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Stop to Start


How amazing. A fabulous week is winding down in beautiful Baltimore.  I spent the entire week at an intense 40 hour HIV/AIDS seminar for health professionals.  More on this seminar another time.  It was wonderful chatting with physicians, physicians’ assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, substance abuse counselors and students on how to better care for HIV patients from medical and psychosocial perspectives.    Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian lunches were provided daily.  During lunch, I chatted with other attendees about behavioral changes and how easy it is to advise patients to take care of themselves about sleep, exercise, nutrition, etc.  One NP said, “It is easier to provide guidance than practice guidance.”  We all laughed.  She was correct.  It is easier to say, “Do this or do that” even if you work in health care.  We talked about how crazy our schedules are with family, work, research, etc.  One student asked me, “What do you do for balance?”  I told her if I think about  exercise too much I probably would not do it, so I just do what I tell patients--~ Just STOP.

S-Schedule it!  (Just like a daily appointment)
T-Turn off your brain! (Don’t think about it, just get it done.)
O-Own it! (Hold yourself accountable)
P-Praise yourself! (Treat yourself to new sneakers, dress, etc. Don’t seek praise from others.  Give  yourself the credit because you did the work)

 One of the social workers said, “I love that mnemonic and it is applicable to lots of things in life.“  I agreed and said I try to use this whenever I have self-doubt about signing up for a race, applying for a new job, talking to new people, etc.  Sometime you gotta stop to start something new or different.

~Stayfitt

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