Did you know that Outback Steakhouse's Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing has 2,900
calories? And 182 grams of fat? And that even if you split the appetizer with 3 other friends, your calories for your portion are equivalent to a complete meal?
Did you know that Macaroni Grill's Spaghetti with Meatballs and Meat Sauce weighs in at a whopping 2,430 calories, 128 gms fat, 207 gms carbs and 5,290 mg sodium? Consuming 2,400
calories for 1 day regularly would result in a significant weight gain for most women, let alone
consuming 2,400 calories in 1 meal.
Men's Health editor in chief David Zinczenko (with Matt Goulding) has written a fascinating book
called "Eat This, Not That" giving the calorie counts, fat, carb and sodium content of many restaurant foods. Zinczenko calls the Aussie Cheese Fries "the worst food in America".
Want to know the worse Chinese entree to eat? The worst pizza? The worst breakfast?
(yes, there is such a thing!). Well, take a look at this book and you may be appalled by what
you've been enjoying at your favorite restaurant. Very eye-opening.
It's not all bad news-Zinczenko also recommends healthier options and gives the calorie counts for those dishes as well. You can check out Zinczenko's top 20 Worst Foods at www.menshealth.com/eatthis Clink on the 20 worst foods in America. I like his book-he gives a dish he says to eat in place of a dish he says to avoid (eat this, not that). The choices are side by side and it's simple to compare the nutritional information of both dishes.
If you eat out a lot, you owe it to yourself (and to your body) to know what you are putting in your mouth. You may decide, on the basis of this information alone, to make some changes in your dining choices. I use to eat out multiple times a week. Going to a restaurant was a treat for me. I enjoyed being waited on, sitting at a table, reading a book or visiting with a friend while someone else prepared my food. Very lovely. However, having someone else prepare my food meant that I didn't know how it was prepared and with what. Predictably I was quite overweight. After losing the weight and now in maintenance mode, I avoid eating out. When I do, I think about where I go, what I order and the portion size. I don't drink alcohol or eat desserts so I am able to avoid a lot of calories there.
Consider the typical restaurant scenario for dinner: most folks will have a glass of wine or a cocktail, some kind of appetizer or salad, bread and butter, their main dish and maybe a second glass of wine, coffee and possibly dessert. That constitutes a massive amount of calories, fat, sodium, carbs and sugar and represents one meal. What else did these people eat that day? It takes about an hour of vigorous exercising to burn off 300-500 calories depending on what you're doing. That fictional meal I just described could easily translate into 2,000 calories on top of the other meals consumed that day. That's 4-6 hours of exercising to burn off one meal. Wow. No thanks.
Check out the link and/or the book. Fascinating and appalling.
In health,
Laura
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Breakfast, again
Do you know that the USDA Agricultural Research Service has determined that people who eat most of their food between 4PM and 8PM have higher cholesterol, higher blood pressure nad higer blood sugar levels than people who eat 3 meals a day?
Surprisingly, both groups consumed the same number of calories. The big differences were how
the calories were consumed and when.
The USDA also found that the folks eating the most calories at night felt hungrier and less satisfied during the day and that they often made poor food choices (high calorie, nutrient deficient) when they did eat.
I interpret this information to mean that the folks consuming the majority of their calories at night don't eat breakfast. It seems obvious to me that of course these people would feel
hungrier and less satisfied during the day. They're literally starving their bodies. Most likely
their blood sugar levels are crashing through the floor, they've dragged themeselves through their day and don't have the energy physically or mentally to make any kind of healthy choice
for dinner. Basically they're ravenous and they need calories NOW, immediately.
Other studies show that folks who skip breakfast carry excess weight to the point of obesity
than people who eat breakfast.
So I get on my breakfast soap box once again. What does your breakfast look like? Are you getting about 400-500 calories of balanced nutrients? Complex carbs? A little good fat? Protein? Fiber? You're all intelligent people. I trust you can figure out that eating a banana or a muffin does not equal a balanced meal.
What about this word: breakfast? How do you break a fast? By EATING!
If you don't eat breakfast regularly, please consider experimenting by eating some kind of small, balanced meal first thing in the morning. If eggs and bacon or a big bowl of cereal turns your stomach (literally) then consider something smaller (but still balanced please) and start there. Many choices exist. Give yourself permission to experiment: don't feel constrained to eat breakfast foods for breakfast. If eating a lunch or dinner type food seems appealing, then try that. I use to love eating cold pizza for breakfast. Many cultures eat what we may view as
non-breakfast type foods for their first meal of the day. Go by how your body feels.
Also think about your night-time eating habits. Do you wait until late in the afternoon or early
evening to eat the majority of your calories? If you do that, what kind of food choices are you making? Do you fall into the category of hungry, feed me now, your arm is looking mighty
appetizing?
We have enough stresses in our daily lives. What small, manageable choices can you make to healthily feed your body?
In health,
Laura
Surprisingly, both groups consumed the same number of calories. The big differences were how
the calories were consumed and when.
The USDA also found that the folks eating the most calories at night felt hungrier and less satisfied during the day and that they often made poor food choices (high calorie, nutrient deficient) when they did eat.
I interpret this information to mean that the folks consuming the majority of their calories at night don't eat breakfast. It seems obvious to me that of course these people would feel
hungrier and less satisfied during the day. They're literally starving their bodies. Most likely
their blood sugar levels are crashing through the floor, they've dragged themeselves through their day and don't have the energy physically or mentally to make any kind of healthy choice
for dinner. Basically they're ravenous and they need calories NOW, immediately.
Other studies show that folks who skip breakfast carry excess weight to the point of obesity
than people who eat breakfast.
So I get on my breakfast soap box once again. What does your breakfast look like? Are you getting about 400-500 calories of balanced nutrients? Complex carbs? A little good fat? Protein? Fiber? You're all intelligent people. I trust you can figure out that eating a banana or a muffin does not equal a balanced meal.
What about this word: breakfast? How do you break a fast? By EATING!
If you don't eat breakfast regularly, please consider experimenting by eating some kind of small, balanced meal first thing in the morning. If eggs and bacon or a big bowl of cereal turns your stomach (literally) then consider something smaller (but still balanced please) and start there. Many choices exist. Give yourself permission to experiment: don't feel constrained to eat breakfast foods for breakfast. If eating a lunch or dinner type food seems appealing, then try that. I use to love eating cold pizza for breakfast. Many cultures eat what we may view as
non-breakfast type foods for their first meal of the day. Go by how your body feels.
Also think about your night-time eating habits. Do you wait until late in the afternoon or early
evening to eat the majority of your calories? If you do that, what kind of food choices are you making? Do you fall into the category of hungry, feed me now, your arm is looking mighty
appetizing?
We have enough stresses in our daily lives. What small, manageable choices can you make to healthily feed your body?
In health,
Laura
Thoughts on Cardio Machines
What programs do you use on cardio machines?
Quick-start? Manual?
If the answer to my question is yes, please consider an interval/hill program. On the Life Fitness Elliptical (my favorite machine), I like the random program best. On the Precor machines, the cross country program is ok. The hill program on the Cybex Arc Trainer is an interval work-out too.
The reason I'm mentioning this is because if you have a fitness or weight loss goal, a flat line program like quick-start or manual is not going to help you achieve your goal. Interval training has been shown to be the most effective way to improve your cardiovascular health and boost your metabolism (i.e. burn calories).
Watch your speed and notice whether you speed up on the valleys and slow down on the hills. This is a typical human reaction to varying work-load. One way of working is to keep your speed constant regardless of the work-load. It's one way, not necessarily the only way.
Remember variety is the spice of life (and exercising!).
If you have a weight loss goal or you're a numbers guy (or girl like me), the calorie counts on these machines are not accurate. As I mentioned in a previous post, the totals can be off (too
high) by hundreds of calories depending on how long you were on the machine.
Likewise for the heart rate monitors contained in the machine. If you really want to know your heart rate and your calorie expenditure, please invest in a good heart rate monitor. My trainer asked me to buy one for years and I'm sorry to say it took me until not so long ago to follow her advice. It was, and is, excellent advice and I use my HR monitor constantly now. It's a valuable tool to evaluate the effectiveness of my exercising both at that moment in time and
over a longer period.
In health,
Laura
Quick-start? Manual?
If the answer to my question is yes, please consider an interval/hill program. On the Life Fitness Elliptical (my favorite machine), I like the random program best. On the Precor machines, the cross country program is ok. The hill program on the Cybex Arc Trainer is an interval work-out too.
The reason I'm mentioning this is because if you have a fitness or weight loss goal, a flat line program like quick-start or manual is not going to help you achieve your goal. Interval training has been shown to be the most effective way to improve your cardiovascular health and boost your metabolism (i.e. burn calories).
Watch your speed and notice whether you speed up on the valleys and slow down on the hills. This is a typical human reaction to varying work-load. One way of working is to keep your speed constant regardless of the work-load. It's one way, not necessarily the only way.
Remember variety is the spice of life (and exercising!).
If you have a weight loss goal or you're a numbers guy (or girl like me), the calorie counts on these machines are not accurate. As I mentioned in a previous post, the totals can be off (too
high) by hundreds of calories depending on how long you were on the machine.
Likewise for the heart rate monitors contained in the machine. If you really want to know your heart rate and your calorie expenditure, please invest in a good heart rate monitor. My trainer asked me to buy one for years and I'm sorry to say it took me until not so long ago to follow her advice. It was, and is, excellent advice and I use my HR monitor constantly now. It's a valuable tool to evaluate the effectiveness of my exercising both at that moment in time and
over a longer period.
In health,
Laura
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Self Care Part 3
How do you train yourself? More importantly, how do you train yourself so that your exercise routine is safe, effective and intelligent?
People come to their exercise routines through various means: magazines, books, classes, personal training, watching people in the gym, taught by a family member, etc. There's lots of ways to learn and all of them can be useful and effective.
Unfortunately a lot of the information is useless or worse, harmful.
Sometimes the information is just plain incorrect but sometimes it's the wrong information used by the wrong person in the wrong way at the wrong time.
A personal comment: I've been on both sides. I've been a gym member for years (just joined another one this week), a personal training client on and off for years and a groupie extraordinaire of 1 particular group fitness instructor. I'm also a personal trainer, Bootcamp and Group Fitness instructor. As a gym member and client, I made many mistakes causing me significant pain and injury. As a fitness professional, I'm vigilant about keeping my clients safe and injury-free.
How does this help you? I think the ingredient often missing is wisdom. How well do you know yourself? Do you listen to your body? Are you present when you work-out (or in life even)? Answering these questions will go a long way towards helping you get the most of your exercising.
When I work with someone, whether it's a brand new member or a long term client, I look at how they use themselves, how they live in their bodies and what mental ideas they have about
themselves and exercising. Of course I want to know their health and medical background and whether they've had an injury or perhaps have a chronic condition. What are their physical limitations? And sometimes more importantly, what are their mental and emotional limitations?
I am a bear on form. I want to see certain biomechanical principles in action in the most effective way possible for a specific client. I recognize that every body is different and my clients won't necessarily look like the picture I have in my head of how I want an exercise performed. Many people have the similiar patterns of ineffective use of self.
For instance, some clients elevate the tops of their shoulders when they do upper body weight training. That is a no-no. Elevating the tops of the shoulders does not permit the proper muscles to work effectively when doing upper body weight training. However, lifting shoulders is also a common response to stress in our society particularly among women. I look for how clients and class members use their upper bodies, especially the area around their collarbones, front and back. If I have a client who lifts their shoulders and can't stop, I discontinue the exercise and work with them instead around developing more sensitivity to their upper back area. Why would I have them continue to do an exercise like a row or an assisted pull-up incorrectly? If they are not able to control their upper back, my job is to teach them how. Then they can go back to the other exercise and execute it properly. This process takes as long as it takes-days, weeks, whatever. I work towards reeducating their body to function at a higher, more optimal level. Some clients find that their neck and back pain diminishes significantly as a result.
I have a list in my brain of things I look for in people. Here's another example: most folks sit at a desk for work. Therefore they often slump, rounding their upper backs and rolling their shoulders forward. Ultimately this posture or use of self affects every function in their bodies. I am quite interested in teaching them how to change this. Especially since they will again be sitting at their desks tomorrow and most likely they will return to their original posture without even consciously recognizing it. Body positions affect emotions and emotions affect body positions. A slumped over position is not conducive to a happy, positive emotional state. Try it yourself and see. Fitness professionals often expound on the emotional benefits of exercise.
How about that effective use of self helps promote more positive emotional states? Interesting idea and not so far-fetched.
While we associate exercise with physical movement, exercise is also about intention and how you use yourself. You are either your own best friend or your own worse enemy. This is true for exercising as well as every other area of your life. All strengths (mental or physical) are weaknesses in other circumstances. Every weakness is a strength in a different situation. Yes, this sounds like a koan. Ponder the ideas for awhile. If your head starts to spin, sit down and ponder more.
I spend a lot of time evaluating which exercise is appropriate for each client and why. What are their goals? Where are they at right now, today-physically, mentally and emotionally?
How often do you evaluate what you are doing and why? What kind of wisdom do you bring to your life? We frequently are more perceptive about our friends and family than we are about ourselves. It's so much easier to see a quality (positive or negative) in someone else than to recognize it in ourselves. That's why another set of ears, ears and another brain is so worth-while, be it a best friend or a personal trainer.
I have many tools in my toolbox to help clients achieve their health and fitness goals. If you only have a hammer, you'll see a world comprised of only nails.
In health,
Laura
People come to their exercise routines through various means: magazines, books, classes, personal training, watching people in the gym, taught by a family member, etc. There's lots of ways to learn and all of them can be useful and effective.
Unfortunately a lot of the information is useless or worse, harmful.
Sometimes the information is just plain incorrect but sometimes it's the wrong information used by the wrong person in the wrong way at the wrong time.
A personal comment: I've been on both sides. I've been a gym member for years (just joined another one this week), a personal training client on and off for years and a groupie extraordinaire of 1 particular group fitness instructor. I'm also a personal trainer, Bootcamp and Group Fitness instructor. As a gym member and client, I made many mistakes causing me significant pain and injury. As a fitness professional, I'm vigilant about keeping my clients safe and injury-free.
How does this help you? I think the ingredient often missing is wisdom. How well do you know yourself? Do you listen to your body? Are you present when you work-out (or in life even)? Answering these questions will go a long way towards helping you get the most of your exercising.
When I work with someone, whether it's a brand new member or a long term client, I look at how they use themselves, how they live in their bodies and what mental ideas they have about
themselves and exercising. Of course I want to know their health and medical background and whether they've had an injury or perhaps have a chronic condition. What are their physical limitations? And sometimes more importantly, what are their mental and emotional limitations?
I am a bear on form. I want to see certain biomechanical principles in action in the most effective way possible for a specific client. I recognize that every body is different and my clients won't necessarily look like the picture I have in my head of how I want an exercise performed. Many people have the similiar patterns of ineffective use of self.
For instance, some clients elevate the tops of their shoulders when they do upper body weight training. That is a no-no. Elevating the tops of the shoulders does not permit the proper muscles to work effectively when doing upper body weight training. However, lifting shoulders is also a common response to stress in our society particularly among women. I look for how clients and class members use their upper bodies, especially the area around their collarbones, front and back. If I have a client who lifts their shoulders and can't stop, I discontinue the exercise and work with them instead around developing more sensitivity to their upper back area. Why would I have them continue to do an exercise like a row or an assisted pull-up incorrectly? If they are not able to control their upper back, my job is to teach them how. Then they can go back to the other exercise and execute it properly. This process takes as long as it takes-days, weeks, whatever. I work towards reeducating their body to function at a higher, more optimal level. Some clients find that their neck and back pain diminishes significantly as a result.
I have a list in my brain of things I look for in people. Here's another example: most folks sit at a desk for work. Therefore they often slump, rounding their upper backs and rolling their shoulders forward. Ultimately this posture or use of self affects every function in their bodies. I am quite interested in teaching them how to change this. Especially since they will again be sitting at their desks tomorrow and most likely they will return to their original posture without even consciously recognizing it. Body positions affect emotions and emotions affect body positions. A slumped over position is not conducive to a happy, positive emotional state. Try it yourself and see. Fitness professionals often expound on the emotional benefits of exercise.
How about that effective use of self helps promote more positive emotional states? Interesting idea and not so far-fetched.
While we associate exercise with physical movement, exercise is also about intention and how you use yourself. You are either your own best friend or your own worse enemy. This is true for exercising as well as every other area of your life. All strengths (mental or physical) are weaknesses in other circumstances. Every weakness is a strength in a different situation. Yes, this sounds like a koan. Ponder the ideas for awhile. If your head starts to spin, sit down and ponder more.
I spend a lot of time evaluating which exercise is appropriate for each client and why. What are their goals? Where are they at right now, today-physically, mentally and emotionally?
How often do you evaluate what you are doing and why? What kind of wisdom do you bring to your life? We frequently are more perceptive about our friends and family than we are about ourselves. It's so much easier to see a quality (positive or negative) in someone else than to recognize it in ourselves. That's why another set of ears, ears and another brain is so worth-while, be it a best friend or a personal trainer.
I have many tools in my toolbox to help clients achieve their health and fitness goals. If you only have a hammer, you'll see a world comprised of only nails.
In health,
Laura
Calories count
I found a great definition of a calorie in a health magazine recently and thought I'd share it with you: a calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.
Ohhh, I can already tell that you're fascinated. Me too.
Not.
Let's try again: a calorie is the amount of energy in food which your body can use. In the digestive process, nutrients in food are converted to glucose (your brain LOVES glucose!) and used to fuel body functions.
Some nutritionists are fond of saying that regulating weight is a simple matter of "calories in, calories out". This means that your intake of energy, i.e. the food you eat, is balanced by your out-put, i.e. the energy your body expends maintaining itself (also known as basal metabolic or the less strict definition resting metabolic rate) as well as any energy expended through exercise. Remember that calories equal energy at a fundamental form, so the exercising you do represents calories expended.
Following this logic, you maintain your weight if your caloric intake and energy output are equally matched. You lose weight if your caloric intake is less than your energy output. And you gain weight if your caloric intake is higher than your energy output. Unfortunately in our Supersize, 1 portion feeds a family of 5 society, that possibility is all too common.
As an aside, you can have your RMR tested. I did and found it to be useful information. Your RMR is more or less the number of calories your body needs to sustain itself on a daily basis. Then you can look at the number of calories you ingest each day plus the amount of exercise you get. All of this together will give you a good idea of whether your current food and exercise plan
supports your weight goals. You can have your RMR tested for a fee at San Francisco Bay Health's Optimum Health Center. There are other places in the Bay area where you can also have this done.
I won't comment here on whether or not I buy into the calories in, calories out formula. There is hard science underpinning the concept so let's take the statement at face value. It is very easy to inhale a 300 calorie slice of cake (or bag of potato chips) and very time consuming to burn it off running on the treadmill, swimming, walking or on the elliptical. At 10 calories a minute, a pretty good clip, that's 30 minutes.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but don't take the calorie counts on those machines as gospel. Those totals are off by a considerable margin if you are not the model human being on which the algorithm was based. Most of us are not in the center of the bell curve here. I wear a heart rate monitor which computes calories expended and rest assured that my totals based on the machine and based on my HRM are often hundreds (!!!!) of calories different. Bottom line: the machines read high (that's false high). Second bottom line: if you've worked out for 30 minutes and the machine reads 300 calories, deduct a quarter to a third. That's more likely your real expenditure, particularly if you're a normal weight woman. Hey, don't shoot the messenger!
Knowledge is power, remember? Maybe next time, you'll have half the slice of cake or the glass of wine.
By the way, it was a woman who came up with the calories in, calories out mantra. Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters wrote a book on calorie counting published in 1918 which became a national bestseller in 1923. I guess it was a lulu of a book!
Sorry, that was way too tempting.
:)
In health,
Laura
Ohhh, I can already tell that you're fascinated. Me too.
Not.
Let's try again: a calorie is the amount of energy in food which your body can use. In the digestive process, nutrients in food are converted to glucose (your brain LOVES glucose!) and used to fuel body functions.
Some nutritionists are fond of saying that regulating weight is a simple matter of "calories in, calories out". This means that your intake of energy, i.e. the food you eat, is balanced by your out-put, i.e. the energy your body expends maintaining itself (also known as basal metabolic or the less strict definition resting metabolic rate) as well as any energy expended through exercise. Remember that calories equal energy at a fundamental form, so the exercising you do represents calories expended.
Following this logic, you maintain your weight if your caloric intake and energy output are equally matched. You lose weight if your caloric intake is less than your energy output. And you gain weight if your caloric intake is higher than your energy output. Unfortunately in our Supersize, 1 portion feeds a family of 5 society, that possibility is all too common.
As an aside, you can have your RMR tested. I did and found it to be useful information. Your RMR is more or less the number of calories your body needs to sustain itself on a daily basis. Then you can look at the number of calories you ingest each day plus the amount of exercise you get. All of this together will give you a good idea of whether your current food and exercise plan
supports your weight goals. You can have your RMR tested for a fee at San Francisco Bay Health's Optimum Health Center. There are other places in the Bay area where you can also have this done.
I won't comment here on whether or not I buy into the calories in, calories out formula. There is hard science underpinning the concept so let's take the statement at face value. It is very easy to inhale a 300 calorie slice of cake (or bag of potato chips) and very time consuming to burn it off running on the treadmill, swimming, walking or on the elliptical. At 10 calories a minute, a pretty good clip, that's 30 minutes.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but don't take the calorie counts on those machines as gospel. Those totals are off by a considerable margin if you are not the model human being on which the algorithm was based. Most of us are not in the center of the bell curve here. I wear a heart rate monitor which computes calories expended and rest assured that my totals based on the machine and based on my HRM are often hundreds (!!!!) of calories different. Bottom line: the machines read high (that's false high). Second bottom line: if you've worked out for 30 minutes and the machine reads 300 calories, deduct a quarter to a third. That's more likely your real expenditure, particularly if you're a normal weight woman. Hey, don't shoot the messenger!
Knowledge is power, remember? Maybe next time, you'll have half the slice of cake or the glass of wine.
By the way, it was a woman who came up with the calories in, calories out mantra. Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters wrote a book on calorie counting published in 1918 which became a national bestseller in 1923. I guess it was a lulu of a book!
Sorry, that was way too tempting.
:)
In health,
Laura
Monday, August 11, 2008
Movie Recommendation
Ok, this has nothing to do with fitness!
However it might bring a smile to your face.
:)
I saw "Mamma Mia" last week and loved it. Meryl Streep is fabulous, the scenery spectacular (can't beat the Greek Islands in the summertime) and Pierce Brosnan's still looking pretty yummy. Does anyone besides me remember him from the TV show "Remington Steele"?
Yes, yes, the plot is thin at best, the ages and timelines are all off and it's fluff-bubblegum and cotton candy. There's a real Greek chorus (seriously). And the feel-good happy ending is a definite stretch.
I grew up with ABBA. Boy does that date me! It's fun to hear the songs again. And while the ending was a little silly, the notion that you can get a second chance at love is captivating.
Meryl Streep has a beautiful voice and her voice quality (in my opinion) appropriate for the songs. The young female lead also has a nice voice and is the right fit for her songs. Listen to her sing "I have a dream" and see if you agree. Haunting. The friendships between the adult women are a hoot as well as their performances as "Donna and the Dynamos". For you Harry Potter devotees, note that Julie Walters (Mrs. Weasley) plays one of Donna's best friends.
Additionally, Meryl Streep was 57-58 years old when she filmed this movie. Donna, the character she plays, is about 40'ish, give or take, in the movie. Donna has a 20 year old daughter and gave birth as a young woman, probably in her early 20's. Ms. Streep is a good 15 years older than the character she plays. Well, bravo to Hollywood for casting her. We often lament the lack of roles (in the film industry as well as other walks of life) for mature women. Meryl looks wonderful and her body movements are exactly what you would expect from a grown-up hippie living as an independent woman and inn-keeper in Greece.
Go see the movie! And have fun.
In health,
Laura
However it might bring a smile to your face.
:)
I saw "Mamma Mia" last week and loved it. Meryl Streep is fabulous, the scenery spectacular (can't beat the Greek Islands in the summertime) and Pierce Brosnan's still looking pretty yummy. Does anyone besides me remember him from the TV show "Remington Steele"?
Yes, yes, the plot is thin at best, the ages and timelines are all off and it's fluff-bubblegum and cotton candy. There's a real Greek chorus (seriously). And the feel-good happy ending is a definite stretch.
I grew up with ABBA. Boy does that date me! It's fun to hear the songs again. And while the ending was a little silly, the notion that you can get a second chance at love is captivating.
Meryl Streep has a beautiful voice and her voice quality (in my opinion) appropriate for the songs. The young female lead also has a nice voice and is the right fit for her songs. Listen to her sing "I have a dream" and see if you agree. Haunting. The friendships between the adult women are a hoot as well as their performances as "Donna and the Dynamos". For you Harry Potter devotees, note that Julie Walters (Mrs. Weasley) plays one of Donna's best friends.
Additionally, Meryl Streep was 57-58 years old when she filmed this movie. Donna, the character she plays, is about 40'ish, give or take, in the movie. Donna has a 20 year old daughter and gave birth as a young woman, probably in her early 20's. Ms. Streep is a good 15 years older than the character she plays. Well, bravo to Hollywood for casting her. We often lament the lack of roles (in the film industry as well as other walks of life) for mature women. Meryl looks wonderful and her body movements are exactly what you would expect from a grown-up hippie living as an independent woman and inn-keeper in Greece.
Go see the movie! And have fun.
In health,
Laura
Self Care Part 2
How do you balance working out at an intense enough pace for maximum effectiveness with knowing when to stop so you don't over-do and possibly injure yourself?
Someone asked me this question a couple of weeks ago. Specifically they wanted to know how to maximize their exercise routine while preventing injuries. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around this idea. If you don't presently have an injury, why are you setting up a mental construct seeking to prevent something from happening? If it doesn't exist, you don't need a structure in your life to prevent it. The whole idea seems backwards. What you want is a mental construct which maintains health and well-being.
As much as we may deny it or live in fear of it, change happens all the time, every day and every way in your life. Your body is no different. So the exercising you did yesterday changed your body. I think rather than asking how do you prevent injuries, the better question is what is your body saying right now? Does it want sleep? Does it want stretching? Does it want more food, different food, no food? I had a client say to me that last week was a red meat week. She had a craving for meat, which she normally doesn't eat. Because she is attuned to her body, she noticed the message and had a couple of servings of meat and felt better.
Like balance (see previous posting), health and well-being is a dynamic, fluid state. If you seek to be one thing, one way, one feeling, one mood, you're in for a rough ride. If you seek to exercise a certain way, at a certain intensity, so many days a week for the rest of your life, you're in trouble and headed for an injury, mental fatigue and physical exhaustion. You change on a second by second basis, you just don't notice it. If you doubt me, ask the people around you! Could be an interesting experiment.
Yes, we all know people who do the same exercises in the same way for 30 years (runners come to mind), however I would suggest that they are not necessarily fit and healthy. I was married to a 5 day a week runner who had the same exercise routine for the entire length of our marriage. He had significant back issues, no flexibility, high blood pressure and was easily 60 lbs overweight. Maybe his running forestalled more serious health issues like a major stroke or heart attack. Hard to know. What I do know is that he would have benefitted greatly from switching up his exercise routine on a regular basis.
In addition to spicing up your exercise routine, you have to listen to your body. This is crucial since you will get the information you need on how to tweak things. Your body talks to you all the time. It will tell you if and when you need to change up your routine. It will even tell you how if you listen closely enough. And don't tell me that YOUR body doesn't talk. Of course it's talking, you're not listening!
I've been preaching for awhile that changing your exercise routine is a positive thing. If you aren't proactive, your body will let you know in a fairly obvious way whether or not the routine is still working for you. However, by then, you may already be sliding down the slippery slope of little nagging injuries or poor meal choices or not enough sleep.
The fact that this person asked me a question about injury prevention already indicates to me that something is amiss. It's the way the question is phrased. Certainly I don't want any of my clients to get injured. When I'm training them, I'm focused on giving them safe, effective exercises which help them achieve their personal goals as well as improves their overall health and well-being. This is a different mind-set than preventing injuries.
We all live in this amazing creation called a physical body. We are the caretaker, the shepherd,
the captain of the ship. Our bodies generally require so little attention from us. It breathes without our help, it digests and moves and feels the warm August heat on our skin. If we had to consciously think of every single action which keeps our bodies functioning, it would be impossible. Yet, when our bodies ask for something (rest, food, massage, movement) are we listening? Are you listening to your body?
In health,
Laura
Someone asked me this question a couple of weeks ago. Specifically they wanted to know how to maximize their exercise routine while preventing injuries. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around this idea. If you don't presently have an injury, why are you setting up a mental construct seeking to prevent something from happening? If it doesn't exist, you don't need a structure in your life to prevent it. The whole idea seems backwards. What you want is a mental construct which maintains health and well-being.
As much as we may deny it or live in fear of it, change happens all the time, every day and every way in your life. Your body is no different. So the exercising you did yesterday changed your body. I think rather than asking how do you prevent injuries, the better question is what is your body saying right now? Does it want sleep? Does it want stretching? Does it want more food, different food, no food? I had a client say to me that last week was a red meat week. She had a craving for meat, which she normally doesn't eat. Because she is attuned to her body, she noticed the message and had a couple of servings of meat and felt better.
Like balance (see previous posting), health and well-being is a dynamic, fluid state. If you seek to be one thing, one way, one feeling, one mood, you're in for a rough ride. If you seek to exercise a certain way, at a certain intensity, so many days a week for the rest of your life, you're in trouble and headed for an injury, mental fatigue and physical exhaustion. You change on a second by second basis, you just don't notice it. If you doubt me, ask the people around you! Could be an interesting experiment.
Yes, we all know people who do the same exercises in the same way for 30 years (runners come to mind), however I would suggest that they are not necessarily fit and healthy. I was married to a 5 day a week runner who had the same exercise routine for the entire length of our marriage. He had significant back issues, no flexibility, high blood pressure and was easily 60 lbs overweight. Maybe his running forestalled more serious health issues like a major stroke or heart attack. Hard to know. What I do know is that he would have benefitted greatly from switching up his exercise routine on a regular basis.
In addition to spicing up your exercise routine, you have to listen to your body. This is crucial since you will get the information you need on how to tweak things. Your body talks to you all the time. It will tell you if and when you need to change up your routine. It will even tell you how if you listen closely enough. And don't tell me that YOUR body doesn't talk. Of course it's talking, you're not listening!
I've been preaching for awhile that changing your exercise routine is a positive thing. If you aren't proactive, your body will let you know in a fairly obvious way whether or not the routine is still working for you. However, by then, you may already be sliding down the slippery slope of little nagging injuries or poor meal choices or not enough sleep.
The fact that this person asked me a question about injury prevention already indicates to me that something is amiss. It's the way the question is phrased. Certainly I don't want any of my clients to get injured. When I'm training them, I'm focused on giving them safe, effective exercises which help them achieve their personal goals as well as improves their overall health and well-being. This is a different mind-set than preventing injuries.
We all live in this amazing creation called a physical body. We are the caretaker, the shepherd,
the captain of the ship. Our bodies generally require so little attention from us. It breathes without our help, it digests and moves and feels the warm August heat on our skin. If we had to consciously think of every single action which keeps our bodies functioning, it would be impossible. Yet, when our bodies ask for something (rest, food, massage, movement) are we listening? Are you listening to your body?
In health,
Laura
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