Most of us need a good reason to try something new.  Whether it’s ordering a type of fish you’ve never had before (because you hear it’s supposed to be good for you) or trying a Yoga class for the first time.  We all need a push to go out of our comfort zones.

Today I want to push you out of your comfort zone to try something new.  I want you to lift weights.  I want you to commit yourself to being fit and strong.  Not just for a few weeks, but for the rest of your life.  Let me give you the reasons why you should get strong and hopefully you will come to the same conclusion.

10 Reasons You Can’t Ignore

1. You strengthen your bones (along with your tendons and ligaments) which reduces your risk of fractures and osteoporosis
2. You become more resistant to injury (imagine a professional football player who didn’t lift weights getting tackled–Ouch!)
3. Strength training increases muscle mass and improves your overall body composition
4. Therefore you burn more calories (even while you’re sleeping) because 1 pound of muscle burns 3 times more calories than a pound of fat  
5. Therefore you can eat more food (so many of my friends sit down to a great meal saying “I work out so I can eat!”)
6. Strength training improves your posture (which makes you look thinner)
7. Getting stronger has been shown to improve psychological health by improving your self-esteem and self confidence
8. Strength training improves your muscular endurance (you’ll be thankful the next time you go on a “fitness” vacation with your friends)
9. Cutting back on calories without lifting weights results in losing muscle mass too.  This is a bad idea.

10.  You’ll win the fight against Mother Nature.  She intends for you to lose a quarter of your strength by the time you’re 65.  But guess what?  If you lift weights, you can be just as strong at 65 as you were at 35.

Good News & Tips

The good news is that you can get all the benefits I listed above in as little as 40 minutes per week!  Yes—you heard me.  Twenty minute sessions, two times per week will work.  Many gyms have a line of equipment set up so you can do one machine right after the other.  When you get to the end of the line, you’ve done a full body workout.  It’s as easy as that.

All I ask you is that you concentrate on each exercise (do NOT rush through it) and perform each machine one time.  Try to get 8-12 repetitions and the last rep should feel like you just can’t do another one.  We call this “pushing to failure” which is a term I don’t like to use.  I prefer thinking “I’m REALLY glad this is my last rep”.

With more than ten thousand minutes in a week, it’s not that hard to find 40 minutes to dedicate yourself to getting stronger.  Why wait?  Today is the day to get started.

Think strong and be strong!

Molly

Originally published in GO, GlobalFit’s online healthy living newsletter.”  http://www.globalfit.com/gonewsletter/default.asp

There’s nothing worse than feeling exhausted when your alarm clock goes off in the morning. Sadly, this happens to me a lot.  While I don’t have insomnia, I rarely wake up feeling rested.  I toss and turn all night because I just can’t seem to get comfortable.  So, after years of restless nights, I finally decided to do something about it.

There are many different issues related to quality of sleep.  Some people can’t fall asleep so they stay up late and wake up tired.  Other people easily fall asleep easily, then wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep.  By the time morning rolls around, they’re so tired that all they want to do is sleep—which makes it really difficult to get up.  And finally, there are people (like me) who just can’t get comfortable because of aches and pains in their bodies.

Before going to extremes (like taking pills or going to a sleep clinic) why not try the following suggestions:

IF YOU CAN’T FALL ASLEEP AT NIGHT

You already know that you shouldn’t exercise, drink caffeine or eat a large meal close to your bedtime. This makes sense because you don’t want to rev up your body before going to sleep.  If you can’t seem to get your mind and body ready for sleep, buy the CD Healthful Sleep by Belleruth Naparstek.  Her voice is so soothing that she simply lulls you into a deep, restful sleep.

IF YOU FALL ASLEEP EASILY BUT WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Drinking too much alcohol will disrupt your sleep—causing you to wake up in the middle of the night—so be mindful of that.  One or two glasses of wine can help you sleep like a baby, but more than that can have the opposite effect.

If you’ve been lucky enough to sleep near the ocean, you know that the constant sound of crashing waves can help you sleep soundly through the night.  Fortunately, you don’t need to plan a trip to the beach because you can download a free app called “Relax Ocean Waves Sleep” by Moz.  If you wake up in the middle of the night, just focus on the sound of the soothing waves.  You’ll be back to sleep in no time.

IF YOU TOSS AND TURN ALL NIGHT LONG

Buy a new mattress.  I know they’re expensive, but getting the right mattress can make all the difference in the world.  I finally realized that our mattress was just too hard for me.  I would wake up in the morning feeling as if I’d been hit by a train.

We went to Sleepy’s, the Mattress Professionals, and found a mattress that is really comfortable.  I can now sleep on my back without my arms going numb.  The mattress has so much more “give” when lying on my side and feels wonderful.  I have been sleeping SO much better, which means I’m healthier and happier!  Plus, my husband’s shoulders are no longer hurting!   So far, it’s been worth every penny.

Isn’t it time you started sleeping better?  Try the meditation CD, the free app or go buy a new mattress. Please share your tips on sleeping soundly.  And let us know how the changes you’ve made have affected your life.

Sleep well!

Molly

How often do you find yourself upset over small, insignificant things?  It happens to me sometimes, and I must admit, I hate it when I let that happen.  It’s a double whammy because I allow myself to get mad about something that doesn’t matter THEN I get angry at myself for being upset in the first place.  Talk about a complete waste of energy!

How do you stop those feelings from ever getting to that point?  And when is it okay to allow yourself to be upset?

Nobody’s perfect.  In a perfect world, we’d all walk around with smiles on our faces and be happy all of the time.  But that’s not the way life works.  We have good days.  We have bad days.  On most days, we have both good and bad things happen—it’s just the way it goes.  So many things are simply out of our control.  So what CAN we control?

We can control the way we interpret and handle situations.  I am learning this slowly but surely.  Two weeks ago we experienced a flood in our house.  Water was pouring into our kitchen.  The water we couldn’t collect was cascading into our basement.  We recently finished a big renovation of our home and this made the water intrusion even more painful.

A little over a year ago, this episode would have devastated me. But fortunately, perspective was with me that evening.  We calmly (yet hurriedly) worked to empty huge bins of water from our kitchen, used every towel in the house to soak up other wet areas and made the appropriate phone calls.  When the insurance company said they’d send someone out, I told my husband that we could wait until the morning, knowing that other people had much worse problems than we did.  An enormous amount of rain came down that night.

As we were cleaning up, I kept thinking about the people in Japan who had been victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami.  I thought about people in the Midwest who have lost their homes during this incredibly violent tornado season.  I thought about our friend’s brother who lost his house in New Zealand to an earthquake.  Not only did he lose his house, he lost the lot that it once sat upon.  Can you even imagine?  Even though our house was a mess, we had a bed and a roof over our heads.  We were safe.  No one was hurt or missing.  It wasn’t that bad.

Losing your home would be horrible.  But losing someone you love would be devastating.

So the next time something bad starts to happen, try to put it in perspective immediately.  Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is everyone safe and out of harm’s way?
2. Is this problem fixable?
3. How could this be worse?

It’s amazing how differently you’ll look at the bad things that happen in your life.  Please share your stories about how you deal with life’s more difficult days.

Smile & Keep Perspective,

Molly