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By Elisheva Rabinowitz
After the New Year, did you have the intention of improving your health? Did you want to lose weight, sleep more, eat healthier, stop smoking or start exercising? If you wanted to make changes that somehow never came to fruition, then you may need different tools for putting your thoughts into action.
Commitment may be difficult, but the same commitment we apply to our jobs or families can be brought to bear in other areas. For example, most people are committed to their jobs and would not say, "You know what, I'm not going to work for the next several weeks," or when children are challenging, we don't leave and say, "This is too hard, forget it." A similar commitment can be applied to creating a healthy lifestyle.
Staying motivated is a big challenge in maintaining the commitment to healthy habits. One method of staying motivated is to look at the things you have accomplished. For example, if you have a college degree, you took many classes and tests to earn that degree. Therefore, when your commitment wanes, focus on your other accomplishments and tell yourself that if you can do _____ (fill in the blank), then you can accomplish this goal______(fill in the blank). Most people can commit to exercising and eating well for a few days, but the challenge comes when the days turn into weeks or months. Someone might think, "How am I going to eat well and exercise for my entire life?" Again, my response is to look at your successes. They were not accomplished in a few days but took months or years to achieve.
A second method to stay motivated is to focus on "Just for today." You may need to focus on one minute and one step at a time because otherwise the goal may feel too overwhelming. Your goals need to be reasonable and realistic. When you are committed and motivated, you can succeed.
Since we live very busy lives, I'd like to recommend three areas to help you regain balance and tranquility and/or re-energize yourself in order to lead a healthier life. I recommend working on one area for several weeks before adding the next area. Also, I recommend picking the easiest area to begin on, so you can feel successful. When you find success you'll be more likely to try the next step. (The three areas below are in no specific order.)
1. Renew Yourself. B"H we care for, nurture, and give to others. On the other hand, we need to spend time nourishing and nurturing ourselves. I want to emphasize caring for yourself is not taking time away from your family, your job, and your commitments, but that re-energizing yourself helps you to be more effective in your projects, your career doing chesed for your family, or any other activity.
Ask yourself, "How much time do I spend on nourishing myself?" When we nourish ourselves we are replenishing our inner resources. If we do not take any time to care for ourselves, we may get sick and exhausted, and experience headaches, and/or backaches. Taking time for oneself is a method of de-stressing and unwinding. If we don't take this time, what frequently happens is we will eat to decrease the stress, drink to unwind, become angry easily, project our anger onto others, or pick other unhealthy habits.
Here are some simple suggestions for renewing yourself (it can be five minutes or longer): Listen to your favorite music, sit silently, take a bath, or walk. Ask yourself, "Do I need to nurture myself?" If so, ask yourself, "What energizes me?"
If "Renewing Yourself" is the area you want to work on for the next week or month:
1. Commit to the activity ________ (activity)
2. How many times a week will you perform it? _____ times
2. Put it on your calendar as an exclusive and important appointment for you
3. Start Now -- Re-energize yourself!
2. Exercise and Movement. We all know that we should exercise, but it can be a challenge to commit to finding and making the time to exercise. I want to encourage you to find a type of exercise you enjoy. I've provided a list of some of the most common forms of exercise and their benefits:
1. Yoga helps to reduce stress, improves flexibility and increases your overall strength.
2. Strength training is one of the best types of exercise to lose weight and tone up.
3. Walking is a simple, cost-effective method of cardiovascular exercise
4. Water fitness provides a no-impact environment (great for someone with knee issues) for cardiovascular and toning exercises
5. Dancing can be a fun, inexpensive method of cardiovascular exercise.
6. Chair exercises are great for people with knee issues or busy professionals. In your chair, you can perform cardiovascular exercises and many different types of toning exercises.
7. This list includes simple methods to increase your movement-park in the back of the parking lot, take the stairs, get up every half-an-hour and take a walk around your office, the room or your building
8. Try taking an exercise class
If "Exercise and Movement" is the area you want to work on for the next week or month:
1. Commit to the activity (you may need to check with your doctor) __________ (activity)
2. Commit to how many times you want to perform the exercise and on which days
________ (time) _________ (day)
3. If you have not exercised in a while, I'd recommend that you start with 5-15 minutes.
4. Put it in your calendar as an exclusive and important appointment for you
5. Start moving
3. End worry. Worrying about a situation or event is like sitting in a rocking chair. You expend a lot of energy, but get nowhere while it saps your strength. Ask yourself, "Can I do something about this situation." If the answer is "no," then let it go and move on. If the answer is "yes," then take action to do something about the situation. Sometimes you have to wait before taking action, and patience is difficult. If we view the situation as an opportunity to grow, then we find it easier to be patient. Ask yourself, "How can I stop worrying and start living?"
If "Ending Worry" is the area you want to work on for the next week or month:
1. Commit to staying calm and letting go.
2. Tell yourself positive statements such as, "I can remain calm"; "I can handle this situation"; "HaShem knows that I can handle this situation" or another positive statement relevant to your situation.
3. Take a positive statement (from above) and hang it on your mirror, put in your wallet, put it on your desk or refrigerator.
4. Repeat this statement to yourself ____ (pick a number) times a day-i.e.8am, noon, 4pm, and bedtime.
5. Put it in your calendar as an exclusive and important appointment for you
6. Be peaceful and happy!
When you decide to commit yourself to a healthy lifestyle and find methods to stay motivated then you will accomplish your goals. Today, Chose to be healthy!