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TeresahRN
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Energize! Energy boosts for nurses
Grappling with the meaning of energy reminds me of a famous quote from the 1960s. When writing an opinion on a Supreme Court case, Justice Potter Stewart was stumped. He couldn’t define pornography, “but,” he wrote, “I know it when I see it.” The problem, from a practical and legal standpoint, is that where one person sees pornography, another person sees art.
In a sense, energy, too, is subject to interpretation. To you, it may mean having the vigor to get the kids off to school, maintain a frenetic pace during a long shift at work and still have a reserve at the end of the day. To a nutritionist, energy could be defined in caloric terms; then there’s the physicists’ formula (E=MC2) and the Eastern philosophy (life force). So just what do we mean when we talk about energy? Is it generated and depleted physically or emotionally? Is it a state of mind or a state of being?
Yes, yes and yes. There is physical energy, emotional energy and spiritual energy, and it’s impossible to tease out where one ends and the other begins because they are intertwined down to a cellular level. You nourish the body, mind and soul, and your brain will reward you with energy to spare.
To that end, we present the five R’s—recharge, relate, refocus, reflect and relax—filled with energy chargers and warnings about energy drainers. Focus on the areas that need the most attention so you can be at the top of your game as a nurse, parent, partner and friend.
Recharge
A nourishing diet, enough sleep and regular exercise—these are the basic components for a high-energy life.
Eat Smart: Curb the carbs, add protein to every meal, fill up with fiber and don’t be afraid of fat.
Nurses! Back away from the vending machine!
For years we were told that carbohydrates were the food we needed for “energy.” But carbs (at least the processed variety, which is what most of us eat) can send blood sugar levels on a roller coaster ride and lead to an energy free fall. Protein is far better at filling you up and with significantly less effect on insulin than carbohydrates. So, what’s the real energy food? Protein.
For high energy, focus on food that our ancestors could have hunted, fished, gathered or plucked from a tree. That includes meat (grass-fed or wild game), fish, vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts.
Beware of food that never expires. It won’t preserve your energy.
Food for thought: Absolutely everything we do, feel and think is influenced by what we eat.
Berry Good Yogurt
A protein-carb mix helps sustain energy.
1 cup plain whole yogurt with live cultures
¼ cup fresh blueberries
1 ounce raw almonds or pecans
1 ounce dried cranberries or raisins
1 to 2 tablespoons goji berries
Barlean’s Forti-Flax, optional
Stir together the yogurt, blueberries, almonds and cranberries in a small bowl. Sprinkle the Barlean’s Forti-Flax on top.
Energy All-Stars
Looking for a high-energy addition to lunch or a mid-shift pick-me-up? Snack on these:
Sardines
Kiwifruit
Apples
Goji berries
Nuts
Pumpkin seeds
Avocados
Pomegranate juice
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TeresahRN
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Sleep Well: You’re a nurse. We know you know this stuff, but still…
While it’s easy to understand how long days, rotating shifts and overnight hours can make getting eight hours of sleep a challenge, it’s critically important. Cheating the quantity or quality, even a little, can interfere with your stamina, mood, immune system and blood sugar levels. The sleep-deprived are at higher risk for depression, hypertension, stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. Yet, we continue to cheat sleep. While experts say the average adult needs between seven and nine hours a day, according to the CDC, about 30 percent of working Americans get less than six hours of sleep. “Our culture has forgotten what it means to be awake.” Robert Stickgold, PhD, of Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine. “I think we spend most of our days a little bit groggy and a little bit inefficient.” For nurses, that can result in a mix-up in medication, misreading a chart or some other medical mistake. So, cut down on late night web-surfing or mindless television and go to bed in time to wake up refreshed. For tips on how to sleep well, see “Snooze Alarm.”
Move More: Exercise energizes the body and stimulates the mind.
What if there was a pill that would help ward off cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s, hypertension, osteoporosis and some cancers that would also help improve your mood and keep your weight in check, your muscles strong, your mind alert and stress more manageable? Oh, and give you energy, to boot? Sounds too good to be true? What if it could also help grow new brain cells, strengthen neurons and produce a potpourri of beneficial molecules that prime you for learning and memory retention? Of course, there is no such pill, but you can derive all those benefits with regular exercise.
Its magic bullet potential has become more evident since neuroscientists uncovered the role exercise plays in producing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that encourages brain cells to sprout synapses, the structural branches required for learning. “Moving the body keeps the brain growing,” says John Ratey, MD, Harvard psychology professor and the co-author of Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, has affectionately labeled BDFN as “Miracle-Gro for the Brain.”
So on top of its role in disease defense, exercise makes you smarter. Now that’s powerful medicine.
THE 10-MINUTE WORKOUT
What’s the best kind of exercise? The kind you do. Anything is better than nothing, and the more strategies you have, the more likely you are to be successful in making exercise a regular routine. To that end, we offer these time-crunching workouts. After a 10 minute-session you should have enough energy to blast through any shift.
Low-Intensity Combo
1.March in place: 1 to 2 minutes
2.Wall push-up
3.Squats to a chair
4.Wall push-up (repeat, one set, 10 repetitions)
5.Squats to a chair (repeat, one set, 10 repetitions)
6.Free dance—let loose, no one’s watching (3 to 4 minutes)
7.Cool down, lie down, stretch and breathe (1 to 2 minutes)
Moderate-Intensity Cardio
You can turn this into high intensity by just picking up the pace on the runs, and you can lower it a bit by making the “run” intervals into “fast walks.”
1.Walk: 1½ minutes, gradually picking up pace
2.Run: 30 seconds
3.Walk: 1½ minutes
4.Run: 30 seconds
5.Walk: 1½ minutes
6.Run: 30 seconds
7.Walk: 1½ minutes
8.Run: 30 seconds
9.Walk, gradually slowing down to cool down: 2 minutes
High-Intensity Combo
1.Walk in place or light calisthenics (such as jumping jacks): 1 minute
2.Jump rope: 2 minutes
3.Push-ups: all you can do in 1 minute
4.Crunches: all you can do in 1 minute
5.Jump rope: 2 minutes
6.Push-ups: all you can do in 1 minute
7.Crunches: all you can do in 1 minute
8.Relax and breathe: 1 minute
Wall push-ups: Stand arm’s length away from a wall; extend both arms and place hands on the wall, shoulder-width apart. Elbows are shoulder level. Now lean in toward the wall, bending the elbows as you come forward and straightening the elbows as you push away back to starting position. Do 10 repetitions.
Squats to a chair: Facing away from the seat, stand about 12 inches from a chair. Now bend your legs, push your butt out and bend forward until you are seated. Then put your hands on your thighs, push off using your legs and stand. Repeat 10 times. For non-beginners, let your butt touch the seat of the chair and come right back up, keeping tension on the muscles throughout the movement.
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TeresahRN
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Straighten Up!
Slouching saps energy! When you’re hunched over a computer, for instance, your rounded shoulders and compressed trunk promote shallow breathing and that can reduce oxygen intake by about 33 percent. Less oxygen means less energy. Poor posture can also lead to muscle fatigue, strain and lower back pain.
When your body is aligned properly, you look thinner, younger and more confident. Here are three posture-strengthening moves to work into your day.
Polish the Air
Sit up straight in an armless chair, elbows at sides, bent to 90 degrees, palms facing the floor.
Squeeze shoulders together without raising them.
While keeping elbows at your sides, move your hands as though polishing furniture.
Do this for 20 seconds. Repeat 4 times.
Sit with your back against the back of a chair.
Tighten abdominal muscles as though you expect to be punched.
Press fingers into abdomen and tighten abs even more.
Hold 15 seconds. Repeat 5 times.
Keep breathing throughout the exercise.
Stand with your butt and back against a wall, arms by your sides.
Keeping your back against the wall, bring your feet about 12 inches from wall.
Keeping your abs tight, lower your body until knees are bent to about 60 degrees.
Raise yourself back up to where knees are slightly bent.
Do 3 sets of 10 reps.
Tighten Up
Sit with your back against the back of a chair.
Tighten abdominal muscles as though you expect to be punched.
Press fingers into abdomen and tighten abs even more.
Hold 15 seconds. Repeat 5 times.
Keep breathing throughout the exercise.
Slide Down the Wall
Stand with your butt and back against a wall, arms by your sides.
Keeping your back against the wall, bring your feet about 12 inches from wall.
Keeping your abs tight, lower your body until knees are bent to about 60 degrees.
Raise yourself back up to where knees are slightly bent.
Do 3 sets of 10 reps.
Relate
Strong social ties can help make you healthier and happier.
Make Real Connections
Your Facebook friends and Twitter followers may number in the thousands, but they can’t compare to the friend you kvetch with over coffee or the sister you call when you have good—or bad—news, and then there are your girls’-night-out pals. Spending time with good friends is a surefire stress-buster, keeping your energy up and your body more resistant to fatigue and illness.
Pets are people-lovers, too. Don’t limit connections to the human variety. You can derive plenty of health benefits from the unconditional love of animals. Their energy can be contagious.
When you stifle your needs and emotions, you stifle your energy.
Acknowledge Someone
Here’s a twofer. When you recognize another person’s value—for a generous act, a kind word or an admirable trait—your positive energy reverberates throughout your body and hers. So acknowledge someone. Every day. It might be as simple as “Thanks for being so patient. I know you were under a lot of stress and I appreciate that you took the time to help me out.” Or “I really admire how kind you are even with the most belligerent patients.”
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TeresahRN
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Truth Be Told
If you want a cup of espresso for the soul: Tell the truth. “If there’s someone you don’t want to talk to, something you don’t want to do or something you’re just plain uncomfortable about, nine out of 10 times there’s truth that hasn’t been spoken,” says life coach Lauren Zander, who suggests taking the following steps:
1.Ask permission. “Would it be okay if I told you how I really felt the other day when [fill in the blank] happened?”
2.Start the conversation with “This is how it is for me.” You’ll never get anywhere with a conversation that puts the blame on the other person.
3.Tell your truth. Let the other person know the way it really is for you. The energizing power of telling the truth actually has less to do with whether your listener “gets it” than it does with expressing your feelings.
Do you have friends, relatives or coworkers who drag you down with negativity, leaving you angry, deflated, somehow incomplete and nearly always drained of energy? Is your relationship both unsupportive and unrewarding? And you hang out with these blamers, complainers, boundary-crossers or drama queens why? Time to vanquish the energy vampires.
Refocus
Too much information, too many things to do or just too many things can lead to…ah…um…oh yeah, distraction. So pay attention to these suggestions.
Disconnect
The endless information available at our fingertips has made us all a little ADD. No matter how hard we try, we can never catch up. So here’s a suggestion: Don’t even try (for 24 hours, anyway). Take a media-free day, then take stock. Did the world end because you weren’t plugged in? We’re guessing no.
Mono-task
In this age of maniacal multitasking, I say it’s time to reclaim your ability to focus, really focus, on one task at a time. It’s time to mono-task. So, when you’re on the phone—don’t read your emails, don’t rifle through files, don’t text, don’t surf the net…please don’t drive—talk, listen, engage in conversation. Studies show that by doing less, you can actually get more done.
Clear the Clutter
Most of us have too much stuff. In our closets, our drawers, our desks, our bedroom—whether it’s hidden away or in full view—clutter takes up energetic space that could be directed at important things in life. So edit out the extraneous, the irreparable, the unused and the unsightly. What’s left gets categorized, then organized, like with like. Then determine whether it belongs in a closet, drawer or file cabinet—each item has to have a home.
Reboot your brain
Shift your attention to nature. Heading outdoors or even gazing at greenery through a window can help restore your ability to concentrate.
Many of us spend a ton of energy putting off tasks we find unpleasant, uncomfortable, too challenging, not challenging enough, beneath us or over our head. The result is that we have little energy to do the things we actually enjoy.
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TeresahRN
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Reflect
Live life on purpose. Envision where you want to go and check your progress with these two exercises.
1. Get an Overview
Take two sheets of paper. On one, write “What do I want more of in my life?” and on the other, “What do I want less of in my life?” If you take the time to really examine these questions, you’ll begin to recognize what’s meaningful and what’s not. The next step is to use that information and write down three goals in each of the major areas of your life—Relationships, Career, Health, Spirituality, Financial and Personal. Make them specific, measurable and truly meaningful to you. Visualize yourself actually achieving your goals.
2. Stay on Track
Put your life in context by connecting your daily actions with your larger purpose.
Ask—and answer in writing—these four questions every day for 30 days and you’ll be amazed at what you get done and how you’ve moved toward your ultimate goals.
1.What did I accomplish today?
2.Why is that important to me?
3.What further progress can I make in that area of my life?
4.What specific action can I take to further my progress?
There is nothing more energy-draining than living a life without direction.
By committing yourself to living a more meaningful life and setting goals that move you in the right direction, you’ll have the energy to tackle whatever obstacles you encounter.
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TeresahRN
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Relax
It may sound counterintuitive, but to keep your energy up, you need to wind down. Nurses, you need to recoup. Regularly. Religiously.
Learning to Exhale
Breathe. Sounds simple. We all know how to do it, right? But breathing correctly, that’s a different matter. As babies we did it naturally, inhaling from the stomach, pushing our little bellies way out and then exhaling just as deeply, expelling as much “bad air” as we could.
But then we grew up.
Enter a stressful job, a harried lifestyle, financial responsibility and, well, your chest tightens, your whole upper body gets tense and you become a shallow breather. When breathing emanates from the chest, you inhale less oxygen. Since oxygen is needed to fuel every cell and system in your body, over time, fast, shallow breathing can lead to fatigue and tension. While the typical adult has a resting breath rate of 12 to 15 times per minute, the optimum rate is about six breaths per minute. Inhaling through your nose and taking slow, deep breaths enables your lungs to fill with oxygen, triggering the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation.
By doing a breathing check every few hours, and by incorporating exercises—such as “Breathing Lessons,” right—into your daily routine, you can graduate from the ranks of shallow breathers.
Breathing Lessons
1.Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight and your body relaxed.
2.With one hand on your abdomen and the other on your chest, slowly inhale through your nose. Keep your abdomen relaxed as you feel it fully expand. Be sure your face, mouth, tongue and jaw are relaxed.
3.Hold your breath for 4 to 5 seconds, then with your lips pursed as though you were about to whistle, slowly exhale through your mouth, retracting your abdomen completely. Concentrate on the air leaving your lungs. Pause, then repeat this 4 to 5 times.
Listen to the Music
During World War I, musicians toured veteran hospitals performing for wounded soldiers. The medical staff soon realized that the music wasn’t just entertaining—it was healing. Research has shown that it can change your heart rate, respiration, brain waves and levels of an array of chemicals. It can lull you to sleep or make you want to dance. Listening to music stimulates virtually every area of the brain, from the brain stem to the frontal lobe. So do what comes naturally: Listen to music. As you do, pay attention to how different songs make you feel and create your own playlists for different moods and circumstances. Ultimately, music can be one of the greatest energizers.
Music can:
Reduce stress hormones
Relieve anxiety
Lower blood pressure
Ease pain
Improve attention
Promote energy
Other ways to relax:
Practice yoga
Get a massage
Pet an animal
Meditate
Listen to lapping waves
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