Embrace Your Heart Blog

Busy Woman's Guide to a Healthy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. We will have 19 people around our table on Thursday and we are truly blessed to have so many members of our family together. Yet, large family gatherings, cooking large meals, and “together time” can be stressful.  Not to mention what it can do to your healthy eating habits! Even good things cause stress -- and let’s face it, not every family gathering is entirely a “good thing.”

Here are some ideas to keep your stress level low and your Thanksgiving healthy:

Keep Perspective: Whether you are hosting or a guest, remember no one will recall the turkey or how long it took to get to the table.  This holiday is about the being thankful for the people around you and the blessings in your life.  Take the time for extra hugs (especially for the harried cook). 

Keep Breathing: When things start to overwhelm you, remember to breathe.  ...in through your nose, and out through your mouth -- more out than in.  Blow out the stress and give yourself permission to enjoy.

Keep Connecting: Even when we have the opportunity to be in the same room with friends and family it is easy let the time go by without truly connecting.  Take the time to sit down and really have a conversation.  Make this season a time to share.

Keep Proportion: It’s easy to overindulge at the holiday table. Here’s some tips to stay in control:

• If you are hosting:

• Don’t starve people before they eat.
• Often, the holiday meal is served at an odd time.  Serve some healthy snacks (veggies and dip for example) to tide people over.
• Serve something warm to drink.
• If you are cold your body thinks it needs more food.  Warm up and you will feel less likely to overindulge.
• Make the meal an event – serve in stages.
• Try starting with a salad or soup first.  Then clear and serve the main course.  It takes twenty minutes for the stomach to tell your brain it is full.  Give it a head start!
• Once you serve the main course take the leftovers off the table.  Again, waiting twenty minutes to serve seconds will help your brain catch up with your stomach.
• After the main course, clear (and even do) the dishes.  This can be a great time for a walk together, a little touch football or even a chat about what has made you grateful over the year.  
• Consider plating the dessert.  Putting a small serving on a beautifully decorated plate make a wonderful finish to the meal.
• After the meal, wrap up “doggie-bags” for your guest.  It is a lovely gesture and a way to limit the gravy taunting you in the refrigerator.

• If you are visiting:

• Try to treat this meal like any other.  If you don’t take seconds usually – don’t!
• Fill up on healthier choices such as turkey and vegetables
• Hit the relish tray hard!
• It’s one day – don’t beat yourself up for a slip.

Keep the quiet: Just for a few hours, disconnect from your electronic gadgets and focus on the people around the table. No calls, no texts, and no tweets. Without the distractions you may be surprised how well you connect.

Keep the thanks: Thanksgiving should be a day to slow down, take a break from your usual busy life and look around. What is good in your life? Who gives you joy and comfort? What are you thankful for this year?

I wish you low stress, great success, and a wonderful holiday.

Eliz Greene is the Busy Woman’s Guide to a Healthy Heart. Drawing on her experience surviving a massive heart attack while seven-months pregnant with twins, struggling to lose the 80 pounds gained during her pregnancy, and her background as an adaptive movement specialist, Eliz developed simple strategies and tips to help other busy women be more active, eat better and manage your stress.

As the Director of the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative, Eliz travels the country energizing and inspiring audiences in keynotes and workshops on women’s heart health. She writes one of the top 100 health and wellness blogs.

Eliz stresses balance, the importance of taking time to appreciate the good things in life, and treating yourself well. Learn more at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

Wine and Chocolate Recommendation

As you may know, I am a big fan of wine and chocolate as a stress remedy. But which wine and what chocolate you may ask.

Red wine (white wine doesn't supply the same benefits) doesn't have to cost much to be good.  Here are some of my favorites is usually available for under $15:

Peralta 2005 Syrah
Screw Kappa Napa 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
Menage A Trois 2007 Red

Dark chocolate with at least 60% cacao will do the trick. Try to limit your self to about an ounce. or two. Experiment to find one which suits your taste for creaminess, bite and flavor.  Here are some of my favorites:

 Ghirardelli Intense Dark Twilight Delight

Ghirardelli Intense Dark Evening Dream

Dove Dark Chocolate Miniatures

Cacao Reserve by Hershey Premium Dark

Please share your favorites by adding a comment below.

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives. Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

A View From the Top

I often close e-mails and letters with:

“Wishing you low stress and great success.”

Often the key to limiting stress and getting what you want is the people choose to help meet the goal.

This summer I took a trip to the top of the mast of our Catalina 34 sailboat.  It is a “tall rig” which means the trip is 51 feet up from the water line.  It took a good quality climbing harness, a well tied bowline knot, and my handsome husband grinding away at the winch to get me up there  -- oh, yes -- and a certain amount of courage and faith.

Back down on the deck, Clay, the handsome husband, laughed at all of the praise I received from our crew and passers-by.  “It’s a metaphor for our relationship,” he declared, “I do the hard work and you get all the credit.”  It’s true.  So often I am praised for something he contributed the lions-share to complete.  I’m often the one seen, but not the only one at work.

It’s a pretty good metaphor for success as well.  If you want to reach the top, you’d best be sure you have a good crew around you -- and don’t forget to share the praise.

So -- here’s the praise for my crew and some thoughts about the view from the top.

Know who you can count on to keep grinding. As I mentioned, it is 51 feet to the top of the mast. The last ten feet are tough -- I couldn’t really help by climbing at all and Clay had a tough time cranking the winch.  Our boat partner, Dave Levine, stepped in to help tail the line until I reached the top. They never stopped. Thanks Honey!

Who do you know who will grind  until you reach your goal?

Have a trustworthy safety line. Dave (until he hopped over to help Clay) and his lovely bride Debbie kept tension on a second line, just in case Clay’s slipped.  We never needed it, but it was nice to know it was there. Thanks Dave & Debbie!

Who is your safety line?

Set yourself up for success. When it was clear someone would have to up the mast (because I’d manage to leave the VHF antenna disconnected -- oops), I volunteered.  While the idea of being hoisted way up there was a bit scary, it sounded like an adventure.  Clay, not liking the idea of losing or injuring the mother of his children, was a bit worried to say the least. His worries were eased by seeking the advice of our dock-mates and purchasing a very nice climbing harness.  We had a plan, enough people to do the job correctly and the right equipment. Thanks again REI guy and all those who gave us good advice! 

Do you have what you need for success?

Have someone to remind you to look at the view. Our dock-mate, Mark Stein, another C-34 owner, was on hand to document the event and as I was coming down yelled, “Don’t forget to look around!”  He was right, the view was fantastic, and I would have missed it had he not reminded me.  So often we reach the moment we’ve worked for and forget to stop, look around and appreciate it.  Thanks Mark!

Who will remind you to enjoy the view?

Take a break when things get tense. Okay, they got me up there, I connected the antenna, and then it was time to come back down.  It sounds easy, but it’s dangerous.  My weight would cause me to careen down the mast without Clay’s careful guidance of the line.  He was pretty stressed about it, but he did a great job. Of course Dave and Debbie were ready on the safety line as well.  About one-third of the way down I needed to swing my legs and body out, around and under the spreader arms.  On the way up this actually helped -- I could climb and help pull myself up, which took some of the pressure off of Clay.  On the way down, however, it was a little bit scary for all of us.  Once I reached the spreaders, I asked Clay to cleat off the line and I just sat for a moment.  Clay got to take a moment to breathe and I got a moment to gather myself to swing out.  Clay gave me some slack and I swung my legs around.  As it turns out -- not as scary as I imagined (most things aren’t) and I returned to the deck safely. The break was good for all of us. 

Will you remember to take a break and re-group when things get tough?

Pay attention to who is watching. In addition to my crew and the passers-by on the dock, two pairs of eyes were glued to our activities -- belonging to Gracie and Callie, our daughters.  During the process they were the cheerleaders and shouted “Hang on, Mama!”  At the end, and still to this day, Callie wants to know when it is her turn to go up the mast.  Maybe when you are a bit older -- of course hauling her 50 pounds up the mast would be MUCH easier than hauling my 125!  All-in-all, it was a good lesson for them about team work and trying something new, even if it is scary.

Who is watching you?

I hope I thanked and praised Clay, Dave, Debbie and Mark enough.  The view from the top was pretty spectacular.  Thanks for getting me up there.

Share your story about getting to the top.  Make a comment below.

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives. Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

Multitasking or Over-tasked?

 As I prepared to begin a program for the Wisconsin Health Information Management Association last week, I realized I’d be speaking while they were eating lunch.

“Don’t worry,” said one of the attendees, “we are great at multitasking.”

So true, women are great at juggling more than one thing -- which incidentally was the topic of my program: Why Women Have Balls: Stress Management for Busy Women

In fact, researchers recently discovered men and women worry about a different number of things each day. On average, daily stress concerns of:

Men = 3
(money, job & family)

Women = 12

12!  That sounds about right!

Juggling is our power, but juggling poorly can greatly increase stress and may lead to illness.

How do you know if you are juggling too much? 

• Do you sometimes feel you neglect important things because you are distracted by everything else you have to do?
• Do you forgo personal pleasures to get just one more thing done?
• Do you feel as if someone will soon find out you are just pretending to be this good?

One hidden source of stress can come from devices which are meant to help us be more efficient. There is a difference between staying connected and too much information.

• Does your cellphone feel like a convenience or a burden -- intruding too often into your life?
• Is your Blackberry a tool or an addiction?
• Does watching television relax you or leave you feeling anxious and tense?

According to Dr. Joanne Cantor, Ph.D., an expert in the field of the effects of media on the brain, there are good reasons the daily barrage of electronic inputs leave us with jangled nerves and increased stress.

“One area of insight into our reactions may come from recent findings in neuroscience, research that studies how the brain and body respond to the inputs it receives,” Dr. Cantor explains. “For example, research on “mirror neurons” suggests that when we watch other people engage in behavior (even when the other people are on screen), the part of our brain that plans and prepares to perform that same activity is activated.” 

In other words, we aren’t just passively receiving all of those messages and images, our brains are figuring out how to become part of them.

Help yourself juggle well by controling your electronic-induced stress -- here are some suggestions:

Start and end the day quietly. Commit to spending the first 30 minutes and the last 30 minutes you are wake without electronic interruption.  Read the paper, enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, or talk with your spouse or partner. Keep the television and radio off. Turn off your cellphone, and walk past the computer without checking your e-mail or the news-sites.

Eating and electronics don’t mix. Try not to eat and text. Along with being rude to your dining companions, you are less likely to pay attention to what and how much you are eating. You body will digest what you eat more efficiently if you eat without interruption. We all know family dinner time is crucial part of child development. Social interaction is also an important part of stress management. Keep the television off and relate to those around you.

Take a break. Pause for ten minutes during the day and disconnect from the computer, phone, Blackberry, television, and all other electronic devices. Sit back, close your eyes and breathe deeply.  Take a quick walk. Disengaging will clear your mind, allow your body and brain to quiet, and refocus your energy. If you can’t make it for ten minutes without your devices, start with five minutes build your way up to two ten-minute breaks per day.

Pay attention to the impact time-saving devices are having on your stress level and take steps to manage them (rather than them managing you)!

Wishing you low stress and great success!

Please add your suggestions or comments below!

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives.  Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

"Greene" eggs for these fools

 

As you might remember from last year's post, the Greene family enjoys April Fool's Day!

This year the girls, now seven, are beginning to catch on. Gracie spotted the green eggs going into the pan and announced,

"I'm not eating that!"

She had a few bites, as did Callie -- who more enjoyed the leftover spaghetti shoved into her slippers (she has some in her hand in the picture above).

Why do we love April Fool's Day so much? Because it is fun to cut loose and be silly every once and a while.  Clay works hard, and has to be serious much of the day, but this morning he got dressed up, pulled gags on his daughters, ate green eggs and laughed his bootie off!

It just doesn't get better than that!

So, don't wait for next April Fool's Day to have a good laugh or put a smile on your face. Do something unexpected.  Laugh and your heart grows younger!

Got a great April Fool's story? Add your comments below!

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to help busy women lead healthier lives.  Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

You're My Super Ball Contest

Celebrate that great friend who gives you so much energy by entering her in the You're My Super Ball Contest.

Watch Eliz explain the Super Ball...

Make a comment below by February 14th and include:
Your first name.
Your Super Ball's first name.
How she makes your life better.

The best stories will chosen by a crack panel of Super Ball experts (Patty & Eliz) on February 15th.

Winners and their Super Balls will receive a limited edition Embrace Your Heart Indulgence Kit with supplies for a candle-lit bubble bath and, of course, chocolate!

Celebrate your Super Ball!

Celebrate Your Super Balls!

Every woman needs a Super Ball!

The phone rings, you check the caller ID and smile.  It's her, the one friend you can count on to make you feel good, safe, valued, and you can't wait to begin.

Who is your Super Ball? 

In my program "Why Women Have Balls" I discuss the importance of nurturing your friendships.

Super Balls are  female friends who give back as much energy and enthusiasm as you give to them.  A study conducted at UCLA indicates women who maintain positive friendships live longer, are more healthy, and have better coping skills.

Celebrate the Super Balls in your life this month.  Call her up and make her day.  Thank her for all the ways she makes your life better.  Make some time to spend together.

Better yet, tell us about your Super Ball and perhaps win some great prizes for you both!  Give us one good example of how your Super Ball makes you a healthier, more well balanced person in the comment section of this post.

Don't have a Super Ball?  Look around, she's probably there, but your busy life got in the way.  Make time to reconnect with old friends or reach out to new ones.  Your heart will thank you!

Oh, and don't forget to be a Super Ball for your friends too!

Please add your suggestions or comments below!

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives.  Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

Indulge Your Valentine

Give your Valentine a heart healthy gift.

 Your Valentine's heart yearns for indulgence.

Give your Valentine...

A Treat.
Indulge your Valentine with the
Wine and Chocolate Stress Remedy:
Select a small amount of decadent chocolate to savor slowly such as  such as the Valentines Day Selections from Woodhouse Chocolate.  We received a selection at Christmas and my mouth waters just thinking about it. Get comfy, enjoy some chocolate and some red wine. Unwind together, talk about what is good in your lives and breathe.

A Break.
Encourage your Valentine to take sometime to relax with something such as the Pamper Me Gift Set which includes supplies for a lovely bath and a deck of cards with 52 Ways to Pamper Yourself.

Sleep.
Give something cozy to relax in from Pajama Gram.  They come in a delightful hat box with a "Do Not Disturb" sign!  They have men's pajamas too which come in a travel case. 

Give your Valentine (or yourself) the gift of indulgence.

Please add your suggestions or comments below!

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives.  Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

How much anxiety do you have?

Researchers continue to discover more and more relation between anxiety and heart disease.  The greater your stress, the greater your chance of heart attack and stroke.

Many of us are not even aware of our daily level of anxiety.  Your body has an amazing capacity for adaption.  Put it in a long term stressful situation, it will become accustomed to the lack of sleep, poor habits, high levels of stress hormones and other physical symptoms of anxiety.  However, in the long run your body needs a break, and without it will begin to break down.

So, are you managing your stress -- or have you just become accustomed to it?

For tips to evaluate and reduce your anxiety read my column at MyHealthyHeartInfo.com

Please add your suggestions or comments below!

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives.  Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

Your Heart Yearns for Indulgence

Indulgence isn't selfish -- it is essential!

Women are great at managing other people’s stress, but are often lousy at managing our own. 

Perhaps it is because we feel guilty taking the time to indulge ourselves in even the most simple ways.  There is always one more thing to be done: one more load of laundry, one more project, or one more call.  Yet, denying ourselves the time to relax and rejuvenate, indulge, lets the stress build up. 

What are you denying yourself? 

A treat? 
Wine and chocolate can be a great stress remedy if you let it.  Don’t feel guilty for taking time in the evening to enjoy the richness (in an appropriate portion).

A break? 
How long has it been since you put your feet up and read a book in the middle of the day?  Are you dining al desko and missing an opportunity to relax for a few minutes at work?   Do you reward yourself with a spa service only when you get a gift certificate? Give yourself time to relax recharge!

Sleep? 
Does seven hours of sleep seem indulgent?  It shouldn’t.  Your body needs sleep to get rid of the chemicals created by stress.  Read the article in MyHealthyHeartInfo for suggestions to protect your sleep and protect your heart!

Stop denying yourself.  Indulge yourself!

Remember:

The people who love and depend on you want you to be strong and healthy. 
Treat yourself well, you deserve it!

Indulge and feel great in 2008!

Please add your suggestions or comments below!

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives.  Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com