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Channel: Uncategorized – Her Fitness

Exercise and Mental Health

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We all know that exercise can make you look better, help your clothes fit better and bring out your muscle tone.

But one of the most important and underrated benefits of exercise is its effect on your mental health.

After the past few years we’ve all endured, mental health is more important than ever before. As we’ve emerged from lockdowns, isolation and limited social interaction, experts have learned that depression, anxiety and stress are at an all-time high.

Of course physical health is important!

Exercise improves relative strength, bone density, cardiovascular health, hormone balance, blood sugar management, and more. Exercise can also improve your memory and self-esteem, boost your energy and lead to a better night’s sleep.​ It can also change the shape of your body when you lift weights and help you fit into your clothes better.

However, in regards to mental health, studies show that as little as 15 minutes of exercise each day can reduce depression, anxiety and stress.

The other great aspect of the emotional benefits of exercise is that you’ll feel them almost immediately … whereas the improvements in your physical appearance may take some time to show.

If you’ve been inactive for a while, start slow. With the weather starting to improve, start with something simple like a walk or bike ride.

If you have a park nearby, you can mix in some push-ups or step-ups on a bench, or stop every hundred steps and do 10 squats.

Finally, exercise is something you can do with a friend or significant other … so you’ll both not only benefit from the exercise itself, but also the social interaction.

 

Exercise isn’t just a physical activity with physical benefits. In fact, the mental and emotional benefits of exercise may be even greater.


Words you use

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This topic came up a few times this week…and it’s only Wednesday!

The topic is: Loving/hating your body.

A client confessed to a few of us at the studio that she always focused on her body in a negative manner.

Always complaining to herself (and maybe others, I don’t know) that she had ugly knocked-knees. She worried about looking like a hunch back with a big, pregnant like belly (like her mother.)

She was hating on her body.

Another client wondered “how did I let myself get like “this.”

I used to beat myself up, standing in front of the mirror and tell myself how this body part was ugly, this part was fat, and so on.

Wherever these thought habits came from, likely from our childhood, possibly innocent comments from our family or comparing ourselves to our friends or girls in Teen-Cosmo, they don’t serve us now.

These non-loving words we use towards ourselves do nothing  positive, but they do prevent us from personal growth. These words and thoughts keep us stuck, they keep us from thriving in this area of our life.

You cannot make permanent and positive changes or impact on something you hate.

I bet you know the plant experiment story. The one where you have two plants in the same environment except one plant you hate on it with negative thoughts and talk and the other plant you love on with positive thoughts and language. The plant you “love” thrives and the other one dies…yeah, that story is also you when you say hateful things about your own body.

I do believe it’s valid to recognize when you are not healthy, when you are overweight or not taking care of yourself.

Notice this and then take action to change, but still love your body.

Taking steps, making honest effort to improve your daily actions, may or may not have the results you were hoping for, however, if you begin eating better and exercising regularly, you ARE doing better and your body IS changing, even if it’s happening only at the cellular level.

It may take a lot longer than you expect to see those outward changes.

It’s like this for some of the ladies in my F.A.T. Method program. They don’t all see changes on the scale, but they feel better, ​their clothes fit better or people tell them they look better….and they ARE better and healthier!

If you speak negatively about your body then do this: look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself of all the good things your body does/has done. You may have carried and birthed children, cared for an ailing parent, walked a 5k, jumped in mud puddles with your toddler, moved some furniture…find something, anything to love on and be grateful for the body you have right now.

It’s likely that you aren’t getting enough

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It’s likely that you aren’t getting enough protein, especially as you head into your 40s, 50s and beyond.

As you get older you need more animal based protein, not less, to build and maintain your muscle. It’s really the high quality amino acids that you get from protein that you need and, because our bodies become less sensitive to using the amino acids as we age, the amount we consume needs to increase.

A teenager can build muscle with, for example, 10 grams of protein, but a woman in her 40s, 50s + needs a minimum of 30 grams of animal protein per meal  to get enough of the essential amino acids for the body to say “hey, we’ve got enough to start making muscle.”

Side note : “….more than 40 percent of men and 55 percent of women over the age of 50 have sarcopenia….” Chris Kresser [sarcopenia is age-related muscle atrophy] and part of combating sarcopenia is with your diet and getting enough protein.

Look to get 1.6 – 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight, according to Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, an expert in muscle-centric medicine.  For a 150# woman that’s between 109 – 150 grams​.

Focus on protein first, make sure to get a minimum of 30 grams of animal protein per meal and up to 50 grams. If you plan it out, it’s easier than you think…plus you will crush your cravings for sweets and junk, which I always think is a great benefit!

Can 1 drug prevent 26 conditions?

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Is there such a drug that can treat 26 conditions or diseases?

Certainly not in the form of a pill, but one thing nearly everyone has access to is….exercise.

Sadly, most adults are do not meet the required amount of aerobic or muscle strengthening exercise necessary to prevent or treat medical conditions or diseases.

Here’s a list:

..”psychiatric diseases (depression, anxiety, stress, schizophrenia); neurological diseases (dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis); metabolic diseases (obesity, hyperlipidemia, metabolic syndrome, polycystic ovarian syndrome, type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes); cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure, cerebral apoplexy, and claudication intermittent); pulmonary diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cystic fibrosis); musculo-skeletal disorders (osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, back pain, rheumatoid arthritis); and cancer.”  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/s…

When was the last time you went to the doctor for other than a check up and the number one thing he/she ordered was exercise?

The doctor may have said “watch what you eat and exercise” and likely added “make sure you fill this prescription and take your pill daily.”

You have more control over your health than you’ve been led to believe.

Pills are great and lifesaving sometimes, but prevention is better when possible.

It’s very likely that conditions or diseases/illness you have can improve or be eliminated with regular physical activity.

Muscle contraction releases powerful myokines (cytokines and proteins synthesized and secreted by myocytes in response to muscle contraction. Myokines exert an autocrine function in regulating muscle metabolism as well as a paracrine/endocrine regulatory function on distant organs and tissues, such as bone, adipose tissue, brain and liver. Physical activity is the primary physiological stimulus for bone anabolism (and/or catabolism) through the production and secretion of myokines, such as IL-6, irisin, IGF-1, FGF2, beside the direct effect of loading. Importantly, exercise-induced myokine can exert an anti-inflammatory action that is able to counteract not only acute inflammation due to an infection, but also a condition of chronic low-grade inflammation raised as consequence of physical inactivity, aging or metabolic disorders (i.e., obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31952571/

If you have questions related to exercise, reply back and I’d love to help you out!

Now, it’s time to get moving;)

15 minutes a day

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One thing that causes women to feel like they are out of shape or aging “not-very-gracefully” is joint aches and pains.

While there are obvious reasons for some of this, like an acute injury, very often these achy joints are due to lifestyle choices like inactivity or  poor dietary choices.

When it comes to the activity part of the equation, I want to remind you that only 15 minutes a day can make a big difference in how you feel!

If you spent 15 minutes a day stretching, doing mobility drills and for some people, walking, this would be enough to increase much needed blood flow to muscles and activate smaller stabilizing muscles that often get weak.

Here’s a toe touch series, for example, that would only take a few minutes a day and you can easily do it in your office or living room. This alone could help your back and legs feel better.

Or dong this shin box movement can help your hips become more mobile and feel better and also only takes a few minutes.

Get rid of the All-or-Nothing mentality. You’ll start moving better, feeling better and often times in as little as 15 minutes a day.

Me, first!

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During a conversation this morning, some clients and I were discussing the idea of “Me, first!”

 

By that, we were recognizing that exercise, movement and other self-care items really need to take place first thing, otherwise the chances are good that the thing won’t happen.

 

We recognized how important it is to take care of ourselves so that we can be our best  and to take care of others and, yet, somehow on the days we don’t have an appointment to meet at the studio, the self-care seems selfish and gets put aside.

 

Now, we know intellectually that self-care is not selfish. We realize that if we have more strength, endurance, feel better emotionally/mentally, have an outlet for stress, etc., that we will be better all around.

 

On the flip side, I thought, what if someone is saying to herself “Me, first” but on the inside, she hears “at the expense of everyone else” or “to the exclusion of my loved ones” or “gee, that sure sounds selfish.”

 

If that’s the case, you may have a hard time justifying your workouts.

 

Remember that your deep-seated beliefs are ultimately the first step in your decision about what action to take.

 

Check out this image of the psychocybernetic loop:

 

NOW, if you find yourself using the words “Me, first” and then you don’t follow through with putting your exercise or self-care routine in action, perhaps you can find other words to say to yourself.

 

Instead of “Me, first” think to yourself “I’m better when I …..”  or “Exercise is not optional, it’s a requirement for my health” or something else that gets you to feel differently about your self-care.

Drain or Gain

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Have you ever thought about the things in your life that are either  draining you or “gaining” you?

I’m talking about things that we  do that may initially feel good and think they elevate us,  but in the end they don’t always serve us like we expected or hoped they would.

For instance, we think social media is keeping us connected to friends, but often times women end up feeling more isolated, lonely and “less than” instead of truly fulfilled with friend or kinship.

Maybe it’s your evening glass of wine, beer or spirit that, when you first started drinking it, relaxed you after a hard day. Only now, that drink has become two or three , you don’t sleep well at night, you’ve gained a bunch of belly fat and you’ve realized that it’s pretty hard to go without that drink.

Other things that might actually be draining you instead of helping you gain in life are  sugary sweets and addictive foods, gossip and drama, late night television or screen time, and I bet you can think of other things.

If you are up for it, challenge yourself to let go of something standing in your way. Let go of one thing that is actually keeping you from elevating.

It’s not deprivation, it’s actually a GIFT to yourself to set it aside and see how you do without it.

 

👉Ask yourself: How do I feel? Once I adjust to it being gone, will I actually miss it? Did it add value to my life or drain my energy?

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For many, the weekend is a time we fall off track.

The weekend is also when most people have more time to dedicate to exercise and being active.

Instead of completely derailing, why not flip the weakest part of your week?

Make a commitment to yourself to exercise and be more active overall. It doesn’t have to be “formal” exercise.

It could be going for a casual Sunday after breakfast stroll or a Saturday lunch-time hike. Maybe it’s finding a reason to work outside like raking leaves instead of using the blower;)

Maybe it’s playing golf or basketball or just throwing a ball in the back yard with your kids or grandkids.

Start to make it a thing that you “just do” on the weekends, a habit of being active.


5 facts about staying Hydrated

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As it gets colder, I drink less water if I’m not paying attention, and I think many women do the same, but we can’t forget to drink water.

Your body is over two-thirds water!

Proper hydration is needed to transport all the nutrients, hormones, and wastes through our bodies. Some of us may be dehydrated and not even know it!

Here are 5 Facts to Know About Staying Hydrated

  • Thirst pains are real. Chronic joint pain, headaches, and gastric ulcers can often be signs of dehydration.
  • If you are tired, you may be dehydrated. A study conducted by Loughborough University found that a mere 5% drop in water levels in the body could cause a 25-30% loss in energy.
  • Allergies & asthma can be linked to dehydration. Chronic dehydration triggers a histamine release in asthma sufferers that leads to inflammation and bronchial constriction.
  • Chlorinated water can mess with our digestion. Chlorine is a skin irritant, pro-oxidant, and destroyer of friendly micro flora and stomach acid. Lack of stomach acid can cause acid-reflux and when our healthy gut flora is wiped out we may suffer from bloating and slower digestion.
  • How much water do I need? The amount of water each person needs is individual to their health and lifestyle choices. However, a good rule of thumb is to take your body weight in pounds and divide by 2. Drink this number in ounces of water each day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you need at least 75 ounces of water per day.

 

<i “=”” data-redactor-tag=”i”>Consider adding electrolytes to your water so that it gets absorbed into the body’s cells.

<i “=”” data-redactor-tag=”i”>Something like LMNT (raw flavored) works well. You can buy that easily, on line. You can also search recipes, but avoid drinks (like Gatorade) and recipes with added sugar and artificial colors.

Drink up!

The basics

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This is going to be short…hooray!

If you are not feeling like yourself – tired, low energy, gaining weight, bloated, etc., start with the basics first.

The basics are simple and for those who can implement, they are wildly successful.

The problem is that most people think that doing these things will work because they are inundated with too much information or they get sucked into the minutiae. 

Here’s where to start to get back to feeling like your self again:

  • Eat a minimum of 90 grams of protein per day and 30-50 grams at each meal.
  • Drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water
  • Get 7-8+ hours of sleep every night
  • Exercise, including weight training and walking, 7 days
  • Cut out sugar & other “white” food and alcohol

These are the basics, the foundation. I could add to the list and fine tune what’s on this one, but you’ve got to start here.

If you’re not able to implement these on your own, I  can help you, especially with the exercise part of it;), but the others components to, because once you start spending time with other women who normalize these things, you will begin to normalize them, too.



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