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Be Who You Might Have Been

The holiday season is here.  A time for friends, family, shopping, eating, drinking and New Year’s resolutions.  A time when we resolve to make positive change, to do better and live a better version of ourselves.  If you are one of the millions contemplating a New Year’s resolutions, this post is for you.

The sad reality is that nearly 50% abandon their resolve before getting started and less than 25% stay committed through the first month. A full 92% fail.  There is even a ‘fail-by date’ of January 12 or 17 depending on which study you read.  Most fail because their resolution is based in emotion, impulse or made to please someone else.  They fail because they underestimate the power of habit and because they do not have a plan.

Life change is a journey.  Living a life of healthy, sustainable behaviors involves understanding old habits and creating new ones, new habits that serve you today.  To become one the 8% who succeed, start your journey with a wellness vision and a plan.  A wellness vision is a compelling description of you, at your best. A successful wellness vision should give you confidence, energy and feel uniquely authentic. As you create your wellness vision ask yourself what will you be doing differently when living your wellness vision?  What is motivating you to change? Why is change important to you?

Your plan begins with setting SMART goals.  (S)pecific, (M)easurable, (A)chievable, (R)ealistic goals set in a self-defined (T)imeframe.  Identify your internal strengths, those go-to techniques you used in the past when failure was not an option. Set short-term achievable goals that align with those strengths.  Research has shown meeting even the smallest of goals builds confidence, enhances motivation and helps you to overcome resistance leading to greater, enduring achievement.

I you need help creating your wellness vision or navigating your life change journey, we at Work Well Concepts are here to help.

“It is never too late to be who you might have been.”– George Eliot

Are You Suffering From Nomophobia – NO–MObile-PHOne-phoBIA?

Are you suffering from nomophobia – NO–MObile-PHOne-phoBIA?  Has your smartphone use morphed into an unhealthy over-connection habit?  One described as an emerging threat to our social, mental and physical health.  If your definition of self-care includes releasing the clench of over-connection, this post is for you.

Nomophobia and the over-connection habit, like addiction, are impacted by dopamine.  Dopamine, an important chemical messenger in the brain functions as both a hormone and neurotransmitter.  At well-regulated levels it serves vital functions in maintaining your physical and mental wellbeing.  As a neurotransmitter it plays a fundamental role in your ability to exercise executive function.  Executive function, regulated by the prefrontal cortex of the brain, drives all forms of higher thinking including motivation, attention, goal setting, planning, reason and problem solving.

In its function as a hormone, dopamine is known as the “pleasure or reward” hormone.  As with addictions, you get a burst of dopamine each time you engage.  With each ping, ding, buzz or flash your mood elevates.  Unfortunately, tolerance to dopamine develops quickly requiring more and more stimulation to receive the same pleasure or reward.

This burst of dopamine sets the groundwork for the over-connection habit to social media, gaming, texting and messaging and can extend to levels where your digital world takes on greater significance than real-life.  Over-connection may rise to the level of digital addiction, a more socially acceptable behavior than other forms of addiction but one that is still harmful to your health and wellbeing.  Excessive smartphone use has been linked to depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness and boredom.  While no consensus exists as to which is likely to have developed first, there is agreement that while losing oneself in a digital world may seem to stave off these feelings, it can actually make them worse. 

Breaking habits and addiction require changing your pattern of thinking and behavior.  Begin by taking ownership of your behavior, recognizing your triggers and acknowledge how your life is impacted by your actions.  Set goals for time usage and limit compulsive checking.  Create phone-free periods in your day and no-phone zones in your life.  Regular exercise and mindfulness practices of yoga, purposeful breathing and meditation can serve to foster a healthy separation between you and over-connection.

What will you be doing differently when living your wellbeing vision?  Do you have a wellbeing vision?  If not, I challenge you to create one.  What motivates you to be your best, or better, self?   Is breaking free of over-connection part of your wellbeing vision?   At Work Well Concepts, we are here to help.  Working with a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach you can gain confidence, enhance your motivation and overcome resistance to live your wellbeing vision.  Break free of over-connection and create sustainable healthy habits for life.

Sleep Hygiene, Teeth Brushing for Your Brain

An earlier post introduced the ‘stress hormone’ cortisol.  Normal levels of cortisol are essential to the healthy regulation of many body functions including your sleep-wake cycle. Elevated levels are seen in response to chronic stress. This post addresses the role chronic stress-induced rise in cortisol levels play in sleep deprivation and ways you can combat it. If practicing good sleep hygiene aligns with your definition of self-care, this post is for you.

Good sleep hygiene are healthful habits and practices that can improve your ability to fall asleep, stay asleep for the recommended 7 hours and wake well-rested.

Sleep deprivation diminishes brain function making it difficult to exercise executive function and think critically.  It leads you to be inattentive and careless and contributes to a lower sex drive, weight gain, difficulty losing weight and an accelerated appearance of aging.  Sleep deprivation may contribute to the development and progression of the most common chronic diseases. [1]

Circadian rhythm, affected by cues from the environment, is your body’s internal cycles, your internal clock that create a predictable pattern of when you sleep, wake and eat.  A stress-induced rise in cortisol levels released at random times throughout the day creates confusion in your circadian rhythm causing your body to lose track of time.  Cortisol is naturally produced in fluctuating levels throughout the day, higher in the morning and lower at night.  Disruption of these naturally occurring levels may affect your sleep-wake cycle and contribute to poor sleep hygiene.

To improve your sleep hygiene, I offer these recommendations:

  1. Before bedtime and throughout your day practice stress reduction techniques to include deep, purposeful breathing and mindfulness.
  2. Set a regular bedtime to maintain the timing of your body’s internal clock.
  3. Eat a healthful diet rich in B vitamins. (See our previous post on thermic effect of food and include lots of fruits and vegetables.)
  4. Avoid late day exercise as it may delay your ability to fall asleep.
  5. Avoid late night stimulants caffeine and nicotine, and alcohol.
  6. Create a comfortable, cool sleep environment.
  7. Limit nighttime exposure to blue-light emitted by your TV and smart-devices.

Is good sleep hygiene part of your wellbeing vision?  Following these recommendations will help ensure a good night’s sleep.  Do you have a wellbeing vision?  If not, I challenge you to create one.  What motivates you to live as your best, or better, self?  What will you be doing differently when living your wellbeing vision?  Need help creating your wellbeing vision?  We are here to help.

[1] If your sleep is disturbed by snoring, either yours or your partner’s, I urge you to investigate its cause.  Snoring may be more than just an unpleasant habit, it may be an indication of sleep apnea.

Burn Baby Burn…Eating to Burn Calories

The topic of my last post discussed NEAT, and its role in the energy your body burns in any given day. This week’s topic, diet induced thermogenesis (DIT), also plays a role in how your body burns energy.  DIT is the energy you use to digest, absorb and metabolize your food.  It is often referred to as the thermic effect of food (TEF).  It is affected by what you eat and some would argue, when you eat.  If your self-care definition and wellness vision includes healthier eating, this post is for you.

Let us first address quantity and frequency of meals.  It has been said consuming small frequent meals can elevate DIT and stimulate your metabolism to burn more calories. Although current research disputes this notion, it does support the practice.  Health benefits attributed to eating small frequent meals include healthier foods choices and less overall calorie intake leading to a lower body mass index (a measure of your body’s fatness).  Long periods between meals can lead to low blood sugar and over-indulgence.  Blood sugar drops about 3 hours after eating which makes it harder to think clearly and problem solve.  It contributes to poor food choices and over-indulgence at subsequent meals.  Overeating can alter how your cells process food and act as a precursor to many of the most common chronic health conditions. 

Of greater importance than quantity and frequency of meals is what you actually consume.  Healthy foods include those with a high thermic effect.  These foods increase DIT and stimulate your metabolic rate[1] by enhancing metabolism and your body’s ability to burn calories.  Proteins have the highest thermic effect, followed by carbohydrates and fats.  Recommended foods include high quality proteins – fish, notably salmon and sardines, lean red meats, lean poultry, eggs and nuts.  Also recommended are high fiber carbohydrates – oatmeal, whole-grain breads and pasta, multigrain cereals and brown rice.  Broccoli and leafy green vegetables are among the vegetables with the highest thermic effect.  Certain spices including ginger and cayenne pepper can also stimulate DIT.  Teas, most notably green tea and coffee can enhance DIT but should be consumed in moderation.  Drinking lots of water and good sleep hygiene[2] will further enhance your metabolism and overall wellbeing

Whether you eat 3 or 6 meals a day, I urge you to include foods with a high thermic effect.  Is healthy eating in your wellbeing vision?  Do you have a wellbeing vision?  If not, I challenge you to create one.  What will you be doing differently when living your wellbeing vision?  What motivates you to live as your best, or better, self?  Need help creating your wellbeing vision?  We are here to help.

[1] Three categories factor into your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).  The greatest impact on TDEE comes from your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the amount of energy used to support the functions of your organs and physiological systems.  NEAT, along with the thermic effect of activity (TEA) combine to form the second category, the thermic effect of physical activity (TEPA).  DIT or TEF constitutes the third category.

[2] Watch for our post on sleep hygiene.

Fitness Fanatics Not Required – The Benefits of NEAT

In my last blog post we discussed the importance time management plays in self-care.  Understanding your definition of self-care is an essential pre-action step to making healthy lifestyle choices.  If your definition includes increasing physical activity, this post is for you.    

An abundance of evidence exists to support healthier living benefits of increased physical activity.  What you may not know is you can enjoy many of those benefits without increasing planned purposeful exercise.  You do it by upping your NEAT. 

NEAT, an acronym for non-exercise activity thermogenesis is the energy (calories) you burn doing everything except planned purposeful exercise, eating or sleeping.  The less you are currently doing, the more you benefit from upping your NEAT.  How much physical activity do you need?  The answer for most is simply more than you are doing now. 

Up your NEAT by standing instead of sitting, walking instead of standing, walking quickly instead of slowly, pace while you talk, take the stairs, park your car at the end of the lot, walk or ride a bike to work, move to the music, cook your own meals, clean your own house (okay that’s a stretch), tap a foot or a finger.  Get creative, your life may depend on it. 

Added benefits of upping your NEAT are increased serotonin, a neurotransmitter and mood stabilizer that is said to decrease depression and anxiety.  Upping your NEAT decreases cortisol, the stress hormone.  It improves critical thinking, memory, sleep, sexual desire and function.  It improves heart function and circulation and helps you burn fat more efficiently.

At Work Well Concepts we work collaboratively with our clients to create a wellbeing vision that aligns with their definition of self-care.  I challenge you to do the same. What will you be doing differently when living your wellbeing vision?  What motivates you to live as your best, or better, self?  Your body is meant to move.  As you travel your wellbeing journey to living happier and healthier, up your NEAT by finding ways to keep it moving.