Winning Attitude

Winning - every athlete wants to achieve the goal of winning their event, but what takes place before the event is the boosting of one’s mindset of how to win. 

Every day is a chance to achieve a win.  Let us pause and reflect on that.

 Your win doesn’t have to be a major event but can be as simple as meeting a step goal, total water intake, or just being conscious of your posture.  In fact, it does not even need to be health-focused.  It can be a simple as achieving a sales goal or being prepared for plan “Z” in a project.  The idea of small wins brews positivity.  Positivity can be infectious and create a flow of progression at home and work.  One item to remember is to remain conscious of wins throughout the day.  Wins, or positive experiences, are happening all the time, but if you fail to acknowledge them, you can miss out on the effects of mindset growth.

One way to develop a winning attitude is to ask yourself at the end of the day, “What are three positives that happened today?”  Write them down to remember the moment(s).  Keep them close to your workstation or somewhere that can be a point of reference for the next day. 

Of course, negative experiences, news or failures, can be distracting but focusing on the positives and generating a list of wins keeps your mindset uplifted to enhance your day.

Here are some tips that can help develop a Winning Attitude:

1.       Believe in Yourself

• Take the time to think that you have value and the tools to achieve goals.

2.       Separate Crisis

• Coping with negative stress can be difficult but not allowing it to affect your workflow is a skill that starts with your mindset.

3.       Persevere

• Failure is common and many times is a learning tool to create a stronger you.  

4.       Inspiration

• Read about a hero of yours or ask friends or family members about their success stories. 

5.       Think Positive First

• When a negative comment or setback arises, think positive first.  Everything is not positive but approaching life with a positive outlook helps alleviate unnecessary stress.

6.       Celebrate your win. Celebrate with others.  Post and Reflect.

• Snap a photo, journal, and smile.

Determining Your Why

As a ninth grader I started my first year of track and field sports with a single goal in mind: break the 5-minute mile mark. This was a pretty lofty goal considering I started the season clocking a 6:45 mile time. I attended practice, put in the work and made pretty decent progress by the time the season had ended, dropping my mile to 5:30. Our team had optional practices over summer, which I decided not to attend and not to run during the off season for that matter. Fast forward a year, and I ran a 6:30 mile in our first timed mile of the next season. Are you surprised?

This cycle repeated for the next few years until I finally ran a 4:58 mile in the last meet of my junior year. I had achieved my goal, and the optional practices were once again upon me. Keeping true with my “training routine,” I opted not to go, not to run during the off season, and not to sign up for track the next year.

There are so many lessons that can be learned from this story, but I want to focus on my goal. In this story my goal was selected at random with no driving reason to keep me committed during those optional off season workouts.

Establishing proper reasoning, one that elicits commitment, can drastically increase your likelihood of accomplishing your goal and maybe even help you accomplish it more quickly.

In order to discover that reason, pretend that you are an inquisitive three-year-old asking the same question, “Why,” over and over again until you no longer have an answer. Here’s an example:

State your goal: I want to walk 90-minutes per week.

• Why? So that I feel better.

• Why? So that I have more energy throughout the day.

• Why? So that I can put my best foot forward at work and at home.

• Why? So I have the energy to keep up with the three year old that keeps asking me, “Why?”

The last answer has a little more commitment power than the first, right? Finding a motivator that ties deeply to something or someone that we care about can be the difference between achieving your goal or putting it off again until next season.

Want help determining your why? Reach out to a Texins team member through the red contact us button on the top right of your screen. We're more than happy to help!

Tips For Exercising Outside During The Summer Months

Summer can be the most fun time to be outdoors, especially for exercise, physical or leisure activity. However, it can also be the most risky due to extreme temperatures and conditions. Not to worry, because we have made a checklist of tips for you to use to better keep you safe and comfortable while outdoors during extreme heat!

1. Choose your time wisely!

If your goal is to perform at your best during exercise or be comfortable during leisure activity, choosing the hottest time of the day (e.g., 12-2 pm) is probably not your best bet. Extreme heat can be uncomfortable and cause you to sweat excessively, which can lead to dehydration and decreased performance. So instead, choose an earlier morning time or later afternoon time to complete your activity.

2. Fashion!

Not really fashion, but you do want to choose your clothing accordingly. What we mean by this is, you probably want to avoid textures like cotton or wool that keep you warm. Instead, choose synthetic, breathable clothing that helps you stay cool and dry. Also, avoid dark colors, like black or navy blue, which attract heat, and instead choose lighter colors.

3. SPF 10,000!

Sunscreen is always a great recommendation anytime you are outside longer than 30 minutes. Getting some vitamin D without completely shielding your skin from the sun is perfectly healthy and fine, but up to a certain time! So, if you are outdoors for long periods or have a family history of skin conditions, apply some sunscreen with the doctor recommended SPF strength!

4. “Water is better!” - Bobby Boucher

Growing up in southern Louisiana, the movie “The Waterboy” could not be further from reality - haha! But, it’s always a great reference to remind people of the importance of hydration. I’m sure you won’t forget it now!

However, hydration should not just be from water though! As you sweat, you aren’t just losing water but also electrolytes. So, make sure to replenish and even pre-hydrate with sports drinks and in addition to water. We recommend drinking around 16 ounces of water/sports drink prior to activity, and then replenish with around 125% of the liquid weight you have lost with the water/sports drink combo.

Managing Jaw Tension

Jaw tension and pain can come in many forms including mental and physical stress to imbalances in biomechanics of the jaw to overuse with constant eating or chewing. Whatever the cause may be, if you have significant pain, we recommend that you consult with your doctor for further testing before beginning any preventative exercise programs.

Today, we will go over four tips that will help to relieve some tension in your jaw and regain some control over that pain or tension. We recommend to perform these approaches daily to see consistent relief. 

1. Chew Less! 

2. Resting Position

3. Symmetry

4. Isometrics

1. Chew Less! (Treat your jaw muscles just like the rest of your muscles)

Imagine you were having constant knee or quad muscle pain, but everyday you would continue to run 3 miles and do squats or lunges. Over time, you would start to see the correlation to why you have lingering pain, even though you may not identify the root cause. Most people would take a break from the running and exercise to give their joints and muscles a chance to recover and heal properly and then reintegrate at a slower rate.

Your jaw muscles should be treated no different if you are having lingering, daily pain. Take a look at your daily habits with chewing. Do you eat beef jerky, steak and other foods that require intense and repetitive chewing? Do you chew bubble gum throughout the day? Are you talking a lot throughout the day? If so, try to give your jaw muscles a break by limiting the amount of times you are opening and closing your jaw.

2. Resting Position (Space is grace)

Stress = tension. Tension = clenching of the jaw. This formula may be what’s leading to your jaw tension and pain. Of course, stress would be the root cause, but luckily, we can prevent the effects of the stress which is the clenching. The way we do this is by understanding what our jaw resting position is.

The first thing you should know is your teeth should not be clamped together, or touching. You should have space between your teeth when your jaw is at rest throughout the day and night. This can be challenging to do if you aren’t used to it, so we will show you a great technique to reassess your jaw position daily.

First, say the letter “N”. What you will notice is your mouth is slightly opened, your lips are slightly opened and your tongue is on the roof of your mouth. Let’s keep the tongue there and the mouth opened just slightly, but go ahead and pull the lips closed. If you are not used to a proper resting jaw position, this can feel very awkward to you at first. As with any new behavioral changes, comfort can take time.

3. Symmetrical Opening

One of the main reasons our jaws get aggravated from too much chewing or talking, like described in tip 1 is because we aren’t opening our jaw symmetrically, resulting in us putting unwanted stress to both jaw joints and mandible muscles. 

So step 3, after taking a step back, is to identify if you have any imbalances when opening your jaw. In the video you will be able to notice some asymmetrical openings to both sides and then a corrected opening movement. Use a mirror or your phone camera to practice symmetry.

4. Jaw Isometrics

This is our last tip to effectively restrengthen the jaw muscles to work in all ranges of motion and not be so isolated to one side or movement pattern. The way we are executing this is through jaw isometric holds.

With isometrics, we are attempting to hold a contraction of the jaw muscles in a certain range of motion, very similar to holding a wall sit. 

1. We want to open the jaw about 80% open and then use resistance with our knuckles to try to drive the jaw open the other 20%. However, with the resistance of our knuckles, we won’t open the jaw any more, instead holding an isometric contraction.

2. We want to shift the jaw to the left and hold the isometric contraction.

3. We want to shift the jaw to the right and hold the isometric contraction.

4. We want to open our jaw to its resting position and attempt to open the jaw more. But, with the resistance of our knuckles, we won’t open the jaw any more, instead holding an isometric contraction.

We want to perform 2-3 rounds of these isometrics, holding each one for five seconds.

Telomeres: The defense behind aging

Have you ever really stopped to look at a pair of shoelaces before? If so, you’ve probably noticed the little plastic caps on both ends of a shoelace. This cap is there to protect the fabric from fraying and splitting into multiple layers. It’s the defense for the shoelaces longevity.

Much like those plastic cap's jobs, our DNA has similar “caps” that we call telomeres. Their job is to similarly protect the chromosome strands from fraying or sticking together. While also protecting our DNA, the telomeres are also responsible for making sure our DNA gets properly copied each time cell division takes place. Even with the importance and strength of the telomeres, our DNA strands get shorter and shorter with every cell division.

The challenge that comes with aging arises with the natural degradation of the telomeres. When the telomeres become too short, a cell can no longer divide, leading to damaged cells that can no longer repair and eventually dies. Although there is still lots of research to be conducted on understanding telomeres' role in aging and youth, there are several things that are certain such as: smoking and too much UV light exposure can speed up the decline of our telomeres. 

How do I protect my telomeres?

According to a study published in 2018 by Balan, et al., there are several things you can do to protect your telomere longevity:

1. Maintain a healthy diet of high fiber and unsaturated lipids (e.g., oats, flax, spinach, mushrooms), while avoiding high sugar and saturated lipid foods

2. Consume foods high in antioxidants (e.g., berries, beans, nuts, green tea)

3. Physical activity can protect telomeres but the proper dose is yet to be determined.

For physical activity or exercise recommendations, contact Texins Staff or join us for live or on-demand virtual group exercise. Please check out our Nutrition Blog for additional nutrition content.

Control Your Environment to Control Your Stress

We’ve all heard the expression, “Don’t worry about the things you don’t have control over.” This is a great line because you can waste a lot of productive hours and sleepless nights thinking about ways to change the outcome of something you can’t manipulate. So instead, let’s think about ways that we can alter areas of our life in order to improve our wellbeing and reduce any unnecessary stress and worry.

LIMIT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TIME

I think we can all agree that we probably waste a bit too much time browsing around on social media. In our defense, it’s readily available in the palm of our hands, we enjoy seeing what our friends and family are up to sometimes on the other side of the country or world, and we as humans just crave the idea of constantly being entertained. In a weird way, it’s not completely our faults that we fall victim to this. However, we do need to take a look at some of the effects it can have on us. One being, an increase in stress to our daily life.

There’s several reasons why too much social media time can increase our stress levels. Some being, disagreements with friends, family, or hot topics in society, constantly waiting around and checking for a new like or comment to give us that quick hit of dopamine, or it could simply be the excessive intake of blue light from the screen. All of these can play a positive or negative role in our daily lives. Similar to your eating habits, it all comes down to moderation.

There’s a few ways you can limit your social media time. Most smartphones have a “screen time” counter in your settings that lets you know how much time you are spending on your phone in general. Social media platforms also now have tools within their platforms that can reveal how much time you are spending on there as well. So, whatever your data may be revealing, treat social media like some experts advise you to treat your emails, check them once in the morning, once again at lunch (optional) and then one last time at the end of the day. Limit these checks to 5 minutes max. This way you are getting no more than 15 minutes of controlled time on social media and will prevent you from going down those rabbit holes that always lead to nothing good.

DECLUTTER AND ORGANIZE YOUR WORKSPACE

Ok, answer this truthfully - are you more relaxed coming home from work to a neatly made bed, with no clothes on the floor and the only thing catching your eye is the hotel-esque bedroom you have created OR a bed with the comforter hanging halfway on the ground, clothes from the past 6 days scattered across the floor, dresser drawers halfway open and those 2 picture frames sitting on the ground that you still have not hung up yet from 7 months ago? If you answered the latter, we need an emergency 1:1 consultation with you and I before this gets out of hand! However, on a serious note, the appearance of our environment and smoothness and flow of our operations can really add to or reduce any present stress that we have. Let’s not make things any worse than they need to be.

Try taking a look at your work environment for starters and seeing where you can make things more efficient and eliminate any unnecessary items. First, do you work from home or on-site? If you are at home, do you work at a desk, table or on the couch/bed? Giving yourself a proper at-home workstation can really set you up for a more efficient work day. If you are sitting on the couch with your laptop on your legs, papers and notes scattered on the couch next to you and you’re also trying to record notes while on a meeting on a separate notepad, then things can get overwhelming. Do yourself a favor and create a make-shift desk, organize the laptop, notepad, notes in areas that are easily accessible and visible to promote a smoother workday flow. Same goes with your on-site workstation - if you have notes and papers that have been on your desk for weeks and are irrelevant for that workday, store them in a folder or filing cabinet that gets them out of the way but is still easy to locate when you do need them again.

SET ALARMS AND STICK TO THEM

I know we have all been here before- springing out of bed saying, “Oh crap!”, quickly realizing our 4th snooze alarm was the one to wake us up and not the initial 6:30 am alarm we had planned our morning and day for. Don’t worry because you’re not alone. However, that does not mean you should turn it into a habit.

As busy as our lives are today, especially if you have kids and a family, then every minute counts. There’s no room for an hour or two of flexibility within your day if you have to get the kids ready and off to school in the morning by 7:30 am, get to work by 8:00 am, only a 30 minute lunch break, kids to pick up from daycare by 6 pm after work, dinner to cook and feed the family by 7:30 pm, kids to get to bed by 9 pm, then MAYBE, 1-2 hours of time to decompress on the couch watching the Bachelorette (I mean, Monday Night Football!). Even if some of you don’t have kids or a family, your day probably isn’t too much different than this schedule. So, you can see how staying strict to your schedule throughout the day can be very important in order to accomplish everything you want. The moment we fall 30 minutes behind due to accidentally sleeping in, is the moment everything in our day (at least the first half) gets behind. This can cause immediate and lasting additional stress to your day.

So, figure out what time you REALLY want to wake up, what time you want to work out at and what time you want to go to bed - set alarms for them and stick to them like your life depends on it!

Setting Realistic Goals for 2021

Setting goals can be fun and exhilarating, especially whenever your motivation is maxed out at 100%. It’s easy to visualize and fuel success with all of that optimism. However, your motivation’s gas tank will eventually need to refuel. Be prepared to have goals attainable enough even in the hard and busy times, like during the holiday season. With the SMART acronym, it can help you consider questions that will set you up for success with your goals.

S – Is your goal specific?
A vague goal can be tough to plan out a roadmap to achieving it. Specify the details of how you plan to achieve it, what is the timeframe it will take and what steps or phases it will consist of.

M – Is your goal measurable?
Is there a specific data point that can pinpoint your success? What evidence will show you have been successful?

A – Is your goal attainable? 
Typically if you can answer the S and the M honestly, you should have an understanding if you can realistically achieve your goal. Choose a goal that is challenging but also honestly attainable. It shouldn’t require too many “what if’s” or luck.

R – Is your goal relevant?
If you have a strong WHY behind your goal, then it immediately becomes personal. If it’s personal, then you will have a strong drive through the tough and demotivated times. However, if your goal isn’t relevant enough to something in your life to you personally, then you are more likely to get sidetracked and encounter nonessential detours or obstacles along your fitness journey.

T – Is your goal timely?
All goals need a deadline, which will hold accountability to your actions and progress. If your goal is too vague with no expiration date, then procrastination becomes that much easier. As we all know, procrastination hinders success.

When planning on your health, financial or personal goals for 2021, try utilizing the SMART technique to give yourself the best chance for creating realistic goals that you can achieve - there’s no better feeling than accomplishing a challenging goal.

Exercise and Mental Health

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the benefits exercise can have on our physical health, it’s been drilled into our heads since elementary school P.E. class.  Physical exercise decreases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and many other diseases, but what we don’t talk about enough is how exercise can also improve mental health.  Exercise is so important for our mental health, especially right now while we’re all working from home and all of our favorite social outlets are taken away.

Exercise and Mood
Aerobic exercise has been proven to reduce anxiety and depression, these improvements in mood are caused by exercise-induced increase in blood circulation to the brain and help with the way you react to stress. Aerobic activities can include, running, walking, biking, swimming, or dancing.  Studies show that anaerobic exercise such as weightlifting or flexibility training can also reduce symptoms of depression, but you may not experience them immediately like you would with aerobic, it could be a few hours later.  Exercise can also be used as a temporary distraction from an unwanted situation that is causing a poor mood. 

Exercise and Self Esteem
Exercise has also been proven to improve low self-esteem and social withdrawal.  Since exercising can be portrayed as challenging, the ability to exercise regularly can lead to improved mood and increased confidence.  Joining a gym or group that regularly exercises can provide you with the support you need to keep you on track, it gives you a sense of comradery and holds you accountable. You can make new friends who have common interests/goals as you and make you want to achieve your goals, too. 

Effects of Over Exercising 
Although exercise can have a positive impact on mental health, too much exercise can have negative effects on the body.  When performing too much exercise your mood can start to deteriorate causing anxiety and depression.  There are also physical side-effects of overtraining, you’re not getting the adequate amount of recovery that your body needs, thus breaking it down time after time.  Overtraining can also cause deterioration in performance which can cause a lack of self confidence and/ or depression.  Don’t let that scare you though, just listen to your body and gauge what the appropriate amount of exercise for YOU is.

Recommendations
Studies show that thirty minutes of moderate exercise 3 days a week is enough to experience positive health benefits.  However, if you have specific goals take these 5 things into consideration: mode, duration, frequency, intensity, and setting.  Reflect on your energy, mood, physical progress, and recovery levels.

Sitting skills: Simple strategies to reduce aches, pains and health issues

You’ve probably heard the popular slogan that “sitting is the new smoking.” But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in four Americans sit for more than eight hours a day.

So what’s the solution if you have to work all day at a desk? Well, the solution has more to do with changing positions and moving efficiently often, rather than ergonomics and the posture you are in (even though these things are important as well!).

Why is sitting dangerous?
With extended periods of sitting due to work being such a recent thing in human history, studies are still trying to catch up with accurate data. What studies have gathered though is sitting is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, poor leg vascular health, reduced temporal lobe thickness, and even increased mortality risk.

These sitting problems often turn into movement gait problems as well, due to the muscles and fascia forming into these inefficient postures leading to tightness and restrictions in muscles and joints, including back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, elbow pain, and carpel tunnel from typing.

If I have perfect posture, can I still sit all day?
Simply put, no. This is merely because as humans, are bodies have not evolved to sit for long periods of time, regardless of how anatomically sound your posture is. It’s best to put your body into different sitting and standing postures, rather than keep it isolated to one static position.

When the body is held in a certain postural position for extended periods of time, the brain to body connection start to accept this new position even from a proprioception standpoint. An example would be, bending over to pull weeds out of your garden. You may not want to constantly hinge at the hips properly or squat down every time to grab a weed, so rounding through your spine to inefficiently bend over to grab weeds, because a stressor to those postural back muscles and also starts to engrain this inefficient movement pattern in your head.

How can I prevent problems from sitting?
We can’t just stop sitting all together, especially if our job consists of working at a desk or work station, but we can start to be proactive. The way we can help to prevent problems from happening is by taking daily physical activity breaks such as a guided stretch break or guided workout.

Try to be as active as you can. A recent study found that you can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by 24% by trading a half-hour of sedentary activity for something more active.

At the end of the day, let’s focus on adding movement variability to our day and not worry so much about trying to find the perfect posture to sit in for 8 hours.

3 Steps to Creating a Healthy Lifestyle

1. Don’t expect a new habit so quickly:

It seems that there’s always a random number of days thrown around when referencing how long it takes to form a new habit. According to a 2009 study, it very well can be a random number. It took participants anywhere from 18 to 254 days to make a new habit stick! Sheesh that’s a big range. The average amount of time it took to incorporate a new habit was 66 days. No matter where you fall in this range, give yourself patience and time to adapt. Expecting change in 1-2 weeks may not be feasible. Whether your goal is to incorporating exercise multiple days per week, or replace sodas with water, give yourself time to adapt and change

2. Prioritize your health in your schedule:

I know you are extremely busy with work and the many other aspects of your personal life. When trying to juggle work, family life and daily responsibilities, it can be hard to find time for yourself and your health. We know that things pop up throughout the day that are urgent and take priority. By framing our mindset and anticipating these hurdles, we can strategize to make sure that these situations don’t interfere with our quest for better health. One way to prioritize your workout is to mark it as the FIRST item on your calendar. By scheduling your workout routine FIRST thing in the morning, you beat the rest of the world to your schedule, which helps to avoid any of those hurdles that you anticipated. Don’t forget, scheduling your workout first means you may have to make adjustments elsewhere, set a specific time to go to bed and make sure that you are properly fueled prior to your morning workout.

3. Be resilient:

The beginning stages of extrinsic motivation can be very exciting, you’ve established a goal, you’ve created a game plan, you are moving forward into a new world and to a new you. You are unstoppable! Fast forward two weeks, and the zeal for this new behavior may have diminished, or worn off. This is where you have the opportunity to truly grow and to gear up for a lifestyle change! There are countless obstacles that can, and will, come between you and your goal. It’s reality, it’s life, things will happen. The true test is how you respond to these things, in other words, are you resilient? Don’t let missing a workout, finding yourself unprepared for a healthy lunch or any other misstep that happens cause you to give up. Choose to see this as an opportunity to improve and respond accordingly. Don’t forget, being healthy is a lifestyle, it’s not a 6-week challenge.

Get Outside, Move Well

It’s mid-week and no better time to get up for a few minutes-hours today and get outside to get some:
- Vitamin D
- Physical Activity
- Stress Relief

Research has shown time and time again that getting outside in nature and performing physical activity will improve your mood by reducing the overactive brain activity in the portion of the brain responsible for depression and anxiety.

FIGHT or FLIGHT?: How your breathing technique can energize you or relax you!

Did you know that controlled breathing techniques can alter your body's physiological response to stress or fatigue? Join Gavin as he details breathing methods that you can implement throughout your day.