Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Health

Tags

Diet, Exercise, health, mental health, motivation, Sleep, water consumption

Happy Monday, all. Today, I’d like to talk health. If your gym is extra busy, here’s why? New Year’s resolutions. Yep. Your gym will be busy for the first three months of the year, and then, it will drop back to normal levels. I’ve watched this every year I’ve been active in the gym and it is almost like clockwork.

The reason I bring up health is because you can’t be motivated if you feel like crap. Each of us is unique. We are all the same in some respects, but our tastes in food and our ability to eat various foods all boils down to our uniqueness. Some folks are allergic to gluten. Some are allergic to dairy products. Some are allergic to both.

Exercise doesn’t have to be in a gym. You can get a good amount of exercise shoveling your driveway or raking leaves or doing chores around the house, particularly if you have stairs. How many times do you walk up and down stairs while you do your laundry?

Diet is very individual. Many folks, however, don’t catch what foods make them feel good and what foods cause an adverse reaction. My sister cannot drink protein shakes. She breaks out in hives immediately after drinking any type of bottled protein. Protein powder is fine, but whatever they put into the bottled version causes her to break out.

If you really want to know what is up with your body, go to a allergist and have them run a battery of tests that will tell you exactly what you are allergic to and what you are not allergic to. You may find out that something you’ve been eating for years is just not good for you and your unique makeup.

Some folks can’t go to a gym. They can’t afford it or they don’t have one within a reasonable driving distance. There are solutions to that. You can either just do calisthenics, yoga, or some other non-machine type workout. Walking is another terrific way to exercise. It is non-stressful, it works the heart, and it is a great time to get caught up on music you want to listen to, you can call one of your friends and talk to them while you walk, or you can get caught up on that audiobook or podcast you want to listen to.

Health is an important aspect of our lives. If you’re young, you’ll recognize that your preferences change as you age. You’ll find foods that used to be good for you, are not anymore. You’ll also find that you may have to change a workout routine from time to time. The key is to keep yourself in the best health you can.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I hope all of you have a great Monday.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Exercise

Tags

Big Things, Consistency, Exercise, Flexibility, improved immune response, mental clarity, motivation, Routine, Small things, TedEd

For about 50% of the population, exercise is one of the New Year’s resolutions people commit to. Unfortunately, many start, but few achieve their goals. To add a little incentive, watch this video to see how exercise improves so many things without much effort. There is an entire cascade of events that occur within the body when we exercise consistently.

I hope you enjoyed the video and will start your own exercise routine. You don’t have to do much to gain the benefits of exercise. A little goes a long way, as long as you are consistent. Crushing yourself in the gym for a few days and then letting that new gym membership go to waste doesn’t produce the results you may be looking for. Consistency and continuous efforts are what win the day. Remember, your health goals are not a race–they are a marathon. Make them a daily habit, and you’ll feel better in a short amount of time.

Have a great Monday, folks! Get out there and get moving. Take it slow and easy, but consistently and you’ll see improvements in your immune system, your sleep, and even your ability to think.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Little Things Add up to Big Things

Tags

Battle Royale, Big Things, CODM, Exercise, Legendary, Little Things, momentum, Reading, Writing

I’m a little wiped today, as I ground the last few days on CODM to attain Legendary status in ranked play. I got it last night, after a week worth of heavy game play. Grinding by the way, is a term in gaming for playing and playing and playing until you reach a goal. I grind to get diamond camo and I grind to get Legendary. I still have 3 days to get Legendary again in Battle Royale and knock out the season’s last challenge.

The reason I ended up grinding the last few days to get Legendary status in CODM is because I did not plan out the season well. I only had 6 days left in the season when I started, and now I’m down to two days to finish out the Battle Royale. So, what’s the lesson. It would be much easier moving through a single rank area in the progression than trying to do multiple levels in a short period of time.

It’s easier to get in shape if you work out each day. It’s easier reading 50+ books a year if you read a little each day. It’s easier to write a book if you write a little each day. This little consistent actions each day will be bring Big results. Subsequently, when season 6 starts in 2 days, it’ll be working on both Battle Royal and Ranked Multiplayer each day to attain Legendary status in both within the first few weeks. This will be much less stressful, and a heck of a lot more enjoyable. I do not want to do this again.

So, if there’s a goal you have, like reading so many books, posting so many blog posts, or working on a book, do a little each day. These little actions build momentum, build habits, and make attaining big results easy–almost subconsciously. Once you learn this anything is within reach.

Well, that’s it for today.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Know Thyself

Tags

Exercise, habits, Learning, Monday, motivation, Self-Knowledge, Social activities, Spiritual things, Writing

Happy Monday, all!

Whenever we look at adding something to our day or creating a new habit, we have to know what makes us tick. For me, habits are only formed when I do something every day. When it comes to exercise, I have to do it first thing in the morning and I have to go to the gym every day. If I take a day off, that day off turns into a few days, and before you know it, I’m not going at all. Not a good solution.

So, I do the same things each day. I write by working on my blog, my book, my journaling, my letters. Another habit that will fall to the wayside for me if I do not do this each day. Make sense?

Perhaps many of you are not wired this way. That’s ok. The key to being motivated and getting things done is about self-knowledge and regulation. Know thyself. Know what makes you tick. Learn some tricks to help you attain the goals you want to achieve and the habits you want to establish for yourself.

I hope all of you have a great Monday. It’s rainy and cold here in Michigan. A perfect day for writing, learning, and reading and drinking coffee.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Changing a Bad Mood into a Good One

Tags

Coffee, Cookies, donuts, Exercise, Meditation, Mood, motivation, Music, oatmeal, tea

It’s Monday, folks and time for another installment of Motivation Monday. I was thinking about how all of us manifest our environments. Our attitudes have a huge impact on our motivation. If you think the day will be great, it will be. Conversely, if we think the day will be crap, it will be.

The way we “see” our reality is the way it is. We cannot escape ourselves. How do you smooth out a bad mood? There are all kinds of ways to do so. Music is a huge one for me. If music impacts your mood like it does me, grab your favorite toon or playlist and fire it up. Your mood will change in seconds. Another thing to do is to do something you absolutely enjoy. Maybe it’s a warm cup of coffee. Maybe it’s a tasty morsel like a donut, coffee cake, or a steaming bowl of oatmeal.

Another thing that can alter your mood is exercise. A vigorous workout or relaxing walk with your favorite tunes blaring is another great way to change your mood in an instant. The key is knowing yourself and the tools you have at your disposal to alter your initial feeling in the morning.

I have gotten so skilled at maintaining a good mood, that is no longer an issue for me. I wake up happy and ready to tackle the day. All of the tasks I have set up are things I enjoy doing. When I work on my book, it is an escape for me to another reality that unfolds as I put words to the page.

Motivation is impacted by the mood you are in. If you are having one of those “dark” mornings, it is hard to be motivated to do anything. So keep your personal tools at the ready. The mood has to change before anything can be accomplished. Music, exercise, good food, or something you enjoy doing are the tools I use to keep up my motivation levels.

One more tool I have is having something enjoyable to do after I get done with my “work”. I look forward to the video gaming I know I’ll be doing once my to-do list is completed. This little “carrot” at the end of my work day is a key motivator. It makes the day fly by, as I knock out task after task, knowing, I’ve got a great video game experience waiting for me.

Well, that’s it for today. I hope all of you have a terrific Monday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Consistency

Tags

Consistency, Exercise, Goals, Goodreads, Monday, motivation, Reading, Routine

Good morning! Happy President’s Day!

How do you stay motivated for your daily tasks and goals when it’s a holiday? I follow a pretty rigid schedule of Monday – Friday, even while retired. There are certain things I do everyday, regardless of what holiday falls on Monday. The caveat to that is during the month of December, I pretty much take the whole month off.

I find consistency is the key to getting anything done that requires more than a day’s work. Take reading, for example. I use Goodreads to track all of my reading. I set a goal of roughly 60 books a year. If I read 5 books simultaneously each month (5 chapters a day), I will typically meet or exceed the 60 book goal I set. A lot of that depends on how big the books are. During those years I am reading a lot of history or non-fiction books, the number I hit tends to be lower. Most of these books (at least the ones I am interested in) tend to be quite long (400 or more pages). Subsequently, it’s harder to knock those ones down compared to a 200-250 page novel, which tends to move along more quickly. Anyway, for me it is better to do the same things each day on a schedule than just wing it. By doing a little each day, you can achieve quite a lot by year’s end.

For exercise this week, I’ll be doing some home workouts. I’m not a huge fan of driving in the snow or in inclimate weather. Here’s my workout:

Monday (Quads and Calves)

Tuesday (Hams and Abs)

Wednesday (Back and Biceps)

Thursday (Chest and Triceps)

Friday (Shoulders)

Each day I’ll do 50 reps for each body part.

I hope each of you has a great Monday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Benefits of Exercise

Tags

Appetite, Benefits, Body, Exercise, Fun, Sleep, Ted Talk, TedEd, Thinking

For those of you who fell off the exercise wagon over the last couple years of COVID, here’s a video that will give you some things to think about when you begin again. For me, exercise helps me sleep. When I wasn’t exercising consistently, my sleep patterns were thrown way off, my appetite was off, and my energy levels were in the pits.

After reading Tim Ferris’ 4-hour body last year, I also realized that much of the hype surrounding supplements, exercise routines where you are killing yourself everyday in the gym, are all falsehoods. A few good workouts a week can do the trick and they can be done in the comfort of your home or at a gym.

I hope you learn something from this video and if you are not exercising, find a little motivation in this video to begin something, anything to get moving.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Reframing

Tags

Exercise, Monday, motivation, Read, Reframe, Simplify, Socialize, Spiritualize, Stick to basics, To-do Lists, Write

One of the benefits of retirement is I have a lot of freedom to choose what to do today or tomorrow or throughout the week. One of the detriments of retirement is I have a lot of freedom to choose what to do today or tomorrow or throughout the week.

When my daily to-do list gets out of hand, I return to the basics. I reframe what I need to do each day. It simplifies things, makes it easy to get done my most important tasks, and reignites my motivation to get things done, because I have “less” to do.

My key things are: physical (exercise, eat right, sleep, water), mental (read, write, learn), social (stay in contact with friends, colleagues via phone or social media), and spiritual (journaling, reading, spiritual exercises).

Obviously, things will come up, but my daily to-dos focus on doing something in each of these areas consistently every day. Over time one can get a lot done!

If you have found your motivation waning, it may have to do with stacking your plate too high with too many things. Or it may involve trying to do too much. For those that still work, this is a recipe for disaster. Keep it simple. If you want to read, read a chapter or a few pages, whatever time permits. If you want to write, start a simple journal like a diary, dream journal or gratitude journal, or for those of us here, write something in your blog. I try to keep my blog entries to within a 200-300 word chunk if possible. I also try to keep the volume of my writing in my journal to this amount as well. If you want to exercise, do something simple like walking up and down stairs, some pushups, situps, air squats, or inclined pushups on the stairs. Spiritual things like prayer, meditation, and the like are up to you. Read a spiritual book, meditate, pray at some point in the day. I find this to be most important to schedule. Then I know I’ll get it done and not miss a day of this important aspect of my life. Socially, I stick to family. After retirement and moving back to Michigan, many of my daily contacts have reduced to a facebook posting or quick response here and there. I focus on family first, then others if time allows.

Reframing your to-do list is a simple practice of reducing things down to the basics. Read, write, socialize, and spiritualize. If you can reduce your daily to-dos (habits) down to their core, you’ll find it much easier to tackle the list and get things done.

My exercise this week, will be another change of pace. I’m sticking to home this week, because the weather has turned absolutely brutal (it’s in the single digits outside) and I enjoy staying indoors. So this week, it’ll be a focus on upper body, lower body, and cardio (each of these twice a week). Here is what it looks like:

Lower body (Monday and Thursday)

Upper body (Tuesday and Friday)

Cardio (Wednesday and Saturday)

I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Motivation is Coupled to Your Mood

Tags

anxiety, depression, Exercise, Fall, Holidays, Monday, Mood, motivation, Sister, Sun Lights, Winter

This time of year it gets dark and stays dark. We have a lot of dark, rainy days in the fall, or dark snowy days. It’s just that time of year for Michiganders. Many people in my neck of the woods suffer from an ailment (I do not know the name), where the dark impacts their moods. My sister is one of them.

She and I are the exact opposite when it comes to this time of year. It is my favorite time. For her it is absolute torment. One solution she came up with was getting herself a light that she sits in for about an hour before doing anything else. It was the trick.

Do you have any fall challenges? Do the darker months impact you? You may want to look into a light like my sister did. Perhaps you have other challenges with the fall and winter months. Maybe you do not like to be cooped up. Learn some winter sports like cross-country skiing, hiking, or even just walking. There are a lot of things to do if you look for them.

Motivation and mood are tied to one another. It is hard to be motivated if you are pissed off or depressed. Find the root cause of these things; get some help if you need it. It is really hard to be motivated if you don’t feel well, or are suffering from depression.

Another thing you may look into is exercise. Exercise for me is like going to a psychologist. I just feel so good when I go to the gym, get in some exercise, and sweat a little. It is something about the body moving, the endorphins that are released when we exert ourselves, and the boost to the self esteem that comes when you do something that is hard to do.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. Enjoy the changing colors of the leaves, the snow that will come soon, if it is not here already where you live, and the great food and family time that accompanies this time of year. It’s great to be alive, isn’t it?

Have a great Monday, folks.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Self Care

Tags

Exercise, good music, Hobbies, motivation, Self Care, spas, staycations

It’s time for some self-care. When you work hard, you have multiple priorities, and they are all tugging at you simultaneously, you need some respite. What do you do to destress?

Music has always been a great source of relaxation for me. The right music, calms me right down. Another source I used to distress is to get involved with a hobby. I like video games, so that’s my go to.

Did you realize that exercise can also be a huge stress reliever? Exercise stresses the body, but this stress releases what scientists call the “feel good” brain chemicals called endorphins. You can monitor this the next time you do some exercise. It occurs about 10-15 minutes into any workout. When it hits, you get a “second wind” that makes it feel like you could continue to workout for another hour. Anyway, exercise reduces stress by the release of these endorphins and how the body reacts to the stresses you put on it in the gym. It gets stronger. I’m not just talking muscles, but nervous system, circulatory system, skeletal system–the whole works.

What do you do to relieve stress? What hobbies do you have? What types of exercise do you enjoy?

When was the last time you got a massage, manicure, pedicure? My wife introduced me to manicures and pedicures, and they are terrific. Talk about spoiling yourself. Then there are the spas. When have you been to a spa for a weekend, getting pampered, eating terrific food, and just relaxing with herbal tea and a good book?

For those of you who have a hard time getting away, there’s always the “staycation” where you go to a local hotel and stay the night or for a weekend, letting someone else cook for you, watching some shows on the television, or getting out and taking part in some local events that normally escape your calendar.

We have many priorities and demands. Take some time to relax. You’ll be more efficient and ready to take on those challenges again when you get back from your excursion.

Until next time…

Dave