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Exercise Does More Than Just Help You Lose Weight

Exercise Does More Than Just Help You Lose Weight

If you started a program of regular exercise to help you lose weight, good for you. You’re doing something extremely positive to change your lifestyle and ensure a healthier existence. However, regular exercise not only burns calories and builds muscle tissue to help you achieve weight goals quicker. It has some other amazing benefits for the body that not only extends your life, but makes those extra years even better. It adds years to your life and adds life to those years.

Reduce the potential for heart disease when you exercise regularly.

Exercise helps reduce the risk of heart disease in several ways. The heart is a muscle and like any muscle, to function its best it requires exercise. When you do cardio or endurance workouts, it makes the heart pump harder and helps build its efficiency. It pumps more blood in one beat, allowing it to pump slower, lowering blood pressure in the process. Exercise also lowers bad cholesterol levels and helps you lose weight, which is a bonus to heart health.

You’ll keep your muscles strong, which helps your bones to remain strong, too.

Weight bearing exercise and resistance exercise not only builds muscles, it builds bones, too. These types of exercise stimulate the body to create more bone tissue and boost the retention of calcium to aid in the density of the bone, so they can bear heavier loads. When you move, even when you walk, the bones twist, move and compress, which stimulates the bone to grow to prevent breaking. High impact activities, such as jumping, weight lifting or hitting a tennis ball with a racket, have the most effect on bone density.

You’ll lower your risk of diabetes, cancer and even feel better emotionally.

While improved physical health, like lowering the risk for serious diseases and even helping to control other diseases, such as diabetes, are important, so is your mental health. Studies show that regular exercise can help reduce depression and even help anxiety. Part of it comes from the “happy hormones” produced during exercise and the body burning off the hormones of stress. The other part may come from simply feeling healthier and the increased circulation exercise brings.

  • Exercise improves your balance, strength and flexibility, which can help reduce injury and falls.
  • Regular exercise helps to improve the quality of sleep and can aid those with insomnia.
  • Exercise stimulates the growth of new neural pathways in the brain and improves cognitive thinking. It can help improve hormone levels of endorphins and serotonin.
  • The increased circulation during exercise can help reduce plaque build-up by boosting the production of nitric oxide in the endothelial cells of the arteries.

Fat Loss Mistakes

Fat Loss Mistakes

Dodging common fat loss mistakes can be difficult. Too often people start on a weight loss program, believing they’re doing everything right only to fail or slow their progress. The most common mistake when losing weight is to go on a super low calorie diet or fad diet. Sure the weight comes off quickly, but it doesn’t stay off. Extreme diets can’t be maintained for a long period if you want to remain healthy and when you quit and go back to normal or even moderate eating patterns, the weight comes back with a vengeance. If a diet is below 1000 calories a week, it can actually slow your metabolism and make you lose muscle mass not fat, making it more difficult to keep weight from returning.

You don’t combine diet and exercise for weight loss.

Exercise will not only help maintain muscle mass, it also burns extra calories and helps build muscles. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn, since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat. Even though it’s important to exercise, you can’t out exercise poor eating habits. What you eat and how much you eat is important for weight loss.

You choose strictly aerobic exercise to shed pounds.

While running and other aerobic exercises can help you lose weight, you really need all types of workouts to get fit. If you don’t have strength building as part of your workout routine, you’ll be sabotaging your efforts. Strictly sticking to running or other aerobic workouts can reduce the amount of muscle tissue in your body, but if you add strength building exercises to your routine, you’ll be building muscle tissue and boosting your metabolism to help shed pounds faster.

You faithfully stick with a low fat diet and skip higher calorie protein.

You need both protein and fat to be healthy. Remember, not all fat is bad. There are healthy fats, such as those found in avocados or fatty fish. Many of the “low fat” foods you find in the stores also use sugar to make the food more palatable, adding more calories and leaving you feel less full. You also need protein for maintaining muscle tissue. It also leaves you feeling more satiated and less likely to grab a quick snack or higher calorie foods.

  • Not having enough healthy fiber in your diet can sabotage your weight loss efforts. Fiber not only keeps you going, it also leaves you feeling fuller and reduces the number of calories you absorb.
  • You’re using a ketogenic diet, but add too much fat. No matter how good the diet, calories still count.
  • People often eat, not because they’re hungry, but for some emotional reason, such as boredom, anger or sadness. Watch that mindless snacking and pay attention to what your body tells you before you eat.
  • While eating too much is part of the cause of overweight, what you drink makes a difference, too. If you drink three 8-oz containers of a soft drink each day, in less than two weeks you’ll gain a pound.

Top Fat Burning Foods

Top Fat Burning Foods

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could eat certain foods and you’d lose weight automatically. Well there are some foods that burn more calories than they contain. These top fat burning foods won’t make up a balanced diet, but they can be added to any diet to boost the results of healthy eating and regular exercise. These foods may have few calories and require more calories to digest than they contain or be thermogenic and build up heat in the body and boost the metabolism for hours after eaten.

Drink your way to a slimmer you.

No a bottle of wine or a martini won’t make you thinner, but some coffee or green tea might. Both green tea and coffee contain caffeine, although green tea contains less. Caffeine can boost your metabolism by as much as 13 percent. Depending on the strength of the coffee, between one to four cups will provide fat burning effects. One study showed that people who drank coffee before a workout could workout 17% longer than the group that didn’t. Another study showed that men who drank green tea before bicycling boosted their fat burning significantly.

Hot Chili pepper work in a number of ways to help you shed fat.

You probably already guessed that this is a thermogenic food because of its hot, hot, hot nature, but it’s also a low calorie food that requires more calories to digest. Chili peppers contain potent antioxidants that also help your body fight free radicals that can damage cells. Capsaicin is one of the antioxidants. If the name sounds familiar, like the same as a favorite muscle pain reliever, it’s the primary ingredient in that mix, with aspirin being the other. Capsaicin warms your muscles like it warms your insides, helping you to lose weight. It not only reduces appetite, it helps you boost your metabolism, too.

Could oil be a fat burner?

Did you ever think that something like olive oil could be a fat burner? Well it is. In fact, not only is it one of the world’s healthiest oils, it puts your metabolic rate into overdrive and helps you lose fat. When added to a diet, it makes you feel fuller faster and longer, so you eat less. One study showed that it helped boost the metabolism for several hours after a meal it contained and burned significantly more calories.

  • Full fat Greek yogurt is a fat burner. Don’t get the low fat type, it won’t do. It helps gut health, helps build muscles and protects them during weight loss, contains conjugated linoleic acid that promotes weight loss and provides a lot of protein.
  • Oolong tea is also good for weight loss. Just like green tea, its the catechins and caffeine that help it burn fat and boost calorie burning, as much as increasing it 102 calories a day.
  • Apple cider vinegar has been known to cure or aid a number of conditions. It lowers blood sugar and reduces appetite. The acetic acid in it increases the body’s fat burning, particularly visceral—belly—fat, the hardest fat to lose.
  • Whey protein might just belong in your diet smoothie. One study showed that it increased metabolic rate and fat burning far more than soy protein or casein. Another study showed it boosted weight loss and fat burning.

Enhance Your Mood

Enhance Your Mood

Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes wrong. It may start innocently enough, maybe by spilling coffee on your work clothes or getting a call from an angry client. From that point on it builds until you’re ready to scream. One way to enhance your mood and shift the whole day to a better track is to change your mind. That’s right. So you spilled your coffee, that doesn’t mean you have to stew about it forever. If your boss or a client puts a bummer into your mood with complaints, focus on fixing the problem or getting to the root of things, rather than how unfair they’re treating you. It’s all about state of mind. Looking for the positive in every situation helps.

Blow off steam at the gym.

Exercise is a true stress buster. It burns off the hormones of stress and messages the brain to create hormones that make you feel good, like endorphins. When you workout, focus on how much better you’re feeling with each pull-up or set. By the end of the workout you’ll find you may even have a smile on your face. If you can’t make it to the gym, go out for a quick ten minute brisk walk. In fact, for those horrible days, skip lunch with co-workers and walk or walk to the restaurant and meet them there. No time for a walk? Run up and down the stairs at work a few times to clear your brain.

Get adequate sleep.

If you’re not sleeping at night, you probably won’t have the emotional stamina to make it through a tough day without letting the stress get to you. People with insomnia often show signs of depression. Switch rooms, cut out coffee after three in the afternoon (but a cup or two in the morning helps your mood) or create a schedule for going to bed and getting up in the morning. On the other end of the spectrum, one study actually showed that staying up all night and starting from scratch could boost your mood for up to a month. Scientists believe it was from resetting the inner clock.

Eat healthier.

What you eat does make a huge difference in your overall mood. One study showed that boosting your intake of Omega-3 fatty acids also boosted your mood and reduced the likelihood of depression. Foods that contain omega-3 are fatty fish like mackerel and salmon, walnuts, black beans, kidney beans and flaxseed. A healthy balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is 4 parts omega-6 to one part omega-3. The average American eats a ratio of approximately 25 to 1, rather than 4 to 1. One prison study showed that changing the ratio to 4 to 1 by changing the prisoner’s diet reduced the violence and fights in the prison.

  • Fake it until you can make it. Smile and laugh. You don’t have to be with someone to do it either. Try it. Smile big and laugh out loud. You feel better don’t you.
  • Break up the monotony and do something different. Instead of making a face and turning down ideas to do something different, take a shot and try it. Who knows, maybe just breaking out of your rut will change your mood.
  • Cut out sugar from your diet. High sugar intake gives you a roller coaster of highs and lows that just get worse as you succumb to them. Cut out sugary treats and replace them with healthier snacks.
  • Make sure you have adequate B vitamins in your diet. While all vitamins are important, B vitamins, folate in particular, tend to improve your mood if you initially have a shortage. Another supplement, chromium picolinate was also found to stave off depression.

Your Body Knows Before Your Mind Does

Your Body Knows Before Your Mind Does

If you have a relationship with your body, you probably know things that other people don’t know. That’s because your body knows before your mind does. There are often visual cues, tell-tale signs people see, but the processing in the brain is slow. Even scents can create quick emotional responses. The nervous system, your somatic body, doesn’t think. It simply sends signals to react. Paying attention to body cues that range from hair raising on the arms or a feeling like a punch in the gut to feeling good when talking about taking a new job all are giving you important cues.

Anyone that exercises has heard a trainer say, “listen to your body.”

One sure way to get injured is to ignore the messages from your body that are screaming at you to stop. They come in the form of intense pain and can be good indicators that you’re working out too hard, doing something wrong or or attempting something it’s not ready to perform. While your mind may try to dismiss it, you later realize you should have listened, as you’re waiting for your injuries to heal.

Can you avoid other dangers, not at the gym?

I had a client who was very aware of her body signals, although she just called it her extra sense. She made in-home appointments and when knocking on the door of one of those homes, heard a voice in the background, saying “Come in, it’s unlocked.” As she reached for the door, she felt her tell-tale sign that something was wrong, It felt like a hard punch to the stomach. The voice kept talking from the other room, but she remained by the door, luckily. In the middle of the conversation the person attached to the voice appeared. It was a large grown man, completely naked. She was out of the door and into her car in seconds. Was she in danger? Her body thought so and it was probably right. Everyone has had those instances where the body feels the danger before it registers in the brain.

Learn to get in touch with the messages your body sends.

Your body and your senses have a lot to offer. They can provide those primitive messages that kept prehistoric man safe. You can feel someone watching you or smell the scent of anger. These senses enter the nervous system and can trigger a response. Your body can instantly sense these chemo-signals. Signals from body language are often overlooked by the mind, but not by the body. Most of all, your body is constantly sending you signals to help you live a happier life, You can get more in touch with your body in a number of ways. Try mindfulness or meditation.

  • Yoga and dance are also good to get you more in touch with your body. Don’t do formal dancing, but more primal, to fast music and just appreciate how good it feels for each muscle to move. You’re learning to understand body speak.
  • Do deep breathing exercises or take a walk in nature to start getting in touch with your body speak.
  • When you workout, keep your mind focused on how each movement feels, rather than planning the dinner menu. You can use your workout time to get more in touch with the messages from the body.

Longevity Is The New "Anti-Aging"

Longevity Is The New “Anti-Aging”

If you’ve read much on health issues, you’ll notice the focus has changed. Now longevity has overtaken the “Anti-Aging” mantra for most people. Living longer means doing everything necessary for a healthier life. It means eating healthy, getting adequate exercise and sleep and avoid negative behavior such as drinking too much, smoking, using illegal drugs and stress-giving behavior.

It’s not all about genes.

You may have won the genetic lottery, but that doesn’t automatically guarantee longevity. In fact, longevity only plays approximately a 30 percent role in the length of your life. More and more the research shows that what you do, your attitude and your environment play a major role in just how long you live. Something as simple as getting adequate sleep can help prevent serious conditions that affect your longevity. Often the habits we establish as children with parents as examples have the biggest effect on our health, rather than the actual genetic makeup.

It may be all about telomeres.

What are telomeres? They’re like aglets—those little plastic tubes at the end of shoelaces. Aglets help prevent the shoelace from unraveling and telomeres cap off DNA strands and prevent it from being damaged. As each cell replicates itself, the telomeres get shorter, creating the potential for cell death or damage more probable. The length of telomeres dictates the biological, not the chronological age, of a person. If cells are damaged or die, they can’t replicate and that’s how aging or disease takes place.

Strong mitochondria are also important for longevity.

Your cells get all their fuel from mitochondria. It’s like the battery pack for the cell or the tiny furnace. The stronger your mitochondria is, the stronger your body and brain is. When the quality of the mitochondria or activity declines, you see the changes in the body that are associated with aging and diseases You can lengthen telomeres with habits like exercising regularly, reducing and controlling stress, eating a healthy diet and practicing mindfulness or meditation.

  • HIIT is one way to help boost the production and efficiency of mitochondria. So is eating anti-inflammatory foods. The simple four-minute nitric oxide dump exercise may also give your mitochondria a boost.
  • Simply taking a walk in the sunshine can also boost longevity. While there are dangers of too much sun, you need some to create the vitamin D necessary for healthier functioning. Smart exposure is important.
  • Get social. Good relationships, laughing and smiling more are also linked to longevity. So is an active sex life.

Have You Tried Kombucha

Have You Tried Kombucha

Kombucha has been around for a long time, but it’s never been so prominent in Western civilization as it is recently. It’s a probiotic drink that is made from a sweet green and black tea that’s laced with “a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast,” often referred to as SCOBY. Let’s say, it’s not pretty when it brews. It looks a bit like a flat mushroom pancake floating on top and smells a bit vinegary when you drink it. In fact, I’ve found a few Kombucha looking leftovers in the recesses of my refrigerator when I’ve given it a thorough cleaning. The SCOBY ferments the tea and the final product is Kombucha.

Just like other probiotic products, Kombucha has many health benefits.

The fermentation process boosts the healthy bacteria in the tea, just a fermentation boosts it in yogurt or sauerkraut. These bacteria help the digestive tract and by doing so boost your immune system. It’s estimated that about 80 percent of the immune system is contained in the gut. The healthy bacteria also help digest and absorb nutrients, while fighting infection and disease. It also contains potent antioxidants that not only prevent free radicals from damaging cells, they also prevent inflammation that is at the core of many serious conditions.

Keeping your digestive system healthy is a high priority.

As noted before, it boosts the health of the digestive system. There’s a lot of discussion today about the combination of bacteria, yeast and other microbes that create the ultimate healthy group for digestion. The answer that always occurs is that there is no one combination, but rather a broad view of the ratios that help people stay their healthiest, each person has different needs. However, even with that broad view, it’s also known that too much yeast causes Candida and the health problems that occur with the overgrowth and too many pathogen—bad bacteria—cause illness. Like yogurt, kombucha can create a healthier balance.

Kombucha may help manage diabetes and prevent damage.

There’s research that kombucha may actually be helpful for diabetics, contrary to previous belief it should be avoided. It should be kombucha with a lower amount of sugar. If it’s made from green or black tea, it actually is more efficient at providing protection than the actual tea from which it’s made. It can help kidney and liver functioning, slowed the digestion of carbohydrates and reduced blood sugar levels.

  • Kombucha is heart healthy and can lower cholesterol and triglycerides.
  • You can protect your liver with kombucha. The liver performs many functions necessary to good health, including filtering out harmful substances. Kombucha has high antioxidants that can protect the liver and also aid in the prevention of damage from acetaminophen overdose.
  • It is a powerful antibacterial agent. When you consider that penicillin came from mold, it’s not too difficult to picture how the good bacteria in kombucha can help fight bad bacteria.
  • Kombucha is known to help not only your mental state, but also the lungs. It contains B12 that helps mental well being.

Supplements Are Not The Answer

Supplements Are Not The Answer

One of the amazing things about studies, is that they often come up with contradictory results. While one study found that people who used supplements were often healthier, other studies show they have no effect. What’s the reason for that contradiction? A third study showed that people who used supplements also exercised regularly, ate healthy meals and did other things, like not smoking or drinking in moderation, that kept them healthier. There is logic to the reason that supplements are not the answer. It comes from the chemical interactions that occur when you eat whole foods and the way the supplements were made.

Whole foods contain many different nutrients.

Consider the blueberry, its chemicals and nutrients have been studied as a tool for helping with a number of conditions. One study showed the anthocyanin—the phytochemical in blueberries that makes them blue—helps prevent cancer, but isolating it proved to be not as effective. The reason for that contradiction? I’m not a chemist, but logic tells me it isn’t just one phytochemical or phytonutrient in the berry that makes it work, it’s the synergy amongst all the nutrients. Rather than popping a vitamin, pop a few blueberries in your smoothie.

Fiber isn’t part of many supplements.

Fiber is so important for both weight loss and good health. It gives you a feeling of fullness. Dietary fiber also helps you eliminate toxins and takes the bloat away. It lowers the risk of many different types of cancer too. Supplements like a multivitamin, simply don’t provide that fiber the body requires. They often lack the micronutrients that are known to be important substances to improve health. Even more so, every day new studies discover the importance of these micronutrients that often aren’t found in multiple vitamins.

Whole food contain antioxidants that help prevent aging.

Antioxidants protect cells and cell death and damage leads not only to illness, but also aging. While whole foods contain these health giving nutrients, many supplements don’t. Even though vitamin A and vitamin C are antioxidants, whole foods contain other substaances that can boost their effect or change the way the body uses them.

  • Many of the nutrients provided in vitamin supplements are manmade and not easy to digest. They often fail to break down in the system and are often flushed away in the toilet.
  • It’s far easier to overdose on supplements than it is to overdose on the same nutrient in whole foods. You’d simply have to eat far too much. Vitamin A, for instance, comes from beta-carotene. The body will only convert as much as it needs.
  • Some dietary supplements are beneficial for people with special dietary needs. You need to remember that their name says it all. It’s a supplement, not a substitute for whole food.
  • If you’re trying to boost your nutritional intake, toss extra herbs and spices into your dishes. They’re relatively inexpensive compared o supplements—especially if you grow your own. You can also add them to vinegar, allow it to sit and use that as a lower calorie dressing.

Create Healthier Meals With Herbs And Spices

Create Healthier Meals With Herbs And Spices

I love my job. I get to see so many interesting people and learn so much from my clients that it’s amazing and fun. I have one woman who I would rank right up there when it comes to eating healthy. She grows much of her own food and raises herbs, too. She’s a wealth of knowledge when it comes to adding herbs to meals. She even gave me several ideas on how I can create healthier meals with herbs and spices. Her approach was simple. She cut herbs every morning, put them in a glass and when she made supper, just threw in a few with each dish. I took it a step further, since I don’t grow my own, but should. Here are some ways to use herbs and their health benefits.

Basil comes in a lot of different varieties.

There are an endless amount of varieties of basil. Sweet basil is the most common variety and is often used in pesto. Genovese basil is also used in popular Italian dishes. Thai basil with its licorice flavor graces Asian dishes. Lemon and lime basil are great for desserts and fish. I also use lemon basil with pork. I love smelling cinnamon basil, but also adding it to my favorite healthy chili dish. Each one has a different taste and slightly different nutritional and health benefits. On the whole, basil is an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. It contains cinnamanic acid, which studies show helps to enhance circulation, improve breathing if you have a respiratory disorder and stabilize blood sugar. If you have an abundance of basil, throw a few extra leaves in your salad for more flavor and nutrition. It contains vitamin A, K, C, Magnesium, iron, potassium and calcium with almost no calories.

Chives are so rewarding and you can eat the flowers.

A number of studies have been done with chives on its effects as a cancer fighter. It’s shown to reduce the risk of several types of caner when consumed regularly. It also contains choline that helps with brain functions, muscle movements and sleep and can help build bones with the vitamin K, while also reducing inflammation. Add them to almost any main dish for additional oniony flavor. Use both the stems and flowers in salads. Chives contain folate, calcium, magnesium, vitamin K, phosphorus, choline and potassium, but hardly any calories. One tablespoon is about one calorie.

With Coriander, you get a two-fer.

If you grow coriander and cut the stems early, you’ll have cilantro. Let them go to seed and you have coriander seed. It’s amazing, but cilantro, the leaves, have higher vitamin content and corriander has a higher mineral content. Cilantro contains higher amounts of vitamins A, K and E and the seeds, coriander, had more copper, phosphorous, selenium, potassium, zinc, manganese, iron, magnesium and calcium. Pair coriander with fruit and cruciferous vegetables. Use cilantro in stir fry and of course, salsa and guacamole.

  • You don’t have to follow a recipe to get the benefits of herbs. Try throwing them in a salad or add to stir fry at the last minute before serving.
  • Lemon balm is from the mint family, so if you grow it, it will spread, but mostly by seeding. It’s a great addition to dishes with fish, sea food and even with asparagus. Anywhere you’d use lemon, lemon balm can boost the flavor. It has a number health benefits. Use it for a refreshing summer tea.
  • Fennel is a favorite of mine. It’s beautiful soft ferny fronds create a great display. It smells like licorice and I’ve eaten both the leaves and seeds to settle my stomach. You can also eat the bulb. It contains sodium, potassium, Vitamin A, C, B6, E, K, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, niacin, folate, choline, lutein and pantothenic acid.
  • Lemon grass, rosemary, thyme, sage and many other herbs add extra nutrition to every dish. The curcumin in turmeric has also been studied for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. It’s even been researched as a possible cure for Alzheimer’s.

Give Yourself A Fitness Summer Surprise

Give Yourself A Fitness Summer Surprise

Give Yourself a Fitness Summer Surprise Create Healthier Meals with Herbs and SpicesSupplements Are Not the Answer (ATTN: Not for Long Island Guy that sells them)

It’s summer and traditionally the time to have fun. Sure, we all have a work week yet, but our minds still remember the fun of summer vacation when we were still back in school. Just because the boss says you can’t take the summer off, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make it more fun. You can give yourself a fitness summer surprise that will make this summer more memorable and help you reach your fitness goals.

Take up a new sport!

I have an older client that tells about his summer of hang gliding, as though it were yesterday. It happened quite a long time ago when the sport was young. He and a group of others would carry their kites up a large local sand dune, jump off and soar in the wind. This guy is pretty muscular and gives the credit for building his muscles to carrying that fifty pound kite up the dunes thirty times a day. It got him started on the path to regular exercise. You don’t have to hang glide to do something different. Just make it active and something you might end up passionate about. Make your summer surprise a pass to several new adventures that help you get fitter while having fun.

Go on a weekend safari.

Put on your pith helmet and get out the butterfly net. It’s time to stalk big game, or maybe birds and butterflies. Take adventure walks to spot local wildlife or search for rock specimens for a collection. Rent or borrow a metal detector and hunt for hidden treasures. I know of an older man that used to go out early in the morning and walk to the area where there are drive through windows, searching with his metal detector for money and other finds. He also used it under the bleachers after sporting events. He walked everywhere he searched, which was his way of getting exercise.

Give yourself a fitness gift for motivation.

It can be as simple as purchasing a low cost wrist band that identifies your heart rate, which is perfect for anyone doing HIIT workouts or a pedometer. These are relatively low cost items and often cheaper than a Starbucks a day for a week. If you aren’t already working out at Iron Fit signing up for circuit training could be a great gift. For those mothers who are members, signing up your children for Youth Summer Camp could be a great way to free your workout time and get the whole family fit.

  • If you’ve reached a fitness goal, even if the goal is just to workout for four weeks, buy yourself a new workout outfit. Looking good can boost your confidence and provide more incentive to go to the gym.
  • Give yourself the ultimate summer fitness surprise. Start eating healthier and working out. At the end of summer, you’ll see a whole new you.
  • Create a summer buffet of healthy food. Spend just an hour planning quick, but healthy summer meals you can make ahead. You’ll sometimes find them already planned on the internet. Surprise yourself every night with a new meal that only takes minutes of work to get from refrigerator or freezer to the table.
  • Treat yourself to a luxury. You don’t have to accomplish anything, reach any goal or do anything special to give yourself a gift of luxury this summer. Consider a day at the spa, a massage or anything you’ve always wanted but didn’t consider it a necessity. Make it a Christmas gift to yourself from yourself in July.