We hear that many friends who have successfully lost weight in the past year are a tad panicked about the upcoming holiday onslaught of feasts headed their way. You know how it goes… All that yummy stuff right under your nose and your pals acting as food pushers droning, “relax, it’s only once a year.” You think to yourself, “yeah once a year for two solid months!” That’s not what I call a treat. That’s stamina.
So what can you do to at least maintain, and not gain?
Besides exercise, the best way to curb your appetite, or at least stop obsessing about it, is to help someone else in need.
With the holidays upon us, the buzz is all about enjoying ourselves without overdoing it. A delicate balance, and no small task as fabulous foods now begin to taunt our senses and the holiday party train is en route to our hips!
“Crave for a thing, you will get it. Renounce the craving, the object will follow you by itself.” ~ Swami Sivananda
One way to curb the intensity of cravings is to know where you stand in terms of the calories you consume. We’re all very good at deluding ourselves on the amount we eat and drink, so it’s helpful to dose in a little blunt truth now and again.
There are several calorie and nutrition databases to help. Calorie King was the first on the scene. With the advent of smartphone apps along came “Lose It! and “CalorieCount” among others. CalorieCount caught our eye because of their e-newsletters. A recent one brought to light two additional studies on food cravings:
Carnegie Mellow University found that we’re better at staving off our cravings when we “vividly” imagine the food of our dreams rather than scarf it down without a thought. The truth is, savoring and relishing our favorites is often as easy from a mind’s eye point of view as it is in true form.
McGill University in Quebec, Canada found that the intensity of cravings can also be reduced by redirecting your focus toward other joys. Imagine your favorite place, time or activity, and food cravings ease up — i.e. take “a vacation in your mind,” says CalorieCount.
If neither if these work, and the craving still follows you, have a taste by golly — emphasizing attentive savoring alongside restraint. It’s better to savor some and account for it in your total calories, than to deprive yourself.
So, fuel up on your food reality, getting straight about where you stand; and then get mindful yet carefree about what excites you in life.
Do you love to sing in the car or shower? Do you tap your toes and drum your fingers without realizing it? Do you admit you love to make music no matter how off you might be? I admit I like the sound of my singing voice. Not enough to share it with others, but it makes me jolly to pretend I’m a Broadway diva. You too? Or a rock star? Yeah, I get it.
Music—learning, making and listing to music—actually makes physical changes in the brain. Want to stave off aging and the seemingly inevitable shrinkage of the brain as we age? Sign out Louise! Continue reading “Sounds Wonderful!”
Besides the big winners of the race, there is a story to be told by all who line up. This morning on the CBS Early Show (and in the New York Times), we were introduced to Kevin Dwyer who was born with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) which has settled in his lungs. When he was young, he was told he wouldn’t live past 25. At 25, as technology has changed, he was told he wouldn’t live past 40. At 39 he ran the marathon with his girlfriend shooting for 12-minute mile so they could, “Take everything in. Take everybody in. Make it a celebration.”
He ran to raise money for Team Boomer, a foundation that supports research and treatment to fight CF, putting himself at tremendous risk for the cause. Running at about 60% lung capacity, when reporters asked him why he was doing it, he his mantra reply was, “because I can.”
Another great example of "can do" - hand cyclists preping for the race (from the Wikilpedia archives).
Upon reaching the finish line, he dropped to knees… Gasp! Not due to exhaustion or complications, thankfully, but rather to reach up to his lady-love with a diamond ring.
Run, walk, dance, jump, pedal, move because you can, because you’re here and you’re meant to do so. And when you do, watch out for those who seemingly can’t as they come up alongside you, pass you by and kick your behind for inspiration.
Oh, and so-as not to leave you hanging… She said yes.
If you have ran or moved these past few days, or if you just need a good stretch to keep your blood flowing, here’s a good one from Olga:
It’s a 3-for-1 in that you’ll stretch your hips, lower back and inner thigh. This region – your core – is where we store a great deal of stress. We all know that we tighten up our neck and shoulder muscles as we grit our teeth and deal with the days woes. What we tend to forget is how we slouch forward, smush our internal organs, and shorten our hip flexors, groin, and other hip muscles as we give in to gravity, and the huge proverbial weight on our shoulders.
Lighten up, stretch it out and get on the move. If Kevin can, so can we!
Here comes the snow people! Winter is lurking all around, ready to pounce. Cold and flu symptoms are already on the rise. What can you do to stay out of the Ahh-choo fray?
Rinsing under the water removes surface dirt you can see. The soap and the scrubbing action loosens up those pesky, sticky germs that can transfer to your nose or eye and turn into cold inflammations. You have to scrub all over and then let the water wash it all down the drain. That takes about 20 seconds. But here’s a bonus researched finding: temperature matters not! Just get it scrubbed and rinsed off.
Don’t forget, if you can’t get to a sink with soap, hand sanitizer is a great alternative, and sometimes even better if you’re willing to use it more often – scrub the same way as you would with soap until the alcohol substance dries.
2) Nasal Irrigation. AGAIN WAIT! Don’t get grossed out. It’s taken some education and a few caveats but this is really becoming a great accepted preventive measure AND even helps relieve symptoms when they flare. For a good “how-to” and explanation of why nasal irrigation works for most, check out this first-rate slide show from WebMD.
3) Immune Boosting Acts. This also in from WebMD… De-stress with your social connections, your pets, lots of optimism, lots of laughter, and time with your honey (dare I say it, sex is good for the immune system too). Eat plenty of antioxidants from fruits and veggies. Take vitamins where your diet is lacking (especially D in the winter in northern states). Get regular cardio activity, especially getting out for a brain enhancing walk daily. And, of course, sleep well.
Oh, and if you have symptoms, please, please, please cough and sneeze into your elbow or a tissue. And please wash or sanitize your hands before you touch commonly shared surfaces like door knobs, phones, hand rails, pens, papers, etc. Let’s all do our part.
Hand washing’s benefits only last as long as we keep our mitts off germy places or our fingers away from our symptomatic mouths, noses or eyes. So be conscious of what you touch and then act accordingly. I’m not saying be obsessed (Howie Mandel, you know who you are). I’m just punching up the obvious that somehow seems to elude many of us this time of year.
It often takes just the right words at the right time for a concept to sink in. The temperature news on hand washing popped for me this week, and the visual of scrubbing those little, nasty germ creatures to their demise was a new angel.
What immune tips have hit you in a new light this season? Share!
Keep your two and four footed ghoulies safe tonight by focusing on what you really CAN prevent.
Welcome to Halloween!
Safety is always on a parent’s mind as kids venture out into the confectionery abyss of the night.
Let’s face it, kids are excited and often even a bit out of their minds. Can you blame them? I’m excited even in middle age!
As you all go out, keep in mind the true safety risks to your little ones and let go of an old myth…
Traffic – don’t count on your kids to be “aware” and look both ways. They are wound for the pursuit of treats, not wired for precaution. This is the number one concern.
Masks and Drapes– impaired vision and running (thanks to tricky eye holes and a one track mind) paired with varied neighborhood terrain or droopy, dragging costumes makes a good recipe for slips, trips and falls.
Sharp objects – Along with the trips and falls, it could be treacherous if your peanut fell onto his or her own sword, so to speak.
Flames – need I say more.
Choking – a hazard for excited kids or small, curious children.
Oral health – dentists actually say that eating a bit here and there can be worse for enamel than eating a bunch all at once. When kids eat a lot at once, they tend to be done with it and then go brush it all off. A bit here and there leaves teeth constantly awash in sticky sugary bacteria. The moral, brush often!
Belly aches – if we happen to overdo it, waiting it out is about the best we can do. Over the counter medications can help but check the dosage carefully if you’re treating your child. Belly aches only become a concern if fever and vomiting are present.
By contrast… Remember, though we should all check our kid’s haul for tampering, in the history of modern day Halloween, less than a handful of children have been poisoned by tainted candy and even that number is up for debate. Police reports also say nearly all recorded cases of food tampering occurred by a person close to the child. So, let’s focus on the real potential here: basic safety awareness.
My biggest fear is my own over indulgence. One common strategy to combat this is to eat a good healthy meal before the 600 million pound candy parade marches through your home (that’s right, that’s how much candy Americans purchase each Halloween).
Olga likes to do a little exercise before hand too, speed up that metabolism! Here’s a cardio-enhancing, leg-muscle building activity for you: a lateral shuffle with a hop!
Step to the side, hop over the cone (and target will do) and step away from the cone. Change directions and head back the way you came. Repeat back and forth working up to one minute. Go for three sets of one minute. You can repeat as many times as you feel up to it. Ten minutes makes a decent workout. The lower you keep your hips and center of gravity, the harder your thighs and buttocks muscles will work.
Enjoy the Halloween shuffle and have a safe, happy hunt for treats!
Our buddy here loves candy. "Not to eat though. Only rarely," his mom says. "Some people have 401(k)s. He has sweets. It's like his currency. To contemplate, count, sort, and discuss. In anticipation of Halloween, he is happily discarding lots of older items... after one last hug."
A candy barrage is about to culminate in one big salt, sugar and fat orgy next week and people around me are feeling a bit desperate…
People tell me the desperation of Halloween overindulgence has two creepy culprits that are cousins:
1) Deprivation = withholding from the enjoyment of (until one loses it).
I will not bring it into my house. It will sit outside in a bowl and I will build an imaginary alarm bubble over it that, should I go near, will shout, “Step AWAY from the candy dish.”
It’s a holiday, chocolate is healthy, it’s special and I deserve to misbehave.
I will eat a whole bag of my favorite so I’m over it and will no longer obsess.
“Desperate” means hopeless, intolerable, driven to recklessness. With deprivation and depravity leading us down the desperation parade route — bewitched and bamboozled — a bumpy All Souls Eve could be afoot.
Are you on Twitter, sharing your daily goings-on? If so, you were part of some really interesting news which I’ll share in a moment.
We’re exploring this wonderful and yet often maligned world of social networking to see how it could impact health. In a matter of days, following 10 different health organizations, I got a little depressed. There are a lot of scary headlines about health out there.
My idea: Find credible Twitter feeds that are really upbeat and optimistic. Then read and re-tweet them between 2 and 6 pm each day.
Jeanne Calment - oldest person to live, age 122. Read how she lived healthy all her life.
Who doesn’t? Actually, according to a USA Today snapshot poll, 67% of us say yes. The rest say poor health or being a burden to loved ones keeps them from wishing for the best.
Party poopers! Have I got news for you…
Centenarians are the fastest growing segment of our population. We do a better job today with detecting and treating disease and with strong public health efforts such as clean water and air, than ever before. But with that alone, our chances of reaching to 100 are still slim.
We do know that the road to 100 is paved with healthy behaviors such as walking, not smoking, eating lots of fresh foods, building up your physical strength, and bolstering your resiliency. All healthy progress, especially the slow but certain kind, compound your chances of living a long, full life.
So, stand up (no, literally, get up right now) and see how you are doing on your journey toward 100. Try the following:
Standing firmly on one leg (a little bend in the knee), lift the other leg off the floor and straight out in front of you about one foot high. Once you’re steady, close your eyes.
Dr. Mehmet Oz tells us if you can hold that pose for 5 seconds or more you’re doing better than most 50-year-olds in America today. The number one cause of death in the aging population is falls. Balance, both literally and figuratively, is the simple answer.
Here are the more detailed points we’ve heard resoundingly clear from scientists such as Beuttner, Oz, et. al.:
Develop a strong social network – feel cared about and care for others
Do something that is interesting and worthwhile
Feel appreciated or needed – volunteer!
Strength train for balance
Eat lots of fresh food
Walk every day, as much as you possible
Savor what you enjoy and who you love!
These are lifespan bullet points people! The more you do, the more likely you are to make it to 100 worry-free. Regardless, you’ll have a great time getting there.
If you need proof, let’s take a look at the life of the oldest person to live on this planet:
Jeanne at 25. Photos from the Gerontology Research Group
Jeanne Calment of Arles, France; Born February 21, 1875, died August 4, 1997 at age 122 years, 164 days.
A 1997 New York Times article said that the French felt it was her “unflappability” that gave her such staying power. She was quoted saying, “If you can’t do anything about it, you can’t worry about it.”
When asked what kind of future she expected at 120 years, she replied, “A very short one.”
Getting used to growing media attention, she once quipped, “I wait for death… and journalists.”
She rebuked an interviewer by saying, “When you’re 117, you see if you remember everything!”
At one of her birthday parties, somebody took leave by telling her, “Until next year, perhaps.” She retorted: “I don’t see why not! You don’t look so bad to me.”
Finally, the pièce de résistance… “I’ve never had but one wrinkle, and I’m sitting on it.”
Besides her immunity to stress and her silly sarcasm, here’s the rest of Jeanne’s longevity checklist:
Jeanne at age 60 - Just getting started!
She took up fencing at age 85
She rode a bicycle until she was 100.
She lived in her own house until 110.
She walked all over town until she broke her femur at 114.
She fought off the flu at 116.
She consumed prodigious quantities of olive oil, cooking with and even drinking it (she also rubbed it on her skin).
She drank port wine daily.
She ate about 2 lbs of chocolate per week.
She had no regrets.
And that, my friends, is the French Paradox. Balance personified.
Let’s all shoot for 100 quality years in the spirit of Jeanne. Enjoy life, laugh a lot, be kind, be a part of things, be patient, be yourself.
We hear that many friends who have successfully lost weight in the past year are a tad panicked about the upcoming holiday onslaught of feasts headed their way. You know how it goes… All that yummy stuff right under your nose and your pals acting as food pushers droning, “relax, it’s only once a year.” You think to yourself, “yeah once a year for two solid months!” That’s not what I call a treat. That’s stamina.
