by IcennaEmach | May 20, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
There are three primary reasons why we may not have a vision for living happily, productively, and relatively disease free into old age:
1. We believe that healthy lifestyles and specific lifestyle habits are too difficult to change so we abandon the idea of living well into our 90’s and 100’s
2. We are unsure if it is too late to make lifestyle changes due to age and health circumstances.
3. We are unsure whether the payoff of healthy living will increase our life’s quality and longevity to the degree that we would like.
These are legitimate concerns. Let’s look at the first point today: lifestyle habits are too difficult to change. The following are a few questions that you may ask yourself when addressing this point:
1. How long will it take to make a specific lifestyle change? A Specific lifestyle example may be consuming 1800 calories daily compared to 2500 calories daily.
2. How long must I implement this specific lifestyle habit? Should it be a lifelong habit or can I sustain it for only a short duration? There are many instances when short duration lifestyle changes are perfectly appropriate.
3. What can I reasonably expect in terms of life quality and lifespan when I implement this change?
4. How much of my life am I “giving up” to implement this health change?
5. Is there a systematic approach that may help me obtain this lifestyle change that is not drastic as in many fad diets?
6. Will I adjust to the lifestyle change or will I feel deprived continually?
7. How will I feel about myself after making this lifestyle change?
This last point is something for us ponder. There is no guarantee that certain lifestyle changes will increase our lifespan, but most experts agree that we can tip the scale in our favor to a higher quality of life and perhaps an extended lifespan by avoiding habits we know are counterproductive. Such habits may include but are not limited to: smoking, lack of physical exertion, lack of sleep, stressful life patterns, lack of meaningful friendships, eating and drinking in excess, emphasis on eating saturated fats and simple carbohydrates, and lack of whole grains, vegetables, and fruits in the daily diet.
We are rarely told that lifestyle habits are difficult to change. Lifestyle changes take great effort. We must keep in mind our methods of change however. Changing our lifestyle in such a way that is systematic, thoughtful, and intelligent, can bring about changes that become not only a part of us, but a way of life for us – a way of life for us that seems not only easy and healthy, but more vital and vigorous well into our later years.
For those of you that are not familiar with the coaching method in lifestyle management and have health related lifestyle issues such as overweight, high blood pressure, high blood sugar or diabetes, that you need to manage, call me at 904 501 6002. It is not necessary to belong to a gym or travel for consultation. Most coaching sessions are 30 minutes in length and address weight and health questions through ongoing dialogue. I have a wide range of various programs starting at $140.00 monthly. It would be my pleasure to help you!
Feeling good, looking good, and performing great at any age. It’s what we are about! You have what it takes! It’s my job to find it!
Our Wealth is in Our Health
Kim Miller
by IcennaEmach | May 18, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
The NYC metropolitan museum of art has an exhibit on how movies affect our reality. I have not seen it yet, but can only imagine that it has to do with how our realities are altered to our advantage or disadvantage based on what we see and in turn how we interpret it into our own lives.
Lately it seems that many people have chosen to read and or watch the news in very small doses. You’ve heard the thinking about how lots of negative news etc. can have an adverse affect on how we go about our days. That is to say that many believe that too much negative awareness causes negative emotions. And conversely that positive awareness creates positive emotions. I personally have always disregarded this type of thinking and instead opted for a more obstinate attitude that no one can alter my emotions except myself. I think that some people like to believe that it is true of themselves too.
As of late however, in the past two years, I’ve come to change my position on this positive psychology stuff. And, I might add that it comes at a good time because even though scientists have known for many decades that emotions are affected by our environments, it is now “in” to pay attention to how we can alter a healthier state of mind through positive thinking, and brain rewiring. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not referring to the pollyanna type of personality whereby one can get run over by a truck and instantly see the positive points of being flattened by tons of metal. I’m referring mainly to what the scientists are now saying about how we can rewire our brain circuits to alter a multitude of habits that we would like to change. As of lately with books like The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D. and Perception, Memory and Emotion:Frontiers in Neuroscience by T. Ono, Ed., health professionals including myself are taking this brain circuit thing much more seriously. In my case, I’ve used it not only on myself successfully, but on people that I coach in creating more healthful habits. In fact, I feel so strongly about the use of it that it has formed the basis of my coaching. I no longer shun the idea of positive psychology as a gimmicky self help approach but instead believe that the strength of positive thinking because of it’s scientific proven credibility is an approach that is going to gain momentum in the world of healthy living and healthy aging.
If you are not familiar with the idea of brain rewiring, and would like to know more on how you can use it to alter habits in your own life then contact me at 904 501 6002 for a complimentary consultation.
One additional word on this topic, the very nature of rewiring our brain circuits is not a quick fix kind of plan. I like that it is a more sophisticated, long lasting, and intelligent way of changing ourselves, our habits, and our brain structures. I believe that in the next five years, the idea of rewiring our neuropathways to better our lives is going to stand apart from all of the quick fix diet, lifestyle, and exercise gurus that we have been inundated with in the last tenty five years. USA Today said that this year, 2008, is the year of living smart. Can you consider that living smart may include this more sophisticated brain altering life long approach to healthy living and healthy aging?
by IcennaEmach | May 17, 2009 | Burn Baby Burn, Uncategorized
What happened to her?
She wants me to walk 14 miles a day to lose weight.
I’m worried about her!
I better tell her she’s taking this weight gain thing far too seriously!
Such is the feedback to my last two weight loss issues. Now I know how the playwright felt when a review read “There was only one thing that weakened the play. They opened the curtain.” But, there was an objective to the direness I wanted one to feel in reading the past two issues.
The objective was to point out that it is easy to gain weight, but hard to lose weight, and because of this, we would be wise to utilize preventative weight gain measures such as weekly weighing and logging of caloric intake. The illustrations were intended to expand awareness of what occurs when one gains weight quickly yet expects to lose the added weight just as swiftly. It appears I accomplished this! I even have death threat e-mails to prove my astuteness in bringing full awareness to my Fit Through the Ages readers.
In part, our problem with weight loss has to do with our expectations. It is easy for all of us to consume additional calories. Eating a delicious pie ala mode may take only 5 minutes, and is pure enjoyment, but burning the calories will take two hours of what some term exercise misery! If we gain a pound of body fat in a short period of time by consuming too many calories, should we expect to lose the pound in the same amount of time it takes us to gain it?
The explanation in the last two blogs on weight loss frankly illuminates how much one needs to exercise, or reduce calories by, to lose a pound in 3 short days was certainly preposterous. However, consider the irony of this with our own weight loss goals. That is, that many of us expect to lose weight as rapidly as we gain weight. Who is going to walk 14 miles daily for three days in addition to working out in the gym for an hour daily, and all the while consuming only 1,100 calories on each of three days? Unfortunately, this is the reality when the goal is quick fat weight loss.
Viewing typical information in different ways helps to put things into proper perspective. Weight loss is about putting things into this proper perspective.
Think about this:
It is easier to gain weight than it is to lose weight.
It is easier to maintain weight than it is to lose weight.
And, it is easier on the body, mind, and spirit to maintain weight loss when done slowly, deliberately, and smartly than it is to lose weight quickly only to gain it back. The days of quick weight loss with no sense of sustaining lifestyle changes will soon be a perspective of the past. Our challenge is to act smartly, and with a sense of continual progressive lifestyle changes that deepen our convictions to do more for ourselves than just lose weight.
by IcennaEmach | May 17, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
There are groups of people throughout the United States and the world that organize and meet with the sole intent of supporting each other to live to be 100 years and older.
Humans, according to Robert N. Butler, M.D. founding director of the National Institute on Aging, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Why Survive? Being Old In America, have about 110-120 years at the outside of their genetic life span. This information is encouraging.
The question that appears for most of us, however, is not so much how do we live longer, but how do we live healthier?
“The two it seems”, writes Lenny Guarente, PH.D. and Novartis Professor of biology at M.I.T and author of Ageless Quest: One Scientist’s Search for Genes That Prolong Youth, “should go hand in hand. And they often do because we can tip the odds in our favor by our lifestyles and by avoiding things that we know are bad, like smoking, like transfat, like excess body fat, like high blood pressure.”
Most people would agree that if we can extend health span the extending lifespan is just an extra bonus.
Many of us do not have a vision of the life we could live happily, productively, and disease free, as we get older. Part of the reason for this is that we are not exposed to seeing those people that live happily, productively, and relatively disease free well into their 90’s and 100’s.
There are other reasons why we do not have a vision for living well into our later years. Three of the most significant reasons are:
1. We believe that healthier lifestyles and specific lifestyle habits are too difficult to change so we abandon the idea of living as a centurian.
2. We are unsure if it is too late to make lifestyle changes due to age and health circumstances.
3. We are unsure whether the payoff of healthy living will increase our life’s quality and longevity to the degree that we would like.
These are legitimate concerns. Lifestyle changes take time. Lifestyle changes take effort. And lifestyle changes are difficult to implement on our own.
If you have simply thought about changing your lifestyle for a better life quality, then you have a vision. It may not be a fully developed vision, but it is a vision. And a vision is a start. Keep it! Develop it! Don’t let it fade away. I can assure you that if you’ve implemented the lifestyle habits that you know are necessary for a more healthy, vigorous and vital you, then you will not be disappointed.
by IcennaEmach | May 17, 2009 | Come Home Feeling Good-Travel like it's meant to Feel., Uncategorized
A reader writes, “How can I maintain a healthful lifestyle while traveling for business or pleasure?”
This is a good question because it shows recognition that maintaining a healthful way of life is more easily accomplished when we are at home in an established routine. Because travel places us in a high-risk situation for continuing our healthful lifestyles, we need to recognize, identify, and practice a new set of skills in what is often a less regimented or more busily structured environment, as is the case with vacationing or business traveling.
What to Do?
Think about the health goals you want to maintain while traveling. Examples may be weight maintenance, cardiovascular conditioning, strength training routine maintenance, or simply active rest and relaxation.
Action Steps:
1. Seven days prior, write one and no more than two health goals you want to maintain while traveling. Keep in visible area. Read daily to reinforce mentally.
2. Five days prior, visualize what your days will look like while traveling and envision accomplishing written health goals in travel destination.
3. Four days prior, mentally strategize any barriers that may occur in preventing you from accomplishing health goals while traveling.
4. Three days prior, write down possible goal barriers, as well as alternative strategies you will implement if barriers arise.
5. Two days prior, pack what is necessary to accomplish health goals. Such items may include appropriate clothing for activity and projected weather, telephone numbers of fitness centers/spas; restaurant and grocery store locations as well as telephone numbers. Include other pertinent details that organize your time efficiently while traveling.
6. One day prior, mentally rehearse accomplishing health goals and overcoming all barriers that may arise. See yourself adjusting to new strategies in travel setting.
7. Day of travel, place written health goals and barrier strategies in visible area at destination. Read daily for awareness.
8. While traveling, use positive self-talk as tool to gain control of negative and defeatist attitudes.
9. Daily, remind yourself you are practicing skills that may be easy to implement at home, but a little more challenging while on vacation or business. Reward yourself for making good choices.
10. Daily, take solace in the fact that implementation of good healthful habits becomes easy, and by changing old neurological pathways now, better positions you for a high quality life as you progress through the ages.
Perspectives in Accomplishing Health Goals:
> Stay Organized and Thoughtful. We tend to think that others are more disciplined in integrating healthy behaviors, but in reality, they are just more organized and thoughtful. Have a plan and tell yourself that you are in training for a new skill. As you improve at organizing yourself and projecting possible barriers, the newly learned skills will come naturally, and keeping healthy while you travel will become a habit that is simple and part of an integrated healthy lifestyle that is envied by all!
> Stay Focused. It is easy to rationalize unhealthful behaviors while traveling, especially while on vacation. Recognize this type of thought process as destructive, and replace those thoughts with visualizing those people you admire who have mastered healthy skills. Know that it is within your reach to enjoy travel while maintaining your health. Others are doing it and so can you.
> Stay Honest. Certain events while traveling are out of our control. You should recognize these events as beyond your control. This is no time to indulge in self-berating behaviors. Conversely, many events are within our control, and directly correlated to the decisions that we make. Select choices that empower you to reach your health goals while traveling.
Thanks to all of you that e-mailed topic selections The five winners of the suite101.com competition are Tom S. Nancy S., Sue C., Carol F., and Lindsey F. Contact me at 904 501 6002 to schedule and brief me on a coach call topic.
