Let's Practice Stress Management!

STRATEGIES FOR STRESS MANAGEMENT

Effective time management is just one of many ways to keep from succumbing to stress overload. Here is a list of some other methods of stress management that you might want to experiment with to see what works best for your particular situation.

1. Associate with people whom you enjoy and who support you.
2. Learn and practice relaxation or meditation skills.
3. Engage in a vigorous physical exercise that is convenient and pleasurable. Sometimes it helps to get a friend to exercise with you.
4. Don't let one thing dominate you, such as school work, relationships, jobs, sports, etc.
5. View life as challenges to seek, not obstacles to avoid.
6. Take responsibility for your life and your feelings, but never blame yourself.
7. Maintain a reasonable diet and sane sleep habits.
8. Avoid the use of sleeping pills, tranquilizers, and other drugs to control stress.
9. Protect your personal freedoms and space. Do what you want and feel, but respect the rights of others. Don't tell others what to do, but if they intrude, let them know.
10. Find a time and place each day where you can have complete privacy. Take time off from others and pressures. Short time-outs during the day can help improve efficient functioning the rest of the day.
11. Don't drift along in troublesome and stressful situations or relationships. Take action to change rather than trying to avoid the problem. Taking chances is the key to emotional well-being.
12. Surround yourself with cues from positive thoughts and relaxation.
13. Review your obligations from time to time and make sure they are still good for you. If they're not, let them go.
14. Open yourself to new experiences. Try new things, new foods, new places.

When worries start to build up, talk to someone :)

Let's interact with the world!

Social Interaction

Social Interaction is vital to human health, both mentally and physically. Social interaction has been found to help cope with major life changes such as emigration, moving house, redundancy and bereavement. Involving yourself in activities that involve interacting with other people improves your social participation as a person.

Involve yourself in joining fun runs. A fun run is a friendly race that involves either road running or cross country running with participants taking part for their own enjoyment rather than competition. A fun run will usually be held to raise funds for a charity, with sponsors providing the revenue to cover organizational costs. It does not only engage you on having a healthy lifestyle but at the same time you could help other people and interact with them.

TREE PLANTING

Another healthy option is joining tree planting. Why is it a healthy option? You could not only help Mother Earth but you could also involve yourself on interacting other people and sweat.

 Keep a circle of friends and be open to meeting new company :)

 

Let's Eat Healthy!

  

Ways for YOU to achieve a healthier eating habit

Diet (nutrition) is the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group. Having a healthy diet could make one’s self a healthy one. It could emboss an individual. One should have a healthy diet, not just having those meals that are not in the list or not recommended in the healthy diet. Being healthy makes someone look younger and makes you fit. It can also a way to prevent having illnesses.

Here are some tips in a healthy diet:

1.    People sometimes confuse thirst with hunger. So you can end up eating extra calories when an ice-cold glass of water is really what you need.

"If you don't like plain water, try adding citrus or a splash of juice, or brew infused teas like mango or peach, which have lots of flavor but no calories," - Cynthia Sass

2.    Whenever you feel like eating, look for physical signs of hunger. -  Michelle May, MD, author of Am I Hungry?

"Hunger is your body's way of telling you that you need fuel, so when a craving doesn't come from hunger, eating will never satisfy it," she says.

When you're done eating, you should feel better -- not stuffed, bloated, or tired.

"Your stomach is only the size of your fist, so it takes just a handful of food to fill it comfortably,"

Keeping your portions reasonable will help you get more in touch with your feelings of hunger and fullness.

3.    Mindless eating occurs most frequently after dinner, when you finally sit down and relax.

"Sitting down with a bag of chips or cookies in front of the television is an example of eating amnesia, where you mindlessly eat without being hungry, but out of habit," - American Dietetic Association spokesperson Malena Perdomo, RD.

Either close down the kitchen after a certain hour, or allow yourself a low-calorie snack, like a 100-calorie pack of cookies or a half-cup scoop of low-fat ice cream. Once you find that you're usually satisfied with the low-cal snack, try a cup of zero-calorie tea.

 

Let's Practice Proper Hygiene!

Personal hygiene habits such as washing your hands and brushing and flossing your teeth will help keep bacteria, viruses, and illnesses at bay. And there are mental as well as physical benefits. “Practicing good body hygiene helps you feel good about yourself, which is important for your mental health,” notes Donald Novey, MD, an integrative medicine physician with the Advocate Medical Group in Park Ridge, Ill. People who have poor hygiene — disheveled hair and clothes, body odor, bad breath, missing teeth, and the like — often are seen as unhealthy and may face discrimination.

Personal Hygiene: Healthy Habits Include Good Grooming
If you want to minimize your risk of infection and also enhance your overall health, follow these basic personal hygiene habits:

• Bathe regularly. Wash your body and your hair often. “I’m not saying that you need to shower or bathe every day,” remarks Dr. Novey. “But you should clean your body and shampoo your hair at regular intervals that work for you.” Your body is constantly shedding skin. Novey explains, “That skin needs to come off. Otherwise, it will cake up and can cause illnesses.”

• Trim your nails. Keeping your finger and toenails trimmed and in good shape will prevent problems such as hang nails and infected nail beds. Feet that are clean and dry are less likely to contract athlete’s foot, Novey says.

• Brush and floss. Ideally, you should brush your teeth after every meal. At the very least, brush your teeth twice a day and floss daily. Brushing minimizes the accumulation of bacteria in your mouth, which can cause tooth decay and gum disease, Novey says. Flossing, too, helps maintain strong, healthy gums. “The bacteria that builds up and causes gum disease can go straight to the heart and cause very serious valve problems,” Novey explains. Unhealthy gums also can cause your teeth to loosen, which makes it difficult to chew and to eat properly, he adds. To maintain a healthy smile, visit the dentist at six-month intervals for checkups and cleanings.

• Wash your hands. Washing your hands before preparing or eating food, after going to the bathroom, after coughing or sneezing, and after handling garbage, goes a long way toward preventing the spread of bacteria and viruses. Keep a hygiene product, like an alcohol-based sanitizing gel, handy for when soap and water isn’t available.

• Sleep tight. Get plenty of rest — 8 to 10 hours a night — so that you are refreshed and are ready to take on the day every morning. Lack of sleep can leave you feeling run down and can compromise your body's natural defenses, your immune system, Novey says.

Personal Hygiene: Poor Hygiene Hints at Other Issues
If someone you know hasn’t bathed or appears unkempt, it could be a sign that he or she isdepressed. “When people are sad or depressed, they neglect themselves,” Novey says. Talking about the importance of proper personal hygiene for preventing illnesses and providing personal hygiene items may help some people. Be candid but sensitive and understanding in your discussions, Novey says. Despite your best efforts, your friend or loved one may need professional help. You should encourage them to see a counselor or doctor if their personal hygiene doesn’t improve.

Personal Hygiene: Good Habits Help Keep You Healthy
For most people, good hygiene is so much a part of their daily routines that they think little about it. They bathe, they brush their teeth, visit the dentist and doctor for regular checkups, and wash their hands when preparing or eating food and handling unsanitary items. To keep those you care about healthy and safe, help them learn, and be sure that they are practicing, good personal hygiene.

A Guide to Good Personal Hygiene - Healthy Living Center Resource

Let's Exercise!

Workout tips for a better life style.

- Find 4 to 6 really good exercises for any larger muscle 
groups, or 2-5 for even smaller muscle groups.
- Pick exercises that are mostly dumbbell and bar related, use 
very little machines!
- To find a good weight will take a little practice, but the best 
way to really work out hard is sets to absolute failure by 
increases weight and lowered repititions. First set should be 
about 12-14 reps giving every thing that you have using proper 
technique! 2nd set increases wight by 5 or ten pounds 
9-12 reps, again trying Hard as phsically possible to complete 
a set to failure! and 3rd set of the weight which is most 
challenging but can complete 6-9 reps and Have nothing left in 
you to lift once more! If you are more experienced lifter you 
may want to add another set, or superset the last exercise 
with about 67% the weight to failure.
- It doesn't matter what or how many exercises you do as 
long as you work to failure and use 90% proper form and 
technique, with very little momentum!
- Do a warm up before you exercise where you are sweating 
but not exausted, your heart should not be beating wildly, 
and as for rest between sets you should wait for however 
long you feel it takes for your heart to stop beating at a 
frantic pace, but not at resting pace either, only until you 
know you can once more give everything you got, these 
rests can take up to a whole 4 minutes!
- Always stretch after workouts, and do light to moderate 
stretch of the muscle being worked out so you can give 
everything that you got!
- Always Support your back!
- Never risk injury, if you know you can not finish a set 
without cheating it's probably because you've given 
everthing you got, so don't Swing, or Bounce!
- For each rep push the weight as hard as you can under 
control but don't let momentum do any work, eg, when you 
are doing Dumbell Flat bench Lift then as hard as you can 
until the last set is so hard that you have to squeeze your 
muscles to finish it, but NEVER push one side of your 
body off the bench to elevate the dumbbell!
- Drink, Drink, Drink, Water only, none of the Gatorade junk! 
Water is the only drink that properly feeds your muscles 
Oxygen and re-hydrates you bod of liquids!
 -Use a partner to workout, but don't have them spot you every 
set just let them be there for 1st rep lifts, or last rep absolute 
failures. 
- Breaks: If you do a muscle group a certain day in the week 
only do that muscle group again when that muscle is not 
feeling sore, and that you know you can lift just like the 
other day, Eg. If you do chest it usually feels sore for days 
after, well don't work it out again until it is not sore, or 
else you'll just help yourself get weaker, because your 
muscles are too torn up to repair themselves in time.
- Get enough sleep that your body feels fine enough to 
work out!
- Eat a very well balanced diet, and get lot's of protein! Eat 
protein enriched meals an hour before workouts, and right 
after a workout, also include carbs, and don't eat extra fat, the 
amount of fat in a well balanced diet with meat is enough to 
get you ewnough energy and keep you slim while 
increasing metabolism!
- Exercise After Lunch when your body usually feels best!
- Go jogging every morning!
- Workout whenever you feel like it, Just don't work the same 
muscle group everyday, sometimes similar muscles get 
workout for different muscle groups eg, Triceps are worked 
out when you do Shoulder and Chest as well As traps, so 
keep longer breaks between those days, and do other 
muscle groups, like Legs!
- When you really know you can't workout, pick the muscle
that you rarely work on and do a little 20-30 minute 
exercise, and then do a lot of cardio, but don't change 
your diet! Eat Lots! But Eat Healthy!
- Focus on a mind set that will help you lift best, don't 
feel angry, sad, and don't laugh while lifting.
- Record or remember your results to make sure you're 
improving!
- Some times, Just rest!
- Wear proper workout gear

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