Getting healthy should be fun

For many people, getting healthy means giving up foods they like, starving through the day and feeling deprived. If your 'diet' makes you dread the day then what's the point? Getting healthy has to do with much more than eating right .

Total health means health in all areas of your life: mental. spiritual, financial, social, career, family, relationships and physical. Every little bit counts; even activities that you think have nothing to do with your health count. walking around the neighborhood, talking to friends and family on the phone, setting goals, reading - these are all activities that will help you in your quest to get healthy.

On the physical side you may have to watch out for some foods in your diet, but it's more important to simply incorporate healthy foods –complex carbohydrates – into what you eat and even more importantly eat small meals more frequently. At the same time, exercise does not have to be a painful experience. The key is finding exercise you enjoy, such as playing tennis, riding a bike or going for a walk.

The point is, getting healthy is something to enjoy, not something to look at as a chore; it can be a fun experience, a positive experience that will not be a short-lived fad, but a lifestyle.

Make it a great day

Life is like quicksand: Struggle and you sink deeper; Relax and let go and you float to the top. Lie is only as hard as we believe it to be. You attract what you focus on. Choose Happiness!

This is the text on one of the fabulous Happy Cards I give out all over the place. Buy some now.

Choice - be a victor like Viktor

You will often hear people say "I had no other choice..."

Life is full of choice. Everything we do is through choice, even the things we don't want to do. Even the events that do 'happen to us' seemingly through no fault of our own are the result of earlier choices we've made that have placed us in the time and place when those things happen. We are not really the victims we assume to be.

This applies to your whole life. You alone have the responsibility to shape your life. Others can help you… Others will make choices for you… but once you understand that everyone has but one ultimate boss and that boss is yourself, nothing and no one can deny you success.

There's no one to stop you but yourself.

Your life will always be to a large extent what you make of it.

Choice is the one thing no one can really take completely away from you. Viktor Frankl was a survivor of the holocaust in World War 2. They could (and did) strip him of his possessions, his clothes, his family, his dignity, and could have even taken his life. But they could never take away his choice on how he responded to whatever was done to him.

Success or failure? It's always the result of your choices.

On Gratitude

Today I present an excert from the blog of one of my personal growth mentors, Gary Craig.

It is well known that our body chemistry makes major changes as our thoughts shift between positive and negative states. These natural chemicals have major impact on our health, happiness and longevity. This is so important that modern Quantum Physicists would argue that the quality of our thoughts has EVERYTHING to do with the quality of our lives. Positive thoughts take us in positive directions. Negative thoughts keep us where we are or move us further down the hole.

But can we just turn a switch and consistently generate Grace through practicing Gratitude? For a few people … perhaps. But most of us have competing thoughts that get in the way. That’s because we have been endlessly conditioned by the media and society about how this world is such a struggle. Can we really expect to inject an occasional thought of Gratitude and have it neutralize all that competition?

Well ... that’s a nice idea … but I question its practicality. It’s like trying to cover a polluted lake with a hand towel.

But there is a way to do it.

We can always start with one thought of Gratitude. That should be easy. Just think of something for which you are thankful. If nothing else, try your toothbrush. It does its essential job every time you use it and was brought to you through the efforts of factory workers and retail stores. Where would you be without it? Then go on to your shoes … and the book you just read … and on to the people in your life. The more we do this the larger becomes the hand towel.

Despite our good intentions, our competing thoughts (from the polluted lake) will eventually intrude into this Gratitude process. They may say something like “This Gratitude thing is silly” or they may present with us a series of “Yes-buts” designed to invalidate our efforts. These are the barriers to Gratitude.

Fortunately, they can be handled nicely with EFT.

So write them down ... one by one ... and use EFT to reduce their impact. Over time the lake will shrink and our hand towel of Gratitude will expand to cover it. Then Gratitude becomes our constant companion and the resulting Grace will bring us health, happiness and longevity.

A fair trade, I think.

Check out this remarkable technique called EFT. It is an excellent tool to address the mind aspects which have to be addressed if you are to change your life in any way.

Two wolves story

Here is a great story about your mind:

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson
about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 wolves
inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow,
regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment,
inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy,
generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and
then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

- Author Unknown

Life's hard for some

Do you ever feel a bit down because you're snowed under, have too many problems, or just feel life's all just a bit too hard? Need a kick-start? A hand up?

Then watch a show on TV called Amazing Medical Stories (there's probably a few of those type of shows around). You'll soon realise how lucky you are. Unless of course you're one of those who should be the subject of the show.

When you become aware of the plight of others you get the focus off yourself. Then hopefully you'll exercise your compassion muscle rather than your poor-me muscle. I saw just 5 minutes of a show last night about a little baby who contracted meningacoccal at just 5 months of age. The result... amputated arms and legs at the elbows and knees.

Life really is hard for some... for others, we just think it's hard.

Give 'em a break if they're sore

Enthusiasm at the beginning of a new exercise program is great to have but be careful that you don't overdo it and end up so sore that after your first workout you quit.

That quitting problem hasn't happened to me but I have at times felt sore from overdoing a particular exercise. The best bet is to start nice and easy and gradually increase the intensity in some way. Keep a record to measure your progress.

After my new 1 set, 1 rep max-contraction workout I felt a little sore in the arms. It wasn't much but it was there when I flexed those muscles. Personally I love to feel just that tiny bit of soreness after a good workout.

But if it's still sore by the time of your next workout, my rule is to rest that muscle group a bit more. You gave it too much soreness and it needs a little more recovery time. But don't feel guilty about leaving that muscle out of your workout. It's just like one of the team sitting the game out once in a while because it's not too well.

So yesterday I did everything else but arms... they're fine today so guess what they'll be doing in a couple of hours time!

Big brother Cover up?

When things don't fit our belief system, our paradigm of the world, we have a natural tendency to deny them. Consequently we will tend to see what we want to see. We are lead to believe that our governments are there for our protection and to serve the interests of the people. We'd all like to believe this. It's comforting to have a "big brother" watching out for us isn't it?

But what if your big brother was a bully and had only self interest at heart? What if you found out that that protector was prepared to sacrifice you for the "greater good" (or his own good)? A hard pill to swallow - and one you might prefer to deny.

Your belief system creates not only the body you have but also creates every aspect of the life you currently lead. We all need to look outside it occasionally and entertain other possibilities - possibilities that may be out of our comfort zone.

Want to get out of your comfort zone and put a chill up your spine? You have to take a look at this video documentary about the 9/11 "terrorist" bombings. It's amazing only a couple hundred thousand people have seen this. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/243200/loose_change_2nd_edition/

Recovery time

Every couple of months I go back to one of my favourite routines. One set per exercise, one rep per set! But hold it in the maximum contraction position for 45 to 60 seconds.

It's quite a radical departure from normal routines.

last time it was great. I was really looking forward to it and felt terrific after it. That's what changing your program around occasionally does. It recharges your enthusiasm.

But variation of your routine does more than this mental thing.

Physiologically it overcomes the stagnation of your body getting habituated to the same exercise. That is, getting used to the same movements and sequence results in stalled progress. Your muscle growth plateaus out and you get stuck.

You've gotta keep life interesting hey.