Could Pickleball Be Your Happiness Hack?

 

 Photo by Aleksander Saks on Unsplash

When an announcement for a beginner’s pickleball class appeared in my inbox I wondered if it might be just the opportunity I needed. It could be a chance to replace the casual social connections I’d lost during covid, when my yoga and running buddies fell by the wayside for various reasons. The absence of those social connections created a happiness and well-being deficit. The conversations we have, sharing little snippets of life, sometimes over the course of years, don’t seem like much, until they’re gone. This is especially true if, like me, you work from home.

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3 Simple Hacks To Help You Lose Weight, Get Fit And Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle

Is your freezer filled with meals from that expensive diet you abandoned a year ago? Maybe you saw the perfect piece of exercise equipment in an infomercial, spent a small fortune, and now it languishes in your spare room. Perhaps it’s the fitness tracker that tells you what you no longer want to know about your sleep, diet and exercise.

Those items are wonderful if you use them as part of your bigger plan to get and stay healthy in mind, body and spirit.

It’s not the diet or equipment that gets you to your fitness goals, it’s the determination and intention to be in it for the long-haul. That, and a few simple things to keep in mind to avoid the fads and the flops:

1.      Beware of fads. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Consider the claims made about that Clear Quartz in your water bottle. Read more here...

Click here to see my Spring, 2016 Newsletter, with my recent posts and others I've enjoyed on health and wellness, relationships, dating and post-divorce adjustment. And there's news about my new office. Read it here…

For the next 5 days my book, The Post-Divorce Survival Guide. Tools for Your Journey, is available FREE.

A Simple Hack to Stick to Any Goal… using a Rubber Band

My guest blogger, Victor Mathieux, has developed a simple product he thinks will help you reach your goal, any goal. Check it out. It's science:


A couple years ago I launched the Everest goal-setting app and many people from this community liked it, so I’m back to share something new (full-disclosure: I am sharing a product but also have a useful hack you can use regardless):

One day, I realized that despite having 3 reminders set on my phone to “do pushups & take vitamins,” I STILL WASN’T DOING IT. Having studied behavior change for years and having co-founded a company whose sole purpose was to help people stick to their goals, I found this lack of consistency in my own life frustrating.

Practically speaking, I was well aware that to turn a goal into action, three things need to come together: First, you must have the ability to do the task, second, the motivation or desire to do it in the first place, and third, a trigger that sparks you to do it (if you’re not already familiar with this framework, you should checkout the work of BJ Fogg, a behavioral researcher at Stanford).

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The Zen Of Wellness

Does the thought of creating a wellness plan trigger fear of deprivation, pain and suffering? You may worry about a diet free from unhealthy foods, the physical pain involved in starting an exercise program or the suffering of trying to make good choices when it would be so much easier to have that drink, smoke that cigarette or enjoy that chocolate cake. 

As much as you try to avoid it, you can't help but notice that, in the news again, is the advice to eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat and sugar. It's time to take that advice to heart.

With heartfelt caring for your mind, body and spirit, I suggest an Eastern approach to practicing wellness. I borrow from the Buddhist eightfold path, tenets to apply to your wellness plan. May it ease your suffering and enliven your plan to try: 

Right Speech

Stop undermining your plan by being washy washy about how many times a week you'll get to the gym or whether you can really live without your favorite fast food.

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The Five Benefits of a Well-Organized Life

One of my clients wants to work on how to be more like a grown-up; she wonders if she needs a schedule. Another bemoans the need for routine in her diet to help her lose weight.  A third client wants to start an exercise program but hates the idea of scheduling it. There's something about the myriad routines and schedules of adult life that many of us resist. 

The Big Think's mention of a new book by Mason Curry, about the daily rituals of successful, creative people, reinforced my position that routines are essential for achievement in anything and everything. 

While I prefer the word "routine" to "ritual," the latter provoking images of questionable, dark practices, people who get things done often lead very structured lives. 

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What You Need For Successful Weight Loss

Would it come as a surprise if I told you recent survey shows that fancy diets aren't any more likely to result in weight loss than a phone app or sensible eating plan? Even the CEO of Weight Watchers cites routine as his primary weight loss strategy. While he makes healthy choices, my guess is that the routine really sets him up for success.

Your overriding philosophy must be to eat less and exercise more. This is what you need for a positive weight loss experience.

Eating:

·         Develop a plan for mindful, healthy eating that includes, ideally, 3 meals and 2 snacks. Be ruthless in cutting out unhealthy foods and rigid in setting up healthy meals.

·         Shop weekly or as often as needed so that you have the food on hand for these meals and snacks. Take them with you to work if you can.

·         Plan for unusual circumstances like eating out, traveling or vacationing. Decide in advance what you'll eat in restaurants, and what you will not eat. It may seem a bit eccentric, but you can take snacks with you when you're traveling to maximize good choices. Consider vacations a trip into health, not an excuse for unhealthy behavior.

Exercising:

Develop a plan for regular exercise that includes, ideally, 4 days a week at 30...Read More Here

Top 7 Steps to Wellness

These are my top wellness steps borrowed from what the books say and what I’ve learned from my clients. If you want to improve your wellness, you may have to eat differently, change your exercise program, or develop a new sleep plan.  You have to be focused. There may be other behaviors you have to look at, like how much time you work, relax and spend with friends.  You can use these steps with any goal you’re working on.

1. Keep a journal of the behaviors you’re working on. For example, note what you eat and what type of exercise you’re doing. Writing things down help shine a light on the good, the bad and the ugly, and keeps you focused on same.

2. Set clear goals for target behaviors. Ask “what,” “when,” and “how much,” for your goals. Keep them SMART (specific, measureable, achievable, realistic, time-limited). This makes it easier to track your progress.

3. Review your goals every 90 days or so. Once you get going with a program, what’s working and what’s not become clearer. Revise your goals as needed. Nothing is written in stone. You’re looking for strategies that move you forward.

4. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t want to diet so you lose weight quickly. Everyone knows that you’ll put it back on because it’s not sustainable. Sensible, healthy strategies will result in slower progress, but you’ll be able to go the distance.

5. Enjoy the journey, e.g., find foods you like to eat and activities you enjoy. Select things that feel authentically yours. Change it up if you do better with variety. Again, you’re looking for things that are sustainable, not an activity you dislike and will not continue for the long haul. Make it fun.

6. Routine, routine, routine. Routines reduce opportunities for mistakes. If you know what you’re eating and when you’re meditating, there are fewer bad choices. You can view routines as boring, or you can see them as good practice. The latter is more useful if not always exciting.

7. Celebrate success. Note it in your journal, share it with friends and do something for yourself when you meet goals. Even small successes deserve rewards. Bigger successes warrant larger rewards.

It’s not that difficult if you keep it simple and use the steps. Wellness is an ongoing process in which you want to be fully engaged. You are always working on your wellness plan, tweaking it and changing it up to push yourself to the next level. And the next.  And the next.

For inspiration:  Beyonce’s Move Your Body

Wait a Minute…Women’s Weight Concerns

A recent study found that 30% of women would trade at least a year of their life to attain their idea body image.  10% would trade 2-5 years!!!  These same women are apparently willing to sacrifice money, promotions, time with family and their health, for this same goal of attaining ideal body weight and shape.

Wait a minute.  Have they ever heard of exercise and eating a healthy diet?  I’m reminded of boob jobs and, my recent favorite, surgery to produce elf ears.   Yes, seriously.

But there are reasons for their concerns.  Almost half of the women in the study had been ridiculed because of their appearance.  Almost all had negative thoughts about their physical appearance within the prior week.  The real kicker, 98% were within the normal range for weight.

I’ve gone on about healthy eating and exercise before.  Let me try something a little different here.  How often have you done the following:

-Told a woman (friend, lover, sister) teen or girl that she looks great, healthy or fit?

-Complimented a woman for eating healthy?

-Praised a woman for keeping up her exercise routine?

-Accepted that a woman doesn’t want seconds or dessert the first time she declines?

-Suggested a woman take some time for herself to go to the gym or take a walk?

Can you think of other ways to support the women in your life in their exercise and dietary goals?  I have to say, I’m a healthy eater and an avid exerciser.  Some would use other adjectives to describe my eating and exercise.  People tease me about both.  I’m suggesting that we try to support women and girls in their efforts, and offer appropriate praise for physical appearance.  And when doubt strikes, wait a minute, and ask yourself what’s really important?

Beautiful Soul, Jesse McCartney

Exercise for Daily Life

We all know that limiting exercise to the weekend is not enough to keep fit and is hard on the body. Although we can’t all bike or walk to work, I like the idea of integrating exercise into daily life in as many ways as possible. It capitalizes on the momentum you develop around work. It builds on the schedule you already have for work. It can help you tap into your inner grit.

How about these options for you?

*Go to the gym right before or after work
*Walk, run bike or go to the gym at lunch
*Use the stairs instead of the elevator
*Walk or bike to your next appointment
*Schedule gym, yoga or biking time in your work-week
*Keep a yoga mat, stationary bike or exercise clothes/shoes at the office in case you get a break
*Use a jogging stroller, kiddy bike seat or baby back-pack to incorporate exercise into the work of childcare
*Use the exercise room at hotels during business trips
*Explore new cities on foot, walking or running when traveling
*Take a dance, exercise or yoga class during lunch
*Do short family/couple/friend hikes, walks, rides and runs during the week

Think about what might work for you. Each option will not work for everyone, and you may come up with some better ideas (please leave a comment) that work for you.

Tunes for daily exercise:
Boom Boom Pow, Black Eyed Peas
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody dance now), C+C Music Factory
Just Dance, Lady Gaga
Life is a Highway, Tom Cochrane

Grit Keeps us Going

There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start and so on - Robert Byrne

You’re trying to start an exercise plan or a diet, or maybe both. Bravo to you. Perhaps you’ve tried one or both of these many times without much success. Or if you’re like most dieters, you know how to lose weight, just not how to keep it off.

I always tell people to pick plans that they think they’ll be comfortable with for life. After all, the goal is not to go to the gym for 3 months or lose 20 pounds, it’s to exercise regularly or lose weight and continue a healthy diet, right?

I like the construct of grit for helping us maintain the best laid plans. Grit is the combination of perseverance and passion for an important goal. I think your health would qualify as an important goal.

A few tips for getting more gritty:

-Find a plan you can be passionate about…don’t force yourself into something unappealing. Pick something you can be excited about.

-Pick out people who do it successfully and study how they do it…only use things you feel comfortable with that fit your lifestyle.

-Dedicate yourself…once you decide on a plan, stick to it. You can change it, but you cannot abandon the effort.

-Learn from setbacks…it’s really the only way to learn. Figure out how to tweak your program to make it work better for you.

-Run the marathon…no, not literally, unless you really want to. It’s going to take time to change habits and get where you want to go. Keep pushing since having a good challenge tends to keep us going.

Keep it up, and be that first kind of person Byrne refers to. Think about what it will feel like to be the kind of person who finishes what they start.

Keep an eye out for my Ezine article coming out soon on this topic.