To ensure your copy of WF E-Mag don't forget to add Women Fitness email address to your email browser's "safe list" or address book. Click here for complete information.

Thursday July 08, 2010

Life brings many experiences: some positive and some negative. As people get older they may fall into the trap of focusing on negative experiences and unwittingly cultivating a sense of pessimism about the future. Pessimism can be further encouraged by media messages that value youth and denigrate aging. This week we focus on, Learning the art of positive Thinking, which is the essence of healthy living.

In fitness
Namita

One of the reasons why women tend to drop out of exercise is due to the frustration of expecting high unachievable goals from their program and then failing to see results. Try focusing on what you've already achieved, rather than where you want to go with your weight. Also, measure your success by more than just the scale. That is, commend yourself for being more fit, feeling better about yourself in general, being in a more "up" frame of mind -- or whatever else your efforts at eating healthier. With time, weight loss should follow. According to the USDA a realistic weight loss would be about 10 percent of your current weight over about 6 months. Losing weight at this slower rate will allow you to enjoy enough healthy foods to feel satisfied and adequately nourish your body.

Excellence

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude. Excellence comes not from education, money, ability or connections alone. It comes from a commitment to do the very best with whatever you have available.

Excellence is very valuable, and it is open to anyone who commits to follow it. Excellence is always in demand, in any field of endeavor, in any economic climate, in any set of circumstances.

Excellence comes from thoroughness, from attending to the necessary details while staying clearly focused on the purpose. Excellence comes from a sincere desire to make a positive difference.

No matter what the task, if it's followed through with excellence, people will take notice. The effort you put into creating excellence will be effort wisely invested. Everyone has the opportunity to produce excellence in their own way, and it is an opportunity that anyone would do well to capitalize on.

 

Learn more 

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
John Wooden

Succulent Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kebabs

Makes: 6 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Greek yogurt

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 small onion, minced

• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

• 3/4 tsp. ground ginger

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

• 4-6 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch cubes

• 6 pita bread wrapped in aluminum foil

• 1 cup cleaned and chopped romaine lettuce

• Preheat broiler on high.

Direction

• Mix all ingredients except pita, chicken and lettuce in a bowl and pour into a re-sealable bag. Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator for about 2 hrs.

• Set racks to middle and bottom third of oven.

• Take the chicken out of the bag and place on skewers about 1/2 inches apart. Set skewers on cooling rack on top of aluminum foil covered baking sheet (to minimize cleaning).

• Place skewers on to middle oven rack and cook about 20-30 minutes until cooked through. Turn them at least once during cooking. Be careful not to overcook! For the last five minutes of cooking put the pita on the bottom rack to warm.

• Place the chicken into the pita and garnish with romaine lettuce. Serve with hummus or rice if desired.

Nutritional Information (Per serving):

• 360 calories,

• 7 g total fat (1.5 g saturated fat),

• 41 g carbohydrate,

• 34 g protein,

• 6 g dietary fiber,

• 620 mg sodium

Courtsey: AICR

LEARNING THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING

Optimism, enthusiasm and a refusal to tolerate boredom are characteristics that are often associated with young people. There is no reason why this should be the case, however, and one of the best ways to remain psychologically young is to cultivate the art of positive thinking.

Foster a sense of optimism

Life brings many experiences: some positive and some negative. As people get older they may fall into the trap of focusing on negative experiences and unwittingly cultivating a sense of pessimism about the future. Pessimism can be further encouraged by media messages that value youth and denigrate aging.

Resolve to clear out your emotional baggage and foster a sense of optimism about the present and the future. Optimism has huge benefits for both psychological and physical health - it can even boost your immunity to illness. Make a list of the life experiences that have affected you positively and negatively. Compare the positive list with the negative list. Ask yourself if anything from the negative list can be discarded or turned into a positive situation. Congratulate yourself on your achievements in life and concentrate on the future rather than the past.

Optimism is cultivated by keeping busy and active. Take up activities that make you feel good about yourself such as yoga, walking or swimming. Learn something completely new. Make sure that you are always working towards new goals and challenges. Set up timetable in which to meet these goals. For example: "by the end of the year I will have converted one room of the house into a studio for painting, reading and music practice".

Distance yourself from problems

If there are situations and problems in your life that you find inescapable, try to distance yourself from them. Take an overview: tell yourself that this is one episode in your life and it will not last indefinitely. If possible, try to see humor in difficult situations. Imagine that you are a stranger walking past the window of your own house. What would the stranger see? What would the stranger make of the events going on?

Ask yourself whether your current problems will still affect you in a year's time or in five or ten years? If you can, let go of things that you cannot change and concentrate on the things that you can. Remember that, even if you cannot change a situation, you always have the option of changing the way that you think about it. Cultivate a sense of control.
 

Learn more about this article