Choose You Blog

I admit it — I’ve been a TOTAL slacker this summer. I blame my Europeon vacation which started with an actual trip to London and Paris for two weeks followed by multiple weeks of total slack-i-tude back at home.

To say that the food in London was unnoteworthy is being kind, but Paris (yes, I can confirm the rumor) was just the opposite. We started each day with mouth-watering, fresh-baked croissants, we savored fresh salads and pastas at wonderful cafes throughout the city, enjoyed a happy hour of wine, cheese and bread before dinner every evening and ended each night with a rich dessert of chocolate or ice cream. It was heaven.

Amazingly, I didn’t gain an ounce in Paris. In fact, I may have lost a pound or two. Despite all of the fabulous indulgences, we did so much walking that it didn’t make a major impact on my weight. When we got home, the first thing I noticed was how BIG everything was compared to France. The houses are bigger, the cars are bigger, the refrigerators are WAY bigger here. Which is what I got when I continued with my wine and chocolate habit but without the walking here at home — five pounds bigger. Just in time to get news of this American Cancer Society study about larger waist-lines making you at higher risk of death from major diseases. Great.

So, needless to say, now that school is back in session for my kids (yes, we start this early down here in the South) which gives us all a better sense of discipline and structure than the lazy days of summer, I’m back on the Choose You wagon which includes exercise at least three times a week and a much more moderate diet (Au revior chocolate and wine…at least for a while…).  Hopefully I’ll be saying au revior to those five pounds soon. I’m also back to blogging which I totally slacked on too.

Amy Swygert is Vice President of Communication Strategy and the American Cancer Society’s National Home Office. When she’s not totally slacking, she sometimes blogs at her personal blog Up With Moms.

This week I had to put my Choose You commitment of exercising three days a week on hold because of some sadistic perodiodontist who insisted on tearing open my mouth and cleaning out what she claimed was an “infection” oral surgery. The surgery itself went well and thanks to my new constant companion Hyrdocodone, I survived. The rest of it was a learning experience.

Because I am that in tune with and on top of my calendar, I brilliantly scheduled oral surgery just before one of the busiest weekends for the family. My in-laws came into town the night of the surgery. We had two soccer games, a dance dress rehearsal and recital and my husband went off on one of his rare business trips the same day my in-laws left, leaving me care for my kids, who promptly came down with fevers and sore throats, by myself. That and keeping up with my own antibiotics, steroids and pain meds was WAY fun.

The morning I was supposed to go back into work I sat in my kitchen paralyzed. I was exhausted — mentally and physically. The lack of exercise and all the meds had wreaked havoc on my ability to sleep. Even so, I was trying to psyche myself up to suck it up and get back to the office. I had never been out this long. I had things to do, people to see.

Then it hit me — WHY? Why am I pushing myself? If I needed more time to recover, why don’t I just take it? My husband reminded me of the vacation time I had available to me at work, which I almost never use up. I emailed my boss and asked if he would mind if I took more time. His response — “You need to do what’s best for you.”

For the remainder of the week, I worked half days from home so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with work when I returned and I took the afternoons to relax and recover. And I can’t tell you how much better I feel because of it. I will be ready to get back to work full-time tomorrow.

So even though I had to put my official “Choose You” program aside, I still ended up choosing me. I hope this inspires you to choose yourself too, even if you’re not yet, “with the program.”

By the way, in my official role as corporate shill, I must mention that if you haven’t joined the program, here’s a brand new podcast that explains what this program is all about. This is the latest installment of our Powerful Choices podcast series that’s designed to help us make healthy choices in our busy lives.

Also, this weekend marks the 97th birthday of the American Cancer Society and as The Official Sponsor of Birthdays, ACS is all about birthdays! In the 97 years we’ve been around, through the important work we do every day to help people stay well, get well, find cures and fight back, we have saved millions of lives from cancer and created that many more birthdays. To celebrate our birthday, we’ve created this new very fun birthday dance program — turn yourself into a dancing king/queen and send it to someone you know!

Amy Swygert is Vice President of Strategic Communications Planning for the American Cancer Society’s National Home Office. She’s a busy wife and mom of two beautiful girls and in her almost non-existent spare time, she blogs at her personal blog Up With Moms.

Today is Choose You Day, a key part of the Choose You movement! Choose You Day is a work-place based opportunity for employers to encourage their employees to choose their health. For a donation of $5, employees can take 30 minutes of “me” time and are encouraged to make that time  all about their health. Some employers are choosing to do wellness programs in conjunction with Choose You day.

The American Cancer Society set a realistic goal of having 10 companies  participate in Choose You Day in our first year of the program and we are thrilled to report that we have three times that many! Several of our sponsors like Walgreens, the Coca Cola company and Neutrogena are doing Choose You Day activities today. And we hear reports that Amie Adams, one of our Choose You bloggers, and her colleagues in her three-person office are going to take some time today to exercise!

The American Cancer Society’s national headquarters held its Choose You Day on May 4th to celebrate the launch of the Choose You movement. My colleagues planned amazing events! Check them out:

 There was some salsa dancing…

…a cooking demo…

YUM!!!!

…and an exercise class (love the lady doing squats in the skirt – now that’s commitment!)!

Who said being healthy — and being healthy at work — can’t be fun? I was so bummed to miss these activities (I was in Times Square launching the program with celebrity ambassador Ellen Pompeo — ah well, the sacrifices we sometimes have to make!).

If your company is interested in doing a Choose You Day, check out this info and downloadable kit. It doesn’t have to be on May 12 — any day is a great day to choose employee health!

More to come on our very first Choose You Day!

Hi, I’m Amy and thrilled to be blogging here at the Choose You blog.  Full disclosure: I work for the American Cancer Society and I have to say that so far, my experience with the Choose You program has been a bit surreal for me.

I’m your average full-time working mom and like most of us, I struggled mightily with how to make it all work. How can I be the perfect mother, wife, daughter, etc. and be the perfect professional all at the same time? I tried so many different work arrangements — full-time, part-time, flex time. All of them had their pros and cons. The one thing I never tried was taking care of myself. You’d think that as a long-time cancer survivor who works at the American Cancer Society, I’d know better. Well, I did know better. I just didn’t do better.

It all caught up with me about a year and a half ago when I slammed face-first into a wall of depression and anxiety. I was completely overwhelmed and didn’t know how to climb out of the pit I had fallen into. I finally got some help through a family therapist who worked with me to pare back on my commitments, take some time for myself, add some fun back into my life and create better support systems with my husband. It made such a huge difference.

At the same time I was going through all of that, at work, we were working on this new program called, “Choose You.” I loved the message — it was one that the universe was already teaching me. I loved the idea of the American Cancer Society recognizing how important women are in preventing cancer and encouraging them to do something no one else was — to take care of themselves.

I was honored when my boss asked me to be a spokesperson for this program. Having left that black pit of dispair behind, I have been making major efforts to improve my diet and get regular exercise since the beginning of this year. I’m actually walking the talk. I’m choosing me! I know the importance of this program in my bones.

But it’s not easy. I still struggle to make the right food choices and fit in the exercise. But I’m trying. My Choose You commitment is to exercise three times a week and to get my mammogram (I celebrated my 40th birthday in March) this year. Check back with me each week to see how I do. You’ll help me stick to it, won’t you?

When she is not fighting cancer in her day job, or being a mommy every other waking moment (and sleeping ones too), Amy encourages moms to find their voice as a mommy advocate at her blog Up With Moms.