My Story
A few years ago, I began to notice a recurring pain in my left hip.
Daily exercises were the only thing that seemed to help. But even with an alternative of nagging pain, I had trouble keeping up with them. I decided I had to find a way to keep myself on track.
I often use the trick of putting things in my way, and I thought it might help to put objects in my office as reminders. I first thought of using poker chips, but I wanted more colors (for a greater range of tasks) and something a little bigger (to make them harder to ignore).
So I turned to a bag of old (and somewhat chewed-on) kids' counting blocks. Mentally labeling each one with a task, I put them on a prominent shelf. Whenever I completed a task, I retired a block and put it out of the way.
To my surprise, the blocks and the dailiness of the practice became a powerful combination. I began to keep up with my exercises in a way I never had before. My hip pain improved, and so did my overall strength and freedom of movement.
And, with blocks for walking our dog and brushing her teeth, I think it's improved Sugar's life, too!
When I look back, I see lots of days when I completed only a few of my most important tasks. But the days when I did none at all are pretty rare. It’s a completely different picture than my life before I started using the blocks.
I hope they'll help you too!