This blog introduces you to my special brand of BIKE. I show you how to find your Best self, access your Inner strength, tune in to your Killer instincts, and use your Expressive voice. It's inspiring, spiritual, quirky, and it's all in your head. It's about ATTITUDE, not exercise, though that might be a side benefit.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Five Easy Tips To Improve Your Health Today

Ted Rogers, a former collegiate basketball player and coach, now a public speaker who shares healthy lifestyle tips via his books, keynotes and workshops, recently addressed a group of people at a meeting I attended. His tips were so simple that I knew I'd have to share them with you.

Those of us who work from home, or sit at a computer for most of our work day, can benefit. 

Tip #1
Drink more water. It should be obvious, but he says most people just don't drink enough water to flush out what the body needs to flush out. Toxins. Waste. It's all inside of you unnecessarily. He suggests drinking an entire gallon (yes, think milk jug) per day but says you can attack it one sip at a time throughout the day. It's do-able. And he insists it's the single most important thing you can do for your health.

Tip #2
Breathe deeply--and more often! If you allow yourself to focus on taking deep breaths throughout the day, he says this will even help you lose weight. What! Is this a miracle fix? No, it's just the way the body's supposed to work. Naturally. One trick to try: Before you answer the phone, take a deep breath. Do this each and every time BEFORE you answer the call. It will act as your reminder. 

Tip #3
Colorize your foods. Don't supersize, he says, colorize! That just means add more vegetables and more variety of vegetable to your meals, and eat smaller portions throughout the day. In this case, color is the spice of life.

Tip #4
Activate the life you already live. This one's easy. Get up. Get active. You don't have to start an exercise program if that's not your thing. But you can introduce more movement into the things you already do. When you brush your teeth, for example, why not do squats or knee bends at the sink? Or when you answer the phone, instead of sitting down, stand up and walk around. You can also do what I do when I'm blow drying my hair. I touch my toes and stretch my legs at the same time. I also keep a set of hand weights by my desk. When I feel tension, I grab them and do a few curls or arm stretches of some sort. It feels good. Of course, you can always take the stairs instead of the elevator inside buildings, or park further away from entrances in parking lots. 

Tip #5
Pursue personal peace. This tip is about living life with laughter. Ted suggests keeping a laughter journal in your purse or pocket so you can record the funny moments that occur throughout the day. What you're essentially doing is training yourself to pay attention to the things that make you laugh and allowing yourself to take away the focus on what irritates you. Who needs that, anyway? 

BONUS
If you're experiencing negative stress right now, Ted says to take a moment to consider where it's coming from before you respond to it. It's probably not really caused by the guy who honked at you on the freeway or because you forgot to deposit that check. That negative stress goes deeper than that. When you become aware of and know the root causes of your negative stress, Ted says you'll be that much closer to managing it and possibly eliminating it altogether.

Your Action Step
Because these are simple solutions that anyone can adopt, take a second and write down here which of the five tips you will commit to doing this week. Blog about it on your blog. Then come back next week and pick another tip to adopt. Do that for the next five weeks and see if you notice any change in how you feel.

10 comments:

Julia Munroe Martin said...

These are great ideas of how to maintain a healthy lifestyle... as you say, especially important for those of us who work at home all day! Along with that, I would say that since I'm often isolated, these are great tips for feeling more at peace with myself...Thanks for a great post!

Unknown said...

Julia,

You're welcome. I thought he made things seem so easy. But I am focusing on the "drink more water" tip this week, and it's not as easy as I thought. I drink water regularly, but never a gallon of it. That's 128 ounces, or 16 cups. Twice what we've been hearing we should drink for so long. Yesterday, I managed to only get through my usual four 16 oz bottles, eight cups. With all the flushing out, however, I"m hoping for clarity on this one; the only time I've ever been able to drink that much water is when I've been highly active. Maybe it's just about the goal. If you reach high, you'll achieve more. What do you think?

Alexandra said...

I always forget the water one. Thanks for the reminder. It is easy to get busy and not drink enough water. I would add to avoid toxic chemicals in the environment. This can be a challenge but they add to our body burden and create disease.

Lisa @ Intralingo said...

Thanks for sharing such great tips, Jackie. My naturopath recently told me to do the first three (drink more water, breathe deeply and colorize my plate with lots more veggies) so there's clearly something to these simple, practical tips. Amazing how we get away from them though, isn't it? Wishing good health to you!

Unknown said...

Yes, that is funny. Back to the simple things. Commit to them one at a time. KISS, right?

Kerry Dexter said...

good to see I am doing almost all of thse -- except the breathing deeply one. adding that...

instead of a laughter journal, I keep a reflection journal, of things that bring me peace.

Unknown said...

Kerry, I like the idea of a reflection journal.

Anjuli said...

this is so funny- I have been concentrating on the drinking more water yesterday and today & now I read this in your blog- it is like "WOW" good I need to keep doing it. :) Also want to do the breathing - deep breathing- I had heard that a few years ago but never followed through.

Very good tips- and easy to follow.

Tia Bach said...

Great post. I'll be back to concentrate on breathing deeply, but I think I'll focus on water first. Water. Something so simple, yet so difficult for me for some reason. Wait, now I'm get stressed about water and breathing heavier.

Unknown said...

Tia, maybe you should pursue peace first. LOL.