Tag: body bliss

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation, Training & Competition, Wellness

Essential Healthy Wellness Habits

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Typinski's Field

The Typinski Men: Zachary, Spencer, Tom, Thomas II

 

Healthy Wellness Habits have 3 areas of Lifestyle activation; Nutrition, Exercise and Sleep; the overriding theme to each aspect is Consistency.

HEALTHY HABITS – NUTRITION

• Choose the best available foods – if given the choice to feast on a steak dinner, do not choose the Denny’s “$6.99 Special with all the Fixins” just because it’s cheap or close to home; treat yourself to the best steak you can find/afford, whether it’s from a traditional steakhouse or your local butcher. If you’re going to treat yourself, treat yourself to the best possible choice. Eat slowly, enjoy it, savor it, appreciate it and look forward to the next time you have a taste for it, but never overeat or make a habit of it.

• Slow down your eating – thoroughly appreciate and enjoy foods and utilize all the nutrients from them; every meal, from the butter on your toast in the morning, to that last sip of almond milk from your cereal bowl at night, should be fully enjoyed. Be grateful and thankful and make sure it offers value to your body and mind.

• Increase your vegetable consumption – especially greens, to increase Vitamin K and magnesium in addition to a broad spectrum of minerals and vitamins (try one of the “green super foods” concentrations to ensure balanced amounts and types of minerals). Many common foods are vitamin fortified, but few are mineral fortified and that’s where our diets are lacking in value. A wide range of greens and colored vegetables will ensure you get adequate amounts of trace minerals which are so sparse in our common diets.

• Eat small portions of a variety of foods – rather than large meals of massive calories and carbohydrates; stay hungry, but never “stuffed”; and resist grazing. Eat snacks from all 3 food groups, an apple, almonds, cheese; to get small doses of protein, carbohydrates and fats throughout the day, so you’re never craving any one food, but eat a little of each, each time. Develop a discipline of eating consistent staple foods – foods that you enjoy and take little preparation, while offering high nutritional value. Always have them available.

• Pay attention to “buzz” foods – Buzz foods, like caffeine, first thing, before anything else gets in the belly, automatically revs the body up so that it’s in a constant state of over-energizing the nervous system; carbs do the same. That constant static runs your system down throughout the day like a low voltage light, unnoticed until you’re burned out. If you’re eating toast with jelly and a cup of coffee, you’re telling your body to get going “now”.  It would be better to start slowly, drink lemon water while making eggs or oatmeal and let the body and mind warm up to the day, rather than attacking it like a live electrical wire that’s constantly “humming,” using up energy you think you’re giving it, but actually using energy it has not even made available.

• Be consistent – your body thrives on good food, small portions, often. Give it the best you can on a consistent basis and your metabolism, and pants, will thank you.

 

HEALTHY HABITS – EXERCISE

MOTIVATION + ABILITY + TRIGGERS = BEHAVIOR – You will be motivated to the degree to which you feel comfortable, capable and competent in the activity and your ability to participate consistently. Do not wait for a catastrophic event to force you to exercise as a live or die alternative – be proactive toward exercise

• How you behave and treat exercise begins with your attitude toward it – a positive motivation, like a new wardrobe or trip, can get you started; but ultimately, you will have to garner the good it’s doing for you into your mantra of getting it done. Pick something you’re capable of accomplishing consistently, and let that be the trigger that fires you into daily action. Notice how you look, feel, think and act, and let those feelings guide you. There will be many days you resent it, but twice as many full of compliments and congratulations on what you’re accomplishing.

• Do what you can – choose sports and activities you have an ability to pursue as well as an affinity toward. See yourself doing them, read how to be better, get a trainer, learn. One client who couldn’t swim, never ran and had no bicycle, wanted to be a triathlete before her 40th birthday. Her attitude and ambition got her to finish two events within a year. Sure, it was work, but with consistent training, a few tears, trepidations and trials she never saw any part of it as being an activity she could not do. She believed, had faith and put one foot in front of the other until she reached the finish line.

• Give yourself measurable goals that add up – so you truly feel you’re accomplishing something – daily walks, weekly workouts, x amount of yard work, exercise classes, gym days, golf or tennis, swimming, sports with children, etc. A good golfer keeps score to constantly be in a state of improvement. Treat your exercise activities with the same attention and take the time to notice and reward the improvements you see.

• Be ready to try something new – Challenge yourself to new classes, workouts, activities. Your body is meant to be in motion. It is not a piece of furniture. It was made to move, it enjoys movement, it thrives and grows and meets the challenges set before it and then remembers past activities so you can build new strengths and try new activities. You lose function when you don’t use functions. The longer you stay away from it, the harder it is to get back to it and the more it goes away which keeps you in a perpetual state of restarting. It’s like swimming backwards, you’re going somewhere, but it’s not where you want to be.

• Be consistent – your body craves it – get through the first 3 or 4 hard days of initiation, and you’ll look forward to it thereafter. There is no reason your workouts cannot be play. Ideas are plentiful, assistance is available, information is abundant, facilities are on every corner. DO NOT HAVE MORE EXCUSES THAN DISCIPLINE!

 

HEALTHY HABITS – SLEEP

• Get the “best available” sleep – How many times have you slept in a chair, comfortably, when 20 feet away there’s a bed with a $2500 mattress? Why does that happen? It happens when the body is so exhausted it will take anything as an excuse to pass out. How about when you get three hours sleep and you feel terrific, and then you get 10 hours sleep and you feel like crap? This happens because our bodies cycle through sleep in 90 minute cycles. When your body cycles through that time without disturbance or interruption, it gets rested. When it sleeps past those cycles or shorter than those cycles, it is “off.”

• Get a minimum of 6 hours of sound sleep – equal to 4 – 90 minute cycles. Each sleep cycle takes you deeper and deeper into restful sleep. If you are awakened midway through a cycle, you must start all over again, dropping through those levels to get to the deepest state. It literally is “falling asleep”; you are dropping deeper and deeper through the conscious, semi-conscious and unconscious states. If you are awakened within that last 30 minutes of the 90 minute cycle, you will remain in that groggy, half-rested state, trying the rest of the day to gain momentum with physical action when the mental will not cooperate.

• Do not agonize yourself into an anxious state – of “have to get to…” sleep. Try a gratitude approach instead, “this bed feels great…these sheets are so soft…the breeze feels so good…I’m happy for all I was able to accomplish today.” The messages you send your body and mind at the end of the day will influence the type of next day you’ll have; this is your last chance to be positive, regardless of how hard the day was.

• Begin a consistent pattern – of winding down your nights and winding up your days. Babies know how much and when to sleep. How did we forget?

• A sleep pattern is called that for a reason – It’s a pattern that your body is either in rhythm with, or out of sync with. Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time, even on vacation.

• Use darkness and silence – in going to sleep and in waking each day. These are two of the easiest, yet most beneficial points you can take from this essay. Turn off all phones, pads, light sources except enough to read a book and find your way through the house. This will also improve your eyesight.

• Use the www.SLEEPYTI.ME site – to reset your sleep cycle. It’s a simple .url that asks, “I have to wake up at?” or “I am going to fall asleep at?,” then gives you a 15 minute window in which your body normally takes to fall asleep. It gives you optimum waking times in 90 minute intervals; and the best part is, IT WORKS!

Utilize these healthy habits of consistent Nutrition, Exercise, and Sleep for 21 days to see what a difference they make in your lives.

And last, if you have any questions that I can help with, any motivations or support you need, please email me. Tom@TomTypinski.com

Any suggestions, recipes, insights or information are also welcome and appreciated. Share the Health

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, Wellness

Float Away From Stress

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FROM “MONKEY MIND” TO MINDFULNESS

Did you ever want to get away from it all? Just shut the door on all the noise and say, “so long. I want to be alone?” But you can’t afford a chalet in Aspen or a beach house on Malibu, or even the time for that cabin in Grayling. Well, there’s still hope for getting away, found in floatation, or simply, “tanking.” “See you later honey, I’m going to get tanked,” may just be the next catch phrase.

One of the most beautiful locations I’ve found is right here in Michigan at Motor City Float, located in Clawson on 14 Mile near Crooks. The staff are excellent, kind, thoughtful and informed. The rooms are immaculate, quiet and comforting; and the provisions for your shower and post-float are pleasant and available. Enjoy a tea or cookie in the quiet room afterward, and even record your thoughts in their guest journal.

I’ve been floating for 30 years, yes, since “Altered States”, and this is the best place I’ve seen, including my own tank. The rates are good, the packages are fair and fully explained on their website, and after your first float you’ll be figuring out how and when to get to the next one. The more often you go, the sooner your body responds to the “relaxation response,” and thus, more time is spent in creative reverie.

WHAT IS FLOATING?

Floatation is a method of total relaxation which is as simple as lying on your back, just as you do each night. But the benefits found in floating and its far-reaching effects seem too good to be true once you examine its simplicity.

In 11 inches of water, a concentration of 1100 lbs. of pharmaceutical grade epsom salts bobs and floats you atop the 94º (skin temperature) surface like a cork; alleviating physical stress from gravity on your organs, bones, joints and blood vessels; thus, freeing circulation, relieving minor aches, spasms, joint pains and everyday tensions associated with headaches and stress. Your body is relieved of gravity in a minor, yet noticeable way. But that’s only the beginning.

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Close the door on the tank and you’ve shut out all mental stimulation by closing off your senses to the world outside. There are no telephones, traffic, questions or demands. Your mind and body are now free to drift off into right brain bliss. The left brain’s logic is shut off because there is nothing to stimulate it; allowing the right, creative brain to open to reveries, insights, creativity and visualizations, and often, epiphanies. A theta brain wave state is reached effortlessly and it is in this state of daydreaming where most “eureka” moments occur.

There are no catches and no formulas. Unlike transcendental meditation, yoga or other forms of mindfulness practice, floating doesn’t need to be learned. It is as natural as was floating in your mother’s womb. In fact, it’s probably as close as you’ll get to going back to the womb. You don’t do, you just are. You may relate this to lying back in a hot tub of bubbles after a trying day, but the similarity ends there; bath water gets cold, gravity still pulls and the phone still rings.

HOW LONG DO YOU FLOAT?

In the tank, time flies by, uninterrupted; 15 minutes can seem like 3 hours or 3 hours can feel like 15 minutes. Images come and go, yet can be held and suspended since there’s nothing to disturb thought patterns and flow. Complete relaxation is reached in a matter of 30 minutes or less. the rest of the time is spent like a child at play, without reference to time, in right brain creative mode. Most floats last an hour, but you can tag on extra time in some locations, at an extra charge.

As the last of the movement from the waves settles into stillness, the first thing you notice is the blackness. No matter how hard you try, you will not see any light. You literally do not know if your eyes are opened or closed. The next thing you notice will be the complete and total silence. Other than your own pulse or breathing, you will hear nothing. You will feel weightless atop the water and perhaps touch off one of the sides of the tank, feeling as if you’ve floated for minutes before reaching the other end. The air filtration system passes cool air over your face, making you feel as if you’re relaxing beneath an open window on the darkest night you’ve never seen.

After you’re done exploring the perimeters of the tank, you’ll slowly feel the relaxation response kick in. This is the state where, in meditation, you feel a stillness in the mind and body as if you’d just taken off a heavy coat. In the tank, you feel what can be explained as a lifting, with the buoyancy of the salt water pushing you up so the edges of the water’s surface meets the outline of your body. Your mind goes through its natural process of thinking, breathing, blinking, searching, but soon settles into the warmth.

WHO FLOATS?

Floating was used for sports and fitness therapy; but now, with a mindfulness and meditation movement making a comeback, this method of “finding bliss” is the guaranteed method for reaching it regularly. The more you float, the less time it takes for the relaxation response to kick in and the sooner you’ll settle in to euphoria.

John Lennon used a float tank during his recording of “Double Fantasy.” The tank has been used in training rooms of Pro football, baseball and Olympic teams for recuperation and visualization; a client told of how he, in his mid-60’s, was able to master German in 10 weeks while listening to audio-suggestion in the tank without any prior knowledge of the language. (Boy, was he ever wrinkled when he got out.)

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Even though floating is simple in its application, the unseen, long-term benefits offer everything from building up the immune system to lower susceptibility to disease and infection, recovery from injury, freeing blood flow and relieving stress on joints, tendons, organs and muscles. You can sort out problems or issues one at a time, leaving the tensions and stresses of the outside world to dissolve in the water. And you can also break habits and addictions via auto-suggestion without the need of a hypnotist. The natural release of opiates and hormones happens without trying. And one great side-effect is a decrease of aging due to both relaxation and healing that occurs naturally. Even if your only goal is to relax, floatation guarantees it. So what better way to get away than to lay back and float away?