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Health & Fitness

Health challenge - update!

Health challenge update

A couple weeks ago, I issued a health challenge to see if you could get out and exercise for 30 minutes 5 days of the week and now I want to check back in and see if anyone has continued making it a part of their lives. I'm going to be honest, when I first started running, it was tough. It's difficult to find the time and the energy to get out and run or bike or walk for 30 minutes every day. We have jobs, kids, school and lots of other stresses that take our time. But, a funny thing happened after that first week... I started to get excited about running! I started making sure I had time in my day to do it. That half hour that I had spent on the computer or watching television just wasn't as important to me anymore. It's funny how something I didn't really care to do became something that I can't live without! I'm still not the best runner and I max out at around 2-3 miles, but I really enjoy doing it, which makes it a lot easier to keep up.

My wife, Rachel, has started running seriously again. She has been running a lot longer than I have and she really enjoys it. She was a soccer player at Alhambra High and according to her, running is a huge part of practice, so she has a lot more experience with it than I do. But, she has been running into the same scheduling problem that a lot of us do. We have a 16 month old daughter and believe me, she takes up a lot of both of our schedules. And on top of that, she works full time. After a couple of frustrating weeks in which she was unable to find a lot of time to run, she read an article about switching from evening running to morning running. It was pretty interesting and she decided it was the right option for her. Rachel just started doing the early morning runs and it hasn't been easy for her. I know if she stays with it and we work it into our regular routine that it will get better.

I wanted to share our stories just to show that it is possible to incorporate exercise into your busy lives. You just have to be committed and work at it!

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Please let me know how your exercise is going and as always, don't hesitate to contact me with questions.

Dr. Mark

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