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Have You Jumped Up & Down Yet Today?
by Kathie Hightower

If you have attended my seminar you know what this title means. Feeling draggy at work? Hitting that afternoon slump? Well, get up and jump up and down. In a few minutes, probably in just seconds, you’ll feel more energetic. Try it. It works.

Let’s look at other things that can give you added boosts of energy throughout your day — short energy spurts.

• Start your day with energy. I read something fun or inspirational every morning (to keep myself from worrying about things I have to do that day). My favorites include Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance and SARK’s Living Juicy. For many friends it’s spiritual reading. Choose what works for you for your daily energy boost.

You might need to add a bit more oomph on those days that you know you face a particularly challenge. My speech coach, Marian Woodall, recommended that I get myself pumped up before doing a presentation by listening to James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” (Okay, the song is called I Got You, but I think of it as I Feel Good.) You cannot feel bad when you are listening to that song. I used this motivator for years, but then lost the tape on one trip. Then I realized I didn’t even need the tape. I just play it in my head (and sing along) and I feel great. Try it. It works. You can also watch a short clip of a funny video, laugh hysterically and get the same effect.

• Aromatherapy. I keep a bottle of peppermint essential oil in my travel kit and on my desk. When I need a spurt of energy, I open the bottle and take a whiff and a deep breath. It works. I’ve also found that sucking on one of those newly popular strong mints like Altoids or Fisherman’s Friend has a similar effect.

•Water Break. The first place doctors look when someone is exhausted is to see if they are dehydrated. If you feel tired, check your water intake. Dehydration can also cause headaches and lack of concentration. And don’t forget, caffeinated coffee, tea and soda are all dehydrators. If you have one of those you need an extra glass of water (on top of that eight to nine glasses of water a day) to make up for that caffeine. Make water a habit and you’ll notice a difference in your overall energy level.

• Take an Energy Break. The idea here is to take a short break and do something that is fun for you. You will return to your work with more energy. For example, I’ll get up and play with my Koosh Ball or do a few minutes of hula-hooping, or take a quick walk outside in nature. They all work. I got this idea from a fabulous book that is full of other ways to increase your energy. It’s You Don’t Have to Go Home from Work Exhausted by Anne McGee-Cooper. Get it, whether you work outside the home or not (full-time moms need it more than anyone!)

And finally, one of the biggest energizers is spending time on the things you love in life.
Have you heard the saying (or maybe even read the book) Do What You Love and the Money will Follow? Well, I do know people who have turned their avocations into a way to make a living. But for many things we love to do, that won’t be the case. What a lot of my friends love to do the most — what they get the greatest satisfaction out of — is volunteer work. And they most likely won’t make money at that. What a lot of my friends love to do is art. If they tried to make money at art, it might take away the spontaneity, fun and creativity. I love to do yoga and kayak and garden, but I have no desire to try to make a living at any one of those activities.

Here’s what I believe. Do what you love and the energy will follow. It’s true. Doing things you love to do energizes you — and that energy carries over into other aspects of our life.

And for right now. Finish reading this, stand up and…
Jump Up & Down!!!

©2001, Kathie Hightower

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Changing Patterns

I love the "fresh start" feel of the New Year. I have a new calendar and even treated myself to a brand new holder, this one a sporty bright red, a symbol of action for me.

I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately, a combination of many factors, from September 11 to disappearing contracts due to big budget cuts my clients face to a major computer challenge just as my website goes up to this annual down feeling as the grey skies period hits the northwest. Okay, so being a bit down is a natural reaction, but it’s not a good thing for someone who teaches people how to increase their energy, creativity and joy!

I’ve been here many times before. That’s one of the reasons I teach what I do. I don’t come to this topic area from my own natural high energy, optimism and action-taking habits. I know that many of my fellow seminar leaders do — they were born that way, full of energy, enthusiasm and optimism. I come to it from the opposite life.

I am a recovering pessimist, procrastinator and way-too-serious professional. I had to learn these life lessons myself first, the long hard way of research and testing, and I have to relearn the lessons regularly. I think this is a little like being a recovering alcoholic. The negative tendencies remain a part of your inner makeup forever; you just learn how to keep them at bay. And how to pull yourself back up when you fall off the wagon. It’s great to have the awareness and the tools.

This year I finally decided it’s time to change a pattern I’ve been contemplating changing for years. I intend to turn myself into a morning person.

Mind you, my hereditary makeup is that of a night person. My 81-year-old mother still stays up until midnite or later every night, reading and/or watching TV, and then sleeps in til 830 or 9. My sister made a career change from the 9-5 (well, more like 7 – 5) federal government world to do what she loves and to work on her body schedule. She is an emergency medicine veterinarian, working at night and sleeping during the day.

Oh, sure, I’ve been forced to do the morning thing in the past. In the Army I had to be up early, often as early as 0430 for weeks or months on end. In my fanatic running days, I got myself out of bed at 430 am to run (in the snow and ice, no less) in Chicago before I left for my job at 630, knowing that when I got home at 7 or 8 or later running would be out of the question.

But now that I have my own business, working out of my home, I have more flexibility. I work best during the afternoon, early evening and even late evening. And then I sleep in and start my day slowly. But I realize I’ve been sliding into fewer and fewer actual work hours, not getting things done as I need to.

And I keep getting "signs" that I should change this pattern. Of course, I’m a bit slow to act on them.
The first sign for me was when Henriette Klauser, author of Writing On Both Sides of the Brain and many other books, shared the fact that she was able to write her first book only by getting up and onto the computer (before a cup of coffee even) at 530 am before her kids got up. She mentioned that in 1988 at a speaker’s workshop held at her home in the Seattle area. See…I really am a bit of a procrastinator.

Then I met Ruth Kuehler this past year. This lively, active 86-year-old shared that she started rising at 4 am when her kids were little just to have one to two hours a day for herself. She continues to do that to this day!

And the straw that broke my inertia? My artist friend, Carrie Marie, just couldn’t seem to find time for her art, the lower-paying (for now) part of her creative work. We tried all kinds of tricks, all of which would work for a short while.

Visiting her recently, I was astounded by the seemingly sudden volume and quality of her art. Her new secret? "I get up, get a cup of coffee, and get into my studio at 530 at least three times a week. I usually don’t want to be there or know what I’m going to do, but as soon as I put my brush to paper I enter the flow. My coffee gets cold before I stop in time to switch over to the money-making graphic design work."

Then I read a book on creativity as the author describes what it meant to him to force himself to become a morning person. The benefits and the increased volume of published writing.
All right, all right, already. I get it.

So…since I teach goal-achieving workshops among others, I know the tools. One of them is to announce your goal to the world — well, specifically to supportive people, not the naysayers of your life.

So, besides telling all my family and friends and my support group, I’m announcing it to you.
It’s like the couple who managed to succeed with the very challenging Body for Life program, as their progress was reported in Modern Maturity magazine. The success rate for people who take on that program is apparently very low, in the single digit percentages. I told my husband, "Well, that’s the way to do it — know you have to share your success — or failure — in a magazine read by thousands." Modern Maturity has one of the highest subscription bases in the publishing industry.
Okay, so this ezine’s subscription base isn’t that high, but it’s accountability nonetheless…especially to maintain my reputation in teaching my workshops on goal achieving. It’s only January 8 as I write this, only eight days into this new year and new pattern, hardly a success story yet. But I have managed to get up at 6am every day so far, including New Years day, including today after arriving home at 1130pm after a Seattle workshop and long drive.

I have successfully changed patterns before…switching from drinking volumes of coffee and diet Coke to drinking my eight plus glasses of water a day…adding in the 3 fruits and 2 vegetables a day that are supposed to help me ward off cancer. Those are both truly well-ingrained new habits in my life and have been for eight years or more. I managed this past year to finally start the daily yoga practice I’ve been "wanting" to start since 1978! Hey, I’ve managed to stick to it all but about five days for a year now so it is a new habit. So I know it works.

Now, the morning person thing is the pattern I need to change; it may not be yours. (In fact, I know that many of my friends — especially the moms of infants and my military friends — would consider sleeping until 6 am sleeping IN — a delicious delight.) But we all have patterns that we could change for healthier, more productive ones. And you know which they are. Hey, I’ve known this was a needed change for YEARS. For you, it might be switching from mindless TV vegging every evening to consciously watching one or two great shows and using the other evenings for more family interaction or that class you keep "talking" about taking someday. It might be adding in daily exercise/movement of some amount! It might be switching from soda and coffee to water.

Here’s what I’m doing on the morning person habit side that just might help you in changing whatever pattern you want to change.

1. I sat down on December 31st and wrote into every daily "to do" page of January the following:
Get up at 6am
Write or Walk first thing
(You’ve heard that doing something new for 21 days straight will make it a new habit. I don’t trust that. I figure I better go for 30

2. I came up with a longer list of the steps to change this pattern along with a list of the projects I hope to take action on. I posted that list in my Daytimer for when I travel and posted it on my bathroom mirror to read twice a day. Hey, if you are like me and early periodontal disease scared you into spending the $85 (for a toothbrush!), that two full minutes of brushing with your Soniccare twice a day gives you plenty of reading time.
Part of my list:
o Get up at 6 am every day including weekends (and that means getting to bed by 10!)
o Write or walk first thing, BEFORE you read the paper or open your email!

3. Tell everyone.

4. I have a small white board in my home office where I post my "themes" for each year. Last year it was "Business Practices" (hey, I did get my Visa account, a separate business charge card, new stationery and flyers, and my website is up!) So for this year it reads:
o Morning person (up at 6 am)
o Action! — especially in marketing & article queries
o Flow of friends, family, fun & work
I read that every day as it is right behind my telephone.
As the temptation to turn over after the alarm goes off becomes greater (if it does — so far I’ve been ready to be up amazingly) I might add other tricks. Maybe even my sister’s college trick. She would set three alarm clocks, each one further away from the bed, so she had to get out of bed to turn them off. Whatever works!

For right now, I’m focusing on the benefits that have already shown up.
o I am getting a lot more done.
o I’m writing again, not putting it last when I have no energy left at the end of the day.
o I’ve had some truly magical mornings walking along the water. Today as I walked in heavy rain I was gifted with a full rainbow and minutes later a double rainbow!
o My husband and I had a magical morning Saturday when we got our kayaks in the water by 8am. Not only did we commune with numerous seals who’d pop up to look at us in curiosity, but we saw over 35 blue heron lined up on a rise. Minutes later they all took off at once headed in different directions. (We are still wondering if that was their morning meeting and peptalk and they were all heading to their assigned locations for the day.)
o I’ve had some great morning conversations with my husband that I would have missed out on in the past.
o I have more energy, all day, rather than being tired as I’d expected.
o Something has shifted for me. I’m taking action rather than adding things to a "to do" pile, I’m clearing clutter I’ve been meaning to clear for years, I even completely
rearranged my office so that the work flow improved.

So…I don’t know what patterns you might want to change, but I do think that changing patterns can take us out of the rut, the slump, the block. It shifts your energy flow. It’s certainly worth a try. Hey, if you don’t like it after 40 days you can go right back to your old habit. But something tells me that you won’t.

Postscript: If adding exercise to your life is the pattern you want to change, do the above. And add in this commitment which is what got me to finally do a daily yoga practice. I made a commitment to at least ten minutes a day. (And allowed that that 10 minutes didn’t even have to be consecutive.) It worked. Some days it really was only 10 minutes. Some days it was ten minutes throughout the day of short 1 – 2 minute stretches. Many days in fact. But that anti-procrastination trick really works. Most days that would slide into 20 minutes or longer. For the past few months the minimum seems to have become 20 minutes by default, often sliding into 40 or more.

And then I read an article by a counselor yesterday who thinks that 40 is the magic number. So to be on the safe side, I just added my daily items to the first ten days of my February Daytimer pages. I’ll let you know in a future ezine if it’s truly a habit!

©2002 Kathie Hightower

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Exercise for Energy — One Short Moment at a Time

Okay, you know that exercise will give you more energy. Energy does beget energy. But sometimes it’s hard to remember that when you are dragging — and for a lot of folks it’s just too hard to find the time.

Well, no more excuses. Our time excuse won’t cut it anymore. Why? You don’t
have to do the 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise that we all have in mind as a minimum
on our "to do" lists. For health purposes — and for energy — that 30 minutes can be split up into smaller segments spread throughout your day.

So how can you apply this to your packed full busy day? Easy, but you have to make a conscious choice to do so — at least until it becomes automatic.

The other day, I told my 80-year-old mother-in-law Naomi that I’d carry her bags down to the car. "Just take your purse and yourself down those steps and I’ll get the rest," I said.

"But that means you’ll have to make three trips up and down the stairs," Naomi replied.

"That’s okay," I said, "It’s great exercise."

Her response? "You always say that."

She’s right. I do always say that. I see opportunities for exercise all around me — and I approach life with that attitude. Hey, it allows me to eat chocolate when I want (which is pretty much every day) and still maintain my weight. It allows me to have the energy I want to do all these things I’m excited about doing. Why wouldn’t you want to approach your life like that?

We live in a house of all stairs — stairs to get to the front door, stairs to go up to the bedroom, stairs to go down to do laundry. Stairs, stairs, stairs. I’ve had friends say, "How can you stand it?" Stand it? I love it. No matter what else I do each day — whether or not I get to my frequent walks or trips to the Y or my yoga practice — no matter what, I’ve gotten a lot of exercise just going through the basics of my daily life.

I choose to take stairs instead of elevators in any building that I can. "It’s great exercise."
I choose to park in one spot and run errands to the Post Office and library and grocery store, rather than moving my car those few yards in between. "It’s great exercise."
I purposely park far away from the entrance to the store even if there are open spaces closer in. "It’s great exercise."

I always suggest "walking meetings" instead of coffee or lunch meetings. "It’s great exercise."
And, yes, I’m that woman who walks up the steps at the airport when everyone else is standing on the escalator. People stare at me like I’m crazy or something. But which is crazier — using the steps by choice, or standing on an escalator and then paying to go to a gym and doing the stairstepper?
Adopt the "it’s great exercise" attitude rather than the "energy/time/step-saving" attitude and you easily add exercise into your day.|

I also choose to look for other ways to turn ordinary activities into exercise. Especially at times when you can’t do anything else.
• I do squats while I dry my hair every morning.
• I purposely stretch further to put the cups and plates away rather than moving closer in. I do the same when I’m removing clothes from the dryer.
• When I’m putting on my socks and shoes I test myself to see if I can do it standing balanced on one foot rather than using the help of a chair. (I find I can balance longer and longer each time.)
• When I’m standing in line I try standing up on my toes, or balancing on one foot at a time. (Years ago, I read in a diet book that those people who are natural fidgeters tend to have less trouble with their weight. I wasn’t a natural fidgeter, but I decided then and there that fidgeting was a good way to go.)
•When I’m pumping gas, I do stretches against the car rather than just standing there reading the ads running along the gas pump monitor trying to entice me into buying a chilled coffee.
Each one of those activities doesn’t amount to much exercise in itself. But add up the many times I do that throughout each day, multiply that by 365 days, and you have a lot of extra exercise each year — before I ever get to the gym.

Consider this:
• Let’s say you work an 8 hour day. If you stood up from your computer every hour and did just five minutes of stretches, you’d add 35-40 minutes of stretches to your day.
• Research shows that if you take a ten-minute walk, you increase your energy for a full hour. Better and cheaper and less fattening than a double shot latte.

If you need more ideas to jumpstart your own thinking about ways to add more exercise in, read The Ultimate Guide of One-Minute Workouts for Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime! by Bonnie Nygard and Bonnie Hopper, RDR Publishers (email: 4bobreed@msn.com).

(Note: If energy isn’t enough of an incentive for you, focus on the fact that exercise decreases your stress, increases your self-esteem, increases your creative thinking capability, and oh yes helps you maintain your weight. What are you waiting for? Get up from the computer chair and stretch!)

©2002 Kathie Hightower

Strong Women and Men Live Better Lives — at ANY Age
by Kathie Hightower

I admit it. I started weight training out of vanity.

A few years ago, I read that women over 50 who did NOT gain weight had three things in common. 1) They walked four times a week for at least 30. 2) They ate lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. 3) They did weight training.

I’d watched many of my family and friends start adding weight after 50, often continuing to do so with each additional year. I didn’t want to follow the pattern. Since I was already doing # 1 and # 2, I decided to add #3. I started weight training at the YMCA twice a week.

Then I went to hear Dr. Miriam Nelson speak last month at Franciscan’s Health Forum in Tacoma. If you were one of the 800 or more people in that audience with me, you probably had the same reaction I did. I want all my friends and family members — no matter what age — to join me in twice-weekly weight training.
Dr. Nelson is director of the Center for Physical Fitness at the School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston. She’s focused her research for more than 20 years on the benefits of weight training.
Her research results convinced me further as to the importance of weight training for many more reasons than vanity. The stories and photos she shared drove the point home.

I watched the slide of 91-year-old Helen lifting 130 pounds. At almost half her age, I can’t lift that much. I watched in amazement at the images of a 75 year old woman surfing and parasailing, two activities I’ve never had the nerve to try.

I went to the library and checked out two of Dr. Nelson’s books. She’s written many, all based on her research: Strong Women Stay Young; Strong Women Stay Slim; Strong Women, Strong Bones; Strong Women and Men Beat Arthritis.

My new goal is to get all my friends to commit to at least read the first four chapters of Strong Women Stay Young. I think that will convince them to read further and to take action. Just to pique your interest, here are a few of the research results that struck me so strongly.

First, let’s consider the facts of life without weight training, some that we know and some that might surprise us.
o Sarcopenia (loss of muscle): starting at age 40, we lose 1/3 pound of muscle every year, resulting in reduced stamina and increased weakness.

• Starting at age 40, most women lose nearly half a pound of muscle each year and gain the same amount of fat, and they start to slow down.
• Osteopenia (loss of bone): each year after menopause, a woman typically loses 1% of her bone mass, even more during the first five postmenopausal years.
• 1 out of 2 women will get osteoporosis
• 1 out of 5 men will get osteoporosis (I bet that surprised you as it did me!)
Dr. Nelson’s first study was conducted with women aged 50 to 70 who added twice-weekly weight training to their lives without changing eating or exercise patterns. Results after one year were dramatic.
Women who did the weight training:
• Their bodies were 15 to 20 years more youthful than when they started.
• Instead of losing bone density, they made small but significant gains.
• Strength scores soared to those more typical of women in their late 30s and early 40s. (In fact, they all tested stronger than their daughters of those ages who did not do weight training).
• They looked trimmer — some dropped a dress size or two.
• They were happier, more energetic, more self-confident.
• They became more active, adding new activities or activities they’d formerly given up, like canoeing, dancing, and rollerblading.

As Dr. Nelson reports, "Not only did they feel younger but they were leading more youthful lives." The control group of women who did not add weight training saw the expected aging of muscles and bone, and they were even less active than one year before.

Lest you think this doesn’t apply to you if you are over 70, consider another study that Dr. Nelson shares, a study at a nursing home that involved six women and four men, aged 86 to 96. These were typical nursing home patients. All had at least two chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, or osteoporosis. Most relied on walkers or canes and several could not rise out of a chair without using their arms. They did weights three times a week for eight weeks. The results published in the Journal of American Medicine in 1990 were incredible.
• They increased their strength by an average of 175%.
• Their walking speed and balance improved by 48%.
• Two participants discarded their canes.

Still not convinced? New research indicates that weight training reduces the risk of heart disease and adult-onset diabetes, lifts depression, boosts self-esteem, eases sleep problems, relieves symptoms of both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, improves flexibility, combats constipation and stress incontinence, and even improves the quality of life for people with fibromyalgia and MS. What’s not to like?!
So you say, well, I can’t drive to get to the Y, or I have no time to do this with small children at home. First, I firmly believe in getting expert help when you start a weight program, to make sure you are doing it right. Places like the Y can provide that. Maybe you have a friend who drives who would join you in this program while you first learn the how-tos. My friend who is home with two small children was thrilled to find out she can do the recommended exercises on her own at home. Check out the books or Dr. Nelson’s website, www.strongwomen.com, for details.|

As for me, I plan to continue weight training. I’m still happy to know it helps me control my weight while it trims and tightens my body. But I’m more impressed with what it does for my quality of life.
Kathie Hightower is author of Simple Joys and Your Enchanted Life: A Work/Playbook for Discovery & Delight. She does workshops on ways to pump up your energy, creativity and joy. You can find her in the weight room at the Pearl Street YMCA at least twice a week.

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