Lincoln County School District 2, my employer, is currently promoting a friendly competition to encourage healthy habits. My reaction to the introductory announcement was excitement because I anticipated an invitation to be better than I am. After reading the follow-up email with the specific details, though, I grinned at the prospects of sweeping the field, as their requirements are far easier than the twelve-month wellness goals I gave myself as a gift to celebrate my fiftieth birthday. Their healthy habits program consists of thirty minutes of daily exercise, drinking forty ounces of water a day, eating nine servings of fruits and veggies, adequate rest and stretching on routine basis, regular relaxation, and giving up one vice over a six week period of time. In the beginning, I had high hopes with both good and bad motives.
I easily completed the first week's requirements to exercise thirty minutes daily and earned the full amount of points. Ultimately, I tied with a dozen other employees and lost in a random drawing for the weekly prize; nonetheless, I was very happy for my friend who won because he suffers with several medical issues and needs encouragement to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Our second week's requirements were to continue with thirty minutes of daily exercise and add to it the habit of drinking about forty ounces of water. This also proved easy for many of my coworkers. The winner of the drawing for this weekly prize went to a lacto-vegetarian coworker, the only other member of my faculty at Star Valley Middle School who regularly eats plants.
On to stage three. I feel with the addition of eating nine servings of fruits and veggies a day on the third week of the contest, my odds are fantastic. Or, are they? Following a whole food, plant-based diet, I have five servings of fruits and veggies in my breakfast smoothie alone. At lunch I add another three servings of fruits and veggies when I eat my daily microgreen and berry super-food salad. With my two snacks or fruit during the day before dinner, I easily fulfill the requirement to eat nine servings of fruits and veggies each day. Surisingly, my native Wyoming eat-meat-three-times-daily peeps are consuming loads of plants with me and appear to be posing a greater challenge to my chances of winning than I had imagined.
Living in the consummate cowboy state can be difficult for someone like me at times. I am very different compared to my neighbors in Star Valley and frequently have the impression that coworkers think I'm quite odd. Colleagues will question and challenge my diet at lunch and during socials when we gather to eat. I only speak up about my whole food, plant-based diet when someon asks and even then I keep it simple and focused on my health. Astonishingly, the level of atagonism towards my diet has not changed much. As a result, I made my usual attempts to navigate these tense moments when the topic of the importance of eating fruits and veggies came up with self-effacing humor. Fortunately, there was the slightest impression of one or two smiles when I made a reference to grazing in the pasture with their cows.
At this stage in the competition, my heart and mind are in a better place. The most appreciable satisfaction I receive from this contest is not in winning anything. So, what do I gain? I feel a little more acceptance and encouragement from a few of my colleaguesm whic is good enough for me. This dare to be healthier, in many ways I feel, has validated my plant-based diet, yoga practice, daily meditation, cycling, and abstinence from politics and other materialistic pursuits. I'm looking forward to these next few weeks. With a sly grin, I'll be sure to let everyone know that I'm not so weird as they thought. A big thank you to our school nurse for putting this health challenge together. She is a prominent member of our community and widely respected. Her presentation of the research regarding these healthy habits will hopefully legitimize my unique way of living.
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