Healthier Together Series: Cycle 1 B. Physical Activity — Workout bonus

Posted on February 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

lindsay-henwood-7_kRuX1hSXM-unsplashToday’s Physical Activity Notes:

First: I will often use the terms physical activity and workout interchangeably. When I use the terms “working out” & “workout,” I specifically refer to intentional physical activity that is planned for the purpose of being exercise. Working out is deliberately moving for health, fitness –> exercising. Physical activity is anything we do that moves our body and includes working out, exercising as well as other activities we do daily.

Good news: since we wake up in a mode burning our body’s stored fuels, whatever physical activity we do in the morning prior to eating or drinking calories, accelerates our fat burning by using up our muscles’ stores of glycogen (energy stored in muscles). This means that you get to drink or eat a bit more freely after being physically active in the morning. In fact, if you workout vigorously in the morning (if you used up all the glycogen in your muscles), you can add some unprocessed carbs to your meal within approximately 30-60 minutes & your body will put the extra blood sugar (the glucose from digesting the carbs) into your muscles and NOT into fat cells. HOW COOL IS THAT?

Remember, if you eat foods that spike your blood sugar (especially foods like processed carbohydrates including sugars), your insulin will spike and your body will store most of that extra blood sugar in your fat cells! So, your FAT stores will GROW BIGGER…and mostly around your middle. NOT your goal. So, that means if you want to eat/drink that higher carbohydrate food or drink & you don’t want to grow your fat, WORK OUT first! You get the biggest bang for your buck if you are physically active first thing in the morning before you eat or drink any calories (drinking water is better).

Remember, the “physical activity” can be:

1. Low intensity movement for a longer duration – like walking for 30-40+ minutes or an activity that is at a perceived exertion level of 5-7 or heart rate approximately 60% (+/-10%) of your personal maximum heart rate. *see previous blog about perceived exertion and heart rates for more info.

2. Spurts of higher intensity activity for a shorter duration (even 4 minutes counts!). This might mean boosting your perceived exertion closer to 8-10 or 80-90% of your maximum heart rate for very short spurts, no longer than 30-60 seconds, interspersed with 2-5 minutes of lower intensity such as level 5-6. Basically, you go hard for 30 seconds then easy for 2 minutes, & repeat a few times. I like 4 cycles. — Another option, look up the 7 minute workout online.

The key is to deplete or significantly lower your body’s storage of glycogen with exercise and voila! You now have created an empty space (your muscles and liver) where your body will put the extra sugars in your blood (from the carbs &/or sugars you have consumed) & it is NOT going into your fat cells for storage. It is getting burned up in your muscles immediately. If you have eaten protein & fat within a low carb “break-fast,” you will just continue to be burning fat.

Bottom line: If occasionally, you are craving extra berries or a sweetened cup of coffee or tea or other starchy carbohydrate with your breakfast, & you don’t want to worry about it increasing your weight, work out first thing in the morning! It’s a workout bonus!

Photo by Lindsay Henwood on Unsplash

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Healthier Together Series: Cycle 1 A. Nutrition — Make one change…

Posted on February 24, 2014 | Leave a comment

hisu-lee-bQLCyj-9-tk-unsplashThis week’s nutrition notes:

In an earlier a post, I mentioned how our body starts out in our personal best metabolic state…basically after >6 hours of sleep, not eating or drinking anything, our body is burning stored fuel (glycogen and/or fat) for energy (which is possible because our insulin levels are lower). We like that. Most of us have enough fat on our body that we can spare to burn some for fuel. Our body’s insulin levels are meant to drop down while we are sleeping (A.K.A. fasting) & therefore, we are more likely to wake up in a fat burning mode. Use this to your advantage.

This week, make sure your first meal of the day, “break-fast,” has protein. You can add leafy veggies too. You can add fat too. So that first meal, whenever it is, might include organic free range eggs, nitrite free bacon, left over meats/chicken/fish from night before, avocado, butter, spinach, mushrooms, hard cheese, etc. ***The key is to avoid the starchy carbohydrates (potatoes, bread, pancakes, waffles, crepes, anything made with wheat flour, etc.) and sugars.

If you eat protein & fat for that first meal, your blood sugars remain stable, you DON’T have an insulin surge, so your body can continue in a fat burning mode from overnight & you continue to nourish your body with nutrients. Also, you may notice that your hunger levels are better later in the day and you have more energy the rest of the day.

So, look for low carbohydrate “breakfasts” with natural proteins, fat with or without leafy veggies and water, tea, or coffee (with cream if you like, but hold the sweetener). Make your breakfast work for you.

Photo by Hisu lee on Unsplash

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Perceived Exertion & Heart Rates — How to use them

Posted on February 22, 2014 | 1 comment

This doctor’s Perceived Exertion Scale

Scale of 1-10.
1 laying in bed or propped up
2 sitting up
3 standing
4 standing & / or jiggling
5 walking
6 brisk walk/slow jog – point of breaking a sweat, could keep doing this for hours; equivalent of 60% of max heart rate
7 sweating, still able to have a conversation; 70% of max heart rate
8 breathing faster through mouth, sweating more; 80% of max heart rate
9 not able to sustain for long time, breathing hard, conversation has to wait; 90 % max heart rate
10 hard as you can go, balls to the wall, takes concentration on working it…this is your personal maximum heart rate

Keep perceived exertion in mind…

I’m a fan of the heart rate monitor when I am working out. I like numbers. I use a polar heart rate monitor even though I don’t care to wear a chest strap. I have just found it is the most reliable and it is easy to use. If you work out at a gym, it will often “talk” to the motorized gym equipment like the treadmill, elliptical, stepper, stationary bike, etc.

Here is how I use my heart rate monitor. First, I rate my perceived exertion at the level of exercise I am doing – & see what my heart rate is. This lets me know my own heart rate zones for different levels of perceived exertion so I know how vigorous any activity is for me. Then, I look at what my heart rate is when I am going 10/10 & note that as my personal maximum heart rate. Then, I can figure out my approximate heart rate which correlates with each level of perceived exertion. Now, I can see how I am doing.

What I find is that as my fitness improves, I can do more for the same heart rate response. For example, I can walk 3.6 mph at a 4 degree incline on my treadmill and I am at a level 6 that correlates with a heartrate in the 120’s. Previously, when I first started my current exercise program, that same setting on my treadmill felt more like an 8 on perceived exertion and my heart rate was in the 160’s.

Also, as the fitness level improves, the time it takes for your heart rate to come back down gets shorter. In other words, your recovery time gets shorter. Instead of 10 minutes to cool down, it only takes 1 minute.

Finally, when you know what your resting heart rate is, you can objectively see if your body is under more stress (ie. fighting a brutal cold) & adjust your workout accordingly. So, given my resting heart rate is in the 50’s, if I have a cold & my resting heart rate is in the 70’s or 80’s, I know I may not want to exert myself too much. In fact, I can just gently walk slowly & see my heart rate will rise quickly. OR I can just do some stretches or some gentle yoga and make sure I am getting my fluids and taking care of myself in other ways.

We are all scientists when it comes to our own bodies. It helps to learn of more ways to understand what it is telling us. I suggest keeping a log of your observations. In this case, write the date & time, write down your activity (including duration and settings) and your perceived exertion and heart rate. I include my average heart rate and my maximum heart rate also. Then I include some notes about how I was feeling. I always finish with a positive note & then I review what I will do next time. Numbers make it easier to follow your progress. It’s so fun to look back on all of the successes!

In a future blog, I will discuss how to use this information to organize your workout plan – how to evaluate your workout and how much time you will invest into working out.

Photo by Markus Spiske/Unsplash

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Insulin. Letting your metabolism work for you.

Posted on February 16, 2014 | Leave a comment

rodrigo-ardilha-TYtbqZdYtc8-unsplashWant to learn to be a fat burner? What if I told you that your metabolism starts off in its most ideal state when you first wake up after at least 6 hours of sleep? What if I told you that you could keep your metabolism humming along throughout most of the day, and that it could burn the excess unhealthy fat off your body? What if I told you that you would also have more energy and your mood would be improved along the way? Would you be interested? Well, I’m going explain…

One of your body’s fuel sources is glucose. Glucose is the sugar in your blood that is like gas in a car.  (I will use the word “sugar” instead of “glucose” for the rest of this post, but I’m talking about glucose.)

Your body needs the right amount of fuel to work well, and if it has too little, you can die and if you have too much, you can also die. Actually, before death, if you have too much sugar, it acts like a slow poison…everywhere in your body. It attacks your brain, blood vessels, your eyes, your nerves, your kidneys, your heart, your immune system, your skin, EVERY part of your body.

This is the case with diabetes, where there is too much sugar in the blood most, if not all of the time, and it is damaging the body. You can imagine, if sugar is so powerful in your body, and too much of it is poisonous, your body will have created something VERY powerful, as a defense, to manage that extra sugar…It has. It’s called INSULIN. Insulin brings down the blood sugar.

How does insulin work? Well, it is created by your pancreas and gets pumped out when your body senses it has TOO MUCH sugar in the blood. Insulin is released proportionally to the level if sugar in the blood*. The more sugar in the blood, the more insulin is released. Insulin lowers your blood sugar.

*Side note: The older you get, or the higher you regularly push your blood sugars, the exponentially more insulin will get pumped out relative to the amount of sugar in your blood. In other words, the pancreas gets a little over-reactive & will go overboard and pump out LOTS of insulin. We will come back to this.

So, when there is lots of sugar in the blood, there is lots of insulin that is dumped into the blood. When high amounts of insulin are circulating in your body, your body listens. Insulin is ALL POWERFUL. It is trying to prevent high levels of blood sugar from poisoning the cells. So, insulin is the Boss. It is your body’s defense. It is all about survival. It is trying to prevent the cells from being poisoned.

To clarify, when insulin levels are high, the cells stop listening to other signaling chemicals in the body. High levels of insulin act like a fire alarm. It tell the cells in the body, “We are about to be poisoned!!! The NUMBER ONE PRIORITY is to LOWER THE SUGARS in the blood!” So, how does it do that?

First, insulin causes your cells to shut off their use of other fuel sources (such as fat) and tells all of your cells that it can ONLY burn the SUGAR in the blood for fuel. This allows the extra blood sugar to be used up so the blood sugar goes down to normal healthy (non-poisonous) levels. This is good. This works very well if we don’t overload the system…

However, if there is way way too much (glucose) sugar in the blood and you are not more active, it cannot burn off enough of it, fast enough. It doesn’t need that much fuel. It cannot bring the sugars down to a “good” or “safe” level fast enough or it may not be able to bring it down much at all (type 2 diabetes). To protect itself from being poisoned, the body responds with extra insulin* and it has another back up option.

The back up? Insulin forces the body to store all if the unused sugars as glycogen (in the muscles and liver) and FAT in your body. If you have not used up the glycogen in the liver and muscles (which can be done by fasting or with physical activity or exercise), they are likely already full. So the back-up storage space is our fat cells. So, insulin causes fat cells to grow and multiply to protect us from very high poisonous sugar levels!

Key point: High insulin levels = Fat burning is shut off & you are now growing. If you have stopped getting taller, there is only one other way to grow…you will be growing your fat cells and your body cannot access the fat on your body for fuel. It can only burn sugar in the blood.

As mentioned earlier, as we age, or if the body has high blood sugars often, huge amounts of insulin keep being produced by an increasingly over-reactive pancreas. With time, the cells start ignoring the insulin- they become INSULIN RESISTANT. The pancreas then starts over-reacting even more, and responds by pumping out even more insulin. The cells become even more insulin resistant, and it becomes a vicious cycle.

Signs that your body is developing insulin resistance include the development of more skin tags or discoloration around the neck, and even more consistent, is an enlarging waistline. As your waistline grows, you are becoming even more insulin resistant and you will start gaining fat weight faster and faster (unless you make some changes).

With high insulin levels, fat burning has been turned off. So, you cannot easily burn the fat off your body. In fact, this extra insulin often leads to further hunger, as your body is storing the fuel and at the same time, shutting off access to the stored fuel (the fat cells). When you are running on empty, your body craves more sugar, for immediate fuel, because you are running out of sugar. All because of an over-production of insulin from your previous cycle. This is the insulin resistance roller coaster that gets steeper and faster over time.

Good news: You can get off the insulin roller coaster and even avoid it all together. If you don’t get on the insulin roller coaster, you will be able a fat burning machine and have steady energy. Here’s what you need to know:

When you wake up first thing in the morning, if you haven’t eaten overnight, your body starts off in a fat burning mode. Since you didn’t eat foods that cause blood sugars to go up, your insulin levels got low, so your body switched from sugar burning to fat burning for fuel! You start off as a fat burning machine. If you think about what you eat in the morning and keep your sugars low, you can keep your body in the fat burning mode! You can have a fresh start every day.

If you start your day with foods that cause blood sugars to jump (like starchy carbohydrates and sugar), remember you will dump lots of insulin in the blood, which will turn off your fat burning & you may grow and start on your insulin roller coaster for the day. If you choose to avoid those starchy carbs and sugar, you avoid getting on the insulin roller coaster and you can stay in your fat burning mode!

In short: When insulin levels are high, insulin acts like a growth hormone. And if you are done growing taller, there is only one other way to grow…so anything you can do to keep your blood sugar levels stable and in the healthy and safe range, the better off your whole body will be and the more likely you can maintain a healthy weight and body.

Every day, you get a fresh start when your body is burning fat for fuel. So the key is to learn which foods and how much of those foods cause your blood sugars to spike and to limit those. Then, your body can continue to burn fat and your waistline will shrink. In addition, if you can eliminate those insulin spikes, you will find your mind is clearer, your mood improves, and you have more energy. You may find you even WANT to be more physically active than before! It is a win-win for you!

Isn’t the body amazing? Next time, we will review how to reverse the aging process with regards to metabolism…

 

 

Photo by Rodrigo Ardilha on Unsplash

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How Can I just “DO IT”? (Part 4)

Posted on February 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

Now, you understand about brain energy, resilience, transitions and activation energy. So, “How can I just DO IT?”

Feel free to read this a couple of times to think about it and consider what it means for you. This is putting it all together.

First, let’s review and go back to the car analogy: The first time you try to get to a new destination you are more likely to succeed if you have a large full tank of gas and plenty of time in case anything unexpected happens. This means: To incorporate a novel transition, you are more likely to succeed if you have lots of resilience & maximum brain energy. You set off on your drive (using your activation energy). You may not yet know the “best” route. In fact, you may get lost or end up in construction and traffic (using still more activation energy). In other words, you will need more energy to do something new, and you only have a set amount of energy to start with every day. Plan your day accordingly. More “new” or “unusual” events planned, the more energy you will drain.

You are better off if you have a large full tank of gas because you still have other places to go (more transitions or activities to do) after your first destination, and there may not be a gas station nearby. In the future however, each time you go to that destination, you will likely do it better and faster. The more frequently you drive there, the more efficient your drive will become. In other words, the more “routine” something becomes, the less activation energy required for it.

Concept #4. Hectic days can sabotage our good intentions.

A hectic day has more novel transitions & is often complicated by the requirement that there are specific times those transitions have to be completed.Remember that novel transitions are transitions that are not a regular occurrence. The more novel the transitions, & the more of them that you have in a period of time, the more activation energy is required for each event, the bigger the drain on your brain energy, and the more hectic your day will feel. A hectic day is really like a day with lots of novel transitions scheduled into it – rapidly draining your energy.

Going back to the car analogy when you are over-scheduled with lots of novel transitions over several days: Effectively, you are just DRAINING your gas tank and throwing rocks into the tank too effectively shrinking the size of the tank and decreasing the amount of gas you haave. You will be running on empty pretty quickly. Hectic days have the potential to sabotage your good intentions without warning.

Bottom line, hectic days are days when you just have lots more going on & they are not your usual routine. These are dangerous days. Mistakes happen and good intentions fall by the way side. Often, we end up in survival mode and not being our best selves. We may stop taking the time to take care of ourselves. We are in danger of burn out. These are times when you eat the foods you know aren’t good for you, when you are stressed out, when you consider skipping your workout.

Remember, if it is a novel transition and/or it needs to be done at a certain time (ie. getting to a new appointment), it will deplete more activation energy and may become part of a hectic day. Now you know this. You can prepare for this. It means you will need to plan for more frequent recharging times, more breaks, more times to decompress and slow down. You may choose not to add in too many novel events in a week if you have that option.

In my house with teenage boys, there are certain times of the year that are just full of predictable hectic days, and they revolve around the boys’ schedules. To prevent burn out and to make sure I continue to take care of myself, I create a plan ahead of those predictable times to boost my resilience and brain energy around those times so that I maximize my time and what I accomplish then. I also try NOT to plan “new activities” or “novel transitions” at those times if they are not necessary.

There is a good argument for regular exercise, healthy nutrition and for taking care of your brain energy and increasing your resiliency: If you are fit and you have been taking care of yourself (mentally, physically & spiritually), you will have more resilience, have more brain energy and therefore, more activation energy available to you & you can do so much more before you have exhausted your supply of activation energy and your total brain energy.

With knowledge, planning and preparation, you can achieve your goals and continue to move forward towards new ones. You will achieve much more in life. So, you can now say, “I will DO It!”

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How Can I just “DO IT”? (Part 3)

Posted on October 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

So far, we have covered BRAIN ENERGY & RESILIENCE. Here is the next concept, which is key:

Concept #3: Transitions & Activation Energy.

It is important to understand transitions and activation energy. Every day is made up of several transitions. Getting out of bed & getting ready for work. Getting the kids ready for school. Making lunches & breakfast. Feeding & walking the dog. Sending the kids to school. Driving to work. Countless transitions throughout the work day such as meetings, checking email, answering phone calls, etc. And the transitions continue even after work. Add in exercise, snacks, lunch, dinner, etc. LOTS of daily transitions.

Transitions include anything where you have to remember to do something or be somewhere different that now. It takes effort on your part. That effort comes in the form of mental energy I call “activation energy.” Every transition requires activation energy. Activation energy is the amount of “effort” and “discipline” you need IN ADDITION to the physical & mental energy you need, to do the next activity. There is a finite amount of activation energy for each individual. It sets a limit on the number of transitions that can be managed in a given period of time.

Let’s go back to our car analogy. Remember that brain energy is the total amount of gas in the car, resilience is the size of the gas tank. The destination is the transition. The activation energy is the amount of gas needed in the tank to get to its destination. Obviously, you require different amounts gas depending on where you are going and the number of other stops you plan to make along the way.

This car analogy is similar to the different amounts of activation energy required depending on the transition. Regular transitions are routine and require a very small amount of activation energy. It’s like you found the shortest, fastest way to your destination. We assume this means you used the least amount of gas.

Often the morning transitions are pretty regular during the week and they are “routine.” As long as they stay the same daily, these transitions require less activation energy the longer you continue the same routine. This is an important concept. You can decrease the activation energy you expend the more you do it and the more routine it becomes.

However, if you add something new into the routine or change it, you will need extra activation energy to complete all of your transitions. What you have done is that you have introduced an unusual transition or a “novel transition.” These are new or different-than-the-usual transitions and don’t occur regularly (like eating lunch). Until this novel transition become routine, it will expend more activation energy than your routine transitions.

For example, a common morning routine: wake up, brush teeth, shower, get dressed & ready for work, eat breakfast, etc. (We will keep the kids and others out of this for now). Same thing every weekday, but now, you want to add a workout into your morning. The only differences (the 3 novel transitions) will be 1) waking up 30 minutes earlier (& after brushing teeth), adding in 2) changing into workout clothes & 3) the workout before the shower. Everything else will continue to be the same.

Seems pretty simple and it may be. However, it takes more activation energy to incorporate those 3 novel transitions into our morning routine. If we are also using up more activation energy incorporating additional novel transitions into our days, such as packing a healthy lunch and snacks, anticipating our annual physical this week and a concert to attend, we may have depleted our available activation energy and something is going to fall off…Often, the novel transitions that don’t directly affect others are the first to be eliminated. Guess what gets eliminated? Usually it is something that you were going to do for yourself like exercise or prepare healthy foods to eat.

Again, note that with novel transitions, your brain has to be vigilant. It has to be constantly “on” to remember the next transition: what you need to do or where you need to be. So, novel transitions will use up more activation energy than “routine transitions.” Additional activation energy will also be required if the transition is complicated further by a scheduled time of completion (ie. An annual meeting at a scheduled time that you must attend).

Another example: you go to work, but you have to remember the scheduled phone meeting at 10:30 am with the school teacher. You have to remember to call the teacher at the right time during your otherwise usual work day at the office. You mind has to continue to remind itself, not start anything that will run into the 10:30 time slot & it much continually check the clock & remember to call at the right time. It would be much less energy consuming if you could call anytime in the next month when you thought of it.

This scheduled meeting, a novel transition, continues to drain energy until the transition is completed (you have the phone meeting). It may be decreased somewhat by setting an alarm to remind you to call & putting a post it on your computer screen. However, the activation energy needed for this transition is MUCH higher than what was needed to go to work as usual. Now, if the meeting becomes regular, such as a weekly phone call, then there is less activation energy required each subsequent time you have the meeting. The longer it is a routine, the less activation energy you will expend for that particular transition.

The good news is that the longer you are able to continue including your desired novel transitions in your life (like exercise and healthy eating), the less likely they will be eliminated when you introduce yet more novel transitions into your life because they don’t require as much activation energy. In fact, you may find that they help provide you with some stability which can increase your resiliency.

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How Can I just “DO IT”? (Part 2)

Posted on October 3, 2013 | Leave a comment

Earlier, we reviewed BRAIN ENERGY. Today, we move onto the next concept.

Concept #2. Resilience.

Brain energy is directly linked to resilience. Resilience is your defense against things that derail you. It protects your supply of brain energy, it’s your reserve. It can be more specific to events and can include behavioral patterns you develop in response to negative influences. Resilience protects you from giving up your plans, your goals. It helps keep you moving forward.

If brain energy is the gas in your car, resilience is the size of the gas tank. The larger the tank, the more gas it holds, or the more driving possible between fill ups. Even if you end up getting lost, you will have enough gas until you reach your destination. The more resilience you have, the more you can accomplish in a period of time even when you have detours.

Good news! You can learn to increase your resilience so that you are more resilient to change and transitions…which will be topic of the next blog.

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How can I just “DO IT”? (Part 1)

Posted on September 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

Do you find your good intentions to exercise daily, plan & prepare healthy foods, incorporate new healthy habits into your life, start out well, but fizzle out too soon, before they become ingrained into your routine? Do you find that you know what you need to do to be healthy (ie. Exercise), that you realize you CAN probably fit it into your day but you somehow are having difficulty actually DOING it? What is getting in the way of your good intentions? WHY can’t you just do it? It’s usually not for lack of motivation, lack of knowledge, lack of time or lack of ability. If you are like most people, you are probably disappointed in your lack of discipline or you may wonder if there is something wrong with you. Over the next several blogs, I will discuss a different way to consider what’s happening. Then maybe you will be saying, “Let me do it!”

#1 Concept: Brain Energy.

First, we all have a finite store of brain energy. “Brain energy” is the total amount of energy your brain carries with it at any time and determines what you can accomplish in a given period of time. Your total capacity for daily function is a reflection of your current quantity of brain energy. If you have more brain energy, you can do more and you can challenge yourself more before you need a recharge. So, you can accomplish more when you have more brain energy.

So, your daily ability to function is based on how much brain energy you have. An easy way to see the link between brain energy and function is to look at toddlers. Think about when toddlers deteriorate after missing their nap. They have exhausted their brain energy and essentially don’t “function” as well. They need some quiet time to recover their brain energy & “get it together.”

The good (& sometimes bad) news is that you and your environment can change the amount of brain energy you have. Choices you make to take care of yourself can increase your brain energy. This will be further reviewed later.

For now, understand that we have brain energy that determines how much we can do every day and that the amount of brain energy can be changed. We all want more brain energy.

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Change and Activation Energy

Posted on September 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

Recently, I had a nice discussion with my mom about the challenges of NOT having a regular schedule.

Why was it so hard to sustain that new exercise routine and healthy eating plan? Was it that the work & home life had so many changes recently? The new school year, the different work hours? Was it the changing weather? The recent 10 day “vacation?” Was it that in this upcoming semester, there would be no 2 days or 2 weeks that were similar – NO routines?

It made me think about what trauma surgeon once told me. “It’s the transitions that are hard in our work. That’s what makes being “on call” so draining. Once we are at the hospital, we are fine and we love what we do. And once we are home, we love being home and don’t want to leave. It’s the transitions that are awful.”

Transitions are hard for children, and adults too, it turns out. A transition is when you have to change what you are doing now, to do the next thing: shift from sleeping to waking to exercising to showering to getting ready for work to being a parent to driving to work to working, etc. A transition may be that you have to change locations: go from one store to the other, go from home to work, go from one appointment to another. The more transitions in your day, the more your brain has to do, the more vigilant it has to be. This can exhaust your energy stores. When those energy stores are depleted, things may start to feel overwhelming. When we feel overwhelmed or when our brain has been vigilant for too long without a chance to recharge, that is when it becomes easier to let your good intentions & health efforts fall to the side.

Transitions require activation energy & there is only a finite amount there. Activation energy is the amount of “effort” and “discipline” you need IN ADDITION to the physical & mental energy you need, to do the next activity. If you are fit and you have been taking care of yourself, you will have more activation energy available to you & can do so much more before you have exhausted your supply of activation energy. You are more resilient to change and transitions.

But if you have not been taking care of your whole self, or have let stress build up in your life…changes and transitions may quickly deplete your activation energy stores and prevent replenishing them. This may cause you to cut out some of the newer activities in your life, such as your fairly new exercise program or your healthier eating plan. The longer you have been doing something or the longer something is a part of your routine, the less activation energy it requires. The newer the activity, the more activation you need to transition to doing that activity. Habits hardly require ANY activation energy. A habit is practically a reflex.

So, in order to live our lives to our fullest potential and joy, we need to find ways to replenish & increase our activation energy stores on a regular basis. Our activation energy stores are directly proportional to our resilience. Our stores of activation energy and our resilience increases with certain healthy behaviors.

The goal is to find those unique things that you have control over that energize and replenish you, that nurture you and give you that boost. Then create a routine that incorporates some or all of those activities into your life regularly. Taking a walk after dinner on those days you eat dinner. Sitting with yourself and thinking about your day before you brush your teeth. Listening to classical music on the ride home from work. Sitting amongst greenery during lunch break. Jogging on the treadmill on waking in the morning. Hanging out with family. You find what works for you.

The longer you make that effort, the easier it will be to maintain that activity and the more activation energy you will develop and maintain and the more resilient you will be to change and transitions. Then, incorporating new changes or transitions into your life or managing your life when you are hit with a new stressor will not be as disruptive. You will be resilient and have sufficient activation energy to meet the demands of your daily transitions. In addition, you will have a reflexive response to replenish your activation stores. You will be able to continue to take care of yourself and you don’t have to let your good habits or good intentions fall to the side. This allows you the freedom to live your life to your fullest potential and full of joy.

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Overcoming 17 Exercise Barriers

Posted on August 3, 2013 | Leave a comment
Have you had a hard time getting started with exercise or continuing to exercise? You are not alone. Though this is a common concern, there are many different reasons. The good news is, there is help out there. I have included some of the most common challenges I have come across. See if any of the below relate to you…
Common Barriers to Exercise:
1. Don’t know where to start or what to do.
–First off, remember you do NOT have to be a “jock” or workout like crazy for it to count as exercise. The MAJORITY of people do NOT want to do that or need to that. In fact, there are many ways to improve your health and well-being with physical activity. Yes, some people like hard core structured workouts at the gym or with videos or specialized equipment. Still, others prefer more gentle movements or they prefer natural activities such as walking or gardening or social dancing or jumping waves on the beach.
–Try wearing a pedometer and counting your daily steps. If you are active at work, you can see it on the pedometer & pat yourself on the back – get credit for working out while working! Otherwise, see how many steps you take in a “normal day” and increase a little either in distance or speed once a week . Maybe walk the dog a little farther or faster.
–Getting up & down from a stable chair or the side of a bed is great for the legs and your core. It is also helpful in decreasing the risk of falls as we get older.
–Dance to your favorite music or do some crunches during TV commercials. In other words, make your time work double for you.
–Find some books, DVD’s, online videos & blogs. Look up body weight exercises if you do not want any special equipment. There are various levels of exercise options.
–Also, there are always the trainers either at the gym or who make house calls that can help put a program together for you. Find a trainer that understands your goals — or you may find yourself being pushed harder than necessary for your health benefit goals.
–If you like to workout with others, you may want a workout partner, a class or a gym membership. You may even find someone at the gym or at school or work that already works out and really knows what they are doing. They are often happy to help you.
–Bottom line, pick something you want to try & just go for it. You will find what works for you eventually. The fun part is trying different things that sound interesting to you & moving forward closer to your fitness & health goals.
2. Injury early on.
–This is especially common in people who used to workout or be physically fit in the past and then had a period of time where they were deconditioned. It is NOT because you are getting older most of the time. It is because your muscles have memory and regain their strength quickly on return to exercise, however your joints do not suddenly get younger and smoother. Your muscles “beg” you to increase their workout rapidly. Your joints need a slower ramp up to catch up to what your muscles can do. That is why you should increase your exercise training no more than 10 percent total intensity in a week. Otherwise, you run the risk of joint injury, feeling “old” and having to interrupt your workout plans.
–The other group with injury early on are often doing a workout that is not right for them or that is being done incorrectly. This is a good time to seek out help. For example, schedule to meet with a physical therapist, work with a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, or a physician with additional training (physician specializing in Physical Medicine & Rehab, Sports Medicine or any physician with a strong history & interest in exercise training). Find out what you are doing wrong & fix it.
–Recommend early intervention.
3. Previous joint injury.
–Again, as in #2, seek out help. Make sure you know what exercises are right for you, and learn how to do them correctly and how to progress forward. If you need surgical intervention, find out now.
–Do move it. Blood circulation helps healing. Make sure you continue to move forward. Your joints will get stiff & crusty if you don’t keep moving forward.
–As you move your joints, you smooth out the roughened surfaces if there is some arthritis. Worst case, your need for a joint replacement or surgical intervention may still be necessary, but best case, you rehab your joint & defer or eliminate the need for a joint replacement or surgical intervention.
4. Boredom.
–Find friends, blogs, DVD’s, classes, clubs, groups that are doing different things and try them out.
–Schedule & plan for variety in your plan. For example, schedule a workout plan or trial period of 2 weeks and then assess & then plan the next 2 weeks.
–Get a workout buddy you like to spend time with. Being with someone, feeling good about yourselves together, is VERY motivating and powerful!
5. Burnt out.
–You may have advanced your workouts too quickly or started with too much. Take your time. You have your whole life to continue to improve.
–You should feel energized after your workout and look forward to your next workout. If you are dreading your workout or drained after your workout, that is a sign of burn out.
6. Not enough time.
–We all have enough hours in a day. IF a president can work out, we can probably find the time. MOST high powered executives and professionals also workout. People who workout tend to make more money than those who don’t.
–Often, because we have to schedule in the workout, we find we have more time in the day because we plan our time better.
–That being said, working out does take time. However, good news is that workouts don’t have to take a lot of time. There is a 7 minute workout that has been scientifically proven to be as effective as the traditional longer workouts, working strength for the whole body & cardio. There are short yoga sequences & exercise programs on DVD, online and on smartphone apps.
7. Haven’t found an activity that is pleasurable.
–See #4.
–Find a workout buddy or online community and workout together, share ideas. The human body is made to move. That is why we have muscles and joints. There is something out there that you will enjoy. It’s like dating…there is someone for everyone, and there are enjoyable exercise options for everyone.
8. Can’t afford it, ie. gym membership or equipment cost.
–Look at garage sales/yard sales, online auctions or Craig’sList for equipment.
–Get a job at a gym part-time.
–Find exercises that don’t require equipment. Again, the 7 minute workout does not require equipment. Modify the exercises to your level of fitness (I never step up & down from a chair, but use a step).
–Share the cost of equipment or DVD’s with a workout buddy or group of buddies.
–Borrow workout DVDs from the video store or from your local library.
9. Scared of injury.
–Get a trainer, workout with someone.
–Take your time learning the proper techniques.
–Advance your workout slowly.
10. Embarrassed to be seen.
–Remember, this often changes when you see other people just like you.
–You can also choose to start out at home or go to the gym during off hours.
–Really, in a gym, everyone is usually pretty positive about everyone at the gym because when we work out, the endorphins (feel good chemicals in our bodies) are surging through our systems.
11. Schedule is erratic. Can’t get into a regular regimen, traveling frequently, in a new relationship interfering with usual workout time.
–If possible, find something that is regular in your schedule, ie. you brush your teeth every night. Plan your exercise to be linked to that. For example, I brush my teeth in the morning when my alarm goes off & hop in the shower, so I will plan to schedule a workout at the same time. If my workout is 35 minutes, I will set the alarm 35 minutes prior to my usual waking time. To compensate, I will move my bedtime up by 35 minutes the night before or make sure I can fit in a nap or make up sleep time by going to bed earlier the next night.
12. Too tired.
–Make sure there is no medical reason you are too tired, such as anemia, thyroid disorder, etc.
–This may also be a sign of depression or excessive stress. Both may improve with exercise.
–This also more commonly is due to not enough hours of sleep, deconditioning (which means you should be working out), &/or too many carbohydrates in your diet.
13. No babysitter.
–Find a gym with a free babysitting service.
–See if another parent you trust would trade workout times with you: you watch their kid(s) while they workout and they watch your kid(s) while you work out.
–Work out before the kids wake up or after they go to sleep or during their naps if they have regular naps.
–Incorporate your children into your workout: ie. jogger stroller, babycarrier.
–Find a reliable teenager to watch your kid(s) while you workout at home or outside the home.
14. Active at work or running around after kids.
–If you are really that active, get credit for it. Wear a pedometer or accelerometer or even a heart rate monitor.
–If you are walking 10,000 steps daily or more, you should pat yourself on the back, you really are running around alot! Great job!
15. Gym is not convenient: doesn’t open early enough, closes too early or is too far away.
–Sounds like that is not the right place for you to be signed up. Find a way to make it a part of your routine to go out that way or shift your time to exercise. If not, find another gym or another way to exercise.
16. Need to shower after, doesn’t fit in my day.
–Again, this is about scheduling. Either not enough time or no shower avail. This is commonly noted when people plan to workout over their lunch break. If you will need to shower after & you are not comfortable with a sponging off over a sink or you don’t have enough time, then find your alternative. I like the early morning because it means I only need to shower once for the day. I workout & shower & get ready for work & off I go.
17. “Don’t feel like it.”
–Well, it’s usually because of one of the above reasons. If you are social, you need other people or you need to find a way that the workout time does not take away from time with other people. If you are more private, you may want to workout at home or when & where there are fewer people around or workout only with a single workout buddy. If you like being outdoors or being in nature, find outdoor activities. If you like music, find exercises that you can do with music or that require music. If you like lists or calendars, put your workout on the list/calendar so that you will do it & cross it off – it feels so good to cross off a ‘to do.”
Finally, I can tell you that the majority of people feel better when they are regularly moving their bodies. Your movement helps circulate body fluids, keeping you “younger” longer and often reversing signs of aging such as arthritis. Your mood is better & you can accomplish more. Give it at least 4 weeks to really see obvious benefits and body changes. There is nothing quite like being successful and doing something so profoundly good for you. Remember, this is for your lifetime. Enjoy the process.

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