Are you easily inflamed?

Inflammation is a much maligned term just the same as cholesterol is. The reality is both are vital for survival. However too much of either of them can be a recipe for disaster. Focusing on inflammation there are diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint health, cancer, Alzheimer's, rheumatoid arthritis, and much more related to excess inflammation. Another important factor is it may be playing a role in you holding onto that stubborn hard to remove body fat.

There are two types of inflammation.

• Acute: Vital in the recovery from illness, injury and healing wounds

• Chronic: This is the dangerous one type that is the underlying issue in a lot of the conditions mentioned earlier and holding onto excess body fat stores. To reduce Chronic Inflammation you should be focusing on removing white flour products from your diet. Increasing the quality of your calories not just focusing on the number of calories consumed. Eat a wide range of coloured natural foods and consume good quality fats (that's right research tells us good oils can make us leaner and healthier).

Good oils aren't found in any of these items and will definitely contribute to chronic inflammation

In a nutshell cleaning up your diet will not only reduce dangerous inflammation but also improve your physique. Follow these steps to stave off chronic inflammation.

1. Eat a coloured diet: Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables will increase the colour and quality of your diet. Not to mention the fibre quantity.
2. Eat more omega 3 fats: As a reminder, omega 3 fats are found in fish, tuna, anchovies, nuts, seeds and others. The American Heart Association recommends eating at least regular servings of cold water fish each week. And consider a high quality, pure fish oil supplement. The healthy fats in fish oil act like Draino for your blood vessels; they keep your blood flowing smoothly and don’t allow them to become sticky, like other unhealthy fats do.
3. Eat less omega 6 fats: Decrease your unhealthy fats, like those found in fried foods, pastries, French fries and the like…but also decrease the vegetable oils in your diet. Adding omega-3’s without decreasing inflammatory omega-6’s is like simply putting a band aid on the problem. The fats found in these foods can be compared to putting sludge in your gas tank; probably not something that would be too wise.
4. Keep moving: You would of heard the term move it or lose it. Same applies here if you aren't keeping active there is no chance you can keep joints lubricated, metabolism firing and removing metabolic wastes from your system. Staying inactive is a great way to attract inflammation and in turn disease and sickness.
   

We all have some level of inflammation regardless of how well we eat; the key is to control it to the best of your ability, which comes from living a clean lifestyle, exercising regularly, and simply taking care of your body in every way possible

Bridge the gap anywhere, anytime.

Bridging the gap is something you may hear more commonly used in sporting circles where a team has the advantage over another the term bridging the gap may be mentioned in conversation. Bridging can also be commonly heard to describe an exercise that is used to increase core strength. Not a commonly used method of bridging at Lifestyle Improvers training sessions and please don't try this at home.

The context bridging is used in this article has nothing to do with any of those references at all but does refer to a useful tool you can utilise to increase the quality of choices and decisions you make everyday in your life. However achieving this outcome will need conscious effort, it won't just happen automatically.

To become a more effective and adaptable human being you would be well advised to look for ways to counter any inefficiencies you may have that cause you to make choices and decisions that aren't pulling you closer to your dreams or desires. Things like looking for excuses or someone to blame every time something goes wrong (as they will) or reaching for that can of heavily sugared cool drink when you are thirsty. Those scenarios are very basic but for the purpose of this article they will serve a purpose. In both scenarios there is an occurrence (something going wrong and getting thirsty) also a response (blaming someone or making an excuse and drinking a heavily sugared cool drink) but the most important point I want to highlight is the gap between the two. This gap always presents; sometimes it's shorter than others but it always presents. Once you start developing an awareness of the occurrences that constantly pop up in your life, you can then start the important process of bridging that gap and hopefully reducing the impact of the occurrence by internally systematising a response.

Follow this process to see if we can bridge the gap between occurrence and response.

1. Identify Occurrences: This is fundamental, because not being aware of the occurrences that present the most challenge to you and your goals means you will never have the ability to change any destructive actions that you may be unconsciously participating in that are undermining your desires to achieve outcomes.


2. Wait, Listen to and then Trust your Instincts: Learning this action in itself will teach you to start slowing down and listening to the dialogue that is going on inside your cranium. It will also show you that not making decisions immediately won't mean the difference between life or death - in the majority of cases!!!


3. Choose responses based on consequence and intuition: Attach a consequence to every choice you make due to an occurrence. If you listen to your intuition and then place consequences to your choices then you become fully aware of the direction you are deciding to head because of those decisions you are making.


4. Own Your Response: If the outcome turns foul or golden, be true to yourself and claim responsibility. This way if the outcome wasn't ideal you will learn from it and do it differently next time and move on. And if the result was good reward yourself so you keep acting in this manner and aspiring for a reward.

This is the way you can bridge the gap between occurrence and response whether it be work, relationships or lifestyle. It doesn't matter where you apply it the formula still stays the same.

Why Do I Keep Falling Off the Cart.

Are you a person that has tried everything and anything to lose weight, keep healthy and get into shape but never sticks with it? Well I've compiled a list of reasons why you have done and will continue to keep on doing what you have done unless you address some of these factors.

Another common factor in why people fail to plan and execute health creation plans effectively and for the long term is they get all caught up in what the right type of carbs to eat are or which exercises should I be doing? Instead of worrying about the bigger issues such as the ones below. You would be well served to start looking at the bigger picture than trivial little details that in reality will change all the time anyway. Look at the following 7 reasons and see why you may be failing to adhere to a long term health creation exercise regime.

1. NO MINDSET CHANGE: you may have set a goal, but you didn't put it on or near the top of your priorities list. For example, your goal is six pack abs, but drinking beer and eating fast food on the weekend is higher on your priorities list than having a flat stomach.
2. NO SUPPORT SYSTEM: you tried to go at it alone; no training partners, family, spouse, friends, mentors or coaches to turn to for information and emotional support when the going gets tough.
3. NO PERSISTENCE: you were only thinking short term and had unrealistic expectations. You expected 10 kilos a month or 5 kilos a week or 3 kilos a week, so the first week you lost "only" 1 kilo or hit a plateau so you gave up.
4. NO PLANNING: you winged it. You walked into the gym without having a workout in hand, on paper, you didn't plan your workouts into your weekly schedule; you didn't have a menu on paper, you didn't make time (so instead you made excuses, like "I'm too busy")
5. NO ACCOUNTABILITY - you didn't keep score for your own accountability - with a progress chart, weight record, measurements, food journal, training journal, and you didn't set up external accountability (ie, report to someone else or show your results to someone else)
6. NO BALANCE: your diet or training program was too extreme. You went the all or nothing, "I want it now" route instead of the moderate, slow-and-steady wins the race route.
7. NO PERSONALIZATION: your nutrition or training program was the wrong one for you. It might have worked for someone else, but it didn't suit your schedule, personality, lifestyle, situation or body type.

If these are the reasons why you aren't succeeding in losing kilos or getting healthier then get some focus, prioritise your health and think long term and see what difference it makes.

Are you sending mixed messages?

I recently took a train ride with my youngest daughter and my son to Fremantle, a harbour side suburb in Perth. This isn't rare for us as the kids love the train and any outdoor excursions we take them on. What happened on the train reinforced something I am becoming more and more aware of. It is the perception others get from your body language and the way you conduct yourself in the public arena.


The instance that captured my attention was on the way home in the afternoon when the train was picking up passengers on the way back to Perth. Things became a little crowded but nothing too dramatic and one young fella hopped on and made an impression immediately. His phone was radiating offensive music and he was draped in an Aussie flag from the waist down. Hair cut extremely short but had a little rats tail at the back of his head, wore a shearers type tank top and track suit pants and would of been all of 19 or 20 years old. Immediately he started looking at people with intent if they touched him or got to close to him. He wasn't aggressive or rude but the perception was, this kid's trouble. Purely from the visual signals and the body language and also hearing his choice of music. But I have no idea if he was a bad kid or not. Yet I began to form an impression based on what I saw, heard and perceived.



My point being this kid was going to attract a certain type of person, action or behaviour into his life. We all do, but his actions, body language and other cues put out the signal to start attracting negativity of some sort. It wasn't anyone on the train but later on it may have been.

Are you aware of what you are attracting into your life? Do your actions and your behaviours match the sort of life you want to be living. For example are you hoping to be trim, taught and terrific in a bid to stay healthy and maybe attract friends with similar interests. But on reflection you are possibly eating the wrong kind of foods to stay healthy and thinking extremely negatively about your body image which may be manifesting your current state of poor health and negative body image. Hence are you having difficulty attracting the kind of friends you want into your life.

Pretty deep huh but worth thinking about. Just begin to exercise the self awareness muscles you already possess by writing down a few thoughts you have every day. By introducing this action into your daily routine you can start to become aware of how you are talking to yourself. If you find your self dialogue is destructive may pay you to address it. Your choice.