Since September 1st, I have been up and out for a walk every morning and have achieved my Fitbit goals every day. (When Ed pops in here to edit this post, he can confirm my record!) (Confirmed! And, although Poppy & I like to sleep in, we're beginning to feel pressured to join her.)
Thanks to WBUR and their inspiring podcast, The Magic PilI, I have reconnected with and have been motivated to increase my fitness by one of my favorite doctors, Eddie Phillips, MD.
When he was my sports medicine doc at MGH, I remember Doctor Phillips showing me the exact stretch he is demonstrating in the photo above. Sadly, for me, Dr. Phillips has moved on. He has founded and directs the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, www.instituteoflifestylemedicine.org.
As a former patient, I can say that what you hear on the WBUR Podcast is the same advice and attitude he had with me as a private patient.
He doesn't tell you what to do, he'll tell you what you can do. He will have you thinking about small, achievable, specific goals and milestones, not big scary, "I'll never really do that ..." objectives.
His partner in this program is Carey Goldberg, editor of WBUR's CommonHealth blog. She is a well-respected journalist and adds warm, personal interviews and background research to each episode.
I waited to write about this until I was sure I was well on my way to being a continuing success story as a person following Doctor Phillips' philosophy that exercise is a Magic Pill that most of us can use to live a healthier life.
Here is a link to the Podcast Pilot. It's a great introduction and I hope it will lead you to take one episode daily (your daily dose of get-up-and-go) for the next twenty-one days and see if you, like me, find yourself still on the move two months from now.
I hope WBUR will add more episodes of this inspiring program. Anytime I feel that I'm about to slip off my training routine, I'll go back and listen to the 21 existing episodes again. But I would love to have this team offer some sort of Magic Pill continuing education and inspiration.
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Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: Courtesy of WBUR, Magic Pill