1. Realize that you cannot change your body type. Learn to love and respect your body and to work with what you have.

2· Invest time and money in yourself, rather than the diet and supplement industry. Spend your extra money on flattering clothes, fitness equipment, haircuts, massages, and other personal indulgences–not on diets.

3· Stop weighing yourself. Focus on how your clothes fit and how you feel. If you keep trying to achieve an unrealistically low body weight for you, you’re setting yourself up for failure, depression, disordered eating, and decreased quality of life.

4· Stop comparing yourself to others.

5· Celebrate your body and the marvelous things it can do when you are fit and well-nourished. So often, we take these things for granted.

6· Move and enjoy your body. Go walking, swimming, biking, and dancing. Do yoga, aerobics, and weight training…. not because you have to, but because it makes you feel strong and energized.

7· Surround yourself with people who have a healthy relationship with food, weight, and their bodies. It will make a difference in how you feel about yourself. Also, remember to set a good example for others by refraining from “fat talk” when you’re with friends and family.

8· Stop your negative thoughts and statements about yourself. Focus on what you love about yourself. Compliment yourself. Talk to your body the way you would talk to a good friend.

9· Reclaim your own inner strength. Focus on the unique qualities and personality traits that make you a special and successful person.

10· Nurture your inner self. Enjoy things you find relaxing (e.g. music, bubble baths, fragrances, candles, massages, reading, writing, napping), be close to nature (e.g. garden, sunsets, beach, stars), and/or seek spiritual connection (e.g. prayer, meditation, inspirational reading, reflection). Feeling good on the inside is key to feeling good on the outside.

11· Examine the degree to which your self-esteem depends upon your appearance. Although it may seem natural to wish you looked like a fashion model or a body builder, basing your happiness on this desire may lead to failure. Unrealistic goals can prevent you from exploring ways to enhance your life.

12· Broaden your perspective. Talk to people you trust, read books about body image, or write in a journal. These activities may help you to recognize emotionally destructive thoughts and put body image into perspective.

13· Recognize that “fat-ism” is a form of discrimination similar to sexism, racism, and classism. Assumptions that body shape determines attractiveness, personality, and success are incorrect and unjust. Combat discrimination when possible. Question assumptions and generalizations which promote the belief that one “type” of person is better than another.

1- Get up and stay up
Whatever you have to do to get out of bed, do it. Put the alarm clock across the room. Set the timer on the coffee maker to start brewing. Run to the bathroom to relieve yourself and jump in the shower. The hardest part of the morning mountain climb is taking that first step out of bed. Don’t let that little voice start whispering, “Just 10 more minutes.” Ten more minutes is never enough and it will turn into another 10. Don’t hit snooze, just get up the first time. Whatever you do, don’t crawl back into bed once you’ve gotten out, no matter how inviting.

2- Establish a routine
Even if you’re using these techniques to get up early for a flight, it’s best if you establish a routine the days leading up to it. Make coffee, pour a glass of orange juice, brush your teeth, get into the shower; whatever works for you, do it the same each morning. That way you’ll get into your morning without having to think about it. Also, use an alarm clock with a battery backup to ensure a power outage doesn’t mess up your schedule. If you can, keep your routine even on the weekends, though we acknowledge that takes a lot of willpower.

3- Go to bed early
This seems brain-dead obvious if you’re wanting to wake up early, but too many people will put off going to bed thinking: “Well, I’ll be tired tomorrow either way.” Getting six to eight hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep makes all the difference when getting up early and staying focused through the day. Many guys will make the excuse that they can’t go to bed until after midnight. You can — you just have to start the process early. One thing that will help you hit the racks is getting off your computer at least an hour before going to bed. Also, don’t watch TV right before going to sleep, especially the news. Let your brain have time to wind down. Read a book or write in a journal.

4- Drink water
Don’t go crazy and down eight glasses right before crawling in bed, otherwise you’ll be up in two hours. The point is to drink a couple glasses of water, so you’ll be hydrated throughout the night and in the morning. Dehydration will cause you to feel sluggish and only make it that much harder to wake up early. Also, avoid caffeine and alcohol. Caffeine for obvious reasons, it’s a stimulant, and while alcohol is a sedative, it commonly leads to restless sleep. Eating before bed doesn’t bother some, but for others it can cause heartburn and bad dreams. Use discretion with food, but definitely stay away from late night spicy dishes.

(Fights muscle fatigue)

Caffeine from coffee will also fight muscle fatigue. So slurp up a cup of coffee before performing a demanding activity like running, weightlifting or before a long day in the garden, and watch your performance increase.

Evidence shows that caffeine intensifies muscle contractions, masks the discomfort of physical exertion and even speeds up the use of the muscles’ short-term fuel stores.

At this point, you must be saying to yourself, “this guy must be sponsored by a coffee company.” But to be perfectly honest, I have my regular dose of coffee everyday. I know, however, that it can lead to health-related problems when consumed in exaggeration.

Overdoing it (4-5 coffees a day) can over-stimulate the nerves and generate some pretty nasty side effects. It can leave the drinker feeling restless, irritable, and make his hands tremble. In extreme cases, it can create severe insomnia.

(Addiction?)

Coffee has been heavily criticized for the fact that its caffeine content is addictive and unhealthy. But I think that if we would stop consuming everything scientists discover to be cancer prone or unhealthy, we would be left to surviving on bread and water. It’s like many things in life: if you drink coffee with moderation, it can actually be beneficial.

The caffeine contained in coffee will give you a significant boost of energy. It usually provides you with an increase in performance for more monotonous tasks like filing or simple bookkeeping, and it can also help you stay awake during drawn out tasks such as long distance driving or working as a security guard.

(Gives you a little boost)

When tired, caffeine can help you sharpen some complex mental skills like manipulating numbers or recognizing words. So it’s not bad to ingest one or two cups of coffee a day.

One cup in the morning to get things started, and one in the early afternoon after your lunch takes effect after you start feeling drowsy. It’s no secret why they call the 15-minute breaks, “coffee breaks” — it gives you a chance to get up from your work station, pick up some coffee and regain your energy.

As a result, your productivity will increase both from your time away from the PC and from the effects of the natural stimulant.

(Avoiding the jitters)

One quick tip to avoid the jitters and severe withdrawal symptoms is to keep your caffeine intake fairly steady. If you are looking to lower your caffeine intake from coffee, do it gradually over a course of a week or two.

For example, if you drink 5 cups of coffee a day, cutting it down to 4 cups will reduce your overall caffeine consumption by 20%, but if you cut it down to 2 cups it will reduce it by 60%, which is more likely to cause withdrawal symptoms.

If you haven’t started drinking coffee yet, I suggest you try it once in a while when you start feeling tired and enjoy its great taste. If the taste is what keeps you away from the hot drink, try one of those cool mocha lattes.

They are offered virtually everywhere but vary from one coffee shop to the next, as each one tastes better than the other. They are also offered in many fruit flavors and are a great source of refreshment on those hot summer days.

Another great way to avoid withdrawal symptoms is to opt for tea if you need a quick pick-me-up. While tea does have caffeine, it is not as addictive as coffee and does not cause the same side effects.

Don’t be afraid to get that quick caffeine fix from coffee every now and then; just remember that like everything else, too much of anything is not good.

(Side effects)

Other side effects from excessive caffeine consumption are diarrhea, copious urination, while some people can even experience facial flushing. It’s hard to say how much caffeine is needed to trigger these side effects because everybody’s body will react differently.

Occasional drinkers might experience the side effects after one cup whereas usual drinkers might get jumpy when drinking one more than usual.

Caffeine creates a dependency, and its main problem is caffeine withdrawal. This means that if someone who usually drinks between one and three cups of coffee a day suddenly stops drinking it, that person could develop headaches.

Other major drawbacks of quitting the brew are anxiety, light depression and fatigue. Obviously these might seem like very severe side effects but only a minority of coffee drinkers will experience them.