I've been thinking of the energy I had as a child, what happened between then and now? There seems to be a few behaviors that consistently change from childhood to adulthood: physical activity, eating habits and stress level.
If you really look at it, as adults and even teenagers we're less physically active. Because of this lack of activity, our muscles are not engaged, we don't burn as many calories and therefore we're out of shape as a result we carry around extra weight we didn't have as a child. This sucks our energy and slows us down.
As children, our diet was controlled by our parents. At least in my generation, we had to eat more healthy and our meals portions were controlled. Eating fast food or out at restaurants didn't happen often, it was for special occasions. Sweets (candy, donuts, cake, ice cream, etc) was also for special occasions. As an adult many of us have splurged by eating out and eating sweets 1 - 3 times a week or more; trust me I was a big culprit of that. In addition, the food we eat at home is often quick and easy meals many times out of a box. Unfortunately, they're packed with sodium and toxins that we do not need.
Keeping on the topic of over indulgence, many of us did the same thing with soda and caffeinated drinks. I know for me, being raised as a Mormon I didn't have sodas with caffeine. As an adult I splurged on them as if I was starving for it. Many Americans have at least 1 soda everyday or more. Some (including me) eventually switched from regular soda to diet thinking 'less sugar is good right?' Well, not really. The sodium content and other toxins you're getting in diet soda are not good for your body.
You may ask, so what if my body gets toxins, it would just get rid of them, right? Not true, your body may get rid of some of the toxins. However, the remaining toxins are surrounded by fat cells to protect your body from them. This makes it very difficult to maintain a health weight or lose weight. As kids we didn't ingest as many toxins. One of the reasons is that the meals we ate at home were home cooked therefore less toxins. Plus, our activity everyday helped our body to pass through more toxins and stay fit.
Why does activity and eating habits change from childhood to adulthood? A big part of it is the condition of our economy and our demanding schedules as adults. These days it seems like we're having to work harder longer hours which takes time away from eating, activity, relaxing and our family. As children, we only had school and sports/clubs so we would play after school and on the weekends. Of course we had chores as well but they were manageable. As adults our time it filled with work plus chores and all of the responsibilities that come with running a house hold. It's hard enough to get in some personal time for sleep and relaxation much less some time for activity and extra time to prepare a home cooked meal. So what happens, we adjust our schedules and many times cut corners to get done what we need to in a day. Unfortunately, this takes a toll on our bodies and it can take a toll on our children. They're being taught these habits, so it'll be a repeated cycle with their children.
What can we do? That's what I had to ask myself when I hit rock bottom and decided enough was enough and I needed a change. Here's my breakdown with ideas on how to get started:
Balancing work/personal life: This was the first one I tackled, it was difficult since I didn't want to get fired or let my employer/co-workers down. However, maintaining a good work/personal life is vital to staying healthy and having more energy. In the long run, you'll be more useful and productive for your employer. Start by making small goals, here's some ideas:
- Setting up a more realistic schedule with your work and sticking to it.
- If you're always on call, work with your employer to have an on call schedule so that the load is balance across multiple people. This way you can schedule your on call time.
- Leave your work at work - yes this includes the computer.
- Don't answer your work cell phone when your not scheduled to work, better yet turn it off.
- Make sure you take a lunch away from your desk- you can allot 30 minutes for eating and 30 minutes for activity (walking, working out, stretching, etc).
Sleep: 8
- 10 hours of sleep is required to keep the stress levels low and aid in maintaining or losing weight. It is important that you plan for your bed time and keep to it. Give yourself and extra 15 - 20 minutes to calm your mind and body. Below are some ideas on how to do that:
Reduce intake of toxins: We can't help taking in some toxins for they're everywhere, even in the air we breath. What we
can control is the toxins we eat and drink. When ever possible go for organic foods, wash your veggies and fruits really well. Drink filtered or bottled water and limit your intake of coffee and sodas. There are many products that help cleanse toxins from your body. I personally use Isagenix which is all natural, nutrition and cleansing; not only do I cleanse the toxins but I get the nutrition my body needs everyday. Below are details if you want to know more, let me know if you have any questions.
Be Active: There's no excuse for us adults, we can be as active as kids can and we'll feel better for it. We need to have at least three 30 minute cardio activities a week to help our bodies stay active and maintain/build muscle mass. Of course, more exercise is always better. Along with that, finding every opportunity to be active is very important. Below are some ideas on how to get started:
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator, you may feel like you're dieing at first but you'll start seeing results after you take them for a while.
- Select a parking spot in the back of the parking lot.
- Take walks whenever possible (even if they're 10 - 15 minute walks it still counts).
- When standing, do small exercises like standing on one leg while balancing on the other, leg lifts, calf raises and shoulder rolls.
- Stretch the muscles to get your blood flowing, feel energetic and relaxed, google is a wonderful resource for finding quick stretches that you can do, even in the office. Here are some examples:
- Do 10 - 20 minute workouts when ever possible - google quick workouts and pick at least one a day. Be sure to mix it up so you have a variety. There are an endless amount of resources, here's a small list as an example:
- ((Stay with me here, this one's kind of weird but it has really worked for me!)) While sitting or standing, tense your glutes to give that butt a workout! Do the same thing with your abs, suck them into your spine, rest then do it again. These will help straighten your muscles and you can do it anywhere.
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