Blog
Mindset
Outdoor Activity and Its Positive Effects on Well-Being
April 26, 2012. Written by Adam Rankin
Can anyone remember the last time we’ve had a stretch of weather that has been this good? There surely is no better time than now to get outdoors and take advantage of all the health and wellness benefits that the great outdoors has to offer. In fact, a Swedish study recently showed that 99% of women and 95% of men who participated thought that being outdoors had a positive effect on well-being. Outdoor recreational activities include not only sports and exercises. It includes walking, sunbathing, bird watching and even camping.
Enjoying the great weather with friends and family has powerful effect on not only physical well being, but also rejuvenates mindset and spirituality. How many times have you had a stressful day at work, come home and go for a walk or run, or play out in the yard with the dogs, or go sunbathing and afterwards you’ve totally forgotten about what you were stressed about in the first place? Just being out in the sunlight helps release vitamin D into our bodies and releases endorphins into our bloodstream. This will make us feel better throughout the day, and give us energy to sustain our desired activities.
Goals and Rewards: Setting Realistic Expectations
April 18, 2012 : Written by Natalia Kielcz
Believe and you will achieve. This saying can be applied to many aspects of life, including health and fitness. Emotional training is just as important as physical training when it comes to total body strength. “Athletes that participate in mental preparation, rehearsal, and skills training tend to achieve a higher level of the elite status,” Mark Hogue, PsyD, clinical psychologist and sports psychologist at Northshore Psychological Associates in Erie, Pa.. This can be applied to anyone that wants to get in better shape, regardless of your goal.
Performance Wellness Research: January
Movement
Research shows that regular cardio doesn’t really help with fat loss. One study showed interval training was better than cardio at burning belly fat (and cutting workout time in half). A second study found that 300 hours of cardio per year helped men lose only 6 pounds (and women lost only 4 pounds). So that’s about 50 hours of cardio per pound of weight lost – at BEST!
(Source: Obesity 15:1496-1512 (2007). Exercise Effect on Weight and Body Fat in Men and Women. Anne McTiernan, et al.)
Mindset
You may not be aware of it – they might not be aware of it, but the people in your work environment might be slowing you down. New research by University of Calgary shows that regardless of their intentions, having an individual working on a different task – within your field of vision – could be enough to slow down your performance.
The reason for this is a built-in response-interpretation mechanism that is hard-wired into our central nervous systems. If we see someone performing a task we automatically imagine ourselves performing that task. This behavior is part of our mirror neuron system.
(Source: Science Daily, Feb. 21, 2008)
Rest and Recovery
If you’re getting less than eight hours of sleep each night, chances are you’re sleep deprived. What’s more, you probably have no idea just how much lack of sleep is affecting you.
You may be sleep deprived if you…
Need an alarm clock in order to wake up on time
Rely on… [ read more ]
Conditioning Emotionally
Written by Natalia Kielcz
Believe and you will achieve. This saying can be applied to many aspects of life, including health and fitness. Emotional training is just as important as physical training when it comes to total body strength. “Athletes that participate in mental preparation, rehearsal, and skills training tend to achieve a higher level of the elite status,” Mark Hogue, PsyD, clinical psychologist and sports psychologist at Northshore Psychological Associates in Erie, Pa.. This can be applied to anyone that wants to get in better shape, regardless of your goal.
Many people at the gym are reading, watching TV, or chatting with the person next to them while ‘working out.’ Just simply going to the gym and tuning out of your workout is not going to get you the results you want. It takes practice and really mentally focusing to block out distractions to tune in to the workout, focus on what your body is doing, and to push yourself to levels above and beyond your comfort zone for maximum results. Mental strength really kicks in when the workout gets hard and you break through that barrier by telling yourself that you can get through it. The reward of completing and not quitting when it gets tough is an amazing feeling of self-fulfillment and achievement.
Some tips to workout and strength your ‘mental muscle’ are setting goals and establishing rewards. Goal setting is key, whether you are Michelle Kwan or just want to play some golf over the… [ read more ]
Napping is Natural
Napping is Natural by: Natalia Kielcz
Many people have the misconception that napping is something for the lazy and a waste of time. In fact, did you know that most mammals sleep for short periods throughout the day? Our bodies are actually programmed for two periods of severe tiredness: from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and our reaction time, alertness, coordination, memory, and mood and profoundly effected. Many studies have come out in the last few years showing that taking a midday nap increases alertness, mood, and productivity for later hours in the day. That’s not all – naps have also shown health benefits such as reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and excessive weight gain.
In order to reap the benefits of taking a midday snooze, you need to understand your body first to find out when, and how long your nap needs to be, you need to understand your body. If you are the type of person that ideally prefers to get up early and go to sleep early, you are going to feel that need for a nap around 1/1:30 p.m. If you like to stay up late and sleep in a bit, your need for a nap will be more around 2/2:30 p.m. If you need to get more accomplished after your midday snooze, limit your nap to 20-45 minutes. You will stay in a light Stage 2 sleep and when you… [ read more ]
3 Tips for Positive Attitude
1. Give Thanks – A simple yet powerful strategy for instantly changing mindset, being thankful for all the great things you have in life will get you on the path to healthier mindset. A simple method to use on a daily basis is to put pictures of everything in life you are thankful for, and post them on a corkboard, or any other spot that will be seen multiple times during a day. The pictures will immediately change your state of mind for the better.
2. Be an optimist – In a recent report by The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Michael Scheier, a psychologist at Carnegie-Melon University wrote that “optimists tend to respond to disappointments like being turned for a job by formulating a plan of action and asking others for help and advice”. He went on to state that, “pessimists more often react by trying to forget the whole thing or assuming nothing can be done”. Being positive even in the light of failure is no doubt a tough mental status to take on, but is a sure way to see things turn in your favor.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/03/science/research-affirms-power-of-positive-thinking.html
3. See the good in others and yourself – More often than not, negative interactions with others, miscommunication and misunderstanding produces a negative hormonal environment in the body we call stress. This can also happen internally when we place high amounts of pressure on ourselves whether it is with family or work related issues. Take a timeout when you… [ read more ]