How To Improve Your Health In 14 Days: Small Changes For Maximum Health & Weight Loss
|
Many Americans include health improvement in their New Year's Resolutions. But real life intrudes, and we find ourselves facing the fact that our plans for reshaping our lives and health were a bit too much to manage in the face of the rest of our busy lives. However, small changes can be as effective as large ones - much less intimidating - and result in long-term improvements in your health.
Here are two week's worth of small changes and activities that can improve your health. While these are written with people in an office in mind, they can be adapted to outdoor work or full-time parenting.
Day 1: Identify your Junk-Food-Hour. Put an index card in wallet or purse. Keep track of times at which you're most likely to hit the candy machine or potato chip stash, that one thing that frustrates your good eating habits. For many of us, it's mid-afternoon, though it may be at 1 a.m.! Track yourself for a week.
Day 2: Have a Green Day. Whether you buy lunch out or make it, see if you can include a green veggie each day. If you've got kids, they can have fun picking out new green food (nope, green gelatin doesn't count!)
Day 3: Exercise Nibble. Take five minutes of your lunch break to walk. Walk two and a half minutes towards any place (up the street? up the stairs?) and then take the other two and a half minutes getting back. Got kids? Make it a small family ritual and start their good habits early!
Day 4: Sneaky Exercise. Sneak in exercise while you watch TV! Every time there's a commercial, stand up and march in place until the commercial's over. If you only watch public TV? Pick a word that characters or announcers are likely to say and march in place for two minutes.
Day 5: Start the Smoke-Out. If you smoke, pick up your phone, today, and make an appointment with your healthcare provider to set up a quitting plan. Alternatively, call the National Quitline at 1-800-784-8669, or check out the webpage put out by the Surgeon General (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/conspack.html) for the booklet "You can quit smoking" in both English and Spanish.
Day 6: De-stress the Drive. At each red light or stop sign, take a slow deep breath, counting to five as you inhale, count to five as you exhale. This simple habit makes sure you've really stopped at a "STOP" sign , and reducing your stress can keep you focused to prevent an accident.
Day 7: Junk Food Begone! Use your index-card record to figure out when you're most vulnerable to a junk-food attack. Put some healthy alternatives (depending on your nutritional needs, this may be whole wheat crackers, dried fruit, nuts) in a bag at your desk or in your purse. Five minutes before your tough time, check to make sure that you're hungry. If you're just bored, take a short walk (even up the stairs, wash your face, or reapply lipstick). If you're hungry and losing energy, make use of the stash of healthy food you've created.
Day 8: Check the Pressure. Stop at the drug store and use the automated blood pressure machine. High? Time to see your healthcare provider. Low? Check back each month.
Day 9: Life-Saving Self-Exam. For women of all ages: Pick a date and circle it on your calendar in pink. Repeat for the rest of the year. If you menstruate, make sure the dates are unlikely to coincide with PMS. Each "pink" day, do a self-breast exam. Don't know how? Go to www.bigbam.org to download a "how-to" card.
Day 10: Medication Weed-Out. Set a timer for 30 minutes and tackle the bathroom cupboards. Medication that are expired? Vitamins that have been sitting there for years? Get rid of them. Make sure that you don't flush these medications; your pharmacy or sanitation company can help you discard these items safely. If it takes more than 30 minutes, repeat on Day 11.
Day 12:. "Sleep hygiene." Cleaning up your sleep habits to reduce interrupted or difficult sleep. Things that can help you sleep well: cutting down alcohol or caffeine before bed, not watching TV or looking at the computer for a half hour before bed (the bright light in your eyes can trigger wakefulness)
Day 13: Measure Me! If you're engaged in weight loss, put a tape measure by the scale. Waist measurements are a good indicator that exercise and diet are improving your health (below 35 inches is associated with lower heart-disease risk).
Day 14: Housework Works. Pick one physical chore that you pay someone to do - mowing the lawn, raking the yard, vacuuming. Do it yourself, and stash the cash. Reward yourself with a healthy, stress-reducing, or "don't I look great!" treat.
They seem like small steps, but small steps can add up to a marathon of good health!
Gaesser, G.A. Multiple Short-Bouts of Exercise: Fitness Alternative for Those Who "Don't Have Time For Exercise." (Continuing Professional Education article) SCAN's Pulse (Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutritionists),Volume 20, issue 3-4, 2001.
Proper, K.I. Effect of individual counseling on physical activity fitness and health: a randomized controlled trial in a workplace setting. Am J Prev Med - 01-APR-2003; 24(3): 218-26
USDA, 2005 Dietary Guidelines "Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Nutrition and your Health"
Ian Mason, owner of Shoppe.MD, your source for Online Prescription Medications and health news.
Ian studies health, weight loss, exercise, and several martial arts; maintaining several websites in an effort to help provide up-to-date and helpful information for other who share his interests in health of body and mind.
Contact Ian Mason by e-mail at ian@shoppe.md.
|
|
|
Glycemic Index: A Magic Weight Loss Solution Or A Soap Bubble Ready To Burst?
Glycemic index ranks different carbohydrate foods depending on their potential to raise blood glucose levels.The ranking is on a scale from 0 to 100.Higher the Glycemic index, higher is the particular carbohydrates ability to effect a spike(rise) in...(related: Weight Loss)
2 Ways To Start Burning Fat Quickly
1. Start Exercising first thing in the morning.As soon as you wake up in the morning workout for at least 30min to an hour. Studies show that working out in the morning has been shown to b...(related: Weight Loss)
Law Of Attraction For Weight Loss: Your Secret To Dropping Unwanted Weight Once And For All!
Ever notice how your best friend can lose weight on the same diet that you don't? Or how you often reach "plateaus"? The yo-yo dieting trend among frustrated women in this country is practically an epidemic!Want to know the secret of why this happens? And how you can lose unwanted weight once and for all? Of course you do ? we all do!Sounds too good to be true, I know. But once you understand this concept, you'll never again wonder why you're not getting results on the latest diet or with your new gym membership. In fact, this secret will let you in on weight loss without breaking a sweat or refusing another Krispie Kreme.This "secret" principle has been around for eons, but is being rediscovered across the country. People in the know are successfully putting it to work to achieve weight loss that's ea...(related: Weight Loss)
Whole Grains Prevent Weight Gain
Research from Harvard, recently published in the highly respected peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has now proven that women who eat the most whole grains lose more weight and maintain that weight loss better than women who eat the least amount of whole grains.In a twelve year study of over 74,000 nurses, ages 38 to 63, the researchers discovered that women who ate the most whole grain foods weighed less than those who ate the least. The Harvard scientists concluded that the high whole grain group of women had a 49 percent lower risk of gaining weight. The w...(related: Weight Loss)
Dieting Effects ? Alcohol
Dieting presents many complications if you are not fully committed to changing your lifestyle. Many people are more than willing to pick the parts of the diet that they are comfortable with, only to hang onto the bad habits that got them there in the first place.Alcohol can play in important role in your diet more than just the added calories or carbohydrates:
- Alcohol creates an acidic environment in your body. The kidneys have a hard time ridding your body of the waste and create problems in cellular function. You won't get the most out of your body since it is concentrating on other functions that can be alleviated. If you smoke when you drink, it just adds more acid form...(related: Weight Loss)
7 Tips To Help You Beat Your Sugar Habit
Are you often overcome with an urge to splurge on candy, cookies, and cake ? and do you then hate yourself for caving into your cravings?Do you pop by the drug store for paper goods but always leave with junk food, too? And do you feel like an incurable sugar addict with zero will power?Take heart. You can quit (or at least cut back on) both sweets and processed, "much-like-sugar carbs" such as white bread, white rice, and pasta.Back in 1998, I did just that. After diagnosing hypoglycemia, my M.D. told me that eliminating quickie carbs could banish my low-blood sugar symptoms, including my ferocious headaches, unexpected mood swings, debilitating "brain fog" and severe PMS.
Lose Weight - Think You Cant?
You step on the scale and groan at the number peeking between your toes. "Oh, No!""I'll start a ...(related: Weight Loss)
The Psychology Of Weight Loss: Part 4 ? The Power Of Praise!
Your success in sticking with an exercise and weight loss program may just come down to you asking for help - unless pride gets in your way. The key to longevity is surrounding yourself with people who will give you support followed up by accountability."A good team is one that has quality support, honest encouragement, and requires personal responsibility."From my e book The "A" FactorYour Inner Circle"You can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep." This is a very true statement. Let me say this first. Many decisions in life have strings attached to them. Strings sometimes m...(related: Weight Loss)
On-line Weight Watchers Diet Helper For Personal Digital Assistants (pdas) And Mobile Phones
At the beginning of December, WeightWatchers.com announced the release of an application for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and PDA mobile phones. It is the first to synchronize with a web-based account via the Internet. Mobile-phone diet applications are becoming increasingly popular. Weight Watchers diet promoters link the phone application to the Web personal account, which provides a useful portable tool for diet assistance.This makes the diet easier to follow by offering :
- The possibility of following your weight watch more closely, and of keeping permanent track of your eating
- A points calculator and tracker. The WeightWatcher...(related: Weight Loss)
site-map - Copyright © 2007 | Contact Webmaster - shukra1111 [AT] yahoo.com | All Rights Reserved | Weight Loss