Olympics and Sports Psychology

Link from Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/22/sports-psychology-olympics-mind-games-mental_n_1692853.html

http://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/how-to-think-like-an-olympian.aspx

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Database of Ayurvedic Herbs

I do not use these and am not backing their effects. This blog is not about herbs, but this does seem like a good database. It was forwarded by a health professional LinkedIn connection.

http://www.ayurvedaconsultants.com/ayurvedicherb.aspx

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Cornell Medical College Meeting on Mayor Bloomberg's Proposed Large-size Soda Ban

I just attended a wonderful workshop at Cornell University in advance of Mayor Bloomberg’s large soda ban hearings. It was sponsored by the Cornell Medical College, and the panelists were:  Carol Parker-Duncanson, the Nutrition and Health Program Leader for Cornell Cooperative Extension; bestseller Louis Aronne, M.D., clinical professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College where the Comprehensive Weight Control Program; David Just, Associate Professor at Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs. They all made great points.

Ms. Parker-Duncanson remarked how portions of food, as well as cups and plate sizes, both at restaurants and dining ware stores has increased. She pointed out that, when given the opportunity to eat more, most people do just that. She agrees that the low cost of fast food, increasing portion sizes, and often unrealistic or unwanted sizes of people on magazine covers are factors in the rising obesity rate. She favors the ban as a means to reduce the accessibility of large portions and to change social norms.

Dr. Aronne said that in 1962 the percent of  overweight and obese adults in the United States was 45.8% and by 2008 nit was 73.9%. The biggest increase was seen between 1987 and 2005. He pointed out that even athletes, like NFL players, have seen a huge increase in weight by position between 1972 and today. He spoke about how instances in child and adolescent diabetes are increasing. He said that hormones in fat have been shown to increase rates of: cancers; non-alcoholic liber disease such as cirrhosis and steatosis; gall bladder disease; cataracts, phlebitis; osteoarthritis; gout, and more. These hormones have been shown to affect the hypothalamus, interfering with normal levels of hunger,. The person eats more, thereby damaging the hypothalamus more and the cycle continues. [See http://www.jci.org/articles/view/59660]

He spoke about another study where 335 subjects were given the same lunch with varied soda size. The ones who had the opportunity to drink a larger portion size did drink it, and did not increase the amount of food that they ate. [See http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002822306020876]

Professor Just said that portion sizes have been increasing, and not enough small portion sizes are available. This, he thinks, may be more effective than a large-size soda ban. He thinks that social trends must change. He pointed out that often one more dollar will increase the mount of a beverage by 80%, so the financial incentive for large-size soda beverages huge. He said that studies consistently show that people who are given large portions of food eat more. [See http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/news-events/matte1.htm and http://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/weight-management/big-food-are-we-eating-more.aspx]

I enjoy my Diet Coke, but could not dream of having a Big Gulp size of it, at least at one sitting. I believe that the ban is a good idea. I can only think that these large soda sizes are good if they are economical for a financially distressed large family to share. I do think, like the economist thinks, that more is needed such as a greater array of healthier sizes and varied, affordable beverage and food choices. Social trends must change as well. This is also a good article on soda size. http://scienceblog.com

Here is a later New York Times article on this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/nyregion/at-hearing-on-soda-ban-strong-words-both-sides.html 

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

New Study on New York City Trans Fat Ban

This study shows that the trans fat ban has been effective  http://www.livescience.com/21630-new-york-trans-fat-ban.html

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Blog Post on Self-Monitoring and Short Bursts of Activity

Check out this blog post by a Harvard physician, on the increased metabolic rate that comes about from activity spaced out throughout the day: http://chealthblog.connected-health.org/2012/05/30/better-health-one-step-at-a-time/

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Lunges with Weight to Hit Several Muscles

Grab two weight that you can easily lift to your shoulders with your palms facing inward or downward. They can be "dumbbells" or octagonal weights.

Perform lunges, lifting the weights to shoulder level as you descend for the lunge, and as you descend to starting position as you rise. At the same time, twist to the right for one lunge, and to the left for the next lunge, alternating to work y our abdominal muscles, including your obliques. Do four sets of ten repetitions.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

How to Do a Sit Up Video

This is from four years ago. I am holding the older version of PocketGuide to Fitness, and there are some mistakes on the words; the book is available on www.Amazon.com and www.BN.com. Yet the sit up instructions are valid and good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGHNbrlefAE

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

MMA Workout

Here is a good video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5tehB7Su2M&feature=relmfu

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Yoga Facial Video

I cannot vouch for this, but it seems interesting. Ask a physician.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Body Weight Workout

The best weight to work out is your own body weight. Just try it: Jump, sit on the floor, lie down on the floor, and then reverse to sit, stand, jump.

Here is a great video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=655bXHwwnVc&feature=g-all-lik

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Resveratrol's Healthy Effects

Resveratrol is a simple polyphenol found in red wine, chocolate and coffee. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resveratrol

Yesterday I attended a talk by Joseph Baur, Ph.D. at the New York Academy of Sciences about it. See http://www.nyas.org/events/Detail.aspx?cid=2b52eab3-4139-4629-87ee-e0431b58c9b5

Several studies were mentioned where resveratrol's effects on gene SIRT-1 were similar to the effects of a lowered daily calorie intake on mice and other rodents. The effects included bringing the rodents' health back to pre-obesity conditions with better cardiovascular and liver health and increased amount of muscle cell mitochondria.

Resveratrol has been found to have anti-aging and anti-inflammatory effects.Below is a list of some studies that the speaker mentioned or that I found. The speaker stressed that results are not conclusive and more studies need to be done. This is not an excuse to drink or eat too much. I may update this post shortly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8593887.stm

http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131%2811%2900386-X

http://ard.bmj.com/content/71/Suppl_1/A90.2

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15832402


My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Dr. Oz's Metabolism Speed Up Tips

http://www.oprah.com/health/How-to-Increase-Your-Metabolism-All-Day/3

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Washington Post Article on Obesity in the United States

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-need-for-new-thinking-in-attacking-our-weight-problem/2012/05/10/gIQAHNYbGU_story.html


My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Plank with Block

Place the long side of a  block between your adductors or inner thighs. Get into plank position on your elbows and toes. Keep your head, neck and back aligned. Pull your pelvis toward your navel and lengthen your tailbone toward your heels, engaging your abdominal muscles. Simultaneously squeeze the block. Hold for at least five breaths and five times. Rest in Balasana or child's pose, after this exercise.

More difficult version: Hold free weights that will give you a workout and that you can use for at least two sets of ten repetitions. As you are in a plank position with the block between your thighs, keep your arms straight, without locking your elbows, and lift one free weight off the floor at a time.

This exercise is in an article by yoga teacher trainer Jason Crandell, in the June 2012 edition of Yoga Journal, page 52.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Variation of Boat Pose for Core Muscles

Lie down on a mat with your knees bent and toe tips on the floor. Place a block between your thighs with the longest side of it parallel to your inner thighs. Feel your sitting bones on the floor. Draw your lower abdominal muscles toward your spine, lifting your feet and legs. Simultaneously squeeze the block between your adductors, or inner thighs. Your torso and thighs will be about 45 degrees diagonal to the floor. Your abdominal muscles, inner thighs, and hip flexors will contract together. Reach your arms forward at the same level as your shoulders. Keep the pose for about five breaths. Repeat five times.

More difficult version: Use free weights that will give you a good workout and that you can hold up with your arms parallel to your shoulders as you hold the block between your legs and bring your torso and thighs together as alternate type of sit ups. Perform for at least two sets of ten repetitions.

This exercise is in an article by yoga teacher trainer Jason Crandell, in the June 2012 edition of Yoga Journal, page 52.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Warm Up Core -- Abdominal Muscles

Lie down on the floor with bent knees. Use your abdominal muscles to keep your lower back on the floor. Place a block between your legs so that the long side is parallel to your adductors or inner thighs, and squeeze for 10 to 20 seconds, depending on your ability. Your pelvis will be in a posterior tilt: They will be up and away from the top of your thighs until your lower back is on the floor.Feel as if you are pulling your navel toward your spine. Do this at the  same time for 10 to 20 seconds, according to your ability, at least five times.

This exercise is in an article by yoga teacher trainer Jason Crandell, in the June 2012 edition of Yoga Journal, page50.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Iliopsoas Muscle Stretches

1. Sit on the edge of a hard surface with your gluteus maximus on the edge of the surface. Hug your left knee. Keep your right leg relaxed. This will stretch your right iliopsoas muscle and rotate your hips backward, the opposite way of which they are usually tilted forward. Breath into the stretch and keep it 10 seconds. Repeat as needed.


2. Go on the floor in lunge position, with your knees bent at 90 degrees. If your left leg is up, invert your right ankle. Bring your arms up to shoulder level and externally rotate your humerus and wrists while you extend your wrists. In this position, lean forward toward your left knee. Do not extend your knee beyond your ankles. Keep the stretch for at least ten seconds. Exhale each time you stretch beyond what seems to be your limit. Do this in a steady, not ballistic way. Keep each elongated stretch for 5-10 seconds. Repeat for the opposite leg. Repeat as often as you need.


My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

From www.CallingintheOne.com

Dear Friend,   Hi, this is Katherine with a Calling in "The One" Tip to support you
in attracting your soulmate.

Now, In a perfect world, the search for your soulmate would be
filled with a sense of possibility, excitement, anticipation and joy.

However, many of us, deep down inside, harbor doubts that we
will ever find true love, and have countless reasons why love is
for other people, and not for us.

This sense of non-possibility can make looking for love a
confusing, anxious and maybe even painful process.

One of the ways we feel powerless to find love is around the
insecurities we carry about our weight, our age or our looks.
We may even feel shackled to a life of loneliness or invisibility
because of some perceived physical imperfection.

If you've ever felt this way, please know that the real obstacle
to love is never about your weight, the perceived imperfections
of your body, or even about the wrinkles looking back at you in
the morning mirror.

The external reasons we tell ourselves about why we may never
find love are unique to each of us...

My hair is too thin, my thighs too big, my nose too long, my waist
too thick. And the hardest part is that we actually believe them to
be true! Until, that is, we take a closer look.

So right now, I'm going to invite you to set them all aside and begin
to stand in a place of possibility.

And to help you enter this space of limitless possibility for love, I'm
going to share with you a story about a woman I coached recently
who was convinced, like so many of us, that love was for others...
but not her.

Stephanie knew her pattern in love was to never be noticed by men.

She felt invisible to men and she blamed this entirely on her weight.
She admitted with a deep sense of shame in her voice that she would
go out often to social events with her girlfriends and that everyone
else got hit on and asked out... except for her.

Yet rather than collude with her sad story, I asked her how she might
be showing up in ways that would actually cause men to avoid her
and not even try to approach her.

She thought about it for a moment before replying, "Well, I think I
avoid eye contact. I pretend to be interested in something else. Or I
just focus on my girlfriends and the people I'm with. Or I talk to people
who I'm not really interested in."

She admitted that overall, "It's been kind of hidden to me, what it is
I'm doing and how I'm relating to men in ways that may actually be
creating what I don't want to happen."

You too may find, as Stephanie did, that as you begin to dig deeper
into the ways you're co-creating your reality, that you may be relating
to others in ways that are impacting how they see you, or whether or
not they actually see you at all!

As she and I continued to peel away the layers of her experience, she
began to see how she was the source of her seeming invisibility.

Even though it occurred like it was happening to her, she could suddenly
see how it was happening through her.

The obstacles to finding love, she discovered, had to do with all the
ways she was limiting her own possibilities for love and were not
necessarily about her weight at all!

As a preemptive strike against being rejected, Stephanie had been
putting up walls and signaling to the men she found attractive that
she wasn't available to be approached.

And so, without meaning to, she shut men out who might otherwise
have been interested in her.

Your First Step Toward Finding Your Soulmate
Just like Stephanie, the most powerful first step you can take towards
finding love is to look to see how you can take personal responsibility
for how you are showing up in ways that are keeping it at bay.

These ways will often be invisible to us, so consider asking your closest
friends for insights into how you may be co-creating your experience.

Such feedback may be hard to hear at first, but you'll be so glad!
Because these are things you have control over.

They are things you can change.

If you relate to Stephanie, I invite you to imagine for a moment, what
life and love could be like for you if you just actually fell in love with
your body, and with your life...  just as it is. Just as you are.

Because when you do, without changing a thing about your external
experience, you will be shocked to discover that in having this whole
new relationship with yourself, that suddenly you become irresistibly
magnetic to others and you will begin to have a completely different
experience!

Because people can sense it when you don't like your body.

Both men and women are most attracted to people who are comfortable
in their own skin, who feel confident, at ease with themselves, and
sensual in their own bodies.

You can cultivate this delicious relationship with yourself, and this
magnetic presence with others, without losing any weight or fixing
whatever you think is broken or wrong with you.

Believe me, I've seen it countless times!

One of my favorite Calling in "The One" stories is about another one
of our students, a lovely woman in her late thirties named Anna who
weighed over 300 pounds.

Anna had a big story like you might have about how she was not
attractive enough to find love, and why she would never find a man
to build a life with.

Yet, we recently received an email from Anna telling us that because
of the work she did with us, and the shifts she made in her relationship
with her own body, that she's now coming up on her fifth wedding
anniversary with a wonderful man.

They're very happily married, and even though he himself is not a big
man, he loves Anna just the way she is.

So I encourage you to just throw away those old ideas about what's
possible!

Just be willing to hang them up in the closet for a while. Immerse
yourself instead in the space of total possibility. I assure you, you can
create exceptional love right now, just as you are!


My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.

Great Video on Shoulder External Rotation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utflNBD3DRw&list=PL7E0BAAA9082D6FA8&index=1&feature=plpp_video

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.

Great Video on Serratus Anterior Isolated Activation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsEVM_MKG9I&feature=autoplay&list=PL7E0BAAA9082D6FA8&lf=plpp_video&playnext=1

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.Authorhouse.com and http://www.Amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. These two books are on my Web site http://www.LouizaPatsis.com.Visit and like, if you so see fit, my book page at www.facebook.com/PocketGuidetoFitness.