Making small changes

Joe Friel in The Cyclist's Training Bible makes a good point about incorporating small lifestyle changes in order to create a long-term improvement.

"Balance can be hard to achieve, but remolding daily activities by 10 percent in the direction of better cycling doesn't take much and can bring noticeable improvement," he writes.

You could substitute "cycling" with just about anything. So many people fail at good health because they try to make too many changes at once. We've all done it. That's why I don't make New Year's resolutions. You get off plan the middle of the first week and those big promises are soon forgotten.

I've been able to improve my health by making a simple change. I started cycling a few days a week. Eventually I got to the point that I was itching to ride and that grew month-by-month into 40 to 50 miles a week.

Recently I joined a gym and started adding regular workouts to my routine. I'm not there yet, but going to the gym is becoming a habit.

My next hurdle is nutrition. I've begun to at least think about eating the right things. I limit my carbs because of my diabetes, but one quickly learns how to cheat. After all, bacon has zero carbs.

The nutrition component will probably be the hardest for me.