How's Your Attitude??

Here's a great little post on how our attitude affects our health and our ability to achieve our health goals. It also covers how to make our attitude improve so our chances of hitting those goals improve.

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/weightloss/276/making-a-change-attitude-is-everything/

just copy and paste that link to your browser's address space.

Be Well!!

Dr. Bruce

Are Your Fruits/Veggies Plastic?

An interesting blog about the quality of our plant based foods. I know we are considering how to organically grow some things at our household.

http://blog.friendseat.com/supermarkets-vegetables-plastic/

Setting Yourself Up For Success In Your Health

So many times we decide to change our health status so drastically at one time that we set ourselves up for failure. Instead we need to learn to take small steps at a time to increase our chances of success. For instance, we can't go from be Cody the Couch Potato to Mike the Marathoner overnight. If we try, we set ourselves up for failure: overexertion soreness, serious injuries, discouragement etc. Instead, try the concept of "a little bit more"! Click on the link below to see how to go about setting goals for yourself in life and with regards to health and wellness.

http://longevity.about.com/od/makeachange/p/smartgoal.htm

Sleep Hygiene, An Important Part Of Wellness

The article below was published in Dock Line magazine in February of 2009 and I have added in a few things that I couldn't fit in to the article.

Ok, raise your hand if you’re glad to know that laying a foundation for wellness includes anything to do with sleep! You’ll be glad to know it is an integral part of being well. To be more specific, REST is an integral part of being well, and lack of it leads to breakdowns in the body. It’s also important to become familiar with a new term called “sleep hygiene”. We’ll touch on these things in the rest of this article, and hopefully I can fit it all into one issue, if not, rest assured (no pun intended), we’ll cover the rest (another unintended pun) next time.

First, why do we get sleepy? Did you ever wonder that? What is it that makes us feel ready to go to bed? Without going into the physiology of it all, let’s just say that the Guy who did the wiring on us knew what He was doing. Getting sleepy is the body’s way of telling us “ok, you’ve had a long day, it’s time to power down so we can repair any damage that has gone on”. Repair to the damages that are inflicted by daily living occurs when we rest. That is why when we don’t get enough rest, we can’t function, and can fall ill. That is also why we want to sleep more when we are ill. Our body’s innate intelligence is telling us to slow it down. So now you know there is a real reason for rest.

Remember I differentiated between sleep and rest. One can sleep without getting enough rest. The real resting occurs when we get into Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM). That is the deep, repair time sleep. We’ve all had nights where we were in the bed for 8 hours, maybe even sleeping most of that time, yet we still feel tired and un-rested. So, what things keep us from deep rest, and what can we do to get better at it? Read on!

There are several things that can keep us from resting well. Some things are well within our control, some we have less control over. For now, we’ll just focus on developing a good sleep hygiene plan. Sleep hygiene has to do with the habits you can learn to improve your resting. They are multi-faceted, and when working together will help you improve the chances of getting proper rest.

1. Pre-sleep routine: You must develop a routine to follow for proper rest. An example would be as follows: Shower at 9:30, read from 10:00 to 10:30, followed by bedtime. The more of a routine you develop and follow, the more you body will be ready for rest.
2. Avoid alcohol and caffeine: I have some people tell me that they have no trouble sleeping after caffeine at night. I can understand that, but what I tell them is, while you may be able to fall asleep, studies show that you will not enter the deeper levels of sleep required for rest and repair. The same is true of alcohol. If you’ve ever had too much to drink, you know you can fall asleep easier, and sleep for a very long time. However, I am sure you felt very tired and worn out afterward, the effect of the alcohol having kept you from deep rest.
3. Try a cup of chamomile tea before bedtime to relax you, especially if you've had a stressful day.
   
4. As you get closer to your bedtime, start turning down the lights in the house. The darkness makes your body start preparing for sleep.
5. Don’t watch stimulating TV shows right before bedtime (ie 24). It keeps your mind too active. No exercise for at least 2 hours before bedtime. Also don't use the TV in the bedroom to fall asleep.
6. Use the bedroom only for rest and sex. Using it for work will create a neuroassociation in your mind of work/bedroom.
7. Keep your bedroom temperature cooler vs. warmer
   
8. If you can’t fall asleep, or you wake and can’t fall back asleep, don’t stay in the bed tossing and turning. Again, a negative neuroassociation will be linked to the bedroom and NOT being able to sleep. Instead, get up, read something non-stimulating (a maintenance guide) and keep the lights down low. Turning the lights up bright tells your body it’s time to wake.
9. If you have trouble falling asleep, or falling back asleep, use the breathing technique we taught last month for reducing stress. In through your nose, out through your mouth, with exhalations much longer than inhalations. The way to slow down your exhalations is to breath out thru your mouth with your lips pursed as if you are going to whistle. Doing a session like this shortly before bedtime for 15 minutes will help prepare you for rest. Focus on relaxing every muscle in your body bit by bit until you finally doze off.
10. Finally, get up and go to bed at the same time every day, or as close to it as possible. Developing that routine helps our bodies fall into a pattern. This is especially important as we age and sleep disorders become more common.
11. Keep your room as dark as possible.

Be Well!!!

Stress

Ok, who ISN'T stressed these days? We just came out of the holiday season, the economy is on everyone's mind, people in my practice are worried about jobs etc. This goes to show that life IS stressful a good portion of the time. So what do we do about that? Well it goes back to an age old saying: What happens to us is not as important as how we react to what happens to us. Why is that important? It's important because 90% of visits to doctor's offices are stress related. It's important because almost every common disease process has a stress factor in it. So how do we change our reaction to stressful events? Simply by changing our focus. Read on to see what I mean by that.

Take this test for me: Look around the room you're in now. Look around and notice everything in the room that is brown........go ahead and spend the next 15 seconds doing that........NOW!



scroll down to continue




Now............close your eyes. yes, I mean it.........close your eyes..........ok you can't close your eyes and read this at the same time, I know. So, ok read this: Close your eyes as soon as you finish reading this sentence: think of everything in the room that is green........for 15 seconds with your eyes closed.

Now, did you do it? If you did it right, you probably were surprised at all the green in the room. The point is, we see in our lives, what we choose to focus on. Sounds simplistic? I know. But it's real. If we spend our time focusing on the brown in life, we'll only notice the brown. If we spend time focusing on the green and growing stuff, we'll notice that more. Read the previous blog about being grateful to learn how to change your focus and feel better and less anxious or stressed.

Hey, what have you got to lose? Nothing!! What have you got to gain? EVERYTHING! Get serious, try this for 30 days faithfully and see if you don't feel much better and less stressed (or anxious, or depressed etc)

Be Well!

On Being Grateful.......

I have to admit to having felt sorry for myself a few times recently. Doesn't matter what I was feeling sorry about......just felt sorry for me. Things had happened in my life, as they do in everyone's life, that had created some stress and anxiety. At times I dealt with it well, at times I failed royally, causing me more pain, causing pain in my family etc. I wish I could say I passed this test with flying colors, but in truth, I scored a C-.

One of the things that has become clear to me is the importance of being grateful and developing a grateful mindset. Besides being THE way to live, it really helps change ones focus off of the crud that may be affecting us, and onto how fortunate we truly are. To do that, let me suggest a gratefulness journal. What is that you say? Sounds trite you say? Sounds goofy you say? I know, I know. I understand you feeling that way, and I'd have to say I felt the same way at one point, until I actually TRIED it! ;-)

So........what does a gratefulness journal look like??? Well, it's NOT just a list of words like this:

family
friends
job
home
health
favorite sports team
etc.

A gratitude journal needs to help you evoke the emotion of what it is you are grateful for. You need to ask yourself "why am I grateful for _______?" You need to feel grateful. So, to that end, here's my gratefulness journal for today, 1-16-09.

1. I am grateful that my son opened up to me about how he was feeling this morning. It made me feel like he can trust me and that's important to our relationship as he enters his teen years.
2. I am grateful for the time I spent with my wife at lunch today at a chamber event. It's fun to be involved in the community with her.
3. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to write in a magazine and share great information on health and wellness. I feel like I am getting to leave a mark on my community.
4. I am grateful for the loving heart that my daughter has. It blow me away and makes me realize how much more loving I could/should be.
5. I am grateful for having a successful business and the chance to serve in my home town area. I love the fact that I am able to be part of this great area.
6. I am grateful for the vision that I have for what I want to accomplish in life. I like the energy it gives me when I focus on it.
7. I am grateful for an awesome staff that I get to work with. I have the ability to let things go into their hands and not worry about things as much.
8. I am grateful for the cool weather outside this past week. I love the feeling of cool crisp mornings, though I am also grateful when it warms up a bit.
9. I am grateful for the passion I have inside of me for disseminating good wellness oriented information. I know I am working in my "sweet spot" when I do that.
10. I am grateful for my church family and our small group we met with last night. It was a great experience to hear other men discussing challenges in their lives and knowing that I am not alone in that.

Now, that was simple, took me about 5 minutes, but I gotta say, that after typing it and reading it, I feel great! I recommend everyone do that EVERY day.....10 things that you have to be grateful for, write 'em down and FEEL it! It will help reduce stress levels in your life!

Join us for one of our Eat Well, Move Well, Think Well seminars soon!

How Are You Doing?

It's January 6........how are your New Year goals going? Dropped the ball yet on any of them? Honestly, I have. I am in the midst of a 30 day program, and I let my emotions get the best of me over the weekend and I missed a day. The good news is I recognized it and am back on track!

That's what life is about sometimes it seems......trying to stay on track, falling down a bit.......getting back up.......pushing on. That's what it's like when we try to make changes in our health habits. Realizing this ahead of time is important. No one ever stays on track 100% of the time physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. I find the important part is to realize when I've fallen into a rut, and get out of it as soon as possible instead of wallowing in it, feeling down about it, or whining about it.

Remember, if you get off track, it's not the end of the world. We can get back on the train at the next meal, the next time we connect with the person we messed up with, the next time we have the chance to respond to a situation, the next time our time for exercise comes back up.

I find the more I realize this, the more consistent I become with my plans for wellness.

DON'T FORGET: "EAT WELL, MOVE WELL, THINK WELL" STARTS JANUARY 27, 2009 AT OUR OFFICE. SPACE IS LIMITED SO CALL US AT 281-852-5600 TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT!!

Be well!

Dr. Bruce