By Rachel Rucker, D.O.
After much resistance, and after a lot of encouragement from my patients, I have decided to start blogging about diet, exercise and anxiety.
I have resisted because I am very much an introvert and sharing my thoughts and opinions really isn’t my thing. But today I had a patient who told me that the advice I gave her is changing her life. She said, “ I wish you would just post things online.” So here I am. Going for it. Everyone has to start somewhere.
As far as my background, I am a licensed family medicine physician. Being a physician means I am a lifelong learner. I am hoping that some of you will reciprocate advice that has helped you so that way I can help others.
I do have an extensive athletic background, but I do not have any official exercise science education. In high school, I was an Allstate sprinter, in college I was a division one sprinter. I did CrossFit for six years and did a couple competitions. Most of my tips and tricks come from my past experiences and learning from my own and shortcomings. So… let’s do this!!
My first tip and trick is to dress for the occasion. The hardest part about doing a work out is getting the motivation to do it in the first place. Laying out your clothes ahead of time, or for those who like to work out in the morning, wearing your workout clothes to sleep in at night (assuming they are clean), is the first step in the right direction. After I had to take six weeks rest after having my son, it took everything in me to start exercising again. The first thing I did was dress for the occasion.
