The Essential Zen Habits of 2011

It has been a year of contentment for me, and Zen Habits.
Zen Habits has just finished its 5th year of existence, and every year has been better than the last. This year has been no exception.
Zen Habits grew from 200,000 to more than 230,000 subscribers, had more than 12 million unique visitors, and was named by TIME magazine as one of the Top 50 websites in the world.
But beyond those numbers, it was an amazing year for me, personally and professionally:

• I publicly wrote, and then published, my new book The Effortless Life.
• I also wrote and published The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination.
• I co-created, along with Katie Tallo and Barrie Davenport, The Habit Course.
• I co-created, along with Courtney Carver, the Clutterfree ebook and course.
• I became fitter than ever in my life, with a simple vegan diet and the habit of daily exercise.
• I completed a half marathon, won my age division in a 6.7-mile race, completed the Urbanathlon, and finished the Goruck Challenge.
• I traveled to London & Paris for the first time with my wife Eva, spent a month on the beautiful island of Guam, spent 10 days in New York City for the first time with my daughter Chloe, spoke at the World Domination Summit in beautiful Portland.
• Moved to a sunnier part of San Francisco, while exploring the city by foot and fork.
• Continued to enjoy a car-free life.
• My other blog, mnmlist, grew to 15,000 readers.
• I created an entirely new design for Zen Habits by hand, stripping away all but the essentials.

I did this mostly without goals, without copyright, and with contentment.
Most of all, I have to thank you, my dear readers. You have made my job fun, my work rewarding, and my life full of joy. Thank you for everything.

The Best Zen Habits Posts of 2011

Without further ado, these were the best posts from Zen Habits in 2011, as judged by me:

1. How I Changed My Life, In Four Lines
2. Best Procrastination Tip Ever
3. 38 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 38 Years
4. Joyfear
5. How to Start
6. How to Finish
7. Create.
8. Finding Your Voice
9. The Half Step That Will Change Your Life
10. Breaking Free From Consumerist Chains
11. How to Read More: A Lover’s Guide

And more

For more best of Zen Habits:

• Best of Zen Habits in 2007.
• The Essential Zen Habits of 2008.
• The Essential Zen Habits of 2009.
• The Essential Zen Habits of 2010.
• The Beginner’s Guide to Zen Habits – A Guided Tour.

Courtesy: Leo Babauta.

12 Tips For Beating the Social Overeating Habit

While I’ve learned to eat much healthier over the last six or seven years, one of my biggest challenges has been overeating on social occasions.
There are holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there are many more: my kids’ birthday parties, going out to dinner with my wife Eva, get-togethers with friends, social gatherings of business colleagues, drinking with best friends.
I’ve always tended to overeat, because:

1. I am distracted by conversation and so I eat mindlessly; and
2. unlike at home, where I’ve created a healthy eating environment, I tend to be surrounded at these occasions by boatloads of tempting but unhealthy foods.

I’ve gotten better recently, though, and have been teaching myself healthier habits.
My main habit is simple on the surface: mindful eating.
Mindful eating is simply being aware of your eating, of your body’s actual hunger signals as opposed to your brain saying “eat all that sugar and fried stuff!”, of your urges to eat more when you’re not hungry, of your snacking even when your stomach isn’t asking for more.
Mindful eating is eating slowly, fully tasting the food, appreciating every bite, being conscious of what you’re putting into your body, savoring but not overdoing.
Mindful eating, though, can be tough to do when you are distracted by talking to friends and family. So I asked readers (on Google+) to share their tips for beating the social overeating habit. You came up with some great ones.
I share these tips in hopes that you’ll find use for them during these holidays, and beyond.

1. Constant awareness of bodily feedback and sensation. Ask yourself, “Am I hungry? Do I need more? Etc.” Being aware of your body’s hunger signals is a skill that has been overridden by years of overeating due to food reward properties like sugar, salt, fat, etc., but it’s a skill that can be relearned with practice. (from Brian Johnson)
2. Don’t go to an event hungry. Eat something healthy and at least somewhat filling before you go. This way you’re less likely to mindlessly snack. This was one of the most popular tips submitted by readers, including Cyndi Pauwels, Cameron Chapman and many others.
3. Eat until you’re 80 percent full. This is a cultural habit that the Okinawans have, and it famously helps them stay healthy well into old age. (from Leo)
4. Don’t linger near the food table. Make a conscious choice to eat whatever you want to eat, but don’t eat just because other people are eating or because it’s convenient. (from Cameron Chapman)
5. Actually engage socially with someone. If your mouth is talking, it can’t eat. (from Kenneth Cummins)
6. At a standing event, keep one hand in your pocket, and the other holding a glass of water. Unless it’s a high-end, Roman-esque event with personal serving maidens, you can’t eat what you can’t pick up. (from Kenneth Cummins)
7. Cheat without guilt. For one or two occasions a year, allow yourself to eat as much as you want, which doesn’t necessarily mean to stuff yourself, but to eat without thinking too much about consequences. Two big meals on Christmas or similar occasions don’t spoil a year-long habit of healthy eating. Don`t overanalyze, just enjoy, without any bad conscience. (from Alessandro Shobeazzo)
8. Plan behavior beforehand, and plan it specifically. If going to a place of feasting (holiday, buffet, free lunch, etc), make a specific plan for what you will allow yourself to do. For example, plan to eat a good portion of protein, one starch, and lots of green vegetables. With your plan, you can then acknowledge the urge to overeat, but not give in. Make sure to make a specific plan BEFORE the event and NOT on an empty stomach. (from Jonathan Pishner)
9. Place your two palms together. Whatever fits in between is the approximate size of your stomach. Project that on to your plate and put only this much food on it. (from Ivan Staroversky)
10. Drink lots of water and eat s-l-o-w-l-y. Eating slowly allows you time to hear the faint but clear ‘enough! enough!’ cries coming from the belly. (from maggie dodson and Sujit Kumar Chakrabarti)
11. Get over the idea of finishing your plate and be stubborn about stopping when you’re full. Most people are conditioned from childhood to finish everything on their plate so will keep eating when full. Be warned though that other people will sometimes get upset at you for not eating everything. Stick to ‘it was great but I can’t fit anymore in’ until they move on. (from Rhiiannon Dwyer)
12. Try to count up to 15 chews per each mouthful. That will really slow you down. (from Hudson Gardner)

Courtesy: Leo Babauta.

What Is The Herbalife Weight Loss Challenge?

Can Joining The Herbalife Weight Loss Challenge Get You The Results You're Looking For?
Herbalife weight loss products and Herbalife together stand behind their products, and their ability to give you the results that you are looking for however, this article will in no way shape or for try to promote Herbalife or the Herbalife Weight Loss Challenge. Its only purpose is to educate you on the company and ways that you can take advantage of the program.
The basis of any healthy lifestyle is good nutrition and programs that ignore this fact can actually do a lot more harm than good. Trying to lose weight by depriving yourself from essential nutritious elements can lead to binging or other health related problems. There are many stories of people that lose a few pounds just to gain even more after a short while. These types of programs will not only have a negative effect on your body but could also influence your mental attitude towards weight loss in a negative way.
Choose the healthiest option
When you decide to choose weight loss by Herbalife and join the Herbalife weight loss challenge then you have the potential to loose weight and look after your health at the same time. The expertly designed system will focus on keeping you healthy while working towards your ideal weight. There is no joy in losing weight by sacrificing your health in the process.
If you deprive your body of essential nutrition you could fall victim to binging sessions due to cravings. Your body will fight to survive and if it lacks certain elements, it could cause you to crave certain foods. These cravings could be stronger than your desire to lose weight and lead to binge eating.
The advantages of Herbalife products
With the Herbalife weight loss challenge, you will get to know the products that can help you to lose weight and then to maintain your weight on a healthy level. The products that you will use are not intended to suppress your appetite or to burn fat in any unnatural way.
An essential part of a healthy lifestyle is a healthy self-image. Constant failure with get thin quick schemes can lead to depression and a negative self-image. The Herbalife weight loss challenge may be something to look into if you have tried getting too thin, too quick in the past.
Your health is in your hands
The most important factor in how to reduce weight is that the choice is yours and yours alone. Nobody else can decide to lose your weight. With proven methods and achievable goals, the challenge is a way for you to test yourself. You can set your goals and you can decide to live a healthy life. Through living a healthy life and the expertise at your disposal, losing weight can be easy.
The important thing to remember is that the Herbalife weight loss challenge is not a competition with others, it is a system designed to help you achieve your goal of looking and feeling great every day.

Jonathan Hottle is an International Grow Specialist Who Counsels Network Marketers and Home Based Business Owners On Ways To Maximize Growth In Their Organizations, And How To Build Organizations From The Ground Up. Jonathan is currently in the process of helping several Herbalife Distributors from all over the world to maximize their potential and allow them to gain financial freedom. Jonathan encourages you to visit his website to uncover the secrets to Herbalife Success.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Hottle

Sitting and Watching

Have you ever felt that we are rushing through life, that we get so caught up in busy-ness that life is passing us almost without notice?

I get this feeling all the time.

The antidote is simple: sitting and watching.

Take a minute out of your busy day to sit with me, and talk. Take a moment to imagine being in the middle of traffic — you’re driving, stressed out by the high amount of traffic, trying to get somewhere before you’re late, angry at other drivers who are rude or idiotic, completely focused on making your way through this jungle of metal on a ribbon of asphalt. Now you’ve gotten to the end, phew, you made it, wonderful, and you’re only a few minutes late … but did you notice the scenery you passed along the way? Did you talk to any of the other people along your path? Did you enjoy the ride?

No, probably not. You were so caught up in getting there, in the details of navigating, in the stress of driving, that you didn’t have time to notice your surroundings, the people nearby, or the wonderful journey. This is how we are in life.

Now imagine that you pulled over, and got out of the car, and found a grassy spot to sit. And you watched the other cars zoom by. And you watched the grass blown gently by the wind, and the birds making a flocking pattern overhead, and the clouds lazily watching you back.

Sit and watch.

We don’t do this, because it’s useless to do something that isn’t productive, that doesn’t improve our lives. But as Alan Watts wrote in The Way of Zen:

“As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.”

It’s interesting, too, what we see when we sit and watch. We will notice others rushing, and worried, and angry, and in them see a mirror of ourselves. We will notice children laughing (or crying) with their parents, and remember what we’re missing when we rush to improve our lives.

More interesting is what you see when you sit and watch yourself. You learn to step outside yourself, and act as an observer. You see your thoughts, and learn more about yourself than you ever could if you were rushing to take action. You see your self-doubts, and self-criticism, and wonder where they came from (a bad incident in childhood, perhaps?) and wonder if you are smart enough to let them go. You see your rationalizations, and realize that they are bullshit, and learn to let those go too. You see your fears, and realize what hold they have over you, and realize that you can make them powerless, by just sitting and watching them, not taking action on them.

By sitting and watching, you come to know yourself.

You learn the most valuable lessons about life, by sitting and watching.

And as we know from the observer effect in physics, by watching, we change what we watch.

Take a few minutes today, to sit and watch. It might change your life.

Courtesy : Leo Babauta.

The Secret Rule of Changing Anything

I’ve learned a lot about changing habits over the years, and have taught thousands of people how to do it. The hardest habits to change, by far, are the ones people can’t seem to control. They want to change, but can’t seem to find the “willpower” (a term I don’t believe in). For me, some of the things that seemed out of my control: smoking, eating junk food, overeating during social occasions, procrastination, anger, patience, negative thoughts. I learned one little secret that allowed me to change it all: When you are aware, you can change it. OK, don’t roll your eyes and stop reading yet. That secret might seem obvious to some, or too simplistic. So let’s go a bit deeper. When we have urges to eat something we know is bad for us, we often give in. But is it that simple? The truth is that our mind is actually rationalizing why we should just eat that cake, why it’s too hard to not eat it, why it isn’t that bad to eat it. It asks why we’re putting ourselves through pain, why can’t we let ourselves just live, and don’t we deserve that treat? All of this happens without our noticing, usually. It’s quiet, in the background of our consciousness, but it’s there. And it’s incredibly powerful. It’s even more powerful when we’re not aware it’s happening. It beats us all the time — not just with eating, but with anything we try to do and end up quitting, caving in, doing it despite our best efforts. How can we defeat this powerful force — our own mind? Awareness is the key. It’s the start. 1. Start by becoming aware. Become an observer. Start listening to your self talk, observe what your mind does. Pay attention. It’s happening all the time. Meditation helps with this. I also learned through running — by not taking along an iPod, I run in silence, and have nothing to do but watch nature and listen to my mind. 2. Don’t act. Your mind will urge you to eat that cake (“Just a bite!”) or smoke that cigarette or stop running or procrastinate. Listen to what your mind is saying, but don’t act on those instructions. Just sit still (mentally) and watch and listen. 3. Let it pass. The urge to smoke, eat, procrastinate, or quit running … it will pass. It’s temporary. Usually it only lasts a minute or two. Breathe, and let it pass. 4. Beat the rationalizations. You can actively argue with your mind. When it says, “One little bite won’t hurt!”, you should point to your gut and say, “Yeah, that’s what you said all those other times, and now I’m fat!” When it says, “Why are you putting yourself through this pain?”, you should say, “It’s painful to be unhealthy, and it’s only painful to avoid the cake if you look at it as a sacrifice — instead, it can be a joy to embrace healthy and delicious foods, and fitness!” There are lots of times when “willpower” fails us. These are the times we need to become aware of our minds. When we are aware, we can change it. This is a small secret, but it’s life changing. It changed my life, because I can now change anything. I watch, and I wait, and I beat it. You can too. Post Courtesy: Leo Babauta.

Get Back on Track

People trying to get healthy and fit all around the country are feeling guilty today after indulging way too much on Thanksgiving — and if you’re outside the U.S., you’ve had this experience on holidays of your own.

You had a great feast, but you feel like you overdid it. And you feel guilty as hell, and you feel like crap.

Toss all those feelings out. And get the hell off your ass and back on track.

I indulge myself nearly every holiday, and feel guilty too — for about a minute. Then I realize that guilt does nothing to get me fitter. I realize the only thing that will get me fitter is eating healthy today — yesterday doesn’t matter — and being active and working out today.

Here’s why yesterday doesn’t matter: one day of overeating makes almost no difference over the long term. And the long term is what really matters, isn’t it? Are we trying to be healthy and fit on one day, or for a lifetime? Over a lifetime, one day means nothing, but what you do on the vast majority of days is what counts.

And so stop the guilt-fest, stop the worrying, and start eating right. Today. Start working out … today.

If you’ve been doing great, that one day was just a day of fun, and you deserve it. Get back on track, and you’ll be great.

If you haven’t been doing great, and you overdid it, you should now have more than enough fuel to start exercising today. Go for a walk, and enjoy the outdoors. Play a sport with family. Do some pushups, squats and lunges instead of sitting around all day. It doesn’t matter what you do, but start moving.

Yesterday came and went, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Today, you will rock. Today, you are the master of your fitness.

Courtesy : Leo Babauta.

Four Simple Fitness Fundamentals

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris of Zen to Fitness.
Health and Fitness have always been meaningful to me as I work in the industry and have always been fascinated by the topic. Nowadays I see too many people push themselves too hard, use bad form and quite simply overdo it with exercise or trying to be healthy in the quest to be fit.
We also have a tendency to make health and fitness much too complicated …
From this I came to think about a few fundamentals – things I find really important in living a healthy lifestyle. I came up with just four, sure there are others but these are the ones I feel everyone who wants to live a healthier lifestyle or be fitter should know.
Bodyweight is King. The Squat and Pushup should be mastered before you move onto other weighted exercises or doing resistance training using weights. This is something I have learnt in my years personal training – the majority of people cannot do a bodyweight squat with good form or weight distribution. As for pushups few people can do 10-15 with good form – these two movements are the starting point and should be practiced and strengthened before doing anything else.
The best thing is amazing workouts can be made up of just running, squats and pushups.
Cardio is Great. Not Essential. Some people love to run, others don’t. Some like to go on long bike rides to release stress others don’t. We are all different and this is most true when it comes to cardiovascular fitness and training – some of us love it and find it to be a great tension and stress reliever, while others find it boring, monotonous and strenuous.
Learn to love and live with yourself. If you love doing cardio (running, jogging, crosstrainer etc etc) then do it, if you don’t there are plenty of other ways to stay fit – whether it be bodyweight intervals or playing sports with friends. Find what you are into – the truth is that there are many many ways to gain cardiovascular fitness. Pick what works for you.
Walk Everyday. Find Rhythm. Walking gives rhythm to our lives – it helps us think, re-aligns the body and limbers up the knees and hips. If you live in a city walking should be your main form of transport, I always say that if the distance is walkable do it by foot.
If you live somewhere more remote walking can be harder as it is sometimes hard to gather motivation to walk without a real purpose. Try listening to a podcast or music while walking – this helps time pass by and gives you a time to listen to what you want without distractions.
For optimal health I always say the two most essential things are walking and stretching – neither are to be obsessed over but if you can fit in at least 20 minutes of walking everyday and start or end your day with a good total body stretch out you are on the right path.
Live an Invigorating Life. Last but not least – living an invigorating life is probably the most essential thing when it comes to health and fitness. This means living a life that we get strength or energy from – something that gives us a reason to be active and move.
Whether this energy comes from doing a job you love, being around people you have fun with, travelling or just doing stuff you love. We need something in our lives to gain strength from. Excitement and passion change things up and gives us the motivation to exercise, eat well and most importantly makes us feel good.
I would even go as far as saying one of the best ways to stay fit is just to live life – be active, play with your kids, play tennis, touch football or whatever sports you enjoy, do some bodyweight exercises in the morning, walk lots and eat lots of wholesome food. In all honesty that is how most of the healthiest people I know live.
Integrate the fundamentals then go from there.
Of course it is great to take things to the next level but first gain a foothold on your health by doing the basics right.
Chris is the author of ‘All About Fitness’ and writes about staying fit while living life at Zen to Fitnes