Mental Health, Minute Movement Lessons, Minute Movement Philosophies, Quality of Life, Tools
Every day you are faced with decisions that seem mostly insignificant to the outcome of your life. Do I floss? Should I have a salad or a hamburger for lunch? Supersize or regular size? Soda or water to drink with my meal? Speak a kind word or not? Read something or watch TV? Read a Facebook post or get my work done? You get the picture.
There are obvious good choices, and on the contrary, there are obvious poor choices. Most of us don’t even think beyond the choice. There has been an eastern movement which focuses on awareness of living in the present, which certainly has its place (which I will address in a different post), however not to the determent of who we say we are and who we envision ourselves to be.
You might say, Aaron, come on, putting sugar in my coffee isn’t a reflection on who I am and who I claim to be. And I would challenge that statement. If you claim to be a powerful, healthy, strong, ______ (you fill in the blank) person choosing to add something to your coffee isn’t “bad or wrong” – but is out of integrity with who you choose to be?
We have to look at what we call the “micro-decisions” of the addition of sugar, not just the here and now of the choice. If we add 15 years of sugar to our daily coffee, the “macro-result” is certainly a whole lot of wasted calories and could lead to extra pounds, addiction, skin issues, hormonal issues, diabetes – even mental issues.
Whereas sugar in moderation isn’t necessarily going to send you to a convalescent home. My point here is that the little choices in life are what make up who you are in the long run. The small choices add up. Is one cigarette going to kill you? Not likely. However if you continue to make the micro-decision to smoke, what are your odds of death? I know that smoking might seem like an obvious threat to your health but what are the less obvious micro-decisions in your life that go against who you say you are? What are the micro- decisions that you make that go with who you say you are? You are still a vital living being and the beauty of your life is that you can change it on a dime, and begin to make good micro-decisions that lead you toward optimum macro-results – the big things you want out of life.
As I’m faced with decisions every day, I constantly stop and think what is the macro-result of this micro-decision? If we never cross paths again I want to make sure that I leave you with a litmus test to challenge your micro decisions against your ideal you. And remember, your micro-decisions create your Macro-Results.
Quality of Life
I’ve had a lot on my plate lately and I’m finding that with my busier schedule and longer task I keep dropping one of the behaviors that are essential to well being. Since my days are full of all things Minute Movement, fitness is at the forefront of my mind and because the program is quick and simple, I’m staying on board with my daily movement. So, what do you think I gave up instead?
Yep, sleep. I’ve always had a little trouble with sleeping enough and it only takes a couple of nights of trying to get a couple more tasks marked off the list after everyone’s in bed for me to be way off schedule – again – and that’s where I am today.
According to this article on WebMD entitled 9 Surprising Reasons to Get More Sleep I am making a big mistake when I don’t make sleep a priority in my life.
‘Studies show that the gap between getting just enough sleep and getting too little sleep may affect your health, your mood, your weight, and even your sex life. If you’re getting less than the recommended seven or eight hours of sleep a night, here are nine reasons that you should shut down your computer, turn off the lights, and go to bed an hour early tonight.’
- Better health. ‘Study after study has found a link between insufficient sleep and some serious health problems, such as heart disease, heart attacks, diabetes, and obesity. … One study simulated the effects of the disturbed sleep patterns of shift workers on 10 young healthy adults. After a mere four days, three of them had blood glucose levels that qualified as pre-diabetic.
- Better sex life. ‘There’s evidence that in men, impaired sleep can be associated with lower testosterone levels — although the exact nature of the link isn’t clear.’.
- Less pain. ‘Many studies have shown a link between sleep loss and lower pain threshold. Researchers have found that getting good sleep can supplement medication for pain.’
- Lower risk of injury. ‘Sleeping enough might actually keep you safer. The Institute of Medicine estimates that one out of five auto accidents in the U.S. results from drowsy driving — that’s about 1 million crashes a year.
- Better mood. “Not getting enough sleep affects your emotional regulation, when you’re overtired, you’re more likely to snap at your boss, or burst into tears, or start laughing uncontrollably.”
- Better weight control. ‘Getting enough sleep could help you maintain your weight — and conversely, sleep loss goes along with an increased risk of weight gain.’
- Clearer thinking. ‘Studies have found that people who are sleep-deprived are substantially worse at solving logic or math problems than when they’re well-rested.’
- Better memory. ‘Studies have shown that while we sleep, our brains process and consolidate our memories from the day. If you don’t get enough sleep, it seems like those memories might not get stored correctly — and can be lost.’
- Stronger immunity. ‘Could getting enough sleep prevent the common cold? [In] one preliminary study … researchers tracked over 150 people and monitored their sleep habits for two weeks. Then they exposed them to a cold virus. People who got seven hours of sleep a night or less were almost three times as likely to get sick as the people who got at least eight hours of sleep a night.’
Okay, I’m convinced! Hopefully I’ll be well rested and back to my old, chatty self in the morning
Motivation, Quality of Life
Strive for progress, not perfection.
-Unknown
I’ve had a lot to say this week about making sure that you’re doing some (really, any) exercise instead of getting caught up in the attempt to follow a perfect regimen. In some ways I’ve been sharing what I needed to hear most.
I’m an absolute perfectionist and that often leaves me stuck, waiting until I can do something ‘the right way’. Aaron isn’t the only one on the team who was frustrated with the amount of time it took to fit exercise into an already packed day (or the added weight that results from being more sedentary). I would agonize over my schedule, trying to figure out how to make it ‘work’ – everything, not just exercise but I never could really figure it out. I even resisted adapting Minute Movement for myself because I enjoy and wanted a ‘proper’ workout schedule even though Minute Movement was obviously working for Aaron and science backed it up! The thing is, I really DO love hitting the gym and lifting weights with loud music blaring in the background or going for a ‘run’ (I just wish I did more actual running on my runs) but it wasn’t happening. I was too busy and my lack of exercise was contributing to increased weight and stress – which was then (of course) making those ‘proper workouts’ even more of a challenge.
During the past year though, Aaron and I have been working together constantly to bring Minute Movement to you. During that time I’ve had ‘Coach Wright’ around to offer constant encouragement and a great example – and I’m becoming a disciple. Sometimes I do things a little differently than the program suggests and some days I still head to the gym, go for a ‘run’, or do yoga but I am officially a Minute Mover.
I’m feeling better, my energy is higher and today I’m wearing jeans that haven’t fit for two years. Minute Movement is giving me MY life back – even in the middle of the absolute stress of launching a business.
I’m finding myself relaxing that perfectionism in other areas of my life too and I’m finally learning how to relax and enjoy life.
Lifestyle, Quality of Life
As I sat down to write today, this quote kept coming to mind. Whenever my mind keeps returning to something I always assume it’s important so I followed my intuition. Of course, I assumed I’d reflect about how much longer we live in the modern age than our ancestors did, but I thought that I’d better do a little digging to see if that was actually true.
I found these posts (here & here) that suggest that we don’t actually live longer than the ancient ones or even our great grandparents – ‘scientists have compared the life span[sic] of adults in contemporary hunter-gatherer tribes (excluding the infant mortality rate). It was found that once infant mortality rates were removed, life span[sic] was calculated to between 70 and 80 years, the same rate as that found in contemporary industrialised societies. The difference is that, in the latter, most individuals survive childhood.’
Of course, popular belief still holds that we DO in fact live longer (and you can easily find many sources to support that).
But then I thought – does it really matter if we live longer or not? Each one of us will live for exactly as long as we live and we don’t really have any control over the number of our days. What we can control is whether we take care of our bodies well enough that they are still working properly as we near our end. Every single one of us already knows that we should get plenty of sleep, move our bodies, learn to manage stress, and eat well – and we probably all have a pretty good idea what it means to do each of those things. The question is – are you taking care of your body? Or will you feel like ole Eubie (above) as you near your hundredth birthday? Don’t wait until it’s too late – start taking care of yourself today.
Exercise, Lifestyle, Quality of Life
How many people do you know who are alive – technically?
People who are still with us physically but are limited in what they can participate in due to health issues or physical impairment.
Unfortunately I know a few people like that – enough to know that I don’t want to live my life like that. I don’t want to live my life waiting for it to be over. I want to live my life. I want to see everything, DO everything. I don’t want to miss a minute with my loved ones – especially not because I didn’t take care of myself like I should.
I have great intentions for taking care of myself. I love to exercise, heck I even love to run for the block and a half that I can run before I’ve lost my breath (I can never figure out the breathing) and I enjoy many physical activities with my little family. But realistically, I’m in the same boat as a large percentage of Americans. I have a family, I volunteer my time in several capacities, I work too many hours and all too often I really am deciding between doing one more thing or getting a decent night’s sleep. It is far too easy to push taking care of myself to the back burner regardless of how much I desire something else.
That’s why I love Minute Movement. Aaron developed Minute Movement because he just wasn’t able to fit in time for exercise and he wondered what would happen if he started exercising while he was at work. What happened is that I noticed a difference in the way his body looked one morning a few weeks later and asked him what he was doing.
Now, even with all that we have on our plates, we stop every hour for one minute to give ourselves the gift of health. We fully intend to experience our lives in the state of being well – won’t you join us?
Lifestyle, Mental Health, Quality of Life
I turned 40 over the weekend. (Don’t worry, this story turns out okay.)
I’ve really been struggling with the pending rollover of a decade for the past year or so. I was consumed with all of the things that I thought I’d have accomplished by this point in my life (like becoming perfect) that I hadn’t accomplished, not really being in the ‘place’ that I pictured for myself, getting O.L.D.(er). Top those normal passage of years issues with the fact that this year my kids turned 16 and 13 – more big milestones – and when I look at them all I can see is my time with them slipping racing away and I just felt so sad.
Then I ran across this beautifully written post by Lindsey Mead that practically describes my very own life – and was exactly what I needed to start changing my mind.
I don’t have to be all dramatic about the passage of time – it’s going to pass anyway. Instead I can be grateful. I can be grateful for the wonderful people in my life, my material blessings, and my health (even if it’s not perfect – it’s more perfect than what other people are experiencing). I can be grateful for the time I have been given to live and to love and I can be grateful that I am still alive to turn 40.
This different mindset didn’t automatically make me happy to usher in a new decade but it has led me to some introspection (as much as I can indulge in while also starting a company, raising two teenagers, and living my otherwise busy life). Now that the ‘big day’ has passed I finally feel like I can relax again and I am beginning to look forward to this next stage of my life with anticipation and excitement .
Oh, and my awesome little family made my day so special. My daughter created something she called a ‘joystick’ that has ‘most’ of the great things about me (she ran out of room) and they organized a wonderful surprise party for me complete with a visit from my sister and niece – all the way from Georgia!
JOY!
