Six Steps to Your Best Life

Six Steps to Exercising Regularly

2008-09-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

The key is finding ways to make exercise less of a chore and more of a choice, says James Annesi, Ph.D., exercise psychologist and director of wellness for the Metro Atlanta YMCA. Try these simple strategies

Step One: Make it fun! If you don't love exercise, try to bring things you do love into the exercise experience. Watch TV, listen to music, or chat with a friend during your workout. By taking the focus off your effort and placing it on the more entertaining, social aspects of the activity, you'll be more likely to stick with it.

Step Two: Make it convenient. If you want exercise to become a habit, make it fit easily into your schedule. New research shows that a few short exercise sessions a day are as valuable as one extended session. If finding a 30-minute block of time seems too difficult, work in three 10-minute stints over the course of the day. "It's easier to spare the time for any given workout that way," says Annesi. And if you have to miss one, you'll still have had some exercise during the day.

Step Three: Be realistic. Expect at least a couple of weeks to go by before you start to notice any changes in your body. Start slowly and carefully, pick an exercise "dosage" you can manage without pain, boredom or injury, and relish the changes you see occurring over time. At first, the changes may seem subtle, but Annesi's research shows that even very small amounts of exercise over a few days or weeks can reduce stress, depression and fatigue, increase energy and boost body image.

Step Four: Set reasonable goal. Instead of focusing on one large goal, set smaller incremental goals - you'll feel a sense of achievement more frequently. Establish goals that are more process-oriented than results-oriented. For example, completing three 20-minute walks per week is a quickly rewarding, observable goal; a long-term result, such as losing 30 pounds, may seem too distant to offer much immediate inspiration.

Step Five: Be flexible. With work and family life tugging at you, it's easy to get bumped from your exercise routine. Don't toss up your hands as if all progress has been lost when this happens, cautions Annesi. Anticipate some unexpected interruptions will crop up (such as increased business travel or child-care responsibilities), and simply bend your routine to compensate. For example, if you normally schedule three weekly workouts and events get in the way, try the more flexible schedule of 12 times per month. That way, if you have a hectic week or two, you still have two weeks to meet your overall goal.

Step Six: Find the right activity Experiment. Try different activities to see which you like best. Some of us prefer competitive sports such as tennis and golf, others like more solitary activities such as running or swimming, and others prefer the social atmosphere of an aerobics or spinning class. As you explore, ask yourself three simple questions: Do I look forward to this? Do I enjoy doing it? Do I feel good afterward? If you honestly answer yes to all three questions, it's an activity you'll probably keep doing.

Six Steps to a Happier Life

2008-06-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

Being happy is more a state of the mind than the state of your bank account, your social position, or your love life. Only one person can make you happy and you know who that person is. So in case you have forgotten, here's to your six steps to happiness.

Step One: Accept. Accept where you are at the moment and make the best of it. Take time to know where you want to be and how to get there, but for now be in the moment. Don't wish for yesterday, but do dream about tomorrow. What steps can your take to be where you want to be? What actions do you need to take to get there but wait, be sure it's where you truly want to be. Right now, be happy where you are.

Step Two: Be Willing to Learn. There is no truth to the axiom 'you can't teach and old dog new tricks'. No matter where we are in life, we are capable of learning something new. Never stop learning, it can bring so much joy.

Step Three: Simplify Your Life. What is it that makes us think the more we do the better we are? Why do we allow ourselves to become so over burdened with 'have to do this and have to do that'? When do we take time to just 'be'. Can we be happy running here, dashing there, getting this, getting that? We need to choose what we are going to do carefully. If it isn't vital to your life, you can turn it down. Omit one unnecessary thing from your life right now and make time to just be.

Step Four: Anticipate. Look forward to things coming into your life. Visualize them. Feel them as if they are already here. A warmth will embrace you, a smile will sneak onto your face and your eyes will light up. This is how happiness feels. This is what you can make happen. Believe in yourself and anticipate good things.

Step Five: Spread Happiness. Wherever you go, take a moment to do something that will make another person feel good. See if you can make someone smile. The more people you can give a feeling of happiness to, the more happiness you will feel. Throw off thoughts that are negative, they don't belong in your life. Wrap yourself in those things that bring you joy and keep them always within reach.

Step Six: Be Thankful. No matter what you have in your life, be thankful. Start a gratitude journal. Everyday take a moment to be thankful for something, even if it is just that you got up in the morning and had a new day to embrace happiness in your life. Be thankful for the little things, then watch as the bigger things come into your life. It happens. You can start it happening right now by being thankful for this moment.

Six Steps to Better Health

2008-06-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Most of these elementary steps are basic to overall good health. Most of us don't follow them regularly and that's the key. We need to memorize them and make a point of taking these six steps daily, without fail.

Step One: Drink water. Not too much, not too little. Dehydration often times appears as hunger. Drinking a glass of water, even as little as 4 ounces every hour you're awake will keep you hydrate and most often lead you away from unhealthy snacks. Water will hellp flush out unhealthy toxins from your system.

Step Two: Before eating anything cooked, eat something raw. A piece of fruit, a small salad, a few carrots or any vegetable you like. This not only takes the edge off your hunger but it gets the enzymes going in your body which will help you digest the other food you are going to eat.

Step Three: Exercise. You know it's true. Even if you hate the thought of it, exercise is vitally important to your best health. It doesn't have to be a big deal. An early morning walk or a few jumping jacks before getting dressed. Grab your spouse, if you have one, and dance to the tune with a lively beat. You've heard it before, park further away; take the stairs; pretend you are the conductor of an orchestra and let those arms fly to stimulating music.

Step Four: Laugh. Keep finding things to laugh at. Sign up for a 'joke a day' program on the Internet. Hang around people who like to laugh and have fun. Make a habit of laughing at absolutely nothing when you start your car, turn on you PC, open your front door. Trust me, you can fake a laugh and it becomes real. Before you know it, others around you will be laughing without a clue what you are laughing about. Laughter is contagious.

Step Five: Meditate and/or Pray: Advanced studies show that meditation has health benefits by helping decrease stress. Patients with high blood pressure are often advised by their medical provider to meditate. Praying can give us a feeling of having someone on our side to help us make it through difficult times. You don't have to be religious to pray and you aren't non religious if you meditate. Try both. They work.

Step Six: Good Relationships: Be it family or friends, best if it's both, have good relationships in your life. We all need people we can enjoy being with, people we can confide in, trust, depend on, and be there for us as we can be there for them. You don't need a huge circle of friends, a few will do, and if you have strained relations with family members, make an effort to de-strain them.

If this had been seven steps to better health I would add, forgive, others as well as yourself.