Tabatas? Gesundheit! ~ by Marj Ivancic

Photo: Deposit Photos

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m an advocate for exercise and physical activities for all the mental, emotional, and physical reasons touted in media channels across the board. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to share one of my favorites with you. 

It’s something called Tabata.

I think it worthy of sharing because it mitigates three key roadblocks people often site as reasons for not trying and/or adopting exercise:

Structure

Variety

Adaptability

Now technically, Tabata is a form of interval training, but for the sake of this conversation, I’m going to look at it as a pattern of movement. I’m doing so because when people hear “interval training,” they immediately imagine a sculpted twenty-something yelling at them to work harder, and that’s NOT how I look at Tabata.

At its most basic, here’s how Tabata works.

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For twenty seconds, you move. Then you rest for ten seconds. Repeat that sequence eight times, and that is “one” Tabata. Between Tabatas, you rest a full minute. So, in total, one Tabata is five minutes long. You can daisy chain as many together as you like. 

And to make it even easier, there are companies, like Power Music, that premix soundtracks with all the start/stop/rest cues that you need, so you don’t even have to watch a clock or find music with a good beat.

That’s the structure to which I referred earlier.

Now comes the variety. 

For those twenty seconds of movement, you get to choose what you do! And you can do whatever you want. You can do the same movement all eight times, or you can mix and match. You can do cardio, weights, a combo—it’s up to you.  And you can include equipment, like treadmills and ellipticals, or simply make space in your living room for some fancy footwork. You’re in the privacy of your own home; be as silly as you want. 

Photo: Deposit Photos

And here’s where the adaptability comes into play!

If you’re limber enough and can go all out with burpees, squat-jacks, sprints, and so on—have at it! You want to resurrect some good ole Jane Fonda moves, do it!  Or if you have an ailment or an impairment, go with whatever you are able AND allowed to do—seated leg lifts, arm raises, etc. (Obviously, consult with you doctor before trying anything!!!) It doesn’t matter what “level” you’re working at, just as long as you’re putting focus and intention into what you’re doing.

Photo: Deposit photos

The point I’m making is that you don’t have to be a gym rat to use this technique. You can adjust this to fit your individual needs across the board—time, activity, level. It doesn’t matter what you do. The end result is movement. And movement is good…good for the body, the brain, and the heart.

Media: How Do You Take Yours? ~ by Cynthia Land

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Hong Kong Kung Fu has fascinated me ever since my father/family was stationed in Manila in the early 1980’s. I remember being both mesmerized and amused by a female actress handily beating on men in a roadside cafe scrap.  Fast forward a few years later when a co-worker introduced me to the work of Jackie Chan. This combination of choreographed martial arts and humor just hit my brain in a new and delicious way. Of course the movies weren’t all humor but the Kung Fu was what epically drew me back like a tide on a beach.  I made forays into Hong Kong directors such as John Woo and found I didn’t have the same love for his movies because the level of violence was so high I couldn’t manage it. The funny Kung Fu of Jackie Chan was obviously slap stick and I could compartmentalize it into humor but the outright anger and revenge of Woo and his contemporaries was hard to take. 

As a yogi, I'm hardwired against violence for the sake of violence.  However, I don't seem to be against a good wack up the side of the head in order to get someone's attention.  Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle (2004) is a master class in a good wack for comedic effect. Here's what I'm talking about. Kung Fu Hustle scene I will state that I was not a fan of the Ax Men massacre scene.  I know he had to go over the top, but that did reach my limit.  One of Chow's other movies, CJ7 (2008) is a howl.  Check it out.  Here

Yoga teaches cultivation of inner stillness.  Martial arts also has a long tradition of teaching inner stillness.  Many Kung Fu movies show the young acolyte made to head to some far away mountain cave to meditate for some impossible amount of time.  I'm seriously over exaggerating here but, after said impossible amount of time they perform as in this scene cut from a Jackie Chan/Jet Li film from 2008 called The Forbidden Kingdom. Here's the deleted scene. Overall a

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pretty crap film but I enjoyed the fight scenes.  Which brings me to another amazing Chinese director, Yimou Zhang, who made Hero which came out in 2002. It has what is quite possibly the best martial arts sequence ever made, between Jet Li and Tony Leung.  I know you might not think of there being silence in a fight but I think there is a lot of meditative space in this sequence.  Decide for yourself.  

Now if we take these physical forms and move them into the mind we can see how we wrangle with ourselves in messy ways.  We wack ourselves with imaginary shoes, slam ourselves against imaginary walls and bang our heads into imaginary tables, probably to no effect.  And there's no laugh track.  Yoga invites us to study and practice the Eight Limbs and delve into ideas such as contentment and self study so that we feel less inclined to engage in acts of violence against ourselves and others.  Just like any of the martial arts, these take daily, sometimes hourly practice and are never truly mastered.  Something is always left to learn.  

I have often heard the phrase, "garbage in garbage out."  This comes to mind when I get into phases of watching TV shows I probably shouldn't.  I am unapologetically a  child of the 70's/80's.  I grew up on Laugh In, Bonanza, Gun Smoke & The Rockford Files.  So when a remake of Hawaii 5-0 came out in 2010, you know I was going to watch it.  Alex

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O'Laughlin isn't hard on the eyes either.  However when the producers kept upping the violence ante, I finally stopped watching.  I just couldn't reconcile their use of torture scenes as entertainment.  They just didn't seem in any way necessary to the progression of their plot lines.  This also became true for shows such as The Blacklist (and I love James Spader) and Breaking Bad.  

Now I pick my TV shows a little more carefully.  Some would say; "Why watch TV at all? It's all trash."  I love stories.  I love media.  I read. I watch movies. I watch TV.  I just have to take care in the use of media.  If garbage is going in, then I can't be surprised if my mind is troubled.  I watch the barest amount of news, just to make sure I haven't missed something truly critical and then I move on to something more pertinent to my immediate life or something more entertaining.  

You may be surprised to read that I've been watching Killing

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Eve.  It's the story of two women, one an MI-5 agent and the other an assassin who have become entangled with one another.  I'm deeply intrigued by the psychology of the two women.  Each is obsessed with the other in ways that defy understanding.  The violence, while intense, is almost an afterthought.  I also enjoy watching books made into TV shows.  I'm watching The Discovery of Witches and Good Omens.  Both have Sci-Fi and historical fiction elements, ticking two of my interest boxes.  My choices must leave me feeling something but, what I'm feeling should not be dread. 

Goals...Why Not Stack the Odds? ~ by Marj Ivancic

photo courtesy of pexels.com

For many years, I subscribed to a variety of health-related magazines because I enjoyed learning new exercises as well as tweaks that I could make to my eating habits and daily practices to improve my overall wellness.

Interestingly enough, the more I read, the more it became clear that those articles weren’t just teaching lessons about weight loss and diet. They were instruction manuals for how to make a change in one’s life and, perhaps more importantly, how to sustain that new model. The principles they shared are guiding tenets meant to keep the practitioner grounded and moving forward.

#1 BE FORGIVING
You are going to have setbacks, times when your plan isn’t working

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or when an unexpected roadblock is thrown in your way. This is not a prediction; it’s a fact. Acknowledge this at the beginning of your journey so that when it happens, you are prepared to some degree. You don’t have to beat yourself up over it. Reflect on it, learn from it, but then check it off the list and move on.

#2 START SMALL
Very few things compare to the feeling you get from achieving a goal. It’s a rush of pride and excitement that thrums throughout the body. So why make them impossible to capture? You know yourself better than anyone else does. You know what you can and cannot handle. Break up your long-term goals into pieces that are realistic and attainable for YOU. Short sprints of action can be daisy-chained together to become long-running success. And even if one of these links break, the setback is significantly less of an impact because it’s just one tiny piece in a larger effort.

#3 HAVE A PLAN, BUT BE FLEXIBLE
Go into the journey knowing what you’re getting into. Plan out

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those small steps and set goals within goals. Understand the dependencies between them all. And remember guideline #1; think about potential failure points and have a plan B workaround for when surprises happen. Aim to be a step ahead of yourself and your environment.

#4 MAKE IT VISIBLE
When something is in front of you, it’s pretty hard to ignore or forget. Keeping your goals where you’re reminded of them keeps you accountable and reinforces both your successes and the work yet to do. Some folks like to go public with their goals; friends and family can be great motivators. But that approach doesn’t work for everyone nor is it the only step to take. Little things, like putting inspirational pictures, articles and quotes where you’ll see them on a regular basis—the fridge, the bathroom mirror, above your bed—can make a big difference between success and failure.

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Obviously, nothing can guarantee success. Life is one big poker table, and each goal we set is a gamble. But if the four steps listed above can help hundreds of people lose weight and eat better, why can’t they push the odds in your favor for the other bets you make in life?

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