How simply moving benefits your mental health

While it is obvious that your feelings can influence your movement, it is not as obvious that your movement can impact your feelings too. For example, when you feel tired and sad, you may move more slowly. When you feel anxious, you may either rush around or become completely paralyzed. But recent studies show that the connection between your brain and your body is a “two-way street” and that means movement can change your brain, too! 

How exercise can improve mood disorders

Regular aerobic exercise can reduce anxiety by making your brain’s “fight or flight” system less reactive. When anxious people are exposed to physiological changes they fear, such as a rapid heartbeat, through regular aerobic exercise, they can develop a tolerance for such symptoms. 

Regular exercise such as cycling or gym-based aerobic, resistance, flexibility, and balance exercises can also reduce depressive symptoms. Exercise can be as effective as medication and psychotherapies. Regular exercise may boost mood by increasing a brain protein called BDNF that helps nerve fibers grow. 

For people with attention-deficit disorder (ADHD), another study showed that a single 20-minute bout of moderate-intensity cycling briefly improved their symptoms. It enhanced the participants’ motivation for tasks requiring focused thought, increased their energy, and reduced their feelings of confusion, fatigue, and depression. However, in this study, exercise had no effect on attention or hyperactivity per se. 

Meditative movement has been shown to alleviate depressive symptoms. This is a type of movement in which you pay close attention to your bodily sensations, position in space, and gut feelings (such as subtle changes in heart rate or breathing) as you move. Qigong, tai chi, and some forms of yoga are all helpful for this. For example, frequent yoga practice can reduce the severity of symptoms in post-traumatic stress disorder to the point that some people no longer meet the criteria for this diagnosis. Changing your posture, breathing, and rhythm can all change your brain, thereby reducing stress, depression, and anxiety, and leading to a feeling of well-being. 

The surprising benefits of synchronizing your movements

Both physical exercise and meditative movement are activities that you can do by yourself. On their own, they can improve the way you feel. But a recent study found that when you try to move in synchrony with someone else, it also improves your self-esteem. 

In 2014, psychologist Joanne Lumsden and her colleagues conducted a study that required participants to interact with another person via a video link. The person performed a standard exercise — arm curls — while the participants watched, and then performed the same movement. 

The “video link” was in fact a pre-recorded video of a 25-year-old female in a similar room, also performing arm curls. As part of the experiment, participants had to either coordinate their movement or deliberately not coordinate their movement with the other person’s arm curls. They filled out a mood report before and after each phase of synchronizing or falling out of synchrony. They also reported on how close they felt to the other person. 

The results were interesting. When subjects intentionally synchronized their movement with the recording, they had higher self-esteem than when they did not. Prior studies had shown that synchronizing your movement with others makes you like them more. You also cooperate more with them and feel more charitable toward them. In fact, movement synchrony can make it easier to remember what people say and to recall what they look like. This was the first study to show that it makes you feel better about yourself, too. That’s probably why dance movement therapy can help depressed patients feel better. 

Putting it all together

Your mind and body are intimately connected. And while your brain is the master control system for your body’s movement, the way you move can also affect the way you think and feel. 

Movement therapies are often used as adjunctive treatments for depression and anxiety when mental effort, psychotherapy, or medication is not enough. When you are too exhausted to use thought control strategies such as focusing on the positive, or looking at the situation from another angle, movement can come to the rescue. By working out, going on a meditative walk by yourself, or going for a synchronized walk with someone, you may gain access to a “back door” to the mental changes that you desire without having to “psych yourself” into feeling better.

How Alcohol Affects Your Body. Just The Facts.

The holidays are coming so if you plan on celebrating with a few drinks ,read this first.

Straight to Your Head

Thirty seconds after your first  sip, alcohol races into your brain. It slows down the chemicals and pathways that your brain cells use to send messages. That alters your mood, slows your reflexes, and throws off your balance. You also can’t think straight, which you may not recall later, because you’ll struggle to store things in long-term memory 

Your Brain Shrinks

If you drink heavily for a long time, booze can affect how your brain looks and works. Its cells start to change and even get smaller. Too much alcohol can actually shrink your brain. And that’ll have big effects on your ability to think, learn, and remember things. It can also make it harder to keep a steady body temperature and control your movements.

 Does It Help You Sleep?

Alcohol’s slow-down effect on your brain can make you drowsy, so you may doze off more easily. But you won’t sleep well. Your body processes alcohol throughout the night. Once the effects wear off, it leaves you tossing and turning. You don’t get that good REM sleep your body needs to feel restored. And you’re more likely to have nightmares and vivid dreams. You’ll also probably wake up more often for trips to the bathroom.

 More Stomach Acid

Booze irritates the lining of your stomach and makes your digestive juices flow. When enough acid and alcohol build up, you get nauseated and you may throw up. Years of heavy drinking can cause painful sores called ulcers in your stomach. And high levels of stomach juices mean you won’t feel hungry. That’s one reason long-term drinkers often don’t get all the nutrients they need.

 Diarrhea and Heartburn

Your small intestine and colon get irritated, too. Alcohol throws off the normal speed that food moves through them. That’s why hard drinking can lead to diarrhea, which can turn into a long-term problem. It also makes heartburn more likely – it relaxes the muscle that keeps acid out of your esophagus, the tube that connects your mouth and stomach.

 Why You Have to Pee … Again

Your brain gives off a hormone that keeps your kidneys from making too much urine. But when alcohol swings into action, it tells your brain to hold off. That means you have to go more often, which can leave you dehydrated. When you drink heavily for years, that extra workload and the toxic effects of alcohol can wear your kidneys down.

 The Steps to Liver Disease

Your liver breaks down almost all the alcohol you drink. In the process, it handles a lot of toxins. Over time, heavy drinking makes the organ fatty and lets thicker, fibrous tissue build up. That limits blood flow, so liver cells don’t get what they need to survive. As they die off, the liver gets scars and stops working as well, a disease called cirrhosis.

 Pancreas Damage and Diabetes

Normally, this organ makes insulin and other chemicals that help your intestines break down food. But alcohol jams that process up. The chemicals stay inside the pancreas. Along with toxins from alcohol, they cause inflammation in the organ, which can lead to serious damage. After years, that means you won’t be able to make the insulin you need, which can lead to diabetes. It also makes you more likely to get pancreatic cancer.

 What’s a Hangover?

That cotton-mouthed, bleary-eyed morning-after is no accident. Alcohol makes you dehydrated and makes blood vessels in your body and brain expand. That gives you your headache. Your stomach wants to get rid of the toxins and acid that booze churns up, which gives you nausea and vomiting. And because your liver was so busy processing alcohol, it didn’t release enough sugar into your blood, bringing on weakness and the shakes.

 An Offbeat Heart

One night of binge drinking can jumble the electrical signals that keep your heart’s rhythm steady. If you do it for years, you can make those changes permanent. And, alcohol can literally wear your heart out. Over time, it causes heart muscles to droop and stretch, like an old rubber band. It can’t pump blood as well, and that impacts every part of your body.

 A Change in Body Temperature

Alcohol widens your blood vessels, making more blood flow to your skin. That makes you blush and feel warm and toasty. But not for long. The heat from that extra blood passes right out of your body, causing your temperature to drop. On the other hand, long-term, heavy drinking boosts your blood pressure. It makes your body release stress hormones that narrow blood vessels, so your heart has to pump harder to push blood through.

 A Weaker Immune System

You might not link a cold with a night of drinking, but there might be a connection. Alcohol puts the brakes on your immune system. Your body can’t make the numbers of white blood cells it needs to fight germs. So for 24 hours after drinking, you’re more likely to get sick. Long-term, heavy drinkers are much more likely to get illnesses like pneumonia and tuberculosis.

 Hormone Havoc

These powerful chemicals manage everything from your sex drive to how fast you digest food. To keep it all going smoothly, you need them in the right balance. But alcohol throws them out of whack. In women, that can knock your periods off cycle and cause problems getting pregnant. In men, it can mean trouble getting an erection, a lower sperm count, shrinking testicles, and breast growth.

 Hearing Loss

Alcohol impacts your hearing, but no one’s sure exactly how. It could be that it messes with the part of your brain that processes sound. Or it might damage the nerves and tiny hairs in your inner ear that help you hear. However it happens, drinking means you need a sound to be louder so you can hear it. And that can become permanent. Long-term drinkers often have hearing loss.

 Thin Bones, Less Muscle

Heavy drinking can throw off your calcium levels. Along with the hormone changes that alcohol triggers, that can keep your body from building new bone. They get thinner and more fragile, a condition called osteoporosis. Booze also limits blood flow your muscles and gets in the way of the proteins that build them up. Over time, you’ll have lower muscle mass and less strength.

 Bottom Line: Moderation is the key  

 

Overweight vs Overfat

Overweight vs overfat: Is your scale lying to you?

You may be storing unhealthy amounts of visceral fat even if your weight appears normal.

For decades, the body mass index (BMI) has been the gold standard for gauging obesity-related heart disease risk. But this handy tool doesn't always tell the whole story. It extrapolates your body fat percentage based on your height and weight . But the formula can't assess how or where your body stores its excess fat — a distinction that is crucial for cardiovascular health. By some estimates, the BMI misclassifies nearly 50% of people who are at higher disease risk from excess fat, meaning that you can be overfat even when you're not overweight.

The secret life of belly fat

Some people are genetically programmed to have a lot of fat tissue under the skin, which is deployed to store extra food energy during times of scarcity. But other people have very few of these designated fat cells, explains Dr. Christos Mantzoros, professor of medicine at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

In individuals who lack an adequate quota of available fat storage cells (or people whose fat tissue is already filled to capacity), fat particles travel in the bloodstream and congregate in the liver, muscles, and other organs, which normally have no fat. This also leads to the accumulation of visceral or "belly" fat — a pattern of fat distribution that is particularly hazardous to your health (see "Who is prone to visceral fat?"). Visceral fat is associated with insulin resistance and other metabolic irregularities. "It also triggers the release of inflammatory substances that damage the arteries and help set the stage for cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Mantzoros.

Who is prone to visceral fat? The tendency to accumulate visceral fat is governed by genetic, ethnic, and gender differences. For example, people who inherit two copies (one from each parent) of a mutation in a gene involved in fat metabolism are more likely to have higher amounts of visceral fat than people with just one copy. Those without any copies of the gene mutation are less likely to develop heart disease — even if they become obese. Natives of India and South Asia have a higher-than-average propensity for abdominal obesity. And white men and black women tend to accumulate more visceral fat than black men and white women.

Fat and aging

With age, people tend to lose muscle tissue, especially the type of specialized muscle fibers that produce quick bursts of speed and power. Fat frequently accumulates within the remaining muscle tissue, causing your body fat percentage to increase even when your weight remains constant. This scenario is closely linked to bodywide inflammation and diabetes risk. It may also explain why your BMI measurement doesn't provide a true reflection of your health risks.

Evidence suggests that waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio are better indicators of metabolic health than BMI. Even among people with the same BMI, those who have a large waist (defined as more than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women) have a significantly higher risk. In addition, people who tend to carry their weight in their hips and thighs (a "pear" shape) have lower waist-to-hip ratios and are less prone to heart disease than people with abdominal obesity (an "apple" shape); see "Measuring your midsection."

Measuring your midsection To measure your waist accurately, exhale and wrap a measuring tape around your bare abdomen just above your navel (belly button). Don't suck in your gut or pull the tape tight enough to squeeze the area. To compute your waist-to-hip ratio, first measure your hips by putting the tape measure around the widest part of your buttocks. Keep the tape measure level. Then, divide your waist size by your hip size.
Measurements that signal high risk	Waist (inches)	Waist-to-hip ratio
Women	35 or more	0.9 or more
Men	40 or more	1.0 or more

What should you do about visceral fat?

People with abdominal obesity — even if they're not overweight — can lessen their heart disease risk with regular exercise and healthy eating habits. "Reducing the total amount of fat in your body frees up storage space for fat particles in places that are associated with less metabolic risk," says Dr. Mantzoros. That's why losing as little as 7% of your total weight helps lower heart disease risk: the most dangerous visceral fat disappears first.

What Is Metabolic Syndrome?

It’s not a single disease, but a group of related health problems: too much belly fat, high triglycerides, cholesterol trouble, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar. When you have at least three of these issues, your chances for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke are higher than they’d be with any of those health problems on their own.

Large Waistline
When you’re larger around the middle -- you have an apple or pear shape to your body -- that can lead to metabolic syndrome. In general, this means a waist size of 35 inches or more for women and 40 inches or more for men, but your doctor can tell you if that rule applies to you. It’s not just the fat itself that’s the problem, it’s the location: belly fat is more dangerous for heart disease and other conditions.

 High Triglycerides

It’s a type of fat in the blood that your body makes from extra calories. If you can’t keep your level below 150 mg/dL, you could be more likely to get metabolic syndrome. You can take medicine to lower your triglyceride levels, but the best way is to lose weight, exercise, and cut back on calories.

 Too Little HDL Cholesterol (the good one )

HDL is “good” cholesterol that may help remove LDL, the “bad” kind, from your arteries. If your HDL is less than 50 mg/dL for a woman, or less than 40 mg/dL for a man, that can set you up for metabolic syndrome. You may be able to raise your HDL levels with weight loss, a better diet, and other lifestyle changes.

 High Fasting Blood Sugar

When you don’t eat for 8 hours or so, your body begins to run out of blood sugar from food and it starts to break down the stored form. Your body uses the hormone insulin to keep levels in a healthy range. But sometimes it can’t manage this balancing act and your “fasting” blood sugar gets too high. Anything over 100 mg/dL could lead to metabolic syndrome.

 High Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against your arteries as your heart pumps and rests. If yours is higher than 130/85, you could get metabolic syndrome. But you may be able to cut your numbers naturally if you lose just 5% of your body weight. Exercise, quitting smoking, and a healthy, low-salt diet can also help.

 What Causes Metabolic Syndrome?

You’re more likely to get it as you get older, and you also may have some genes that raise your odds. There’s not much you can do about that. But you can make other changes to prevent the condition and lower the chances you’ll get coronary heart disease, heart attacks, and type 2 diabetes.

 Stay Active

People who don’t get enough physical activity are more likely to get metabolic syndrome. You should get about 30 minutes of exercise a day, at least 5 days a week. But don’t stop there. The more you get up and move around throughout the day, the better your health will be. Even 10 minutes of exercise at a time can make a big difference.

 Watch Your Weight

Too much body fat is another possible cause of metabolic syndrome. It’s strongly linked to all of the health problems that make up the condition. It also can make your body stop responding to insulin, the hormone that keeps blood sugar levels stable. That’s called insulin resistance, and it’s another common reason that people get metabolic syndrome.

 Other Possible Causes

If you have inflammation throughout your body or if your blood clots too easily, you may be more likely to get metabolic syndrome. Other conditions that may play a role are:

A fatty liver: Too many triglycerides and other fats in the liver

Polycystic ovarian syndrome: When women get cysts on their ovaries

Gallstones: Hard pieces made from digestive fluid in the gallbladder

Sleep apnea: You stop breathing over and over during sleep, which means you don’t get enough oxygen

 Change Your Habits

This is the first thing your doctor will suggest to treat metabolic syndrome. Cut back on sugar, salt, saturated fat, and processed foods, and eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Get more exercise. If you smoke, talk to your doctor about quitting. All of these habits can help you lower your blood sugar, blood pressure, and triglycerides, as well as raise your good cholesterol and trim your waistline -- the five things that add up to metabolic syndrome.

Medication May Help
If lifestyle changes don’t control your metabolic syndrome, your doctor may suggest medicine. It won’t replace lifestyle changes, but it can help. You may get a drug called a statin to lower your cholesterol. Other medicines may:

Lower your chance of a heart attack

Lower your blood pressure

Prevent blood clots

Fight coronary heart disease

 BOTTOM LINE: Everybody is talking about type 2 diabetes .Make no mistake,Metabolic Syndrome is just as deadly.  

    Do you feel “bad” or “guilty” about this emotion? If so, you may be at risk for poorer longer-term psychological health.A study in the July 2017 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology you looked at the psychological health of people who accept, rather than negatively judge, their emotional experiences. Researchers found that accepting these experiences led to fewer negative emotions when confronted with daily stressors.The article reported on three separate, but related, studies that explored how accepting negative emotions, rather than reacting to them, affects a person’s psychological health.

      The first study aimed to see whether accepting emotions was associated with greater psychological health, and if this association was moderated by several demographic variables. Undergraduate students at the University of California at Berkley completed evaluations to assess acceptance, stress level, and psychological health. The researchers found that accepting mental health experiences was associated with greater psychological health across a range of demographic variables including gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Further, results indicated that the benefits to psychological health were associated with accepting the emotions associated with a negative event, rather than the situation that triggered those emotions.

      In the second study, the authors examined a potential explanation for how the tendency to accept negative emotions is related to psychological health. They explored whether accepting one’s mental experiences helps to decrease negative emotions when experiencing stressors. A consistent reduction in negative emotions should, in time, improve overall psychological health.

      Again, a group of undergraduates completed questionnaires related to acceptance and to their emotional responses to a stressful task completed in the lab. Results indicated that by habitually accepting emotions and thoughts, people experienced a lower degree of negative emotion when in stressful situations.

       Finally, the authors wanted to see if these results held up for people other than college students. They followed people in a Denver community for a six-month period. These study volunteers completed measures of acceptance, psychological health, and stress, and kept nightly diaries for two weeks identifying the degree of negative emotion felt when experiencing stressors that day.

      Results indicated that people who habitually accept their emotional experiences were more likely to report greater psychological health six months later. This was true regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Further, people who accepted these emotions were less likely to respond negatively to stressors. That is, people who routinely accept their emotions and thoughts when under stress, experience less daily negative emotion during these times. This in turn is associated with increased psychological health six months later.

     Taken together, these three studies highlight the benefits of accepting emotions and thoughts, rather than judging them, on psychological health. It seems like common sense. When a stressful situation causes negative emotions, accepting feelings of frustration or upset — rather than trying to pretend you’re not upset, or beating yourself up for feeling this way — reduces guilt and negative self-image. Over time, this will in turn lead to increased psychological health.

Bottom Line: Emotions are part of being human. Don't beat yourself and add to the anxiety . If they persist or you become concerned seek professional help immediatley.  

The Road to Change: Starts Here Pt.1/3

You’ve been invited to a party, and you are on your way. As you pull out of your driveway , you realize you forgot to ask where it is or how to get there. In fact,you’re not even sure you have petrol in your car. Without planning ahead—charting your course,understanding the time commitment, and making sure you (and your car)are ready to go—you could miss out on a great time. Improving health and well-being is quite similar. Think of good health as your goal and exercise as the vehicle you use to get there  
Get S.M.A.R.T
Many people avoid goal setting because they don’t want to set themselves up for disappointment. But if you rethink this,how about seeting your goals so that you can achieve them? Take things slowly and build on your success,Create a plan that meets the following criteria:  
Specific: Avoid general goals,such as “getting in shape”. Instead ,aspire for more specific goals such as “walking a mile every morning” or joining a gym and going at least twice a week. 
Measurable:Note the way your clothes are fitting or how long it takes you to walk a mile .Repeat the measurements at 1-month intervals---so you’ll see your success  
Attainable: Be realistic. Be honest with yourself. Make what you say you are going to do matter .Create and exercise plan that is simple and doable and build from that.  
Relevant: Does the fitness program you’ve decided on meet  with your goals, and does it suit your lifestyle? Is the program enhancing your quality of life?  
Trackable: Log your workouts on your mobile device,notebook or calender.Frequently look back ti the first week or month of exercise and note your progress. It’s a great motivator.There also are a host of wearable apps that can assist you with tracking.
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 

 

The 7 Stages of Change

Are you considering losing weight or changing to a healthy eating lifestyle that includes regular exercise? Not sure you’re ready ? There are 7 stages of change a person will go through to be successful at whatever the change is they are attempting to accomplish. It’s important you know what stage you are at . This knowledge will tell you what the chances are of you obtaining long term success.   

The stages of change are:

Precontemplation (Not yet acknowledging that there is a problem behavior that needs to be changed)

Contemplation (Acknowledging that there is a problem but not yet ready or sure of  wanting to make a change)

Preparation/Determination (Getting ready to change)

Action/Willpower (Changing behavior)

Maintenance (Maintaining the behavior change)

Relapse (Returning to older behaviors and abandoning the new changes)

Transcendence (you will reach a point where you will be able to work with your emotions and understand your own behavior and view it in a new light

 

Stage One: Precontemplation

In the precontemplation stage, people are not thinking seriously about changing and are not interested in any kind of help. People in this stage tend to defend their current bad habit(s) and do not feel it is a problem. They may be defensive in the face of other people's efforts to pressure them to quit.

Are you in the precontemplation stage? No, because the fact that you are reading this shows that you are already ready to consider that you may have a problem with one or more bad habits.  

Stage Two: Contemplation

In the contemplation stage people are more aware of the personal consequences of their bad habit and they spend time thinking about their problem. Although they are able to consider the possibility of changing, they tend to be ambivalent about it. 

In this stage, people are on a teeter-totter, weighing the pros and cons of quitting or modifying their behavior. Although they think about the negative aspects of their bad habit and the positives associated with giving it up (or reducing), they may doubt that the long-term benefits associated with quitting will outweigh the short-term costs. 

It might take as little as a couple weeks or as long as a lifetime to get through the contemplation stage. (In fact, some people think and think and think about giving up their bad habit and may die never having gotten beyond this stage)

On the plus side, people are more open to receiving information about their bad habit, and more likely to actually use educational interventions and reflect on their own feelings and thoughts concerning their bad habit. 

Stage Three: Preparation/Determination

In the preparation/determination stage, people have made a commitment to make a change. Their motivation for changing is reflected by statements such as: "I've got to do something about this - this is serious. Something has to change. What can I do?"

This is sort of a research phase: people are now taking small steps toward cessation. They are trying to gather information (sometimes by reading things like this) about what they will need to do to change their behavior.  

Or they will call a lot of clinics, trying to find out what strategies and resources are available to help them in their attempt. Too often, people skip this stage: they try to move directly from contemplation into action and fall flat on their faces because they haven't adequately researched or accepted what it is going to take to make this major lifestyle change. 

Stage Four: Action/Willpower

This is the stage where people believe they have the ability to change their behavior and are actively involved in taking steps to change their bad behavior by using a variety of different techniques. 

This is the shortest of all the stages. The amount of time people spend in action varies. It generally lasts about 6 months, but it can literally be as short as one hour! This is a stage when people most depend on their own willpower. They are making overt efforts to quit or change the behavior and are at greatest risk for relapse.

Mentally, they review their commitment to themselves and develop plans to deal with both personal and external pressures that may lead to slips. They may use short-term rewards to sustain their motivation, and analyze their behavior change efforts in a way that enhances their self-confidence. People in this stage also tend to be open to receiving help and are also likely to seek support from others (a very important element). 

Hopefully, people will then move to:

Stage Five: Maintenance

Maintenance involves being able to successfully avoid any temptations to return to the bad habit. The goal of the maintenance stage is to maintain the new status quo. People in this stage tend to remind themselves of how much progress they have made. 

People in maintenance constantly reformulate the rules of their lives and are acquiring new skills to deal with life and avoid relapse. They are able to anticipate the situations in which a relapse could occur and prepare coping strategies in advance.

They remain aware that what they are striving for is personally worthwhile and meaningful. They are patient with themselves and recognize that it often takes a while to let go of old behavior patterns and practice new ones until they are second nature to them. Even though they may have thoughts of returning to their old bad habits, they resist the temptation and stay on track. 

As you progress through your own stages of change, it can be helpful to re-evaluate your progress in moving up and down through these stages. 

(Even in the course of one day, you may go through several different stages of change). 

And remember: it is normal and natural to regress, to attain one stage only to fall back to a previous stage. This is just a normal part of making changes in your behavior.

Stage 6 : Relapse

Along the way to permanent cessation or stable reduction of a bad habit, most people experience relapse. In fact, it is much more common to have at least one relapse than not. Relapse is often accompanied by feelings of discouragement and seeing oneself as a failure. 

While relapse can be discouraging, the majority of people who successfully quit do not follow a straight path to a life time free of self-destructive bad habits. Rather, they cycle through the five stages several times before achieving a stable life style change. Consequently, the Stages of Change Model considers relapse to be normal. 

There is a real risk that people who relapse will experience an immediate sense of failure that can seriously undermine their self-confidence. The important thing is that if they do slip and say, have a cigarette or a drink, they shouldn't see themselves as having failed. 

Rather, they should analyze how the slip happened and use it as an opportunity to learn how to cope differently. In fact, relapses can be important opportunities for learning and becoming stronger.

Relapsing is like falling off a horse - the best thing you can do is get right back on again. However, if you do "fall off the horse" and relapse, it is important that you do not fall back to the precontemplation or contemplation stages. Rather, restart the process again at preparation, action or even the maintenance stages. 

People who have relapsed may need to learn to anticipate high-risk situations (such as being with their family) more effectively, control environmental cues that tempt them to engage in their bad habits (such as being around drinking buddies), and learn how to handle unexpected episodes of stress without returning to the bad habit. This gives them a stronger sense of self control and the ability to get back on track. 

 Stage 7: Transcendence

Eventually, if you "maintain maintenance" long enough, you will reach a point where you will be able to work with your emotions and understand your own behavior and view it in a new light. This is the stage of "transcendence," a transcendence to a new life. In this stage, not only is your bad habit no longer an integral part of your life but to return to it would seem atypical, abnormal, even weird to you.

When you reach this point in your process of change, you will know that you have transcended the old bad habits and that you are truly becoming a new "you", who no longer needs the old behaviors to sustain yourself.  

Bottom Line : Changing to a healthy lifestyle is the single hardest thing a person can do. Remember,relapse is a normal part of the process. Don’t let it derail you .