Goalbits

What is yoga  Yoga is a several thousand year old physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. Yoga routines consist of poses combined with breathing exercises. Over 20 million people in America now practice yoga on a regular basis. 8 proven benefits of yoga Research in to regular yoga practice indicates: Yoga can improve cardiovascular health. Several studies have shown a link between practicing yoga and reduced blood pressure. Yoga can help with lower back and neck pain. Research from Israel suggests that yoga stretching exercises can help reduce lower back and neck pain. Yoga can help brain function. A recent study found that yoga can improve memory function and may reduce depression. Yoga can help with diabetes. A study of 30 people with type 2 diabetes found that practicing yoga significantly reduced their blood sugar levels. Yoga can help with stress and anxiety. Practicing yoga has been shown to reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol, boos...

Question  If you want to start exercising as a way to lose weight do you think you should: (a) Take an aerobics class. (b) Go for a run. (c) Go for a brisk walk. If you said (c) give yourself a pat on the back. Researchers looking at the annual English Surveys over a 12 year span concluded that a brisk 30-minute walk five days a week is more effective than any other form of exercise for keeping weight down. Supporting this, a study from the University of Warwick found that people who walk more and sit less have lower BMIs (an indicator of obesity.) The National Walkers’ Health Study also found that walkers had lower fasting blood sugar (glucose) and a 12 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Additional benefits of walking In addition to weight loss, walking has been shown to: Lower blood pressure and cholesterol.  The National Walkers’ Health study found that regular walking was linked to a 7 percent reduced risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Improve memory...

Can email make you happier? The average person sends and receives 130 emails a day according to a 2014 survey. Many of those will be along the lines of “Can you do this” or “why haven’t you done this” or “your credit card payment is due.” Not exactly messages that will put a smile on your face. Using email to boost happiness. You can actually use email to boost happiness by sending 3 specific emails a day. These messages are designed to help you focus on the positive and build stronger relationships. ‘Complimentary’ email First, when you get in to work in the morning, send a quick email to someone complimenting them on something specific. This does a few things – firstly, it gets you into the mindset of looking for good in the world. Focusing on good has been shown to increase happiness. Secondly, it will help strengthen your relationship with the person. Strong personal relationships have also been linked to happiness. Last, but not least, you will have done a small good deed by...

New Years Resolutions At the start of every year half of American adults create “New Years Resolutions.” They make grand decisions to change for the better. Things like getting healthier or making more money. Research has shown that 80% of those people have give up on their resolution in the first month. I don’t believe that the changes we want to make are bad, infact quite the opposite – they are usually very good changes we are trying to make. Its that we are resolving to make a huge change to our lives for a whole year. That sounds awfully overwhelming to me! No Years Resolutions I propose that you make no years resolutions this year! Instead make 12 monthly habits (or goalbits as I call them). Think about where you are right now in your life. Are you healthy? Or do you need to exercise more often? Did you get a promotion at work this year? Are you stuck in the same boring job as last year? Do you have perfect teeth? Do you need to get dentures next year? Whatever it is, you ar...

Happy New Year! As I write this it is a week before January 1st. Nearly half of us will make a “New Years Resolutions” this year. Sadly, less than 10% of people will actually keep them though. “I want to lose weight.” “I want to start exercising.” “I want to eat more healthily.” Those are all great ideas. In fact more half of all New Years resolutions are health related. How are you going to lose weight though? What exercise are you going to start doing? How are you going to change your diet? Those resolutions are vague, they aren’t actionable. You might do something towards them on a whim but I guarantee it will last less than a week. If you are going to make a lasting change you have to make it a habit. Research shows that at least 40% of what we do every day is a habit. At least 40% of what we do is on auto-pilot. If you want to make lasting change your chances of success are much higher if you can do it without thinking. Every habit has 3 parts – the reminder, the routine ...

Happy New Year! New Years Eve is the most common time of the year for people to decide they want to make changes in their lives. It’s a brand new year and a fresh start. Indeed a recent survey found more than 50% of all adults make new years resolution. Sadly, several studies have found that less than 10% of people stick to their resolution for more than two months. There are two main reasons people give up. First, they don’t make their resolution SMART. Second, they don’t make their resolution a habit. Let me give you one common example – “I want to lose weight.” How much weight do you want to lose? When do you want to lose the weight by? Is that realistic? How are you going to lose the weight? What habits are you going to change? How are you going to ensure you are successful? SMART goals SMART goals are a tool used in business that can help us create new years resolutions. A SMART goal is: Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Relevant. Time-bound. For a goal to have a good...

I might go for a walk today  Picture this. You wake up on a Saturday morning, open the curtains, see its going to be a lovely sunny day today. You say to yourself “I might go for a walk today.” Fast forward to the end of the day. Guess what you didn’t do today! There are several reasons you may not have gone for a walk. You “forgot.” You simply got caught up in the day and forgot about going for a walk until you closed the curtains at the end of the day. You didn’t seize the opportunity when it arose. You had some free time after lunch when you have gone for a walk but you folded laundry instead. You had doubts when the opportunity arose. You looked out the window and their was a cloud and decided to stay inside instead. Implementation intentions A Psychologist named Peter Gollwitzer came up with the idea of “implementation intentions” to help people take action. The basic idea is you declare in advance what you will do when sometime happens. “WHEN… THEN…” For example, WHEN I f...

How CEOs start the day Mary Barra of GM arrives at the office by 6 a.m. Marc Benioff of Salesforce starts his day with an hour of exercise on the elliptical, paired with answering emails. Satya Nadella of Microsoft begins the day with a 90-second meditative exercise. Sundar Pichai of Google starts his mornings reading the newspaper and eating an omelet. These are very typical. Yahoo Finance polled 20 CEOs and found 80% wake up before 5.30am, 70% exercise in the morning and almost all of them made a point. Why morning routines are important Morning routines are important because they set the tone for the rest of the day. If you wake up late and skip breakfast by mid morning you will be hungry, tired and unproductive. First thing in the morning is also when you have most control over what you do. As the day goes on people will ask you to do things for them – but when you get out of bed that hasn’t happened yet. If you start the day in control you are more likely to feel in control fo...

I don’t have time to workout How many times have you told yourself “I don’t have time to workout.” Well, I have good news – if you have 20 seconds, you time time to workout! (Terms and conditions apply.) This workout is called the “30 day plank challenge.” What is a plank The plank is considered to be one of the most efficient body weight exercises for strengthening the core. It also strengthens legs, back and hand muscles. Other benefits include better balance and endurance. Its one simple exercise with many benefits. How to do a plank To do a basic plank lie on the floor belly down. Place your feet so your toes touch the floor. Lift yourself up putting your weight on your toes and your forearms\elbows. Keep your body straight like a rigid plank. Hold the position. Livestrong has more information on how to do a plank. The 30 day plank challenge This is where the “terms and conditions” apply… The 20 seconds of working out is only for the first 2 days! (All to the fair at t...

Behaviors are connected If you talk to someone who has successfully created the habit of exercising regularly, I would bet my next cookie that they will say something to the effect of “and then I just started eating more healthily.” I have heard this myself time and time again. This is because of the “ripple effect.” The ripple effect states that when you change one behavior it creates a ripple that will change other behaviors too. Researchers at Northwestern University found that when people reduced their non-active leisure time they also reduced their fat intake. The participants weren’t told to eat less fat, but their eating habits improved as a natural side effect because they spent less time watching television and snacking mindlessly. One behavior change led to another, one habit created a ripple that caused another habit. The ripple effect The ripple effect happens because of the idea of “commitment and consistency:” This idea comes from Robert Cialdinis brilliant book Infl...