Eat Drink and Sleep?
When you eat and drink can affect sleep and how you sleep can impact how much and what you eat and drink. Meeting health-related goals like weight loss…
Fretting about Food & Physique?
Many athletes feel pressure to have a perfect body, perfect diet, and ideally, perfect performances. The stress-inducing trait of perfectionism often pushes athletes to not only become stronger and faster, but also leaner and food-phobic. We have seen perfection play out with football phenom Tom Brady. While he is a poster child for the benefits of eating ”perfectly,” he also has great mental strength that keeps him focused on his goals without getting side-tracked by comparisons.
Most of us are a bit more insecure than Tom and end up comparing ourselves to others. Take note: To compare is to despair! Please stop comparing your physique and your food choices to those of your teammates, friends, and family! Here are strategies to help you fret less and instead gain confidence with your food choices and your physique.
Body Comparisons
She’s leaner than I am…
He’s got bigger muscles than I do…
She’s prettier than I am…
He’s got a better 6-pack ab than I do…
How often do you find yourself comparing your body to that of your teammates, friends, and social media influencers? If the answer is too often, just STOP IT! Your body is yours; it is good enough the way it is. You want to stop criticizing your body for being too fat, too slow, too short, too freckled—and instead be grateful for all the good things it does for you, like run marathons, row in regattas, win soccer games, and/or compete in triathlons. Those “thunder thighs” contribute to your ability to be a strong, powerful, and successful athlete. Thank them!
Few athletes have the “perfect body”; even the leanest athletes complain about undesired bumps and bulges. Athletes who whine about feeling fat are more likely feeling imperfect, inadequate, anxious, and/or out of control.
Recommendations: To achieve body acceptance, practice living on a fantasy island where you and your body are good enough—if not excellent—the way you are. If you wander off your island and start comparing yourself to others, you’ll undoubtedly end up despairing. Stay on your island!
When you look in the mirror, greet yourself with a welcoming smile and grateful words. With time, you will start to internalize that your body is indeed good enough the way it is. While you may never attain the perfect physique, you can still be grateful for all your body does for you.
Portion Comparisons
Do you eat like a bird compared to your teammates? Or maybe you feel self-conscious because you need to eat twice as much as your peers just to maintain your desired weight? At team meals/social gatherings, many athletes monitor the quantity of food others are eating. Salads and small portions tend to get praised more than lumberjack servings. (I wish I had your discipline vs. You sure do eat a lot….) For athletes recovering from restrictive, dysfunctional eating, eating a sandwich, fruit, yogurt &pretzels for lunch seems embarrassing—way too much food—when it’s really what is needed to properly fuel up for an after-school practice or after-work trip to the gym.
When I educate my clients how many calories they “deserve” to eat, most are flabbergasted to learn athletic females commonly require 2,400+ calories to maintain weight; athletic males may require 2,800+ calories. That’s 600-700 calories four times a day: breakfast, early lunch, second lunch/afternoon snack, and dinner.
Recommendation: Please don’t start counting calories; your body is your best calorie counter. Rather, listen to your innate hunger and fullness cues. Eat when hungry; stop when content. Pay attention to why you stop eating: Do you think you should? Is the food all gone? Or are you actually feeling content and comfortably fed?
Food Comparisons
I eat only healthy foods…
I avoid sugar like the plague…
I won’t touch the pies at Thanksgiving.
In the world of “clean eating”, athletes feel pressure to choose the “right” foods. That translates into no sugar, salt, red meat, white flour, packaged foods, fat, and no fun foods. The E in Eating stands for Enjoyment; you want to be able to enjoy (in appropriate portions) the foods you truly want to eat!
Believe it or not, it’s OK to balance fun foods into an overall good diet. The goal is 85-90% nutrient-rich whole grains, fruits, veggies, lean proteins and 10-15% fun food. You need not eat the perfect diet to have an excellent diet.
You want to eat a foundation of about 1,500 calories from a variety of nutrient-dense foods to consume the vitamins, minerals, and protein required for an effective sports diet. Because your body needs at least 2,400-2,800 calories a day, you have space in your diet for both health-promoting food and fun food. While you want to enjoy more of the best foods and less of the rest, you can balance fun foods into your sports diet. That is, an apple is a healthy food; a diet of all apples is a very unhealthy, unbalanced diet.
Recommendation: If you find yourself being judgmental about food, the problem is unlikely the food, but rather your relationship with the food—and fears it will make you get fat or ruin your health. Eating out of the same pot as your pals is a very healthy thing to do! A few fun meals will not ruin your health forever.
Nutrition Supplement Comparisons
I often counsel athletes who wonder if they can nourish their bodies with real food instead of taking supplements. As one athlete sheepishly asked, “I don’t take any vitamin pills. Should I? My teammates takes a handful of them..” Let me reassure you that opting out of supplements is okay (and can save you bundles of money). If you eat wisely 85-90% of the time, you are likely getting the vitamins and minerals and protein you need, with a few possible exceptions (iron, vitamin D).
Recommendation: If you question the adequacy of your diet, consult with a registered dietitian (RD) who is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD). Make an appointment today to learn how to choose food based on facts, not fears, and can fret less and enjoy better quality of life.
Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD counsels both fitness exercisers and competitive athletes in the Boston-area (Newton; 617-795-1875). Her best-selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook is a popular resource, as is her online workshop. Visit NancyClarkRD.com for info.
The Role of the Pilates Professional in Cancer Treatment and Rehabilitation
I am a 15 year breast cancer survivor, and experienced what cancer patients go through, not just from theory, but from living it. I’m going to talk about the role that Pilates had in my rehab and why I consider essential for cancer patients and survivors.
After surgery and treatment, most cancer patients are left with lack of flexibility and range of motion, and poor posture because of the scar tissue. Most experience fatigue from chemo and radiation or just stress of the circumstances. Many go through hormonal treatment which reduces the muscle mass, increases the risk of osteoporosis and bone fracture, bone pain, fatigue, mood swings and lack of stamina and stress.
Breathing is an essential part of Pilates. It helps with stress and stamina, reduces fatigue, opens the lungs and helps with mood swings. When we are paying attention to our breathing, we clear thoughts and allow the oxygen and energy flow through our bodies.
Awareness is a principle that helps us increase the consciousness of our body and the parts that are in disharmony and need to be repaired, isolating them from other parts to progressively make them stronger and healthier. Mind –Body connection
Control is another principle helps coordinate the body parts and move them with the correct alignment, avoiding jerky movements used in general workouts (especially using the Core which we call the powerhouse) and increasing BALANCE that is so affected in cancer patients.
Flexibility and range of motion are key in the rehabilitation for mobility and functionality of the limbs or part of the body affected so we start testing the patient range of motion without any resistance at first.
Pilates machines have springs that allow switching among different resistance according to the patient’s condition avoiding injuries and pain,
Allowing the patient to get FLEXIBLE then STRONGER and then MANAGE THEIR OWN BODY improving posture, Functionality, mobility, self-image and self-confidence.
Exercise Samples
Graciela Perez is a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Personal Trainer, Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) Aquatic Specialist, and a Cancer Exercise Training Institute Cancer Exercise Specialist. She’s been helping people reaching their health and fitness goals since 2003.
Can Gratitude Help You Live Longer?
The numbers are in and the facts are clear: gratitude helps you live longer. That’s because the more grateful you are for what you have, the happier you are. And the happier you are, the healthier you’ll be. Gratitude doesn’t just improve your physical, psychological and emotional health — it also makes you into a nicer person. Here’s how it happens.
People who display gratitude have:
- 16% fewer physical symptoms
- 10% less physical pain
- 25% increased sleep quality
Cancer survivors like Barbara Tako believe that “actively choosing to regularly practice gratitude is a powerful tool to manage the worries and fears of being a patient or a survivor.” This may be because the regions of the brain that are involved in happiness are also involved in blood-vessel function and inflammation. Studies have shown that levels of the stress hormone cortisol tend to rise and fall with emotion. People who practice gratitude experience less stress, because they don’t tend to dwell on negatives and feel more empowered to overcome hurdles.
Gratitude Improves Psychological Health
Gratitude reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, from envy and resentment to frustration and regret. According to Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, a leading gratitude researcher, gratitude increases happiness and reduces depression.
Gratitude Improves Self-Esteem
A grateful person is more likely to accept that someone else is being nice to him. He’s able to take the kindness that someone else shows him at face value, because he believes that he’s a person worth of receiving kindness. On the other hand, someone with low self-esteem leans towards seeing an act of kindness with a skeptical eye. He’s more likely to think that his benefactor had ulterior motives and is simply trying to get something from them.
Gratitude Increases Mental Resilience
Research shows that gratitude not only reduces stress, but also plays a major role in overcoming trauma. A 2003 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that gratitude was a major contributor to resilience following the terrorist attacks on September 11. When you can recognize, even in the worst of times, that you have things you can thankful for, you’re more likely to have the resilience to bounce back.
Gratitude Makes you More Likely to Exercise
If you have less pain and are feeling rested, you’re more likely to exercise. Grateful people exercise more often and are more likely to attend regular check-ups. Both these facts contribute to longevity.
Gratitude Makes you into a Nicer Person
Saying thank you and showing appreciation for favors makes you into a nicer person. But the benefits don’t end with the nice words. Showing appreciation actually helps you win new friends, according to a 2014 study published in Emotion. The study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek an ongoing relationship. Sending a thank-you note to the therapist who called you to check how you where doing after a challenging OT session can lead to a new friendship. By becoming more trusting, social, and appreciative, you can deepen your existing relationships and make new friends.
So how do we go about cultivating this captivating trait of gratitude?
The Easy Key to Cultivating Gratitude
More and more people have started keeping a five-minute daily gratitude journal. By spending just five minutes jotting down a few grateful thoughts before falling asleep, you learn to flex your gratitude muscles. And there are additional benefits. People who keep a gratitude journal sleep better and longer. And there’s more. In one 11-week study of 96 Americans, those who were instructed to keep a weekly gratitude journal exercised 40 minutes more per week than the control group.
Gratitude reduces feelings of envy, makes our memories happier, lets us experience good feelings, and helps us bounce back from stressful situations. So throw out the negativity and bring in the gratitude. Because it looks like gratitude can help you live longer.
Rhona Lewis is a healthcare freelance writer with over 11 years of writing experience that she uses to help healthcare companies grow their authority and create brand awareness. Her background as a journalist means she’s curious enough to ask the right questions and committed to thorough research. She has a knack for breaking down complex medical concepts into content that a lay audience will read till the end.
References:
http://www.happinessandwellbeing.org
Step up to Better Balance
When we are young we take our balance and coordination for granted. Yet as we progress through the years sometimes our muscles get weaker and joints get tighter and our posture changes all contributing to decreases in balance skills.
Advanced Running: Establishing the Mindset for Success
I took my first yoga class in more than a decade today and it wasn’t pretty. I was stiff, ungainly and awkward and had to literally fight the desire to stop! I found out my instincts were right about my body – it IS strong and fast but when it comes to balance and flexibility – and mind-body awareness – I am way behind the “8 ball”.
Can movement be therapy for emotional stress?
The more rhythmic and intense the movement, the greater this effect, since it elicits focus.
Emotional stress makes life overwhelming. Sometimes, we experience an extremely stressful or disturbing event, while at other times we accumulate the stress of upsetting interactions over time. In either case we are left feeling emotionally out of control and helpless. Our minds feel like a hamster spinning away on a wheel, leaving us drained, heavy, disconnected and incapable of making rational inferences and decisions. Our bodies feel like logs being lugged around, making daily chores onerous.
Irrespective of how it’s triggered, emotional and/or psychological disharmony has wide-ranging physical reactions and symptoms. While most of us know of the emotional impact (feelings of sadness, anger, fear, guilt, self-doubt and many more) the physical impact is not widely spoken about. This could include muscular tension, aches and pains, difficulty sleeping or insomnia, breathlessness among others.
Everyone’s triggers and responses are unique. Healing from emotional stress, hence, cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution. If symptoms persist for long or are severe, do seek professional help. That said, there are a few practices that can aid in self-healing.
Movement
Movement can be therapeutic for a number of reasons. As we know, stress impacts mental and physical equilibrium, turning the body into a repository of unpleasant side effects. A prolonged state of negative emotions like anger, fear and hyper responsiveness in daily life, adversely impacts the muscular and nervous system. Movement and exercise can help address this at a dual level. At a physical level, it helps by releasing endorphins (aka happy hormones) and calming adrenaline. The more rhythmic and intense the movement, the greater this effect, since it elicits focus. Target at least 30 minutes of exercise/movement on most days. It could be any activity that interests and engages you, be it dancing, yoga, sport, running, swimming, cycling. It might feel better to do it in company, to help break any self-imposed isolation. You could split it up over intervals during the day (though half an hour is not much of an ask to reset yourself and get your mind, body and life on track!).
Mindfulness
Try to pay full attention to the activity and how you perform it. Stay with the process. The mind will eventually tune into the rhythm of the body, making you more ‘mindful’ of the activity and yield a positive sensory outcome, including from deep within. For some, this may be attained with gentler workouts, and for some more intense activities could derive the response, depending on one’s personality as well as physical capacity. Remember, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way here. The beauty of movement is that it serves all, and it can be scaled up and down dynamically to make you feel most connected and generate positive inner vibes.
Deep breathing
Focus on the act of breathing and on how the breath goes in and out of the body (‘mindful’ breathing). It acts as another powerful therapeutic tool. This is true even during movement. Movement becomes more mindful when you focus on the breath while executing it, maximizing positive benefits physically (more oxygen, less physical stress) and mentally (greater connection with self, less mental stress). It aids in giving the mind a much-needed break while energizing the body.
Good sleep
Try maintaining sleeping and waking up time and hours even though it may seem silly or impossible. For those with sleeping difficulties or insomnia, the body clock needs resetting, requiring some repetitive reinforcements to break the negative cycle. It’s essential to retrain the body and mind to rejuvenate, rest and recuperate.
Changes won’t happen overnight, but all these practices together can go a long way to impart a greater sense of control, which propels us towards a happier state. It’s about reclaiming peace, being kind to ourselves and catalyzing inner healing.
Vani Pahwa is a Functional Fitness specialist with over fifteen years of experience, and cutting-edge certifications from leading internationally-accredited and globally recognized fitness institutes. She is also a Cancer Exercise Specialist (perhaps one of the first in the country). Sought after for her multi-disciplinary fitness modules and expertise, Vani has conducted fitness workshops for leading corporate houses, conditioning and training camps for various sports communities, training programs for coaches, personal training programs for CEOs of multi-nationals, athletes, junior and senior sports professionals among others. Her combination of specialties, client profile and range, and extensive work experience makes her unique in the country. She is the founder of Body in Motion.
Original article published in a leading national daily: https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/movement-as-a-therapy-for-emotional-stress/article26566357.ece
News from ACSM: Tools to Enhance Performance
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is the nation’s largest group of exercise physiologists, sports nutritionists, and a multitude of other sports medicine professionals.
Each year, at ACSM’s Annual Meeting, members gather to share their latest research. Here are highlights of two talks (June 2022 meeting in San Diego) that might be of interest to serious athletes intent on improving their performance.
Coffee, Caffeine and Caffeinated foods: What Do Athletes Need to Know?
Speakers: Louise Burke PhD. Australian Catholic University and Ben Desbrow PhD, Griffith University, Australia
Guidelines regarding caffeine used to enhance athletic performance have changed significantly. Caffeine was once believed to be a diuretic, beneficial in high doses primarily for marathoners, and most effective when consumed an hour pre-event. Almost every aspect of those ideas has been replaced with newer knowledge
• Caffeine is not just for endurance athletes; it offers a three-percent improvement in performance in many real-life sporting events including shorter races and team sports. In addition, caffeine may help athletes such as body builders train harder.
• Caffeine offers similar benefits whether you take it one hour pre-exercise or only during exercise. Even low doses of caffeine are effective when consumed just prior to the onset of fatigue.
• Caffeine helps athletes train better when they are jetlagged or when their circadian rhythms are out of line.
• Caffeine comes in many forms, including caffeinated water, potato chips, gums, gels, sprays, pouches, strips, medications, pre-workout supplements, and pills. The caffeine content of commercial pre-workout supplements can vary from batch to batch (~40 mg difference per serving) Of the top 15 most popular pre-workout supplements, caffeine content ranged from about 90 to 390 mg/serving —and often contained more—or less—of what was listed on the nutrition facts panel.
• Each individual needs to learn from their own personal experiences the right caffeine source and dose for their bodies. Genetics influences the enzymes that break down caffeine.
• If you consume 1 cup of coffee in the morning, most of the caffeine will have dissipated by lunchtime. In general, caffeine stays in the body for about 7 hours. Its half-life (time taken for caffeine in the body to drop by half) ) might be five hours (or less) for some people, but ten hours (or more) for others.
• Female athletes should know that birth control pills almost double the half-life of caffeine, making it more effective for longer.
• If you happen to be a slow metabolizer and then take a pre-workout caffeine boost before your afternoon workout, you might have some caffeine “overlap” from your morning cup of brew. Even if you abstain from caffeine for 12 hours, circulating caffeine might still be detected in your blood due to caffeine accumulation with repeated caffeine consumption.
• Habitual caffeine intake does not seem to influence its ergogenic effect across a range of different sports. That means, if you regularly consume coffee every day, there’s no need for you to stop consuming caffeine for a few days prior to a competitive event. Caffeine withdrawal feels horrible and you’re unlikely to gain any benefits!
Biomarkers That Impact Training and Performance
Speaker: Shawn Arent, PhD, CSCS, FACSM, University of South Carolina
While caffeine is a drug that can be consumed to influence performance, biomarkers are substances in your body that are indicators of physiological processes. Endocrine biomarkers measure stress and adaptations to training. Biochemical biomarkers measure muscle damage and inflammation. Nutritional biomarkers measure the impact of diet, such as on blood glucose and iron levels.
Biomarkers are best used to document changes over time (as opposed to taking one measurement, such as serum ferritin, to see if the measurement simply falls within normal limits). Biomarker data can help assess changes in performance, recovery, and training optimization. Biomarkers might be able to predict and prevent illness. In an 8-week basic training study, a third of the soldiers whose biomarkers classified them as being over-reached experienced illness.
Biomarker research
The military and some professional athletes and teams are very interested in measuring biomarkers. Connecting biomarkers to measurables like performance, training, sleep, and diet provides context and meaning to the measurements. By keeping athletes healthy and in the game, the likelihood of a winning season improves.
• With biomarker research, we now know that food deprivation can be more detrimental to performance than sleep deprivation. Many markers can take a full month post-dietary restriction to get back to normal. With Army ranger training, a 1,000 calorie per day deficit reduced testosterone and increased cortisol.
• Biomarkers can document the physiological impact of restrictive food intake and show how much better athletes can recover when they are adequately fueled.
• Both physical and psychological stress impact biomarkers, as does travel through time zones. Seeing sleep data can help athletes learn the value of prioritizing sleep.
Wave of the future?
Athletes interested in getting their biomarkers measured should know this is an emerging field with yet unanswered questions, including:
What is the best time to measure biomarkers? (Should recovery markers be measured right after exercise or a day later?)
How often should measurements be taken? (Might depend on who is paying the bill!)
Should athletes not exercise the day before blood draws/data collection?
Do biomarkers differ when measured under research conditions? (That is, does lab data compare to data collected at real-life competitive events?)
What is the minimal performance-enhancing level of a biomarker? Is higher better? When is a level too low?
Can biomarkers predict and prevent illness? And very importantly,
Will coaches (and athletes) be willing to alter their training schedules based on biomarkers? Coaches’ buy-in is essential, as is the athlete’s willingness to alter training plans.
With time and well-established protocols for measuring biomarkers, this evolving field will have a significant impact on improving the health and performance of members of the military, professional athletes, as well as curious consumers who can afford this luxury.
Sports nutritionist Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD has a private practice in the Boston area. She is author of the best-selling Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook and co-leader of an online sports nutrition workshop. Visit www.NancyClarkRD.com for more information.
