|
ZING! Living Newsletter
September 2011
|
|
Greetings!
Keeping track of everything you're supposed to be doing to stay healthy can be confusing. You're constantly bombarded by advertisements for miracle products to make you sexy and immortal. You can't stand in line at the grocery store without magazines screaming at you that you will devolve into a flabby tub of goo, if you don't immediately start on their amazing ab buster diet. So what's a person to do if he simply wants to lead a healthy lifestyle without gimmicks or expensive products? How can he be sure that what he's reading is from a reputable source? Ooo! Ooo! Pick me! I know the answer! You check out Dr Lane's new wellness planner, The Nine Daily Habits of Healthy People, due out this October. I promise you, it's simple, all natural, healthy living backed up by the expertise of a physician, life coach, and certified healthy person (and zillions of articles I read in the medical literature too). It'll be offered on the Your Toolkit page at ZingLiving.com. In this month's newsletter, I'll give you a taste of the topics I'll be covering in the new planner. Want to learn more about healthy living? Please visit Zing! Living's website where you'll find oodles of information on healthy living and cultivating the mental, emotional, and spiritual environment to support yourself in achieving your goals. While you're there, I invite you to sign up for my free online e-course, "Five Attitudes to Supercharge Your Wellness Journey," and enjoy some other free goodies too.
|
|
|
Daily Habit of Healthy People #2:
Eat a Rainbow
When confronted with the recommendation to clean up our diets and eat more nutritious meals, many of us feel overwhelmed.
You might ask, "How many calories should I eat? How many carbohydrates do I need? What are healthy alternatives to the foods I love to eat now? Do I need a multivitamin? Where do I start?"
It's easy to get seduced by the promise of amazing results, all from chewing just one piece of candy or drinking three designer protein shakes a day. Or we may swing to the opposite extreme, electing complicated regimes of expensive vitamins and supplements. It seems everyone's got a magical cure for whatever ails you - a book, a program, a diet, prepackaged meals, and so on.
I have a magical cure for you too. And you don't even have to pay me $19.95 a month to get it. Just go to the produce section of your grocery store, or, better yet, visit your local farmer's market, and stock up on a rainbow of colors.
If you don't like to cook, pick stuff you can eat raw: apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, and blueberries. Or how about tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, celery, and purple onion? Fruits and veggies are low in calories, and contain healthy carbohydrates in the form of fiber and natural sugars. Carrots make a great substitute for chips with your sandwich. And what's easier or cheaper than peeling and eating a banana?
According to the American Dietetic Association, eating a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables daily provides you with a multitude of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Eating your nutrients in whole form likely enhances absorption of them in your digestive tract and helps them function more efficiently within your body, as opposed to just consuming your vitamins in a pill. Plus, you'll benefit from healthful fiber and feel fuller as well.
As you go about your busy day, I suggest trying to eat at least one fruit or vegetable from each color of the rainbow. This is an easy way to cut calories and reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. You'll swap disease promoting substances like trans fats and high fructose corn syrup for the benefits disease preventing vitamins and antioxidants.
|
|
Daily Habit of Healthy People #6:
Make Friends With Mr. Sandman
A growing body of research indicates that sleep deprivation does more than just leave you feeling grouchy. It can contribute to a weight problem too.
People who sleep less may suffer greater fatigue and exercise less than their rested peers. Stressed out individuals, suffering from poor sleep, may also overeat as a coping mechanism. Not only that, impaired or inadequate sleep has been linked to hormone imbalances which may alter your appetite and eating patterns as well.
Other negative consequences of a lack of rest include lower mood and impaired memory and learning ability.
If you struggle to get a good night's sleep, here are some suggestions for good sleep hygiene:
- Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
- Nap for no more than 30 minutes once daily.
- Avoid caffeine within 6 hours of retiring to bed.
- Limit your alcohol intake - it impairs the quality of your sleep.
- Keep your room cool and add extra covers if necessary.
- Do not exercise or take a hot bath/shower within 2 hours of going to bed.
- Reserve the bed for sleep and sex. Get out of bed to go watch TV, read, or surf the net.
- Get 30-60 minutes of vigorous exercise earlier in your day.
Obviously sleeping serves an important function, because we spend almost a third of our lives doing it, and you need yours too. Troublesome sleep can indicate sleep apnea, depression, or another serious medical problem. If the tips above aren't sufficient, please see your health care provider.
|
Daily Habit of Healthy People #3:Climb Mount Everest (or at Least Take the Stairs)
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.
|
|
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 navigating your way to healthier living habits? 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 |
|
|
|
Quote of the Month
"I have shadows on my neck. I can see my collarbone. I feel so pretty!"
~ Richard Simmons
| |
| |
|
Free Online Course ZingLiving.com
| |
| |
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.
|
|
Video of the Month
|
 | | Bully Cat |
(You know there's someone out there you're dying to stuff in a box.)
| |
|
|
|
