Breathe Your Way to RelaxationI wrote in Monday's blog that Thanksgiving is the start of the winter holiday eating season. It's also the start of the winter holiday stressed-out season.
It's easy to get lost in all the things we have to do. Feeling stressed, not in control, and overwhelmed are common during the winter holiday season. I encourage you to slow down, breathe, and pay special attention to your body this week and all through the year. When I was going through my cognitive behavioral therapy program for insomnia, one of the techniques I utilized to help me fall back to sleep was progressive muscle relaxation. I want you to try progressive muscle relaxation today. Progressive muscle relaxation is a stress management technique that enables you to focus on just one thing, your body. It's a great tool to use when you're stressed and find your attention is pulled in a million different directions. Perhaps you're feeling this way today? Progressive muscle relaxation works by progressively tensing and relaxation muscle groups throughout your entire body. You will tense each muscle group vigorously, but without straining, and then suddenly release the tension and feel the muscle relax. You can certainly just lie down and do this on your own. However, I find the best way to practice this technique is to follow a guided script. I still rely upon progressive muscle relaxation to help me fall back to sleep when my insomnia returns. I listen to a variety of guided scripts available on the Insight Timer app. I have noticed that the nights I listen to a guided meditation my HRV increases and my Whoop recovery scores are higher. Clearly, focused and deliberate relaxation, which some folks call meditation or breath work, as a profound impact on our central nervous system and our overall stress level. Here's a great guided progressive muscle relaxation from Rebecca Boskovic of The Fittest Me. I first became aware of Rebecca through my Two Brain Business mentoring program. She is a CrossFitter and a dynamic #bosslady who has a terrific podcast. Click here to listen to her progressive muscle relaxation podcast. I hope it's the best 17 minutes of your day.
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If I had a dollar every time someone said to me they need to do more "cardio" to loose weigh or get into shape I could sell the gym and retire. Ask anyone who's never done CrossFit what you should do to get into shape and they'll tell you to start running. The long slow run has a tight grip on the misbelief that it is the best way to lose weight and get into shape. Don't get me wrong, a long slow run has its place in a well round and varied fitness program. We regularly program 5 and 10k runs for the gym (Sweet Pea, Huffing for Stuffing, Run to the Pub.) It's also great for mental health. A long slow run can help you get into a mental state where you can either solve all of your problem, or completely forget about them. However, the long slow run will not, exclusively, make you lose weight or get into shape. What helps you do both of those things? You guessed it, high intensity interval training AKA CrossFit CrossFit is a general physical preparedness program with an aim to improve physical competence across 10 general physical skills. CrossFit methodology trains each skill so that all are improved; CrossFit does not specialize. CrossFit has been the foundation of thousands of #transformationtuesday stories and understanding how and why it works can help you be more successful in writing your own transformation story. Enjoy this very good discussion about the CrossFit methodology and why it works so well. I'll see you at Huffing for Stuffing on Thursday! Myth: Winter Holiday Weight Gain is InevitableThanksgiving starts the 6 weeks winter holiday eating season. You don't have to gain weight this year. Weight gain is OPTIONAL, and to opt out successfully you need a plan. If you really want to avoid gaining weight this winter, you MUST have a plan. Failure to make a plan is planning to fail. Or, in this case, planning to gain. What does a plan look like? It's includes knowing ahead of time how you will respond to predictable situations. For example: Do you know how you will politely say no when your mom offers you a third slice of pie? Do you know how you will navigate your fourth holiday party of the weekend without consuming your 15th alcoholic drink in 2 days? How will you eat the rest of the week after a weekend bender of egg nog and Christmas cookies? How much water should you drink? How much protein should you eat? Lucky for us all, Working Against Gravity has published a holiday survival guide. You don't need to eat every single holiday cookie to enjoy the season, nor do you need to keep a bag of baby carrots hanging around your neck. You can have your fruit cake and eat it, too. The WAG guide will show you how. The winter holidays are fun and stressful. This year why not create a plan that will help you navigate the churning seas of eggnog and pumpkin pie? Enjoy our last November Saturday class with Coach Anne.
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