Exercise Equipment: Choosing the Right Options

Exercise equipment is something we all know of, yet it is something we may not know much about. For starters, we don’t buy it very often. When we do buy it, it is a big purchase and we don’t want to make a mistake. We’ve all heard the horror stories of the “expensive coat racks” in our friends’ houses, right? Maybe you even have an expensive home “accessory” that you hoped would be serving a healthier purpose.

It’s ok, we have all made purchases that didn’t work out for the best. With exercise equipment there are a few key things to consider before buying in order to avoid this:

What are your fitness goals?

This sounds like common sense, but you have to ask yourself the question before starting anything new. When purchasing exercise equipment, you are going to be making a big commitment to something. You are making the biggest commitment to yourself, but if you jump into something you are not going to use, it will feel like a big failure. Consider the following categories and determine which is most important to you:
- Endurance
- Strength
- Flexibility
- General Health

What do you really like to do?

It is easy to see something on TV or to have someone tell you about their results using a certain piece of equipment. The hard part is picking the equipment that you will use and will enjoy using for months and years to come. That is why the first question you should ask yourself is: “Will I really like doing this in 6 months?” Think about the following types of equipment that you can buy for your home:
- Treadmill
- Eliptical machine
- Stationary bike
- Universal cable machine
- Weight Bench/Free weights
- Resistance bands
- Other (as seen on TV products)

How much space do you have/want to use?

Space is a big consideration. There is a big difference between a home gym and a DVD. You can take up as much or as little space in your home as possible. Some people need a separate area to do their exercise while others like it to be integrated into everyday life and take up little space. Determine how you would like your “home gym” to look before you jump into a purchase.

What is your price-range?

This sounds simple, but you can spend as little or as much money as you want on exercise equipment. One of the common barriers to buying equipment is the belief that it is too expensive. It doesn’t have to be and it you are looking for the right thing, you may not need to get the highest priced option.

Once you have asked these questions and have a clear picture of what might be the best piece of equipment for you and your home, you can start looking. That can be an intimidating process too. Be sure to look at research and review websites before you start shopping.

Once you have reviewed and determined which brands, models and features you are looking for, you are ready to purchase. The prices could still vary greatly, so shopping is a good idea.
- Local options -Go talk to reps, ask questions, try equipment and see what your best options are going to be. Have a list of features you are looking for and a price that you want to pay and you can make sure you are getting what you want while keeping it within your budget.

- Direct Manufacturer sites - Once you know the brand you are looking for, you can go directly to their website or call them to get more info. In many cases you can actually purchase equipment directly from them too.
Purchasing exercise equipment can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be too difficult. If you are able to try anything out beforehand, talk to people that have used it before or visit stores to test it out, you will have a much better feel for what you are looking for.

Convenience is one of the most common reasons for people not going to a gym or getting enough exercise in on a regular basis. Having equipment at home is a great way to make it easier for you to reach your goals. There is nothing more convenient than having the tools you need right in the comfort of your home. As long as you are taking the time to make an educated purchase, owning exercise equipment is a great investment that can pay many dividends physically, mentally and emotionally.

Health and Independence

We talk about freedom a lot in our country. We all have it because of some fed-up colonists and many brave soldiers that have fought for us over the years. We use it to pursue dreams and live the lives we want to live.

But, are we really using it to live the lives we want to live? I ask that question, not to point a finger and anyone’s lifestyle or say that they are not living the way they should. I have no agenda when it comes to what you do for a living, where you spend your time or what you believe in. I think this country is great because of our differences. I think we were built on this principle and as long as we can learn from each other, we will use these differences to continue our journey.
Journeys are something that fascinate our society. We like stories about them and we use them in analogies with sports teams, education and of course in business. Journeys are something that take a long time. They take perseverance. They take guts. We admire those that take journeys. We admire those that make them successfully.

But, what defines success on a journey? Is it arriving at our desired destination? Is it how quickly we get to that destination? Is it how well we navigate the trail? There are countless ways to measure success in any area and a journey is no different.
We are all on a journey today. We each have all been on at least one journey since we were born. Many months and even years of the journey are not even something we remember. We just started doing what we do and pretty soon we started to realize what we were good at, not so good at and what we liked and didn’t like. As we got more and more comfortable with all of these realizations, we started to choose other journeys.

The journey that I talk about the most is health. It is what I do and what my company does, so clearly I have been in a conversation or two with people talking about their health journey. This journey is different for everyone. We all have goals and we all have challenges, but no one is on the same journey. It’s just like taking a trip. You may be going to the same place, but you are taking different roads to get there. Even if you are on the same road, we are all in different cars and have our own experiences along the way.

These experiences remind me of the summer road trip. Many of us are getting in cars and heading to places unknown over the summer. In fact, the 4th of July ties all of these themes together. It’s the birthday of our country, which gives us an opportunity to celebrate our freedom. It is a time when many venture out to see family and friends or simply to get out for a quick break over a long weekend.

This summer, we are all free to do what we want. We can go anywhere and do anything. That is why I ask the question: Are we really using it to live the lives we want to live? Ask yourself: Am I really living the life I want to live? When it comes to your freedom, are you using it? How independent are you?

This may sound like a malicious and pointed question, but I ask because it is important to ask. If we don’t ask questions, we don’t really measure and assess ourselves. What was true about our journey years ago, may or may not be true today.

Let’s take food for example: How much independence do you have when it comes to your food? Do you know what is in it or where does it come from? Even if you can answer that or simply don’t care, can you answer the question that we all need to start asking: did I choose to eat this because I like it or because it was easy?

Many times per day, people through their independence out the window when they shuffle to the counter or roll through the drive-thru. Even at the grocery store, we buy what is on sale or what catches our attention with signage and packaging. Or we simply buy what is easy to prepare.

No matter what “decisions” we make from day to day, we are choosing not based on what we want, but on what we think is easy or what someone is telling us to choose. We are convinced on a daily basis to eat, drink and buy. We do not choose, we are told or coerced.

I’m not attacking food companies, restaurants or even the people that fall into this trap every day. I too enjoy convenience. I do things that make my life easier every day. I also enjoy business and being successful. I do things every day that help my business grow and progress. That isn’t the problem.

A large part of America’s glory is our economic prowess and the ability of people to start and grow successful businesses into national and even global powerhouses in all industries, some even creating their own industries and inspiring a whole new generation of businesses to follow.

Clearly I’m not suggesting that business or food is the problem. The problem is us. We are choosing not to choose. We are dependent on what is put in front of us. We are relying on the companies that make more money when we eat more.

This summer, do me a favor and think about that for a minute. Ask yourself some key questions and think about how you answer them. When you look at the contents of your grocery cart, ask yourself why those items are there. When you find yourself eating lunch, ask yourself why you are eating what you are eating. Did you choose these things because you like the, or did you choose them because they were easy? The most important question you can ask is: Are you making independent choices or simply letting others tell you what to eat?

Activity or Exercise: Adding Movement to Your Day

Regular exercise can lower your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and even some forms of cancer. We hear daily that exercise is important and that we should do it. If we already do it, we are told we should do more of it. What is the deal? Every resource in the country has offered their take on how important exercise is, but why is it so important? How does exercise help our bodies?

Physical Activity and Exercise help us improve all components of physical fitness:
• Enhance cardio-respiratory endurance
• Muscular strength and endurance
• Increase and maintain flexibility

Now that you see the components of fitness that activity and exercise help improve, you know how good it is for you to be more active. Who doesn’t want to have more endurance, strength and flexibility? We all want these things and we get them by moving our bodies. While movement is good, not all movement is created equally. There is a difference between exercise and activity. Let’s talk about the difference between the two:

Exercise

A deliberate movement usually at higher intensity and specifically done for the purpose to improving physical health or competing in a game or sport.

Activity

Any movement that can elevate heart rate and keep your body moving. This includes tasks that are done for work, play or simple household duties as long as they require movement.

Both exercise and activity are important to a healthy lifestyle. Many people think that they don’t have time for exercise or don’t have the ability to take part in many of the common forms of it. We are here to tell you that activity is just as important as exercise. You can get and stay healthy simply by making an effort to add activity to your day. Here are some ideas to get more activity each day:

1. Park farther away: Walking from the farthest corner of the parking lot will burn a few calories. If it’s a parking garage, head for the roof and use the stairs.

2. Play more: Kids play all the time. Adults shouldn’t miss a chance to jump into the fray if kids are playing on a playground or in the yard. Playing along is not only a good way to get activity and set a good example, but it’s FUN too!

3. Clean the house: Vacuuming, dusting, straightening up around the house, even in just a few rooms can make a big impact on your daily activity. (15 min. burns up to 80 calories)

4. Use the buddy system: Adding a social element to exercise helps many people stick with it. The accountability of a partner helps you get there and their company can help you enjoy it more.

5. Take the stairs: it’s good for your legs and heart and gets you where you needed to go minus the wait for an elevator.

Everyone is busy and it takes a lot of time to get “exercise”. This list shows us that we can be more active without carving out time for exercise. It just takes a little imagination and a focus on your health that will help you add it where it can be added. You don’t have to be active all day either. Even trying these options here and there throughout the day can make a big difference in your day to day calorie output. Start small and give yourself credit for making slight changes. Even a little movement is going to make an impact. Have a healthy and active summer!

Want to Live Healthy: Get Real

Health is a very important part of our lives. We think about it, talk about it and try to improve it every day. There is not a day that goes by that we don’t focus on our health at some point. Unfortunately, for many, this focus involves worry and doubt. For many people, health is something that they are seeing as a problem and an area they need to improve.

I don’t disagree with that. I talk to people every day that are in poor health. I see articles that illustrate our growing health epidemic. I talk to colleagues and clients daily and they are all hearing the same things from clients and employees. The fact remains: health is a problem for most people.

In this day and age, with all of the technology and education we have at our finger tips, it has never been easier to live healthy. Wait, did I say that correctly? It is never been easier? Well, that depends on how you look at health. In the old days, we didn’t focus on health, we just did what we thought was normal and it turns out that it worked pretty well. We lived good lives and stayed in good health right up until the end.

There wasn’t much education involved. Doctors were learning and sharing as they went patient by patient. People were starting to figure out what they liked and didn’t like in their own lives. Technology was starting to become a bigger part of medicine. Over the last few centuries, we have taken leap after leap forward in technology. Our life expectancy has jumped and the ways we can be treated and aided have continued to multiply rapidly.

This would make health easier, right? We have more technology to help us and we have more knowledge at our finger tips than ever before. We should all be living healthy and it should be pretty easy for us, right?

Wrong. Living healthy is not easy. It should be, but it is not. Why are we having such a hard time with it lately? There are many reasons that people are not as healthy as they should be. A better way of looking at it is: people aren’t as healthy as they WANT to be. That is the reality of the situation and that is what leads us to the biggest problem we have.

What is our biggest problem? We don’t want real solutions. We want the quick fix and instant gratification. We want results without effort. We want change to happen to us without actually making any changes in our lives. This is our big problem and it is not going away without some major changes.

There is only one way to solve this problem: Get Real.
We have to get real. We have to realize that change is something only we can do. No one can do it for you and if you don’t do it, no one can and no one else will. If we don’t realize this, we are going to keep going down the same path.

Based on conversation and our basic wants and needs, this path is not a path that anyone would choose, yet many of us are choosing it daily. When you ask someone the question: “Do you want to be healthy?” The answer is ALWAYS yes. There is not a person on this earth that would choose to be unhealthy if given the option. The strange part about this is that people are choosing to live unhealthy. They are choosing these health problems and choosing to go the wrong direction despite their desire to be healthy.

This sounds sick doesn’t it? It sounds like people are insane. It sounds like people are dumb and don’t understand. People are not dumb or insane. They are smart (for the most part) and know what they want. The problem is not their intelligence, sanity or education. Their problem is reality. They are living in one and trying to be healthy in another.

That is what we need to fix. Health needs to be a part of everyday life. If health is a part of real life, we can make real changes and see real results. That is the only way people are going to be able to do it. You have to find real solutions that work for you on a day to day basis in order to live healthy. You have to apply these solutions daily by breaking them down into simple steps. These simple steps will bring you real results.

Living healthy is not something that only some can do. It is something that we are all capable of. The results are real as long as the actions are too. In other words, in order to live healthy, you have to get real.

Health: Simple Steps for Simple Results

Health can be overwhelming. There are a million things to think about. How much do you eat, what do you eat, when do you exercise, what do you do when you exercise, where do you go, who do you ask, what do you look for…
The list can go on for hours if you are really trying to focus on health improvement. Or it can stop pretty quickly if you are overwhelmed and can’t think about it anymore and give up. Unfortunately, for most people, the second option is not only more likely, but has become the norm.

It feels more difficult to live healthy than it does to just “do whatever”. We all know what happens when you “do whatever”. You really do what is easy. That is ok if the results you are looking for are a continued decline in your health. It is not ok if you want to improve or even maintain your health at a certain level.

So, what do you do? You dive into a program that shows you “the right way” or read articles and watch programs designed to show you “the right way”. The way that they are showing you is very complex and specific to a certain philosophy. The program may work. It may actually be a good thing to do. The problem is that you have to think differently and act drastically differently than you are used to acting.

This makes changing quite difficult. When the only changes in front of you are sweeping and drastic, it will be difficult to make them. If changes are smaller and easier to manage, you can expect to complete them and be successful.

This is the mistake that most people make. When you go to the grocery store, there are a million choices and possibilities. Rather than defeat yourself before you even get there, make a small list of two or three items that you want to make sure you pick up. Going to the store is already a plus and will have positive impact on your routine. Getting a few choice items that you planned on will give you another step in the right direction and help you feel like you are getting the hang of the process.

Keeping it Simple

Food tip: Don’t worry about every detail on every label. Don’t worry about the difference in nutrient level between this vegetable and that one. Don’t try to change everything about your diet in one day. If you are eating fast food a lot, pick a level that would be a measureable improvement and stick to it. Don’t try to cut it all out immediately.

Exercise tip: Don’t try to run a marathon this week. If you are sedentary, don’t expect to be a on a world-class athlete’s training schedule next week. The only way to get started is to get started, but if you try to do too much too soon you can a) injure yourself and b) get extremely discouraged when you miss one workout when life happens in week two…or week one.

The moral of the story is: keep health simple and you can do it. If you make it too complicated, you will simply out-smart yourself and make it too hard. The longer you do it, the more intricate and advanced your process can be. I’m not saying that it isn’t good to be focused on the details and finding every way to live healthier. I’m just saying that if you don’t accomplish anything because your “perfect routine” is too hard to stick with, you might as well not do anything.

And that is the problem. Most people are saying that right now. “If I can’t do it, I may as well not even try.” That is the attitude that many of us have when it comes to health. The truth is, we can all do it. It doesn’t have to be difficult. As long as you are willing to put in a little time and make small changes, you can live healthy.

In fact, living healthy is pretty simple as long as you make it simple. The best way to make health simple is to focus on small, simple steps. When you can get a few simple steps going, you can start working on the next ones. As you work on these steps you will continue to see results. It’s all about simple steps for simple results.

Change Your Actions, Change Results

Change is part of our lives. It always has been and always will be. The only thing that is certain in this life is that things will change. Health is not only changing, but it requires us to change in order to keep it, improve it or simply understand how it is affecting our lives.

No matter how healthy or unhealthy your lifestyle is today, you have experienced change in your routine. It may be on the job, at school, at home, with friends or all of the above. At some point, you had to make changes in order to keep doing things you wanted to do. Change, while it can be painful, is not difficult to acknowledge or understand.

Although we have understood the presence of change, I’m not sure that everyone has truly accepted the fact that they need to change in order to keep moving in the desired direction. Change in health is simple: it is simple: you have a path that you want to go down. As you move down this path, challenges come your way that require you to adjust in order to keep going down that path. If you don’t adjust, you won’t be able to continue. It is like a personal road block. If something is in your way, you have to change course in order to get around that obstacle.

What if we don’t change?

What happens if we choose not to adjust our course? That’s simple. If you are on a road driving and there is a fallen tree blocking the way, you have to make a choice. You can change and go another way, or you can sit and wait for someone to move the fallen tree. You still have two choices, but one is far more reasonable than the other. I don’t know too many people that would sit and wait for someone to move the tree.

Let’s think about it from a personal perspective. If your family is running into a scheduling conflict and there seems to be no way to get one event or another, you have a simple choice to make. You can adjust your schedule and change how your time is allocated, or you can keep doing it the same way and hope the situation magically resolves itself. This sounds a lot like the fallen tree, doesn’t it? If you are waiting for something to magically happen that will change the results, you will be waiting around for a long time and may never see a solution.

How do we change?

Change is a scary word to many people. In fact, many people will continue do things that are clearly not working for them because the fear of change is greater than the problems they are dealing with now. For that reason, they are ok continuing to deal with more and more problems because that feels easier than changing. After a while, they get used to doing things this way, used to dealing with problems and results that are less-than desirable. It eventually feels like there is no alternative.

Let’s be clear: There is always an alternative. There is always something you can do to make your life better. No matter how long you have been doing something, you can always change. No matter how much time you have invested in a process, you can always make it better. When you do, you will see better results.

There is one thing required for solutions to work in your routine. Action needs to be taken. No matter how badly you want that schedule to work out for you and your family, if you don’t change something, you will keep into conflicts. No matter how badly you want to that tree to be out of your way, unless you are willing to act and change course, it will remain in front of you, blocking your way.

What do we need to change?

In order to change, you need to take action. In many cases, it is easy to see that a person is not doing anything to counteract a problem, but in just as many cases there is something being done, action being taken that is actually causing the problem. Either way, you have problems if this is taking place. Doing nothing and doing things that harm your health are equal and often difficult to distinguish.

That is why the key to change is action. Not only do you need to take action, but you need to focus your action on the results you want. There are certain results you are looking for in all areas. If these results are not seen, what happens? Do you simply keep trying to do the same things and expect different results? Do you do nothing and assume that the problem can’t be solved forgo those results?

I hope you don’t do any of the above. I hope you would look at current results, realize that they weren’t the desired results and change action to get different results. That is what successful people do. They change their actions to change their results.

What does this have to do with your health?

Personal health and wellness is change. When you look at your current routine, if you are not as healthy as you want to be, you have likely been out of the habit of doing healthy things or in the habit of doing unhealthy things. The change you need here is simply to start making your actions help your health rather than hurt them. That is what healthy people do. It’s all about changing action to change results.

That is what it takes to change in any area of life. It may take time and it may take some investment, but the alternative is already happening and it is hurting you. Increasing weight and health issues are pretty big tree in the road. Poor energy and lost days are large conflicts in your schedule. So, what should you do?

I hope you will look at your current results, realize that they aren’t the desired results and change action to get different results. That is what successful people do in any area of life. They change their actions to change their results. Are you ready to be successful in health?

Healthy Mistakes

When people talk about health, they often talk about improvement or learning how to be better at certain things. There are few major components that we all think about that impact our health. The better you are at the major components, the healthier you are going to be.

It’s not terribly complicated. If you are good at eating healthy, you will be healthy. If you are good at exercising, you will be healthy. How do you get good at these things? You have to practice. It’s just like any other skill that you have learned. To become good at anything, you have to practice.

Practice makes perfect, right? Well, that is the theory. That is what we all strive for, but the idea of being perfect is more appealing than the actual pursuit of perfection. And the reality is, none of us will ever be perfect. Perfection is not something we can actually achieve in any area of life and health is no exception.

That is the problem with trying to be perfect. It won’t happen. Why do we think it will? I’m not sure why, but many of us do it, some more than often, but we have all been there. Especially in health, perfection almost seems possible. At least on paper, we all think that we should be able to do it.

The biggest problem in this pursuit is that we judge ourselves so harshly. When we make a small mistake, we treat it as if it were a catastrophic situation and it derails us completely. We are so hard on ourselves that we can’t recover and we continue to make other mistakes. Why do we do this? Did we think that we weren’t ever going to make a mistake? I’m not sure, but we all do it in one aspect or another. Health is an area that we tend to do it more than others.

What are mistakes?

Mistakes are nothing more than speed bumps. Mistakes are things that slow us down on our journey to health. That is a simple way of looking at it and it is a positive way of looking at it. That may be enough to make you feel like we are trying to be a cheerleader and tell you that health is easy and all you have to do is get over that “little speed bump” and you will be on your way to sure success.

Well, sure success doesn’t exist and I’m not here to tell you that anything is going to be easy. Health, of all things is never easy for anyone. It is not automatic and it won’t be a sure thing for you, me or anyone on this planet.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about what a mistake is. It’s simple, a mistake simply a missed try. A mistake is an attempt at something that didn’t go the way you wanted it to go. While we are at it, let’s talk about what a mistake is NOT. A mistake is not the end of your routine. A mistake is not the proof that you can’t do something.

What do we gain from mistakes?

If you are willing to look at mistakes in a way that will help you make progress, you will gain a lot from mistakes. Mistakes teach us. Mistakes show us that we did something wrong. When we make a mistake, we know that we have to do something differently next time. If we don’t make mistakes, how do we know how to improve upon anything? We don’t. That is why mistakes are critical to progress. When you make a mistake, you gain a perspective that you didn’t have before. You may not know a better way just yet, but you know what doesn’t work. Sometimes knowing what doesn’t work is the best thing we can learn. That way we won’t keep trying to do it.

Mistakes are healthy. Provided we learn from them and don’t let them derail us, we can learn from mistakes. If you don’t make any mistakes, you aren’t trying hard enough. When we challenge ourselves, we make mistakes. When we challenge ourselves, we also grow and get better. This is no coincidence. The mistakes are what teach us and help us learn better ways, which lead to growth and improvement.

If you want to live healthy, you have to be willing to make mistakes. You have to be willing to try a new routine. You have to be willing to try to put certain things into your day despite the fact that they will be challenging. You have to be willing to try and you have to be willing to fail. Mistakes are little. Failure is final. Failure, true failure, only occurs when you quit something. When you quit something, you may stop making mistakes, but you also stop growing and getting better.

When it comes to health, if you are not growing and getting better, your health isn’t either. You need to focus on your routine, break it down into small steps and execute those steps day in and day out. Each month, week and even each day, you will make mistakes. As you do try more and more ways to do healthy things, your routine gets healthier and so do you. Mistakes are part of health. As you continue to make health part of your life, you will continue to make mistakes. You will also get better and better at what you are doing, so when you think about it, you will eventually be making healthy mistakes.

Every Win Counts

When it comes to sports, wins are the most important thing. There is nothing more important than winning. It’s great to think about sportsmanship and lessons learned as the season goes on, but let’s be honest, winning is the only thing that matters. At the highest levels of sports, winning is the only thing on the minds of players and coaches because their performance is judged solely on the total of wins each year.

Health is all about wins too. In sports, you can clearly define wins and losses. At the end of the game, one team has more points than the other, so it is not difficult to know who wins and who loses. Health is a little different. At the end of the day, you don’t really have a scoreboard to tell you if you won or lost the day. You don’t have a scoreboard to look at during the day to see if you are winning or losing at any point either.

The lack of a score can make health more challenging. It is hard enough to live healthy. We all know it is a challenge to eat well and make time for exercise. The lack of awareness of results can make it even more challenging. There are a number of questions that come to mind for most people as they try to make health part of their lives. Some of those questions include:

How do I know if I am winning?
What should I do to win more?
What will I do if and when I win?

Let’s address these questions and make sure that winning is not only understood, but part of your routine going forward. The first question is easier to answer than you think it is. Winning is not as complicated as we make it out to be. Winning is simple when it comes to health. The best way to answer the question is to look at it a little closer.

How do I know if I am winning?

You know if you are winning or not. When you look in the mirror and when you get on the scale, you know if you are winning. When you think about your energy level during a typical day, you know if you are winning or not. When you look at your schedule and compare how much time you want to be spending on yourself and your health, you know quite clearly if you are winning and you know quite clearly if you are not winning.

What should I do to win more?

This question is even simpler. When you look at your routine, it is easy to see what you are doing and what you are not doing. Sure, there are challenges to doing what we want to do each day. There are challenges to eating what we should, moving like we should and making time for ourselves. Winning itself is not easy. What is easy? It is easy to read the scoreboard. I know we talked about not having a daily scoreboard to judge winning or losing, but we can easily tell in long-term results or lack there-of.

What will I do if and when I win?

This is an important question that most people aren’t asking themselves. Celebrating wins is one of the most important things we can do to insure more of them. Not only is it good motivation to get your moving toward your goals, but it is also a good reminder of the joy that you feel when you get that win. When you express that joy and truly live in the moment of success, you can keep yourself focused on the win and set yourself up to get the next one.

The problem with health and winning is that the games we play are so small and often we don’t even realize where one ends and another begins. That is where the lack of scoreboard comes in. It’s not that we can’t tell if we are winning or losing, it is more about the fact that each game may be a minute step that we overlook during a busy day. During the course of a busy day, we may have hundreds of possible wins…and loses that we may or may not even think about. At the end of the day, we do not have a scoreboard or scorecard to tell us what wins we got or even what games we played.

Again, this makes things more challenging because of the lack of clarity. One thing is clear when it comes to your health: every win counts. During your day, you have hundreds of opportunities to win. You may not have the perfect diet or the perfect exercise routine or even the perfect schedule. Guess what, you don’t need any of these things. All you need to do is focus on the little wins. Big wins are nothing more than little wins added together.

When you see a team win an important game, they don’t win it with one play. They win it with a series of plays in a game-plan that is executed throughout the game. When you see a team that has a successful season, they don’t win the championship in one game. They win over the course of the entire season. Every win they get throughout the year adds up to determine their positioning at the end of the year. They don’t simply arrive in the championship game to get one win and take home all the glory.

In sports and in health, wins don’t come easy, but they all count. Every game you play during a season is important. In health, every game you play is important as well. You may think of that mid-morning snack as an afterthought, but it could mean the difference between a healthy snack and another junk-food binge that leaves you feeling like you lost the day.

It is important to focus on the big things, but the small things are equally if not more important to living healthy. The more you can do on a day to day basis for your health, the more wins you will get. Everything you do counts toward a win or a loss. Everything you do is important. Every win is important. If you want to live healthy, you have to realize one thing: Every win counts.

Spring Clean Your Routine

Spring is finally here! Depending on where you live, you may be excited for a change or you may already be used to warm weather by now. Either way, spring is a great time of year that brings back fond memories for all of us and keeps us looking forward optimistically. Why do we love spring so much? Well, we love it for the same reasons that we can use the season for positive change:

Renewal: Spring gives us a sense of new. Everywhere you look, you see reminders of a new season and a new chapter in the year. Use it to reach your goals!

Outdoor Access: Now that the weather is getting warmer, it is only natural that we can get out more often and stay out longer when we do. The fresh air can rejuvenate us from day to day and even help rejuvenate our entire routine.

Spring is a great time to take inventory of your routine and decide if there is any “spring cleaning” needed. Even if it’s just a minor adjustment, this is the perfect time to make it. It’s just like cleaning out the garage. It is a good time to do it and here are some steps that will make it easier.
What can you do to spring clean your routine? (How does it compare to cleaning out the garage?)

Revisit your current routine (Taking inventory)

Before you start making changes, you have to know what you are doing now. Ask yourself a few simple questions:
What are you doing for your health now? (What is in the garage now?)
What challenges have I run into lately? (What items do we really need to move or get rid of?)

Plan your future routine (Clearing out the junk and moving things out)

Now that you see what your current routine looks like and what challenges you want to fix, you can start making plans to adjust. There are a few more simple questions to ask yourself at this point:
What do I want to be doing? (What do I want to keep and what do I want to throw away?)
When/Where do you want to do these activities? (Where are you going to put the items you are keeping?)

Execute (Reorganize and put things away so you can actually use them!)

Go out and do it! This is the best part about your routine and cleaning the garage. It is the time when your needs, plan and action all come together. It’s not the easiest part of the job, but when you do it, you see rewards.

No matter what you are doing, there is something very satisfying about setting and reaching goals. Whether you are revamping your exercise routine, your diet or actually cleaning out a room in your house, when you put a plan together, take the time to make it happen and see the result you were looking for, there is nothing better. You wanted to do something, you did it and now you can see the results.

Health may not always be as immediate. You don’t always see results quickly, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t happening. Just make sure that your plan is realistic, give yourself a realistic timeline to execute (you wouldn’t try to clean out the garage in 5 minutes) and you will be on your way to a healthy and happy spring.

Have a Healthy Spring!

Goals: Set and Let Your Habits Do the Rest

Setting goals is an important part of any part of our lives. If you want to accomplish something, you have to set goals and take steps toward them in order to be successful. That is the essence of goal-setting: taking measureable steps toward success. Taking steps toward success is more than just wanting to do something. When you set a goal it is turning an idea into action.

Goals are easy, staying aligned with the goals we set is where the challenge comes in. If the accomplishment of goals was as easy as setting them, we would all be wildly successful. Every New Year’s Resolution would come to be and we wouldn’t ever have to question it. The facts and our experience strongly show us that setting goals and accomplishing them are two very different steps in an important process.

So, what do we need to do to make accomplishing goals part of setting them? Well, once you are in the habit of setting realistic goals that work for you, it becomes that automatic. At least it feels automatic. Think about it this way:

When you get in the car and put on your seatbelt, you are doing so for a number of reasons:
1. Safety- you know that a seatbelt can mean the difference between safety and serious injury or even death if you don’t wear it.
2. Legal- you know that if you are pulled over and not wearing a seatbelt, you will be given a ticket for not obeying a basic traffic law.

These are the reasons you are using a seatbelt in your car. You do this every time you get in and drive anywhere. You do this each time, no matter where you are going and no matter how rushed you are. If you are taking a leisurely drive, you put your seatbelt on. If you are hustling to get to a meeting, you put your seatbelt on. You put your seatbelt on no matter what.

How did this become automatic? Wearing your seatbelt in the car became automatic because we know how important it is. We have two very clear motivators to keep us from neglecting this habit. Bodily harm is a good motivator and so are tickets and fines. These motivators are important and will keep us on track with our goals of not dying. They are helping us keep as much of our money as possible and keeping our driving record clean all at the same time.

The motivators behind goals are important to get you going and to help you start making changes to see the results you want. When you think about health, there are many motivators that become a factor to get us moving. Improved daily feeling, avoidance of long-term health issues, weight loss and other factors are enough to get and keep most of us setting and reaching goals to live healthier.

Motivators are important, but the biggest factor in our health is our habits. The habits of diet and exercise are what bring us the results we are looking for, or keep us from seeing them. If your habits are in line with your goals, you will see the results you want. If they are not, you will struggle and not see the results you want to see.

In other words, our habits are the most important factor in success. Remembering that success is nothing more than setting and reaching goals: our habits are what allow us to reach goals by making the actions part of our daily routine.

Often, the most influential things we do are things we no longer think about. When you put your seatbelt on, you don’t have to think about it. You do it every time, yet it doesn’t even enter your conscious thought most times because it has become so automatic. The motivators are there. You could recall in an instant WHY you are wearing your seatbelt, but you don’t have to think about it in order to do it.

That is what healthy living habits become for healthy people. You know WHY you are eating healthy foods and getting your exercise in each day. You know why you are doing this day in and day out, but you don’t have to think about it because you have set goals and made the action part of your daily routine.

It gets easy. It may be a challenge to get started, but trust me, the more you do something, the more you will be able to do it without it feeling difficult. The longer you do something, anything, the more natural it becomes. As it becomes more natural, you won’t be thinking so hard about the reasons you are doing it or the alternatives to doing it. You will just do it.

The best part about success is that you are reaching goals you wanted to reach. What is success? Success is when:
You set goals.
You are motivated to achieve your goals.
You develop habits that help you achieve your goals.
You achieve your goals.

The first step is to set your goals. If you set them, write them down and understand why you want to reach them, the habits that are necessary to reach them become clear and you can easily make them part of your routine.

As you do that and they become more and more natural for you, you will see success. Setting goals and keeping focus on the action is the best way to develop the habits you need to succeed. It is your habits that are going to help you reach your goals. So, if you want to be successful, set goals and let your habits do the rest.

New Year, New Start

Each year, we push through the holiday season and all of its craziness. When January rolls around, we have a chance to wipe the slate clean and set new goals. A detailed plan makes it possible to stay on track and reach your 2013 goals. If you are going to be successful, your routine has to be in line with your plans and goals. Hopefully you have a plan to meet your goals. Hopefully your plan is more than just a “resolution” made as the year ended.

Your health and wellness impact your life in many ways. The cost of your future medical care and the current cost of insurance and other medical needs are impacted. This all leads to overall financial impact. Your day to day energy, mood and ability to get through the day are impacted as well. You can choose to impact these areas positively or negatively.

The more you make health part of your routine, the better you will feel and the better you will function. It’s no secret that health works and it’s no exaggeration to say that everyone wants to be healthy. This year, you can make it the year that you meet your goals. Since it is January we have a fresh start and we already have New Year’s resolutions on our minds, so we have a few questions for you on an individual level as we kick off 2013:

What are your goals?
What do you want to change about your health?

If you want to see any changes, you have to have a plan and you have to take action. The most important question is:
What is your plan to reach your goals?

We challenge you to put together a plan that works for you and will keep you achieving your goals all year long:

• Write your goals down
• Tell someone about your goals
• Think about what challenges or barriers you may encounter
• Create specific steps to overcome these challenges and barriers
• Determine how you will measure your progress
• Decide what rewards you will give yourself to celebrate success along the way

No one wants to look back and wish they had started sooner, so get going now! No matter what your goals are, you can get started now and set yourself up for a healthy year. Even small steps now will pay dividends later in the year.

We continue to hear about the healthcare crisis, obesity and diabetes epidemics and many other health problems around our country. Clearly, living healthy is not easy. Deciding to focus on improving health might be easier than actually doing it, but getting started can be overwhelming. It all starts when you do. And you can start anywhere at any time.

Getting started is important, but sustaining the momentum is even more important. January is a great time to get things moving, but it is only the beginning. This is the first step in a long-term plan that will provide long-term results. We want you and your family to be successful in life and in health. That is why we are here to support you. Hopefully your year is off to a great start and you are on track with your goals. If you haven’t set goals, now is a great time to do it. Let’s make 2013 a successful, happy and healthy year!

Happy New Year from The Wellness Division!

Hard to beat someone that never gives up (Personal Wellness)

Health is something that we all talk about. It is something that we all think about. Is it something that we all are doing something about? That is where things get a little less clear. We all want to be healthy. The difference between wanting to be healthy and being healthy is a finer line that most people think.

Let’s think about a healthy routine for a minute: you have to exercise, eat mindfully and take time for yourself to do these things on a daily basis. While everyone is busy wanting to live healthy, those that are living healthy are busy…living healthy.

What is the difference? Well, it’s not a matter of will or determination. It is not a matter of being stronger or being a healthy person or not. Living healthy comes down to the ability to keep going. The ability to get up when you’ve fallen down is the only way to live healthy.

The great baseball player, Babe Ruth once said: “It’s hard to beat someone that never gives up.”

This is true in all areas of life. Since we are talking health, let’s keep it focused on that area. How often does living healthy get difficult? That is a trick question, because living healthy is always difficult. The day to day can be a challenge and keeping it going week in and week out, month in and month out gets even more challenging.

The key is to keep going. When things get difficult, you have to find ways to overcome the challenge. When you get knocked down, and you will get knocked down, you have to do three things:

1. You have to decide that you are going to get up.
2. You have to figure out the best way to get up.
3. You have to decide where you are going to go when you get up.

Try it

When you set a goal, you are trying to do something. When you are simply thinking or talking about it, you haven’t tried anything yet. It may be take energy to focus on the goal even before you get started, but you haven’t gotten started yet. When you start trying, you will be putting in real energy and real time.
Get up and try again

This is a good start, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be set-backs. When you get started and start getting some progress made, there are going to be days that get difficult. There will be challenges that make you wonder if you can keep going or not. There are even going to be moments that make you feel like you can’t go on.

That’s right, there are going to be times that you have fallen and don’t know if you can get back up again. Guess what: you can get back up again.
Where will you be if you quit?

You have to keep going. You have to get up and you have to move on. Where will you be if you don’t get up and keep going? What will you have accomplished? Have you reached your goal? Are you going to be satisfied if you stop now? Probably not. That is why you have to keep going.

What progress DID you make?

It is one thing to say that you want to keep going. It is another thing all together to actually do it. That is where thinking and talking turn into doing. You have to look at where you were when you fell down. Did you get as far as you wanted to get? Probably not. Now it is time to think about what you need to do to keep going. You have to pick yourself up and get moving again. One way to do that is to look at the progress that you DID make. When you can look at your routine and realize that you made some progress, it is easier to start getting back on track because you are not starting from square one again. You don’t have to go back to the beginning.

What’s next?

Now that you have decided to get back up again, what are you going to do? What is the plan? The sooner you set a plan and get going on it. When you get your plan in motion, you are free to make choices and do what will make it work for you. If you run into challenges, you have to remember the reasons you started doing this in the first place. If you still want to reach your goals, why would you stop pursuing them? Why would you give up?

After all, if you don’t give up, you can’t lose. That is the beauty of health. The more you do, the more you get. As long as you get up and keep going, you get results.
When Babe Ruth was talking about not giving up, he was right. Baseball takes perseverance and determination. So does health, but in health, you are even more likely to succeed if you are willing to keep going. As long as you don’t give up, you can’t lose when it comes to health. In other words, it is hard to beat someone who never gives up.

Find Your Way

When you look at your health routine, what do you see? Are you making time for yourself and living healthy? Or are you wishing you were making time for yourself and living healthy? Of course, there are many points in between these two extremes, but for many it feels like you are on one end or the other.

The reality is, most of us are somewhere in the middle. We make some time for ourselves and get some results. We may not be making as much time as we want and therefore not living quite as healthy as we want to be living, but if you are making SOME time, you are doing something right.

What are you doing right? Let’s start there. This is often the key to success. Obviously doing things right is important. However, the real value in this is not just doing something right, it is knowing what to do so that you can do it and most importantly, being able to understand why it works so you can keep doing it.

That is the difference between someone that can continue with a successful routine. It works in any area of life. When you look at a successful business person, they have a deliberate plan, a process in place that continues to give them the results they are looking for and they make time to keep that process going according to plan.
The same goes for a top-level athlete. They are talented, yes. They are able to do things that most others cannot. The reason that they are able to excel among others with similar abilities is their ability to focus on their strengths, keep practicing and perfect certain techniques. These techniques can include certain strategies that give them advantages over someone that simply “plays the game”. There is a difference between preparing to play and simply playing.

Health is nothing more than a skill-set. In fact, health is a skill-set that we all have. We can all eat healthy foods and move our bodies. We all learned how to do these things without even thinking about it. Our childhoods were filled with movement, play and other activities that kept us in great shape whether we knew it or not. The foods we ate were the foods that were in front of us. Sure, we all recall having to stomach something that wasn’t as fun, but for the most part, fruits and veggies are not magically introduced upon adulthood.

We have the skills do to the things that get us and keep us healthy. We are born with those or we learn them as part of everyday life. What we don’t have automatically is the routine to keep these things going or the plan to make them work when things get more challenging. That is why many of us are not getting the experience we want out of health.

What can you do to get the experience you want out of health? You have to find a way. There are ways to do it in every routine. I don’t care how much time you have or don’t have. I don’t care how busy you are. I don’t even care how much you dislike certain foods or exercise. You can find a way as long as you see the value for yourself.

If you want to do something, you will find a way to do it. If you want to do something, you will find YOUR way to do it. That is the key to success. It has to be your way, or it won’t work for you. Here are some steps you can take to find your way to good health:

Step 1- Think about the little things you can do to improve your health
Take a step, any step toward good health. You know what it means to be healthy and you know what you are doing or not doing in your routine. There is no excuse. Even a small step will lead to changes as long as you keep doing it.

Step 2- When you find a small step that works for you, cling to it and commit to keeping it going
No matter how small and insignificant you think something is, it will lead you in the right direction if it becomes part of your routine.

Step 3- Keep an eye on what is working…and what isn’t
The key to setting your routine in stone is making sure that it is working. Keep track of your schedule. You can do this with as much detail or effort as you see fit. Don’t over-complicate things, but if you know which days and times are requiring certain things, you can be sure to properly allocate your tasks.

This is just three steps and if you can do these you are not only off and running, but you are focusing on ways to keep going and you are positioned to make improvements along the way. It really is that simple: take a step by starting something…anything, keep it going if it works, change what you are doing if it doesn’t and keep a close eye on what is and isn’t working, so you can continue to adjust but keep the good parts moving in your routine.

Health is not about being perfect. No one is perfect and no one ever will be. Health is not about staying with some magic formula that you saw on TV or that your friend told you about. Health is about doing what works for you. Health is about finding your own way. If you want to live healthy, you have to find your routine. You have to find your way.

Immediate Action, Long-term Results

Everyone knows that health is a good thing. We all want to be healthy. No one woke up this morning and said: “I want to feel terrible.” Or “I want to be sick and have all sorts of health problems.” No one wants that. No matter how poorly someone takes care of themselves, they don’t want to be sick and out of health. They want to be healthy. Everyone wants to be healthy.

If everyone wants to be healthy, why are there so many people in poor health? Why are so many people overweight? Why is diabetes on the rise? All of these issues are due to lack of action. Or, a better way to look at it: The action that people are taking is the action that is leading to these results.

No matter what action you take, it will bring you results. If you practice healthy habits, you get healthy results. If you fall into unhealthy habits, you will see poor results. In other words, if you focus on actions that will bring you positive results, you get positive results. If you focus on actions that bring you negative results, you get just that, negative results.

That is easy to understand. That is why most people are at least trying to live healthy. Most people know that if they do something, they will get some results that they want out of their action. It’s true. They will get results based on what they are doing. This is no secret and is simple to understand.

What is not so simple to understand is the relation of today and tomorrow. The things that you do today are the results you get tomorrow. When I say today and tomorrow, I am speaking figuratively. That is part of the challenge. We all see it that way. When we are taking action today, we actually expect it to lead to results tomorrow. We expect things we do to yield instant results. When we do something positive that is. When we do something negative, that is a different story.

When we do something that leads to negative results, we not only expect it to lead to results in the distant future, we even talk ourselves into believing that they may not occur at all or that the results won’t be “as bad”. This is clearly a recipe for disaster when you consider that the results you get are directly related to the actions that you are taking. Good or bad, you get what you put in.

What does that mean? It means that what we do today, does lead to results tomorrow. The challenge lies in your definition of tomorrow. If tomorrow is literally the next day, you may not notice a drastic change from one day to another. This can be a difficult thing when you are taking positive actions for your health. This can be an easy, yet devastating thing if you are taking negative actions against your health.

The solution to this problem is simple. If you can think about your actions for what they are, you can justify taking them. They are what brings you your results.

Positive actions bring positive results. If you can stick with them, you know what you are going to get. Just don’t forget that. Keep in mind that tomorrow will be today when it comes around. If you did what you needed to do yesterday, you got what you wanted today. The more you do that, the easier it is to see the small results that add up to big results and allow you to keep each today focused on actions that lead to the tomorrow you want.

Negative actions bring negative results. If you can remember that the actions you are taking will lead to results, you can take a moment to make sure they are in line with what you want. Keep your eyes on the long-term results, because your immediate actions are bringing them to you. Like it or not, you are getting results based on your actions.

Fitting Exercise In: Next Steps

We all know how important exercise is. We all know that there are many benefits to exercising. Unfortunately, we also know how difficult it can be to fit exercise in. That is why I’ve written countless articles about why it is worth fitting it in despite the challenges. The difficulty you have fitting in exercise now pales in comparison to the difficulties you will face later in life.

Exercise isn’t just about weight loss. Exercise is about quality of life. And despite the stigma it gets among those that don’t want to do it or find it too hard to do, exercise is something that you will enjoy. Even if you don’t enjoy each and every session, I assure you that the results will be enjoyed. Think about the benefits of exercise for a moment. These benefits include:

1. Weight Control

When you burn calories, you lose weight. When you don’t burn them, you gain weight. It’s simple and we all know it.

2. Long-term Health

Exercise prevents many chronic conditions and helps you live a longer life. Certain risk factors (like heart disease, diabetes to name a few) can be dramatically reduced for a longer life and more healthy and enjoyable years.

3. Mood Boosting

Exercise is proven to boost mood and is even being used by therapists to treat depression.

4. Energy

Exercise wakes the body up and helps you get going. It works at any time of the day, so get moving for more energy.

5. Sleep Improvement

Exercise helps us regulate sleep patterns. By moving more during the day, we are better able to shut down at night.

Do any of the things on this list sound bad? Do any of them sound like things you should be avoiding? Of course not! They are all things we want every single day. We want to be healthy, feel good and have more energy. No matter who you are, I can guarantee that these are things you would like to have in your life.

Well, are they in your life? If so, you have realized the importance and started taking action. If not, why are they still not part of your life? Is it because you haven’t found a way to fit exercise in? This is not uncommon. In fact, it’s the norm. Most people are not active. About 30% of Americans don’t exercise at all.
Why is this? We know all of the good things that exercise brings, so why are we still not doing it? It’s simple: we are not finding ways to fit exercise in. It is simple to understand why exercise is good. It is also simple to understand why people are not able to get enough. We all have busy schedules, obligations and not enough time to complete them. That is no surprise.

It is not so simple to understand how to fit exercise in. That is a big reason that so many are not fitting it in. It takes planning, preparation, dedication and motivation. It takes what some think is too much. But, I don’t think it takes as much as everyone thinks. I think it takes one step on one day and a willingness to stick with it. Sticking with it doesn’t mean gritting your teeth and doing something you don’t like. It just means adjusting so that you can do something to keep it going.

We will get into that later. First, let’s take a look at some tips for fitting exercise in:

1. Know Your Schedule

Sit down and take a few minutes to determine what times would work for you. It is easy to say: “Oh, I’ll fit it in at some point.” How has that worked in the past? Exactly, if you don’t have time, you won’t do anything. You have to look for realistic times and realistic blocks of time.

2. Use Your Schedule

It’s not enough to say: “I’m going to start working out every morning.” You have to think about what makes sense for your schedule and your comfort level. Once you have don’t that, put those times on your calendar. The more formal you are with your schedule, the more likely you are to stick with it.

3. Own Your Schedule

Once something goes on your calendar, remember how it got there. You put it there! If you put it there, only you can take it off. If you have something important and beneficial to yourself on the calendar, there is only one reason to take it off. That one reason: If something is more important and more beneficial to you. I didn’t say “more urgent”, I said more important. There will always be urgent things that come about. These things are not important. They may scream for your attention, but unless we are talking about an actual emergency, urgent does NOT equal important. Put it on, don’t take it off. The little things can wait until you are done. In fact, they may even feel easier because you are energized.

4. Keep Your Schedule

It does you no good to hit it hard for a week and then quit. Don’t think that exercise is going to be something that you start and instantly perfect. It will take time to work your way into a routine. Many people do it without thinking about it, but many others still struggle to fit it in. The difference is the first 3 steps. The next factor is looking at those steps in a long-term view. You have to know that you are doing to do this for a long time. I even suggest thinking about what you want to do for the rest of your life. It sounds extreme, but how many days in a row are you going to do that fad workout program? How many times are you going to force yourself to go to the gym that is too far away just because got a deal?

You already know the reasons for fitting exercise in. You know that you want to do it and you know why you want to do it. These are really the next steps. Apply them and know that the more you try, the better it will work. The longer you can commit the more results you will get. The list of results is long and it makes no sense to fight it. The difference between success and failure is having a plan. These steps should be the first in your plan to fitting exercise in.

Fitting Exercise In

Exercise is one of those things that we love. Exercise is also one of those things that we hate. Actually, I don’t know too many people that had exercise. I know a few, but most just hate trying to get exercise in. They hate the idea of changing the routine or the thoughts that come to mind when they think about the possibility
of squeezing exercise into their schedule.

Most people are talking about trying to fit in exercise, but very few are actually trying to fitting it in. What’s worse is that most people that are trying to fit it in are not even getting it. They are “trying” and not doing, so it doesn’t make a difference what they want to do until they do it, there is no exercise being fit in.

That is a problem for their health, their mood, their confidence, their sleep, their work, you name it and exercise (or lack of) is impacting the ability to perform. Let’s take a look at some of the positive impact that exercise has on your day to day life. Exercise gives us:

1. Weight Control

In case you’ve been living under a rock, I have a breaking story for you: Exercise helps you maintain a healthy weight. When you burn calories, you lose weight. When you don’t burn them, you gain weight. It’s simple and we all know it.

2. Long-term Health

Exercise prevents many chronic conditions and helps you live a longer life. When you exercise, there are certain risk factors (like heart disease, diabetes to name a few) that you can dramatically reduce. This means longer life and more healthy and enjoyable years throughout your life.

3. Mood Boosting

Have you ever tried working out to start your day? If you have, you likely swear by it and even feel off if you haven’t had your workout. What about the afternoon or evening? Have you ever felt tired and cranky? We have all been there. Exercise is proven to boost mood and is even being used by therapists to treat depression.

4. Energy

Those that workout in the morning know this to be true: Exercise gives you more energy. Not only will you have more stamina throughout each day, but after a workout you will actually have more immediate energy. It wakes the body up and helps you get going. It works at any time of the day, so get moving for more energy.

5. Sleep Improvement

Can’t sleep at night? Try exercising the next day and you will sleep like a baby the next night. Exercise helps us regulate sleep patterns. By moving more during the day, we are better able to shut down at night. It sounds too simple to be true, but it is. Burn more energy during the day and you will sleep better at night.

This is just 5 items on a list as long as your arm. Actually, it is longer than your arm and longer and continues to get longer every day. Scientists are still discovering new ways that exercise impacts our lives. We could talk about the benefits of exercise all day, but that wouldn’t help you see those benefits.

In order for exercise to impact your life, you have to do it. That is the only catch. It’s great to know how good it is and to learn about the benefits, but if you don’t do it, you don’t get any of those benefits. I don’t think people are forgetting the benefits. I don’t think that anyone would choose to deal with chronic conditions knowing that all they have to do is exercise to prevent them.

I think it’s more than that. It goes back to fitting it in. More importantly, it goes back to making it part of your day so that it gets fit in rather than becoming a thought that you simply gave up. We are constantly fitting other things in. We” make time”, “shuffle things around” and “try to get it done” when it comes to every other are of life. We don’t want to let anyone down when they ask a favor or want us to be somewhere. What we don’t do is fit exercise in.

I think the reason we don’t fit exercise in is that we are looking at it in the wrong way. We are looking at exercise as something that we are supposed to do or we should be doing. We also look at it as an extreme version of itself. When I ask someone if they exercised today, they immediately start with the excuses for not exercising and the disclaimers about how they are “not an athlete”, “a fitness nut” or “Superman”, so today, it “just didn’t happen”.

In many cases, they are being true to their routine. But in many other cases, they are short-changing themselves and being quite self-defeating. When you walk, you are exercising. When you take the stairs, you are exercising. When you move instead of standing still, you are exercising. When you stand instead of sitting, you are exercising. Any time you are doing something that requires more movement than an alternative; you are giving your body what it needs. That is the good news. So, what’s the bad news? You need to do more of it!

That doesn’t mean that you have to join a gym or go buy running shoes. It doesn’t mean that your intensity or dedication is lacking. It just means that life as we know it promotes inactivity. It is easier to sit all day. In many cases, it is actually required. It is easier to move less and sit more at home, at work, in public places and anywhere else you may go.

Exercise is not going to just happen for you. And yet, we discourage ourselves as if it is supposed to. We will spend the day working, taking care of kids, friends, going to meetings, feeding pets and all sort of other things. These are all good and important things to do. Don’t get me wrong. But at the end of a day full of these things, we still discourage ourselves because we didn’t go to the gym or go for a long run.

We need to stop thinking about exercise as the gym or a run. We need to start realizing that exercise is easier than that. You can exercise at your desk. You can exercise at home. You can exercise in the airport or the mall. It doesn’t matter where you are. As long as you are willing to fit it in, you can exercise. The problem is not lack of time or space. The problem is lack of creativity. Move your body in any way in any place that you can. That is fitting exercise in.

Right Time, Right Move

Exercise has become a very interesting part of our lives. Even if you are not getting as much exercise as you want, it is not actually a part of your routine, it will always be part of your life. Exercise is something that we need. We did it daily as kids, it got more challenging as we got older and for most people it became something that we never do as adults.

This is a sad story. Not just because of the issues that follow when we don’t make exercise part of the day. We all know that weight is increasing, disease is becoming more common and healthcare is costing more and more every year. This is no coincidence. We all know that exercise can mean the difference between continuing this trend and making it a thing of the past.

The choice is yours. That doesn’t make it easy. What makes exercise so difficult? I hear a lot of excuses for not getting enough into each day. The most common reason given when the question is asked is:
“I don’t have time to exercise.”

I’m not surprised when I hear this. Not only do I hear it from many people, but I also understand just how busy everyone is. I am that busy myself. There are not enough hours in the day for everything that we need to do in our lives, let alone enough time to do everything that we want to do. The needs are hard enough, so the wants are a significant challenge.

It is hard to “find time” for anything in our lives. When it comes to exercise, we are constantly battling within. There is the part of you that knows you should do it and the part that sees the rest of the schedule and thinks that it is not possible. The battle rages daily for many of us and unfortunately it is a lop-sided battle with one side winning far more frequently than the other.

What’s worse is that many of us give up the battle completely after a certain point. It becomes more and more difficult to make exercise part of the day, so we simply give up. We figure that it won’t happen, so why try? Well, trying is not the problem. Even when you are losing the battle internally, if you are having the battle, you are trying.

Trying is an important key to the success of any plan. You can’t just come up with a plan and expect it to happen. You have to try. You have to execute in order for anything to happen. What that being said, execution seems to be the main problem with exercise.

When you put these two terms together, it actually makes exercise even simpler:
1. Trying is the most important key to success (of any plan)
2. Execution is the main problem (with any plan)

If trying is the key to success, all you have to do is be willing to give it some effort. Any effort should be enough to get something going. Especially with exercise, it doesn’t take much. Just look at the recommendations: 30 minutes of exercise is recommended to maintain a healthy weight, lowering risk of heart disease (cuts risk in half!) and other factors. 30 minutes is the length of one sitcom. 30 minutes is a lunch break or half of a lunch break if you get an hour. 30 minutes is not very much time. We find 30 minutes to surf the web. We find 30 minutes to watch TV. We find 30 minutes to drive to and from fast food restaurants. We find 30minutes to do all kinds of things, but we can’t find 30 minutes to get a little exercise?

Trying does not mean waiting to find time, trying means making time. When it comes to exercise, if we don’t make time, it won’t get done. There is nothing more clear to me in my journey as the fact that if we don’t make time, it won’t get done. Trying simply means making time, setting time aside and getting SOME exercise in.

The rest of that equation involves execution. The big problem with execution is the fact that we think we have to do it all before we even get started. When it comes to execution of exercise, many people are arguing that what they have time for is not enough or what they have access to is not the right kind of exercise for the results they want. Not true.

If you try to fit exercise in and you execute a plan, you can live healthy. This sounds overly simple, but it is true. Trying: looking for time, making time to fit exercise in. Execution: doing something, anything that is physically more active than sitting in a chair all day.

What is the right time to exercise?
When you can

What is the right amount of exercise?
As much as you can get

What is the right move?
The move that you do

These questions are clear and the answers are even clearer. If you can make time, you can exercise. We all make time for things we are told to do. We all make time for things that we don’t want to do, but simply think that they have to be part of the day. Exercise is something that we all want. Health, the result of our exercise is something we really want.

Any time you can devote to something you want is time well-spent. Any move you make toward something you want is the right move, especially when you are talking about something as simple as exercise. Do something active today. It will be the right time and it will be the right move.

Steady for Success

You can turn on the TV and it won’t take more than a few minutes before you see a health-related commercial. There are so many options out there, it can make your head spin. They all promise to get your in shape quickly, easily and that they have the “difference that you need” to finally get healthy.

These promises are funny to me because they are appealing to someone that has not been on track and wants to not only get on track, but to see results instantly. There is something to be said for results and getting them quickly. I can’t blame anyone for wanting this, but there is a fatal flaw in this thinking.

When you start a new workout plan or change your diet, you are doing more than burning more calories and taking in fewer calories. You are creating new habits. As you create those habits, you are making the new behaviors part of your routine. As the routine becomes more normal for you, it gets easier.

The only way to make it easy is to do it for a long time. Practice makes perfect is a saying that comes to mind. You can’t just jump out and start doing something and expect to lose weight instantly and have no difficulty. It doesn’t work that way.
It never has and it never will.

The promises that you see on TV are always going to be there. These companies are trying to sell a product. They need you to try their product and they are competing with other products that are offering quick and easy results. That is the gimmick that has been working on people for decades.

Think about it:
These companies continue to find new twists on the same workouts and new machines to offer you new ways to do the same workouts that you’ve done in the past. The biggest problem is not the convenience of these movements. It is not the new trainer on the video you just bought. It’s not even the fact that you were trying to do things the hard way.

The problem is not that you didn’t have this new video or machine in your life. The problem is that you never stuck with the last thing you tried. News flash: If you don’t stick with this one, it won’t work either.

The marketing for new exercise products is funny to me because they are promising something that is completely true. If you do an exercise program, any exercise program consistently over a period of time, you will see results. If you work really hard for a really long time, you will see great results. The marketing is funny to me because they can promise that all day and never give you what you actually need to make it all work.

The motivation and planning to execute your routine over an extended period of time is what you need to make exercise work. You already know what to do. You already know how to do it. If exercise “hasn’t worked in the past” for you, it is because you stopped doing it. It is not because you were doing it wrong. It is not because you didn’t have the right technology. It wasn’t because you had yet to see some revolutionary system that would be “the end of your struggle”.

I’ll say it again. If a routine, any routine hasn’t worked for you, it is not because it wasn’t the right routine. It didn’t work because you stopped doing it. Any routine that you do regularly is going to yield good results. Any product that you use will work if you actually use it.

What is the real secret? The secret to success in health lies in one word. There are many ways to be healthy. There are many ways to lose weight, many ways to get in shape. If you want to be healthy than your routine has to work for you. If you want it to work, the one word that has to be part of your plan is: steady.

The more you do something, the more it works. This is true in health and in every other area of life. If you buy the best workout DVD’s, have the most knowledgeable trainer in the world, it won’t matter if you can’t do it consistently. You have to be steady and do something regularly if you want it to do anything for you.

“Slow and steady wins the race”. It’s true. If you do something regularly, even if it is simple and modest, you will see better results over the long-term than if you try a few flashy things sporadically every few years. We’ve all seen the before and after pictures of the people that got on track with the latest craze. The will show you what someone was able to accomplish in 30 days or 90 days. What they won’t show you is that same person 90 days after they took that picture. They won’t show you what that person looks like 6 months or a year later.

Why won’t they show you the person after that after picture? They won’t show you that because they don’t promise you that. They can promise you (with a disclaimer) that you will get results in 30 days, but they won’t promise you that you can stick with it long enough to make it part of your routine. They can’t promise you that.
Only you can do that. You are the only one that can change your routine. It doesn’t matter what you do. If you do it and are steady with it, you will see results.

It’s actually quite simple. Don’t let marketing or technology make you feel like you don’t understand it. Health is the same as it always was. Just because there are new ways to workout doesn’t mean that you are out of the loop. It just means that someone found new way to do the same thing and packaged it differently.

The key is not the next best thing. The key is to be steady and consistent. If your routine is steady, you will be healthy.