Someone asked me the other day, why now. Why did I decide I needed to start on this healthy path. It was real simple. I was at a conference at Deerhurst and during some time off I took a golf lesson. The pro suggested I start hitting a bucket of balls and he would film me with his videocamera. So I teed up the ball, tried to ignore his camera and away I went. He shot straight on and from the side. Great idea, I thought, this way I can see where to improve my swing.

Once we were done we moved into the classroom where he put the film into the VCR and turned the tv on. Right there in living colour was the best reason in the world to get healthy. I watched myself hit a few balls and then said with my outdoor voice, "Oh my God!". "You know, your swing isn't that bad," said the pro. Of course, I wasn't talking about my swing. I had just never seen myself from these angles before and I sure didn't like what I saw.

So that's how this all came about. I'm hoping next year when I attend the conference and have a golf lesson, the video shows a different side of me :)

Well I went for my first meeting with Dr. Nathalie and in fact didn't spend any time with her. She has a nurse working with her on her Creating Wellness program and Leslie is who took me through the testing. It was interesting the things they were measuring, like different areas of strength, my hips (44.5") and my waist (this was the one I was most shocked at, 40"). In addition, they scanned my back to find trouble areas in the bones and the muscles. No surprises there. I use a computer most of the day, I'm right handed and that's the hand I use for my mouse, I carry my purse on my left shoulder, I play the banjo, I use a rotary cutter for quilting and live a very sedentary lifestyle. Why wouldn't I have problem areas in my back.

Then I was asked to complete a lifestyle questionnaire, that was a comprehensive look at my eating habits, physical activity and psychological outlook. I wonder if anyone is 100% honest with their answers. I probably could have gone back and made changes if I thought that no one else would read the answers, but I'm just not comfortable having someone know that much about what I'm thinking and feeling. I'm going to start a journal where I can feel safe with what I'm writing.

After all of the testing was completed, I got the results, but don't really understand them, so I'm about to watch a DVD that will explain the program to me and then on Thursday I'm back to see Dr. Nathalie and Leslie to get started on the program.

That's it for now.

I turned 50 a couple of years ago and I always had it in my head that when that happened I would be healthy and fit. Of course I did that when I was turning 30 and then 40 and then...well you get the idea. It didn't happen, in fact, I think I'm probably a little heavier, have a little less energy and hurt a little bit more when I walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes (not that that happens much either).


I'll be 52 next month and I've been thinking that I should probably get some help to becoming healthier. But I haven't really done anything about it, except sign up for some websites that are bombarding me with so many newsletters I can't get one read before the next one's in my mailbox. Either they really want you to succeed or the webmaster is trying to justify their salary.


So I was at a conference last weekend and decided to take a golf lesson. The pro was great and suggested the best way to analyze my swing and guide the lesson was to....you guessed it.....video my swing. So I hit a half a bucket of balls and we go to the classroom to look at the video. After the third swing, I looked at the screen and said, in my outdoor voice, Oh My Gawd! Now Dave the pro looked at me and said, "well you know, your swing isn't really that bad." But of course I wasn't looking at my swing, I was looking at what was swinging, my arms, my belly, my legs, my butt. All I could think was it's a good thing Dave wasn't standing nearby, he could have gotten hurt. That was it. The video did it. I had an epiphany and decided at that moment, I did not want to see myself looking like that in another picture.


Now I had to choose what I was going to do. I've been on every diet ever invented and then some. I've been on the eat nothing but grapefruit or protein, or brown rice diet. I've had sheep urine injections, supplements and drops. I wasn't interested in anything that was only related to weight loss and I didn't want to belong to a group effort.

After researching different organizations I've hooked up with Dr. Nathalie Beauchamp, a Chiropractor in town who is also part of an organization called a Creating Wellness Centre. It is a program that through a comprehensive evaluation process determines an ideal weight and fitness level for me and then provides the tools to achieve the goals I set in consultation with Dr. Nathalie.


So wish me luck. I plan to blog my way through the process complete with pictures and maybe even video.