Does Physical Health = Happiness?

This post is the first in a series relating physical health to happiness.  While it's true that merely having a healthy body will not make you a happier person (there are plenty of healthy, miserable people out there) taking care of your body is still a good place to start.  If your body is un-healthy, it will be much harder for you to achieve your maximum happiness, so we'll start here.  

Our society is pretty obsessed with fad diets, fad exercise regimes, diet pills, etc.  In fact, Americans spend over 40 billion dollars on fitness related products every year.  That's a lot of cash being thrown at people who are selling you little more than hope.  

Unfortunately, it's also a lot of cash that is apparently being wasted.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one third of Americans are now considered obese.  Obesity is also the underlying cause of many preventable deaths, such as heart diseases, certain cancers, type 2 diabetes and strokes, to name a few.  As you can imagine, with one in three people being obese and most likely ending up with one of the above mentioned diseases, obesity health care costs are sky-high:  $147 billion (in 2008), and an obese person can expect to pay $1,429 more each year on heath related costs than their average-weight counterparts.  

I'm sure I don't have to do much convincing for you to agree that the obesity epidemic is certainly troublesome.  Chances are you have several loved ones who are obese or you may even be obese yourself.  Many people take the attitude of "I'm going to enjoy life and eat what I want and be as lazy as I want.  I don't want to eat things that taste like cardboard and then go run a marathon.  I'm fine being 'fat & happy.'"  Sadly, that attitude will actually sap you of future happiness, cost you more money, and negatively effect the lives of those closest to you.  Not exactly a prescription for happiness.  

So how do you become healthy and happy without starving yourself or depriving yourself?  Stay tuned - next week we will explore the nutrition side of health and hopefully, you can see how easy it is to start making (tasty) changes to your diet.  

Until next week, examine your own life.  How physically healthy do you think you really are?  Are there changes you've been meaning to make but just haven't gotten around to it yet?  Why?  

For more inspiration, visit me on Facebook!

How Simple

"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify." Henry David Thoreau

Take a look at your surroundings right now.  Are you surrounded by "stuff?"  Your "stuff" is supposed to make your life easier...simpler...but it may actually be doing the opposite.  Accumulating more things can clutter our surroundings and our minds, detracting us from our own happiness.

Most of us are aware that in our society, consumerism is king.  Retailers, of course promote this and to some extent, we need to keep purchasing things to support our economy, but how much stuff do we really need?  

Have you ever felt the need to upgrade when what you had was actually working just fine?  This is seen a lot with cars, TVs, phones...  Is there really anything wrong with what you have or are you upgrading for the sake of upgrading?  Or, are you being convinced by some savvy marketing scheme that an upgrade is necessary?

Take a look at this clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live then ask yourself, 

"Is there anything I've been coveting lately that I could do without?  How can I simplify my life?"

Enjoy the humor and have a happy Friday!

Jimmy Kimmel iPhone5 Prank

Procrastination (I was going to think of a clever title, but didn't get around to it...)

Procrastination and I have a love-hate relationship.  On the one hand, I looooove to be lazy.  It's 73 degrees outside, the sun is shining and I just got a new book to read?  Guess where I'll be.  I guarantee you its not wiping down my kitchen cupboards.  When it comes to your happiness however, you're best off if you keep the procrastination to a minimum.  Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't go outside and enjoy that 73 degree day - but if your cupboards need to be wiped down (as mine constantly do with a 3 year-old living in the house), you'll actually feel better (happier) if you wipe them down first and then go outside to enjoy the day.  That old "work first, then play" adage holds some merit.

When you procrastinate, the task you're avoiding gains power over you.  You'll think of it often.  "Gee, I really should get to that."  Your intentions are fair.  "As soon as I finish this other more important project..."  It might even make its way onto your to-do list.   But the more you avoid it, the more guilt you'll wind up feeling.

In the article, Procrastination: Ten Things To Know, Hara Estroff Marano makes a good point:  "There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination." Do you recognize any of these procrastination types in yourself?  The three basic types of procrastination are - thrill seekers (wait until the last minute for the rush they get), avoiders (avoiding a fear of failure and worried about what others will think of them), and decisional procrastinators ("If I don't make the decision, I'm not responsible for the outcome"). Exhibiting these types of behaviors are sure to rob you of your future success - or at least postpone it.

So what works? For chronic procrastinators, cognitive therapy  is recommended.  For the rest of us occasional procrastinators, here is a trick that may help:  when you catch yourself putting off a task, ask yourself why you're not doing it right now.  If it's simply because it's not a high priority, then that's not really procrastination, you're just trying to utilize your time effectively.  If, however, you are putting off a task for another reason, your best bet is to take a minute to identify why you don't want to do the task, and then decide if maybe you'd better off if you just did it and got it over with.  Set a specific deadline when you'll have the task completed.

I'll leave you with these wise words from Frank Tibolt, writer, motivator and success trainer:

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing.  Action always generates inspiration.  Inspiration seldom generates action."

Action step: Take a look at your to-do list.  What items have you been putting off and why?  When is your deadline?