I was on a roll back in late January. I refocused on my physical health sooner in the calendar year than normal and had a nice streak built up. Then came the deep freeze. What began as a pause turned into a full-blown rout. After weeks of inactivity and poor eating, I was feeling the pain.

There's so much to learn about yourself and your physical health. Guidelines and rules of thumb abound, but physical health is one of the most personal things in our world. My body is unique and so while I may follow personalized health advice, I will have a different experience than anyone else.

One truism that I’ve learned in years of observing my physical health is that when I’m feeling my worst, I’m 14 days away from starting to recapture that physical health. Two weeks of a solid sleep cycle and walking four miles before sunrise and I start to get my energy back.

The problem with that reality is that the first two weeks of any routine are always the hardest. As you build a streak, that momentum pushes you forward. It’s easier to have a cheat day on day 3 than on day 73.

The other truism about our health is that, like our world, it has a quality of impermanence. Your health is a moving target, always improving or declining. There is no stasis when it comes to wellbeing.

And so, I present this reminder in a long string of reminders about physical health that have appeared on this blog over the past eight years. Physical health is the building block of life, and it's something that you have to get up and fight for every single day.

Tags: Wellness