The Myth of Target Heart Rate

The myth

It started decades ago, and some people still believe it:  If you want to lose fat you need your heart rate in the ‘fat-burning zone’ and for cardio health you need to be in the higher ‘cardio zone’.   Like all crap science, it sounds good but is wrong.

 I don’t know about you, but I don’t even really sweat when I am working out in the ‘fat burning’ zone. 

The science

There are no target heart rate zones.  Treadmills have those stickers on them because people want to see them.  They are nonsense and you can ignore them, with one caveat.  There are medical reasons to not exceed certain heart rates.  Ask your doc if this might apply to you.

 The thinking with this myth is that low intensity exercise burns fat calories and high intensity exercise burns carbohydrate calories.  Like many lies, it’s sort of true.  If your exercise is more intense, you will PROPORTIONATELY burn more carbs than fat.  However, the total number of calories is you burn is WAY higher if you are working out harder (higher heart rate).

Conclusion

Low intensity doesn't mean you only burn fat and high intensity doesn't mean you are burning all carbs.   You will burn fat and carbs in varying proportions, but the overall calorie burn will be higher when you work out harder.  Duh.  Working out harder will have a greater affect on fat loss than staying in some magical fat burning zone.   Your best measure on if you are working out hard enough is how you feel, not some arbitrary target heart rate sticker.

Getting Treatment for Your Neck

Many medical procedures carry risk.  We’ve all seen the drug commercials on TV with long, speedy disclaimers that the drug might make you wet yourself or stop your heart or something.  We do these things to ourselves because the benefits are greater than the risks involved.  For example, the risks of taking Plavix (fatigue, easy bruising) seem pretty small compared to the benefit of preventing stokes.  In medical areas, good science means taking a look at various treatments and deciding whether the benefits are greater than the risks. 

My neurologist told me some time ago that there is growing evidence that chiropractic adjustments to the neck are linked to strokes and arterial damage. A lot of medical treatments have risks, so that doesn’t bother me too much.  Because I am inclined to follow the evidence, I want to know:

1.       Is it true that neck manipulations are connected to strokes and arterial damage?

2.       If it is true, do the benefits outweigh the risks?

The British Journal of Medicine (BMJ) publish an article on June 7^th 2012 asking these very questions.  The researchers did a systematic review of this area, which means they gathered all the data points they could get, to see if any indicators could be found or conclusions drawn.

Problems

Nobody has done a randomized, double-blind study to see if people who get chiropractic neck treatment have stokes.  That would be a fast way to be charged with ethical violations.

The next problem is that when someone has a stroke, most of the time nobody is going to ask them if they have been seeing a chiropractor.  For that reason, the number of strokes related to neck manipulations is highly likely to be underreported. 

On the other hand, just because two things seem correlated, does not mean one is causing the other.  As the JREF article (below) points out, some chiropractors counter that people had arterial damage and neck pain already; that’s why they came for treatment.  That sounds like baloney to me.  If they know someone has arterial damage why in the world are they doing neck adjustments on them!?

Are Neck Manipulations Linked to Strokes and Damage?

The answer is: yep!  It turns out that jerking the neck around has been correlated with arterial damage and strokes.  According to the BMJ article, the rate of damage to the artery from these neck adjustments is between 1 in 400k to 5.8 million manipulations.  Compared to other medical treatments, this doesn’t seem like a big risk.  On the other hand, death from stroke is a pretty bad outcome if you are only seeing a chiropractor for headaches or a sore neck.  So overall, I would consider the riskiness pretty high: even though the absolute risk is low the severity is high.

Do Benefits Outweigh the Risks?

Basically, studies have shown that there is no measurable benefit to neck manipulation (PubMed 1-4).  Other studies have shown that getting your neck cracked by a chiro was no better than applying tape to the neck (PubMed 5 below).  I should point out that there was no placebo in that study, so just remember that they were comparing two treatments – they weren’t actually testing if the treatments work.  Neck adjustments work as much as tape.  And what is the downside to taping your neck?  None.  Well, maybe some skin irritation.

 There Are Other Risks

According to the Guardian, not very long ago, 1 in 4 chiropractors in Britain were under investigation for making false claims of chiropractic services helping various conditions (like bed wetting!).  The British Chiropractic Association has fired back with an exhaustive (chuckle) list of studies supporting chiro.  There were 29 studies on the list.  10 of them had nothing to do with chiropractic and some of them weren’t actually studies at all.  The list also ignored large, high quality studies that showed no benefit to chiropractic treatment.  The bottom line is that your chiropractor may actually be making false claims about what symptoms they can help with.  So you should be careful.

 What’s the point?

The benefits of getting your neck adjusted (same benefit as taping) are MUCH smaller than the risk of injury or death.  For this reason, the British Medical Journal recommends we abandon chiropractic neck adjustments for safer and more beneficial treatments.  No matter how persuasive your chiropractor or neighbors may be, a scientific review of the evidence says that the benefits of neck adjustments do not outweigh the risks.

 Scientific support for chiropractic treatments as a whole is iffy.  In fact, even the concepts behind chiropractic are fairly iffy.  Overtime, scientific evidence will continue to collect, but for now the best we can do is follow the evidence.

British Journal of Medicine

James Randi Education Foundation

Science based medicine

The Guardian

Pub Med Study on chiro effectiveness 1

Pub Med Study on chiro effectiveness 2

Pub Med Study on chiro effectiveness 3

Pub Med Study on chiro effectiveness 4

Pub Med Study on chiro effectiveness 5

Apps for your health

Below is a list of some apps I've tried out, or thought people may be interested in.  Links are provided below for itunes, but many of these apps are also available for android phones. There are a zillion health apps out there and a lot are low quality, so do some reading before you throw your money around.

Your mental and physical health is an important part of your life, so be willing to spend a few bucks on it.  This list is just a handful of apps that I have found helpful. 

Of course, if you want a great app for your health, take a look at twitter!  There are a ton of people getting healthy that would love to tell you all about it!  Check out our wellness twitter account: @hbmwellness

THI Trainer - $2.99

This is a comprehensive program for building, recording and personalizing workouts.

Pros:  You tell it what muscles you want to work and you can see a list of exercises and even watch videos on how to do the exercise properly.  You can follow their pre-made workouts or build one of your own.  You can also see graphs of how your strength/endurance have improved over time.  There is a free version if you want to try it out.

Cons:  It's a big app and you can get a little lost if you are new to exercise.  The app is geared towards weight lifting, which may not fit your goals.

Restaurant Nutrition – FREE!

This app has nutritional information for over 30,000 foods at more than 200 restaurants!  This is really useful when you are traveling for work.  Just because work makes us travel doesn’t mean we have to get fat while we do it.  It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty helpful.

Pros:  It’s pretty straight forward to use, and it’s free!

Cons:  The ads can be annoying and it doesn’t have all menu items for the restaurants.

Lose It! – FREE!

This is a fantastic app to anchor your health goals.  There are a lot of apps like this, but I think this is one of the easier apps to use.  It tracks your food, exercise, weight, and all sorts of stuff. 

Pros:   It has a ginormous database of foods built in and it’s pretty easy to add your own foods.  You can also add friends to help you stay on track with your goals.  It also roughly estimates the calories you burn doing various exercises, and can provide all sorts of helpful graphs.

Cons:  It’s a inaccurate on calculating how many calories you should be eating, so you’ll have to manually adjust the numbers periodically.

HeartWise  - $.99

A simple little app for tracking your blood pressure and resting heart rate.  I like to measure how I am benefitting from my exercise and resting heart rate is one factor I look at.

Pros:  It’s a no frills stat tracker that docs love cuz it tracks your blood pressure history for you.  It even has an area for comments on the days stats (if you need it).

Cons:  It’s boring, but it does the job.

Pushup Fu - $.99

Train to do 100 pushups in a single sitting!  Challenge friends and move up the ranks.  If you don’t know how to do pushups at all, this app will teach you how it’s done PROPERLY and then give you a pre-test to see where you should begin.  You can start at 0 pushups and work all the way up to 200.

Pros:  Unlike some other pushup programs, the graduated workouts increase in difficulty slowly so I was less likely to give up.  Also, the ipod/iphone will tell you if you are doing the pushups too slow or fast, so it’s a good trainer.  The battle mode is pretty fun because you can challenge people who are at your own level.  I got a lot more out of my workouts when I was competing with someone.

Cons:  You’ll need a good armband for your ipod/iphone since this runs on an accelerometer.

CrunchFu - $.99

This is the same as Pushup Fu, but it trains you on doing up to 200 crunches!

Squatfu - $.99

This is the same as Pushup Fu, but it trains you on doing up to 200 Squats!

Cons:  The accelerometer is tricky on this one.  It takes some getting used to.

FitFu - $5.99

FitFu is like the facebook of exercise.  It is the big brother of the other 'FU' apps. It allows you to earn points for exercising and helping your friends to exercise.  If you are starting out with exercise and need to start small, this is a good way to do it.

Pros:  I like this app because it’s a motivating way to keep people exercising when there isn’t a gym around.  It's fun.  The app tracks your personal best in all the exercises.  It’s got a good interface and connects with facebook and twitter.  It will also TEACH you to do all sorts of exercises. 

Cons:  Aside from being expensive, the success of the app relies on social pressure to keep you exercising  You need people who are going to do it with you.

BodyShot - $2.99

This is a great app that I own.  If you are working on losing a significant amount of weight or want to put on a lot of muscle, this is an important app.  Not all progress gets reflected in your weight!  This app also tracks your body fat %  and all sorts of measurements.  Best of all it lets you take pictures of yourself so that you can see the slow changes you are making over time.  The pics came be stored privately so you don't have to worry about them being accessible to others.

Pros:  This app can help keep you motivated when your progress is slow.  You can always go back and look at the pics of how fat and sloppy you used to be.

Cons:  The app doesn't lie.  You can't keep lying to yourself about the condition of your body and the app will show you the truth.  (It's kind of a pro, right?)

Fat2Fit - Free

This is my go to app for health.  It will help you find a healthy goal weight, determine your basal metabolic rate and do other important calculations. Best of all, their numbers are based on real science.  They will help you get healthy in a reasonable way without starving yourself or going on dangerous diets. The makers of the app also have a pretty good podcast that I listen to occasionally to keep my motivation up.

Pros:  Good science, reasonable goals

Cons: none!

Pranayama - $4.99 or FREE

This is a breathing app that will help you relax your mind and body.  It tells you when to breathe in and out and has numerous levels of difficulty that you can work towards.  The time you spend in the breathing app is very customizable and quiet relaxing.

Pros:  The free version will work for most people.  If you want some of the benefits of meditation in an easy format this is for you.

Cons: I eventually realized that actual meditation provided more benefits and moved on to other apps.  I would use the free version for a few weeks before spending the money.

Meditator - $2.99

There are a bunch of free meditation timers out there.  I paid for this one because it is pretty customizable and has some built in sounds.  Chimes, fountains, etc.  There are a fair number of options to customize your meditation experience.

Pros:  This is one of the better of meditation apps.  

Cons:  There are other apps that are better at sounds.  I use another app if I want white noise.  Also, there are plenty of free meditation timer apps.  Don't pay money for a meditation app until AFTER you decide you are gonna be using it long term.

Buddhist Mediation Timer - FREE

Last I checked this was only available for android.  Sorry!  This is a great app if you want to gain the health and mental refreshment that comes from meditation - but in an easier way.  This apps give you quotes and principles to ponder during your mediation time.  The quotes are designed to help you be more aware of your life and the state of your own mind.  Although the principles are based on Buddhism, no particular religiosity is needed.

Ambience - $2.99

This is the King Kong of white noise apps.  I use it for mediation and relaxation, but the possible uses of this app are endless.  It is easily worth 3 bucks.  It has high quality sounds in numerous areas.  For any kind of sound you want to hear, someone has a recording of it. Buying the app gives you access to a huge online library of all kinds of soundscapes.  The app also includes a timer and an alarm.

 Pros:  Awesomeness, great sound library

Cons: Kind of expensive, but well worth it.

Week #10 When things go wrong

I didn't write a blog post this weekend.  Mostly cuz I didn't feel like it.  I had a massive migraine, so I took care of that instead.  So like all my best work, I will just make something up on the spot without research or forethought.  Pretty credible, right?

The fact is that when you are trying to be healthy, things will go wrong sometimes.  You will get sick, get hit by a car, get a migraine, eat some bad shellfish...  who knows?  If you have finally decided to get healthy, you may have some fear in the back of your mind about what will happen if your break your new habits.  It's happened before.  You were doing pretty well at the gym, something came up and next thing you know it's 6 months later and you are living out of the backseat of your El Camino and living on your substantial fat stores.

People who have been unhealthy for a long time may harbor feelings of fear that they will backslide into their old ways of wearing dirty sweat pants and eating ice cream from the carton.  This leads many people who are injured or sick to push HARDER at the gym.  The fear of losing their hard won successes keeps them working out even when rest has been prescribed.  Alternately, some people have a problem come up and they give up completely on their fitness because they know their old goals are no longer achievable.  They collapse into a sobbing pile of chocolate and marshmallow fluff.

May I suggest that the problem comes because people think of themselves as a fat, unhealthy, or weak person who is doing healthy things.  Do you think the Olympian next door is worried about getting sick and gaining weight?  Nope.  Because she IS a healthy person doing healthy things.  She knows that once she gets better, she'll start her training again and will catch back up in time.  She's not afraid of something breaking her healthy habits, but they aren't habits anymore.  They are part of who she is.

What's the point to this rambling?  When you are sick - take care of yourself.  The gym will be there when you get better.  If you are sick, injured, or have big life events going on - TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.  You body doesn't need to be distracted by weight loss or building muscle when it should be focusing on healing.  You may be surprised to see how fast you can recover when you actually take time off.

 If you need to lower your goals based on your new situation, then do it.  You can't fail as long as you are progressing.  Start BEING a healthy person.  Habits come and go.  Make healthy living part of who you are and you will never need to worry about breaking your goals.

Week #9 Why weight train?

Is lifting weights part of your fitness regime? If the answer is no, then you should keep reading. Weight training will not only help you get those chiseled abs you dream about every night, but will provide long-lasting health benefits as well. The following article, from Weight Watchers online, provides reasons to weight train and benefits from doing so. And if that wasn’t enough motivation to get you lifting, the Wellness Committee has come up with 15 more reasons to guilt you into incorporating weights in your routine.   

The rate at which our body burns calories is known as our metabolic rate. This rate can be affected by many factors, one of which is the amount of lean muscle tissue your body contains. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories your body burns at rest. But as we age, we naturally lose muscle tissue, and therefore our resting metabolism (the amount of calories your body burns to keep all systems going throughout the day) decreases by about 10 percent per decade after the age of 45. So if you don’t take preventative measures, you will see your body become heavier and "flabbier" as you age.

So we have established a need to resistance train — we need to prevent our body from losing muscle mass in order to keep our metabolism high. But there are other gains to be made. Resistance training can offer some help in the fight against osteoporosis — the stress of the muscle pulling against the bone helps with building bone density. Weight lifting can also help balance your appearance.

So how do you begin a weight training regime? First, as a complete beginner, you will need to pre-condition your body. That means treat your body to a period of gentle training with light weights in order for it to acclimate.

The ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) has recently updated its guidelines for health and fitness and now recommends 8 to 10 strength training exercises, 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise, twice a week.

With resistance training, quality is more important than quantity, and you should perform good quality repetitions with a weight heavy enough to tire your muscles by the end of your session. And women, don’t worry, you won't end up looking like a big, bulky guy. It's not easy for women to build large muscles as we do not have the necessary hormones.

Follow a simple regime at least twice a week (avoiding working the same muscle on two consecutive days) combined with some cardiovascular exercise and, of course, stick to a dietary plan, and you will be on your way to a slimmer, trimmer, stronger you!

(Article from weightwatchers.com)

15 reasons to strength train:


Lifting weights....

1.     Builds lean muscle. Muscle speeds up the metabolism. An increase in metabolism helps burn more calories.

2.     Helps develop a stable, injury-free structure by building stronger connective tissues and increasing joint stability.

3.     Makes you feel awesome (at the time, afterwards, or both!)

4.     Can transform your physique, whether you feel you’re overweight, carrying too much fat, too skinny or not shapely enough for your liking.

5.     Teaches you new things (not something we encounter often as adults).

6.     Helps you reach sport and fitness goals, whether that’s to compete in bodybuilding or get better at endurance or team sports.

7.     Helps you learn about how your own body works and what its limits are (or aren’t!).

8.     Might surprise you: you’re capable of a lot, you know!

9.     Enables you to set goals… then smash them to bits.

10.   Boosts testosterone, giving you more energy and focus.

11.   Builds and enforces mental toughness which you can carry over into other areas of your life.

12.   Helps with body composition (in other words, gives you a helping hand in the battle against excess body fat).

13.   Improves self-esteem (you just lifted how much? Look at you!)

14.   Has been proven to help offset diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis.

15.   Shakes up your training routine and gives you a quick option for raising your heart rate, burning calories and blasting body fat, even when time is tight.

Week #8 - How much protein do I need?

**There are a LOT of incorrect “rules of thumb” regarding protein.  I am including references to studies done by real scientists (not some dude who goes to your gym) as support for my conclusions.  Your special situation may require more/less prottein - talk to a professional** 
 

What is protein?

You might know that your body needs protein to function.  Next to water, you need protein more than anything else.  Protein is made of 20 amino acids.  You may not know that all but 8 of them can be made by your body.  These 8 amino acids are called essential amino acids because it is essential you get these proteins from your diet.  When you’ve got the needed essential and non-essential amino acids… BAM!  Your body can whip up some proteins and form lustrous hair, etc.

Ok.  More than you wanted to know, right?  Protein takes more energy to digest than carbs and fats and encourages the sensation of feeling “full”.  Keeping protein levels up during dieting also helps to prevent muscle loss.  That's why you should care.

What if I don’t eat enough protein?

If your protein intake is too low, you have a lot to look forward to:

Delayed wound healing, Depression/Anxiety, Fatigue, Gallstones, Diarrhea, Muscle cramps and Mental sluggishness.  There are other worse symptoms if a person gets REALLY deficient, but that is not likely to happen to someone in a developed nation.   

Can I eat too much protein?

First of all protein is calories.  If you knock back too much protein you will get just as fat as eating pizza (Mmmmm.....).   Second, excess protein may contribute to osteoporosis due to various boring reasons.  However, weight lifting counteracts osteoporosis so the risk is probably minor.

I don’t want diarrhea or osteoporosis; how much protein should I eat?

Some people say that we all get enough protein in our diet.  What they mean is that people get the Recommended Daily Allowance of protein.  The problem is that the RDA requirement is based on a sedentary couch potato, which may not describe your lifestyle (let's hope it doesn't).   Who needs more protein than a couch potato?  You guessed it: basically everyone.

Sports and exercise involve breaking down muscle during the activity and repairing it afterward. So the protein needs of active people are higher.   Plenty of studies have been done that show the RDA is not enough for active people.
 
The National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) recommends around .8 to 1 gram per pound of body weight.  Does anyone agree with them?  Yes.  How about:  the American Dietetic Association, the Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine (link), the Journal of Applied Physiology, the International Journal of Sports Medicine).  I did find one contradicting study, but the consensus of appears to be about .8-1 grams per pound per day for active people.

Calculating Protein needs 
1.  Take your body weight in pounds
2. Multiply your weight by something between .8 and 1 depending on how active you are.  That is the amount of daily protein you should be shooting for.

Eat the best proteins

Lean protein is the best way to get what you need.  I like to use skinless chicken, cottage cheese/yogurt, fish and turkey.  You could also try edamame, nuts, tofu, and quinoa.   I would try to avoid processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, SPAM and some lunch meats cuz they are loaded with salt and fat.  On the other hand, rice and beans are super cheap, so eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive. 

 Conclusion:

It's important that you eat enough protein.   If you are already tracking your calories, the same software is probably tracking your protein already.  Tracking your calories is more work but it also requires education.  You don't necessarily need to track your food for the rest of your life, but you need to track it long enough to get a feel for how much you should be eating and if you are getting enough of the right macro-nutrients.

Campbell B, Kreider RB, Ziegenfuss T, La Bounty P, Roberts M, Burke D, Landis J, Lopez H, Antonio J. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: protein and exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 26,4:8. 2007.

Cribb PJ, Williams AD, Stathis CG, Carey MF, Hayes A: Effects of whey isolate, creatine, and resistance training on muscle hypertrophy. Medicineand Science in Sports and Exercise, 39(2):298 – 307. 2007.

Friedman JE and Lemon PW. Effect of chronic endurance exercise on retention of dietary protein. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 10(2):118 – 123. 1989.

Lemon PW, Tarnopolsky MA, MacDougall JD, Atkinson SA: Protein requirements and muscle mass/strength changes during intensive training in novice bodybuilders. Journal of Applied Physiology, 73(2):767 – 775. 1992.

Gaffney-Stomberg E, Insogna KL, Rodriguez NR, Kerstetter JE. Increasing dietary protein requirements in elderly people for optimal muscle and bone health. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009 Jun;57(6):1073-9.

Millward et al., Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 53: 223-40, 1994; Blomstrand & Saltin, Journal of Physiology 514: 293-302, 1999

Week # 7 - Sleep!

It may be far and few between for some of us during this time of year, but getting a good dose of beauty sleep can do more than turn you into Brad Pitt’s lookalike. Several studies link sleep habits with long-term health benefits and consequences. Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle and can improve your heart, weight, mind and more.

Did you know that you will spend about one-third of your life sleeping? But why exactly do we need sleep, how much sleep do we need and what happens to our bodies while we are catching ZZZs? 

Our bodies go through several stages of sleep, moving from one stage or type of sleep to another in cycles that can last up to 90 minutes each.

·       Stage one- During this stage, you sleep lightly and drift in and out of sleep and you are easily awakened. Your muscles begin to slow down and your eyes move very slowly.

·       Stage two- In stage two, your muscles relax. Your brain waves slow down, though occasionally you have bursts of brain activity.

·       Stages three and four- Deep sleep sets in. Your brain waves become large and slow. Your breathing becomes rhythmic, and your muscles remain relaxed. At this point your body begins releasing repairative hormones. Stages one through four are referred to as non-rapid eye movement (NREM).

·       Rapid Eye Movement (REM)- During REM sleep your muscles stop moving completely. Your breathing and heart rate become rapid and irregular, your blood pressure is more variable, and your eyes move rapidly in bursts of activity. Your brain waves show a pattern similar to wakefulness. Scientists believe this indicates that your brain is using this time to sort and organize your memories. Dreaming takes place during this stage. If you're awakened during REM sleep, you may recall vivid dreams.

Sufficient sleep helps recharge our mental and physical batteries but chronically losing sleep can lead to serious consequences. Research from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School linked deficient sleep with serious medical conditions. Many of their studies have shown people who get less than six hours of sleep per night are more likely to have a higher body mass index (BMI), are prone to developing diabetes, and can lead to depression or other mood disorders.  

During sleep, our bodies secrete hormones that help to control appetite, energy metabolism, and glucose processing. Obtaining too little sleep upsets the balance of these and other hormones. For example, poor sleep leads to an increase in the production of cortisol, often referred to as the "stress hormone." Poor sleep is also associated with increases in the secretion of insulin following a meal. Insulin is a hormone that regulates glucose processing and promotes fat storage; higher levels of insulin are associated with weight gain, a risk factor for diabetes. Insufficient sleep is also associated with lower levels of leptin, a hormone that alerts the brain that it has enough food, as well as higher levels of ghrelin, a chemical that stimulates appetite. As a result, poor sleep may result in food cravings even after we have eaten an adequate number of calories. We may also be more likely to eat foods such as sweets that satisfy the craving for a quick energy boost. In addition, insufficient sleep may leave us too tired to burn off these extra calories with exercise.   

A sleepless night can cause even a saint to be irritable and moody the next day. Chronic sleeplessness has been correlated with depression, anxiety and mental distress. In one study from the Division of Sleep Medicine, subjects who slept 5 hours or less a night showed declining levels of optimism and sociability and greater feelings of stress, sadness, anger and mental exhaustion.

Considering the many potential adverse health effects of insufficient sleep, it is not surprising that poor sleep is associated with lower life expectancy. It sounds so easy in theory though, right? Get eight hours of sleep a night (by the way the daily recommended amount is between 7 ½ and 9) and live healthily ever after. But with all of those reality shows on and Starcraft games to be played each night, before you know it it’s midnight and your alarm is set to go off in 5 hours.  Here are some tips from the Mayo Clinic on how to get better sleep and more of it:

1.      Stick to a sleep schedule- Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.

2.      Pay attention to what you eat and drink- don’t go to bed too hungry or too full. 

3.      Create a bedtime ritual- Do the same things each night to tell your body it's time to wind down. This might include reading a book, listening to soothing music, or practicing relaxation techniques.

4.       Get comfortable- Create a room that is ideal for sleeping: some place cool, quiet and dark.

5.      Include physical activity in your daily routine- This should be a given…since you are participating the wellness challenge and all…right?

6.      Manage stress- When you have too much on your plate your sleep can suffer. To restore peace in your life, consider healthy ways to manage stress.

Happy Sleeping!

Week #6 Meditation and Stress Reduction

Imagine you went on a river rafting trip and dropped your wallet in the river.  It's got $2,000 in it, so you are pretty motivated to find it!  But the more you dig around and slosh through the river, the more silt you kick up and the harder it is to see your wallet.

You have a stressful job.  On top of that, you have family, community and other obligations.  You've got a lot going on! Your mind is just like a muddy river.  When you spend all day sloshing around trying to get things done, it can become difficult to see clearly.  Just like the river, if you stop stirring things up, the mind can learn to settle down.

Do you ever find yourself caught up in negative thoughts that you can't seem to let go of? Do you experience road rage, impatience when people cut in line, or feelings of being overwhelmed by life?  Do you find yourself so enthralled in your inner monologue and mental commentary that you miss parts of conversations or events? Do you spend significant time judging yourself or others?   Do you spill or knock things over because you're not quite paying attention?  Do you get preoccupied with the future or the past?

These are all signs that the mind is running around completely uncontrolled like a rockstar on tour.  In the meditation world this is called "mindlessness".  It means people spend a large portion of their lives on autopilot - letting their lives determine their actions, emotions and thoughts instead of letting emotions and thoughts determine their lives.  The cure for mindlessness is mindfulness.  Mindfulness means living our lives in the present in an open, attentive and non-judgmental way.

Why Meditate?
Abraham Lincoln once said that if he had six hours to chop down a tree, he'd spend the first four hours sharpening his axe.  As your greatest tool, your mind could use some maintenance.

Meditation is a tool that teaches us mindfulness.  Meditation helps us reduce stress by training our minds to let go of worries and stresses.  It trains the mind to focus and non-judgmentally observe life. Meditation is also time to learn about yourself.  It's about nobody but you.  Over time, meditation teaches us not just to control our thoughts, but how to stop thoughts that are unhelpful to us.  It can also reduce the impact of minor irritations in our lives and improve the mind's ability to concentrate.  This in turn helps us to be more productive, which can also decrease stress.

Since meditation can be done by anyone and is free, I recommend trying it out for a week or two.  See if it helps YOU and then decide how you feel about it.

What to do:
Meditation isn't all that exotic really.  You don't need to put on robes and shave your head or be a part of any particular belief system.  You don't need to chant anything or buy any special equipment.

Go somewhere quiet.  Sit in a comfortable position that you can maintain for 10 minutes without moving or shifting your weight.  Sitting in a chair is perfectly fine.  You don't have to fold yourself into a pretzel to meditate.  Sit with your back straight and tall and don't let it rest on anything.  Your back may get tired at first, but you'll get used to it.  Good posture never killed anyone.

Now put your hands somewhere comfortable.  They could be rested on your thighs, folded in your lap, palm up on your knees - you get to choose.  The important thing is that your posture be comfortable, natural and encourage alertness.

You should now be relaxedly sitting in a comfortable meditative position.  It may take some practice to fully relax.  Take a quick inventory of your body before you start and look for tense muscles.  Are you clenching your jaw?  Keep your head looking naturally forward.  Close your eyes and just breathe naturally.  You don't need a particular breathing pace.  Just do what is natural for you.  Now, you are ready to start meditating.

As you breathe, focus on your breath.  Feel the sensation as it rushes in through your nose.  Notice how the abdomen moves as you breathe.  Be aware of the air and how it feels in your lungs.  Choose whichever of those three aspects that you want, and focus on it.  Whatever you are focusing on (ie feelings in the nose) keep your thoughts focused on it.

BAM!  You just learned to meditate.  Seriously.  It sounds easy and possibly a little silly or pointless.  In truth, your mind will try to wander.  It may even wander for 5 minutes before you even REALIZE that your mind has wandered.  Each time, you will gently return your thoughts to your breathing.  This will training your mind to pay attention to things.  Over time you will improve your ability to notice when your mind is wandering and will teach your mind incredible powers of concentration.  You will get better at identifying and CHOOSING your emotions.  Best of all, you will find yourself living your life more consciously.

Meditation isn't for me!
If you don't want to try meditation, you can still reduce stress by incorporating some mindfulness practices into your life.  Meditation is one of the best ways to train the mind, but you can still get a lot of benefit from other methods.  Here are 10 ideas to get you started:

1. Stop filling every second of your life.  When you drive in the car...  just drive.  Whether you're working or making a sandwich, just do that one thing and nothing else.  Many people are in the bad habit of perpetually distracting themselves with music, TV, radio, podcasts, celebrity news, tweets, emails, etc.  Stop it.
2.  Spend time alone.  Have some time each day where you are by yourself in a quiet place.
3.  Start being aware of how much mental chatter is going on in your head.  All that commentary in your mind is pretty entertaining, but it is distracting you.
4.  Stop thinking about work as a distraction from your life.  Think of work as your life when you are at work, and home as your life when you are at home.
5.  Avoid gossip.  Being mindful is all about being non judgmental remember?
6.  Perform everything as if you work at nothing.  Be someone that people enjoy working with.
7. Be more observant of what you feel and why.  Be careful not to dwell on yourself too much.
8.  Accept that life isn't fair.  Really.  Accept it.  The good guy doesn't always get the girl and the villain is richer, smarter and better looking than you.
9.  When a problem comes up, stay in the moment.  Don't bring up past problems or forecast new ones.
10.  When work drama comes (and it will) consciously choose calmness and communication as your responses.

People who are learning to control their minds are like the ocean.  No matter how chaotic things appear, just below the surface they are calm.

"Happiness in comfort is not real happiness. When you can be happy in the midst of hardship, then you see the true potential of the mind." Huanchu Daoren