No excuses today

  I started this blog to go along with a series of health care articles I am writing for The Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown for American Heart Month. The series kicks off Sunday and is previewed, along with this blog, in a column published today.
  Well the first day of my month-long commitment to a healthy heart lifestyle got off to a less-than-auspicious start.
  Hearing my wife, Becky, scrape ice from her windshield before leaving for work at 6 a.m. gave me second thoughts about getting up and heading to the gym. I didn't want to spend 30 minutes on aerobic machines and then come home and spend an hour chipping driveway ice. I figured the ice could provide the recommended daily physical activity. But then it warmed up of course, so I was in a dilemma.
  Since I had an evening work commitment, I didn't want to jump right in on the phone calls I had to make for the American Heart Month project. By the time I realized there was not going to be Icemageddon today, it was too late to head to the gym. There is too much traffic with no sidewalks or even snow-cleared berms on my road, so an outdoor walk was scrapped too. Becky has a Wii fitness thing she likes, but it seems a little too Richard Simmons for me.
  Are those enough excuses?
  But I like to say that I don’t believe in excuses, sometimes quoting the poet Rudyard Kipling’s line, “We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.” (Except I saw a simpler version of it on a poster attributed to former Steelers Coach Chuck Noll, so I used to attribute it to him.)
  With excuses aside, what was my plan? Trudging through the ice-crusted, foot-deep snow in the field? Maybe not.
  I was still mulling it over as I started my day’s work from home with phone calls and online research. I interviewed internal medicine specialist Dr. Durre Ahmed of Indiana about how primary care doctors encourage heart health. She tells her patients exercise is easier than they think, and suggests climbing the stairs instead of using the elevator.
  “Stairs? I have stairs,” I thought. Having recently worked on a project that required prep work in the basement and installation in the second floor, I knew the route well.
  So I spent half my lunch hour trudging up and down the two flights, each with 12 steep steps. For variety I started adding a once-around on the first floor. That got the cats some exercise too, trying to figure out what I was chasing, I guess.
  Felt like a real workout by the time I was done, so I’ll keep it in mind as a last resort. And one less excuse.
  Diet-wise was a little better. I had my usual high-fiber toast and protein-healthy peanut butter with a banana for vitamin C and B6 Potassium and Manganese. Lunch was a re-heated piece of turkey pot pie that probably had too much fat, but they say you have to start slow.
   As I wrap up the first day of my first blog, I can’t help thinking how blogging is like exercise and diet. Everyone starts off with intentions of keeping it up at least several days a week. Look at those blogs after a month or two and you see less frequency. Eventually, you stop looking because it hasn’t been updated since May of what year?