We all know the physical reasons to watch our weight: Diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol, respiratory problems, and even cancer have all been linked to weight related problems.
Experts now tell us that there’s yet another reason to keep our weight where it needs to be.
If you are a healthy weight, your mind is more youthful than if you are carrying extra weight. In a recent UCLA study, overweight people were found to have 4 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight adults. If this were broken down into brain age, their minds are about 8 years older than the minds of people who are in their normal weight range.
One possible cause is the fact that high calorie, high fat diets clog arteries in the brain, restrict blood flow, and cause cells to shrink.
Makes you want to have a salad for lunch, doesn’t it? Someone call Panera Bread and tell them to have my salad and green tea waiting for me!
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Stress is a common problem encountered daily, but it is not always bad. Stress often occurs when you take on too many tasks at once or you are preparing for something you are not used to doing. Your body responds as if it senses danger and produces cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones are good in small amounts because they allow you to overcome certain obstacles in life. During a stressful situation, your body may produce excessive amounts of these hormones and it can have a negative effect on your body. Small amounts of cortisol and adrenaline are helpful for helping you through certain situations. For example, these hormones can help you react quickly if you are in a dangerous situation.
Some of the negative effects of stress include an upset stomach, back pain, insomnia, or headaches. Too much stress can also affect your immune system resulting in difficulty fighting disease. It may cause you to become moody, tense, or depressed, and this can have a negative effect on your relationships.
Because of these problems, it is important to learn proper stress management techniques. There are several changes you can make that can help you feel much better.
Don’t take on more than you can handle. By accepting a reasonable workload, you place less pressure on yourself and should be able to meet your deadline without any added frustrations.
Meditation is an excellent method of relaxation and this can help calm your body and mind. Meditation has many positive effects on the body such as helping clear the mind of any negative thoughts.
Another method of stress relief is to see things from a different perspective. With a different viewpoint, you may see the positive in an otherwise bad situation. This also allows you to have a more positive outlook on life, which can lead to many health benefits.
If you are suffering from stress, it is important to relax and find out what is causing this problem. After figuring out the cause, you can begin making changes to reduce the negative effects of your stress.
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I don’t have to remind you of the benefits of relaxation or the dangers of stress. You know how essential relaxation is to your physical and emotional health. Stress wreaks havoc on every part of our bodies. It’s imperative, then, that we find ways to totally and completely relax – as often as possible.
Experts recommend that we spend at least 15 minutes each day completely still and relaxed. Sometimes it’s difficult to shut off the day and shut out the world. That’s when I especially love my wonderful little sound machine. The HoMedics SS-2000 Sound Spa Relaxation Sound Machine with 6 Nature Sounds, Silver
is one of my favorite relaxation tools of all time. It’s right up there with hot green tea and bath time!
Product Features
- 6 Nature sounds, ocean, summer night, rain, rain forest, waterfall and heart beat.
- 15, 30 and 60 second auto off timer
- Battery or adaptor operated (adaptor included)
- Natural sleep aid
- Great for the baby’s room
My favorite settings are Summer night, rain and rain Forest (the sound of rain and the sound birds alway takes me to another level of calmness). The waterfall and ocean are also nothing short of amazing. I believe the ocean is my husband’s favorite. I’ve found him sprawled across the bed after a long day of work listening to the waves crashing on the shore quite a few times.
I often use my sound machine when I’m taking a bath – well out of reach of wet hands, of course. The illusion of taking a bath in the rain, in the middle of a rain forest, or even in the yard on a summer evening is all that’s needed to melt away the day’s demands. By the time the bath is over, I’m so relaxed I almost have noodle legs.
The heartbeat setting is pretty much one I leave untouched. However, it’s a setting that new parents – whether they’re the parents of a human, a kitten, or a puppy – swear by this setting for restless babies. They feel stress, too, after all!
As of today (December 20, 2009), if you jump over to HoMedics SS-2000 Sound Spa Relaxation Sound Machine with 6 Nature Sounds, Silver and place your order, you can have one of these sound machines delivered by Tuesday, December 22, just in time for Christmas. Simply choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.
Whether you have one in mind for a gift for someone else – or a treat for yourself, this could be the smartest $20 you’ve spent in ages.
Make each relaxing moment count!
~ Joi
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If you love berries, grape juice, and walnuts, you already have an upper hand when it comes to protecting the health of your brain. If you aren’t already wild about them, it’s time to fall in love!
The polyphenols in walnuts and berries help quiet the inflammation and oxidative stressin the brain. These are the vile evils that can injure the brain and lead to memory problems.
Potent Brain Protection and Prevent Memory Loss
Just how powerful are the polyphenols in berries, grape juice, and walnuts? Get this: They are so potent that research suggests they might even help reverse cognitive decline once it occurs. According to Real Age.com (with Drs. Oz and Roizen), in a study of older adults with mild dementia, the individuals performed better on memory tests after Concord grape juice was added to their diets.
Take Steps to Prevent Mental Decline
Below are some tasty ways to make sure you get enough of these polyphenols.
- Pick a time of the day to automatically have a glass of grape juice – use a particular time or event to signal the ritual. For example, have a glass as you wash dishes, check your e-mail, take a bath, or read the paper.
- Add berries and nuts to your breakfast cereal.
- Add nuts and berries to your tossed salad.
- Put some walnuts in the bottom of a clear bowl. Pour vanilla yogurt over the walnuts, then pile on different colors of berries. Gorgeous and delicious.
- Keep a candy dish filled with walnuts near your computer. Nosh on them throughout the day.
- Add berries and walnuts to your oatmeal. I’ve gotten to the point where if my oatmeal doesn’t have blueberries on top of it, I walk the other way!
Make each moment count double!
~ Joi
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NEEDED by B. Lynn Goodwin
“When are you planning on going to the grocery store?” my mother asked after our trip to the hairdresser followed by a late lunch at Emil Villa’s. I’d taken her back to her condo, helped her open her mail, and I thought my day was over.
“I’ll go right now.”
“Don’t go now. You don’t have time.” I did though, and we both knew it. I hated being reminded that I had no life.
“When would you like me to go, Missus?” I asked with all the patience I could muster. She was Missus and I was Person, names that kept us unique and reminded us that we loved each other, even in trying times.
“I don’t care. Go tomorrow or the next day or whenever you want to.”
We did this dance every day. She needed help; I needed space. She feared I would abandon her, while I feared that her blood pressure would soar, causing another stroke.
It would be four years before I knew that Alzheimer’s was eating her brain, robbing her of logical thought, and returning her to the emotional dependence of a child. I had no idea I was engaged in a psychological battle with a woman who was losing her ability to think logically. I put on my patient face and said, “I’ve got time and I want to go now. What would you like me to bring?”
She looked up with vacant, pleading eyes. Four years later I would call them Alzheimer eyes. “Can we look at the list?”
She’d spent all one afternoon sitting at a wobbly card table typing the list, letter by letter, then going back and XXXing out her mistakes. I offered to type on either her typewriter or my computer while she dictated, but she said, “I have to do something for myself.” Watching her struggle with the scraps of memory lurking in her brain made me want to scream. I dug my fingernails into my crossed arms until little red half-moons dotted my elbows.
I found the typed grocery list in a stack of old Saks catalogues, but nothing appealed so I breathed deeply and said, “Why don’t I see what’s in the freezer?”
In my best Vanna White imitation, I pulled out each item, turned, showed it, and called out its name. If I read the names while I looked in the freezer, she couldn’t hear me. Besides my Vanna poses were entertaining, and I loved her approval, though at 48 I should have been far too old to care.
Crisp fall air filled my lungs as I scurried to my car. I never realized how stale the air in her kitchen was until I escaped to the real world. I looked up at the bare spots already showing on the trees. I didn’t know yet that Alzheimer’s speckled her brain with holes in exactly the same way as fallen leaves made holes in the trees. I only wondered if this was the last year she would see the leaves turn.
If I had known about her disease, maybe I could have stopped trying to be the perfect daughter. Maybe I could have loved her for needing me instead of craving her approval. Maybe I could have recognized that I was an adult daughter, doing what needed to be done.
When I came back from the store, she thanked me profusely. “I don’t know what I would do without you, Person.”
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B. Lynn Goodwin is a freelance writer, editor, teacher, former caregiver, and the author of You Want Me To Do What? – Journaling for Caregivers. She is published in numerous anthologies, e-zines, magazines, and blogs. She facilitates journaling workshops for caregivers and publishes Writer Advice, www.writeradvice.com. A longer version of this piece was originally published in Voices of Caregivers.
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Guest post by Adrienne Carlson.
It’s worse than the fattiest of foods in making you fat, and it’s more lethal than most diseases in sending you to the hospital; in fact, stress is one of the most dangerous enemies of good health. All of us are subject to stress in some form or the other as we go about our lives, but only a few of us are skilled at managing this curse without letting it affect us physically and mentally. While a small amount of stress is necessary to get our adrenaline flowing and keep us on our toes, too much of this and we end up paying for it heavily. Because stress is a regular part of life, we need to know how to cope with it rather than try to avoid it. And to this end, here’s how you can do exactly that:
- Don’t keep it bottled up inside: When something bad happens and you feel heavy inside, it’s best to let it out. Some people find that crying is therapeutic while others prefer to talk to someone they trust. Yet others feel better after they vent their feelings on someone or something – they scream or bang a door to reduce the stress they feel inside. Whatever works for you, find it and use it to deal with stress and get it out of your system.
- Know how to relax: Learn to leave the office at the office and your personal life at home in order to prevent the stress associated with one from spilling over into the other area. You end up losing your peace of mind in the process. Practice mental techniques that help you compartmentalize your life and deal with each separately. Know what helps you relax and unwind after a stressful day or experience – you may find music soothing or prefer to read a book. Either way, the choice is yours, so find something that helps you clear your mind and sleep peacefully.
- Learn to let go: If there are issues in your life that are not to your liking or problems that you cannot seem to solve, learn to let go. Sometimes, things have a way of clearing up by themselves. So if you know that you are helpless in solving a problem, don’t attempt to solve it at all. Forget about it so that it does not compound to your misery by keeping you stressed out all the time.
- Reduce your expectations: There are times when high expectations lead to stress, especially when they involve relationships. When your expectations and desires are not met, you tend to feel stressed and tense, and this makes you irritable. Instead, lower your expectations and learn to be satisfied with what you have instead of wanting more and more.
- Accept what you cannot change: There are some situations that you cannot change and some people who never will. So instead of grumbling and complaining all the time, accept them for what and who they are. This helps you avoid a whole lot of unnecessary stress.
It’s not easy dealing with stress, but when you condition your mind to do it, it becomes more of a habit than something that is difficult to achieve.
By-line:
This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of physical therapy assistant schools. Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson1@gmail.com.
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Einstein Poster
Buy at AllPosters.com
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. – Albert Einstein
This quote kind of seems to fly in the face of everything we’ve clung to for years, doesn’t it? But before we write Albert Einstein off as a quack, let’s really think about the truth of this quote. We all know how important creative thinking is for mental fitness. When we stop thinking for ourselves and stop trying to figure things out creatively and on our own terms… we’re in serious trouble.
Never allow yourself to become so enthralled with reading (or, well, anything for that matter) that it’s your only source of “input”. Never become so engorssed in your daily reading (newspapers, blogs, e-mails, magazines… even Dean Koontz) that you forget to think for yourself! Make it a point, each and every day, to exercise the creative corners of your own mind, don’t just rely on the fruits of other’s minds.
Begin keeping a journal or even start a blog! If you already have a blog, post articles more often – even if it’s giving your opinion on a particular subject. You’ll be getting in touch with your own thoughts and with your own creative side and I can’t tell you how much your brain will love you for it! The brain thrives on new things. When you read for hours upon hours, you may think you’re feeding your brain everything it needs when, in fact, you’re lulling it to sleep and boring it to death!
Is reading bad? No way! Not even close. However, many people fall back on reading and “obtaining” information – they rely entirely on reading to strengthen their brain. Big mistake. We have to be interactive with mental fitness. Below are a few ways to strengthen your brain and give your mind the workout it actually craves.
- Learn new things. Push yourself to learn how to do something new. Don’t just read about new things – experience new things. Reading is wonderful and, by no means, should you cut it out of your daily activities. However, for true mental fitness, you need to actively pursue new activities and physically DO and/or CREATE new things.
- Keep a journal. Don’t just read what others write, get on the other side of the words. It’s a wonderful way to exercise your creativity.
- Work jigsaw puzzles.
- Work Sudoku puzzles.
- Work crossword puzzles.
- Take up a new sport.
- Take different routes to/from work.
- Take up a new language.
- Learn to play an instrument.
- Take up cooking! Watch the food network, buy some cookbooks, and get in the kitchen and amaze yourself.
- Go new places – don’t just read about them!
Also, an extra note about reading: If the books you read are all fiction, you really aren’t doing your brain any favors. I love a great novel – I’ve read just about every Agatha Christie book as well as most by Dean Koontz, Nicholas Sparks, and John Grisham – however, keep in mind that these books are more entertainment than they are educational.
To really give your mind a great workout, you have to be more interactive with life – not just read about it!
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This is pretty cool… you have to try this. It takes just 2 seconds, but I promise you’ll get a kick out of it.
This particular brain game (or challenge?) It is from an orthopedic surgeon and it’ll boggle your mind.
- Right now, while sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
- Now, while doing this, draw the number ‘6′ in the air with your right hand.
- I’ll bet your foot changed directions without you telling it to! I also bet that if you’re anything like me, you’ll try it again at least once before you leave this site.
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One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things. – John Burroughs
The quote above is a lesson in self improvement, self help, stress management, health, and happiness. I think everyone should write this quote down on an index card and place it in the place they’ll see it the most often – on the refrigerator, by your desk, on your bathroom mirror… Small things (like the ones listed below) simply aren’t worth getting riled up over:
- A leaking faucet.
- Finding yourself low on gas.
- The cost of gas.
- A driver who pulls out in front of you.
- A barking dog.
- Having to run to the store for butter or milk.
- Your team losing a game.
- The server not bringing your refill as quickly as you’d like.
- A slow internet connection.
- And so on….
Think about it – these things are so trivial, they’re almost funny! Yet how many times do people get hot and bothered over these very things… and often things even sillier. Recently, my husband and I were eating at an Outback in Nashville, Tennessee (Amazing food!). A group came in and were seated in a booth, by the window no less. One of the women got ticked off because they didn’t get to choose their own booth. There were only a handful available anyway!
If a person can get to the place where small things barely even register a response from them, they’ll be happier than they have ever been. What’s more, they’ll experience stress so rarely that they’ll think they’ve been given a new lease on life. We spend a great deal of emotions needlessly on small things. Then when then the larger problems arise – we don’t have much left in our tank. The larger problems overwhelm us because we’re spent!
Start challenging yourself to handle life’s small disappointments and setbacks better. Amaze everyone around you by smiling and even laughing when something cooky happens. Several great things will happen: You’ll feel happier and more relaxed. What’s more, anyone who sees you handling life’s little annoyances this way will think, “Wow. I want to be more like that!” Before you know it, you and everyone you know will enjoy a much happier and calmer life.
Worth trying, right?! The next time something starts to register on your stress scale, take a deep breath. Then ask yourself, “What if this is the worst thing that happens to me this week?” The diminutive nature of the problem will leave you amazed and probably even laughing!
Make each moment count double,
~ Joi
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Last night, I put a kettle of water on for a cup of hot green tea before heading off to bed. If you’re familiar with green tea, you know that it’s best to “catch” the water just before it actually starts to boil. So I stood by the stove, cup in hand – waiting for the water to reach its “green tea” temperature.
As the water slowly heated and brought itself to the proper stage, it reminded me of stress. Sometimes it’s the little things that add up to a boil, isn’t it? The misplaced keys in the morning, the rude server at lunch, the ridiculously slow internet connection, the check that didn’t come in the mail….. again!…. and so on. These small things heap themselves together and cause a slow boil.
We’ve all been there. Even the most laid-back, easy-going person in the world understands stress. Ironically, those of us who are ridiculously laid back may have it worst of all. We tend to allow things to build up until we can’t see in front of us.
The easiest, fastest, and most effective stress reliever in the world is…. drum roll, please…. laughter. That’s it. Laughter is, indeed, the best medicine! The benefits of having a really good laugh are wide-ranging and can even include protection from depression. Laughter can even improve the health of your heart.
Laughter and a sense of humor guard you against the negatives of life that could lead to depression. During the last years of his life, my dad endured horrendous medical procedures, illnesses, hospital visits, surgeries, and setbacks. His illness would have sent most people into the deepest, darkest depths of depression. Fortunately, this man had been born with one of the wickedest senses of humor in the entire history of the world. Somehow, he managed to see the humor in everything. He would have his nurses, doctors, and the rest of us in stitches – all while lying in a hospital bed hooked up to IVs and feeling completely miserable. Daddy went to a pain specialist once who told my mom that the sort of pain my dad had would leave most people in tears. Yet he never felt sorry for himself, never asked “Why me,” and never gave in to pity or depression.
I believed it then and I believe it now – laughter buffered my dad from the cruelty that life can sometimes throw our way. His sense of humor protected him. Had it not been for laughter, his illness would have taken more than just his body. As it was, he kept his joy for life and didn’t allow his sickness to take that away.
Laughter also helps those of us who aren’t fighting a physical battle. Having fun with life keeps your spirits up and helps you feel better about yourself and your life. When you keep your sense of humor, things that bother most people simply don’t faze you.
Laughter is also considered to be healthy for your heart. Research shows that when we laugh, there’s an increase in oxygen-rich blood flow in your body, possibly due to the release of endorphins. This creates a chemical rush that cancels out negative feelings and stress. Other activities that increase endorphins are working out and listening to music.
Adding More Laughter to Your Life
So, you agree with everything you’ve read and there’s only one problem… you don’t feel like laughing?!!? Don’t despair just yet. If what you’re up against (family problems, money worries, school problems, work trouble, sickness) has left you with anything but a smile on your face, I want you to focus on one thing right now: Getting it back. Think of your sense of humor and laughter as being important weapons you’ll need in your fight, because that’s exactly what they are.
Ways to bring laughter into your life:
- Read the comics. Garfield, Dilbert, Rose is Rose, and Peanuts are always good for a smile.
- Turn on a funny sitcom. Roseanne, I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith, Sanford and Son, Friends… whichever tickles your funny bone.
- Either go to a funny movie or rent one. Ask around and see what movies other people recommend. A few that have had me in stitches have been Knocked Up, Kung Fu Panda, Juno, Coming to America, Napoleon Dynamite, Liar Liar, Borat…
- Watch Dane Cook’s “Vicious Cycle” – preferably without food in your mouth. You’ll choke laughing.
- Hang out with someone who never fails to make you laugh.
I’d honestly go so far as to suggest watching a sitcom regularly. Choose at least one and watch it religiously. Bringing more laughter into your life helps you to look at the world on a lighter level and, therefore, puts a smile on your face and laughter in your throat more often. That is always a good thing.
Make each laugh count double,
~ Joi
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