Tag: mind-body

Health

Healthy Tips for Managing Holiday Stress

Posted on by mghdiabeteseducation

The holidays are a time of fun and excitement, but they can also be a time of added stress.

While stress is a normal part of life, it can have an impact on diabetes management. Stress hormones can raise blood sugar, and prolonged stress weakens the immune system and interferes with healthy self-care routines.

Stay healthy and enjoy the season with these techniques for managing holiday stress:

  • Prioritize – A common cause of holiday stress is trying to do too much at once. Focus on those things that are most important to you, and don’t be afraid to say “no” to taking on new commitments.
  • Take “time out” (Find a distraction) – Take a break and do something to clear your mind. Spend time with or call friends. Engage in some other activity you enjoy (like a favorite hobby).
  • Get Moving – Exercise is a known stress reducer, and sticking with your regular fitness routine can help with maintaining good blood sugar control. Small steps make a difference! Go for a walk, put on a yoga video or dance to a song on the radio.
  • Relax – Mind-body activities like meditation, deep breathing or positive visualizations elicit the relaxation response, the body’s built-in counter to the stress response.

Losing or maintaining a healthy weight is another source of stress for many during the holidays. The added pressures of the holidays can also contribute to emotional or stress eating (eating for reasons other than hunger). Signs of stress eating can be turning to comfort food after a difficult day, or mindlessly munching on snacks to burn off nervous energy. The downside is many comfort foods are high in sugar (which can raise blood sugar), fat, and calories. Distracted snacking makes it easy to take in more calories than expected. Consider preparing some healthy snacks to have accessible.

The techniques above can help with coping with stress eating as well, but if you’re still craving a crunchy snack or Mom’s Mac and Cheese go ahead and have some – just do so mindfully. Keep track of portion size, and eat slowly so you can really enjoy the food’s taste and texture.

It’s not possible to avoid all stress completely, but one final thing to remember is the holiday season (and the stress that comes along with it) is temporary. Slow down and enjoy the best the season has to offer. If you’re still feeling overwhelmed or think you might be experiencing diabetes burnout, talk to your health care provider or a diabetes educator.

(Post content reviewed by the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine)
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Fitness, Guest Post, My Story

Gardening for Body and Mind

Posted on by mghdiabeteseducation

By Rebecca Ocampo
Project Coordinator

phlox

Medulla Oblongata, Phlox Subulata, Calamagrostis Acutiflora, Panicum Virgatum – they may sound alike and look alike but are all very different. The medulla oblongata is the lower stalk-like section of the brain. The rest are plants: beautiful creeping phlox and exotic perennial grass. The photograph to the right is Phlox Subulata or creeping phlox. They bloom in the beginning to late spring and are perennials. They are used for garden edges or “fillers” near a stone wall.

There is an old Chinese proverb that goes like this: “If you drink tea, you will be happy for a day. If you roast a pig, you will be happy for a week. If you get married, you will be happy for three weeks. If you garden, you will be happy forever.”  My love of gardening peaked recently when I moved to the suburbs and found myself in an apartment surrounded by beautiful and lush forestry. Never did I imagine that gardening would be one of my priorities outside of work. It’s very relaxing and a healthy way to exercise. I’m outdoors and not connected to anything electronic.  Most of the time, I do not use my gardening gloves and dig right in the dirt.  It’s like making cake batter without utensils, if you will.  The texture is soothing to the skin.  It may have something to do with childhood, like making mud pies at the beach.

When I was growing up in the Philippines, my family’s ancestral home was surrounded by a variety of fruit trees (banana, avocado, mango and jackfruit) sugar cane, bamboo, and a variety of tropical and exotic flowers including different shades of hibiscus – all surrounding an in-ground (almost Olympic size) swimming pool. Flash forward to the United States where my mom, brother, and I visited several garden centers every Sunday. They would never agree to go to a mall, so it was either another pair of shoes for me or a Panicum Virgatum which is a metallic blue (sounds like shoes to me!) grass that blooms in late summer and grows up to 3’ in height and approximately 18” wide. It has pretty blue blades during the summer and turns to golden and bright yellow blades in the fall.

I mostly grow perennials:  orange and red tiger lilies, pink and white English daisies, bright orange poppies, vinca with purple flowers.  There are purple irises, red knock-out roses (tough roses that will come back every year no matter the weather) and some annuals like impatiens and pansies as well. The benefit of gardening is twofold.  First, it’s a good form of exercise because you rake, mow the lawn, pull weeds, thatch the grass, prune trees, and design your garden so it’s esthetically pleasing. Second, gardening exercises the mind. There is a calmness and peacefulness in gardening. It’s a proven source of good mental health awareness, and releases tension. It means I have escaped confinement from my cubicle. It’s a form of exercise that soothes and calms my mood after a hectic day at the office.

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Blood Pressure, Health, Heart Health

Meditation

Posted on by mghdiabeteseducation

It may be easiest to understand what meditation is by first explaining what it is not.  Meditation is not thinking.  It’s seeing, smelling, feeling and experiencing without applying thought.  It is a quieting of the mind where the thinking part of the brain is turned off.  If you’re thinking, you’re not meditating.  Meditation is often viewed as an exotic or foreign activity, but it’s really just using a different part of the brain.

Two of the defining qualities of meditation are focused awareness and a receptive state of mind.  The body was not meant to live in the stress response, yet in this modern world we often find ourselves living in a constant state of low-level stress.  Stress aggravates everything.  It causes inflammation in the body, tightening of the muscles, and interferes with getting good quality sleep (in fact fatigue is the number one symptom of stress).  Turning off the stress response helps encourage broader awareness and adaptability.  There is an expansive feeling in this adaptive state as all the muscles stretch and relax; a feeling of “oneness” or connection to everything and everybody (contrast this with the stress response which is very disconnecting).

A good place to start when beginning a meditation practice is with the breath.  Focusing on the inhale and the exhale develops a moment to moment focus of simply being.  You may also find it helpful to focus on an image, or choose a word or words (or phrase/phrases) to link with the rhythm of your breath.  Observe the sensations you experience mindfully, try not to be too “thinky,” and avoid judgments.  It may be difficult to keep your mind from wandering at first, but a wandering mind is not a sign you can’t meditate – it’s a sign that you need to meditate!  Catching yourself drifting and bringing your attention back to the present moment helps build your meditation practice.

It’s recommended to spend 10-20 minutes in quiet meditation 1-2 times a day.  Maintaining focus for 20 minutes at a time can be challenging in the beginning, but you can slowly work your way up to it.  The more often you practice, the more the brain changes (in a positive way).  Meditating daily for just 20 minutes has been shown to remodel your brain away from stress to more pleasant and steadying states of mind – so you can see, it’s well worth the effort!

(Post written in collaboration with the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine)
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Fitness

De-Mystifying Pilates

Posted on by mghdiabeteseducation

By Janet Livingston, Fitness Instructor
The Clubs at Charles River Park

Pilates is a complete range of exercises that can be done anywhere, can increase flexibility and core strength, and help improve postural awareness.  People from all walks of life can do Pilates – you don’t have to be an athlete or a dancer (or even super flexible).  It’s especially user friendly for “non-gym” people as it’s very easy on the joints and there’s very low risk of injury.  I like to say if you can get on and off the floor, you can do Pilates!

While Pilates doesn’t elevate the heart rate (it’s not cardio based and doesn’t involve lifting weights), it is a good compliment to more traditional workout programs.  Mat Pilates focuses on strengthening the core – the abs, back, hamstrings and glutes – which can help improve posture.  We spend so much of our day hunched over (driving to and from work, typing on a computer, etc); I’ll sometimes describe Pilates as a way of undoing what we did all day.  Poor posture is the cause of many back problems, but as you become more aware of your posture you’ll start to catch yourself if you start slipping into bad habits.  Another “side benefit” many people experience with Pilates is a sense of relaxation:  they’re so focused on what they’re doing in class that they can’t think of anything else.

When you arrive at your first class, one of the first things you want to do is tell the instructor you’re new and let them know about any injuries or recent surgeries.  This will help your instructor modify exercises during class – with all the modifications available there are very few injuries we can’t work around.  However, if anything hurts something is not right. Don’t be afraid to tell your instructor if something feels wrong.

People can sometimes feel anxious with all the cues given during class, but know you can choose which ones to follow. The most important thing is that you remember to breathe!  Also, don’t feel discouraged if you can’t do a certain exercise the first time.  Classes are built on a pattern of progression and regression to build up the difficulty. If you start feeling a little frustrated, focus instead on what you can do and don’t give up.

Still not sure you’re ready to sign up for a class?  Give it a try at home first.  Comcast has Pilates and yoga videos in their On Demand library.  If you have Internet access, YouTube is another great place to find free Pilates videos (I recommend the ones by Winsor Pilates).  And always, check with your healthcare provider first before starting a new exercise program.

Janet is a STOTT® Pilates certified instructor and NASM Certified Personal Trainer at the Clubs at Charles River Park

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