Do you have cenophobia??

Do you even know what that means? Cenophobia or centophobia is the fear of new things or ideas

Why is it that so many people are so scared of change in their life? Why do we find what we think to be a comfy, cozy little “corner in life” and want to stay there? Why do we lose the desire to go BEYOND what we’ve already accomplished?

In continuation of my post yesterday discussing the effects of freshness on the brain, I did some research and came across a brief article that I wanted to share.

Stimulate your brain with a change of scenery

I'm always amazed at how much a change of scenery can help my brain engage. Recently, I've been working on a self-directed online course based on my Occupational Adventure Guide ^SM model. My challenge has been how to help people go through the self-exploration process and create their own Passion Core ^SM without me involved personally.

I have had a rough idea of how I wanted to go about it, but found myself stuck in refining it and taking it a step further. I kept revisiting it, and kept staying stuck.

Last Friday, feeling a bit stir crazy, I decided I was going to go remote. I packed up my laptop and some files in a backpack, hopped on the number 15 bus to downtown Seattle, and headed to the ferry terminal. I hopped on the ferry for a 35 minute ferry ride to a small town called Winslow on Bainbridge Island.

I took a seat at a table by a window, and started working. The Port of Seattle sliding by to my right. A seagull flying level with my window, matching its pace to the ferry. Sailboats gliding past. Mount Rainier in the distance. A different environment. I felt like I was on a mini-vacation.
Within fifteen minutes I had the Aha! moment I had been looking for and figured out a way to tie it all together. And in the process I figured out a way to refine how I talk about what makes up the Passion Core. It was almost bizarre - I had been banging my head against it for days, and then *poof!* instant insight.

I've decided that at least once every couple weeks I'm going to do the mini-vacation approach to work. It seems to make a difference.

Curt Rosengren
Passion Catalyst ^SM

^{So is cenophobia holding you back from anything today? Perhaps it’s a childhood dream that you’ve never had the courage to pursue. Perhaps it’s knowing that you need to change your lifestyle to better your health. Perhaps it’s knowing that your current job isn’t fulfilling you and you have an opportunity elsewhere that is awaiting you. WHATEVER the circumstance is for you personally, don’t let FEAR continue to hold you back!}

^{We grow from change! How can you grow if you aren’t doing anything differently than you’ve always done things? We have to take chances, we have to take risks and you know what? Yeah, there’s the possibility that we might not achieve our goals the first time or as quickly as we’d like but what good does it do to GIVE UP? NONE!!! So don’t give up, keep fighting for it.}

^{Share with me some reasons why you don’t like change!}

Freshness is good for the soul!!

This blog is really off subject from my usual blogs….well kinda…okay, yeah it really is but I’m going to share anyway.

Do you ever just get a wild hair and strong desire to change things?! I think we all do. And I don’t know about you but  it’s not exactly easy to rearrange big, heavy furniture so I typically change things with decoration, accents, etc. However, today that was not the case.

While cleaning my bedroom this morning, I became overwhelmed with a STRONG desire to rearrange my bedroom. As I stood there looking at the room and creating my new arrangements in my head, the thought did occur to me that it was going to be REALLY difficult to move my dresser and bed. But then I thought, hey I’ve been working out and have muscles like I’ve never had, I can do this! HAHA….yeah, not what I was saying as I was on the floor trying to move the dresser across the room. It was a mixture of pulling, starting out in a squatted position and using ALL of my core muscles and arms to slide this big humongous dresser--that suddenly felt 100 pounds heavier than it really is. Then, when I’d pulled all I could pull, I’d get on the other side and either use a heavy piece of furniture or the wall to plant my feet and push with all my might. I’m telling ya, no workout was needed for today.

Okay, that’s probably not true, but I’d be curious to see how many calories I burned while moving all this furniture. Hmmmm…that’s another good reason why I need to get a bodybugg. Those things are really cool! Okay, total sidetrack. 

Anyway, so this is all something that we should do often but if you’re anything like me it doesn’t get done enough…..cleaning under and behind furniture. Oh my stars, it was DISGUSTING!! But as I’d move something and unveil carpet that doesn’t ever get vacuumed, I’d vacuum and seriously y’all I had to dust the walls! I swear we have one of the dustiest houses EVER, but this was SUPER gross!!

Whew, it’s definitely a process rearranging a room (I’m seriously becoming fatigued all over again just talking about it) but after working my butt off all morning heaving and ho’ing our furniture from one side of the room to another, the gratification of the results are magnificent!! I am admiring it’s new beauty as I sit here typing this blog and it’s wonderful. LOVE it!!

I’m not sure what freshness does for the brain but it has to have something to do with the super high I’m feeling this afternoon! Hmmm….perhaps I’ll go do some research and share the results!

So tell me, how do you keep things fresh around your house…or just with life in general?

What kind of greeting would you give on this Monday?

Good morning to all my bloggy friends! That’s not exactly the greeting I would’ve said earlier this morning but after a good workout to get the endorphins flowing, I can now greet you with some happiness.

Do you ever have mornings where it just seems like nothing goes how you think it should? Mornings that just make you want to crawl back in the bed and cover your head with the covers and hide? Yeah, that’s the kind of morning I had this morning. With two boys whining and crying about this and that, I could’ve easily gone back to bed and not come back out until tomorrow. But that really wouldn’t have made my day better. I knew just what I needed was a good workout. I came across this article while doing some research and thought I’d share with you the effects exercise has in the brain.

(NaturalNews) Common wisdom holds that exercise boosts your mood, in addition to benefiting your physical health. Terms such as “endorphins” and “runner’s high” are afloat in the popular lexicon. If you are a person who exercises regularly, or if you know someone who does, you will likely be aware of this bonus that comes along with vigorous physical activity. Ample evidence seems to suggest that exercise might hold great promise in the treatment of disorders such as depression. But anecdotal evidence and personal testimony do not a mental health revolution make. A new anti-depressant medication, for example, must be tested through clinical trials that prove its efficacy and safety before it can be put on the market.
In the last couple decades, there has been some interest in looking at the mental health value of exercise. Until recently, however, studies investigating the effectiveness of exercise in the treatment of mental health have not been conducted with the same level of scientific rigor as the clinical trials used to bring anti-depressant medications to the market. Limitations of previous studies have included the absence of a control group, individuals not being randomly assigned to study groups, and testing the effects of exercise on individuals who were not suffering from a mood disorder.
But a recent placebo-controlled study conducted by James Blumenthal, professor of psychology at Duke University and published in the September issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine compared exercise to a common antidepressant medication in a group of individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder, and found that exercise was as effective as the drug at alleviating symptoms of the disorder. In this study, 202 depressed adults were randomly assigned to one of four groups: one that received the antidepressant sertraline, one that worked out in a supervised group setting three times a week, one that worked out at home, or one that received a placebo pill. Sixteen weeks later, 47% of the group that took the antidepressant, 45% of the supervised exercise group, and 40% of those that exercised at home no longer met the criteria for major depression based on a standard measure of depression symptoms. Although the percent of improvement in the group that exercised on their own was less than that of those that exercised in a supervised group, and the percent improvement in the supervised exercise group was slightly less than that of the group that took the antidepressant, the differences between these three groups were not statistically significant. All groups improved a statistically significant amount over the placebo group, 31% of which no longer met the criteria for depression at the end of the study. This study provides powerful evidence that exercise may be a viable alternative to antidepressant medication in the treatment of major depressive disorder.
Other studies have found that the benefits of physical activity can be realized in individuals who are not depressed, but who feel, as is common in our fast-paced culture, that they are mentally worn out and need more energy. In his book, “Calm Energy: How People Regulate Mood with Food and Exercise” Dr. Robert E. Thayer describes how exercise can be used as a personal mood-regulator, and cites one of his studies in which it was found that as little as ten minutes of brisk walking raised the mood and increased the energy levels of the subjects in the experiment for up to 2 hours after the walk.
More research is needed to replicate these types of studies and further define the mental health benefits of exercise. Questions yet to be answered include what types of exercise (e.g., cardiovascular or weight training), what level of intensity and duration, and what frequency of exercising will produce the most benefits. Additionally, gender or age differences may need to be taken into account when structuring an exercise program aimed at boosting mood.
With this much potential for positive mental health benefits, and with the most likely side effect being better physical health and possible weight loss, it is easy to imagine that if exercise were a marketable drug, it would be at the top of the drug companies’ lists of products to promote. If more research emerges that clarifies and confirms the potential of exercise in the treatment of disorders such as depression, we may soon hear doctors say, “Run two miles and call me in the morning” to their patients who complain of feeling down.
Sources:
Psychosomatic Medicine, September 2007;
Calm Energy: How People Regulate Mood with Food and Exercise. Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D., Oxford University Press, 2001.

This is not an attempt on my part to convince anyone not to take an antidepressant. I just found the research results pretty interesting! So, be sure you get in your exercise for the day….we could all benefit from it!! You might find other people around you appreciate it as well!

Who would have ever thought that getting fit could end up being so much fun?!

I certainly didn’t expect when I started working out in January 2008 I’d end up having the passion and love for exercise that I do now! Sick and tired of the muffin top that had stuck with me after having children, I just wanted to lose about 40 pounds and  maintain. But the feeling of empowerment I’ve gotten during the process has been phenomenal! Not only have I surpassed my goal of getting back to where I started before having children, I have now lost 48 pounds and am in the best shape of my life!

I started out in the gym working out with a friend. We did the typical cardio on the treadmill and elliptical machine and worked with a trainer once a week. I was able to lose about 35 pounds this way but still had a lot of jiggle that I wanted to lose. So after recruiting my husband to this new lifestyle, we changed it up a bit, dropped the trainer and began doing strength training 3 days a week  and cut my cardio to 20 minutes/3 days a week. Needless to say I was skeptical about dropping to only an hour total of cardio a week from the 5 hours a week I had been doing for over a year,  however, the results have been AMAZING! Maybe you’ve heard this before, maybe not, but strength training burns more fat than cardio and I am living proof!

With my two youngest boys now 5 and 3 and my family being more busy than we used to be, finding time to go to the gym has become more challenging! That’s why I was so excited to learn that I can continue to get these amazing results without even having to leave my house! That’s right, it can be done!

Beachbody has produced MANY fitness programs to help keep it fresh, mix it up and never get bored with your fitness routine! I’m sure you’ve heard of P90X, Insanity, Turbo Jam….just to name a few! Some of them are more intense than others but they all are a great workout! Now I know some of you ladies or men out there reading this are thinking, there’s no way I could ever do a dance-aerobic video….I’m not coordinated enough, I don’t have rhythm, etc…but let me tell you, if my husband and I can do Turbo Jam together and afterwards HE’S telling ME how much fun it was…..you can do it too!! Just don’t take yourself so seriously, cut loose and have fun with it! I digress.

Because I have this passion for fitness and am constantly sharing it with others, I have become a beachbody coach so that I can reach more people and help change more lives. I love coaching and encouraging others to live healthier lives and reach their fitness goals! And it’s so fulfilling to know that you’re truly making a difference in the lives of others…in a positive way!

So what’s holding you back? Why not give it a shot? I know if I can do it, you can too!! Comment me and let me know some of the issues you’re having with getting started.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog, a blog full of good tips on staying fit and living a healthy lifestyle!

I am a fitness enthusiast who has had my own struggle with being overweight and has overcome it. I have developed a passion for living a fit and healthy life and want to share it with others in the form of inspiration and motivation!

I will be posting my personal weight loss story as well as other success stories. I’ll also be sharing fitness and nutritional tips. So be sure and bookmark/follow my blog so you don’t miss out!