Healthy Monday is a national non-profit public health campaign associated with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The campaign encourages people to use Monday as the day to focus on health and prevention. Instead of waiting until New Year’s, your birthday, or an anniversary to make a healthy change, use Monday. That way, you’ll have 52 opportunities make those changes you’ve been trying to make. It’s time to let all health break loose!

Understand the beauty of choosing Monday. Research performed by The Monday Campaigns movement shows that we already treat Monday like a fresh start day, a day dedicated to health and a day most favored for getting your act together. This happens to be a phenomenon cutting across cultures. It is also a day with negative connotations if you’re not enjoying the way you’re living your life, so this makes it another good reason to overcome the reasons for the negativity. Dedicating a specific day to health provides both a call to action and a way for people to increase compliance and impact.

• We tend to organize our lives around the week, starting with Monday. Monday is the day to set goals, refocus, and recommit and it is the day to trigger and sustain healthy behavior.

Limit your saturated fat intake by going meatless once a week. Meatless Monday atwww.meatlessmonday.com is a project associated with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. This project is about encouraging you to give up meat one day a week and to cut your intake of saturated fat by 15 percent. Doing this can reduce your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and certain types of cancer. That’s a great promise for a new habit this Monday! If you look on the left side of my blog, there is a meatless menu with recipes. Or just Click Here now for this week’s Meatless Menu.

Start exercising. The CDC recommends doing 2 1/2 hours of exercise minimum each week.  The benefits of exercise include improved health, longer life and a boost for your brain power. Use Monday as the day to commit to an exercise routine. Start walking, join a gym, enroll in a fitness class, or even just plan out physical activities for the week and stick to them! Here are some things you can do to help improve your physical activity.

• Decide which activity you’ll start doing regularly. Click Here for a link to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists of physical activity ideas and tips.
• Create Monday Mile Maps and markers to help others know how far they’re exercising; place these on tracks, paths and other exercise areas designated for Move-It Mondays.
• Encourage others to join in by starting a walking group or fitness class at your workplace or school.
• As a family, get out and exercise together by taking walks or hikes, cycling together, doing indoor sports activities or joining a sports club together; help enthuse one another to be active regularly.

Quit Smoking. Not smoking is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. As soon as you stop smoking, you’ll start seeing and feeling the effects. However, it can be hard to get started and commit. That is why the Healthy Monday Campaign recommends that you try and quit on Monday. Instead of waiting until New Year’s Eve, your birthday or anniversary, having a weekly opportunity to recommit to your goal is more likely to succeed. Some things to do include:

• Read the American Cancer Society’s Quit Guide
• Call 1800-Quit-Now
• Re-introduce yourself to people you know as a non-smoker – the new and healthier you
• Encourage others to quit smoking

Begin the week determined to reduce stress in your life. Focus on having a Mindful Monday and bring more relaxation back into your life: (The links are wiki Howto tips click on them they are very helpful.)

• Meditate - meditation can clear out the negative thoughts and worrying clutter in your mind, allowing you to focus clearly on what you really want in life
• Stay calm – when everyone else is panicking, a calm head will win the day
• Learn how to self soothe – getting upset may be a habit but it’s a bad one that prevents you from remaining calm and focused; learning to self soothe can help you to overcome panic, anxiety and negative thought processes
• Familiarize yourself with assertive approaches to dealing with conflict and “difficult” people – this will ensure that you can stand up for yourself and not feel victimized
• Practice deep breathing techniques – this helps with calming, soothing and focusing yourself
• Visualize a stronger and more fulfilled future for yourself.

Click Here for 2011 Healthy Monday Motivators