There are other stress relievers besides S-U-G-A-R

Not sure about you but one of the big things that can thwart my healthy life choices is stress. Last year I was having a great year making healthy choices and consequently my weight was right where I wanted it and my knees were so so happy about that. And then in July we had 2 sons and two grand children move in with us (happy stress) and in November my mother died (unhappy stress) followed by the stress of being the executor of the will (un un happy stress)  and having the responsibility of cleaning out her home with 30 years of clutter and cleaning it so that it could go on the market (more unhappy stress). Then the holidays hit (happy and unhappy stress) with me less prepared than usual (unhappy stress)  because of the previously listed stresses. Geez —couple that with my new daily duties to monitor on-line schooling with the grands which made it close to impossible for me to go to the gym or do any of my regular hobbies and it was the perfect storm for out of control eating. 

Sugar (I love gummies more than chocolate and cookies more than icecream) is my quick grab stress reliever but such a dumb one as it quickly ramps up my weight and ramps down my energy .

So let’s look this week at some better ways to cope with stress:

1. Guided imagery is like taking a short vacation in your mind.¹ It can involve imaging yourself being in your "happy place"—maybe picturing yourself sitting on a beach, listening to the waves, smelling the ocean, and feeling the warm sand underneath you.Guided imagery can be done with a recording where you listen to someone walk you through a peaceful scene. Or, once you know how to do it yourself, you can practice guided imagery on your own.  My favorite podcast for meditation and guided imagery is 

2. Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation involves relaxing all the muscles in your body, group by group.³ To practice, you can start with a few deep breaths.

Then, practice tightening and relaxing each muscle group, starting with your forehead and moving down to your toes. 

With practice, you'll learn to recognize tension and tightness in your muscles and you'll be able to relax more easily. Each time you practice, however, you should experience a feeling of relaxation sweeping through your body.

 

3. Focus on Breathing

Just focusing on your breath or changing the way you breathe can make a big difference to your overall stress level. Breathing techniques can calm your body and your brain in just a few minutes.⁴

The best news is, no one around you will even know you're doing them. So whether you're in a stressful meeting or you're sitting in a crowded theater, breathing exercises could be key to

reducing your stress.  

While there are many different breathing exercises, a few simple ones include:

1. Breathe in through your nose and watch your belly fill with air. Count slowly to three as you inhale. Hold for one second and then slowly breathe out through your nose as you count to three again.
2. Breathe in through your nose and imagine that you're inhaling peaceful, calm air. Imagine that air spreading throughout your body. As you exhale, imagine that you're breathing out stress and tension. 

4. Take a Walk 

Exercise is a fantastic stress reliever that can work in minutes. Taking a walk allows you to enjoy change of scenery, which can

get you into a different frame of mind, and brings the benefits of exercise as well. 

So whether you just need to take a stroll around the office to get a break from a frustrating task or you decide to go for a long walk in the park after work, walking is a simple but effective way to rejuvenate your mind and body.

5. Play with a pet  

There is little that can bring my stress down as easily as my dog Batman. Some brushing, or petting, or cuddling or playing helps us both too chill. I wish I could loan him out to those of you that don't have pets 

6. Get a Hug From a Loved One

Physical touch can do a lot to relieve your stress. Hugging a loved

one can be especially beneficial.

When you hug someone, oxytocin (also known as the "cuddle hormone") is released. Oxytocin is associated with higher levels of happiness and lower levels of stress.

Oxytocin also causes a reduction in blood pressure.

It reduces the stress hormone norepinephrine and can produce a sense of relaxation. 

So don't be afraid to ask a loved one for a hug if you need it. It's good for both of you and it can be one of the simplest forms of stress relief available.

7. Enjoy Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy has real benefits for stress relief—it can help you to feel energized, more relaxed, or more present in the moment.

Emerging research suggests certain scents can alter brain wave activity and decrease stress hormones in the body.

So whether you enjoy candles, diffusers, or body products, consider incorporating some aromatherapy into your day. 

8. Create Artwork

Getting in touch with your creative side may have been easy for you during childhood, but if you’ve lost touch with your penchant for artwork, it’s not too late to pick it up again.

If you aren't into drawing or painting, consider coloring in a coloring book. Adult coloring books have risen in popularity and for good reason—coloring can be a great stress reliever.⁹

Research consistently shows that coloring can have a meditative effect. One study found that anxiety levels decline in people who were coloring complex geometric patterns, making it a perfect outlet for stress reduction.

9. Make Time for Leisure Activities

Leisure activities can be a wonderful way to relieve stress. Yet, many people feel as though their lives are too busy for hobbies, games, or extra fun.

But building time for leisure into your schedule could be key to helping you feel your best. And when you feel better, you'll perform better, which means leisure time may make your work time more efficient.

Whether you find joy in caring for a garden or you like making quilts, hobbies and leisure are key to living your best life.

10. Develop a Positive Self-Talk Habit

The way you talk to yourself matters. Harsh self-criticism, self-doubt, and catastrophic predictions aren't helpful. If you're constantly thinking things like, "I don't have time for this," and "I can't stand this," you'll stress yourself out.

It's important to learn to talk to yourself in a more realistic, compassionate manner. When you call yourself names or doubt your ability to succeed, reply with a kinder inner dialogue.

Positive self talk can help you develop a healthier outlook. And an optimistic and compassionate conversation can help you manage your emotions and take positive action. 

11. Practice Yoga

Yoga combines physical movement, meditation, light exercise, and controlled breathing—all of which provide excellent stress relief.

And while you're likely to reap immediate benefits from a single yoga session, you're likely to receive long-term benefits if you incorporate it into your life in a consistent way. 

Yoga offers a variety of physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits. To get started, you might take a class, enroll in an online program, or use an app to help you begin practicing.

12. Express Gratitude

Gratitude helps you recognize all the things you have to be thankful for. Whether you're grateful for a sunny day or thankful you arrived at work safely, think about all the good things you have in life.

Gratitude also reminds you of all of the resources you have to cope with stress, which can be quite empowering. 

Studies also show grateful people enjoy better mental health, lower stress, and a better quality of life.

So whether you decide to make it a habit to identify what you're grateful for as you sit around the dinner table or you decide to write down three things you're grateful for in a gratitude every day, make gratitude a regular habit. 

13. Reassess Your To-Do Lists

If you're trying to squeeze 20 hours worth of tasks into 16 hours, you're going to feel stressed. Reducing your workload could be key to helping you get through the day feeling better.

Whether that means stepping away from a committee you joined, or it involves asking help from friends or family or hiring someone to complete some of your household chores for you, honing your time management skills can allow you to minimize the stressors that you experience, and better manage the ones you can't avoid.

When you are able to complete everything on your "to do" list without the stress of rushing or forgetting, your whole life feels easier.

14. Cut out Things That Add to Your Stress 

Sometimes, the best way to reduce your stress is to cut something out of your life. Get rid of the things that are adding to your stress so you can experience more peace. 

Living with too much clutter, watching the news, being constantly connected to your digital devices, drinking alcohol, and consuming too much caffeine are just a few of the things that may add more stress to your life. Making some changes to your daily habits could be instrumental in helping you feel better.

15. Drink a glass of tea 

There is something elegant about brewing a cup of herbal tea and relaxing as you wait for it too steep in a lovely china cup. And then drinking it slowly and waiting for the calm to wash over you. One of my favorite times to enjoy this is right before bed. 

So what is your weekly bonus challenge? For every day that you take notice during the day of an especially  stressful time and you go out of your way to use one of these stress relievers to lessen your stress you will earn the 5 day bonus points for a total of 35 for the week. And yes you can use the same one every day but I would prefer you try a couple that aren't your usual 

go to. It is best to have many strategies in your tool belt for when life gets tough. 

Variety is the spice of life

I am in the middle of studying Dr. Will Bulsiewicz’s book Fiber Fueled and wish I could compel you to read the whole book for our weekly challenge. I honestly don’t know of another book that would bless your health and well being more.

Dr. B. shares that gut health is essential to weight management, overall health, and general well-being. Research shows that gut health, has a significant impact on mood, energy levels, and immunity. Fiber is the basis of good health. Dr. B is a renowned gastroenterologist, and through years of research and experience, he maintains that optimal health relies on a healthy gut. And, the solution that he offers is simple; eat more fiber.

What Are Microbes and How Do They Impact Gut Health?

Dr. B shares that there are an astonishing thirty-nine trillion micro-organisms that take up residence in our colons. These bacteria are often what makes us the most healthy and when in balance, the bacteria in our bodies have incredible healing power. They help digestion, and strengthen our immune system. On the other hand, when your gut biome is unbalanced, this can cause weight gain, increased blood sugar and cholesterol levels and a long list of disease states from allergies to cancer, heart disease and auto-immune diseases. 

Many of us could be in a situation where we may eat enough, but our healthy microbes could be starving. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 32% of our calorie intake comes from animal foods, 57% from processed plant foods, and only 11% from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

Diets that are high in animal protein and processed foods, tend to feed the inflammatory-producing bacteria, while starving the good, health-promoting bacteria of our gut. 

We should all know that processed foods such as white bread, rice, pasta, and sugar-laden cereals, are highly refined and low in fiber. One of the significant problems with this is that they're rapidly absorbed into the small intestine, instead of being slowly digested. This quick absorption reduces our gut microbial diversity. Inflammatory bacteria thrive on the sugar that's produced from simple carbohydrates.

On the other hand plant protein, fuels anti-inflammatory microbes and suppresses the destructive microbes. This bonus helps us to ward off many diseases. The need to nourish our healthy gut microbes is paramount.

The role of fiber in gut health is diverse, and we shouldn't neglect it. Unsurprisingly, plants have a total monopoly on this nutrient. Fiber is part of a plant's cellular structure. If you want to get fiber naturally, the only way to do it, is via plants.

Complex carbohydrates remain unchanged as they pass from our mouths to our stomachs, and even down the fifteen to twenty feet of your small intestine. So, once in the colon, the healthy bacteria metabolize the fiber. This stage is when the magic happens.

What are Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Why Do We Need Them?

The breakdown of fiber by gut bacteria unleashes the most healing nutrient in nature: short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids are the dominant drivers of gut health, and benefit the entire body and are the dominant energy source for our colon.

They also help healthy microbes grow, they repair the leaky gut, and they are vital regarding reducing the release of bad bacteria and harmful toxins into our systems. In short, they're the superheroes that ease gut dysbiosis. They reduce gas, bloating, and irritable bowel syndrome. Furthermore, they help regulate the immune system, prevent cancer, heart disease, strokes, and Type 2 diabetes.

But, as with all things there's a bit of a catch. To get the benefits of short-chain fatty acids, we need to eat more prebiotics, and thus more fiber. To do that, we need to ramp up our plant consumption.

Interestingly Dr. B. Says that it is not the Keto, v

Vegan, Weight Watchers, Paleo or Vegetarian diets that will most benefit our health and well being. Instead it all boils down to the volume and variety of plants you eat. 

One of the most extensive studies on microbes, published by Dr. Knight in 2017, shows that the single most significant predictor of a healthy gut microbiome, is incorporating a diverse range of plants into our diets. Research suggests that we should be eating thirty or more different plants per week, to support a healthy microbiome. Every plant type we introduce into our diet, provides a unique microbe community, that helps our gut thrive. So the more varied our plant intake is, the more diverse our microbiomes become.There are over three hundred thousand edible plants on the planet. However, most Americans don't eat more than twenty-five. Think about what you could be missing out on? The key idea is that plant diversity in our menu, should be part of our planning every time we eat.

I realize that when trying to lose weight it is often easiest to come up with a daily routine and eat the same thing every day. And you have worked hard to learn to include 7 servings of fruit and vegetables each day. But many of you have sunk into a routine of a grapefruit for breakfast, apple with lunch and green beans with dinner.  So a reminder from me that this is not JUST a weight loss competition but rather a HEALTHY living competition. So despite the risk of shaking up your routine I want to challenge you to eating as much and many varied whole plant foods as you can this week. 

Dr. B. Recommends 30+ different plant foods a week. And this is of course not just vegetables and fruits but also includes nuts, seeds and grains.

Also don’t forget that there is variety within each type of plant food: brown rice, black rice, granny smith apples, Fuji apples, yellow onions, red onions etc. You need to get out of your rut and eat a wide variety of plant foods during the week. I was able to eat 12 just yesterday so 30 is an attainable goal.

So that’s the challenge ladies. I’m not going to break it down by days this week. If you can manage to eat 30 or more DIFFERENT types of whole fruits, vegetables, herbs, seeds, grains and nuts this week you will earn the 35 weekly bonus challenge points. I am hoping you can make diversity your new routine.

Remember

Every time you go to the supermarket think diversity of plants! 

Every time you're cooking a meal think diversity of plants! 

Every time you sit down to eat a snack or meal think diversity of plants! 

Push it up, push it up, push it all the way up!

 

If you were a kid in the US who took gym class anytime between the 1960s and 2012, chances are you took the Presidential Physical Fitness Test. This gym-class tradition happened on an annual basis, requiring students to undergo a series of six physical challenges to test their endurance, agility, flexibility, and muscular strength. The kids who scored within or above the 85th percentile earned the coveted Presidential Physical Fitness Award. 

Though I won’t be able to award you each a patch I think it can be helpful to have benchmarks to aim for in our fitness. I thought we would select just one of the 6 requirements to focus on this week—- Push-ups. If you were in elementary school you would need to be able to do 25 push ups (in proper full body form) to earn the Presidential Physical Fitness patch but here is what is desired from us now. 

I want you to be able to easily do what would be excellent for your age group but push ups are  notoriously tough. Enter push-up modifications! The pathway to perfect execution of a dozen or so push ups (If you aren't already there) is to build your strength through doing modified push ups as you build your strength. Here are three modifications that are still amazing for working your upper-body muscles. They will help you build the strength and range of motion you need in order to work up to a full body push up. 

These push-up variations practice the same range of motion, but eliminate some of the weight you need to move. They’ll also strengthen your “push-up muscles” (triceps, biceps, shoulders, chest, back, and abs), and put less pressure on the joints. 

The wall push-up is the easiest modification, followed by the incline push-up, then the knee push-up. The more frequently you practice, the quicker you’ll be able to advance.  Try them all, and challenge yourself to advance in number of repetitions as well as type of modification until you work up to perfect form full body push ups. 

1. Wall push ups 

Stand a few feet away from a wall (the further away you stand, the more challenging the move will be).

Lean forward and place your hands on the wall in front of you, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.

Bend and straighten your arms to complete a push-up.

2. Incline Push-Ups

Place your arms on a stairs, a bench, table, couch or counter top and extend your legs straight behind you so that you're in an elevated plank position. Again, your hands should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.

Keeping your body in a straight line and your elbows close to your body, bend and straighten your arms to complete a push-up.

3. Knee Push-Ups

Start in high plank with your shoulders above your wrists and your spine long. This GIF shows your hands in a diamond push-up position, which is great for targeting your triceps, but for this modification place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, says Stone.

Drop to your knees, rolling to the top of your knees to protect your knee caps.

Bend your elbows and lower your chest to the ground.

Push through the palms of your hands to straighten your arms.

So for our weekly challenge:

1. Choose what type of push up you are going to start with

2. Decide a challenging number of push ups to do

3. Do 3 sets of push ups per day (you might want to do them at various times throughout your day)

* This is one of those challenges that I would hope you would continue throughout our 8 weeks together or actually until you can master and maintain the number of full push ups you should be able to compete for your age group. Let's get fit and stay feet. 

Let's get started !

 

It's been a crazy year hasn't it? Face masks, social distancing, businesses closed, financial challenges, political upheaval etc. etc. etc. 

Not sure about you but I've had a hard time keeping my head above water. Just in our family we had 2 adult sons move in with us and 2 grandchildren move in part time. I found myself monitoring on-line school for the grands and cooking, cleaning and doing laundry for a crowd again. My mother passed away in November and I had to deal with being executor of the estate which among other things meant preparing her home which was filled to the brim with a lifetime of stuff-- to sell. It seems like in being snowed under with those responsibilities I lost focus on the care I need to take for my personal health and well being and put everything but myself first.

But I have my responsibilities more under control now and I'm ready to put myself first. I am excited to:

1. Make sure I drink enough water daily

2. Get back to an hour a day of daily exercise

3. Start tracking every bite I eat to get my eating back under control

4. Base my meals around fresh fruits and vegetables

5. Get off sugar (and BTW I made it from January 1- August 12 last year with zero sugar) It can be done!

So welcome back aboard. And to earn your daily bonus points for this week you need to

1. Get set up on Myfitnesspal.com and start recording everything you eat and drink

2. If you haven't previously done so add at least 3 friends on Myfitnesspal and occasionally encourage them

3. Spend a few minutes telling your partner why you want to renew your healthy habits and share your personal plan to stick with this for the entire 8 weeks. 

Don't forget to check back here weekly for the weekly challenge and good luck ladies!