Juggling the responsibilities of work, life, and family can cause too little sleep, too much stress, and too little time.

Yet even when you’re at your busiest, you should never cut corners when it comes to maintaining a healthy diet. Your body needs food to function at its best and to fight the daily stress and fatigue of life.

Energy and Diet: How The Body Turns Food Into Fuel

Our energy comes from the foods we eat and the liquids we drink. The three main nutrients used for energy are carbohydrates, protein, and fats, with carbohydrates being the most important source. Protein and fats can also be employed for energy when carbs have been depleted. Once eaten, nutrients are broken down into smaller components and absorbed, then used as energy to fuel our bodies. This process is known as metabolism.

Carbohydrates come in two types, simple and complex, and both are converted to sugar (glucose). “The body breaks the sugar down in the blood and the blood cells use the glucose to provide energy,” says Melissa Rifkin, a registered dietitian at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y.

Energy and Diet: Best Foods for Sustained Energy

Complex carbohydrates such as high-fiber cereals, whole-grain breads and pastas, dried beans, and starchy vegetables are the best type of foods for prolonged energy because they are digested at a slow, consistent rate. “Complex carbohydrates contain fiber, which takes a longer time to digest in the body as it is absorbed slowly,” says Rifkin. Complex carbs also stabilize our bodies’ sugar level, which in turn causes the pancreas to produce less insulin. This gives us a feeling of satiety and we are less hungry.”

Also important in a healthy, energy-producing diet is protein (preferably chicken, turkey, pork tenderloin, and fish), legumes (lentils and beans), and a moderate amount of healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (avocados, seeds, nuts, and certain oils).

“Adequate fluids are also essential for sustaining energy,” says Suzanne Lugerner, RN, director of clinical nutrition at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. “Water is necessary for digestion, absorption, and the transport of nutrients for energy. Dehydration can cause a lack of energy. The average person needs to drink six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day.”

Energy and Diet: Foods to Avoid

Simple carbohydrates, on the other hand, should be limited. Ranging from candy and cookies to sugary beverages and juices, simple carbs are broken down and absorbed quickly by the body. They provide an initial burst of energy for 30 to 60 minutes, but are digested so quickly they can result in a slump afterward.

Alcohol and caffeine should also be avoided. Alcohol is a depressant and can reduce energy levels, while caffeine usually provides an initial two-hour energy burst, followed by a crash.

Energy and Diet: Scheduling Meals for Sustained Energy

“I always recommend three meals and three snacks a day and to never go over three to four hours without eating something,” says Tara Harwood, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “If you become too hungry, this can cause you to overeat.”

Also, try to include something from each food group at every meal, remembering that foods high in fiber, protein, and fat take a longer time to digest.

Even if life is hectic, it’s important to make wise food choices that provide energy throughout the day. Your body will thank you.

By Diana Rodriguez

Medically reviewed by Christine Wilmsen Craig, MD

Last Updated: 08/04/2009

But, what about building muscle? Once men hit middle age, they tend to shy away from strength training. But, older men stand to gain all the benefits from a stronger physique that younger men do: better overall health, improved posture, more power and stamina, a more attractive and younger-looking body and, perhaps most important of all, a bolstered self-image that translates into confidence.

Strength training adds years to your life. It’s been proven again and again. However, the main reason people in their 40s and 50s should train isn’t for the length of their life but for the quality of it. It’s one thing to live to be 90, but if you’re feeble and helpless, you’re not going to enjoy those years. Strength training beats aging by making life worth living longer.

Muscles are as able to respond to training in the fifth and sixth decades of life as they are in the third and fourth. Aging doesn’t cause significant muscle cell loss, as much as cellular atrophy (diminished density). So, since the object of weight training is to increase the size of muscle cells and not the number, you have virtually as much muscle to work at age 50 as you did at 25.

Of course, not everybody pushing 40 has been working out regularly throughout life, and many are concerned that budding middle age is not a safe time to start. It’s recommended that men over 35 check with their doctor before starting up an exercise program. It is true that the risks of injury or complications are greater after that age — especially if you train incorrectly.

What weight training really does is allow you to make a statement about what your life is going to be like as time passes. Most age-related sacrifices are the result of falling for false notions of what you can or can’t do as you get older. The best example of this is allowing your muscles to weaken because of the myth that there’s nothing you can do about it.

Everybody has his own physical potential at any age, and the closer you get to it, the better your life will be. If you’re 48 and you’re hesitant about strength training because “in two years I’ll be 50, for heaven’s sake,” you’re cheating yourself. In two years, you’re going to be 50 no matter what. It’s a question of what kind of 50 you want to be.

From eDiets – The premier online diet, fitness, and healthy living resource

Eston R. Dunn recently received his Master’s in Health Science from Stafford University. Eston has been in exercise videos and is certified in exercise leadership/weight-room training through the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA), personal training through the American Council on Exercise (ACE), and health-fitness instruction from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

Once you have an exercise habit, it becomes automatic. You just go to the gym, there is no force involved. But after a month, two months or possibly a year off, it can be hard to get started again. Here are some tips to climb back on that treadmill after you’ve fallen off.

1. Don’t Break the Habit – The easiest way to keep things going is simply not to stop. Avoid long breaks in exercising or rebuilding the habit will take some effort. This may be advice a little too late for some people. But if you have an exercise habit going, don’t drop it at the first sign of trouble.
2. Reward Showing Up – Woody Allen once said that, “Half of life is showing up.” I’d argue that 90% of making a habit is just making the effort to get there. You can worry about your weight, amount of laps you run or the amount you can bench press later.
3. Commit for Thirty Days – Make a commitment to go every day (even just for 20 minutes) for one month. This will solidify the exercise habit. By making a commitment you also take pressure off yourself in the first weeks back of deciding whether to go.
4. Make it Fun – There are thousands of ways you can move your body and exercise, so don’t give up if you’ve decided lifting weights or doing crunches isn’t for you.
5. Schedule During Quiet Hours – Don’t put exercise time in a place where it will easily be pushed aside by something more important. Right after work or first thing in the morning are often good places to put it. Lunch-hour workouts might be too easy to skip if work demands start mounting.
6. Get a Buddy – Grab a friend to join you. Having a social aspect to exercising can boost your commitment to the exercise habit.
7. X Your Calendar – One person I know has the habit of drawing a red “X” through any day on the calendar he goes to the gym. The benefit of this is it quickly shows how long it has been since you’ve gone to the gym. Keeping a steady amount of X’s on your calendar is an easy way to motivate yourself.
8. Enjoyment Before Effort - After you finish any work out, ask yourself what parts you enjoyed and what parts you did not. As a rule, the enjoyable aspects of your workout will get done and the rest will be avoided. By focusing on how you can make workouts more enjoyable, you can make sure you want to keep going to the gym.
9. Create a Ritual - Your workout routine should become so ingrained that it becomes a ritual. This means that the time of day, place or cue automatically starts you towards grabbing your bag and heading out. If your workout times are completely random, it will be harder to benefit from the momentum of a ritual.
10. Stress Relief - What do you do when your stressed? Chances are it isn’t running. But exercise can be a great way to relieve stress, releasing endorphin which will improve your mood. The next time you feel stressed or tired, try doing an exercise you enjoy. When stress relief is linked to exercise, it is easy to regain the habit even after a leave of absence.
11. Measure Fitness - Weight isn’t always the best number to track. Increase in muscle can offset decreases in fat so the scale doesn’t change even if your body is. But fitness improvements are a great way to stay motivated. Recording simple numbers such as the number of push-ups, sit-ups or speed you can run can help you see that the exercise is making you stronger and faster.
12. Habits First, Equipment Later – Fancy equipment doesn’t create a habit for exercise. Despite this, some people still believe that buying a thousand dollar machine will make up for their inactivity. It won’t. Start building the exercise habit first, it’s more economical to join a gym than purchasing all the equipment necessary for a personal gym. 
13. Isolate Your Weakness - If falling off the exercise wagon is a common occurrence for you, find out why. Do you not enjoy exercising? Is it a lack of time? Is it feeling self-conscious at the gym? Is it a lack of fitness know-how? As soon as you can isolate your weakness, you can make steps to improve the situation.
14. Start Small - Trying to run fifteen miles your first workout isn’t a good way to build a habit. Work below your capacity for the first few weeks to build the habit. Otherwise you might scare yourself off after a brutal workout.
15. Go for Yourself, Not to Impress – Going to the gym with the only goal of looking great is like starting a business with only the goal to make money. The effort can’t justify the results. But if you go to the gym to push yourself, gain energy and have a good time, then you can keep going even when results are slow.

by Scott H Young

Complex Carbohydrates

Skipping complex carbs at lunch is sure to land you in the hunger zone later in the day. Not only does your body digest them slowly, keeping you full longer, but they also happen to be very nutritious. “Whole grains are rich in fiber, which is key for a healthy digestive tract and preventing several types of cancer,” says Mark Spielmann, RD, nutrition manager of La Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago. When choosing bread, make sure it has at least two or three grams of fiber per slice and is made with 100 percent whole wheat. But you don’t have to limit your carbs to bread. “Sweet potatoes are a very complex carbohydrate, especially when you eat the skin, which will be digested slowly, keeping you full for several hours,” says Megan Moore, RD, from Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. They’re also rich in vitamin A and vitamin C, and help lower blood pressure, too.
Suggestions: Whole-grain bread, whole-grain pasta, brown rice, sweet potatoes

Protein

Because your body digests proteins slower than other food groups, incorporating them into your midday meal will provide you with some serious lasting power. Moore suggests salmon, an excellent source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for your heart. She also recommends chicken, which is easy to incorporate into almost any lunch. But fish and poultry aren’t the only good sources of protein. Next time you’re at the salad bar, throw in black beans, kidney beans, lima beans, pinto beans or navy beans for extra protein and extra fiber.
Suggestions: Salmon, chicken, tuna, nuts, tofu, beans, turkey, lean beef, eggs

Choose from these nutritious afternoon snacks for a healthy post-lunch treat.

Lowfat Dairy

Just because you don’t like milk doesn’t mean you have to skip your dairy intake. “One ounce of 2 percent cheese will provide 3.5 grams of fat and 5.5 grams of protein, helping to keep you full,” explains Moore. When choosing dairy, pick reduced-fat versions to limit saturated fats but maximize lasting power. “Ending your meal with a container of lowfat yogurt provides protein and calcium—and satisfies your dessert craving,” Speilmann notes.
Suggestions: Lowfat milk, reduced-fat cheeses, yogurt, soy milk

Assorted Fruits

Fresh fruit makes for a perfect lunchtime dessert that won’t cause your energy to crash in the late afternoon, unlike other sugary options. But it’s also an excellent add-in to salads and sandwiches. “The high amount of monounsaturated fat [about 6g per 1/4 cup] in an avocado will fill you up significantly,” says Moore. She suggests slicing it over a salad or making a spread for your sandwich. “Apples contain 5 grams of fiber and are about 80 percent water, so they fill your belly—making them a great ‘dessert’ option.” Spielmann also recommends raisins, which are sweet, portable and loaded with fiber. 

Suggestions: Oranges, apples, avocado, mangos, blueberries, raisins and bananas

Satisfying Lunch Suggestions
Need ideas on how to incorporate the ingredients above? Check out some of our favorite midday meals:

• Whole-grain pasta salad with roasted or steamed veggies
• Whole-grain spaghetti with vegetable marinara
• Roasted vegetable sandwich on whole-grain bread with grainy mustard
• Roasted turkey sandwich with spinach on a whole-grain bagel
• Canned or grilled tuna on a bed of spinach greens
• Roasted chicken with a heap of raw vegetables on the side, dipped in fat-free dressing
• Whole-wheat pita stuffed with diced chicken, black bean spread, spinach and red peppers

Original article appeared on WomansDay.com

What is resistance exercise?

Resistance exercise is any exercise where muscles contract against an external resistance with the objective of increasing strength, tone, mass, and/or muscular endurance. The resistance can come from dumbbells, weight machines, elastic tubing or bands, cinder blocks, cans of soup, your own body weight (for example, pushups), or any other object that forces your muscles to contract. Results occur when you train consistently over time.

What are types of resistance exercise?

There are several types or styles of resistance exercise. Power lifting (a weight-lifting competition in which participants compete in the squat, dead lift, and bench press), Olympic weight lifting (the type you see on TV where athletes lift the weight overhead), strength training (lifting weights to get stronger), and weight lifting (the sport of lifting heavy weight, typically fewer than six repetitions). Weight lifting should not be confused with “weight training,” which is the general lifting that you do at the gym. I’ll discuss the basic principles of all resistance exercise in this article.

What is progressive overload?

One of the fundamentals of resistance exercise is the principle of progressive overload. Progressive overload means that you increase the workload gradually over time as your muscles accommodate to the resistance with the objective of gaining strength and/or mass. For example, suppose that you’ve been lifting biceps curls for two weeks with 12 pounds, 10 repetitions, and then at week three, 12 pounds is easy and you can lift more. According to the principle of progressive overload, at this point, you would increase the weight if strength improvement is your goal. Your strength will remain the same if you keep the weight the same.

What is volitional fatigue?

Another fundamental of resistance exercise is to lift each set to volitional fatigue. Volitional fatigue is the point in the set where you can’t lift one more rep without cheating it up (using momentum, leaning way back, etc.). Although there isn’t a large body of research to prove that lifting every set to volitional fatigue is necessary for maximal benefit, most strength and fitness professionals agree that working to exhaustion changes muscle fibers in a way that leads to significant growth.

What are sets and repetitions (reps)?

Sets and reps are the terms used to describe the number of times you perform an exercise. A rep is the number of times you perform a specific exercise, and a set is the number of cycles of reps that you complete. For example, suppose you complete 15 reps of a bench press. You would say you’ve completed “one set of 15 reps.” A set can be any number of reps, so if you complete 10 reps of a bench press, you would say you’ve completed “one set of 10 reps,” and if you complete just five reps, then that would be “one set of five reps.”

How many sets should I do?

Research is clear that beginners can develop as much strength performing one set per exercise as they can performing three sets. This is because beginners typically start off with a low level of strength which leaves room for improvement (called an “adaptive window”). Muscles respond quickly to resistance exercise in untrained individuals because the adaptive window is large. This is great news because the motivation to continue working out is reinforced by immediate and significant improvement. However, after three to four months, strength gains will level off and then multiple sets (three to five per exercise) are necessary if more improvement is desired.

How do I go about lifting for strength?

Muscular strength is gained when you lift heavy. For pure strength development, keep the resistance heavy enough so that you cannot lift more than eight reps, and then follow the progressive overload principle and increase the weight when you can lift more then eight. Expect your reps to drop whenever you increase the weight. For example, suppose you’ve been doing 10 reps of bench presses with 175 pounds and you increase the weight to 190 pounds. Because the weight is heavier, you will lift fewer reps, but as your muscles accommodate, you will again be able to lift more reps. When strength is your priority, you can experiment with heavy days. Heavy days are when you lift as much as you can one time. This is called a one-repetition maximum (a 10-rep maximum would be the weight you can lift 10 times to fatigue). Heavy days are challenging, so I don’t recommend them more than once a week so that your muscles have time to recover and grow.

How do I go about lifting for tone and endurance?

Tone and endurance is maximized when you keep the weight light enough to lift 12-15 reps. Again, the principle of progressive overload applies. That is, increase the weight when 15 reps become easy.

Lifting for strength, tone, and endurance (general conditioning)

Keeping the reps in the eight-to-12 range emphasizes a combination of strength, tone, and endurance. This is a realistic quantity of training for most individuals. The recommendation in the American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand, “Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults,” is for beginners to lift eight to 12 reps, and for the range to widen to one to 12 reps for intermediate and advanced training. Although research supports the eight to 12 recommendation, I believe it’s prudent for beginners to start with 12-15 reps to reduce the risk of injury, and then the weight can be increased after a few weeks when the muscles have accommodated. Keep in mind that strength, tone, and some mass still accrue by training with reps in the 12-15 range, and so you don’t have to lift heavier than that if you prefer not to. You can read the entire ACSM position stand document here: www.acsm-msse.org/pt/pt-core/template-journal/msse/media/0202.pdf.

How many days should I lift?

Beginners, because of their wide adaptive window, will accrue significant benefits with two to three days of training. Advanced lifters need at least three days per week, and typically more for significant gains because they are already so strong (more benefit takes more effort). It’s not uncommon for bodybuilders and other strength athletes to train four to five days per week.

How do I know how much weight to lift?

Trial and error is the way to determine how much weight to lift. Select a weight that looks close to what you think you can lift based on your goals. If general conditioning is your goal, then select a weight you think you can lift eight to 12 reps (or 12-15 reps for beginners). If you can lift it 25 times with ease, then it’s too light, and if you can lift it only four times, then it’s too heavy. There are no formulas to calculate this. Simply decide what your goal is so you know how many reps to lift, take a guess by looking at the weights, and then give it a try. You’ll get good at this quickly.

How much do I increase?

Unlike aerobic conditioning where duration and intensity is increased by 10%, increases in the weight you lift aren’t prescribed with such precision, partly because muscle groups vary so much in size and strength, and partly because of the practical matter of the weights available at the gym. Typically you increase to whatever dumbbell is next on the rack (or plate on a weight machine), and so if you’re lifting 12 pounds with biceps curls, then the next dumbbell available is usually 15 pounds. There is an option to increase in smaller increments with dumbbells by using an accessory called a donut, a magnetic 1¼ pound weight that attaches to the end of the dumbbell (they come in other weights besides 1¼ pounds as well). Weight machines have half weights for the same purpose. Ask your gym manager to purchase donuts if they don’t have them.

Free weights vs. machines

Dumbbells and barbells are free weights. They are “free,” or untethered, unlike a weight machine where the weight stack is connected by cables to cams and pulleys and only move in one direction. There are advantages to both styles of lifting.

Weight machines:

1. Weight machines are easy to learn and use.

2. There are some exercises you can do with a machine that you can’t do with a dumbbell. For instance, cable rows would be difficult to replicate with free weights. You could do bent over dumbbell rows, but they won’t be quite the same. For my money, cable rows feel smoother than any exercise in the gym!

Free weights:

1. Free-weight training requires balance and coordination, and so if you are involved in a sport that requires balance, or you just need balance training, then free-weight training might be more effective.

2. Free-weight training may recruit more muscles than a machine because you have to stabilize your body when you lift a dumbbell, whereas the weight machine supports you. For example, a biceps curls is going to feel more natural and use more muscles in your torso (to support the weight) than if you did a seated biceps curl in a machine where the machine does some of the work and you can lean against it for leverage.

3. There are a variety of exercises that you can do with dumbbells that you can’t do with machines. Lunges, step-ups, and many upper body exercises can be performed with free weights if you’re creative.

4. There is no evidence to suggest that either method is superior to the other. My suggestion is to combine free weights and dumbbells to get the best of each. The ACSM weight training position stands states the following: “For novice to intermediate training, it is recommended that the resistance training program include free-weight and machine exercises. For advanced strength training, it is recommended that emphasis be placed on free-weight exercises, with machine exercises used to complement the program needs.”

How important is the order in which I perform my exercises?

Research shows that the order of exercises can significantly affect strength development, and so it is standard practice to set up a resistance-training routine to work large muscle groups before smaller ones. The reason is that a small muscle group that fatigues first will be the weakest link in the chain and prevent large muscle groups from working to full capacity. For example, if you isolate and fatigue your biceps muscles with curls, and then try to do lat pull-downs (which use biceps, shoulders and back), you won’t be able to do as much work for your shoulders and back because your biceps will already be fatigued. In the starter programs below, you will see examples of working large to small muscle groups.

What are weight-lifting splits?

A split refers to the practice of dividing workouts by muscle group. For example, you can work all upper body muscles on one day and lower body on another. Or you could work all the pushing muscles (triceps, pecs, anterior shoulder) on one day, and the pulling muscles (biceps, lats, rhomboids, posterior shoulder) on another. There are many possible combinations of splits, and I suggest that you experiment to find what works best for you. In the starter programs below, you will see examples of a split.

How much should I rest between sets and between days?

The amount of time you rest between sets can significantly affect your results. Rest up to three minutes between sets if pure strength development is your priority, and one to two minutes if muscular endurance and tone is your priority. Three minutes permits the muscles to recover from fatigue so that you can generate enough energy to perform another maximal lift on the next set. Benefits are not discreet. That is, there is carryover from one style to another, so that if you rest just one minute between sets, you will still increase endurance and tone, and if you rest three minutes between sets, you will still gain endurance and tone. The number of days that you rest between workouts can also affect your results. The standard advice is to rest two days between workouts. This makes sense if you push hard, since the muscles need time to recover and grow. In fact, it can take up to five days for muscles to fully recover from a tough workout, and if you push too hard, you might experience symptoms of overtraining (fatigue, loss of strength, inability to lift 100%, chronic soreness, and persistent injuries). It’s okay to lift two days in a row. Experienced lifters do it all the time by splitting their workout so that they work one muscle group per day. For example, they might work their upper body on one day, and legs on another, or back muscles on one day, and chest muscles on the next. Experiment with different splits until you find what works best for you.

The golden rule is to remember that muscles recover and grow during downtime, not when you train, and so it’s important to take time off. You know you need more rest if you have any symptoms of overtraining.

What about proper weight-lifting techniques?

I wrote a response to this question in the Ask the Experts section that you can find here: www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=77873. I mentioned in my response that there is no research to show the proper form for any resistance exercise. People are built and move differently, and so you need to listen to your body when you perform resistance exercises and make sure that you feel it in the muscles that you want to work. The basics rules I propose in my response are (1) take your time and lift mindfully, (2) feel it in the belly of the muscle you’re trying to work, and not in the joints, and (3) select weights that your body can handle without having to cheat or force the weight up (leaning way back, using momentum, etc.).

What are the benefits of weight lifting? Is it ever too late to start?

New benefits of resistance exercise seem to be discovered all the time. Research to date shows that resistance exercise is associated with improvements in all of the following:

• muscular strength and endurance
• functional capacity and ability (falling, climbing stairs)
• blood pressure
• osteoporosis
• sarcopenia (loss of muscle as we age)
• low back pain
• insulin resistance and glucose metabolism
• resting metabolic rate
• body fat
• psychological well-being

Is it ever too late?

It’s never too late to start a resistance-exercise program. In a classic study in a Boston nursing home, 100 residents ranging from 72 to 98 years of age performed resistance exercise three times a week for 10 weeks. Muscle strength increased 113%, walking speed increased by almost 12%, and thigh-muscle area increased 2.7%!

Weight-lifting programs

You’ll find two starter programs below. They are broken up by muscle group and are three days per week. You can experiment with splits, exercises, and the number of days per week. I suggest 12-15 repetitions and one to three sets per exercise for beginners (remember, you can gain significant strength with just one set). I’ve included more than one exercise for each muscle group. You can stick with one exercise if you like, or experiment with more than one. Use the principle of progressive overload and increase the weight when you can perform 15 reps easily. If you’re using elastic tubing, start with the tube that you can lift 12-15 times to fatigue, and then increase when you get stronger.

Day 1: Chest (bench press with bar or dumbbell press, flies, pushups), triceps (bench dips, kickbacks)

Day 2: Back (bent-over rows), biceps (curls, standing or seated)

Day 3: Shoulders (lateral raises, front raises), legs (squats, lunges)

Here’s a different split.

Day 1: Chest (bench press with bar or dumbbell press, flies, pushups), back (bent-over rows, pull-downs)

Day 2: Biceps (curls, standing or seated), triceps (bench dips, kickbacks)

Day 3: Shoulders (lateral raises, front raises), legs (squats, lunges)

It’s worth it!

Resistance exercise is worth it. You’ll gain strength, endurance, and confidence. It’s feels great to feel strong, and I encourage you to give it a try! Remember, it’s never too late to start!

Last Editorial Review: 4/19/2007

A goal is defined as a, “written, specific, personally meaningful, and challenging statement of intent, which has a measurable outcome and a completion date”.  Your goals must give a distinct target or end-point to work towards that must also be easy to measure and specific.  Without these you’ll never know if you have achieved the goal.  You can’t just say lose weight or gain energy.

Make the target very clear and specific.  Sit down for 15 minutes and work through 3 short-term and three long-term goals’ minimum, but don’t be afraid to do more.   You must also be honest and realistic with a self-evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses so that you can set appropriate and challenging goals.

Also, you must be honest with your process as you move towards a goal.  If the goal is too hard or too easy, you can adjust it.  If it is easily accomplished, reset for a higher standard.  It is okay to adjust the goal based on your feedback and learning.  By having a deadline or time-line for your goal, you are able to examine your progress and re-visit the feasibility of the goal.

COMMIT your goals to paper

1. REVIEW YOUR GOALS on a regular basis.  Make your list of goals accessible, so that you can review it regularly.  Frequent reminders will help keep you on track.
2. BE SPECIFIC set the goal to exactly what you want to achieve.
3. BE REALISTIC begin by setting small, attainable goals in order that they will propel you into future success.  For example, set a simple goal that you will avoid excess food at a party this weekend.  Set another goal as simple as having a great workout tomorrow.
4. FOCUS ON THE SHORT-TERM GOALS as short-term changes in behavior will help you reach long-term goals.  Set small goals to get the ball rolling, and success will breed success.
5. AS YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL return to your list and update the entire set of goals.
   At this time, I want you to pledge your full commitment to the program.  To be successful, you must dedicate yourself to the following goals:

List 3 short-term goals:
1. __________________
2. __________________
3. __________________

List 3 long-term goals:
1. __________________
2. __________________
3. __________________

Also plan your turbulence training workouts so that you get it done in less than 45 minutes.  Your body’s metabolism will be so revved up that you will still be burning tons of fat and calories all day long.  Once you understand that everything you do each day takes you either closer to or farther from your goals, then and only then will you be on the fast track to success.

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Creator, Turbulence Training

Article source: http://ezinearticles.com/5667408

More than any other time of year, this week we take stock of our accomplishments and our heart’s desires and make a plan for the future.

On this blog we’ve discussed various strategies of goal-setting: how to set goals, use technology like texting to help you achieve fitness goals, and optimally reflect on your goal achievement.

As you sit down with a shiny new journal and some pretty pens from Santa to sketch out your ideal version of the year ahead, how should you frame your goals?

The Power of Questions

A study led by Ibrahim Senay, a professor at the University of Illinois, and published earlier this year in Psychological Science, suggests that phrasing goals in the form of a question may be more effective than phrasing it as a statement or declaration.

In two of a series of experiments, the researchers told participants they were studying handwriting and asked them to write out “I will,” “Will I,” “I,” or “Will” twenty times. Following the writing exercise, they asked them to write out their intentions to exercise in the following week and to share their reasons for exercising.

Students who wrote out “Will I” were more likely to intend to exercise, and reported wanting to do so for reasons of intrinsic or internal motivation (versus external motivation like the pressure of others).

This seems somewhat counter-intuitive – doesn’t saying, “Will I get to the gym tomorrow?” feel more wishy-washy and less effective than “I will go to the gym tomorrow!”? The authors suggest that phrasing intentions in the form of a question may prompt one to think more about the reasons behind wanting to engage in the goal-directed behavior and may make one feel more autonomous and in control of one’s life – which may increase motivation.

Also, as Ed Yong over at Discover Blogs points out, no one likes being told what to do – even when we’re the ones giving the orders!

Ask Yourself

Back to you and your journal and the dawning new year. Sketch out some possibilities for improvements, opportunities, and new discoveries over the next year.

Then ask yourself: Will I?

I think you will.

Posted by Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Ph.D.

Here are five suggestions for “do-habits” that are very helpful to adopt to radically improve your life.

1. Do it first thing in the morning.

How you start your day tends to have a big influence on that day. It sets the context in your mind. I believe that one key to better consistency and improvement in your life is what you do early in the day. Two ways to get a good start to your day are these:

• Do the hardest/ most important/ most uncomfortable thing first in your day. If you start your day by doing it you will feel relieved. You feel relaxed and good about yourself. And the rest of the day – and your to-do list – tends to feel a lot lighter and easier to move through. It’s amazing what difference this one action makes.
• Start small. To get from a state where you just feel like sitting on your chair and doing nothing much to one where you take action over and over you can do this: start small. Getting started with your biggest task or most difficult action may seem too much and land you in Procrastination land. So instead, start with something that doesn’t seem so hard. One of my favorites is simply to take a few minutes to clean my desk. After that the next thing doesn’t seem so difficult to get started with since I’m now in a more of a “take action” kind of mode. Experiment with this one and the previous tip and see which one that suits you the best. Or mix them up as you wish.

2. Do it one more time.

Don’t give up too soon. It is very easy to give into feeling that you done something enough times and it will never work. You have tried it as many times as you would expect people to do. But these expectations I believe are often a bit unrealistic.

Society, TV and advertising tell us that there is an almost instant solution to any of our problems. You can easily lose 30 pounds within a month. Or with little work and time invested have another extra 20,000 dollars in the bank.

So it is not unreasonable to think that success will come quickly. But instead of doing something as many times as you think others have done it, talk to and read about people who have actually done what you want to do. This will give you a more realistic picture of reality.

Oftentimes you may have to do it more than one more time. But I have often found that doing it just one more time, doing it that extra time even though you may start to feel that this won’t work, can bring the results you want in many cases. I actually feel a little bit of excitement sometimes when I feel like giving up because then I remember that at this point success is often not that far away.

3. Do the unusual thing.

When faced with a choice in your daily life, step back for a minute and think. Then take the option that is and feels unusual for you.

If you often back down just don’t for this one time. If you are often get into arguments with people then just this one time don’t and instead just let it go or treat the other person with kindness. Do the opposite of what you usually do and see what happens (while using common sense of course). Do something new and something you wouldn’t expect from yourself.

This is a fun a great way to get new experiences and learn things you wouldn’t if you kept going like you usually do.

Getting stuck in the same old routine until it becomes a rut can suck the life out of you. Doing the unusual thing in small and big situations, no matter how it goes, is a great way to feel alive again.

4. Do less.

How do you find time to do what you really want? How do you not get caught up in minor tasks and fill you day with them?

By setting limits. By being a bit ruthless and cutting down on the least important stuff. At some point you will probably have to be honest with yourself and realize that you can never fit all that you want into your day or week. Something has to go. Not only because it takes up time. But also because you only have so much energy, focus and creativity available during your day. If spend it on the less important things then all of that will be gone each day before you get to the big stuff.

It may not be fun to give up a couple of those TV-shows or hanging out on Facebook. But to make room for something new you sometimes have throw out a couple of old things.

5. Do your best.

Why should you do your best? Why not coast a bit and do just what is expected?

Three reasons:

• You get better results. Sometimes immediately. Often not right away, but as all your awesome work adds up you start to see new and exciting results.
• You raise your self-esteem. When you do what you think is the right thing – like doing your best – then your self-esteem goes up. If you just coast then you tend to feel kind of lame about yourself. So do awesome work and you feel awesome about yourself. Do ok work and feel ok about yourself.
• Deservedness. When you feel awesome about yourself you do also feel like you deserve more in life. So you go after it and you won’t self-sabotage as much when opportunities pop up.

by Henrik Edberg at http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2010/11/18/change/