Healthy Lifestyle

Getting the Results You Want in the Gym

blog getting the results you want in the gymYou might believe that you need to beat yourself up in the gym, but that doesn’t have to be true!

We all know that just being at the gym doesn’t mean that you’ll see the results you want. When we don’t see the results, we tend to push harder - going to the gym more, lengthening our working out, increasing the intensity of our training, etc.

But there is another option. You can work smarter, not harder, to get you the results you want.

Let’s explore the best exercises for lasting results where you don’t have to live in the gym!

 

When You Go to the Gym

If you have been frustrated by not seeing results from your workouts, or even if you are an athlete, you will find the following information interesting.

A meta-analysis of 43 studies had really shocking results! The studies followed overweight and obese people for 3-12 months. People in these studies worked out for 45 minutes 3-5 times a week. This resulted in an average of about 69 hours of exercise over the course of the study. Do you know how much the exercise group lost over that period of time? Only 2.2 lbs.!!! That’s a lot of work for very little results.

So, what specific exercises will get you the results you want? There are two types of workouts that have shown to have great outcomes. These are High Interval Intensity Training (HIIT) and strength training. Besides these, walking and lower intensity exercises can also bring huge benefits. 

 

High Interval Intensity Training (HIIT)

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) involves alternating between short bursts of hard, intense exercise and a little lighter form of exercise. This may be running hard for five minutes followed by a walk or jog. It may be working with weights in this fashion as well.

The key is to push yourself hard, followed by a gentler form of movement. This type of workout results in more calories being burned after your workout. 

 

Strength Training

When we say strength training many people immediately think about lifting weights. While lifting is a great way to build strength, you can also build strength through other forms of resistance training.

Body weight training uses your own body weight and gravity. Things such as planks, pull ups, etc. would count as body weight training that takes little to no equipment. Another way to build strength is through resistance bands. This type of workout can be easily done outside the gym in the privacy of your own home.

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Diversity and Resilience

blog diversity and resilienceAre you a gardener? If so, you may know that rotating crops is an important strategy for a good crop, but why is it so important and what can we learn from it?

While it’s nice to have a variety of vegetables to eat from year to year, the strategy is intended to keep the soil rich in nutrients. When the same crop is planted over and over it can deplete the soil.

According to Soil Health Academy, “more diversity increases the variety of root exudates produced by the plants and this attracts a much broader array of soil microbial species.” In simple terms, this means that “diversity increases resilience” in the soil. 

This got me thinking about how important diversity is for us. We all want to be resilient in both our physical and emotional health. Could diversity help us achieve it?

Let’s explore why diversity is so important and how it can increase resilience in you!

What Does it Mean to be Resilient?

The dictionary explains resilience as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.” It’s a sort of toughness that allows you to bounce back from setbacks or challenges.

Hard things happen in life! There is no way to prevent all challenges, but we can build our resilience so that when trouble comes, we can recover in the best way possible. In order to build resilience, we need to establish diversity.

In a very real way, the more diversity we have, the more resilient we are in both our physical and mental health. So, in a very real way, diversity makes us more capable of moving through these trials in a healthy way. 

Diversity in our Diets

As I'm sure you all know by now, I am a big fan of eating real food. One of my goals with everyone that I work with, however, is to eventually be on the most diverse diet that they can tolerate. Different foods have different components. They have different vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. If a person is only consuming chicken and broccoli every day, while they are eating "real food," they do not have much diversity in their diet. This means that they are likely not getting the full spectrum of all of the nutrients that their body needs to thrive.

Having a variety of meats, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats is going to bring about not only more diversity in the nutrients for you, but also different components to feed a variety of gut bacteria so that the different species can all be taken care of!

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Emotional Eating in these Stressful Times

blog emotional eaiting in these stressful timesYou may be finding the winter to be particularly difficult this year. In addition to everyday stressors and seasonal factors, the political climate is especially intense, and we are still dealing with a pandemic. 

With all this going on you may be dealing with more stress, loneliness, and depression than they ever have before. 

When you face challenging times and strong emotions, it can be easy to turn to food for comfort. Eating in these moments may be an attempt to meet your emotional needs rather than physical ones. 

Let’s take a look at emotional eating and what we can do to deal with it in these extreme times!

 

What is Emotional Eating?

When you feel sad, anxious, lonely, or angry it can be tempting to reach for food. When you reach for food to fill an emotional need rather than a physical one, it is called emotional eating. 

Emotional eating is an attempt to self-soothe and has a way of numbing your feelings temporarily. Not only are you distracted by the sweet or salty tastes, but it can affect the chemicals in your body. 

When you consume sugar, your brain produces a surge of dopamine. Since dopamine is known as the feel-good hormone in the body, it brings temporary relief from difficult feelings. 

While soothing yourself this way may feel better in the moment, emotional eating isn't the best way to handle your emotions. It doesn’t effectively deal with the underlying emotions and often leads to regret. 

Emotional eating may create unintended health consequences if you indulge in it often. There are many better ways to soothe yourself, but first you need to recognize when you are attempting to eat your emotions. 

 

Building Awareness

You may emotionally eat without even realizing it. If this is the case, it will be important to cultivate self-awareness. By checking in with yourself and knowing the clues, you can determine whether you are truly hungry. 

When you go to eat, ask yourself, “How do I feel right now?”. Are you sad, lonely, angry, or bored? If you are experiencing a difficult emotion, ask yourself if you are really hungry or if you are trying to meet an emotional need?

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My Biggest Struggles

blog my biggest strugglesReading my articles each week may lead you to believe that I've really got my act together. So, I wanted to write a blog to be really honest with you all about the things that I struggle with. 

I feel like when I put out content each week about how to eat better, how to sleep better, how to have less stress in your life, how to move in a more ideal way, that everyone thinks that I am able to do all of these things all of the time. 

Let me be the first to tell you that that is just not the case. I am completely human, and I am doing my best, but I am definitely not able to follow all of my own advice all of the time. 

So.... in no particular order, here are some of the things that I do or think about that are not perfectly aligned with the weekly blogs that I send out.

 

Don't Apologize

I have patients that come in and apologize to me for "falling off the wagon with their diet." or "cheating" on when it comes to eating healthy foods. I want to let you know that I do not judge you or think of you any differently based on which foods you choose to eat. In my opinion, there is no such thing as "cheating" on your diet. To cheat, is taking an unfair advantage of something. It's just food. With each meal, we make a choice on how we are going to feed our body. We can choose more nutrient dense food or less nutrient dense food. It is not something that any of us need to have guilt or shame around. 

 

Eating

Our family gets busy and orders pizza, tacos, and Thai food. No, we don't cook every single meal from scratch with real, whole food ingredients. There is probably 1 night every week or 2 that we have no plan for dinner, it is late, and these are our go tos! I figure if we eat well most of the time, we are doing great and getting the nutrients that we need!

 

Sleep

My children wake me up in the middle of the night.... just about every single night. One is nursing at night still, and the others wander into my room at least a few times a week. I try to prioritize sleep, but sometimes it is a struggle. 

 

Movement

I haven't done a "good workout" where I get sweaty since I was pregnant with Madison in 2020. Yes, I move. I go for walks. I sometimes pull up a quick yoga video on my phone or have a kitchen dance party with my kids... but a planned workout... at a gym... with weights has not happened! I know that this would be good for me, but I have yet to actually schedule it and make it a priority.

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Cultivating Connection

cultivating connectionYou may know by now that strong social connections are important to your physical and mental health. Connections improve your immune system and increase your chance of longevity. The importance of strong connections cannot be overstated.

In fact, studies which “control for baseline health status, consistently show increased risk of death among persons with a low quantity, and sometimes low quality, of social relationships.” 

If social connections are so important, how do we cultivate them? Let's look at the ways we can foster connection in our relationships with others and with ourselves.

 

Making Time

It’s important to make time for important people in your life. If you are lucky enough to have people that you connect with on a deep level, make them a priority. 

Relationships take time. There are no shortcuts when it comes to building relationships. You need to invest time in them if you want quality connections. 

Often life is busy, and connections don’t always happen easily. When there are many demands for your time, it may be important to schedule time with those you love. Put it on your calendar and make it a priority. 

If you don’t make time for this, you will miss out on the opportunity to deepen your connection with people. 

 

Minimize Distractions

Try to limit distractions. Some people find they need to get out of their house because at home too many other things vie for their attention. Sometimes parents enjoy focused time with friends without their kids around.

It can also be important to put the cell phone away when you are with those you love. Research has found that just the presence of a cell phone can interfere with feelings of closeness and connection.

Minimizing distractions allows you to enter into the activity or conversation you are having, and it shows the other person you are really invested in your time together. 

 

Fostering Community

Sometimes we don’t have people who are available to connect with us in a meaningful way. But there is a simple way to cultivate a sense of community.

Simply talk with people that you interact with on a daily basis. Even saying “hello” to a service provider or someone you pass on the street can begin to create a feeling of connection with your community.

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A Surprising Heath Habit

blog a surprising health habitYou may think that eating well, getting adequate movement, refraining from smoking, and limiting alcohol are the things you need to do to stay healthy. But research shows that there is something surprising that we should add to our health habits. Enjoying social connections is more important for our health than most people realize!

In a culture obsessed with hard work and accomplishments, social connections can feel like a luxury reserve for when the real work is done. But if we are truly putting our health first, connection is of utmost importance for both our physical and mental health.

Let’s look at the research that may lead us to adding social connections to our list of healthy habits!

 

Social Connections Impact on Emotional & Physical Health

It’s not hard to believe that those who feel more connected with others tend to struggle less with anxiety and depression. They also have higher self-esteem, greater levels of empathy, trust others more, and tend to be more cooperative. But the extensive impact on physical health may come as a surprise to many. 

According to Dr. Emma Seppala, the American Association for the Advancement of Science published a study that found that “a lack of social connection is a greater detriment to health than obesity, smoking and high blood pressure.” A lack of social connections is actually linked to obesity levels, inflammation, and hypertension.

 

Is it Really that Important?

It may be shocking, but strong social connections improve your immune system and lead to a 50% increased chance of longevity. More research is needed to discover why social connections have such a dramatic impact on health, but the research is clear that social connections are extremely important if you want to live a long and healthy life.

In fact, research done by Housekarl, Landis, and Umberson found that “studies which control for baseline health status, consistently show increased risk of death among persons with a low quantity, and sometimes low quality, of social relationships.” They explain that “social isolation is a major risk factor for mortality from widely varying causes.”

 

When Thinking About Connection

It is important to realize that you don't need to be physically with someone to have a social connection. If you feel seen, heard, and understood, that is enough to feel connected to others.

On the other hand, it is possible to feel isolated and alone, even if you are surrounded by people. This is because a sense of connections don’t automatically happen when you get together with people. 

Brené Brown defines connection as “the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

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  2. Habits for a Great Night's Sleep
  3. Are You Getting Enough Sleep?
  4. Making Hydration Easy
  5. Incorporating Natural Movement in Your Life
  6. Getting the Most Out of Your Workout
  7. It's Crazy Out There!
  8. When it's Good to be Nosy
  9. A Healthy Habit You'd Never Guess
  10. Tricks for the Treats
  11. Are you ready for BALANCED?
  12. Work Smarter, Not Harder
  13. We All Deal With It
  14. Are You Ignoring Yourself?
  15. The Sensitive Balance: How Alcohol Might be Impacting your Hormones
  16. Be Sad
  17. Are You Sleep Deprived
  18. What's Your Heart Telling You
  19. Listen to Your Gut
  20. Three Connections
  21. Bugs, Breathing, and Movement!
  22. Bugs, Breathing, and Movement
  23. How to Weed, Seed, And Feed Your Body
  24. A Hidden Danger
  25. Take a Deep Breath! (No, Not Like That)
  26. Is Stress Making You NUTS?
  27. A Health Concern You May Be Overlooking
  28. Moving Through Difficult Emotions
  29. A Delicate Dance
  30. A Key to Establishing Healthy Relationships
  31. Are You Too Easy To Get Along With
  32. A Friendship You May Be Neglecting
  33. It's That Time of Year Again
  34. Enjoying Winter Wonderlands
  35. Promising Research on Covid-19
  36. Are You Too Un-Needy?
  37. Happy Thanksgiving Week!
  38. A Shocking Discovery
  39. An Easy Way to Improve Your Sleep
  40. Halloween (and Thanksgiving and Christmas OH MY)!
  41. A Word to the Wise as Cooler Days Approach
  42. A Little Trick You’ll Love!
  43. Leaning Into Difficult Emotions
  44. Back-to-School Wellness with Essential Oils
  45. Social Connection and Its Impact on Physical Health
  46. We've Still Got Your Back
  47. What Your Poop is Telling You!
  48. Is There a Right Way to Poop?
  49. It's Not Just Willpower
  50. Maternity Leave Announcement