Back to school healthy habits

August 25, 2009 – 2:37 pm

girl-on-stairs

With the summer holiday officially over and the kids back to school it’s time to create some new healthy habits. Everybody is back in their routine at work and in the house so it’s easy to establish a new pattern that will help you become healthier, fitter and stronger. But where to start?

Sit down first and think what would help you do your daily tasks with more ease. What would make you feel better? Is it going up and down the stairs without being out of breath? Is it getting out of the car easier? Is it having a spring in your step even after doing all the shopping and carrying the groceries?

Getting up and down the stairs is a cardiovascular activity like walking, running or cycling. Getting out of the car has to do with flexibility and muscle strength just like carrying groceries.

Here’s what you can do:

· Wake your body up in the morning by circling your arms, bending the knees and throwing your arms from side to side.

· After a car ride sit down on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you and try to touch your toes.

· After shopping get a can of beans in each hand and lift them above your head.

· In the shopping centre look for the stairs and use them.

Gradually introducing more physical activity will have a big effect on your lifestyle. By Christmas time you’ll be flying!

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

How to celebrate your own birthday?

July 30, 2009 – 8:32 pm

airballoon

I don’t celebrate my own birthday. Not because I don’t want to or for any religious reasons. No, because I’m lazy. When you have a family of five and celebrate 4 other birthdays with decorating the house, cooking for the party, the party itself and the cleaning, I don’t feel much like partying myself.

After all these years I discovered that 9 out of 10 times you get for your birthday what someone else thinks is great. Hardly ever what you think is great.

This year I asked for my birthday a spring clean. I wanted the house clean from top to bottom, including windows inside and out, presses clean, clothes ironed etc. Didn’t get it. Got a dinner for 2. Lovely, but not on my list. Why did I ask for something like that? Because it would give me time. Time to do the things that I like.

Here are some tips to celebrate your birthday for you:

1. Wear something new.

2. Reflect on the past year and be happy for any achievements. Have a glass of wine and toast to yourself.

3. Make sure you look good (Hair, make-up, fake tan, whatever).

4. Then tell yourself something nice (my favorite line is Ashton Kutcher’s “Do you think this is an accident?” while he points to his face in the movie ‘Cheaper by the dozen’).

5. Promise yourself something fun for the coming year. And again, have a glass of wine and toast to yourself.

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Happiness | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (4)

Importance of strong tummy and back muscles

July 26, 2009 – 9:12 pm

girl-strong-tummy

Everyday there is a new miracle cure for the perfect abdominals. Pills, exercise equipment, shakes…They promise us the most beautiful six pack. Unfortunately a tummy like that comes down to simple maths. The amount of calories you consume and the amount of exercise you do. More calories and less exercise equals fat. It’s very simple. Everyone who has the time and energy and will power to strive for the perfect abdominals has my vote (excuse the pun).

For the average person who is not really interested in his or her abdominals as they are hiding underneath clothes 90% of the time, it’s still important to do a little bit to keep them strong.

Here a few reasons why:

1. A lot of people suffer from chronic back pain.

2. Sudden back pain can be prevented. With sudden I mean the sharp pain when you do a normal movement like picking something up or reaching behind you in the car.

3. Giving birth is easier as your abdominals are strong to push. (Didn’t research this one but know if from experience and my aerobics instructor friends).

4. Strong abdominals help you balance better.

5. Strong abdominals help you in any other activity that you do. You have less change to get injured.

The other benefits like looking good, better posture and moving more easily are just coming in handy when you start doing some of the exercises. Just start with some sit-ups and see how you get on. The internet is loaded with examples for strong tummy and back muscles. Just start googling.

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

How do we handle guilt?

July 1, 2009 – 2:22 am

girl-sit-stairs-think

Everybody has done things that they feel guilty about. Big things, small things. It doesn’t really matter what the action was, because a big thing for one person is a small thing for another. The annoying thing is that the guilt stays. Guilt is an emotion that sticks to your heart and takes over your soul and it will paralyze you doing things that really matter.

So, how do you get rid of guilt? First thing would be to remind yourself that you are not the same person as you were whenever the event took place. You had different things going on, waging up against each other and using their force on your decisions. Time makes you forget that and the only thing that stays is guilt. If the same situation occurred today, you would react differently. Not because you learned from it. No. Because you have different things going on now.

The second thing you should do is give yourself a break. (Unless you’re a serial killer or steel from the elderly, than you should turn yourself in.) Give yourself a break. Nobody is perfect. You can only strive to be good and that’s an ongoing process. It’s very hard to be good and patient when you had no sleep and you’re phone is ringing with a debt collector and your child is whining for sweets while you’re in the cue in the supermarket. Believe me, the Dalai Lama does not have those problems, so don’t compare yourself.

The third and last thing to do sounds obvious and I’m not in favor of the word because it gives me visions of evil prisoners begging. It’s forgiveness. Forgive yourself. If you don’t like to use the word either, accept what you did. It’s good enough. Accept that you made a mistake, learn from it, apology’s if possible and get rid of the guilt.

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Happiness | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (4)

How to skip calories that you don’t need anyway.

June 24, 2009 – 5:21 pm

supermarket

Take a good look at everything in your kitchen presses that you use daily. Do you use it out of habit? Is it convenient? What can you replace with something healthy the next time you go shopping? This list will lower your calorie intake without a lot of effort.

Here are 10 items that you can put on your shopping list:

1. Olive oil, nonstick cooking spray instead of sunflower oil.

2. Honey instead of sugar.

3. Non fat milk/yoghurt instead of full fat

4. Low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese or very strong in flavor cheeses because you use less.

5. Oats instead of sugary cereals. Seeds and sultana’s for in the oats.

6. Whole meal everything instead of white bread, white pasta etc.

7. Kidney beans, chick peas, black-eyed peas instead of meat.

8. Chicken or turkey instead of beef or worse canned meat.

9. Low fat microwave popcorn instead of crisps.

10. Lemons to flavor your water and increase vitamin C intake.

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Why being alone is good for you

June 18, 2009 – 2:02 am

vrouw-droomt2

From personal experience I know that most people are very rarely alone. I’m not talking about single people. When you live alone, go home and put on the radio or the television, you are not alone. You let other voices in your live. Other opinions. When you live in a city and with a family, you have even less chance to be alone. As a mother I’m not even alone when I go to the toilet and lock the door. There is always somebody looking for something and knocking (banging I should say) on the bathroom door.

The mind is never quiet. Most of the time you don’t realize it and everything is fine. But it can creep up when you’re tired or when something goes wrong or when you banged your shin 3 times in a row by accident. Then you wonder ‘what happened.’

Basically the mind and the body are looking for a balance. If your mind is racing al the time, the body is going to be tired. Telling you to slow down, to rest, to sleep because when you sleep, the mind has to be quiet. At least more quiet then when you are awake.

If you find yourself in that predicament or if you’re desperately longing for some quiet time, sit down. Just sit down with stillness around you. No music, no radio and just sit and be. When a thought comes up, let it go. Just feel how you sit and listen to the quietness. You are recharging your battery and bringing balance to your mind and body.

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Happiness | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (4)

How to find time to exercise?

June 10, 2009 – 3:10 pm

dad-kids-walk
I often hear people complaining that they don’t have time to exercise. They want to but it’s impossible to fit in their daily schedule. Working full-time, kids, housework, family or pets take up all the time there is in a day. Going to the gym 3 days a week is just not feasible and takes up a lot of time. By the time you are there, maybe change, do the work-out, shower, change again and go home the evening is over.
Exercise is not limited to the gym or to a few hours of free time. Small amounts of time add up. Ten minutes here and ten minutes there is doable for everybody. Here are some tips to get the exercise in:
1. Get up 15 minutes earlier and do part of an exercise dvd.
2. Walk 15 minutes of your lunch/ tea break.
3. Walk to/ from work. If you can’t walk the whole distance, park further away or get off a stop earlier.
4. Bring running shoes to work and do something before you go home. When you’re home, you won’t find the time.
5. Walk/ cycle kids to school.
6. Bring a jump rope and jump with friends.
7. Get a basket instead of a trolley while shopping and squat down to put the basket on the ground every time you get something. Before you know it, you have done 20 squats.
8. When you sit down in the bus, in the car or behind your desk, pull in your tummy, hold and release. Alternative sit-ups.
9. When you stand around, lift your heels, stand on your toes and lower again. Those are calf raises.
10. Play a dance copy game with the kids. You do a move and they have to copy and vice versa. This is very active.

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

Help, I don’t know how to meditate while everyone else can!

May 20, 2009 – 3:46 pm

meditatie-tekening
For some people meditation is the best thing that ever happened to them. Others feel obliged to try it because someone recommended it.
When they hear the word meditation they get views of people sitting cross legged with their eyes closed and totally peaceful. Who does not want to feel peaceful? Then they sit down, try to meditate and notice their mind wandering of. They start fidgeting, legs cramp and when they open their eyes to look at their watch it’s only 2 ½ minutes! After a few more times trying, they give up. ‘Meditation is not for them, it’s for people who can sit still and who have nothing else to do, no kids to feed and no demanding jobs’, is the excuse then.
The problem is they start of with too many expectations. Meditation is a process and there is no fixed way of doing it.

‘Meditation is the focusing of attention on a particular thought or object, it may be said that the whole of humanity meditates on something or other: it is just unfortunate that we spend so much time meditating on resentment, anger, fear, depressive thoughts, regrets and the rest.
In principle, the physical body, and that includes the brain, will reflect or express
whatever is going on in the subtle, or non-physical, mind.’

 Dr Craig Hassed MBBS, FRACGP, Senior Lecturer at Monash University.

When you focus your attention on nature, you’re meditating. When you focus your attention on doing the dishes, you’re meditating. It doesn’t matter if you can focus only for 10 seconds or 10 minutes, the point is that you try to focus. Practice makes perfect. You never know, you might start to feel the benefits after a while.

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Happiness | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

First visit with a personal trainer part 2

May 13, 2009 – 3:37 pm

sign-to-gym

As I described in First visit with a personal trainer there are different test that can be done to see how fit someone is. Another test is the sit up test. It’s very easy to do and you can check if you are in line with the The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) fitness charts. They have established population norms for men and women. These are available in the excellent book ACSM Fitness Book. “Average” values for men and women in the sit up test are:

AGE

MALES

FEMALES

18-25 yrs

34-49 sit-ups

41-48 sit-ups

26-35 yrs

37-41 sit-ups

33-36 sit-ups

36-45 yrs

33-39 sit-ups

30-32 sit-ups

46-55 yrs

36-41 sit-ups

26-30sit-ups

56-65 yrs

33-39 sit-ups

23-25 sit-ups

To test yourself, lie down on your back with knees bent at a right angle, palms facing down. Lie on a surface that’s not to soft but not rock hard either. A rubber mat would be ideal. Lift your shoulders and slide hands over floor app. 3,5 inch or 9 cm and back again, so your shoulders return to touch the mat/floor. Head should not touch the floor. Make sure you maintain relaxed shoulder position all the way through. Perform as many repetitions as possible in one minute and you should breath easily during the test. Don’t forget to count!

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

Instant Happiness

May 11, 2009 – 3:43 pm

 

instant-coffee

 

Every Monday will be Instant Happiness Tip Day to start of the week with the right intentions. It’s a new page (see at the top) and in time it will be organized as separate pages under the main page in blocks of ten tips. There are loads of things you can do to experience happiness or to bring you back to a time that you felt happy if only for a split second.

Please try them out and send us your feedback.

By Nathalie-E | Posted in Happiness | Comments (1)