Happy Friday!!!
Hope your week is coming to a lovely conclusion.
Mine started off pretty jam-packed at work, with lots of activity for several of my projects.
By midweek, though, things slowed down a bit and the past couple of days have been relatively relaxed (still productive).
Training is continuing to go well, although I am definitely getting closer to a point at which I might want reset my training loads.
For context, my target reps generally stay the same while I increase the load.
I’m just not quite feeling as confident with my target reps as I had been.
This isn’t necessarily a good or a bad thing, but simply an observation.
Progress isn’t linear and this is just part of the process.
Sleep, diet, and stress have all been on point.
The elevated heart rate I mentioned several weeks ago seems to have pretty much completely returned back to its baseline, so that’s reassuring.
Still not entirely sure what was driving that, but whatevs.
Considering all the factors involved, I could speculate for days.
Speaking of heart rate, I’ve been dedicating a bit more time to meditation recently.
To clarify, I started this weeks after my heart rate started to decline.
I’ve started allocating 10 minutes, rather than 2 minutes, each morning to focused breathing while also listening to binaural beats.
Each night before cutting out the lights I’ve been doing this for 5 minutes, too.
I have noticed a bit heightened awareness of my thoughts and feelings, and also feel a bit better to manage them.
No complaints about that.
Oh, speaking of thoughts and feelings, I’ve changed my mind about my classes next semester.
I mentioned registering for Anatomy and Physiology II and General Chemistry I, but not feeling rushed to sign up for any additional courses.
Well, I decided this week to go ahead and register for Abnormal Psychology, too.
It’s being taught by the same instructor who’s teaching me General Psychology this semester, and I think I should be able to handle the increased course load.
There are people who have conquered much more dauting tasks in life.
If it ends up being a bit too much for me to make the most of each class, then it’s a lesson learned.
There’s only one way to find out, though :-)
Saturday afternoon I’ll be grabbing some beers with a couple of friends from a previous job.
The rest of the weekend will be mainly reading, writing, studying, PlayStation, exploring the neighborhood, and taking it easy.
Whatever you get into this weekend, I hope it puts a smile on your face.
I appreciate you.
Here are this week's most excellent resources for a most excellent life…
Self-Compassion, Mindful Eating, Eating Attitudes and Wellbeing Among Emerging Adults, Ruth Shaw & Tony Cassidy
“Regression and path analysis show mindful eating behavior and self-compassion to individually and interaction predict eating attitudes and wellbeing. BMI was shown to have a curvilinear relationship with mindful eating behavior, self-compassion and wellbeing with both the underweight and obese reporting lower self-compassion, less Mindful eating behavior, lower wellbeing and more likely to exhibit disordered eating. These results indicate that self-compassion and mindful eating behavior might be usefully targeted in interventions to prevent both obesity and eating disorder.”
Prosocial behavior and well-being: Shifting from the ‘chicken and egg’ to positive feedback loop, Bryant P.H. Hui
“Both prosocial behavior and well-being show positive effects on each other, suggesting that the reciprocal relationship between prosocial behavior and well-being is highly possible.”
Tips to Help Your Child Manage Scary News, Jacqueline Toner, Ph.D
You might find these strategies aren’t limited to helping children :-)
Psilocybin therapy increases cognitive and neural flexibility in patients with major depressive disorder, Doss et. al
“Overall, our work suggests that psilocybin therapy may improve cognitive flexibility in psychiatric illness, but it highlights potential boundary conditions of psychedelic-induced neural flexibility and its relationship to cognitive improvements.”
The effects of exercise interventions on physical function tests and glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review, Sarah M. Janssen and Denise M. Connelly
"These findings suggest that combined aerobic and resistance exercise may improve HbA1c levels to a greater extent compared to aerobic or resistance exercise alone."
On Repeat: Listening to Favourite Music Improves Brain Function in Alzheimer’s Patients: Toronto Study, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine
"Repeated exposure to music with autobiographical salience improved cognition in all participants, regardless of musicianship."
11 Mental Tricks to Stop Overthinking Everything, Scott Mautz
"There’s a time to think, a time to act, a time to reflect, and a time to move forward."
The effects of dietary protein intake on appendicular lean mass and muscle function in elderly men: a 10-wk randomized controlled trial, Mitchell et al.
“Consumption of a diet providing 2RDA for protein compared with the current guidelines was found to have beneficial effects on lean body mass and leg power in elderly men. These effects were not explained by differences in energy balance.”
Loneliness and Facebook use: the role of social comparison and rumination, Dibb & Foster
"The results showed that rumination and upward social comparison on Facebook were significantly associated with loneliness."
“Using apoB is not the last step to improve clinical care, but it is an important next step. Given the totality of the evidence, to further delay introducing apoB into routine clinical care would break faith with our commitment to practice evidence-based medicine.”
I’ll leave you with this...
We can focus so hard on what we haven't done that we totally overlook what we have done.
Those pats on the back matter, especially when coming from ourselves.
There's not much more satisfying than self-validation.
Celebrate the small wins.
You may find they're not that small.
You've got this.