I love the simplicity of the following list of exercise for the body. Remember all you have to do is (1) write this down or print it out, (2) put it somewhere you look at it daily, and (3) do it!

Deep breathing–10 minutes daily

Walking–30 minutes daily

Monday–20 minutes endurance exercise

Tuesday–10 minutes strength training

Wednesday–20 minutes endurance exercise

Thursday–10 minute strength training

Friday–20 minutes endurance exercise

Saturday–add 30 minutes walking–do AM and PM

Links for feeling good:

1.  From Weight Loss Journal: “How to Exercise without Even Realizing It”:

There are two kinds of people in this world: those that genuinely love to exercise, and the rest of us. Sadly, both types of people need to be active to stay happy and healthy. If you fall under the latter category, there’s only so many times you can update your jogging playlist to maintain a slither of excitement when it comes to exercise.

However, if you perceive any activity that works up a sweat as a chore, it’s only going to be less enjoyable and more difficult.

Even if you don’t find exercise particularly fun, there’s always ways to make it a little easier and, bear with me, even slightly enjoyable. It’s possible to trick your body into liking it. Here’s a few different ways to exercise without feeling like you’re exercising:

2.  From zentofitness: “Simple Stress Management”:

Stress is not always a bad thing and quite simply something that triggers an internal reaction and response in the body, namely triggering our HPA axis (hypothalamus-pitutary-adrenal) and produces stress hormones.

When we have too much stress these hormones pump out and trigger our fight or flight response – supressing appetite, causing anxiety, inhibiting digestion and repair of the body. This is fine in the short term and our body can handle this for short and brief periods. The problem comes when we get stuck in a state of chronic stress and it beomes the default state. With prolonged exposure to stress our bodies ability to produce stress hormones starts to shut down – this leads to a host of problems.

Whether it is working long hours in a job you don’t like, over-exercising, undereating or a combination. The stress compounds and wears the body out. Making even the most simple of tasks seem a chore and life become a struggle.

3.  From The Maven of Mayhem: “Adventures in Exercising”:

But eventually this grotesque display of self-pity stirred something within me. By Wednesday I had finally had enough of the sadness, the anger, the excuses.

So I went out and spontaneously signed up for a gym.

For a year.

And I was there the very next morning with my shoes and my water bottle and my workout clothes, ready to tackle my demons, physical, mental, and emotional.

Anyway, I’ve never really been a gym member. I was ever so temporarily in early 1996, before Intrepid graced my stomach and I got too sick and too tired to trek down to the gym for several months. After that, I developed a phobia of sweaty skinny people. As a fat girl, there’s a serious confidence issue when faced with size six sorority sisters looking fabulous as they run like gazelles on the treadmills beside me. I had to get over that. I think I have. In fact, I’ve come to a few key realizations in the last couple of days at the gym.

Photo credit.

Falun Dafa the Second by longtrekhome

Essential Stretch: Gentle Movements for Stress Relief, Flexability and Overall Well-Being

Michelle LeMay

ISBN 0-300-52893-8

Amazon link

Essential Stretch by Michelle LeMay with the ISBN 0-399-52893-8 is featured in this post. Michelle has spent years developing and teaching her stretch techniques. The table of contacts includes the basics, the blessings, the techniques (oscillations, breath, heart activation, meditation and centering), the stretches (full body, lower body and upper body), and five different routines depending on the user’s skill level.

The five routines are: (1) full body routine for getting started, (2) full body routine for the seasoned stretcher, (3) short and sweet routines, (4) daily stretches, and (5) mind your mind.

Her centering process includes several helpful techniques. Centering is the ability to “tune out” inner and external stress and get in touch with your quietness inside you. We each have this center but this technique needs to be strengthened in order to lower our stress level. Remember it is our reaction to stress that uses the most useless energy. We want to bombard our stressor. But the centering process helps to use our energy the only place that we can make a difference—on ourselves.

The techniques for centering that she includes are: (1) increase your self-awareness, (2) quiet your mind, (3) focus inward, and (4) create a positive shift. The positive shift uses clarity, letting go of burdens, self-love, peace, mind/body connection, and being happy statements to be included with your stretch.

Excerpt from the book:

“Essential Stretch is a simple movement technique. Anyone can do it—no matter what your age or fitness level—and everyone can benefit from it, even super-fit athletes and dancers. Unfortunately, when it comes to exercise programs, stretch has been placed on the back burner, or related to the category of exercise for the elderly. But research reveals that stretching is often the missing link in successful exercise programs, As you will see, it is becoming apparent that it may be the missing link in our lives.”

Tags: centering, energy, exercises, peace, positive, self-awareness, stress relief, stressor, stretch

By longtrekhome

Prevention Magazine has many short articles that will help anyone with tips about health, fitness, food/nutrition, weight loss, beauty, and home/family. Today’s article is entitled “Workouts for Every Mood”. The article cites information from Dr. Jack Raglin of Indiana University. He suggests that often people skip workouts because they don’t have the strength to switch gears mentally, so he suggests gearing your workout to your mood. I like this approach as it is a “if you can’t lick them, join them” mentality.

1) When you are angry—the best diversion is not the physically challenging in an effort to “work out” the stress but rather to create a workout that challenges you mentally. Learning new moves will help you to switch gears and use your brain for fun instead of staying fixated on your anger. I also use the mental picture when someone is in anger as having a foot on the gas and one on the brake. I believe it is rather pointless to hold on to negative emotion.

2) If you have the blues—Dr. Raglin states that even mind exercise will improve your mood like maybe walking or working in your garden. I like that he refers to this activity as mental recreation and not exercise.

3) If you are feeling bored—He recommends being around people who are engaged in an activity such as walking group or playing tennis, racquetball, golf, etc. One of my favorite benefits of going to the gym is being with others doing what I am doing.

4) When you are feeling drained—do a repetitive activity such as the treadmill. Do the activities that will calm and soothe you. Afterward, soaking in a warm tub will help to restore your energy.

5) When you are happy—don’t celebrate by skipping your workout. A workout can add to your good feelings as well as tune your body and emotions by adding new challenges to your workout.

Some other links to help you get started are:

Minimalist Fitness: How to Get in Lean Shape With Little or No Equipment

5 Easy Ways to Fit Exercise Into Your Busy Schedule

Push Yourself to a Healthy Lifestyle With Web Communities, Tools

Staying Active on Vacation:  Here’s How You Do It

Too Tired to Succeed?

Sunrise by FlyNutAA

Essential Stretch: Gentle Movements for Stress Relief, Flexability and Overall Well-Being

Michelle LeMay

ISBN 0-300-52893-8

Amazon link

Essential Stretch by Michelle LeMay with the ISBN 0-399-52893-8 is featured in this post. Michelle has spent years developing and teaching her stretch techniques. The table of contacts includes the basics, the blessings, the techniques (oscillations, breath, heart activation, meditation and centering), the stretches (full body, lower body and upper body), and five different routines depending on the user’s skill level.

The five routines are: (1) full body routine for getting started, (2) full body routine for the seasoned stretcher, (3) short and sweet routines, (4) daily stretches, and (5) mind your mind.

Her centering process includes several helpful techniques. Centering is the ability to “tune out” inner and external stress and get in touch with your quietness inside you. We each have this center but this technique needs to be strengthened in order to lower our stress level. Remember it is our reaction to stress that uses the most useless energy. We want to bombard our stressor. But the centering process helps to use our energy the only place that we can make a difference—on ourselves.

The techniques for centering that she includes are: (1) increase your self-awareness, (2) quiet your mind, (3) focus inward, and (4) create a positive shift. The positive shift uses clarity, letting go of burdens, self-love, peace, mind/body connection, and being happy statements to be included with your stretch.

Excerpt from the book:

“Essential Stretch is a simple movement technique. Anyone can do it—no matter what your age or fitness level—and everyone can benefit from it, even super-fit athletes and dancers. Unfortunately, when it comes to exercise programs, stretch has been placed on the back burner, or related to the category of exercise for the elderly. But research reveals that stretching is often the missing link in successful exercise programs, As you will see, it is becoming apparent that it may be the missing link in our lives.”

“Hatha yoga is a meditation program that includes exercises to help improve flexibility and breathing, decrease stress, and maintain health. Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years in India and is based on the idea that the mind and body are one. It is thought that yoga improves health by improving how you see the world, which calms the spirit and decreases stress.”

“Two basic components of Hatha yoga are proper breathing and exercises, called postures, that stretch the body. Postures are done while standing, lying down, sitting in a chair, or in a headstand position. While practicing a posture, a person does breathing exercises to help relax muscles, maintain the posture, and focus the mind.”

“Hatha is one of many types of yoga. While each type focuses on different aspects of yoga, all share the same goal, which is not only improved physical and mental health, but achievement of “oneness” with a higher being, the self, or some form of higher awareness.”

“What is yoga used for?”

“Most people who try yoga for meditation find that it increases flexibility and reduces stress. Several studies have shown that yoga helps lower blood pressure and improves a person’s sense of well-being. Studies have also shown that yoga can help people who have asthma learn to breathe more easily. If you suffer from a long-term (chronic) medical condition, you can often combine yoga and conventional medical treatment.”

“Is yoga safe?”

“Yoga is considered safe.”

“Always tell your health professional if you are using an alternative therapy or if you are thinking about combining an alternative therapy with your conventional medical treatment. It may not be safe to forgo your conventional medical treatment and rely only on an alternative therapy.”

“Like any physical activity, yoga can cause muscle strains or sprains. Gentle stretching before a yoga session can help prevent injuries.”

The author for the above information is Paul Lehnert.

Yoga requires very little room to practice-just room for your body on the floor. You may choose to use a yoga mat. A site that has great variety in yoga mats and meditation products, matsmatsmats, also has a catalog that you can download.

A short glossary of the basic yoga poses, abc-of-yoga, will help you to get started with the basic poses. This extensive site may be all that is needed for your yoga education. It gives information about yoga and meditation, health, exercise, postures, equipment, and tools. It also has a members site and a links directory.

One of the best sections on this site is under “yoga exercises and postures” as it lists the yoga exercises under these sections;(1) warm-up poses, (2) standing poses, (3) seated poses, (4) twist yoga poses, (5) supine poses, (6) inverted postures and balance poses, (7) backbends, and (8) finishing poses. I especially like their warning that yoga is not a competition but a way to learn to relax.

Some of the best yoga products are for sale at Gaiam which is a lifestyle company with ideas and products for mind-body fitness, solar living, apparel, home and outdoors, wellness, and DVDs (and audio and books).

The Yoga Site has a directory of yoga retreats across the US, Canada, Central/South America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Australia.

Wai Lana has weekly asanas (exercises) with a video to learn that week’s pose. Flickr has many pages of yoga poses.

My favorite yoga CDs are: (1) Sara Ivanhoe’s 20 minute yoga makeover (ISBN 1-59443-546-4) and (2) You Can Do! Yoga (ISBN 0-7662-1904-6).