Best You Ever: 365 Ways to be Richer, Happier, Thinner, Smarter, Younger, Sexier, and More Relaxed - Each and Every Day

MONDAY | BE RICHER illustration

If you owe too much on American Express, and your Diner's Club notes are too hard, take a loan on your Visa, and pay it off with your MasterCard!

— Nipsey Russell, Ode to Credit Cards, from Your Number's Up

Switch to Using Only Cash or Checks for a Year

If you're the type to whip out the plastic whenever you see something you like, try switching over to using only cash or checks for an entire year. When you make this change, you'll probably not only find it mentally harder to choose to purchase a nonnecessity item but also find that the amount your spending will feel more real. For online purchases and bills that you pay automatically each month, replace your credit card number with a debit card number so the money comes directly out of your checking.

But what are you going to do with your credit cards? Lend your cards to your spouse or put them in a safety deposit box or somewhere secure within your home. But if you're going out of town, make sure to take one credit card with you in case of emergency. In making this routine change to your daily life, your credit cards will be easily accessible in case of an emergency, but you can't reach for them whenever you see something you might want to buy, making it that much easier to stick to your budget and to put the leftover funds into savings.

illustration BE HAPPIER | TUESDAY

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

— Mark Twain

Practice Random Acts of Kindness

When you're kind to others, you become happier. It doesn't take much to be nice, and even giving a sweet smile to a stranger as you pass by or holding the door open for the next person can brighten someone's day. Committing these simple acts of kindness sets in motion a positive domino effect, as you've improved another's life in a small but not insignificant way, and that person is now more likely to reach out and do the same.

By acting selflessly and paying kindness forward, you'll engage in positive social contact, feel less isolated, and might even feel a rush of those feel-good chemicals, endorphins, known as a helper's high.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Pay for the coffee, toll, or other small purchase of the person in line behind you.

Allow someone with only a few groceries to go in front of you.

Share your umbrella with someone who is without one.

Help an older person up the stairs.

Walk your friend's dog if he or she is busy or ill.

Tip well.

Find a senior to connect with in your community.

Send a friend an unexpected card to show you're thinking of her or him.

WEDNESDAY | BE THINNER illustration

Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.

— Hippocrates

Make Nutrition a Priority

Admit it, you want to look better naked. Your first step to reaching that personal goal is adapting the way you eat to fit a healthy lifestyle.

Some people like to call adapting the way you eat a diet. I don't. That's because this is the way you should be eating whether you're overweight, underweight, or a healthy weight. A diet is a fad, and it's not sustainable for the rest of your life. On a diet you'll likely still want to indulge in comfort foods that don't add fuel to your body but do add inches to your waistline. And as you work to cut out those foods, you'll probably be pretty miserable.

So stop the cycle. Instead of focusing on what you can and can't eat, focus on what provides your body with nutrition. Challenge yourself to include lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats together in every meal. Making this adjustment in the way you eat doesn't mean you have to go without your favorite junk food forever. It just means that most of your meals and snacks will both taste good and be good for you. Eating well can bolster your immune system; help your body to repair damaged cells; lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis; and even improve your longevity.

illustration BE SMARTER | THURSDAY

There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation.

— William Osler

Pay Attention

It's easy to feel overwhelmed and look to tunnel vision as your relief when you're being bombarded with images, ads, and information on a daily basis. But by opening up your eyes to the world around you, actively listening, and striving to be more observant in the real world, you'll train your brain to become better at absorbing and processing important information instead of allowing everything to pass by in a blur. If you have a hard time focusing on one object at a time, explore the various types of meditation outlined in this book. During meditation you learn to clear your mind, but you can also use it as a tool to teach yourself to negate distractions and be in the moment.

WHERE TO START

If you're eager to get going, here are a few ideas to move you along the right track and help you to become more engaged with the world around you.

Be mindful. For five minutes, stop and notice all the sounds, smells, and images within the world around you.

Stop rushing. Life is about the journey, not the destination we'll all eventually reach. Practice staying in the moment and appreciate it for what it is, not what it will become.

Cease multitasking. When we do many things at once, we can't fully commit to any one thing well.

FRIDAY | BE YOUNGER illustration

Grilling is like sunbathing. Everyone knows it is bad for you, but no one ever stops doing it.

— Laurie Colwin

Slather on Sunscreen Daily with SPF15 or Higher

After spending a long winter wrapped in layers, the first thing you might want to do when you see the summer sun is strip off your clothes and head for the closest sunbathing spot. That's all well and good, but before you do, make sure to apply sunscreen on all exposed parts of your body, including your face, thirty minutes before heading out the door. While you might think looking like a tanned beach hottie is sexy now, you probably won't like the premature wrinkles and skin cancer that exposure to the sun's harmful UVA and UVB rays can cause.

On days when you're spending many hours outdoors, make sure to bring the sunscreen with you, as you'll need to reapply it every two to three hours, especially if you've been sweating a lot or have been in the water. Yes, even if the sunscreen says it's waterproof or offers all-day protection.

Sunscreen isn't only for those sunny days of summer, either. Indeed, sunscreen should be applied daily, because even on winter or cloudy days, the sun's harmful rays penetrate the clouds and can damage your skin.

That said, if you're the type to slather on sunscreen every morning before you leave the house and reapply it throughout the day, you might want to ease up a bit on your routine. Recent studies have shown that sunscreen not only blocks the sun's harmful rays but it also prevents your body from producing vitamin D when it's exposed to the sun. However, you only need twenty minutes of sun exposure a day, so consider skipping that early morning application if you're going to walk around for that length of time.

illustration BE SEXIER | SATURDAY

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

— Oscar Wilde

First, Love Yourself

You are amazing. Whether you feel it yet or not, it's true. You are sexy, you are intriguing, and you are interesting to talk with. You just have to believe it. As the saying goes, you cannot love another until you love yourself. Once you have worked through your insecurities, doubts, and worries about what love will or will not bring and once you have learned how to be comfortable with yourself, you can be ready for true love.

When you're secure and happy with who you are, you will project inner confidence and attract potential mates who are right for you. When you know who you are, you'll know what you're looking for and not looking for in a romantic partner. Going into the dating scene armed with this knowledge will help you to not be distracted by the pretty people who are superficially attractive but won't offer you what you want in the long term and to keep your dance card open for someone who will. Ironically, the moment you no longer need someone to rely on for our own happiness and to prop you up when you're down is when Mr. or Miss Right usually comes along.

SUNDAY | BE MORE RELAXED illustration

If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters.

— Author unknown, attributed to Jim Davis

Quiet Your Mind Before Starting Your Day

Before you get out of bed and especially before groggily reaching for your phone to check your e-mail and messages, take a few minutes to breathe and enjoy the morning. Focus on the sounds, smells, and golden morning light. Can you hear any birds singing? Is a loved one lying peacefully next to you? Take some time to relax, breathe deeply, and let the beautiful morning envelop you. Release the tension that any bad dreams caused or any anxiety about the day ahead. Even if it's going to be a big day full of many tasks, starting off in a peaceful, meditative state will make it easier to stay calm and happy throughout the entire day.

IMPROVE YOUR WAKING MOMENTS

Make waking up a pleasant experience so that you feel alive — not stressed — when you open your eyes. Here are suggestions that could help you be able to breathe easy before you rise:

Keep your bedroom free from clutter and shut the closet door before retiring.

Open east-facing drapes before you go to bed so that you can enjoy the morning sun.

Keep fresh flowers or a diffuser with a scent that you find relaxing on your nightstand.

If you need an alarm to wake up, get one with a ring you like (such as a singing bird) or find a ringtone on your phone that doesn't irritate you (only use Reveille if it is a happy reminder of being at summer camp!).

WEEK TWO

illustration BE RICHER | MONDAY

Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.

— Robert Orben

Calculate How Much You Really Make

Another good way to stop spending needlessly is to determine how much you really make per hour. To figure this out, start with the net amount you receive every month after taxes, 401(k), and medical and other withholdings have been removed. Then, make a list of all your work-related expenses. These can include money spent entertaining coworkers or clients, the cost of commuting (you can use the standard mileage rate to give you this number, which you can find at www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=178004,00.html), the amount you spend on work clothes to look your best, supplies you purchase that are not provided or reimbursed by your employer, or any other money you spend that is job related.

Next, estimate how many hours you spend working, including all of the hours you spend commuting, working at home on projects, networking afterhours with colleagues, and shopping for work supplies. Now, take the net amount you make, subtract the expenses, and divide that number by the total number of hours you've spent doing work-related activities.

That number might seem depressing. But it can help keep your spending in check and make you richer in the process. Say you make $20 an hour after all is said and done and an item you want to purchase costs $160. Is it worth working eight hours to have it? By using this logic, you'll probably end up spending money only on the items you really want and are willing to work hard to have.

TUESDAY | BE HAPPIER illustration

Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like it's heaven on earth.

— Mark Twain

Let the Love Flow from You

When you've been hurt, it's hard to let down your guard and allow the love to flow from you unfettered. Fact is, we've all been hurt by love. It's how you choose to react and move forward that matters. When you permit feelings of fear, jealousy, angst, the need to control, or resentment to take charge, it's easy to become bitter and defensive. By doing so, you erect barriers that prevent you from finding true love. In fact, we often attract what we put out, which means that if you're approaching love in this negative way, you're more likely to find someone who is bitter, defensive, resentful, jealous, and so on.

Try instead to let go of your hurt and to take steps to heal yourself in healthy ways. Do all of those things for yourself that your last partner didn't. Write about the experience in a journal to allow yourself to process all of your feelings. Look within yourself to see where you can improve and be a better partner. Be a force of love, support, joy, and peace. Believe in the power of love and that you, too, will find someone who treats you as you deserve. You'll be impressed at how thinking positively and taking positive actions to support those thoughts will bring you what you want.

illustration BE THINNER | WEDNESDAY

I never drink water. I'm afraid it will be habit-forming.

— W. C. Fields

Reach for Water

As you'll learn later in this book, when you think you're hungry, you're often just dehydrated. That's because 70 percent of your body is composed of water and it's very easy for that number to drop below the optimum level. By drinking water, you can push that percentage back up, and in so doing you can feel fuller and be less inclined to reach for food or sugary drinks.

You also look better when you're hydrated. Water pushes the toxins out of your bloodstream, helps move things along in your colon, and improves your complexion and appearance. It also improves your endurance and lubricates your joints, making exercising easier.

If you want to kick up your metabolism a notch, drink cold water. For your body to use water, it has to expend energy to heat the water to the same temperature as your body. Heating sixty-four ounces of ice water requires your body to burn an extra seventy calories a day. It might not sound like much, but all of those small numbers can add up to a big weight loss!

To determine how much water your body needs, take your weight and divide it in half. That number is the minimum number of ounces of water you should consume in a day. If you're working out, add an additional eight ounces for each twenty minutes. But don't chug it all at once. Spacing out your water intake is healthier for you, because consuming an excess amount at one time can disturb your body's electrolyte balance and send your body into shock.

THURSDAY | BE SMARTER illustration

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

— Albert Einstein

Use Your Imagination

As we move further and further away from childhood, we can forget how to reactivate those childlike centers in our minds. Harnessing your imagination and your skills of observation can help you to reclaim this lost way of seeing.

Challenge yourself to look at an object and draw it without thinking about what that object is. Start by drawing the negative space (the space around the object), if necessary. Allow your mind to daydream, to wander.

Imagination not only helps to increase your happiness, it also help you to achieve what you want out of life. According to Dr. Frank Lawlis, in his book The IQ Answer, We only know our world through our senses and our interpretations of those sensations. If we hold on to the idea of those sensations, our bodies [and brains] do not know the difference. The imagery stimulates the same neurological network as the actual experience.

Use this to your advantage. Tell yourself things are going well — even when they aren't — and you'll start to believe it. Tell yourself you're successful, and you'll start to act in a way that supports that. Your brain can trick you when you don't want it to, but you can play that game right back.

illustration BE YOUNGER | FRIDAY

Four be the things I'd have been better without: love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

— Dorothy Parker

Pay Close Attention to Your Body

In between your annual wellness physicals, it's important to keep an eye on your own body. A few monthly tasks you need to add to your calendar are a breast self-exam or a testicular self-exam and a mole check. You may have had some of your moles since you were born. Others might be new. A new mole isn't a cause for panic, as most of us develop new moles throughout our lives. But it's important to know where your moles are and to keep an eye on them to see whether they change. An easy way to do this is to draw a crude sketch of the human body and mark down where your moles are, how large they are, and if they're round or an irregular shape.

Using the Cancer Research Institute's ABCD of identifying melanomas (skin cancers) will help you to identify the difference between a harmless (benign) mole and a potentially cancerous one:

A is for asymmetry. Melanoma lesions are not symmetrical; rather, they are irregular in shape.

B is for border. Melanoma lesions often have irregular borders in contrast with benign moles, which typically have smooth, even borders.

C is for color. Look for brown and black color in melanoma lesions in contrast to benign moles, which often are one shade of brown.

D is for diameter. Melanoma lesions routinely are about the size of a pencil eraser, roughly one-quarter inch or six millimeters across; non-cancerous moles are smaller.

If you find anything that might be suspect, call your doctor right away.

SATURDAY | BE SEXIER illustration

Trust men and they will be true to you. Treat them gently and they will show themselves great.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be the Kind of Partner You Want

What do you look for in your partner? Someone who greets you each evening with a loving embrace and is genuinely interested in hearing about your day? Someone who remembers to do the little things for you so your life is easier? Someone who reaches out to you just to tell you they're thinking about you?

If you're in a relationship and you're disappointed that your partner isn't living up to your expectations, consider that he or she might not know, or understand, what you need or want. Start acting toward your partner in ways that you find loving or that you know they find loving. As you build, or rebuild, the intimacy between each other, you'll likely find that your partner will start to do things that make you feel appreciated. If, however, after being the kind of partner you want for some time, you aren't feeling the love back, don't be shy in saying to your partner, Honey, I love when you do X, but it would make me feel that much closer to you if you could do Y for me. Then your partner will understand he or she is making you feel good, and because you've been making your partner feel good, your partner is more likely to understand you and want to give you what you need.

illustration BE MORE RELAXED | SUNDAY

We do not talk — we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines, and digests.

— Henry Miller

Quell Your Need for Noise

In a world filled with the seemingly constant buzz of information, it's hard to disconnect. Do you spend most of your waking hours hooked to the Internet, texting, watching television, or listening to the radio? If that's the case, your mind will benefit from some silent time.

Focus on taking more time for yourself that is alone and as quiet as possible. If you live in a noisy city, at the very least don't fill this time with extra noise. Go for a walk by yourself and contemplate your own thoughts in silence. Though it might be painful getting back to your own mind, distracting yourself instead of facing your issues isn't helping you solve them. When you allow yourself to contemplate your life, you can start to work through things and rediscover the wonderful self you've been neglecting.

If you find your life so busy with work and/or with family, take advantage of those few minutes of your own that you might have while commuting or make it a priority to schedule quiet time for your whole family once a day, perhaps after dinner, so that all of you can benefit from this exercise.

WEEK THREE

I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money.

— Pablo Picasso

Record Every Penny You Spend for a Month

In order to improve your finances, it is important to have a monthly budget that you can stick to. The first step to starting that budget is to determine how much you make. Then, figure out your expected monthly payments as well as how much you spend on everything from groceries to entertainment. Without this information, it's impossible to determine how much you have to spend and save.

To figure out the total amount you spend, write down every penny you spend for one month, even if it's only to buy a latte or feed the parking meter. Or if you're not the paper-and-pen type, utilize an online program, such as Mint, that will record and categorize your bank-account transactions for you. You'll still need to look at your receipts and write down how much you spent in cash — Mint can't tell whether you've spent your $40 withdrawal on groceries or lattes. If you're not following step #1 (Switch to Using Cash and Checks for a Year), you'll be able to see your credit-card transactions as well.

From here, you'll be able to assess where you can cut back on frivolous spending and start to put that money into saving for things you really want to spend money on — such as a down payment for a house or a big vacation — instead of whittling away your funds on things you don't really need.

illustration BE HAPPIER | TUESDAY

I think the thing to do is to enjoy the ride when you're on it.

— Johnny Depp

Think Positively

Some scientists believe that each thought we have can create a positive or negative cycle. When you think positive, optimistic, and joyous thoughts, you convince your brain that things are going well and that leads to more happy, positive thoughts. When you think negatively, get down on yourself, or let anxiety take over, you can end up convincing yourself that the world is a sad, lonely place and then you focus on the bad things that happen and miss the good ones.

If a negative thought comes into your mind, don't be harsh on yourself. Instead, just move forward and replace that negative thought with a happy one. As long as you strive to think positively most of the time, you'll see the happiness in your life increase. If you find that you have a hard time dispelling negative thoughts or behaviors, consider speaking with a therapist who can help you learn some coping mechanisms and/or work through issues from your past that might be holding you back in moving forward.

WEDNESDAY | BE THINNER illustration

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise saves and protects it.

— Plato

Exercise Six to Eight Hours a Week

If you want to lose it (and look good), you've got to move it. To lose one pound, you have to burn off 3,500 calories. Since your body automatically burns some calories at rest, this means that you have to either eat less and let your body do the work on its own or move more — or some combination of both. For example, to lose a pound a week, you have to burn 500 calories a day or eat 500 calories less a day or some combination of the two.

If you were to only eat less, you would lose weight, but you wouldn't end up toned. So in order to improve your cardiovascular health and build muscle, you should work out at least six to eight hours a week. If the president of the United States can exercise six times a week, then you can find an hour a day to get to the yoga studio, make it to the gym, or jog in your neighborhood. If you don't want to miss your favorite TV show, DVR it and watch it when you return as your reward.

As you push yourself to achieve fitness, your metabolism will respond in kind and you'll start to lose weight and tone up at the same time. It might not seem like fun at first, but stick with it a month and you'll be happy with the results you've achieved.

illustration BE SMARTER | THURSDAY

Alcohol is a good preservative for everything but brains.

— Mary Pettibone Poole

Cut Back on Brain Drains

To give your brain the chance to operate at its best, cut back on alcohol and sugar and cut out aspartame and MSG. Each of these edible products affects the brain in a different negative way

Alcohol. While the occasional drink will affect your brain only in the short term, such as in temporarily slowing down your ability to process events, chronic over-consumption of alcohol can lead to brain damage, heart disease, dementia, strokes, major depression, and even death.