How to make exercise a regular and lasting part of your life - Wongani’s Wellness Tip of the Week

Create a "Move More" Mindset

• Make the intent to move more throughout the day. This could be as simple as a quick stretch when waking up in the morning, taking the stairs interred of the elevator, or standing and walking around while talking on the phone.  

Commit to Regular Physical Activity

• One doesn't need to be a fitness freak to receive the benefits of exercise. Building regular activity slowly, but consistently prevents becoming overwhelmed or too sore that you fully give up. 

• Finding your favorite exercise is very important. Be specific! Don't just choose yoga as your favorite activity. Decide what type of yoga you enjoy the most. Finding an exercise that not only stimulates you physically, but also mentally will help block the excuses from crowding in when it comes time to do the exercise.  

Shift Your Focus

• Focus on bettering your health and increasing your strength instead of numbers on a scale. You have to make the terms "healthy" and "strong" relevant to you. The meaning of these terms can look differently from person to person, but finding a goal deeper than physical appearance needs to be a focus for everyone.

Incorporate Strength Training

• Strength training is essential to retaining muscle and a good metabolism, especially as you age. Just like any other form of exercise, start slow. Maybe it's 15 minutes at the end of your cardio. Maybe it is one or two days a week that eventually increases two three strength training days a week. 

• Take mental note of the way you feel during and after strength training. With time, you will be able to conquer all workouts through the help of the new muscle you've developed. 

Exercise with a Group

• "Group exercise" doesn't have to mean taking a group fitness class. This could be grabbing a family member or a friend and going on a walk, playing in the backyard with your kids, or having an impromptu dance party in the kitchen while making dinner with your roommates. 

• Exercising with others puts a double deposit in your well-being bucket. Not only do you get the benefits of exercising, you also develop community with others. 

Look to the Future

• Long term benefits aren't always the best motivators, but let's not lose sight of the immediate benefits of exercise. Short term benefits of exercising include: more energy, increased productivity, alleviated stress, better nights of sleep and overall happier feelings (hello endorphins!).

• Don't beat yourself up for what you didn't do in the past. Kicking yourself for missing a work out is not helpful, so don't let that guilt or regret control you. Make the decision to let go, look forward, and start again.

Put Yourself First

• This may be the most important tactic of them all. Remember, exercising is about taking care of yourself. It is a form of self-care. Neglecting self-care for the sake of external problems will create more problems than it will solve them. So take time for yourself, even if it may be a ten-minute walk around the block, because you cannot effectively take care of others until you have first taken care of yourself. 

This is based on an article by Chris Freytag (Fitness Expert and Founder of gethealthyu.com)
Learn More About Health and Wellness at: nebraskafamilydentistry.com

The Harm of Multitasking - Wongani’s Wellness Tip of the Week

Multitask. A term which didn’t even exist before the mid-sixties, is now seen as a highly-admired skill. But should it be? The word “multitask” was first used to describe a new computer system in a 1965 IBM paper, but we humans are not computers. The University of Utah did a study which showed only 2% of people have the capability to multitask. In other words, multitasking showed no ill effects on this small amount of people. Multitasking may seem to be the more efficient way to get tasks done, but in reality, it produces higher error rate, increases stress levels, and decreases overall production. Most of our multitasking stems from constant interruption by our phones. Most of us are constantly checking and responding to emails, text messages, and social media alerts. A study done at Hewlett Packard, a computing firm, revealed a 10 point drop in IQ of workers who were distracted by excessive technology use. These effects on the mind are similar to losing a full night of sleep and are twice as harmful as smoking marijuana.

It’s easy to think we are good multitaskers, but we don’t really multitask. We switch-task. We rapidly shift from one thing to another, interrupting our productivity and losing time in the process. Research has shown that heavy multitaskers are less competent at performing multiple tasks at once than light multitaskers. In this case, practice does not make perfect. Heavy multitaskers also tend to have less density in areas of the brain that are responsible for empathy and emotional control. Habitual multitaskers often have less gray matter in their brains, which is linked to anxiety, depression, and impulse control.

5 Ways to Improve

1. Turn things off. Remove push notifications on apps or take time away from devices all together.
2. Do not check email or social media first thing in the morning or right before bed. Doing these things in the morning derails our priorities for the day. Doing these things at night causes insomnia. 
3. Try to finish your most important task in the morning before checking emails, social media, or returning phone calls and text messages.
4. Physically shift. Get up and move before moving on to a new task.
5. Create short deadlines for yourself. There’s nothing like a deadline to keep us moving. 
• Try the Pomodoro Technique: pick a task, remove all distractions, and set a timer for 25 minutes. This will help rewire your brain to block out distractions and increase your focus for extended periods of time.