Falling for Health

Just this afternoon, I finished reading Drop Dead Healthy, the latest from extreme project guru A.J. Jacobs. During the course of writing it, he tried to be the healthiest man alive, spending about one month per body part for two years: stomach, brain, heart, skin, eyes, ears...he covers a lot of body parts. If I had to write that book, I would have separated it by health categories: diet, exercise, rest, etc, but as a follower of Jacobs' work I heartily (pun intended) enjoyed it.

Sunday for me is overwhelmingly a day of rest, but after devouring Drop Dead Healthy along with these food items today:

cinnamon raisin bagel w/ cream cheese
homemade pizza (3 pieces)
freeze pop (green flavor)
chocolate chips

I couldn't sit around and watch TV, nap, or read more. Off to yoga I went. A lot of what I've read/heard recently has echoed the mind/body relation, namely that a healthy body means a healthy mind, or a stressed out mind means an out of whack body. It makes sense, and luckily a month of chiropractic adjustments sprinkled with yoga and relaxation have done both my mind and body good.

I sometimes surprise myself during yoga with what my body can do, and then I start feeling pretty righteous and my body reminds me I'm definitely NOT the poster child for grace, balance, or flexibility. Just today I started internally praising myself for some great-looking plank push-ups when the teacher suggested hand stands against the wall. Feeding off a so-far successful class, I kicked right up into it...and immediately came crashing to my side. Laughing at myself to ease the embarrassment and thanking the good Lord I didn't knock anyone else over, I settled for a much more accessible downward dog pose. Drop Dead Healthy indeed.