The Daily Mind

Daily Steps To Mindful Living

Exercise

Is your workplace making you ill?

Body, Life

As I write this blog post I can feel my neck and back aching from sitting at a desk all day. I’ve also got a touch of eye strain and I think my knees are a bit locked up. What a mess I must sound! But my discomfort has inspired this blog post, which asks the question: is your workplace making you ill?

The combination of long hours, stressful working conditions and a poor diet can leave us susceptible to all manner of health problems. So perhaps it’s time to look at your work environment and habits to see if they need an overhaul.

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Originally posted on February 28, 2012 @ 8:01 pm

Boost your mind, body and spirit

Body, Inspiration, Meditation, Mind, Personal Growth, Spirit

Sometimes the pressures of life can take their toll on our minds and bodies, leaving us exhausted, depressed and lacking in energy. Here’s how to give your mind, body and spirit a lift.

Mind
Make sure you start every day on a positive note. Instead of reading the papers or watching the news which, let’s face it, generally leaves you feeling pretty miserable, read a book that inspires you instead. You can catch up on the news later in the day, but make sure the first thing you read leaves you feeling uplifted.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Anders.Bachmann
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Originally posted on February 17, 2012 @ 10:33 am

How to streamline your life

Life, Personal Growth

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself constantly rushing around trying to fit lots of things into the day and never quite feeling that there’s enough time. I think the key here is time management – something that doesn’t come easily to me, I must admit – so that’s why for this blog I’ve decided to speak to a number of health experts to get some tips. I’m going to take a look at how to manage your work life better so that you feel less stressed, and I’m also going to look at how to fit more time in your day for fitness, a healthy diet and meditation.

Work

I like to think that I’m pretty organised, but I do sometimes get overwhelmed at work when I’ve got lots of things to do at once. I asked business coach Catherine Billam for some advice on how to be better at multi-tasking and, interestingly, she claims that it’s “a very inefficient way of using the brain.” She adds: “Doing two tasks at once can reduce your performance by up to 50 per cent, and constant emailing or text messaging reduces intelligence by an average of 10 points on an IQ test.” Yikes! That puts my IQ down by several numbers.

Instead of trying to juggle lots of tasks, Catherine advises cutting your day into chunks and focusing on one type of activity at a time. “Have separate chunks of time for admin, phone calls, meetings, emails, dealing with today’s emergencies, planning, creative thinking and writing,” she says.

Catherine also suggests being clever in the way that you plan your day. “Do the most difficult tasks when you have the most energy and the routine tasks when you have the least energy,” she says.

“Most people are at their brightest early in the morning, so do your hardest creative tasks and decision-making then. If dealing with admin or emails is routine, do that when you have less energy. Most people have a dip in the middle of the afternoon. Do routine tasks then.” I’ve always wondered what to do during the dreaded 3pm slump – now I know!

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Originally posted on October 21, 2011 @ 10:51 am

How to Inspire Yourself to Continue Exercising

Body, Movement & Fitness

Dad's 90th Birthday
Creative Commons License Photo credit: sjr60

Exercising on a regular basis is important because it provides several short-term and long-term benefits. Some of those benefits are staying in shape, losing weight, and reducing health risks such as heart attacks and strokes. Studies have found that one of the top reasons that people often quit exercising is that they become bored. There are, however, several ways to keep you on the right track of exercising regularly. Here are some ways to inspire your mind to alleviate boredom during exercise.

Change Up Your Exercise Routine

Continuing to do the same exercise routine day after day is a good way to become bored during exercising. You should try to change up your exercise routine on a regular basis to prevent getting bored. For example, if you mostly walk for exercise, try to alternate between walking and jogging every 20 minutes if possible to change it up. Not only does changing up your exercise routine help with boredom but it can also help your body lose more weight by burning more calories. [Read more…] about How to Inspire Yourself to Continue Exercising

Originally posted on May 18, 2011 @ 7:55 am

Why Exercise is NOT the Key to Losing Weight

Body, Movement & Fitness


Creative Commons License photo credit: John Steven Fernandez

Six months ago I weighed 93 kilograms (204 pounds). Today I weigh 83 (182 pounds). In just six months I have dropped a solid 10 kilograms and feel healthier than I have since high school. So how much exercise did I do to achieve that goal? Almost none.

In this post I am going to share with you how I lost the weight and why I am convinced that weight loss has very little to do with the exercise that you do. If you have your own weight loss experiences I would love to hear about them in the comments.

Why my teeth helped me lose weight

So here is the confession. About six months ago I got a new form of orthodontics called Invisalign. Invisalign is basically a series of invisible plates that you wear all day that move your teeth one by one. Every two weeks you change to the next plate and at the end of the series your teeth have gone from crooked to perfectly straight. Which I badly needed.

Anyway, the real kicker is that you can’t eat with them in. You take them out to eat (and drink) and you can only have them out for around 20 minutes at a time. Say goodbye to snacking, sugary drinks in between meals and, of course, say goodbye to second helpings after dinner.

These changes that have been “forced” upon me are the reason I lost 10 kilos so quickly. The secret to lasting and healthy weight loss is not exercise, it is the amount of food you are taking in.

Why exercise is not the answer

Prior to getting these plates I spent a lot of time exercising trying to lose weight. I didn’t have much luck. I would lose one or two kilos but the weight would always come back on as soon as I stopped the intense work outs. Why? Because I was still taking in way too many calories.

Let me show you some maths that I have been thinking about:

One can of Coke has around 155 calories in it.

Running on a treadmill for 20 minutes burns around 150 calories.

That means that after 20 minutes of exercise you have burned off one sugar drink and hardly any fat stores.

As you can see by this simple bit of maths, exercise is not the best way to lose weight. Diet is. It is your diet that will make or break your progress. It is simply too hard to burn off all the calories you need by exercise alone.

Why portion sizes will help you lose weight forever

I am now a firm believer that your portion sizes are one of the most important things when it comes to losing weight. And to prove this we can use a simple example and a bit of maths again.

Let’s say you use an extra large bowl for your dinner every night and fill it up so that you get 100 more calories than if you used a smaller bowl. Now, over a year that is 36,500 extra calories that you wouldn’t have had if you used a smaller bowl. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat so in one year you have added around 10 pounds of fat. And that is just from dinner.

It is really important to control your portion sizes and think of it as extra calories that add up over a year or over ten years. By just making your dinner smaller you will essentially save 10 pounds of fat in a year. It is very powerful.

Why you have to keep exercising

After all this diet stuff is said and done it is still vital that you keep exercising on a regular basis. The exercise helps to increase your metabolism and thus will assist your weight loss progress. It isn’t the main thing, but it will make a massive difference to the way you look and feel. This is especially true if you want to add a bit of muscle or tone – diet can’t do that. Exercise also helps you to feel better about yourself due to the large amount of endorphins that are released. These feel good chemicals go a long way to keeping you healthy.

Does anyone have any weight loss stories to share? I would like to know what has/hasn’t worked for you.

Originally posted on November 3, 2010 @ 11:47 pm

8 Hacks to Help You Exercise Before Work Everyday

Body, Movement & Fitness


Creative Commons License photo credit: auer1816

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.
– Aristotle

Every single person I know wants to be able to exercise more. The reason they don’t: too busy at work. Well that excuse just doesn’t cut it. Here are 10 hacks to help you exercise before work everyday.

1. Get to sleep at the same time each night
Many people think they need eight hours and if they don’t get that eight hours they are screwed. Well, this isn’t really the case. Science has shown that it is better to get up and go to bed at the same time each night. The consistency is important. In fact, thinking that you NEED eight hours can be more of an obstacle than a help. I know that when I used to get less than eight hours I was angry and frustrated. It was causing an obstacle.

Going to sleep at the same time each night will allow you to develop a new sense of regularity – this is how exercise habits are developed.

2. Wake up at the same time each morning
The second part of this plan is the getting up. You need to set your alarm for the same time each day. When the alarm goes off you should get up and not snooze it. Do not adjust the wake up time if you went to bed a bit later. This is all part of the plan. If you continually change the alarm time for your changing bedtime habit you will never get up with enough time to exercise.

If you can get up at the same time each morning you will have time that you perceive as “spare” and you will then be able to exercise in that time.

3. Book in with a friend
One of the best things you can do for your exercise habits is book in with a friend. When I started training early morning martial arts with my mate down the road I found it so much easier to get up because I knew he would be waiting for me down at the park.

It is a good idea to use other people to help you as long as you don’t “depend” on them.

4. Find a new exercise class
If you have been trying to get up in the morning to go for a boring old jog you might find it a bit hard. If, however, you have something interesting to go to like martial arts, gymnastics, hiking, etc. you will be more likely to get going. Try and be creative, and invite your friends a long.

5. Start small
If you are pretty busy and you really can’t get up early enough to have a long session you should start by just doing 20 pushups before breakfast. My mother always used to do 100 squats when she got out of bed. She said it was a great way to start the day, wake you up and burn a few calories.

6. Walk, jog or ride to work
One of the best ways to fit in some exercise is to walk, run or ride a bike to work. This is good for the environment as you save the green house gas emissions and it is good for your fitness and your waistline. The thing that is really good about this hack is that it doesn’t feel like you are exercising – it just feels like you are going to work.

7. Take advantage of day-light savings time
If you live somewhere where you have to wind your clock backwards and forwards for day-light savings time then you should take advantage of that special time every year where you get an extra hour of sleep because you wound your clock backwards. Instead of sleeping in you should get up at your “non-daylight savings normal” waking time and get running. It will be a much easier way to get into the habit.

8. Do it every single day
Don’t just do it once. Do it everyday. If you do it only a few times you will not develop the habit and every time you try to do it you will feel crap during the exercise session. Make sure you get up and exercise at the same time – even on the weekends.

Conclusion
Exercising before work will make you a better worker. It will make you more alert, energetic and much happier. Exercising before work will change your life for the better in ways you could not imagine.

Originally posted on March 10, 2008 @ 8:18 am