Crumple it up Blog

From the monthly archives:

December 2009

Meditate Your Way To Better Health

by Tyler Knott Gregson on December 31, 2009 · Comments

Scenes of Inner Taksang, temple hall, built ju...

In the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle, there are a million paths you can choose to walk down.  Some people love to run, others lift weights and some people swear by yoga.  A million paths for a million people. The good news is, as long as you’re on one of those paths, you’re doing the right thing for your body and yes, your mind.  Today’s path is a bit alternative, but nevertheless it targets the area that far too few of us actually exercise:  Our minds.  That’s right, meditation is on the menu today.

Whether you’ve tried it or not, you’re probably aware that meditation is actually a bit trickier than it seems.  The sad reality about meditation is, despite studies  that show just how effective it can be, a great deal of people fizzle out. This is probably the most common problem people face when jumping into meditation, and the easiest to overcome.

As I said, recent studies show that meditation does a lot more than just calm you down.  New research using in-depth brain scans shows that:

“Zen meditation could help treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (so-called ADD or ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, major depression and other disorders marked by distracting thoughts.”

As you well know, your mind controls everything, especially your body, so the more control you have over it, the better off you’ll be.  What’s more, some research is showing that meditation might even help reduce the presence and effects of diseases like Alzheimer’s.

As we take great strides to healthier lives, we can’t abandon the muscle that makes it all possible, our brain.  Not sure where to start?  It’s simpler than you might think … start by devoting 10-15 minutes each day to doing nothing but focusing on your breathing.  Find a quiet place. Sit and focus as you inhale and exhale.  If thoughts enter your mind, let them drift back out and find your breathing again.  Simple, but effective.  Let us know how you’re doing!

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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.

The Common Sense Diet Plan

by Jane Goodwin on December 30, 2009 · Comments

weight scalesThis time last year, I weighed . . . well, let’s just call it a lot.  This holiday season, however, I’m 74 pounds lighter.  I guess you could say that I’ve lost an entire fourth grader from my body.

Did I try a fad diet?  Did I read a book? Did I take diet pills?

No.

I stopped eating all the time, and I joined a gym.  That’s it.

In other words, I used plain common sense, and it worked.  I don’t know why it’s called “common sense” when it seems so UNcommon these days.

In the past, I’d tried all kinds of fad diets, but they never worked because I was working against them on a daily basis.  I even tried diet pills, but all they did was mess up my diabetes, turn me into a speeding roadrunner (Beep Beep….)  and scare my kids.

When I stepped onto those scales last fall, though, and saw that very large number, something woke up inside my head.  I think it was my brain, and it said, “If you REALLY intend to lose that weight, you’ll have to help.”

I have an odd, ever-changing work schedule, and changing MY ways wasn’t going to be easy or fun, I thought.  I was wrong.

I’m a snacker, so it really wasn’t difficult to start eating five or six tiny meals a day instead of three big ones plus the snacks.

Finding a 24/7 gym that had treadmills with book racks on them was easy, too.  Yellow pages.

Now,  three times a week, after my fourth or fifth small meal, I head on over to the gym, book in hand, and walk about six miles, reading all the way.

These two things – many tiny meals and a treadmill – have changed my life.  I’ve dropped a lot of poundage, gone down EIGHT SIZES (counting by twos, but allow me some slack here) and I feel great.  My diabetes medication has also been adjusted accordingly, and my doctors are quite pleased with my readings now.

Oh, and speaking of readings, I’ve not only dropped weight, sizes and meds, but I’ve also read more than 40 books cover-to-cover in the past year.  The kind with no pictures.

Common sense.  That’s all it took.  And it’s sooo lovely to shop for clothes in the “regular” section of the store again!

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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.

Beat The Freeze: Indoor Rock Climbing Gyms

by Tyler Knott Gregson on December 29, 2009 · Comments

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Image by asmith62378 via Flickr

It’s officially cold here.  There is snow on the ground, ice in the streets and the forecasts look to bring much of the same.  Cue workout sadness; cue fitness woes.  Luckily, and this is something we’ve mentioned before, there are ways to beat the freeze and still stay fit, trim and healthy over the long winter months.  We’ve discussed the ways to bring fun into fitness over the winter by incorporating skiing, hockey and snowshoeing, but what if you literally want to beat the freeze altogether?

Glad you asked!  I’m here to sing the praises of a form of exercise/activity/recreation that is extremely popular, but hasn’t risen into the stratospheric levels I’d hoped.  I’m here to tell you just how incredible indoor rock climbing is.  First and foremost, it’s one heck of a workout.  Rock climbing has been proven to improve muscle strength, muscle endurance, body composition and flexibility.  Not only that, but we have to admit, it’s FUN.  There’s something exhilarating about getting roped in and attacking a wall that you would have never given yourself a chance to climb.  Once you get to the top, the rewards are so much more than just fitness.

Now, more good news:  Indoor rock climbing gyms are everywhere!  They are gaining popularity every year and there are new gyms popping up all over the map.  Not sure where the closest one is to you?  We’ve got you covered. Head over to this handy Rock Climbing Gym Finder and it will let you know where the closest one is to your location.  The equipment to get started is minimally expensive and the best part is, if you don’t want to buy it, you can always rent it. It’s a great way to make sure the sport is for you before you start investing in it.

So, if you’re not sold yet, just give it a shot and I guarantee one day in the climbing gym will have you hooked.  What better way to stay warm, stay fit, meet some new friends and enjoy a great new sport?  Plus, when the weather DOES warm up, you can always take your new skills out with other climbers and try to tackle real mountains, real rocks and real boulders. 

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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.

Parents: Enjoy It While You Can

by Jane Goodwin on December 25, 2009 · Comments

Here’s a message for you lucky people with small children at home: Enjoy it while you can. Come on, Visine-up those bloodshot eyes, shoot some caffeine into those sleep-deprived bloodstreams and try to appreciate what you’ve got, while you’ve got it.

Some day you’ll be like me. Well, hopefully not JUST like me, but in my position, which is lost for hours in memories of when my children were small, and lived here, and were tiny and needy and helpless (but less so every day). It seemed like they would never change and it would always be chaotic and smelly and WIDE AWAKE. . . . .

And how some days I’d give my right arm for some SLEEP.

Suddenly, those days are gone, and you finally have the opportunity to do all the things you couldn’t do before because of those little kids. You discover two things: 1) YeeHAW, you can do those things now, and 2) Those things aren’t such a big deal after all; you’d rather have your kids back.

Those two sensations come and go with no regularity, by the way. One second you’re in tears, sitting in your quiet house, looking at photographs of tiny children clinging to you and wishing you could turn back the clock. The next second you’re cranking up the music so your house won’t be so quiet, looking at those same photographs and thinking, “I thought those days would never end.”

You feel guilty no matter which mode you’re in.

There are always things we should have done, or shouldn’t have done, or could have done and didn’t. Regrets can blindside you if you let them. I can only advise you to cherish your children while they are still children. The day will come when they will be obnoxious teenagers and you’ll wonder what went wrong. And then the day will come when they will be lovely responsible adults and you’ll look at them with pride and wonder that anything that awesome could possibly have come from you.

People always say things like this to parents when their small children are in the middle of a particularly horrible phase, but parents seldom believe these old coots who give out all the annoying free advice.

I didn’t.

And now I know it was true …  a lot of it anyway. And speaking as an old coot, empty nester, I tell you these things: No matter how horrible the phase may be, this too shall pass. No matter how obnoxious your teenagers may be, this too shall pass. The tantrums, the mess, the neediness, the clinging. . . . all of it shall pass.

It doesn’t last very long. It’s a tiny tiny fraction of your life. If you blink, you’ll miss it. It will pass.

And when it’s passed, you will miss it more than you ever thought possible. You won’t wish it back as it really was, but you’ll romanticize it and want the good parts back. Remembering is good, but sometimes forgetting is better. Not everything, just some things. Like vomit down your back. Or diarrhea in a baby backpack. Emergency room visits. Public tantrums. Blood. Words.

Be especially careful with your words.

Cultivate your memory. Cultivate your forgetter, too.

It sure is quiet tonight.   Sometimes, I can’t stand it.

I want noise. I want childish giggles. I want horrible songs about bunnies and kitties and little ducky duddle. I want a mess that smacks of fun and playfulness. I want buttercup cookies on my little finger. I want to see that Gerber baby on my pantry shelves. I want finger plays and action rhymes.

 

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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.

Memorizing Really Does Make Us Smarter

by Jane Goodwin on December 23, 2009 · Comments

Most of us have no trouble memorizing something we like, such as a song.  But remember back in seventh grade when Mean Ol’ Miz Roberts made you memorize all that poetry?  What’s up with THAT?

Let me ask you something: Do you still remember any of it?  Even a line or two?  If so, then your teacher’s lesson was a success.

The mind is a storehouse. As with any storehouse, it pays to fill it with quality.  A mind full of poems, songs and stories is far superior to a mind filled with soap opera plots and MTV top 10 lists from eight years ago!  When you have a storehouse of memorizations in your head, you’ll always be able to entertain yourself; long waits in doctors’ offices will never be AS awful again. This is not even to mention the tremendous value of ASSOCIATION, i.e., realizing that everything is connected to everything else, and all those poems in your head are open doors to understanding a lot of other things.  Encourage your small children to memorize nursery rhymes and poems.  Encourage them to sing songs by heart.  Don’t dumb anything down for them; unfamiliar words will eventually become familiar, and the moment of realization and understanding is invaluable.

Be careful what you encourage, though, as  it can be embarrassing. . . .

I was remembering the time when friends were visiting us, years ago, and they brought their daughter who is the same age as our Sara.  Both little girls were about four years old. Their daughter was reciting nursery rhymes and cute little poems. It was really sweet. We had taught Sara a lot of nursery rhymes, ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses,’ Dr. Seuss, etc. So when it was her turn to recite, we were all lost in the incredible cuteness of it all. We told her to recite anything she wanted. She looked like a little doll, of course, as she stood in the middle of the living room and began to recite:

“Mawwaige. Mawwaige is what bwings us togetho today. Mawwaige, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wifin a dweam. Wove, twue wove, will follow you fowever, and ever. . . so tweasure your wove. Have you the wing?”

It was a hard act to follow for the other little girl.

We might be somewhat quirky, yes. But it’s good quirkiness.

And it might have been worse. She also knew ‘The Lumberjack Song’ and the ‘Dead Parrot’ sketch.

At least she picked one that was rated ‘G.’

Oh, by the way,  there’s a reason it’s called “by heart.”  When we learn something that way, it really does come from the heart.

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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.

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