Ideas to achieve your health goals....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 2-21-2012

Of course you need to have health goals -- or health related ways you want your life to go or to go better.

Most people have some of these.

They want to stay healthy or get healthier. They want to live longer and have those extra years be healthy. So they want to avoid diseases that happen in later years if they can. They want to slow aging if they can.

They want to look better, feel better, and have their current quality of life get better.

You find out effective actions you can do to achieve partial goals or help reach your goals.

Those things to achieve have to be doable. And for them to work for you, they have to be doable for you, because you have to do them!

BUT, as you do those actions, things happen. You may find you have trouble doing those actions or do them poorly – or you may find you did those actions just fine but didn’t get your goal result or all of it.

Last Sunday’s Parade Magazine had an article, “Revive Your New Year’s Resolutions” that had several kinds of solutions to just these kinds of obstacles.

I’ll list those but in my own words in a way that I think & hope may make them more doable for you.

1. When you are new to working on a health goal, create some early success to build on!

It’s dramatically easier to improve initial successes than restart after doing horribly.

a) So list things that you for sure can do that are relatively easy and quick. Do those to create some momentum.

If you’ve been drinking soft drinks and eating packaged snacks and desserts and have already stopped having any for a week or so or are just fed up with how fat they’ve made you, just toss them all in the garbage. Stop buying more at the store.

If there is a supplement that you can buy and easily afford that will help, buy it and begin taking it every day.

b) For more challenging things to do, start at a very easy or easy level. Then do it and cheer yourself for doing it!

Then, decide based on how easy that was if and by how much to increase your effort next time. When you do that, again guess on the low side. If you feel you can do three times as much, hold set a goal to do 50% more or try twice as much with a planned fall back to 50%. Set goals in the first few months that ensure your success.

With exercise too, if you only increase by 5 or 10 % a week once you come closer to what you can actually do, you avoid injury. So, go for small but consistent improvements that you keep doing. If you feel you are going too slow, project out your slow bite progress for a year or two.

You’ll see substantial progress towards reaching your goals when you do. Then just keep making those smaller improvements.

At first, doing these actions at all and feeling successful or having an “I can do this” feeling – even if it’s still a bit too easy is the essential thing to accomplish.

This set of things is specially effective with beginning exercise.

2. Other than the things that are so easy that you can just do them and fit them in already, for the more challenging things, set priorities.

Fine, pick two to five things to work on if you like. But know which are most important to you. AND, within each area, set priorities on what actions you’ll take.
What will I do first?

If I only have time to work on one or two things for a week, which ones will those be?

If I have to cut out working on something temporarily on occasion, what will I cut out?

(I just used that one last night. Unless it’s a real emergency, I never cut my first thing in the morning exercises. But I do kettlebell exercises on Monday and Wednesday nights. To avoid losing ground, IU make a special effort to not skip both sessions. But sometimes on Monday evening particularly, I’ll skip Monday night. Last night I did that. I was tired and it was a Holiday and I wanted to add to my time off.)

3. If you mess up or your initial results aren’t good enough yet, focus on doing better next time. Focus on what you did well otherwise. Focus on finding a better or more doable way to get results.

THOSE will help you reach your goals.

BUT, if you find yourself mentally calling yourself names or thinking “What’s the use?”, that’s something to literally tell yourself “STOP!” as soon as you realize you did that.

Then either focus on the first group of things or why you want the result –OR find out the hidden and inaccurate self talk that came just before.

Albert Ellis PhD founded an effective therapy method that focused on what these hidden negative messages were and then challenging them.

Dr Daniel Amen calls them “ANTs”, Automatic Negative Thoughts. I like his name since it makes it easy to think of putting them out of your life just like brushing off real ants from your food at a picnic.

Dr Amen found that helping people get rid of those and focusing instead on things like these really helps people succeed: “Doing better next time. Focus on what you did well otherwise. Focus on finding a better or more doable way to get results.”

Two ideas that I liked in the Parade article were:

4. Set up your environment to support your goals.

We listed one of those already, “If you’ve been drinking soft drinks and eating packaged snacks and desserts and have already stopped having any for a week or so or are just fed up with how fat they’ve made you, just toss them all in the garbage. Stop buying more at the store.“

Another is to set up a seated bicycle exerciser in your TV room to use during commercials and less challenging TV programs.

Another is to set up all or most of your exercise equipment in the room where you exercise so it takes virtually no time to access it when you exercise.

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5. Ask for help when you need it.

Having a friend or family member working on the same thing has helped many people. You can let them know what you did that worked or ask them what they do to overcome a problem you had or think might work.

Reading information on how to do things often provides you with needed help. That’s particularly true if the person you read or ask was successful at what you are trying or reports actual tests of the methods involved.

Getting a person like that who was successful themselves as a mentor or coach can help.

Or, in some cases, pay for professional help if you can find good quality and can afford it, this can be a HUGE help!

Some people get into exercise best and do the right amount of it better if they get a personal trainer for example.

Some people need a professional “ANT” killer to help them get rid of those!

Psychotherapists that use the Rational Emotional talk therapy well that Albert Ellis created or use the work of Martin Seligman well can make a dramatic difference for if you need them, find a good one, and can afford it.

6. Expect some fast results because some are achievable but plan for the long term too.

With some things you can get good progress in 3 months but very good progress in a year and astounding progress in 3 years.

People who realize some things will take longer and persist long enough can do things people who expect everything to be fast cannot.

7. Keep records of your results and your exercise routines. When you are a little down or doing a bit less well, it can really improve your spirits to see that the level that you went down to was better than your all time record just a few months ago!

That just happened to me! So, I kept doing that exercise anyway and am back to a much better level.

Or as in my yesterday’s report on my own fat loss, your records may show you need to do more and show you what you need to improve.

They are more doable if you keep them as you go, make the log entry easy to do, and use key abbreviations to save the time it takes to enter the records.

8. “Begin with the end in mind.” Stephen Covey.

The Parade article suggested focusing on the feeling you’ll have when you get what you want as a way to boost your motivation to make an effort now.

That does often work.

But I like Covey’s idea and phrase better because while it includes that, it also helps in two other ways.

a) If you begin to do things that take time and effort but don’t move you toward the end result you want, having your desired end result in mind can help you get back on track.

b) You can use focusing on the end result you want to find out how to get there!

It’s called “reverse engineering.”

“I’ve no idea what to do to get that result.” Fine, from what set of circumstances could I get that result? What assets or preliminary achievements would make my end result possible?

You may find there are two and realize that you can achieve the first one and could achieve the second one with help.

Now, instead of a desirable but unreachable goal, you have two doable goals you can reach that will deliver the end result you want.

Then ask yourself,

“What can I do now or schedule for the next few days that will begin moving me towards the first thing I can achieve? When will I do it?”

“What can I do now or schedule for the next few days that will begin moving me towards the help I need? When will I do it?

This kind of reverse engineering starts with the end in mind and starts you on your way to having it.

So, use Stephen Covey’s idea!

How to start exercising safely....

Today's post: Monday, 4-13-2009

Whether you have almost never exercised or are restarting after a long time away from exercise --

--there are three important things to know right away.

1. The first one is Hooray !! & Good for you !!

Knowledgeable people even in Plato’s day, knew that to stay healthy regular exercise is necessary. He’s quoted as saying so himself in fact.

But back then they didn’t know the importance of it as well as we do now.

We now know that if you begin regular exercise and stay with it, you get a long list of desirable benefits from trimming off excess fat, living longer, staying mentally competent far longer—from growing new brain cells to maintaining good circulation, avoiding several expensive and harsh diseases, & even having a better sex life.

Even more important in some ways is that those who never exercise have all that happen in reverse. OUCH! They become fatter, sicker, less able, and die sooner.

And, you can’t do regular exercise if you never start. So if you have started or are about to, my sincere congratulations!

However, people who start off too fast can wind up overdoing it enough to cause them to stop exercising or to actually harm themselves in some way.

2. So, starting slowly enough you are able to continue exercising and reasonably comfortable doing so is as important as the exercise benefits you stand to gain or lose. That makes it critically important to do so.

3. It is possible to injure yourself or otherwise harm yourself by doing or trying to do too much before your body gets used to the exercise –
while at the same time studies and practical experience show that you can build up to levels of exercise far greater than the initially too much amount that will cause problems at first and be quite safe in getting to those high levels as your body gradually becomes used to them and more able to sustain them.

So, it’s critically important to start slow and NOT necessary to do a lot right away to be able to even more later.

So, given how important this subject is, I was delighted to see the health article in last Saturday’s Early to Rise email, 4-11-2009, (and the issue available at their website for that date.)

I have some points & ways to stay safe to add that also can help after I include that article.

Here it is.:

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com .”

“10 Best Practices for Safe Workouts

By Craig Ballantyne

When Carrie showed up for her first weight-loss workout with me, she was injured. Only three weeks earlier, she had made up her mind to lose weight. So she started running for 45 minutes per day. But doing so much, so soon was a bad idea for her body, given that she was 20 pounds overweight and hadn't gone running in years.

It was no surprise that Carrie had developed a muscle strain in her upper thigh, which required weeks of rehabilitation to heal. This made our fat-burning workouts more difficult, because she couldn't do interval training or many of the bodyweight exercises I use with my clients.

Over time, Carrie was able to heal her injury while losing fat with short-burst workouts. However, she should not have gotten hurt in the first place.

The first thing to remember about keeping your workouts safe is to avoid doing too much cardio.

I don't understand why so many personal trainers still recommend long, slow cardio workouts for fat loss, when research has shown them to be relatively ineffective and experience tells me that cardio often just lands folks in the doctor's office.

If I had met Carrie before she started running, here's what I would have told her to help her lose fat fast... without getting hurt.

Top 10 Rules for Safe Workouts

1. It is important to train conservatively and not overdo things. If you are doing resistance training (and everyone should), don't do any exercise that you aren't sure how to do. Always get personal instruction from a certified trainer.

2. Don't do anything that hurts or "doesn't feel right." There are plenty of alternate exercises for any exercise in any workout program. Just ask a qualified trainer for help.

3. Whenever you start a new resistance-training program, use lighter weights than normal and perform only one set per exercise. This will minimize the muscle soreness that you can expect with any new program.

4. If you need extra recovery time within the workout or between workouts, don't hesitate to take it. Most beginners only think about how they can do more and more exercise to help them lose weight faster. But everyone (from beginners to pro athletes) needs some days of light exercise to allow the muscles to repair. And don't worry. If you do the right type of exercise, you'll still lose fat even when you are not working out at the gym.

5. Check your ego at the gym door and start with the easier alternate exercises, even if you have exercised in the past. New movements - even those that "look easy" - will cause muscle soreness. This goes for yoga too. Many beginners overstretch and end up with the same kind of injuries often associated with weight training. So no matter what you do, be conservative.

6. Do not do interval training or hard cardio more than four times per week. Even pro athletes don't play hard every day. Doing too much cardio is the biggest reason beginners end up hurt, frustrated, and in the doctor's office. Research shows that all you need to lose belly fat is three interval-training workouts per week.

When you do cardio, you're doing the same movement thousands and thousands of times in the same workout. If you have even the smallest injury, it will be magnified by this repetition.

7. Never skip a warm-up. Instead of using the treadmill to warm up (which is pointless), do a general bodyweight circuit of easy squats, easy push-ups, and ab planks to prepare your body for resistance training.

8. If you decide to use running as your form of interval training, make sure you have good running shoes, always do an extra-thorough warm-up, and choose a safe running surface (grass or trails rather than pavement/concrete). If you use a treadmill, please operate it safely.

9. If you have any type of injury at all, get medical attention and have a professional therapist rehabilitate the injury before you start an exercise program. You are better off committing three weeks to rehab now, before the injury becomes serious, than to neglect your body and be forced to stop exercising for three months (or more).

10. All together now: "Safety first!" Check with your doctor before starting any new exercise or diet program. There is no need to get hurt, no matter how serious you are about losing weight fast.

Don't Let Your Workouts Be the Reason You Can't Work Out

Those are the top 10 safety tips to keep in mind before you start your new fat-burning workout. Don't make the classic beginner mistake of doing too much exercise too soon.

The great news is that, as a beginner, your diet will have a much greater impact on your weight loss results - so there's no reason to over-exercise. Your program should include resistance training and interval training to help you burn fat, but you only need to exercise three times per week with total-body workouts.

Take your body seriously! Train safe!”

X* X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

Here are some other points to help.

1. For people who have never exercised at all or who are over 50 pounds overweight, strength training at a well equipped gym can be excellent because you can start with very light weights initially and build from there. Suppose you hope to do dumbbell curls with 30 pounds each at some point but have never done them before. Try doing 5 repetitions with 5 pound dumbbells. It that’s extremely easy do another set of 5 with 10 or 15 pound ones. Then stop there.

Next time, leaving at least one day of rest in between, if the larger weights were still easy, let’s say you did 15 pounders for 5 reps, then do a set just like that. Then see if doing a single set of 5 with 20 pounders to see how it feels. If that feels a bit more strenuous but as if you could do more than 5 reps, don’t do it!

But, next time just a single set with 20 pounders and do 6 or 7 reps. Then each time you come in do one or two more reps until you can do 12 without excess strain.

Then jump the weight to 25 pounds for 5 to 7 reps the time after you can do 12 without excess strain.

If you do that, you get two great benefits.:

You avoid the extreme soreness you would have had if you hard started the first day with the 25 pounders when your arms hadn’t built up to it and are far less likely to strain or injure your bicep.

Second, it makes the workouts where you are just staring fun to do because each time you go in you can make progress and do more. That extra positive motivation is critical to any new thing you do to help you keep doing it.

So, don’t hurt when you don’t have to or deprive yourself of the delightful experience of making continuous progress.

Start with less than you are already able to do and then build up to more than you can do now. But do it in easy, doable, and safe steps.

(The safest and most effective way to do strength training is every other day. But daily exercise is beneficial. So here are two ways to get daily exercise while doing strength training every other day. One is to do 3 days of upper body exercise and two or three days of leg exercise each week and alternate them. You can also do strength training 3 days a week and interval cardio 3 or 4 days a week and alternate them. One of the benefits of this is that your exercise session each day can be as little as 10 or 15 minutes while still giving you a good workout each week. If you have time, you can also do a daily half hour walk at a brisk pace as well -- as Jon Benson recommends for best fat loss results.)

2. Intervals make cardio dramatically better from making it safer to do, to making you fit faster, to getting you to a higher level of fitness, to getting results in far less total time.

Suppose you are so overweight you can hardly walk more than 50 steps without getting winded.

Here’s what you do to get fit. Walk 25 steps just a bit quickly but very carefully. (Note that this is only half what you can already do!) Then wait until you feel recovered, that might take 30 seconds at first. And you might have to walk in a circle from and back to a bench to sit down on.

Then do it a second time.

Then stop.

If you feel up to it for such a low key program do this one daily.

Next time do 3 sets of 25 steps and try resting a tiny bit less than the day before.

Then every time you come in to the gym or go on this short walk, do one more set of 25 steps.

Then once you can do 8 sets of 25, each time you come in do one more in each set 26, 27, 28, etc.

The time will come when you can do 8 sets of 100 without strain.

But always take a rest even if only 30 seconds or so between sets and be absolutely sure to increase that gradually.

With walking or running, if you increase that gradually, your bones gradually grow stronger and heavier. But if you go twice as far each time instead of just a tiny bit farther 5% or less, the time will come when your bone needs to be stronger but is not quite there yet and you can get a stress fracture that will force you to stop exercising.

What if you are already quite fit? You can do your cardio exercise more intensely at first and can go to doing it briskly in between doing it really hard instead of complete rest.

But the principle of building up slowly to doing more still applies.

Start at a level that is easy & gradually work up from there.

3. It also helps to know your heart risk blood measures and to be eating right and taking the right supplements to move those into the safe range if they are not there now.

In addition, if they are in truly dangerous territory now or you have a prior history of heart disease, doing that is imperative. And you should also be a good bit more gradual in how fast you build up to doing more.

Some people should be in a supervised Cardio rehab program in fact.

This is also a priority item in today’s world that is not stressed as much in the article as it deserves.

The good news is that virtually all these heart risk blood measures get better with exercise, so the strategy of starting very easy and working up very gradually will actually help you become far safer if you ever have to exert yourself in a sudden emergency to escape from a burning building for example.

High blood pressure goes down each day you exercise from what it would have been had you not exercised. You become less fat if you work up do a decent intensity and enough exercise and do a great job eating right. And, if you do that enough to begin to lose over 10 % of your bodyweight your high blood pressure may disappear. It very probably will get enough lower to get you off drugs to lower it.

Exercise also increases HDL cholesterol and lowers LDL & triglycerides. And, we now know the reason it does that is that it is dramatically decreasing the kind of small particle LDL in your system that causes heart disease.

But overdoing it can trigger a heart attack. So start easy; build up slowly; eat right; and take the supplements that create the same changes, real niacin, chromium, sterol supplements, etc.