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Health & Fitness

Enjoy the Journey, Set Goals and Achieve Success!

Actually enjoying what you do for exercise and nutrition can flip your entire perspective of health upside down. It's simple....if you choose to make it simple!

In an effort to stay healthy throughout our life, it's important to actually enjoy what you are doing.  If you breakdown the word "enjoy" it literally means to be IN JOY.  Finding what brings us joy can be a lifetime of discovery.  

I have tried many new ventures in my brief 30 years on this planet.  When I was younger my parents let me try any new program, sport or hobby that I wanted.  I learned how to balance on balls and tightropes in a circus class; I joined book clubs and acting classes, voice lessons, put on a too-too and dance shows, tried my hand with musical instruments, figure skating, high school sports, marathons, triathlons (swimming, biking and running in competition) and practicing yoga.  Of all the endeavors I tried, living through activity has stuck!  Triathlons and yoga are as much of my daily routine as brushing my teeth (notice I didn't say flossing because I hate flossing and nobody honestly does that everyday).  I actually enjoy swimming, biking, running and doing yoga.  Now, I am not in joy when I am on the treadmill or on a stationary bike, in a spin class or lifting weights.  I also don't like to do yoga alone.  So, I don't do those things.  I do, however, spend a lot of time outdoors getting creative about how I get in my bike rides and runs...and because Illinois is pretty darn chilly most of the year, I moved to California so that I could be IN JOY of the outdoors more often.  This works for me, but it doesn't work for everyone.  I know so many people that love watching their running/walking progress on a treadmill, or the camaraderie they get from a spin class with pumpin' music and an energetic instructor.  How you do it doesn't matter.  What matters is enjoying it!  

Regardless of what activity I picked up over the years, I have learned that I like having goals and having goals allows me to witness success from my efforts.   Now success is different for everybody.  Take music for instance....I would be successful for the little amount of time I now play the piano if I could break out jingle bells with sheet music really slowly and out of tune at Christmas.  For the person who practices everyday, lives it and breaths it, their success is perhaps to appear on "America's Got Talent" (is that show even on anymore? - who cares, really).  The point is, we don't get successful at something overnight just the way that something doesn't fall apart overnight either.  If you start a diet or a new way of eating, it's important to introduce yourself to this new way gradually.  If you love meat and all of a sudden decide that you are going to become a vegetarian, ease into it and make sure you want to do that!  If you have a setback and accidentally eat a piece of sausage on a pizza, don't kill yourself about it.  Just move forward.  The same thing goes for running your first 5k.  If you've never run before, start off run/walking.  Gradually increase the amount of time you are running and decrease the amount you are walking.  If you find that you enjoy walking more than running, or you find you are getting injured, ask yourself what is driving you to do that 5k?  Are you setting yourself up to succeed or setting yourself up for failure?  Being joyful with activity is as critical as being joyful about what you eat.  If you don't like cabbage, why would you go on a cabbage soup cleanse.  If you don't like running, why pay $150 for the Chicago marathon.  Seriously, don't make it that hard!    

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Keys to Health and Happiness through Activity:   

  • Get creative and try new things.  Jump into new programs, but allow yourself not to be perfect.  
  • Do something that scares you to see where your edge is. 
  • If you feel stuck with a diet or exercise program, ask yourself if you are really having fun with it.  Remember don't eat cabbage if you hate the taste of it.  It won't last!!!
  • Believe what you put in your body AND what you put your body through is actually creating nourishment, not punishment.  
  • Set meaningful, reasonable, and attainable goals.  If you don't like running, don't set a goal to run a 5k because you will quickly start to stress out about putting on your running shoes.  
  • Track your progress in a journal by capturing what you are learning about yourself through the activity.  Don't worry about the pounds lost, miles run or calories consumed.  If you are learning about yourself, you are making progress.  
  • HAVE FUN!!!  

You only have one life!  Be happy, be healthy and be in joy!   

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