As I said in my post on Monday, I do love getting fitness gadgets for Christmas! I’ve been in a real slump, fitness-wise, over the past several months. I’m struggling to find the time I need to commit to my fitness goals, and my life, as a result, is getting more and more sedentary. I know the “UP Bracelet“ is going to help with that. However, that wasn’t the only fun gadget I got! Let me tell you about the other one!

The other gadget I got was actually a kit; a Yantra Mat kit with almost 9000 acupressure points in the form of little, prickly discs all over the mat. You lay on it – kind of like a bed of nails! – and the first 5 minutes are quite painful and uncomfortable, but after that there’s a flood of warmth that goes through your body and causes some deep relaxation. The kit comes with a mat, a pillow, two bands that you can tie onto/around any body part that needs a little healing or relaxation, and two rings for stimulating your fingers.

I tried it out last night before bed. Very cool. I’m going to use it for my naps during the day and see how I feel. If nothing else, it will ensure that I am willing to wake up on time when the nap is over!

Have you ever tried the Yantra Mat? If so, share your results below!

Happy Walking!

Darlene

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Yeah. Well, not quite the results I wanted, but we’re still fighting the “focus thing”. I can only focus on one thing at a time, and last week, that wasn’t weight loss either! Sigh. I’ll post because I need to be accountable, not because I’m delighted with the results! :S

Get your own graph at skinnyr

However, I did end up having a great call with a coach, the result of which completely changed the way I’m now handling my time. Currently I spend most of every day working on our HotSpot Promotion business, marketing and helping business owners with getting the word out about what they do. I enjoy that work and the delight I feel in helping others meet their goals.

But where I really get excited is in the area of healing – physical, emotional, mental – all of it. It really excites me to be able to offer people something that helps them get unstuck. The exploration I’m doing right now on the Emotional Release with Essential Oils program really has me buzzing, and I have 6 books to work through in order to really understand it. With my current schedule, I’ll be 80 before I get through all that, even with my current reading speed.

The truth, however, is that we have a great group of clients already with HotSpot Promotion and while we are certainly open to more clients, the ones we have are enabling us to both make ends meet, and move forward with some of our other goals. I don’t need to be marketing 4 hours a day to keep HotSpot Promotion running. So, I’ve decided to now work part time for HotSpot Promotion, and use the other days to further my studies. This has created a gentle weekly schedule for me that is still very productive, but it allows for much more flexibility with regards to reaching my goals in all areas that are important to me.

Kinda cool. This is the first day I’m trying it out, and so far, so good. I’ve kept up with my weight loss activities, and my HotSpot Promotion activities, and am still feeling relaxed.

How cool is that?! I love it when simple changes make a huge, transformational difference. Don’t you?

Happy Walking!

Darlene

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Well, the last few months have been wild. Too much on my plate, and that sense of panic that I’m not going to get it all done has forced me to constantly push my workout to the side.

Not good. It’s my workout that gives me the energy I need to get everything else done!

We’ve nixed the HotSpot Promotion angst by narrowing our focus even smaller to something that is highly effective and easy to keep up with. Not only are we still just focusing on the “little guy” (home/small business) but our main emphasis is on Appreciation Marketing, which is something I love, and am developing to a true art form! That has removed a lot of stress and peripheral tasks from our business, and should make what we offer even more effective.

Also, I spent the day reading yesterday. Some very helpful stuff which I’ll share a little later, and it’s helping me to find the time that’s just not there these days. I’m quite excited to put that into practice too!

These two changes mean that I’m back to focusing on my workout in a way that is not causing any stress. For this week only I’m simply doing a half hour of slow walking on the treadmill, focusing on perfecting my 15 minute warm-up and 15 minute cool-down procedure with the high-efficiency breathing exercises (I add another 5 minutes on to the end of the warm up and beginning of the cool down doing 4 beats of breathing in, completely filling my lungs, and 4 beats of “whooshing” the air out, completely emptying my lungs.) This is enabling me to start my day with my blood pumping and my brain clear!

Things are going to be happening over the next few months that will bring a huge change to my lifestyle, and so I’ll be keeping you posted here.

Kinda excited, really…

Darlene

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First of all, the good news! All the sleepless starvation is paying off in inches and weight lost! Here’s the newest graph:

The bad news is that I find I can cope with highly organized, super stressed living for a certain period of time, and get very excited about how much is accomplished in that time, and then I crash and burn. I’ve learned to give myself permission to do so, because when I give myself permission, I allow myself to recover, and then I rediscover the lost energy and focus I need to push hard again. Each time I start again, I last longer until the crash and burn.

So, currently, it’s “crash and burn” time. Three months of seriously reduced eating and sleeping is taking its toll: I’ve not been able to get up for the past two nights for prayer, I’ve been overcome with hunger at about 3:00pm, and I’m bordering on “zombie”. The kids find it entertaining – I lose my train of thought regularly, and vastly increase my steps by retracing them trying to remember what it is I forgot!

Starting Monday my family is taking some holiday time, so I’ve decided to allow myself to take a “grace break” from all of this, starting today and lasting until the following Monday (28th) when we get back (an end date is always helpful!)

So, back to eating 3-5 healthy meals a day, sleeping 8 hours, and containing my focused spiritual disciplines to a chunk of time each morning. Should do me good! But, to be honest, I’m already looking forward to getting back from the holidays and jumping in again!

Wish me luck!

Darlene

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Yes, I’m still here! Can hardly believe it’s been over two weeks since I last posted! So unlike me! Tells you just how busy things have been!

So, thought I’d drop in for a quick update!

As my regular readers know, I’ve been doing some serious experimenting over the past few weeks in addition to having my business take off, and keeping up with homeschool and teaching at Gymboree. With all that together, I’ve been busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs! But I feel like I’ve finally come up for air, and so I thought I’d pop in a catch everyone up!

Sleepless:

As many of you know, for the past couple of months I’ve been following a program of really intensive prayer. It’s an interesting course about spiritual warfare, and battling those strongholds that keep us bound, often without our realization. The goal of the course is to break free of everything from the past so you can walk free into the future. It’s not for the faint of heart. Since the 14th of January I’ve been getting up every night at 11:30 and praying through until 1:30-2:00 am. I have to admit, there has been the odd night (perhaps around 5 in total) where I’ve just been unable to get up, or my alarm didn’t work, but otherwise, I’ve been pretty faithful to this regimen. As morning starts at 5:30, that makes for a very short night. So, in and around the prayer times I’ve been experimenting – mostly unsuccessfully with Polyphasic Sleep. I tried to go “hard core” and jump in with both feet, but unless you have very supportive people around you who are willing to monitor you and drag you out of bed, it’s pretty hard to follow through on. Currently I do a 1.5hr nap from about 10:00-11:30, followed by prayer, followed by a 4-hour “core sleep”. Then, in the afternoon, I take a nap for 30-45 minutes. So far, that’s working well. Once I’m well into that rhythm, I’ll drop the 1.5 hour nap before prayer, and add another 30 minute nap during the day. I would like to eventually work up to a 3 hour core sleep, and 3 short naps. That would give me quite a bit of free time to work on things I can’t get around to now. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m going to give myself several months to work into that schedule gradually. I don’t do well with shock therapy!

Starving

In addition to letting go of the burden of sleep (ahem) the prayer course also allows me the privilege of giving up food. It often calls for 3 days of dry fasting (an “Esther Fast” where you avoid both food AND water. I’m OK letting go of the food, but I’ve not yet managed a completely dry fast) followed by 1-3 weeks of partial fasting. To make my life easier, I’ve simply adopted the “Fast-5” lifestyle and add in the extra fast when called for. I actually like this way of eating, and, in fact, am rarely, if ever, hungry. Sure saves time! Only one meal to prepare!

Steps

The other thing the prayer course is doing is encouraging my walking. One is supposed to march as one prays, and because our house is so open plan, I need to walk someplace that’s a little soundproofed so as to allow the rest of the family the peace and quiet they need to sleep. The only place that allows that is the basement, and the only place to walk in the basement is on the treadmill. So, in addition to my training that I do in the mornings, I now walk 1.5 – 2 hours in the middle of the night, and, having realized the the treadmill allows me to spend day after day without ever getting outside, I now take an afternoon walk of about 3.5km outside. The sidewalks are still a bit of a mess, but on this walk I’m not worried about training or speed or heart rate, so I don’t mind if I have to slow right down or take a detour or whatever. The combination of all three is keeping me at my step goal of a minimum of 10,000 steps with very little conscious effort – Nice!

Sabbathing

The added stress of all the above has also encouraged me to get serious about sabbathing. Now, at 6:00pm on a Saturday night, I shut off my computer, and don’t turn it on again until Sunday night around the same time. I don’t check e-mail on my iPod, I don’t do business work, and I try and take time for family and reading. I work my prayer time so I can now sleep through on Saturday-Sunday, and I also sleep in on Sunday mornings, don’t worry about fasting, and ignore my normal schedule. This is HUGELY refreshing to my soul. I highly recommend it.

Now our business is in a manageably “steady” place, I will soon be leaving Gymboree except to do the occasional subbing, and I’m in a good rhythm with food/sleep/prayer, so I’m feeling much more myself! I hope you’ll be hearing lots more from me (and I hope you think that’s a GOOD thing, LOL!)

So, enough about me – catch me up with what you’ve been up to, and where you’re headed! I’d love to hear the things you’re experimenting with and testing in your own life!

Happy Walking!

Darlene

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Walking is known as a great destresser. However, when most people start walking, they start with great gusto, high energy, and bounce right into “power walking” before giving their body a chance to catch up. This can quickly lead to overtraining, the symptoms of which include:

• poor athletic performance
• structural injury secondary to muscle dysfunction
• metabolic problems such as fatigue, infection, bone loss, sexual dysfunction, altered mood states and others.

In order to get the maximum benefit from your walking routine, start slow. Make sure you get a really good warm up and cool down done (minimum 15 minutes of each) and making your warm up mostly about stress release, and your cool down mostly about clarity and focus.

Hate the warm up/cool down part? Well, here’s why it’s important:

Warming Up

When you’re resting – i.e. not working out – the body makes sure the blood is mostly circulating through the brain, nervous system, organs, glands, intestines, etc.

When you’re working out the body diverts about 80% of the blood to the working muscles. This means your other systems suddenly find themselves with a very limited blood supply, which causes major stress.

To avoid the stress, you need to make this shift a gradual one. It takes approximately 10-15 minutes for the shift to happen properly, and it needs a level of activity much slower than the workout ahead.

Warming up properly creates the following benefits:

• more blood flow to those muscles that are working hard
• a rise in available oxygen
• greater mechanical efficiency in your joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments
• an increased range of motion in all of your joints
• the release of stored fat so that it can be used as an energy source in your aerobic muscles (important for fat loss!)
• greater lung capacity, and therefore more efficient breathing
• greater activity in your neuromuscular system

Cooling Down

The cool down period starts the recovery process from the workout. It’s the recovery time that actually creates the improvement you’re looking for in your workout. By cooling down slowly (another 10-15 minutes minimum) you will:

• prevent physical and chemical stress which leads to injury
• improves oxygenation and circulation in the muscles
• helps remove blood lactate

Warming up and cooling down should be considered part of your total workout time. So, if you’re doing a 1 hour workout, 30 minutes of warming up/cooling down (15 minute warm-up, 15 minute cool down) is part of that 1 hour workout. If you’re going to workout more than 2 hours total time, increase the warm-up/cool-down period to twenty-thirty minutes.

If you’re just starting out with fitness, start by simply mastering this process. I would suggest a simple 10 minute workout to start with so you get the right feel. Use the following exercise to make the most of this time:

5 minute warm-up: The point of this first five minutes is to completely de-stress.

• walk as slowly as you can for 5 minutes, breathing in for 4 beats – completely filling your lungs – and breathing out for 8 – making sure your lungs are squeezed empty. To make it even more effective, use some finger tapping :
  • on beat one tap your index and thumb together
  • on beat two tap your middle finger and thumb together
  • on beat three tap your ring finger and thumb together
  • on beat four tap your pinkie and thumb together
  • repeat the process starting back with the index finger and thumb
  • Use a fairly strong, sharp pressure as you tap.

  Use this time to conscioulsy release stress from your shoulders, neck, and abdomen, moving your head and neck, consciously releasing your abdominal muscles, and gently stretching anything that feels tight.

The 5 minute cool down: The point of this second five minutes is to gain clarity and focus for whatever lies ahead in your day. For this level, we are simply going to reverse the pattern:

• Walk as slowly as you can for 5 minutes, breathing in for 8 beats- completely filling your lungs - and breathing out for 4 – making sure your lungs are squeezed empty. Include the same finger tapping.

The speed should be about what you’d be walking if you were holding the hand of a “not yet walking on their own” toddler;  slow enough to almost make you unsteady. It feels ridiculously slow, but you need to consciously slow everything down in order to speed things up! And you need to consciously slow down to engage the recovery process.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll add another breathing exercise to your warm up and speed things up a little. For now practice this until it’s second nature. If you already have a walking routine, make this the first and last 5 minutes of your routine.

Any comments, questions, or concerns? Please post them in the comment section below.

Did you enjoy this post? I’d sure appreciate it if you’d pass it on.

Happy Walking!

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I’m just guessing, but if you’re anything like me, your day-to-day can be quite stressful if you’re not careful. Managing stress is a HUGE part of being healthy. It’s amazing how many systems of the body are negatively affected by stress.

But what can we do about it in our busy day?

One of the best ways to combat stress is through mediation. Now that can be a hot topic for some, but I’m talking about simple kinds of relaxation meditations. Moments of calm throughout your day when you purposefully slow your breathing, your heart rate, and your overactive mind.

Here’s how you can do it:

Whenever you find yourself waiting – like at a traffic light, in a waiting room, or in the checkout line – instead of fretting impatiently, just tune your mind into your breathing, and simply listen to what’s going on around you. Don’t judge or try to understand, just hear, acknowledge and focus on breathing and listening.

You can also use this time to tune in with God and ask Him if there’s anything He’d like to say to you. Perhaps you’d like to use the “anchor phrase” from 1 Samuel 3:9 & 10 “Speak Lord, your servant is listening”.

Sure beats shouting at the kids, getting nasty with the cashier, or releasing that migraine that’s just waiting to happen.

What are some ways you combat stress during the day? Share your comments below!

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Did you know that watching television (even a happy show) while eating will hinder your digestive system from working? In fact, any stress/distraction at all while eating will cause issues with your digestion?

Here’s why:

Digestion is controlled by the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system which is associated with relaxation and repair. The other half of the autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic branch, allows us to cope with stress and react to danger. It only takes a moderate amount of stimulation to activate the sympathetic nervous system, even if it’s positive, and because only one branch of the autonomic nervous system can be active at a time, anything that activates the sympathetic branch also impairs digestion.

(How to Lose Weight and Be Healthy by Eating with Pleasure)

This week, as part of our N.A.V.Y. Challenge we are going to be focusing on Mindful Eating. Here are some ways you can practice that:

1. Before you begin try saying a prayer of gratitude. If you don’t normally pray before a meal, here are some prayers you can use to get started: Dinner Prayers
2. Before that first bite, take a deep breath, smell your food, take a look at the colours, choose something and take one single bite. Put your fork down, and savour your food. Take note of the seasoning, the texture, the flavours. Chew well.
3. If you have the privilege of conversation at your table, don’t talk with food in your mouth. Chew, swallow, put your fork down, pay attention to the conversation, then when your part is finished, resume eating.
4. When you’re done, take a deep breath, relax, give thanks for what you’ve eaten to whomever prepared it, and get up slowly from the table.

If you never have time in your busy day to eat like this, you need to do something about your schedule.

Try it and see how it works for you. If you have any questions or tips to share, please do so in the comments section below!

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Do you want to be a part of the N.A.V.Y. Challenge, learning one small wellness habit a week?  Simply click here and join!

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Last week I talked about the Art of Relaxation.

This has become a real “hot topic” for me lately, as I struggle to manage the stress in my life with all that is going on. Last week I was commissioned to write an article for a magazine that I’m involved with about this very topic, and so I thought I’d share the results here with you on my blog. Enjoy.

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Back in 2008 I had the hair-brained idea that I should walk a marathon. Understand that I have never been an athlete, and I don’t like to sweat. My brain must have been on vacation, but being who I am, I quickly got some people committed to walking with me, and they paid for their registration in the event right away – which forced me to follow through.

I was clueless about training. I discovered that Nike had this cool iPod system that would track your training, and even set up the daily training events. As I only had 4 months to train, I set up the “advanced” system. I didn’t understand half the instructions (what the heck is a fartlek?) so I just saw the distance assigned, and walked it like a sprint. 16 km, 24km, 32km, etc. I was well over 300km a month by the end, suffering from some serious sciatica and exhaustion. The day came, I walked the marathon (came in second to last), cried with relief, and then started researching.

Here’s what I learned. The body has an amazing system set up for dealing with stress – the adrenal glands, for the most part – whether the stress is physical, mental or emotional. Depending on what’s going on, these glands excrete precision amounts of different hormones to keep the body ticking along in spite of what we’re putting it through.

Unfortunately, if we don’t treat our bodies with respect, those adrenal glands run out of their own coping mechanisms, and the body starts to break down – kind of like our cars when we don’t keep the gas, oils, and lubricants topped up and clean. When we keep forcing our bodies through more stress than it should handle, without giving it the rest it needs to recover, we start to experience breakdown: fuzzy memory function, blood sugar problems, immune system breakdowns, reproductive and sexual health issues, increase in allergies, inflammation, and digestive issues, to name a few (any of these sound familiar?)

The most interesting thing I’ve discovered as I’ve pursued a healthier lifestyle with much healthier training practices (in preparation for marathon number 2!) is that the strengthening happens in the recovery phase, and if that’s not built into your training program, you’ll never reach your potential.

The adage “no pain, no gain” has no place in a true fitness program, and “less is more” is never more true than when you’re working towards endurance events. The recovery is where it’s at.

But you don’t need to train improperly for a marathon to experience this. Most of us live our marathon lives at a sprint pace. Normal everyday stresses – keeping up with domestic chores, juggling school schedules, workplace stresses, traffic jams, relationship conflicts, constant noise and activity around us, poor nutritional choices, and lack of the kind of exercise that heals instead of hurts – can all contribute to this.

Our society today takes great pride in the word “busy”. If we’re caught relaxing somewhere, we feel lazy and stupid. If people ask us how things are going, there seems to be a need to compete over who has the busiest schedule, the worst allergies, or the greatest challenges. Even church and faith can be stressful – churches always need more volunteers or money, we are challenged to spend more and more time in the Word and on our spiritual disciplines, and we feel guilty when we don’t step up to the plate. Stress is all around us, and we feel forced into keeping up with this ridiculous pace.

The Bible says “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion (or homeschool, work, illness – fill in the blank)? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28 The Message – brackets mine)

Take it from a recovering marathon burn-out. The pace we’re living at is not the pace God intended for us. Even God rested, and His call to us is to come away with Him – like two lovers walking hand in hand, just enjoying each other’s presence. That’s where relationship is built. That is where recovery happens. That is where we hear God’s still, small voice. That is where we find life. Abundant life. It’s in the resting, not in the doing.

In Exodus 14:14 God says “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Now, that’s a responsibility I’m happy to take on.

How about you?

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Ahhh. There’s something wonderful about taking time off. My family and I just returned from an AMAZING trip to Mexico. We booked a beautiful all-inclusive resort in Puerto Aventuras on the Southern Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. We had a week there and decided ahead of time to book activities every second day, and then have a day of relaxation in between.

In our time there we booked a tour to Chichén Itzá that included a stop at the Cenote Ikil de Chichén Itzá which was stunningly beautiful as well! We also went for an ATV ride through the jungle, and then the kids did a “Trainer for Life” day at the Dolphin Discovery Park close to our hotel – a full day with dolphins, sea lions, manatees, sting rays and sharks. Pretty amazing.

On the “off” days we took advantage of our “A la Carte” dining tickets and enjoyed our meal with chef “Jackie Chan” (Enrique!) at the Mikado (this isn’t my video – someone else filmed it, but it’s the same chef), and then we had a lovely Italian meal at the Bella Vista two nights later, and wound up our week at the Bambolero, a wonderful steak house. When not eating “A la Carte” we enjoyed crepes and milkshakes at the Creperie, and our everyday meals at one of the two buffets. No shortage of food.

To spend a week not worrying about money, food prep or cleanup, housework, school, business and – yes – even training (though I did a lot of walking and kept up each day with my daily step goals – just didn’t do any “set” training), to spend every afternoon enjoying a siesta (what a wonderful habit that is!) and having a laugh-out-loud fun time at fascinating places, was incredibly healthy. I have come back refreshed and alert, ready to tackle new things.

So, let me ask you – when was the last time you really took time off? When was the last time you put worry and hassle aside, and just relaxed? If you can’t remember when it was, get online and book something asap.

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

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