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Brain Food: Not Everybody is Kung Fu Fighting. By The Numbers: You Can't Afford to Let These Numbers Make You Ill. The Better Buzz: Stay Stuck To Your New Year's Resolution What Were They Thinking? Thinking About Your Future? In the News: Plus One Always Provides the Best Also in this issue: B.L.T. |
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4.3 - The number of times more, that was spent on national health care, than was spent on national defense in 2004. 45 - The number in millions of Americans that do not have health care coverage, although the US spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens. 11.2 - The percentage that employer health insurance premiums increased in 2004 - nearly four times the rate of inflation. |
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14 - The percentage that spending for prescription medicines increased between 2001 and 2003. 13.7 - The total in billions that out-of-pocket spending for health care rose in 2003, bringing the number to $230 billion. |
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| - Compiled by Liza Hall, Group Fitness
Director, Plus One, California (Source: National Coalition on Health Care) |
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So you sat down and told yourself that come January 1 you're going to stop smoking. Or start exercising. Or lose weight. Maybe better cope with stress. Wow, that's great! Congrats! So how you gonna do it? Wait until the last second? Wing it? Good question, right? Well, not just a good question, THE question. A study from the University of Washington Addictive Behavioral Center (UWABC) showed that scarcely 40% of those vowing health-related changes succeeded. Failures to possess both confidence and a markedly-defined plan of attack were among the top reasons why. The most important point to consider when making New Year's Resolutions is to decide if you truly are willing to make the effort to kick a bad habit or start a healthy one. Making a decision to change just because it's New Year's Day isn't enough to keep you motivated for long. Lasting change, further states the UWABC, means "being prepared to make sacrifices". And that means any day of the year! Which brings us to another top reason for failure: the pressure to make a change at one specific moment in time is a sure-fire ingredient for failure. Remember this: 2005 was Saturday and 2006 was Sunday. That's all! Keeping that fact in mind when committing yourself to change means you could choose a Saturday and Sunday in mid-March. Or a couple in June. How about this year's October 7th and 8th? Regardless of when you choose to make your change, consider these tips toward sticking to them: - Have a strong initial commitment to make a change. |
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- Keep track of your progress. The more monitoring you do and feedback you get, the better you will do. Understand your fear of change; become fully aware of the consequences of not changing your current habits and the advantages of adopting new behaviors. In order to commit to a change you need to know why you are doing it. Think about what you want to achieve, and why. If your resolution is to quit smoking, why? It's important to spell them out to yourself. You will need to remind yourself of them sometime down the road. Thinking about what you want to do is the first step towards doing it. (Just be careful not to get stuck at this step). It allows you to become a little more aware of yourself and your lifestyle. You will start paying attention to what prompts your smoking, or your overeating. This information is valuable to breaking your habit. If you know that you always overeat when you get home from work, that might be just the right time to plan your workouts. Defend your reasons to change. These will become the cornerstones of all the work you have ahead of you. And be fair to yourself. A similar study, conducted by Columbia University, further warns against setting goals too high, such as expecting to exercise every day for two hours, starting with a 3-mile run tomorrow. Make your goal realistic; "take credit for success when you achieve a resolution, but don't blame yourself if you fail". You are allowed to try again and can continue to make behavior changes any time you want. It's okay to make big changes through small steps. If you can do just a little bit to get going, soon you'll feel the positive effects of the change. And that little bit of change can lead to long-term healthy habits that last far beyond that one silly day of the year. Jeffrey Fox - Group Fitness Instructor, New York |
 
Thinking About Your Future? For the last 2 years I have been writing this column to give you some insight into what our Experts are thinking as they work with you at www.PlusOneActive.com. With another New Year upon us, I thought you could use some insight on what I recommend you start thinking about to improve the future of your own health through intelligent exercise, physical activity and healthy eating. Think about how healthier you will really look like: We all like to look at pictures of others enjoying that perfect experience. A top-down desert cruise in the new car, a beachfront spa treatment, success at work closing that new deal because of a perfect presentation just downloaded via DSL all come to my mind thanks to the power of advertising. Advertising executives know that if you picture yourself in their client's product having a great experience then chances are good that you will want to buy it. Use this to your own advantage. Picture yourself in perfect health, striding up the stairs 2 at a time, playing with your kids at their pace, ending the day with extra energy, and being positive about tomorrow. This is what a healthier you will feel like. Close your eyes every day and see the vision. |
contd... Think about some simple results that you can share: Tell your spouse that you have promised to exercise every other day for the next 2 weeks and ask them to help you stay the course. Keep track of your progress, make every exercise minute count, be creative, and you are on the way to a healthier lifestyle. After the first 2 weeks review and repeat. Think about how you will celebrate success: Positive thinking is a powerful strategy. You have managed to exercise every other day for 2 weeks. Great job! Now celebrate with anything that makes you feel good, better, and the best. Buy a new shirt, take an extra break from work, go to bed earlier, stay up later or tell someone else how you got it done right. Success feeds on itself and it will help you enjoy your efforts along the way even more. Think about how you will overcome the challenges: Let's face it the hump days will come. The Monday that the car breaks down on the way to the gym, the downpour during your afternoon run-hour and the chest cold courtesy of your 2-year old are all inevitable on the road to health. Plan a realistic response strategy, have a contingency plan and above all do not get discouraged but be proud in the fact that you are prepared. When it is all said and done all this thinking is great as long as the end result is more thoughtful actions. It is also my pleasure on behalf of all of us here at Plus One and www.PlusOneActive.com to wish you a healthier, more thoughtful and action-packed 2006. - Mike Motta is President of www.PlusOneActive.com |
In The News 
Creating a Premier Wellness Experience: Plus One manages programs for employers whose employees expect the best. We provide a team of world-class professionals who are motivated and dedicated to creating a unique and results driven experience to each employee. We offer a wide variety of innovative wellness services including health risk assessments, screenings, online wellness solutions, workshops and lectures, nutritional counseling, recreational programs, onsite physical therapy, and corporate spa. With our unique approach to wellness solutions, we create extraordinary and lasting lifestyle changes for employees as well as reduce health care costs for the client. To find out more about Plus One please visit www.plusone.com. |
Not to dampen your spirit, and you might very well have some talent, but the wisest next step would be a bit of a reality check. I suspect what you're taking is cardio kickboxing, not true kickboxing. While cardio kick is a highly aerobic workout, it does not make you a martial artist. I also loved kickboxing, and took classes for quite a while. Most of my life I had felt somewhat sheepish about my body, I certainly had no concept of any kind of "power". After class, I left the studio lean, mean, and ready to kick butt. I longed for someone to try and give me some trouble so I could bust out some moves. Jab, bob, reverse, knees into the ribs...no more bad guy. That assumption that being able to keep up in a kickboxing class somehow prepares you to defend yourself on the street is a problem I have with cardio kickboxing. Especially when it comes to women. It would take a true kickboxer or martial artist an instant to shatter a shin bone with a well placed kick and drop you with an elbow across the face. Or an instant for a mean natured street fighter to slam your head against the wall just so you don't give him any trouble while he takes what he wants. Sound brutal? Violence is brutal, and terrifying. Cardio kickboxers get pumped with endorphins, they burn quite a few calories delivering side kicks, jabs, round kicks amped with music blasting at high speed. But the truth is, not only is it possible that you are causing repetitive stress syndrome on your elbow and knee joints by throwing kicks and punches quickly into the air, but you are really learning nothing about how to defend yourself. Let's face it, we may wish we were crouching tigers, but many of us have no idea of what it feels like to actually be attacked, threatened, or to really hit someone effectively. Many of us don't know that often, when you are attacked, you freeze, that you have to beat the adrenaline dump so you can move and survive. I learned my first lesson when my interest in kickboxing led me into a karate studio. I'm flexible so I have high kicks, and I remember that during my first class the Master nodded approvingly. |
contd... During one of my first drills with a male partner, the guy tagged me in the stomach. He wasn't supposed to, it was a cheap shot. The higher ranks are taught to go easy, no point in scaring the white belts away. He hadn't hit me that hard, just enough to make me feel queasy. It scared me, I felt an enormous, sickening sense of violation at being hit, and it hurt. I realized I knew nothing about how to defend myself, about how to strike someone, where to strike someone, or how to take a hit. I felt foolish about how I had showed off my kicks in class. They might have been pretty, but that's all they were. After the queasiness wore off, I hit the guy back, hard. I learned to fight, but as I worked towards my black belt and eventually assisted the Master in his women's self-defense seminars, and later taught my own, I discovered a passion for teaching women how to avoid being dragged into a car, how to break out of a choke, how to give themselves an opening to run, to escape, to live. I teach women how to do the most important thing of all, trust their own instincts. The little voices that tell them: I'm in a bad place, a bad situation, this guy may SEEM like Prince Charming, but something just feels wrong. And I teach them to find their power, real power, not just bravado. I should mention that the confidence that comes from a cardiokick class isn't completely worthless. Many times the key to avoiding an attack is appearing self-aware and appearing as if you would not be a cooperative victim. The bottom line is not to get down on the kickboxing class you have so much fun at. It's great to have a workout that turns you on and makes you want more. If you want to begin martial arts training, find a good studio where you click with the instructors. Ask the other students what they think. An art that emphasizes self-defense is very useful for women. There are also many weekend seminars that teach various types of self-defense. Ask questions, find a good one. The right training might save your life. - Liza Hall, Group Fitness Director, Thousand Oaks, California. |
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