The Beauty Benefits of Exercise by Nicole Blades

There are plenty of reasons to exercise. For some, it’s because they booked a beach vacation, while others are focused on staying healthy. No matter what your motivation is, we can all agree that the benefits of exercise are obvious. But there’s a stealthier payoff: healthy skin. Read on to learn more about the skin and beauty rewards that come from regularly working up a sweat.

Instant Glow

When you get your heart pumping from aerobic exercise, you’re supplying your skin with a nice dose of oxygenated blood, says Noëlle S. Sherber, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist based in Baltimore, Maryland. “It gives you that great post-workout glow.”

Wrinkle Reduction

Working out also helps maintain healthy levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol, Sherber says. “Elevated cortisol levels are linked to increased sebum production, which means more acne breakouts,” she says. Too much cortisol can also cause the collagen in the skin to break down, Sherber says, which can increase wrinkles and sagging. “Exercise actually supports the production of collagen,” says Amy Dixon, a Los Angeles–based exercise physiologist and celebrity trainer. “The boost in this protein helps to keep your skin firm, supple, and elastic.”
Acne Relief

Regular exercise boosts circulation. “It nourishes your skin, bringing more blood flow and oxygen to it,” says Mauro C. Romita, M.D., a board-certified plastic surgeon and founder of Ajune Center for Beauty Synergy in New York City. “This will help draw toxins out of the body.” Plus, all that sweating cleans out the pores of congested skin. “Working out corrects the hormonal imbalance that can cause adult acne,” Romita says.

To reap the beneficial skin effects of working out, a few extra steps are required, Sherber warns. “If you're acne prone, make sure to keep gentle, fragrance-free cleansing wipes in your gym bag.” Be sure to cleanse your face and other areas that tend to break out immediately after exercising, she says. “For eczema, wear fabrics that wick perspiration away from the skin, since the wet-dry-wet-dry cycle will dry out your skin and provoke flare-ups,” Sherber says. And above all, avoid exercising with makeup on your face.

Healthier Hair

The improved blood flow helps keep your hair stronger and healthier, Dixon says. This blood, full of nutrients, stimulates the hair follicles and promotes growth. “Exercise is also a big stress reliever,” she says. “Lower stress means your hair is less likely to be brittle and, worse, fall out.” Even if you’re as stress free as a cucumber, Dixon recommends checking with your dermatologist about any hair loss to rule out other causes.

As for the best type of exercise for your skin, Dixon says it’s all good. “Every modality will improve circulation and reduce stress,” she says, “but it’s a wise move to mix up your workouts as often as possible.” Try adding 30 minutes of a few simple yoga postures or a brisk walk to your day three times a week, Dixon says, to see the beauty returns in your hair and skin.

Benefits of Bananas

Bananas are yummy, easy to eat and very CHEAP and they have tons of health benefits.

Bananas consist mainly of sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose) and fiber, which makes them ideal for an immediate and slightly prolonged source of energy. Instead of drinking caffeine or having a sugary snack, bananas provide a level of energy that lasts longer without the dramatic crash caused by caffeine.

Reducing Depression

Bananas contain tryptophan, an amino acid that can be converted to serotonin, leading to improved mood.

Anemia

Bananas are relatively high in iron, which helps the body’s hemoglobin function.

Constipation and Diarrhea

Due to their content in fiber, they help restore a normal bowel function. In addition, diarrhea usually depletes your body of important electrolytes (of which the most important is potassium, contained in high amounts in bananas). They also contain pectin, a soluble fiber (hydrocolloid) that can help normalize movement through the digestive tract.

Eyesight Protection

Research published in the Archives of Ophthalmology has proven that adults consuming at least 3 servings of fruit per day have a reduced risk (by 36%) of developing age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), the primary cause of vision loss in older adults, compared to persons who consume less than 1.5 servings of fruit daily.

Healthy Bones

Bananas are an exceptionally rich source of fructooligosaccharide, a compound that nourishes probiotic (friendly) bacteria in the colon. These beneficial bacteria produce enzymes that increase our digestive ability and protect us from unhealthy bacteria infections. Thanks to fructooligosaccharides, probiotic bacteria can increase both in number and functionality, increasing our body’s ability to absorb calcium. In addition, green bananas contain indigestible short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that are very nutrient to the cells that make up the mucosa of the stomach. These cells, when healthy, absorb calcium much more efficiently

Healthy Kidney

About 190,000 cases of kidney cancer are diagnosed each year. Research published in the International Journal of Cancer has shown that daily consumption of whole fruits and vegetables, especially bananas, is highly protective to kidney health. The results show that, over a long time frame (13.4 years), women eating more than 2.5 servings of fruits and vegetable per day cut their risk of kidney cancer by 40%. Among the fruits, bananas were especially protective. Women eating bananas four to six times a week halved their risk of developing the disease compared to those who did not eat this fruit. The conclusion of the study is that frequent consumption of fruits and vegetables, especially bananas, cabbage and root vegetables, may reduce risk of kidney cancer. This is because bananas and many root vegetables contain especially high amounts of antioxidant phenolic compounds, while cabbage is rich in sulfur, necessary for effective detoxification of potential carcinogens.

Blood Pressure

Bananas are extremely high in potassium (about 4673mg), yet very low in sodium (1mg), thus having a perfect ratio for preventing high blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit’s ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Heartburn

Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness

Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood-sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Smoking

Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. They contain vitamins B6 and B12 they contain, as well as potassium and magnesium: these substances help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Ulcers

This is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicle cases. It also helps reduce acidity and reduces irritation. Bananas stimulate the cells on the internal stomach lining to produce a thicker mucus (which protects against acid). Additionally, bananas contain protease inhibitors that help eliminate bacteria in the stomach that have been pinpointed as a primary cause of ulcers.

Nerves

Bananas are high in B vitamins that have been shown to improve nerve function.

Mosquito Bites

Many people report that rubbing the inside of a banana peel on a mosquito bite is very effective in reducing itching and swelling.

Stress Relief

Bananas are high in potassium, which helps normalize the heartbeat and regulate the body’s water balance. During periods of high stress, our body’s potassium levels tend to be rapidly depleted: eating bananas is a healthy way to rebalance them without using drugs.

Stroke Risk

According to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can reduce the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%.

Peels Can Be Used to Treat Warts

The outside of the banana peel also has healing and beneficial properties for the human body. If you have a wart on your foot, wrapping a banana peel around your foot so that the exterior of the peel rubs against the wart will help it go away in a matter of time. To keep the peel in place, you can wrap tape around it for better results.

Eat Bananas after a Night of Partying

The natural ingredients in bananas and their ability to replenish the body’s vitamins make them an ideal way to reduce the effects of a hangover. Put a couple bananas in the blender with some plain yogurt and add some honey to sweeten the taste. The fruit tends to calm the stomach and the honey helps to restore the blood sugar levels to normal.

Eat a Banana during Your Monthly Visitor

Instead of taking pills designed to reduce your menstrual pains, bananas can be a great help. Bananas have a level of vitamin B6 that helps to regulate blood glucose level and help your overall mood.

My Final Thought: Eat more Bananas! With all of the banana health benefits, it is easy to see why they are such a popular fruit. In many ways, their benefits are far greater than that of other fruits. They not only have more vitamins and minerals than some other choices, they also taste great and are easy to eat and very CHEAP!

Weight Loss: Men vs. Women

Men often lose weight faster than women, because men are endowed with more of the body's primary energy consumer; that is, muscle. Even while resting, men, as a result of their greater muscle mass, burn 5 to 10 percent more calories than women.

Shedding pounds from the "right places" is a problem for a lot of women. Here again, this has to do with the differences between the sexes. Most of our body fat, regardless of gender, is located under our skin and around our internal organs. With diet and exercise, we all lose this fat at about the same relative rates.

The remainder of our fat is called "essential fat" and is deposited in bone marrow, in various organs, and throughout the nervous system. However, essential fat in females also includes "sex-specific fat." This fat mainly accounts for the higher percentage of total body fat in women.

Herein lies the "right places" problem. Although some of this sex-specific fat is stored in the breasts, most is deposited in the pelvic, buttock, and thigh region. And once in place, sex-specific fat, as well as all other essential fat, is hard to dislodge. Some experts say this reflects the importance of this fat in childbearing and hormone functions.

In short: Women have less calorie burning muscle than men. Women also have "sex-specific fat," most of which is deposited below the waist and is stubbornly resistant to diet and exercise. Achieving a lighter, trimmer figure is, therefore, a little more demanding for the female.

Water vs. Coke

Water

75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Coke

In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid cleans out the stains. Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

Sugar – The Silent Killer

Sugar – The Silent Killer – STOP eating or drinking it.


Weight loss is not easy, especially since the delicious-tasting foods we eat are full of sugar. But the truth is, there are more than 70 reasons why you should be afraid – very afraid – of sugar. It is one of the most deadly substances you can eat, and yet it tastes so good! None of us is perfect in our eating habits, but if we know the truth about a food, we can make better choices about when we eat it and how much we are willing to ingest.

Here is the bottom line. Sugar turns into FAT and fat, when it surrounds our organs, is very dangerous to many aspects of our health. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch (so that candy bar you just ate is worse for you than a piece of bread –  That is why I call sugar the Silent Killer. We don’t know it is killing us until our weight is so out of control that we start to get a variety of ailments.

Here are some of the things that sugar can do to you. In general, it can:

· suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.

· cause a loss of tissue elasticity and function

· weaken eyesight

· cause premature aging

· lead to alcoholism.

If that isn’t enough, sugar contributes to:

· obesity, tooth decay and periodontal disease,

· arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis, gallstones,

· appendicitis, hemorrhoids, yeast infections,

· osteoporosis, lethargy in children, food allergies,

· skin disease, cardiovascular disease, premature aging of skin,

· cataracts, nearsightedness, emphysema, Parkinson’s disease,

· liver disease, kidney stones, headaches and migraines,

· depression, gout, Alzheimer’s, dizziness, polio risk,

· epileptic seizures, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia

· gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, lowered Vitamin E levels

· toxemia in pregnancy

· ……and worse, yet, sugar can actually impair the structure of your DNA and SUGAR IS ADDICTIVE.

Is this enough evidence of the danger in using too much sugar? No? Here is more on what sugar can do to the normal functioning of your body. Sugar can:

· Limit your body’s absorption of calcium and magnesium

· produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.

· change the way proteins act in your body.

· impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.

· lower the ability of enzymes to function, compromise the lining of your capillaries and make your tendons more brittle.

· can affect your ability to think clearly, cause hormonal imbalances and increase free radicals and oxidative stress.

It’s bad enough what sugar can do to YOUR body, but here is what it can do to your children:

· Cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.

· Given to premature babies, sugar can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.

· Sugar may induce cell death. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.

· Sugar dehydrates newborns.

· It can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.

· In pregnant adolescents, sugar can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.

· Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Killing Off the Silent Killer - What You Can Do About Your Sugar Intake.

Now that you can see what sugar does to your body, doesn’t it make sense to limit your intake? The USDA recommends limiting added sugars to 40 grams or 10 teaspoons a day for a 2,000 calorie diet.

Here are four steps to eliminating sugars from your Diet:

Step 1 – Dump those sodas: A good start to get sugar out of your system is by getting rid of ALL sodas. If you drink sodas, you might as well start drinking syrup. After all, soft drinks have 40 grams of sugar per 12 ounces.  Also don’t be fooled by the synonyms for sugar like sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, honey and molasses. They are all SUGAR. Drink water instead.

Step 2 - Read labels: Sugar is ADDICTIVE and makes things taste better. Manufacturers put sugar in anything and I mean ANYTHING! Would you put sugar in your soup? Or sugar on your salad? Well look at the labels and you will find sugar in canned soups and salad dressings. No wonder we can’t avoid sugar. It is everywhere in our foods.

Step 3 – Reduce your desserts: I know, this one is hard, but once you do this, it will be easier to totally eliminate all added sugars from your diet.

Step 4 – Watch those fruit drinks: Be aware of fruit drinks or fruit juices you buy. Most of them have almost no real juice in them - less than 5 % - so all you are actually getting is flavored sugar water. Again, drink water or pure juices.

Note: Fruits and Vegetables also have sugars in them, but those are not considered added free sugars, so don’t worry about them. Most fruits have a lot of other beneficial ingredients that will override the effects of the sugars in them.

Eat 6 Meals a Day for Maximum Weight Loss

Severely cutting your calorie intake is NOT the key to permanent weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. Instead, you should be eating 5 to 6 small meals and drink at least 8-10 glasses of water a day for maximum weight loss. Read on to find out why.

There are so many people who think losing weight is about slashing your calories to ungodly amounts. However, I'm here to tell you that this is all wrong. You've been lied to.

How many people do you see on the roller coaster diet? Probably too many to count. Why is this? Simply because diets don't work. Most diets restrict your calories and slow down your metabolism. This causes your body to go into starvation mode. In starvation mode, your body burns very few calories and experiences extreme hunger pangs.

Fortunately, there is a solution. Eat 5 - 6 healthy, small meals per day. Men should shoot for 6 meals a day while women should try to get in 5 meals per day. Yes, you heard me right and you may have heard it before, but please take notice this time. Frequent, small, healthy meals provide a number of benefits that will help you reach the highest fitness level possible.

Increase Your Metabolism

Eating 6 meals a day will boost your metabolism, helping you to burn more calories all day long.

In fact, by eating super-clean, high protein foods at each of your six meals, you will find that your metabolism goes into overdrive, becoming extremely efficient at burning off calories.

Burn Calories with the Thermic Effect of Food

Frequent eating revs up your metabolism due to the thermic effect of food. This is because the breakdown and absorption of food itself requires a substantial number of calories.

This is known as the thermic effect of food. Foods have a thermic effect ranging from 3% to 30%. Protein foods create a thermic effect of up to 30%. This means that 30% of the calories from foods like turkey, tuna, and salmon are burned simply by digesting them. Complex and fibrous carbohydrates burn about 20% of their calories through digestion. This includes broccoli, spinach, corn, green beans, etc.


On the other end of the spectrum are fats and refined carbohydrates. They have an extremely low thermic effect of about 3%. This is one of the reasons that dietary fat is stored as easily as body fat.

As you can see, what you eat matters even more than how much you eat.

Maintain Peak Energy Levels

You will feel 10 times better by eating smaller, more frequent meals. Your energy level will soar and your hunger cravings will be destroyed.


This is because eating 5 to 6 meals per day helps maintain a balanced blood sugar level, preventing hunger attacks.

This is in direct contrast to the calorie depriving diets that send your blood sugar levels into havoc, with too many peaks and valleys.

Build Muscle


You will also find it easier to build and maintain muscle. The more muscle you develop, the faster your metabolism becomes.

Frequent meals help promote muscle growth by regulating insulin levels and providing a steady flow of amino acids into the muscle cells.

By eating approximately every three hours you are constantly delivering a steady output of insulin, which is necessary for muscle growth and glycogen storage.

Insulin plays a major role in transporting glucose and amino acids into the muscle cells where they can then be used for recovery and muscle growth. Are you starting to see the many benefits of eating 6 meals a day?

Frequent meals also allow for more efficient use of vitamins and minerals. Your body simply becomes much more effective at processing these vital nutrients.

To reap the full benefit of this lifestyle, be sure that you eat on a consistent schedule. This requires a bit of meal planning, but it is certainly worth it. It is very important to get your body into the habit of knowing when it will be supplied with nutrients. This way, your body won't fall into dreaded hunger attacks and cravings. Instead, it will always know that a steady flow of nutrients will soon be supplied.

The key is to center your diet on lean protein, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats.

By eating 5 to 6 small meals per day, you will increase your energy levels, accelerate muscle growth, and speed up your metabolism without storing fat. In fact, frequent eating will actually allow you to eat up to 50% more calories without storing an ounce of it as fat.


To really burn the fat, you will need to combine this healthy eating plan with cardio work and strength training.

Combine those three and you will turn your body into a fat-burning machine.
By Kim Roach

Kim Roach is the Fitness Reporter at HealthyEveryDay.com, where you will find healthy diet recipes, fitness articles, and information.

It takes time to lose weight

Do you believe it's simple to lose weight? If you listen to the weight loss industry, you've been told over and over how easy it is--just take this pill, follow that diet or buy this piece of equipment and everything will melt away in a flash. In fact, we spend over $30 billion each year on weight loss products and yet we're still overweight. Is weight loss really that simple?

Complex Problems, Simple Solutions

The idea behind weight loss is simple--burn more calories than you eat. This can be accomplished by replacing a couple of sodas with water and adding 20 minutes of walking each day. Sounds simple...and it is. If it's that simple, why can't we seem to do it?

There are a number of factors that contribute to our weight gain that you already know. But it's not just about finding time to exercise or choosing the salad over the burger--it's about genuine commitment to make healthy decisions every day....REGARDLESS of what's happening in your life. If you're not ready to make some changes, losing weight will be hard. Below are 10 things you'll need to look at in order to get yourself on a healthy track.



1. Your Attitude. If you're only on a health kick to lose weight or look a certain way, it will be hard to lose weight permanently. Why? Because, what happens if you don't see results quickly enough? You give up. Weight loss is a great goal, but unless you have something else to motivate you, what's to keep you going if the scale doesn't budge? It takes time to lose weight--how will you motivate yourself in the meantime? Find more reasons to be healthy--having more energy, dealing with health problems or wanting to live longer to be around for your kids. Those are some darned good reasons, if you ask me.



2. Your Workouts. If you don't workout consistently enough, it's hard to lose weight. Yes, it's possible to lose weight through diet alone, but you'll likely hit a plateau. You don't need to spend hours in the gym, you only need to set up a reasonable workout schedule that you can follow each week. It's not about killing yourself with workouts--it's about finding something you like and that you'll continue with for the rest of your life. You have to be willing to be more active on a regular basis--not just for a week here and there.



3. Your Eating. Changing the way you eat is another thing you're going to have to do for long-lasting weight loss. You need to be willing to replace unhealthy foods with healthier choices--every single day. This might mean:

Keeping a food journal

Spending more time in the grocery store reading food labels

Spending more time preparing meals

Saying no to extra portions

Making conscious choices about what you put in your mouth.

For permanent weight loss, you need to pay attention to what you eat and make good choices more often than not. Maybe a structured diet eventually ends, but healthy eating never stops...there will never be a time when you're done eating healthy. You might feel you're sacrificing the good stuff (pizza, fast food, etc.) and your life won't be fun if you can't have those foods. Guess what? You can still have them...just not whenever you want. Are you ready to make these changes? Are you ready to stop giving your body the most convenient thing available (and often the most fatty) and, instead, spend time planning what and when you'll eat? Because that's what it takes to get healthy...permanently.



4. Your Lifestyle. If you want a healthy life, you have to be willing to change how you live. It doesn't mean changing everything overnight, but simply being open to new ways of doing things. Some things you might need to change for a healthy life are:

Daily Routines. You may need to get up earlier to prepare your lunch or squeeze in a workout, use your lunch hour for exercise or go for a walk after work instead of watching TV. Are you willing to do this?

Limits. You might need to set new rules for yourself limiting how much TV you watch or how long you sit at the computer. You'll need to pay attention to how you spend your time and where you're out of balance so you can add more movement.

Your Pantry. I'm the kind of person who will eat an entire bag of Potato Chips if they're in the house. That means I don't keep them in the house. If you want to be healthy, you may need to get rid of those foods you just can't resist.

Your Schedule. If you're not willing to sit down and change the way you live each day to include exercise, time to prepare meals and time to nurture yourself with sleep, it's hard to lose weight. People use busy schedules as an excuse not to be healthy...are you one of them? If you're not ready to take responsibility for the schedule you've created, it will be hard to lose weight.

5. Your Surroundings. Sometimes, you can't control the things around you. At work, you may be surrounded by temptations--donuts, vending machines and the like. That's just one thing you have to deal with...but what about your home? Surround yourself with things that will support you in your efforts to get healthy. That might mean spending some money on home workout equipment, setting up a corner of the house for your gear. Set up an environment that encourages those healthy choices and reminds you of them--just walking into my kitchen and seeing that bowl of fresh fruit is often enough to remind me of all the healthy choices I'll need to make that day.



6. Your Support System. While getting healthy may be something you're doing on your own, it's a big help to have a support system. At the very least, family members who understand what you're doing and are either willing to participate or help. If you have a spouse who wants to continue eating the kinds of foods that tempt you, you need a plan to deal with that so you can still reach your goals and keep your relationship together. Try to surround yourself with people who support what you're doing and avoid those people (like that co-worker who always offers you a donut even though you refuse on a daily basis) who don't. A workout buddy is also an excellent idea for support.



7. Your Spiritual and Mental Health. If you have other reasons for being overweight--past hurts that you've used food to deal with, depression or other problems, it's hard to lose weight. For many of us, food is a comfort and something we've relied on all of our lives to help us deal with emotional problems. If that's the case for you, pinpointing those behaviors and what drives them is important for becoming aware of what you're doing and why. A counselor can help you with this or take some time to read about emotional eating. Be willing to learn why you make the choices you make and to confront them.



8. Your Goals. If you've set impossible goals, you are guaranteed to fail. Weight loss becomes hard to achieve if you feel like a constant failure...who wants to feel like that? If that's how your weight loss experience is, it's no wonder you keep quitting. The key is to set reasonable goals. So what is reasonable? That's going to be different for each person depending on your genetics, eating habits, exercise, and metabolism to name a few. You're better off setting a long-term goal (whether it's to lose weight or compete in a race) and then focusing your attention on daily or weekly goals. Your weekly goal might be to get in 3 cardio workouts, minimum. Pick things you KNOW you'll achieve so you're always successful. It can be as small as you like, as long as it's reachable.



9. Your Flexibility. You hear a lot about lifestyle changes, but it's daily choices that really test you. What happens if you have to work late and you can't get to the gym? Or what if you get stuck in traffic and miss your fitness class? Any number of things can happen in a day that may throw you off track. The trick is to be flexible. It helps if you're always prepared--keep some workout shoes in the car so you can stop off at the park for a quick walk. Keep some food handy so if you get stuck in traffic, you get a snack in before your workout. Often people skip workouts because something comes up and they simply aren't ready for it or they aren't willing to give themselves other options--can't do 45 minutes? Why not just do 10? Something is always better than nothing.



10. Your Willingness to Fail. You will not be perfect every day. As a perfectionist, I have to say that is a frustrating concept for me but, the truth is, everyone (even perfectionists) has good days and bad days. On the good days, you'll eat all your fruits and veggies, say no to that pizza and do your workout even though you're tired. On the bad days, you'll wake up late, forget to bring your lunch, have an extra piece of cake at your friend's birthday party and skip your workout. The bad days will happen if you're a human being. The trick is to never give up, even when you mess up. You're not a loser just because you make some mistakes...you're simply a person trying his or her best to make good decisions.