Get Moving!

Welcome back to part 2 of our 3 part series…

For all you brave souls who did a cleanse last month, I applaud you! I'm willing to bet you're feeling great, having been released from all the heaviness and toxins of your holiday indulgences.

Even if you didn't cleanse last month, read on! This next part applies to everyone!

GET MOVING!

Exercise is essential for good health.  The Surgeon General states that regular exercise reduces the risk of dying from heart disease, reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure, promotes psychological well-being and helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints.

Without a doubt there are a multitude of reasons exercise is good for us, but for the purposes of this article, we will focus on three major reasons…

1 – Exercise supports your immune system by increasing lymphatic flow

2 – Exercise lifts your mood

3 – Exercise boosts your metabolism

What is Lymphatic flow and how does exercise help boost immunity?

The lymphatic system is a very important part of overall health. It is composed of over 600 nodes that are dispersed throughout the body. These nodes, along with the lymph, lymphatic vessels, lymphoid organs, and lymphatic tissues, work together to help the body to defend against disease.  Lymph is composed of proteins, fats, red blood cells and white blood cells, especially lymphocytes which attack bacteria and viruses in the blood. Lymphatic vessels branch into all tissues of the body, including nervous tissue, muscle tissue, connective tissue and epithelial tissue. Lymphatic vessels carry lymph from peripheral tissues to lymph nodes, tonsils, the spleen, the thymus to meet a dense collection of lymphocytes, which can multiply to attack foreign agents. Unlike the circulatory system which uses the heart as a pump, the lymphatic system must rely on internal and external factors to drive lymph formation and transport. While internal mechanisms involve spontaneous intermittent contraction of the smooth muscle that lines the lymphatic vessels, external mechanisms include active and passive body movement, pressure changes associated with respiration and the pulse of nearby arteries.

According to recent research, lymph flow increases by approximately 2 or 3 times while exercising when compared to rest. And the good news is…moderate exercise is best for increasing immunoglobulin levels! Super-endurance athletes or ultra-marathoners actually have depressed levels of immunoglobulin (this explains the common occurrence of post-race flu). So! Take heart! By engaging in a modest and moderate amount of exercise on a daily basis you are doing exactly what you need to do to keep your immune system healthy!

Exercise lifts your mood

That's an understatement. Did you know that in 1999, Duke University researchers demonstrated that depressed adults who participated in an aerobic-exercise plan improved as much as those treated with sertraline, the drug that, marketed as Zoloft, was earning Pfizer more than $3 billion annually before its patent expired in 2006?

Molecular biologists and neurologists have begun to support such findings by demonstrating that exercise may alter brain chemistry by regulating the key neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. To take it one step further, some researchers are beginning to suspect that rather than exercise simply helping us cope with stress, the LACK OF EXERCISE may well be a key stressor in the first place. In other words, exercise is the more normal or natural condition and being sedentary is actually abnormal for us (as a species, not a culture). Our brains may not be built for an environment without physical activity.

Research has also suggested that exercise may be an effective treatment for not just depression but also related anxiety disorders and even substance dependence. Other scientists have found that in mammals, exercise also boosts the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a substance that supports the growth and maintenance of brain cells. In depressed patients, BDNF has been shown to help repair brain atrophy, which can lift the symptoms of depression.

The scientific evidence is pretty convincing. But if you're still not sure…ask yourself if you know a single person who exercises on a regular basis who doesn't have a pretty sunny outlook on life? I don't.

Exercise boosts your metabolism

Your metabolism is influenced by your age (metabolism naturally slows about 5% per decade after age 40); your sex (men generally burn more calories at rest than women); and proportion of lean body mass (the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate tends to be).

Even moderate exercise will help you build muscle and burn fat. And, since muscle burns more calories than fat -- even while at rest -- the more muscles you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate, which means the more calories your body will be burning just to sustain its current weight. If losing weight is one of your goals, exercise is a critical component of safe, gradual, long term weight loss. By now, we all know that simply cutting your caloric intake will slow your metabolic rate and drastically increase your chances of gaining back whatever you lost (and then some). Besides, starving yourself is no fun.  Food is good!

Okay, so hopefully now we're all convinced that exercise is important for us as human beings--body and soul.

Now we're to begin…

How to get and stay motivated

Knowledge doesn't always translate into action. So how do we get motivated to create the exercise habit? Everybody's different, but I'll share with you what worked for me.

At the beginning of last summer, I was 40, overweight and really out of shape. Even though I had been a dancer, and weight trainer as a youngster,  I had never run a step in my life. I had some friends who were training for a half-marathon and I found myself thinking, "Oh, I could NEVER do that!" and then I was struck with horror and what I had just thought!

If I ever heard either of my two children utter that phrase I would be crushed. I have not raised them to think in terms of their own limitations…but what was I teaching them by doing that very thing myself?! In that moment, I decided that I MUST do it! I must run the half-marathon.

For me, my motivation was something positive…I wanted to do something I had previously thought I could never do and I wanted to teach my children that all things are possible for all of us. One thing that DOES NOT work well as motivation for me, is dissatisfaction with my current state of being.  When I think of lacing up the sneakers and getting out there, the thought, "You're fat! Go get some exercise!" doesn't inspire me. Wanting to accomplish something big, wanting to inspire my family, wanting to teach by example…those are the things that inspire me to change.

Lesson 1: Focus on what you DO want, not want you DON'T want!

I had 3 months before the half-marathon and my goal was to walk/run it. I downloaded a training schedule and began with 2/1 intervals. That means, I would run for 2 minutes and walk for 1 minute. No matter how much agony I was in, I knew it was finite…it would only last 120 seconds!  I would do this for 2 miles, then 3 miles. Then I switched to 3/1 intervals. Running three minutes and walking one and doing this for 4 then 5 miles. By week 6 of a 12 week training schedule I was ready to drop the intervals and just run (SLOWLY!). When race time finally came, I was able to run the full 13 miles in 3 hours.

There were lots and lots of people finishing ahead of me, but I didn't care. I had accomplished something that a few months prior I had thought was impossible for me. I had become a runner. I had shown my children that we can be whatever we want to be and that hard work and diligence can help us do amazing things!

It's a nice story and I'm proud to tell it, but in-between the tremulous beginning and the happy ending there were many, many, many mornings when I had to get up, put on the sneakers and get out there, no matter how tired, sore, or discouraged I was. Every time I would add a mile to my distance, I would be gripped with fear and a barrage of self-doubt.

Enter the essential oils. You knew the oils would be in this story somewhere, didn't you?!

My running ritual was this...Valor on my feet and Joy on my heart. The Valor really did help me keep up my courage when I was terrified I couldn't do it. And the Joy helped me keep my sense of humor about the whole thing!

Some other great oils to consider if you need to get yourself motivated…

Clarity – I use this oil every day. It helps me set my priorities and stay focused on them.

Highest Potential - This blend was designed to increase your capacity to achieve your highest potential. It is uplifting and inspiring and helps bring greater focus to your sense of purpose. It can enhance self-confidence, while it soothes anxiety.

Motivation – enables you to overcome fear and procrastination while stimulating feelings of action and accomplishment. It enhances your ability to move forward in a positive direction.

*A side note here about the ability of oils to help you physically achieve your fitness goals…wintergreen increases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry to your tissues. Put some on a bandana and wrap it around your neck. Take a whiff every now and then. You'll notice an amazing difference!

LESSON TWO: MEDITATION WITH YOUR OILS CAN HELP YOU OVERCOME YOUR FEARS AND MOVE FORWARD.

I would also say one of the greatest factors that helped me reach my goal was to tell people what I was trying to do! Nothing like spreading the word to make yourself highly accountable to follow through on your plans! Interestingly enough, I faced a lot of skepticism from some people in my life.  An important thing to remember in the face of this skepticism is that it isn't a reflection of YOU. It is a reflection of the SKEPTIC.  White Angelica is a wonderful way to ward off other people's negative energy and protect yourself from their doubt or envy or whatever it might be.

For the most part, sharing my plans with others was highly, highly motivating for me. Each night before a long run, I'd tell my kids, "Mommy is going to try to run 7 miles tomorrow!" And they'd gasp and respond with wide eyes, "7 miles! That's sooooo far, Mommy!" "I know!!" I'd say. And they'd wish me luck. Then, the next morning in the weeeee hours (often I was out there at 4am), if my energy was flagging or my self-doubt was kicking in, I'd imagine walking in the door and the kids asking, "Did you do it? Did you run 7 miles?!" How could I possibly say, "No.  I was a wimp. I gave up." That kept me going, mile upon mile upon mile when all I wanted to do was stop and walk.

LESSON THREE: SHARE YOUR GOALS WITH OTHERS. LET THEIR SUPPORT BOOST YOU IN TIMES OF DOUBT.

And finally, I found that friendship was an invaluable part of  this process. I ended up training with a group of 50 women, many of whom had never run before either. Knowing I had friends waiting for me to show up for a 5am run helped me get out there on those mornings when I would have rather stayed in bed.

LESSON FOUR: FIND COMPANIONSHIP

I thought I might conclude this article with a  list of potential excuses people offer about why they can't find the time or energy to exercise and then offer ways around those excuses.  But let's face it. That list could go on forever. Why put our energy there?

The bottom line is this. You know it's good for you. You know it will make you feel better in the short AND the long term. You have tools at your disposal to help you overcome your fears. If you have children, you are teaching by example, no matter what you do…so teach them that they can reach their highest potential just like you! If you're tempted to make a list of your excuses…STOP. Put that same amount of energy into FINDING A WAY to make exercise a new habit.

And tune in next month for the final installment in this series…
Feed yourself well!

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