Healthy Living Retreat for Women

The timing of the retreat was perfect. We had checked our finances, and with a lot of planning and cutting back, I could quit my job. Well... the timing for the retreat was perfect, the timing for quitting my job, not so perfect. With the economy tanking and a son starting college, money is tight. But I knew we could do it, so I gave notice (months in advance, I work on a yearly contract).

I didn’t know exactly what to expect at the retreat, however, my friend and her daughter had attended several times, and she assured me I would love it. Stanford School of Medicine offers this alumni retreat every year, with topics changing with the times.

The best thing about the weekend for me was the pace. Attend a somewhat technical or serious lecture, then move on to something light and physical. I learned about women’s health issues, chemicals in household products, obesity, sugar, and cancer prevention. I learned how to stretch, strength train with resistance tubing, and power sleep. I kayaked, hiked and ate the most wonderful healthy/gourmet meals ever.

I met and talked with many amazing women. These were educated women, some retired, some still working, some about to set off on careers. These were the liberated women who had come into their own during the 1960’s and ’70’s, as well as young women struggling with establishing themselves in the current difficult economic and elusive job situation environment. There was the shared experience of finding jobs, raising families, losing jobs, changing jobs, launching children, caring for aging parents, divorce, friendships...the list goes on and on. What an amazing event this was.

But now I am home. Now I have to do something with all this information. At the retreat there was instruction in developing an action plan. Sound advice for setting priorities, not trying to change too much at once, choosing realistic goals.

I decided my first three goals would be as follows:

1 - Reduce the number of chemicals in the household.

2 - Change the type of food we had in the house and were eating.

3 - Set up a daily exercise plan, which would be motivating and, most important, which I would actually follow through on.

And so, I was off and running, inspired by the alumni of Stanford and women who had made successful changes in their lives.