So why go through all the effort?  Why put yourself through all the pain and agony?  Well, because exercise produces some “magic” effects.  Primarily:

Physical Strength and Conditioning

I shouldn’t even have to mention this one, right?  Of course, working your body develops your muscles, including your heart, so that they’re stronger and can work longer.  Your body becomes much more efficient at using oxygen and burning nutrients.

But the real benefit is more than just tighter abs – much more.  The more you exercise, the easier your everyday motions become and the more you can enjoy life.  Picking up your kids (or in my case, grandkids) becomes a joy instead of a literal pain in the lower back.  Being able to play chase without feeling like you’re having a heart attack is not only fun for your kids, it makes you feel like a kid as well.

Which brings me to the next “magic” benefit of exercise:

Mental Conditioning

Sure, the more I exercise, the better I feel physically.  But the better I feel physically, the better my mental outlook. gets as well  After a good workout, your brain is deluged with all the endorphins and extra blood flow generated by the physical activity.  It makes you think that anything’s possible – and you know what?  Anything IS possible!

Exercising on a regular basis also builds mental discipline and focus – two things that are basic “keys to success” in your work and career.  Working out in the morning (my favorite time) is the best way to start your day with a clear mind and sharp mental focus.  You’ll arrive at work ready to jump in and tackle the day’s workload while everybody else is still trying to shake out the cobwebs with large doses of Starbucks.  That kind of mental conditioning is sure to be noticed by the “higher ups.”

So Just Do It

Even the most basic exercise routine will quickly produce results, both physical as well as mental, that can only be described as life-changing.  Your entire outlook on life will change for the positive and your jeans will fit better too!  You can’t find a better deal.  So what does it cost?  Just 20-30 minutes of resistance and cardio training every other day or so.  That’s it.

There are all sorts of workout programs out there designed for the beginner to the advanced athlete.  The ALL work – but only if YOU work them.  So find one that you like and get started.  Don’t think about it, just do it.  The results you get will be simply magic!

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Mistake Number 1:  The All or Nothing Approach

Most of us think of exercise as an event, something to be planned and scheduled like a lunch meeting.  And like a lunch meeting, if something comes up or if we run late, we cancel and reschedule.  In other words, we tend to take an “all or nothing” approach to exercise – we either do it (we “made” the appointment), or we don’t (we “cancel” the appointment).

I know, I know.  It’s really hard NOT to think of exercise as an event.  You DO have to prepare for it.  You’ve got to pack your gym bag making sure you’ve got clean socks, shorts, a towel, and so on.  You’ve got to change into your exercise “uniform” and make sure your MP3 player is loaded with your latest “power song.”  You’ve got to put on the weight lifting gloves or the wrist and head bands.  Geez, there’s a lot of stuff you’ve got to do before you exercise!  You can’t just run out and, what, start running?  (Remember the scene in Forest Gump when he’s sitting on his porch and decides to just get up and run?  Yeah, I know.  We can’t do that.)

It’s easy to see why so many of us skip exercise altogether just because we can’t find a clean pair of gym socks (you know the ones, the special moisture-wicking, all natural organic fiber, $30 a pair, “makes my feet feel happy” pair).  If you put so much effort into planning to exercise, you’re much more likely to forget the whole thing if any part of the planning process goes wrong.

Another problem with seeing exercise as an event is that we want to impose a start time and an end time.  We want to look at our calendar and see “Exercise 5:30 to 6:30 pm.”  We don’t want to think about exercise until 5:30 and we don’t want to think about exercise after 6:30.  We want to treat it like a dentist appointment – something we just have to do and get over as quickly as possible.  After all, you’ve got to pack all your stuff (hassle), change into your workout clothes (hassle), exercise, then shower (hassle), change into your street clothes (hassle), and then pack up all your wet workout clothes and rush home (hassle, hassle, hassle).

Little wonder we look for reasons to skip exercising.  And take it from me (a Master Excuse Maker), perfectly legitimate excuses, I mean reasons, are not hard to find.

But exercise is not an all-or-nothing event.  Exercise can be incorporated into just about any activity and research has shown that as little as 10 minutes of exercise can provide important health benefits.  It can be as simple as taking the stairs at the office or at the mall.

Other suggestions can include:

• Look for ways to incorporate exercise into your daily activities. Walking or biking to nearby places instead of driving, for example, or actually walking the dog instead of simply letting them run out the back door.
• Break up your “all-out-hard-core-sweat-a-gallon” workout session into smaller, more frequent sessions throughout the day. Lunges or squats can be done anytime, and anywhere, and don’t require any equipment.  Dropping down behind your desk and doing 10 slow-and-easy push-ups will still strengthen your arms but won’t require your usual jacuzzi-sauna-shower after-workout ritual.
• Become more active in general. Stay on your feet when taking phone calls or when reading paperwork.  Walk down the hall to talk to a coworker instead of using the phone or email.  Use resistance bands while you’re watching TV.  In short, stay off your butt as much as possible throughout the day.
• Change your attitude. Exercise is not an event, it’s a lifestyle.  It’s something that’s just part of you, not something you plan or schedule.

Nike has the right idea – Just Do It!  Forget the all-or-nothing attitude.  If something comes up and you can’t exercise for an hour like you had planned, go ahead and exercise in whatever time you have available.  Then find 10 or 15 minutes later on and exercise some more.

If you adopt the attitude that exercise is something you do rather than something you plan, you’ll soon find yourself in great shape.

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – for a limited time.  Just click on the title to be taken to the download page.  Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: exercise, fitness, balanced health, attitude, gym, weight

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How true.  How many of us are really grateful for the people in our lives, for all the things they do, for all the ways they care for us and about us – and yet, we never let them know?  How many of us have a mental “closet” filled with carefully wrapped gifts that we have never given to those we care most about?

“Well, my loved ones KNOW I appreciate them,” is what many people say.  But is that really the case?  How can your loved ones possibly know for sure how you really feel unless you specifically tell them – unless you actually give them the gift of gratitude?

Make it a pledge that anytime you feel gratitude, you’ll express it right then and there.  You don’t have to make a big production about it.  Just a simple “thank you” will suffice.   This can include times like:

• Your spouse brings you a cup of coffee, or is just there for you when you’re feeling low.
• A co-worker holds the door or the elevator for you.
• A complete stranger lets you merge in front of them when they could have easily cut you off.
• You wake up feeling like it’s great to be alive.
• You see a rainbow or a beautiful sunset.

Or any one of a million things that can fill your entire being with a feeling of gratitude and thankfulness.  Go ahead and actually say the words, “thank you.”  Say it to the people around you, say it to the world, say it to God – just say it.  You’ll be amazed at how good it makes you feel as well as how it will change your outlook on life.  You’ll also be amazed at how differently people perceive you.

It’s a simple fact that the more you express gratitude, the more things to be grateful about will naturally come into your life.  Give it try and see if I’m not right.

Meister Eckhart, a medieval German philosopher said that, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

Amen.

Hiram
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: spiritual, gratitude, thankfulness, philosophy, life, attitude, mental health, balance

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Turn on the TV to any news channel and what do you see?  Lay offs.  Economic downturn.  Bankruptcies.  You don’t need me to tell you that these are stressful times.

Stress is a natural response to unexpected things that happen in our lives.  Designed to help keep us safe from dangerous situations, stress can also damage your health if not channeled and/or controlled properly.

When we encounter a stressful situation, or when a stressful situation is thrust upon us, the body responds by releasing a number of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.  These hormones put your body on “high alert,” ready to face whatever the problem is.  However, spending too much time in this heightened state puts a significant strain on the body that can eventually damage your overall health including your heart.

Learning how stress works and how it affects your health are the first steps in learning how to manage stress in your life.

What Causes Stress?

Most stress is caused by those unexpected or unplanned for events that happen in all of our lives.  For example, taking the kids to school is a pretty straightforward task.  All of us have a mental picture of how things should go in order to perform this task.  So we go through our mental checklist that includes homework, lunches, coats, books, etc when suddenly, one of the kids mentions that they forgot a major part of their homework assignment.  This wasn’t part of the plan.  Our reality doesn’t match the mental picture we had of how things should be going.  We therefore begin to experience stress.

Stress occurs when things don’t go as planned, or how you imagined they would go.  You picture a leisurely drive into work and someone cuts you off.  You planned a nice quiet afternoon but the kids won’t stop fighting.  You didn’t picture things going this way so you get stressed.

Is Stress a Bad Thing?

Stress in and of itself is not a bad thing.  In fact, stress is designed to help get us out of dangerous or harmful situations, our “fight or flight” response in other words.

Small amounts of stress can actually be a good thing.  For example, working against the stress of a deadline can actually help focus your mind and allow you to get more done than you otherwise would.  When you lift weights or use resistance bands, you’re working your muscles against a controlled level of stress in order to make them stronger.

So what is it that causes stress to flip over to the “bad side?”

It’s All About Control.

Psychologists have found that “bad” stress is usually caused by events where we feel we have no control over the situation.  Let’s assume that you’re late for work and there’s a traffic jam up ahead.  If you’re on a highway and you just passed the last exit, you’re essentially stuck and will probably start feeling stressed about not getting to work on time.  On the other hand, if you  take the last exit before the traffic jam and know the neighborhood enough to be able to get around the traffic, you probably won’t feel stressed, even though you might still be late.  What’s the difference?  In the first case, you didn’t have much control over the situation while in the second, you did.

This belief of being in control (even if we’re actually not), tends to make the difference between feeling stress and being stress-free.

If you’ve read any self improvement or motivational books, you’ll find this same theme:  it’s all about believing that you’re in control.  The people that are the most successful tend to be those that believe that they are in control of their lives, no matter what actually happens to them.  These people also have the least amount of stress.

Putting This to Use.

So how do you put this to use in your life?  How do you use this to get through some of the worst economic times this country has seen since the Great Depression (according to many news sources)?  Here are a few tips:

1.  Add some flexibility to your life. Knowing that unexpected or unplanned events are what help to create stress, plan on the unexpected.  Add in some flex time or unscheduled time to your plans to take into account the twists and turns that life tends to throw at you at the last minute.  That way you don’t have to stress and say “I don’t have time for this” because in fact, you do.

2.  Believe that you are in control. Yes, I know that you can’t control the weather, or the traffic, or the economy.  However, the one thing you have absolute control over is your attitude.  Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychologist imprisoned in a German concentration camp during World World II observed that the biggest difference between the prisoners that lived through their ordeal and those that simply gave up and died was their attitude – the one thing that could not be taken away from them, the one thing they could control.  Believing that no matter what happens to you, you will find a way to deal with it will go the longest way towards replacing stress with determination and purpose.

3.  Keep your sense of humor. Humor is a great stress-buster.  As one of my partners said as we were waiting to meet with the IRS to discuss the $800,000 in back taxes our company owed, “Well, at least they can’t eat us.”  It lightened the mood and we were able to go in and brainstorm ways to get our company out of hot water (which we eventually did).  So no matter how stressful the issue in front of you seems, remember the Joker in the latest Batman movie and ask yourself, “Why so serious?”

4.  Organize the little things. It’s the little things that tend to stress us the most – or at least trigger stress.    Organize your bills so they don’t get  past due.  Put your car keys in the same place so you’re not running around looking for them all the time.  Pick out what you’re going to wear to work tomorrow the night before so you don’t stress in the morning because you’re running late.  Set an alarm so you don’t run late in the first place.   All of these are little things but they’ll drive you nuts if you let them.

5.  Work off your stress. When stress builds, find a way to work it off.  This can mean different things to different people.  For some, vigorous exercise will help to “blow off” some of the stress.  For others, going outside and yelling at the top of lungs will do it.  Some people need some sort of physical activity, some need a mental outlet like working on a crossword puzzle, others need an emotional release like a good cry.  Do whatever works for you.  The worst thing you can do is to let stress build inside.

Keeping Stress in Check.

Stress is a natural part of life.  Use these tips to help keep it in check and to help keep your health in balance.

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: stress, stressful, nerves, nervious, self control, attitude, health, heart, adrenoline, cortisol

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Stop and notice the impact that this sequence of problems has on your mental state. If you’re not careful, the first problem will tend to push you into a negative mental state where you start to expect problems – and life obliges by feeding you the next problem, then the next, and the next. In other words, if you get into a mental state where you’re looking for problems, you’ll certainly find them.

How do you change this “problem-negative expectation-more problem” loop? By deciding to change your perspective when that first problem pops up.

Changing your perspective means looking for the “silver lining” in any problem that hits you. Ask yourself, “What’s the good in this problem?” or “Where is the opportunity to learn something?” instead of immediately thinking something like, “Great! This ALWAYS happens to me!” Do you see the difference in perspective? One puts you into a mental state where you’re looking for opportunities while the other puts you into a state where you’re looking for (and expecting) more problems.

One thing I know to be true 100% of the time: whether you’re looking for “silver linings” or whether you’re looking for more problems, you’re always going to find what you’re looking for.

Improve your outlook in life by making sure that you’re looking for the right things!

Hiram

The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: balanced health, attitude, perspective, mental state

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