This list of questions to  create success popped into my inbox this morning, and good blogger that I am, I immediately appropriated the content. GeoffreyJames@sales_source.com is the plagarizee, and I thank him for this thought provoking reminder of what should be of primary concern to all of us. Ask yourselves these questions at the end of every day, and at the end of your very last day you will have few regrets.

1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?
2. Have I done something today that improved the world?
3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong flexible and resilient?
4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?
5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?
6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?
7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?
8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?
9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?
10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?

Sharon

I am fortunate that my two daughters are devoted to a healthy lifestyle. We all belong to Spectrum in Thousand Oaks, a behemoth of a gym. With encouragement from my daughters, I joined  the gym at the  beginning of this year, and effectively turned my health around through a program called the Greatest Challenge. Now, to remain in good health, besides eating a healthy diet,  I meet my daughters on weekend mornings for a horrific workout. I go on my own to the gym two or three more times during the week.

When you write, or spend hours in front of a computer screen for other reasons, you don’t move, your body is hunched over, your shoulders and neck cramped, your circulation stymied. You know it, you can feel what it is doing to you. I  know how hard it is to step away from the computer, but if you don’t, the quality of your life will erode over time. Life and movement are intricately inter twined.

So when Spectrum sent out an e-mail with the scientific studies quoted below, I thought I would share the info with you.

A new study has found that healthy friends could be the best way to keep fit. A study of 3,610 Australian women, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, found that physical activity and healthy eating behavior were both strongly affected by social contacts. In other words, if your friends are doing it, you are more likely to be doing it.


Researchers from Deakin University surveyed women between the ages of 18 and 46 for the study. They said the importance of social environmental influences on health-promoting behaviors such as exercise and healthy eating has been increasingly recognized. Their new study is one of the first to illustrate the link between social support and a health-focused lifestyle.


Those women who moved in healthier circles were in turn more likely to eat well and get more exercise. The researchers suggest that healthy behavior may be contagious.


Sharon

I’m an inveterate list maker. I don’t remember  how old I was when I became a list maker, but I was pretty young. For years I would make lists that required a 48 hour day to complete. If something didn’t get finished, it would roll over  to the next day. I started to do the easier things on the list first, because I could get more things done and the list would grow shorter, not easier to complete, just shorter. Then I realized that the things that didn’t get finished tended to be my priority items, because they took a greater effort or time commitment.

Here’s the method I finally arrived at that satisfies my need to be slightly anal, and also address the priorities I have developed over my life time. I no longer put things on my list I know I am going to do anyway. If I have a doctor’s appointment, I don’t put it on my list. It goes on my calendar so I won’t forget, but it doesn’t go on my list.

The main priorities in my life are my family/friends, my health, my writing, my home, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In the morning I consider those priorities and ask myself what  I can do today  to serve/promote those priorities. The rule is to address each one of those priorities every day in some way. It’s a rare day that I don’t complete the tasks on my list. If I have spare time, I just circle around and write a little more, clean out a drawer, call one of my children, kiss my husband, take a walk, work more on a Komen project.

Try it, you may find your life less stressful and more productive.

Sharon

If I had to sum up in a single word what it takes to lose a lot of weight, and keep it off, that word would be acceptance. Oh certainly, determination is an important word too, but acceptance is what finally made the difference for me.


I had to accept the fact that I had to eat in a very proscribed way for the rest of my life, or I would never lose the weight I needed to lose, and most definitely would not keep it off. It’s like being an alcoholic or a drug addict. They know that they can’t have just one, or a little of anything they are addicted to. It simply leads to more. So I changed my mind set. I can’t live to eat, I must eat to live. What that meant for me is, no added salt, no sugar, no simple carbs, very little fat, no processed food. This diet isn’t for a day or a month, it is for the rest of my life. 


Giving up salt was the hardest part of my diet. I don’t even cook with salt, and I eat almost no processed foods. Food is bland without salt. I try to substitute fresh  herbs,  rice vinegar and mustard, but salt, oh how I miss salt. Sugar comes from fruit, oil comes from nuts and salmon, and carbs come from oatmeal in the morning. 


Here’s an interesting little bit of news: