Posts Tagged ‘kids’

December5

5 Ways to Recharge Yourself

By: Ririan

Admit it or not, at some point you have suffered from the disease to please doing things for everybody and never saying “no.” The problem is you may be neglecting the one person who needs you the most — YOU!

Here are 5 ways to recharge yourself:

1. Lighten up the burden of imposing high standards on yourself. Most often than not, these self-imposed high standard makes us cringe with guilt whenever we commit a self-nurturing act.

We create high expectations that are too difficult to meet, and when things don’t work out the way we planned it, we blame ourselves in the end. The fact is no one is capable of doing everything. We need no one’s

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Posted in: Self Improvement3 comments

October21

Staying in shape, feeling healthy, what’s it all about?

By: RirianProject

I was looking through some health magazines the other day, reading the articles, and started thinking about my own heath. First, if you are going to read those magazines don’t bother looking at the pictures because I don’t know anyone my age who looks like the pictures, I’m never going to look like those pictures, so what’s the point? My twenty one year old nephew looks like the pictures in the magazines but he eats McDonalds seven days a week, and in none of those article could I find anyone saying McDonalds seven days a week leads to better health. So, I thought about what it means to be healthy and fit, and how to stay healthy and fit. My first thought was smokers, forget it, you will never be healthy and fit until you quit. So Quit! Quit cold turkey, take a pill, where a patch, get hypnotized, go to the desert for a month and isolate yourself but quit. I know its a nasty addiction and near impossible to quit, but quit. I know, I know, you’ll put on ten pounds, so be a little fatter cause sooner or later cigarettes will kill you and its better to be fatter than dead. Ok, now that we have smokers out of the way lets talk about you and me. I don’t know about everyone but most people I know don’t want to run a marathon, they don’t want to spend two and half hours a day in the gym, lifting weights and running the treadmill. And even if they did they don’t have the time. And if you are like me then you like to eat, and not little rabbit portions, but you enjoy a good meal. In fact I enjoy good meal far more than I like working out, I look forward to going to good restaurants, I never look forward to going to the gym. And I like sitting on my couch watching sports, and when I do I like to munch on things, Nacho’s, wings, popcorn, in fact one of my favorite things is watching football on a Sunday and munching out.

And despite that I like eating far more than working out, and it is an effort to get me to leave my couch when a good game is on, I am very healthy. And I just don’t say so, I get all A’s from my Doctor. When I was younger I loved playing sports, but I just can’t do that all the time anymore. As an adult you just can’t find the time or even energy to do what you did when you were younger, but you need to find something you enjoy doing, or at least can tolerate and try to do it for at least an hour five or six times a week. For me, I play basketball in a league once a week, and we practice once a week on weekends, I also have found while I don’t love spinning ( bicycle class indoors) I don’t hate it, so I try to spin three or four times a week at my health club. My wife tries to walk/run on the treadmill at least five times a week for an hour, usually before the kids wake up. I have friends who get up and run a few miles everyday, totally not for me, but they love it. I have other friends who do Yoga or Pilate’s, the simple truth is there is some form of exercise out there that everyone can participate in to maintain good health. Am I in great shape? No! Do I have a six pack of abs? No! But I am healthy and I feel good and I have the energy, and I know that exercising the 5 to 7 hours a week is the main reason.

Eating, ugh, my main weakness. I love to eat, and I love crap. I would rather eat a hamburger, milkshake and fries than do anything else. And I love Pizza and candy, and Italian food, and Coca Cola and the aforementioned Buffalo Wings. And I am never giving any of them up, I’m just not going to eat them that often. Temptation is the root of all evil, so whenever I can I just stay away from the places that serve them. And that’s the best advice I can give, if you love to eat like me, don’t give it up just stay away. Because the truth is for most people diets don’t work, even when they do they eventually end and people go back to the bad eating habits they had before. The simple answer is develop better eating habits, try to eat salads, and chicken, and fish. Drink as much water as possible, try to stay away as much as possible from bread and butter, eat fruit and vegetables. I’m not saying anything that anyone does not know, we don’t need all the magazines and the pictures to show and tell us what to do, most intelligent people already know, its just hard. What I am saying is I am probably going to eat Pizza and wings on Sunday when watching football, but that means the rest of the week I’m being careful. I’m going to have my burger, shake and fries but probably only about once a month. I’m going to come home at night and eat the healthy meals my wife cooks and not complain because I want to stay healthy. If I go to a restaurant I am going to have my roll and butter, but only one not the whole basket, and nine out of ten times I am going to order chicken and fish. This is the life I have carved out for myself, I get to eat the foods I love just not as often as I would like, I don’t diet but they don’t work for me anyhow, they just make me hungrier. I get in my workout five to seven times a week and while I don’t love it I have made it part of my routine. My picture isn’t going in any magazines anytime soon for my body, but I am not overweight and I feel great. And at the end of the day, that’s what it is all about, feeling good and getting a clean bill of health. So workout, go easy on the crappy foods, stay healthy, but do the things you enjoy just in moderation.

Posted in: Featured, Health & Fitness4 comments

July29

Understanding Anger and What It Makes of You

By: Ririan

Understanding Anger and What It Makes of You

Understanding Anger and What It Makes of You

I recently saw something I won’t soon forget. Two women stood in a parking lot, screaming and waving their arms around fighting over a parking spot. Even though there were plenty of other spaces available, they kept at it until they were reduced to name-calling. As their own children watched from the car, a crowd began to gather around. Needless to say, it had to be embarrassing to the kids – and it would soon be embarrassing to the ladies themselves, too.

Everybody gets angry. Sometimes it’s over something as simple as a parking space, while at other times the issues are more serious. However, anger in and of itself never gets anything done. It is simply us losing control of ourselves in heated situations. However, in its effect on ourselves, anger is only a letter away from danger – literally and figuratively. Acting out of anger can make us look immature and lose a variety of opportunities in life.

It would be unfair to simply judge the women in that parking lot because we will almost always act equally foolish at one point or another in our lives. Anger pushes us to do things we would normally think to stop ourselves doing. The effects are similar to being drunk, in that we often don’t see ourselves becoming angry, but all of a sudden, find that we are. Of even more concern is the fact that once we are angry, it can be hard to calm down before we do something we regret.

Identify what causes anger. Almost always, it boils down to someone not acting as we wanted them to. The point of this is that anger is a reaction, not an independent action itself. Try to think of any time you got angry and it showed, but had something good come of the situation, and chances are you’ll come up dry. You wouldn’t let someone else control you, but when you get mad, you’re letting your anger do just that. Above all, ask if what you are upset about will matter in a year, a month, or even a day.

How do you get rid of anger? By getting control over yourself. Try to model Buddha, who said “Holding on to anger is like holding on to a red-hot coal, you’re the only one who’s going to get burned.” Indeed, he was right. Anger only harms and never helps. Nobody benefits from anger, and it’s certainly not worth winning an argument. As much as you might want to do otherwise, it would help to simply try to bite your tongue.

Posted in: Self Improvement7 comments

December16

Face Your Fears – Returning to School as an Adult

By: RirianProject

Over the past several years there have been an increasing number of adults who have decided, for one reason or another, to return to school. It can be an extremely intimidating experience for an adult to return to school whether it is to obtain a GED, to upgrade existing skills, or to complete a college degree. Typical fears range from fear of fitting in to worrying about how you will fit it into an already busy life. Visiting the school campus is one very good way to help quash those fears. It allows you to see the classrooms, the professors, the students, and it will help you to feel much more familiar with the entire process.

One of the biggest concerns adults have when returning to school is the fear that they will stick out like a sore thumb in a wave of young, hip kids. The good news is that more and more adults are returning to school. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, over 19% of students are over the age of 35 and 41% of the students are over the age of 25.

Be sure to talk to your family. The support of your loved ones will go a long way when it comes to facing your fears. It will also give you the opportunity to discuss with them your possible new schedule and how they can help you to add this into your life. Let’s face it, the more help you receive from the home front will make it much more easier to focus on your studies.

As the demand for continuing education rises, so does the opportunities available at the various schools. Many schools now offer weekend degrees, evening courses and even online or distance education making it possible to fit school into nearly every schedule. You can also apply for advance standing in many courses, meaning that you may be able to reduce some of the time you’ll need to go to school in order to obtain your degree.

Utilizing a calendar is definitely going to help you out as you reschedule your days. Start by entering your work and school schedule, then other family and personal obligations. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised to find the extra hours you can squeeze into your day if you are prepared and plan ahead.

One last thing to think about as you consider your options regarding school. In today’s age where employees are being laid off and places of businesses are closing their doors, you must be able to distinguish yourself from the myriad of other applications that will come across the desk of an employer. Having the experience, the personality and the education will bring you one step closer to closing out the competition.

Posted in: Motivation1 comments

August21

Is Weight Training Safe for Children?

By: Ririan

Weight training has become increasingly integrated into the workout routines of both competitive athletes and weekend warriors. Done properly, it is not only safe but decreases the likelihood of injury. There is no question that children benefit from being active. With child obesity reaching pandemic proportions, most sensible parents welcome their child’s interest in sports. Given the obvious benefits of weight training for athletes, the question is bound to arise: is it safe for child athletes to train with weights?

Heavy lifting puts considerable stress on still-growing muscles, bones and hearts. In a study performed by the Center for Sports Medicine and Health Fitness in Peoria, Illinois, eighteen boys, age seven to age nine, were placed on a fourteen week supervised weight training program. Ten more age-and-activity-matched boys did not undergo the training program and were used as a control group.

The weight training group performed three 45-minute training sessions a week, working eight upper body and seven lower body motions per workout on hydraulic machines. The boys who trained showed significant strength increases in all 15 motions compared to those who didn’t train. Additionally, the ones who trained showed significant increases in both flexibility and vertical jump.

A bone scan was done. It showed no damage to bone, muscle or growing bone end plates. A blood test for muscle damage also showed no damage. There were no significant changes in resting heart rate, blood pressure, height, sexual maturity rating, hemoglobin, or blood testosterone levels between the trained and untrained groups. The trained group gained weight, but showed no change in body composition.

Only one subject suffered form a training-related injury, a mild shoulder strain cured by a week of rest. It is safe to conclude, then, that supervised weight training is safe for prepubescent male athletes. It caused no detectable bone, muscle, or growing bone end plate damage, and did not affect growth, development or flexibility. It didn’t even cause a high rate of injury.

There are a couple of cautionary notes, however. The type of training involved only concentric training, the kind of resistance applied by hydraulic machines, and the subjects were under close supervision by fitness and medical professionals.

What is concentric work? Contrast the effects of free weight training with hydraulic resistance training. Consider the example of doing a bicep curl with a dumbbell. The target muscle, the bicep, undergoes a controlled shortening as you raise the weight (this is the concentric contraction). It also lengthens in a controlled way on the way down (the eccentric contraction). Hydraulic machines typically don’t include the eccentric contraction, nor the overall major-muscle activity of keeping the rest of the body stable while performing the rep. In adults, concentric and eccentric contractions have different effects, and thus the particular study cannot be generalized beyond concentric contractions.

The second cautionary note reflected the close supervision under which the children trained. It was most likely the major factor in the low injury rate during the study.

Posted in: Health & Fitness0 comments

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