The Readers Blog is a group blog, a collection of provocative, passionate people who represent a broad geographical, professional, personal and vocational range. New bloggers from other places and other points of view will join the conversation from time to time. Here, we invite them all to share their perspectives and opinions on the issues that matter to them most. And we invite you to respond. Let the dialogue begin!
A healthy lifestyle starts in your mind
Hopping around from guru to guru and being disappointed with the results, or lack thereof, has led savvy women to become empowered when it comes to their health. In the process, they have learned a very big lesson. Modest lifestyle changes can add up to major results. You don’t have to be a raw-egg-drinking-ultra-marathon-running-twenty-four-seven-workout fanatic to live a healthy lifestyle. In fact, you can be fantastic just by making a series of moderate changes and good decisions over time.
1. Make the Commitment. Knowing what you should want and actually wanting it are vastly different. You already know that you should strive for a healthy lifestyle that includes a strong balance of mind and body wellness. However, you must actually commit to taking the necessary steps towards achieving your goals lest they be made in vain.
2. Set Realistic Goals. In order to reach your wellness goals, you need to commit to eating no less than 6 meals a day consisting of exactly 200 calories each, and you are no longer allowed to ever have chocolate, fruit juice or anything with sugar. Is this a plan that you are willing to commit to for the rest of your life? Obviously not. So be careful not to make plans like this in the name of creating a healthy lifestyle. There is no way that the average person will be able to make all of these drastic changes, and planning to do so is a recipe for failure.
3. Find Like-Minded Friends. Women often connect with friends that have similar interests. Take some time out to think about who you tend to spend your free time with and what you do during that time. If you want to live a truly healthy lifestyle, it helps to hang out with folks that are trying to do the same thing. This does not mean that you need to get rid of the pals you have now. Instead, just expand your horizons and include new and different individuals into your circle. Try to meet up with others who share your interest in healthy living so that you don't have to travel the journey alone.
4. Take Control of Your Health. According to recent research, there are five major drivers of our overall health, but a whopping 40% of our total health is affected by our own personal behavior. What you choose to eat, how active you choose to be and whether you choose to smoke or use drugs – all of these are completely in your control. Make good decisions and choose wisely.
5. Release Your Feelings of Guilt. So you missed an entire week of workouts, ordered delivery 4 nights in a row and finished off an entire pan of double-chocolate caramel supreme brownies by yourself, eh? While this definitely is not the type of week that you should consciously incorporate into your schedule, once it happens, just forgive yourself and move on. After a splurge you should not punish yourself by avoiding your favorite food or skipping meals. This perceived "solution" is more likely to fuel your craving and lead to more overeating. Learn from your experiences, and make better choices the next time around.
While no one can be expected to revolutionize behavior overnight, you can make up your mind to begin your wellness evolution today. Starting on Monday morning or January 1st can be oh-so-tempting, but don’t let the calendar trick you into thinking that there’s any better time than right now. The first step to a healthy lifestyle starts in your mind – not in the gym. Your journey begins the moment that you make the conscious decision to change the way you think. So, what are you waiting for?
Brought to you by Amber O’Neal, Certified Personal Trainer and Owner of Café Physique, a fitness and nutrition company specializing in studio and in-home personal training, yoga & pilates and nutrition & wellness counseling in Metro Atlanta. For more information, please visit www.CafePhysique.com.
As a kindred spirit I knew you would be interested in this article in wrote for my website. I was reading an article about the new wave of activism that is occurring all around the world. People are taking action and making a difference and a contribution, each in their own unique way. I realized I felt quite excited reading the many varieties of activism available to each of us. I am an inner activist, I am a person who has dedicated her life to Self Awareness without Judgment. I have a deep knowing that to live to my full potential and make a meaningful contribution to humanity I need to shed the light of self awareness on my thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. Through self awareness I will learn whether I am in a state of clarity about a relationship or subject, or whether I am caught in an emotional reaction that comes from my past. Self awareness will show me the specifics of the unconscious content that is causing me to behave in a way that guarantees my suffering and sense of alienation and victimhood. After seeing the truth, I have a choice whether to continue being controlled by the past, which is over, or choose to be present and take action based on reality of the now. Each of us has the opportunity to do this at any moment. A powerful way to do this is to check in and sense how you are breathing and if you are breathing, and how the state of your emotions and thoughts are impacting your body, right now. This will assist you in knowing whether or not you are present. We all have an impact on those around us. The question is, do we like the impact we are having, and how does it make us feel? It is only when we are present that we have the capacity to transform our lives and positively affect those around us. We need never feel frustrated and victimized by outer circumstances, once we begin to be an inner activist we will know that by developing our capacity to be present we are contributing to humanity. This happens naturally. As we develop self awareness we will simultaneously develop clarity, acting from this place will empower us and everyone we encounter. The time to act is NOW, the place to act from is wherever you are. There is no time to waste. We all need to be clear, fully empowered, and fully engaged, not only for ourselves, but for each other and all humanity. for more information please go to my website www.lifemasteryskills.com
posted by rckula on 10/22/2008 8:00 pm