Fit For Life: Reward Yourself
Saturday, January 31, 2015
MAKE the time.
Why? Because people MAKE the time to do the things that are important or necessary to them. They do not get extra time during the day, nor do they have some magic wand that gets things done for them. They manage their time so they can be efficient and accomplish all the necessary things that are part of their day. If you want something bad enough, you will make the time to do it. If it isn’t important enough, you will just make an excuse. I know that there are certain things that we can’t avoid. Kids getting sick and having to stay home from school, granted, you can’t get out of the house. Your boss sets a deadline, and you can’t get out of it, so you need to stay late, or you get into a car accident, and are stranded for a day with no vehicle. These are extraordinary circumstances, and can’t be avoided; legitimate reasons to fall off track…temporarily. But, they are not part of our every day routines, and happen infrequently, therefore we must deal with the temporary situation, fix the problem and move on.
It’s when you say “I know I should be working out, but..., or I know my diet isn’t that good but..., or I feel bad that I haven’t seen this person in a while but… These are the things you should be working on to try and fix. Saying you do not have the time is a self fabricated excuse, because if others can find the time to do it, so can you. So why don’t we do the things that are important to us? Why do we get discouraged when we don’t get enough done in our day? When you fail to accomplish what you set out to do, day in and day out, it becomes a habit. We are all still doing things that we know are wrong. We say it to ourselves. We say it to friends. Heck, we even say it to strangers. My advice is to find one of those things that you know you are doing wrong, and stop doing it. Then, decide what is really important to you.
Time Management
Time is our most valuable asset, yet we seem to always be wasting it. There's a lot of information out there about how to be better at managing your time, here’s just some tips that work for me – maybe they will work for you:
Make a list of everything you need to accomplish in any given day. I remember back to the days when I was a paperboy, my supervision used to tell us “keep your book, you will always collect more money that way”, and he was right. I always remembered who owed what when it was written down. The same holds true for your eating. Write it down, and you will be surprised at the empty calories going onto that list.
Prioritize your list. Put your important items on top. This way you will accomplish these items first. Here’s what’s on my list today:
* market
* drop off jr. at practice
* write GoLocal article
* gym
* car wash
* pick up jr. from practice
Delegate the things that someone else can do for minimal cost. House keeping, landscaping, small odd jobs like painting, and washing the car. Use the time that you have to do the things only you can do, like making money, and taking care of your health.
Execute that list. Nothing feels better than checking off things you have accomplished. Even better feeling is crumpling up a bunch of sticky notes that are complete.
So next time someone asks you why you didn’t do something, do not say I didn’t have the time, instead reply, I mismanaged my day, and didn’t make the time to do it. It wasn’t important enough for me to get it done.
Now, get out and enjoy doing something you love to do. Because time is really all we have. Reward yourself!
Related Slideshow: New England’s Healthiest States
The United Health Foundation recently released its 2013 annual reoprt: America's Health Rankings, which provides a comparative state by state analysis of several health measures to provide a comprehensive perspective of our nation's health issues. See how the New England states rank in the slides below.
Definitions
All Outcomes Rank: Outcomes represent what has already occurred, either through death, disease or missed days due to illness. In America's Health Rankings, outcomes include prevalence of diabetes, number of poor mental or physical health days in last 30 days, health disparity, infant mortality rate, cardiovascular death rate, cancer death rate and premature death. Outcomes account for 25% of the final ranking.
Determinants Rank: Determinants represent those actions that can affect the future health of the population. For clarity, determinants are divided into four groups: Behaviors, Community and Environment, Public and Health Policies, and Clinical Care. These four groups of measures influence the health outcomes of the population in a state, and improving these inputs will improve outcomes over time. Most measures are actually a combination of activities in all four groups.
Diabetes Rank: Based on percent of adults who responded yes to the question "Have you ever been told by a doctor that you have diabetes?" Does not include pre-diabetes or diabetes during pregnancy.
Smoking Rank: Based on percentage of adults who are current smokers (self-report smoking at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and currently smoke).
Obesity Rank: Based on percentage of adults who are obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 30.0 or higher.
Source: http://www.americashealthrankings.org/
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