I so hope and pray you are enjoying the end of your Summer, and all our children are enjoying a great start to school! I was so blessed to pick up my 9 year old Annika from a Spirit-filled week at Camp Allendale last week, visit my parents in Fort Wayne, and attend a wonderful Cavalier dog party at the Warsaw home of the breeder of our Penny (the black and tan Cavalier shown in the picture seeing her ruby mother again).
This blog I am going to write tips for all of us to make our healthy goals and plans stick, and finish my suggestions on teaching children sexual values. Eric gives great teaching on doing cardio exercise for people with bad knees.
Making Your Healthy Plans STICK!
Do you wonder why you a make a definite plan to exercise more, eat better, sleep more, pray more, stop smoking, lose weight, or take your vitamins and then don't do it? The American Heart Association (AHA) recently researched this topic and found specific habits and strategies that helped people make their healthy plans stick. They also found that developing a healthier lifestyle (healthy diet, regular physical activity, and losing weight/getting to a better weight) can increase an average Americans' life expectancy by SEVEN YEARS!
Set Smart Specific Goals
People who set definite goals are much more likely to adhere to them. Just deciding to lose weight or lower your cholesterol are too general, but deciding to lose 1 pound per week or eating more healthy fruits and vegetables are much more realistic and attainable. Goals that focus on specific behaviors (such as exercising 30 minutes three times a week or setting out your daily vitamins for the upcoming week or eating a healthy fruit or vegetable with each meal or drinking 2 glasses of water with each meal, or praying every am for 3-5 minutes before you get out of bed) are even better because you are more in control of them and can see your progress.
How Dr. Lisa/Northside Family Care/Eric can help? See us to identify your own needs and specific goals. We work together with you to set smart goals and focus on what you can do.
Monitor Your Progress
After you have your specific goals, you need to know how well you are doing. Monitoring yourself increases your awareness and progress toward your goals. This can be as easy as writing down your foods or workouts in a journal or electronically. Your frequency in doing this really matters - you need to track often. Monitoring is very important and a proven key to healthy lifestyle behavior change. The AHA states that studies show when people track their food, they lose TWICE as much weight as those who don't self-monitor their food intake.
How Dr. Lisa and Eric can help? We can review your journals and tracking, and help give you ideas on any adjustments you need to make. We are also working to develop some trackers for your use.
Find Support
The AHA found that people who had more frequent and longer contact with others (doctors, trainers, support groups) had more success in changing and maintaining their healthy lifestyle habits. This contact can be in person, telephone, or email/Internet and helps the person to be accountable and adhere to their program.
How Dr. Lisa and Eric can help? We can see you in person to discuss and support your efforts, and help you identify other areas of best support for you. We are working on some ideas to support you by telephone or electronically.
Get Feedback
Feedback is very important to help you understand your current level of performance and set further realistic goals to improve. People who receive feedback more often are reinforced and more successful in adopting their habits.
How Dr. Lisa and Eric can help? When you see and consult us with your trackers, we can give you feedback to congratulate what you are doing and help make suggestions on what to improve or change.
Believe in Yourself
Confidence in yourself and your own ability to reach your goals, will help you achieve your healthy lifestyle habits. Programs that help your confidence and belief in yourself and in your abilities achieve much more lasting benefits and results. How can you boost your confidence? By far the most effective way is by achieving a short and simple goal.
How can Dr. Lisa and Eric help? We will help you set your at first short and simple goals and tracking to help you build confidence and momentum to continue for the long term. The first goals can be very short and simple - like exercising each day for 10 minutes, drink 1 glass of water each morning, eat a healthy vegetable each dinner, or thank God each morning before you get out of bed.
Learn From Others
When you watch or observe someone performing a healthy behavior that relates to your own goals, they are modeling to you that these things work and that you can do them too (like exercising, choosing/cooking healthy foods, drinking water before each meal, moving past a slip-up). Programs that include modeling have higher success rates of long term healthy lifestyle behavior change. This modeling can be done in person, via videos, or even through discussions.
How Dr. Lisa and Eric can help? We can do this in person by meeting with us, and we do it in our blogs here - in videos and discussions. We will continue to do even more!
Accept Setbacks
It is normal to occasionally miss or deviate episodically from doing the goal behavior, like miss some exercise times, or meals with a healthy fruit or vegetable, or a week with a pound weight loss, or tracking. A person being aware that this is normal and expected can actually help prevent relapse or episodes of not doing the goal or giving up a goal. Instead of expecting perfection all the time, programs that teach people that setbacks are normal and can be overcome will result in greater success!
How Dr. Lisa and Eric can help? No one can be perfect. We recommend working to at least an 80/20 rule, where you follow your outlined goals most of the time, but allow for occasional indulgences and rest days too. We can give you resources, tips, and tactics to help you plan for possible setbacks and recover from them.
Family & Faith - Parenting Tips continued from the great book "Sex - More Than a Plumbing Lesson", by Amy Scheuring (teaching your children sexual values)
Sex teaching and your younger children -
Proper timing is crucial. Saying too much too early can introduce ideas prematurely, but waiting too long can leave your child ill-prepared for the battles they will face in our culture (ignorance is not the same as purity). While you are spending time with your children, opportunities will arise for healthy discussion. When children ask questions about sex, be sure to answer them as accurately as you can. A pregnancy or even baby animals can give you the chance to say "I want to answer any questions you may have about babies, love, and marriage."
Make sure to protect the wonderful innocent years of childhood by being a gatekeeper and set reasonable boundaries for your children. Take the TV out of your child's room, closely monitor his access to Internet, be very careful what friends' homes they spend time at and the rules of those homes, and load up your home with classic children's books and videos.
Your child's changing bodies are opportunities to teach and assure them, and explain that our bodies are designed for holy purposes. 1Corinthians 6:19 "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit."Teach them about proper respectful dress and good and bad touch - the area our bathing suit covers is private and personal and they need to reject any kind of touch that feels "wrong" or "mixed up."
Teach about your body as a gift from God. Remind them how they would feel if their one big birthday gift was already opened and used. Their body is a gift from God, and inside it is their sexual purity or also called virginity. It is a wonderful gift, and there will be times you are curious and tempted, but don't open the gift! It is a gift you can only give one person, and that is your husband or wife after you get married. That moment is part of the wonderful plan God has for your future and is certainly worth waiting for!
Road maps of Relationships -
Ask your children what they are looking for in a relationship, and you will likely get things like trust, honesty, acceptance, love, commitment, fun, good communication, and respect. Then ask them what attracts them to notice or want to date a girl or boy - likely things like body, popularity, clothes, hair, and teeth. Teach them that they must understand that attraction and relationship are not the same thing. Attraction takes 3 or 4 seconds, but relationship takes months and even years. Sex does not help reach the goal of a good relationship, but in fact actually puts things so out of proper order that they may never reach the joy that a healthy relationship will bring.
Show your teen a quarter you can find in your dryer and one in mint condition in a sealed plastic case whose value increases each year. "Advise them that many teens treat their virginity like that of a quarter they can find in their dryer. They let people touch it, spend it, and use it. Rather than gaining in value, it becomes worn, common, and cheap. The sealed coin is beautiful, valuable, and rare, just like sexual virginity."
When your teens ask how far can you go, teach them to think about the goal of a good relationship and ask themselves: Is this activity increasing communication? Are we building trust? Are we having fun or is this getting too serious? How much can I save for marriage and to please and honor God?
Teach your children the basic rules about proper social behavior - good manners and etiquette rules - like looking adults in the eyes and shaking hands, men acting honorably - opening doors, being the first to ask the girl out on a date, and calling and meeting her parents. These basic rule about social behavior give kids much needed self confidence in tough situations.
Fulfilling Your Destiny -
"You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a royal nation, a people belonging to God." Romans 8:14-17. Teach your children they have a royal identity and God has wonderful plans and adventures that only they can fulfill by training with and following God. Instilling our teens with that sense of purpose, identity, and destiny gives them a reason to hold themselves to a higher standard. Encourage your children to be the people they want to become. He who is faithful in they little things will be given responsibility for much more (Matthew 25:21). Teach your children that in our culture often you cannot avoid the first look at a scantily dressed person or bad Internet pop up, but you can avoid the second look!
Great author C.S. Lewis said it this way: "Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of."
Next blog I will cover suggestions for relationship building and entertainment, setting reasonable rules, and as the author suggests - giving our B.E.S.T!
Eric's Tips
Cardio for People with Bad Knees
By
Eric Walden
Having bad knees is an excuse for some, while others finds ways around the pain in their knees. I’ve said numerous times that I love exercise and fitness because it’s not a one size fits all. Each individual can tailor their workout to themselves. What is unique about cardio machines is that they will help you target different areas on your body or help you achieve goals in different ways. Everyone has different problems when it comes to knee pain. Each person has to figure out what works best for them. But there are a few things that one must consider when choosing the proper cardio machine.
The first question you ask is, Will this hurt my knees. The answer could be yes or no depending if you have ever used the machine before. If you have used (fill in machine name) and your knees have hurt afterwards then I’d avoid that machine. No sense in keep on doing what you already know will hurt. Next ask yourself does the impact hurt or just standing on them for long periods of time. Knowing the answer to these 3 questions will help you determine which machine(s) you will use.
Weight bearing machines are best for burning more calories. But at the same time if standing for 30 minutes or longer hurts your knees then don’t do it. Use a machine that you sit down. Use a progression to help keep your knees from hurting. Start out on a weight bearing machine for 10 minutes then move to a seated machine for the rest of your cardio session. Each week try to increase the time on the weight bearing machine. Always do the weight bearing machine first. Your muscles and joints are stronger in the beginning and won’t get sore or hurt as fast. The recumbent bike and upright bike are good for bad knees. Make sure you have the seat set right or it can make the problem worse in your knees. I know for me I have to be careful on an Arc trainer not to take the incline up past 7 or my knees hurt after. You have to use the machines a couple of times and keep switching up the settings until you find a range that doesn’t hurt. I loved the workout that the Arc trainer gave me to I kept working out on it trying to figure out how to utilize it without being in pain every time. You may have to come to the conclusion that you can’t use certain machines.
Cardio possibilities & routine for home - coming soon!
I always tell beginners or people recovering from injury to take it slow. There is no need to conquer the mountain in one day. Even if you only do 10 minutes and then rest for 10 and start up another session of 10 minutes. You are doing something which is better than nothing. You are building endurance and muscle strength by doing this, so eventually your body will be able to sustain a a longer workout. But don’t rush yourself to do something you’re not ready for. Listen to your body and plan ahead to succeed and not get hurt worse.
The minimum recommendations for cardio are 30 minutes 3 times a week. It is okay to start out with 3 ten minute sessions. Gradually work yourself up to a full 30 minute session without stopping. Sometimes adjusting the intensity will help you achieve your goal of a harder workout rather than increasing your time. Here is a link to an article that talks about most exercise machines that you will find in homes or regular fitness clubs. http://askthetrainer.com/best-cardio-machines.html
Have a great week. If you have questions or need help designing your workouts please email me at eric_walden@waldospersonaltraining.com or call me at 765-404-7343.
Remember the healing power of God! I pray that you can imagine your physical body filled with the healing, loving light of God, and give over to God all your concerns and envision each cell renewed - every cell of our being is alive with the energy of God. I pray by shifting your thoughts to God's higher power, you feel instantly connected, and envision radiant health in your body this very moment - you feel stronger and more alive, renewed and energized!
Thank you so much for caring about and working on being your healthiest with your special and amazing God-given body. I am so proud of you! I wish I could give you all hugs right now, so I will in my mind and heart and prayers!... I pray you just got my hug!
Dr. Lisa
