Steps Toward Better Health

If you remember the movie What About Bob then you probably remember the psychiatrist's patented tactics of taking everything in small steps…"baby steps" to be more precise. Although this was something that was meant to be funny and poke fun at the many methods therapists come up with there was still some merit behind the idea. You don't have to leap right into something and immediately achieve success in order to eventually reach your goals. Even the smallest changes can have a huge eventual impact on the state of your health, so don't feel like you are facing a huge, daunting task that will force you into a horribly complicated lifestyle.

MAKE THESE CHANGES NOW

Get some sleep.  How often do you actually get the recommended amount of sleep? Too often people scrimp on sleep in order to do the things they either need or want to do. Have you heard the saying we can sleep when we're dead? It's true…but if you don't get the sleep you need then you're creeping toward the aforementioned death a lot faster than you probably think. The truth is that it's hard to be motivated to do anything when you're sleep deprived, especially if the task at hand is physically demanding. Set a goal to get at least eight hours of sleep a night and see if that makes it easier to do all the other things you need to do to get healthier. If the thought of setting aside eight hours in a row to sleep seems foreign to you then let that be a sign to you: you aren't paying attention to what the medical experts say you need to do for optimum health. What other recommendations are you ignoring?

Take some vitamins.  You will hear some dietary experts say that vitamins aren't necessary and may actually be harmful to you. When you are in the beginning stages of adopting a healthier lifestyle, however, vitamins can be a great tool. As your diet gets better and you start taking in more fruits and vegetables then you may reach a point where you don't need any supplemental vitamins. For now, however, grab a bottle of multi-vitamins and take one every day. It's a relatively painless way to make sure your body is getting what it needs and it can also serves as a daily reminder of the task at hand. If it motivates you, you might want to tell the vitamin, "I won't need you forever, vitamin, because I'm going to improve my diet." If you feel silly talking to a vitamin, then just tell it to yourself.

Get some fresh air.  You may not realize this, but the air in your home or apartment is probably far more polluted than the air outside. Think about all the cleaning products that are floating around in the air in your home, and think about how rarely your home gets all the air circulated through. Fresh air can do wonders for you, and a nice dose of fresh air can motivate you to make your home healthier too. You may think twice about spraying bug spray around your house with such enthusiasm once you realize that everything you put in the air in your home lingers and eventually winds up in your lungs. Motivate yourself to have cleaner air in your home and you will have a healthier home to live in (and healthier lungs too).

EXERCISE

What is your exercise level now? You may be an avid exerciser but still remain unhealthy due to other factors in your life (bad habits like smoking or drinking or maybe due to genetic factors). On the other hand, maybe you haven't exercised in so long that the very thought of running a lap around a track either makes you feel terrified or instead makes you chuckle at the very thought of you huffing it around the track. No matter what your level of exercise is right now, there is probably room for improvement. This does not mean that absolutely everyone can benefit from more exercise. To the contrary, there are some people who actually exercise too much and who would greatly benefit from giving their bodies a bit of a break. The trick is to find the right balance for your needs.

Some people love working out every day up to the point of exhaustion because this is what makes them feel their best. This may feel good to them, but what is all this activity doing to their bodies? Conversely, the same question can be asked about people who don't get any exercise at all… what is happening to their bodies since they neglect them so badly? You need to find a harmonious balance where your body can have the exercise it needs and craves while also allowing your body the time it needs to recover in between workouts. You may be surprised to discover that if you give yourself a rest in between vigorous workouts that you'll actually see a vast improvement in your physique as well as in how you feel.

If you haven't exercised in a long time (or ever) you may be surprised at how incredibly sore you may feel the first few times you work out, but as long as you are exercising correctly then the soreness will eventually give way to a healthier feeling overall. The point is to fashion an exercise program that gives you what you need while also considering your current level of physical activity. You don't want to jump into something right away that is so radically different that you wind up hurting yourself. It's not easy to stay motivated if your entire body hurts.

You can start small. You have probably read the articles that claim that a brisk walk every day can do wonders for your overall health, and if you are like most people you probably think to yourself, "A brisk walk? That isn't enough exercise to stay healthy!" Then again, if you are like many people, you may not get a brisk walk every day even if you have the best of intentions. The point is to get moving, and if you start with a lazy waltz around your block then that is better than nothing. If your activity level is really low right now - you spend the majority of your time in a sitting position and don't even think about finding time to exercise - then you will be doing yourself a huge favor just by adding some small changes to your daily schedule.

Doing things like parking your car as far away from an entrance can make a difference because it forces you to walk farther than if you had secured a prime parking spot right by the front door. Taking the stairs instead of hopping onto an escalator may not seem like a huge change, but it can make a big difference. You aren't merely benefiting from the calories you burn and the activity you engage in when you do things like this. You are also integrating physical activity into your daily activities, and you may find that once you start making a concerted effort to do this that you'll find plenty of other ways to get active throughout the day without much effort at all.

As you do this you may graduate to actually seeking out additional physical opportunities like long walks or trips to the gym. You have to start somewhere, and if you don't get much exercise now at all then you should really feel proud of yourself once you start making an effort to actually get moving. You can motivate yourself by trying to find one new way every single day to get some exercise. Maybe on Monday you can go for a small walk on your lunch hour, and then on Tuesday you finally try the desk stretch exercises featured on a poster at your office, and then on Wednesday you try something else completely, and so on. Try keeping notes on your calendar of the physical activity you do within the day and you will be pleased to notice that when you make the effort to get more exercise your efforts will start to compound noticeably. What starts out as you stretching at your desk may eventually blossom into you squeezing in an aerobics class on your lunch break three times a week.

You will want to do more as you progress. As mentioned above, you will probably find that the more instances of physical activity you can fit into your day the more you will feel like adding even more in the future. When you are physically active you feel better overall, and this can be a great motivating factor to make you want to seek out even more ways to integrate physical activity into your day. Try having small competitions with yourself; if you climb the flight of stairs up to your apartment in a minute at the beginning of the month see if you can shave thirty seconds off that time by month's end. If you make a huge effort to get more active then you may be amazed at what your body can actually do, and this can certainly result in an empowering feeling that leaves you wanting to do more and more.

That's one of the great things about going from not active to active: one of the best motivations is just trying to see what you can do next. For this reason you should not feel intimidated if simply walking up a flight of stairs leaves you winded and exhausted. You should know that your body is fantastically adaptable and before you know it you'll be leaping up those stairs without a second thought. Once you understand how much you can achieve in such a short period of time you'll probably be all the more motivated to find out what your body can do. The only way to find out for sure is to go ahead and get moving.

EAT RIGHT

You don't have to get drastic. You don't necessarily need to eliminate entire food groups from your diet in an attempt to be healthier. Even the fittest people usually have an occasional indulgence. After all, what fun is life without a slither of dessert once in a while? The trick is to make sure that you make these indulgences occasional instead of daily (or hourly in some people's cases). If you are fairly new to altering your diet then you should probably steer clear of any radical diet plans that wholly eliminate things from your diet that you have always enjoyed. This doesn't necessarily mean sweets, but instead refers to some diets that eliminate food items that are considered relatively healthy by most nutritionists. Dairy-free diets and diets devoid of any wheat products are two examples of the kinds of programs you may stumble upon when you are sifting through the various diet offerings for healthier living.

A good starting point is to simply start to lessen the amount of foods that you eat that you know are just plain bad for you. Instead of stopping for a huge and greasy burger on the way home, make sure that you have the fixings for a substantial salad waiting for you at home. Instead of chowing down on a packed-to-the-brim bowl of ice cream while you watch television at night you may want to try a small container of yogurt with some fruit sprinkled in. You don't have to stop eating, but you probably do need to alter the way you eat. You will find that as you begin to notice some changes in your health that your motivation will probably skyrocket and it will be easier to make further changes. Until then you can try your best to stay motivated and maybe promise yourself a little treat if you can stick with your plan for a couple of days. Just make sure the treat is more akin to a small piece of chocolate as opposed to an entire hot fudge sundae. You can still enjoy your food; just learn to enjoy it in a different way. You'll be surprised at the difference it can make.

Small changes make a huge difference. What if you didn't change a single thing in your diet except for switching to drinking water instead of sugary soda? If you are the kind of person who drinks several sodas throughout the day then this small change can certainly yield huge results. The chances are that if you make one change like this you will probably be willing to make more changes once you notice how much the small change helped. The small change doesn't even need to be an elimination of something from your diet but might be a reduction instead. If you regularly go back for seconds after a meal then you may want to concentrate on only having one serving and then seeing how that affects your health.

The great thing about attempting to improve your health is that it really doesn't take major changes to see results, especially if you are in a situation where you have essentially ignored your health for an extended period of time. When you are trying to motivate yourself to adopt healthier habits it may be best - at least initially - if you do not put yourself through major deprivation. You will inevitably wind up resenting the entire process and may toss your goals aside because you don't feel like you're able to enjoy your life. Let your motivation be a gradual process because it will be much more effective that way. Concentrate on small changes that will compound into something grander eventually, and you will probably wind up motivated to make even more changes within your diet and other aspects of your life in order to get healthier.

Think less of dieting and more of altering. Many people consider the word "diet" to be akin to any other four-letter word: vulgar. If you are among this group of people then try to talk yourself out of considering your dietary alterations as a diet and instead consider them as simply modifications to assist you in living a healthier lifestyle. After all, your dietary changes may not be attempts to lose weight, but might just be changes made to improve your overall health. For this reason you don't need to consider yourself as being "on a diet" per se, especially if the thought of being on a diet makes you shudder. Instead, consider yourself as merely making alterations to the foods you do eat. This will probably help you to feel less deprived and help you stay motivated in your quest to have a healthier diet.

On the next page we talk about why and when it's Time To Join A Gym.