I ran into the following article at the Psychology Today website

http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-20001101-000021.html

Just to grab a bit here is what it has to say.

In a study by psychologist Catherine Sanderson, of Amherst College, college women tend to believe that they exercised less and weighed more than the average person. Her study also found that this misperception increases over time, as college seniors seem much more likely than freshwomen to misjudge the weight and habits of others.

According to Sanderson, the trend goes something like this: “Jane,” the average college freshwoman, first arrives at school weighing 130 pounds. When asked, she estimates that other students weigh approximately 130 pounds—and she’s right. Years pass, and Jane observes other women eating less, bragging about rigorous exercise regimens, and skipping meals. By her senior year, Jane has put on a few pounds. Weighing in at 135, she estimates that the average female student weighs 125 pounds. This time, she’s wrong. The average student weighs what she does—yet Jane doesn’t see it.

People tend to exaggerate their body image. People that are fit seem to over train to get even fitter and people that are overweight tend to dispair because they think there is no way our of the weight problem that they have. The other problem that we all tend to have as well is to not be able to focus on long term solutions in favor of looking at short term problems.

 

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: Amherst College, body image, Catherine Sanderson, psychologist, term solutions

I have not taken a nap in at least a couple of years now but many people will swear by the value of taking a nap on a daily basis. After looking atthe following I am thinking that taking a nap may be in everyones best interest.

There is a great post that I ran across about naps and thought I would share it with you.

To paraphrase the article here are five great reasons to take a nap:

1. Increased Alertness And Productivity
�It seems nature definitely intended that adults should nap in the middle of the day, perhaps to get out of the midday sun,� said William Dement, director of the Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center at Stanford University.

2. Less Stress
So find a quiet, comfortable spot and take a nap. Even a short power nap can leave you feeling refreshed, renewed, and more focused. Studies have shown that people who spent 30 minutes each day napping had one third less heart disease than those who didn�t nap.

3. Improved Memory And Learning
Participants improved on the task throughout the first session, says psychologist Sara C. Mednick of Harvard University and her colleagues. The students� speed and accuracy then leveled off during the second session. The scores of the participants who didn�t nap declined throughout the final two sessions. In contrast, volunteers who took a 30-minute nap after completing the second practice session showed no ensuing performance dips. What�s more, 1-hour nappers responded progressively faster and more accurately in the third and fourth sessions.

4. Increased Cognitive Functioning
n a recent study, researchers at NASA showed that a thirty to forty-minute power nap increased cognitive faculties by approximately 40%!

5. Better Health
Napping in general benefits heart functioning, hormonal maintenance, and cell repair, says Dr. Sara Mednick who is at the forefront of napping research. A power nap, says Mednick, simply maximizes these benefits by getting the sleeper into and out of rejuvenative sleep as fast as possible.

Tags: director, Harvard University, heart disease, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, psychologist, Sara C. Mednick, Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center, Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center at Stanford University, Stanford University, William Dement

I think most people reading this weblog know that I am a pretty big fan of meditation and because of this I tend to find and post articles about meditation more than I should. I found this article at Psychology today and thought I would post it in its entirety.

In the highlands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, people look at life differently. Upon entering the local Buddhist monastery, there is a spectacular sculpture the size of a large oak. The intricate carving of clouds and patterns are painted in powerful colors. But as soon as winter gives way, this magnificent work will melt to nothing. The sculpture, in fact, is made of butter, and it is one of the highland people’s symbols of the transient nature of life.

And life here is not easy. Villagers bicycle to work before dawn and return home long after sunset. Many live with nothing more than dirt floors and rickety outhouses. Upon entering these modest mud-brick homes, you’ll find no tables or chairs — just a long platform bed, which sleeps a family of eight. However, when the people invite you in for tea, their smiles are wide and welcoming. How do they possess such inner calm in conditions we would call less than ideal?

When villagers cook, sew or plow the fields, they do so in a tranquil state. As an approach to life, weaving meditation seamlessly into almost every action throughout the day seems unfamiliar to Western cultures. Is there something we can glean from this way of life that will improve our own? The romantic notion of quitting everything and joining Tibetan monks on a mountaintop is not the only way to meditate. You don’t need to quit your job, give up your possessions and spend 30 years chanting. Recent research indicates that meditating brings about dramatic effects in as little as a 10-minute session. Several studies have demonstrated that subjects who meditated for a short time showed increased alpha waves (the relaxed brain waves) and decreased anxiety and depression.
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Tags: alpha waves, atherosclerosis, brain meditation, California, cancer, cardiovascular disease, Chicago, clinical psychologist, depression, Diana Adile Kirschner, energy, Fairfield, fight disease, Harvard Medical School, heart attack, heart disease, Herbert Benson, infertility, Iowa, Irvine, Mark Epstein, meditation, Monterey Park, MRI technology, New York City, pain, Philadelphia, psychiatrist, psychologist, Psychotherapy, Qinghai, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Rob Nairn, Roger Thomson, School of Management, Steven Hendlin, the American Journal of Psychotherapy, tibetan monks, welcome tool

Another Really good Reason to be aware of your surroundings and to keep yourself in shape. This article from the associated press show how people are creatures of habit but I have seen so many times that if you really want to change than you have it in your grasp to do so.

Just when we thought we couldn’t get any fatter, a new study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight.

Even if you are one of the lucky few who made it to middle age without getting fat, don’t congratulate yourself _ keep watching that waistline.

Half of the men and women in the study who had made it well into adulthood without a weight problem ultimately became overweight. A third of those women and a quarter of the men became obese.

“You cannot become complacent, because you are at risk of becoming overweight,” said Ramachandran Vasan, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University and the study’s lead author.

He and other researchers studied data gathered from 4,000 white adults over 30 years. Participants were between the ages of 30 and 59 at the start, and were examined every four years. By the end of the study, more than 1 in 3 had become obese.
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Tags: and Blood Institute, arthritis, associate professor, associate professor of medicine, Boston University, cancers, diabetes, director, Elizabeth G. Nabel, food, heart disease, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, lead author, Lung, Mark Vander Weg, Massachusetts, Mayo Clinic, National Heart, obesity, obesity researcher, professor of medicine, professor of medicine and an obesity researcher, psychologist, Ramachandran Vasan, Susan Bartlett, the Annals of Internal Medicine, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States

Sleep, rest and relaxation are a very important part of your daily ritual. I know that in the past I have gotten reved up with many projects and before long something has to be let go and it is usually the sleep that I need for a while. Don’t do it! As your sleep and rest start dropping you lose focus and can be lured into bad habits, sugar, coffee, and bad food. The worst thing about a lack of rest is that your body will not have a chance to heal from your earlier workouts, this can be very bad as you not only will feel sore longer but it will also suck your optimism for your new lifestyle.

How Much Sleep to Get

How much rest is enough? You probably already know this. I myself do not wake up with an alarm clock or clock radio anymore. I am fortunate to have a flexible start time and know that I will not sleep in past 8:00 in the morning. Try going to be earlier in the evening for a few nights and see when you wake up. In the fall and winter I always tape the TV shows that I watch so that I can get a chance to watch them when it is convenient to me not when it is convenient for the TV networks.

Another thing that pro bodybuilders do is have a nap in the afternoon, a nap can be great in cleansing your mind and letting you learn to relax better but you will probably find as I do that it si almost impossible to do except maybe on the weekends.

You can probably see from the tone of this information that I am delivering here that you must stop treating sleep and rest as something that takes away from something and instead learn to treat it as your own personal time, something a little more sacred than just something unavoidable that has to be done.

The Effects of Sleep

According to leading sleep researchers, there are techniques to combat common sleep problems:

• Keep a regular sleep/wake schedule
• Don’t drink or eat caffeine four to six hours before bed and minimize daytime use
• Don’t smoke, especially near bedtime or if you awake in the night
• Avoid alcohol and heavy meals before sleep
• Get regular exercise
• Minimize noise, light and excessive hot and cold temperatures where you sleep
• Develop a regular bed time and go to bed at the same time each night
• Try and wake up without an alarm clock
• Attempt to go to bed earlier every night for certain period; this will ensure that you’re getting enough sleep

According to sleep researchers, a night’s sleep is divided into five continually shifting stages, defined by types of brain waves that reflect either lighter or deeper sleep. Toward morning, there is an increase in rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, when the muscles are relaxed and dreaming occurs, and recent memories may be consolidated in the brain.

No Hitting the Snooze Button

The experts say that hitting a snooze alarm over and over again to wake up is not the best way to feel rested. “The restorative value of rest is diminished, especially when the increments are short,” said psychologist Edward Stepanski, PhD who has studied sleep fragmentation at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. This on and off again effect of dozing and waking causes shifts in the brain-wave patterns. Sleep-deprived snooze-button addicts are likely to shorten their quota of REM sleep, impairing their mental functioning during the day. (New York Times, October 12, 2004)

Certain therapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy teach people how to recognize and change patterns of thought and behavior to solve their problems. Recently this type of therapy has been shown to be very effective in getting people to fall asleep and conquer insomnia.

According to a study published in the October 2004 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, cognitive behavior therapy is more effec

Tags: Chicago, cognitive behavioral therapy, Edward Stepanski, insomnia, New York Times, psychologist, Rush University Medical Center, sleep fragmentation, The Archives of Internal Medicine