Adding regular physical activity to your week can make a huge difference in your health. Move more and you’ll have more energy, less stress, a reduced risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, a healthier weight, and better sleep quality. And those are just a few of the benefits. If you’ve decided that you want to lead a more active life, Active Living Every Day, Second Edition, offers you all the tools you need to take the first steps toward success.
Active Living Every Day, Second Edition, is more than just a book. It’s a step-by-step plan for building a healthier life. With Active Living Every Day, you’ll learn how enjoyable physical activity can be—even if you’ve never been active before—and how easy it is to add activity to your day. You’ll create your own activity plan based on your preferences and lifestyle, and you’ll be encouraged to choose activities that you like and that fit easily into your routine. You’ll even learn how everyday activities, like housecleaning and gardening, can count toward your weekly physical activity goals. Along the way you’ll develop confidence by building on small successes and overcoming obstacles—methods that have proven effective in producing lasting change. The advice and participants’ stories in the book and the supplementary online tools offer support and guidance to help you achieve your activity goals.
Making important lifelong changes takes commitment. With the right structure and encouragement, those changes can be easier to accomplish. Let Active Living Every Day, Second Edition, show you how building on small successes can add up to healthy, life-changing habits.
Foreword
You’ve Come to the Right Place!
Chapter 1: Ready, Set, Go
Chapter 2: Finding New Opportunities
Chapter 3: Overcoming Challenges
Chapter 4: Setting Goals and Rewarding Yourself
Chapter 5: Gaining Confidence
Chapter 6: Enlisting Support
Chapter 7: Avoiding Pitfalls
Chapter 8: Step by Step
Chapter 9: Defusing Stress
Chapter 10: Finding New Opportunities to Be Active
Chapter 11: Positive Planning
Chapter 12: Making Lasting Changes
Appendix A: Signs and Symptoms of Heart Attack and Stroke
Appendix B: Stages on the Way to Becoming Active
Appendix C: Energy Expenditure Chart
Appendix D: Forms for Progressing Toward an Active Lifestyle
Index
About the Authors
Steven N. Blair, PED, is a professor at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. His research focuses on the associations between lifestyle and health, with a specific emphasis on exercise, physical fitness, body composition, and chronic disease. As one of the most highly cited exercise scientists currently active in research, Dr. Blair has published more than 475 articles, chapters, and books in scientific and professional literature. He also was the senior scientific editor for the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health.
Blair is a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, Society of Behavioral Medicine, American College of Sports Medicine, American Heart Association, and American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education. He was also elected to membership in the American Epidemiological Society. He was the first president of the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity and is a past president of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education.
Andrea L. Dunn, PhD, is a senior scientist at Klein Buendel, Inc., a health communication research company in Golden, Colorado. She served as the project director and co-investigator of Project Active, ACT (Activity Counseling Trial), and PRIME (Physically Ready for Invigorating Movement Every day), all large-scale clinical trials involving sedentary adults. These studies helped sedentary adults learn behavioral skills vital for adopting and maintaining an active lifestyle. She has conducted public health research on physical activity interventions to improve a variety of health outcomes but particularly to improve mental health.
Dunn cowrote the curriculum for Project Active and PRIME that is the basis for Active Living Every Day. She has led intervention groups that tested the approach, and she is the lead author of the Journal of the American Medical Association article describing its efficacy.
Dunn has an MS in psychology and a PhD in exercise science and is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
Bess H. Marcus, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego where she pursues research on physical activity and public health with funding from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Marcus is a clinical health psychologist who has spent the past 25 years conducting research on physical activity behavior and has published more than 175 papers and book chapters as well as three books on this topic.
Dr. Marcus has developed a series of assessment instruments to measure psychosocial mediators of physical activity behavior and has also developed low-cost interventions to promote physical activity behavior in community, workplace, and primary care settings. Dr. Marcus uses a variety of channels to promote physical activity including print, telephone, and the Internet. Dr. Marcus has participated in panels for the American Heart Association, American College of Sports Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes of Health; these panels have created recommendations regarding the quantity and intensity of physical activity necessary for health benefits. Dr. Marcus also does work examining the benefits of exercise for women who want to stop smoking. Marcus was a contributing author to the Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health and a member of the Executive Committee for the National Physical Activity Plan. Marcus served as an advisor on the curriculum development for the Cooper Institute’s Project Active study that created Active Living Every Day.
Ruth Ann Carpenter, MS, RD, is the founder and lead integrator at Health Integration, LLC. She was the cocreator of the curriculum and group cofacilitator for The Cooper Institute’s Project Active study that created the Active Living Every Day program. Most recently she provided technical assistance and support during the testing of the 12-week version of the Active Living Every Day program.
Carpenter is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in applied nutrition and extensive coursework in exercise science. She has over 25 years of experience designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating nutrition and physical activity behavior change programs in community and worksite settings. She has coauthored six books and developed educational materials for clients such as the American Heart Association, Kellogg’s, Roche, Tropicana, and Jenny Craig.Peter Jaret is a medical journalist whose work has appeared frequently in the New York Times, National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, AARP Journal, Health, National Wildlife, and other publications. He is the author of Impact: From the Frontlines of Global Health (National Geographic Books) and Nurse: A World of Care (Emory University Press).
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