Motivation

Like most people, I find it hard to stay motivated to exercise all the time. When a friend of mine worked close by, I had no problem meeting her daily for a quick run… rain or shine. But when she changed jobs, the struggle to stay motivated resurfaced again.

After some trial and error, I found three things that helped me the most:

1. Setting a specific time to run. Just as I did when running with my friend, I set a specific time each day that was dedicated to my workout. I noticed that if I didn’t do that, it was too easy to come up with a million and one projects that were more important to do first and all of the sudden the day had passed. Scheduling my workout in advance, preferably at the same time each day, has made a huge difference.


2. Adding books on tape to my ipod. Listening to music is great, and some songs get me going the minute I hear them. But after about a week of running, I noticed I would just tune out the music and get really bored on my run. Listening to a book on tape or an interview with an interesting person made a huge difference. It almost felt like chatting with a friend and, before I noticed, I had completed my full workout.


3. Nike+ gadget. This is that little sensor you can put inside your Nike shoes or simply attach to the laces on any kind of a shoe. While you run or walk, the sensor communicates with your ipod nano or itouch letting you know how far you’ve run, how fast you’re going and how much further you have to go to complete your goal. You can also set up a power song that, with a press of a button, can come on right when you need to conquer that hill. At the end of a workout you may hear Lance Armstrong congratulate you on completing your fastest mile or longest workout.
   
   But the real advantages of using the Nike+ system, at least for me, are the features that you have available to you when you sync up your ipod with your computer. They include:

• Keeping track of all your workouts


• Setting up goals for yourself


• Creating challenges – for yourself or joining other teams and contributing the miles you ran or walked to an overall team goal


• Creating a cartoon version of yourself (perfect opportunity to try out that pink hair color you’ve been thinking about) that can then become your screen saver and praise you when you workout or scold you (gently) when you don’t.


• Adding any of the above feature to your Facebook or MySpace page so that your friends can cheer you on – and maybe even get inspired to work out themselves.

Given a choice, I still prefer to have a friend at my side when I run. But with this little gadget, her and I can still share our workouts and keep each other motivated – even if it is in cyberspace.

Shoulder Pain After Gallbladder Surgery

Stones present in the gallbladder do not cause problems for everyone, but if they decide to move, they may cause a blockage of the bile duck. This leads to, what is commonly referred to as, a “gallbladder attack.” In this case one of the presenting signs might be pain between the shoulder blades or pain under the right shoulder. Other signs and symptoms include right side abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and fever. Often these symptoms start after consuming fatty meals, or in the middle of the night. A trip to the ER quickly follows and, in most cases, the gallbladder will be removed.

What frustrates many patients and doctors is that the pain in the right shoulder returns and stays even after the gallbladder has been removed and surgery scars have healed. Treatment for this pain usually involves painkillers, which do not work for everyone.

So what can you do?

Positive effects on reducing all kinds of pain with the use of acupuncture have been well publicized. Both patients and doctors recommend acupuncture because it’s safe, non-invasive and does not produce negative side effects. But there is another reason why acupuncture can be very effective in eliminating the pain that occurs after the gallbladder has been removed.

Diagnosis during your acupuncture visit includes palpation and examination of the abdomen as well as specific acupuncture channels to find “weaknesses” in the body that may have contributed to the gallstone formation in the first place. Gallstones and a gallbladder attack are both presenting symptoms, but the goal of an acupuncturist is to find the root of the problem. By observing individual patterns in each patient, we can determine and treat that root cause and therefore eliminate the leftover symptoms – like shoulder pain.

To make it easier for you to visualize how acupuncture works to diagnose and treat the problem, here is my favorite analogy. If you see that a tree in your garden has dry leaves, at first, you may pull off the dry leaves and that’s it. But if you notice that more dead leaves keep showing up without a reason, you will probably check the water supply and look for evidence of bugs or disease somewhere else on the tree. By doing this, you are trying to determine the root of the problem because you intuitively know that the whole tree is connected. That’s the goal of acupuncture – find the true cause of the problem, beyond just the symptoms that are most obvious.

Treating each patient on individual basis helps to create a treatment protocol that is specifically catered to their own needs. For one patient that might be a combination of points “A”, B” and D” while others will get better results with “Z”, “F” and “Q”. This approach not only relieves the pain, it also produces results that last.

Sorry gentleman, this one is for the ladies

It seems that these days a woman’s menstrual cycle is getting all sorts of negative publicity. Think about the last time you heard or read something good about “that time of the month.” If you’re drawing a blank, you’re not alone.

Even if you yourself are not suffering from painful cramps or especially bad mood swings, you’re probably indulging in thoughts of eliminating the vacation-spoiling, wardrobe-limiting, monthly event – at least on occasion.

But there is a reason to, dare I say, embrace the period. The fact is the menstrual cycle is a very good reflection of a woman’s overall health. Regular, pain-free, not too heavy, not too light periods demonstrate that everything from our hormones and fluids to muscles and organs is functioning well.

If you are experiencing painful periods, irregular periods, skipping periods, heavy bleeding or any other symptoms that occur as part of your menstrual experience, don’t wait to get treatments. The sooner you take charge of your body the faster and easier it will be to nudge it back to a balanced state.

If you think that the only options available are over-the-counter drugs, birth control pills or surgical intervention you will be pleasantly surprised by how much acupuncture can help eliminate these symptoms – in a safe and non-invasive way!

Acupuncture has developed a huge following in US over the last few years - by both patients and their gynecologists, because of its high success rates and virtually non-existent negative side effects. In addition, acupuncture diagnosis and treatments DO NOT involve some of the… how should I put this?… dreaded “positions” we end up in during the yearly gynecological check-ups. Instead, acupuncturists rely on pulse diagnosis, acupuncture channel palpation and external-abdominal palpation to design treatments. In fact patients report that the treatments are relaxing and pain free.

If you are suffering from:

Pain – before, during or after your period
Irregular or missed periods
Heavy or very light bleeding or spotting
Fibroids
Changes in mood associated with your cycle
Changes in appetite and digestion associated with your cycle
Skin changes associated with your cycle
Negative reaction to birth control or hormone treatments
Hormonal imbalances
Infertility

Visit your gynecologist for a check-up and call your acupuncturist for some relief.

The sooner you start paying attention to these symptoms that keep reoccurring month after month, the quicker you can say – wait, that really was a “happy period.”