Category Archives: Exercise

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It’s A Celebration – Flamingo Style!

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Flamingos!

Are there still businesses that offer placement of dozens of plastic flamingoes in people’s yards? Maybe as a public celebration of a new baby, birthday, or just to ‘flamingo’ someone?

I haven’t seen that done in recent years.

In my neighborhood of mostly retired people, flamingos are usually a singular, random yard ornament.

This is all a lame segway to introduce an interesting article.

I found last week that led me to a study. Because of this, I am frequently standing on one leg, looking like a flamingo. 

Why? Have I flipped out?

No, I seem to still have all my marbles; but I am trying to maintain my ability to balance.

Apparently, humans experience significant declines in physical aging both after 44 and 60 years of age:

And one of the best ways to test the effects of aging on our bodies is to stand on one leg!

To quote the study’s conclusions:

“This study underscores the significance of the unipedal balance test in monitoring elderly subjects in the community, regardless of sex. The duration an individual, whether male or female, can maintain balance on one leg emerges as the most reliable determinant of aging, surpassing strength, gait, and other balance parameters.”

So, forget your grip strength and the length of your step, if you can stand on one leg for 10 seconds or longer without wobbling all over the place, you are still doing great.

If you are fully mobile and have full feeling in your feet, you may want to test your balancing abilities at home.  Begin by positioning yourself in front of a counter or the back of a sofa, allowing you to reach out and steady yourself if you lose your balance.

First try standing with feet and shoulders a width apart with eyes open, looking straight ahead. Maybe someone can be looking at a watch to time you or you can count out loud, (one, one thousand; two, one thousand, etc.). Are you standing steadily?

If so, close your eyes to see if you are still steady on both feet. If you can do that, then you can move on to try standing on one foot.

If not, it would be best for you to have someone there with you before proceeding.

Stand first on your dominant foot, keeping your hands relaxed at your side. A Lotus position used in yoga is not necessary – just lift your foot off the floor.

How’s it going? Did you get to ten seconds without major wobbling?

Now, try the other foot. Doing good?

Was one foot steadier than the other or were they the same?

If you can’t keep your balance for more than just a few seconds, then you’re done. It might be dangerous to proceed to the next part, especially if you are by yourself.

Bravo, if you are doing good so far! If so, here comes the acid test!

Repeat standing on your dominant foot with your eyes open, looking forward. Then, close your eyes. Yikes!

Now, try the other foot, first with eyes open to steady yourself, then close your eyes.

Whew!

I can rock eyes open – over thirty seconds and counting!

But eyes closed … five seconds was my max, with probably an average of three seconds after several tries! Good grief!

Eyes closed calls for heightened proprioception – that is knowing where our body is in space. Those skills diminish with age.

Sheesh.

I’m going to see if I can gain back some balance skills with eyes closed. Knowing that maintaining balance is vitally important, I will try to expand my skills and, hopefully, improve the results.

How did you do? Let me know in the comments. We can do a balance check-in in a month to see if we have gained skills!

Tomorrow is our birthday!

Yes, foodtalk4you will have eleven candles on its cake on April 9th! Eleven years of exploring things we can do to tap into the health we are designed to have – one meal, one breath, one movement at a time! Thank you to each of our loyal readers and subscribers! Your support makes this an enjoyable endeavor for both Sheree and me!

In health and balance –

Deidre

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Blogging for good health!, Exercise, Habit Building, Recipes

Experiencing Self-Aversion? We Can Help!

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Do you have a sense of body dissatisfaction?

The causes are as numerous as the stars. Some of us may not be as trim as we might want, while others of us get in shape only to lose it.

First, your shape is YOUR shape – not someone else’s. No one should measure their own health or appearance in relation to society, Tik-Toc, or any other medium.

But being mindful about how I was feeling in my own skin, I knew I didn’t like the feel.

Plus, there was that whole thing about the nimrod who took over my body. I let poor thinking pull me into trying to ‘fit in’ to a norm that was NOT ME – that’s never a good idea.

After five days of being gluten and sugar free, the pain in my hip from the self-induced inflammation was finally gone. Whew! That’s something I do not want to feel again.  

So, my seminal moment of clarity, motivation, and desire for change came as a trifecta:

1. Not liking the feeling of waistline lumpiness

2. Knowing I had caused inflammation in my body.

3. Reading a book recommended by a friend, who was experimenting with his own body redesign.

About that book. The Amazon sales page showed that the author and I had similar points of view on diet, exercise, and approach to change and sustainability.

When I opened Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-hour Body, I was intrigued. This thick publication will take some time to read; but I was confident enough to implement his familiar concepts after just page 85.

Cleaning up one’s entire way of eating is, excuse the pun, biting off too much to chew, and virtually guarantee’s failure due to the overwhelm.

Tim and I agree that if you adjust just one meal – breakfast – great results can follow that will encourage more extended modifications.

Here’s an easy punch list using our combined ideas:

  1. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning to get hydration started.
  2. Eat within one hour of getting up to kickstart metabolism, normalize blood sugar and insulin levels, help stress hormones naturally decline, assist with weight loss, and help maintain muscle. If you skip breakfast, failure is guaranteed for a body redesign.

3. Aim for high protein and no added carbs of the white variety: potatoes, breads, grains, or sugar. No fruit or fruit juice (a sugar bomb). Tim’s goal is 30 grams of protein at breakfast which is achieved by using 1 whole egg, egg whites, and legumes (esp. lentils or black beans).

4. Add vegetables: spinach – especially for its attributes for improving muscle performance and glucose metabolism; any cruciferous vegetable (broccoli family and cauliflower), or my favorite – okra. Onions and mushrooms add variety and flavor.

Lentils are a staple in my breakfast scramble and are a more user-friendly legume in terms of flatulence/gas repercussions.

Start by cooking or reheating the green veggies in your sauté pan. Lentils can be added to this mixture or sprinkled on top after serving. Add the eggs to the mix, cook, and serve. I like to add whatever’s on hand: a few sliced cherry tomatoes, avocado, arugula, and top with a dollop of salsa or a balsamic vinaigrette.

Like Mikey once said, “Try it, you’ll like it!”

Try it for six days, return to your normal meal for the seventh as a reset, then repeat. As always, check with your healthcare provider before changing your diet or exercise routines.

Coupled with a bit more exercise, I’m headed in the right direction – for me.

How about you?

In health –

Deidre

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Blogging for good health!, Exercise, Habit Building, Stress Reduction

Intentional Self Balance

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I got off that round tuit!

It was like a scene from several years ago when I decided to do something that would hold me accountable for balancing my food intake and my energy output with regular exercise and portion control.

Yes, it’s one thing to write about health and wellness, and another thing to not let life circumstances derail my solid intentions.

We so easily lose course, especially if we allow ourselves to become codependent on someone or something.

Are your friends not available for your buddy walks around the neighborhood? While that should not keep us from regular walking, often we let it.

Is it difficult to get to exercise classes? Is that a reason to stop working out?

So I, “did a thing.”

Like signing up for that Noom membership after seeing another ad for it – something that worked wonders for me – I saw a chair yoga ad on Facebook that made me want to see more. After learning the details, I took the plunge for a 12-week special offer for just $25.

Right then, I did my first session. A small, easy commitment that took all of 16 minutes to do.

Check.

Another session this morning – this time with light weights sprinkled in.

Check.

What’s that feeling of accomplishment?

I know all this stuff, but it’s the intentionality and accountability of it all that makes this work!

Small commitment. Every day. Works for any goal we have in mind.

Being able to put my palms flat on the floor means nothing if I don’t do it. Chair yoga used to be a joke in my mind, but when I am doing nothing organized, chair yoga is working.

Bigger things will come, but intentionally doing something each day beats doing nothing every time.

When ‘getting around to it’ never happens, turning to an intentional approach will get you there.

In health – intentionally –

Deidre

Blogging for good health!, Exercise, Habit Building, Stress Reduction

Still Grateful and Breathing

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Remember my previous post about various breathing techniques, including Box Breathing and Emptying Breath?

Last week while scrolling through an author platform, I discovered an interesting book that called to me like sirens out of the deep. Written by a neonatologist, Edgar Reynoso Vanderhorst, MD, this book was about a holistic approach to health that included breathing techniques, and even tied into last week’s gratitude post featuring David Steindl-Rast.

In Wellness: Optimizing Yourself,  Dr. Vanderhorst mirrors Steindl-Rast in seeing the link of regular personal habits of gratitude to creating a more compassionate world.

How does this all tie together?

As I have written here before, positive thinking not only changes the hormonal chemistry of our bodies, but also influences the very structure and receptivity of our cells to positivity.

To paraphrase Steindl-Rast, gratitude comes from a place of satisfaction and a feeling of ‘enough’ rather than from a reminders of scarcity. Being grateful extends to better social connections that include respect and wanting the best for others.

Putting these together, we can see that transforming our own peace naturally leads to uplifting our interactions and concerns for others.

Dr. Vanderhorst has graciously agreed to share his thoughts with us on one aspect of wellness to combat the pull to our increasing stress response to today’s world.

His message to foodtalk4you readers:

“By incorporating simple breath practices, we can stabilize our minds, cultivate calmness and access our innate ability to choose how we respond to the world.

Physiology tells us, activating our parasympathetic nervous system reduces heart rate, oxygen consumption, and cortisol levels – a state described as calmness, which is what happens when we meditate.

Achieving this state can be simple. I developed a technique for myself that I implement daily to increase my awareness of the present moment that helps me navigate daily chaos in a more controlled way. I call this technique, “The Vanhorst Technique,” (meditation technique), which consists of simply taking a deep 4-second inhale, holding for 2 seconds, followed by a slow 6-second exhale, and holding for 2 seconds, repeating this cycle five times and working up to 10 minutes.

I usually practice this technique in the morning while lying in bed or when I’m in an emergency that requires my focused attention.”

Just yesterday, we witnessed horrible images of violence taking place at a political rally in America. Clearly, we need to have calming techniques ready to always use.

We can light only one candle to give light to a dark world, dear readers, and that’s our own.

Calming down with a breathing technique and staying in the moment to find what we are grateful for – even in an unpleasant situation – can help brighten our inner candle and set us up for a mindset that creates a listening ear, a reasoning mind, and helps us appreciate differences in the people around us.

In health – Deidre

Let me know in the comments below how you use breathing and reminders of gratitude to reframe your inner self.

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Blogging for good health!, Exercise, Habit Building, Stress Reduction

The Potion is Motion

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Are you a note taker?

I take notes when listening to speeches all the time – there’s always some new idea I want to remember or refer to again. Note pads and notebooks abound at home.

It’s like I can’t listen without taking notes – the same way some people can’t talk without using their hands. (Oops, I may do that, too!)

While rummaging through my desk drawer in search of …  a notepad – what else? I rediscovered some old scribbles I have referred to several times:

The more emotion you are in, the more motion you should be in.

Wish I could give credit to the lady speaking to our group back then, but her name was not in my notes. She shared with us how stress hormones directly affect our physical health, and how we could counteract natural reaction through movement.

Her introduction to the connection between stress and physical disease was, “the more signs and symptoms we have of stress, the more we need to do something different.”

What are your signs of a stress reaction?

For many, ground zero may be the stomach:

The stomach is one of the most common places people hold stress. Stress in the abdomen/stomach usually manifests itself in maldigestion, changes in appetite, and even stomach pain. If you’re someone who tends to resist change or feels like you don’t have power over their life, you might hold stress in your stomach.

Our speaker described the stress hormones we release as, “getting caught in the body, wrapping around internal organs … and killing us.”

Now, there’s a graphic image to remember.

Then she crystalized the knowledge that exercise increases the production of our feel-good transmitters, called endorphins, by saying that getting our bodies in, “a new motion would result in a new emotion.”

Today’s simple reminder is to:

Use our “magic potion”

of getting our bodies in motion

to create better emotions

that will slay that thing wrapped around our innards.

—————————

In health and still doing planks and wall sits –

Deidre

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Blogging for good health!, Exercise, Habit Building, Stress Reduction

April – The Month For Isometric Exercises!

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Are you up for an April challenge?

Grab a wall and sit down.

I’m committed to revisiting an old friend that’s been neglected – the plank trifecta – and to embrace an isometric exercise I’ve never done consistently before – the wall squat, or wall sit, if you prefer – because that’s what it looks like.

If you are a long-time reader, you know my passion for planks – they have done me well over the years and have proven to be transformative to tighten my core. And yet, I have allowed planks to fall by the wayside from my daily routine.

A great way to start a habit/routine is to incorporate it into another one that is already established – like I do every morning with arm exercises while using my pour-over method to brew coffee, (explained in a recent post, February 27th).

The coffee making process is firmly established. All I had to do was tweak it a bit to give my biceps and shoulders a great workout.  

It’s been just a few weeks, but I can feel the difference; and my non-dominate arm is now much stronger than when I started.

So, to successfully start a new habit, I have added a simple sticky note in view of my office desk, that reminds me to do my planks and wall sit before I get deeply involved in daily writing projects.

I can report that today’s initial return to planks was quite acceptable: thirty seconds each of straight arm, forearm, and knee planks. Beginners may start with as little as fifteen seconds of the easier knee plank, and gradually lengthen time before adding another position.

What a workout! After only a minute and a half, I experienced a more rapid heartbeat and shaky muscles. Awesome!

Please check with your health care provider before starting any kind of new exercise, and if pain is experienced at any time, stop exercising.

A review of plank techniques may be found HERE.

That smooth surface on the Murphy bed in my office is the perfect place to do my wall sits.

Somehow, the idea of using a painted wall to scooch down into the wall sit position didn’t seem proper to me – I mean, what if my back were to sweat or the color of my clothes were to mar the paint?

Now, the perfect set-up is staring at me every day. No excuses.

If you are not used to the wall sit – and I am not – it can be a bit of a challenge. I eked out 30 seconds today, and my thighs were definitely talking to me.

And that’s okay.

Eventually, I will do my first set of three, thirty-second wall sits.

In time.

A review of the wall sit exercise may be found HERE.

Planks and wall sits are called isometric exercises, and they can be an important part of our regular routine for strengthening core muscles and increasing joint stability.

Isometric exercises produce no movement – muscles are held in a certain position which creates muscle fatigue, but is less challenging to the joints than regular exercises.

Here are five benefits to incorporating isometric exercises:

They help us get in shape without a high intensity workout and are a good start for an exercise program.

Isometric exercises help maintain muscle and joint strength.

Wall squats, especially, have been shown to lower blood pressure.

Rehabilitation after injury or surgery is helped with isometric exercise.

Those with osteoarthritis can build strength and increase range of motion doing isometric exercise as a warm-up to traditional exercise.

The Cleveland Clinic has a great summary about isometric exercise and offers additional exercises to try out HERE.

For now, planks and wall sits are my April challenge. How about you?

In health –

Deidre

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Chia Variations With a Full Court Press

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It’s come to this.

We are always in a full court press around here to get enough fiber in our diets. There’s a running joke that, “It’s come to this…” as we face our morning routine of consuming flax, chia, Metamucil, and sometimes fiber gummies.

Good grief.

Did you know that women should try to eat at least 21 to 25 grams of fiber a day, while men should aim for 30 to 38 grams a day?

What would that look like? Just eat an apple, right?

Well, ladies and gentlemen, based solely on apples, what we need translates to a range of 4.6 – 8.4 apples a day.

That’s a lot of crunching on raw apples!

One cup of cooked quinoa will net us 5 grams of fiber, and a cup of cooked black beans packs in 15 grams of fiber.

The list goes on HERE, but you can see how hard it can be to get enough fiber consistently.

Why should we care about fiber?

The trifecta of adequate fiber/water/exercise is paramount for a happy, functioning gut. Decreases in any or all three elements will create problems with elimination and colon health.

Fiber also contributes to feeding the good guys in our gut/microbiome which, in turn, helps control our immune response, levels of inflammation, and ultimately, affects all aspects of our health.

Yes, fiber is our friend – unless you increase your fiber intake too quickly, causing gas and bloating; fail to drink enough water, or you have a pre-existing condition such as IBS/IBD (irritable bowel syndrome/disease) or Chron’s Disease.

Read here to learn more.

By increasing the feeling of satiety/fullness, fiber can help reduce the risk of obesity. Its function

in lowering cholesterol helps reduce the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.

So, how do we move our diets toward having higher fiber content?

Meatless Monday – switch out the protein element to some form of high fiber legumes (ex: black beans, cooked dried beans/peas).

Switch out white rice for brown rice or quinoa.

Make sure to have half of your plate reflect high fiber vegetables: HERE including artichokes, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, beets and beets greens, turnip greens, and mustard greens.

Switch out the baked white potato for a baked sweet potato.

And…consider adding a regular chia component each morning or night.

We now keep a container of almond milk in the refrigerator to which I have stirred in at least 1/3 cup (50 grams) of chia seeds.

After the initial stirring of the chia seeds into the almond milk, keep the milk mixture out for a few minutes before refrigerating so you can occasionally re-stir the seeds to prevent their clumping.

Overnight, the seeds will soften and gel. Give the closed container a shake or stir again before pouring out about 1/2 cup (118 cc) to drink. The chia seeds are virtually flavorless, do not require chewing, and are easy to swallow.

Almond milk can be sweet or unsweet and can be flavored with vanilla or not. I look for brands that have higher calcium values.

While I’m not a big fan of sweetness, I do prefer a mix of sweetened and unsweetened vanilla flavored almond milk in my chia seed drink. Three or four sips, and I’m done – so it’s not that big of a deal, either way.

Another option to ramp up fiber is an overnight chia seed/oatmeal/apple cereal that I want to share with you HERE. I haven’t made this, yet, but it certainly checks off many of the fiber boxes cited above and will soon be tried.

In health –

Deidre

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Something to Ponder …

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Age old question

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

As a child, after hearing this the first time, I filed the question away next to the one, ‘does the tree falling in the forest make any noise if no one is there to hear it?’

There’s an extension to this line of wondering about physical laws involving mind and body. Does the mind lead the body, or does the body lead the mind?

Another “hmmm.”

I’ve long been a proponent of the leadership of the mind; but hearing Hal Elrod, of the Miracle Morning fame, address my author group recently, I came to appreciate how changing behavior first can lead the mind into new ways of thinking.

One can argue, the body will not move without the mind telling it to move. But in consistent movements that we initiate, new thought patterns can emerge that can boost not only thinking, but bodily health. Hal Elrod has stories to tell about his early survival of a head on car crash and in his surmounting a rare and aggressive form of cancer to become a bestselling author using such an approach.

As I sit in the Denver airport this morning, nursing a sinus infection and lacking quality sleep, I will be seeking a bit of privacy to meditatively revisit a practice I shared on a previous post about Amy Cuddy, who also embraces the concept of the body leading the mind. Here are excerpts from that post:

Amy Cuddy’s book, Presence, puts science into what I’ve known all along. While we have long been stoked in the ‘mind over matter’ dogma – which is certainly well documented – and I know can work miracles, Cuddy’s proven approach, however, shows that the body can LEAD the mind.

Her tale of personal transformation is also beautifully told in her TED talk which is the 2nd most viewed TED talk and can be FOUND HERE:

In her book, Cuddy shares studies she and others have conducted as she gently peels away each application of how we view ourselves, present ourselves, and how others perceive us because of our presence.

The studies Cuddy shares, demonstrate that body positions of strength, (Wonder Woman, Superman, more expansive sitting positions with arms away from the body and legs not intertwined), result not only in a mindset of strength, but produce positive brain chemistry changes.

The ‘victory stance’ is genetically ingrained. People around the world, across cultures, and even the blind who have never seen a victory stance, naturally assume that pose after great personal accomplishments – feet apart, chin slightly elevated, with hands thrown up in the air outstretched.

It’s universal.

Looking forward to a challenging day? In private, assume your Victory Stance and hold it for two minutes. Claiming that victory – in advance – helps assure a more positive approach on your part and sets up those you are working with or influencing to see you as a person of strength.

The very act of smiling and standing with confidence redirects the body’s chemistry to a positive flow. Why not boost your confidence by holding a power pose for 2 minutes at the start of the day?

I don’t feel like Super Woman at all right now, but here I go to assume my power pose for two minutes. I need all the help I can get! Maybe I’ll be feeling more energetic for my next flight.

In health –

Deidre

PS – It helped. Two minute Victory Stance poses done twice during my long layover in Denver seemed to help me over the hump of fatigue and my next flight was restful and relaxed. Where did I do these poses? Ahem. In the privacy of a women’s restroom stall! My hands were not thrust in the air over the stall walls, they rested on my hips – just to be discreet.

NOTE: Okay, I can manage a lot of things, but finding a picture of a pair of hands over top a bathroom stall is, well, a wee bit above my purview. I just decided on a pretty picture instead. Use your imaginations here. You can thank me later. Sheree

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Let’s Get To Steppin’!

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Step Up

Is anyone else struggling to get enough extra movement into their day?

If the heat index isn’t shooting down walks outdoors that might happen any later than 7 am, it’s poor air quality from the Canadian wildfire smoke drifting over our area – or a million other things.

Geez – finding an excuse NOT to exercise is terribly easy.

Truth be told – I do not like being sedentary. My body gets antsy if I sit for long periods. The reminders to stand and move from my watch are a blessed relief I am now using to ‘tweak’ into expanded benefits.

When that reminder buzzes me out of my writer’s concentration:

  • I grab the water jug by the computer and take a stroll back and forth in my upstairs loft,
  • Drinking at least 8 ounces of water enhanced with some Liquid IV –
  • Followed by a quick minute or two of either planks OR this blast from the past: Graduated Steps.

Going through the archives of videos I have posted here on foodtalk4you, I discovered this old gem about Graduated Steps.

In the video, I explain how to do the exercise using 20 steps for each level, but lately, I am doing just 10 steps for each level because I want to get back to work. With 10 steps each, I do this mini- exercise routine in under 2 minutes – perfect for a quick break from sitting.

FINAL STEP VIDEO

Granted, 10 repetitions are not all that challenging for me, but it does get the blood circulating and helps energize my mind. You can see on the video, 20 repetitions caused my talking to be a little ‘breathy’ toward the end – showing what an excellent exercise it is.

You can tailor Graduated Steps to fit your own fitness goals, time, and abilities. This is tremendous for building and maintaining balance both at the beginning and end of the routine – but always safe if you stay near a counter-top or chair back.

Check out the video of my demonstration and then customize the routine for yourself.

Okay – back I go to finish the last self-editing round for Toolkit for Caregivers, before sending it off to the editors. I am so excited to be taking this flagship double book to the next level to reach even more caregivers with words of hope, wisdom, and confidence-building skills.

Let me know how you are doing with Graduated Steps in the comments!

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In health –

Deidre

Blogging for good health!, Exercise, Stress Reduction

Flora From A Walk

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Wrapping up our extended stay here in Kona, Hawaii, we continue to marvel at the sights and sounds of the area.

We will sorely miss the sounds featured in last week’s post, when we return home on the mainland, along with the daily eye candy of flowers seemingly constantly in bloom.

The main reason for visiting here is family – gathering around a beautiful new life and marveling at the daily changes – so, we are not going on long-walking or hiking treks about the area.

Strangely enough, however, the motivation of closing those circles on our Apple watches for standing, exercise, and movement have given us reason to walk back and forth on the long, slopping driveway where we are staying.

Back and forth. Down the hill and up the hill.

Boring?

Hardly.

It’s hard to keep our pace on these walking exercise laps because we want to stop every few steps to admire yet another stunning flower. Even what must be weeds, appear glorious and dignified in their splendors.

Cascades of berry-like structures on the fishtail palm, morph in their curious appearance as different clusters mature – we are advised not to eat these, despite their cranberry-ish appeal.

Hibiscuses thrive here and inspire me to try growing one back home to enjoy, even if only for the summer.

Cinnamon gardenias delight our senses with their long, drooping petals and soft scent as we pass.

Who among us is not in love with Bird of Paradise?

Plumeria – the flower of choice for ladies’ hair – are everywhere and in assorted colors and scents.

Rosemary bushes not only provide visual appeal in their texture, but taste in our cooking; and, in Hawaii at least – a significant source of beautiful flowers.

Exotic fruits growing high up in the trees.

Tiny flowers almost hidden in the base of large red and green leaves.

Not on our daily walk, but there’s a giant flowering cactus at my daughter’s home – it blooms only at night!

We feel like kids in a candy store!

Upon our return home, I’ll be heading to the nurseries to see what I can plant to create a little bit of paradise – North Carolina style.

We love hearing from you! What are you planting to create your own garden oasis?

Aloha!

In health –

Deidre