Spring, more than the new year, seems to be a natural time for people to make healthy changes in their life. I feel it myself, as the snow starts to melt and the blossoms come out, a lot of my obstacles in life suddenly seem a little smaller. The biggest challenge is channeling that energy in a way that can benefit my health through out the year. I recommend taking advantage of those things that spring has to offer that make healthy changes easier, so you can establish a good routine that will last through the seasons. Here are 3 things that can help you take advantage of the warm weather.

1. Make one change at a time. I find often patients want to do everything at once, and while the energy that motivates such a change is a good thing, making a dozen changes at once makes it a lot harder to sustain any of those changes. Take one thing at a time and focus all that energy on that one change until it becomes habit, then move onto the next change. It's harder to do because it doesn't feel like you're committing to as much, but that way one habit failing won't cause every healthy change to go with it.

2. Spring is the season for activity. Like the stream thawing out in the winter, you may feel that pull to start moving and get out there. This is a better time than any to do it, once it gets too warm it's going to be a lot more work to convince yourself to go for a hike or bike. Go with the energy and explore new places.

3. Try some new fresh produce. This is the time to get fresh produce in Canada and learn how much you enjoy different foods. You don't have to eat kale to be healthy, try some of the other leafy greens like Swiss chard, collard greens or rapini. Go to the market and see what's in season. Buy something new and google some recipes. Treat it as an experiment, not another boring resolution to eat more vegetables. Every new food is an adventure!

I've written about the Cambridge Urban Adventure Race organized by Active Cambridge and Stars Orienteering before, but since it's such a great event, I thought I'd write about it again! My partner Nelson and I participated for the 3rd time this year. This year, it was occurring in Preston, and given that I grew up here and have my office in this area, I felt pretty good about our ability to navigate it.

The Urban Adventure Race is a great way to dip your toe into orienteering. Since it occurs in town, there isn't much chance of getting hopelessly lost, but it also includes a few of the local parks to keep it interesting and gave us a chance to practice our map reading. It also allows you to work with a partner or as a family, which makes the idea of mapping your way through the course a lot less intimidating. You also get to decide how many of the checkpoints you want to hit, which lets teams tailor their race to their current fitness level. Out on the course we saw all kinds of people, some that were hiking the course, some running, and all ages. People were all friendly and there was a friendly energy to the race, with teams often working together to find specific checkpoints hidden away in the forest.

What I love about this style of race is that the kilometers pass by without me even realizing it. When I'm running a distance race, I'm acutely aware of how much I've run and how much remains, but in this race, I only had an estimate of how much we had to travel total, so it didn't make much sense to check what we'd already done. My watch does beep each kilometer though, and it always came much sooner than I expected it, since my mind was occupied by which way we wanted to turn and whether we were about to run past the next checkpoint.

In the end, we got every checkpoint, which was more of feat than I had expected, having really underestimated the total distance we would travel (we ran over 16km in the end but we did make a few choices that resulted in more distance in exchange for easier terrain). We ended up being the 3rd place adult team, which my lungs told me we'd earned. I definitely plan on doing the race again, I love getting away from my normal running workouts, getting to see new and familiar parts of town and finishing the race with a sense that we really worked hard.

If you're feeling guilty after a summer of indulgences, you are not alone. Being on vacation from work and school often leads to taking a vacation from healthy habits as well. Most people who try to pursue a healthy lifestyle have these stumbling points, but how we handle our perceived "failures" is as important as our moments of success. The trick to long-term health is not consistently following the laundry list of what we should and shouldn't be doing, it's about being able to get back on track quickly when we do something that might not appear in a blog post about "10 healthy things you should start doing today!"

In that spirit, here are a few tips for using the fall energy to get yourself back where you want to be.

1. Set a specific date for change. "Soon" is a time that rarely comes when it comes to things we might not want to do, but "next Tuesday morning" is a definite time. This also will give you a chance to look at the obstacles to your goals and start fixing them in advance (eg. clean the fridge, meal plan, shop).

2. Make a specific list of goals. "Be more healthy" is a great goal, but makes it very hard for you to decide on a day to day basis whether you've achieved your aim. Decide what your priorities are for your health and write out the specific way that you are going to address those priorities. Instead of "get in shape", write, "I will go to the gym 3 days a week and work out for 30 minutes", or get even more specific and find a personal trainer or good online plan that will give you an exact idea about what you're going to do.

3. Keep the list short. Try 3 specific goals to start, then as those become habit you can start delving into your next goals. Too many goals at once makes it easier to fail and give up as you become discouraged.

4. Focus on how good you feel with the changes you've made, not the moments when you "failed". If you're doing well 95% of the time, you deserve to feel good about what you're doing for yourself, not ruminating on that one time you gave in. If you start thinking of yourself as a failure, it will make it more difficult to believe that your can succeed.

If you're looking to make changes this fall and need some extra guidance, considering seeing a naturopathic doctor. I can help you identify your priorities to improve your specific health concerns and work to navigate your obstacles to achieving those goals.

If I could encourage people to change one thing in their life, it would be to add in some kind of activity. That probably goes without saying for anyone who has even skimmed my previous blog posts, and it likely won’t be changing with future posts, because, as I’ve been reminded recently, exercise has huge effects that go way beyond its ability to burn calories.

I know this, because I had to slow down my exercise significantly recently due to an injury. The entire time, I was trying to think of what I could do to keep myself exercising regularly, but each time I thought I had a good solution, I’d realize that it was aggravating my injury. Eventually, I had to decide to take a few days off and allow myself to heal. The first couple days were okay, apart from the fact that I didn’t like feeling limited, but by the 4th and 5th day, I started to notice that life’s little stresses were starting to feel bigger and bigger. It had been a few years since I had that feeling, because I learned a long time ago that it’s not worth getting out of my routine for too long.

Sometimes it’s nice to have a little reminder that exercise is the cheapest and easiest way to help control life stress (even if it may not feel that easy in the moment). Since I realized the effect that lack of activity was having on my mental outlook, I’ve found new ways to get my heart rate up until I can go back to running regularly. For most of us, exercise is something that easily accessible, whether it’s going for a walk or riding a bike. I know it’s hard to make it out those first few times, but believe me, once you make it a part of your life, you’ll miss it a lot when it’s gone.

"You must really enjoy running" is a comment I hear often. It's one that I should just agree to and move on, but I'm a big fan of accuracy, so I usually respond with, "Well, I enjoy being done running". It's not that I never enjoy running while I'm doing it, but it's rare that I get the perfect day where I'm well rested, nothing hurts, I'm well-fed,  have just enough water to get me through my chosen distance and the weather is just right for an enjoyable run. When all those variables somehow manage to come together, I could sing through a run, but it only really happens 1-2x a year. The rest of the time, I'm training so when the planets align, I have the fitness I need to really feel the wind in my hair.

The reason I bring this up is that there are more reasons to enjoy an exercise than the parts you like while you're doing that exercise. If you can find a sport that makes you happy while you're in the midst of playing it, that's fantastic, but there are a lot of motivations that have nothing to do with how you feel in the moment that you're exercising. The motivations I speak of are not "knowing you should be doing it" or "burning calories", it's about the pay-offs that come in day to day life from being more fit.

Since I started running, it's the little things that amaze me. Recently I witnessed someone fall on the street and volunteered to run to a nearby police car for help. Later, thinking about it, I realized how before I ran that would have taken a lot out of me and communication might not have been the easiest thing, but now short jogs are as easy as breathing. It also makes it easier to survive family events, since our nieces and nephew seem fond of any game that involves running and forcing me to do it on repeat (their preference would be with them on my back and me trying to convince them not to accidentally strangle me with their death grip).

Sometimes, it's the little things that make it worth doing something, so if you're taking up some new activity this summer, rather than focusing on whether the scale is moving, try thinking about the little things in your day to day life that are suddenly a bit easier, and how much easier they could become if you keep this up past the summer.

As I encounter fun ideas for things to do that don't revolve around food, I plan to keep posting them here. I wrote about Social Art a few weeks ago and today I want to write about another amazing local business, Adventure Rooms.

When I was first told about Adventure Rooms, it was described as real-life Myst and, if you're familiar with the game Myst, that description is pretty accurate. You're thrown into a room with only the knowledge that your goal is to try to make it out within 60 minutes. I can't give any more details about the experience, because it would take away from the fun (and they have everyone sign a waiver promising not to reveal information about it, but I wouldn't want to ruin the experience for others regardless).

The first time I went was with my partner Nelson's brothers and their wives. It was a great activity for a group, because we had to work together to progress through it. As we worked through it, all of our different strengths had a chance to come out and we all contributed to our victory.

It was so much fun that Nelson and I decided to head back as a couple to try to find our way out of another one of their rooms. The hour felt very different with just two people working through the puzzles, but it was great for us to see how well we communicated as a couple. While we didn't quite make it out that time, I considered it a success that we never got frustrated with each other and had some really good teamwork. It gave us a chance to explore how we can work together to get through challenges in a fun way, which is good information to have in a relationship.

I can't wait until my next trip to Adventure Rooms Kitchener to complete their 3rd room. Then I'll have to start working on convincing Nelson to check out their Niagara Falls location sometime.

One frustrating thing that comes up with many of my patients who are trying to change what they eat so that they can feel better is the social aspect of food. For many people, reducing sugar is simple on paper, but not so simple when every celebration and social event comes with a sweet treat that it would be ever so rude to skip out on. Getting together with friends is usually over some sort of food, and even the healthiest options in most restaurants are usually not ideal for regular consumption.

When I have patients reducing certain foods, my intention is not to also cut off their social network, but an unfortunate side-effect is often increased social anxiety around what they will eat and what others will say. While I can't eliminate the prominence of food in our social lives, I can help to increase knowledge of some of the fun things to do in our community that don't revolve around eating.

For Christmas, my partner's brother and sister-in-law gave us all gift certificates to go to Social Art in Kitchener, which we attended in early April. At Social Art, each night there is a different painting that the instructor will walk everyone through step by step so that after a few hours work, everyone feels like they have completed a masterpiece. For those who are not artistically inclined, it can sound a little intimidating, but our instructor, Rachael, was amazing and always had supportive words for everyone. She gave us great, detailed instructions to help us along the way, but also gave a lot of room for creativity. There was lots of time for talking and joking as we worked away at our paintings, which made for a fantastic family outing. I'd recommend Social Art to anyone, even if you don't feel like there is an artistic bone in your body, because Rachael is the ideal teacher to help you find your inner Picasso.



My last post was about my plans to start a winter reset on January 21st by taking 4 foods that I have a sensitivity to out of my diet (I'm avoiding mentioning exactly which foods, because they're specific to me and I don't want anyone reading to get the idea that these foods are bad for everyone). I almost wrote an update last week, but I'm glad I waited because at the point I was going to update I was still in the slumps of the early days of change. If it was easy to avoid those foods in my diet, I wouldn't need to make a pledge to stop eating them. I find that early in a change, I can sometimes feel worse than I did before I took out the things I know cause me problems. This was one of those times, so if I'd written last week this would sound like an awful idea. My digestion was off, I was exhausted and I did not have a positive mindset, but I knew that it would take longer than a week to start feeling better so I pushed myself through it.

A big part of being able to make the change was allowing myself any treats that avoided those foods. Because they happen to be in a lot of foods, especially convenience foods, this didn't make for a ton of mindless snacking, but allowed me to focus my willpower on the task at hand. The other thing that I found helped me get through the first week and a half was increasing my veggies. The fiber helps me to feel more satiated, so I don't have the addition of hunger challenging me to give in and eat those things I don't want to. Increasing the number of vegetables I'm eating and snacking on also helps to focus on food as a way to nourish my body and my health, reminding me that foods that make me feel worse are not achieving that goal.

Pushing through the hard days is starting to pay off. I'm still not at a point where I don't have to push thoughts of just giving in and eating certain foods out of my mind, but I'm easing into the change. The brain fog is starting to lift and my energy seems up (although the sunny days and warm weather could be part of it). I had the best run I've had in months this weekend, and barely felt muscle fatigue the next day, despite it being the longest and best paced run I've had in a while. I don't feel perfect yet, but I feel like I'm on the right track.

I've basically given up on New Year's Resolutions, at least those that involve me changing my diet or lifestyle. I feel like the deck is stacked against those resolutions succeeding, because the motivation to succeed is all external and as other people start failing in their own resolutions that motivation fizzles out quickly. I also have a birthday a few weeks into January, which I know is a huge obstacle for me to succeed at any dietary changes.

But, after that birthday passes, I like to try to focus on changes that are going to make me feel better on a day to day basis. Last year, at this time, I took on a hypoallergenic diet to identify which foods I have a sensitivity to. I set the date in early November, knowing that just after my birthday would be the best time to make any major changes, because there were not a lot of social events that would challenge me through January and February. I find that setting a specific date in my mind is the best way to ensure that I will be successful in major changes. Over the next 2 months I was able to identify 4 foods that are an issue for me.

A positive aspect of food sensitivities is that a small amount of the food sometimes will not cause a reaction. This aspect also makes it challenging to avoid them long term, because it's easy to slowly turn a small amount of the food once in a while to a major part of my diet. This is what has happened in the last 10 months, especially in the last month with the holidays. So, like last year, I've set the date of January 21st in my head to completely reset my eating habits by eliminating those 4 identified foods for at least 6 weeks, and after that I plan to keep them to the "sometimes" food category. I have good motivation: when I'm eating a lot of foods that cause me problems, I will eventually start suffering from more frequent migraines, I experience brain fog and my mood becomes harder to control. I believe that huge part of maintaining long term health is not about being perfect all the time, but about recognizing the signs that you need to focus on re-balancing your diet and lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, I often wish I could just be perfect with what I'm eating all the time, but other things tend to get in the way (eg. social events where I don't want to cause a fuss over what I am not eating, or the fact that sometimes I just love nachos), so a good compromise is making sure I'm aware of the subtle signs that I need to be a little bit closer to perfect in what I'm eating.

I use the word "reset" because this isn't about cleansing or detoxing, which are easier words to grab for when describing large dietary changes, it's about remembering how good I feel when I'm avoiding some of my food triggers. This will help encourage me to make better choices in the coming year to keep me feeling that good.

If you think that you may have unidentified food sensitivities, it's always worth seeing a naturopath to discuss how to go about assessing them. I don't expect that patients will forego their favorite foods forever because of a sensitivity, but knowing that a specific food will affect how you feel makes it much easier to to decide whether it's worth it to eat that food.

I'll report in periodically about the challenges and successes as I go through this year's reset, especially if I think that information could help others who are trying to make positive changes for their own health.

A few months ago I decided that I would try to reintroduce a healthy habit to my life each week to help myself get through the early months of winter. With the new year here, I'm finished with the weekly challenges. Some worked out much better than others, but with each one I learned something. For example, last weeks challenge (daily guided visualizations) was a massive flop because without a sense of routine over the holidays, I just didn't find time to fit in a new habit. This reminded me that sometimes the timing of a healthy change is integral to it succeeding. When patients are contemplating more drastic changes to their life and diet, I always recommend that they try to set a date when they know there will be minimal obstacles to their success. I learned that sometimes even smaller changes need careful timing.

I was reminded of all the challenges to making changes. The biggest for myself is forgetfulness. It's all well and good to say that I'll do something daily, but many days I don't remember that I was supposed to do it until I turn off the light to go to sleep. I found that tricks like the rubber band in the shower to remind me to end on cold were helpful. For some of the things that I didn't have such an easy trick for, I realized that the main thing I needed was to be easy on myself for forgetting and promise that I would try harder the next day. Building new habits is as hard as breaking old ones, so a little forgiveness goes a long way in figuring out how to make long term changes.

I also learned as it went along that some habits would stick easier than others, but if a week of focusing on something led to me doing it a few more times each week, that still left me farther ahead than not trying at all.

What's next? I'd like to start working on longer term changes. I found I had a lot of ideas for healthy habits that needed more than a week to see real benefit. I'm planning to take a few months to really focus on my eating patterns in late January, mainly to work on reducing some of the foods I know I'm sensitive to, so look for a blog post about that around the week of the 21st.