The word endorphins seems to be one of the buzz words within well-being lifestyles, and it’s for good reason. All of us contain natural feel good chemicals commonly known as endorphins, and when these chemicals are released it makes us feel a sense of euphoria and can greatly influence our outlook on many things.

If you and your partner worked on releasing these endorphins collectively, on a regular basis, absolutely everything in your lives will be positively impacted.

Regular exercise reduces stress hormones such as cortisol. Releasing endorphins, dopamine and serotonin through exercise on a regular basis will literally give you a natural high. The release of these natural chemicals have the ability to mask pain as well as allow people to overcome depression. You’ll perform better at work and have more energy to play with the kids. And of course, your relationship will also reap the benefits. Your sex life is also set to prosper as a result of choosing to lead a healthy lifestyle. Make a commitment with your partner today to stay fit and healthy in unison.

Most couples who remain together for a long period will commonly face several health issues related to lifestyle. 1/ Their diet suffers. 2/ They fail to integrate any form of physical fitness into their routine and will generally find some kind of justification or excuse for neglecting this extremely important life choice.

In order to experience all the wonderful benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle within a relationship, the effort must be combined and not just for one partner. Any health expert or fitness advisor will tell you that a training partner greatly assists in maintaining motivation and consistency.

Getting started is quite often the hardest part, but the good news is that the majority of your efforts should be focused in the kitchen. Think of it this way, 80% of your focus should be aimed at diet and nutrition and 20% on exercise. Cooking and experimenting with food is a great way to spend quality time with your partner, more so when there is a mutual goal being established. Make regular visits together to the local organic fruit and vegetable markets. Map out your meals at the start of each week. The food you eat is the single most defining element to weight loss or weight gain – exercise is just the icing on the cake, so to speak.

Lead by example

Complacency is where you’re likely to fail. One partner must take the lead and be mindful not to resent the other partner if it seems like a one sided affair. Developing a healthy pattern requires more than just a routine, try and mix things up a bit so your routine becomes fun and diverse. You could enjoy fitness workouts like swimming, running at the beach, hiking, bush walking, a fitness class, walking, volley ball and tennis. Exercising does not mean you should have to slog it out at the gym six days a week. Make it fun and mix things up.

Whether you’re in a committed relationship or leading a life as a single person, maintaining your health takes motivation. Motivation can be achieved simply by leaving the house, inspiration then comes easily. Instead of watching TV, go for a run, or read a healthy lifestyle magazine to maintain enthusiasm. Aside from all the wonderful benefits you’re set to gain within your relationship, you’ll also reduce the risk of stroke and diabetes, increase flexibility, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as improve your own self-confidence.

You’ll start experiencing the natural exhilaration of healthy living within the first ten days, it’s quite common for people to become addicted to this lifestyle, and this is one addiction worth having!

Matt Fuller is a contributing author for several leading dating sites in Australia and social network blogs. Matt has been an active contributor to the online dating Australia sector for more than ten years and works as a matchmaking consultant.

It’s common knowledge that most of us want to go to a gym – after all, we all want to be fit, healthy and with a body to die for. But the fact of the matter is – most people who join a gym cease attending after a relatively short time.

There are a number of reasons this happens, from a lack of proper changing cubicles or lockers to leave your stuff in, to rude staff and bad management. Here is just a selection, as well as some tips on how you can avoid these factors stopping you from joining the trend, and paying for a gym membership that you never use.

Distance

A common rookie mistake is choosing to join a gym that is just too far from home. If we’re going to attend a gym regularly, we need it to be within easy reach – a 10 mile round trip might seem like little effort at first, but once the journey becomes reality, you’ll quickly tire of it and will be unlikely to put in the work that’s needed.

With this in mind, it’s often necessary to sacrifice certain aspects of a gym (such as a pool or sauna) simply to have a facility that’s near to you. The nearer the better really; if you can walk there – fantastic – you’ve no excuse not to go!

Lack Of Results

The main reason most people join a gym is because there is something specific they want to achieve, whether it be weight loss, weight gain or a simple raise in fitness levels. Therefore, if we’ve been attending a gym for a number of weeks or months and aren’t seeing the results we’re after, it can be incredibly demotivating and we’re very likely to give up.

In order to avoid this, ensure to join a gym that offers a decent level of personal assistance. Too many gyms are happy to get members to sign on the dotted line, and then completely ignore them, so do some research first to make sure you join a gym that actually cares.

And then make sure you actually take advantage of the help and advice available. The primary reason most people don’t get results is because they’re doing the wrong thing, or doing the right thing the wrong way. So take the advice of the professionals to ensure that you get, and stay, on the right track to achieving your goals.

Dirty or Impractical Changing Rooms

A significant amount of time spent at a gym or health club is spent in the changing rooms. We use them to wash, get changed and often do our hair and make-up. Therefore it’s vital that we’re happy to use these facilities, otherwise it can be a big contributory factor in us ceasing to attend the gym.

Not only should the changing rooms be clean and just generally pleasant, but they should also supply a sufficient amount of lockers and changing cubicles. What’s more, the lockers should be secure, since what we don’t want is to be fretting about leaving our stuff unattended while we complete our workout. Also, there needs to be enough changing cubicles (and in most cases, shower cubicles) so that we are never waiting around in order to start or finish our workout, as the hassle of this could easily dent our motivation and contribute to us neglecting our membership.

Insufficient Facilities

Although a gym’s facilities are only of so much importance (we don’t actually need a swimming pool in order to get fit, and we certainly don’t need a sauna!), the condition and usability of them is vital. For example, most gym’s ‘rush hour’ (so to speak) is between about 5 and 7pm (when people finish work), and a common problem in many gyms is that there just aren’t enough machines to go around. This can often result in people actually queuing up to use machines! Not only is it very annoying having to wait around to use a particular machine, but it’s also incredibly off putting if you’re running away on the treadmill while people behind you are tapping their foot and looking at their watches.

In order to avoid this, make sure you visit any gym that you’re considering joining during these times. If you wish, visit 2 or 3 times before you actually make the decision whether or not to join, just so you can be sure that when you go to work out, the facilities will be available for you to do it.

Bad Time Management

Many people state time as a reason for them not joining a gym, or as the reason they joined yet no longer go. Yet the truth is, there are 168 hours in a week, with an average of 40 spent working, and 56 spent sleeping. That leaves 72 hours to do everything else – and realistically we only need to dedicate 2 or 3 of these to the gym.

The best tip for managing your time (and your motivation) better is to go directly to the gym after work – do not pass go, do not collect $200, just get yourself to the gym. The problem is that we tend to believe that we can go home, get changed and then pop back out to the gym while the reality is that few of us possess the motivation to do that.

Therefore, making the gym part of your work and home routine will not only save time (because you’re cutting out a journey) but it will also keep your motivation up and ensure that you actually go!

This article was written by Amy Fowler on behalf of Prospec. Amy writes on a number of subjects including exercise and gym facilities such as lockers and cubicles.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by enfad

Do you find it difficult to make time to work out in your busy schedule?  Do you look at your workout clothes with guilty longing and wish that you just had “more time”?

Using these five easy steps, you can incorporate physical fitness into your daily routine – no matter how busy you are!

1. Make It Time For You

The first thing you need to do is create a positive attitude about your physical fitness.  Many people place fitness at the bottom of their priority list.  Doctors recommend that healthy adults obtain at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on 5 or more days a week, for a total of at least 150 minutes a week.  This level of activity will keep you healthy and able perform at your peak in all areas.  Physical fitness is just as important as all of the other things that you do in your day, so make it a priority.  It is time for you and you deserve it!

Make small goals for increasing your time.  You don’t have to go from 0 to 150 minutes in just one week.  Perhaps make it your goal to increase your fitness time by just twenty to thirty minutes each week until you are at the recommended time.

2. Make An Appointment

When you schedule something with an important client, you make sure to block that time out in your calendar.  Do the same for your exercise regime.  Try to keep that time sacred and don’t double-book yourself.  Exercise is a habit, so try to keep a similar schedule each week.  This article talks more about making a healthy habit of physical fitness.

3. Keep Accountable

When you are having a busy day, it can be tempting to push exercise off your schedule.  But if you are slated to run with a friend or take part in a class you have paid for, you are more likely to make the time.

If you are technologically motivated, why not try using your smart phone to keep you on track?  You can find iphone apps and android apps that will guide you through keeping fit.  Many of these apps will link to other social media outlets, like Facebook or Twitter, which gives you extra motivation knowing that your friends and family will be following your progress.

4. Set Your Alarm

If you put your workout at the end of the day, you are more likely to ditch it when things get busy.  If you exercise first thing in the morning, you’ll benefit from the endorphins all day long and you’ll get a lot of satisfaction from having accomplished your workout so early in the day.

5. Make It Easy & Exciting

Pick a gym that is on your way home from work or near to the places where you spend the majority of your time.  If going to the gym takes too much time, then look at good work out videos to do at home.  Do you travel extensively?  Look into staying at hotels that offer gyms onsite or joining a gym with multiple locations nationwide.

You don’t need to run on a treadmill or lift weights to get in shape.  If that’s not your thing, then try some alternative forms of physical fitness.  Take a dance class, participate in a team sport, or coach your child’s soccer team.

Not sure what kind of activity would work best for you?  Try this quiz to determine your fitness personality and sign up for something that matches your likes and dislikes.

Remember that physical fitness is as important as any of the other activities that you fit into your busy life – perhaps more so, as it will keep you able to do all of those other things.  So make time for yourself and reap the benefits!

This is a guest post written by Kathryn Henry, a writer for TeachStreet.  TeachStreet is a website that provides online and local classes, including zumba classes.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by badboy69

There may be more important things in this world than health, but without health, you cannot experience or enjoy any of them. Good health is a blessing that most of us don’t realize we should be thankful for; rather, we tend to adopt a callous attitude towards health most of the time and we abuse our body by eating the wrong food, leading a sedentary lifestyle, smoking and drinking, and keeping odd hours.

Good health and fitness are not that hard to achieve – in fact, all you need to know and remember are the below three mantras if you want to stay fit and healthy:

• Losing weight is important; but what’s more important is keeping it off: Most people start to work out regularly and keep at it until they reach their weight loss goal. But the mistake they make is to stop once they’ve reached a certain weight or if they feel they look good enough. The problem with stopping is that you tend to put on all those pounds you worked so hard to lose. You forget your diet and you eat just as much as you did when you exercised regularly. But when you don’t expend an equal number of calories, you start to balloon up again. So while losing weight is important, it doesn’t matter unless you strive to keep it off. Don’t stop once you’ve reached your goal, don’t pig out, and instead, exercise as often as you can while on a moderate diet.
• Moderation is the key: There are people who brag that they are fitness freaks who exercise three or more hours a day and live on nothing but carrot and celery sticks. While you may feel envious that you don’t have such self control, the best way to health and fitness is to adopt moderation. Exercise and diet must be a way of life rather than a one-time thing you give up after a while; it must be sustainable, something you can do for a long time, preferably for life. Exercise is not just for losing weight, it helps boost your health too. So adopt something that’s easy and that you would want to do on a daily basis for a long, long time.
• Diet without exercise or vice versa does not help: While you may think that a diet alone or adherence to a strict workout routine will help you lose weight and stay healthy, in reality, it’s a sensible combination of the two that is best for your body. You cannot starve and expect to stay healthy, just as you cannot expect to work out madly and pig out on unhealthy food, and stay slim and fit. It’s also not wise to exercise too much and starve yourself – the key word to remember is SENSIBLE. You want to lose weight and get fit in a healthy way. So know your body, and act accordingly.

This guest post is contributed by Amy S. Cook, who writes on the topic of LVN to RN . Amy welcomes your comments at her email id: amy11s.cook@gmail.com .

Have you ever waken up to realize it was a really hard evening, a too gloomy morning and an overwhelmingly busy day ahead to get up and go running? Have you ever felt you desperately need a new powerful source of motivation?

Here’s a nice tip for you to feel a sudden powerful a surge of energy: cleansing breath.

Cleansing breath is a breathing technique commonly used in yoga. That’s a deep exaggerated breath done by breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. It is one of the recommended childbirth breathing patterns because it gives needed relaxation and increases your inner, vital energy. at the same time.

Here are the steps:

1. Close off your right nostril
2. Inhale a deep breath (breathe in for 4 counts).
3. Retain the air a few seconds.
4. Release your fingers from your right nostril, and let the breath out for eight counts.
5. Repeat the process on the left nostril.

This breath will be found quite refreshing and vitalizing and can be used throughout the day for relaxation, concentration and motivation.

Make sure to also check our previous article on 3-steps breathing technique to help you become a stronger runner.

There are a few really creative ad campaigns promoting healthy leaving and beautiful body. Some of them are really motivating, some of them are just mean.

See for yourself:

10. Long time, no see?

Oxygo Gym ad

9. Pepsi light

8. It’s time to join MyBody Gym

For those (like me) who are having bad time getting the joke: the little elephant is following the overweight lady instead of his/her elephant mom:

MyBody Gym

7. Men’s preference will never change

Forget about it. Men’s preference will never change. Fit Light Yogurt.

Fit Light Dairy: Sharon Stone

Fit Light Dairy: Marilyn Monroe

Fit Light Dairy: Mena Suvari

6. Keep obesity away from your child

Active Life Movement: Barbie

Active Life Movement: Superhero

5. No diet, no mate

The ad campaign reminding overweight people that they’re unattractive & will never marry. this isn’t innovative, it’s just mean.

Diet Mate Whiskey

4. This kilo has been lost thanks to our …

This kilo has been lost thanks to our weight loss program. Even you can lose weight at AnnaNas.

AnnaNas Beauty and Slim Centre: 1kg

3. What’s your weight?

2. High time for fitness machine

Similar concept:

1. Now she is slim, now she is not:

In one view the lady is fat and the other view she is slim: