becky․searls․co

Flexibility, Stretching, and Mobility 101

Perhaps you have been working towards building a more sustainable, healthy lifestyle. Maybe you're becoming more mindful as you eat, adding more color and variety to your plate. You've even begun to add some more movement to your week. Whether you're walking or jogging, lifting weights or cycling, practicing yoga or pilates...whatever it is, it's great! 👏 Always take a moment to celebrate your small wins! If this sounds like you, you may also be feeling a little stiff or sore after some of your workouts.

To be continued…

Committing to Learn; Learning to Commit

The past few months, the entire world has turned upside down and inside-out for most people. I'm no different. I was cranking out fitness-and-growth-mindset-related blog posts and videos for about a month during the height of Japan's COVID emergency declaration during April and May, when I had some downtime from my normal classroom teaching schedule while students stayed home from school. Then, the (first) COVID curve was effectively flattened in Japan, where I was teaching English.

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Growth Mindset and Sustainable Healthy Lifestyle

At one high school in Chicago, students had to pass a certain number of courses in order to graduate. Instead of giving failing grades to those who did not pass, the school simply wrote “not yet” on a student’s report card. These two little words - "not yet" - gave students hope that they could pass if they tried again, motivating them to keep trying. Interestingly, giving a failing grade to students not only made them more likely to give up, it also encouraged them to cheat the next time, or to look for someone who did worse to make themselves feel better!

You'll never guess what happens next…

Substance Spotlight: Caffeine

Don't talk to me until I've had my morning coffee. Do you and the delightful, calming Joe Pera have this sentiment in common? If so this post may be for you. Image courtesy of: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/3/7/18253668/decaf-coffee-caffeine-stigma 9 out of 10 adults in North America start their day with caffeinated tea or coffee. Are you among them? If so, have you ever wondered whether this habit is good or bad for your health?

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Why Walk? Finding Stillness through Mindful Movement

In one of my first videos on getting started with sustainable healthy lifestyle change, I encouraged you to start walking more as a simple way to increase your "NEAT" - non exercise activity thermogenesis (calorie burn from unstructured exercise). Note: If you prefer to watch a video of this information to reading a blog post, you can do so here: Finding Stillness through Mindful Walking While a little bonus calorie burn to up your NEAT is a great reason to walk more, there are also many psychological benefits associated with walking!

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Mindset Matters: Journaling for Optimal Health

There are SO MANY Health Benefits of journaling! Here's a quick overview for you! Note: This blog post distills some of the biggest benefits and takeaways from a longer (incredible!) article on the health benefits of journaling from Positive Psychology (note: all research references are at the bottom of that page!) https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling/ Health and Wellbeing are Multifaceted Your health is about so much more than just your body! To be truly healthy you must consider your physical health, sure, but what about your mindset?

To be continued…

Getting Started with Healthy Lifestyle Change: Practical Tips for Mindful Behavior Change

Feeling motivated to become a healthier version of yourself can be the best feeling in the world! If that's you right now, you should definitely leverage that positive energy and use it strategically. image credit: http://easyfitnesstips.info/quick-fitness-that-you-need-to-know/ What NOT to do: start restricting your calories or macros drastically start tracking every bit of food that you put in your mouth. start running or doing some other intense form of exercise every single day.

Okay, I'm interested…