Holiday Workout Tips

Nothing is easier than making up excuses to avoid exercising during the holiday season, yet exercise is especially important this time of year. Why? It reduces stress, boosts the immune system, encourages body awareness, and burns calories from the abundant supply of food that seems to go hand-in-hand with the holidays.

The top 3 excuses for skipping workouts this time of year are traveling, family/friends in town, and too busy/not enough time. These tips will enable you to stay healthy, fit and strong through the holiday season.

      1. "Family visiting" solutions:

          Plan a group activity (hiking, biking, skiing, rock climbing, exercise video, golfing).

• Bring them to the gym with you. Taking a class with family members can be a lot of fun. If fitness levels vary too much, strength training side by side may be better than taking a class together. You can still visit AND get in some exercise. TIP: Make plans with your family/friends before they travel to see you so that you can agree on activities to do together and they can bring proper clothing and footwear.
• Try a new activity together. This could be the perfect opportunity to try something new that you've been too intimidated to try in the past. Do some research before your family comes to town so that you can spend more time enjoying the activity and less time trying to figure out what to do.

      2. "Traveling" or "visiting family" solutions:

• Find a locally inspired activity (i.e. walking or jogging to certain landmarks, swimming/snorkeling/surfing/beach walking or jogging, skiing/snowboarding/snow shoeing/ice skating, local dances, gym classes different than ones you can take back home).
• Do bodyweight exercises. If time or money is prohibiting you from being active, try these exercises: lunges, pushups, bodyweight squats, pullups, planks, and crunches, they can be done anywhere, and you don't need any additional equipment, just your own bodyweight!

     3. "Too busy" or "not enough time" solutions:

• Prioritize and compromise. Yes, the holidays are a busier time of the year, but they happen EVERY YEAR. Are you going to make excuses, miss workouts, gain weight and lose strength every year?! I didn't think so. Make your health and fitness a priority while still allowing some room to compromise. For example, if you normally exercise 3 times/week for an hour, it's preferable to cut your workouts a little shorter over the holiday season rather than eliminating them all together. If you increase the difficulty, you won't lose progress either!
• Set aside 5 minutes for yourself first thing in the morning. If that is all you can truly make time for, it's better than nothing! Depending on your current health and fitness level, you can do a lot of exercises in rapid succession in 5 minutes. Forget your cup of coffee: you won't need it after 1 set of 15 reps each of jumping jacks, squats, lunges, pushups, triceps dips and abdominal planks!
• Weave some fitness into your day. Waiting for a document to print? Drop and give me 20! Oven timer has a couple of minutes left? Do some squats and/or lunges. On hold on the phone? Do some crunches. Get the picture? Where there's a will, there's a way! You don't have to be "perfect" to be healthy and some exercise is better than no exercise.

If you are feeling especially depleted over the holidays, you will benefit from exercises that build and restore your energy such as tai chi, qigong, and yoga. Listen to your body and do what feels right to you. Happy and healthy holidays!

My Progress to a Healthy Life

Image via Wikipedia

Hello There, I thought I would write a bit of an update on my progress. I am currently at day 12 of my workout routine and I am progressing slowly but at a steady pace.  I have increased my cardio endurance to almost 30 minutes, mostly running, but I also like the rowing machines. What I am going for is an all around approach to my fitness routine.
My main goal is to trim my waist line while at the same time increasing flexibility, muscle mass and bone density.

Some of the most common injuries that are sustained by the average soldier are centered around the shoulders, back, hips, knees and ankles. These injuries are caused by a number of different things. The first being the incredible amounts of weight that troops carry  into battle. The second cause for these injuries is the mental state and attitude of the soldier and the culture the army is built on. For the individual soldier it is that they must ignore the pain to carry on to complete the mission. In the much larger picture, it is the fear that weakness will result in letting the rest of the section, platoon or company down.

There is also something I call  the "invincibility factor". Young soldiers believe that they can not be hurt or injured. There youth makes them believe that they can do anything. I am quick to point out to them that they can and will be injured if they do not listen to what their body is telling them. I am very quick to point out that there is a time and place for toughing things out. I tell them not to become a cripple for the army on a training exercise. The time for sucking up the pain is when you are in a firefight. 

So having said all that. When I do my workouts I try to strike a balance. That balance is to train hard but not to the point of injury. I try to listen to what my body is telling me.  So  the moral of this story is to train hard and often, but safely and to reserve those times when injury is unavoidable for the time it really matters and only as a last resort.  

Related articles

• Happy Healthy Hearts (drienie3.wordpress.com)
• Imaging Method Reveals Hidden Brain Injuries (technologyreview.com)
• 7 Strength Training Excuses: Busted! (draagro.wordpress.com)
• echesebrough: exercise conculsion (mbhealthystudents.wordpress.com)

Fit to Fight

Good day everyone, for those of you that don't know me I am kates brother.  I am going to tell a little about myself and maybe then you will understand the title of this post.
I am 42 years old and weigh in at 245.08 Lbs exactly according to the scale I was standing. I am on four different medications, for high risk of heart attack , Diabetes, and high Cholesterol. I am clearly over weight and my BMI is completely out of wack. The only reason I am telling you this is not for you to go holy crap that guy is huge, it is only to give a point of reference on where it is that I am coming from.


I have also been a serving member of Canada's Armed Forces for all of my adult life and in the military there is a mantra that says "You must be Fit to Fight" to engage and close with the enemy. Currently I do not fit that profile. My current job in the military is that of a clerk, it is not where I wish to be. Although being a clerk is a very important job in the military it is not why I joined the army in the first place. My goal is to return to my rifle company by September and to be in fighting form, free from all medications if possible
 
  The term Fit to Fight can also have regular applications in our regular life as well. In order to do many of the regular things in life, a person needs to be fit to do them. However not only does your body need to be fit but your mind needs to be fit as well. Let me tell you I have seen it happen to many men where there body is fit but their mind is weak and they have failed in their assigned task. If the mind fails, no matter how trained the body is, it will fail.


One of the biggest things that I am having problems with is finding the time to get out to the gym. The remedy for this is organization and having a plan. Having a plan for your life unclutters the mind and sorts out what you are going to do. A plan sets out in clear definable terms how things are going to work.  Every operation that I have been a part of started with a plan, regular life is no different.  


I have looked at myself in the mirror and seen the future and I don like it, I realized that changes need to happen in my life to move forward physically, mentally, publicly and privately. A person is a complete package and comes pre-assembled but with no instruction manual.  Sometimes parts are missing, sometimes there are to many parts, and sometimes parts are to big or to small. But like I said there is no instruction manual, so the best part is you get to write your own manual. I am deciding to re write my manual.


So any way,  back to my story, yesterday was the first day back inside a gym in a very long time. My current goal is to get the weight down and the metabolism up. So I have stepped back onto that road and I am moving one step at a time in the direction that I need to travel. 

Be Good To Yourself!

If we had friends that treated us the way that many of us treat ourselves, they wouldn’t be our friends for very long. Imagine a friend who calls up just to complain–about you. Or an alleged buddy who quickly says “I told you so” when you screw up. Or someone who encourages you to give up instead of encouraging you to do your best.

Why do we do this? Why do we treat ourselves in such horrible ways? For some, the negative self-talk is so bad that it would literally be considered verbal abuse if coming from another person. Do any of these sound familiar? “I’m not good enough.” “I knew I’d fail.” “I can’t believe I messed it up again.” “Why can’t I be more like (fill in the blank)?” “I don’t deserve to be happy.” If someone said these things to you, imagine the impact it would have on your confidence.

Negative self-talk can easily turn into a damaging self-fulfilling prophecy where you live down–instead of up–to expectations. It’s a bad habit that could strangle any growth and needs to be dealt with now. This is not “friend” talk. Yet it’s exactly the kind of destructive feedback we give ourselves.
This kind of language can have serious consequences, but people turn it on themselves all the time. Why? What did we do to deserve this? Is our self-esteem so low that we think we need to be talked to–even by ourselves–like this? Hopefully not.

You’re a fantastic person on an exciting journey, in the middle of creating a life that you want. If I were you, I wouldn’t put up with that negative voice in your head. You deserve better. If anything, your self-esteem needs to be built up, not torn down. What’s so wrong with reminding yourself of how wonderful you are? Isn’t that what you would do for a friend who needed a word of encouragement?

Sometimes, this can be easier said than done. Any self-bashing you might do may actually have its roots in something other people have told you over the years. Harsh words can leave scars that never go away. Still, that doesn’t mean we have to carry on the legacy of beating ourselves up.

You deserve to be treated with respect, encouragement and patience. You demand that much from people you know. Demand it from yourself.

Keeping Goals Top Of Mind

Ingrid Bergman once said, “Happiness is good health and a bad memory.” But without a good memory, good health may not even be possible. You’ve got a lifestyle with its own routine, a regular way of doing things. Part of you is comfortable with it. Any change to that status quo and those routines, no matter how small, takes mental alertness. If your new goals and new habits aren’t kept top of mind, you can sink back into those old routines without even realizing it. It’s easy to be focused in the first couple of weeks. It’s also easy to get distracted or discouraged before your new healthy habits take root. Some days in your dieting future, it’ll be tough. You’ll search desperately for a single reason to close the fridge, a good excuse to lace up those gym shoes. Just something – anything – to get you through the day with your diet and confidence intact. If you could just bottle up that “first two weeks” freshness, enthusiasm and momentum, and take a swig from that magical bottle whenever you wanted, the temptation to give in or forget wouldn’t be a problem. You can do the next best thing by regularly reminding yourself of what you need to do and why. Your goals are competing for brain space with phone numbers, sports scores, secretaries' names, favorite songs, kids' birthdays and bad jokes. And your goals don't always win out. To stay consistent long enough to become a creature of healthy habits, surround yourself with visual, written and well-placed reminders that steady the course and help you refocus. Use positive images and words. Find a visual that shows why you want to lose weight in the first place, or what you’ll be doing with your weight loss. A picture of your kids, the new dress you want to wear, a basketball. Every day is a chance to build momentum or to slack. Every day, you have to decide to make the right choices. Keeping your goals and motivators close by helps you make that decision and feel good about it. Remember, this is a positive experience! You’re doing something good for yourself, your loved ones and your future. Don’t waste any opportunity to remind yourself of that fact and congratulate yourself on progress.

Persistence. Persistence. Persistence.

We keep hearing about how persistence is often the key to success. But what do you do when you've been striving for so long that it seems like your goal is never going to see light? How do you deal with the fear that you're about to fail? Simple. Give it just one more shot. And then one more. Think about the sweat and time you've committed already. You've come this far, you'd be unfair to yourself if you quit without a fight. Even if the odds are way out of your favor and you can't see how it can possibly help, reach out and take one last swing. You never know what will happen. Big, meaningful achievements don't just happen when everything goes your way. How many times have you seen tennis players make miraculous winning shots while lunging for a ball that seemed impossible to reach? Sometimes, you can find victory in the effort. Bottom line is, never give up.  Failure isn't a word in my dictionary.  If I haven't gotten to where I want to be, it's because I haven't been successful yet.  If the goal you are trying to reach doesn't seem to be attainable at the moment, set lesser expectations for yourself and strive for a 'smaller' more 'doable' goal.  All those little goals reached along the way, will make that big goal so much easier to achieve!  And once you do get to where you want to be, as you look down that mountain of success you've built, you will be so proud of all of your accomplishments!  And remember to praise yourself often for working so hard at achieving your own personal successes.  Remember, persistence, persistence, persistence!  It DOES pay off!!!

7 Good Reasons to Smile

Smiling happens without much thought. When you watch a friend do something silly or embarrassing, you smirk. When a police officer lets you off without a ticket, you grin. And when you are recognized for your top performance in academics or at work, you beam. Smiling is a very natural response that shares our happiness with others.


But did you know that smiling also triggers activity in your brain? Yep, there's a serious mind-body connection there, in your left frontal cortex to be exact, which is—not surprisingly—the area of your brain that registers happiness.


How often do you smile in a day? Do you smile when you meet new people? When you see your friends? Around your co-workers? How about your significant other? Your face has 44 muscles in it that allow you make more than 5,000 different types of expressions, many of which are smiles. Read on for seven reasons why smiling is good for you, your health and your social life!





7 Things to Smile About
 1. Smiling can make you happy (even when you're not).
Remember that mind-body connection we were just talking about? Well, it turns out that the simple act of smiling sends a message to your brain that you're happy. And when you're happy, your body pumps out all kinds of feel-good endorphins. This reaction has been studied since the 1980s and has been proven a number of times. In 1984, an article in the journal Science showed that when people mimic different emotional expressions, their bodies produce physiological changes that reflect the emotion, too, such as changes in heart and breathing rate. Another German study found that people felt happy just by holding a small pen clenched in their teeth, imitating a smile. Just remember that the research goes both ways. When the people in the first study frowned, they felt less happy, and in the German study, people who held a pen in their protruding lips, imitating a pout, felt unhappy. So the next time you feel sad or upset, try smiling. It just might make your body—and therefore you—feel better.


2. Smiling can make others happy.
"When you're smilin', the whole world smiles with you." Ever heard that song, made famous by Louis Armstrong? Well, it's true. Research shows that smiling is contagious. Ever been around someone who just had something fantastic happen to him or her? Isn't it almost impossible not to feel good, too? Studies show that something as simple as seeing a friend smile can activate the muscles in your face to make that same expression, without you even being aware that you are doing it. Crazy, right?


But remember that this, too, can be for better or for worse. You know the expression "misery loves company"? Frowns act just like smiles, just with a negative reaction, so choose to smile and watch the world smile back!


3. Smiling makes you more attractive.
Ever wonder why are we always asked to smile in photos? Because people usually look their best—and happiest—when smiling. According to the American Academy of cosmetic dentistry 96 percent of American adults believe an attractive smile makes a person more appealing to members of the opposite sex. So the next time you are about to ask someone on a date, smile. It'll make them feel happier (see No. 2), and you'll already be more attractive in his or her eyes!


4. Smiling can help you de-stress. The next time you're stressed about work or realize that your favorite jeans feel a little snug, don't freak out. Take a few deep breaths and smile! Smiling may help to reduce symptoms associated with anxiety. When that smile signals to your brain that you're feeling happy (even though you're not really feeling happy...yet), your body will usually slow its breathing and heart rate.


Reducing stress  is so important for health, too, as it can lower blood pressure, improve digestion and regulate blood sugar. Note that this works during workouts, too! If you're having a hard time getting through that last rep or getting those final 5 minutes in on the treadmill, smiling can do wonders!


5. Smiling can help you land a job.
If you're about to go on a job interview, you may think that your appearance is just about wearing nice clothes. Wrong! You can't just wear that suit; you have to wear it with a smile. In a study published in the December 2009 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, people looked at full-body photographs of 123 people they had never met. The people in the photos had one of two expressions: neutral (think your passport photo) or a smile. And guess what? When observers saw the photos of smiling people, they were more likely to think that the person in the photo was likeable, confident, conscientious and stable. Sound like traits most companies want in an employee, right? So the next time you're dressing to impress, make sure to take that beautiful, natural smile with you!


6. Smiling can lead to laughter. Have you ever laughed without smiling? It's pretty impossible to do. And it's funny how a smile here and a smile there with friends can turn into a whole fit of hysterical laughter. Numerous studies have been done on the health benefits of laughing, including how it acts like a mini workout that burns calories and works the abs. Laughter also helps blood flow, lowers blood sugar levels, reduces stress and improves sleep. It may also raise the level of infection-fighting antibodies in the body, which helps boost your immune system. So the moral of this story is smile—and laugh—often!


7. Smiling just feels good.
Have you ever found that smiling just feels good? Go ahead, smile now. Doesn't it feel natural? Make you feel happy to be alive? It sure does beat the heck out of a frown.


So the next time you're feeling down or out of sorts, try a smile. If you can't find a reason to smile, pop in a funny DVD, read the Sunday comics or call a friend. Heck, you may be able to even read the word smile and feel better. According to research published in Psychological Science, simply reading certain words may also have the same effect. Just like seeing someone else smile makes you smile, reading emotion verbs (like smile, grin, frown, etc.) can also activate specific facial muscles.


Isn't it time you turn that frown upside down? Now say 'cheese'!