Listen...

Listen to your body. It talks to you all the time. You just have to listen--and pay attention. It will tell you when you are hungry, thirsty, tired, need to stretch.... Listen to it! Sometimes we get so caught up in our day to day lives that we don't pay attention to the signals we are getting. You need to eat (more than one time a day), you need to hydrate, you need sleep and you need down time. If you don't take care of your body, you are wasting one of God's greatest gifts--YOU. You have to take care of yourself so you can take care of everything else--your job, your children, your friends, your life.


Paying attention to your body is important, but paying attention to your soul is important too. You need time for nourishing your soul--read, write, paint, listen to music, take a walk with the dog, sit in nature and enjoy what you see. Some people feel that they need to "do" something all the time. It is necessary to NOT do something sometimes. The dishes can wait, the grass will still be there tomorrow, the laundry will too. Take a breath, take a walk, take a nap. Take care of you...

Reasons...

If you watch TV or read, you know what a terrible state of health we Americans are in. The sad thing about it is that it is almost totally self induced. Our fast food diet, sedentary lifestyles and Western philosophy of medicine (treat the symptoms--a pill for everything) just to name a few. What has to happen before we wake up?! Our body is supposed to be our temple and just look at how we treat it. We don't give it proper nutrition, don't exercise our body or our minds, don't get enough sleep, put drugs in it (Prescription drugs are at the top of the list!), drink too much alcohol, smoke... Need I say more? It is no wonder we are in the shape we are in! If we don't take care of bodies, they WILL fail us--health problems, disease, joint/body aches and pains... It is just a matter of time before it happens--WHEN not IF. Exercise is a component of good health, especially as we age.

Here are just a few more reasons to get started with an exercise program today. Exercise will help you:

-sleep better
-lose, gain, or maintain weight, depending on your needs
-improve your resistance to fight infections
-lower your risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes
-help your brain work better, making you smarter

The key is to find a program and stick to it. Change your body, change your life. Start today!

Consistency....

Consistency...steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, etc. After deciding what you want to do (your goal), it takes consistent work to achieve it. That applies to anything you want to do--learn to paint, hit a home run, lose 10 pounds, complete a marathon.... You have to set a goal and work toward it in a consistent way. You can't decide today that you want to run a marathon this weekend. You have to build up your distance and you have to work on it, consistently. Since this blog is mostly about fitness, consistency means that you have to work at it--changing your diet, actually GOING to the gym, doing cardio. It starts with today and you do it one day at a time...everyday. If you are consistent, you will achieve results but--you have to work at it one day at a time.

Start today. Change your body, change your life!