A Little Pep In My Step.

I am a subscriber to a lot of things. Magazines just being one of them. Speaking of, I am also the queen of reading a magazine from cover to cover, flagging pages along the way by bending down the corners to make it easy to go back and reference that oh-so-important content that I didn't want to forget.

Sometimes I rip pages of magazines out and add them to my "inspirational" folder. These pages might feature an idea, a thought provoking sentence or phrase, a new way of pairing a glitter shirt with jeans making it a little less glam, a new eye cream to try out, tennis shoes to buy, or an event to attend.

You get the point. And I'm guessing you can relate to this type of behavior...you know, the high hopes of adding a new perspective or point of view into your life. A new addition to your wardrobe or a new product to your skin care regimen - the aspirational road to your best self.

However, best intentions aside, most of the time the bookmarked or torn out pages get noticed during that initial read and then are eventually forgotten over time. But this month I actually took action on one of the articles I read and incorporated the tips into my life.

"Walk This Way" was an article featured in the April edition of Shape. Some of you may recall that Marisa Stephenson, the writer, offered us a new strategy of how to give our walking exercise a little kick, resulting in higher calorie loss and increased sculpting benefits.

As cheesy as it sounds I took my magazine along with me to the gym, opened it up to page 184 and followed along as I was instructed to use three different levels of intensity on my 30 minute treadmill journey. And please let me attest to how pleasantly surprised I was to a) be sweating for the first time on a treadmill, b) find myself practically panting and c) watching time fly as my mind was engaged instead of being in its usual la-la count down land.

Long story short, sometimes all we need to do is kick things up a notch. We don't always have the strength to do it on our own so why not let someone else help us? Just by changing the levels of intensity on the treadmill settings, I gave myself a satisfying workout and felt more accomplished via the information that I had flagged and finally put to use.

So the next time you find something in one of your magazines that sounds like it could enhance your life, give it a try. Why not, what do you have to lose?

Signing off Peppier,
Renee Brennan