“You only have this one life, without your health you have nothing!”

Our municipal, provincial, and national parks are closed, recreation centre doors are shut, we’re asked to stay home for much of the day, avoid all places of social gathering, and follow all our Public Health Officers orders and words of advice. These are challenging times and that doesn’t mean we don’t have control over our own lives. Regular exercise is so important in times like this and although it’s easy to find excuses to not do it, that’s a choice we have. B

Here’s some tips on exercise and monitoring your progress that hopefully helps you to leading a healthier and more rewarding life at this time in our history on the planet.

Where to Begin

Self Assessment

1. Go to your local pharmacy and take your blood pressure. Take your resting pulse rate. Do 12 minutes of exercise to get your exercise heart rate for your age group (on the internet) and take your pulse rate upon stopping. Time how long it takes to get back down to your resting pulse rate. Last but not least, call your family physician and book an on-line consultation reporting out on your scores.

2. Body Fat Index: You can purchase skinfold calipers with instructions for this purpose from on line retailers. * Personally, I use the Slim Guide Skinfold Caliper.

3. Find a fitness program on the internet/YouTube that has the following segments: warm-up, activity (on off days get outdoors walk/run/ride/hill walk/stair climb but keep group size to a maximum of three and maintain a minimum two meter distance from each other), cool down, and stretching in that order.

4. Look at it this way! This is one of the things I need to do in my job so set aside a certain time of the day and the days of the week when you’ll follow this exercise routine. You wouldn’t miss it if you were at work so why would you start now. Demonstrate to your boss (that’s YOU) that you have what it takes to get it done.

Craft a Core Purpose/Essence or Mission Statement for yourself (a good Core Purpose consists of three elements). 1. WHY are you doing this? 2. WHOM do you serve? 3. WHAT are the outcomes of whom you serve? WHY To be a leadership role model in this unprecedented time in our history … WHOM for my family, friends, and work colleagues… WHAT influencing people’s mindsets to see opportunities in their lives.

5. Craft a Vision Statement (a Vision is simply where you want to go) for yourself. For example, I will be much healthier than I am now when the Covid-19 pandemic is beaten. I will have more energy, a more positive outlook on my life, and be able to manage negative stress more effectively. I will set an example for others who previously didn’t believe that I could do this. I will have a couple of family and/or friends hold me accountable for my personal health objectives. I will not waiver from my solemn pledge to be healthier at the end of this pandemic.

6. Craft your Goals (broad statements of where you want to be based on your Vision Statement)

a. For example, To be much fitter and healthier than I am today.

7. Craft your Objectives (specific statements aligned with your Goals that are comprised of a Results-based metric (What) by When (a specific date). Note: A common error when crafting Objectives ie. the corporate world does this frequently in my experience leading corporate strategic planning, is to write an Activity-based metric.

Example of an Activity-based Objective:

To increase the time that I go for walks in my neighbourhood.

Examples of Results-based Objectives:

a. To have a Resting Pulse Rate of xx (based on my doctor’s recommendation) by September 1, 2020.

b. To have a Blood Pressure Score of xx (based on my doctor’s recommendation) by…

c. To have a BMI Score of xx (based on my doctor’s recommendation) by…

d. To have a Body Fat Index of xx (based on my doctor’s recommendation) by…

e. To consult and report my progress with my Health and Fitness Buddies (accountability) every Friday of every week beginning April 1, 2020 to September 1, 2020.

One Last Note:

Diet, what you eat is every bit as important as your exercise routine so consult your physician and/or a nutritionist for a healthy meal plan or on line source/guide (Health Canada), and please hydrate.

Time “A non-renewable resource, we can’t get it back.” Dr. Kamran Khan

Staying Healthy

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