Living Healthier in the Now

Most of us have some health related goal or area of improvement that we are working on or hope to work on very soon. Keeping yourself mentally and physically aware while exercising and eating by using the “living in the now” concept I’ve been talking about in the last couple blogs, can get you through a strenuous workout as well as help you eat right all while increasing your enjoyment of these activities.

For most of us, getting through an exercise routine is a struggle. But if you are completely attentive to your movements instead of thinking about how you’ve never yet been able to keep up an exercise routine or letting your mind wander to how much nicer it would feel to be lounging on the couch, you aren’t as likely to quit in the middle of it. Just keep focused on the feeling of your muscles moving and listen to your breath as you control your inhaling and exhaling (a primary concept behind yoga and its distressing effects, by the way) and soon enough you will have completed your routine or finished that 30 minute run and are feeling great.

When it comes to food, it’s all about being mindful of what you eat, how much, and how you eat. When you reach in the fridge for something, consciously decide what will contribute to your well balanced intake for the day and choose your best options. Stop eating directly out of the box or bag and lay out a small portion on a plate that you can then take to a table or out onto the porch to enjoy. Choose a place with no TV or computer or anything else to distract you. Taste your food, becoming aware of every flavor and texture, and chew completely. You will find that eating “in the now” is much more enjoyable. It will also slow down your eating so you fill up on less food and will help your digestion by having food well broken down before it hits your stomach.

“Living in the now” will help you by not only increasing your appreciation of the sensations of exercising and eating well but will also help you attain your goals for a better, healthier life. You’ll feel great because of your accomplishments along with gaining the long lasting and compounding effects of the bliss that comes with being consistently happy in the moment.

Being Healthy: Your Umbrella Goal for Life

During the last few weeks, I’ve been talking about health and the benefits of a good diet and hopefully it’s inspired you to eat better. The question is, are you, or will you be committed to it, not just for the near future but for life?

Getting down to an ideal weight and getting off junk food are great goals but your hard efforts will be wasted if you don’t make it a modification to your lifestyle rather not just a temporary change.

As I mentioned about the CRON diet last week, these healthier eating habits can lengthen your life—an actual fountain of youth! But if you can’t keep it up, it probably won’t get you halfway near the 140 years that the CRON scientists believe a healthy person can reach.

If you lose 30 pounds then gain back 20 a few months later, lose another 10, gain another 15, and keep this yo-yo dieting going, you aren’t helping your health at all. In fact you’re stressing your system. Same goes for the ‘occasional’ junk food meal. Can a coke addict get high just once in a while?

The bottom line is, you have to decide that you want to live healthy–determine the specific weight you want to reach and stay at, commit to eating healthy, minimally processed, whole foods, and keep active. Look at this commitment as a commitment for life, an umbrella goal that will support every other goal you make but giving you the health and energy to pursue all your dreams.

So be good to yourself these next few weeks and aim to eat and live healthy for the rest of your life. You can start by reading Chapter 10: An Umbrella Goal for Life in my book, How to Ignite Your Passion for Living. As I explain, 42 days is all it takes to form a new eating habit. After that it’s just a little bit of vigilance.

Use the goal planning tips in my book and you’ll certainly get there. Do this for yourself, your family, and, of course, for the success of all your dreams.

Looking Ahead in 2009 – Life Goals

My focus for the new year is my health and diet. Thanks to my daughter I’ve enrolled in a yoga class. There is everyone from a 7 year old to a 70 year old. As you age you lose your flexibility, you can’t move as easily. You must counter-attack this by pushing yourself, and by stretching. Another thing is by being in a group you introduce competition, which can push you to try harder and to not give up.

I’m eating more fruits and vegetables and natural foods now. It’s harder to do that eating out at a restaurant. So I try to stay home and eat where it’s easier to control. When I do eat out, I bring my own whole wheat pasta or choose healthier dishes.

Another focus of this year is that I have re-ignited my passion for public speaking. When I recently spoke to a Kiwanis Club group, I remembered how much I like speaking. It went well and I remembered why I like doing it.

I want to be on Oprah to talk about igniting your passion for life. I’ve been on 11 radio stations, and various TV promotions, but that would be the top of the top. Why do I want to meet her? She is a self-made multi billionaire who started from scratch. And she built this without taking advantage of other people. She did it through work.

What about you? What do you want to do in 2009 to live a passionate life?

Keeping Passion Alive In Stressful Situations

Lately I’ve been challenged with a situation that I’m sure you can relate to – how to maintain passion when things go wrong – or appear to go wrong. Last week I started to get chest pains, and I went to see my doctor. He told me my chest pains were caused by one of three things:

1. I have a heart problem
2. I have cancer
3. It’s acid reflux

I live a healthy lifestyle, my cholesterol is low, my blood pressure is low and I eat right. This increases the odds tremendously that rather than a heart problem or cancer, I’ll be diagnosed with the much preferable acid reflux. Still, my concern challenges my ability to live in the moment.

The key is learning how to live in the moment. “Live in the moment. So I talk to myself and say: I must visit the past and the future in short segments, but live in the now.”

The real key to living in the moment is your internal dialog – how you talk to yourself. I tell myself things like, there’s nothing I can do right now. I can’t speed up this process. I recognize that worry doesn’t help. In a few days I’ll know my diagnosis. In the meantime, I’m living in the moment and redirecting myself when I stray.

My next post is going to talk about ways that have helped me living in the moment – regardless of the stresses of life around me.

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