Health habits

Closing the Gap

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Have you been a couch potato for too long? Do you want to finally do something about it? If so— kudos to you! One of the first things you should do is set specific health goals so that you have a depiction of where you currently are (point A) and where you wish to be (point B). Moreover, it may turn out that the gap between A and B is substantial, and consequently, many changes are required in order to close this gap.

Some people in this situation may be able to successfully make significant life changes in a short time to bring them closer to attaining their goals. However, this may prove too difficult for most people, and attempting to make extensive changes quickly can easily be a set-up for failure. I submit that making gradual and progressive small changes over time is a much better way to achieve big goals and close the gap. In short, for most people, baby steps are the way to go.

I wonder how many people reading this have a treadmill that now serves as a wardrobe. You purchased the treadmill with a strong desire to exercise and become healthier, which you did at the outset. However, over time, your commitment to becoming physically fit began to wane, and the treadmill began collecting dust. Not too long afterward, it began collecting piles of clothes. It is now difficult to even recognize it as a treadmill.

What can you do? The answer is to take baby steps. If you resolve to exercise consistently, make gradual changes. Start by removing a few articles of clothing each day over the course of a week. Now take a look at it—you actually have a treadmill again. Next, use it to take a five-minute walk. Over the following weeks, take longer walks and then short jogs. Then, begin to take longer runs on your brand-new closet-turned-exercise machine. You’ll feel great, have a lot of fun, and will be doing magnificent things for your health.

In most instances, consistent and progressive baby steps are the best way to close the gap and accomplish big goals.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope that you have enjoyed it and found it informative. Please feel free to share it with anyone you think may benefit.

What is the Key Factor That Determines Your Outcomes?

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Your outcomes in life will be determined by the actions that you take on a consistent basis.

For instance, if you are working towards a specific goal, then it is the actions you take regularly in the service of that goal that will determine if and when it is accomplished.

Regarding health, if you consistently eat unhealthy foods, then you are likely going to go on to develop lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer.

Conversely, if you consistently eat healthy foods, you will significantly lower your risk of developing such conditions.

Consistency is key.

Just like eating a single slice of pizza will not cause you to suffer a heart attack, eating a single bean and quinoa salad will not turn you into a picture of good health.

Within reason, doing something once or twice will not have an appreciable impact on your outcomes.

It’s what you do most of the time that counts. Your small actions, added up over time, will have enormous effects on your life, whether good or bad.

Consistency is king.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to share it with anyone you think may benefit from it.

Visualize It

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My wife Mayra always loved to exercise and keep fit. However, many years ago, she lost her motivation and stopped exercising. Moreover, although she was upset about it, she just couldn’t seem to get started again. I had been trying to figure out ways to help her, and I came up with the idea of creating an exercise calendar.

I purchased a twelve-month schedule book, and I drew up a grading scale on the last page. On this page, I had written things such as:

“5 workouts a month: You’re on the right track. Keep Going!”

“8 workouts a month: You’re building momentum!”

“12 workouts a month: Outstanding!”

“15 workouts a month: You’re on Fire!”

Mayra began to use this calendar and started to exercise again. Each day she worked out, she would draw an “X” on the corresponding date in the calendar. It wasn’t long before she broke free from her inertia, built momentum, and was back in the swing of things and feeling fantastic.

This story illustrates two ideas. First, if you have a goal, having a written record of your progress is a good idea. Second, having a visual representation of this progress can serve as a phenomenal motivator that will help propel you toward your goals and dreams.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope you found it enjoyable and helpful. If you have and know of anyone else who may benefit from it, please feel free to share it.

Schedule It!

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If you have set a SMART goal for yourself—kudos to you!

Now, in order to achieve your goal, you are going to have to perform specific actions on a regular basis. This may be every day or several times each week, and this can sometimes be a difficult thing to do. I understand that many of us have responsibilities to our education, our jobs, and of course, our families. These obligations often fill up so much of our days that finding the time for the activities necessary to bring us closer to accomplishing our objectives can be challenging.

An excellent solution to this difficulty is to schedule the activities that need to get done. That’s right—grab a paper calendar or open a computer document/phone app and write down or type in the things you need to do. Block out specific time slots on certain days for your goal-related activities. This planning ahead will help ensure that what you want to do will get done. Otherwise, your goal-related tasks will likely be forgotten and diluted out by the frequently overwhelming amount of other “busyness” that seems to happen daily.

Let’s say that you want to become healthier and have created a SMART exercise goal that involves jogging for 30 minutes four times each week. I recommend looking at your schedule at the start of each week and blocking out times on the specific days when you will jog. For instance, you can say that you will jog from 8:00-8:30 on Monday morning, from 8:00-8:30 on Wednesday morning, from 4:00-4:30 on Friday afternoon, and from 9:00-9:30 on Saturday morning. You have now prioritized and set aside specific times for your goal-related actions. You will get them done!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope that you have enjoyed it and found it informative. If so, please feel free to share it with anyone you think may benefit from it.

Make the Easy Difficult and the Difficult Easy

Building healthy habits is the best thing you can do if you’d like to start living a healthier lifestyle. However, I’ll admit that developing good habits can initially be challenging.

One thing you can do, especially in that difficult beginning stage, is to make the easy things difficult to do and make the difficult things easy to do.

Allow me to explain.

Let’s say that you are a person who currently loves snacking on unhealthy foods, but you’d like to change and instead begin eating healthier snacks such as fruits, vegetables, and some nuts. You love your cookies, candies, cakes, and chips. Whenever you get the munchies and are in the mood for a snack, all your favorite foods are right there in your kitchen. That’s easy, right?

So, you have to make the easy thing hard to do. This translates to ridding your home of all your favorite yet unhealthy snacks. Next, stock your kitchen pantry, refrigerator, and countertops with fruits, vegetables, and nuts—make the difficult thing easy to do.

The next time you are in the mood for a snack, all those healthy and tasty snacks will be easily accessible and right there for your enjoyment—easy, right? How about baby carrots and hummus? Or maybe a banana and grapes?

Moreover, if you really want to snack on some junk food, you will have to leave your home and either walk or drive to the nearby store, which is going to be relatively difficult, and it will be less likely that you will do it. This will help you to start building healthy habits.

This concept applies not only to health habits but to any behavior that you’d like to change. Let’s say that you are a shopaholic. You absolutely love going to the stores, buying all sorts of goodies, and paying for them with your favorite plastic card. However, let’s also declare that you want to change this habit and become more financially responsible. Well, in that case, make the easy thing difficult to do. I don’t remember where, but I remember reading somewhere the recommendation to put your favorite credit card in an empty coffee can, fill it with water, and place it in the freezer. The next time you have the urge to hit the stores, your credit card will be frozen in a block of ice. If you’d really like to go, you’ll have to wait for it to thaw. Hopefully, your impulse to shop will have passed by then.

Making the easy difficult and the difficult easy is a great way to help build new habits.

If you know of anyone who might benefit from reading this post, please feel free to share it with them.

The Swap Challenge: Week Four

Welcome to the end of the final week of the Swap Challenge!

I hope everyone was able to swap out at least one unhealthy meal for a healthy one each week over the past month. More importantly, I hope that you found it delicious and satisfying.

This week I’d like to share a tuna recipe without the tuna. It uses chickpeas and vegan mayonnaise and is delicious.

You can find it here: Chuna Salad Sandwich.

When I made mine, I didn’t have the pickles, and it was still mouthwatering.

If you are just beginning your journey to a healthy lifestyle, I hope this was a great start for you.

Be well!

The Swap Challenge: Week One

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Welcome to the Swap Challenge Week One!

I hope everyone is doing great.

If anyone has swapped out an unhealthy meal for a healthy one, please feel free to comment and share what meal you prepared and how things went.

I’ll start—I found this recipe for vegan crab cakes on the CNS Kitchen site that was very easy to make and delicious. I thought it tasted better than the crab cakes I used to eat. Oh, and the tartar sauce was so good.

Until next week, be well!

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Is there any health behavior that you have ever considered changing?

Perhaps you have been thinking about your diet or the amount of physical activity you give yourself.

Have you ever felt that your current health habits may not be the best for you, but you never really have “gotten around to” changing things?

Just a question to reflect upon. Believe me; I understand how busy we can be and how often life can get in the way of, well, life.

When you are ready, remember that it doesn’t have to take drastic changes. Simply making one slight adjustment a few times a week and then building upon that can have tremendous positive effects over time. For example, add a single serving of fresh fruit to your day three times each week for two weeks. Or perhaps replace your afternoon candy bar with an apple three times a week and slowly increase over time.

When you are ready, give it a try.

Let me know how it goes for you.