Stand tall lovely lady

A couple of years ago I had a student in a college program I assist with. There was just something about her. She just had such grace and beauty in the way she moved. I was not surprised to hear that she is a professional ballerina. Her posture flowed naturally from a well trained and toned body.

As you are reading this, how is your posture right now? Are you sitting upright? Are you slouching your back? Have you totally sunk into your chair?

When I was a child I can remember hearing that princesses had beautiful posture. I even tried walking around while attempting to balance a book on my head so that I too could walk like a princess.

You may be thinking what does good posture have to do with healthy living.

Why Have A Good Posture?

There are 5 key benefits from maintaining a good posture.

1              Facilitates breathing: A good posture naturally enables you to breathe properly. This is why yoga, pilates and meditation exercises pay so much attention to getting your posture and positioning correct.

2            Increases concentration and thinking ability: When you are breathing properly, you increase your thinking ability too. Our brain requires 20% of oxygen to do its job properly. More air, more oxygen. More oxygen, more brain food. More brain food leads to better thoughts and ideas.

3            Improve your image: People with good posture look smarter, younger and more attractive. Have you ever seen someone with a bad posture and felt the person seemed unkempt, even though the person has not said or done anything yet? On the flip side, someone with a good posture naturally exudes an aura of assertiveness and appeal.

4            Feel even better about yourself:When you have a good posture, it helps to make you feel more self-confident, without even doing anything else different. Try sitting in a bad posture for 30 seconds. Now, switch to a good posture for 30 seconds as well. Is there any difference in how you felt?

5    Avoid health complications: Bad posture can result in several complications over time, such as increased risks of slipped disc, back aches, back pain, pressure inside your chest, poor blood circulation etc. 

How To Improve Your Posture

Here are some tips which can improve your posture and keep it that way. 

1 Identify your key motivation for having a good posture: Why do you want to improve your posture? Is it to improve your breathing? To boost others’ perception of you? To feel more confident about yourself? To avoid health problems? Be clear on your underlying desire so you can remind yourself of it whenever you feel lazy about your posture.

2            Pretend your body is held by a string: This is an analogy shared by a yoga instructor friend and I find it very helpful. It might sound weird, but it’s pretty effective. Pretend that your spine and head are held up by a string suspended from the ceiling. Make sure that your shoulders are relaxed and not hunched up. It can be tempting to tense other parts of your body when trying to keep correct posture. But imagining you are hanging from a string tends to help you focus on keeping your back properly aligned and loosening your other muscles.

3            Set a reminder to check in on your posture: Many of us may have the intention to keep a good posture, but we usually forget about it after 5 minutes! A reminder in the form of a post-it note, item in your calendar, alarm, etc. can definitely help. The frequency is up to you, from once a day to as frequent as every 15 minutes. With sufficient reminders, you will start kicking into a good posture naturally soon.

4            Eliminate bad habits that cultivate bad postures: This includes watching TV/reading while slumped down, working under dim light (which results in slouching), walking in a slouchy way with your stomach muscles slack. 

5Get a good quality chair: A good chair will be one that has a sufficiently firm and dense cushion with back support.

6            Ground both your feet when standing or sitting. This means having both feet planted flat on the floor and not resting your weight on a particular foot, which is a very common habit. While sitting, try not to cross your legs. This helps to keep the upper part of our body straight.

7     Avoid carrying heavy items: Just the act of carrying heavy items can be bad for our shoulders and back. I made a life change when I started working toward a daily goal of walking 10,000 steps a day and that is to “try to work inefficient.” Instead of straining my back by carrying in several sacks of groceries at once I try to practice good posture and make an extra trip or two. The extra steps are a fitness bonus! 

8            Engage in exercises which strengthen your back: These include pilates, yoga, exercise balls and simple stretching. Strengthening your core includes your back muscles so add core exercises to your daily regime. 

9            Get a professional assessment: If you have an extremely bad posture and a history of back injuries or backaches, it will be good to visit a chiropractor or physical therapist for a professional assessment. He/she can advise you on how to better take care of your back.

You guessed it ladies to earn the 5 bonus points per day for a total of 35 for the week you must make a plan to work on your posture in some way every day! It can be as simple as attempting a designated activity (like doing your grocery shopping) while attempting to use good posture. 

Daily Nutrients

    You have probably guessed that I am a BIG FAN of Myfitnesspal.com. By now you have learned to use it as a tool for tracking your calorie intake. But training yourself to not overeat is just part of our journey to a healthy lifestyle. We also need to make sure we are getting a sufficient amount of all of the needed nutrients to be healthy people and the columns that track nutrient amounts on myfitnesspal are a great tool. 

         One of my favorite books is How Not to Die.In this book Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-renowned nutrition expert, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org, examines the fifteen top causes of premature death in America-heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson's, high blood pressure, and more-and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, freeing us to live healthier lives.

In the book he explores the fifteen leading causes of death that claim the lives of 1.6 million Americans annually and gives his advice backed up by strong scientific evidence to help the reader learn which foods to eat and which lifestyle changes to make to live longer.

History of prostate cancer in your family? Put down that glass of milk and add flaxseed to your diet whenever you can. Have high blood pressure? Hibiscus tea can work better than a leading hypertensive drug-and without the side effects. Battling breast cancer? Consuming soy is associated with prolonged survival. Worried about heart disease (the number 1 killer in the United States)? Switch to a whole-food, plant-based diet, which has been repeatedly shown not just to prevent the disease but often stop it in its tracks.

In addition to showing what to eat to help treat the top fifteen causes of death, How Not to Die includes Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen -a checklist of the twelve foods we should consume every day. Full of practical, actionable advice and surprising, cutting edge nutritional science, these doctor's orders are just what we need to live longer, healthier lives.

I realize you may not all have the time or interest level to read this book but what I would like to suggest is that you use your own family history to guide you to choose a nutrient to track on myfitnesspal.  Personally heart disease runs in my family so I could track fat intake. I have osteopenia (pre-osteoporosis) so it would be good for me to track calcium intake. And colon cancer runs in my family so fiber would be a good nutrient to track. Those that have diabetes in their family might want to track sugar or carbohydrate intake. 

Note that you can choose which nutrients are featured in the food diary columns. Go to Settings and then diary settings to choose what you would like to track.

So what is our challenge for the week? 

1. Choose a nutrient or vitamin to track on myfitnesspal. 

2. If it does not already show in one of your columns change the settings so it does

3. Make sure and look at how much you took in of this nutrient each day

4. Make an extra effort to be as close to perfect in your intake of that nutrient this week as possible.

5. I prefer you get these nutrients from real food rather than supplements and this week should give you a good idea if that will work for you or whether you need to add a supplement do your healthy living regimen.

Happy tracking! 

By now you have begun the hard work of making healthy habits a part of every day! I’m so proud of you. But as usual I’m going to pose another challenge by asking you to try a new healthy habit for our weekly bonus challenge. We are going to experiment with some meditation techniques. This simple, cost-free strategy can lift stress and anxiety and often help with weight loss as well. Much of the information I’m sharing this week is from Doron Libshtein, the founder of Mentors Channel.

What is meditation?

Meditation is a daily practice that involves clearing your mind in order to return to a place of straightforward thinking and calm emotions. Some people practice for only five minutes a day, but most meditation experts suggest working up to 20 minutes daily.

Meditation doesn’t have to be difficult. If you're just starting out you might want to try taking five minutes as soon as you wake up to clear your mind before you face your busy day. Simply close your eyes and focus on the pattern of your breathing without trying to change it. Focus only on your breathing. If your mind wanders — and it probably will at first — simply guide it back to your breathing without judgment.

Libshtein suggests practicing for 10 minutes daily (five minutes in the morning and five at night) but also shares that "the amount of time is not as important as simply doing it regularly." Feel free to sit or lie down, whatever feels most comfortable for you.

What’s the connection between meditation and weight loss?

"Meditation can be an effective tool to help people lose weight," Libshtein tells us, “It aligns the conscious and unconscious mind.” Those changes can include controlling the cravings for unhealthy food and altering eating habits. It's important to get your unconscious mind involved because that's where harmful, weight-gaining behaviors such as emotional eating are ingrained. Meditation can help you be more aware of these and, with practice, override them and even replace them with slimming habits.

But there's a more immediate payoff to meditating. "Meditation can directly reduce the levels of stress hormones," Libshtein explains. Stress hormones such as cortisol signal to our bodies to store calories as fat. If you have a ton of cortisol pumping through your system, it's going to be hard to lose weight even if you're making healthy choices. We know that sounds hard; we're all stressed, and it seems impossible to shake. A recent study at Carnegie Mellon University showed 25 minutes of meditation three days in a row to significantly reduce stress. In fact, participants in a 2016 study showed "increased attention, relaxation, calmness, body-mind awareness, and brain activity" after just a couple of short sessions. Your self-control can also increase with daily practice, the study suggests. Researchers found that the parts of the brain most affected by meditation were those that help us control ourselves. That means a couple minutes of meditation on a daily basis could make it easier to pass on that second cookie or avoid the ice cream when you're feeling down.

How can meditation help when diet and exercise don’t seem to be working?

"In many cases, stress is a primary trigger for excessive weight gain or the inability to effectively lose weight," Libshtein explains. So, if you've been dieting and exercising but are constantly stressed, you might not be addressing the problem that’s keeping the weight on. Again, stress releases hormones that store extra fat — exactly what we don’t want! This can even fuel a cycle of stress: You can't lose weight because you're stressed, which makes you stressed about not being able to lose weight. It's an easy pattern to get stuck in, but you can break it — and meditation can help.

How can you make sure meditation works for you?

 1. Use a mantra that helps you lose weight.A mantra is a word or phrase that you repeat to yourself to focus your practice and bring you back to center when your mind wanders. As Libshtein explains, "a mantra can give you something to focus on while you meditate." Libshtein suggests repeating it to yourself as you inhale and again as you exhale. Common choices include "I am loved," "I am at peace," and "Om." But if choosing a mantra is stressful rather than calming just focus on your breathing.

2. Follow your breath to reduce stress."Try using four counts on your inhale and eight counts on your exhale," Libshtein suggests. But meditation is all about reducing stress, so if these counts feel strained or unnatural, it's OK to deviate from them. Try to increase your counts every time you meditate. "Don't be concerned if it takes you some time to work up to eight counts," Libshtein says. "Just know that lengthening the exhale will significantly help calm you down."

3. Try a guided meditation for weight loss.Feeling a little lost on your own? No problem! There are plenty of recordings, podcasts, websites, and phone apps that connect you with experts who can guide you through meditation exercises until you feel comfortable going it alone. Calm is one of the more popular ones and one of my favorites is Stin at mythoughtcoach.com (some of her guided meditations are free) 

What should you expect from doing guided meditation for weight loss?

If you want to use meditation specifically to lose weight you can look for guided meditations that focus on that as their subject. The expert in the video or audio recording will likely ask you to imagine several things: what you might look and feel like after you've lost the weight, an inspiring person who has already managed to lose weight and what they might think and feel, what they probably do to successfully lose weight and keep it off, and how you can incorporate these habits into your own daily life.

Are there limitations to using meditation techniques for weight loss?

Meditation should be seen as just one tool in the entire weight-loss toolkit. Diet and exercise are important parts of the equation too, and you're always going to see the best results when you combine all three of them into a lifestyle that you can continue long-term. The key with meditation, like diet and exercise, is dedication. You need to stick with the practice to see lasting changes. Research shows that meditation directly changes the brain's structure after practicing for an extended period of time, such as 21 days. 

So your weekly bonus challenge is to meditate for 10 minutes a day.I realize that many of you are incredibly busy so if needed you can count these 10 minutes as part of your 60 minutes a day of exercise. And although this bonus challenge only lasts for a week I would love it if you adopt this as one to continue for a life time. 

Fresh Clean Water

To tell you the truth I wish I could drink diet soda 24 hours a day. I am so lucky I DON'T live in Utah because my car would be headed into Swig every time I was nearby. I love, love, love soda and yet I know the chemicals in it are not good for me and that it can actually cause rather than relieve dehydration. 

And like many people I do NOT love, love, love drinking water. Yet simply adding water to your diet is an effective way of nourishing healthier skin and hair, as well as flushing your system of toxins, boosting your immune system and much more. So how much water should we be drinking? For this competition we have been requiring you to drink a minimum of 48 ounces of water per day, but many experts recommend you drink between half an ounce and an ounce of water for each pound you weigh, every day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, that would be about 10-20 cups of water per day or a minimum of about 5 standard water bottles. 

Whatever amount you decide (And it would be great if you challenge yourself to drink MORE than 48 ounces a day this week).  I want you to also challenge yourself this week to measure every ounce. Hopefully most of you are already doing this but as part of our bonus challenge let's avoid any laziness of guessing this glass or that cup was a certain number of ounces. We will actually measure how much is in the drinking glasses, cups or water bottles we use to insure we are getting sufficient water each day. And don’t forget that if your water bottle is half full of ice and you don’t eat the ice (which by the way my dentist husband would advise you DON’T eat the ice) then you have to figure that in when counting how many ounces you drank.

Implementing this simple routine of drinking sufficient water is an excellent way to increase energy and relieve fatigue, helping you think, focus and concentrate better in the process. Water also removes by-products of fat and reduces eating intake. Simply drinking water can also stimulate your metabolism and flush out toxins through sweat and urination which reduces the risk of kidney stones and UTI’s. As far as your skin is concerned, drinking water keeps your skin moisturized and smooth, aiding with wrinkles in the process. Water also helps fight against flu, cancer and more, making it one of nature’s most important and impressive natural medications. 

Water can help prevent headaches and in many cases when you take pain medication for a headache it is actually the water you wash it down with that brings relief not the medication. Cramps, and sprains are also aided by water. So this week- drink up!  

It is also better for your health to sip water throughout your day rather than gulping it all down at once. You want to maintain a good level of hydration. 

HOW CAN YOU GET MORE WATER IN?

1. One of my favorite health bloggers Snack Girl suggests adding a drop or two of key lime juice to your water. She recommends the Nellie and Joe’s brand 

2. Another product she recommends is Nuun -- a hydration solution she says it is kind of expensive but it makes water easier to drink. I looked over the ingredients and for a product that offers some rehydration protection like Gatorade it is cheaper and the ingredients are much healthier. Snack girl says, “You pop a 10 calorie tablet into your water bottle and get a nice flavor along with electrolytes. I use this after exercise instead of drinking Gatorade. I also sometimes drink 1/2 coconut water plus 1/2 water as a rehydration drink.”

3. Buy some peppermint extract and a medicine dropper and make your own "Mint" water. Or add in some fresh mint leaves.These options add zero calories and a refreshing taste.

4. Try the book "Cool Waters" by Brian Preston-Campbell which includes 50 tasty water recipes see: How Do You Like it? Water Enhancer With or Without Chemicals.https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Waters-Refreshing-Homemade-Quenchers/dp/1558323848?SubscriptionId=0V2WKFJHBETEQ931R1R2&tag=snackgirl-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1558323848

3. Give flavored seltzer a chance (without artificial sweeteners) 

4. Get a SodaStream and make your own seltzer. They even have flavor enhancers you can buy without artificial sweeteners - see Soda Stream USA.

5. Squeeze a lemon or lime in your water or buy a powdered form called True Lemon (there are other flavors too). There are no preservatives, artificial colors etc. see: True Lemon.

 6. Dilute your juice. Try cutting your juice with water and see how little juice you can use to make it taste good to you. Over time, use less and less juice. (My husband does this daily with Pomegranate juice)

7. Try a fruit flavored herbal tea. There are some great caffeine-free flavors such as peach, blueberry, and apple. Brew some up and chill it.

8. Buy a water infuser and some fresh fruit. See the pitcher linked below. You add fruit to the center which is filled with holes and you can refill the water when needed.

https://www.amazon.com/Prodyne-Fruit-Infusion-Flavor-Pitcher/dp/B0023UL86A?psc=1&SubscriptionId=0V2WKFJHBETEQ931R1R2&tag=snackgirl-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0023UL86A

9. Get a great water bottle. My favorite keeps the water cold for hours and is easy to drink out of quickly. Occasionally they have this one at Costco for half the price. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071WYHR68/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

TO EARN YOUR WEEKLY BONUS POINTS I WOULD LIKE YOU TO CHOOSE AN AMOUNT OF WATER (48 OUNCES OR MORE) AND MEASURE EACH OUNCE THROUGHOUT THE DAY TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE GETTING A GENEROUS AMOUNT OF PURE PLAIN WATER. 

Let's Start With Positive Affirmations

My apologies that this blog post is late. I didn’t realize my camping family reunion would not have wi-fi! But let’s start this healthy living challenge on a positive note. There really is amazing power in positive self talk. Several years ago I trained for and completed a marathon with my oldest daughter . One of the tools I discovered and used in the weeks of demanding training runs was positive affirmations. I would notice myself start to think “Oh I’m so tired. I haven’t run yet today. I need to do ____ miles. Oh I am dreading it. Oh it is going to be so hard. Oh maybe I can skip tonight.” I learned to stop that thought in its tracks and replace it with some made up thoughts that honestly weren’t in my heart. I would script them and then just recite them to myself… “Oh I haven’t run today. I can’t wait until I get to run. It’s going to be so rejuvenating. I am going to love it!” 

I know that sounds a little whacky but after continually halting the negative thought and replacing it with a pretend positive thought I actually began to bend my own thinking. I really did start to look forward to and think positively about my training runs. 

You too can use positive daily affirmations to direct your focus, efforts and success . You can conquer your past and present fears, and design a new present and future through  affirmations. Affirmations can redirect your values, help formulate your goals and prepare you for situations, whenever or wherever they may occur.

In general you can say your positive daily affirmations silently or aloud to yourself. For our weekly challenge however we are going to be saying them out loud with enthusiasm.I would like you to write your affirmations down and find creative ways to keep them before your eyes throughout the day (Phone screen saver, note on your bathroom mirror, sticky note on your computer,  big sign on your refrigerator etc.) Repeat your positive affirmations out loud at intervals throughout your day, to reinforce the positive belief and to maintain a positive state of mind.

You should state your positive daily affirmations in the present tense, that is, use "I am..." rather than "I will be..." Saying things in the present tense will program your subconscious mind to believe that what you affirm is already fact. When the subconscious believes that, it will start arranging for bringing what you affirm to you. In other words, the subconscious will drive you to perform the actions needed to live out what you affirm; and, acting thus, you will create the circumstances that make them actually happen for you.

Another important guideline in formulating your affirmations is to write them in the positive state. Many people have the tendency to write affirmations in the negative state (ie: I am not going to pig out on candy anymore!) ─, which immediately defeats the purpose and the effectiveness of the affirmation. Affirmations written from the negative perspective will never work.

Every week we will have a different weekly challenge to earn the weekly bonus points. If this is your first time doing a healthy living challenge with me in addition to this weekly challenge please join myfitnesspal.com and friend 3 ladies (look for contact info in my e-mail header)

Also for the weekly bonus challenge for this week-- Write at least 3 positive affirmations, place them somewhere that you will see them often and repeat them out loud and with enthusiasm several times each day throughout the day (Don’t forget all day and then blurt them out 10 times before jumping in bed!) Also share your affirmations with your healthy living partner.

A few ideas for positive affirmations :

     1.  I love to exercise! Moving my body relieves my stress, calms my mind and is just plain fun.

     2.  I love fruits and vegetables. I notice when I eat them I feel full of energy and life. They are my favorite treat.

     3.  I am in control of my health and wellness.

     4.  I have abundant energy, vitality and well-being.

     5.  I am always able to maintain my ideal weight of _______.

     6.  I radiate good health.

     7.  I sleep soundly and peacefully.

     8.  I have abundant energy, vitality and well-being.

     9.  The more I honor my health and body the better I feel.

     10.  I love clear clean water. It is my favorite drink and I love sipping it all day long.

     11.  I am a sweet treat gourmet. I love waiting and planning all week for one special dessert.

     12.  I am a record keeper. I enjoy writing down my exercise and meals. It reminds me I control the destiny of my health.