grow older better

Category: human interest

  • Stop Sitting So Much – and So Badly

    sitting-at-desk

    Do you want to live longer and be healthier?

    Then sit less than 3 hours a day – and when you do sit –  sit with better posture.

     

    Recent research shows that sitting for long periods of time is unhealthy and that sitting for fewer than 3 hours a day may add up to 2 years to your life.

    A wave of new research indicates that sitting all day is actively damaging your health. By forcing a body designed for movement to hold a crushingly immobile position, sitting strains muscles, slows your metabolism, increases your risk of heart disease, and even shortens your life span. "Sitting is a health hazard on the order of smoking," says Marc Hamilton, PhD, a microbiologist at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

    Wow!

    From about the 1st grade on most US schools have kids sitting hours and hours a day. And often physical education or even outdoor recess time are among the first "extras" to go when budgets are tight.

    [Or when we teach to the tests.]

    Sitting badly

    Sitting itself is a problem as our metabolism slows to a halt when we sit – and then most of us sit in bad positions posture-wise when we do sit.

    Add to this that we sit more than 3 hours a day makes this sitting-issue a double-plus whammy.

    Get out of your chair and move around! work while standing and when you sit:

    Here is a better way to sit

     

    Comments? Thoughts? Thank you

  • Do You Want To Be Healthy? Then stop eating rocks and dirt!

    rocksLately there have been “big” news articles about the downside of taking supplements. I previously wrote about one study regarding older women.

    The latest news is that taking calcium supplements may lead to a higher incidence of heart attacks. So it is now suggested that one get calcium through food sources.

    My issue with all these studies is that they do not tell you what “supplements” the people were taking. This is important because there are “supplements” and there are supplements!

    And the problem with the “food” solution is that food is not food anymore – it’s pink slime, fillers and genetically modified yuk! [yup – my bias is showing]

    What can we do to get better nutrition?

    Try these tips

    Tip 1

    For starters, bake your current supplements in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Do the results look like baked food or do your supplements now look black and oozy?

    Black and oozy suggests they are made from rocks, petroleum and coal tar. And yes – that is allowed – and is what 95% of supplements in North America are made from!

    Tip 2

    Read the supplement labels and try pronouncing the words out loud. Do they sound like food words or chemical words?

    Tip 3

    If the results of Tips 1 and 2 scare you – then try Tip 3
    NutriVerus
    Buy vitamins that are food based! Bodies are made to process foods, not chemicals like the product to your right.

     

    And you always contact me about this product via my Mannatech business site….

    And the disclaimer – if you buy any products I mention on my sites or in my blog posts, I am an affiliate, and if you buy from my link – I do make some money. 

    And so can you!!

     

  • Muses and Emotions: Is It Aging or Is It Me?

    writing_scroll

    I woke up with this post in my head and I’m slowly learning to just “go with it.”

    So I went with it

     

    Over the years I’ve seen that I work in cycles of various lengths.

    Jobs? Two years max!

    Daily exercise at a club? About 1.5 years!

    Regular worship attendance?  Very varied so I guess it is never what you could call “regular.”  

    But writing? That’s one part of me with a cycle I cannot yet figure out. And after the last few weeks I am no longer trying to figure it out – I'm sort of just "accepting" it's cycle….[or whatever it has] 

    I just finished up an e-book about the 10 Commandments [a political snarky take on same] and I thought “wow! I’m on a roll with writing – let me finish up another of the ones I’ve started.”  [There are more than a few.]

    Bad idea. I could not put words to computer at all or even work at videos, etc. – instead I sniped at anyone who talked to me.

    I was in a very foul mood and still I tried to write.  It was not working at all and I was getting grouchier.

    Then I basically said, “screw this” and decided to give up on writing about anything.  It felt like a big defeat.  

    I took a staycation. I played computer games, read a whole lot of books, spent time on web browsers – mostly feeling like my own words had left my head forever.  

    But aha!

    After 2 weeks, the muse came back. I am writing this, getting back to videos, and I working on material for a class I teach.

    But that muse won’t touch e-books right now!  

    Lesson learned? My muse did not desert me.

    • She needed a break. 
    • She too has a cycle – just like me.

    Why did I not know this?

    • Because when I was in my foul mood I was not thinking.  

    I'm not sure if it's part of an aging experience and emotional changes, if it's just me or just situational

    2nd lesson learned?   When in a foul mood – do not make major decisions about anything – and do not try to write!   

  • Challenges, April Fool, My Brain, And A Key

    april fool

    • It’s April Fool’s day

    • It’s a new blog challenge

    • It’s the start of a new quarter [of the year]


    So –

    • It’s time to try tricking my brain!!

    I know I have a non-linear brain and I know that although I love many challenges, the ones that come with a feeling of “you have to” seem to not work with me…especially if it is a challenge that lasts for more than a week or two.

    Clearly “you have to” is part of MY brain’s messaging center, not the rules of any challenge I have entered. But – I have come to recognize that my brain sees a challenge as a MUST DO and reacts by saying “nope – you won’t.”

    key_to_my_brainHaving finally figured out this possible "key_to_my_brain", I am trying a new mind game with my brain starting today.

     

    • I will not “officially” enter any challenges that last longer than 2 weeks.
    • I will just “do” challenges as if they were optional fun events.
    • I will not keep track of what I do regarding the challenge.

    A one-person research project is now underway. Results to be posted at a future time. [see? no set date]

    You are never too old to figure out how your own brain works…

     

    Thoughts? Comments? Thanks….

  • Puzzles? Reading? Yes – they ARE good for you!

    crossword puzzleKeep reading and doing those puzzles as you get older.

    In fact, if you are younger, and don't do puzzles –  start now and keep doing them … it's good for your brain –

    According to a study:

    Doing puzzles and reading books have been linked with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease, and a new study may explain why — it reduces the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain.

    I've always believed that games play the same role – they keep our brains active. And they provide, what I found, were some therapeutic results for people of many ages.

    pinball machineOf course I do have a bias.

    I am, and have been, a big game player.  I started out with pinball, moved on to amusement park arcades, video games and now computer games.

    Just ask my son who played his video games more – him or me?  :)

    I grew up with crossword puzzles and still do them. And the same with reading. Guess now I am glad I did so much of what others tended to call a "waste of time."

    Do you play games? Do puzzles?

    Have some favorites to share? Thanks……