Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Make an early New Year’s resolution and get started now! It’s easier than you might think, and we’ll outline a super-simple trick you can use to motivate yourself to better health, starting today.

The first step in making use of this motivational trick is to recognize the simple fact that most of us don’t like to exercise. Unfortunately, proper diet and exercise together (not just one or the other) is the gateway to better health.

Where exercise is concerned, trick your brain. As an option to joining a gym, think about the things you like to do, or something you might like to try. The only caveat is that there has to be some sort of physical component.
Maybe that’s golf, frisbee, fencing, bicycling, or even whitewater rafting or ballroom dancing.

Whatever it is, if it’s something you genuinely enjoy, then you’ll look forward to doing it. The exercise you get as a consequence won’t feel like exercise because you’re having fun, and since you enjoy it, you’ll be inclined to do a lot more of it.  Of course, my favorite is Essentrics, otherwise known as Classical Stretch.

Where diet is concerned, the big watchword here is accountability.
Make yourself accountable by keeping track of your healthy meals and snacks, exercise and water consumption.

Often, the simple trick of being confronted by a written record of everything you eat is sufficient to make you steer clear of at least some of the dietary indiscretions into which you may fall.

If that’s not enough, then enlist friends. You can help hold each other accountable. You’re almost certainly not the only person in your circle of friends struggling with weight and health issues, so take advantage of that!

Finally, set and celebrate realistic milestones. Don’t think about the fact that you’re 60 pounds overweight. Focus on your adherence to your heathy diet.  Don’t concentrate on what you cannot eat.  Instead, focus on what you CAN eat and prepare ahead so healthy choices are readily available.  You’ll find in a month, your pants are much looser and the numbers on the scale are going down.

Before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to a permanent healthy life.