In one often quoted article, MTV asked celebrity trainer Jeanette Jenkins how she helps stars like Beyonce get back into shape after their pregnancies.  Her advice makes a lot of sense and is consistent with the “balanced” health philosophy I teach.  Jeanette says:

I couldn’t agree more.  It’s counter-intuitive that if you want to lose weight, forget about chasing down the latest diet and exercise routines and focus instead on creating and installing a healthy mindset.  In other words, FIRST you’ve got to “get your head straight.”

If you don’t do this, it doesn’t matter which diet or exercise routine you start on, you’ll constantly backslide and the weight will pile right back on.  Why?  Because in spite of all the physical activity, your mindset, your attitude towards food, your beliefs about exercise haven’t changed – and if that’s the case,  you’ll always convince yourself that it’s OK to only do half a set, or eat a second piece of fried chicken, or to select the mashed potatoes instead of the broccoli.

On the other hand, if you work on developing a healthy mindset, you’ll automatically make healthy decisions.  You’ll automatically reach for the green veggies instead of the bag of chips.  You’ll automatically grab the dog and head out the door for a brisk walk instead of plopping down in front of the TV when you get home from work.

Change your mindset and the effects are dramatic.  All of a sudden, eating healthy and exercising are not just things you force yourself to do, they become part of who you are.  All of a sudden, living a healthy life becomes automatic and because you’re consistently making healthy choices, the pounds drop off by themselves.

Want to lose weight like Beyonce and have a “botylicious” body?  Then get your head straight.

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal 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 – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Email Me:  Hiram Perez   

Technorati Tags: beyonce, weight loss, health, balance, diet, nutrition, baby, pregnancy, exercise, choices

Related posts:

1. Why It’s So Hard to Lose Weight
2. How to Survive the Holidays and Still Lose Weight
3. Want to Lose Weight? Don’t Just Lift Weights.

Mistake Number 5:  Not Properly Adjusting Exercise Machines

Most exercise machines are designed to accommodate a variety of body types and provide a wide range of resistance or weight settings.  Unfortunately, most people never return the machines to their “neutral” setting when they finish with the machine.  Unless you properly adjust the machine before you begin your workout, you won’t get the most benefit from the machine and in some cases, you might actually injure yourself.

Properly adjusting an exercise machine includes paying attention to the following:

1.  Making sure the machine is clean and in good working order. Yes, I know that maintenance is “not your job” but you’re the one that’s going to get hurt if the machine is not working properly so you need to give each machine a critical “looking over” before you get on it.  In addition to making sure the machine isn’t covered in sweat from the guy that just finished using it, you need to also look for obvious mechanical stuff like jammed, frayed, twisted or broken cables, weight plates that look like they might fall, missing or broken parts, and so on.  If you notice something obviously wrong, get the attention of the gym staff so they can put an “Out of Order” sign on the machine.

2.  Making sure you know how the machine moves. If you’ve never used a particular machine before, get one of the gym staff to show you how to use it.  Make note of how the machine moves – especially note the pinch points, where the weights or bar hit, and so on.  You want to make sure that you keep your hands, fingers, and feet away from those areas when you’re on the machine.

3.  Adjusting the machine to your body type. Most machines can be adjusted to fit a wide variety of body types, from tall to short.  Make sure you adjust the seat and the arm or leg rests to your body size and type.  You should be comfortable moving the muscle group that the machine targets through its full range of motion.  If you don’t adjust this properly, your workout won’t be very effective or you’ll run the risk of injury.  A little time spent adjusting the machine can really make a difference in the quality of your workout.

4.  Alignment, alignment, alignment. Make absolutely sure your body is aligned properly on the machine.  If you adjusted it properly in the previous step, it should be.  There should be no sideways motion or pressure on any joints.  Keep in mind that even though the machine might be adjusted properly, your body type might still have problems maintaining proper alignment.  For example, when I was significantly overweight, I used to try to exercise on a stationary bike.  As soon as I got on the bike and bent over to grab the handle bars, the flab around my gut would drop down between my knees preventing me from keeping my legs aligned properly.   The only way for me to pedal the bike was to push my knees out to the side.  Instead of pedaling straight up and down, I was literally pedaling out to the side.  After a couple of minutes, my knees were killing me.  If you can’t physically keep your joints in alignment – for whatever reason – don’t use that particular machine.

5.  Exercise or Weight Level. The last thing to check is to make sure the machine is on the proper exercise level or that you have the right amount of weight on the machine.  You can injure yourself if you assume that there’s a lot of weight on the machine and there’s actually very little.  The same applies if you assume there’s very little weight and there turns out to be a lot.  In both cases, you’re not prepared and can easily sprain or strain something.  If you’re on a treadmill, you can easily get knocked off your feet if the machine unexpectedly starts off at a fast pace.  Make sure you check what exercise or weight level the machine is at and adjust it to where you need it to be.

By keeping these points in mind, you’ll be able to maximize your workouts in addition to reducing your risk of injury.

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, machines, health, balance, alignment, joints, muscle, workout, exercise mistakes

Related posts:

1. Top 10 Exercise Mistakes: Number 4
2. Top 10 Exercise Mistakes: Number 3
3. Top 10 Exercise Mistakes: Number 1

Mistake Number 4:  Not Progressing Wisely

Let’s face it – we all want instant or overnight results.  We’re like little kids that pick up a dumbbell, do 2 or 3 bicep curls, and then immediately run to the mirror and flex our muscles to see if they’ve gotten any bigger.  And of course we’re disappointed when we see that they’re not.

Now as adults, we still fall victim to the same kind of thinking.  Of course it doesn’t help to be constantly bombarded by non-stop commercials for fitness products that promise to work “even while you’re sleeping.”

Whatever the reason, it’s natural to want quick results.  However, when it comes to physical exercise, trying to hurry the process is a sure recipe for injury.

You risk serious, and perhaps even permanent, injury when you:

• Exercise too much. If your fitness routine calls for doing 1 hour of exercise 3 times a week, trying to get a week’s worth of exercise in one 3-hour setting just doesn’t work.
• Exercise too hard. Who hasn’t gotten that competitive spirit when you’re with a with a group of friends playing basketball or tennis and then paid the price for playing too hard by not being to get out of bed the next day?
• Exercise too often. Trying to get quick results by exercising every day actually slows your progress.  Your muscles need sufficient time to rebuild before you work them out again.

In each of these cases, you’re piling on more than your body can handle – and believe me, it’s going to let you know!

Building fitness requires working through a gradual progression of exercise levels, each a little more challenging than the one before, with enough rest in between to let your body rebuild.

The most difficult thing to do when beginning any fitness program is to start slow, but that’s exactly the way to get the quickest results.  I know it’s counter-intuitive but you see it in professional sports all the time.  You’ll see a star player really pushing himself hard and seemingly making great progress in a short period of time.  Then bam!  He blows a knee or tears a muscle.  Next time you see him he’s on the bench and out for the rest of the season.  Some progress!

Fight the urge to push beyond your body’s current limits.  You’ll only set yourself back.  The quickest way to get into shape is to take things slow and steady.

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: fitness, exercise, health, competition, balance

Related posts:

1. Top 10 Exercise Mistakes: Number 1
2. Top 10 Exercise Mistakes: Number 2
3. Top 10 Exercise Mistakes: Number 3

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

Related posts:

1. Giving Thanks

I overheard two people talking the other day while I was waiting in line for something or another.  One person was telling their friend their plans for the upcoming weekend.  They described in complete detail where they were going, who they were going with, what they were going to do when they got there and how wonderful and perfect everything was going to be.  They ended by saying that they just couldn’t wait for the weekend to get here.

The second person said something that was pretty profound and that has really stuck with me…

The second person said that they tried not to look ahead to the weekend because all it did was make the days go by too fast, like time was flying past them.  As a result, they felt constantly stressed out from trying to “catch up” but never being able to.  “Sure, the weekends came quickly, but you never get the chance to accomplish everything to wanted to do during the week and before you know it, the entire week is gone.  The problem with focusing on tomorrow is that you lose today.”

My first thought was, “Wow.”  I don’t think you can say it any better.  The problem with focusing on tomorrow is that you lose today.

Let me give you an example of this principle in action.  I’m writing this the week before Thanksgiving so it’s relatively late in the year.  Christmas will be coming up soon, and then New Year’s.  You know the drill.  So let me ask you, when you get together with friends or family this time of year, what’s the one thing that almost always comes up?  Someone invariably says, “Boy, the year has sure gone by fast!”  and everyone around, including you, agrees.

Another example is when you’re looking at pictures of your kids (or grandkids).  One of the first things you notice is how much they’re grown.  What’s the very next thought that comes into your head?  Right – how fast time has flown by.

Why is that?  Why is it that time seems to fly by so quickly, especially when we get older?  I think the main reason is  because we’re always looking forward to the next “weekend.”  It may not be the actual weekend we’re looking forward to, it could be 5 pm, or next Wednesday, or Sunday evening, or any other date or event in the future.  When we do that, when we focus on what we’ll be doing and experiencing in the future, we sacrifice the present.

Turning Off the Autopilot

Ever go into “autopilot” while you’re driving?  You’re cruising down the highway, it’s a beautiful day, and you’re thinking about what you’re going to do once you get to wherever it is you’re going.  You can picture exactly how you’ll feel, what you’ll say, how you’ll act and how everyone else will react.  Then, when you arrive at your destination, you can’t remember a thing about the actual trip.  You can’t remember the traffic, the lights, the construction, nothing.  Ever happen to you?

Sure, we’ve all done it.  We’ve all spent time in the future dreaming, thinking, planning, and that’s OK.  However, we all need to understand that when we’re on “autopilot,” or focusing on the future, we’re missing out on what’s going on around us right now.

I highly recommend that you make a conscious effort to turn off the “autopilot” periodically.  Schedule an appointment with yourself in your day planner if you have to and when the scheduled time comes, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and visualize yourself reaching over to a big switch labeled “Autopilot” and flipping it to “OFF.”  Now open your eyes.

What do you see?  Look at some of the individual things around you.  No, no, don’t do a quick sweep and say, “OK, done.”  Pause and look at the things around you.  Let your eyes naturally come to rest on one individual thing.  Now, look deeper.  Notice details, texture, color, shape.  Take the time to look at something and really see it.  Then take a deep breath and go on to the next item around you.  Forget about everything else.  In fact, nothing else exists right now except you and the item you’re looking at.  Focus on nothing else.  Take another deep breath.

Now, expand your focus and take in the entire room or the entire landscape.  Notice how all of the individual items fit together to form the bigger picture.  Notice how clear and colorful everything is.

How does this make you feel?  Did you see things you never saw before?  Did it generate some new ideas or thoughts about things you should be working on, or which direction you should be moving in?

For some people, quickly changing from a micro-focus to a macro-focus can be disorienting.  Some people actually get dizzy.  But being able to “stay in the moment” while visualizing and planning the future is key to achieving your goals.

Watching Where you’re Going as well as Where you Step.

Learning how to balance the “todays” with the “tomorrows” is a key part of a successful life.  Yes, you need both long term and short term plans.  You need to know that you’re heading in the right general direction and that all your efforts and hard work will eventually get you to the specific destination you planned on ending up at.  So you do need to focus on “tomorrow.”

However, you also need to make sure you’re watching where you place your next step.  Otherwise, you might step right off a cliff destroying any chance of ever reaching your long term goals.  In other words, you also need to focus on “today.”

My grandmother, who still remembered the horse-and-buggy days used to tell me to “keep your shoulder to the wheel but look up every once in a while to make sure you’re not pushing the cart into the ditch.” I think she had it right.  “Keep your shoulder to the wheel” means to focus on the things you need to do today in order to keep your goals moving forward.  The rest of the saying pretty much speaks for itself.  Don’t get so caught up in your day-to-day activities that your life goes into the ditch.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving Holidays!

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: goals, goal setting, planning, focus, visualize, health, emotion, balance, time management, future

No related posts.

One of Tom’s 12 Laws that stuck a chord with me was Number 4:  You make your habits, and then your habits make you.  How true, especially when it comes to balanced health.

Although you might not agree with all of Tom’s 12 Laws and admittedly, some of them are pretty harsh (see Number 9 about Happily Ever Afters), the main point is that Tom has put some thought into figuring out his outlook on life, his idea of how life works, his rules to live by.

Here’s why that’s critically important to you and me:  these ideas or “rules” that we all have of how life works essentially dictate how you view everything, and everyone, in your life.

If your “life’s rules” include the belief that all strangers are not to be trusted, you’ll never be open to meeting new people.  If you believe the world is a dark, hostile place, filled with horrible people, that’s exactly what you’ll find.  Why?  Because that’s all you’ll be looking for.

On the other hand, if you believe that there’s always some good in everyone and that it’s your job to find it, you’ll find a world filled with goodness.

Someone once said that when you’re born, Life hands you a coloring book and a set of crayons.  You get to choose which colors to use.  You decide whether your world is a mixture of blacks and grays or whether it’s filled with a rainbow of bright colors.

Your “Rules to Live By” are like a set of filters that only allow you to see what you believe the world is really like.

So here’s the million dollar question:  what are your “Rules to Live By?”

What “filters” do you view the world with?  Are they positive and uplifting?  Do they support your goals?  Do they bring you joy, peace, and balanced health?  If they don’t, you really need to ask yourself whether or not they’re worth keeping.

How do you do that?  The first step is to write them down.  Your journal is the perfect place for this (you do have one, right?).

Find a quiet place and ask yourself, what rules do I live by?  What beliefs shape my view of the people and events in my life?  What crayons am I using to color my world?

Give these questions some thought and write down whatever immediately comes to mind.  Don’t worry about trying to come up with a perfectly formed list at first.  Your first step is to write down as many thoughts and ideas as you can.

After a little time has passed, review what you’ve written.  Ask yourself, “is that what I really believe?”  Ask yourself this several times in order to strip away the things that you think you “should” believe and get down to the things you really believe.  Feel free to revise, reword, add, and delete at this stage.

Continue reworking your list until you’re confident that each item describes what you really believe about how life is set up.

Now for the difficult part.  Once your list is fairly complete, go through each item and ask yourself, “what is this belief giving me, or costing me?”  For some items, you’ll find that the belief brings you a lot of joy, or happiness, or some other benefit.  For others, you might find that a particular belief costs you quite a bit in potential relationships and opportunities.

Lastly, ask yourself which of these rules to live by are still valid and worth keeping, and which are no longer consistent with the person you want to become or the world you want to live in.   Put stars by, or underline, the “rules” worth keeping or those that provide some sort of positive benefit.  Mark through or “x” out the ones that don’t support the life you want to live.  Then think of new, better ones to replace the ones you just marked out.

You have no idea how powerful this is. The simple act of asking yourself “what rules do I really live by,” writing them down, and then thinking about the consequences of having those beliefs is nothing less than life changing.

The neat part of doing this is that it doesn’t matter how young or how old you are.  As Tom Hoobyar notes in his Rule Number 12, “it’s never too late to change.”  Amen to that.

So what are your “Rules to Live By?”

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: rules to live by, health, spirituality, life changing, motivation, balance, journal

No related posts.

I’ve kept a journal since my early 20′s.  Believe me, there’s nothing more interesting than going back and reading what I wrote (and was like) 20 or 30 years ago.  You can see the things in your life that have changed, the things that have entered your life and then left again, and the things that have pretty much stayed the same.  It’s a history of how you’ve lived your life.  It shows you exactly “where all the time went.”

The Importance of Keeping a Journal.

Why do I believe that keeping a journal is important?  Because your life is worth recording.  Yes, I know that it’s easier to break out the camera during holidays and special events.  Yes, I know that a picture is worth a thousand words.  However, there is one important thing that pictures do not capture:  your feelings.

Having a picture of your newborn grandchild is nice.  However, reading (and re-reading) in your journal how it felt to hold your grandchild in your arms for the first time will bring back a flood of memories that no picture can ever match.

When you look at a picture, you remember the moment.  When you read an entry in your journal, you re-live the moment.  There’s a huge difference.

That’s why you need to keep a journal.

What to Put in Your Journal.

Most people stress over what to put in their journal.  Don’t.  First of all, your journal is for you.  No one else will ever read it unless you allow them to so don’t worry about spelling, sentence structure, or anything else.

Here are a couple of things I include in my journal:

1.  Random Thoughts. Anything from “buy low, sell high” to “God is love and God lives in me.”  From the silly to the profound, it goes in my journal.  You’d be surprised how often something that seemed completely ridiculous at the time all of a sudden had some deep meaning when I went back and re-read it later.

2.  Events and Feelings. Record the important events and more importantly, how they made you feel.  Don’t worry about completely describing the event, that’s what pictures and videos are for.  Instead, focus on describing your feelings, thoughts, and emotions.  For example, I have all kinds of pictures of my first grandchild but what I remember most are the intense feelings of hope, tenderness, pride, and overwhelming love that I felt when I held him and he first looked up at me.

3.  Exercise, Nutrition, and Sleep. Although many people keep a separate exercise and/or food journal, there’s no reason not to have everything in one place.  The important thing is that you keep track of whether or not you’re exercising consistently, whether or not you’re eating properly, and whether or not you’re getting enough rest.  If not, your journal will help you see exactly where you went off track.

4.  Your Goals, Hopes, and Dreams. Make sure you make a record of what you’d like your future to be like.  What would you like to have, to do, to be?  Reading my past goals usually brings mixed emotions.  Sometimes I get frustrated because I haven’t reached some of my goals.  Other times I’m pleasantly surprised to find that I have accomplished most of what I said I would (sometimes without even knowing it).  And some times, I realize that some of what I said I wanted is no longer desirable.

Review Your Journal Periodically.

Remember when you were growing up and your parents would stand you up straight against a wall or a door frame and mark how much you’d grown?  Remember how good it made you feel when you turned around and saw that the new mark was higher than your old one?  That’s how reviewing your journal makes you feel.  You can actually SEE your progress.

When you review some of your past entries, not only will you re-live some of the more significant moments of your life, you’ll also see how much you’ve grown, how much you’ve changed, how much more you’ve become. You’ll get this incredible feeling that “if I’ve come this far, there’s nothing I can’t do!”

My Challenge To You.

In order for your journal to work for you, you have to make writing in it a habit.  One of the best things I ever did in 2007 was to purchase one of those “daily diaries.”  It’s basically a calendar with one page for each day.  My goal was to fill it up – and I actually did.  Most of my entries are only 1 or 2 paragraphs so it never took more than 5 or 10 minutes each day.  However, I can now look back and see exactly what I was doing/thinking/feeling on this same day a year ago.  It’s kind of neat to be able to do that – and it shows you a lot about how you’re living your life.

My challenge to you is to do the same. Go out today and purchase a yearly “daily dairy” calendar that has one page for each day of whatever size will be convenient for you.  Then at the end of each day, spend no more than 5 or 10 minutes describing what you did, what you thought, or what you felt that day.  An alternative is to make your journal entries in the morning for the previous day but I’ve found that when you do this, a lot of things tend to get forgotten.  However, the important thing is to write something every single day.

So will you do it?  Are you up to the challenge?  I guarantee that it will change your life. How?  By seeing where you’ve been and how you’ve lived, you’ll begin to make better choices for the future.  When you do that, your future changes.  You’ll no longer be caught in the vicious cycle of doing something stupid, feeling bad about it, forgetting about it, and then doing it all over again.  You’ll see a written record of your progress.

Keeping a journal is one of the best things you can do to bring balance to your life.  So what are you waiting for?

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: journal, writing, diary, balance, calendar, daily record, meditation, memory, memories, thoughts

No related posts.

Ever bend down to pick up something off of the floor and had your knees pop and crack?  Do they feel stiff in the morning?  Do they seem to have lost some of their strength and flexibility?

Yeah.  Me too.  As we get older, our joints, especially our knees, tend to become stiff.  We begin to lose range of motion.

Most of us react by learning to live with the restricted range of motion.  In other words, if it hurts to move the joint too far, we don’t move it that far.  The only problem with this is that our range of motion continuously degenerates, becoming less and less over time.

None of us wants to lose our ability to get around.  So what can you do to prevent this from happening?

First, Check with Your Doctor.

First of all, make sure that you don’t have some sort of degenerative bone disease that may require medical attention.

Second, Lose Some Weight.

Well, I’ve found that best thing you can do is to lose some weight.  If you’re carrying some extra pounds, and who among us isn’t, it tends to throw your knees out of alignment.  This makes them work harder in addition to increasing the amount of wear and tear on them.

Don’t believe me?  Try getting on an exercise bike and pedaling for a minute or two.  Notice how the extra weight around your abdomen and thighs forces you to spread your legs out to the side.  As a result, when you begin to pedal, your knees are pushing down on the pedal at an angle instead of pushing straight down like they should.

To get your knees back into shape, you HAVE to get rid of some of the weight.  Find a diet you can live with and get some of the extra pounds off.  Do this BEFORE you begin any kind of exercise routine that places a lot of strain on the legs or knees.  You don’t want to risk any further damage to your knees.

Third, Build Leg Strength.

Notice I said leg strength, not knee strength.  The reason is that the knee is made up of muscles that wrap around the joint and help keep it aligned.  The stronger these muscles are, the better aligned your knee stays.

Spend some time doing front and back leg lifts with weights and your knees will automatically be strengthened in the process.

Fourth, Increase Knee Flexibility.

Once you built some strength in your legs, you can begin to increasing your range of motion with some shallow knee bends or other exercises that work the knee directly.  I’ve found that some of the Yoga poses are also great for this.  Once again, it’s critical that you first lose some weight and build some leg strength so that your knees stay aligned properly.

Fifth, Feed Your Knees.

Some people have gotten good results by taking dietary supplements containing glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate.  The jury is still out on this with some medical studies showing no benefit and others showing just the opposite.  My opinion is that it depends on the individual and their unique physical condition.

So give it a try – but don’t expect miracles.

The End Result.

Follow these suggestions and you’ll find that you can bend and move your knees without as much pain or effort.  You’ll also begin to regain your full range of motion.  The end result is that you keep your ability to move around and enjoy life — and isn’t that the whole point?

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: knee, knee health, flexibility, exercise, balance, supplements, glucosamine

Related posts:

1. Getting Back Into Shape After Thanksgiving

I played tennis last night with my two sons (both now grown) and Brandon, my 8-year old grandson. We had a great time although I spent most of my time chasing balls. My tennis game definitely isn’t what it used to be!

During one of those moments when I was trying to catch my breath, it hit me how lucky I was. My two sons have grown into fine young men, each with a successful career. My oldest son has a beautiful family with a son of his own and a brand new daughter, all in good health. We’ve been truly blessed. I closed my eyes for a moment and turned my head slightly up, felt a slight breeze brush my face, and said, “Thank you.”

I believe that one of the things that has made a significant change in my life has been trying to live it with a sense of gratitude instead of a sense of entitlement. The former satisfies and fills you with a sense of wonder and appreciation while the latter leaves you resentful, bitter, and empty.

Sitting in a meditation hall, I once listened to a Buddhist monk talk about traveling around his country with no processions, no money, and only the clothes on his back. He was totally dependent on the kindness of others for his food and transportation. He said, “I really enjoy being having nothing because when someone gives me something, I appreciate it that much more.”

In a worldly sense, he was the definition of “poor.” However, here was a man that literally radiated inner peace and loving kindness. It was impossible to look at his beaming and contented face and call him “poor.”

Take a look around at the life that you have built. No, take a good look. Don’t look with your eyes, see with your heart. See all of the things that mean the most to you – your family, your kids, your friends. See the healthy mind and body that you inhabit and that has allowed you to earn all of the physical things around you: a comfortable home, a nice car, a good job. See it all, feel it, appreciate it …. and then close your eyes, slightly lift your head, and from the bottom of your heart, say, “Thank you.”

You’ll be surprised how good you’ll feel! Living with a sense of gratitude makes you, like the Buddhist monk I mentioned, appreciate life that much more.

Hiram

The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags:
inner peace, gratitude, balance

No related posts.