The Perfect Day

Surgery update: We're home from the hospital today, and everything went as well as we could have hoped for. My wife had some postoperative complications due to anesthesia, but otherwise she is coming along pretty well. Her pain control is good and she got a good night's sleep. Her activity will be limited for at least two weeks before she sees the doctor for a follow-up visit.

Thanks again to everyone who inquired and sent good wishes - hopefully the worst part is behind us now.

As for today's post, I'm taking the easy way out and reprinting the Monterey Herald article Mike and I wrote for yesterday's paper. It's about trying to have the perfect day.

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The Running Life 11/09/06 “The Perfect Day”

Runners hear a lot of advice. Sometimes, too much advice.

Don’t get us wrong – we’re all for healthy living and eating. But you can drive yourself crazy trying to do everything that experts recommend.

We’ve gathered a large sampling of advice and put together a blueprint for a Perfectly Healthy Day. How many of these things can you claim in your daily routine?

If your answer is a low number, don’t worry – so is ours. But that doesn’t stop us from trying.

1. Wake up early, at the same time every day – even on weekends.
2. Enjoy a few minutes of conversation with your loving spouse.
3. Get out of bed and drink your first of 8 glasses of water for the day.
4. Brush and floss your teeth – the first of three times today.
5. Eat a pre-exercise snack of a half bagel or an energy bar.
6. Do warm-up exercises while watching the news to stay intellectually current.
7. Meet the running group before dawn for your daily run of 30 to 60 minutes - longer on weekends.
8. Stay socially connected with the runners by discussing family, politics, philosophy, and sharing some laughs during the run.
9. Afterwards, do your post-run stretching and yoga. Drink more water.
10. Eat a healthy breakfast together with the family. Be sure to include whole grains, antioxidants, flaxseed oil, and lots of fiber.
11. Vitamin time: toss down a multi-vitamin plus vitamins C and E, with a selenium or coenzyme Q10 chaser. Are you female? Don’t forget the iron, calcium and Vitamin D. Male? Take lycopene for prostate health. Over 40? Glucosomine chondroitin, ginkgo biloba, and 2 baby aspirin. Under 10? Flintstones.
12. Drink a cup of black coffee or green tea for extra antioxidants.
13. Off to work for a day of rewarding, meaningful employment that you love. Carpool to work, ride your bike, or drive in your hybrid car.
14. Listen to National Public Radio in the car – but occasionally scroll across the rap or rock stations to stay aware of what your kids are listening to.
15. Park far away from your office so you can burn extra calories walking to the door. If it’s a multi-story office building, never use the elevator.
16. Do some early-morning meditation at your desk, and visualize a successful day.
17. Maintain healthy relationships with all your co-workers to decrease stress. Treat every problem as a new opportunity.
18. Have a mid-morning snack of nonfat yogurt and a few walnuts or almonds.
19. Drink another helping of water, black coffee or green tea. Then stop drinking caffeine after noon.
20. Call or e-mail your spouse (but not on company time – be sure to clock-out first) and family during the day to see how they are doing. While you’re at it, call your parents and touch base with your siblings. Always tell people how much you love them.
21. Lunch time! Enjoy your fruit cup or garden salad. Drink water instead of soda. Go for a short walk outside after eating.
22. Take a 20-minute power nap in the early afternoon, then get back to work! Your co-workers are looking for you.
23. Get up from your desk and do some stretches every hour.
24. Afternoon snack: two pieces of dark chocolate (at least 70% cocao content), along with an apple or banana.
25. Leave 10 minutes before the end of the work day to straighten your desk and compile a “to do” list for the next day. This assures that tomorrow will be low-stress and productive.
26. Take your hybrid car, bicycle, or carpool home.
27. At least once per week, get a massage after work to release muscle tension.
28. After work, have a nice conversation with your spouse, spend some quality time with each of your kids, or do some volunteer work at your church or synagogue.
29. Before dinner, have one glass of red wine with high resveritrol content. (You’ll find the highest content in Dr. Constantine Franks Pinot Noir from New York State – that’s our vinicultural tip of the week).
30. Eat dinner together as a family every night, no later than 6:30 PM.
31. For dinner, have a main course of salmon (wild, not farmed) at least twice per week to get your Omega 3’s and 6’s. Have bright, colorful vegetables along with it. On the other nights have small portions of pasta with very light sauce, plus lean meat or chicken.
32. Try to skip dessert. But if you can’t resist, then have some lowfat pudding or try a dessert recipe from Cooking Light magazine.
33. Once you get up from the table – that’s it. No more eating for the night.
34. Spend individual time with each of your children separately before bedtime. Participate in their bedtime routines.
35. Time to catch up on TV – good thing you have TiVo. Watch a one-hour show in 44 minutes. Do some sit ups or stretching while you watch. Remember to limit your TV to one hour a night, then go read a self-help or motivational book. Or work on a Sudoku or crossword puzzle to stay mentally sharp.
36. Talk to your spouse for at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
37. Go to bed early so you can get at least 7 hours of sleep. End the day with some hugs, cuddling, and maybe (if you’re lucky) some intimacy with your spouse.
38. Fall asleep easily and make all of your dreams pleasant ones.

So how did you do? Clearly, it’s pretty tough to have a perfect day.

However, the nice thing about a healthy lifestyle is that you don’t have to be perfect every day. Just do the things you can, and periodically try to add some things you haven’t done before.

And if for some reason you manage screw everything up - don’t lose sleep over it. You can always try again tomorrow.