We enjoyed a wonderful concert by Tracy Lawrence on Saturday night. In the one moment I stepped away with Bailey, he sang a funny song about pills and our nation’s use of them over taking good care of ourselves. He sang of pills to make you gain weight, pills to make you lose weight, and how if we would just get up off our rear ends and exercise we would need far fewer pills if any at all.
Charlie was still laughing when Bailey and I returned. He said I had to hear it because I am always talking about how exercise, and movement in general, makes such a difference in your physical and mental health and well-being. So I got on YouTube today to look for it. Some of it is a little off-color, but in general right on the mark.
How funny that a country singer would put together a song so right on the mark about society in general. Or maybe it isn’t funny at all. Common sense tends to govern the thoughts of the simpler life, where we get up and work and take responsibility. If you need a good laugh, take a look at the video, or just take a look at your own life. Could diet and exercise help your body care for itself?
I am not by any means advocating ignoring your doctor’s prescriptions or advice. But eating right and exercising, taking responsibility for our actions and exhibiting the common sense our parents tried to instill in us makes a tremendous difference in the health outcomes possible. So look at your own life. What did you eat today? What did you do to better your health? Is common sense winning out?
Just a thought for your Monday. I am enclosing the link, but watch it judiciously, like I said, a little off color in some parts. But right on point. Happy Monday!
Showing posts with label Weight Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weight Management. Show all posts
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sleep, who needs it?
As usual, I am tired. The farm has kept me quite busy, with the drama and heartwrench and tremendous joy that only children and farming can bring. Last night, Hopper Spark and Remington cuddled baby Nathan and gave me five straight hours of sleep between feedings after he ran hard to keep up with my farm chores yesterday. Thanks so much to my goofy dogs!
As I sit here at the craft store today, cleaning out some of my files and updating quickbooks during a very slow day in the store, I finished an article on sleep and health for my students at Pima. Funny, coming from me, but sleep really is one of my top resolutions this year to benefit my health and wellness. In fact, this article came about because Tammy asked me what my own goals were after a discussion about goals and how we would know when we achieved them.
That said, following is the article. I am still trying, and I hope you will the thoughts as you prioritize sleep in your schedule. While I don't see long afternoon naps in bed or on the couch anywhere close in my future, I am working to make sleep a nighttime priority. So here ya' go Hope it helps you think healthy...
Sleep, who needs it?
This time every year, people are setting (and sometimes already breaking) their resolutions for wellness. I am often asked what my goals are for the year. To be quite honest, I am pretty active, and work consistently at getting in the cardio and weights. Leading yoga groups helps me remember not only to practice the yoga, but the mindfulness as well. Nevertheless, stress and exhaustion are ever present. So what is my real goal for health and wellness? Sleep. Did you know that keeping up with sleep can even help fight cancer!
I see students who work out tremendously and eat poorly, those who cannot seem to get themselves into the gym, those who despise either cardio or weights. Somehow, some changes are easier than others. For me, I have struggled to work enough sleep into my schedule since college. But somehow, it was easier to kid myself about the effects of skipping sleep back then.
What are the health effects of not getting enough sleep? Well, when sleep deprivation is short lived, the effects are not too bad, and the health effects are more easily and readily reversed. Yet when you deprive your body of sleep in the long term, the body begins to suffer more.
Some negative side effects of long term sleep deprivation include interference with learning and memory, decreased metabolism and weight gain, inattention due to falling asleep during the daytime, mood swings including irritability and impatience, decrease in cardiovascular health, and a decrease in immune function leading to becoming sick or developing chronic diseases such as diabetes.
It is recommended that you sleep 7-9 hours each night. That isn’t always possible, and sometimes there are people who don’t need quite as much as others. Still, it is while you sleep that your body is most able to repair itself. During sleep, your body focuses on internal processes rather than the never-ending to-do list.
Consider it this way. When your body is deprived of sleep, it goes into a state of stress. This produces stress hormones, and increases the blood pressure and cholesterol levels, adding more stress for your heart and brain, eventually leading toward heart attacks and strokes. Therefore, sleep reduces the stress on your body, allowing for better blood flow and circulation, enabling your body to reduce inflammation and repair from exercise and injury. Then in the day time following that healthy sleep, the sleep induced repair will allow you to pay better attention to the task at hand, and make fewer mistakes. This alertness increases you chances of a better night of sleep the following night. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
When you consider that your new alertness and energy keep you better tuned in, you are paying better attention in class and at work, and processing what you are learning. See where I am going with this? Proper sleep bumps up you memory, your mood, your attentiveness and your cognitive function- allowing you to draw better from your memory banks and seem or become smarter!
I mentioned weight increases with a state of sleep deprivation. Research has shown a greater likelihood of being overweight in those who sleep less than 7 hours each night. The hormones in your body that affect appetite and weight control are easily disrupted when your body doesn’t get the chance to sleep and repair itself. I am sure you are at least remotely familiar with the connection between stress hormones and fat retention as well. Now, sleep won’t make you thin, but it will better enable your body to function, thereby enabling all that work you do in the gym to pay off.
Study after study draws a correlation between drowsiness and heart attacks, cancer, stressed relationships, accidents, memory impairment and a host of other issues. While we are working on our to-do lists and wellness priorities, shouldn’t we include sleep? It is far from easy to make changes, but stay focused, stay organized, and go to bed on time. That early morning workout will be more productive for it, and your body will thank you!
As I sit here at the craft store today, cleaning out some of my files and updating quickbooks during a very slow day in the store, I finished an article on sleep and health for my students at Pima. Funny, coming from me, but sleep really is one of my top resolutions this year to benefit my health and wellness. In fact, this article came about because Tammy asked me what my own goals were after a discussion about goals and how we would know when we achieved them.
That said, following is the article. I am still trying, and I hope you will the thoughts as you prioritize sleep in your schedule. While I don't see long afternoon naps in bed or on the couch anywhere close in my future, I am working to make sleep a nighttime priority. So here ya' go Hope it helps you think healthy...
Sleep, who needs it?
This time every year, people are setting (and sometimes already breaking) their resolutions for wellness. I am often asked what my goals are for the year. To be quite honest, I am pretty active, and work consistently at getting in the cardio and weights. Leading yoga groups helps me remember not only to practice the yoga, but the mindfulness as well. Nevertheless, stress and exhaustion are ever present. So what is my real goal for health and wellness? Sleep. Did you know that keeping up with sleep can even help fight cancer!
I see students who work out tremendously and eat poorly, those who cannot seem to get themselves into the gym, those who despise either cardio or weights. Somehow, some changes are easier than others. For me, I have struggled to work enough sleep into my schedule since college. But somehow, it was easier to kid myself about the effects of skipping sleep back then.
What are the health effects of not getting enough sleep? Well, when sleep deprivation is short lived, the effects are not too bad, and the health effects are more easily and readily reversed. Yet when you deprive your body of sleep in the long term, the body begins to suffer more.
Some negative side effects of long term sleep deprivation include interference with learning and memory, decreased metabolism and weight gain, inattention due to falling asleep during the daytime, mood swings including irritability and impatience, decrease in cardiovascular health, and a decrease in immune function leading to becoming sick or developing chronic diseases such as diabetes.
It is recommended that you sleep 7-9 hours each night. That isn’t always possible, and sometimes there are people who don’t need quite as much as others. Still, it is while you sleep that your body is most able to repair itself. During sleep, your body focuses on internal processes rather than the never-ending to-do list.
Consider it this way. When your body is deprived of sleep, it goes into a state of stress. This produces stress hormones, and increases the blood pressure and cholesterol levels, adding more stress for your heart and brain, eventually leading toward heart attacks and strokes. Therefore, sleep reduces the stress on your body, allowing for better blood flow and circulation, enabling your body to reduce inflammation and repair from exercise and injury. Then in the day time following that healthy sleep, the sleep induced repair will allow you to pay better attention to the task at hand, and make fewer mistakes. This alertness increases you chances of a better night of sleep the following night. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
When you consider that your new alertness and energy keep you better tuned in, you are paying better attention in class and at work, and processing what you are learning. See where I am going with this? Proper sleep bumps up you memory, your mood, your attentiveness and your cognitive function- allowing you to draw better from your memory banks and seem or become smarter!
I mentioned weight increases with a state of sleep deprivation. Research has shown a greater likelihood of being overweight in those who sleep less than 7 hours each night. The hormones in your body that affect appetite and weight control are easily disrupted when your body doesn’t get the chance to sleep and repair itself. I am sure you are at least remotely familiar with the connection between stress hormones and fat retention as well. Now, sleep won’t make you thin, but it will better enable your body to function, thereby enabling all that work you do in the gym to pay off.
Study after study draws a correlation between drowsiness and heart attacks, cancer, stressed relationships, accidents, memory impairment and a host of other issues. While we are working on our to-do lists and wellness priorities, shouldn’t we include sleep? It is far from easy to make changes, but stay focused, stay organized, and go to bed on time. That early morning workout will be more productive for it, and your body will thank you!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Science is confusing!!!
I was a vendor at a wonderful event this weekend, called Shannon's Slumber Party. They expected about 700 women, though I don't know how many finally showed up. The ladies shopped, got their hair and nails done, and got demonstrations in self defense, Pole Fitness, Zumba fitness, and had a private concert. They were there to party!
In the midst of it all, a very sweet woman came by and read the sign for Patriot's Dream Farm. Many people ask me about the name of our farm, and others about the origin of the products we make. She asked a bit about that, then about what my credentials were in regards to nutrition and wellness.
This wonderful lady asked me about my research backround, and whether I had any research experience with post cancer post menopausal fitness. I get similar questions all of the time. The hardest part of science is the reality that no one really knows for sure, especially in medical research.
Ira Flatow recently blogged about having two scientists on Talk of the Nantion Science Friday who disagreed about the findings in 2 ancient bones, and the repurcussions those findings had on evolutionary study. They disagreed so vehemently, in fact, that the host had to referee a shouting match. In the last week, the host found himself in similar ground moderating a discusison about where the oil has gone from the gulf oil spill/ leak. At the end of the day, there is so much we just don't know.
Back to the question from my new friend. She had been unable to find anything definitive about why her body had responded as it had, and how to get her precancer strength and endurance back. The truth is, we just don't know. We expect science and medicine to have the answers, but really it only has clues that we use ourselves to solve our own puzzle.
The response of each person to a given illness is different, as is their response to treatment. And tey were different from those arond them to begin with. Add in to that hormones, when treatment or illness fall in the hormone cycle of your body and you have quite a conundrum. Science looks for groupings of responses in order to draw lines and parallels. It is up to each of us to work with our physicians and trainers to see how those findigs apply to us as individuals.
That said, it is certainly not impossible. By working with a log book, and using research as a guide, we make one change at a time, and see what the response was to that given change. We continue to draw ideas and groups of ideas from science and work to balance that for each individual. Like you hear all over this blog, patience, perseverance, hard work and being present really do pay off. We treat each person s an individual, and remember that wat works today may change with fluctuations in hormones or a change in another element of the health condition of the individual. And by working through it, with the client leadig the charge and at the center of the work, we create a set of options to choose from. Then the individual has all of those tools in their toolbag to continue to change things. Refresher meetings are about refreshing those tools and developing new ones.
So science doesn't have all the answers, or even most of them- yet. But we are scientists too. And the work of following the clues responsibly is well worth it. Got a question? Email me. Think the answer might benefit someone else too? Post it as a comment. Have a great day. And don't give up.
In the midst of it all, a very sweet woman came by and read the sign for Patriot's Dream Farm. Many people ask me about the name of our farm, and others about the origin of the products we make. She asked a bit about that, then about what my credentials were in regards to nutrition and wellness.
This wonderful lady asked me about my research backround, and whether I had any research experience with post cancer post menopausal fitness. I get similar questions all of the time. The hardest part of science is the reality that no one really knows for sure, especially in medical research.
Ira Flatow recently blogged about having two scientists on Talk of the Nantion Science Friday who disagreed about the findings in 2 ancient bones, and the repurcussions those findings had on evolutionary study. They disagreed so vehemently, in fact, that the host had to referee a shouting match. In the last week, the host found himself in similar ground moderating a discusison about where the oil has gone from the gulf oil spill/ leak. At the end of the day, there is so much we just don't know.
Back to the question from my new friend. She had been unable to find anything definitive about why her body had responded as it had, and how to get her precancer strength and endurance back. The truth is, we just don't know. We expect science and medicine to have the answers, but really it only has clues that we use ourselves to solve our own puzzle.
The response of each person to a given illness is different, as is their response to treatment. And tey were different from those arond them to begin with. Add in to that hormones, when treatment or illness fall in the hormone cycle of your body and you have quite a conundrum. Science looks for groupings of responses in order to draw lines and parallels. It is up to each of us to work with our physicians and trainers to see how those findigs apply to us as individuals.
That said, it is certainly not impossible. By working with a log book, and using research as a guide, we make one change at a time, and see what the response was to that given change. We continue to draw ideas and groups of ideas from science and work to balance that for each individual. Like you hear all over this blog, patience, perseverance, hard work and being present really do pay off. We treat each person s an individual, and remember that wat works today may change with fluctuations in hormones or a change in another element of the health condition of the individual. And by working through it, with the client leadig the charge and at the center of the work, we create a set of options to choose from. Then the individual has all of those tools in their toolbag to continue to change things. Refresher meetings are about refreshing those tools and developing new ones.
So science doesn't have all the answers, or even most of them- yet. But we are scientists too. And the work of following the clues responsibly is well worth it. Got a question? Email me. Think the answer might benefit someone else too? Post it as a comment. Have a great day. And don't give up.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Another Day in Paradise
It is Monday morning. Charlie took the kids to school for me so that I could study a bit before heading to school myself. As I type, baby chickens pop their heads up to look at me over the edge of the trough they are living in across the room from the desk until they are old enough to move outside. Thankfully, they are not escaping to chase the dogs today. Hopper spent 20 minutes guarding one under the trough yesterday before I realized what she was doing and put little Empire back. She finds the job necessary as Wyatt's dog, but she could do without the chickens.
My husband turns 41 today. After 14 years together, two children and all of these animals, mornings are a little harder than they used to be. I don't believe either one of us can truly grasp what all we have undertaken in the last 13 years of marriage. I suppose we should have expected it when Bailey arrived right before our first anniversary. Workouts, nutrition, and weight management were much easier in those days. Now we find ourselves working at it more and more each year.
I started my day at 4:30- although not very willingly. When the alarm went off, I hit the snooze button, but the dogs had another idea. I tried to ignore them, but lost the battle. I shivered my way to the front door to let them out, then got dressed and came to the office to put some boxes together to mail. I really want Heather to get the Take Flight set in her hands with enough time for me to change the writeups if she needs me to. We had a late night after dinner out with Charlie's Dad and dessert with his Mom, Dad, Bunky and Uncle Steve last night, so the kids were rather reluctant to roll out of bed at 5:45. At 6, I sent in Remington. I had spent 5 minutes calling Vegas to come in for breakfast. I think it took the first four before he realized he was being called for food, then he suddenly came running. Just like the old 14 year of wolf-mutt to do his own thing.
Here I sit, blogging to the world instead of studying. As a point of information, though, I am partially waiting for the Pima web portals to open as I type. We have entered that stressful time known as the run up to county fair. Some of Wyatt's chickens will go out on April 16th, then Bailey has shooting sports competitions on the 17th and 18th. After that Bailey's animals and welding projects go out and we live there until the fair closes. Plus all of the Clover stuff. Then we come home and focus on final exams for the kids and I, and then life should be strangely quiet for the summer. Funny, to type it like that it seems so simple.
I started the morning with cottage cheese and blueberries. Charlie finds some amazing fruit out there. Good shopper, that boy. I eat very well these days. Still, I am struggling with the weight loss. In December, I got sick, and spent one day in bed. I woke up ten pounds heavier. The doctor ran several tests, but I am normal. My metabolism seems to have chosen to take yet another dive. The hour of exercises is no longer enough to maintain the healthy body weight I was accustomed to maintaining, if not being overly happy about. The wrinkles, the exhaustion, not so bad when tempered with this wild life I love to be a part of with Charlie and the kids. But the weight thing is slowing me down.
So after pouring over the recent research that says I just need to exercise more, I am trying to increase my strength training time and the cardio intensity. So next Monday, I plan to post an update of my training logs, with one hour of cardio- a minimum of 6 miles each day rather than 5, and three days of upper and lower body strength training. No one believes that fitness profesionals go through these trials. So I guess that makes me want to share this new road. We shall see, right? Wish me luck.
As for Charlie, he is hoping to return to exercise today after the last month of health challenges leading to last week's surgery. He is doing amazingly well and still looks very young for 41. There is some grey in is hair, but he earned it. We earn every day of this crazy life. And I am proud to do it with him. Happy birthday, Charlie! Here's to the next one.
My husband turns 41 today. After 14 years together, two children and all of these animals, mornings are a little harder than they used to be. I don't believe either one of us can truly grasp what all we have undertaken in the last 13 years of marriage. I suppose we should have expected it when Bailey arrived right before our first anniversary. Workouts, nutrition, and weight management were much easier in those days. Now we find ourselves working at it more and more each year.
I started my day at 4:30- although not very willingly. When the alarm went off, I hit the snooze button, but the dogs had another idea. I tried to ignore them, but lost the battle. I shivered my way to the front door to let them out, then got dressed and came to the office to put some boxes together to mail. I really want Heather to get the Take Flight set in her hands with enough time for me to change the writeups if she needs me to. We had a late night after dinner out with Charlie's Dad and dessert with his Mom, Dad, Bunky and Uncle Steve last night, so the kids were rather reluctant to roll out of bed at 5:45. At 6, I sent in Remington. I had spent 5 minutes calling Vegas to come in for breakfast. I think it took the first four before he realized he was being called for food, then he suddenly came running. Just like the old 14 year of wolf-mutt to do his own thing.
Here I sit, blogging to the world instead of studying. As a point of information, though, I am partially waiting for the Pima web portals to open as I type. We have entered that stressful time known as the run up to county fair. Some of Wyatt's chickens will go out on April 16th, then Bailey has shooting sports competitions on the 17th and 18th. After that Bailey's animals and welding projects go out and we live there until the fair closes. Plus all of the Clover stuff. Then we come home and focus on final exams for the kids and I, and then life should be strangely quiet for the summer. Funny, to type it like that it seems so simple.
I started the morning with cottage cheese and blueberries. Charlie finds some amazing fruit out there. Good shopper, that boy. I eat very well these days. Still, I am struggling with the weight loss. In December, I got sick, and spent one day in bed. I woke up ten pounds heavier. The doctor ran several tests, but I am normal. My metabolism seems to have chosen to take yet another dive. The hour of exercises is no longer enough to maintain the healthy body weight I was accustomed to maintaining, if not being overly happy about. The wrinkles, the exhaustion, not so bad when tempered with this wild life I love to be a part of with Charlie and the kids. But the weight thing is slowing me down.
So after pouring over the recent research that says I just need to exercise more, I am trying to increase my strength training time and the cardio intensity. So next Monday, I plan to post an update of my training logs, with one hour of cardio- a minimum of 6 miles each day rather than 5, and three days of upper and lower body strength training. No one believes that fitness profesionals go through these trials. So I guess that makes me want to share this new road. We shall see, right? Wish me luck.
As for Charlie, he is hoping to return to exercise today after the last month of health challenges leading to last week's surgery. He is doing amazingly well and still looks very young for 41. There is some grey in is hair, but he earned it. We earn every day of this crazy life. And I am proud to do it with him. Happy birthday, Charlie! Here's to the next one.
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