Blog Posts - EQUIVITA

It is easy to undervalue flexibility and the role it can have in our fitness...

4/29/2020

Of the 5 Keys of Fitness, this one seems the simplest to many people. Perhaps because, at its essence it really is as simple as the amount of range that a specific body part moves. Or, perhaps it is because it is the area where you can most quickly see results. Or, maybe because simple stretching doesn’t seem like work and, thus, isn’t given the same value as resistance or cardio training. Regardless of the reasons, it is easy to undervalue flexibility and the role it can have in our fitness, performance and overall health.

For flexibility training, you must first consider your goal. Unlike the other Keys, your goal for flexibility is simply in one of two categories: to increase your flexibility or to maintain it.

Next, things start to get complicated by determining where in your body you want to focus each of those goals. There may be areas where you don’t need to increase your flexibility and others where you do.

For areas where you want to maintain the flexibility, you don’t actually need to do anything more than move that area through its full range of motion on a regular basis. In fact, using full range on many resistance training exercises can often be enough to maintain the flexibility for those muscles.

Increasing flexibility, obviously, will take a little more of a concerted effort. And while there are many different methods, one of the best and safest is static passive stretching performed after the muscles have been working and are warmed with activity and blood flow.

Static means that the stretch is held and not moving like other types of stretching. Passive means that someone or something is performing the stretch, allowing the muscles and the individual that is being stretched to relax.

To get the benefit from static passive stretching: First, get moving using those muscles. Second, relax and allow the body part to be moved into a position where you can feel a stretch. Third, stay at this position until you feel the stretch sensation ease. Then to increase flexibility you can move into a position of greater stretch. Gentle and slow you can progressively increase your flexibility using this method.

As always, let me know how I can help.

-Adam

A MESSAGE TO OUR COMMUNITY: A consideration of Covid-19, of the mind and of the body.

3/19/2020

This month’s topic is Nutrition, and while there is much to be said about nutrition and how our staff view this important topic, it seems important to also address the pandemic that is currently affecting the world.

In no way do I mean to lessen the significance of the Covid-19 impact, but at the same time I do encourage you to consider the impact to your health if you allow your brain to shift into perseverating on the illness.

There are many things that you can, and should, do to reduce your risk, but also you could ask if getting minute-by-minute status updates on the number of verified cases in another country is one of these things. Or, if finding out that a celebrity in another country has tested positive is going to increase the likelihood that you will too.

You know that our brains are very powerful, and yet, they are also designed to be more attracted to the negative. This bias makes sense in a world where knowing the part of the river where a hippopotamus has staked claim can allow you to avoid it and stay safe. But in a world where the constant news feed from all over the world is biased toward the negative not for your safety as much as for your consumption, then you have to take a more concerted effort to determine what is right for you in order to best protect yourself.
This protection for some could be taking an increased amount of time away from the pervasive news. For others, it could mean looking at the same statistics and seeing a 97% survival rate. And for others the focus on finding opportunities to create calm is how they best weather the very stressful situations.

If we have learned anything over the recent years, as the volume of negative news continues to snowball, we would all benefit from filtering the information that we allow in and striving to become better at processing how it impacts our mind and body. It takes effort. The fear is strong and the brain’s goal of protection can be bolstered by seemingly logical points that makes it seem all the more necessary to be afraid and pay attention to the negative. Take a moment and thank your brain for this focus on protection. Then, maybe find space to relax and allow yourself to create some calm. Your immune system needs it.

As always, let me know how I can help.

-Adam Milligan

Nourishment Key: Ideas and considerations from the EQUIVITA staff, March 2020

3/16/2020

One Size Does Not Fit All, Adam Milligan

Hey, have you heard that the only exercise that you need to do to lose weight is to push away from the dinner table? This is exactly the type of thing that I think when I hear someone say that we know what the ideal diet is for every human. And it is always something like:
every human should eat like humans ate up until about 10,000 years ago, in the Paleolithic era; every human should eat like the humans who lived after 10,000 years ago and had started growing food; every human should eat low fat foods; every human should follow the Mediterranean diet model; every human should be a vegetarian. This list could continue and does continue as more and more “experts” jump on board with promoting some new ideal way for all humans to eat. When you step back though, you can tell that it just doesn’t make sense.

It doesn’t make sense because their premise is based on the belief that all humans are the same. As well as the assumption that science has proven the exact nutrition the human body needs, and the ability for each human to pull the same nutrition from a given source. All of which is not even mentioning that particular human’s microbiome and its ability to generate nutrition for the human from otherwise indigestible materials. (If humans cannot digest something, like fiber, then the food item listing doesn’t have to include those Calories. Even if, once inside the gut the bacteria are able to digest the fiber and produce fats which the human does absorb, those are effective Calories to the human body that would not show up if you were tracking your diet.)

For every “proven” diet there are many more that directly conflict with it, and that is just from the actual science. When you consider all of the fabricated research created to manipulate data and the statistics, even that which is printed in peer reviewed journals, it is easy to understand why our Western diet is such a mess.

We are encouraged to decrease our sugar consumption by using artificial sweetners, when the research clearly says that these sweeetners are often more harmful. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota

So, do we take this one piece of information, condemn the food industry, and ban all artificial sweetners? Tempting as it might be, it doesn’t consider the facts that we are all different and how our body responds to one item, like artificial sweetner, isn’t the same.

There are too many variables. As much as we would like to believe that by breaking a diet into food and then into the components of food -- macronutrients (Carbs, Fat, Proteins) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals) and even if we go as deep as the secondary compounds of the food -- that we would be able to truly know the food. Its value to the human body is greater than the sum of the parts. All of those pieces interact with each other, with our microbiome and with our body.

We all know that food is more than fuel. It is more than the breakdown of components. Well, it at least has the power to be more. Whether we chose to allow it to be a source of great pleasure, nourishment and life (as do some cultures, like the French, who according to the New York Times, don't care about the ingredients of the food label as much as about who made the food and where it is from), or a source of stress through focusing on the breakdown of numbers of grams and Calories, is a choice each of us has to make.

Whatever choice you make, own it as right for you, and please consider allowing others to do the same.

And, as always, let me know how I can help.

-Adam Milligan

Eat Well, Be Well, Katherine Baxter

Like other body systems, the immune system is trainable. This means that you can build it up and help maintain it, just like the musculoskeletal system; which is great news, especially during cold and flu season! The place where the majority of our immune health comes from is our gut, so in order to train the immune system, you have to start with what you put into your gut. Because foods directly affect the composition of the gut microbiota, your diet directly affects the homeostasis of the immune system. The common phrase “you are what you eat” is true to its word. If you don’t feed your gut the things it needs to sustain a healthy immunity, then you’ll be more susceptible to illnesses and infections. Think of your gut health as the “gatekeeper” to the rest of the immune system, making it the first line of defense. Thus, undernutrition and immunodeficiency often go hand-in-hand, making nutrition and diet the best form of “preventive medicine”.

New sciences are emerging, and what they’re finding is that "epigenetic marks are reversible, allowing reprogramming after birth” and “nutrition and dietary factors can alter the expression of genes involved in immune responses”. That’s right, our immune system is programmable — and this is accomplished through our diet! This means things from birth (and thereafter) such as asthma, allergies and inflammatory diseases may be reversible through proper nutrition and diet.
What you’re eating is just as important as where what you’re eating comes from — not all foods are created equal. In the era of mass production/agriculture, there are a lot of foods that are low in their nutritional value due to nutrient-stripped farm lands. The more you can eat foods grown in small batches from local growers (such as foods from farmer’s markets), the better. Plus, you’re helping support the community! Often through obtaining the right amount of nutrients through our food, we can begin to not need to rely so heavily on supplements and vitamins.
When we think about diet, we often just think about the foods we eat. However, diet is also any regular occupation or series of activities in which one participates. So your diet is what you eat, what habits you keep, what television programs you watch, what environments you immerse yourself in, what music you listen to, the people you surround yourself with, and lots more. Anything that you are “taking in” is part of your diet — physically, mentally and emotionally. Our diet makes up a large part of who we are, from the inside out.

Nourishment and the Senses, Carla Fox

A lot of the time in our culture, the fullness of our nutrition is broken down into its parts, and what we can “get” out of it on a quantitative level. We also tend to consider nutrition more so than nourishment. By which I mean, we mostly pay attention to food consumption, avoidance and calculated nutrients without considering our experience of food and what we ingest with our other senses.

Nutrition can be interesting and useful, and ultimately isn’t comprehensive when we consider the larger picture of nourishment. That which contributes to our growth, health and good condition. That requires a more qualitative assessment, and hopefully leads us to a more empowered, less fearful relationship with our digestion through all the senses.

Anything we perceive/ingest has to be, in varying combinations, assimilated, stored and/or eliminated. The scary movie you watched, digest. The argument with your kid, digest. The beautiful opera, digest. The workout and massage, digest. The homemade meal, digest. How you feel about any of these experiences matters. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all chart for what to do and not do, eat and not eat. Super inconvenient for mainstream industries of dieting, fitness and even nutritional guidelines.

While it requires commitment to curiosity, slowing down to perceive and perhaps a few missteps along the way, our personal journey in nourishment can be interesting and rewarding.

Charis shares a piece on the six tastes of Ayurveda in this newsletter that may generate some curiosity around getting to know flavors as an experience, a good jumping off point!

Happy exploring! Let me know what questions you have!

-Carla Fox

The 6 Tastebuds Introduction: A Guide Map to
Optimal Nutrition, Charis Nawrocki

According to Ayurveda, the ‘sense of taste’ is a natural guide map towards proper nutrition. Much of the wisdom of Ayurveda nutrition rests on the tip of your tongue, literally!

The 6 Tastes of Food: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Pungent, Astringent.

The brain sends the body signals when it requires energy in the form of food. When only some of the 6 Tastes are regularly consumed, those specific taste buds can become over-stimulated. Incorporating all 6 tastes into each meal/snack can ensure that these signals are adequately met, thus avoiding food cravings or the overconsumption of certain foods. For example, if the taste bud receptors most commonly stimulated are sweet, salty, sour, then these specific receptors become over-stimulated and the urge or craving for more of these ‘tastes’ grows more habitual. Make sense?

Here are the 6 sensory receptors in the tongue and their correlating physical properties:

SWEET (milk, meats, grains, fruits, natural sugars)
-builds tissues, calms nerves

SOUR (sour fruits, yogurt, and fermented foods)
-cleanses tissues, increases absorption of minerals

SALTY (natural salts, sea vegetables)
-improves taste of foods, lubricates tissues, stimulates digestion

BITTER (dark leafy/most cruciferous greens, coffee, herbs and spices)
-detoxifies and lightens tissues

PUNGENT (chili pepper, cayenne, garlic, ginger, horseradish, ‘heat’ herbs/spices)
-stimulates digestion and metabolism

ASTRINGENT (legumes, raw fruits and vegetables, raw herbs)
-absorbs water, tightens tissues, dries fats

If this resonates with you then start incorporating all 6 Tastes today! Practice consistency with it for at least 30 days – though many find results unfold and certain food cravings diminish within as little as 7 days! Take it easy with it, have fun with your meals and snacks, and enjoy the feelings and improved healthful experiences you create for yourself with this ‘mindful eating’ practice! Peace-

-Charis Nawrocki

“If this were a pill, it would be the most prescribed pill ever.”

2/19/2020

The majority of the research in exercise is related to the impact cardiorespiratory exercise can have on one’s health. And these health benefits are so amazing that people will often say things like “If this were a pill, it would be the most prescribed pill ever.” And you would be hard-pressed to find any health care practitioner who disagrees with the fact that the exercise that fits the common understanding of “cardio” is good for the body.

But one of those much newer areas of research has less to do with the great benefits to the body that come from cardio, and are specifically related to the brain benefits. Humans, like other animals, have an increased production of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) from aerobic exercise. While it is not yet clear whether this increase stimulates the creation of new neurons in the brain (as it does in other animals) or whether it is just that the existing neurons have an increase in connections, it is clear that there are functional improvements in cognitive processing and memory; as well as, size increases in areas like the hypothalamus.

Building from this science is an area of exercise science research that is demonstrating that the maximal BDNF increase is realized when cognitive challenges are undertaken during moderate aerobic exercise. While it is too soon to be specific about what types of brain work during exercise will yield the greatest benefit, it is fair to say that zoning out to a TV while you walk on a treadmill is not giving you the most benefit to your brain.

It turns out that the goal of the body to find the easiest way and to conserve calories is not just related to the body and biomechanics. It also applies to the brain. Whether building new neurons, increasing connections or simply increasing usage it all requires energy. And, just like with the muscles of the body, for your body to devote more energy it has to be an adaptation that is justified. If you don’t use it, you will lose it because the body’s goal is conserving calories.

I suspect that in the near future we will see a lot of video games and/or games built into cardio machines that are specifically designed to stimulate the brain while exercising; but in the mean time you can certainly think about the cardio you do and whether you are following parameters to achieve the maximal benefits you could, for your brain and your body. After all, if you are going to devote the time and effort, wouldn’t you want the most gain?

As always, let me know how I can help.

-Adam Milligan

How we 'dose' aerobic exercise in the body we take care of.

2/17/2020

Cardio for me is preventative maintenance/medicine and a supportive activity for other stuff I want to do. It hasn’t ever been the “main attraction” for me. Figuring out my “why” around it has historically helped me create the space and care for it. It offers me a feeling of empowerment, a place to work through frustration and sometimes absolute pleasure.

For the last 8 months or so, my cardio has been a 5 day a week experience. 20 minutes on the elliptical or spinning bike with a couple bouts of intensity on the versa climber added in there.
-Carla Fox

I struggle with consistency in my cardio. It seems like I can keep up my goal of running 3-5 days a week for a 30 minute minimum for several months, particularly when I have a longer event for which I’m training, and then…..getting a bit more rest seems so appealing. I didn’t start running until my mid 40s and have always used a run/walk combination. Now after over 20 years of running various distances from a mile to a marathon, my current goal distance is between 2 - 6 miles. The intervals allow me to regulate the intensity as well as my attitude. I currently monitor my heart rate, pace, distance and intervals through a Garmin Forerunner watch.

After a non-running vacation and time off due to sickness, I am in the struggle phase – but thanks to my running friends who are willing to adjust their pace, I ran both Saturday and Sunday this weekend and I’ll be up and at it again Monday morning.  That’s the thing with cardio – lack of consistency can make it feel like you are starting all over. I have to admit I know that feeling too well!

I enjoy running outdoors more than doing cardio indoors. When I use the EQUIVITA treadmill or cross trainer, I spend a lot of time in my head making bargains and trying to convince myself that I can push for just 1 more minute. Although I run on my own, I really look forward to getting together with my running friends. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we don’t. It just matters that we get together and move.
-Mary Binion

For me, cardio is not my favorite piece of a workout and I'm not good at it! That being said, last spring I went out and got a new bike to ride and I'm loving it!! It definitely gets my heart rate up and I can go for an easy ride, or push myself and go for a hard ride for a good sweat session! This time of year is hard and I struggle with cardio, simply because the bike has been good to me and my knees and this weather makes it tough to get outside and ride. Getting the bike has been helpful to my thought process on cardio in that it certainly makes it a bit easier on my body AND I actually WANT to go out and ride!!! Bring on the spring sunshine and warmer temps!!!
-Cheryl Harris

While I realize the value of cardio (aerobic exercise) is measured by heart rate training, and that there are a host of trackers available for this purpose, I select and ‘dose’ aerobic exercise for how it makes me feel. I like to feel my body power. I like to feel connected, electric and vital. ALSO, I like to push a sense of my control over some of my body systems.

My Power Trip: That is the choice to do a high-intensity interval session (often a half hour) on a spin bike. I also enjoy the sweat from an interval run, often using the treadmill. While both are intense, they work my body/mind differently. When I know I need to finish my cardio with a sharp mind, I use Brian K. Mitchell’s Stayin’ Fit Spin Class on YouTube. Good music and solid instruction, makes me feel like I’m dancing on that spin cycle, meanwhile I sweat and my quads burn! At the end of this, I swear I feel as smart as I am possibly going to be. For example I like to time a spin cycling session before a more demanding brain work session, like an afternoon of writing or strategic planning.

If you want to get a bit more technical, to experience burn in the muscle of the quads, one has to accumulate lactate in the blood which happens in the muscles at a higher level of exercise intensity/energy demand. Your body has to clear the lactate from the blood and working muscles and process it back to usable fuels. Lactate threshold is the point at which production outstrips the clearing process and higher levels of blood lactate start to accumulate in the muscles.

Interestingly, around 2006 you start to see a shift in the view that lactate in the muscle was simply a limiting element to an athlete, but rather the newer understandings suggest that lactate is a valuable energy substrate for various physiological systems, such as the brain, heart and skeletal muscle. Lactate generation has been identified as advantageous within these systems not only during exercise, but also at rest!!! I thought the smarts thing was simply the byproduct of feeling like a cycle-warrior.

In the end, I think it’s nice how the investment in a spin class—a dose of cardio that makes me feel tough and happy, can often take down the amount of time it takes me to accomplish a heady work project, and finally delivers me a more complete sense of rest. Earned rest, the very best~
-Tami Wise

Cardio is one of my favorite forms of exercise. I can remember going for hikes with family and friends from a young age. Then, too, for a few years there was the Sunday bike ride that my dad would get us out on. Later came swimming on a team, which I enjoyed almost as much as the friendships I found in it. Today, not only do I enjoy doing laps at the pool but also biking and running, which has made triathlons gain their appeal. The cherry on top of it all is Capoeira—a Brazilian art form that combines movement (cardio, strength and balance), percussion instruments and chanting. Getting those vocal chords to chime in can be a bit of diaphragm workout too, can’t it?
-Nelson Carson

Massage for Optimal Gains from your Resistance Training

1/29/2020

You already know that massage can ease the tightness and soreness that can come from resistance training, making you feel a greater sense of recovery between bouts of exercise. And you also know that it can improve the blood flow that is necessary for optimal tissue healing and recovery from resistance training. But did you know that one of the best ways that massage maximizes your benefits of resistance training is by decreasing your body’s ability to cheat during the exercise?

To understand how, we must first start with the fact that it takes fewer calories to hold a contraction than to release it. I realize this can be counterintuitive because of our experience using muscles while working out, but the usage of a whole muscle is different than what is happening in the different parts of the muscle. In a muscle fiber, the contracted state is held static until energy is used to break the bonds. This means that it is more efficient, which for our definition means requires fewer calories. So, if the body can hold a part of a muscle in this contracted state and then leverage it, using the muscle more like connective tissue, to perform the movement then there is greater efficiency.

This is why proper form is essential to gain the greatest benefit from your exercise and also how massage can help to ensure that you are using the most amount of the right muscles. Knots and ropeyness are restrictions in muscles that hinder your ability to use the whole muscle, since part of it is already in the contracted state. Consistent therapeutic massage can identify and address these restrictions before they have a negative impact.

The frequency you should have this type of massage depends on how quickly your body develops these muscular contractions. A good guideline for a healthy body is to receive massage every 4-6 weeks. This interval typically provides the therapist with the ability to detect the restrictions and to release them before they develop into requiring more aggressive types of massage.

This is the reason we designed our Massage Rewards Membership to include a monthly 60 minute massage.

The Resistance Key: maintaining or increasing the strength of the body

1/29/2020

All of the 5Keys of Fitness have an equal role to play when it comes to the fitness of your body and, dependent on variables like goals, some are more of a priority than others at a given time. For me, winter feels like the right time for resistance training.

Maybe it is the cold weather that makes outdoor activities, like kayaking, less appealing. Maybe it is related to the comfort of a cozy fire feeling so much better if it has been earned. Maybe it is because winter is perfect for spending time in the kitchen baking and my appetite is increased by some heavy weight lifting. Regardless of the reasons, to me, winter is the time for resistance training.

The Resistance Key encompasses a full spectrum of exercise that can all be summarized with one of two goals; maintaining or increasing the strength of the body, and achieving these goals is entirely dependent on providing your body with the appropriate therapeutic dose.

I know that this can get confusing and it is made all the more so by the amount of misinformation that is generated. So, let’s simplify by starting with the body’s goal. Your body wants to maximize efficiency by having as little muscle as is necessary to perform the activities required of it. This is why you will lose muscle when you stop doing the activity that your body developed the muscle to be able to do. We all experience this and it is so natural that we might not have even given it any thought. If today you decide that you want to do 30 push-ups and you can only do 2, you can train over the next few months and build up to being able to do 30. But then, having achieved your goal, if you stop doing push-ups your body will return to the original state of not being able to do 30 push-ups.

This process is true for all of us, speeds up as we age and is very body-part specific. The admirable efficiency focus of the body enables your body to maintain only those muscles that are needed for the activity you do. If you don’t use it, you do lose it.

Resistance training exercises can be targeted to balance the body by focusing on muscles that aren’t used as much with your daily activity. Upper body exercises for a cyclist, or upper back and shoulder exercises for a swimmer are examples of programming to counter the imbalances through appropriate resistance training.

Body balancing and posture stabilizing are an important aspect of the Resistance Key and are the first step toward programming that would increase your body’s strength. Proper form for an exercise is holding the correct position that will keep the stress of the exercise on the targeted muscles. Keeping stress on a muscle goes against the body’s goal, especially if the amount of work that the muscle is doing is at the level where it will stimulate the increase in muscle.

You can think about increases in muscle as the body’s last resort- remember increasing the amount of muscle is the exact opposite of the goal of the body - and it will only add muscle when it has tried everything else.

Holding proper form ensures that your body can’t leverage on joints and connective tissue or use other muscles to perform the exercise.

Performing the repetitions in a set without rest ensures that as muscle fibers fatigue they cannot be given the opportunity to recover and help the workload. Your body responds to this by increasing the energy capabilities of the muscle and using more of the muscle fibers.

Then, after trying leverage and maximizing existing muscle is not enough to meet the demands, your body will start to put energy toward building new muscle. And while this is a very slow process, it can be enhanced by ensuring your efforts in the other Keys (especially Rest and Nutrition) are focused on encouraging your body to build muscle. If you are going to put forth the time and effort toward working out, then it just makes sense to get the maximum results.

As always, let me know how I can help.

-Adam Milligan

Heart Rate Variability

12/18/2019

You already know that the fitness industry uses heart rate as a means to attempt to assess the amount of work that your body is performing and that this assessment is based on the number of beats per minute. But did you know that there is also a far more useful way to assess and use heart rate? It is called Heart Rate Variability.

Heart Rate Variability is the difference in the interval of time between heart beats. Normally this interval decreases when you inhale and increases as you exhale. This means that your heart rate is faster when you breathe in and slower when you breathe out. The variance of the beat-beat rate, as opposed to the total beats per minute, has been shown by the Heart Math Institute to be indicative of the stress that your body is dealing with at that moment.

Just identifying the stress is not very helpful. That’s where some training can help to show you how you can make a difference in your body’s response. It’s been over 15 years since I purchased my first Heart Math product and in that time I have watched them consistently advance research and improve their technologies. Most recently, they have developed a smart phone app to make their tools even more user friendly. Having tested it with a couple clients, I have found it to be a great way to get you started on connecting with your own heart rate variability.

There is still so much to learn about how the heart governs, informs and connects us, and realizing that there is much more is the first step. Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about Heart Rate Variability.

And, as always, let me know how I can help.

-Adam

A Perspective from New Orleans

3/6/2019

by Adam Milligan

Recently, I was visiting the city of New Orleans and during this trip had decided to take a walking tour through the garden district. I like to take tours because I like to learn about the education of an area and I enjoy the unique insights from the person leading the tour. The character who led this particular walking tour was full of this type of information and, dare I say, entertainment. One of the many things he shared has continued to whirl around in my mind and is the inspiration of this writing.

In describing why the only Creole who had built a home in the Garden District didn’t continue to live in that home for long, he said that the life focus of Americans (his classification of the people who lived in the Garden District) was at odds with the focus of the Creoles. Americans, he explained, were focused on acquiring and displaying wealth. The Creoles, however, were searching for pleasure.

Now, I don’t know how true this statement is and as with everything am certain it was not so simple. It does, however, through its simplicity stimulate a consideration of where one falls on the continuum of life focus. If there were only two extremes, one focused on attainment and the other on experiences, then I suspect that many would say that their focus on attainment is so that they can have the experiences. The risk you take with this model is knowing when to make the shift. It is very easy to develop patterns that then become so comfortable, and known, that disrupting them seems too challenging. And when presented with the potential discomfort of change the brain might come up with all sorts of good reasons why now is not the time. In fact, the brain will never think it is time. Which is exactly the reason why you should do it now. Don’t wait. Even if you need to start small. Take the steps or just a step in the direction of living the lifestyle that you want.

And, as always, let me know how I can help.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Needs and Wants

12/8/2018

Adam Milligan, President EQUIVITA

Recently I was at a restaurant and overheard a woman ordering her food by saying that she needed the items she was ordering. She wasn't being overly dramatic, she was simply using the word "need" in place of the word "want" and this was enough to get me thinking about how often people mislead themselves into thinking that their wants are actually needs.

For me, I live in what is perhaps the easiest time in human history. Those needs that my ancestors - even as recently as my grandparents - struggled to attain, take very little of my focus. In fact, the attention that it typically takes is not the need aspect but the want that takes the focus. I don't need to find clean water, as an example, I chose the water I want to drink based on taste or convenience.

I try to be mindful and appreciate these choices that I am lucky enough to have but in our society it is not easy. We are constantly blasted with examples of solutions that will fix whatever problem that we have been convinced that we have ( with great marketing words like "halitosis") and provided with idealized versions of life comparisons. Sometimes you can be lucky enough to have a clear wake-up like Chris provides in his article this month as an example of how easily the brain goes straight to the down-side comparison and how a simple realization switch can reset your thinking. And sometimes that reset button is hard to find because it is too hard to see objectively when you are buried under a whole lot of negatives.

Take a moment to think about balancing the hundreds or thousands of times every day that you are subjected to a message about something wrong with you or your life. Imagine telling yourself something positive for each non-positive message. It is almost ludicrous to consider that much positive reinforcement yet we know that our brains are far more wired to believe and accept negatives than positives, so really even that ridiculous level of equaling the amount of messages would still not be enough to balance.

Please don't take that to mean that positive messages are pointless, they are very important and part of the greater whole. They also need to be reinforced by placing the negative messages in context. Do you think that Olympic sprinters beat themselves up about how they aren't as strong as the powerlifters? I sure hope not but this, to me, is much the same as the mother of young children who also works outside the home and compares her fitness to others. Our life of choice requires trade-offs.

Since it is not realistic to become a world class gymnast and sumo wrestler it hardly seems logical to...well, we're not talking logic. We are talking emotion. All these comparative manipulations, regardless of where they originated, are using your emotions to sway your decision making. If you can gain some distance you can see that it is not possible to have it all. There are simply too many options and fretting over all of the choices you didn't take will detract from the ones you did choose.

As you might know, I am a big believer in doing the activities necessary to ensure your body is able to support the lifestyle that you want to have. For me, I like being strong, but if I chose to not lift weights then it doesn't make sense for me to fret about getting weaker - it is going to happen and worrying will not make that change. This is a choice and hopefully I would have chosen to do something with the time I wasn't lifting that holds as much, if not more, value to me than being strong.

Short term choices create long-term trade-offs and what you choose now is for the future, but in this rarified environment of choice it is far too easy to get overwhelmed and stressed through comparatives. If what you want is not obvious to you, start by choosing future needs. If in the future you want a lifestyle where you have maintained your health, strength and vitality then there are choices that you can make right now to support those goals.

As always, let me know how I can help.

Adam