I'm writing to you from sunny but cool Los Angeles, California. My husband and I are here on a bit of a working holiday. What this trip has reminded me about is how challenging it can be sometimes to maintain healthy habits when out of your regular routine.  

One of my rules for healthy eating is to never allow yourself to get over-hungry. It's much better to eat regularly and avoid a dangerous food situation by getting too hungry and then eating anything and everything in sight. The problem when traveling is that you're often out of the house all day long and never really knowing when and where you'll be having your next meal or snack. You may typically eat out at restaurants more than usual and perhaps wanting to try different foods you don't normally eat at home. With the portion sizes served in restaurants and not knowing how the dishes are prepared, this can lead to some serious eating challenges and associated weight gain.

Since we're staying at a friend's apartment, the way we are getting around this is to stock up our friend's fridge and cupboards with groceries from which we can create our own healthy snacks and meals. We're sure to always bring non-perishable foods with us in the car for road trips and plenty of water to avoid the fast food restaurants we'd be stopping at otherwise. We decided to also prepare some meals in rather than go out to restaurants for every meal. This saves on the pocket book as well.

When we do find ourselves in restaurants, we may indulge on occasion in some foods we don't normally eat, however, for the most part we focus on making healthy choices and eating less healthy choices in smaller quantities on a limited basis. Our belief is that just because we ourselves are on a holiday, doesn't mean that our healthy habits need to be on holidays as well. It's about being reasonable and sensible while still enjoying our choices.

Article: Overcoming your Exercise Excuses: "I don't have time." "I have too much else to do."

If you were asked WHY you DO NOT exercise a minimum of three times a week aerobically through walking or another form of cardiovascular exercise, and two times minimum a week lifting weights and building muscle strength, would your answer be something like "I don't have time. I have too much else to do."? If this is true for you, then here are some questions to consider:

1. If someone offered to pay you $10,000 per week for the rest of your life and all you had to do for it was find 30 minutes to exercise, five days out of seven each week, given your current schedule of activities and items on your daily To-Do list, do you think you could find the time?


2. If you were suddenly diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and you had to visit your doctor five days out of seven for a 30-minute treatment that you would have to undergo for the rest of your life if you wanted to live a long and happy life, would you find the time?


3. If someone could guarantee that you would have greater health and happiness with minimized long-term, weight-related health risks, and all you had to do for it was find 30 minutes to exercise five days out of seven each week, given your current schedule of activities and items on your daily To-Do list, do you think you could find the time?
   My guess is that you answered “Yes” to at least one of these questions.

If you answered “Yes” to the $10,000 and “No” to the health and happiness guarantee, then it clearly reveals that you value money more than your health. My hope is that you answered “Yes” to all of the questions. The point is that if there was something in it for you that you deemed valuable enough, then you will find a way to MAKE the time for exercise. The key question then becomes a matter of what you value most.

If regular physical activity doesn’t bump its way up on your priority list, then how can you ever expect to make it a regular habit? My suggestion is to physically schedule time in your daytimer for it as if it was an appointment with a doctor, friend, your hairdresser, or anyone other than yourself. It’s amazing how this can shift your outlook. When you make an appointment with someone else, my guess is that you do everything to honour that appointment because you made a commitment to that person and don’t want to disappoint them. You might even call ahead if you were running late. Yet, when you make an appointment with yourself to exercise, it’s too easy to back out and cancel on yourself. What does this say? Is the commitment you made to yourself not as important as your commitment to another? Why is it acceptable for you to disappoint yourself, yet you would hate to disappoint another?

Start the New Year off on the right foot this year and start setting appointments with yourself to exercise. Honour those appointments the same way you would honour them if they were with someone else. Don’t let yourself disappoint yourself. Start slowly with just a few 15-minute appointments for the next few weeks. Get used to the idea of honouring your time to be kind to your body with physical activity and slowly increase that time. Remember, exercise is not just about effective weight management. It also helps to lift your mood and alleviate menopausal symptoms. You ARE just as important as anyone else. You DESERVE to make the time to exercise, even if it is just 15 minutes to start. Be patient. Be kind to yourself and give yourself a chance for success. You can do it!

In The A List book, Roslyn Franken addresses many more exercise excuses and beliefs that may be preventing you from embracing regular physical activity into your life. Order your copy today.

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Roslyn Franken is the author of The A List: 9 Guiding Principles for Healthy Eating and Positive Living, a powerful self-directed guide for achieving your long term health, lifestyle and weight management goals.

Roslyn has overcome her own food and weight issues and has helped many others through her personalized counseling program and professional speaking services. She counsels clients worldwide by telephone and email who are ready to build a healthy and positive lifestyle maintainable for a lifetime.

To purchase The A List book and for more information on Roslyn Franken’s personalized counseling and professional speaking services, please visit www.roslynfranken.com. Take your complimentary online Readiness Assessment and be sure to sign up for your FREE Healthy Hints newsletter.