Friend

During the start of every New Year, people from all walks of life make resolutions about losing weight, getting fit and getting healthier. They purchase gym memberships, but can’t get motivated to go. They start the latest fad diet and can’t force themselves to stick with it long enough to get any results.

This behavior isn’t just limited to the beginning of the year either. People make failed attempts to get themselves into a better state of health with little success all year long. There is always a good reason to start your new diet or exercise plan; you want to squeeze into a size six for your cousin’s wedding or you want to feel confident in your swim suit when beach season hits. Maybe your cholesterol is high or your stamina is low.

A large part of the failure of all of these endeavors to get healthier stems from the fact that we aren’t giving ourselves a good and definitive reason to get up, go out and get moving. In the back of our minds, there is always the thought that tomorrow is another day.

Bad days at work, trouble sleeping or your favorite show coming on aren’t good excuses to skip your workout, but they are excuses that people use everyday. What we need to guarantee is our success in getting healthier is a reason to get moving that we can’t ignore.

Man’s (or woman’s) Best Friend

If you can’t seem to stick to a regular workout routine and you are in desperate need of dropping some pounds, whether it’s by doctor’s orders or just to be able to look at yourself in the mirror again, then getting a dog may be the perfect path to your success.

There are no two ways about it, dogs need to get outside. They need to go to the bathroom and they need regular activity to be healthy and happy.

An average dog needs about one twenty to thirty minute walk a day. In addition to the quick trips out to relieve themselves, they need to get enough exercise to remain in good health. Twenty to thirty minutes is, coincidently, a perfect amount of time for an adult to get out and perform some type of physical activity in order to stay in good health.

No Excuses

Your dog won’t want to hear that you’re tired. Your dog won’t care that the new episode of some prime time drama is coming on and your dog certainly won’t care that your boss was giving you a hard time all day.

Your dog will need to go outside, period. That is exactly the type of motivation many people need these days in order to get the amount of physical activity they need to get themselves into a healthier state.

A Faithful Training Partner

As you begin to work out the kinks created by year after year of doing nothing more than sitting in front of the TV, you’ll begin to feel better. Those excess pounds that you’ve been building up will start to melt away.

There may be a lot of skeptics about this “workout plan.” People will wonder how it’s possible to lose weight simply by taking a dog out for a stroll, but you can rest assured that this is an excellent way to get yourself on the road to better health.

A recent study conducted by the University of Missouri at Columbia, showed a reasonable pattern of weight loss for subjects who walked a dog for twenty minutes a day, five days a week over the course of one year.

The average participant in the study lost nearly fifteen pounds over the course of the year. Though the information from the study can not guarantee the same results for anyone who begins walking a dog, one thing to consider is that the study only included five days of the week. You, as a dog owner, would be getting that activity seven days a week.

The subjects were using twenty minutes as their goal per day. You would be unlimited as to the amount of time and type of activity you chose on each walk.

Fifteen pounds in one year is not an extraordinary amount of weight to lose, but for someone who’s had little success with any endeavor they’ve attempted in the past, fifteen pounds could be a huge accomplishment. Seeing that weight come off can be a great motivator to do more. Having that unavoidable excuse for activity can allow you to get to that next level and continue to take the weight off.

If subjects in the study lost fifteen pounds in twenty minutes over five days a week, and you’ll be walking thirty minutes a day for seven days a week, your weight loss could be markedly higher. The change in your health over the first year could be dramatic.

As you begin, you may only be able to walk for fifteen, or so minutes a day. After a month, you may be walking for over thirty minutes. The healthier you and your dog get together, the more activity you’ll be capable of on a given day. By the six month mark, you may be going for long runs with your new best friend.

Make no mistake about it, if you want to take a forty-five minute walk around a park on a beautiful spring day, your dog will be right by your side the entire time with zero complaints. If you get to a level of fitness that has you wanting to take your dog for two thirty minute walks a day, it’s a safe assumption that your four legged friend certainly won’t have a problem with that either.

The more time you spend with your dog in these bonding experiences, the closer the two of you will get. Your dog can and will be the best friend and training partner that you’ve ever had. For anyone who needs some kind of unavoidable excuse to get up and get moving, getting a dog can be the best solution.

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How to help a friend quit smoking

 Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the U.S.  Smoking causes lung cancer, heart attacks, emphysema, and stroke.  People who smoke have much  shorter life expectancies than people who don’t.

 How do you help a friend or family member quit smoking?  It isn’t easy.  Smoking is a difficult habit to break.  Smoking is an addiction with physiological and psychological components.

 Nevertheless, there are things you can do to help someone quit smoking.  In my talk I will explain how to present a smoker with information on the health consequences of smoking, how to develop a Quit Smoking Plan, and how to persuade a smoker to follow such a plan.

 I realize that by talking about the health affects of smoking I run the risk of depressing the whole audience.   I promise to move quickly to the more practical question of how to quit.

 The health consequences of smoking are well documented.  Two places to find such information are the Mayo Clinic website and the American Lung Association website.

 Smoking is responsible for nearly one in five deaths in the United States. Almost half a million people die every year from the consequences of smoking.

On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years sooner than nonsmokers do.

Lung cancer is the No.1 cause of cancer death in the United States.

Almost 90,000 Americans die each year of coronary heart disease caused by smoking.  Smokers have triple the risk of coronary heart disease that nonsmokers have.

Smoking raises your blood pressure, cholesterol level and your risk of blood clots. A smoker is two to six times more likely to have a heart attack, and the more you smoke, the higher your risk.

Depending on how well you know a smoker, you could simply mention these websites or print out and discuss the information with the smoker.

 

 After reviewing the health affects of smoking, the next step in quitting smoking is the Quit Smoking Plan.

 A quit smoking plan is a detailed list of steps that someone should take to quit smoking.  It is usually not realistic for someone to just wake up one day and quit smoking.  A certain amount of planning and preparation is needed.

A quit smoking plan should mention some of the health and other reasons that provide the motivation for a smoker to quit. 

A quit smoking plan should set a quit date, which is a date sometime in the near future, when the smoker will plan to stop smoking.  This gives a smoker time to prepare to kick the habit.

The bulk of the quit smoking plan contains a series of actions the smoker needs to take to get ready to quit.  Such actions include joining a local smoking cessation class, identifying a group of people who can provide support when the smoker quits, and reviewing the quit smoking literature available on the ALA website.  This website contains a detailed seven module program called Freedom from Smoking which describes how to quit smoking.

A smoker can also join a gym or get a treadmill, because exercise is helpful for someone giving up smoking.  In addition, smokers can consult a doctor or pharmacist about nicotine patches and gum and become familiar with smokeless cigarettes as an alternative to smoking.  

Other possibilities include starting deep breathing yoga exercises, using relaxation CDs, or squeezing a physical therapy ball to relieve tension.  A quit smoking plan needs to be tailored a bit for each individual.

 A Quit Smoking Plan is fairly easy to prepare.  The hard part is getting a smoker to follow the plan.

 There is no guaranteed way to get a smoker to follow a quit smoking plan.  However there are some things you can try.
 To get the smoker’s attention you might try sending the smoker some of the anti smoking merchandise available for sale on the ALA web site.  There you can order T shirts and other items with slogans urging people not to smoke.

 You may be able to convince the smoker to prepare a quit smoking plan.  If not, you can prepare one yourself and give it to the smoker.  You can also talk about the plan with the smoker and explain the importance of each step of the plan.

 Repetition is a useful tool of persuasion, so remind the smoker as often as possible of the quit smoking day and the need to prepare for it. 

 Explain to the smoker that the withdrawal symptoms are worst in the first 7 to 10 days after quitting.  This may enable the smoker to get through the first few days.

 Spending some money on the effort may also help.  For example, if the smoker cannot afford a quit smoking class or an exercise program, you could pay for it yourself.  This will show that you take the issue seriously, and they should too.

 Preaching  to or nagging the smoker not to smoke is probably not that helpful.  Part of what you do will depend on the smoker’s attitude.  The smoker may have no interest in quitting and rebuff your efforts entirely.  Or, he or she might have some interest in giving up smoking, but may be unwilling to follow every step of the quit smoking plan.  In some cases a smoker might need just a little nudge to quit smoking.

 Another possibility is that after the quit smoking date the smoker succeeds in cutting down on smoking but does not quit entirely.  In this case you need to praise the smoker’s effort to quit but also remind the smoker that it is necessary to quit completely.  Review the reasons to quit with the smoker – often health benefits alone are not enough to persuade a smoker to quit.  Also review the parts of the quit smoking plan that were not followed and try to get the smoker to follow those parts of the plan as well.

 You are doing a friend a big favor by trying to help him or her quit smoking.

 To be successful, you need the right tools.  Consult relevant websites for information on the health affects of smoking.  Prepare a detailed quit smoking plan.  Convince the smoker to follow the plan.

 46 million Americans who once smoked have successfully quit.  It isn’t easy, but the health benefits are considerable. 

 You may feel bad if your friend does not quit.  The best thing to do in that case is to say “good try.”  Quitting smoking often takes several attempts, and each attempt is a step forward.

 If you have a friend or family member who smokes, try helping them to quit.  Stick with it.  If you are not successful on the first attempt, remember the old adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

 

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