With the new year approaching, the first resolution most people think about going for is a gym membership. Year after year the same thing happens. They really want to get into shape, and they know for sure that this year will be different. They sign up for a year membership and begin their new goal with clear focus and determination.
Most people never make it past the first week. Why? Mostly because they quit when they realize how much work goes into getting back into the shape they once had. The fact of the matter is that it really is not as difficult as they think. They are just focusing on one aspect of overall wellness and burning themselves out on it.
In order to lose weight and keep it off for good, a mortal must develop the mindset necessary for living a healthy lifestyle. There is much more to being healthy than showing up to the gym apiece day. In fact, exercise is only one-eighth of the total equation. If you really want to achieve individualized wellness in 2009, forget the gym and focus instead on improving the following 8 categories of health.
Health Tips #1: Diet & Nutrition
You already know the main reason you gained weight. Too many trips through the McDonalds drive-thru, late night snacking on junk food and poor dinner choices. You do not have to take a diet of bland salads and yogurt, but you do need to limit the amount of trigger foods that you caused your weight gain. Replace your current American diet of high sugar, high-fat processed foods with those found in the produce and lean meat department as often as you can.
Health Tips #2: Nutritional Supplements
Now that our soils are more depleted of minerals than ever, and our farm animals are not fed properly, living a healthy lifestyle requires nutritional supplementation. I lost 70 pounds in 4 months and kept it off for over 15 years simply by drinking a soy-based accelerator shake for breakfast apiece morning and taking a few targeted vitamins. Why does this work? Because greasy bacon and runny eggs do not wage proper nutrition.
Health Tips #3: Fun & Recreation
What makes you happy? Going to the movies? Ice Skating? Playing the guitar? Whatever it is, you must find time for it on a weekly basis (if not daily) in order to maintain good mental stability. Your activities and hobbies should not include junk food or alcohol. Going to the movies is watching the movie, not intake a tub of fatty buttered popcorn. Be happy with what you are doing without the unnecessary evils.
Health Tips #4: Hydration
Drinking enough water throughout the day is the part of the equation that gets overlooked. People do not think about drinking as important as intake and it is! You should not be drinking soda or processed juices apiece day. Why? Because they deplete your body of vitamins and minerals while loading you up on sugar. Alcohol is even worse. Do yourself a favor and keep a water bottle with you at all times. Drink, drink, drink. I can't stress this enough.
Health Tips #5: Stress
And talking of stress, this is what happens when you do not grant yourself to have any fun in your life. This is just as important to living a healthy lifestyle as intake and drinking properly. Too much stress can cause major problems for your body. You only live once, so do not grant other people and events to get you so bothered and worried that you can't live the lifestyle you deserve for yourself.
Health Tips #6: Unhealthy Habits
Not intake the wrong foods is just as important as intake the right foods. But unhealthy habits are not just about food, are they? Smoking and the use of other drugs, prescription or not, is probably the worst thing a mortal can do to their body. This is the only one you have! Take care of it. Alcohol is OK on occasion but not suggested on a regular basis to anyone interested in living a healthy lifestyle.
Health Tips #7: Weight Management
Have you ever noticed that weight loss really is not the issue that people struggle with? Most everyone has lost weight at one point in their life. Keeping that weight off is the impediment that most people can not overcome. Think about it logically. If you gained weight by intake twinkies, then lost weight when you stopped intake twinkies, do not go back to intake twinkies. The mortal who eats twinkies on occasion (not apiece day) does not struggle with weight fluctuation.
Health Tips #8: Exercise
You knew this one was coming! It is completely doable to lose weight without exercising. I am living proof because my severe asthma prohibited me from doing it. The reason I can exercise now is because I got my body healthy through focusing on the other 7 categories. Once I began exercising, it only accelerated my weight loss and now helps to keep me lean. The key to exercise is not quantity but quality. A tiny bit apiece day will give you the ideal health benefits overall.
So there you have it! The 8 health tips to kick off the new year for a new you. Focus on improving apiece of these simultaneously as your one and only New Years Resolution and you will be on a successful path to overall wellness. Weight loss and poor health can be things of the past if you are just willing to make small changes on a regular basis.