Practicing What You Preach

     I don't know about you but for me, my bed always seems to be exceptionally comfortable between the hours of 6 and 11 A.M. I am not quite sure what it is, but it is like a force is pulling me into the sheets and despite my best efforts, I am always sucked into the snooze cycle before I quickly need to drag my butt out of bed. I unfortunately fall victim to this more often than I would like to admit, but I am amazed to say that these first two weeks back at school, I've been pretty successful at getting up early. And today, as I grudgingly silenced my 7:30 alarm, I thought to myself, "Practice what you preach."

     I am on this journey to become someone that spends their entire life telling other people how to take care of their bodies and what they need to do in order to keep them healthy. So shouldn't I also be held accountable for this as well? How many times have we heard our doctors talk about regular exercise and about eating healthy? We respectfully listen, but often times it is in one ear and out the other because who has time for that? I agree completely. Who has time for it? With last semester being ridiculously busy, I definitely fell into not having time for the gym, even though I really enjoy working out ( I know it sounds crazy, but stay with me here). But this semester, I told myself that I needed to practice what I preach, and most importantly what I will be preaching. How can I expect my future patients to carve time out of their day to fit in exercise if I can't fit it into mine? So, with that mentality, I've been lacing up my Nikes and telling myself, "Yea, you're obviously doing this because you feel great once you've run that mile, but you are also doing this because one day when you are asking your patients to do this, you will know it is possible." I do understand that in some cases this is not always possible, but for me it was a matter of poor planning. 

     I have plenty of medical school friends that made it a part of their routine and I'm pretty sure that we all have the same amount of time in our days. These past two weeks, I've made going to the gym a priority and I'm proud to say that I've kept up with it. How did I do this? I built it into my schedule. This is something that I used to do in undergrad. I would pick a class or a time slot and I would designate it as my "gym time." I would treat this like any of my other priorities and I'd stick with it even if it was tempting to take that time to go back to my apartment and nap. It was difficult at times, but as I've read it somewhere, you never regret a work out. How my body feels when I've been consistently working out is incomparable to any nap. And actually, I need less naps when I've been following a regular workout schedule. I feel more energetic through out the day and it's even easier for me to fall asleep. But, something to keep in mind is that you don't have to be perfect about it. Of course, I'd love to be able to fit into my schedule every single day, but if I can only make it to the gym three days out of the week (heck, even if I can only make it one day), that's still better than not going at all. Health is not an all or nothing situation and nothing works out perfectly every time. So, my goal is to keep that in mind as I try to plan my time and make the most of it, even as my days get impossibly busy.

     I know everyone has different reasons why they wish to live a healthy lifestyle, but I hope I have inspired some of you to think about why you'd like to implement healthy choices and how you can get fit it into your day. 

     I hope you guys are having a wonderful week and I will talk to you soon!

- Genesis<3

The Fitbit Life

     This post is something that I've been itching to write about since I first purchased my Fitbit back in May, but it didn't make sense to write a review until I had actually used it. Now that a couple months have passed, I feel like I've used it enough to give an honest review.

Overview

     The craze in the use of activity trackers has picked up in the past couple years as it seems everyone is on the fitness train. Although I had been interested in getting one for a while, I couldn't justify spending the money for one.  On a random trip to Target, I came upon this Fitbit Charge that was marked down to $69.99 (they are originally priced at $99) and I thought it was an incredible deal. My sister told me that she would pitch in for half of it as my present for starting medical school and with that, I honestly couldn't pass on purchasing it.  So, that brings us to this little blue guy that has been permanently adorning my wrist for the past couple months.

Things I Like 

     Although I don't think you need fancy accessories to live a healthy lifestyle, I do feel that having a Fitbit helps motivate you to make more of a conscious effort. The main thing that a Fitbit does is count your steps and how much activity you are getting in during your day. The original step goal on my tracker was 10,000 steps per day, so I decided to stick with that. In the grand scheme of things, that equates to your average daily activity plus about 30 minutes of actual exercise. To me, that seems pretty good to just ensure that you are getting some activity in. The tracker syncs up to a Fitbit app and that allows you to view your steps and your activity for the day. Additionally, the app allows you to input your water intake, your meals, and check your sleep, as the Fitbit tracks your sleep. I am pretty good about drinking my water, so that's not a feature I use too often and I am not that conscious about tracking every meal. I do like to check out my sleep pattern, though and of course, my steps and activity level. I like that I have a way to hold myself accountable for being healthy as I can go into my app and see the days that I didn't reach my goals. 

This is what the home page for the app looks like.

After a full-day including a workout.

     I haven't used this feature much, but I believe Fitbit connects to other health apps such as My Fitness Pal or Runkeeper so that you can have a better overall connection on your health. I am a huge fan of being able to sync everything up, so that's pretty neat.

What I don't Like

     Unfortunately, the Fitbit model I have doesn't track exercise super well, so although it can register that I did take steps and that I was active for a certain period of time, it doesn't register that I went for a run/walk. I believe the newer versions do happen to measure exercise, though. Also, an issue that I seem to have is that you can't input food/water data for a previous day. Sometimes, I don't have the time to be putting everything in at the moment of doing it, so it would be a nice feature to have.

General Consensus

     Having an activity tracker the past couple months has been pretty great. I have been able to assess what I've been doing with my health and motivate myself to get my 10,000 steps in for the day. I have also been able to see just how much activity I get in without actually "exercising". When I was in the city for SPP, I was easily getting my steps in just by walking around the neighborhood going to grab a coffee. Also, the first weekend of SPP, Em and I went downtown and walked around and I got about 20,000 steps in for that day. It was seriously crazy because it felt like a pretty casual walk around the city. Having a Fitbit isn't essential to your fitness routine, but it is definitely a great addition. I love having one and I'm currently trying to see how I can get the most out of mine.

     I hope my review helped you if you were on the fence about getting one. Have a great rest of your week! I'll talk to you soon! 

~Genesis<3

How Running Can Help You As a Pre-med

     This past week, I've been getting back into the groove of my running routine, and as I've been feeling the effects of my time off from it, I was inspired to write this post.

     About two years ago, I was inspired to take up running. I had never run a day in my life but I had always heard how great of a workout it was and I had always wanted to be able to do one of the fun 5ks that you see advertised everywhere. So, with determination and inspiration, I laced up my Nikes and hopped on the treadmill. Of course, to no surprise, running was difficult. Within the first couple minutes of running, I knew that it would take quite a bit of time before I was anywhere near ready to run a 5k, but I knew that it was something that I wanted to accomplish, so I told myself that this was something I was going to stick with. I fit a run in my schedule three days a week ( in-between classes) and I wouldn't allow myself to miss. I'll be completely honest, it was rough. There were days that I wished I could just go back to my apartment and take a nap, but that wouldn't get me any closer to running a 5k, so instead I would haul my butt over to the gym. Over the course of the semester, I got better at running, and by the time spring came around, I was out running on the path around campus. Then finally, over the summer, I was consistently running 3.1 miles ( a 5k) almost every time I went out. I was so proud of how far I'd come, but also surprised about the things it contributed to my life.

Things You Can Gain From Running

Mental Strength

- As much as running is a physical sport, it is also a mental sport. There are many times when your mind wants to give up before your body does, and you have to push yourself to keep going. This comes in handy as a pre-med as studying can get overwhelming and pushing yourself to keep going can be difficult at times. Running helps you train your mind to push through the points of giving up and helps you focus on achieving your goal. Of course, this is a great parallel for any part of your pre-med/med journey, as we all now how difficult it can be at times, but having the mental endurance to push through can greatly benefit you.

Perseverance

- When you are a runner, you will have your good days and your bad days. Sometimes, you kill it and have the best run, and then other times you can barely run a block from your start point. The most important part is remembering to not let the bad days stop you from your goals. The same mentality applies to being pre-med. If I had let any of struggles in class dictate my pre-med career, I wouldn't be starting medical school in the fall.

Patience

- Getting to the point where I was that summer took quite a bit of time to train up to, and more so because I didn't want to injure myself in the process. It might be a while before you reach your goal. You just have to take your training a day at a time and keep the big picture in mind. For anyone wanting to go to med school, this is absolutely true. I remember when I was in high school, the idea of spending an additional seven ( or more) years becoming a doctor was very unappealing, but now I am in awe that in just four years, I will have an M.D. at the end of my name. Great things take time to achieve and becoming a runner definitely reminds you of that.

Stress Relief

- I know this one is obvious, but for me running was a great way to relieve stress, especially while studying for the MCAT. I remember taking my break and going for a run. It allowed me to clear my mind and focus on something other than how I needed to do well on my test. I could then go back to studying recharged and ready to kick butt.


     Of course, there are more obvious things that you'll gain from running ( hello toned body!), but I thought these were applicable to being pre-med and worth a share. I also just wanted to have some fun with it, so I hope you found it interesting. I hope you had a great weekend!

~Genesis<3