March 17, 2012: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 This is one of my favorite youtube videos.  You really have to watch the entire song to experience the goose bumps! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  

Here's a few Irish quotes to start the day: 

"I often take exercise. Only yesterday I had breakfast in bed." (Oscar Wilde)

"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine; something Brussels Sprouts never do." (P. J. O'Rourke).

"Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much." (Oscar Wilde) 

"I can resist anything but temptation." (Oscar Wilde)  

I've had a busy week but a good one.  Being too busy can sometimes equate to stress, so I was careful to find time to unwind and destress.  I was out of town on business for two days and paid very little attention to following my healthy goals.  Sigh,...  I guess, in the words of Oscar Wilde, "the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it".  All things are good in moderation, I am told.  In general, however, I had a fairly good week.  Having an exercise friend has helped me be a little more consistent with my workouts.  Yesterday I went to the roller rink with several friends.  I didn't think my 40-something year old body would be up for it, but it was a great workout, a lot of fun, and surprisingly, I didn't fall once!  (I came close a few times.)  There were a few people in our group who didn't know how to skate very well and others who were quite seasoned skaters.  Regardless, everyone put forth good effort and worked up a sweat.  Everyone's skating abilities improved before the end of the night.  I did learn that I will probably never play Red Light/Green Light with elementary-aged children on skates ever again.  (How do those little tikes move so fast on wheels?)

I was reading some articles about managing stress through food and other techniques.  People who are conscientious about health and dieting sometimes get in a habit of punishing themselves emotionally for resorting to food as a source of comfort or relief from stress.  Again, the word moderation comes to mind.  Finding balance is so important.  We cannot stop living, after all.  We need to find time to savor & enjoy life. The following quotes sum it up nicely:
 
"The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind." (G.K. Chesterton)

"There's lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven't the time to enjoy it." (Josh Billings)


Green Mountain at Fox on the Run published the following stress management strategies: 

Use food. While this isn't the best strategy for managing stress, we've listed it first because it's the one thing that weight-struggling women use often, yet believe they shouldn't use at all! But denying ourselves comfort food when we really want it can be just as stressful as the stress we're trying to manage in the first place. The key is to make sure it's not our only tool for managing stress - using food too often also adds the unwanted stress of weight gain. If you're out of balance in this regard, expand your stress 'toolbox' with strategies such as those below. For more about using food, read Stress and Eating.

Get active. Physical activity immediately makes us feel better and more energetic. But part of our stress is that we're already short on time and long on things to do. But are we really too busy to take a walk? Generally, saying we're too busy indicates resistance to the idea of physical activity in the first place.

Why do we resist such a feel-good strategy? Often because we're doing it to burn calories, believing we have to hit target heart rates and walk a certain length of time for it to really 'count.' But that attitude again creates more stress than the physical activity resolves.

Think instead of moving for pleasure. What's more relaxing than pleasure...walking on a sunny day, enjoying the sweet smell of spring, what a delight! If you can manage 30 minutes, or just 10 minutes here and there, whether you walk with a friend or alone in a beautiful scenic area -- it all counts!

Other fun ideas:

• Dance. Put on a favorite CD and dance around the house, or join a ballroom,
  jazz, tap, salsa, country line dance class!
• Join a women-only fitness club. [Of course, this does not include the guys, lol..  Sorry.]  Extra motivation: Join with a friend.
• Grow tomatoes or flowers. Gardening works like a charm at relieving tension.

Pamper yourself-and give up the guilt. You deserve it!

• Glory in a bubble bath.
• Relax to calming music.
• Bury yourself in a good book--or at least a chapter or two.
• Play with your dog.
• Take a nap.

This entire article can be found at http://www.fitwoman.com/support/fitbriefings/stress-less/

Time for me to get off the computer and enjoy the rest of the day!  Hope you do the same!
 

Erin go Braugh! 

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