Living a healthy lifestyle is all in your head

A new book has been published that shows people how to successfully gain self-motivation to stick with healthy eating and regular exercise as a way of living that feels too good to stop.

"People know it takes a healthy lifestyle to be in control of their weight, health and fitness, but they just can't seem to do what they know they should," says author and America's Healthy Lifestyle Coach Alice Greene. "The answer isn't greater willpower, incentives or penalties as most assume, but instead changing the way people think and feel about food and exercise so they easily and naturally want to make healthy and fit choices because it feels good physically, mentally and emotionally."

As a woman who has maintained a healthy lifestyle for nine years after overcoming chronic health issues while losing six dress sizes in two years (from size 16 to size 4), Greene knows firsthand what works to successfully and continually stay motivated to stick with healthy eating and regular exercise as a way of life. She has also coached hundreds of others to do the same, including the sixty clients whose stories are in this book.

Specifically, her book Inspired to Feel Good identifies and explains why only twenty-six percent of U.S. adults engage in regular exercise (Centers for Disease Control) or why ninety-five percent of dieters will fail and regain their weight loss (National Eating Disorders Association), despite the wide availability of fitness, nutritional and medical information, experts and programs.

"There is a reason the majority of the population hasn't benefited from this vast array of resources ," says Greene. "These programs don't target the real problem and, in many cases, worsen the situation. Most people strive to succeed and struggle to understand when they don't stick with a healthy diet and regular exercise, and they aren't getting the help they need to identify what is sabotaging their behaviors and goals."

What has been missed by physicians, nutritionists, personal trainers and other experts is the hidden subconscious emotional and mental mindset that drives a person's behavior, which can result in overeating, emotional eating, cravings, binge eating, exercise resistance, self-criticism, ambivalence or denial, as well as yo-yo dieting, yo-yo exercising and yo-yo weight loss.

Inspired to Feel Good (www.feelyourpersonalbest.com/inspired-to-feel-good.asp) teaches people how to create a positive relationship with food and exercise, overcome sabotaging behaviors, and be inspired and motivated to easily make healthier choices. The book provides a step-by-step behavior modification coaching program that is individualized. Anyone, even those who have given up, can finally succeed at maintaining weight loss, healthy eating and regular exercise that is realistic, enjoyable and easily incorporated into real life. The healthy lifestyle coaching techniques used in the program build self-awareness, self-motivation, self-insight, self-confidence and self-esteem. Instead of feeling out of control, readers will finally feel in charge of their choices, delight in their successes and naturally gravitate to more healthy choices because they love how it makes them feel.

In addition to benefiting individual consumers, the book is ideal for healthcare providers, companies or organizations promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors to the public or employees.

Reducing Teen Pregnancy and STDs Through Education

With 24 health centers throughout Colorado, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is working to raise awareness about the need for Congress to fully fund medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education for all teens during a week of action (Sept. 28 - Oct. 2) called Sex Education: Protecting Our Future.

Amid the news that the United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy of the most developed countries in the world and that at least one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease, Planned Parenthood affiliates and PPRM's Advocates for Choice (A4C) campus chapters are sponsoring grassroots events and contacting elected officials to urge them to fully fund sex education to address these public health issues.

"An estimated 729,000 teenagers are expected to become pregnant this year, and nearly four million will contract a STD," said PPRM President and CEO Vicki Cowart. "To reduce these alarmingly high numbers, teens in Colorado should have access to comprehensive, age-appropriate information and education, giving them resources to make responsible decisions about their health and their lives."

PPRM is a recognized regional leader in advancing and providing comprehensive, medically accurate and age-appropriate sex education. PPRM offers short and long-term programs, which target individuals of all ages. In 2008, PPRM educators reached 17,869 people in Colorado alone through 1,960 education sessions, working with 200 diverse collaborators including school districts and religious organizations. PPRM is also a member of the Healthy Colorado Youth Alliance, a statewide coalition recently formed to increase access to comprehensive sex education.

In the last decade, more than $1.5 billion federal and state dollars were wasted on what was proven to be dangerous abstinence-only programs that deny teenagers lifesaving information. The Obama administration has ended funding for ineffective abstinence-only programs.

Recently, a study by the Guttmacher Institute found that most federally funded abstinence-only programs do not help delay teens' sexually activity. In contrast, the study reports comprehensive sex education programs had a positive impact and should be more widely used.

A nationwide study conducted by the University of Washington found that teens who had comprehensive sex education were less likely to become teen parents than teens who had no sex education or who were in abstinence-only programs.

At the federal level, President Obama and a majority in the U.S. Congress are supporting medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education, which helps reduce teen pregnancy, by including it in their budget appropriations bills.

As a health care provider, Planned Parenthood knows firsthand the power of education to help teens make responsible decisions about their health. Every year, PPRM provides more than 127,000 women, men, and teens with the health care and information they need to prevent unintended pregnancy and protect their health. For more information visit http://www.pprm.org

Stress Can Be Deadly

Up to 90 percent of ALL health problems are related to stress, according to a report released recently by the American Holistic Medical Association.

How can stress be controlled?

Stress is the "wear and tear" on the mind and body in response to everyday tensions and hassles. When left unchecked, it can be quite detrimental to health and well-being. Stress affects people physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. According to the American Institute of Stress, up to 90 percent of all health problems are related to stress. It is, however, not the stressful events themselves that do the harm; it's how people perceive and respond to them. Chronic health conditions often evolve from persistent stress or, in other cases, are exacerbated by stress, which can impede recovery.

Research is continuing to show the important, bidirectional pathways by which stress, negative emotions, social and psycho-spiritual factors affect physiological events and processes, thus serving as important co-determinants of health and performance.

Increasingly, emotional self-regulation is being recognized as a key factor to balance health, recover from illness and improve performance. More than ever before, health professionals are aware of this reality - that the nature of almost all illness is best addressed both in mind and in body. The public is also increasingly aware of this and are seeking out health care options that are more congruent with this value. Educators also recognize the critical role of emotions to the learning process.

Emotions and feelings have a powerful impact on the human body. Negative emotional reactions mediate undesirable physiologic changes that can create or exacerbate a variety of health problems including heart disease, hypertension, headaches, stroke, depression and sleep disorders. Positive emotions on the other hand, such as appreciation, care, love and compassion, not only feel good, they are good for one's health.

A growing body of research is beginning to provide objective evidence that positive emotions may indeed be the key to optimal functioning, enhancing nearly all spheres of human experience. Positive emotions have been demonstrated to improve health, increase longevity, increase cognitive flexibility and creativity, facilitate broad-minded coping, innovative problem-solving, and promote helpfulness, generosity and effective cooperation.

This means the average person can control his or her own stress, as long as they have the proper tools and guidance.