by IcennaEmach | Jun 15, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
Did you work hard yesterday? Did you play hard? At the end of the day did you have a sense of accomplishment? And when you finally crawled into bed did you sleep through the night and wake refreshed and ready to go? If you did, you are fortunate because you have mastered sleeping well.
Exerting the right amount of physical energy, mental stimulation, and play, to gain a feeling of accomplishment is often the secret to a healthy night’s sleep. Unfortunately, if you are not sleeping well, simply being aware of this fact will not result in a good night’s sleep. It will take practice at becoming more physical, more mental, and more attuned to a sense of daily accomplishments.
The results are in the implementation, and we all know this to be true. But the problem arises when we think the solution is too simple. When the solution seems too simple we may not feel the need to practice the solution. Of course this thinking is deleterious to accomplishing what is often at the heart of why we may not be sleeping well.
It should be said that lifestyle changes are difficult to implement. And we need to be told they are difficult to implement because too often we are told lifestyle changes are easy. Look at all the weight loss plans in advertisements that claim dieting to be an easy lifestyle adjustment!
Lifestyle changes are not easy, but the good news is we can practice lifestyle change just as we practice skills in other areas of our lives. Are you up for a challenge? Are you willing to select one needed lifestyle change to practice this week? There’s no hurry, but you can get started.
Can practicing a beneficial lifestyle change to increase the quality of our sleep be as worthy as practicing our golf swing or our tennis stroke? I assure you that it is. Practicing new lifestyle habits will help you to not only sleep better, but will help you create a more vital vigorous lifestyle?
Our Wealth is in Our Health
Kim Miller
by IcennaEmach | May 31, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
I read an article the other day by an author who intrigued me with a statement that seemed at first to be contradictory. He said that in order for big changes to occur, we basically have to say, ” I give up.” The article was a little more philosophical than I like, but the idea of giving up or giving in to change is something I can relate to in my field of health and wellness.
Before it appears that I am encouraging mediocrity in the area of our health, I should tell you that it is quite the opposite. If we want to make lasting improvements in our health and fitness goals than we need to consider there is much to be gained in starting off with a clean psychological palate. Can we forget about our past victories and triumphs and instead focus on where we are at this given time? Can we focus on what our healthy minds and bodies can achieve regardless of what we have done or did not do in the past? And most importantly in my mind, can we imagine how we will feel as we go about our daily lives improving and progressing in the area of our health? No doubt there will be challenges along the way but the good news is that people are resilient. Our muscles can grow at any age. Our bones can grow at any age. Our cardiovascular output can increase at any age. Our flexibility can increase at any age. And perhaps most importantly, our minds can grow and change at any age.
For me personally, “giving up” has been a useful tool for me as my health, wellness, and sporting goals have changed substantially throughout the years. What hasn’t changed is the feeling that I get from the way I live my life on a daily basis. Although I may not be able to run a 5:30 mile today, I still derive the same feeling that I did when I was a kid even though running is not my main outlet today.
My question to you today is, “can you surrender your past victories and or past shortcomings and work diligently daily towards retaining the feeling of being an easy going healthy kid again?
by IcennaEmach | May 24, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
“Most people would agree that our body would rebel if we asked it to go from an eight-minute mile run one day to a six-minute mile run the next. Yet in our fervor to diet down to the perfect weight, we ask our brains to do the same by drastically changing our lifestyle habits in one day. Consider that our brains, like our body, will break down under similar demands.” Kim Miller
I only ask that you think about this. It takes more than willpower to change our habits. It takes thoughtful consideration for who we are, patience, and strategic planning for us to make lasting lifestyle changes. Consideration for small incremental lifestyle changes is an absolute must for long lasting behavior changes. Let the old way of dieting be out and the smart way to a healthier life be in! You can do it. There’s no hurry.
by IcennaEmach | May 18, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
The NYC metropolitan museum of art has an exhibit on how movies affect our reality. I have not seen it yet, but can only imagine that it has to do with how our realities are altered to our advantage or disadvantage based on what we see and in turn how we interpret it into our own lives.
Lately it seems that many people have chosen to read and or watch the news in very small doses. You’ve heard the thinking about how lots of negative news etc. can have an adverse affect on how we go about our days. That is to say that many believe that too much negative awareness causes negative emotions. And conversely that positive awareness creates positive emotions. I personally have always disregarded this type of thinking and instead opted for a more obstinate attitude that no one can alter my emotions except myself. I think that some people like to believe that it is true of themselves too.
As of late however, in the past two years, I’ve come to change my position on this positive psychology stuff. And, I might add that it comes at a good time because even though scientists have known for many decades that emotions are affected by our environments, it is now “in” to pay attention to how we can alter a healthier state of mind through positive thinking, and brain rewiring. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not referring to the pollyanna type of personality whereby one can get run over by a truck and instantly see the positive points of being flattened by tons of metal. I’m referring mainly to what the scientists are now saying about how we can rewire our brain circuits to alter a multitude of habits that we would like to change. As of lately with books like The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D. and Perception, Memory and Emotion:Frontiers in Neuroscience by T. Ono, Ed., health professionals including myself are taking this brain circuit thing much more seriously. In my case, I’ve used it not only on myself successfully, but on people that I coach in creating more healthful habits. In fact, I feel so strongly about the use of it that it has formed the basis of my coaching. I no longer shun the idea of positive psychology as a gimmicky self help approach but instead believe that the strength of positive thinking because of it’s scientific proven credibility is an approach that is going to gain momentum in the world of healthy living and healthy aging.
If you are not familiar with the idea of brain rewiring, and would like to know more on how you can use it to alter habits in your own life then contact me at 904 501 6002 for a complimentary consultation.
One additional word on this topic, the very nature of rewiring our brain circuits is not a quick fix kind of plan. I like that it is a more sophisticated, long lasting, and intelligent way of changing ourselves, our habits, and our brain structures. I believe that in the next five years, the idea of rewiring our neuropathways to better our lives is going to stand apart from all of the quick fix diet, lifestyle, and exercise gurus that we have been inundated with in the last tenty five years. USA Today said that this year, 2008, is the year of living smart. Can you consider that living smart may include this more sophisticated brain altering life long approach to healthy living and healthy aging?
by IcennaEmach | May 17, 2009 | Burn Baby Burn, Uncategorized
What happened to her?
She wants me to walk 14 miles a day to lose weight.
I’m worried about her!
I better tell her she’s taking this weight gain thing far too seriously!
Such is the feedback to my last two weight loss issues. Now I know how the playwright felt when a review read “There was only one thing that weakened the play. They opened the curtain.” But, there was an objective to the direness I wanted one to feel in reading the past two issues.
The objective was to point out that it is easy to gain weight, but hard to lose weight, and because of this, we would be wise to utilize preventative weight gain measures such as weekly weighing and logging of caloric intake. The illustrations were intended to expand awareness of what occurs when one gains weight quickly yet expects to lose the added weight just as swiftly. It appears I accomplished this! I even have death threat e-mails to prove my astuteness in bringing full awareness to my Fit Through the Ages readers.
In part, our problem with weight loss has to do with our expectations. It is easy for all of us to consume additional calories. Eating a delicious pie ala mode may take only 5 minutes, and is pure enjoyment, but burning the calories will take two hours of what some term exercise misery! If we gain a pound of body fat in a short period of time by consuming too many calories, should we expect to lose the pound in the same amount of time it takes us to gain it?
The explanation in the last two blogs on weight loss frankly illuminates how much one needs to exercise, or reduce calories by, to lose a pound in 3 short days was certainly preposterous. However, consider the irony of this with our own weight loss goals. That is, that many of us expect to lose weight as rapidly as we gain weight. Who is going to walk 14 miles daily for three days in addition to working out in the gym for an hour daily, and all the while consuming only 1,100 calories on each of three days? Unfortunately, this is the reality when the goal is quick fat weight loss.
Viewing typical information in different ways helps to put things into proper perspective. Weight loss is about putting things into this proper perspective.
Think about this:
It is easier to gain weight than it is to lose weight.
It is easier to maintain weight than it is to lose weight.
And, it is easier on the body, mind, and spirit to maintain weight loss when done slowly, deliberately, and smartly than it is to lose weight quickly only to gain it back. The days of quick weight loss with no sense of sustaining lifestyle changes will soon be a perspective of the past. Our challenge is to act smartly, and with a sense of continual progressive lifestyle changes that deepen our convictions to do more for ourselves than just lose weight.
