What is the most important factor that determines your body weight, fitness level and your overall quality of health? 

1)  Good diet and nutrition;
2)  Regular exercise;
3)  Avoiding sweets and junk food;
4)  Your attitudes, and beliefs about health and fitness.

If you picked attitudes, and beliefs, as the number one factor, you are right.

More than any other factor, your attitude determines not just your health and fitness level, your attitudes and beliefs determine where you go in life and what you accomplish when you get there.

Your attitude about health, bodyweight, relationships, finances and everything is shaped primarily by thoughts and ideas you let inside your mind, and by conscious and unconscious beliefs and associations, many of which you may have held since childhood.

How can an unconscious belief affect your body weight?  Easy! 

If you received sweets as a special treat or a reward when you were a child, you may have an unconscious association that connects eating sweets with feeling good and being rewarded.

As an adult, you know sweets aren’t healthy, but at the same time you, (like everyone), crave recognition and reward, so, thanks to the unconscious association between sweets and pleasurable feelings that is driving your behavior, you ignore the facts and reach for the candy.  

You create the circumstances of your life, primarily by using the tool of thought, which is yours to use AT your will and AS you will. 

You Can’t Not Use Your Mind

Every minute of every day, you make choices and take actions based on your thoughts, ideas, and conscious and unconscious beliefs and associations.  And everyday your actions, or lack of action, set your course and weave the tapestry of your future.

By choosing your thoughts and holding success-images in your mind, you develop new awareness and begin to see opportunity, which if acted on, will move you toward achieving the vision you hold in your mind.

3 Steps To Develop A Positive Attitude And Get What You Want

1) Decide what’s important and why. 

One of my weight loss clients has struggled for years to lose weight and keep it off.  She was good at losing but not good at keeping it off… until now.  This time she’ll keep the weight off for life, not because of some new diet… but because her attitude changed for good.  She recently had a child and decided she wanted to; 1) set a healthy example and; 2) be able to run and play with her new son for many years to come… and not be the overweight, out of breath Mom who can’t keep up. 

Knowing what you want and WHY is very important because when the why is strong enough, the HOW always shows up.  Decide what’s important and why.

2) Decide what you want and be specific: 

It’s easy to know exactly what you don’t want and be a little fuzzy about what you do want. 

I don’t want tuna casserole for dinner.  I don’t want this lousy job.  I don’t want to argue with the kids.  I don’t want all those bills.  I don’t want to be overweight.  The list goes on.

We are often experts at what we don’t want, but the KEY TO SUCCESS is to know what you DO WANT. 

For example, wild-caught salmon for dinner; a job you love; kids who can’t wait to see you and who always pay attention to what you say; to earn WAY more than you spend every month; to be in a relationship that’s better than anything you ever dreamed of, to drive a brand new candy-apple-red Corvette, and so on. 

By knowing and focusing on what you want, you give your mind a goal and you mind will direct you toward that goal and you will begin to see ways to get what you want.

If you focus on being overweight, you’re doomed to stay that way.  But if you focus on health and fitness instead, before you know it, you’ll look and feel better than ever… not because of magic, but because when you focus on what you want, you will begin to take steps to get it.

3) Stay focused, listen to your inner-voice, and take action when it seems appropriate. 

If there’s magic in the universe, it happens at the point of action. 

Once you decide what’s important and decide what you want and why you want it, you’ll have a flood of ideas on what you can do to get it, and you must act on those ideas.

If your goal is a lean-healthy body, and you notice an article about weight loss, let that be a sign… read the article and see if it has actionable information.  Be open and receptive.  By deciding what you want, you are essentially asking you mind to lead you toward it.  Be receptive, take action and you will make real progress. 

It is impossible to overstate the importance of attitude. 

To improve your results in ANY area of life, start by examining your attitudes and beliefs because your attitudes and beliefs are a big part of why you are where you are today, and your attitude and beliefs will play a big part in bringing you to where you will be in the future.  

For more information on attitudes, beliefs and how to think your way to greater health, happiness and success, sign up for a FREE subscription to my Think, Believe And Achieve Newsletter. 

Good health is a choice you can make.

Getting into excellent health, like getting good at anything, requires commitment, focus and a willingness to take the right action repeatedly over time.

My health and weight loss program, 5 Steps To Optimal Health, comes with an Action Manual loaded with inspirational sayings and memory joggers to remind you to stay focused and choose health every day in every way.

Weather you’re trying to lose weight, lower your blood pressure or cholesterol naturally or you just want better health, focusing on your health can pay big dividends.

Here are a few thoughts and ideas from the 5 Steps Action Manual for you to enjoy.

Print this list out, read it over every day and you’ll be suprised and delighted at what happens. Hint: Your health may improve noticeably!

Click To Listen

• Choose Health – Say YES to taking a walk before or after dinner.
• Choose Health – Say YES to fresh berries and a little half & half for dessert. 
• Choose Health – Say no to cakes, pies and desserts that pack on the pounds. 
• Choose Health – Say YES to delicious protein meals that speed up metabolism and help burn stored body fat.

Say no to bread, rice, pasta and high carb foods that stop fat burning and cause you to make and store new fat.

Say YES to fresh green vegetables and salads loaded with health-building, blood-pressure lowering, fat-burning vitamins, minerals and enzymes.

Say YES to an apple a day. Try it and find out for yourself if what they say is true.

Choose Health – Say no to fast food, junk food, chips, candy, soft drinks, cookies and nutritionally bankrupt, empty calorie foods.

Choose Health – Say no to, soft drinks, sweet tea, juice drinks or any drink with artificial sweeteners.  

• Say YES to resistance exercise that builds attractive, firm, supple muscle that makes you stronger and more able to enjoy life. 
• Choose Health – Say no to television, video games or anything that keeps you sitting still for long periods of time. 
• Choose Health – Say YES to gardening, swimming, golfing, bowling, skating hiking, weight lifting, exercise classes, and anything that gets you moving. 

Choose Health – Say YES to going to the gym, park, beach, river, forest or anywhere outdoors where you get to move around and enjoy yourself.

Say YES to stimulating conversations with friends about health, weight loss, and nutrition.

The Choice Is Yours… So what’s your choice?

Choose Health – Say no to anything the riles you up, spikes your blood pressure, or makes you angry.

If talk-radio upsets you, flush it from your mind and focus on health instead. Listen to the 5 Steps Program instead of the radio and you’ll be AMAZED at all the ways you benefit.

Choose Health – Say YES to sharing what you learn about health with like-minded friends.

Choose Health – Say no to spending time with ANYONE who puts you down, criticizes you, or who is always negative and tells you, you won’t reach your goal.

Say no to negativity. Say no to worry. Say no to fear. Focus on what you want.  Spend your time doing what it takes to get it.

Choose Health – Say YES to having a clear vision and a vivid picture in your mind of exactly what you want. 

The Choice Is Yours… So whats your choice?

Choose Health – Say YES to a fit, healthy body and a great new wardrobe.

Choose Health – Say YES to listening to the 5 Steps Audios so often you can tell the story yourself.

Choose Health – Say YES to going through 5 Steps Program with a friend so you can compare notes and benefit from the program together.

Choose Health – Say YES to the only video game you can play for hours and still lose weight, Dance-Dance Revolution, available at department stores or online.

Choose Health – Say YES to writing a clear, vivid description of your goals and setting a timeline for their accomplishment.

Choose Health – Say YES to never again making an excuse for not achieving a result. You’ve got the power!

Choose Health – Say YES to the fact that success is a process, not an event and that you follow the process that creates your success joyfully every day.

Choose Heath – Say YES to the fact that you value your health and are excited to do what it takes to have what you want.

For more information in the 5 Steps To Optimal Health Weight Loss And Health Program, visit http:www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com

Is your health being undermined by the same kind of reality denying, ethical corruptness that inspires the practice known as “political correctness”?

Are you being robbed of your chance of living a long, healthy life because you’ve unknowingly accepted the kind of flawed concepts, hidden agendas or outright lies political correctness is built on?

Exactly What Is Political Correctness?

Political correctness is the morally corrupt practice of restating some fact or observation in a way that is less direct, less precise, less descriptive of reality and therefore; less confrontive and less likely to directly identify a problem or offend the person or group responsible.

The PURPOSE of political correctness is to shift your attention away from facts, to persuade you to consider all opinions as valid, and to create doubt in your mind over what’s right and wrong.

The AGENDA of political correctness has NOTHING to do with truth or problem solving. The agenda is to manipulate perception and to get you to seriously consider ideas that should be flushed down a toilet.

The pundits of political correctness want you to act as if all opinions and ideas are equal, thereby allowing them to get away with just about anything.

The RESULT of accepting the flawed arguments and half-truths is that people get confused and confusion leads to inactivity or wrong action, which eventually leads to disaster.

2 Dirty Tricks You Should NEVER Fall For

Dirty trick #1: Pundits of political correctness want you to believe all opinions and ideas are equal, which means THEIR opinions and ideas are as good as any and therefore should be accepted and acted upon.

If you agree all ideas are equal you automatically surrender to their ideas.

The truth is all ideas are not equal; some ideas are silly and some ideas, like speeding through a school zone, are stupid and bad.

Dirty trick #2: This is a nasty trick and unless you are willing to dismiss a fool for what they are you can easily fall victim! 

Here it is.

People trying to control you through the scam of political correctness want you to believe that if you disagree with them then you are being arbitrary and closed minded and that you are not smart enough or enlightened enough to understand their ideas, which means YOU are the problem, and therefore, your opinions don’t count.

Of course this is absurd. Fools babble mindlessly everyday and the fact that they babble loudly and with an air of authority in no way grants them intellectual or moral standing.

Spin-doctors who interpret events and tell you what they mean in an attempt to control your behavior are quick to explain that if you don’t agree with them something is obviously wrong with you, which is of course absurd.

Obscuring truth, shifting attention and creating “spin” through verbal manipulation is common in politics. Unfortunately the idea has caught on and today treating all points of view as if they deserve equal respect is common in practically every aspect of life.

There are countless examples of using political correctness to dodge responsibility, influence opinion, and manipulate action.

Schools are switching to purple ink for grading; doing away with red ink because red is now considered too confrontive. What a crock! This sort of misdirected energy and muddled thinking will destroy public education in the US.

Doing away with academic excellence programs is now popular because the champions of mediocrity bullied some weak-minded somebody somewhere into believing it’s not fair to poor performers to honor top performers. And we wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

This kind of thinking will return us to the intellectual Stone Age and make slaves of us all!

Many colleges are adopting Pass/Fail grading systems because champions of mediocrity convinced people in authority that “passing is passing” and there is no need to distinguish excellent performance from barely-get-by performance.

After all, they argue, why take the chance of hurting an average student’s self-esteem by acknowledging that some students work extra hard and earn excellent grades?

At best, people who believe this are confused; at worse they are simply liars.

• Which doctor they would choose to operate on themselves or a loved one, the doctor who made straight A’s in medical school, or the one who lived on academic probation and finally graduated with the lowest passing grade? 

Who would they choose to fix their car, run their business, or manage their stock portfolio; someone with a history of excellent performance or someone who performs poorly and just still happens to be in business?

These are just a few examples of how being tolerant of the flawed concepts, misplaced emphasis and outright lies creates confusion, side-steps real issues, complicates matters, and makes things worse, not better.

The only way to protect yourself is to discover the TRUTH and act on it without wavering.

Being absurdly considerate of flawed points of view is bad wherever it happens. But when this unfortunate practice, common in politics, carries over into health issues, the consequences can be devastating and even deadly.

Don’t let BIG FAT LIES destroy your health!

Ignoring reality, paying attention to the wrong things, and acting on flawed points of view causes a tremendous amount of illness, disease and death in the US.

Don’t become the victim of bad thinking, wrong-opinions and BIG FAT LIES THAT CAN DESTROY YOUR HEALTH.

The only way to protect yourself is to seek the truth, evaluate the facts, make up your own mind and act accordingly.

Who controls your health future?

Who controls your health future, you or the people who market breakfast cereal, diet drinks, weight loss products, low-fat junk food, and over priced exercise equipment on late-night television?

What’s your strategy for achieving and maintaining excellent health?

What ‘s your plan?  What do you do every day to make sure you get and stay as healthy as possible?

Is it working? How do you know?

What creates health? What destroys health? Are you at risk?

For a moment, set opinion aside and ignore the thoughts of all marginally healthy people who may disagree with me. What I am about to share with you is simple truth and pure fact. If you study the research for yourself, I am certain that you will quickly reach these three, undeniable conclusions.

The 3 Most Common Mistakes That Will Destroy Your Health – Are you making them? 

1) A diet too high in sugar, simple carbohydrates, chemical additives, and unhealthy fats, AND, too low in protein, healthy fats, fiber and essential nutrients.

There is not doubt about it! Diets high in sugar, carbohydrates, chemical additives, and the wrong kind of fats are DIRECTLY LINKED in all the latest research to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, and more.

2) An inactive, sedentary lifestyle, AND, a lack of planned, regular exercise including aerobic exercise, resistance exercise and stretching exercise.

The research on exercise is crystal clear. Exercise gives you dozens of supremely important health benefits not available by any other means. Research proves exercise is the only REAL FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.

Not exercising is saying no to the most powerful health tonic in the history of mankind. Spending a million dollars a year could not buy the health-enhancing, disease-preventing benefits a proper exercise program gives you for free.

3) Holding the completely unfounded belief that a doctor or a bottle of medication has the power to make you healthy, AND / OR, the closed-minded belief that you already know everything you need to know about health so there’s no need to bother learning more or even consider doing anything different.

If you make any one of these health-destroying mistakes, do yourself a favor and just stop it.

If you don’t agree with these points you may have unwittingly accepted the opinion or advice of the ill-informed or you may have fallen victim to the half-truths and big fat lies of spin-misters promoting their own personal agenda.

The only thing certain to get yourself on the royal road to health is to accept personal responsibility for your health and be willing to do things differently than you have in the past; the way to begin is by examining your own personal beliefs about health.

Beliefs are extraordinarily powerful because your beliefs strongly influence your actions and your actions determine your results. 

One Belief Guaranteed to Supercharge Your Health

There is only one belief, that if you accept it and act on it daily, it’s practically guaranteed you will succeed and that belief is:

“You and you alone are responsible for your health. And you personally create your quality of health every day with your diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices.”

This applies to everyone EXCEPT the unfortunate few who are the victim of genetic disease or traumatic injury over which they had no control.

With that single exception, this applies to you and me, and everyone. You create your level of health, or lack of it, with your diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices.

This belief is powerful because as you act on it, you will make better diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices and your results will improve, which means your health will improve.

There are mountains of medical research documenting how most disease and ill health is the result of changes in the body caused by years of bad diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices.

The bottom line; if you want great health, your FIRST STEP is to accept full responsibility for where you are now and accept responsibility for discovering and taking each of the steps necessary to leave average health behind and get yourself into excellent health.

While the proof is overwhelming and the facts are undeniable, there are still people promoting healthy-sounding junk food and other products that sound healthy but are not.

Remember if you dress junk food up in a Superman costume it’s still junk food. If you eat a junk food diet and take vitamins, you’re still eating a junk food diet.

A junk food, high sugar, high carbohydrate diet will destroy your health. A sedentary lifestyle dramatically increases your risk of disease. And unless you learn the truth about what creates and destroys health on all levels, you may spend a lot of money and work hard trying to be healthy and simply fail.

In the final analysis, there are no magic weight loss pills, no 3-minute exercise routines that give you an hour worth of benefit, no miracle vitamin that lets you keep eating junk food and still be healthy, and no real short cuts.

If you want great health just repeat these magic words… an then do whatever you think is right.

“From this moment forward I accept personal responsibility for my health. I realize I create my level of health with diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices I make every day.”

“I promise myself to make my health a top priority, to learn everything I can learn and do everything I can do to improve my health every day from this moment forward.”

Getting in and staying in excellent health is easy when you know how.

My purpose in writing these articles and publishing DrRussellsHealthAndWeightLossBlog.com is to remind you that your health is in your own hands and a lot of people care about you… so do the right thing.

I’d love you thoughts on this article so please leave your comments.

One more thing… I will soon be releasing the fully revised and updated version of 5 Steps To Optimal Health Weight Loss & Health Improvement program.

To find out more and get on the advance notification waiting list visit:http://www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com

Until next time…