Bye Bye HolidaysWritten by Deborah Caruana RN, MES, CPT
Hoping everyone had a fun, fantastic, exciting and relaxing melange of Holiday eventfulness or lack thereof. Whatever it was that you did, that it most suited your moods and needs. Since holidays were shortened into one compact week, Saturday to next weeks Sunday, there was no time to languish. You had to seize that holiday time with both hands and feet to get most out of it. Holidays for me mean visiting family, since they live in another country (Canada) this is only a biannual event and therefore more meaningful. I have to inhale everyone to their essence and then painfully let go. Because it's a large family it takes concentration and a lot of energy, especially because there are a growing number of children and I certainly don't want to miss any of details of their development. I also want them to remember me meaningfully until next time I see them in six months. Holiday shopping helps. With family being central focus of holidays all other holiday concerns melt away. Though in end after we arrived back in New York and I stepped back on my weight scale and I realized something very important. I'm sure you remember my first "diet" experiment which was ' Atkins' and its terrible results. I have since brought carbs back into my daily regime focusing once again on healthy, whole grains, veggies galore plus lean proteins. Also I am trying to eat more meals with smaller portions for blood sugar regulation, meaning no blood sugar spikes that trigger insulin which triggers cortisol causing fat storage around abdomen. I can usually make time for four meals a day. So this years results from Holiday foods were astounding because my weight hadn't changed at all. Whereas last year when I had stopped Atkins I had gained four pounds over holidays. Here's reason why I had such different results. It wasn't because this time around I was more disciplined and controlled. It also wasn't because I avoided food. It was because my body was used to carbs which are a necessary component of daily nutrients so I didn't have this overreaction with water retention to extra carbs.
| | Success versus FailureWritten by Deborah Caruana RN, MES, CPT
Success is what you are prepared to make of yourself every single day. That one cold morning when you want to roll over but instead get up and go to workout, is a defining moment. Success boosts self-confidence and is self perpetuating. We all know it, thrive on it and love it. Failure on other hand is perceived as a stressful, negative experience. It means challenge, difficulties, not knowing or worst of all defeat. It affects our self-esteem negatively, builds upon itself and could become a pattern. It could mean a threat to our survival. So we have an aversion to it. We dislike failure. Well, did you know that failure like stress is actually good for you? Out of trial and error, grueling and rigorous demands of trying and failing we humans learned what worked to survive. Failure is something we as humans need to encounter for new growth and creative changes - uprisings. Failure causes us to reassess, reevaluate, and start again. Out of necessity we learn to take risks, and think "outside box". Failure is fertile soil from which seeds burst and blossom. Failure challenges our will to survive. Did you know that no stress is absolutely worst of all stressors. Stress is like body temperature: if it's too low or too high, you can't survive, but right balance can keep you going strong. It makes sense to use stress energy positively, to meet life's challenges. Stress is not all bad. Yes, you may fail. This is life. Life’s winners accept that in trying they may have to adjust and even start again and again. The difference between successful people and others is not whether you make mistakes or even temporarily fail, but how you respond.
|
