1. Calm down - Before anything else, don’t panic. Close your eyes and take a deep breath.
2. Feed your mind with positive thoughts - When you’re depressed, it’s easy to fall into a vicious cycle of negative thoughts. It’s important that you break this cycle. To do that, feed your mind with positive thoughts. You may read spiritual texts, motivational books, or inspiring quotes. You may also listen to positive tapes.
3. Remember good things - Remember the good things in your life and the good people around you.
4. Look at the big picture - An event that seems bad might not seem that bad if you look at the big picture. Put the event in context.
5. Believe that everything will be all right - What you believe has a big effect on you. If you believe that things will go wrong, that would usually be the case. On the other hand, if you believe that everything will be all right, you will have a winning attitude.
6. Exercise - When you’re depressed, take time to exercise. Exercise relieves the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
7. Forgive - Sometimes one reason you feel bad is because you don’t forgive. Perhaps you had made mistakes in the past and you blamed yourself for it. You need to forgive yourself. Or perhaps someone mistreated you. You need to forgive them.
8. Take action - Things won’t get better if you just sit and do nothing. Instead of thinking about how bad things are, think of what you can do to solve the problem and take action.
9. Say something positive - Negative words have devastating effect on your confidence and motivation. So whenever you’re about to say something negative, stop yourself and take a deep breath. Reframe what you’re going to say and make it positive.
10. Think about other people - One of the best ways to feel better is simply by taking the focus away from you. Start thinking about other people and how you can help them. When you do that, your problems will no longer seem so hard.
Great quote: You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it.
Contact me at DrDan1221@yahoo.com or 920-954-1002 if you have questions or comments.
Source: mercola.com
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
What You Eat After Exercise Matters.
Many of the health benefits of aerobic exercise are due to the most recent exercise session. The nature of these benefits can be greatly affected by the food you eat afterwards. Differences in what you eat after exercise produce different effects on your body's metabolism. Specifically, a recent study found that exercise enhanced insulin sensitivity, particularly when meals eaten after the exercise session contained relatively low carbohydrate content. Interestingly, when the research subjects ate relatively low-calorie meals after exercise, this did not improve insulin sensitivity any more than when they ate enough calories to match what they expended during exercise. This suggests that you don't have to starve yourself after exercise to still reap some of the important health benefits. Enhanced insulin sensitivity means that it is easier for your body to take up sugar from your bloodstream into tissues like muscles, where it can be stored or used as fuel. Impaired insulin sensitivity, also known as insulin resistance is a hallmark of Type II diabetes, as well as being a major risk factor for other chronic diseases.
Jack LaLanne once said:
“Exercise is your king, and nutrition is your queen. Together they create your fitness kingdom."
This new study shows, what you eat after your workout can actually have positive effects on your body. What the researchers found was that all exercise sessions increased insulin sensitivity. This was to be expected as exercise is one of the most powerful tools you have available to normalize your insulin levels. This is important because elevated insulin levels are one of the primary drivers for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and weight gain. But the foods you eat are equally important to maintain healthy insulin and leptin levels. When participants ate fewer carbohydrates after exercise, this enhanced insulin sensitivity significantly more -- even more so than eating a low-calorie meal. What this means is that you don’t need to starve yourself after a workout, and in all actuality doing so may slow down your metabolism because your body goes into starvation mode.
Expert Tips on What to Eat After Your Workout
Darin Steen, a personal trainer, has shared some of his expert tips on what to eat to get the most benefit from your exercise routine. Generally speaking, after exercise your body is nitrogen-poor and your muscles have been broken down. That's why you need amino acids from high quality animal proteins like organic free range chicken, grass fed beef and eggs, as well as vegetable carbohydrates. It’s important to combine a quality protein and a carb (veggie type) together in every meal, no matter whether it’s a resistance training day, an interval cardio day, or a non-workout day, and ideally you should adjust the ratio according to your unique nutritional type. Darin has broken the equation down even further post-workout, and recommends eating a different combination of foods depending on what type of workout you did that day:
Aerobic/Cardio Post-Workout Meal
After a cardiovascular workout (fat loss day), wait 45-60 minutes, and then consume a high-quality source of protein (whole food) and vegetable-type carbohydrate. An example would be a spinach salad and some chicken. The reason why you’ll want to wait an hour after the session to eat is to ride the fat-burning wave of your cardio session. However, waiting more than an hour is typically too long, and can send your body into starvation mode.
Resistance Post-Workout Meal
You want your meal after a resistance workout (muscle-building day) to be absorbed rapidly This is the opposite of what you’ll typically want, because when a meal is absorbed quickly because of refined carbs, there is a good chance your blood sugar will rise too fast, and the carbohydrates will be stored as body fat. But after a resistance workout, you’ve just primed the pump with an intense workout and you have a one-hour window of opportunity to shuttle in nutrients, amino acids, glycogen, and other anabolic nutrients to help repair your damaged muscles. If you miss this one-hour window, the chances that your muscles will be able to repair themselves, which makes them bigger and stronger, diminish significantly. So the best post workout meal on resistance training days is whey protein and a higher glycemic (fast released, starchy) carbohydrate, such as a banana. The potassium in the banana seems to help with recovery. The whey protein is already pre-digested so it is absorbed rapidly. You’ll want to this post-workout meal 15-30 minutes after your intense weight-training session.
Choose Whole Food, Not Sports Drinks or Bars
Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on energy drinks and energy bars each year. Bar and drink makers add dozens of elements to these products, including vitamins, minerals, herbs and whey. However, the active ingredients usually come down to two simple substances: Sugar and caffeine. When used properly, these products may have some benefits for athletes when they are using intense, high-level training that causes them to lose more than a quart of water in sweat. However, for most of you, the vast majority of these energy bars and powders only add hazardous toxins, chemicals, and useless calories to your diet. Probably the worst of the worst would be fructose. You simply should avoid this in a sports drink at all costs unless you are losing more than a quart of water in sweat in 30-45 minutes. The truth is that eating whole, organic and biodynamic foods tailored to your nutritional type is the ticket to optimal performance, whether you’re a professional athlete or a weekend warrior at the gym. If you find that you often resort to processed sports bars in a pinch, make sure you stock up your pantry with the following post-workout staples now, so they’re ready for you to grab after your next workout:
Beneficial sources of protein include: Organic chicken (dark meat for protein nutritional types); Organic free-range eggs; Lean, grass-fed red meat; Whey protein; Nuts and seeds (preferably raw)
Beneficial sources of carbohydrates include: Virtually any vegetable (limiting carrots and beets, which are high in sugar); Dark green, leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale or Swiss chard; Low fructose fruits like lemon, limes, passion fruit, apricots, plums, cantaloupe, raspberries; Avoid high fructose fruits like apples, watermelons and pears.
Sources:
Eurekalert January 28, 2010
Journal of Applied Physiology December 31, 2009
Mercola.com February 2010
Email me if you have any comments or questions at DrDan1221@yahoo.com
Jack LaLanne once said:
“Exercise is your king, and nutrition is your queen. Together they create your fitness kingdom."
This new study shows, what you eat after your workout can actually have positive effects on your body. What the researchers found was that all exercise sessions increased insulin sensitivity. This was to be expected as exercise is one of the most powerful tools you have available to normalize your insulin levels. This is important because elevated insulin levels are one of the primary drivers for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and weight gain. But the foods you eat are equally important to maintain healthy insulin and leptin levels. When participants ate fewer carbohydrates after exercise, this enhanced insulin sensitivity significantly more -- even more so than eating a low-calorie meal. What this means is that you don’t need to starve yourself after a workout, and in all actuality doing so may slow down your metabolism because your body goes into starvation mode.
Expert Tips on What to Eat After Your Workout
Darin Steen, a personal trainer, has shared some of his expert tips on what to eat to get the most benefit from your exercise routine. Generally speaking, after exercise your body is nitrogen-poor and your muscles have been broken down. That's why you need amino acids from high quality animal proteins like organic free range chicken, grass fed beef and eggs, as well as vegetable carbohydrates. It’s important to combine a quality protein and a carb (veggie type) together in every meal, no matter whether it’s a resistance training day, an interval cardio day, or a non-workout day, and ideally you should adjust the ratio according to your unique nutritional type. Darin has broken the equation down even further post-workout, and recommends eating a different combination of foods depending on what type of workout you did that day:
Aerobic/Cardio Post-Workout Meal
After a cardiovascular workout (fat loss day), wait 45-60 minutes, and then consume a high-quality source of protein (whole food) and vegetable-type carbohydrate. An example would be a spinach salad and some chicken. The reason why you’ll want to wait an hour after the session to eat is to ride the fat-burning wave of your cardio session. However, waiting more than an hour is typically too long, and can send your body into starvation mode.
Resistance Post-Workout Meal
You want your meal after a resistance workout (muscle-building day) to be absorbed rapidly This is the opposite of what you’ll typically want, because when a meal is absorbed quickly because of refined carbs, there is a good chance your blood sugar will rise too fast, and the carbohydrates will be stored as body fat. But after a resistance workout, you’ve just primed the pump with an intense workout and you have a one-hour window of opportunity to shuttle in nutrients, amino acids, glycogen, and other anabolic nutrients to help repair your damaged muscles. If you miss this one-hour window, the chances that your muscles will be able to repair themselves, which makes them bigger and stronger, diminish significantly. So the best post workout meal on resistance training days is whey protein and a higher glycemic (fast released, starchy) carbohydrate, such as a banana. The potassium in the banana seems to help with recovery. The whey protein is already pre-digested so it is absorbed rapidly. You’ll want to this post-workout meal 15-30 minutes after your intense weight-training session.
Choose Whole Food, Not Sports Drinks or Bars
Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on energy drinks and energy bars each year. Bar and drink makers add dozens of elements to these products, including vitamins, minerals, herbs and whey. However, the active ingredients usually come down to two simple substances: Sugar and caffeine. When used properly, these products may have some benefits for athletes when they are using intense, high-level training that causes them to lose more than a quart of water in sweat. However, for most of you, the vast majority of these energy bars and powders only add hazardous toxins, chemicals, and useless calories to your diet. Probably the worst of the worst would be fructose. You simply should avoid this in a sports drink at all costs unless you are losing more than a quart of water in sweat in 30-45 minutes. The truth is that eating whole, organic and biodynamic foods tailored to your nutritional type is the ticket to optimal performance, whether you’re a professional athlete or a weekend warrior at the gym. If you find that you often resort to processed sports bars in a pinch, make sure you stock up your pantry with the following post-workout staples now, so they’re ready for you to grab after your next workout:
Beneficial sources of protein include: Organic chicken (dark meat for protein nutritional types); Organic free-range eggs; Lean, grass-fed red meat; Whey protein; Nuts and seeds (preferably raw)
Beneficial sources of carbohydrates include: Virtually any vegetable (limiting carrots and beets, which are high in sugar); Dark green, leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale or Swiss chard; Low fructose fruits like lemon, limes, passion fruit, apricots, plums, cantaloupe, raspberries; Avoid high fructose fruits like apples, watermelons and pears.
Sources:
Eurekalert January 28, 2010
Journal of Applied Physiology December 31, 2009
Mercola.com February 2010
Email me if you have any comments or questions at DrDan1221@yahoo.com
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