For those individuals who are constantly sick and forced to make that dreaded visit to your doctor in what seems like a regular basis, optimum health could come in the form or regular exercise and a change in eating habits. It may be vital to take a sort of survey on your health.
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Creating Optimum Health Through Regular Exercise
by · October 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
Health Awareness
by · October 24, 2011 1 Comment
We all strive for success financially, yet how many Americans are tuned into health awareness also put that that same energy into making sure our health and bodies are at peak performance?
What’s the point of being successful and having enough money to do what you want to do when you want to do it but your body and ill-health keep you from enjoying the rewards of your labor?
Imagine you’re meeting friends or family at a five-star resort and instead of being able to get out there with them and enjoy all the activities that include a certain amount of physical fitness, you are forced to sit on the sidelines and cheer everyone else on while you sit like a lump on a chaise lounge or chair, wishing you could have fun with everyone else.
Certainly for some, relaxing on a chaise lounge could be what you consider the perfect scenario — and if you’re healthy and have worked hard so you can go to some exotic place and relax, that’s fine. But you’re not being forced to do so because your body will not allow you to exert the energy necessary to swim, play golf, tennis or simply run and splash in the water at a beach.
It’s never too late to say, “I’m sorry” to yourself and your body for all the years of excess and physical abuse from the wrong food, too much alcohol or smoking. If you still want to turn things around and be a participant in life, it’s never too late to get started.
The most important first step is to give a close and hard look at what you put into your body.
The body that has served you so well for all these years is a magical machine. It will do its’ best for you including carry around huge amounts of excess weight until it can no longer sustain the load and your health will begin to decline. It’s your body telling you to wake up and pay attention.
Fueling Your Machine
Because your body is a machine, you must give it the best quality fuel to keep it running and/or to begin feeding it what is necessary to repair the damage you’ve done by stuffing it full of fast-food, the wrong kind of fats and the worst culprit of all-sugar.
Empty calories have taken over 60% of Americans into the world of the overweight and obese. Many people look at fat or obese people and “blame” them for their plight. Certainly there are those who are food addicts just as there are drug and alcohol addicts. What some don’t understand is that many overweight Americans are somewhat victimized by their genetics.
It’s not easy to watch skinny people stuff whatever they like into their mouths and be an overweight person, knowing no one is going to notice anything a thin person eats, yet if you are among the overweight, people will instantly stare at what a fat person is eating, immediately judge them and say they are weak, sloppy, disgusting and all they have to do is stop eating.
Well, “those people” are uninformed and ignorant of chemistry, genetics and DNA. Yes, an alcoholic can stop drinking and a drug addict can go to rehab and hopefully stop doing drugs. The overweight person must eat just like everyone else needs to in order to sustain life.
It’s more a question of education and for the person who is has allowed themselves to sink to a level of poor physical health and fitness, or another who has reached a level of overweight so high it seems an impossible task to start and stick to a weight-loss regimen.
Learning what is the right foods are and in what amounts to eat them is a process that must be taken on with commitment. Whether your health has suffered from inactivity and eating the wrong foods or if you’re someone who truly needs to lose a huge amount of weigh, it all begins with food and educating yourself on what are good calories, how many carbohydrates to eat, etc. The best thing to do is to begin with a visit with your doctor and possibly a session with a dietician.
Yes, it’s a rough road and many people resist what it takes to get on track and sustain the level of commitment necessary to reach your goals whether it be regaining your health or reducing your weight.
Watch The Stress
Stress can be a killer even for someone who seems fit, has a normal weight and feels fine most of the time. Every day we hear of someone in their 40’s or 50’s dropping dead of a heart attack. Many times, vital people who never knew there was a physical problem at all, but they lived and worked in a stressful environment. Taking time out to relax body and mind is important in creating a balanced life.
Understanding what stress does to the body is vital to knowing what to do to reduce that stress. Stress causes the body to create something called Cortisol, which causes weight-gain, especially around the mid-section of the body. It could benefit you greatly to look up the meaning of Cortisol and also do some reading up on the ravages of stress on the human body.
Below are some things you can do to reduce stress and simplify your life. Simple is good.
Get Off The Computer and Turn Off Your Cell Phone
Do everything possible to stop surfing the net for hours on end. Okay, so check your email three times per day instead of twenty. Go on Facebook for half an hour instead of staying up till the early hours of the morning. What’s so darn great about playing Farmville anyway?
Cut back on as much technology as possible and even though it may be hard at first, do your best not to watch the news. You know the old saying; “No news is good news?” Well, it’s not.
Cut Out The Processed Foods and Eat ‘Raw’ As Much As Possible
It may make you feel like screaming to give up the foods you think you have to eat, but take baby steps. Try salads, lightly steamed or stir-fried veggies (just a touch of Olive oil or Flax oil) and some fresh fruits. You can “cheat” once in a while of course, but soon you may not even have the desire for anything you know is literally killing you.
Re-Discover “Mother Nature”
Take a walk. Even if you can only make it twenty feet the first time! Walk, ride a bike, do anything fun that takes you outdoors and moves your body. So many people live close to the most gorgeous places like canyons, forests, beautiful bodies of water yet they never even get in the car and drive out of town to take in the amazing gifts nature has to offer.
Catch Up On Sleep
Make sure you get eight hours of sleep per day. That doesn’t count naps. Not getting at least eight hours of rest per night creates stress and that dratted Cortisol. Don’t watch television in your bedroom. Keep the technology in another room.
Only you can turn your physical negatives into positives. Make a plan, stick to it and within six-months to a year or less you can be fit and turn illnesses around and love your body enough to take it back to a place of optimum health.
By using basic health awareness, your body will thank you by making sure you live a long, happy and healthy life.
Health Is Wealth Through The Practice Of Personal Development
by · October 10, 2011 Leave a Comment
For busy executives or entrepreneurs who understand that health is wealth yet continually push themselves to the point of exhaustion by insisting on working fourteen hour days, their success may be fleeting. This state of physical weakness can bring on illness, cause stress and hinder your progress.
Ignoring your health can actually create an atmosphere where you lose money because you are not physically or emotionally capable of keeping up the pace.
Of course the goal is peak performance yet if your health suffers there’s no way you can actually work at an optimum level. There are many strategies you can utilize in your life to make sure everything including your health is in balance.
Remain Positive
First of all, beginning each day with a positive outlook and mindset is critical. Challenges and issues will come up on a daily basis if you are working with others. You must realize that not all your co-workers are on the “same page” as you and may be uninterested or unaware of the importance of taking personal responsibility for not only your finances but your physical well being.
Others may not even realize that being positive can actually change your body chemistry. Negative emotions such as anger, stress and frustration can bring on a myriad of illnesses. A positive attitude helps overcome obstacles and will give you a clearer picture of how you personally impact others.
Water Is The Miracle Liquid
This may sound like something your Mother would tell you, but drinking enough water and keeping your body hydrated throughout the day is essential. Three Martini lunches don’t count. It’s good old H2O that keeps your brain functioning and your body healthy. Yes, a minimum of eight glasses per day or more is the magic number.
So many people do not understand how vital water is to our bodies and health. Never allow yourself to reach a point where you are so parched and thirsty you dash to the water cooler and down glass after glass until you feel bloated. Purchase a stainless steel personal water bottle (plastics leech chemicals) and keep it filled and drink at least a few cups every hour or when you think of it.
Get Out There and Exercise
Like most of us, exercise can seem like a complete nightmare. The thought of driving to a gym, changing your clothes, working out, showering, getting dressed again and driving home or back to work can be so daunting we may do it for a few weeks then quit.
Get up from your desk every hour and walk down the hall, up some stairs in your office building or take a walk during your lunch break and eat your lunch (something healthy) outdoors, taking a break from your walk to sit down on a bench and just relax before you begin the walk back to your office.
Exercise also creates endorphins that will help you work longer hours if necessary. Eating healthy, having a regular exercise routine is very important to the “balance” that was mentioned earlier. It not only gives you more stamina physically but mentally as well by helping you focus at work and make it through a busy schedule.
If you are not a “gym” kind of personality, find something you enjoy like biking, speed walking, jogging or swimming. Even going out dancing a few times per week is great exercise and you’ll have such it won’t seem like exercise at all.
Anything that exerts your cardiovascular system should be done at least three times per week. The other two days can be done in a gym or from your own home. With no equipment at all other than yourself you can do sit-ups, push-ups, squats and lunges. There are lots of DVDs that bring a personal trainer right into your home and you can do the workouts right in your living room in front of your television.
The Internet is a huge resource for information on home workouts. YouTube is full of videos that can show you how to begin, from someone in not so great shape to the full-fledged workout junkie there is no end to what you can find to tailor your regimen specifically for your desires and physical level.
Get Healthy and Wealthy
What’s the point of being successful and financially fit if your body is unhealthy and you can’t enjoy what your success and money can bring? If you can travel to exotic locations and take fabulous vacations yet because your body is unfit and perhaps overweight, you sit in a chaise lounge watching everyone else have a fantastic time swimming, scuba diving or snorkeling while you sit in a big lump on a chair wishing you could join them.
Or let’s say you can afford to take your family and friends on a great ski vacation, renting a beautiful ski chalet and all you can do is sit inside by the fire while they all go off skiing for the day. Hey, at least you got to hear about all their fun when they get back. Not only do you diminish the opportunity to take part in all the activities, but you feel angry at yourself because you’ve allowed your body to become unhealthy.
But the most important thing you may not be considering is the fact that an unhealthy and unfit body will eventually begin to show signs of illness and greatly impact your life in ways that can make you very unhappy.
A fit and healthy body makes it much easier to become wealthy. Like it or not, people make first impressions by how they look and present themselves to others. If you are overweight and have medical challenges it can impact your business. When you meet potential clients or people who may be important connections, if you are so overweight or unhealthy they can tell right away and their opinion of you could be very negative.
Your lack of personal commitment to yourself by getting healthy can show them you may not be able to sustain the work or opportunity they were considering. So as hard as it may seem, if you just take the first step toward giving yourself the gift of good health it can bring you many rewards.
Most of the powerful and successful people in any industry are those who end up on stages giving motivational speeches in front of hundreds or thousands of people. Most of those I’ve seen are sharp dressed, fit and exude an air of competence and success.
If you’re not fit and you have to wear baggy, ill-fitting clothing, perspiring as you walk around the stage is not going to impress the audience.
Invest in Knowledge
If you feel ‘stuck’ and do not know how to turn things around health-wise, invest in some motivational CDs/DVDs, purchase some books on health and wellness in whatever area you find challenging. If you’re diabetic, overweight, have high blood pressure or anything else, of course see your Doctor and follow their advice, but there is no reason you cannot be proactive and find ways to enhance your own health regimen.
Become a student of your health. Check out supplements (clear them with your Doctor first) that could improve your condition. Do whatever it takes. Do everything you can to be healthy, wealthy and wise.
