6 Easy Ways to Get Started with Your Morning Workout

Did you ever wonder how those "exercise people" do it? I mean they seem to have just as busy a life as you yet, they manage squeeze in some kind of exercise just about everyday. They look so healthy and have such cool and exciting lives. In just one short conversation you hear all about their adventures climbing mountains, trail biking, kayak picnics, blah, blah, blah. As you listen with an odd mixture of wonder and contempt the only thing you can think to bring to the conversation is a juicy bit of gossip about the latest celebrity naughtiness and arraignment.

Where do they get all that energy? Maybe it's the exercise? Your doctor says that just a little exercise would do you a lot of good. You figure that's right but you just can't seem to fit it in.
How do they do it? Chances are, they do it in the morning. While there is no evidence that exercising in the morning is "better" for you, there is a great deal of evidence suggesting that people who exercise in the morning are much better about getting it done. All that really matters about the time of day you choose to exercise is that you actually exercise. "Morning exercisers tend to stick with their exercise habit," according to Cedric X. Bryant, PhD, chief exercise physiologist of the American Council on Exercise, "By doing the bulk of exercise first thing in the morning, you get your exercise in before other distractions can intrude. We can all relate to that -- because once the day gets going, it's hard to get off the treadmill called life."
Here are six tips for helping you to go from couch potato to a jumping lean bean by establishing a regular morning exercise habit.

1. Set more than your alarm.
Beeep, beeep, beeep, beeep - - Fwop! You slam your hand on the snooze bar and that's your entire workout for the day. While experts agree that it is important to start small (see tip number 2) "snooze bar slams" probably aren't going to help you shed any pounds, finish a 5k or summit any mountains. While setting your alarm is good, it's usually not enough to overcome the impulse to limit your workout to several reps of snooze bar slams. Before you go to bed, try setting these things as well.
*Set the appointment. Treat your exercise time as you would an important business meeting or an appointment with you doctor. Don't be a no-show. Be on time and ready to go.
*Set the activity. Figure out exactly what you are going to do. If you are going to the gym, think about which machine you are going to use and for how long. If you are going to do an outdoor activity like biking or running, plan the route in advance. It is also a really good idea to have a plan "B" just in case your first plan is scuttled by weather or an "out of order" sign on your favorite machine at the gym.
*Set out your workout clothes. Decide exactly what you are going to wear and set the clothes in a place where they are easy to find in the dark. This may not seem like a big deal but it is. When you set your clothes out, it helps you to get started faster and gives you less time to bail out. Plus, if you don't workout, that frickin' pile of exercise clothes will haunt you. If you stick to your plan and keep the clothes there, they will remind and motivate you.
*Set your mind. Do a mental run through of your new morning routine before you go to bed. Imagine yourself hopping out of bed, grabbing your gear and getting to it. This only works if you focus on the positive aspects of the workout. Nothing will torpedo you faster than imagining your gym as a medieval torture chamber. As you do your mental run through, think about how accomplished you will feel, who you are going to meet at the gym and the trip to the coffee shop after (see tip #6). I kayak so I love to imagine the majestic sunrise or gliding past flocks of waterfowl as they fly just inches above the water.

2. Start small.
The ONLY purpose of the FIRST day of your new morning exercise habit is so that you can have a SECOND day of your new morning exercise habit. That's it. This is about establishing the habit, not about transforming yourself into a world class athlete before breakfast on day one. Those "exercise people" you admire (or hate, or both) have a secret. Wanna hear it? They don't abuse themselves. They have built themselves up through simply being consistent. Start out with something really simple like a 10 minute walk or bike ride. Trust me, build the HABIT first and then, after you are in a routine, then worry about stepping it up.

3. Plug into a network.
One of the most effective ways to keep motivated do anything is to connect with other people. The most basic way to accomplish this is to tell a lot of people about your plans to do morning exercise. As you tell them, think bout how uncomfortable you will feel when they ask you about it (and you know someone will ask), if all you did were some reps on the snooze bar. If you want to step it up a bit, get a workout partner. The buddy system really works for exercise because you will motivate one another. On the days that your a ball of energy and they are dragging their butt, you will likely give it a swift kick for them. As a result, they will be very anxious to return the favor on days when your dragging yours. A partner also helps with appointment setting. You are less likely to ditch your morning walk when you know your best buddy is waiting out in the cold.
Not a big fan of working out with an entourage? That does not mean that you can't plug-in. Try posting your activities on social media. Apps like "MapMyRide," "MapMyRun" and "MyFitnessPal" will keep track of your route including distance and time. This is a great way to create accountability. Many apps will even send you a weekly workout summary.
An even more creative way to use these apps is to take a challenge. This is where you commit to, let's say, ride your bike the same distance as the Tour de France in a month.

4. Give it some love
Ok, so you hate working out but, do you really hate everything about it? Is there anything you could do to put a little love into it? Sometimes this is as simple as just reflecting on what there is to love about the exercise you are already doing. It's so easy to focus on the negative. One thing that works is to mentally break the exercise down. Stop thinking "I just hate exercising" and start contemplating what you don't like about it. Then, think of at least three positives for each negative. So, you hate sweating but you love the way you feel afterward. You love the natural high, you love the bragging rights and you love the feeling of accomplishment. Maybe you can even re-frame sweating as a purging of toxins from your body and begin to appreciate the perspiration. OK, maybe not but, I do.
How about just searching for something you really love. I love kayaking. Did I always love kayaking. No. How could I? I was a 400 pound man. I didn't fit in a kayak. Then, after losing my first 100 pounds, I tried it. That's the key. I tried it with an open mind. At first I sucked at it and didn't love it. I saw potential in it though. I created three positives for each negative and pushed on. Same for trail biking and rock climbing. Still not a big fan of running. I only do that when I am in a hotel with a crappy gym. What are my three positives? 1. I get to do a little sight seeing, 2. I love the rush of endorphins, 3. I feel really accomplished. BTW, there are more.
How about coupling your exercise with something you do love. In the winter, I exercise indoors which I do not love. I do however, love movies and vintage TV. Enter my iPad and Netflix. The rule for me though is that I do not watch unless I exercise. I really leverage this when I workout through half a movie. Then I am excited to workout the next day so that I can see how it ends. Are you a gamer? Why can't you play while you exercise? Music, of course, is a mainstay of the exercise crowd but, so are audiobooks. Why not tone your mind while toning your body?
Another way is find the love is to get help. Do it with someone you love (see tip #3). Not only will you both get stronger but, so will your relationship.

5. Give it purpose.
"He who has a why can bear almost any how." ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Nothing is a powerful as purpose. When you connect your exercise to a deep purpose, it sure helps get you out of bed in the morning.
I truly believe that my life is an example to others. I know when people read my writing, attend my workshops or see my lectures, they assume I exercise. Since it is important for me to "walk my talk," my exercise has a purpose way beyond simply staying fit. I have connected my exercise to my authenticity and my ability to change peoples lives.
I also know that my exercise helps my mental wellbeing. I am all out of sorts when I don't get my workout. This, in turn, keeps me from being at my best that day. Since my mental performance is important to me, so is my exercise. See the connection? The more important connections you make between exercise and what you want or who you want to be, the easier it will be to get off the snooze bar and get out of bed.
How about donating your workout to charity? My favorite motivator is to leverage my workouts for a good cause. This works best when you do it in a way that challenges you. So, don't just sign up for the relay for life and do a few laps on event day. Train for your event as if your performance mattered. If you have never run a 5K before, sign up for a charity 5K and train to actually run it. That means getting serious. Last year, I paddled to the very edge of my comfort zone and went right around Long Island NY. It was over 270 miles of the most challenging paddling I could imagine. The only reason I could do it was because I trained hard and my motivator was the charity to which I committed.

6. Celebrate.
Last but, by no means least, is celebrate. Celebrate every workout! First and foremost, take a moment to inventory all the good things you feel after working out. Acknowledge the feeling of accomplishment and the tingling of your muscles. Whatever the feeling is to you, it is not going to help you motivate if you don't acknowledge it.
Equally important is to create a pleasure ritual at the end of each workout that you can look forward to. Maybe it's a warm soak in the tub. Maybe it's that first cup of coffee. For me, it's that cherished hour at the coffee shop with my Kindle. The key is to make it a true celebration of the workout. If you don't workout, don't do the celebration.
Another hint is not to center your pleasure ritual around high calorie food. So, maybe that post-exercise trip to the pastry shop is not a good idea.

What you can learn about life from the United States Marine Corps

U.S. Marine Corps: A very effective team.
When I was a boy, I wanted to be a Marine. My dad was a Marine and I wanted to be like him. While my life did not take me through Parris Island, dad made sure that the USMC influenced on how I view the world. 
I think one of the things that has impressed me most about the Marine Corps is what they produce: MARINES. Without exception, these guys are a breed apart. Even after 50 or 60 years, they are unmistakably Marines. And I should know, I see enough of these tough 'ol birds in my work with the Veteran's Administration. By the way, no disrespect to the other services. I have met some amazing people that served in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force but, those Marines are a little different.
One thing that makes Marines so remarkable is that EVERY Marine is a brother. From the moment these guys finish boot camp, they are on the team and it is a team they stay on until they die. It doesn't matter to a Marine when you became a Marine, as long as you earned the right to wear the globe and anchor and did not disgrace it, another Marine would have your back. At least that is what I have seen. 
So how is it that the Marine Corps can take just about any young man or woman and create such an effective team? To answer this, I went back to their core values. 
U.S. Marine Corps' Core Values 
The Core Values give Marines strength and regulate their behavior; they bond the Marine Corps into a total force that can meet any challenge. 
Honor 
Honor guides Marines to exemplify the ultimate in ethical and moral behavior; to never lie cheat or steal; to abide by an uncompromising code of integrity; respect human dignity; and respect others. The quality of maturity, dedication, trust and dependability commit Marines to act responsibly; to be accountable for their actions; to fulfill their obligations; and to hold others accountable for their actions. 
Courage 
Courage is the mental, moral and physical strength ingrained in Marines. It carries them through the challenges of combat and helps them overcome fear. It is the inner strength that enables a Marine to do what is right; to adhere to a higher standard of personal conduct; and to make tough decisions under stress and pressure. 
Commitment 
Commitment is the spirit of determination and dedication found in Marines. It leads to the highest order of discipline for individuals and units. It is the ingredient that enables 24-hour a day dedication to Corps and country. It inspires the unrelenting determination to achieve a standard of excellence in every endeavor.

Imagine the power of a personal set of written core values. After reading these values, can you think of how they can be adapted to your life? How about to your relationship to your spouse? I guarantee that only good could come from aligning your personal compass and the compass of your marriage to a set of unifying core values. May I suggest that you start with the Marines? Thanks Dad - - - You may be gone, but your voice lives on in me - you tough old Jar Head. 

Does Food Lead to Happiness?

In his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi notes that Aristotle observed 2300 years ago that more than anything men and women seek happiness. In this book, Csikszentmihalyi (psychology, Univ. of Chicago) examines flow and describes it in terms of the connections between satisfaction and daily activities. He defines a flow state as one that ensues when one is engaged in self-controlled, goal-related, meaningful actions and it is often described by the person experiencing it as the sense of complete, purposeful, satisfaction that is generally recognized as happiness. 

What I thought was really cool was how much he talks about food and happiness. Our need for food is pretty basic. If you want to survive, you have to eat, but to simply surviving does not make us happy. In fact, for those of us that battle weight, food ultimately makes us unhappy. So, the question is, how can food make us happy? Can food produce flow? I think it can.

To begin, I think it is important that we come to some basic understanding of meaning of pleasure and enjoyment. I'm going to ask you to set aside your personal definitions of these words so that we can all speak the same language. 

For our purposes, pleasure can be described as a situation in which we do something that fills a basic physiological or psychological need. When this happens, a little pulse of electricity goes to one of a few "pleasure centers" of the brain. When that happens, you feel pleasure. When the electrical impulse stops, however, it's over. While pleasure is powerful, it's temporary. 

Enjoyment, on the other hand, is not directly tied to an external stimulus. Enjoyment is more closely tied to accomplishment and true satisfaction. Enjoyment hangs around to serve us breakfast in bed while pleasure leaves as soon as . . . well, you get the idea. 

To quote the book, 

"Enjoyment is characterized by this forward movement: by a sense of novelty, of accomplishment. Playing a close game of tennis that stretches one's ability is enjoyable, as is reading a book that reveals things in a new light, as is having a conversation that leads us to express ideas we didn't know we had. Closing a contested business deal, or any piece of work well done, is enjoyable. None of these experiences may be particularly pleasurable at the time they are taking place, but afterward we think back on them and say, "That was fun" and wish they would happen again. After an enjoyable event we know that we have changed, that our self has grown: in some respect, we have become more complex as a result of it.

Experiences that give pleasure can also give enjoyment, but the two sensations are quite different. For instance, everybody takes pleasure in eating. To enjoy food, however, is more difficult. A gourmet enjoys eating, as does anyone who pays enough attention to a meal so as to discriminate the various sensations provided by it. As this example suggests, we can experience pleasure without any investment of psychic energy, whereas enjoyment happens only as a result of unusual investments of attention. A person can feel pleasure without any effort, if the appropriate centers in his brain are electrically stimulated, or as a result of the chemical stimulation of drugs. But it is impossible to enjoy a tennis game, a book, or a conversation unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity."

In short, enjoyment takes effort. You need to work a bit to achieve enjoyment. When it comes to food, may enjoy that gourmet meal you painstakingly cooked, presented, served and ate slowly and with intention, but you generally won't find enjoyment when you inhale a bag of potato chips. 

The key here is that enjoyment is the key to happiness and that all forms of pleasure may not necessarily lead to happiness. 

Are You READY to breakout of your shell?

The concept that we are killing ourselves with our behavior is not new. Since the beginning of recorded history, medicine has wrestled with the problem of saving people from themselves.  It can be argued that the foundation of modern medicine was laid in Greece at around 400BC by Hippocrates. Hippocrates was a passionate humanitarian, physician and philosopher. His words echo at the graduation ceremonies at every medical school in the country as doctors recite the Hippocratic Oath. His words: “Everything in excess is opposed to nature." And "It is hard to contend against one's heart's desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul." also echo the recognition that we, as a race, are in a race to kill ourselves. It is not surprising then, that good ‘ol Hippocrates, an avid exerciser himself, offered up one of the very first lifestyle prescriptions: "If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health." (Really, he said that – the internet told me)

Knowing is NOT the same as doing  

        If we have known of the miracle cure of a healthy lifestyle for 2400 years or more, why are so many of us still getting sick as a direct result of the lives we choose to lead. How could we have had this answer for all this time and still we have the problem? Maybe it is because many people, secretly (or not so secretly), do not want to change. This issue of people not wanting to change has been the subject of intense study. In the early 1980s, Drs Prochaska & DiClemente at the University of Rhode Island examined the phenomenon of this apparent resistance to change as part of their work to help lower cancer rates. What they observed was that behavior change was not, as previously thought, a singular event but a process that occurred over time. In other words, they found that people did not just quit smoking all at once although it may appear as if they had. To arrive at the moment of quitting, they actually had to go through a series of thought processes or stages leading up to the moment where they no longer smoked. Like drops in a bucket, these thoughts and actions accumulated until the bucket was full. Once the bucket was filled, the very next drop made it over flow.

        To a casual observer, it looks as if the bucket began to overflow at the moment that last drop rolled over the edge of the bucket. In a very real sense though, it began to overflow from the moment the first drop hit the bottom of the empty bucket.  As scientists, Dr.’s Prochaska & DiClemente were no casual observers. Through extensive study, they identified 5 distinct stages of change. They consolidated their work into a method of understanding how human beings can change and how we professionals can help them to do it. This method, called the Transtheoretical Model of Change, is based on the concept that people will only be able to make the changes that they are truly ready to make. By understanding how each particular behavior scores on a readiness to change scale, you can begin to attack those behaviors that are ripe for change while cultivating others for later harvest.

How R*E*A*D*Y are you?

        Based on the Transtheoretical model, I have developed the R*E*A*D*Y test. This is a helpful way to determine how ripe your behavioral fruit is for the harvest of change. When my clients and I consider a behavior for change, I ask them to take an honest look at the behavior; the more honest the look, the more useful the test. Knowing how the behavior scores will determine how aggressively we can shake the tree to release the fruit of change. Unlike real fruit, however, behaviors can be ripe for change and then jump right back onto the tree. We need the test to keep focused on only harvesting those behaviors that we can really change. By properly grading the behaviors, we can guarantee success and use that success as seeds to plant more fruit trees. 

Each letter of R*E*A*D*Y represents a specific stage of readiness and is described below.

        R – REFUSE - This is actually not a stage of readiness at all, it’s a stage of unreadiness.  In this stage we refuse to believe we have a problem.  We absolutely fail to recognize that there is anything wrong.  It is the ultimate expression of blissful ignorance.  It is this stage where the lying machine  is working overtime.  I’ll never forget the time my wife, concerned about my weight, served me a no fat, no salt soup.  I ate it and said “I would rather die than eat this stuff the rest of my life”.  The sad part was I meant it at the time; I was not ready to change. I did not even want to talk about it.  Maybe I was ready to change something but I was not ready to change that behavior.  It is important to understand that when you look at your bank of bad habits, some of the bank you will be ready to withdraw and some you will not.  You will find yourself at different stages of readiness for every single behavior that you need to change.  Many of the behaviors that you need to change, may not even make your list of bad habits!  They are in a hidden Swiss bank account of bad habits and your mind refuses to let you see them. What’s the best way to start telling yourself the truth? The best way to begin is with some basic accounting.  Explore your stories, your behaviors, your bank of bad habits and look for things you know you should change. Simply by exploring these behaviors you will be moving into the “E” stage.

E- EXPLORE:  This is where we begin to think about the  behaviors we want to change.  It’s where we start to recognize that there’s a problem.  It is here that we begin to at least consider that our stories are lies and that they are not doing us any good. In this stage we are just waking up to the fact that these behaviors are worth changing.  It is through this exploration that we can begin to make change possible. This exploration, however, takes place entirely in the mind. It is a time of contemplation. To make things happen you need to acquire all the knowledge and tools necessary to begin work.

A- AQUIRE    During this stage we begin to acquire what we need to make our changes work.  The acquisitions that we make include knowledge, equipment, motivation and mind set. In fact if you are reading this book you are in the acquire stage.  You are acquiring knowledge.  You have passed through the exploration stage. You considered your problem and you decided to set the wheels of change in motion. Your acquisition of knowledge is going to form the basis of your future actions. In addition to acquiring knowledge, you may also buy a piece of exercise equipment, join a health club or take a cooking course. This is where you begin to get things started.  Sometimes it is just acquiring the basics of a habit. When I wanted to start walking every night, I started by just walking out onto my front porch. I opened the door and stood there like an idiot. After a while, I felt so stupid that I just started walking. On the days I did not want to walk, I still opened the door and stood there. It took almost no effort to open the door and it was hard to find an excuse not to do it. I wonder if my neighbors still think I’m crazy? I was working to acquire the habit of walking. Even on the nights I did not walk, I worked on building the habit. At this stage, building the habit insures future action. Your commitment to this stage will determine your ability to follow through.  Once I crossed the threshold of that door and started down the street I was officially DOING.

D- DOING:

 Like in the scene from “Forrest Gump” where he just gets up and runs.  This is the point where we just start doing it.  This is the point of action; it is where the work gets done.  This is where behaviors begin to change. It is where “the rubber meets the road.”   Experts say it takes about 30 days to change a behavior.  If you can stay in action phase for at least 30 days then you will probably successfully change that behavior.  Of course I always thought good behaviors took a little longer and it seems bad behaviors can develop in an instant. Once you doing the behavior regularly it seems automatic, it becomes part of your personal story. It becomes part of your definition of YOU. Welcome to the YOU phase.

Y – YOU –This is the phase where you can’t imagine a world without the behavior. It is so much a part of you, you can barley even remember life before this change. The behavior becomes almost effortless. It is automatic because it has become organic to your mind. It is now part of your story. When this behavior is part of you it is hard to deny and hard to defy.  If it is part of your definition of yourself, it is an easy behavior for you to maintain.  It belongs to you;  it is you. It is the last stage of the behavior change process-- sort of. 

Watch What You Drink!

Written and Read by Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu
Did you know that one of the worst things you can do when your'e trying to lose weight is drink calories. 

A tremendous source of excess Calories come from high Calorie drinks.  Considering that most of those Calories have no nutritional value, your body can easily do without them. To make matters worse, research shows that drinking extra calories also makes you eat more. In a study at Penn State University, people who ate a lunch with a 150 Calorie beverage ate more food than the group that enjoyed a Calorie-free beverage. By the way, the BEST Calorie free beverage is water. 

            If you are in the habit of drinking high calorie drinks, you are probably racking up an astonishing amount of Calories. Although most drinks are labeled, the labels can be misleading. Each bottle of soda that you drink has 100 calories per serving but wait-- there are generally 2.5 servings in every bottle. So an ordinary bottle of soda  250 calories! What about the average “large” soft drink from a fast food chain? A large fountain drink from McDonalds packs 310 Calories. All of those Calories are from pure, refined, SUGAR!!! How much sugar? 86 grams of sugar per serving-- 86 grams of sugar-- 86 grams! Are you kidding me? No, I checked it three times. 86 grams of sugar is the same as eating 18 teaspoons of sugar!! Do you want fries with that? (570 Calories for a large) Can I Supersize that for you?  Almost 900 Calories from just the drink and the fries and I have not even discussed the “entrée” yet.

            OK. Soda is bad. Got it! What if you are not a soda drinker? Only “healthy” drinks for you, right? Good work. You should be safe. Try again. A glass of 100% pure, not from concentrate, orange juice has Calories too.  If you were to fill that large McDonalds soda cup with OJ, it would have 409 Calories and 76grams of sugar. Even if you don’t drink that much OJ all at once, it is important to understand OJ is not that much different than soda. It has almost as much sugar and it has MORE Calories! Think about it. How many oranges do you have to squeeze to get a glass of juice? Actually, drinking a 12oz glass of orange juice is just like eating about 6 full-sized oranges. Worse yet, when you squeeze juice, you throw away all the fiber nature packaged the fruit with!

            Are sports drinks OK? Don’t kid yourself. Calories are Calories and sugar is sugar. When in doubt, read the label. When you read the label, start with the serving size and then go to the Calories. If you are going to drink the whole bottle, you need to multiply the Calories by the serving size. It is just that simple.

 According to this Gatorade nutritional information label, this product has 50 Calories. If you look closer, you will notice that there are 4 servings in the container. That means that there are 200 Calories in this bottle. With 14 grams of sugar per serving, that means all of those calories are from sugar. In fact, if you calculate the calories from the sugar information on the label (14g of sugar at 4 Calories per gram times 4 servings) you actually get 224 Calories. I am not sure how those calories fell off the label but I can assure you they will not disappear from you so easily. 

             The sad fact is that most people just don’t think about the calories they drink. According to Dr. Brian Wansink, author of “Mindless Eating:” “In every beverage study, we conducted; people underestimate the calories they drink -- usually by about 30%.  It doesn't matter whether its soft drinks, milk, juice, or wine, although we found vending machines pose the biggest danger.” To help people see the caloric truth about drinks, Dr. Wansink developed the "10 -- 20 " rule of thumb.  As part of this rule, he divides drinks into two broad categories: “Thin Drinks” and “Thick Drinks.” He describes thin drinks as things like soft drinks, punch, juice, and milk while a thick drink is more like shakes and smoothies. As a general rule, he says figure thin drinks at about 10 calories per ounce and thick drinks are about 20 calories per ounce.  This rule could be a great running start but, it can also be another way of justifying your way into way too many calories. For instance, the “Love It” sized fruit “Strawberry Bananza” smoothie at Cold Stone Creamery is low fat, made of fruit and is packin’ 600 Calories.  At about 18 ounces, that is just about 20 Calories per ounce. However, the same sized drink made with regular strawberry ice cream would have a full 1200 calories!! In this case, if you used the 10-20 rule; you would be telling yourself a 600 Calorie deception. Think about this, if you were to indulge one 600 calorie deception like this a day, you will gain 63 pounds a year just from the calories you denied drinking! So be Alert! 
This caution does not stop with soda, juice and ice cream shakes. It also includes what you put into your coffee. Think about the calories that coffee creamer and sugar adds to your coffee. When you have an idea of how many Calories you think that will add to your daily intake, add 30%. Remember, it only takes 3500 excess Calories to gain a pound. When you think about the amount of calories that are in sugar and creamer, you could easily lose 5 to 10 pounds this year by drinking black coffee or unsweetened tea instead. 

Turning your intentions into RESULTS!

Do you intend to get into better shape? You intend to lose weight? Do you intend to eat healthier? Well, you know what they say, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”  While you may intend to do all these things, your intentions alone will not get you very far. As a matter of fact, when it comes to your health, each day that you only think about getting better is actually a day of getting worse.

Don’t get me wrong, intentions are great but, only when they are followed by action. To truly reach any worthwhile goal, you need to commit. A true commitment is non-negotiable. It is something you just do.

Easier said than done, right?  I hear ya! I have plenty of unfulfilled intentions. What if I could show you some techniques that will help you transform some of your intentions into commitments? That would be cool, right? This post is going to help you to do just that so that you can begin to commit to a better and more remarkable life!

The first step in the process is that you have a vision of what this commitment will do for you. If you want to lose weight, imagine what that will look and feel like. Create a picture in your mind of what life will be like when you achieve your goal. Then mentally run through a day in that life. The more compelling your vision, the more it will pull you toward it. Trust me, it is far better to be drawn to a goal than to be pushed to it. One caution though. You need to make the vision believable. The only way this process works is if you know with all your heart that you can achieve your vision.

   

Once you are connected to a compelling vision, you need to get down to business. This is where a lot of people get bogged down.

Over the past two weeks, I witnessed Karen go from a person that just talked about getting in shape to a person that rides her bike 10 miles a day, every day, before work. How did that happen? How was she able to put aside all those great excuses and “just do it.” I mean she had all the classic reasons NOT to do this. She has a demanding job, she has no time, it’s really hot, she has exercise induced asthma. . . you get the idea. Yet, somehow, she overcame all these excuses and has ridden over 100 miles since the 30^th of June.

Her secret was a public challenge. When she rides, she uses an iPhone app called MapMyRide. The app tracks her speed and mileage. The app then saves them the MapMyRide website under Karen’s profile. As an added bonus, with the touch of a button, Karen can also share her workout to Facebook. This way all of her friends can see how well she is doing. It also motivates her to get on her bike every morning because she does not want to look lazy on Facebook.  

As an extra motivation, MapMyRide also sponsors challenges.  On June 30^th, Karen accepted the” Le Tour Challenge” to cycle 100 miles in 23 days. The challenge gives cyclists around the world the opportunity to compete against other cyclists during the 2012 Tour de France. When she started, she barely believed she could do it but she was committed. She cycled just a couple of miles for the first few days but, then slowly pushed herself and got up to OVER 10 miles!  Not only is she is feeling and looking great, she also finished the entire 100 miles in only 17 days!  Why was this so powerful? For one thing, she had a clear, measureable goal with absolute deadlines.  There was no question that she was making awesome progress. She could literally see mileage climbing every day. When she realized that she could actually excced her expectations, she raised her personal standards and finished early. She also made her progress public. As it turns out, this is huge for most people. We like to share our accomplishments with other people and we hate to share our short falls. In other words, when you know people are watching, you behave differently. For the most part, you behave exactly as you want to world to see you. Since most people value how they are seen by the world, this behavior is generally pretty good for you.  Think about it. How much better  would you eat if you committed to post everything you ate to Facebook? There is no doubt that making your commitments public helps you to keep them. I am so proud of Karen. She has really grown from this experience!

Karen's story is a lot like my kayak trip around Long Island. 

Really? What does Karen's bike challenge have to do with my paddle around Long Island? Everything! This paddle is my challenge! I made it public so that I would train hard and not give up. I gave it deep meaning and purpose by making it a fundraiser. The reason I tell the story of Karen is because I want you to connect to the concept and use it for your own personal Betterness®!  

Most people have a difficult time relating to a nut job like me who kayaks 25 miles on a Sunday morning to train for a 260 mile endurance trek. They don’t see how my journey can be useful to them. It’s just too radical. While I might seem radical, I started out as a 400 pound man. I was sick and tired and woefully out of shape. I can even remember the first day I committed to exercise. I did five minutes on a stationary bike. I did 5 minutes because I could not do 6. Now, I am thought of as amazing and radical. Not bad. The message here is that YOU, yes YOU, can do this. (Whatever your personal “this” is) No matter how bad you think you are, you can be radical or at least remarkable. If that is what you truly want. 

Thinking Better (or at least more positively) will actually improve your life.

Science is now showing that positive thinking not only improves you outlook on life, it actually improves your life! According to the book, "Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive."

 If you can harness your happiness you can transform your life. Backed up by impressive lab research, positive psychology pioneer Barbara Fredrickson lays out the core truths of positivity—joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe and love. While it is easy to see the subject of "positivity" as both disdainful and Pollyannaish, this book keeps it real. Dr. Fredrickson does an impressive job of providing scientific evidence to illustrate her findings. One of the most enlightening notions is how easy it might be to become an "effective optimist." According to the author, simply maintaining a 3:1 positivity ratio of positive thoughts to negative emotions creates a tipping point between languishing and flourishing. The book includes compelling case studies, concrete tips, a Positivity Self Test and a tool kit for decreasing negativity and raising the positivity ratio. Although many of Fredrickson's methods and theories (notes on meditation and karma) will seem familiar to anyone versed in yoga or eastern religions, the scientific foundation of her arguments and additional online resources (www.positivityratio.com) will give you a chance to experiment with positivity and very possibly lead a "better" and richer life.