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Love your body!

10/31/2014

That's right I said it, love your body...YOUR body! I can hear you already...WHAT? Are you crazy? My body...it's too fat; my clothes don't fit; it doesn't look like the one in then magazine; it's too round; it's too thin; It's too little; it's too big...I get it- it's TOO SOMETHING! Really, Really? OK.if it is TOO SOMETHING, then is there something YOU can do to change that something-responsibly? Yes there are something things you have no control over ( for the most part)-age, genetics, height, wearing a bat man cape and rolling around in vegetable oil-sorry just seeing if your paying attention!
Honestly there are things you can't change and shouldn't waist energy trying. However there are things you can . And guess what no body has a "perfect" body and yet your body is perfect! I'll explain in a second.
Here's a little anatomy/biology lesson- there are 3 main or prevalent body types- Ectomorph, Endomorph, and Mesomorph. An Ectomorph tends to be leaner,longer-this body type has a harder time gaining muscle mass- an example of an endomorph you may heard of-Lisa Kudrow. An Endomorph tends to be rounder, softer, muscle tone tends to be underdeveloped. An example of an endormorph you may have heard of-John Goodman. A Mesomorph tends to be more muscular, athletic like and tend to gain muscle mass easier. A mesomorph you may have heard of-Sylvester Stallone. Now you have a basic understanding of basic"body types". What I want you truly to understand is there are thousands of combinations of all three of these body types. In other words no one is just a mesomorph, or just an endomorph or just an ectomorph. We are all morphs!
Your body is your body and it is what you get to work with when you are trying to create a health that is effective and responsible for YOU.
Trust me I have tried to create a body that I will never have without beating and mistreating the body I do have. As a kid I read comic books and in those comic books were "Atlas" ads promising to build my body so I wasn't that skinny kid on the beach getting sand kicked in my face. I bought into it. That a new, stronger, more muscular body was going to turn me into some amazing "Olympian God" or something, make me popular and wanted by others on the beach-"I was going to get the "babes"!" WRONG!
What It took for me, was almost 30 years to realize and accept that the body I have has allowed me to play tennis, rugby, bowling, volleyball, be a life guard, a successful athletic trainer, be able to build things with my hands, create and maintain friends, etc, etc, etc. It is a great body and a body that allows me to do anything I put my mind to! It is a body I truly love! The biggest reason for that is that ...it is MINE!! And I GET to treat it in a way I want that is responsible and effective for ME!
As far as being popular that was all personality and acceptance of who I really am. I now have a "babe" that I am married to happily and who I truly love and admire.
My body is "perfect" because it is the body I have. I can change it, to a point, for better or worse but no matter how I think I need to change it I do it because I think my physical health is not where I want it, NOT where someone else wants it.
It is your body own it, treat it, utilize it, effectively and responsibly and it will be around and do the things you want a lot longer than if you don't.
Remember....it's YOUR body!
YOU ARE THE DIFFERENCE

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Sleep, othe sound of good zzzzzzzzzs, part 2

10/28/2014

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Ok, really, that first one was just to get you to think...what is he going to talk about sleep?
He is going to to talk about how important sleep is to our overall health.
There is a saying-and I at one time bought into it- that states...
"You can sleep when you die".
Yeah that seems pretty extreme...but there are people who believe that if they keep busy and get everything done NOW, they will have time to get quality sleep later.
Wrong answer!
Think about all the "healths" there are and how much energy is needed for all those "healths".
you have the mental aspect-How am I going to get his done? What if I don't do it right? What if I do it right?; You have the social aspect- getting together with friends, relationships, partying; the physical aspects- working, working out, getting sick, getting healthy, eating too much, not eating enough; the spiritual aspect-Am I enough? I'm not enough. Is my higher power enough?
When we don't get enough sleep all of these "healths" suffer. We don't act effectively, we don't do effectively, we don't think effectively...we become "not enough" in many ways and our total health suffers.
Our bodies are not designed to go without sleep...to go without recovery. Sleep allows us to recover from what we put our "healths" through... from what we put our mind,body and spirit through. I am not going to tell you you should get 8, or 6, or 10 hours or what ever amount of sleep. I will tell you your body needs sleep to recover. To do that we need to reach a stage of sleep called REM. We also need to cycle into and out of REM sleep in order for sleep to be effective. Your age, the stressors in your life and how you deal with those stressors, your physical and mental tolerances, etc., many factors go into how much sleep you need and you get to pay attention and learn what those factors are.
So listen ( not just with your ears) to, pay attention to, and be responsible with, what sleep you need, what your mind, body and spirit need to be healthy!
You get to sleep because you health needs it!
Remember...
YOU ARE THE DIFFERENCE

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Sleep....oh the sound of good zzzzzzzzz

10/28/2014

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Ok, really

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October 24th, 2014

10/24/2014

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Sorry folks...user error...some how when I posted I cut off the most important part of the blog...let me continue!
As I was saying before I rudely cut myself short!
Many people have stated they have tried and failed many exercise and/or diet programs and then begin to wonder if it's worth trying again or even if it's possible to succeed? The answer is yes to both. However, instead of focusing on or worrying about just the physical part of health how about looking at the deficit or imbalance of your mental, social or spiritual healths.
Maybe there is a stressor that is causing you to view or think about things differently? Maybe job life is taking more time from other parts of life than you realize? Maybe that extra 5 pounds on your "perfect" body is ok? Maybe your in doubt of your belief system? However life is treating you maybe you are trying to cope and it's creating an imbalance in your health.
It's ok to be more geared toward our mental health ( for example) as long as we are not forgetting,ignoring, or putting aside our social, physical and spiritual healths. It is important to "work out" and get "in-shape" all of our healths. It is also important to maintain all of our healths and the balance needed. Find YOUR balance and remember...
YOU ARE THE DIFFERENCE!

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What is Your Balance?

10/24/2014

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As you have read my blogs you have noticed I mention different types of health- the reason being is because of the definition I use to define health- Health is the active state of being mentally, socially, physically and spiritually. And I have mentioned everyone's health is what it is and the choices we make effect the health we have.
Let's take a look at the definition. First, lets look at "active state"- this to me infers health is not constant it is constantly changing. The "four corners " of health as I call them-mental- how we think and view things in our world. We all grew up differently and have created different "filters" in seeing the world;social-how we interact with and with-in the world we live in. As humans we are wired to connect with people and things around us;physical- the actual body-what we put into it, the way we treat it, the object that allows us to walk, talk , chew gum, and pat our heads all at the same time; spiritual-what directs us, our values, our higher power, our belief system.
All of these "healths" are interconnected.They make up our entire health. Now some people are very spiritually oriented, some focus more on the physical, others they are all about connection with their world and yet others are more concerned on the hows, the whys and how tos BUT all of us have all of these. And YOUR health depends on the balance you have and need of all of these "healths".
I'll put it this way...many claim they have tried and failed many different ed cise programs an

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Author

Tom has a BS in Exercise Science and has had the fortune to work and observe people in the sports, fitness and physical rehabilitation realms for over 30 years. With experience as a coach, trainer, instructor, and actor his insights are honest, personal, educated, sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant but always enlightening. Take a gander and enjoy.