Tag: fitness

When you’re a health nut and your significant other is... well, not so much, it can be easy to want to change them. And, of course, your heart’s in the right place. You want them to be healthy so they stick around with you for a very long time.

However, nagging and using a lot of "should" statements is only going to make them want to do the opposite. It’s pretty basic human behavior: tell someone they have to do something and they’ll resist.

So, let’s agree on a couple of ground rules to keep our relationships in good standing while making changes to improve the health of both partners:

Do you remember the last time you felt strong? How about powerful? Fierce? We feel them in our bodies as physical sensations and flood our minds with thoughts that reinforce how we feel. We make meaning of the physical sensations based on our past experience and current environmental context. We can tap this power to overcome obstacles on our fitness journey.

Sometimes I might feel strong following a presentation or asserting my needs successfully in relationship.

If you’re like most people who are trying to lose weight, you have a very close, yet very uncomfortable relationship with your bathroom scale. Most of the time, no matter how hard you work, it seems like your scale delights in making you miserable (and sometimes, you’d swear that it’s lying to you on purpose). But no matter how frustrated and demoralized you get, you step onto the scale every day, hoping against hope that the needle will move just a bit further to the left.

Sound familiar?

"I've become aware that I'm slowing down and losing my edge. I just don't have the energy to do all the things I used to and feel like old age is creeping up on me." Sound familiar?

Inevitably, our bodies change with time. The revelation that you can no longer rely on your body the way you used to comes with its own set of surprises. Are you starting to look for the elevator instead of taking the stairs? Are you having trouble carrying your grocery bags or lifting the roasting pan out of the oven? Do you have to use your arms to get up from a couch or easy chair? Do you tire easily and feel like you're falling behind?

The seed catalogs arrived two weeks ago. Today you got a mail order catalog featuring—horrors!—swimsuits. Hint, hint: It’s time to shape up for spring. In fact, it’s the perfect time. If you get started right now, you can lose those five to 10 pounds of extra winter padding by the time the first buttercups and tulips bloom.

Here are 10 fresh ways to trim down and shape up:

1. Change your ’tude. Change your mindset about the quality of your life. Imagine how life would be if you woke up feeling great, with a healthy glow and looking fantastic.

People who are out of shape in midlife may end up with smaller brain volume as they age compared to peers who exercise regularly, according to a U.S. study.

While past research suggests that brain shrinkage may be an unavoidable part of aging, the new findings add inactivity to a growing list of factors like smoking, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure that are thought to accelerate the process.

"We found that poor fitness in midlife was linked to more rapid brain aging two decades later," said lead author Nicole Spartano of Boston University School of Medicine.