Office Exercise Series: Skip that 3 o'clock coffee!

Everybody knows that wall you hit around 2 or 3 pm at work. Your lunch energy has worn off, but there are still a few hours left before you can call it quits for the day. Most of us grab a coffee, or a cup of tea to keep us going, but we all know that extra caffeine isn't good for us, and can even hinder our ability to sleep at night.

Instead, why not try this simple exercise! All you need is a chair and enough space to stand up straight. This gets the heart pumping, wakes you up, balances muscles, and even increases bone density in the legs. Good luck!

Mind Over Matter: Helping Teens Lose Weight

The typical method used to help overweight teens lose weight is a combination of loving, personal nutrition education, and burning calories. This kind of intervention has been done for the last 5 years in various research institutes and many different programs around the country. The success of this approach has only been moderate, however, and that was the reason why researchers at Tufts were looking for a new strategy.

The education component is very helpful, and I wish I'd had this education when I was growing up. Every school should integrate nutritional education into their curriculum. Having the knowledge of which foods are good for me, which ones are higher in vitamins and fibers, and how many calories foods contain would have been a great tool for me growing up, and for everyone interested in better health and illness prevention.

Burning calories is a great principle as well, but when the children leave the programs we witness a big percentage of teens gain the weight back.

These programs had the right rules and knowledge, but they weren't teaching children how to conquer themselves and build discipline. It's like I always say, "You are your biggest enemy. If you can conquer yourself you can conquer anything."

About two year ago I was able to find a few people at Tufts, Michael Leidig, the clinical director for the Center for Youth and Wellness at Tufts Medical Center, and Meagher Susan, PHD., who felt the same way. We needed to add a third component to these programs: meditation and martial arts. We hoped it would make a difference and help children with the long term goal of losing weight through knowledge, burning calories, and strengthening the teens' decision center.

Through mediation and some martial arts training, the teens strengthen their will power and that leads to better decision making: especially when it comes to eating.

Read and enjoy this article about the program we are running in Maine. We are currently on the third month; the program will run for one year.

Office Exercise: Neck and Upper Back Stretch

The second installment of our Office Exercise series shows you how to stretch your neck, shoulders, and upper back using only a desk and chair. Great for people who work at computers a lot during the day!

Do this stretch for 1-3 minutes, and set a timer if you think you might fall asleep (it's pretty easy to doze off during this one!) so that you won't constantly be worrying about what time it is, which will help you to really relax into the stretch.

Register for my Two Workshops in Andover

I have two, 3-hour workshops happening in January at Yang's Fitness and Wellness Center in Andover, MA. Registration has just opened up, so be sure to get your spots early while the discount still applies!

The first workshop, on January 11th from 11am-2pm, will deal with relieving pain and stiffness in the upper back, neck, and shoulders.

The second workshop, on January 18th from 11am-2pm, will teach you the basics of sitting, standing, and moving meditations.

Neither of these workshops require any experience. Please check out the flier here for more details on the workshops, and the registration form here.

Don't forget! If you register for both workshops, you get 10% off the total.

Happy stretching!

Office Exercise: Meditation to Avoid Sickness

Have you ever had a deadline you needed to meet at work, and as soon as you do, you wake up the next day and you feel sick? Have you ever woken up in the morning feeling just as tired as when you went to sleep? How about your ability to focus and make productive choices and excellent decisions during the day, have you ever had days where you aren't at the top of your game?

This little office meditation can help with all of those things. When we are at work our brain is working at 200%! Like a race car going at 9000RPM. This allows us to get a lot done, but to maintain our health, we also need to learn how to relax. It does a lot of good to take three minutes, a few times per day, and let your mind enter the brainwave between awake and asleep, or what people often call meditation.

Below are the different levels of meditation you can use, depending on how much practice you have, and what techniques work for you. Choose one, or try them all, and good luck!

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This Candle Watching Meditation is the easiest. It is for people who struggle when closing their eyes and focusing on the breath. Learn it above, and then practice it with me here for 3 minutes. Or, practice using a candle app on your phone, and join me here. Over time, challenge yourself and aim to use the more advanced Water-breath meditation.

The next level up is a Counting Breath Meditation. You can do this out loud, or in your head. Either way, learn how to do it in the video above, and then join me in this video to practice it for a count of 30 breaths, in and out, for a total of 3 minutes. Gradually work your way up to the Water-breath meditation.

Last, but not least, is the regular Water-breath, silent meditation. This is the most difficult to stay in a place of thoughts of no thoughts (the Theta brain wave). If your mind is struggling to stay quite during Water-breath, but Counting the breath is too "noisy," try Fire-breath meditating on its own, or practice it with Water-breath until you can maintain this form of meditation for the whole 3 minutes.

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These meditations are great for the office, but if you would like to take this seed and plant it, try meditating at home for 20 to 45 minutes, once per day.

Build Up Your Commitment Muscle First

I have a rule about stretching and exercising, called the Rule of 80% effort. When your goal is to be healthy and increase your quality of life, there is no need to push yourself to your limits. 80% effort it more than enough.

If your goal is recovery, 40% effort is more than enough!

It's easy to get down on yourself when you can't maintain 100% effort. Americans feel as though they need to be pushing themselves as hard as they can whenever they are working. But often, this exertion only leads to fatigue, and then more disappointment when we just can't motivate ourselves to try any more.

If you feel like you are just not motivated, or are too tired, first, make sure you talk to a doctor or professional to make sure it isn't a symptom of something more serious. Then, try this:

Drink one glass of water, first thing, every day.

It sounds too easy to make a difference, but it's important. If you can get yourself to do one healthy thing every day, like drink a glass of water, soon you'll have the confidence to do two healthy things every day.

Not to mention, when you start being more healthy, not only does it make you feel good about yourself for committing to something, it makes you feel good in general because water is important for everything your body does. The more your health improves, the more you will want to keep improving and maintaining it. Start with small steps, then work your way up.

I do this all the time with my elderly patients when they first learn Up and Down Like the Moon and the Sun. Sometimes, they get upset if they can't even do one time up and down from the chair by themselves. Some people just quit. They are too embarrassed and too upset with their lack of physical health to continue. But others commit to doing whatever they can do without too much strain. I add yoga blocks to the seat so they only have to push themselves up a little bit each time. Slowly, over the course of a few weeks, they start lower and lower. Pretty soon, they are doing fifteen, or twenty times up and down from the chair with no problem.

So maybe you can do more than just drink a glass of water today, or go up and down once from your chair. How much you can commit to is like a muscle. You can't commit to a whole new routine in one day, so commit to little things, one at a time, over the course of a few months.

This builds up your commitment muscle, which is what you have to have before you can build up all your other muscles.