A Lifestyle For a Lifetime

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about health and wellness for the last number of years; more acutely in the last six months. Considering my own adoption of a healthier way of life it has lead me to understand a few things about goal setting a lot more clearly. Due to my lifestyle changes, which include exercise, I have lost more than 45 pounds and apparently that is a lot. Really? I didn't notice. But why I didn't notice is the intriguing part of this whole thing. Let me explain.

For starters we don't have a scale at home so monitoring my weight isn't possible. Which leads right into the main point...why would watching my weight be my goal? Aren't goals supposed to be something that can be reset continuously to achieve long term success? Of course they are.

Improper goal setting is a huge oversight. Goals set incorrectly only set you up to fail. The goal should not be weight loss, it should be a healthy lifestyle, because the bonus side effect of a healthy lifestyle is your body's natural order of things reducing your weight. Essentially the side effect of your goal is weight loss, but it is not your goal. Without a healthy lifestyle our bodies are in constant defense mode, trying to figure out whether we are living or dying. With all the crap we stuff into it and in the excessive quantities we consume food; combined with the complete lack of any discernible exercise to speak of; the body does what it thinks is necessary to keep us alive. Unfortunately with so many poor signals from us on the outside the inside eventually ends up killing us anyway. By producing a healthy, ALIVE environment through proper eating habits and exercise your body will respond accordingly. Know this...exercise is simply achieved with the elevation of your heart rate for about 30 minutes cumulatively a day; three to four times a week. Not six, two hour sessions at the gym a week. We ALL have 30 minutes cumulatively in a day to dedicate to our health.

Being healthy is a lifestyle for a lifetime. Making your goal to lose weight is like putting a band-aid on a gun shot wound, it won't work. Becoming healthy will not only heal your ailing body it will also shed weight. It is about setting goals that create desired side effects not goals that are the side effects. Here is the kicker! A BONUS side effect of being a healthier person is losing some unwanted weight.

I think if the goal is to "lose weight" people are doomed to fail. Because all the work they do is designed to lose weight.

Consider this...If the goal is weight loss then once you achieve your goal what is the next step? The goal is now accomplished and how do you reset the goal of losing weight if you have already lost your goal weight? You can't continuously make losing weight your goal. Worse case; once the weight is off you stop doing the things you were doing to lose weight and gain all the weight back and then some! If the changes made to lose weight are not something you can consider a lifestyle change then you will not be able to sustain the diet indefinitely. That is why diets don't work. Your miracle diet has you jump through all the hoops, take all the pills, drink all the shakes and commit to doing everything EXCEPT taking the time to get in tune with your body and letting it manage itself. For what? You lose 80 pounds in two months and you are "cured"!! So you stop taking the pills, stop drinking the shakes and stop jumping through the hoops and surprise, surprise the weight comes back.

Weight loss can be fickle too. The natural plateaus of weight loss can be a killer to the motivation and cause disappointment. If the results aren't there each time your feet hit the scale it is tough. If the goal is a healthier lifestyle then that goal is ongoing and you are never truly finished. You can then continue to refocus your sites when you are feeling bored or unmotivated. Remembering your goal is health makes it easier to kick yourself back into to high gear.

Being healthy has benefits that can been seen everyday, all the time. So, if the goal is overall health, including weight loss/management, it creates a healthier body and allows the body to do it's miraculous work with more ease. Starting with exercise producing better blood flow, which benefits the body from head to toe. Increased blood flow from exercise aids in reducing the risks of a boat load of cancers; not to mention making you feel good. Your brain is healthier with increased blood flow causing you to be more alert and thinking more clearly. Happiness is much easier when we can think clearly.

I like the cartoon at the start of this blog. It speaks directly to all those out there who "don't have time" to exercise. The "inconvenience" of a commitment to exercise and your health is minor when compared to the time commitments of death. Your health HAS to be a priority. If not now, when? When you are retired? Hopefully you make it there without falling apart or worse dying.

Time to pencil in exercise and self awareness into that busy schedule of yours. Considering tomorrow never actually arrives putting your health off until then is not a good plan.

My Two Cents
Jamie

Discover The Secret Location of Success and Happiness

I was working on some demons yesterday when a chance phone call helped me out. I was once again battling with the same demon I spoke of in a previous post where a co-worker was minimizing the efforts of my work to be more healthy or in the narrow minded sense "lose weight". I came away frustrated and confused as to how I could be so bad at cracking this tough nut. I am not in it to "lose weight"; I am making lifestyle changes to be healthier. A fortunate byproduct is I have lost a bunch of weight. Funny how that works!

Back to the phone call. I was trying to get a birthday wish out to an old friend. Someone who has always been a big supporter of me in anything I did, good or bad!! He was in a rush and had me call him. I was talking to him and he was noticeably excited; he then mentioned this new endeavor him and his long time business partner were starting up. "The website launched today!", he proclaimed. I promptly went to www.marnismagic.com to check things out.

I have to say...perfect timing! I was immediately picked up off the mat and back in the game. You see Marni has been an outstanding success in teaching leading business people how to right the ship. Take a mediocre to failing company and infuse it with life and vitality. Turning the company around and showing how to believe in their ability to be great. Naturally this incredibly infectious spirit of hers rubbed off on the staff she encountered and she was often utilizing her gift as a business coach in the life coach arena. I have personally worked with Marni and have watched her in action. OUTSTANDING! She is genuine in her commitment to showing people the power that lies within them. Thus raising them up to achieve greater things. Marni, along with help from her supporters, has launched a program where she can better focus her skills. As a life coach Marni will have the ability to touch more lives in a profound and powerful way. I was very excited about the web site and look forward to hearing the amazing stories of how her work changes lives.

The web site was a great highlight to my day. It reminded me that my work is not done and that I have to constantly re-focus on my accomplishments to motivate me to move forward. Someone in my path to being a better me, will be inspired by what I am doing and that is a HUGE motivation. Thanks to Marni for pumping me up and she wasn't even trying!

I encourage everyone who is reading this post to make their way to Marni's Magic and see for yourself what she can do for you. I believe she can do wonders to help you find the confidence you are looking for and realize your full potential. Marni has the magic and wants to show you how to use it.

My Two Cents

Jamie

Rules To Live By; Forces You To Stop And Think

In my reading I came across this intriguing list of "rules" for life as a human being. If you do not consider yourself human you can excuse yourself from reading further. I found myself reading one rule and pausing to think about the rule in depth. To say the least it was thought provoking, if not the cold hard truth.

I tried to label some of the rules as having more impact then the others, but I couldn't. They are all so very true. Number seven did stop me dead in my tracks and had me re-evaluating a number of things. It is a strong and bold statement. It requires a great deal of thought to see how it is true, but slowly I have come to understand.

These rules will be placed on my refrigerator for all to see. Hopefully someone sees some worth and changes something for the better. Here is the list:


Life and Business Coach, Cherie Carter-Scott (author of "If Success is a Game, These are the Rules") came up with these "Ten Rules for Being Human".

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."

4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."

7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

As you can see; some serious stuff. I don't suggest picking and choosing rules. I would suggest a long serious discussion with yourself to evaluate each point individually to ensure honest answers are achieved.

Good thought provoking list.

My Two Cents (or one cent and the other is stolen)

Jamie Cinq-Mars

Do You Deserve Your Money Back?

I got this interesting and by interesting I mean annoying email today. It is another one of those emails that proves to me that email has become the bane of our generation. An email calling to arms all electronics consumers to be band together and stick it to the big bad box store! Give me a break!

What makes people think by simply sending and email that they will influence how people will shop? Get serious! The email came in from a customer of a large electronics chain who purchased a product, tried to return and discovered there was a restocking fee. On the surface it appears the big bad box store is taking advantage of the little guy consumer. Shame on them.

But wait let's look deeper. The "customer" purchased a GPS unit, removed the plastic casing, opened the box, ACTUALLY powered on the unit, played with it and decided it wasn't for them. Fair enough. We are all entitled to our opinion and decide the GPS we bought wasn't what we were looking for. HOWEVER, why would ANYONE think they could return this GPS for a full refund? A restocking fee, perhaps the wrong name for it, maybe it should be called you are a moron and we need to prevent you from buying stuff, opening it and expecting us to be able to re-sell once returned opened; that might be a bit wordy. But the restocking fee is in place because they CAN'T simply "put it back on the shelf and re-sell it" as the email whiner so quaintly put it. Would you walk into a store and purchase an already opened box for the same price as a box that has not been touched? Of course not, so that means the returned item now will be sold at a cheaper price as a used unit, thus the re-stocking fee will make up the difference.

It is another sign of the World we live in. No respect. Now I don't have any shares in the big bad box store company, but I completely understand why they do what they have do. To protect themselves from lazy people who are not willing to do the research on their own time about a product and have the I HAVE TO HAVE IT NOW mentality. The World of instant gratification. With everything being instant we expect everything right now and don't give me this garbage about having to wait. I need my email answer right now, I need the faster Internet connection possible, I need that report right now, I need to talk to you right now, NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW.

Bottom line if you want it right now it will cost you. More money for your Internet, fuel prices to get your "stuff" to you sooner, a second phone and email bill to ensure all communications arrive on your hip, and of course the boss waiting to the last possible second to demand his/her report NOW!

It just makes me shake my head wondering how people think it is okay for them to abuse the system and not be penalized. If you open a box and play with what's inside you should not receive a full refund, nor should you expect it.

My Two Cents,
Jamie