in a fitness routine, and then keep active. Try mixing new activities or workouts into your "arsenal" to bust the boredom. Get some coaching. Even build planned "breaks" and recovery periods into your routine. But stay active. I think you'll find it easier to keep an active lifestyle going when you don't keep grinding to a complete stop.

Second "Annual" Kettlebell Challenge Coming Up!

Hang on to your toques - we're zooming down the hill toward the second annual "10,000 Kettlebells for Parkinson's" fitness challenge!

That's right. The Royal University Hospital Foundation is on-board, we've got the Kettlebells dusted off, and we hope You are all set to join us for our second annual challenge.

If you're new to this, here's the quick summary (you can read the earlier blogs from last year to get up to speed):

For the 28 days of February, we challenge you to choose some kind of fitness activity you would like to do, or would like to do more of. I (and some guest bloggers) will be blogging about experiences participants have had, at the end of February, we encourage you to make a donation to the RUH foundation to support Parkinson's research.  Last year, just over $3400 was raised!!

I am really excited to share some of the stories I have heard from folks who participated last year, but the MOST exciting part is that many of them have kept it up! It has been a year of real learning for me, personally. I have had my own experiences with fitness activities - mostly ups but some downs - and I have learned so much on this journey. I have been inspired and challenged by many people. Hopefully, some of our stories will encourage, inspire and challenge you toward a lifestyle of wellness.


We are officially in count-down mode: T-Minus 23 days and counting. . .