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?

Don’t Quit Your Day

It doesn’t take long for a problem to become clear to most people. When a problem arises, it is usually obvious. You can look at a situation and know very quickly that there is something wrong. When that something starts, there is usually no denying that it is there.
Finding a problem is not hard. In fact, we often find more problems than we need to. This is true in all areas of life and it is most certainly true in health. We can find problems day and night in any activity that we are trying to do. Think about a typical day and ask yourself:

How many things could’ve gone better today?
Or
What did I see that I didn’t like?
Or
What happened today that frustrated me, made me angry or embarrassed?

Even these three questions could lead to a list of things on a normal day. We find little things in everyday life that add up and drive us crazy if we don’t manage them. Luckily, we usually get over these things pretty quickly. The little annoyances stay little and we move on. The next little thing that happens is usually associated with the last thing, so there isn’t much of a cumulative affect.

In health, there is a different story. Health is all about the little things. We try to make it about big things like diet and exercise, but it is really about the little things. Health is nothing more than a series of habits. The degree that your health is relates to the habits that you apply on a day to day basis.

When we go about your day and apply these habits, we run into roadblocks and get stuck. We get thrown off track. We don’t keep going because we get frustrated and feel like we can’t make it where we want to go.

As we get deeper into this, it is alreadysounding more and more ridiculous. I am picturing some hilarious situations where people are doing day to day activities, but getting thrown off by typical little things. What if instead of shaking it off and pushing through, they just gave up. What would that look like? What would it look like if…

- Someone walking through the airport got bumped into by another person causing them to drop their bag. The bag is heavy, so it takes some effort to pick up. “Too much effort, I guess I’ll just leave it here.”

- A person driving to work and encountering a traffic delay. They are going to be late for work, so rather than going in late, they get so frustrated that they decide not to go at all. “I can’t make it on time, so I just won’t go.”

- Another person goes to the shower and stubs their toe on the way in. This has happened before and it drives them crazy. It is frustrating and annoying and it hurts. For those reasons, they don’t want to go through this anymore, so they stop going into the shower. “I don’t want to stub my toe, so I won’t go in there anymore.”

These are just three scenarios that come to mind when I think about letting little things get to us. Sure, we complain about the day to day annoyances. Sure we get frustrated. We may even do silly things out of anger. We may let things bother us enough to feel like we are having a bad day. But we never quit. We never quit the day, just because it gets tough.

Why do we quit health? We know that we are going to do certain things during our day. We are going to work, school or events that we have on our calendars. We will be where we need to be for who we need to be there for. We will do everything that is asked of us, day in and day out. Even when things get challenging, we will find a way to keep going.

That is how important our day is. That is our life. All we have is each day. We are on a mission each day to accomplish our tasks and we take great pride in that. The key to health is making sure that it is part of the day. If you quit on a health goal, you are quitting on part of your day. We know what would happen if we quit on all or even part of a day’s tasks. On most days, we would run into serious trouble.

We know that isn’t an option, so we don’t do it. We just need to make health part of that list of “must-do” activities. We have to make health part of the day. We have to make it part of the day so we can’t skip it, pass it by or quit it. Don’t quit on your health by quitting on your day.

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.

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.

Want to Live Healthy: You Can

Living healthy is not easy. The more we see in the media, the more problems seem to be plaguing our country. If you are human, which I think you are if you are reading this, you likely see the problems and may even be experiencing some of them yourself.

Health is not something that comes easy to anyone. There are many people that have made it easy for them, but only after many years of hard work and practice. It may look easy for them now, but they had to build those habits. They had to work their way to where they are now. When you see them in action, it looks easy. It may even be easy for them now, but trust me, it was not easy to start and there are still difficult times for them when it comes to sticking with the routine.

The difference between healthy people and unhealthy people is nothing more than the habits and routines that they have worked on for a long time. Even with new habits, the process is the same for healthy people. They know what it will take to make something stick, so they do it and do it until it is part of their routine.

Unhealthy people look at these people and think that the process is easy for them. They think that it is hard for themselves, but easy for the healthy people and they think that the difference between them and the healthy people is the ease. That is not true. No matter how much you struggle with health, there is a way to do it. You can be successful.
You can also fail. This is not what you want to hear, but failure is always a possibility. If you are trying something new, you can fail. If you are working to include new habits into your routine, you can fail.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can discuss some real solutions. Here are some solutions to help you realize that you can:

Stop Fearing Failure

If you acknowledge that failure is an option, you can get over the fear of failure. The fear of failure is worse than failure itself. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that successful people are able to fail and keep going, try again or simply find a better way to do something. There is always another way to do something, so if you fail, simply try again, try something different and you will eventually succeed.

Determine Plan B

If you have another option, failure will be pretty short. The problem with falling short of a goal is that it leaves you feeling like you missed the mark. Well, it’s true. You did miss the mark, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t try again. If you have a plan for getting back on track or a secondary goal that will allow you another option, you can succeed or simply limit the impact of a small failure.

Don’t Expect it to Be Easy

Health is not easy. If you expect it to be easy, you will be disappointed. The most common reason for failure is poorly managed expectations. We’ve all been there. You set out to try something new and expect it to be easy. When we run into one little issue, it is enough to derail us. We didn’t see it coming because we expected it to be easy. Success is not easy and often takes a lot of practice. If you go into it knowing this, you can reach it. If you go into it with the fantasy that it will be easy, reality will quickly catch up to you and failure will not be far behind.

So, what are you goals? What is the new habit you want to make part of your routine? No matter what it is, you can do it. How do I know that without knowing what your habit is or what your routine looks like? I know that you can because it isn’t as hard as you think it is. If you can move forward without fear of failing, have a plan B in place because you know that failure is possible and expect a few challenges along the way, you can do it.

It’s not rocket science. It’s not brain surgery. Health is hard, but it’s not that hard. We can all do it. You don’t have to run marathons or lose a hundred pounds in a week. All you have to do is come up with a simple plan that works for you. Determine what habit you want to improve and go improve it. Notice I said improve and not change, eliminate or create. We already have many habits. If you can improve just one habit gradually, you can make a significant impact on your health.

Can you improve your health? Of course you can. Is it going to be easy, of course it won’t be easy. But no matter what it is you are trying to do, if you are focused on your health and willing to create a realistic plan, you can do it. Trust me, you can.

Your Health: Are You Playing to Win?

Winning and losing is clear and there is seldom confusion as to which side you are on. When you talk about a sporting event, the winning team is clear and the losing team is clear. In an individual competition, you know who wins and who loses. It is not difficult to understand who is on which side.

Health is something different. You are constantly playing, so there is winning every day and there is even losing every day. You can lose daily and still be healthy. As long as you are able to win more often then you lose, you are still able to live healthy. That is where the trick comes into play. You have to understand that in order to truly live healthy. Many people try to win all day, every day, but it doesn’t work. When it doesn’t work, they quit because they think they lost. That is where the real strategy begins.

Winning vs. Losing

Winning is easy. Winning is getting what you want and doing what you set out to do. Winning makes a day go smoothly. Winning brings you results you want. More accurately, winning is the result you want. You have to play to win in order to win. It sounds simple and even sarcastic, but it’s true. Winning is something we all want, but until we start playing to win and expecting to win, we don’t win and we will never win.

Losing on the other hand, is difficult. Losing is not getting what you want and not being able to do what you set out to do. Losing makes things rough and challenging. Losing doesn’t bring you the results you want and it means that you are getting results that you don’t want. Losing is what we dread and what we hope never happens, but it does happen. Once we realize that losing happens, we can get on with it and keep pushing forward.

Offense

In health, there is offense and defense. Just like a game, there are multiple parts in each game and you have to be able to focus on if you want to win. Just like sports, it is easy to focus on offense. The offensive part of the game is easy and fun. Some people think that exercise is like offense because they like it and it is easy. Others think diet is like offense because they are better at picking and choosing healthy foods. Whatever you think is easier in your healthy routine that is your offense.

Not only is it important to know that it is the side that is easier for you, but you also need to know how to use it to your advantage. When a team is better than another team, they are able to score more points and put themselves into a better position as the game goes on. The team is able to take advantage of each situation and build a lead to ensure that the other team can’t come back. Even if they score more as the game goes on, with a big enough lead, they won’t come back to win. The team that used their offense to build a big lead is able to hold on and win the game.

Defense

Defense is a very important part of any sport and it is certainly an important part of a healthy routine. Defense is not fun. Defense is not glamorous or pretty. Defense is gritty and takes hard work. Defense brings results because it helps you take care of important things. During a game, defense helps you keep the other team from winning. Defense allows you to establish a baseline and keep things close when the other team is on the move. If you can put a solid defensive strategy into place, you can ensure that it never gets too bad. You never get too far behind and are always able to come back when your offense is play again.

Health is really just a balance of offense and defense. If you can take advantage of opportunities to score more points and advance your offense, you can build a lead. If you can keep your defense strong and keep things under control, you can keep the game close until you are ready to go back on offense.

Putting it all together

In order to win in sports, you have to do both. You have to be able to play offense and defense at a high level. The better you are at each, the more likely you are to win each game you play. The same is true in health. You have to be able to manage both sides. The key to remember with health is that you are playing games all day every day. You are playing offense at breakfast, defense after and each time you are making an eating choice or exercising, you have the opportunity to build a lead or defend to prevent falling behind or to protect your lead.

Each day, you have the chance to win or to lose. You are making choices all day that determine whether you are going to win or lose. The choices are not always easy, but the results are clear. When you put in the effort to build you routine in all areas, you are playing to win. Wanting to win is great, but the action of putting your routine together is the key to actually getting there. Are you playing to win?

The Best Time to Exercise

Exercise is something that we all want to do. Even if you are not doing it regularly, it is something that we all agree that we “should” be doing it. Well, you are right. You should be exercising, working out, or just finding a way to move.

No matter what you call it, you need it to live. You need it to be healthy. You needed it to feel good. You need it to have the energy you want. You needed it to ward off diseases. You needed to lose weight or you need it to maintain your weight. We get more benefits from exercise, but I think you get the picture.

The only way to get the benefits from exercise is to exercise. That’s right, if you don’t do it, you don’t get any of the results from it. You can think about it all you want, but until you do it, the body gets nothing out of exercise. This sounds sarcastic or even condescending, but it is reality. Many people that I talk to on a regular basis are saying that they are thinking about, trying, planning to, you name it and they are doing it. The only thing that they are not doing is exercise itself.

One of the questions that I keep hearing: “When is the best time to exercise?” The answer is not as complicated as you might think. In fact, the answer is as simple as it gets. The best time to exercise is the time that works for you. The best time to exercise is during the time that you have to do it, the time you like to do it the most or simply when you can do it.

This isn’t the answer a lot of people are expecting. You’ve heard from one source or another that claims that there are times that are better than others to exercise, but there really isn’t a difference between morning, afternoon or evening. The difference lies in your routine, your head and your preferences. If you like working out at a certain time, you will stick with it. Many don’t see “liking” exercise as a realistic option. Well, even if it just the time that you can fit it in and fight through it, you will stick with it.

I don’t recommend one time of day over another. When getting started, it is important to try multiple options to see which will work. Actually, before you even try to get started, I recommend sitting down to think about your schedule. It is easy to pick a time and say you are going to go. It is more difficult to actually make that work for a long period of time.

So, how do you know which time to try? Well, that can be simple too. Let’s take a look at some of the key points of morning, afternoon and evening exercise:

Morning Exercise

Getting up in the morning is easier for some than it is for others. It depends on your age, schedule and personal preference, but more importantly, it depends on how your body works. I love morning exercise. When I wake up in the morning, I generally feel pretty good. Am I tired? I am tired on many days, but others I am not. On the days that I feel tired, there is a bit of a struggle to get going. But once I get going, I have another level of energy that I cannot get anywhere else.

My morning exercise is what gets me where I need to be in order to start the day.
The other benefit of morning exercise is that the mornings are consistent. Depending on your schedule, you probably start work at a certain time each day. You probably leave your house around the same time and get to your destination at a certain time as well. We all have a routine that takes us through the process. If exercise fits into that, you can make the most of your morning by waking up and getting your workout out of the way. This not only gives you the benefits of exercise, but it also allows you a mental victory to start the day. When you’ve already taken care of exercise for the day, you don’t have to worry about when (or if) you are going to do it later. It’s done and you can get on with your day.

Afternoon Exercise

Exercising in the afternoon works well for many people. It allows you to have your morning routine. For some that morning routine is hectic enough. This way, you are not worried about that and you can sleep in a bit compared to the morning exercise schedule. One thing that you can’t do is control the afternoon schedule. Many people have meetings, calls and other obligations that move fluidly throughout the workday. As meetings start to move in and out of your schedule, it becomes difficult to set time aside for exercise.

One solution is to go after work is over. Many like to bring gym bags or other equipment to work in order to go right from work to their exercise destination. This works great if you have the energy after a long day of work. You also have to have the resolve to go despite the other options in front of you. There is TV, food, couch, family, more work and countless other things that creep into the afternoon. They all make it harder, but they can be overcome.

Evening Exercise

Many of the same challenges exist in the afternoon and evening. Evenings are treated like mornings in many situations. I talk to people that say that their evening is the only consistent time of the day. Their mornings are crazy, afternoons are the same, but evenings are the part of the day that they can control. Control is a good word to think about when it comes to exercise. We all have a certain degree of control. When you choose to make time for yourself, you are taking control of your schedule and putting what you want into it. If you are letting your schedule run you, you are likely not getting the exercise you need.

Evenings also have their drawbacks. For starters, many are ready to fall asleep shortly after work, making the evening a tough time to exercise. If you are awake and ready for action, the evening can be a great time to get your exercise. The only other caution with this time of day is the after-effects. Much like the morning exercisers feel a burst of energy after exercise, so do the evening exercisers. If this burst is enough to keep you awake at night, you make have problems with evening exercise.

As you can see, there are pros and cons to all times of the day. I’m not going to pretend that exercise is supposed to be this perfect activity that you love every single time and you can set aside a magical time of day that makes it easy. It is all about finding the most pros and the fewest cons. The best time to exercise is the time that has the most pros for you and the fewest cons. The best time to exercise is the time that works for you.