February 3, 2010
Recently my friend, an exercise physiologist, and I attended a talk on a weight loss clinical trial at WF given by Dr. Larry Appel, a very prominent physician/researcher from Johns Hopkins. Dr. Appel is best known for established the link between sodium intake and hypertension. I may be* biased, but I consider Hopkins to be one of the premier institutions in public health, and I tend to put a lot of stock in the research that comes from this fine institution.
What most stuck with me from Dr. Appel’s talk was his reply to a question about whether or not physicians should offer their patients a “menu” of options when it comes to weight loss strategies. Many people might have agreed with this, reasoning that tailoring an approach to an individual’s lifestyle, preferences or energy would be a great way to increase the likelihood that they would comply with the prescription. Dr. Appel had a surprising and interesting reply.
He said that as much as he would like that option to be feasible, when you got right down to it, there are many things that people want to do to lose weight that are ineffective, and many things that they don’t want to do that are proven very effective. Specifically, he mentioned calorie counting – an activity that many people really passionately dislike doing but something that is incredibly supported by research as an effective and safe means of weight loss.
Did I mention I consider Hopkins people to be the best?
At this point, I looked over at the investigator of the research grant I work on who was giving me a look as if to say “Soooo, you haven’t been making this stuff up all along?”
***
Leaving the talk, my friend and I discussed the validity of this comment and how important it was to be direct with people about what works, even when they don’t want to hear it. (See: my love for Jillian Michaels and her unwavering ability to do this.) From there, we started talking about the many, many different reasons we’ve heard from people about why they are “unable” to exercise or commit to weight loss behaviors. We were doubled over laughing at some of the gems we’ve heard throughout the years – excuses we wonder if the person delivering them even believed.
About a year ago, my friend and I decided to test run a new exercise program. She designed it, and we used ourselves as guinea pigs for four months. It was the best shape I’ve ever been in in my life. It was so effective, we were able to implement it as a pilot study on a small group of people. Only we used the time we had set aside for our workout as the time we ran our exercise program.
You see where this is going right?
Fast forward to one year later. I’ve added in training a dog with separation anxiety and increasing the hours I’ve spent building my coaching practice, she added in a new boyfriend and getting her house ready to get on the market. Our laughter about our clients’ excuse turned to silence when one of us voiced out loud what we were both concluding:
It’s all too easy to claim you’re too busy to exercise (or eat right, or food log, or grocery shop, or cook…). What’s really going on though, is that you’re simply no longer making it a priority.
This was a sobering thought for us. Both of us identified ourselves as exercisers, we had both done our undergraduate and master’s work in the field of health and wellness, and we both worked DAILY to promote these behaviors. After a decade of consistent, regular exercise, we were both dismayed to admit we’d dropped off to probably half of our normal routine.
The car remained quiet the rest of our ride home.
***
Later that day, I got to thinking about this conversation. I realized how uncomfortable it made me to say, out loud, “exercise has not been my priority.” I had been saying I was too busy, but that wasn’t the real truth. Raising a dog and running a practice were just two puzzle pieces of my life. The truth was I had just chosen to make other things a priority, whether it was an extra hour of working, sleeping, reading a book, or sadly enough, watching TV or browsing Facebook. I had simply ceased to make exercise a priority.
As this truth sunk in, I felt extremely uncomfortable. But I realized this is exactly what my brain needed to hear. Not my priority?? I like exercising. Even more importantly, I love the results – the strength, the energy, the confidence, and hey, the way my jeans fit. I promote exercise to others. Of course, it is my priority. Saying these words out loud was the kick in the pants I needed to take action on it. Exercise is my priority, and reminding myself of that begins to bring my actions in alignment with my values.
Sure, there’s some valid reasons to not exercise (or whatever goal you’re trying to set.) Maybe you just had a newborn and sleep is your priority. Maybe you’ve got a gravely ill family member who needs round the clock attention and care right now. A broken ankle? Sure, make the couch all yours. A flooded house? Take a few weeks off. But when you get right down to it, to the very core of it, there are very few reasons why you can’t exercise. The truth is that it’s just not your priority.
And that might be okay with you! Try saying that out loud. If it doesn’t really bother you to hear that, it’s okay. You don’t have to exercise. (I could list you a bajillion reasons why you might want to… but if you’re willing to accept the consequences of not exercising, then acknowledging that it’s not your priority is okay.)
But if it does make you uncomfortable, sit with that awhile. Change is hard. But change won’t occur until the place you’re currently hanging out in has become more painful than making that actual change. If you want to make exercise your priority, become uncomfortable with the fact that you aren’t, rather than sweeping it under the rug with “busy.”
And the day came with the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin
(*May be? I am most definitely biased, as it is my graduate “alma mater.” I promise to try and not that influence me, but I do love them Hopkins folks.)
November 18, 2009
On November 26th, we will all gather together with our friends and family and count our blessings. This is a lovely tradition, and something many of cherish and look forward to.
So why don’t we do it the other 364 days of the year?
Gratitude is one of the most powerful, positive emotions that exist. Yet harnessing this incredible power is something many of us often forgot about, neglect or dare I say, don’t appreciate. Using this power, and using it daily, can be a life-changing experience.
Think about the last experience you had where you were so engaged in something that time stood still. Whether it was reading a really incredible book, or working on a project you were excited about, or watching your child gleefully toss leaves in the air, being in the moment is a positive, joyful experience. I have noticed that most of our fears and anxieties come from dwelling on what past experiences we’ve had or worrying about what the future will hold. When we are present, worry, fear and stress diminish. Channeling feelings of gratitude are a great way to immerse oneself into the present moment, reducing stress and increasing positive emotions.
And best of all? Gratitude is free. It doesn’t have any calories. It doesn’t have any side effects. It doesn’t require a membership, a baby-sitter or having to remember a password with one lower-case letter and 3 numbers. It can be done anytime, anyplace, anywhere… it is the ultimate feel-good fix.
An easy way to get started creating this experience is with a gratitude journal. I like to think of this as collecting evidence. Seeing in black and white, over the days and eventually weeks, all the evidence of good things in your life is powerful. Journaling can be, and should be, simple, straight-forward and stress-free.
Here are some tips she shares for starting your own gratitude journal, created by Keena after she was inspired to start her own journal recently:
• No rules. Avoid setting up expectations like a number of items, or not being able to repeat the same thing. You should never like you have to repress a gratitude. (I agree! In my own gratitude journal, my husband, my dog, and my health insurance repeat almost daily.)
• Missing days: don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day. Go back if you want, or just start fresh with a new day. It’s meant to be something you enjoy doing.
• Leave blank spaces: you may want to go back and add something later that occurs to you.
• Reframing: Keena noted that the word “gratitude” can create an expectation of a certain importance or significance for some. Reframing the exercise to “things that made me happy” and you’ll find your list can include everything from seeing your toddler giggle, to the perfect squiggle of caramel on top of a coffee, to the great parking space you got.
You can journal any time of day. Morning journalers often reflect on the day past, or on what’s to come before them. Starting the day off in this mindset creates an expectation for positive experiences throughout the day. (And as we know – you get what you’re looking for!) Night time journalers might use the time to reflect on the day, walking through each event purposefully seeking out the moments, the memories or the people that created positive emotions.
Thanks to technology, you can even journal easily throughout the day. In fact, there’s even an iPhone application called the Happy Tapper that lets you journal, or create a vision board, right on your phone. That’s right… there’s an app for that.
The creator of the iphone app, Carla Kay White, was inspired to design the application as a way to share with other people the incredible shift that using a gratitude journal created for her. She says just a few months of journaling changed her life, including better sleep, weight loss, more meaningful personal relationships and more fulfilling experiences with her career. When I spoke with her, it had been over a year and a half since she started journaling and she said the effects of it are still going strong.
Carla says, about journaling, “It’s a snowball effect. Everything just seems to get bigger and better. This doesn’t mean I don’t have any issues or struggles in my life. Everyone does. I can handle them so much better and know not to let them get the best of me.”
Now that’s compelling evidence! (Read more of Carla’s story on her blog or the rest of my interview with her here.)
Almost everyone who keeps a gratitude journal talks about a shift that starts happening after a few weeks. You begin looking for things to be happy about. And the more you look, the more you find. You might also find that you begin to express appreciation for the personal interactions in your life that you’re grateful for. Small things, like your spouse unloading the dishwasher or a neighbor rolling the trashcan up to your home, become acts of service to be celebrated and acknowledged. And like any good dog trainer will tell you, what you reinforce you get more of!
One regular journaler noted that over time he began to recognize that the experiences he captured in his journal were not things that cost him any money. As someone who was constantly stressed about his financial situation, using a journal helped him recognize that what he valued most was the stuff in his life, it was the moments. This helped him create criteria for spending money: is this an investment in a moment or experience that will make my life (or my loved ones) life happier or easier?
A few months ago, I started small with my gratitude journal – I aimed for one day a week. I started a tradition called Thankful Thursday in my personal blog, and every Thursday I would list all the things that came to mind that had made me happy that day. Two weeks ago, I was in Starbucks meeting a client on a Thusrday afternoon. The barista making my drink said to me, “What are you so happy about today?” Without a moment’s hesitation, I said “It’s Thursday!” I assume that she figured I meant “and thus, tomorrow is Friday!” but in that moment, I realized how much I had come to delightfully anticipate Thursdays. In fact, I would often go through the day looking for things to add to my list.
After a few months of Thankful Thursdays, I’ve now graduated to daily journaling. Every night before I go to bed, I walk through the past day in my head and jot down everything that comes to mind that has made me happy that day. My lists range from a delicious glass of wine to the safety of a friend who was in a traumatic car wreck. Sometimes I write for 2 minutes, sometimes its 20 minutes later and I’m filling up the margins on the side. While I journal at night, the experience of being grateful lasts all day long. When I sit down to reflect on the wonderful things I’ve experienced that day, it’s often times almost overwhelming how much there is in my life to be thankful for.
Why do we save up our thanks for one day of the year when we could be experiencing this incredible emotion every single day? For some people, the idea of focusing on gratitude might seem like a bit of a Pollyanna experience. It’s easy to get caught in the vicious spin cycle of stress, worry, and fears and forcing oneself to “find the silver lining” might feel like a platitude that ignores the real problems that every single human faces in their daily life.
Carla said she was skeptical at first, and understands the doubts of other people who wonder how just putting words to paper can really bring about change. She encourages people to try it, every day, for a month and just see what happens. “A shift will happen. It most likely won’t be in the way that you imagine it to. But that’s ok. Trust that the universe is working for you and it will. Just keep telling it what you’re thankful for so it knows what to keep giving you. You’re having a conversation with the universe all day anyway, why not take control of it?”
While focusing on gratitude might not make your problems disappear with a magic wand, it can put equal weight on the other side of the see-saw of emotions that worry and stress often runs us over with. We humans are accustomed to finding fault in many things – customer service, traffic, managers, family members, our government, and most notably – ourselves. For most, it is a complete shift in perspective to begin actively seeking positive experiences in our day to day routines. Flexing the gratitude muscle over time strengthens it, until like any action repeated frequently enough, it becomes automatic. Imagine that? Feeling good, all the time, automatically?
That sounds like something to be thankful for.
When Keena and I started working on the November newsletter on gratitude, I really wanted to find an example of someone who had used a gratitude journal to change their life. Fortunately, an internet search for “gratitude journal changed my life” actually turned out to be quite fruitful.
We came across Carla’s website and her post on her a gratitude journal helped her shift her life. I got in touch with Carla and she was gracious enough to answer a few more questions about her experiences. I wasn’t able to include all of them in my post on gratitude, but I loved her story and her words so much I wanted to share them with you. Here’s the rest of my questions and her answers.
iPhone users, check out her applications – a gratitude journal app and a vision board app. This is now only about the 300th time I now wish I had an iPhone! Her blog can be found at here. You will feel this girl’s positivity radiate right out from your computer!
Carla White Q & A:
What first inspired you to start keeping a gratitude journal?
I was on a quest to get out of the funk I was in for two years since my dad suddenly passed away. I was trying everything but getting little results. Then I heard about gratitude journals on a pod cast and gave it a shot. At first it was really hard for me to come up with five things I’m grateful for. I was repeating the same things every day. But in a few weeks my life started to shift and my entries got longer and longer. In just a couple months my life changed completely.
· You mentioned a number of different benefits that you had from keeping your journal, including sleeping better, losing weight, having better personal relationships – do you still the effects of this now that’s it’s been a year later?
Amazingly I’ve been able to keep the weight off, I sleep better than ever and yes, my personal relationships are still going strong. It’s a snowball effect. Everything just seems to get bigger and better. This doesn’t mean I don’t have any issues or struggles in my life. Everyone does. I can handle them so much better and know not to let them get the best of me.
· Has anyone in your life asked your what “your secret was” and if so, do you know if they started a gratitude journal?
Just recently a close friend came to me and said she is going through a divorce. She said “As long as I’ve known you, you seem so together. How do you do it?” The truth is she met me before I started keeping a gratitude journal, but she doesn’t remember me with bags under my eyes, overweight and fed up. She and her daughter both started keeping a journal and it’s really helped them through this divorce so much. In fact, I’ve had quite a few people contact me saying that keeping a gratitude journal has helped them with losing a job, their home, a loved one. I’m so grateful I was able to create a way for others to start a journal so easily.
· I love your idea to make the gratitude journal for the iPhone . I’ve often heard it said that when you find the type of work that you are called to do, it doesn’t even feel like work. Obviously it took a lot of work and pieces of the puzzle for it to come together – were there any moments you questioned what you were doing?
I worked on the Gratitude Journal iPhone app from 5am – 7am before going into my day job and again at night when I got home. Yes, there were quite a few early mornings dragging myself out of bed wondering what sort of madness struck me. I would see other slick looking apps being launched by folks who have been in Silicon Valley and wonder what I was doing. I was in the middle of corn fields and didn’t even have an iPhone! But then I would go to work listening to the news on the radio about our economy and think to myself, “If I can get one person to turn around their life with a gratitude journal, it will be worth it.”
· I’ve read on your blog that you are a student of ‘the secret’ – do you remember the moment when you realized you were coming from a place of negative energy instead of positive energy? What was that aha moment like for you?
It took me quite a while to figure that out. I was on the brink of losing my job, interviewing with a dozen companies none of which resulted in a job offer. I was frustrated thinking, “I’m sending out positive thoughts, why aren’t any of these job coming together for me?” After awhile I realized that the energy I was putting out there wasn’t positive. It was desperate and negative. I started to telling myself little affirmations like “I love life, life loves me,” and “money comes often and easy.” Everyday all day I would say these together with little bits of thanks. It seems like the more I gave thanks, the more the universe gave me to be thankful for. My intentions changed from desperate wishes (like winning the lottery) to soul goals. I wanted to do something that is the highest and best interest for me and those around me. To give back. And again, the more I gave back, the more the universe gave me.
· What message do you share with those who are skeptical about the power of gratitude?
I want to tell them they’re right to be skeptical. I was too. The idea that writing down a few things each day will change my life seemed ridiculous. Especially in an age when we’re told you need to spend a lot of money and time to change. And we need to top it off with some prescription medicine too. I’ll be honest with you. It won’t work if you only do it here and there for a couple days. You need to do it everyday for at least one month. A shift will happen. It most likely won’t be in the way that you imagine it to. But that’s ok. Trust that the universe is working for you and it will. Just keep telling it what you’re thankful for so it knows what to keep giving you. You’re having a conversation with the universe all day anyway, why not take control of it?
· What’s your next project?
My career is delving deeper into spirituality the power of the universe. I’m working with some incredible life coaches, creating more life improving iPhone apps, and have a couple writing projects in the works. I’m also helping others get their apps off the ground through books, presentations and coaching. Everyday more and more opportunity comes knocking on my door – quite a difference from just a year ago when I was desperate for find a job!
August 4, 2009
Last week I was coaching one of my favorite clients who I just love for her “a-ha” moments – her eyes light up, and she catches herself saying something that we both know is one of those thoughts that has to be immortalized on paper and looked back on for inspiration at the ready. I was asking her to imagine herself on Oprah 5 years from now, reflecting on her weight loss journey. What lesson would she have taken from this journey? How would she summarize it? Her answer, I could tell, moved both of us.
“I would say it was a journey made decision by decision.”
I LOVE this. I just recently read that we make, on average, 250 decisions a day about food. (Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink, PhD.) 250 decisions! If only we were all so aware as to realize that this journey is made decision by decision.
Today, I was reflecting on the fact that I’ve gotten out of some of my regular habits and I haven’t been feeling my absolute best. The most major change is that since March I’ve been traveling a ton – both for work and for fun – and I haven’t had a really consistent exercise schedule. I realized that I really miss running and lifting on a regular basis. Along with my more erratic exercise schedule, changes in my husband’s schedule as he shifted from medical student to resident have meant that I’m “accountable” to cooking less often and have gotten in a habit of grazing for dinner more often. I’ve never been a huge fan of dinner, but I’m finding that my “eh why bother” attitude has translated to less grocery shopping, thus more eating out and more grabbing whatever is around. (Tonight’s dinner? 2 apples, 1 peach, a bunch of broccoli and a chunk of bread. Eaten over the course of about 3 hours, and I almost didn’t realize I was eating. Result: I’m full but unsatisfied.)
I was out running my dog tonight and the cool night air felt perfect as I slipped through it at a very comfortable running pace. I was enjoying hearing the sound of my feet rhythmically hitting the pavement, and my breath coming in regular, consistent patterns. I thought to myself, “You know, I really need to get back to running regularly. And I should probably get back to my more regular shopping/cooking habits. I need to get back on track. I’ll start tomorrow.”
Heard that quote before? I almost laughed out loud at myself, because I’ve done the “start tomorrow” thing one too many times. Wait a second, COACH? Aren’t you the one who talks about there is no “start” and “stop” or “being good” or “being bad”? Ahh yes, I HAVE uttered those words… just a few hundred times. It’s old programming, and it was easy to fall back into.
There is this pervasive, convoluted thinking that there is a finite “start” and “stop” to the habits that make us the healthy beings we are always striving towards. And I know this because I was there, for a long, long time. And I know this, because I find that if I’m not intentional, that type of thinking worms its way back into my mind and hangs out just begging to be noticed.
I thought of my client. Decision by decision. Here is my next decision: I will run a little bit longer. My next decision? What to pack for lunch. My next decision? When to go to sleep. Decision by decision, I will seek out the healthy behaviors that have, in the past, made me feel my best. The behaviors that are conducive to my best self. There is no start tomorrow, or next week, or after vacation. There is simply “What is my next decision?”
What is your next decision?
June 22, 2009
I mentioned Oprah’s Best Life Week in a long ago post and I wanted to talk about a statement she made in her interview on Monday of that week that I keep on thinking about – almost half a year later. As she talked about her own struggles with weight, she said “Anybody who struggles with weight is hungry for something else.”
I’ve been entrenched in the world of weight loss, professionally and personally, for almost a decade. I’ve heard a lot of things said about people who struggle with their weight, most hurtful and a far cry from the truth. Oprah, no big surprise here, knows what she’s talking about. For about 20% of the people I work with, weight loss is merely a matter of understanding how many calories they need and how many calories are in the foods they eat. They get the formula, the book, the log and off they go. For the majority, eating in excess (and a deficit of activity) may indeed be one part lack of knowledge, but is a greater part emotionally driven. It’s not about willpower, about being lazy, about being stupid or all the other things we’ve all heard said (probably most often from none other than Yourself) – it’s about discovering and understanding, as Oprah, said what you’re really hungry for.
It could be as simple as more sleep or as profound as more love. It could be as benign as a cure for boredom or as complex as a cure for low self-worth.
Many people fear being hungry when they’re trying to lose weight, but the fact is that stomach growling hunger is much easier to deal with then love-hunger, security-hunger, self-worth-hunger, companionship-hunger, peace-hunger, calm-hunger, or whatever else you are starving for. Feeding that hunger with food – food that is so readily available and inexpensive in our country – is a learned habit. Can you un-learn a habit? Of course… but not without support, introspection, determination and the choice to build a new habit.
Oprah has bared her hunger and declared herself willing to try and feed it in a way that supports her health. Are you ready to find and feed your hunger?
More articles on emotional eating:
Stress Eating
Cravings
March 13, 2009
Today in one of my workshops, a man told a story that was truly inspirational. He told the story of a young man in his late 20’s who had been overweight his entire life – high school, college – he’d always been “the fat guy.” His journey started with a small step, just a slow steady pace around a gym track. For 6 months, he carried on at this slow steady pace. Then one day, he found his feet moving a little faster and started jogging. At first, he bent over, clasping his chest, unable to breathe. He stood up, and went a little farther. The next day, a little farther. Accordingly to the storyteller, as of today he’s lost 100 pounds and signs up for every 5k that comes his way.
I hear and read stories like this all the time. I’m addicted to Oprah and Biggest Loser: two classic feel-good generators. I get a newsletter from Sparkpeople.com that weekly tells a hero’s tale of weight loss. Most of the magazines I read include at least one “Before & After” story. What I wondered, then, as I observed the folks in this group listen to this hero’s story and admire his bravery, his perseverance and his happy outcome is why we don’t ever tell our own hero’s tale. Is it a matter of being humble? Or because we don’t truly believe our own tale is a song to sing?
You can stand at the bottom of your current mountain and think about the great climb left. Or you can turn around and notice all the peaks you’ve already ascended. There is not one single person who I have worked with before who has not progressed in some manner, some way, some direction. There is ALWAYS progress to note.
They say looking to the past stops you from moving forward. I daresay that too little time reflecting on the past or perhaps better said, the right perspective of the past, deprives us of some readily available personal motivation.
With that said, I dare you, I challenge you, and I invite you: write your own hero’s tale. You don’t have to share it with anyone. You don’t have to send it around as a forward, post it on youtube, or be on Oprah. You don’t even have to read it to your spouse, your children or your cat. It is your tale. Inspire yourself.
January 25, 2009
Sometimes there appear to be themes to my weeks. I’ll find myself saying the same thing over and over again to four or five clients in one week, a statement I haven’t said in weeks or months yet it seems applicable to many that one week. This happened to be one of those weeks, and I’ll put this out there because maybe there’s something to be said for universal consciousness: many of us becoming aware of something all together.
“The difference between people who lose weight and keep it off, versus those who struggle with their weight all their life has nothing to do with the types of foods they eat, the diet program they join, the amount or type of exercise they do… the difference is all mental. How they think about themselves, their body, their worth, how they think about food and exercise, how they value health – that is where the difference lies.”
I must have said that spiel to six clients and in three or four groups this week. I hear a similar sentiment being reflected by Oprah, in her Best Life Ever confession, and on the Biggest Loser, as Bob and Jillian begin to focus on emotional ties to weight nearly as much as they do food and exercise. It makes me hopeful to believe that we as a whole are becoming more aware of this new way of approaching weigh tloss: from the inside out.
There’s no magic formula for eating right and exercising. There’s a huge body of science that tells us how to do it in the manner that’s best for our body and our health. But the magic formula for weight loss lies not in research articles, in diet books or in gym.
I’ve talked about it here, here and here. This is approaching weight loss from the inside out. This is tackling the emotions the cue you to stand in front of the pantry or make a spontaneous left hand turn into the drive through.
The magic is within you, and the only thing that stands in the way of you creating the life you want is the beliefs you hold about whether or not you deserve or are capable of that life.
January 9, 2009
I’m busy.
I’m sooooo busy.
Busy, busy!
I’m so busy these days, I don’t know what to do.
I can’t do it, I’m too busy.
Said it lately? I know I have. Seems these days we’re a culture of Busy.
Most people I know are juggling a lot – jobs, families, social lives, taking care of children or parents, volunteering, running errands… When you get right down to it, the statement “I’m too busy” is really a declaration of our priorities. Sending out my survey this week, I was most curious to see how women especially (the usual caregivers) choose to spend their time when their priorities overlapped.
The good news is the majority of you, a whopping 95% of you, treat your doctor’s appointments as sacred and deftly juggled work appointments to keep them (and keep your bosses happy!). As one of you said, “I need to be healthy to work well.” Amen!
Friends and children also rated high on your priority list. Whether it was dragging yourself out of bed when you were feeling less than sunny-side up (65%) or staying up late to stir brownie batter (60%), seems like we’ll forsake sleep to make our friends and fam feel important to you.
What struck me as most interesting, of course, was how we choose when it comes to time for ourselves, specifically healthy eating and exercise. We had a tough time deciding between a scheduled exercise versus a dinner invitation from a friend: 40% skipped the workout for quality time with a friend, 35% held the workout sacred and 25% of you showed up sweaty to socialize. The jury was split 50/50 on whether t-ball practice or spinning class stayed in your appointment books, although 2 of you smartly added you’d just go find another spinning class!
Healthy eating – whether planning or follow through – was what got sacrificed the most. 75% left your brown bag in the office fridge and joined the crew at El Dorado. (This was a real life example for me!) Our best made intentions are often times forsaken in the day to day of real life – 80% of us bumped our grocery trip into the next day when a work deadline was pressing down, and just 3 people turned off the TV to write a meal plan. Fortunately the majority of us, 65%, still did some meal planning during the commercials. Hey, multi-tasking is better than no-tasking in this scenario!
In our day to day busy lives making time for all our priorities is no doubt a challenge. For women especially, taking care of other’s needs often comes before our own needs. Without health, we deprive ourselves the opportunity to live our best life. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we certainly can’t take care of other people.
Food For Thought: Whether it’s scheduling play time for yourself or blocking off your workouts in your Outlook as calendar, treating your time as sacred as those doctor’s appointments is key to maintaining those lifelong healthy habits. Many of us start January off with the best made intentions, only to find them lost a few weeks later in the day to day shuffle of our busy life. Choose one habit you’re trying to maintain, and take a look at your calendar. Find where it fits in and schedule it in – every week. When you’re choosing how to spend your time, the question you’re asking yourself is “Am I my own priority?” How could you not be?
January 7, 2009
Why are you reading this? It’s almost 8:00 on a Tuesday! Go watch Biggest Loser and get inspired to MOVE YOUR BODY and EAT HEALTHY and LOVE YOURSELF. Go!
(And do some push-ups during the commerical breaks. It’s okay – you can do those modified ones on your knees. No one’s watching.)
January 6, 2009
Why are you reading this? It’s almost 8:00 on a Tuesday! Go watch Biggest Loser and get inspired to MOVE YOUR BODY and EAT HEALTHY and LOVE YOURSELF. Go!
(And do some push-ups during the commerical breaks. It’s okay – you can do those modified ones on your knees. No one’s watching.)
