Eat to Beat the Blues

We’ve all turned to food after a bad day. But instead of reaching for whatever seems soothing, eat something that science shows may truly lift your spirits.

• Pick fruit, vegetables, fish and other whole foods. In a recent study of close to 3,500 men and women published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, those who reported eating a diet rich in whole foods in the previous year were less likely to report feeling depressed than those who ate lots of desserts, fried foods, processed meats, refined grains and high-fat dairy products. Previous studies have shown that antioxidants in fruits and vegetables and omega-3 fatty acids in fish are associated with lower risk of depression. Folate, a B vitamin found in dark green vegetables like spinach, beans and citrus, affects neurotransmitters that impact mood. It’s possible that the protective effect of the whole-food diet comes from a cumulative effect of these nutrients, says lead study author Tasnime N. Akbaraly, Ph.D.
• Go ahead: order the bagel. In a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, people who for a year followed a very-low-carbohydrate diet—which allowed only 20 to 40 grams of carbs daily, about the amount in just 1⁄2 cup of rice plus one piece of bread—experienced more depression, anxiety and anger than those assigned to a low-fat, high-carb diet that focused on low-fat dairy, whole grains, fruit and beans. Researchers suspect that carbs promote the production of serotonin, a feel-good brain chemical. Also, the challenge of following such a restrictive low-carb diet for a full year may have negatively impacted mood, says study author Grant D. Brinkworth, Ph.D. Read more
  

How to ease back into shape this spring and summer

After a long winter of reduced activity or inactivity you might be tempted to get outside and train as soon as the weather improves. You may also be tempted to exercise at the same level you did at the end of the last season. But such enthusiasm often leads to early season injuries. If you changed your routine for the winter, you need to get back into shape slowly. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you head out the door this spring.

1. Slow but Steady. Don’t succumb to the weekend warrior syndrome. Try to get some exercise 3-4 times per week on alternate days. One of the best ways to get injured or sore is to go hard all weekend and do nothing during the week.
2. Monitor Your Level of Exertion. Use the perceived exertion scale, the talk test, or the heart rate range to help you determine an appropriate intensity level. Stay at the lower end of the scale (11-13) and build up over several weeks.
3. Increase Your Training Slowly. Increasing training (mileage, time or amount of weight lifted) more than 10 percent per week increases your risk of injury. To avoid this, increase your training gradually over the weeks.
4. Avoid All-Out Efforts Until You Build a Solid Base of Fitness. Depending upon how much inactivity you had over the winter, it could take as long as 6 weeks to re-establish a solid fitness base. Start your exercise program with slow, steady aerobic sessions. When you add intervals or all-out efforts, make sure you allow enough rest and recovery (at least 48 hours) between those hard effort training days.
5. Follow a Training Program and Keep Records. If you really want to build back up to optimal fitness, it helps to establish a training plan and stick with it. There are many training programs for all types of sports and having one is not only good motivation, but it helps keep you from doing too much too soon.
6. Cut Yourself Some Slack. If you took the winter off, don't expect to be back to peak fitness in a week or two. It's ok to go slow and just enjoy being outside again. There's plenty of summer left, so don't worry about going a bit slower in the beginning.
7. Train With Others at Your Fitness Level. If you can find a few people with the same fitness level and goals as you, it can help keep you progressing at a good pace. Training with those who are farther along will only encourage you to overdo it, get injured or feel ‘behind’ in your training. Workouts with more fit people can be motivating and help you improve, but only after you have a good solid base to work with. Otherwise they can be harmful.
8. Remember to Have Fun. Keep in mind that this is Spring Training which is a time for fun, light-hearted exercise. You aren't competing and you aren't burnt out yet. So just relax and enjoy your activity.
   

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By Elizabeth Quinn, About.com
Updated: February 29, 2008

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

©2009 About.com, Inc., a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.

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Ten Ways to Manage Stress Day by Day

Experiencing ongoing stress - even at low levels - can have a negative effect on your health and well-being. That's why stress management isn't something to reserve only for difficult times, but something to practice daily.

1. Catching it early - Signs and symptoms such as headache, gut discomfort, tense muscles and fidgety sleep may be early indicators of too much stress. When you feel stress coming on, take a breath and put your stress management techniques into practice.
2. Exercise - Even a short walk can improve mood and reduce feelings of stress.
3. Eating well - A healthy diet gives you the energy to handle daily stress. Skipping meals and making poor food choices can contribute to fatigue, greater susceptibility to illness and a general feeling of poor health.
4. Setting limits - Saying no to some tasks can help make you more productive and successful with the tasks you choose to take on.
5. Find a friend - Whether listening to you vent your frustrations or offering words of encouragement, friends can provide needed social support. If your friend can make you laugh, all the better, since laughter has been shown to reduce stress and tension.
6. Pleasant distractions - A good book or a movie can help redirect your thoughts from unproductive worry.
7. Relaxing - True relaxation involves a feeling of peace of mind. You may find a hobby or certain exercises particularly relaxing. Meditation, prayer or deep, slow breathing are other ways of feeling calm.
8. Positive thinking - Throughout the day, stop and evaluate the endless stream of thoughts that run through your mind. If they're negative, try to reframe those thoughts in a positive way.
9. Getting help if needed - If stress is affecting your ability to work or find pleasure in life, seek help from your doctor or mental health provider. Getting outside help isn't a sign of weakness. It takes strength to admit that you may need help - and getting help shows good judgment.
   

Fitcorp has Personal Trainers that can help design a program to meet your fitness goals as well as your time constraints. For more information, please contact Sam Berry.

Training Around Injury

By Angelo Gala, Elite Trainer, RKC II

I have fallen and I can’t get up! We all have seen the commercial with the elderly lady who had an unfortunate incident and required the services of a first responder, most likely even more. Being someone too familiar with serious injuries, I can completely empathize how difficult it will be for her to get back up and push her body to its full potential. Most of us don’t realize that doing just that will have so much more physical and psychological benefits that it needs to be done. Now stop making excuses!

First let’s take a step back and look at what happens when we sustain an injury. Depending on the mechanism, type and complexity of the injury any or all of the following physical conditions may be included: bruising, soft tissue (fascial) stretching and or tearing, fractured boney tissue, disrupted cartilage and or disc tissue. If reading any of that made your stomach turn a little, sorry but it is the harsh reality of being active. At some point most everyone who reads this has or will sustain an injury that included many of those conditions.

To briefly take a look at the psychological effects of sustaining an injury, an investigation compared pre and post injury levels of self-esteem, depression and anxiety (Leddy 1994). The investigation tested 343 male participants from ten sports during preseason evaluations; one week of sustaining an injury and two months into the injury. Lower scores of self-esteem in the injured athletes were found immediately after sustaining the injuries and significantly lower scores two months into the injuries compared to the control group. The findings concluded that the injured athletes experienced a period of emotional distress in many cases severe enough to warrant clinical intervention. As a college athlete who has had the unfortunate experience of sustaining many different injuries, I can conclude that the increased levels of anxiety and depression were impacted by feelings of inadequacy and frustrations caused by the inability to perform at a high level. We take for granted our ability to move freely like a healthy individual and when that ability is taken away, our frustrations and negative feelings increase.

No one should ever be satisfied with what they have when it comes to fitness and movement. We all need to strive to better ourselves. Injured or not, we need to do our best to improve our quality of life and efficiency of movements. With that being said; practice, practice and practice some more to be the best we can. Now for the purpose of this article I am saying that even though you have been dealt a bad hand of cards (no pun intended), there is always a way to train around every injury.

Follow your physician’s guidelines and maintain a minimum level of fitness. My college anatomy professor used to always say, “The body works on one principle alone, use it or lose it.” Once it is gone it becomes much harder to regain what was once there. If one maintains a physically active lifestyle during injury and around the injury, less will be lost during the down time. Let’s not forget the psychological benefits of being active. The more active we remain the more feelings of stress and anxiety we will be able to work off.

Since hanging up my cleats, I have been able to maintain an elite level of fitness. I would even go as far as saying that at almost 27 years of age, I now run circles around my strength and conditioning levels as a 22 year old college football player. In the last four years, the physical set backs that I have dealt with goes as follows: Multiple concussions, R shoulder subluxation (a dislocation that popped itself back into place), neck ligament sprain, series of L quad strains, groin strain, stress fractures running the entire length of both sides of my sacro-iliac joint (where the hips meet the spine), L shoulder subluxation, multiple L biceps tendon sprains, sprain to posterior capsule of the L shoulder and most recently the 2nd and 3rd digits of my left hand were broken into several pieces. Three reconstructive surgeries are needed to begin rehab: Estimated recovery time, one year.

The purpose of the provided injury list is to give you an idea of how it has not been easy for me to consistently make progress…but I still managed. Sustaining an injury should never be an excuse to take a long vacation from your regular fitness routine. There is always going to be a way around every injury. Exercises, intensities and goals can be modified according to the injury to maintain total body strength and endurance without aggravating the injury that you are recovering from. Do not be afraid to ask an exercise professional for workouts and exercise modifications to assist you through your recovery. Keep moving….you have no excuses.

To schedule a consultation with Angelo, please contact him directly.

Tips to Help Prevent Cold and Flu

MD Surveys show that Americans suffer a billion colds each year. Yes, you read that right. One BILLION, with a B. When you add in the flu, the number is even higher. But there are things you can do to avoid becoming one of those miserable statistics.

1. Exercise: It’s a Proven Immune Booster -- Moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, for 45 minutes a day, five days a week can reduce risk of a cold by a third. The best results are long-term. In one study, women who walked for 12 months had the most resistance to colds in the final quarter of the year.
2. Eat and Sleep for Health -- Mom was right when she told you to eat right and get plenty of rest. That, along with exercise and stress reduction, keeps your immune system healthy and better able to withstand infection. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits that offer antioxidants. Try to get eight or seven hours of sleep a night.
3. Wash Your Hands Often -- Use warm water and a good helping of soap. Plain soap is fine, because it’s the act of rubbing the hands together for at least 20 seconds that is going to eliminate germs. Don’t forget to clean under the nails, between the fingers, and wash your wrists as well. In public bathrooms, use a paper towel to turn off the facet, another one to dry your hands, and throw them away.
4. Watch Your Fingers -- Without thinking, we rub our eyes, cover our mouths, or rub our noses with our hands. That is a sure way to infect yourself with cold virus particles. Keep your fingers away from your nose and your eyes to avoid infecting yourself with cold virus particles.
5. Teach Prevention Hygiene to Your Kids -- Children share cold viruses easily -- and bring them into your home. Teach your child to cough or sneeze into a tissue. And instill a life-long habit that is the key to illness prevention: handwashing.
6. Get the Flu Vaccine -- Vaccines are the surest way to prevent the flu. The best time to get a flu vaccine is from October through November, although you can get the vaccine even later during flu season. Get the flu vaccine every year. Flu viruses are constantly changing, and new vaccines are developed each year to protect against new strains.
7. Clean for Virus Prevention -- Use disinfectant when you clean at home, especially in the bathroom and kitchen. Stay away from sponges and rags -- studies show they’re the number one source of germs in the whole house. If you must use sponges, change them once a week or soak them in bleach for 15 minutes.
8. Practice Cold and Flu Prevention at Work -- Hold office meetings in large rooms with plenty of ventilation, and don’t be afraid to practice “social distancing.” Keep some extra space between you and people who are sick, or who sneeze or cough openly. If you share a workstation with others, clean it with antibacterial wipes before you sit down.

By Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario,