I see more studies every day that illustrate the poor health in our country. I see many trends, like our health declining and obesity increasing. I also see a trend that a number of diseases that come along with obesity are continually increasing.
This trend is disturbing and it has to stop. It is costing us all a ton of money. We are spending more on healthcare, food and clothes. We are even spending more on airline tickets and gasoline because we consume more fuel carting extra weight around.
The trend, while widely known, does not have to continue. I am working with people day in and day out to stop the trend one person at a time. I can’t do anything unless the people I work with make one important decision. The most important decision they (and you) can make is to stop following this trend.
That’s right, the trend can be stopped if we decide to stop it. How do we stop the trend? The same way we stop any trend, we stop following it. This is easier said than done, but I have put together a few simple ways to stop following the current health (or lack of) trend and start setting your own trend.
Stop and Think
The first thing we need to do is take a moment. Just take a minute or even a few seconds to think about your health. Health is not just blood pressure and cholesterol. In fact, by the time these numbers are brought to our attention it is often too late. We already have major issues with weight, fatigue and other areas. How do you want to feel each day? You have control over how you feel. Health is about feeling good and making choices that will help you realize that feeling every day. Stop and think about what you feel like today, how you want to feel tomorrow and what you have to do in order to bridge that gap. If you have already been focused on your health you have some good news. You just have to keep doing it. Stopping and thinking is still helpful though, since you have to acknowledge your progress and keep yourself motivated to continue.
Decide what YOU want
The questions we asked above are the key to living healthy. How do you want to feel? Do you want to feel good or bad? Do you want to feel energetic or sluggish? Do you want to feel healthy or sick? These sound like simple, no brainer questions. These sound obvious when asked out loud. Well, that is the key to getting the answer you want. Ask them out loud. Talk to your friends and family about what they want. Tell them what you want. When the options are next to each other, it gets much easier to make the choice. Once you have decided what you really want, it is easier to make the healthier choice. The more you make it, the easier it gets to keep making it. This isn’t a newsflash, but sometimes we all need a reminder of what we are doing (or not doing) for our health. If we just do what is easy or right in front of us, we will not be making the choice to live healthy. The most convenient option is not likely to be the healthiest option. This is old news, but we still make the easy choice most of the time. That is the problem and the biggest reason for the health trend. By making a conscious choice, you are deciding to live healthy.
Be the expert
You know yourself. You know your routine. You know you better than anyone else does. If you are a person that likes to eat at certain times, make sure you have options available. If you know that you have a craving for chocolate around 2 pm each day, put a tiny candy piece in your desk so you can get a taste and be done with it. There are a million things you can do to match your routine. We all know the difference between healthy and unhealthy. We all know what it takes to do it.
Be the expert, trust yourself and do it. Not knowing how to live healthy is no longer a valid excuse. Every time they show us the updated obesity numbers, they remind us why this is the case. The obesity numbers are on the rise because we eat too much and don’t exercise enough. This is obvious. The real reason we eat to much and don’t exercise enough is more valuable information. We have become dependent on the experts and have convinced ourselves that we can’t do it. We have become satisfied with the trend because it is easier to just go with it. It is easier to be fat if our friends and family are fat. It is easier to let our health go if we see that everyone else is doing it too.
The trend is no secret and neither is the solution. These steps can help you figure out your own plan. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is not that significant. The results are much different and the difference there is very significant. But the difference between one person and another is simply this: one has a plan and one doesn’t.
If you are struggling with your health, what do you need to do? You don’t need to start a specific diet. You don’t need to go to a certain gym. You don’t even need to change much internally. All you need is a plan. If you can set up a plan for what you want to be doing, you can do it. There is no question about it. No matter what the trend says, you don’t have to be part of it.
By taking a moment to stop and think, you are able to take control. You are able to assess your current situation, which allows you to slow or even stop the negative cycle.
By deciding what you want, you are now taking control. You are looking at your routine and deciding how you want it to look. You are thinking about how you feel and deciding that you want it to improve. You are deciding that the way you feel is important and you are willing to act in order to affect it.
And finally, by being the expert, you are perfecting your routine. You are taking the process that you want and results you hope to achieve and finding a way to make it all work. The only way you can do this is to trust yourself and believe that you can do it.
The real trend is more than just people getting fat while they eat and don’t exercise. The real trend is people refusing to take ownership of their own health. Maybe you don’t think you can or maybe you think it will be too difficult. Maybe you just don’t understand the ramifications of not making changes.
Well, you know what they told us when were kids. Following trends seemed like a good idea. When we used the trend as an excuse to do something, what did our parents say? Mine asked me, “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” That is basically what we are all doing. We are letting our health go and slowing jumping off of a bridge by not taking control.
Are you following the trend?
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Make Yourself Do It
Making yourself do something doesn’t sound like much fun. Eating all my brussels sprouts and doing my homework are things that I’ve had to make myself do. So how does exercise get lumped in with homework? When was the last time you heard a kid say: “I don’t want to go outside and play, can I stay in and do my homework?” I’ve never heard that and I don’t think I ever will.
Something happens we reach adulthood that makes us feel like we need to do certain things. The problem is that we often make ourselves do things we don’t want to do. In fact, that is one of the definitions I heard about adulthood when talking to a group of kids. They thought that being an adult was all about doing things you don’t want to do because that’s what adults do.
I agree that there are certain things that need to get done. Work, family and other things come to mind, but you don’t really have to do these things either. When I’ve said this in front of a large group I have always gotten a rise out of the crowd. They say, “Yes I do!” or “I’ll be homeless if I don’t work!” This is true, but you still have a choice. You chose to set goals for yourself. If a home and family are among your goals, you have to do what it takes to reach them.
That is where the real challenge comes in. I haven’t met too many people that want to be living on the street. I haven’t met many that want to be poor or struggle to feed their family. That is why so many of us work hard to get these things. It is no secret and it is no small task. We work very hard day in and day out to make sure we get what we need and even what we want.
That doesn’t mean we don’t want health. You see, I haven’t met too many people that don’t want to be healthy either. I’ve yet to run into someone that says, “I want to be sick and have my health steadily decline as I age causing me more and more pain.” No one wants that, yet many get it.
Why can we make ourselves do some things, but not others? Why can we make ourselves work? Better yet, why can we make ourselves work so late that we don’t have time for anything else? It’s a mystery to many, but I can tell you why we are able to do that.
It all comes down to a four-step process. We’ve covered this process before in a previous article and I’ve discussed the steps with hundreds of employees to make sure they understood how they too could get themselves going. Yes, you can make yourself do anything. You’ve already been making yourself stressed and tired by working so hard. You’ve gotten used to making yourself do things you don’t want to do. With these four steps (and a newly added fifth step) you can make yourself exercise too.
Step 1: Make Time
Setting time aside is the first step to getting into any routine. No matter what you are doing, you have to set time aside to do it. I’m not talking about finding time or wishing you had more time. I’m talking about sitting down and planning to do it when you think you are able to do it.
Step 2: Make an Appointment
Now that you see time available and can commit to it, you have another opportunity to make it more likely to happen. When you have a meeting at work with your kids’ teacher, what do you do? You set an appointment. When it’s on the calendar, it gets done. If you do that with exercise and it will get done too.
Step 3: Make it Easy
The first two steps will help you do this, but there is more you can do to make your routine easy. I am tired of hearing about how hard it is to get enough exercise. Exercise is something we had to invent because we stopped moving on our own. Exercise used to be built into our daily lives. Even our generation was active as kids. We played naturally and didn’t need someone to tell us to. We didn’t need to make ourselves do it. Find an activity that you really love to do and do it. You can also do little things to make it easier on yourself, such as reminders or preparing beforehand.
Step 4: Make it happen
The simplest way to look at exercise is from your own perspective. What you want to do is in your own head and no one else can tell you what that is. You can hear recommendations and feel nervous that you can’t do it. You can hear about others and feel discouraged that you aren’t where they are. The only control you have is to decide where you are now and where you want to go. Follow the first three steps and you will be closer to step four. The only thing left to do is to commit to it and go.
The beauty of exercise is that we actually want to do it. It is easy to commit to something you want to do. That is where the fifth and final step comes in. I’ve been kind of negative on making yourself do things as we’ve sited working late and homework. As negative as it’s been, maybe that is what we really need.
After all, we make ourselves work. We make ourselves sick and tired by working too hard and never doing what we really want to do. The key to the final step is to remember that you want to do it and then make yourself do it.
Step 5: Remember that you want to do this
When it comes to exercise, we don’t need much of an excuse. When it comes to work, no excuse is big enough. Let’s flip that around and commit to exercise. I’m not suggesting quitting your job and exercising all day. The funny part is that I’ve talked to many people that think that is what it takes to get enough exercise. Nonsense! All you have to do is focus on a short time period that is realistic. (step 1). Next you can put those times on the calendar to make them concrete. (Step 2) By doing these things you are making it easy. You can take it further by finding little things in your day to day routine that make it even easier and more likely to stick with. (Step 3). Finally, there just has to be a certain amount of commitment. You have to just decide that you will make it happen. (Step 4)
Finally, we come to the final step. In a way, we are putting exercise into a category that we are used to. We are used to doing things we don’t want to do. We have become experts at making ourselves do it. Why does this work? It works because we can find enough reasons to do it.
It is the reasons that keep us going. Your health, the health of your children and all the enjoyment you get from living healthy is a series of reasons. Exercise can give you more of it all. Are they enough for you to make yourself do it?
Something happens we reach adulthood that makes us feel like we need to do certain things. The problem is that we often make ourselves do things we don’t want to do. In fact, that is one of the definitions I heard about adulthood when talking to a group of kids. They thought that being an adult was all about doing things you don’t want to do because that’s what adults do.
I agree that there are certain things that need to get done. Work, family and other things come to mind, but you don’t really have to do these things either. When I’ve said this in front of a large group I have always gotten a rise out of the crowd. They say, “Yes I do!” or “I’ll be homeless if I don’t work!” This is true, but you still have a choice. You chose to set goals for yourself. If a home and family are among your goals, you have to do what it takes to reach them.
That is where the real challenge comes in. I haven’t met too many people that want to be living on the street. I haven’t met many that want to be poor or struggle to feed their family. That is why so many of us work hard to get these things. It is no secret and it is no small task. We work very hard day in and day out to make sure we get what we need and even what we want.
That doesn’t mean we don’t want health. You see, I haven’t met too many people that don’t want to be healthy either. I’ve yet to run into someone that says, “I want to be sick and have my health steadily decline as I age causing me more and more pain.” No one wants that, yet many get it.
Why can we make ourselves do some things, but not others? Why can we make ourselves work? Better yet, why can we make ourselves work so late that we don’t have time for anything else? It’s a mystery to many, but I can tell you why we are able to do that.
It all comes down to a four-step process. We’ve covered this process before in a previous article and I’ve discussed the steps with hundreds of employees to make sure they understood how they too could get themselves going. Yes, you can make yourself do anything. You’ve already been making yourself stressed and tired by working so hard. You’ve gotten used to making yourself do things you don’t want to do. With these four steps (and a newly added fifth step) you can make yourself exercise too.
Step 1: Make Time
Setting time aside is the first step to getting into any routine. No matter what you are doing, you have to set time aside to do it. I’m not talking about finding time or wishing you had more time. I’m talking about sitting down and planning to do it when you think you are able to do it.
Step 2: Make an Appointment
Now that you see time available and can commit to it, you have another opportunity to make it more likely to happen. When you have a meeting at work with your kids’ teacher, what do you do? You set an appointment. When it’s on the calendar, it gets done. If you do that with exercise and it will get done too.
Step 3: Make it Easy
The first two steps will help you do this, but there is more you can do to make your routine easy. I am tired of hearing about how hard it is to get enough exercise. Exercise is something we had to invent because we stopped moving on our own. Exercise used to be built into our daily lives. Even our generation was active as kids. We played naturally and didn’t need someone to tell us to. We didn’t need to make ourselves do it. Find an activity that you really love to do and do it. You can also do little things to make it easier on yourself, such as reminders or preparing beforehand.
Step 4: Make it happen
The simplest way to look at exercise is from your own perspective. What you want to do is in your own head and no one else can tell you what that is. You can hear recommendations and feel nervous that you can’t do it. You can hear about others and feel discouraged that you aren’t where they are. The only control you have is to decide where you are now and where you want to go. Follow the first three steps and you will be closer to step four. The only thing left to do is to commit to it and go.
The beauty of exercise is that we actually want to do it. It is easy to commit to something you want to do. That is where the fifth and final step comes in. I’ve been kind of negative on making yourself do things as we’ve sited working late and homework. As negative as it’s been, maybe that is what we really need.
After all, we make ourselves work. We make ourselves sick and tired by working too hard and never doing what we really want to do. The key to the final step is to remember that you want to do it and then make yourself do it.
Step 5: Remember that you want to do this
When it comes to exercise, we don’t need much of an excuse. When it comes to work, no excuse is big enough. Let’s flip that around and commit to exercise. I’m not suggesting quitting your job and exercising all day. The funny part is that I’ve talked to many people that think that is what it takes to get enough exercise. Nonsense! All you have to do is focus on a short time period that is realistic. (step 1). Next you can put those times on the calendar to make them concrete. (Step 2) By doing these things you are making it easy. You can take it further by finding little things in your day to day routine that make it even easier and more likely to stick with. (Step 3). Finally, there just has to be a certain amount of commitment. You have to just decide that you will make it happen. (Step 4)
Finally, we come to the final step. In a way, we are putting exercise into a category that we are used to. We are used to doing things we don’t want to do. We have become experts at making ourselves do it. Why does this work? It works because we can find enough reasons to do it.
It is the reasons that keep us going. Your health, the health of your children and all the enjoyment you get from living healthy is a series of reasons. Exercise can give you more of it all. Are they enough for you to make yourself do it?
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Healthy Vacation
Vacation is one of the best parts about working. In school, we looked forward to summer vacation. If you have a job, you look forward to using vacation days. No matter what you do, you need to take some time away in order to recharge and unwind. If you don’t, life will get very difficult.
One thing that seems to be very difficult is sticking to a healthy routine while on vacation. It’s difficult enough to live healthy at home, so when you through in airplanes or cars, hotel rooms and restaurants, it can get downright scary.
It doesn’t have to be scary. Vacation and health can go hand in hand. It just takes some planning and some focus on your goals. I have a few specific tips for you to make your next vacation a healthy one, but first let’s discuss why you would want to do this in the first place.
Let’s talk about goals before we get into the tips. Your goals are what keep you doing what you want to be doing. Your health is a series of goals. If you are living healthy, you are reaching those goals. You clearly want to continue living this way, so it becomes important to adjust no matter what your schedule looks like. That is the key to health in general and it is the key to health on vacation.
Healthy Vacation Tips
Get out and walk
Walking is the best way to build calorie burning into your day. Vacation is all about relaxing and part of relaxing is not being in a hurry. What better way to get to and from a meal than nice walk? If you are vacationing near a beach, this helps to get you active again after a long day of sun and sand. If you are worried about how many calories you will consume at dinner, a walk can help you feel at ease since you are burning them off to and from the meal.
Find a store
The most difficult part about living healthy on vacation is the fact that you are away from home. Where do you eat when you are away from home? Restaurants are the most common and often the only places we eat away from home. You can make this better by snacking healthy. Pick up some basics at a local store, keep them in your room and you can enjoy some lighter options between meals. Not only does this build healthy items into your day, but it also helps you fill up and save some of the calories from those dreaded restaurant meals.
Share and split
The restaurant portions are out of control in 99% of the restaurants you go to. I’m sure your vacation is in a place that this will be likely. The hardest part about controlling portions as restaurants is the fact that it’s good food and it’s already in front of you. Eating a little good food isn’t going to hurt you. Eating a lot of good food will. The solution is to share. If you split a meal, you can enjoy the good food without worrying about eating too much. You know you will get enough. The restaurant portions are so out of control that you are likely still getting enough food to constitute a serving…or more.
I’ve written an article about vacation before and it talks about why we take vacations. We take them to relax and recharge. We don’t take vacations to ruin ourselves or to go against our goals. Think about this when you take your next vacation, apply these tips and you will stay on track.
One thing that seems to be very difficult is sticking to a healthy routine while on vacation. It’s difficult enough to live healthy at home, so when you through in airplanes or cars, hotel rooms and restaurants, it can get downright scary.
It doesn’t have to be scary. Vacation and health can go hand in hand. It just takes some planning and some focus on your goals. I have a few specific tips for you to make your next vacation a healthy one, but first let’s discuss why you would want to do this in the first place.
Let’s talk about goals before we get into the tips. Your goals are what keep you doing what you want to be doing. Your health is a series of goals. If you are living healthy, you are reaching those goals. You clearly want to continue living this way, so it becomes important to adjust no matter what your schedule looks like. That is the key to health in general and it is the key to health on vacation.
Healthy Vacation Tips
Get out and walk
Walking is the best way to build calorie burning into your day. Vacation is all about relaxing and part of relaxing is not being in a hurry. What better way to get to and from a meal than nice walk? If you are vacationing near a beach, this helps to get you active again after a long day of sun and sand. If you are worried about how many calories you will consume at dinner, a walk can help you feel at ease since you are burning them off to and from the meal.
Find a store
The most difficult part about living healthy on vacation is the fact that you are away from home. Where do you eat when you are away from home? Restaurants are the most common and often the only places we eat away from home. You can make this better by snacking healthy. Pick up some basics at a local store, keep them in your room and you can enjoy some lighter options between meals. Not only does this build healthy items into your day, but it also helps you fill up and save some of the calories from those dreaded restaurant meals.
Share and split
The restaurant portions are out of control in 99% of the restaurants you go to. I’m sure your vacation is in a place that this will be likely. The hardest part about controlling portions as restaurants is the fact that it’s good food and it’s already in front of you. Eating a little good food isn’t going to hurt you. Eating a lot of good food will. The solution is to share. If you split a meal, you can enjoy the good food without worrying about eating too much. You know you will get enough. The restaurant portions are so out of control that you are likely still getting enough food to constitute a serving…or more.
I’ve written an article about vacation before and it talks about why we take vacations. We take them to relax and recharge. We don’t take vacations to ruin ourselves or to go against our goals. Think about this when you take your next vacation, apply these tips and you will stay on track.
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