A woman I work with – let’s call her Carolyn, because that’s her name – recently underwent back surgery. She says since the surgery she’s been in some pain, not just in her back but pretty much throughout her body. At first she thought it was just the usual recovery process, but as the pain persisted she did what many people do today, she went online and found out what was going on.

Carolyn found that part of the problem was that her body was stressed from years of living with a bad back, and from the surgery to repair it. Fortunately she didn’t just find out what the problem was, she also found out the solution. Stretching. Her muscles were taut and tight, her tendons and ligaments rigid. So that evening she did some very gentle stretching, nothing wild, and that night she slept like a log, and woke up the next morning feeling relaxed and refreshed and revived.

What Carolyn did wasn’t a miracle. It didn’t involve any medications or an elaborate therapy program. All she did was stretch. She’s been doing it every day since then, a bit at a time, in the morning, in the evening, even in the office during the day. And she says it’s given her a spring in her step and a new sense of energy.

Carolyn’s experience is a reminder that small changes can have a big impact. Even something as simple as gentle stretching helped her sleep better, feel better, think better. Not a bad return on such a small investment.

It’s not just confined to exercise or activity either. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that if Americans reduced their consumption of salt, even just a little – and by a little I mean just half a teaspoon a day -  they could reduce their risk of heart disease, stroke or heart attacks as much as if they stopped smoking or cut their cholesterol level.

Half a teaspoon a day. That’s tiny. And you get to live longer. Who could say no to that.

It’s important to remember these details as we reach the end of January and a lot of people’s New Year’s Resolutions are either already history or are wobbling precariously. Maybe you started out trying too much, or taking on too many challenges. So this is a good time to refine your resolution. Don’t dump it, just modify it. By now you have a good idea of what is reasonable, what is practical, what is achievable.

Scaling back your overly ambitious plan is not failure it’s smart. What you are doing is setting yourself up for long-term success by creating a realistic plan, one that fits your lifestyle and keeps you heading towards your goal.

Remember, you didn’t get overweight overnight, nor are you going to get slim and trim by the end of the month or even the year. It takes time. But it can be done. As long as you do it bit by bit.

Carolyn’s back problems didn’t happen with one single incident, and they didn’t disappear with her surgery. But what she has found is that by taking things into her own hands and adding something as simple as stretching into her daily routine she has set herself on the path to recovery, to a more active, more engaged, healthier life.

And that’s something we could all live with.

Have you ever been in a meeting where someone starts to quote some dead philosopher as if they have the answer to everything and you start thinking “oh boy, here we go, how trite is this going to be”. Then you realize that what they are saying is actually not only powerful but really quite profound.

Nah, me neither.

OK, that’s not quite true. I was actually in a meeting at work just the other day when the fabulous Dr. Bill Stewart, author of ‘Deep Medicine’ (available at all good bookstores and some pretty crappy ones too) was quoting from a favorite philosopher of his (don’t you love that, Bill has favorite philosophers the way I have favorite beers, and ironically too much of either one will leave your head spinning).

Anyway, Bill was quoting this philosopher – whose name I can’t recall – saying “If you want to change tomorrow, you have to change today.”

Now, at first I was thinking “what the heck does that mean” but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. After all change, particularly big important change, doesn’t just happen on its own, it takes planning, thought and effort. So if you are thinking that tomorrow you are going to start leading a more active life, you have to start thinking today how you are going to do it, because it won’t just happen on its own.

In the same way if you are thinking that tomorrow you are going to be more thoughtful about what you eat you can’t then go home and eat a pint of ice cream, because if you do the odds are that you won’t do anything different tomorrow or that even if you do it won’t last. What you do today will shade and influence tomorrow, so if you hope to have change tomorrow you have to begin making that change today.

It’s a switch from being passive and saying “Ok, this New Year I am going to resolve to …..” and being active and saying “Ok, this minute I’m going to resolve to…..” You are not waiting for things to happen,  you are making them happen.

Of course, that doesn’t make the changes you are trying to do any easier, but it does make them more immediate, more real and more in your control. They are not some abstract idea that is going to be put into action at a later date. They are a wish, a desire, a resolve that you are beginning to put into effect now.

And I think if you are going to change your life, now is a pretty good place to start. It’s like at the end of the movie, ‘When Harry Met Sally’, where Harry (Billy Crystal) declares his love for Sally (Meg Ryan) at a New Year’s Eve ball saying: “And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

I think now is as soon as possible. So, that’s a pretty good place to start.

I just got a new phone.  I liked my old phone but there are times when I have to keep up with clients and check my e-mail  and I don’t usually carry my laptop around with me.

So when the new “smart” phones came out I waited, because I don’t believe in buying the first version of techno gadgets.  I had a friend who bought one of the first portable computers and let me tell you, she lugged around that overpriced computer around for years.  The thing was as big as a sewing machine and twice as heavy.  (There’s your first fitness idea…after all this is a Health Blog)

So I waited to get a phone that could get e-mails, take pictures, and have a reliable signal.  I waited a couple of years till the prices came down.  Yes, I did yearn for an iPhone but I didn’t like the price.  So I finally got a Palm Pre.  I got everything I wanted.

There was one little hitch however, kind of a minor thing, I couldn’t figure out how to answer the phone!  I’m not used to it.  I have to learn the phone all over again. At first I hated the phone because it was completely new to me.  You see, I knew my old phone, I new my old ringtone, I liked my ringtone, I could answer the phone.  But that was then and this is now.

It got me to thinking.  Everything is a learned skill.  When you were a baby…EVERYTHING was new and as soon as you got used to being a baby, you turned into a toddler and you faced all kinds of new obstacles, like how to walk!  Then, you have to learn to tie your shoes, and run, and jump and then there’s school.  So everything is always changing and you have to learn it all over again in a new way.

I can see that you are wondering where I am going with this.  Well, if everything is always changing and we have to learn it all again.  Why do we get so stuck staying with  “what we know” or why is it more comfortable to stick with what we are used to, even if it is not working for us anymore.

Since change is a way of life, why would we want to hold on to things, like habits, attitudes and belief systems that no longer benefit us?  Shouldn’t it be your job to make the change work for you, or change it for the better.

I work with so many people that hold on to belief systems that they are used to but no longer work for them.  For instance, I hear things like:  “I’ve always been filled with anxiety” or “I’ve always had a weight problem”, or “I just don’t have the time to exercise!”

Really? Do you really think you can’t change?  Yes you can!  You can be healthier, happier, calmer, and actually you can become the person you want to be.  All you have to do is want it bad enough to change.

Hey, if I can learn to use and love my new phone then surely anything is possible.

The one constant in our lives – other than death, taxes and the Oakland Raiders sucking – is change. One way or another change is a daily feature. And I don’t just mean you get change for the bus or that you change your underwear (though I certainly  hope you do). No, I mean that pretty nearly every aspect of our lives is subject to change at any given moment. For better, or for worse.

In some instances change can be relatively minor – the hospital where I work recently changed its policy on “casual Fridays” to require people to be a bit more business-like and a little less casual; in itself not a big deal but certainly something to remember come Friday morning and you are trying to decide between the Armani and Prada or the cut off jeans and flip flops.

In some instances change can be huge – you suddenly realize that you are not happy as a chartered accountant and instead want to be a painter so you give up everything and move to the South of France equipped only with a painter’s smock and a Painting by Numbers book.

But often our first reaction to change is to fight it, to want to stop it and keep things the way they are. That’s understandable. To a degree. But after a while it can be truly exhausting, opposing everything that comes along and only going along with it reluctantly when you have to.

If change is a natural part of life, wouldn’t it be easier to just recognize that fact and embrace it?

Or, more radically still, why not be an agent of change? And sometimes we need to do both simultaneously.

That thought occurred to me when I was watching a preview of an amazing new documentary on the history of the San Francisco Bay. The documentary is the dream of a friend of mine and he’s been working on it for years. At first it doesn’t sound like a particularly interesting project for people other than water lovers and engineers. But if you heard Ron talk about it, after five minutes you’d be engrossed and fascinated. And when you see the documentary you realize that this is not just about the history of a body of water, it’s about us, our lives, what kind of lives we want to live, what kind of lives we want for our children and their children. It’s about what kind of world we want to live in.

And most importantly it’s about deciding that if we don’t like the world we live in, the way things are going, how can we change it.

In the case of the San Francisco Bay it went from one of the most extraordinary natural preserves in the world to a festering, shrinking, stinking mess. The 1950′s and 1960′s saw developers grab more and more bits of land around the Bay and fill in more and more of the shallow waters so they could build homes and businesses – such as oil refineries, garbage dumps etc. By the early 1960′s a study was suggesting that up to 70 percent of the Bay could be filled in and used for development.

Few people cared. There was so much industrial development around the fringes of the Bay, so much garbage being dumped in, so much toxic pollution and so many dead fish, that the water stank. People avoided going near it.

Then three women decided that enough was enough. They recognized what a jewel the Bay was and set about trying to preserve it. Three women. Against development. And they won, because they managed to capture the imagination of ordinary men and women, they managed to get the attention of those in positions of influence, and they managed to make everyone understand that the quality of the lives of people living around the Bay Area was ultimately far more important than building more homes.

They won, and in doing so laid the basis for many other environmental groups to follow in their footsteps and be equally successful.

They won not by going along with the changes that were taking place, but by embracing a different kind of change, change for the better, change that took us back to where we used to be, and not just embracing it but actively working for it and making it happen.

We can’t all be like those three ladies and make such huge changes that affect people’s lives. But we can have an equally dramatic impact on our own lives, and the lives of people around us.

We can decide to finally quit smoking.

We can decide to finally drop the resentment we have felt towards family members.

We can decide to really start living a healthier life

We can decide to do anything we want.

We can decide to change.

All we have to do is decide we are ready.

Oh, and if you get a chance, watch Ron’s amazing documentary on saving the Bay. It’s on KQED-TV this coming Thursday, October 8th and 15th  at 8:00 pm.  You can get details at www.kqed.org/savingthebay

It will be available a number of times in the next few months, hopefully, nationally as well.

It is a fascinating story of change for the better and it’s also proof of perseverance, thank you, Ron Blatman!

We’re funny creatures. We can get ourselves to believe lots of things, except those that really matter.

The other day I was in the gym listening to a trio of young men, in their mid to late 20′s, talking about their Fantasy League football teams. They were completely engrossed in their conversation and got quite animated telling each other how their quarterback had done over the weekend, how many yards their running backs gained, how many catches their wide receiver made, how many sacks their defensive line made. They were tossing around names I’d never heard of but their friends would nod knowingly at each mention.

At one point one of them lowered his voice, almost to a whisper, and looked around him as he spoke. The other two leaned in, conspirators gleaning some secret information that no one else in the gym was privy too.

I thought “What the heck is the whispering for, it’s Fantasy Football. It’s all made up! No one cares” But they cared. For these three it was all very real. For millions of people around the country Fantasy Football is not just a hobby, it’s a passion.

The three young men in the gym clearly felt very connected to their teams, to the players they had chosen, and had strong opinions about other players and other teams. It was almost as if they felt that because it was “their” team, that they could influence the way the individuals played, and could take some measure of credit for their performance.

It all reminded me of a scene from a book by Roddy Doyle, ‘The Van”, about watching Ireland in the World Cup soccer tournament. The lead character is with his mates, and about 100 other people, in the local pub. Ireland are down 1-0 and time is running out. So his friends order him to go to the toilet. Apparently years ago he went to the bathroom during a similarly critical point in a game and Ireland scored. So, ever since, whenever the team were in trouble his mates would insist he hit the head, and ‘take one for the team’ so to speak.

Off he goes and of course he’s barely inside the door than Ireland score. He rushes out and his friends all mob him as if he somehow conjured up the goal just by pulling down his fly!

It’s a wonderful thing isn’t it, that ability we have to make us feel that we somehow helped make something happen, helped influence the outcome of an event thousands of miles away involving complete strangers who don’t even know we exist.

We can convince ourselves of that – or that turning our hats back to front and inside out can help our baseball team rally and win – yet when it comes to believing in our ability to change ourselves, so many of us don’t think we have the power or control to do so, that it is beyond our ability to influence events that close to home.

It’s a shame because self-belief is a terribly important part of any lifestyle change. We can plan as much as we like, we can think about it as much as we want, but if we don’t believe we can do it then we won’t be able to do it. It’s that simple.

It’s an odd state of affairs isn’t it. We can convince ourselves that we have control over others, even those we don’t know, but don’t believe we can control ourselves. That is why so many people find it hard to lose weight, impossible to give up smoking, tough to stick with an exercise program.

Maybe if they imagined it was someone else trying to lose weight they’d have more luck.

So, maybe that’s what we should set up, a Fantasy Fitness League, where we try to get fit by pretending we’ve doing it for other people. If we did our imaginations might not be the only part of us that we end up exercising.

How many Bill Gates’ does it take to change a lightbulb?

Just one. He holds it in the socket and lets the world revolve around him.