Small Changes For Health

Finding ways to make your everyday living more active is one of the smallest changes you can make to improve your health.  Increasing your daily activity by taking the stairs instead of the elevators; walking into the bank instead of using the drive-thru;  cooking a meal instead of relying on a frozen entrée or take-out; or doing household chores like vacuuming and cleaning the kitchen on a regular basis, have all been proven to improve the health of inactive people.  For example, a study conducted on inactive young women showed lower total cholesterol, increased HDL or “good” cholesterol, and improved resting heart rate with 2 minutes of stair climbing a day for 5 days a week on a public access staircase.  With this study in mind, the small change for this week focuses on increasing daily activity through stair climbing.  Stair climbing can benefit everyone and stairs can be found almost everywhere.  Why wait for elevators when there are stairs?  See you in the stair well! Read the rest of this entry »

Your Small Change for week 2:  Make sure that you establish one SMART health-related goal for yourself.

Goal setting is one of the ways you can ensure that you accomplish the things you have planned. Goal setting can be particularly effective in changing to healthier behaviors and improving your health status. The most useful goals are SMART ones. Those are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Applying the principles of SMART goal setting will help you set realistic health goals you can achieve. Read the rest of this entry »