Tranquility through the Back

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week –Tranquility through the Back

What is the importance of Tranquility? Of course, there are detrimental health effects of chronic stress, but on a day to day basis, does it really matter if we get 30 minutes of Tranquility? It’s a matter of build up, or lack thereof. Having no time to relax one day won’t have much of an effect on you, but as that stress builds over the course of a few days or weeks, it will negatively affect other aspects of your life and SWEET Life as well.

The other day I had one of the few massages I’ve ever had in my life. I felt like I was rushing around all morning in order to do everything I needed to beforehand. Rushing in order to relax is strange, huh? The massage was wonderful. Ed focused on the areas of my back that had been giving me pain. I felt like he spent forever working out the kinks in my back. If I typically get tranquility every day, why was my back so tight? I felt so much more relaxed afterward. The worst part of a massage is always getting up afterward, instead of just sleeping on the massage table. Unfortunately, my girls didn’t sleep that afternoon, so I was right back into mommy mode afterwards.

At the same time, there are similar, free methods of relaxation. A nice hard back rub feels great, too, as does a big back scratch. I often give my family back scratches in the morning when they wake up. It gets the blood flowing and helps them wake up. Also, as I always say, “Everyone loves a back scratch in the morning.” You can also hop in a hot tub and have the jets blasting your back. One newer trend is foam rollers. You can put the roller on the floor and roll your back along it, either vertically or horizontally. Rolling either direction feels great, and you control the amount of pressure and specific areas of pressure yourself.

Take care of your back; it’s what holds you upright!

Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne

SMART Goals, BAT Goals, and SO on

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week - SMART Goals, BAT Goals, and SO on

SMART Goals are:

· Specific
· Measurable
· Achievable
· Relevant
· Timely

By setting a SMART Goal, including explanations of how your goal fulfills each aspect of SMART, you are likely setting a goal you can succeed in. Think of what a SMART Goal would be for you to achieve within the next 4-6 weeks. That amount of time is long enough to make a difference, but not too long that you’ll lose motivation. If your main goal will take longer than 4-6 weeks to accomplish, then decide on one step towards your goal that you can achieve within 4-6 weeks.

BAT Goals stand for Be Able To. Setting goals that you will “Be Able To” do is one way of ensuring they are SMART goals. It shifts the focus from an abstraction to an ability.

& SO on

One problem that hampers many of us from achieving our goals is that we merely set them, without considering how to accomplish them. It is essential to clarify the Steps to our goals. What steps do I need to take, how often, where, when, etc. all need to be considered in order to clarify the steps to success. In addition, we all have Obstacles, which is why we have goals that we need to accomplish. What is important is to identify our Obstacles and figure out ways to work around them.

It seems like a lot to consider: SMART goals, BAT goals, Steps, & Obstacles. It’s enough to make you want to give up the whole idea of having goals. However, once these initials steps are taken, following through is that much easier because all of the thought has been done. You only need follow-through!

For example, my new goal is to strengthen my core. Specifically, to Be Able To do the Body Reading Exercises that I learned last weekend in a workshop (which makes it Timely). I want to be able to do them easily and correctly (which makes it Measurable). It’s Achievable within 4-6 weeks because I already have a certain amount of core strength, and it’s Relevant because I’ve had lower back pain recently. The Steps are to do new ab, chest and back exercises that I learned in my workshop last weekend, five times a week. I’m also going to change my computer chair because I think it’s contributing to my back problems. My Obstacles are needing more time to do more exercises and adjusting to using my stability ball as my computer chair. I can work around those obstacles by getting up a few minutes earlier, knowing the value of having core body strength and by pumping up my stability ball in order for it to be high enough for my computer keyboard.

Go ahead and try it! Daylight Savings Time, St. Patrick’s Day, Spring Equinox, Easter, and Spring Break are all in about a month, in case any of those are Relevant Times to Achieve a goal. Make a plan, then follow your plan. You can do it!

Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week– Chocolate’s Health Benefits

Since Valentine’s Day is this week I thought I’d write about chocolate. Besides, I love chocolate! If you love chocolate as much as I do, you know there has been recent research showing that it provides certain health benefits.

Chocolate contains flavanols, which, studies have shown, lower blood pressure, increase blood flow and promote a healthier heart. It’s also high in antioxidants, which attack cancer-causing free radicals. These flavanols are present in higher quantities in dark chocolate than in other types of chocolate. However, processing kills the flavanols, so producers are developing new methods to preserve the flavanols during processing.

Different studies use different types of chocolate and different quantities. For example, one study used one cup of hot cocoa, another used 30 g of dark vs. white chocolate, and yet another used 100 g of dark vs. milk chocolate. A typical American candy bar is about 2 oz. or 60 g. All the studies I read concluded that dark chocolate has more health benefits than milk or white chocolate and that the unhealthy, saturated fat in chocolate candy definitely compensates for any health benefits. However, hot cocoa made with water or skim milk contains almost no saturated fat.

In the end, it goes back to two things I always say: everything in moderation, and if you’re going to eat chocolate, make it good quality chocolate! Although the studies did not discuss the quality of the chocolate, high quality chocolate contains higher quantities of cocoa liquor and cocoa butter, no corn syrup and partially-hydrogenated oil and fewer preservatives and chemicals.

I think you’ll agree that very good quality, dark chocolate in a smaller amount is much better than a lot of cheap chocolate! Make sure your sweetie knows this before buying your Valentine’s chocolates!

At the same time, flowers and a hand-written card are calorie and fat free, and the card lasts forever.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate#Chocolate_liquor

http://www.chocolate.org/health/antioxidants.html

http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/3464/

http://www.medicationsense.com/articles/july_sept_03/chocolate.html

Look for another topic next week, and keep living the SWEET Life!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Suzanne

Don’t eat the whole SuperBOWL!

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week – Don’t eat the whole SuperBOWL!

Sunday is the Superbowl, which involves football, fantastic commercials, socializing with friends, and lots of food and drinks. The Superbowl has never been equated with healthy eating. Here are some suggestions for living the SWEET Life at a Superbowl party:

If you are giving the party, serve healthier versions of Superbowl classics:

Instead of:	Serve:
A variety of chips	veggies, popcorn and pita chips
Dip	Hummus
cream cheese	cheese or cottage cheese
fried egg rolls	tortilla roll-ups
Hot wings	grilled chicken breast skewers
Salami sandwiches	turkey sandwiches
Beef chili	turkey or vegetarian chili
sausages	chicken drumsticks
pre-made sandwiches	sandwich bar
pulled pork in barbeque sauce	roast pork
potato salad	green salad
Macaroni salad with a mayonnaise-based sauce	Pasta salad with Italian dressing
Waldorf salad or canned fruit cocktail in syrup	Fresh fruit salad

If you are going to a party:

· BYOF: Bring any of the healthy food choices above, so you know there will be at least one healthy thing to eat.

· CHOOSE which foods you will eat and not eat, such as:

· veggies and dip, but not chips and dip

· chili, but not sausages

· mini quiches, but not hot wings

· one of any of the desserts, but only one, etc.

In either case:

· Eat a healthy breakfast & lunch that day; then only eat at halftime (dinner).

· Serve a portion onto a plate or cup, rather than constantly dipping your hand into the bowl.

· After serving your portion, walk away from the food table, sit down and eat. Don’t sit near the bowls of snacks.

· Don’t eat bad-tasting food! Leave it on the plate. Don’t be a garbage disposer!

· Remember the “socializing with friends” aspect of the game and get too busy talking to eat.

· Drink water between each alcoholic drink.

· Don't let your friends drive home drunk.

I read recently that every minute is a chance to change and improve yourself, so if you find yourself at halftime having eaten a lot of junk food, it’s time to stop yourself and decide you’ve eaten enough for the whole game.

Look for another topic next week, and keep living the SWEET Life!

Suzanne