Entries Tagged 'Health' ↓

Feel weak, drained? Hitting glass ceiling? Think that your growth is in dead end? Anxious?

If so, your must recharge yourself in one or more of personal power dimensions: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual.

by aeter

In The Power of Full Engagement the authors state that in order to achieve sustained peak performance you need to be:

• Physically energized.
• Emotionally connected.
• Mentally focused.
• Spiritually aligned.

Physically energized

There are three ingredients to empower yourself physically:

• Breathing right. Thinking and controlling breath seemed to me over-kill. I started to notice I sometime take really deep inhales, It helps me to focus, switch gears. It recharges me.
• Eating right. This one is my favorite. I strongly believe in eating right. The following post was inspired by the book - Food, Energy, And Day Rhythm. I also like blogrdoc’s “Eat no food that makes a health claim”. 
• Sleeping right. The authors recommend 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep. Sleeping less is killing, more sleep kills too. I stopped staying awake until midnight and beyond. I wake up earlier and full of energy.

Emotionally connected

Emotional resilience – active engagement with others’ and personal emotions - is the other energy source for personal power.

I was totally drained emotionally lately. Both work and family are the sources of the drainage.

The authors recommend switching channels. So I did. I started focusing on positive emotions both at home and at work. I switched off all sources of negative emotions. I do not ignore it, I do handle the situations but I never get stuck on it. I move on to the positive emotions sources.

I also started to apply Mike King’s morning smiling technique he describes in his A great way to Start and Finish Every Day.

I feel much less drained and with much more motivation to cope with more challenges.

Mentally focused

Mental acuity – intellectual challenge. What do you feel right after you solved tricky problem? Empowered, satisfied, ready to another fight. Right? What do you feel doing tedious work? Boredom. Mental atrophy.

I am always looking for interesting jobs, challenges. When there is none, I make up them, solve it and publish on my technical, other blog. When I finally post and share the solution I feel empowered. Would you?

Spiritually aligned

Spiritual capacity - periodically revisiting deepest personal values. Few of my values are:

• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Respect
• Openness
• Partnership
• Calculated recklessness …

Got values? Stick to it and you will never feel spiritually down.

Flat-liner

The authors say without stretching you muscles - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual - your life becomes flat-liner. Flat-liner life is atrophy that kills. Push yourself out of your comfort zone, stretch your muscles, get fully engaged, feel the power. The Power of Full Engagement

Snap! - The Power

P.S. Yes, it is Russian in the beginning. It goes like this:

“Amerikanskaya firma Transceptor (not sure here…) Technology pristupila k proizvodstvu computerov Personalnii Sputnik”

Which means “American company Transceptor (not sure here…) Technology just started producing computers named Personal Satellite”.

How to maintain acceptable weight without limiting food assortment and amount? How to keep alert after lunch time? How to keep high energy throughout the day?

DISCLAIMER: below is my personal practice. I am not physician or diet specialist.

by 46137

Morning - high energy

Morning meal is most important one. It should provide me the energy to survive high rhythm from 6:00 AM to 13:00, 6 to 7 hours of morning pressure - getting kids to school, getting through heavy traffic, planning the day, finishing unfinished work from yesterday, completing current work items. I consume carbohydrate rich food for breakfast - cereal, bread, chocolate, honey. Food that transformed directly into energy to start and keep my engines moving.

Morning anti-patterns

• No breakfast.
• Deep fried food.
• Protein rich food (consumes more energy to process it).

Lunch time - supporting energy to move on

Short break to refuel. Feel hungry. I tend to eat either easy-to-burn sea food, which is protein rich or no protein rich ingredients at all - salad and potatoes, pasta, or rice. I am not vegetarian, love meat, but not for the lunch on work day. My body consumes more energy to burn meat than it generates to keep my engines moving. That is why I feel sleepy when I break this rule, when I eat meat for the lunch. In the case when I do eat red meat I mix it with vegetables only, lots of veggies.

Lunch time anti-patterns

• Meat mixed with carbohydrate rich food like rice, potatoes, bread.
• No vegetables.
• Fast/Junk food.

Evening - low energy, recreation

Time for recreation, no energy needed, no carbohydrate rich food allowed. Meat and wine time, fruits and veggies too. Water, just water, lots of water.

Evening eating anti-patterns

• Carbohydrate rich food.
• Lot’s of any food.
• Snacks.
• Alcohol.

The result

I maintain acceptable weight, I did not change my jeans size for last 15 years. I feel good level of energy throughout the day. I breath with full chest. My mind is clear and not overwhelmed.

Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food - Hippocrates

Disclaimer: I am not a physician or a diet professional. Here I describe my personal practice. Consult specialist before taking actions described in the post.

My mom came visiting us the other day. After she left my wife told me what my mom told her. It was “Darling, Alik was such a pretty boy, what happened to him now? He is so fat…”. I decided it is time to take action.

I set 4 rules that I can easily follow and also enjoy my life:

• Rule #1 - Eat protein rich food separately from carbohydrate rich food. This is practice I use for last 15 years and it kept me from becoming really fat. Once I stopped doing it and in one month I became a real behemoth. The technique is simple - I never eat meat with bread, rice, potato, or pasta. I do eat all these but separately. My breakfast is carbohydrate rich food. My lunch is about meat and vegetable. I sometime give up on meat and eat just rice, potato, or pasta for my lunch.
• Rule #2 - Do not eat after 7 PM. That one is not easy. That is why I made one exception to it. I can eat low calories vegetables - my favorite are kohlrabi and cabbage.
• Rule #3 - Drink a lot of water. I made a habit to carry a big bottle of mineral water with me to any place. I usually drink 2 1.5 litter bottles a day. It helps me pushback my desires for a snack. I heard fashion models eat ice. It is far fetched for me but carrying water is reasonable. Make sure the toilets are in proximity…
• Rule #4 - Do sport. I needed something that fits into my life rhythm. I only can do sport late at night - starting 10 PM. It must be something both stretching and relaxing. Swimming was natural choice. Luckily, there is great country club in the neighborhood and they have great pricing plans.
• End result. I lost 8 kilograms in one month while eating without any strict restrictions on amount and type of the food. I feel great, I stopped snoring - my wife really love that one, my friends compliment me I look good.

Lately my sister visited me and she has noticed at once I lost weight. 30 minutes after she left I got a phone call. It was my mom on the phone - “Son, I just have spoken with your sister and she said you lost weight. It is no good, dear. You must eat well. Promise me you will eat well”. “No probs, mom, I will”. Go figure….

“God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.” - proverb.