Your lifestyle is like a train.  It is always moving in one of two directions:  Towards a healthy (better) lifestyle or away from it.  The speed at which it is moving is up to the effort (or lack thereof) you have put forth thus far.  A couple laws of your train (aka lifestyle)

        1.  It never stands still

        2.  It takes time to stop it going in one direction (the faster it was moving in that                       direction, the longer it takes to stop it)

        3.  The speed of your train (either direction) is a culmination of your decisions you                have made thus far

        4.  Once your train has speed built up, the effort to keep it moving fast becomes less

        5.  You can always change the direction and speed of your train

The fun part is when you are cruising at high speeds, wind in your hair, and the beautiful horizon in front of you.  Go get it. 

With the good, comes the bad.  We are connected, we are always ON.  Each day we are feeling more behind.  More scattered.  Like we are missing something if we don't keep up. 

Actually, you are missing a lot by keeping up on it all.  You miss a great conversation with a friend who is in front of you while you keep checking your text messages.  You trade your freedom for constant connection.  Amid the chaos (in your head) you forget the very few things that are important to you.  All this "good" has created more stress for you.  

Stress is a constant headwind for your train.  To slow this headwind, you must address it with physical exercise and mental rest.  Quiet your mind. 

P.S - Keeping up with a good friend on Facebook is not the same as sharing a cup of coffee together

Re-ignite the hobbies in your life and you will become healthier!

The #1 Reason:  Hobbies are fun and they bring out the child in you.  Fun is the opposite of stress.   Fun is memorable.  Fun makes you forget.  Fun, is well, fun.  Do it. 

The #2 Reason:  Hobbies help you avoid boredom.  Many times boredom leads to unnecessary eating, drinking, or inactivity (aka television watching). 

The #3 Reason:  Hobbies are good for the soul.  In a world of constant connecting and busyness, we seem to just get through our days without doing much for ourselves.  Fight this with something you enjoy and you will feel better about going to work the next day. 

The #4 Reason:  Hobbies can open doors to new opportunities:  Meet others, discover a new activity you enjoy (yes, that will burn calories), or just find a new way of finding yourself on this journey to create a healthy lifestyle. 

We want 'wow-how-did-you-lose-the-weight' results the next time we see our friends.  There are two sure-fire ways to accomplish this:

        1.  Drastic diets and exercise programs that are unsustainable
        2.  Get lost for two years, then show up to impress your friends with the new you

Option #1 will be the inevitable yo-yo (lose - gain - lose - shit, gotta lose again).  I guarantee this because you don't invest in a lifestyle that works for you. 

On the other hand, option #2 can produce a new real you with lasting changes in a year or two if you focus on small lifestyle changes that you can live with.  I said small.  Making drastic changes (quit drinking entirely, cut out all fat from diet, get rid of all my fat friends) to your lifestyle and thinking they will last is lying to yourself. 

How old are you?  That is the number of years it has taken you to build your current lifestyle, so to expect to change it all in the next 2 - 3 months is simply bullshit. 

Real steps (some small change you can live with forever and perform consistently over time - week over week and year over year) create drastic change. 

(Btw - you will discover most of the real steps to take from a combination of thinking and talking to others)

...to teach others how to build a healthy lifestyle?  Hell, I am trying to figure it out myself - this is what you are thinking when you review the Law of Support, which states you must find someone who is willing and help them create a healthy lifestyle.  This is an excuse for not supporting and encouraging someone else.  Sorry to be direct. 

You are uniquely somebody with much to offer someone else.  Reread that last sentence until you understand it completely.  There are 14 Laws that make up a healthy lifestyle and you have more knowledge and practice in at least one of them than anyone else you may offer to help.  Don't make excuses on this one as it carries with it the power to overcome what has been holding you back. 

The next likely excuse is "I would, but I don't know how to approach the subject."  Fine, here it is verbatim:

"Hi friend.  I want to create a healthy lifestyle and I know you have mentioned that you do as well.  Would you like to help one another out?"

This exercise is more important than any weights or cardio work you to this week. 

Your life is made up of patterns. 

When it comes to health and fitness here is a pattern millions fall victim to each year. 

        Start an exercise program   ---->   Go to the grocery store and buy healthy food   ---->   Say to yourself "this time I am really going to do it"   ---->   Go all out for about 2 weeks   ---->   slowly fade in exercising   ---->  slowly fade in healthy eating   ---->  meet some level of mental frustration due to lack of quick results   ---->  slowly retreat back into your real lifestyle making no real lasting change

You can find patterns in relationships, career, hobbies (hopefully you have some), and many other areas of your life. 

If you want to experience lasting change, you must break any pattern, otherwise you are operating with insanity. 

Two practical steps to break the typical health and fitness pattern:

    1.  Before you begin exercising and go to the grocery store to "get started", think. 
    2.  Find 3 friends who are also interested in breaking this pattern, and ask how you               can help each other. 

       

Before you hit they gym or even trade that hamburger for a turkey burger on your quest to eat healthy, you need to spend some time thinking.  Jumping right into exercise and diet will not be your answer. 

The Law of Passion is the foundation for making real, lasting change.  And to change that thick head of yours, you must tap into the heart.  Once the heart is convinced, the mind will follow.  Once the mind is starting to consciously control your decisions (aka, yes I want to eat healthy and want to exercise) you are making fundamental changes in you and your lifestyle. 

So to begin creating this passion for exercise and eating healthy you must force yourself to think hard.  Here is what you do:

        1.  Find a place in which you can think - a happy place for you. 
        2.  Once blank sheet of paper, write down at least 20 reasons WHY you want to live a               healthy lifestyle - it will be hard to come up with 20, but it will force you to dig                  deep and be real honest with yourself
        3.  Review this at least twice per day until it becomes a natural habit to think about -               review just before you go on a walk, just before bed time, or when you are feeling               bad

This does not seem like a hard exercise, but most people will not do it and stick with reviewing it, leading back to patterns that produce insanity. 

A limiting factor (LF) is something that stands in the way of who you are today and where you want to go.  Sometimes they are big ones, and other times smaller ones.  A lot of small can add up to big. 

Identifying these LFs and dealing with them are necessary for progress in creating a healthy lifestyle. 

We all have major ones and smaller ones found within each of the laws of fitness.  Major ones may be a smoking habit, drinking habit, overeating, etc.  Attacking these major ones can be difficult and overwhelming.  You have likely tried in the past without conquering it.  A sound strategy for this is to focus on improving other areas that may be less daunting.

For example, if you were to do your own quick inventory of the laws of fitness, define a limiting factor within each law, and attack one at a time you may very well be on your way to chipping away at a major LF in your life. 

Take small steps and have faith in yourself that one step in the right direction will lead to another and soon you will have overcome something that has been holding you back all your life. 

You know the definition of insanity - do the same thing over and over expecting different results. 

The same thing you do over and over when it comes to losing weight, getting in shape, or whatever you want to call it is to start a exercise program and/or go on a dieting plan.  IT DOES NOT WORK!  You have done this before, and most likely, multiple times in your life only to experience the same yo-yo effect:  lose, gain, lose, gain.

What you do NOT change is your actual lifestyle, yet you are expecting it to be different this time - that is insane. 

If diet and exercise programs are not the starting point, what is?  Your thoughts, which holds the power to adjust your habits, which starts the process of building a different lifestyle - creating different, sustainable results. 

Let's breakdown our insanity:

            Do the same thing over and over = Start a programs and diets that do not last                       (they have a beginning and an end)

            Expect different results = we already know the outcome is the same, which is the             program fades away and the diet is not sustainable way to eat

To break your insanity you must change the way you think:

            1.  Discover the reasons why you want to be healthy (this is the hard part because                   it seems intangible and forces you to be vulnerable to yourself)
            2.  Nurture these reasons to grow into a passion that lives inside
            3.  Find other people who want to take the longer-term journey to build a lifestyle                   that provides a different result and breaks the insanity.

Are you willing?

The most difficult exercise you do when you create a healthy lifestyle is 'think'.

Yes, we want to get out there and exercise and cut out all bad food from our diets and results will surely follow.  Reread that previous sentence and notice that is a formula that you have seen before and the results is consistently the same:  4 weeks of a lot of work, not much results and the motivational fire begins to fade. 

The warning is simple and it is this - there is no damn quick way to doing this fitness thing right.  If you are looking for sustainable, lasting change so that the byproduct is a healthier, fitter YOU then you better be ready to put in the work for the long haul.  The real work is going to be done between your ears. 

There are plenty of programs, quick-loss diets, and "secrets" out there.  Most promise full return with little work.  Common sense is thrown out the window. 

P.S - One promise the 14 Laws will make:  When you hit that spot - the one in which you are stuck and don't feel like it is worth all the effort, I can promise you that a careful inventory of the 14 Laws will provoke some thought and you will discover where you can get focused again and what to do next.