Reflecting and recharging

Tomorrow night, we shall again sing "Auld Lang Syne" and bid a big ol' sayonara to 2010! I think we ought to sing a different tune: "You say you wanna revolution, well, you know...."

Last year, I wrote that I had decided I would not do resolutions, but do revolutions instead: "Revolution: a turning around. What are you doing to turn your health ... your lifestyle ... your family's health ... around? How are you moving from the negative into the positive? Join the revolution." In 2010, we had revolutions along with revelations. And I'm glad that I was part of a move toward being even healthier.

• I learned to be proactive and take charge for health -- both mine and for others. The words that kept coming up for me, over and over, were "educate and advocate" ..... in ways I never imagined, I find that I am doing exactly that.
• I took great joy in learning more about preparing food, and finding just how much better my own food could be. And sometimes, the simpler the better.
• I learned about strength training and worked on it all through the late spring into now. The one regret is that I didn't do enough steady-state cardio on the off-days. I fully intend to remedy that in the coming year.

As I said, the phrase "educate and advocate" were my buzzwords, and it happened in ways I never expected. I expect to educate people about healthy choices, both in my work in HR and in my work for Weight Watchers. But I never expected it to hit home as it did this summer with my mother's health. And the message was, "Never settle for less than the right answer." Keep digging. Had I stopped, we might never have known that my mother had a silent heart attack. We may have pushed her to do more than she was physically capable, and I'd be sitting here typing out a eulogy instead of a story of moving toward wholeness.

I've also become involved with a support group for those of us who live with lymphedema. We are working to educate and advocate.... we all seem to share the story of healthcare providers, and most especially insurance companies, who have no clue about lymphedema and do not understand all that the condition entails. And sadly, some neither know the facts, nor want to know more.

So the journey continues..... viva la revolución!