WOOP Your Way to Success with your Goals
Through the study of the Psychology of Happiness, we know that working on specific personal goals is one of the keys to happiness. We know this intuitively. Most of us are focused on personal goals and have a good bit of experience with the ups and downs of the process. NYU Psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen has a tool to offer in her book “Rethinking Positive Thinking” that is very helpful to get (and keep) goals moving forward. It’s appealing, simple, user-friendly and streamlined. After all, who has time to mess around?
Competing Commitments with Health and Wellness
Life is complicated. Lots of these complications are wonderful things, family, careers, friends, hobbies, our communities, etc. There are upsides and downsides to nearly everything; collectively, it can get quite jumbly. A challenge with life’s moving parts is staying on track with health and wellness goals amid competing commitments. Sometimes they can be directly counter to best intentions or at least obscure focus of them.
Pan-Seared Chicken With Harissa, Dates and Citrus
I happened to have on hand the stars of this recipe; oranges, dates and harissa. It’s delicious and easy!
What is Health Coaching and How does it Differ from Fitness Training?
I saw a funny post about coaching on social media. It was a picture of a woman surrounded by wrappers from Valentine’s candy and she said, “I resisted eating the last one, so I’m pretty sure I am ready to be a life coach now!” It made me chuckle, and it was poignant. This field of coaching is confusing. It’s relatively new and unregulated. This article is to help clarify what is, and what is not Health Coaching and contrast it to other modalities that support health and wellbeing.
Ten Ways to Boost Dopamine and Mood
I got to sit on an airplane for 9 hours recently with a lengthy buffet of movies to distract me from the middle-seat squish. I watched three movies about heroic women; one of them was “RBG”, the documentary about the diminutive legal powerhouse, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who turns 86 this month.
The Power of Visual Thinking
When I think about winning Megabucks, my brain automatically and joyfully clicks into visualizing what I’d do with the cash. I see the property on the lake, the beautiful barn with happy horses, the carefree travel to beautiful places with turquoise water and the brilliant, funny, talented chef who preps amazing healthy meals. The fantasy is fun, the details are vivid, and there’s….
Core Engagement for Safe Lifting
I got to sit on an airplane for 9 hours recently with a lengthy buffet of movies to distract me from the middle-seat squish. I watched three movies about heroic women; one of them was “RBG”, the documentary about the diminutive legal powerhouse, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who turns 86 this month.
Finding Joy
The word “joy” has come to my attention several times recently. I am reading a book called “The Book of Joy” about Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama and coincidentally several people have asked if I’ve seen the Netflix program about the “Joy of Tidying Up” with Marie Kondo.
Wintertime Hydration
Do you drink enough water? How do you know? Guidelines for fluid intake are not especially well researched and therefore less well-known, so it’s understandable that this is a bit of guess-work.
Get Ready to Refresh
Do you ever wish you can press ‘re-set” on something, like hitting “control / alt/ delete” on your computer to refresh something that’s gotten tangled? I do, and we’re about to come upon one of the most natural times of year to consider where to press that re-set button. Naturally it’s January 1, 2019.
Exercise and Diabetes
November is Diabetes Awareness month. I don’t normally write about “awareness months” but diabetes is such an enormously pressing issue it’s important to take a look at it. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), 30.3 million Americans (nearly 10% of the population) have diabetes costing $327 billion annually in direct medical costs and lost productivity.
Infinite Willpower
Is willpower finite? Have you ever asked yourself this question? I had not until recently when I read “The Marshmallow Test. Why Self- Control is the Engine of Success” by Walter Mischel, professor Psychology at Columbia University.
Reaping the Benefits of Weight Lifting
Tuesday after Labor Day “Jane” came to her fitness appointment and somewhat sheepishly confessed she’d not been active that week with her weight lifting program. I’ve heard lots of apologetic confessions and some of them are valid reasons, so I gave her the “why??” eye and quietly waited for tales of a fabulous European junket or debilitating illness.
Women’s Midlife Fitness
I am a semi-proud card carrying member of AARP. It’s an odd feeling to open that application shortly after blowing out the inferno of candles on the half-century cake; but as un-sexy as AARP publications are, the reading is pretty good, and at least I get a periodic reminder that there’s good reason I don’t bounce like I did 25 years ago.