Guelph Chiropractors

Along with Dr. Dan Gillis, Danny Williamson is the co-founder of Farm To Fork. Working together with students from the University of Guelph and local stakeholders, the project’s goal is to change the way we think about the emergency food system by creating a direct link between donors and emergency food providers. The project has garnered interest from Berlin to Kentucky and is currently trying to crowdsource much needed funds.

All Things Reconsidered

If you’re like me, you started May Health with all the vim and vigour you could muster. It was going to be an all-out, 31-day, adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride of awesomeness. You wanted everyone to know. You wanted everyone to be impressed by your ambition. I know I did. I was going to run 100 kilometres in May.

And then, as they say, things happened. Some hip soreness and a week out of province slowed me down. In fact, it became pretty clear pretty quickly that I was going to struggle to reach my goal unless I stepped up my game or changed my goal.

After talking it through with my favourite chiropractors/May Health gurus, I decided to rethink my goal. Instead of trying to run every day for the rest of the month to meet my goal (and likely hurt myself in the process), I decided to incorporate some long walks into my exercise regiment. I also made an agreement with myself that we’d both take it easy if we didn’t make it to a hundred kilometres.

The moral of the story, friends, is that being healthy isn’t about achieving a number. If meeting a goal contributes to worse health through illness and injury, it’s not a very good goal, is it? Being healthy is about about choosing healthy attitudes and actions – ones that work for you.

So, good luck with your May Health goals. Just don’t let them define your health.

This is a guest post from a local Guelph participant of the May Health Challenge – Krista Kruger:

I am just like everyone else.

It is hard to get myself motivated to get moving. It is tough to convince myself to get up when the alarm goes off, instead of hitting the snooze button. It is even harder to leave the cozy comfort and warmth, of the blankets and pillows that are still calling my name.

Recently though, something changed.

In 2005, I lost my Dad. It was sudden and heartbreaking. He had a massive heart attack, and dropped off the face of the earth. He was just fifty-two years old.

This March 13, we should have been celebrating my Dad’s 60^th birthday. It was a tough day, but it was the day that woke me up. I realized if I want to celebrate my own 60^th birthday with my children, I need to make an effort to be healthier.

In the past, I have walked in the mornings and have been somewhat dedicated to keeping it up. I also got out on my bike occasionally. Last summer I even attempted to commit to 14 days of biking.

Like everything else, my resolve only lasted for a short time before I gave up.  This was because of laziness, lack of time, general disinterest, or a combination of all three.

This time it needed to be different. I would need to be committed for the long run, and I would need to have ways to challenge myself, to stay motivated and interested. I’m thirty-five, and I know the longer I wait, the more difficult it will be to make these changes.

I started slow, with just five walks in March.  April got better. I made it out fourteen times, and I walked, biked and ran a total of 59.2 kilometres. To stay motivated, I signed up for The Running Works “Couch to 5k” running clinic, and I also committed to a May Health challenge.

I have challenged myself to be active every day. While that seems easy enough, there have been some days where I really have to push myself to keep moving. At times, I have to muster up every ounce of strength I have for even a very short walk.

I know that if I get out every day, even for a small amount of time, I will be more likely to keep it up. In doing this, I have made myself accountable for my own actions.

May has been amazing for me. Twelve days in, and I have walked, biked, hiked and ran a total of 156.7 kilometres and counting… Of course, it is Spring and that always helps motivate.

Krista Kruger is a Mom of two crazy boys, a photography lover and a wannabe runner. She can be reached at kristakruger@sympatico.ca,on Twitter @kristakruger, or at kristakruger.com.

Photo credit: You guessed it – those lovely images above are all Krista.

One of the main ideas behind May Health is that we can all increase our chances of success by connecting with and supporting one another. Here are some of the ways we’re hoping to keep those connections and support going throughout the month.

Connect online. When it comes to health information there can be a lot of confusion and misdirection on the internets, and we want to help people navigate that landscape successfully.

Follow us on Twitter and use the hash tag #mayhealth to see what’s going on.

Follow us on Facebook. We’ll be posting tips for health and encouragement as well as responding to any health questions you may have.

Sign up to our blog feed. Comments and questions are always welcome here and we’ll be writing throughout May on how our health challenges are shaping up. And if you have a story that you’d like to share about your May Health challenge, contact us to see about writing a guest post. The more that we can all share our challenges, the more others will be inspired to take action themselves.

Connect in real life. Because sometimes it’s nice to connect face to face.

Health talks

We are offering three health talks at the downtown branch of Guelph Public Library. Each talk gives a brief blast (15-20 minutes each)of healthy information.  They’re free and open to the general public. Topics will include…

May 9: Function Better – Find out how moving more can significantly improve your health.

May 16: Fuel Better – Slice through the confusion of nutritional information and take control of what’s on your plate.

May 23: Feel Better – Learn how your thoughts impact your health and what you can do to feel well.

Open House

On Friday May 31 we will be hosting an open house at our clinic between 4:00-7:00. We had a great time last year meeting new and familiar faces, chatting about our challenges, and eating some tasty snacks. A good time is sure to be had by all. (Rumours of a water slide/petting zoo at the open house have not been confirmed.)

So stay connected, encouraged, and give it your all as we dive into May Health 2013!

Photo credit

I can still remember one of the first times that I went out to dinner at a restaurant with my family. I was maybe four or five years old and we went to The Keg. It was such an exciting and rare experience – eating somewhere other than the dinner table, the dim mood lighting, and a menu of choices (although I remember that all I wanted was corn on the cob even though it wasn’t an option). It was special.

These days, going out for a meal seems to be at least a weekly occurrence, if not more. I eat out because of convenience (laziness), a perceived lack of time (poor planning), or as a social event (I have good friends). But even when I eat out as a means to meet up with friends it still doesn’t elicit the same sensation of anticipation. I miss that feeling.

Restaurant food also isn’t the healthiest choice to eat all of the time. Don’t get me wrong, it can be healthy, depending on where you dine. But let’s be honest, most dining establishments are providing food to please the palate, and as such use more fat/sugar/salt/portion size than what would be healthy for an everyday diet.

Dining out also removes us one more step from our food. Without having to prepare it ourselves we lose touch with the knowledge and pleasure that cooking can bring. There is value in knowing your ingredients, in knowing how they’re prepared, and keeping in mind who you’re preparing them for. Conscious food preparation is as important as conscious food consumption and the mental state we’re in can physically affect how we digest and absorb the food. Similarly our attitude towards how we eat can be as important as what we eat, with both short and long term consequences. We can lose touch with those things when we regularly hand over the responsibilities to someone else.

I will admit that I don’t do a lot of the cooking at home anymore. So this May Health I will take the opportunity to step it up and get back into the kitchen, reacquaint myself with some ingredients, and rediscover the pleasure and healthy benefits of getting to know my food again.

Here’s the plan:

I will eat only homemade meals.

I will still be allowed outside coffee.

There will be one exception day – May 18 for a food truck tasting event in Niagara*

And to the restaurants of Guelph: this is not a slight at your services. You provide wonderfully delicious foods and relaxing, convivial atmospheres in which to appreciate it. But overindulgence can dull the senses, and I’m looking forward to once again fully appreciating you all as the special treats that you are.

*Sound like cheating? Nah. May Health isn’t about deprivation, it’s about consciously making healthy changes to your lifestyle that are meant to live on long after May has come and gone. And trust me, I’ll be very conscious about food truck day.

Photo credit