bright colors bring out the best in our souls.

You may start out very well the first couple of weeks on a wellness plan, and then what happens?

You may need to make your planning more specific. It has been studied that people who not only plan their goals, but write them down are more successful at attainment.

I have finally found my groove when it comes to staying healthy, but I had to make numerous lifestyle changes in order to attain my goals.

Step 1 I started out with just exercise, and after a short time, I realized that it was not enough. You cannot exercise off a bad diet.

Step 2  Clean up your diet.

First eliminating those fatty foods and foods that had processing ingredients like partially or fully  hydrogenation– I still find it on labels. You would think that since everyone knows that hydrogenation is bad, why don’t they get rid of it like the trans fats? I am sure they will someday, but until then, stay away from anything that has hydrogenated on it. It means that it is not liquid at room temperature. And that means it stays solid in your arteries which equals increased cholesterol in your body.

Step 3 Find both passive and active exercises to do. I have investigated to the extreme why you need both. You need to get your heart rate up – thus running and fast walking are great, but you also need to stretch, balance, and get rid of the stress- thus you need things like yoga or tai chi.

Step 4- enlist someone to help you. Personal improvement plans work best when you have someone reliable to count on to help you when you fall down. A cardio buddy, someone to call, or maybe even some kind of self help group out there that you can attend where people gather to talk about their own personal improvement plans. I attend one every week.