When you view your health as nonnegotiable, your priorities naturally shift.

I have a number clients whom I work with who each and every session tell me that they are tried, or stressed out, skipping meals and basically paying attention to everyone but themselves.

You have to make yourself a priority.  If you don’t take care of yourself who is.  I know that this practice is easier said then done, but we must take baby steps to taking care of ourselves.

Here are 3 basic tips.

1. Establish a bed time – this is non-negotiable. You need 8 hours, so if you need to be up for 7am, then lights out 11pm.  This means you winding down by 10pm, I suggest being in bed or doing something relaxing such as reading, meditation, writing in your journal or spending quality time with your partner. Did you notice, there was nothing about TV, emails or web surfing?  This your shut down and unwind time.
2. Bring your lunch — when you bring your own lunch there is no excuse for saying you didn’t have time to run out, plus you are less likely to be tempted to ravage the vending machine or worse go without.
3. Exercise — I would love to see you work out 3 times/week, but I understand that may be a little difficult, but I recommend that you put it in your calendar, get up a little earlier and workout in the morning, schedule yourself a meeting and sneak out at lunch.

I hope that you are able to implement some of these tips.  I just want you to know that I can so relate to and let you that these are the steps that I took to reclaim my life.

I use to fly 100,000/year, the thought of leaving the office before 7pm didn’t occur to me, lunch consisted of M&Ms and Coke and dinner was all take out.  The people at Mary Chung’s really LOVED me and my husband. I used to have perpetual heartburn, migraines, acne and was in a constant state of tiredness.  I went to my doctor seeking a quick fix,  a prescription. Well, my doctor gave me a prescription, in the form of a book called “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff” Well I read and it really opened my eyes, I was only 25 and stress to the hilt and said I didn’t want to live my life like this.  Now I didn’t start implementing everything, I took baby steps and over time I had all 3 suggestions implemented.

Good luck to you, please let me know how you’ve implemented these tips or if you have any other suggestions.

“I never regret it when I do it, but I always regret it when I don’t.”
– Devin McDonald Vinson, 37, Portland, OR (Women’s Health Magazine)

I felt this today. I am 4 months away from the greatest fitness challenge of my life. Today was the day I started to train.  I needed to sit and develop a plan for myself to get into the shape of my life.

I’ll admit it I wasn’t looking forward to my workout, but it felt amazing!! Can’t wait to hit it again tomorrow.

Tell me how you feel about your workouts.

After all, computers crash, people die, relationships fall apart. The best we can do is breath and reboot. — Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie, Sex and The City)
I live in the Northeast and we just another dumping of snow and I got to tell you its been a long hard snowy winter and I am ready for relief.  It’s time for me to reboot.
Spring is just weeks away and I need to focus and get my head into the game here are 5 things that I am doing to reboot. 

1. To relax — I am listening to FUN non-work related audiobooks, and as someone who takes public transportation it makes it so much more fun. Right now I am listening to the Shopaholic Series and boy is it entertaining.
2. New workout music — I just download a ton of new music to keep me moving during my workouts. Oh yeah, I hit the 1000 song mark on my nano!  Seriously, when I bought the thing I was like 1000 songs, that SO many song, I’ll never fill it. Oh well.  Never say never as my Mother says.
3. Food log — when I am training I track everything I eat. Now that I don’t have a show tracking my food has gone by the way side.  I will start to track my food.  The online food diary is fitday.  It tracks, your macro-nutrients, calories and exercise
4. Put it in your calendar.  I am putting all my workout in my calendar so that I will keep on track and not say that I will do it later.
5. Get organized — I am a clutter bug and I am making strides to de-clutter my home.

Here’s a bonus, I have 12 months to complete my well coaches certification and I am going to not take the full 12 months, I will take the written test in 6 months, and complete the second and third step with 3 months.
image source: http://www.bytemark.co.uk/media_file/image/40/base/reboot-type.png?1206018409

“A woman too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his/her tools.” – A Spanish Proverb

I hear it all the time from my client S.  Every workout she has some new health issue, when I ask her what is she doing about it she says I’m too busy.  Seriously, you are too busy to take care of your own health. If you don’t have your health you have nothing. To help her bring this to her attention, I mention that if she had a headache, she would take an aspirin and if she had a stuffy nose she would take a decongestant.  Now. Why when you have elevated blood pressure and your doctor tells you are at an increased risk for heart disease, why wouldn’t do whatever you go could to decrease your blood pressure and increase the longevity of your life not only for yourself, but your family. Honestly, if you don’t care of yourself how are you going to take care of others.

Now ask yourself, what things are you currently doing that you could find 1 hour to devote to your health and fitness?  Could you get up 1 hour earlier, sneak out of the office at lunch, maybe givewatching Lost or 24 and take that time to workout?

Talk to me give me some of your suggestions.

…focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

– Greg Anderson

You know what I’m taking about, you wake and decision you are going to do something and then get overwhelm with how are you going to do it or are you going to be able to reach your goal.  STOP IT!!! Take your time and enjoy the journey, life is going to pass you by faster than you can imagine so take your time and savor your journey remember and journal every step of the way.  WHY, because you when you reach your destination wouldn’t be fun to look back at all the you experience along the way.

Tell me your experiences have you done this.

Have you ever started something when you had a million things on your plate and then you failed miserably?  Fess up.  I have.  This past fall I took on competing in the Fitness America show in Las Vegas, a 13 week wellness coaching course, launching a Fab Fit Squad and oh yeah, my 9-5 job! I didn’t position myself for success, I overwhelmed myself and just shut down.  Has that ever happened to you?  I watched this video recently and it just jump started me on all the goals that I have set for myself.  I hope you enjoy it.

So what do, some days I push through and then other days, I give myself a pass and then say come hell or high water, you must dust yourself off and get in the ring again.

Another tool, I use to get motivated to workout is itrain, it’s a program that provides me my own virtual trainer, talking me through interval training, spinning, strength training and stretching.  My favorite is the itread program I owe all of them.  It really motivates me to get on the treadmill on a cold snowy day and trust me here in Boston we have had a number of them.

I also keep this quote on my desk.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Zigler

Tell me how do you dust yourself off and start again?

It’s National Compliment Day. Make this a day that you don’t beat yourself up. You give yourself a compliment.  Take a look in the mirror and find one thing you can compliment yourself.

Come on, you can find something. How about you work today to compliment 5 things about yourself. Now are you ready to take it a step further.  How about you compliment 5 people you meet today.

Don’t know where to start?  Here’s a starting point.

"Living a healthy lifestyle will only deprive you of poor health, lethargy, and fat." -Jill Johnson

So, it’s t-minus 21 days since New Year’s when said by end of the month you were going to lose 30 pounds, workout everyday, eat nothing but salads, cure cancer and secure a ticket to Obama’s inguration.

Well how are you doing on your resoultions.  Well this is National Healthy Weigth week. Meaning that losing 30 pounds in 1 month woudl not be considered a healthy wegith.

So here are 5 suggestions for setting a healthy weight loss goal.

1. Calories in = calories out: you need to burn more calories than you consume and to lose a pound a week you need to reduce you rconsumption by 500 calories
2. Make time in your day for activity — just 10 -20 minutes a day will get your heart pumping
3. Change take time so don’t expect huge results overnight — there is no magic pill
4. Share your goals to help go have accountability
5. Give yourself permission to not be perfect

Do you have any other tips?

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

This week is healthy week, so what does that mean? That means this week we are going to focus on what we can do to reach our healthy weight and maintain it.

With January comes everyone thoughts of losing those last 10 pounds, within weeks of January 1st.

Stop right their, thoughts like that are self-defeating.  Ideal weight loss is any where from 1-2 pounds per week.

So, what are you thoughts around healthy weight?