We live in an age of overwhelm and overload. It’s easy to be paralyzed by choices and feel lost in confusion. The world has become loud, noisy, and increasingly more intrusive.

Being true to ourselves has never been more challenging.

Who are you? What do you stand for? What do you stand against? What do you believe to be true about yourself and the world?

Here are some steps to reconnect with your authentic self in a world that tells you daily who you should be and what you should believe.

Curiosity 

Self-discovery begins with becoming curious about yourself and your life.

What are you passionate about?

What brings you joy?

What gives you a sense of fulfillment?

Explore all the different parts of your desires, interests, and personality. 

Be Present Without Judging Yourself 

It’s hard to connect with your authentic self when you dwell on the past or live in the future and judge yourself for how you feel, the mistakes you’ve made, or missed opportunities.

Take a few minutes to be alone, breathe, and root yourself in the present moment without judgment or self-criticism.

Observe your thoughts, emotions, and situation without attaching self-defeating or disempowering labels.

Accept yourself; be kind and compassionate.

Be your own best friend in this moment – be supportive of yourself!

Why? This quality of self-reflection deepens self-awareness, connecting you to your authentic self.

Values 

So many people are lured into chasing other people’s values.

Step back from the crowd and turn off your devices to protect yourself from the thousands of marketing messages that interrupt your life every day, telling you what you should buy, wear, believe, and be.

Ask yourself: What do I value—what’s most important to me? Is it honesty, integrity, family and friends, health, material wealth, faith, and connecting with God? 

Remember, your values and beliefs change as you mature and grow wiser. What was important to you five years ago might not be today.

Passions

When was the last time you thought about your passions?

What makes you feel alive? What energizes you? What feeds your soul with a sense of fulfillment?

It could be a cause, a hobby, a creative pursuit, or making a difference in the world through your faith community.

Explore your passions because they give you valuable insights into who you are at your core.

Confront Fear 

You can only unlock your best life once you face your fears and limiting beliefs.

What fears are keeping you from being you?

What beliefs aren’t serving you well?

What compromises are sabotaging your hopes and dreams?

Journal 

A journal is a safe space for you to record your thoughts, feelings, and experiences and see how you’re growing and progressing in life.

It reveals emotional and behavioral patterns, giving you deeper insights into your true self. This private space gives you permission to express yourself without fear of judgment. 

Strengths and Weaknesses 

What are your strengths and weaknesses? As difficult as it might be, this should be an objective process.

When do you feel strong?

When do you feel weak?

What do you embrace?

What do you avoid?

Ask people who love you and want to see you succeed what they see as some of your strengths and weaknesses.

Final Thoughts 

Connecting with your authentic self is an exciting journey. So, get curious, be fully present, spend time in non-judgmental self-reflection, explore your passions, and confront your fears to uncover your true self and finally unlock your best life.

The post Unlocking Your True Self appeared first on Lifestyle.

We are what we think. That’s what they say. Is it true – do you believe it? Maybe, maybe not. But there is a relationship between the quality of our thoughts and the quality of our life.

Some people try to improve their lives with materialistic things and experiences, or they turn to mind-altering substances to change how they feel or to numb their pain.

The key to a better life starts with your mind – with your thoughts, values, and boundaries. These are the driving forces behind how and why you feel and act the way you do.

Here are three tips for taking charge of your thoughts and changing them from negative to positive so you can begin unlocking your best life.

Recognize Negative Thought Patterns

Many people slip into negative thinking without even realizing it, which creates negative perceptions and beliefs. The result can be worry, stress, anxiety, depression, and physical ailments.

The first step to creating a better life is awareness. Here are some common thought patterns of people who struggle with negative thinking.

• Minimizing achievements and magnifying mistakes and failures
• Catastrophizing – always imagining the worst outcome
• All-or-nothing thinking
• Generalizing people and situations because of a single incident
• Ignoring positive statements and focusing on the negative

Build Healthy Thought Habits

Doing something over and over again creates a habit. Thought patterns work the same way. The more you think in a certain way, the more it becomes your automatic way of thinking.

The quality of your thoughts shapes the quality of your emotions. According to research, each thought ignites a chemical reaction in your brain, triggering a certain emotion. As a result, your emotions send signals to your body, causing you to react in certain ways.

Until you take control of your thinking, that cycle repeats itself until you wake up one day and it hits you: I’m not living the life I want for myself. You look in the mirror and see a stranger. And you wonder, “How did I get here?”

Something needs to change. And that something is your thought process. Become aware of your negative thought patterns, and notice how they’re affecting your life and emotions. Be honest with yourself about the person they’re turning you into.

Because you have the power of choice, you have the freedom to think about your thinking. Psychologists call it metacognition. It’s having an awareness of your thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them.

Once you’re aware of your thought processes and understand the patterns behind them, you can get to work reconditioning your mindset and thoughts.

Consider Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on the idea that our thoughts, behavior, and emotions are all connected.

CBT teaches/conditions you to challenge negative thoughts and behaviors and gives you the ability to see the untruths you’ve accepted about yourself.

CBT is a combination of learning and action because you’re given assignments to complete between sessions. You will discover how thoughts influence behavior. You’ll stop living by default and start living life intentionally.

Common strategies include:

• Coming face to face with your fears.
• Focusing on the present through deep breathing exercises and activating your five senses.
• Practicing new skills through role-playing or real-life experiences.

 In Summary

Negative thinking and thoughts will turn you into something that you don’t want to become. They keep you chained to self-doubt, old wounds, pain, fear, scarcity, and panic. They block you from a life of joy and abundance – from living life to the fullest.

Positive thoughts and an optimistic mindset ignite your life with power, purpose, and passion! Your mood will be cheerful. You’ll be motivated and inspired to work hard and pursue your dreams because you realize that you’re a person of value with something to offer!

You’re in charge of your thoughts. Get to work rewiring your brain by choosing to think happy, abundant, positive thoughts – thoughts that support you and make the world brighter. Will it be easy? No. Is it worth it? Yes, because a whole new life can be yours as you become aware of the relationship between your thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

You will be empowered to decide what you’re about – your values. And from there, create healthy boundaries that guide you. You will regain control of your life and begin living the life that you want and deserve.

Getting started might be difficult, but it gets easier, and it’s worth it. Do something today that your future self will thank you for!

Photo by Mark König on Unsplash

The post Why You Must Take Charge of Your Thinking appeared first on Lifestyle.

Your outlook determines what you believe to be true about yourself, life, and others. It’s your perception and reality, real or not. Your attitude can be a pathway to peace and inner calm or worry and chaos.

An optimistic outlook is essential to enjoying a life of health, success, and happiness.

Here are six ways to shift your outlook to be more optimistic.

Decide to Change

Your outlook won’t change until you decide to change it. Becoming a calmer, happier, and more accepting person is a choice.

It might take some work to fight against negative conditioning, but it’s worth it.

Changing your outlook begins with a decision – a decision that ignites the beginning of an amazing transformation.

Choose a New Perspective

Life comes with good and bad. You get to choose which one you’ll focus on. When something captures your attention, try to see it from different angles and points of view.

When something “bad” happens, be hopeful and strive to see what beneficial things can come from it. Keep directing your energy and attention to the good.

Choose Good Habits

A pessimistic outlook creates beliefs that lead to negative behaviors. A habit is nothing more than a behavior you repeatedly do over time. Choose healthier habits. Will it be easy? Probably not. But it’s worth it.

Start developing one good habit at a time. A great place to start is with a five-minute walk in the fresh air and sunshine at lunch or after dinner in the evening.

Other good habits to consider:

• Take charge of your finances by making a budget
• Volunteering in your community
• Meditation, journaling, prayer
• Attending a faith community
• Reduce processed food and sugar consumption
• Start sleeping 7-8 hours a night
• Self-care to boost energy and reduce stress
• Start a hobby you enjoy

Connect with Positive People

Everyone has good and bad days. But the difference is that optimistic people find the silver lining. These are the kind of people you want to be around because this is what you’ve chosen to become.

No matter what you’re going through, optimistic people will be a source of hope and encouragement. They’re solution-focused too, which means you’ll see more ways to address your situation; optimistic people are resourceful – they have a can-do spirit and attitude.

After a while, you’ll find yourself acting and thinking more like your optimistic friends. You’ll see yourself becoming more optimistic, confident, and self-assured.

Focus on Solutions

Many people tend to see problems instead of looking for solutions. It’s easy to dwell on the negative, but where does it get us? Nowhere.

Instead of dwelling on the problem, challenge yourself to come up with five or six ways to solve it. At first, it’s easier to complain and feel bad about the issue than to find solutions. But the more you practice the habit of being solution-focused, the easier and more natural it becomes. Choose to be hopeful and optimistic. Have faith in yourself and your abilities. Encourage yourself to stay positive and hopeful. Soon, your automatic response will be to focus on finding a solution rather than complaining about the problem.

Live Now

Spending too much time in the past or the future can create stress and anxiety. Your past is a library of lessons and experiences that have fashioned you into the person you’ve become. Then there’s there the future – dreams waiting for you to bring them to life.

Your past and future are important but are out of your control for the most part. The only thing you can control is yourself in the present moment. You can choose to make it the best it can be and live life to the fullest right now or miss out and live with regret and what “might’ve been.”

A great way to live in the present moment is to spend a few minutes every day in quiet reflection. Give yourself the gift of experiencing life right now. Practice gratitude by listing two or three things you’re truly thankful for. Appreciate your life. Consider ways you can make someone else’s life better. While you’re at it, think of something you can do to make your life better, too. This simple practice reduces worry and stress and gives you a more positive attitude.

A brighter outlook can be yours. You can have a better life starting now. You can more success, happiness and peace. Decide to change – to grow and improve, choose a new perspective, welcome good habits, connect with positive people, focus on solutions, and live now.

The post How To Be More Positive In Six Simple Steps appeared first on Lifestyle.

You won’t unlock your best life until you make your life a priority.

What Matters Most

Being an “influencer”, wearing designer clothes and traveling to exotic locations are wonderful experiences but they won’t make you happy or healthy because happiness isn’t something to be found somewhere out there or in another person.

Something else besides chasing relationships, status and possessions that keeps people from unlocking their best life is obsessing over what they’ve lost or don’t have.

Do you want to unlock your best life? Then here’s what you should do:

1.     Decide What Matters Most to You

Find a quiet place for thoughtful reflection; observe the different areas of your life… your health, relationships, finances, career, spirituality, passions and hobbies, etc.

Are there areas of your life demanding more of your time and attention than you should be giving? Sometimes life happens and you don’t have a choice. But have you been neglecting important areas of your life because you’ve been tending to stuff that’s “urgent?”

Are there any areas you’d like to give less time to? Anything you want to make more of a priority? Look, you’ll never be happy ordering your life around other people’s priorities.

It’s your life. Live it.

To have a life that you actually enjoy living requires making these a priority (maybe you can think of others to add to this list).

• Full health in mind, body, and soul
• Relationships
• Finances
• Growth and learning
• Shelter and basic needs
• Purpose, passion, drive
• Faith

At the end of the day, gaining material possessions or achieving success has little to do with what matters most, they might add to your happiness or pleasure in some way, but happiness has deeper roots; we unlock our best self by focusing on what really matters most to us.

2.     What YOU Like / Dislike Matters

Does your life matter to you? Are your likes and dislikes important? They should be because you matter. What you care about and want to do are important – just as important as what anyone else wants. Remind yourself that you’re a person of value and worth. Love yourself. Once you love yourself you can love others in a way that isn’t needy or forces them to make up for your emotional deficiencies.

Being at peace with yourself and actually liking who you are keeps you from seeking external validation, affirmation and approval. You should never have to prove to anyone that you measure up and are worth loving. Why? Because inherently you already measure up and are worth loving whether anyone recognizes it or not or says something to the contrary.

Give yourself some love – be kind, caring and forgiving to yourself.  When you look in the mirror remind yourself of the good qualities of the person looking back at you. Affirm yourself. Be a great friend to yourself. Focus on the good rather than the imperfections!

3.     Savor the Here and Now

Spending too much time in the past or future triggers worry, regret and anxiety. What matters most is right now because it’s the only moment you have the power to change!

Embrace the world that’s happening around you right now. Time is a precious gift to be appreciated. Every minute matters because time = life.

How much have you been savoring life? What are some blessings for which you could be grateful right now if you so chose?

4.     Pursue Passions

What are some passionate interests you’ve been putting off? It could be anything from training for a Spartan race to diving the Great Barrier or volunteering in your community.

Pursuing your passions and creating memories make life worth living. Want to rid your life of stress, busyness and overwhelm? Then bring things back into balance by pursuing your passions! Enjoy. Your. Life!

Embrace new experiences. Have fun. Laugh. Cry. Serve. Pray. Live! What matters most is living a fulfilling life. Pursuing passionate interests makes life worth living.

5.     Make Positive Choices & Habits

Time for a little math: Good choices + good habits = a good life.

Making better choices that enhance a healthy mind, body, and soul, creates a good life.

Create routines and rituals that take care of your life and support your overall well-being. Stay true to your beliefs, standards and values. Be committed to your dreams and what matters most to YOU; tune-out what the media says should matter most.

Be confident in who you are choosing to become because the kind of person you want to become is important.

Your thoughts and how you treat yourself matter because thoughts create choices, choices create habits, habits create character, character creates destiny. So be optimistic and focus on the positive.

Final Words

This post isn’t a substitute for books on how to identify what matters most; it’s just a gentle nudge. To unlock your best life, decide today to start giving more focus and energy to what matters most to you because you are important.

Remind yourself that other people won’t always agree with you on what should matter most for your life; it’s simply not as important to them – it isn’t a priority. Or their interaction with you might be driven by what they think is best for them, not you.

Either way, it’s your life and you only get one. Show yourself some love by being true to yourself and living life on your terms. Focus on what matters most.

Photo by Bart LaRue on Unsplash

The post Show Yourself Some Love appeared first on Lifestyle.

How much does fear rule your life? Is it turning you into a person you don’t like? Is it an unwanted companion you wish would go away?

Here are five common fears and tips for dealing with them.

1. You let what people think of you affect how you live

It’s nice to feel accepted… to belong. But when you compromise who you are to fit in and be accepted, something needs to change.

Never let the fear of rejection shape your desires or the kind of person you want to become.

Settling for a life that isn’t truly yours is settling for life in prison.

Never let people control how you act, think, or live. Sure, they have an influence – but not a controlling influence. Living a life of reaction isn’t living at all.

Your life is YOURS to live.

So decide what YOU want! Stop making unhealthy compromises just to fit in or be accepted. Don’t change who you just to keep “love” or certain people in your life.

Decide what you want and don’t want. Set realistic, achievable goals. And take action because “action” is an effective strategy for escaping fear’s grip.

2. You keep your thoughts and desires to yourself

The fear of criticism is as powerful as the fear of rejection. You might think that if they really knew how you thought or felt – if they knew the REAL you – they might not like you. So what? Is pretending to be something you’re not and sacrificing your happiness really worth it?

The thing is, people can tell when you’re holding back, leading them not to trust you or wondering if you’re being deceptive.

Give yourself the gift of being honest. It might take courage at first but peace of mind and heart, along with self-respect, are worth the risk.

Respect your ideas enough to share them because your thoughts, feelings, and desires are just as important as anyone else’s.

3. You resist trying new things

The fear of failure keeps us from taking chances and risks – even well-calculated ones.

This type of fear shows up as putting things off, sabotage, panic, and anxiety attacks.

The fear of failure is crippling. It undermines our abilities and confidence. We start believing things like, “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m not worthy,” or “I’ll never be as good as they are.”

If this sounds like you, find some inspiring quotes that give you the courage to move forward; keep them where you can see them all the time, like on a mirror or the refrigerator, to be reminded often of how amazing you are. As you take action, your self-confidence will grow, and your life will improve little by little.

4. You avoid doing the right thing

Fear makes people do things they know are wrong. It can also keep them from doing what they know is right by either saying nothing or doing nothing.

Are you afraid of offending someone, being punished, judged, rejected, ostracized, or of retaliation?

When forced to choose between right and wrong, remember your principles and what you believe.

Decide to stand up for what’s right.

If you need some courage to do the right thing, write on a piece of paper, all the things fear will cost you or others if you stand idly by and do nothing. Then, burn it up and move forward bravely.

5. You settle for less than you want or deserve

You settle for a career that’s just “okay,” or a safe but passionless relationship or you settle for “average” health that’s just a few pounds overweight.

You fool yourself into believing that it isn’t really that bad. “It could be worse,” you think… at least you’re safe and know what to expect.

You get one life. Never settle; it doesn’t do you or anyone else any good. Settling snuffs out hope. Want a dull, boring, numb life? Settle. Settling kills enthusiasm, hope, passion, and creativity.

Want to stop settling? Start taking risks, even small ones. You deserve to live life on YOUR terms; if you’re not trying, you’re not living. And if you’re settling, you’re not free either.

Stop worrying about disappointing people, and start living and dreaming of a brighter, more passionate tomorrow.

Different Types of Fears Holding You Back

Fear is a thief waiting to steal your joy and everything you hold dear to your heart. Here’ a common list of fears we all struggle with from time time:

• Fear of the unknown
• Fear of making a mistake
• Fear of criticism
• Fear of failure
• Fear of abandonment
• Fear of not being popular

Overcoming Your Fears

Below are some helpful tips for transforming fear from something that holds you back into something that propels you forward:

• Examine your values
• Believe in yourself
• Spend time in reflection and meditation
• Practice living in the moment and not in the past or the future
• Keep a journal
• Seek divine guidance
• Realize that you’re not alone
• Take an action every day that reinforces the best version of yourself
• Embrace a little bit of uncertainty in your life
• Be true to yourself no matter

This holiday season, give yourself the gift of courage and start living YOUR life.

Image by analogicus from Pixabay

The post The Gift of Fearlessness appeared first on Lifestyle.

Maybe we do it because it makes us feel more in control…or because we want everything to be perfect. Whatever the reason, here are four ways people make life way harder than it has to be.

Do you have unrealistic goals in life?

Who sets our goals? Well, we do!

We control our expectations and goals.

Setting unrealistic or unachievable goals makes life harder.

Sometimes we set unrealistic goals when trying to escape a painful situation, or when we get really excited about something!

Life gets a little bit easier when we take time to count our blessings and live each day from a place of gratitude.

Gratitude breeds contentment, and it helps us to enjoy the journey, too.

Being grateful and content, while intentionally working to improve your life through small, daily actions, creates a much different quality of life than being worried and stressed out all of the time, trying to escape a situation.

Living with a sense of peace makes life easier. Living with sense of panic makes it harder.

Counting your blessings and taking consistent action towards reaching your goals makes life easier. Period.

Do you compare yourself with others?

Social media can be a blessing or a curse. It quickly becomes toxic when we compare ourselves to others.

Keep in mind that people on social media rarely glorify their failures.

Usually, when someone posts something on Facebook or Instagram, it’s their best moments.

Why would we ever compare ourselves to that? It makes no sense, plus it makes life so much more difficult.

Someone may look glamorous in a photo they posted, but what does their life look like off camera?

Strive to become YOUR best; live your life, not someone else’s. There will always be someone richer, smarter, and better looking (remember beauty is in the eyes of the beholder).

The ONLY person you should compare yourself to is your former self.

Look at how far you’ve come, how much you’ve improved, and who you are now.

Are you scared to take risks?

Comfort zones. We all have them…and we like staying in them. We tend to be risk-averse; it’s our nature.

But, do you ever feel stuck, trapped, or in a self-made prison?

Maybe taking a few well-calculated risks is just what the doctor ordered.

We need to will ourselves to step beyond our comfort zones because that’s where we learn and grow, and where life becomes less monotonous and more exciting.

What kind of risks are we talking about?

Are we talking about throwing caution to the wind and finding a mountain to climb and jump off? Maybe. But probably not, especially if it’s your first mountain and first-ever base jump.

There are other risks, though. Scarier ones. Sometimes to make our lives better we have to risk being rejected by people, or risk losing money by making calculated investments. Or, it could be starting over in a new place where no one knows you, but you do it anyway because you need a fresh start.

Are you taking risks or playing it safe?

Set one or two simple short-term goals to improve some part of your life. Once you overcome that challenge, set higher goals; take more risks.

We make life harder when we insist on living within the safety of our comfort zones.

Do you attribute hostile intentions?

When someone does something that hurts you, do you believe it’s because they intended to?

Most people don’t intend to harm you intentionally.

We make life more difficult when we assign bad intentions to people’s actions towards us.

Do you think that your partner is ignoring you? Think of it this way: Maybe they’re just tired or preoccupied with something at work. Remind yourself that your partner would never do anything intentionally to hurt you.

The person who cut you off in traffic could be out of work and is rushing to a job interview – he or she didn’t do it to make you mad.

Life gets really hard when we take things personally all the time. The world isn’t out to get us. Sometimes things happen out of coincidence.

Attributinng hostile intent will only make you feel angry, hurt, or sad.

Now let’s summarize what we discussed: Learn to worry less about others’ intentions towards you; they’re dealing with their own stuff and aren’t being malicious.

Learn to take intelligent risks, take chances, and set realistic goals. Life won’t get better until we change our habits. Want a fulflling life? Step out of your comfort zone.

And, lastly, please don’t ever compare yourself to anyone else; it’ll make you feel miserable. Be grateful for your blessings, and have a vision for a better life.

Image by Elias Sch. from Pixabay

The post 4 Ways You’re Making Life Harder Than It Has To Be appeared first on Lifestyle.

However, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the holidays and indulging in special treats or rich foods. We just need to make sure we don’t eat that way the rest of the year!

Some people go on one of those guilt-ridden juice cleanses and deprive themselves of their favorite foods in January to atone for eating poorly during the holidays. But this kind of all or nothing approach rarely works because it’s unsustainable. A better approach is to set small, realistic goals that slowly reset your mindset and body.

It’s Really Not a Big Deal

A couple of days of overindulgence is really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. So don’t treat it like a major catastrophe or as an excuse to eat more junk food because the “week is lost as far as healthy eating goes.” Instead of wallowing in guilt or regret for falling off the wagon, just hit the reset button.

Hit the Reset Button ASAP

A quick rebound is the biggest predictor of long-term health success. A weekend or two of over-indulgence won’t affect your long-term health goals if you get back on track as soon as possible.

Just don’t let a few bad eating choices become the new normal for your eating habits moving forward; start eating nutritious meals again as soon as possible.

One Meal at a Time

Getting back on track is more manageable when you do it one meal at a time. Just focus on making one nutritious meal, and then another, and then another.

A few days of eating nutrient rich food like fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and whole grains is all you need to cleanse your palate and blunt cravings for sweet and greasy junk food.

Work Out

Healthy eating and fitness go hand in hand; nothing revs up your metabolism like a good workout. If you want your body to burn carbs and fat more efficiently, slowly incorporate, or reintroduce, exercise into your routine.

To be consistent with an exercise program, it helps to remember the mental and emotional benefits of working out to stay motivated.

And when you feel stressed and are tempted to comfort yourself by overeating or scarfing down a pint of your favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, stop flirting with temptation and go for a walk or run immediately instead to conquer any cravings for comfort food.

We all overindulge from time to time but it’s really no big deal. Health and fitness is not a predefined road that requires perfection. Just focus on making your next meal healthier, throw in some exercise and before you know it you’ll be back on track in no time.

The post Getting Back on Track after a Period of Overindulgence appeared first on Lifestyle.

Weightlifting increases muscle mass, so it’s great for your health and transforming your body. In the long run, it torches more calories than pure cardio because it keeps one’s metabolism elevated over a longer period of time than does aerobic activity long after the workout is done. Plus, the more muscle you add, the more calories you burn because muscle uses more energy than fat does.

Additionally, weightlifting improves posture and strength, making everyday activities easier.

Lastly, weightlifting is a great way to challenge yourself to create a strong work ethic because it takes grit to stick with it.

What to Expect

It goes without saying that weightlifting isn’t a walk in the park; it takes time and dedication to master correct form but the time and effort are worth it.

Most lifters rely on 4 main exercises known as the Big Four: the squat, bench press, overhead press, and dead lift. These lifts are incorporated into nearly all routines because they use multiple muscles at once.

For example, the bench press relies on the chest muscles, shoulders and triceps. It’s the perfect lift for less experienced weight lifters who lack the knowledge and experience to perform isolation routines that are designed to target individual muscles.

Getting Started

There are plenty of great resources online about the Big Four and how to do them. However, if you’re a complete beginner, your best bet is to join a gym and get a personal trainer.

While the weight lifting culture at some gyms is not exactly welcoming to beginners, the benefits of lifting correctly offset the discomfort of being a newcomer. In fact, most people are more than willing to offer help if you ask but otherwise they won’t bother you.

At the end of the day, learning to lift weights is just like learning anything else. It is challenging in the beginning but if you stick with it, it will be incredibly rewarding in more ways than you can imagine, especially with regards to weight loss, body composition and the great numbers you’ll get at your annual physical.

Women can Lift Weights Too

Many women consider weight lifting to be a man’s sport. They fear that lifting weights will make them look bulky and massive. However, this is a terrible and unfortunate misconception; weightlifting actually makes the bodies of women look shapely and toned. Weightlifters who look massive and bulky usually become that way by using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. If you don’t take drugs, you won’t become huge and bulky.

In closing, the thing to keep in mind is that building muscle turns your body into a fat burning machine. It does this by increasing lean body mass, which in turn increases the amount of calories you burn daily. Combined with a modest calorie deficit, this means you will burn fat as fuel, resulting in a more toned and shapely body (and a healthier one, too because appearance isn’t everything).

A healthy diet, plus weight lifting is more effective for weight loss than a healthy diet alone. It’s because weight lifting burns fat while cardio burns both fat and muscle.

If you want to start lifting weights, talk to a personal trainer or coach. Remember, it’s easy to injure yourself when first starting; using correct form is more important than how many pounds you lift. So do yourself a favor, to prevent injury and make steady progress, seek advice from someone who knows what they’re doing as you begin your journey to total body transformation.

The post Less Treadmill & More Weights! appeared first on Lifestyle.

When you’re trying to break a bad lifestyle habit, routine can be your friend and your enemy. Eating healthy foods and exercising regularly is challenging in the beginning but if you stick with it long enough it becomes a habit and you go into autopilot mode.

The Challenge

Having big health and fitness goals is great but can be overwhelming. Think about it, a goal to “give up sugar for 30 days” sounds more achievable than a goal to “be healthier.”

The easiest way to break bad lifestyle habits is through small incremental changes. When you make a small change every day you hardly notice that something is different.

The Science

Science says that it takes a little over two weeks to break a habit, so if you want to unlearn the old habit and learn a new one you must be willing to commit for at least 30 days. This is not to say that 30 days is some sort of magic line that makes you immune to your old ways but it’s a good place to start.

There are three distinct stages that make up a habit: cue, routine and reward. The cue triggers the routine. For instance, stress can be a cue for cravings. When triggered, you automatically go into routine mode and start doing things to satisfy the craving. The satisfaction you get from doing this is the reward.

The first step to breaking bad habits is identifying the cues, routines and rewards associated with them.

New Routine

While it’s possible to avoid the things that trigger bad habits it’s much easier to replace the current routine with a new one. This way it’s a lot harder to go back to your old ways when you inevitably hit a rough patch.

The first step to changing a routine is to come up with a specific plan. For instance, if your goal is to go to the gym more often, sign up for a class.

Secondly, plan to tackle one small goal every week. Science shows that it is impossible to change multiple habits at once. So don’t try to give up sugar and bread and eat more fruit and vegetables all in one week. Do one thing at a time.

The changes should also be incremental. If you give up sugar one week, don’t reintroduce it during “fruit and vegetable” week. You would continue limiting your sugar intake while adding fruit and vegetables because this way you don’t lose any ground.

You can have the health you desire by using incremental micro changes to break bad habits and transform your life one day (or one hour) at a time.

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