Recharge Your Health

Obviously, the main place to start when wishing to recharge your life is with setting down what intentions you have before getting a practical action plan together.

But one component of that plan often overlooked is health.

How can you expect to find those much-needed extra reserves of energy and to excel with razor sharp focus if you don’t first prime that body for action? In short, you gotta get fit and raise those energy levels.

The “H” Word

I’m always amazed when asked to list the most important areas of life, some folks put areas like career, finance, relationships, etc, ahead of that all important “h” word – health!

It even, on occasion, misses the list altogether!! Yet without good health we simply don’t function. Without being considerate and giving our body exactly what it needs to work at its optimum level how can we expect to get up and go anywhere?

Whatever plans we may have laid will be thwarted by lack of energy, because let’s face it; what “oomph” we need normally is doubled at times of change.

Get Up And Go

But how can you implement health as an important area in your plans to recharge? Firstly by acknowledging that optimum health can exist, but doesn’t just “happen.”

Let’s face it, good health and limitless amounts of energy was something we enjoyed as teenagers, but now even though it’s still possible to feel that same sense of vitality and stamina, nowadays it will usually be the result of a bit of a plan.

“Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.”
Alexis Carrel

Question Time

1. What plan for health do you have at the moment?
2. Are you a member of a health club?
3. Do you swim?
4. What about nutrition?
5. Do you eat your five portions of fruit and veg a day?
6. Do you take supplements?
7. What do you do to improve your work-life balance meditate, practise yoga or tai chi?

And we haven’t even mentioned alternative approaches yet. Take a moment to write down your current physical shape.

Are You a 10 out of 10?

How would you rate your overall level of fitness (between 1 10, where 10 is tops)? Ask yourself:

• What physical exercise have you done during the last week?
• How many hours did you exercise for?
• How would you rate your current diet (1 -10)?
• When did you last eat your five portions of fruit and veg in one day?
• What feelings or thoughts do you attach when thinking about all of the above?

Change The Frame

Richard Bandler, one of the founders of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) suggests that what we associate to something is the defining factor to how we feel about it. For example, if I say “London,” some of you might think “interesting, fun, beautiful,” whereas others might think “dirty, busy, and dangerous.” Yet you’d both be talking about the same place.

The difference would be your interpretation; how you frame London in your mind. So, if I were also to say the word “healthy lifestyle,” some might think “vibrant, sexy, having the ‘wow’ factor,” whilst others would associate “boring, restrictive, or no fun at all.”

Raise Your Game

Looking back to the answers concerning your current levels of fitness, and how you answered and subsequently thought about you and your health, did you feel good, or not so good about it?

How would you feel if you raised your game on what you thought concerning health and fitness in the future?

If you were to start a new fitness regime, or recharge the one you already have, how would you feel about it. Or what would you have to feel about it in order to increase your desire to do it? What frame are you seeing now? Is it the “oh, my God” picture, or one saying “bring it on”?

If the former and the prospect of moving up a gear turns you off, ask yourself what you’d have to think in order to change that belief?

Could you include something along with it that you already like?

For example, if you don’t like the thought of running alone (“boring, lonely” might be your association), what about running with a friend? Imagine the chatter you could get up to.

Accentuate The Positive!

Or maybe you could join a health club and watch Eastenders whilst doing your 10km on the treadmill three times a week as thousands already do.

The thing is, to give whatever you decide to do in life a chance of succeeding, you have to attach as many positive thoughts on to it as possible.

So, in the future when you think “running” you think “best friend, beautiful park, favourite TV soap,” not to mention loads of “newfound energy and enthusiasm,” which soon take over as the primary factors once we’ve got through the first couple of weeks.

Think ditto for eating habits, sleeping, meditating, etc. Healthy equals sexy, fun, friends, interesting, energy – the list really does go on. Stodgy food would also however, equal “heavy, bloated, and lethargic” and I’m sure you don’t wish to feel anymore of that.

“Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and to keep it lit”
Mary Lou Retton

A B=C

So, why is the subject of health so important, especially when you want to recharge our life? Simply, because to succeed and find that new burst of enthusiasm and energy for life you have to begin with good foundations.

The thing that will get us out of bed in the morning is a good night’s sleep. What gives us energy for the day is optimum nutrition. Yet it’s having a healthy body that will allow both to happen.

You don’t have to be Olympian, just upgrade a few notches from where you are now and believe me; you will feel the difference within a few days. And with that new burst of energy you will see that re-charging the rest of you life is absolutely 100% possible!

Five Tips to Recharge Your Health

1. Do A Health Inventory On Yourself

Go through all the areasof your health from nutrition, to exercise, to energy levels, and see how you shape up. Are your energy levels there already? If not, what is stopping them or dragging them down?

Remember, knowledge is power. Honesty is the watchword here. Give yourself the gift.

2. Switch To Unleaded

…metaphorically speaking, of course. We all know that our cars not only run more easily without that nasty old leaded fuel, but the environment breaths a sigh of relief, too.

So, what can you do to unclog that saggy old energy you’ve been lugging around? Would it be to detox? If so, there’s a huge array to educate and help you on your way, from a Boots home kit, to a weekend at your local Champneys health spa. What would the first step be for you?

3. Good Nutrition Is The New Black

Think vibrancy, a silky new sheen to your skin, think sexy new you. How? Food. Fresh, fresh, fresh and cut down massively on processed anything.

Again, a great source of information is the whole series of “You Are What You Eat” books by the brutally honest Dr Gillian McKeith. Now there’s even the cookbook! I’ve tried it and liked it and yes improving your diet with her suggestions does improve your health and stocks of energy.

If you’re not a reader, get the DVD. If you don’t like Dr Gillian, do the whole food stock-take yourself. From now on when you visualise a fresh, nutritional meal let it be framed with a Hollywood “just won the Oscar, darling” tag. You’ve got the newfound energy; now flaunt it.

4. (S)Exercise!

Well, doctors do say it’s the best form of exercise, uses all the main muscle groups, AND burns the most calories… but apart from that of course, check out your local gym or health club, call your friends and arrange tennis, squash, badminton, jogging, power walking, country walks the list really is endless.

Remember, health need not be a lonely business but a reason to socialise and increase your circle of friends.

5. Set A Target

I know, this last one doesn’t sound sexy at all… but I had to include this one since it’s probably the most important of all. Commit to weekly and monthly targets, keep them listed everywhere around the house, tick them off as you complete each (3 or 4 ticks per week for the gym, etc) – and if you do happen to fall off the wagon get straight back on.

That’s right; even if you fall flat occasionally don’t give health up as a bad job. Just get back up, don’t think too much about it, and don’t beat yourself up as to why you stopped. Simply dust yourself down, put your track shoes back on and off you go again.

Equally, if you splashed out on a big greasy burger, eat a carrot or have a fruit shake it really is as simple as that. You will be sending a very strong signal to yourself:

• “I may have lost that small battle, but I’m winning the war”
• “I mean business!”
• “I’m resolved, andI’m effective”

And with attitudes like that you can do anything!