Hi Sarah I have a question regarding physical/emotional? rehabilitation following a c-section. I am looking to re-connect my ABS!

Hi Gina, Having a cesarean whether it's planned or unplanned can be very traumatic for many reasons. Whether you are dealing with the healing process of major surgery, the emotional loss of a vaginal birth, or the reminiscence of abs gone by, it can be a difficult time that is rarely talked about. There is an amazing website written by a woman who had a cesarean and felt there weren't enough resources for her. On her site she has links and groups that can help you deal with any issue you may have in the recovery process.
I was also recently turned onto a fabulous book by a good friend of mine who also had a cesarean, on how to get back the core you had before. It's called, "Lose your Mummy Tummy" and I have to say, having read it, it inspires even those of us who have yet to give birth or even get pregnant. I hope that these resources help!

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Take a load off

Two weeks ago I graduated from school. I now have a master’s degree in psychology and counseling. Woo-hoo for me right? Everyone keeps coming up to me and slapping me on the back, “congratulations Sarah, you must be so excited. What’s next?” And all I want to do is walk my dog and watch TV. Well, I have become a smidgen more motivated but last week, that was it. I would come home from work, leisurely walk Coco for a couple hours (read: stand at the dog park while he plays with other dogs) and then come home to watch TV. Last Tuesday I watched 6 hours of television in one stretch. I have never done that before in my entire life. Even when I have been ill, the watching was at least intertwined with napping and soup eating. I watched two movies, one hour-length sitcom and three half hour ones. Needless to say, I was very entertained.

Unfortunately I awoke the next day to a searing soreness in my hips and hamstrings. I hobbled out of bed grabbing my lower back and wincing. When I tried to stand up straight, my legs wouldn’t unbend. I was in a permanent skier stance.

“What happened to me?” I cried.

As I as I walked to work like a little old lady I ran over the past two days exercise regimes. Did I partake in an extremely advanced yoga class? Did I actually sign up for those boxing lessons I’ve been meaning to try? What could have possibly done this to me? Could it have been the dog walking? And then I realized, I haven’t done any intense exercise in the past few days, all I have done is watch TV.

Ah-ha! Call Oprah, it’s my moment: Sitting down can cause our muscles to get tight!

How come it’s not good for me then? Don’t I want tight muscles? Ok, smart Alex, yes it’s true, but would you ever hold an isometric bicep curl for 6 hours? Not only that but when we sit in front of the TV we are generally not propped up in ergonomic chairs and perfect posture. I certainly wasn’t. I was slumped down with a curve in my lower back and my feet on the coffee table (sorry mom).

So if sitting can cause our muscles to get tight than maybe the pain in your back (the one you thought was caused from that one time you played racquetball two months ago) is from sitting too much.

Sarah, you are a revolutionary. Could it be the answer? Could it be the thing that makes me feel better? Should I just be sitting less? Bingo!

We sit all day long: in the car, at work, at home, on the bus, in the kitchen and in the can. It’s become the thing we do to feel better. Yet, it might be making us feel worse. How about the next time you feel exhausted and want to let a load off you stretch instead.

I am not saying you need to stop watching TV but try just one time this week when you are feeling tired and you just want to sit down in front of the tube... stretch instead and see how it feels.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live

Please tell us what exercises are best for those of us who have early signs of osteoporosis or minor compression fractures.

First off, please talk to your doctor about an exercise plan. Minor compression fractures are usually caused because of heavy lifting or falling/tripping while walking so it's important that you talk to a professional to make sure there is nothing that you specifically should not be doing.
When you are trying to build bone density the best exercises are weight bearing. Walking is my personal favorite! Cardio exercises that are not weight bearing are the bicycle or elyptical machine. You are much better off with good old fashioned walking. However because tripping can cause compression fractures, make sure you are walking on even ground. Other exercises that are good are anything that helps improve your balance (try standing on one leg and looking left and right) and strengthen your core. Lifting weights is also ideal for strengthening your bone density however you should start slow and light if you have never done it before. I always recommend talking to a personal trainer. Weight lifting exercises that are NOT good if you have signs of osteoporosis are anything high impact such as jogging or jumping. Also stay away from (or seek professional help for) anything that has you bending and twisting at the same time. (like bending over to touch your toes while twisting at the waist or playing golf.) These exercises can put pressure on the spine and increase your risk for compression fractures.

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What is the best exercise to tone the abdominal muscles?

The abdominal muscles (abs) are just like other muscles in your body. If they are covered by a layer of fatty tissue than no amount of crunching is going to give you a six-pack. In order to get toned abs you have to exercise with your entire body (walking/swimming etc.) and lay off the second helping at dinner.
It is however extremely important to strengthen the abs even if you aren't planning on getting rid of the fatty tissue. Having strong abdominal muscles helps us in every other exercise we do from bending over to lifting to getting out of bed. Strong abs will also help prevent back pain. So here are my favorites in the abdominal/core department.
The Dolphin Plank: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2463
The Plank: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/470
The Side Plank: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/783
The Basic Crunch: http://exercise.about.com/cs/abs/ht/Crunch.htm
Obviously if there are any others that you love, please tuck in. Remeber to be careful if you are new to ab work and if anything feels funny in your lower back, please stop and consult your doctor. :-)

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Double Entendre

Although I am a somewhat unorthodox writer (I write how I speak without much bother of proper usage or grammatical perfection. And I have a penchant for slang) I am quite the fan of linguistics, grammar and syntax. I even subscribe to a daily grammar email. Every morning along side of all the spam, facebook updates and groupons, I receive a lovely bit of grammarly advice. Well, it’s not always lovely, sometimes it’s quite dull but on occasion (as happened last week), a gem will appear…

"Sanction" is something called a Janus word--a word with two opposite meanings. Such words are named after the Roman god Janus, who has two faces that look in opposite directions. Other Janus words are "cleave" (which can mean to cling to or to separate), "screen" (which can mean to review or display or to hide or shield from view), and "trim" (which can mean to remove things or add things).

I have never heard this term before, have you? I mean, of course I was aware that there existed words with two meanings; I just didn’t know they had their own name and I love it. Here is a list of other janus words

http://www.fun-withwords.com/nym_autoantonyms.html

Some words that aren’t on that list but also tend to have more than one meaning are:

Fat: Tissue that insulates

Fat: Feeling that deflates

Fat: Avocados

Diet: the way you eat

Diet: the way you don’t eat

Sugar: Good

Sugar: Bad

Sugar: Term of endearment

Health: The absence of sickness

Health: To Thrive

Exercise: Makes you feel great

Exercise: Hurts really bad

Fried Chicken: So freaking good

Fried Chicken: So freaking bad

Fried Chicken: Term of endearment (it could be)

Can you think of any words that you use to mean one thing but really they could mean something else? I know that when it comes to janus words I usually only use one meaning. I don’t think that I have ever used the word screen to mean, “shield from”. I have also never said, “My knees buckled at the sight of him”, however I am constantly buckled in safely while driving. I have never used the word cleave in a sentence, but if I were to, it would be in reference to a split, not a join. I do think that if I take the time to notice both definitions, the meaning I am using becomes richer. Knowing that a bolt can be a securing device and lighting fast action brings a deeper meaning to either definition.

Knowing that sugar can be a delicious treat and something to be avoided makes it easier to enjoy it in moderation. Recognizing that exercise rocks but is also a pain in the $%&* will help make it more doable, even when it burns.

Is there anything you are looking at as only black or white? Have you decided that the stair master is evil? Do you believe that fat is a feeling? If you pay attention to all the definitions of a word, you may find that it loses some of its power or gains a little more.

Be Good to your Body, it's where you Live

8 letter word for health

I am a big fan of The New York Times Crossword Puzzle. I have always wanted to be the kind of person who did them, as it always seemed to me that those types (the ones who could do them) were more intelligent; more sophisticated, and knew more about current events. There have been several times when I have sat alone at a café sipping cappuccino and racking my brain to try and figure out a five-letter word for “aromatic resin” or a four-letter word for “rope fiber” only to end up over caffeinated and none the wiser. It was not until a recent trip with my mother that I finally became one of “those people”.

My mom and I discovered an ipad app that lets you download archived crossword puzzles from the times. What that meant to us was a thousand different Mondays. For those of you who don’t know, Monday is the easiest and they move up from there. My mom and I went loco. We played on the plane, in the car, at my aunt’s house, before bed, instead of a nap, in the morning, at lunch. We couldn’t stop and we got good, real good. We even tried out a few Tuesdays and Wednesdays too. When I got home I kept right on going with my crossword mania and even though I am doing them solo now I am still rocking the house. I figure if I keep this pace I might become one of those Sunday people too! Then last night I could barely finish a Monday. I got stuck, really stuck. After about 60 minutes I realized it was useless (the left corner would have to stay blank), my bed called to me and I fell into a deep, deep sleep.

In the dream I was walking through a crowded gym. There were all these really fit people. There were women with six packs and toned yoga arms. There were buff dudes doing pull ups with 50lb weights tied to their ankles. There were elderly women with smiles on their face while jogging and even older men doing perfect versions of downward facing dog. It seemed as if I had stumbled upon the gym of perfection. These people were fitness gurus. I knew them. They were healthy and strong and confident. They worked out and it was as effortless as if they were born in the gym. I looked down at myself and I felt bloated and weak. I tried to do a push up but fell to the floor. I tried to run but the air turned into a thick fog, as thick as molasses and I couldn’t move. I was stuck and all the pretty fit people started to point at me. “You’ll never do Monday again”, they screeched, and that’s when I woke up.

The point of this dream? Have you ever imagined yourself as the kind of person who loves to exercise? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a yogi? Have you ever visualized yourself stronger or fitter or faster? Have you ever put someone on an imaginary pedestal because they were in better shape than you? That’s what I was doing when I assumed that people who can do the NYT crossword are smarter than me. Yes, I am sure that many of them are smarter than me (probably more than many) but a whole lot of them are just more practiced than me. That’s all those fit people at the gym are too, just more practiced. They weren’t born in a gym and this is not their first day. They have been doing it for a long time and that’s why they smile while they jog and bench press so much and touch their toes. They are not better or prettier or cooler, they just work out more.

So if you want to be the kind of person who likes to exercise, well then you had better start practicing. And if you find (like me) that you practice for a few weeks, feel great and then get set back (maybe you get tired or you can’t walk as far one day or you have to lower your weights) don’t worry. It takes awhile to get to Sunday, it doesn’t happen overnight. If you are wavering on a Monday and find that you have to leave a few clues unanswered, let it go. You have already become the person you wanted to be. You already are and always were; you just weren’t practicing. 8 letter word for health = PRACTICE.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live

The grass is always greener

Recently I was given the opportunity to change something about myself. It was not to be a permanent change, only lasting about three months but it is a part of me I often complain about. You know, that part of you that you wish were like someone else. If you don't know what I'm talking about then rock on, you are awesome! If you do happen to know what it feels like to wish you had longer legs or bigger eyes or straighter hair, then please read on, this one's for you.

Anyone who knows me, has ever gone swimming with me or been camping with me will know that I have curly hair. I have the kind of hair that is difficult to brush. Not because a brush wont run through it (it’s true) but also because the moment a brush touches my locks, my hair frizzes out to gigantic proportions as if I sat around all day rubbing balloons on my head.

I have always wanted straight hair. I want the kind of hair you can run your fingers through and they wont get caught. I want to be able to workout and not have the frizz created from my sweaty locks become nests for small birds. I want to be able to cut fringe and have it lie across my forehead rather than stick straight in the air. Ok, so now that you know what I have always wanted, you will understand that I was ecstatic when I found out that a friend’s salon did the one and only Brazilian Blowout.

A BB, if you haven’t heard about it, is a treatment for your hair that will give you Jennifer Anniston hair for three months. I’m in, sign me up, do you want my first-born?

Fast forward to me in the salon with super straight shiny hair. “This isn’t going to last", I protest. "I know that the moment I have a shower, my hair will curl again.” The fine folks at the salon reply, “Sarah, it will last, trust us. Your hair is straight, be it in rain, sleet, sun or snow, frizz will no longer find you."

They were right. I have showered and swam and worked out and danced. I have been to the Midwest and back and my hair is straight. It still has some of the messy Sarahness about it (because I don’t own a brush) but it’s definitely straight. And here is what I have learned:

I don’t have very much hair. It’s fine and sparse and when it’s straight, that’s more obvious.

My straight hair is very flat (because there’s not much of it) and it clings to my head more. I bought a volumizing gel last week to try and make my hair bigger (Yes, I get the irony)

For my cousins wedding last week I used a curling iron to make my hair… more curly (wow, there’s a lot of irony here today)

Clips and barrettes just slide out of my hair; there is no nest to hold them anymore

When it’s dirty, it looks really greasy and dirty. When my hair was curly, I could go days without washing it and it only looked better with time.

When I work out now, my hair hits me in the face and pokes me in the eyes. My old hair didn't move very much.

There are obviously some good things too. It’s really easy to put in a pony-tail and it’s super neat to watch it dry without curling and yes, when I sweat or spend time in the Midwest, it does not frizz but ironically as noted earlier I have spent a good amount of time trying to make it more like the hair I used to have.

Isn’t it funny how the thing I hated is the thing I miss?

What do you wish were different about yourself? Do you hate your nose? Your nose is probably perfect for your face and if you had a different one, it would probably look really awful and you wouldn’t be able to smell as well and you might start snoring so much your partner has to sleep in the den. Do you hate your legs? Too short you say? Well if they were much longer you would hurt that much more when you fall, or in middle school you would have felt gangly and awkward or you would never be able to find a bicycle that didn’t hurt your knees. Think your ankles are too big? Tiny ankles are going to break easier and walking on rocky terrain will be difficult.

Our bodies are made for us. This is who we are and I want everyone to take this week to stop hating what they were given and praising it instead. The grass is always greener. That means that whatever thing you spend so much time hating would be the thing you miss when it’s gone. Why not save yourself that hassle and start missing it now. Start loving it and telling it why it’s awesome and promise that even if you try to change it for short periods of time (three months) you will never call it mean names again.

Be Good to your Body, it's where you Live