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Setting a goal for where you want to be health-wise is an important step in developing an overall healthier lifestyle.  Many different attributes can contribute to this overall sense of well-being, but it is only after implementing these new procedures daily that you will begin to notice a difference, physically and mentally.  It is amazing what just a few simple lifestyle changes can do to your body image and health.

Coming up with a daily exercise routine is an essential part of boosting your own self-confidence as well as feeling more energized.  Starting off with a simple cardio workout and building up your endurance over the weeks is an easy way in which to achieve your daily exercise as well as feel healthier.  Taking walks around the neighborhood or even going to a nearby park makes a world of difference to your body, especially when it is accustomed to sitting inside an office all day.  Once you become used to this smaller amount of exercise, you can enhance it by jogging or even running for a set amount of time every day.  After a few weeks, you should notice substantial results which should help you continue your workout routine.

Summer months present the best time for a new change in lifestyle because of the amount of outdoor activities which you can participate in.  Outdoor sports on the weekends or even lap swimming at neighborhood pools are great ways in which to enjoy the summertime and still keep up a healthy way of life.  If cardio workouts become boring to you, you might want to look into outdoor activities which your community offers.  Many towns now have biking trails on which to ride for a few miles in a natural part of the town, and there are also many intramural teams that you can join to put yourself in more of a sports setting.  It is always important to vary your workout routine so that it does not become tiring to get stuck doing the same things every day; it can lead to a hesitance to work out when you are on the same trail.

Keeping up with a daily exercise routine will increase your overall happiness with your life because of the large difference a bit of exercise makes in the long run.  Your entire body will feel healthy, from your skin to your muscles and the added bonus of involving yourself with outdoor activities causes more vitamin D to be added to your life which is always an energy booster.  By monitoring your food intake at the same time, you will be ready to go for summer weather and will be able to continue this type of habit for months to come.

This post was contributed by Nicole White, who writes about masters of health care degree. She welcomes your feedback at Nicole.White222 at gmail.com

I was reading this article today about using hula hoops and jump ropes as another way to stay fit this summer.  What’s so cool about them is that both are inexpensive, and if done right, you can really give yourself some challenging exercises.  Plus, it’s a great way to give your body something different to keep yourself from falling into a rut of boredom while working out.

Take a look at the article here, and have fun!

Off to some sand volleyball with the friends I go.

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I recently had the pleasure of working with about 100 kids, from grades 1-6, at a summer camp.  My job was to find a way to get them to do a morning “wakeup” workout; talk about a challenge.  As many of you know, it’s not the easiest task to try and get kids to function at 7:30 in the morning during their summer vacation, let alone get them to exercise.  Needless to say, I was kind of nervous.

“What if they just stand there and look at me?  What if this totally bombs?” were some of the thoughts that were running through my head.  As 7:15 rolled around, a handful of kids started to trickle into the gymnasium.  Slowly, more and more kids started to wakeup and drag themselves into the gymnasium until about 7:40 when I was surrounded by tired kids looking at me like, “Exercise!  I just want to go back to bed mister.”

What was I to do?

The night before, when I was planning this whole shindig out, I decided that the best approach to take to the challenge of getting sleepy kids to exercise was to come up with a series of games.  I came up with games where the kids would partner up, and then one person would start moving around, and the other person would have to keep up and mirror the movements his/her partner was doing.

I also had the partners form a square around them and play tag with each other.  The idea was that if you stepped out of the square, that was a point.  If you got tagged, that was another point.  When one person got to 5 points, the game was over, and they started again.

My final idea was to design a bunch of relay races.  You can throw anything into a relay race, it doesn’t matter how hard it is.  I had relay races with the kids doing pushups, bear crawls, frog hops, 1-legged hops, all kinds of different exercises!

So with my game plan is place, I stood there looking at all these semi comatose kids with exercising at 7:30 [7:40] in the morning being the last thing on their mind.

We started off with the mirror game.  Success!  The kids woke up!  It actually turned out to be hilarious.  There were kids flailing themselves around with their partner struggling to keep up with their crazy movements.

We moved onto the partner game of tag.  Another success!  Not only were the kids awake, but now they were laughing and smiling, and on top of that, they were starting to breath heavier!

The moment of truth rolled around; it was time to test out my relay games.  I had the kids split up into different teams according to what cabin group they were in.  With the anticipation building, the kids were actually fired up to start the relay race.  I even had kids get down into a sprinter’s stance!

“Go!” I yelled, and the kids took off.  A funny thing happened.  After the first relay race was over, even though they had to do pushups and squats, they were yelling to do it again.  These 100+ kids were actually completely into the exercises I had secretly disguised as games!

When it was all said and done, the kids ran off to breakfast with smiles on their bright red, sweaty faces, and it just reiterated to me that you don’t have to make exercise a flavorless task filled with doing a set of 12 repetitions, followed by a 30-second rest break, followed again by a set of 12 repetitions.  Describing it like that, it’s no wonder that most people don’t like exercise.

Taking this example of the kids, I have even used this type of program design with my adult clients, and guess what?  I still have had the same results!  Everybody loves games.  I even had one client ask me if we could do more game-like workouts.

My point is, if you’re struggling with keeping yourself motivated to work out, grab a friend and come up with some games the two or three or four or more of you can compete against each other with.  Everybody loves a little competition, even kids as you can see, so by throwing a little competition into the workout mix, you’ll make life more interesting and healthier.  If you’re having trouble getting your kids to be active, take a lesson from the campers and come up with some workout games for your rug rats to enjoy.  The good thing is, you don’t even need a gym to be creative.  All you need is your own body weight and the great outdoors.

Creativity is a wonderful thing.  The more creative you can be with exercise, the less boring it’ll be, and the more likely you’ll enjoy doing it!

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