While browsing the web, looking for motivation to continue without getting sidetracked.. (the last few weeks have been difficult at best..seems my mind is in the lean living mode rather than in the losing mode) I came across this piece and thought I would share it with you.  May you keep yourself in balance today....

Here are 10 tips to keep yourself in balance:

1. Exercise. A well-rounded fitness routine includes strength training, aerobic conditioning, and flexibility. Critical to your success in staying balanced is to make exercise a TOP PRIORITY in your life - and staying committed to it. Being fit helps you to enjoy life. It increases mental sharpness and physical endurance. An energized body helps give you a positive outlook on life, plus you look great, feel great, and reduce your risk of disease.

2. Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. Water helps transport vital nutrients, regulates body temperature, eases digestion, keeps joints supple, cleans out your body, keeps skin healthy and young.

Not drinking enough leads to dehydration, resulting in headaches, fatigue, dizziness, constipation, and foggy memory. Not drinking enough water can lead to excess water weight, because our bodies will store water outside our cells. That's where you feel bloaty and heavy.

Water helps the liver do its job more efficiently, namely in metabolizing fat. If you're not consuming enough water, your liver has to work overtime with its other primary function: detoxifying the body. Water helps maximizes the liver's efficiency of both jobs, so you keep your insides clean, your weight healthy, and get rid of fat.

3. Life is perfect, even if you don't think it is. God deals you a hand every day. What you get is what you get. Your job is to do the best you can with the hand you're dealt. That doesn't mean you have to "lie down and play dead." What can you do better to make your life MORE perfect? Know that you can create your dreams, no matter how difficult life can be at times.

4. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Helen Keller once said, "Life is either a series of adventures, or it is nothing." We all have this shield of armor that protects us from some aspect of life. This shield is your comfort zone. And that comfort zone is a haven for disintegration. When you take off this armor, the only thing you're risking is GROWTH, a wonderful life, high energy, and a leaner body.

5. Be a daily visionary. Visualize your goals and your dreams - every day. Take a five-minute break from your computer, stop off on the side of the road in between sales meetings, and create a motion picture on the screen of your mind of your goals, your dreams, of how you'd like your life to be. Visualize yourself already in possession of your wishes.

6. Feed your body well. Your diet can help prevent illness and disease. Some 300,000 deaths per year are a result of poor lifestyle choices, and nutrition habits is one of those poor choices. 1) Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, 2) Eat at least 4 balanced meals a day, 3) Eat a variety of fruits and veggies - in different colors. These colors will give you a greater spectrum of valuable disease-fighting nutrients.

7. Live in the present. Yesterday's gone. Tomorrow never comes. Be fully present each moment and free yourself from the ball-and-chain of yesterday and tomorrow. Everything is always in the present moment, so live it fully.

8. Live with integrity. You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? Being in integrity means you really are who you appear to be. How you live your life is reflected in your commitments, your values, your beliefs, your sense of right and wrong. When you live in harmony with what you believe in, you have peace and happiness flowing into your life.

9. Develop high self-esteem. You already know how you benefit from a high self-esteem. People who you care about benefit, too. Let go of your emotional baggage, treat yourself with respect. Your attitude - how you think, feel, and act - mirrors how you feel about yourself.

10. Live respectfully. You are NOT at the mercy of your circumstances. George Bernard Shaw said, "The winners in life look for the ideal circumstances, and if they cannot find them, THEY MAKE THEM." Are YOU letting your present results and circumstances control YOU? Are YOU making things happen?
- Garrett J. Braunreiter, CSCS The Energy Coach