Life Coach

Life C ach A New Exercise Holiday

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

Here we go! That illusive Monday!

Why blame it on the holidays? Why not blame it on our self-discipline? Or, more accurately, our lack thereof!

Or our love of food?! Or meals that keep coming and coming at you?!

I truly believe that if I walked from New York to Miami – back! – I’d make an unimpressive dent on the damage I’ve done with all this eating.

Realistically, who’s really making that trek by foot anyway?

Now would I go by plane with lunch and a few snacks thrown in!? Of course! But that would just cause more problems. The restaurants are popping up like crazy there. And who doesn’t have to try every one of them – at least twice, just to be sure their initial impression was accurate.

And that would delay once again “that Monday.” You know the one we always promise to start our diet on.

But then again, how many of us actually do start on that Monday? And then it’s another whole week of eating till Monday comes around again.

I love the holidays. Family time, time to refocus, and a time to feel the opportunity to start anew. But, as I feel my sins slipping off of me, unfortunately, I feel my clothing tightening around me.

We have a candle lighting holi-

day coming up soon and a costume one after that. What we need is a jogging holiday or an exercising holiday slipped in there, too!

Wouldn’t that be interesting? Something new. After all, we’ve certainly already perfected sitting, shmoozing, singing, and benching. (As to benching, we can define it as reciting grace after the meal or alternatively as sitting passively on a bench – either definition works because we’re great at both.)

I mean, look at our holidays and our lack of exertion – half of us don’t even have a tradition of standing up for kiddush. So no exertion there! About the most consistent exercise we get is walking to the washing

sink. And even when it comes to that, people have installed washing sinks in their dining areas, and so very little is accomplished with that stroll. Especially since there’s a bite of bread required right after that, so the calories burned by this walk are already a wash, as they say!

So what would that “exercise holiday,” hypothetically, look like?

First, wake up and do a healthy stretch, then sit up, push up, and jog to the closet, lunge into your clothing, run to shul, daven and then do yoga for a few minutes after praying. After that, a quick bite to keep your energy up, thank G-d, and plead for continued energy! Which would be followed by a long walk, then napping in a full-out plank position, while holding it as long as you can. And then off to a shiur, sheer luck if you can keep yourself going. And finally, Mincha and Maariv both with an extended standing Amidah.

In America, of course, it would be a 2 day holiday. So next day, here you’d go again!

Boy wouldn’t that be a change?

Calories down, kavana up!

If we could stick in a few more of those holidays, especially extending through the weekend, maybe, just maybe, it would get us into the right frame of mind to start “that Monday” cycle of healthy eating.

So, can anyone recommend some sneakers that would look good with a suit and tie?

About the most consistent exercise we get is walking to the washing sink.

Rivki Rosenwald is a certified relationship counselor, and career and life coach. She can be contacted at 917-7052004 or rivki@rosenwalds.com.