My Aching Back: Stay Healthy While Gardening

I only garden during the spring and summer, so in the winter, my body doesn't get them same 'workout'.

This year, I found myself paying closer attention to how it felt while
    bending over to plant seedlings;
    twisting to hoe;
    reaching to pull weeds;
    pulling to unwind the water hose;
and, as you may have guessed, it all effected my back.

You see, our spine and core are the foundation of all our movements.  It needs to be strong in order for us to move well and effectively.  If you know anything about the physics of torque, the most effective force is applied to a lever arm that is perpendicular and stable - the lever arm is our spine.  If the lever moves while force is applied, the results aren't what you want (or expect!).

Perhaps I lost you there.  Think about it this way, you know that perpendicular has a 90 degree angle, so glance at the picture above and look for that angle - see it?  Neither do I.  That back is rounded.  In a nutshell, don't use this photo as exemplary movement.  This back is not an efficient lever for the work it is being asked to perform...

And how will you know if you are using good mechanics in the garden without a full length mirror to show you?  The answer is, you'll FEEL it.  If you stand up at some point and have to hold your back, you know there is an imbalance.  If you stand up and you don't get all the way up, again, you know there is an imbalance.

To keep your garden healthy, keep your back healthy - garden for shorter periods of time and do so more frequently (not all at once) to give your back time to get stronger.  Keep it straight, the same upright shape the spine has when standing erect.

If you find maintaining good posture and alignment to be difficult while you're pampering vegetables or mending soil, schedule a complimentary 15 minute Get-BACK-to-Gardening session at www.bodywisebodywork.com.

Gain or Loss?

Diet 101:  Over
the last year - have you gained
weight or lost it?
I've always struggled keeping my weight low.  If I wasn't training for a competition,
or running a race, I would pack on the pounds.  My body weight was like my own 
personal teeter totter, it would go up and down but I couldn't control it.  It was
impossible to figure out how to get the 'fat' me off the other end so I could stop
the ride. 
Over the last year, I have lost weight.  I think more clearly, my breath is never stale,
I don't break out, bingeing is a thing of the past - and most importantly, I love being me.

Not only that, I know that I will continue to lose body fat and I know how to keep the 
weight off permanently!  What I've discovered though, has been all about MY body.

Everyone is different. Everyone has their own experience and their own journey.  There 
are so many diets to try and throw away.  There are just as many doctors who will tell
you 'their' best way to accomplish the impossible loss of weight.

If you have the stomach for it (har har) I encourage you to stick with me.  Let
me help you find your way.  I've developed a plan in which you discover the right
path for you and your body.  It's not a diet.  It's a way of finding what works best for
YOU.

I'm so excited to share this - stay tuned!!

*It's the only body you've got... get wise about it*

www.bodywisebodywork.com

Worst Diet in 2012

DIET 101: Topped worst list in 2012 

I'm very proud to announce that my current nutrition plan (diet) was listed in the top WORST diets in 2012.

Congratulations and hooray!  That's a sign I'm on the right track.

I'm not sure who voted and who tracked the votes.  I don't know the 
criteria used or the questions in the poll.

What I do know is today's eating trends are based on habits and 
availability.  I also know that companies who manufacture foods add 
certain things to the food that makes our body want to eat more of 
it.  And it's true that GMO foods are more common and may be
more acceptable.  

Eating well is not easy - if it were, 33% of the population wouldn't 
be obese.  Medical costs associated with obesity were estimated at
$147B in 2008 (yikes!).

Our society is not healthy.  So if a vote was taken by these same
people who aren't healthy and my diet is rated the worst, you can
get an idea of why this is good news to me.

Because the diet that works best for me was voted down, I'll 
share with you in upcoming posts how I made the choice 
and why it's changed my life.
  
I used to experience fatigue, difficulty staying trim, sugar 
cravings, acne, and cold/heat symptoms.  My diet is not for 
everyone but it definitely works and works well for me. 

It wasn't easy to arrive here and really, I was forced to - hay fever and
colds were a constant if I fell off the wagon.

More to come...

PS  If LDL is a 'bad' cholesterol, why is it in us to begin with and 
what function does it serve the body?  

Living Your Best?

 Are you living your best?  How do you know if you aren’t?

In Jeff Olsen’s book entitled “The Slight Edge”, he states we are moving in a direction of either improving or declining.  There is no static.  If you aren’t making the right choices and creating your best life then you are making poor choices that results in a life on the downward slope.

At first, I didn’t believe his statement to be true.  After several weeks of self-observation and personal research, I’ve discovered it is remarkably true.  I’m not very happy about that.

When I look at my life as it is, there are a few things I’m doing well and getting better at.  I’m pleased with the progress.  There are small things that I do everyday that have resulted in the phenomenal successes I am experiencing.

However, there are a couple things that I haven’t paid much attention to, they seem to be coming along, holding their own.  But I’m not tracking them regularly and I even take advantage of how successful they once were.  I’ve not been deliberate about taking action to keep them on the right path.  I believed some unseen momentum would keep them tracking properly.

When I look more closely and really see them in a different light - the light of TIME, where I am today vs 1 year ago, 5 years ago, etc - they are in fact, declining.

For example, I pride myself on staying fit.  There once was a time when I could do 40+ push-ups in a row, without stopping or being (too) out of breath.  Today, I can do 5, and, with a bit of a struggle.  Ugh.

So, I’ve just gotten down on the floor and done those 5.  That number 5 isn’t very many, a dismal number compared to the prior 40.  But I plan to do another 5 in two hours, and another 5 before brushing my teeth, and another 5 before bed.  That’s 20!  Only half of my previous ability but still 20 more than yesterday.

Keeping up with my new improvements scheme, I’ll do 140 in a week.  I’ll be strong enough after a week to do sets of 10 rather than 5, doubling the weekly number.  By the end of the year, I’ll have probably reached 1400 push-ups total.

I’ll finish out December gazing at my well developed arms and making plans for push-ups in 2013!  One slight change over time equals big improvements...

What small thing can you change today that will add up to Living Your Best?

Share it with me, I'd love to know.
Dawn
dawn@bodywisebodywork.com

If you could do it all over again, would you?

When you think about how young you were, all the things you used to do, and how much you fit into a single day - would you do it again?

If you're saying 'no', then you probably don't have the energy or motivation or ability to.  So, what happened?  I regularly see clients who are beginning to have trouble doing the things that the 'younger' generation take for granted.  Things like standing up or sitting down, going up and down stairs, getting into and out of a car.

There's a simple solution to all if these problems but while it's simple, it's not easy. 

I've used a question in my practice for quite some time to make the point:  How many times do you stand up and sit down in a day?  For most people, it's between 50-75 (or more).  Let's say it's 75 times and you weigh 150lbs - that means that your legs moved about 11,250 a day.  That's a lot of weight!  Say you find yourself sitting and it's the 76th time, do your legs say "Wups, that's your limit!" and refuse to stand you up?  Not at all.  So really, we don't know how much your legs can lift in a single day...

If you're having difficulty standing up and sitting down, that means your legs haven't been getting the practice they used to get (and/or they aren't lined up the way they should be to do it correctly).  Your legs aren't getting the practice and repetitions that the 'young' legs are getting. 

The simple solution is to get those legs moving, and moving more often.  Get back to those things you used to do!

If you experience pain when you begin moving more, book a complimentary 15 minute BODYMAP that will identify the cause of the pain and get you moving again www.bodywisebodywork.com

ROCKETPOPS!

The simplest thing in the world to do is make a rocketpop.  While makeing a rocketpop is easier than pie, why would you need to?  Take the time to really understand their purpose and you'll see why you, your family, friends, and coworkers shouldn't live without them.

1  You never make just one - rocketpops are meant for sharing.
2  You can't eat it immediately, you have to wait for it to melt a little so you can pull off the top.
3  Once opened, you can't dilly dally, you have to eat it or it will melt.
4  You can't eat it too quickly or your brain will freeze.
5  You can't talk while eating your rocketpop or it'll drip all over your clothes - rocketpops are meant to eat in silence.
6  You get a multi-sensory experience:  The cold, the taste, the feel, and the great outdoors (one should never eat a rocketpop indoors).
7  You are bound to the people you share rocketpops with, like participating in a native ritual with only your tribe members.
8  You need a strategy for eating the last bit, it falls off the stick if you don't bite the bottom just right.
9  You just feel a whole let better after eating a rocketpop.
10  You see everything in perspective afterward:  Conflicts are manageable (if they still exist), naptime is easier, the sun doesn't seem so hot, and you just can't imagine how life could get any better than it is already.
 

Same dog, New tricks

In celebration of all things wiser and now a year older (namely me) - I've rolled out a new look on the BODYWISE site... feel free to check it out and give me feedback.  I'd LOVE to hear from you about it:  www.bodywisebodywork.com

This is a transition site that will stay with me until Laura Blaine's schedule becomes available.  Find out about Laura's web design expertise by visiting her site:  http://signaturedesignworks.com/ 

Another wise woman!!