How to Get Back on the Health Track in 2016 part 8

What Your Next Step Is

We almost all do it. We make New Year’s resolutions to get healthy, to exercise more and to live a more happy and positive life. Then, as they say, life happens. We fall off the ball and eventually we’re right back where we started a year ago.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of losing our motivation to continue. Reaching the goal might be taking longer than we hoped or harder than we anticipated. But there are things we can do to boost our motivation along the way.

Tell other people about your goal or invite them to join you.

Work on taking small steps every day that leads you towards your goal.

Celebrate your success at preset milestones.

Work on changing your thought patterns as you work on the new behavior. If you don’t change how you think about eating healthy, you will likely have trouble maintaining it.

Have fun and laugh at yourself when you slip. But get back on track as soon as you can.

The statistics are scary. If only eight percent of people setting New Year’s resolutions are able to achieve them, then why do so many attempt them year after year and fail? It’s not because they are lazy. Often it’s simply because we set too high a goal or try to achieve too many resolutions at once.

Setting a New Year’s resolution is a lot like taking a long trip. You wouldn’t set out without a plan on how you were going to get there, where you’d be staying or even what you planned to take with you.

So when you do make your resolutions this year, and you find yourself slipping, take the time to reassess and revamp the plan on how you are going to reach that health goal. Hit the gym, turn down that piece of cake and eat less processed foods. Give yourself a reward, and then get out and do it all over again tomorrow. It’ll be worth it when you finally achieve it.

How to Get Back on the Health Track in 2016 part 7

What to Do If You Feel You’re Slipping or Get off Track

Sometimes we have the best intentions but still slip and get off track. Is it a mindset problem? Or was the goal too big? Did you not have enough support? No matter what the reason, don’t give up! You can return to working on your resolution.

Decide if the goal really means something to you, and if it does, you’ll want to follow this simple process to get back on track.

• Review your plan. Did you set your goal a little too high? For example losing 50 pounds in 3 months? Aim a bit lower. Set your target goal to a more attainable one. So for this example, losing 10 or 15 pounds in 3 months or changing what you eat and scheduling exercises would be a better resolution.
• Break down your goal if your original goal is too large to accomplish easily. If your goal is to lose 50 pounds this year, then break it down into smaller tasks. In this example, 50 pounds a year is less than a pound a week. Then set up an eating and exercise plan to lose a pound a week.

• ­Focus on one resolution at a time. Choose the most pressing one – losing weight, eating healthy, changing your mindset—and concentrate on it until you achieve it. Trying to change more than one habit at a time can be overwhelming.
• Get an accountability partner. Enlist the help of a friend or professional to keep you accountable who can advise you on what you need to be doing.
• Be flexible and willing to change how you approach your resolution. Lengthen your timeline if necessary.
• Work on smaller goals at a time that lead to your ultimate goal.
• Create new milestones if you feel like you’re just too far off track. Modify your original goal for a new more attainable one that fits in the remaining time. That way, at least you’re making some progress towards your original goal.
• Get more specific if you created a very broad and grand resolution. Maybe your goal was to get healthy. That’s great, but it is without an action plan and specific definition of what healthy means to you. Does it mean eating clean foods? Or exercising three times a week?

Just because you’ve started slipping away from your New Year’s resolution doesn’t mean you have to totally forget about it. Use the above tips to get back on track and get your momentum going again.

How to Get Back on the Health Track in 2016 part 6

How to Live with Positivity and Limited Stress Every Day

 Worry and negative thoughts lead to stress. One way to have less stress is to live with positivity. Learning how to live with a positive attitude can be challenging but with practice every day it will become a habit.

Here are ten ways to stay positive every day:

1. When you catch yourself saying what-if or imagining the worst case scenario, take control by turning those thoughts into positive ones. Instead of worrying, think of the best possible outcome.
2. Use breathing techniques to keep you centered. When you’re really stressed, take at least three deep breaths to calm yourself before you take action or start overanalyzing the situation.
3. Don’t compare what’s happening now with what happened before. It’s difficult to not compare changes, especially negative ones, with what happened in the past. Don’t wish things would go back to the way they were if you’re facing negative problems. Instead find a positive solution and consider why you’re facing difficulty.
4. Focus on solutions rather than the problems. There is less stress when you are working toward solving a problem.
5. Learn how to treat others well. Treat others the way you’d like to be treated. Be kind. Smile.
6. Focus on self-improvement. It’s easy to blame others for our problems. But positive people know that won’t get them anywhere. Instead, find ways you can improve yourself and build your skills and mindset into a person who can overcome the obstacles, instead of blaming external factors for your lack of success or problems.
7. Laugh at yourself. Everyone makes mistakes and messes up sometimes. Learn a lesson from the mistake and laugh it off. Take yourself lightly.
8. Work on whatever you are capable of achieving. It’s never too late to accomplish what you want in life. Quit obsessing over what you should have done sooner. Take steps every day toward what you want to accomplish.
9. Reach out to others. Form new connections and reach out to old connections. Whenever possible, network with others in a positive way.
10. Start each day with a happy thought. Remind yourself of your strengths, your goals, and the things that make you happy. Feel gratitude for the things you do have. Focus on the positive experiences you have every day. It might be as simple as a cuddle from your puppy to getting a new client. Use daily affirmations.

Living with positivity on a daily basis leaves less room for stress in your life. Positive people are calmer, work towards what they want and achieve their goals better than those who continually worry, and find the negative in any situation.

How to Get Back on the Health Track in 2016 part 5

How to Incorporate Exercise into Your Daily Lifestyle

 You set a New Year’s resolution to exercise every day. If you are new to exercising or you haven’t done it for a while, the best way to begin incorporating it into your life is to begin with small steps.

• Set your mind to the idea of moving more. Remind your body to get more movement every day by standing more or taking the stairs more often. Other ways to get more movement in are to do stretches in your chair, squat to pick something up from the floor or park farther away from the door.
• Commit to regular activity by setting a specific time each day. Schedule it in your appointment calendar and treat it like a commitment. Set a time to take a leisurely walk if exercise is new to you. Or set a time to take a fitness class, swim a few laps or join in a dance class.
• Move more. Find ways to move more in your regular daily activity.
• Find your favorite exercise. You’ll be more likely to stick to it if you enjoy it. To find one you’ll enjoy, think about what you played as a kid. Did you enjoy team sports? You might be more of a group or class person, so try a spin class or sign up for an adult sports league. Did you enjoy playing alone? Try running, tennis or a marathon. Rent an exercise video to experiment with different types of exercise.
• Vary your routine and activities if you get bored easily. Try cardio three days a week and strength training twice a week and yoga twice a week. Try working out in the morning part of the time and in the evening part of the time.
• Exercise at the right time of day for you. The best time to exercise is whatever works for your schedule. Mornings might be ideal if you’re a busy professional. Fit in a gym session on your lunch hour or after work if that works best for you.

Incorporating exercise into your daily lifestyle can be as simple as waking up thirty minutes earlier for a quick walk or doing stretches at your desk. No matter what type of exercise you do, look for simple ways to add more movement to your day.

How to Get Back on the Health Track in 2016 part 4

How to Incorporate Healthy Eating into Your Daily Lifestyle

You made a resolution to eat healthy this year. You were doing great for about two weeks or so. Then wham. Life happened. You were hit with temptations for sweets at work, for eating fast food for lunch or simply craved potato chips. It happens.

But you can get back on the right track.

Here are 4 ways to incorporate healthy eating into your daily lifestyle:

1. Don’t sacrifice a nutritious breakfast. You’ve probably heard the old adage “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, and it’s true. But not just anything will do. Skip the sweet Danish for a more nutritious breakfast. Keep plenty of healthy breakfast foods on hand.
2. Enjoy easy, healthy snacks. Healthy snacks keep you from getting too hungry and overeating at your next meal. Keep foods such as yogurt, nuts, fruit and veggies such as washed apples, carrot sticks, and grape tomatoes, cottage cheese or sliced turkey on hand for a quick snack.
3. Cook more than you can eat. This tip saves you time and money while allowing you to eat healthier. Cook extra to refrigerate or freeze for your next day’s lunch or dinner. When you know you already have a nutritious meal waiting for you, you’re less likely to grab the high-calorie, high-fat junk food at the drive-through on your way home. Some good options include chicken, veggies, soups, and grains, including quinoa and brown rice.
4. Eat as many colors as you can every day. Opt for a range of nutritious vegetables and fruits every day. Keep a variety of colors on hand and make it a point to see how many different colors you can eat a day. Eat red peppers, spinach, sweet potatoes and blackberries one day and the next eat green peppers, yellow squash, blueberries and bananas.

It takes time to make these changes, but if you keep trying every day, you’ll eventually begin to see it’s become a habit to eat healthier.

How to Get Back on the Health Track in 2016 part 3

How to Approach Your Journey to Health Instead

Now that you know why your fail at achieving your New Year’s health resolutions, let’s dig into how to approach the journey to better health instead. It begins with having a plan.

• Rev up your can-do. Start with five minute changes. Instead of making a big unclear resolution, pinpoint one small, meaningful step you can take towards change that you can do in five minutes. For example, maybe your resolution is to eat healthier. Take five minutes to make a grocery list that includes more fruits and vegetables. Or make small tweaks in what you eat every day by eliminating one sugary drink a day. Small changes keep you moving toward your goal and help you get unstuck when you begin to fall off track.
• Stay motivated. One way to do this is to get an accountability partner or mentor. Another way is to create a vision board of what healthy looks like to you. Include images of you succeeding and living the life you want.
• Go for 10. Use the rule of 10, which simply means do something for 10 minutes instead of 30, or change 10% instead of 100%. So if you want to get healthier by getting fit, make your goal to do 10 minutes of exercise every day. You can work up to longer periods, but getting started is the hard part. With only doing 10 minutes of something you are more likely to do it. The same can be said for healthy eating. Instead of completely changing the way you eat all at once, add more fruit or vegetables or cut out 10% of sugar intake a day (like 1 donut), gradually decreasing until you’ve eliminated sugar from your diet.
• Make pre-commitments. Piggy-back what you want to change onto something you’re already doing. One way to do this is to add one more vegetable to your plate each day.
• Try the proximity trick. This works well if you are trying to add exercise to your daily routine. The trick here is to place your sneakers and workout clothes next to your bed each night. That way, when you wake up they’re the first things you see.
• Create a list. Make a list and cross off a task as you do it. This boosts your motivation. According to Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!—21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, the dopamine or the motivation chemical is released whenever you “do something life-enhancing, such as completing a task.”

You want to approach the journey to a healthy life like you would any other important goal. Create lists, work on small steps at a time, and find ways to stay motivated along the way.

Five Ways You Can Get More Restorative Sleep

Want more energy? Then the very simplest and most effective way to accomplish this is to sleep better and to sleep more. Of course this is somewhat easier said than done however if you’re someone who struggles with their sleep, or if your sleep hasn’t been as deep or as rewarding as it should be.

If you find yourself in that situation, try these five tips that should help you considerably with the quantity and quality of your rest:

1- Go for a Run

Not when you’re about to go to bed but earlier in the day. This will help you to burn more energy, thus making you more tired when you hit the sack. At the same time, if you take your run outdoors, then you should find that the combination of fresh air and daylight also help you to sleep better as well as to regulate your internal body clock.

2- Have the Window Slightly Open

Commonly people make the assumption that they will sleep better if they are warm. While you want your body temperature to be warm though, the ideal surrounds are actually slightly cool. This emulates the way we would have slept in the wild and helps us to better regulate our temperature.

3- Take a Hot Shower

Taking a hot shower right before bed will help you to relax your muscles and at the same time will stimulate the release of sleep hormones like melatonin. It also increases the production of growth hormones, also associated with better sleep and recovery.

4- Have Half an Hour to Relax

Half an hour before bed, take your phone into another room and plug it in. At the same time, turn off the TV and make a conscious effort to relax and to do something that you will enjoy. This will help you to unwind and to let go of the stresses of the day. What’s more, the lack of bright screens will help you to avoid stimulating the production of cortisol.

5- Take ZMA

ZMA is a supplement containing zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6. It is used by a lot of bodybuilders as a means to increase their testosterone levels to enhance muscle building and recovery. At the same time though, it also has the added benefit of encouraging deeper and more restful sleep. Take two capsule half an hour before sleep on an empty stomach and you might notice an improvement.

Sometimes you might need a little help by taking a quality supplement like Nature Sleep by Vita Balance which is a special blend of natural ingredients, designed to calm the brain activities and aid in falling and staying asleep

The importance of Sleep

Most of us don’t sleep enough or without problems and aren’t fully aware of the importance of sleep and if that’s your case too than I recommend you read this 3 part series on sleep which just appeared in The New Yorker written by Maria Konnikova.

Here’s the introduction of the first article and below you will find the links for the original articles:

Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

Here’s what’s supposed to happen when you fall asleep. Your body temperature falls, even as your feet and hands warm up—the temperature changes likely help the circadian clocks throughout your body to synchronize. Melatonin courses through your system—that tells your brain it’s time to quiet down. Your blood pressure falls and your heart rate slows. Your breathing evens out. You drift off to sleep.

That, at least, is the ideal. But going to sleep isn’t always a simple process, and it seems to have grown more problematic in recent years, as I learned through a series of conversations this May, when some of the world’s leading sleep experts met with me to share their ongoing research into the nature of sleeping. (The meetings were facilitated by a Harvard Medical School Media Fellowship.) According to Charles Czeisler, the chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, over the past five decades our average sleep duration on work nights has decreased by an hour and a half, down from eight and a half to just under seven. Thirty-one per cent of us sleep fewer than six hours a night, and sixty-nine per cent report insufficient sleep. When Lisa Matricciani, a sleep researcher at the University of South Australia, looked at available sleep data for children from 1905 to 2008, she found that they’d lost nearly a minute of sleep a year. It’s not just a trend for the adult world. We are, as a population, sleeping less now than we ever have.

The problem, on the whole, isn’t that we’re waking up earlier. Much of the change has to do with when we choose to go to bed—and with how we decide to do so. Elizabeth Klerman is the head of the Analytic and Modeling Unit, also in the Sleep and Circadian Disorders division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her research tracks how multiple individual differences in our environment affect our circadian rhythms and our ability to fall asleep easily and soundly. “When you go to bed affects how long you can sleep, no matter how tired you are,” she told me..

Click here to read part 1 of the original story

Click here to read part 2 of the original story

Click here to read part 3 of the original story

Is All This Screen Time Hurting Your Mind And Body?

Smartphones, Tablets, And TVs: All This Screen Time Is Hurting Your Mind And Body

Here’s an interesting article which I think you will appreciate as well for it explains a couple of things you may be experiencing too:

“Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time catching up on TV shows and movies. I’ll sit on my couch, hook up my laptop to my TV, and binge watch for a few hours. Sometime during the first hour though, my phone comes out. This happens every time. I’m texting friends, checking my social media accounts, googling information about the show I’m watching. By the end of the marathon, there are major holes in the storyline. I usually end up watching these things twice.

Over the past few years, an increasing number of people have been sharing their screen time with other screens. Both the Pew Research Center and Nielsen found in 2012 and 2013, respectively, that about half of smartphone owners use their phones while watching TV. Then, this past April, management consulting and technology services company Accenture found that number rose to about 57 percent. When it came to using other devices, like laptops and tablets, that number rose again to 87 percent of people. That’s a lot of people splitting their attention between devices”

Well I’m sure it does, try spending an evening withgout watching any of your screens and yes that includes your tv set and than go to bed and you’ll notice the next morning that you slept better, seriously try it, you’ll be amazed and hopefully change some of your “bad habits” too

Her’s the link to the full article:https://www.medicaldaily.com/smartphones-tablets-and-tvs-all-screen-time-hurting-your-mind-and-body-335808

How Chronic Pain Fosters Insomnia, And What You Can Do to Get Better Sleep

How Chronic Pain Fosters Insomnia, And What You Can Do to Get Better Sleep

Those who suffer from chronic pain often battle insomnia. It just makes sense that this is the case. The definition for chronic as it relates to illness or sickness is “persisting for a long time or constantly recurring.” So if constantly recurring pain exists in your life, showing up daily and/or nightly, your sleep cycle could definitely be disturbed.

The chronic pain which promotes insomnia and sleeplessness can hit you for a lot of different reasons. Just a few conditions which cause persistently painful experiences are:

• Lower back problems
• Arthritis, predominantly osteoarthritis
• Frequent headaches
• Shingles
• Fibromyalgia
• A lifetime of poor posture
• Traumatic injuries
• Being overweight

Obviously, these are only a limited number of physical conditions, ailments and diseases which can cause frequently recurring aches and discomfort. Since proper sleep depends on you being comfortable, insomnia frequently is a byproduct of the chronic pain you experience.

Fortunately, there are some intelligent and proven ways to treat and even cure your pain related insomnia, which do not involve taking dangerous sleeping pills and drugs.

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to effectively reduce or even eliminate sleeplessness. This is a short-term psychotherapy treatment, which is in most cases provided by a psychologist or a chronic pain rehabilitation professional. Over time you learn to break the vicious cycles of insomnia and create new patterns of sleeping. Many studies have shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is considered one of the best treatments for insomnia, even when chronic pain is the cause (1).

In some cases, curing the nighttime irritation which keeps you from sleeping is as simple as changing your mattress. And chronic pain is sometimes created by negative emotions, including anxiety, sadness and even loneliness.

Whether your persistent agony is caused by your emotional state or a physical illness or disease, retiring to your bed at the same time every night and waking on a regular schedule can help you sleep better.

Alternative chronic pain remedies can include massage, acupuncture, osteopathic or chiropractic spinal manipulation and mindfulness meditation. Some chronic pain insomniacs have even found relief from biofeedback technologies. This requires you to wear special sensors attached to important areas of your body. The information that is recorded is then studied, and a treatment prescribed to alleviate your chronic pain, and your insomnia.

Physical therapy, nerve stimulation and psychological therapies can also help alleviate the insomnia and sleepless nights that your pain is creating. Your first move is to contact your doctor and explain how you feel your poor sleep patterns are related to your pain. Just remember that because you are experiencing pain, you do not have to “grin and bear it”. Take a proactive stance in your battle against insomnia and cyclical discomfort, and your efforts will be rewarded.
(1) Mitchell, M. D., Gehrman, P., Perlis, M., & Umscheid, C. A. (2012). Comparative effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: A systematic review. BMC Family Practice, 13, 40.