It’s that time again……
The holidays are fast approaching, and many of us begin to get anxious about our upcoming busy schedules of shopping, parties, eating, drinking, and celebrating.
However, you can use your busy schedule to your advantage if you follow these simple tips.
One of the best ways to avoid sabotaging your health and fitness efforts is to continue scheduling your exercise each week, just as you do now. Many times we allow ourselves to skip exercise and use that time for preparation and shopping. This season, considering that some of the benefits of exercise are increased stamina and stress relief, why not decide now that exercise is an important part of your weekly routine and stick with your schedule. Or, if your schedule is not flexible enough to get done all you need to do without sacrificing something, then just decrease your exercise time instead of skipping it all together. This way you get the best of both scenarios.
Remember that walking is a form of exercise. If you plan out your shopping trips, and take your time to walk around the mall before, during, and after your shopping, you could accomplish both shopping and exercising at the same time. It may not be as intense as your exercise session would have been, but it’s better than skipping exercise all together.
Finally, let yourself off the hook! Don’t beat yourself up about missing an exercise session, or cutting one short, believing that you are sabotaging all of your efforts. Just re-prioritize! The holiday season (from Halloween through New Years) is not the time of year to focus on weight loss or fitness gains, instead think of it as your maintenance period. If you can accomplish just half of what you might be currently doing, you will maintain the gains (or losses) that you have made, and that is half the battle. Then, as the new year begins, you can concentrate on new goals for increasing your exercise back to pre-holiday intensities.
My best advice: Enjoy the season!!!
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With all of the great benefits of exercise: improved health, strength, energy, body image; here is just one more to add to the list. Exercise makes you smarter! Yes, it is true. Recent studies have revealed that people who exercised for six months showed an increase in the amount of specific kinds of brain tissue which allow you to process and store more information more effectively.
Kirk Erickson, Ph.D., a scientist at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology of the University of Illinois, used brain scans on subjects who were asked to walk three days a week for 45 minutes. When compared to a control group who were given non-aerobic stretching exercises, the walking group had experienced a 2% growth in the prefrontal lobe, the site of higher-level functions, such as goal-planning and multi-tasking. This growth was the result of the production and release of chemicals in the brain triggered by exercise. The most important of these chemicals is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which contributes to the cellular components of memory and the production of new neurons in the hippocampus (which regulates emotion and learning).
BDNF also helps build new veins, capillaries and arteries in the brain, increasing blood flow, which allows neurons to function more effectively, which in turn makes them larger and stronger.
Exercise has even been shown to have a positive effect on troublesome brain disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease because exercise actually protects your brain. As we age, we start to lose brain tissue. Research done on adults, ages 58 to 78, demonstrated that athletic older adults had denser brain tissue than their inactive counterparts, suggesting that their workouts, in effect, had preserved their brains.
How much exercise do you need to do to increase cells and safeguard your brain? According to the research, not much. Recommendations rage from 8-12 minutes a day at 60 percent maximum heart rate, to a brisk 45-minute walk 3 days a week.
So, the next time you are thinking about skipping that workout, just remember that the workout is strengthening your brain, too!
Excerpt from Sound Body Sounder Mind: May/June 2007, ACE Fitness Matters.
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Do you have to think specific positive thoughts about your body in order for your body to be the way you want it to be? No. But you have to not think the specific negative thoughts. If you could never again think about your body and, instead, just think pleasant thoughts -- your body would reclaim its place of Well-being.
From Daily Quotation
www.Abraham-Hicks.com
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“I blew it this week, I’ll start again Monday!” Sound familiar? Women always make this promise after having blown yet another diet. After the binging, guilt and punishment pass, you plan your next diet, hoping for a different outcome. While the diet industry wants you to think you’re a failure and need a new diet or more “willpower”, this isn’t the truth.
Permanent weight loss and a healthy relationship with food come from learning how to eat intuitively. Infants know how to do this, so do “naturally” thin people. Watch a baby - she screams and demands food when she’s hungry, regardless of the time of day or if her mother is busy or tired. When she is full the bottle is refused or the food is thrown on the floor. She doesn’t have a need to clean her plate or eat everything so she can have dessert. By re-learning to eat intuitively, your body will return to its natural weight and you can maintain it without dieting, deprivation or excessive exercise.
So if we were born with this innate ability, why are so many people disconnected from it? Well, as a young child, you probably heard messages such as, “eat everything on your plate and you’ll get dessert”, or “you can’t be hungry, it’s not dinner time!” Maybe your grandmother was offended if you didn’t eat seconds. And you were probably forced to eat things you didn’t like in order to get a cookie or ice cream. As you got older, you learned about dieting from your friends at school. And the magazines you read told you how you should look and feel about yourself. As an adult, you are still inundated with these messages. It’s no wonder everyone is confused, feeling like a failure! There are four main reasons why we overeat:
The first is “diet deprivation backlash” – every time you go on a diet, you have certain “bad”-listed foods. Many are probably your favorites, such as chocolate, cookies, or cheese. The more you can’t have it, the more you crave it. For every diet you attempt, you can expect a binge to follow. When you eat intuitively you can eat the foods you love, when you’re hungry, without weight gain!
Read the rest of this article at Women’s Online Magazine.
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I've compiled some of my favorite books, tools and music in one easy to shop store. If you can shop Amazon, you can shop my personal Amazon store!
If you have recommendations for me to add, please let me know!
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November 2007
It’s finally here!
Intuitive Eating Laser Coaching
Have you gotten "stuck" with intuitive eating?
Have you experienced a life change that has suddenly made it hard for you to follow intuitive eating or has thrown you back into old eating habits?
Do you simply want to make sure you're still on track with intuitive eating?
If you answered yes to any of these questions,
then an intuitive eating laser coaching session may be for you!
Sometimes, all you need is an outside perspective. That's what I provide. I listen to your challenges and help you to work out an action plan so you can blast through whatever roadblocks have been holding you back.
After we've met and created your action plan, you'll receive 30 days of email support. I can help hold you accountable to your plan; I can answer questions; I can help you work through challenges you face in implementing your plan … whatever you need to ensure your success in meeting your goals.
Here's how someone recently described their intuitive eating experience to me:
"Ever since taking up intuitive eating, I now feel calm around food, am able to recognize emotional vs physical hunger and respond appropriately, have tons more energy and focus, and am generally happier. It's wonderful, actually!"
If you haven't found this same satisfaction with intuitive eating, contact me for an intuitive eating laser coaching session, so we can determine what's holding you back.
Your Intuitive Eating Laser Coaching session includes:
- One 60 minute phone call with me
- A targeted action plan for achieving the results you desire
- One-on-one email support for 30 days
That's right. For just $95, you get your session, and action plan and 30 days of personal support!
To schedule your session, simply email me at gillian@healthieroutcomes.com or call me at
530-873-0377.
Find out more details...
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Finding Focus for Your Business and Life
by Steve Novak
Entrepreneurs are an energetic lot. Constantly reaching for more and finding new opportunities. These traits are what make entrepreneurs successful. Unfortunately, they are also traits that can doom a business that otherwise has a bright future. While not confined to entrepreneurs, large business often face the same issues, they are the ones who personify this scattered energy.
Do you find yourself tired, worn out, or frequently frustrated because you’re not making the progress that you want and expect? Why continue to stumble down that path when there’s a better one? Why not work towards developing a healthier business and a healthier you? Usually it’s because we don’t know another path. Well you’re in luck today. There is a tool available to you, one that you’ve already heard of, but one that probably just isn’t on your radar screen.
One tool that is the perfect remedy for unhealthy business habits is underutilized, misunderstood, and when it is used, frequently implemented poorly - Strategic Planning. I know, I know, I can hear the groans already, but keep reading. If you have a poor impression of strategic planning, you haven’t seen it done right or experienced the benefits that derive from doing it properly.
Strategic planning promotes focus, a focus that so many of us desperately need. You define your target and develop a plan to reach it. When performed properly, you have well defined objectives, a clear direction to follow to reach those objectives, and a set of performance measures that let you know how you’re progressing. This clear path reduces the stress on your business, on you, and on your customers and suppliers. Everyone knows what to expect and what is expected of them.
Read more at the Fit For Business Blog.
Steve is the founder and president of PPR Management Services. He helps organizations and individuals define, then reach, their goals, through consulting and coaching. He is the author of The Small Manufacturer's Toolkit. He may be contacted at PPRManagementServices.com, or check out his new blog, Let’s Talk Business.
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I have had a lot of interest in the Am I Hungry? Teleworkshops that have been offered this year, but some of you that want to attend have not been able to due to scheduling conflicts. If you are interested, I would really appreciate you taking this 1-minute survey to let me know the best days and times for you. I hope to offer another teleworkshop very soon.
Click Here to take survey
To find out more about the Am I Hungry? Program, check out BreakOutofDietPrison.com
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From December 1, 2007 To December 30, 2007
James Reilly and Javed Akram Welcome you to the 30daysofchristmas.com The Biggest and Brightest Giveaway Event of the year.
This is the 3rd year of 30 Days of Christmas Giveaway with every year becoming bigger & better than ever before.
During the last 2 years our JV contributors have added 1000s of new fresh subscribers in their lists in only 30 days.
If you would like to be a contributor, you must:
- have your own list.
- Promote 30daysofchristmas.com giveaway. Please note this is not a free ride. You must be able to refer and participate in this event.
- be able to add a Unique Gift. Duplicate Gifts will not be acceptable. (Note: Gift can range from i.e Software, Script, ebook, Video, Audio, Membership etc. Please do not add old products as we will not approve them. We want gifts that will add real value to the event.)
Click here to find out more and sign up!
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