You Can Do It... And You Can Keep Doing It!

The Christmas/New Year/Holiday season has come and gone for another year.  It is a time of joy and fellowship, peace and reflection, giving and gratitude... and of stress!  Honestly, I am always taken aback at the number of people who get bent out of shape about fighting crowds, overspending and obsessing over family squabbles.

Now that the frenzy is over, we are able to return to our normal lives and careers that provide us with a consistent supply of stress!This is also the time of year when many of us take stock of our health and our bulging waistlines and determine to change everything... we will do it all, with fierce intensity, undoing years of poor habits with a few weeks of ass-kickin' high intensity intervals; we will throw everything but the kitchen sink at our poor, neglected gravity-and-time-ravaged bodies.  Pain be damned!  And we will use only our physical appearance as the gauge of our success because, after all, the "healthy lifestyle" - exercise and diet and stretching and exertion and sweating - is so opposite to what we think of as enjoyable that the only reason any sane person would commit to it is to see a lower number on the scale or dress size. Right?

But we will commit, steadfast and unswerving, at least until the stress of real life takes over: time commitment for kids' activities, deadlines at work, social obligations... all of them designed to undermine our determination and force us to take a break - "no, no, I'm not giving up, I'm not quitting. I'll be back at it as soon as life gets, y'know, more manageable" (but in the back of our mind there's a small sigh of relief because, really, workouts were becoming a chore, something we "had to do" and we weren't looking for even more STRESS in our lives, were we?

But, what if exercise, good nutrition and meditation were more than just obligations in an otherwise overcrowded schedule?  What if, instead of stressfully trying to pound our bodies into weight-loss submission, we allowed our bodies to respond to our embrace of a healthful lifestyle?  Our stress hormones would decrease, our immune systems would work more optimally, our energy levels would increase,  our enthusiasm for life would improve and we would become less prone to depression, our brains would work better with improved memory and better reasoning, we would reduce our risks of getting cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer Disease and diabetes, we would have stronger bones and muscles as we become older. There is an abundance of evidence showing that these are some of the many, many positive outcomes of adopting and sustaining good health habits.  One other outcome: we lose those extra pounds... we become leaner, lose weight and fit into clothes better (as well as looking better when we're not wearing clothes!).
Have you ever spoken with anyone who has adopted a consistent healthy, fit lifestyle who isn't happy about it? No, you haven't. Why not? Because anyone who mindfully lives in a healthy way knows they are improving the quality of their life.    

 So, being a brand new year, this seems like the perfect time to make changes for the better.  In truth, though, when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, NOW (regardless of when "now" is) is the best time to start and NEVER is the best time to stop. Start and don't stop.  You have it within you to make your life better!