The healthy initiative

The big emphasis in Nevada now is to do healthy things. We are supposed to eat better, lose our bad habits and get more exercise. Even in church we are being urged to get into this movement.

About the same time as health was filling all the headlines, I became a friend to more people than I thought I knew by making friends on Facebook. The two things went together nicely because I read many helpful hints from my friends about how to be healthy.

One such hint told me that people who read at least eight minutes a day had 87 percent less stress in their lives than those who didn't read that much. My comment to that was if I had to stop at eight minutes I would add to my stress. But I don't think they meant only that short a time. That doesn't even give enough time for the boy to meet the girl or the first murder to take place (depending on which book you picked up that day).

If they meant any type of reading then that would include reading instructions on how to use all our labor saving devices. I can use almost that much time making a call on my cell phone. I'm not talking about the time I actually talk to someone, but the time I'm trying to pull up the number, figure out what to do with the number and then punch it in correctly. The tiny keys, my wobbeldy fingers, and my short memory make that a time consuming adventure. All that time I am reading messages on the phone, such as "call failed" or "message ended." That is before any message has been sent.

Another bit of helpful information included the need to get sufficient rest. That's one place where the church comes in. If we didn't have to stand up every now and then I could get a nice rest in church. After all the years when I sat in church corralling my own kids, my grandkids or great-grandkids and having to seem to be attentive to my husband in the pulpit, it is nice to go to church and just sit, sit perhaps to dream, and know that whatever happens today, none of it is my responsibility anymore.

Several friends on Facebook have lost big amounts of weight and proudly announce when they have met their goal. I'm happy for them, but I usually scan over those remarks quickly. I don't want to catch the fever. I know that according to the charts and according to the mirror I could lose a pound or two, or 10, or... But at my age I have read that it is better to be overweight than underweight. There might be a limit to that, but one Dr. Pepper a day surely isn't too much, is it?

I guess that brings me to the real biggie. Exercise. I have friends who start out each day at the gym, or the Y, or jogging. I even have some who actually run several miles to get the day started. I have my own methods of getting exercise. I walk a lot. I don't do it in the gym or the Y, but I do it right here at home. I walk into the bedroom to get something and then I can't remember what it was that I wanted to get. So I walk back to my office where I was sitting when I thought of what I needed that was in the bedroom. I walk back and sit down at the computer to try to remember what I needed, and a new Facebook message pops up and I have to read that. That makes me remember what it was I needed from the bedroom, but also helps me remember that it wasn't supposed to be in the bedroom anyway. But I can't remember where it was supposed to be, so I walk out to Lester's office to ask him if he remembers where I keep this article. He doesn't understand what I'm asking about since I can't remember the name of the article. So I walk back to my office and start again to write my column.

I decide to change my topic since I couldn't find whatever it was I was looking for. I think if I walk out on the deck that I'll get a good idea about what to write. I notice that the wind last night has knocked more twigs on the deck and deck chairs, so I walk back to the house to get the broom to sweep it off. Lester has come into the kitchen and sees me with the broom and asks if that was what I was looking for a while ago. I don't think it was, but it seems easier to say that it was, so I walk with the broom into my office and sweep up the crumbles of Cheez-Its under my chair, and then walk back to put the broom where it belongs. By now I have finished my exercise for the day and walk to the couch to sit down for a while.

I hope Ralph, the editor of the paper, won't mind if I'm a little late this week. I think it is healthier to take things easy. It might add to his stress, but I'll put him on my list of friends and then he can get all these same health hints.