As an engineer, I spend almost my entire day sitting in front of the computer. Then, after hours of this, I come home and sit all evening in front of my laptop and continue work on personal tasks. If you have a similar work life to this (and since you are reading this on your computer, I am betting you do), then you are probably feeling low on energy on a regular basis and wondering what happened to your youth and vigor.
Let me explain a little about my background. When I was in college, I was a full time student, but instead of having a social life after school I trained. I was an extremely active Shaolin Kung Fu and Vinyasa Yoga practitioner. Right after leaving school to join the "real world," I became a certified yoga teacher. I was thinking that I could teach yoga and still work out in my spare time between work. HA! I found out real quick that being a regular working Joe doesn't allow for much else. Soon after entering the working world, I lost my exercise routine, lost my healthy eating habits, started feeling exhausted, and lost any sign of the vitality I once had.
I am sure every single out of shape American is well aware of the need to exercise to stay in shape. We are not stupid. Not one overweight and out of shape individual woke up and said, "You know what, I want to be fat and feel like crud every day I wake up." But where do we have time to do what is right for our bodies? Americans have the busiest schedules of any society in the world. Seriously, who has time to spend the recommended hour to hour-and-a-half per day working out? Who has the time to cook when eating out is so fast? Why grab a fruit when the snack machine is so convenient?
But you know what? Despite all this, I don't feel like crap every day anymore. Want to know why? I took a look at what I was doing wrong and what I could do to fix it.
First, and this is such an important and overlooked step, I replaced soda drinks with water. Our bodies require water and a specific Ph balance for just about every internal process. Soda throws our bodies into a more acidic Ph balance and also causes the body to be dehydrated without feeling like it.
Second, I started avoiding the snack machine. I learned the value of cooking at home. It saves me money, and, believe it or not, it actually saves me time. I make sure to cook meals that I know will make good leftovers so that I can eat them for lunch the next day. By doing this, the time spent the night before on cooking gets made up for by the shorter lunch the next day.
Finally, I found there were little pockets of time spread throughout the day that were being used for coffee breaks or snack breaks. Now, instead, I get up and spend 10-15 minutes and do specific exercises to keep my body in check. These little "move" breaks make me feel better and more away than any coffee or Snickers break ever did. I do exercises that I learned during my time in yoga and kung fu.
Trust me, if you want to start feeling better, but think you just do not have the time right now in your life for it, you do. You have to take a step back, look at your life and see what can be improved, and take an initiative. Sure, an hour of exercise and an extremely healthy diet would be ideal, but you can start making changes now with small steps.
If you don't know where to start, there are tons of websites online and a few good ebooks available that will help you out. Start with some small steps and make a serious move for a better life in this New Year.
Ah! One last thing I almost forgot! For heaven's sake, do not take weight loss pills!!! Most of them wreck internal organs and the main reason they make you look like you are losing weight is because they suck water out of you and dehydrate your body! All that hype about raising your metabolism has a little truth to it, but so does eventual kidney failure sound like a pleasant side effect?
This article (along with some good ebook recommendations) is: takeoversuccess.blogspot.com/2008/01/meet-your-resolution-get-out-of-your.html takeoversuccess.blogspot.com/2008/01/meet-your-resolution-get-out-of-your.html
If you want to get started at home instead of going out to a class somewhere, start with those ebooks. Also check out my blog. I recently launched it and will be adding posts about health and related topics often.
[joint-pain-comfort.com]
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