I'm going to take a risk and that risk is to share my wellness journey with you, the readers. When I look at the books in the 'Self-Help' and 'Human Potential' sections of local bookstores everything sounds so easy and accessible. "8 Weeks to This" and "5 Weeks to That" or "Total Wellness in 10 Minutes a Day", tempting titles but not always realistic. There's little room for failure in those books, not much about getting the flu, pulling a hamstring, dealing with family crisis, sliding into a depression, and yet these things happen. They happen to disillusioned people who sell their fitness equipment at garage sales, to the people who join fitness clubs and hardly ever go, it happens to 9 out of 10 people by about the second week in January when their New Year's resolutions dissolve. As Wordsworth noted, "When they by tendency of nature needs must fail".

Perhaps we put too much trust in the gurus of wellness and not enough in ourselves. I wrote about this in a recent song.

I feel that I have no right to talk and write about wellness unless I am able to practice what I preach, and I've fallen a bit from the wellness pedestal. Injury, illness, extensive travel, and careless eating has left my pants fitting a little more snugly around my waist, my blood lipids elevated, and my mind uneasy. “And o’re my own shortcoming weep with loathing” as it says in the old hymn. Not quite that bad, but I'm 61 and starting to feel like it.

My goal is to get back on track, improve my fitness, modify my diet, lower my blood lipids, and ease my mind. Many wellness programs die a logistical death, because wellness is not always convenient. It's easier to open a packet, than clean vegetables; the remote control points at the TV and not to the great outdoors. (As I alluded to in the introduction, Pete Townsend of The Who once wrote, "You’ve been told many times before, Messiah’s pointing to the door, But no one has the guts to leave the temple.") I remember the runner/physician/philosopher George Sheehan talking about people who would say, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." George said it was nearly always the reverse. The flesh would love to move and be fuelled with good food, but it’s the weak, flabby spirit that opts for another hour in bed, the remote control, or one more fast food feast. Sometimes wellness comes down to "mind over mattress".

I’ll repeat, the wellness lifestyle is not always convenient, but convenience is not the goal, high level wellness is. Remember, wellness is a lot more convenient than cancer, heart disease, type II diabetes, or other chronic lifestyle related illnesses.

It’s vital to prioritize, or in the words of David Chilton, author of the best-selling book The Wealthy Barber, "pay yourself first". Schedule wellness into your day and don’t make it an afterthought. The key to my day is early mornings and before I get to my desk at 9:00 a.m. I have 5 things to do to ensure a smooth takeoff:

• Write (3 pages/day in my journal)
• Meditate (I am in the early stages of discovering meditation)
• Stretch (I have the flexibility of a piece of plywood)
• Cardio vascular (Run, walk, swim , or ride)
• Good breakfast (Fruits, grains, juice, and supplements)

I know this isn’t always possible with long commutes, small children, and other demands. But you must find a wellness way to conduct your day and create your own path to wellness. Things likely to get in the way of my morning wellness include: laziness, injury, travel schedules, and lack of discipline. Many wellness writers do not confront discipline as such, preferring to tell us that we must “become wellness” and “manifest movement”. William James said that “effort is the measure of the person”, and that the “strenuous life tastes better”. I agree. In the early stages of a life change program things aren’t usually easy.

My documented wellness program began badly last week, I started on Monday March 15, and on Tuesday I slept past 6:00 a.m., believing I didn’t need an alarm. I wrote my morning journal, and instead of warming up before stretching, I got out the mat and began my least favourite aspect of fitness. I often think of the dimensions of fitness as the 5 S’s:

• Stamina - Cardiovascular
• Strength - Muscle power and endurance
• Suppleness - Flexibility
• Shape - Body composition
• Stability - Balance (an important part of senior’s fitness)

As I worked on a spinal rotation exercise, I felt a minor discomfort in my back. This quickly became a major discomfort as the right side of my body began to seize up. “The best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray”. By lunch time everything was uncomfortable and not only was exercise out of the question, but it was not easy to sit at the computer (I reminded myself that Dickens did much of his writing standing up). Meditation became back focussed instead of breath focussed.

This is typical of beginning something new, things don’t go smoothly. I made a mistake by not warming up, and maybe being over ambitious in my stretching. The key was not to compound my mistake. One useless response would be, "I guess my body is telling me something. I’m too old for this sort of thing, why don’t I just grow old gracefully?". “Too” is a blocking word, and be careful about its use. “Too old”, “too fat”, “too dumb”, “too tired”, “too out of shape”, “too young” become road blocks to possibility thinking. Julia Cameron, whose book The Artist’s Way guides my morning writing, says that TOO is an acronym for Totally Out Of the question. So I didn’t “too” myself. Instead, I reached out for treatment.

One very, very important principle in the exercise part of a wellness program is to get some professional help for injuries and discomfort. A good physiotherapist, chiropractor, massage therapist or occasionally an enlightened G.P. can provide treatment and guidance to prevent a reoccurrence. You must convince yourself that movement is vital to your life and that you are worth the best professional treatment available.

My first reaction was to call a friend who is a massage therapist. He was able to ease some of the tension in my back and neck, but he said that he felt my back muscles were “splinting” to protect my spine. His work did enable me to sleep Tuesday night. Wednesday it became clear that the problem was not going to self-correct and I was able to make a Thursday morning appointment to see a physio named David Iles who is brilliant at dealing with problems associated wit the back and neck. David quickly pin pointed the problem, the T-12 vertebra of my thoracic spine was caught on the top vertebra of my lumbar spine. (The thoracic spine rotates through a much greater range than the lumbar spine). He worked for over an hour, using ultrasound and heat to relax the musculature enough to enable him to manipulate my T-12 back into place.

My back muscles were still sore, but the pain quickly began to recede and I was able to travel to Vancouver Thursday afternoon in relative comfort.

Saturday morning I had a carpe diem incident which is worth noting. My partner said she dreamed of “skiing in brilliant sunshine” in the mountains above Vancouver. This was clearly a dream as we’ve had a winter of grey skies and relentless rain (giving rise to weather related jokes).

Man: “Does the sun ever shine in Vancouver?”

Kid: “I don’t know. I’m only 6.”

I was up early Saturday and the sky was blue and beautiful and I thought “why not?”. The answers came thick and fast, “You can’t ski”, “Your back is still sore”, “It will be crowded”, "We’d planned to go shopping” etc. Thoughts like this can keep you immobile forever. The big thing is to turn an idea into a reality. I often think of little phrases to describe that.

• “From a need to a deed.”
• “If you can construe it, you can do it.”
• Or in biblical terms, “the word made flesh”.
• Seneca noted, “It’s not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult”.

If you show up, anything is possible. The mountains were incredibly beautiful, my partner had a great morning of cross-country skiing and I found you could rent snow shoes, and for the first time in my life snow shoed my way through scenery and silence and splendour unavailable in the city below. Carpe Diem. Show up. (I even wrote down the number to call for adult lessons on cross-country skiing).

I confess that my weekend eating was careless and if I actually want to lose some weight (which I do) it will need to improve.

So Monday March 21 found me re-starting my structured wellness program. Here’s where I stand in objective measures and here’s where I intend to go.

I’m not thrilled with the statistical picture above. I’m reminded of my old school reports “Not living up to his potential”, “Could do better”. The reality is I can do better. At least I’ve acknowledged where I stand and not rationalized with thoughts like, “I’m better than average”.

Wellness colours everything in life, work, play, sex, travel, relaxation, and ambition. My goal is to get the best out of myself. The US Army talked of “Being all that you can be”. Jesus said “To have life and to have it abundantly”.

Updates on my wellness program will be posted in the subsequent issues of WELL.

In case I’ve made myself sound too decrepid, I did enter and complete a local triathlon last year. I figured that I used to be a swim coach, I jogged with a group called the Escargots, and I owned a bike. I finished in 3 hours 10 minutes near the back of the Methuselah age group. This year I hope to finnish in under 3 hours. I keep inventing new categories: people whose equipment cost less than $250, people with a body mass index (BMI) over 25 etc. I’ll keep you posted.