New Year’s Resolutions are a vast mine field of guilt, wallet pain and, for many of us, an overwhelming need to eat our feelings.

But if your tummy is starting to cross the county line while the rest of you is still in downtown, it’s time to take action.

First, set realistic goals, say the experts. If you haven’t been active in a while, Jose Garcia at the GHS Life Center Health & Conditioning Club advises starting with only a 15-20 minute walk. Start small and build. Take joy and triumph in every step and don’t sweat the ‘recommendations’ yet – just sweat! (Most adults need at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days per week. But to lose weight, the recommendation is 45 minutes five times a week.)

Second, be consistent – force yourself to do it on whatever schedule you’ve committed to until it becomes a habit. It needs to be as automatic as brushing your teeth.

Every time you do it, it will become just the faintest bit easier. This is what the experts tell us – and, frankly, tell me.

I’ve been varying degrees of, ahhh, chunkiness most of my life so I was accustomed to the XL side of the body-size aisle. But when my tummy started crossing time zones ahead of the rest of me, it was time to take action myself.

And so, God help me, the woman who used to say that there’s no point in running unless she’s being chased is now sweating like a pig on a regular basis – a frizzy-haired pig in high humidity at that. I’m even attempting to work out with weights – which is wildly entertaining and strangely Zenlike.

Research shows that being overweight or obese raises the risks for a universe of woe, including coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, high blood pressure, high total cholesterol or high triglyceride levels, stroke, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and osteoporosis.

Just re-reading that paragraph makes me want to immediately administer chocolate. But it’s just as true that losing as little as five to 10 percent of your body fat can significantly reduce your risk of developing these problems.

The other advice from Life Center staff: don’t beat yourself up – and don’t let others do it either. It is what it is – now make it better.

For more info about the Life Center, including free health classes, visit http://www.ghs.org/360healthed.

I hadn’t visited Google+ in a while and was using Google Docs, so decided to visit it since it was right there on my tool bar (how very convenient!). Much to my surprise, my son had some recent posts. This one caught my eye, and while reading it, I kept thinking how true this is, not only in college but in life. While you read, replace the word “college” with any situation you’re dealing with: work, exercise, losing weight, household projects… you get the idea.

Here goes … in the words of an 18-year-old freshman at Clemson University, a biology major who plans to become an orthopaedic surgeon. (I may have to remind him of this post along his journey to becoming Dr. Foister.)

What is it that makes college hard for some and not others? A simple answer is discipline. It’s not that some students are inherently smarter. It’s that the ones who are disciplined can “survive” the college atmosphere much better. The disciplined student not only can set aside time to study and do just that, but they also know what they don’t know. As one of my professors put it, “They can assess their mastery of the information.” A disciplined student can effectively use their study time to learn the information they don’t know, thus leaving the disciplined student more time to “play” in college while still maintaining a 4.0.

The best student in college is the one who can manage their time effectively and efficiently with the utmost discipline.

Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting a man named David Long. David lives in Greer and was a nurse anesthetist at GHS for many years before his health took him away from work.

David was diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2002 at the age of 44. Within five days of his diagnosis, he began chemotherapy treatments, but the chemo was not enough to kill the cancer living inside his body. His next course of treatment was an autologous transplant, in which his own bone marrow was harvested and transplanted back into his body. This kept him well for about two years, and then, after a relapse in 2005, David began seeking an unrelated donor through the national Be the Match Registry. Three months later, he was notified that several matches had been found, and the following month he received a life-saving transplant.

David attributes his survival to a man in Alabama he would have never met had it not been for the Be the Match Registry. David met this man a year after his transplant at a golf event hosted by NASCAR’s Rick Hendrick, who also has leukemia. The meeting was so powerful that the two men remain in contact to this day. David speaks very fondly of this man and calls him his “blood brother.”

I met David because he agreed to help us promote a bone marrow donor registry that took place at GHS on December 14. Our goal was to get 100 people to join the registry that day, and thanks to David, his willingness to share his story and the local media who helped get the word out, we got 110 people to sign up! David even stopped by the event to say thanks to those joining the registry.

What makes this story even more special for me is that if any of those 110 people are determined to be a match, they can come to GHS to have their stem cells harvested. They no longer have to travel to Charleston or out of state to donate. They can do it all right here, regardless of where their recipient is located! How neat is that?!

The following link is from the most recent Town Hall Meeting. The second video, right after GHS360 News, is about our 100 year anniversary. I think it is terrific and I hope you watch it.

After that, if you are interested, you can get a feel for how we did last year with our goals and what we will be working on next year by watching the rest of the presentation. This was done for the night shift and took place on the Memorial Campus.

I welcome your feedback or thoughts.

Mike

As GHS’ 100th anniversary approaches, we’ve been asking employees about their most memorable moments. I remember one of mine like it was yesterday. I was sitting in a conference room right off the GHS Board of Trustees board room with my new CEO, Mike Riordan, and my colleague Robyn Zimmerman, director of community and public relations, when he says to Robyn, “I understand why you would want to do this”, then turns to me and says “but from a marketing perspective, why do you want to do this?” Gulp! So obviously he and I aren’t thinking alike. A little intimidating.

The “this” was sponsoring the Swamp Rabbit Trail for $100,000,000 – $100,000 for 10 years. From a marketing director standpoint it may not be in the traditional tool box, but from a system standpoint how could we not do it. Also, my background is public health, so keeping people healthy is something I understand and is my passion. I couldn’t separate the two. GHS is the healthcare leader in upstate South Carolina, so therefore should be the leader in not only treating patients when they are sick, but also in helping to keep them healthy.

I can’t remember exactly how I answered him, but it had to be similar to what I just wrote above. I know from my public health experience that “rails-to-trails” programs worked to get people to be active. And, an active lifestyle is one of the most modifiable risk factors for heart disease – the leading cause of death in the U.S. Again, how could we not do it?!

Well, we did do it. I believe it is the best $1M we’ve spent. Fast forward three years. I’m never more proud to be a GHS employee than when I’m riding my bike on the trail and see all the people on it, too. There are families, older woman, older couples with new bikes who probably haven’t been on bikes in 40 years), all shapes, sizes, colors, ages. Walkers, runners, bikers … one day even some llama (they aren’t allowed, though, only dogs.) It is simply amazing. Each time I ride the feeling is the same. This is a wonderful thing GHS did. Thank you, Mr. Riordan! Check out the facebook page “Having Fun on the Swamp Rabbit Trail” to hear directly from the community.