Category: Health

Running! Who Me?

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Running? Me? Really? Come on! Yes, really! It’s only the beginning, but, at least, I have begun. Inspired by my sister to join the Couch to 5k challenge. I’d never heard of it before, but when I did, something clicked and I was out of the door within a couple of hours.

If you don’t know it, the idea is that you follow a 9-week training plan and go from being a couch potato to being able to run 5 kilometres. That’s the target, and a target is what I need to get me off my backside.

So far, I have just completed Week 1. That’s 3 walks/runs of 30 minutes each. Day 1 was painful, Day 2 was agony, Day 3 hurt but…Eureka! I recovered quickly and had a great feeling at the end.

So now I get a couple of days off and it’s on to Week 2, which doesn’t look too scary. I already know I can do it. And that seems to be the great thing about this idea. It hurts, but it’s a slow build up. I know it will get much harder, believe me the idea that I could run 5k is still very far fetched for me, but I have to focus on the now.

And right now, it feels great and I’m actually looking forward to my next run. Me? Who would have believed it?

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© Neil Hayes and neilsworldofenglish

The Now

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Committing, doing, achieving. Wanting isn’t enough. We all spend too much time dreaming, I certainly do. I want to change; attitudes, work, life. But how to do it? It just seems too much, too impossible.

Self-doubt. Too old, too set in my ways. Where to start? Never enough time. Excuses.

The solution, one step. The now. Not the destination, but the journey. Sounds simple, but the mind wanders. Stay focused, the present is all that matters.

Make a choice, commit to the now.

via Daily Prompt: Commit

© Neil Hayes and neilsworldofenglish

Beat the Competition

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It’s hard being a parent, isn’t it? There are so many ways in which you can affect how your child grows and matures. Everything from your behaviour, to which activities you choose for them. It all contributes to the final product, your child.

But how do you protect them from the rest of the world? Of course, you can’t. All you can do is give them the tools to judge for themselves, what is right and what is wrong. Luckily my kids seem to be able to make these judgements already, even at only 5 and 7 years old.

My children often come home with stories from school, stories from other children. Stories about how they spend time with their families, and what they do. Or quite often, don’t do. But, recently, some of the stories have left my mouth hanging open. Of course, these stories come from the badly behaved children at school, and you are left thinking, no wonder.

I won’t quote every story, but it is the most recent one that has really made me think. My 5-year-old daughter came back from kindergarten and told us that a boy in her class had tried smoking. Yes, smoking, at 5! He must have stolen one of his parents’ cigarettes, he’d probably watched them smoking and learned how to do it. No, his father had let him try one. His father had put a filthy cigarette into his child’s mouth! Honestly I’m going to run out of exclamation marks writing this.

In the past, this was the classic tactic to stop your child smoking. Make them feel sick and they will hate it. But that was the past, and normally with children of teenage years. In this case it seems like it was just a funny thing to do, watch the child try to smoke, how amusing. My blood is boiling now, just thinking about it.

Luckily, my daughter told us this story while shaking her head. She knows this is stupid behaviour, and my son too. But I don’t want to spend my life telling them that their friends’ parents are stupid. So come on people, please grow up. You need to do it first, so then your children can.

© Neil Hayes and neilsworldofenglish

Replacement

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Where do they get their energy from? Children seem to have an unending supply. Constantly on the move, thinking, doing and creating. As an adult, this energy supply seems to shrink. Many people attempt to replace this energy with something else. Replace it with coffee, energy drinks or whichever drugs they choose. These are the quick fixes that many of us go for. And, of course, these are the lazy choices. If we only ate healthily and exercised. Maybe we would still have the energy of the child and wouldn’t need these chemical replacements. I am as guilty as most, but now is the time for a change. 

via Daily Prompt: Replacement

© Neil Hayes and neilsworldofenglish