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ZING! Living Newsletter
January 2011
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Greetings!
New Year's resolution: a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. If you've set a New Year's resolution to take better care of yourself by cultivating healthier eating habits, starting a new sport, finding better ways to cope with stress, and/or just living your life to your very best, ZING! Living can help you find and maintain the motivation and inspiration to make these resolutions a reality. Please visit Zing! Living's website where you'll find oodles of good information on healthy living and cultivating the mental, emotional, and spiritual environment to support yourself in achieving your goals. Please sign up for my free online e-course, "Five Attitudes to Supercharge Your Wellness Journey," and enjoy some other free goodies too.
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To achieve a healthy weight, you must exert yourself. There's no way around it. And for most of us, weight loss requires a lot of exercise - way more than the 30 minutes 3 times a week you often hear touted with many weight loss programs.
If you want to keep the weight off once you've lost it, you must exert yourself; there's no way around that either. In fact, if you want to look and feel healthy and physically fit, you must exercise regularly, preferably every day. Why? Your body was designed to work, move, and play; it's in your genes, and your body expects it.
So let's figure out how you can start wiggling more physical playtime into your day.
Experiment to discover an activity you like. You're WAY more likely to stick with something that's fun. You don't have to do pushups or work out in the gym; if you hate that stuff, I'd recommend avoiding it. It will only worsen your attitude towards exercise. Try hiking, rafting, tango or something else to fire you up.
Envision exercise as a spiritual endeavor. You've been given a magical gift, a human body, a treasure trove of possibility just waiting for you to discover what it can do. Set yourself a challenge then imagine the thrill of meeting that challenge. Use that mental picture to inspire yourself. Exercise is also an excellent vehicle for developing focus and present moment awareness. You can cultivate focus, grace, and discipline through tai chi, qigong, yoga, and dance.
Most importantly - engage in a hobby or sport that meets at least three other personal needs. Pick one that you can do with your family, where you can socialize with like minded people, where you can enjoy the fun of reaching goals in a stepwise fashion, and/or where you can positively impact your community. You might train for a half marathon to support a charity, ballroom dance to rekindle the flame with your spouse, or enjoy the camaraderie of joining some kind of sports team. When your sport or hobby meets multiple needs, it becomes more important to you, and you're less likely to make excuses for not playing.
Starting to exercise or play a new sport can be daunting, especially if you've been body surfing the sofa for a long time, and have a negative outlook towards physical activity. The key to successfully integrating new activities into your daily routine is to augment the positives: fun, connection, achievement, discovery, spiritual fulfillment, and celebration. Make friends with exercise and start playing. |
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Fundamentals of Acupuncture
Guest Author - Rebecca Wilks, MD, MD(H)
Acupuncture, in its 2000+ year history, uses an entirely different framework for thinking of health than Western Medicine, though research is gradually narrowing the gap. Qi (pronounced "chee") is often translated as 'energy' or 'life-force.' Though the concept is not yet well understood scientifically, Qi is thought to be an electrical phenomenon by many.
Whereas Western Medicine approaches healing through the body's physiological functions, acupuncture takes a different route by influencing the body's healing mechanisms through its energetic connections.
Qi flows through the body in a network of 12 pathways called meridians, the circulatory system for the body's energy. There are 365 acupuncture points, which are access points on the meridians where we can connect with the body's energy to influence the flow of qi and regulate internal functions.
Acupuncture points form the basis of treatment and are used in various ways to transfer and manipulate the body's qi, through acupuncture, pressure, electrical stimulation, heat, or massage.
The World Health Organization has adopted guidelines on training and standards for safe practice of Acupuncture. Over forty specific indications have been delineated as well. Among the more common indications for acupuncture are:
- Pain - fibromyalgia, headache, back and neck pain
- Smoking Cessation
- Gynecological difficulties - menstrual pain, PMS, menopausal symptoms, infertility, in vitro fertilization
- Emotional problems - anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, fatigue
- Facilitation of healing - injuries, surgery, infection
- Nausea - pregnancy, chemotherapy
- Immune system imbalance - allergies, sinus problems.
In the hands of a well trained practitioner, acupuncture is a remarkably safe and forgiving discipline. Many patients report a sensation of well being or relaxation following an acupuncture treatment. The risks and complications of an acupuncture treatment are extremely rare.
Our bodies are miraculous self-healing organisms, and acupuncture reminds the body how to heal itself.
For more about Dr Wilks, please visit skylinehealth.net
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Defeating Depression
 Between 10-25% of women and 5-12% of men will experience an episode of major depression during her/his lifetime. Not only is depression associated with a significantly reduced quality of life, it is a serious risk factor for suicide.
Other health problems associated with depression include diabetes, heart disease, and dementia.
Stephen Ilardi, PhD, author of The Depression Cure, performed a study on patients with depression at the University of Kansas. The control group continued their antidepressant medication with no other intervention, while the trial group participated in his 14 week Therapeutic Lifestyle Change program.
The TLC group instituted six changes to their lifestyles over the short course of the trial:
- 35 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week
- 30 minutes of exposure to sunlight or a light box daily
- 8 hours of sleep nightly
- Daily fish oil supplement with 1000mg EPA and 500mg DHA
- Frequent social gatherings with friends and family and volunteer work
- Reframing illogical, negative thinking more neutrally or positively
The study of over 100 patients found those patients in the lifestyle change arm of the study achieved complete remission of their depressive symptoms 59% of the time. The control group achieved only 10% remission rate. The majority of his trial group participants reported remaining symptom free at one year with continued participation in these lifestyle changes.
This is a small study but points out the potential merits of a healthy lifestyle for alleviating the frustrating, sometimes debilitating symptoms of depression. Of note, all participants in the study were maintained on their antidepressant medications.
If you are on antidepressant medication, and you feel that it does not adequately control your depressive symptoms, consider instituting the lifestyle changes suggested above, and make an appointment with your prescribing doctor for reevaluation.
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Thank you for reading my newsletter. If you've found the information relevant and interesting, please tweet it, share it, or pass it along to someone else.
Need help activating your New Year's resolutions, establishing a friendlier relationship with exercise, or redesigning your lifestyle to deal with depression? Call me at 623-242-8809 or email me at Melanie@ZingLiving.com. I look forward to working with you!
Sincerely,
Melanie Lane, MD, CPCC
Dr Lane, ZING! Living Coach
www.ZingLiving.com
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Quote of the Month
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 "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Viktor Frankl
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Free Online Course ZingLiving.com
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Finding and maintaining an attitude to support your wellness goals can be challenging. Here I offer five new ones for you to try on to get things jumpstarted.
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Heidi the Opossum
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For those of us feeling self-conscious about some personal flaw, click on the link above. Very cute.
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