Merry Christmas!

Committing to Lifestyle Changes

Do you want to create healthier habits in 2014?  Creating a healthy lifestyle will require changing aspects of your current way of living.  A lifestyle change is not a 3-week or 3-month diet and exercise program – it is a commitment to a healthier life for the rest of your life!  I started exercising and adjusting my daily diet when I was 18 and even today I continue to look for ways to improve my diet and lifestyle.  For example, I love peanut butter and I used to eat Jif and Skippy.  I knew these brands included added sugar and salt, but I wasn’t ready to change – they tasted so good.  About 10 years ago I decided to try to make the switch to a natural peanut butter.  I finished my jar of Jif or Skippy and then decided to use a jar of the unsalted natural peanut butter.  It took a few months of alternating between the two types of peanut butter, but I slowly weaned myself from using Jif and Skippy and now I do not even like the taste.  I love the taste of the natural, unsalted peanut butter and look forward to having it on my toast every morning!

 Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. - George Bernard Shaw

 The most significant change in a person's life is a change of attitude. Right attitudes produce right actions. - William J. Johnston

 

Exercise to De-Stress

The holiday season can be extra busy and stressful with all the extracurricular activities, work parties, and shopping.  Short-term stress helps us be prepared for a potential threat, but long-term stress can have a negative effect mentally, physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually.  Exercise is one healthy habit to help you de-stress during the holidays.  Exercise not only has many physiological positive effects on the body, but it is therapeutic in terms of releasing stress and relaxing the mind.  Performing exercise on a daily basis can help to control the stressors one encounters.  When an individual performs aerobic exercise the stress hormones (e.g., epinephrine and norepinephrine) are utilized effectively which initiates a calming response at the completion of exercise (Seaward, 2009).  The short-term neural and hormonal effects last approximately 36 hours (Seaward, 2009, p. 515). 

It may be hard to maintain your normal workout routine during this busy time, but exercise can include shopping trips to the mall or a coffee walk with a friend.  You can accomplish holiday errands or catch up with friends without feeling guilty about missing a workout.  I purposefully park further away when shopping and have been surprised to discover I walked over 10,000 steps!  Don’t let exercise stress you out – it should help you de-stress!  A 20-minute workout is better than no workout and it allows your brain to relax and forget about your “to do” list.  I find it helps me realize I can let a few things go on my list!  Take time to enjoy the season.

 

 

References:

Seaward, B. (2009). Physical exercise and activity. (6^th ed.). Managing

     stress: principles for strategies for health and well-being (pp. 511-527).

     Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers