Porridge

If my friends of 20 years ago knew that I run 5k about three times a week they would pass out. I’m not saying I used to be completely unfit or overweight (in fact I was teased mercilessly for being too thin, unthinkable these days…) but my avoidance of any type of physical education at school was legendary. There was something about exercise forced upon me by unhealthy, smoking, PE staff that just made my rebellious nature show its full force. The sports that were encouraged weren’t my kind of sports either. I liked swimming but our school swimming pool was slipping down the hill and at the weekend pupils broke in and did unspeakable things in it. It seems that to organise a bus to the local pool was too much effort. Oh and nobody ever ever taught us about living healthy lives. A holistic approach to keeping mind and body in shape. Home Economics, as it was known then, taught me how to make a pineapple turnover cake and iron a handkerchief….

So here I am 20 years later and with two children. Looking after ourselves seems to get more and more important. Our de-cluttered, more focused lives would seem incomplete without attention paid to our very beings. It dawned on me recently that when my children are my age I will be nearly 80. And I want to still be around and be healthy and fit and able to play with any grandchildren we may have. What would the point in all this thoughtful living be if we didn’t apply it to ourselves as well?

But there’s the hard part. What amounts to a healthy life? How do we draw up the rules? What about our vices? We have plenty of those and compared to giving up buying stuff we don’t need (which we’ve found pretty easy), giving up eating stuff we don’t need is really really hard. And some mornings, getting out of bed to go running in the rain is pretty much impossible. In fact, just yesterday I missed my run. I ran today though, two days or more without a run and the routine starts to slip. I start to convince myself I will “go tomorrow”. We slip into bad habits so easily. We have started to give our children some of the foods we always swore we would never buy. Cocoa Pops, for example, have become a staple at our breakfast table. It’s easy.

A little effort, or sometimes actually a lot of effort, really brings such great rewards. I really enjoy my run and making the effort to get out there and do it has such a huge impact on the rest of my life. I feel better, all day, am more awake, refreshed. Making the effort to make porridge or fruit salad or eggs for breakfast makes everyone feel better, all day. Making time for these things is so essential. It seems too hard sometimes but when you think about what it means, literally a longer, healthier life, what could be more important?