I think of wellness like a pyramid with three major pillars: eating patterns, activity pattern, rest & relaxation patterns. This week I’m talking about activity patterns. Your muscles are going to need a little warming up if you want them to help move you in the direction of good health. Cardio, balance, resistance, flexibility. It’s pretty easy to tell who’s been protecting their balance and flexibility for the past few years. It’s not just about marathons, or weight lifting. And you definitely don’t need to train for the Olympics. You just want to increase your opportunities to move. And for that, you could probably use a plan.

In Northeast Ohio, and in many other parts of the world, you need a summer plan and a winter plan, and they’re not the same. Much as you’d like to, and I’m not saying you do, you can’t ride your bike very easily when the roads are covered with ice and snow, and the wind chill makes it feel like it’s 10 below. So you need a plan.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Your plan might be to move your swim locale from the outdoor pool at the local high school to the indoor pool at the nearby women’s college. Or maybe, just for a few months, you’re going to switch to the indoor walking track at the community center instead of the paved path at the neighborhood park. Maybe this year it’s time for a pair of seriously excellent waterproof walking shoes, along with a good coat, hat, scarf, and industrial-strength gloves. Or maybe this is the year you’ve decided that you’re going to dance in the living room with the kids for 10 or 15 minutes every evening after dinner, in which case you probably want to make sure you’ve got some favorite dance tunes downloaded and ready to go.

These are all perfectly good plans, but they are going to take a bit of advance planning. If you haven’t already done so, this is a good time of year to start thinking about your winter plan. If you don’t already have one in mind, why don’t you give it some thought?