Guide to the Better you

  Today, we’re taking a hard look at winter weight gain.   It’s a common problem—people tend to pack on a few pounds during the winter months. But we want to fight back, and we hope you will join us.   Let’s get after this now, while winter is still in full force.   We’ll have less to deal with when the warm breezes start blowing! The good, the bad…and the solution Although winter weight gain varies from person to person, research shows the average gain to be five to seven pounds!   Some people gain this extra weight because they have Seasonal Affective Disorder—a type of winter depression.   But most of us can’t blame winter depression for our tendency to pick up extra weight during the winter months. So, why does winter weight gain happen?   According to Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, it happens because we eat more and move less during the winter months 1 . This is bad news and g...

  From weekend warriors to Ironman finishers, performance is directly tied to diet.  If you want to train at the peak of your ability and recover quickly, you must be intentional about what you eat, taking care to feed your body what it needs.  Trying to work out with a body that is starving for essential nutrients will end only in frustration; and frustration eats your momentum and resolve with a voracious appetite. Make the most of every minute you work out by fueling your body sensibly.  Let’s look at the basics. Nutrition 101:  the foundation The big three nutrients that you need to be concerned with are carbohydrates, protein and fat.  An eating strategy that balances these three macro-nutrients will skyrocket your fitness results.   ·           Carbohydrates:   Some have argued that carbohydrates are the most important nutrient that an athlete consumes, because carbs fuel muscle.  Every time you move one of your...

  How often do you hear someone say, “I had a great night’s sleep last night!” or “I feel refreshed and energetic!”?   Probably not very often.   Feeling sluggish seems to be the new normal.   In fact, according to the National Sleep Foundation, it is the new normal:   most Americans are sleep-deprived.   But not getting enough sleep may be causing more trouble for you than just that pesky drowsy feeling:   it could be seriously harming your health. Why aren’t we sleeping? Centuries ago, it was common for people to sleep 8 to 9 hours each day.   But now, only about 25% of Americans get 8 or more hours of sleep.   The reasons we are not sleeping are many.   We live in a 24/7 society—practically anything we want to do is available around the clock, from fitness centers to pharmacies to department stores.   We are working long hours, transporting our kids to activities, trying to make time for friends and fitness and entertainme...

  Visualization, done right, can be extremely powerful in achieving any goal.   As you think about your goals for the New Year, take into consideration the following… Using your intellectual factor of imagination see yourself already in possession of your goal.   Picture yourself with the healthy and fit body you desire, and literally feel what it is like to have it.   You cannot achieve anything in your “outer world” until you first see it in your “inner world.” Is Visualization for Real? In one of the most well known studies on Creative Visualization in sports, Russian scientists compared four groups of Olympic athletes in terms of their training schedules: ·       Group 1 had 100% physical training ·       Group 2 had 75% physical training with 25% mental training ·       Group 3 had 50% physical training with 50% mental training ·       Group 4 had 2...

  Have you ever told yourself that you are going to lose weight and get fit in time for spring, only to be frustrated when warm weather rolls around?   It’s easy to hide behind heavy winter clothes, but when the mercury starts climbing, the clothes get lighter and we can’t hide any more.   “ Why didn’t I start working out weeks ago ?” we ask ourselves.   “ If only I had started sooner !” Regret-proof your spring:   set a deadline The best way to protect yourself from a regret-filled spring is to set a deadline and start NOW.   Deadlines are powerful motivators.   Without a deadline, you really have no set-point toward which to work.   You have nothing pushing you. We need to be pushed.   Deadlines create a sense of urgency.   They help you position yourself to succeed, because that final date is always staring back at you.   It forces you to prioritize and strategize.   Otherwise, you will let things slide…you will ke...

  Mike Fohner, cross country running coach, tells this story about one of his students: Last year, one of my young cross-country runners was fully content walking up the hills and avoiding physical exertion to the maximum extent possible. I tried all sorts of tactics and motivation techniques…to wits end. Even my “walkers club” (post practice sprints for those that walk during practice) had no effect. One meet, this runner unexpectedly knocked 3 minutes off her best time to which I gave a look of amazement to her parents. They smiled and said, “Well…she didn’t walk…so I guess we owe her ten bucks!!” So it appears that money is an effective motivator for all ages! The statistics Brace yourself.   According to Rod K. Dishman, Ph.D., director of the Behavioral Fitness Laboratory at the University of Georgia, nearly 50 percent of people who begin an exercise program drop out within the first 6 months.   The question is, “Why?”   What is it about sticking with a fi...

  When was the last time you thought about your liver?   If you are like most people, this amazing organ does not command much of your attention.   But if you are interested in living as healthily as possible, attending to your liver can have big payoffs. Named after the Old English word for “life,” the liver is a critically important part of your body.   The array of functions it performs is staggering.   These include:           Controlling blood sugar           Regulating fat storage           Producing proteins           Cleansing the blood           Metabolizing fat        Producing energy However, if toxins clog and overwhelm the liver, it will cease to perform its functions correctly.   If the liver cannot cleanse the toxins from the body effectively, those toxins can trigger an immune resp...

  Zig Ziglar once said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” And each of us knows from our own experience that he is right.   The general flow of human life tends to be toward ease and comfort.   One day flows into the next, and many of us never quite get around to turning our good intentions into reality. Those ‘good intentions,’ while no doubt admirable, tend to remain unrealized mainly because they are too vague.   Vague ideas are impossible to focus on and aim for; they are moving targets. Do you have moving targets in your life?   Perhaps you want to eat a more healthy diet or lose the winter weight that has crept upon you.   Maybe you just want to establish a regular workout routine and stick with it this time . The keys to your success are two-fold:   steady the target and create momentum.   How to stop a moving target Imagine a target shooter trying to hit a small bull’s eye on a distant target.   He begins t...

More and more we are hearing about food allergies and food sensitivities.   Because they are such common conditions, it is important to understand the difference between the two and what the health issues are which surround them. The difference between food sensitivities and food allergies Though on the surface food sensitivities and food allergies may seem like the same thing (they can even cause some of the same symptoms), they are, in fact, two different conditions. The least common of the two is a food allergy .   A food allergy will bring about a response from the immune system that can impact several different parts of your body.   Food allergies can be life-threatening.   Food sensitivity or food intolerance symptoms are less serious but are more common, being typically confined to the digestive tract. The gut connection When you have a food allergy, your body essentially treats the food as something that is threatening to your body and therefore mo...