Healthy Mind & Body - Days 33 - 41

How Accountable Are You?

When you begin any new journey in life, do you take the time to allocate a person you are accountable to?  Should you do this?  What are the benefits of being accountable?

From my journey over this last month, and previously when I was losing a set amount of weight, I have found that having an accountability partner of great benefit.

Accountability partners:

• encourage
• ensure you complete that last task
• ask you how you are going, without judgement
• motivate you to take one more step
• allow you to speak your truth about where you are at
• pick you up when you stumble

My blogging journey for my healthy mind and body program has not been as consistent as I would like it to be, however, what I am happy with, is that I always complete it eventually.

In reality, this is a pattern in most of the things that I undertake.  I go in 'fits and starts', but I do complete it!  So, whatever your journey, do take the time to grab yourself an accountability partner to be your cheer leader, and to support you and give you positive feedback whenever you feel you are stumbling.

"Regardless of who you are or what you have been,

you can be what you want to be"

 - W. Clement Stone

When you embark on a life journey, plateaus or blockages can occur (this feels like a blockage for me, being consistent). So how do you break through them?

Blockage Breakthrough

Focus

Where do you place your focus?  On what you don't want? Or on what you do want?

You get to choose what you focus on - your thoughts influence what you get.

Communication

How do you communicate with yourself?

Body language is 55% of your communication tools with yourself.  If, e.g., you are sitting on the couch, slumped, lying down, what is this saying about yourself?  If you're at like I was, it's basically saying that you're not worthy to be noticed, that you're not good enough to complete the task, that you're heavy and insignificant where you're sitting...............

Change your sitting posture, change your self speak and change how you talk to others.

Bad Habits

So, you're sitting on the couch, watching TV, slumped, feeling low, heavy, out of sorts - you catch your posture, knowing that this is influencing you, how do you change it?

JUMP UP!!!

YELL - I CAN DO THIS!!!

A sudden, and dramatic, posture change and body language change, will stimulate your change of physcial habits

"Every choice you make has an end result"

 - Zig Ziglar

When you are creating a new habit, it must be repeated and practiced over and over and over before it becomes second nature.  Did you learn to drive overnight? No, you practiced and practiced and practiced, before it started to become second nature to you - I'm sure you now drive without even thinking about how you change lanes, change gears, overtake, drive at 100km/h and all the other small actions you do without conscious thought to drive home every day.

Focus : Memory : Worry

Focus: live in the moment, make a conscious choice

Memory: live in the past

Worry: live in the future

Always keep to FOCUS. This is a conscious choice, and one that will allow you to continue to step forward, one step at a time, on your new life journey.

Remember, it's okay to restart your change, your life journey, as often as it's required. Each time you do, you are growing stronger and stronger.

Having an accountability partner, who remembers to keep you focused, and encourages you to actively restart whenever you need to, helps you grow stronger on your journey.  Contact me now to get your accountability partner and to begin your life journey with me today!

To find out more, go to my website, www.SandraVenablesHealth.com or follow me on Facebook

Top Tip For Muscle Mass

Muscle Mass Decreases As You Age

I've seen it, you've seen it, the community sees it! The older you get, and often when you are following a diet for weight loss, the more frail you appear to become, and also the risk of falls increases as you age.  It's a known fact that for every decade you age past 30 years of age, your muscle mass decreases

Well, I for one am not going to fall into that category!! As I rush towards the age group of being post-menopausal, yes next year in fact, I am doing all that I can to ensure that my muscle mass remains high, and strong.

So, what am I doing?  To begin with three main things:

1. Exercise, weight bearing of course (lifting weights)
2. Good nutrition (ensuring I get enough protein in my diet, balanced with all the other good stuff)
3. Adding Vitamin D3 to my supplement regime.

The first two (exercise and diet) have been written about to ensure maintenance of your muscle mass by many authors, and has been shown to be of benefit scientifically too.

The third piece of information on Vitamin D3 is of interest too.  From the Isagenix Health website, this following article shows why Vitamin D3 is now believed to be of benefit in maintaining muscle mass.

"One of the hard facts of aging is that with every decade of life starting around age 30, muscle mass beings to decrease. If not remedied with good nutrition and regular exercise, this loss of both muscle mass and muscle function may eventually lead to frailty.  However, a new study has revealed that vitamin D3 can assist aging women in fighting to retain muscle.

Findings from this study, performed by Brazilian researchers and presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Northern American Menopause Society, showed that vitamin D supplementation in postmenopausal women can significantly increase muscle strength while reducing the loss of muscle mass.

Despite the body’s ability to make vitamin D using sunlight, postmenopausal women around the world are commonly deficient in the nutrient, leading to muscle weakness and a greater risk of falling.

With this in mind, researchers decided to put vitamin D to the test: They designed a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that would evaluate the success of administering 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day for nine months to women aged 50 to 65. The study would determine whether an added dosage of vitamin D would help strengthen muscle and aid in preventing these women from falling.

The study’s results showed that vitamin D3 supplementation was associated with a significant increase of about 25 percent in muscle strength, as determined by handgrip strength and through a chair-raising test. In comparison, those in the placebo group actually lost an average of almost 7 percent of muscle mass and were nearly twice as likely to fall.

The researchers concluded that vitamin D supplementation alone helped to provide significant protection against the risk for sarcopenia, which is age-related muscle loss.

These results add to a growing body of evidence from epidemiological studies and clinical trials showing that vitamin D plays a very important role in muscle health and that the current Recommended Dietary Intakes, especially for the elderly, are largely inadequate for long-term health. For this reason, researchers and physicians alike are increasingly suggesting vitamin D supplementation to help support muscle health and maintenance to combat the frailty that often accompanies old age."

I was interested to notice that the placebo group lost an average of almost 7% muscle mass. As I have followed an effective weight loss regime, my muscle mass has not decreased, and in fact, I have gained muscles that have not gone away while maintaining my weight.  Great news as I head towards 50, fast!

Are you working towards retaining your muscle mass?

Muscle building

No Shirt, No Problem - Or Is It?

When you're hot and uncomfortable in the gym, do you wish you could remove your shirt?

This question was posed by a gym in Chiang Mai, and they are pro-shirt off!  So long as you're feeling comfortable, the blog states.

Well, some of the questions then posed are:

1. Is that just for the men?
2. Can you take off your shoes for training?
3. What about your shorts??

As you can imagine, the idea of the shirt off for some bodies can create a few pictures in your mind you'd rather not have, BUT, then again, there are a few pictures in your mind that may just be fine!!

Have a read of the blog here and let me know your thoughts!!

Want to know more about working out and building muscle based on your nutrition? Ask me how