Transformation Doesn't Need To Be Difficult

Why is the first step toward optimal health & wellness of critical importance?

Your first step toward optimal health & wellness can be a rite of passage if you let it. Without this initial step nothing will happen at the level you desire. Oftentimes, our self-imposed limitations impede our desire to move in a progressive motion both at a physical and psychological perspective. The first step can be profound! At a psychological level, each of us is hardwired uniquely. As a performance coach, my goal is to address and resolve underlying limitations including, but not limited to self-esteem, time constraints, financial struggle, mental conditioning, etc. Regardless of your personal situation, a solution is highly-probable if your desire is authentic. If your first step is a direct result of lack of motivation, commit yourself for 30 days without fail. Start by walking your block each evening with a friend. Mental pacing is key! Get your heart, lungs, and muscles conditioned to step it up a notch on day 30.

We must take control of our personal health and that of others who rely on us to be healthy. I believe in the opportunities to wake up each day and engage actions that complement the mind, body, and spirit with greatness. Here are three actions that will kick start and improve your health with minimal effort.

Examine the reasons and excuses why you have neglected progression toward improving health & wellness.

In this insight we will venture into the world of reasons and excuses why we have negligence in the progression toward improving health and wellness. Throughout this book, you will notice the word “mindset” and why it is critical in your transformation to better health and wellness. Mindset is KING! If lack of finances reigns as the primary and most frequent reason/excuse, I can resolve that with a little creative thought. If you are unable to afford a membership to your local YMCA or health club then deploy your creativity and at the very least design yourself a home grown fitness regimen. Travel back in time when you were in the 9th grade PE class. Remember those much loved calisthenics the PE instructor was so excited to teach you? Get your groove on like Richard Simmons. This insight will kick start you on the path of improved health and wellness. Start slow and remain steady and if the force is with you, great things will happen. Remember that mindset is KING!

Start slow and be consistent.

You need not start going to the gym and cranking out two hours on the treadmill to feel good about getting healthy. That would simply be counterproductive in the long-term as you might crash and burn. Begin with 5 to 10 minutes for the first week then gradually increase your time and intensity. I implore you to change but don’t change too rapidly if it doesn’t serve you well. Be intelligent as you embrace health transformation.

If you are given a task at work that required a strategic process to achieve project objectives do you follow the instructions verbatim? If you do, can you mobilize that mindset when it comes to the process and intelligent travel regarding personal health?

Integrate multiple actions to greater health.

One action alone will not create that superior state of health that you strive to achieve. It takes a number of things to hit the target. Remember, change intelligently. As you launch your transformation, start with one action and integrate another and another and another. To start, a little exercise, a little better nutrition, and a little more self-education in the area of mindset and performance. It will definitely help to improve your sleep hygiene and stress management actions as well. Slow and consistent change is KING!

If you were asked to bake a cake and enter it into a national-level taste competition would you use all the necessary ingredients or exclude that one cup of brown sugar and use traditional sugar? In your quest to attain optimal health are you excluding an ingredient that will be THE difference?

The profound ingredients are all around us, let’s use them!

The gym is not the issue – need I say more?

Gymtimidation is a powerful and impeding factor for some individuals when it comes to getting fit. If you are apprehensive in getting to the local health club or YMCA, there are many reasons for the way you feel. Self-esteem is a big one! In fact, self-esteem can hinder us from many important things in life. Oftentimes, those of us with self-esteem issues will focus on our weight. We tell ourselves “I am embarrassed that I weigh 257 pounds and if I walk into the health club, people will look at me as if I don’t belong.”

Let me just say this! The other members are at the same spot, doing the same thing, and trying to reach similar goals as you are. I have found that people really don’t care what your weight is and if a select few happen to throw negative vibes, use this as high-octane fuel. The intelligent ones will respect you more for being proactive to exercise, weight loss, and wellness transformation than if you didn’t give a rip at all about your life. Let me share a quick and compelling story about transcending barriers. One of my coaching clients was no stranger to the local YMCA. She spent several hours each day on the treadmill and circuit machines. Her biggest issue was spurring conversation and asking for help if she needed it. My client was afraid to approach other members because of self-esteem issues.

She had a barrier to shatter and I was the person that was going to get this done. I asked her to meet me at the YMCA for a late afternoon workout. She agreed and upon arrival I informed her why I was there and what we were going to accomplish. We began our workout with some less difficult movements on the free weights, also known as resistance training. She was a little nervous because she knew what was coming so I informed her that we would be introducing ourselves to a few members. I wanted her to go through the nervousness while I was present.

As her coach, I took the lead and introduced myself to a member who I didn’t know. It was time to make create a formal introduction between my client and the unknown member. This evolution went so well that I wanted to condition her even more. We met another member and it was spectacular. My client grew so much that she would go on to become a Certified Wellness Coach and now she addresses self-esteem barriers with her clients.

The physiology of inactivity.

Is a sedentary lifestyle the new smoking? In my efforts to create transformation regarding health and wellness, I stumbled upon a little known subset of human physiology called inactivity physiology. Sedentary lifestyle is said to rival smoking. Those closely connected to exercise physiology and health science are most-likely familiar with at least the terms. However, most common individuals have never heard this terminology. It’s time for a little depth and personal growth and science.

My introduction to inactivity physiology came via Google when researching scholarly works on human physiology in general. An inactivity physiology researcher at the University of Houston is leading the charge uncovering the negative health effects of sedentary lifestyle. In other words, researchers in the field of inactivity physiology encourage us to get up off our duffs and increase the RPM’s in our heart and move some fuel through our body.

What I’m about to share with you compelled me to rethink the nature of both a sedentary existence and physical activity. I want to dive into the sciences and leave you with three findings realized by Professor Hamilton and his team of researcher in regards to sedentary lifestyle.

I want to open the doors to a new set of terms called lipoprotein lipase (LL.) Perhaps this type of rhetoric sounds boring and possibly intimidating to most people but stick with me and hopefully a better understanding will appear.

This little-known substance called lipoprotein lipase is a powerful regulator of lipoprotein. It’s actually an enzyme that shuttles cardiovascular disease-promotion fatty acids called triglycerides to where it needs to go. This action keeps triglycerides from sticking to the walls of our circulatory system thus causing buildup and ultimately impeding the bloodstream. Over time this causes CVD which is what none of us want. Lipoprotein lipase teams up with insulin and gets the job done. Together, insulin and LL break down triglycerides and transports them to body tissues to be used as fuel or stored for future energy needs.

The information outlined in this insight may seem just like any other piece of written work. As I began to examine physiology at this level it occurred to me that I needed to articulate the comparison to that of smoking. It seems that just as smoking plays havoc on the cardiovascular system, inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle shares similar undesirable outcomes.

Now that I have given you a small and non-professional glimpse of physiology, I will just say this. We need to be active at least at a moderate level. If you have an office job, are unable to be physically active due to medical issues, or are simply not inspired to create improvement, the most basic of things like standing and walking will do you and your health justice. Stand! Walk! Clean house! Paint a room! Feed the dog! Bottom line is this. Being physically active or better yet, engaging in moderate exercise stimulates lipoprotein lipase to do what it is meant to do.