10 Easy Ways to Make Your Family’s Day Brighter

Family time these days can be hard to come by. With work obligations, crazy kid-activity schedules, and the normal upkeep and errands we all do just to keep our homes and family humming along, it’s easy to get stuck in the daily grind and forget to focus on life’s sweet and happy moments.

Here are 10 simple ways to make your family’s day a little brighter.

1. Stop Complaining.

In simple terms, think of the whimsical and enchanting characters in Winnie the Pooh. Pooh Bear is tenderhearted and loveable, no matter the situation. Eeyore, on the other hand, may be adorable but he’s a total drain with his “woe is me” attitude. One study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that optimists, as a group, tend to live longer than pessimists. Be mindful of any complaining you do both at home and elsewhere and watch the positive ripple effect it has on those you love.

2. Play Upbeat Music.

Uplifting, energizing tunes can instantly change the mood in your home. Get into the habit of playing catchy, happy music when you’re family is all together and watch your home’s atmosphere brighten.

3. Check Out Happy Websites.

Sometimes you just need to stop, breathe, and click! The internet is full of bright treasures so when you’re family needs a “happy boost” try a few of these websites to perk things up in your home. Warning, some of them are contagious!

4. Bake Cookies.

There’s something comforting about returning home from a chaotic day at school or work to find a plate of warm, homemade cookies or brownies waiting. It doesn’t have to be a weekly event, even better when it’s totally random, but the results will bring lasting smiles.

5. Prepare a Favorite Meal.

We often get locked in to the mindset that a person’s favorite meal—homemade mac and cheese, a clambake, a Chinese smorgasbord—are reserved for special occasions such as birthdays or anniversaries. But when we serve up a fave menu item out of the blue, it can take the entire family to their happy place.

6. Plan a Surprise.

We can be such creatures of habit that life can become rote and dull! Shake things up by planning an unexpected surprise for your family. Purchase movie tickets on a school night. Have a movie night where you watch your family videos. Take a day off from work and school and enjoy your home or go on a mini road trip. Bring on the giggles!

7. Smile.

The simplest and most effective way to evoke a harmonious atmosphere is to smile. It costs nothing! You can smile at any time, any place. It can be contagious and make everyone you care about feel great.

8. Give Genuine Compliments.

When life gets busy, we tend to focus on our overwhelming “to do” lists and scurry from one task to the next forgetting about the people who make a difference in our lives. One of the quickest ways to spread some sunshine is to look for the good in people and stop and comment on it.

9. Leave a Love Note.

We all love praise. Even better is when it’s in written form. A quick note in your child’s lunchbox about how much you love him, or a beautiful card tucked away in your spouse/significant other’s briefcase reminding them of an intimate moment that was shared in the past can put a spring in their step!

10. Encourage Gratitude.

No matter what obstacles seem to block our individual or family’s path, when we reflect on all that we have to be grateful for, our entire emotional mindset can shift. Comment aloud in front of your family about the blessings you have in your life. A safe, cozy home, a fuzzy puppy, a favorite playground in the community, internet access, a car to get your family back and forth to their favorite activities, healthy children—the list goes on and on. Focus on what’s good and everything can be instantly brighter.

Image of happy family © Shutterstock

5 Graceful Ways to Stop Getting Defensive

What do a medieval fortress, a balled-up porcupine, and a lymphocyte have in common? They’re all pros at getting defensive.

Now, when we humans are faced with criticism, we often unleash our own equivalent of flaming arrows, a ball of spines, or a cascade of antibodies. Getting defensive helps us protect our character and our sense of competence. When we feel like we’re under attack, it makes sense that we pull up the drawbridge and ready the boiling oil.

Sometimes we even get defensive with ourselves—it’s our personal spin control. We distance ourselves from our mistakes, blame outside forces for failure, and judge others in order to affirm ourselves. Or we drink or otherwise self-medicate to cope with threats to our self-image and self-esteem.

The only problem? Getting defensive with friends, your boss, your partner, and yourself often backfires. It pushes people away, makes us look immature, and sends a message that we’re unable to regulate our emotions.

Short term, it might feel like it’s all we can do. But long term, it undermines us and our relationships. When we lash out, we dig ourselves deeper.

Therefore, this week, by request from listener Ashleigh and an anonymous listener, we examine five ways to stop getting so defensive.

5 Ways to Stop Getting Defensive

1. Remind yourself of your deepest values.
2. See criticism as a sign of others’ belief in your abilities.
3. Cultivate a growth mindset.
4. In the moment, buy time.
5. Use a classic: “I” statements.

Let's dive deeper into each tip.

Tip #1: Remind yourself of your deepest values.

Simple reminders of our deepest values can make us feel less defensive. The best part? It doesn’t even have to be related to the criticism at hand.

In other words, if your academic performance gets criticized, you don’t have to tamp down defensiveness by thinking about all your past academic triumphs. Psychological wounds can be healed indirectly; thinking about your commitment to living a healthy lifestyle, your religious faith, being a stellar parent, helping others, making art, or another value you hold dear can shore up your self-esteem and reduce the need to get defensive.

Tip #2: See criticism as a sign of others’ belief in your abilities.

Do you remember how confusing seventh grade was? You’re still figuring out who you are and what you bring to the world. The feedback you get from teachers, coaches, and friends makes a big impact.

Therefore, it’s at this age that many kids of color start to come to conclusions about whether they can trust mainstream institutions like school, or whether they are being stereotyped. Both praise and critical feedback can be confusing for kids of color—how do they know if they’re being pandered to by adults who want to prove they’re not racist? Or, on the flip side, how can they be sure criticism is justified or just driven by bias? When is getting defensive justified? And when is it a misinterpretation?

A study from the Journal of Experimental Psychology delved into this issue. The researchers tracked white and African-American seventh graders who received critical feedback from their white teachers on a draft of an essay.

For half of the kids, both white and black, teachers prefaced their feedback with the following affirmation: “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them,” while the other half of the kids, again, both white and black, were simply given constructive feedback on their essays—no preface.

What happened? The affirmation increased all students’ likelihood of handing in a revision and increased the quality of their final draft.

But the effects were particularly strong among African-American students whose mistrust of school had already begun. Indeed, in an environment that can feel like invalidation-by-a-thousand-cuts, these kids were already feeling defensive.

Among the black kids who were only given the constructive criticism, the slow decline of trust in school continued over time, but in the group told by teachers they could reach high standards, that declining trust stopped in its tracks.

So how does this apply to you? Even if the magic words of “I believe in you” or “I know you are capable” go unsaid, if you know in your heart that your mom, your boss, or your partner is only offering feedback so you can achieve great things, it’s easier to hear the words and feel motivated rather than defensive.

Tip #3: Cultivate a growth mindset.

We usually think of defensiveness as getting verbally defensive. But we actually defend ourselves against holes in our self-esteem in lots of ways: we might trash-talk our haters, compare ourselves to people who have it worse, or splurge on some retail therapy to soothe our wounded souls.

Now, each of these methods might make us feel better, but they channel our energy into defensiveness rather than moving forward.

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So how can we channel our energy into self-improvement rather than self-defense? According to a study by Dr. Carol Dweck, grande dame of the mindset movement, cultivating a growth mindset can help us make the leap.

In the study, university students were primed by reading one of two fake news articles: one said that intelligence was inherited and fixed from a young age, while the other said that intelligence could be increased substantially over the life span. Then all the participants were given just four minutes to read a long and confusing passage from Freud’s classic The Interpretation of Dreams, which, with its late 1800s language and esoteric ideas, was about as easy to get through as airport security on Thanksgiving weekend.

After they read, they answered some questions that supposedly gauged their comprehension. But psychologists are tricky, so no matter their actual score, participants were told they scored in the 37th percentile. Not good by any measure, but not so bad that they were truly the bottom of the barrel.

The researchers found that those who had been primed to think intelligence was fixed made themselves feel better by comparing their performance to those who did worse than them—a defensive reaction: “Well, at least I did better than those morons.”

But the participants who had been primed to think intelligence was malleable coped by being curious about the strategies of those who performed better. Rather than getting defensive, they wanted to learn how to improve their own performance.

Of course, if you receive criticism that is cruel or insulting, no one expects you to grow from it—go ahead and use your time and energy repairing those wounds.

But if the feedback is meant to help you or is neutral and objective—like scoring in the 37th percentile—rather than channeling your energy into soothing yourself, channel your energy into improving yourself. Adopt a growth mindset and take critical feedback as a chance to get better and better.

Tip #4: In the moment, buy time.

Okay, that is all fine and good, you say—I can affirm my deepest values, interpret feedback as the fact that others believe in me, and trust that I can grow. But what about in the moment? How can I manage that split second when I know I’ll dig myself into a hole if I get defensive, but all I want to do is clap back in epic style?

The answer: your biggest asset is time. Buy yourself a few seconds to let the adrenaline surge crest and to gather your thoughts. You can do this is one of two ways.

One, keep them talking. You could say, “Go on...” or “Oh? Say more about that.” And then, use their airtime to take a few slow breaths and gather your thoughts.

Two, don’t be afraid to stay momentarily silent. A slightly awkward pause buys you time and, as a bonus, throws them off their game. Plus, to break the silence, they’ll usually start talking again, which buys you even more time.

And then? Try Tip #5.

Tip #5: Use a classic: “I” statements.

This is a classic for a reason. “I” statements are key to reducing defensiveness. Why? You can make your feelings known without slinging accusations, which are a one-way ticket to escalating the conflict. Plus, no one can argue with your opinion or your feelings.

For once, making it about you is the way to go, and “I” statements will help you get there without getting defensive.

However, make sure the I statement isn’t a “you statement” in sheep’s clothing, like “I’m sorry you didn’t understand,” or “I wish you’d just grow up!”

Better: “I am not comfortable with this.” “I have a hard time listening when you raise your voice.” “I get frustrated when you remind me over and over. It makes me feel like you don’t trust me.” Sometimes a simple, “I hear what you’re saying,” is enough to defuse the tension and have a real conversation.

To wrap it all up, leave great defense to the likes of Dick Butkus and Bill Russell, not to mention that balled-up porcupine. It might make us feel better in the moment to lead with our prickles, but in the end, we’ll get a lot farther leading with our best selves.

Order Ellen's book HOW TO BE YOURSELF: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety. Get even more savvy tips to be happier and healthier by subscribing to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or get each episode delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for the newsletter. Follow on Facebook and Twitter.

Image of porcupine © Shutterstock

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Wyatt Earp's Relationship with Women Was...Complicated

Something that doesn’t normally get talked about with Wyatt Earp is Wyatt’s history with women. Forewarning: it’s going to get a little bawdy here.

Wyatt Earp was a man who respected marriage and thought marriage was important—in fact, he thought it was so important that he was married four times. Less important, however, was divorce, as there’s not much evidence to suggest that he actually divorced any of his previous wives before he married the next one and often they tended to overlap. To say the least, Wyatt Earp had a somewhat complicated domestic situation. In my book, Dodge City, I contrast that to Bat Masterson, who did not marry until he was well into his thirties and when he did marry, he married for life. Bat and his wife, Emma, were together for thirty-three years until Bat’s death.

Wyatt had a different story when it came to women. In his early twenties, Wyatt was wandering around, going from job to job, and decided he would visit his family. They were living at Lamar, Missouri at the time, so Wyatt journeyed back to Lamar from the west. He lived there for a while, and met a young woman, Aurilla Sutherland. Aurilla’s parents were originally from New York City and had come to Lamar after the Civil War to operate a hotel. How Wyatt and Aurilla met is uncertain—they were both part of a methodist community and may have met that way, or they may have met because Nicholas Earp, Wyatt’s father, had a business that was just a few doors down from the Sutherland’s hotel.

In any case, Wyatt, who was in his early 20s, and Aurilla, who was around the age of 19 at that time, met and fell in love. They were married and Wyatt bought a piece of property with a small house for $75. He intended to expand the house, which was going to come in handy because not too long after they were married Aurilla became pregnant. Wyatt had also been appointed a constable in Lamar. It looked like life was pretty well mapped out for Earp and everything seemed to be fine until late in Aurilla’s pregnancy, she became ill. The most common probability is that she contracted cholera, which both she and the baby died from.

Wyatt was grief-stricken and, being unable to handle the way he was feeling, started to get into fights. He sold the piece of property now that he had no use for it and left Lamar to begin a life of crime. Wyatt got into trouble in different towns, the worst instance occuring when Wyatt and some companions stole horses and were caught. Earp ended up being imprisoned as a horse thief and that he wasn’t hanged was a miracle for that time. Luckily, there was more of a judicial system available in Missouri and Kansas than there was farther out west where you were hanged if you were caught stealing horses. After serving his time, Wyatt got out of jail, he took off, kept a low profile, and ended up in Wichita.

Wichita was a place of redemption for Wyatt Earp, as he was able to get a job as a part-time lawman, a definite turnaround point for him. However, one of his jobs to make extra pay, which was not unusual at the time for lawmen, was as a bouncer at a house of prostitution. Today it would cause some serious issues for a policeman to moonlight as a bouncer at a brothel, but at that time it was a pretty decent way to make a few extra dollars.

It seemed as though Sally and Wyatt would be together for quite some time...

It was while he was working at one of these houses that he met Sarah Haspel, who was known as Sally Haspel. Sally was still young, a teenager, working as a prostitute in a whorehouse that was run by her mother. She and Wyatt developed feelings for each other and she would become Mrs. Earp number two. It seemed as though Sally and Wyatt would be together for quite some time—Sally didn’t have to live the life she had been living as long as Wyatt could support her. When the time came that Wyatt Earp accepted an invitation to become an assistant marshal of Dodge City, Sally Haspel came along.

Along the way to Dodge City, Wyatt met Celia Ann “Mattie” Blaylock and fell in love with her and she with him. There was a bit of a problem for this new love in that Sally was still around. So, to take care of that issue, Sally was put on a farm with Wyatt’s brother to wait for Wyatt to visit and Mattie became Wyatt Earp’s third wife. They were together in Dodge City and everybody knew Mattie as Wyatt’s wife. Eventually, Sally got wind of what was going on but decided not to go to Dodge City and fight for her man. She instead moved on, marrying another man and having children, living into her nineties before she passed away.

Mattie Blaylock and Wyatt were together for years, all through the Dodge City years and through some of Wyatt’s travels. But this marriage, too, did not last. While in Tombstone, Wyatt met Josephine Marcus. Josephine Marcus had been born in New York but her family relocated to the west coast and she grew up in the San Francisco area. When she was a teenager, she ran off to join an acting troupe, which toured California, Arizona, New Mexico—stopping any place that was large enough and could afford to pay for a stage for an acting troupe.

Josephine Marcus was actually engaged for a time to a man called John Behan, the county sheriff then who was not too delicately trying to straddle both sides of the law. He was a lawman, but also in with the Clanton gang and the horse thieves and cattle rustlers that were prominent on that side of the Arizona border. He was also a philanderer and eventually Josephine called off the engagement.

Wyatt noticed Josephine and was quite taken with her, so they started to see each other. Mattie learned of this new relationship and she thought that Wyatt would get over it, that it was a passing thing, but unfortunately for Mattie it wasn’t. Wyatt made Josephine wife number four with Mattie still around. Mattie had to be persuaded to leave town, which she eventually did.

Mattie was heartbroken when Wyatt took Josephine and left her behind, not quite recognizing the pattern Earp had established when she became wife number three. She had a hard time with life after Wyatt Earp, becoming addicted to laudanum. She went to live for a time with Big Nose Kate Elder, who was Doc Holliday’s girlfriend before moving elsewhere to live by herself. While she was living by herself she took an overdose of laudanum and died—a tragic ending to the life of Wyatt’s third wife.

Wyatt and Josephine were together for many years, getting together in the early 1880s and staying together until Wyatt died in 1929. They were together during all of Wyatt’s travels—from Arizona and New Mexico, to California, then Alaska and back to California, where they lived in San Diego for a few years. In the later years, Wyatt and Sadie would live in Los Angeles, with Wyatt doing some consulting work with directors of silent westerns, including John Ford.

After Wyatt passed away in January 1929, Josephine would move upstate in California and live with Virgil’s widow. They lived together for years as friends and companions, and were even buried in the same cemetery.

All told, Wyatt had a complicated domestic situation. He had four wives and, for a time, he was loyal to each one.

Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West is now available in paperback! Pick up your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Books-a-Million, or iBooks—or if you prefer to listen, check out the audiobook on Audible.

Why You Should Lift Something Heavy Over Your Head

Weight training not only strengthens muscles, it strengthens your bones by increasing your bone density. This can reduce the risk of fractures and broken bones as we age, and who doesn't want that? Research has also shown that weight training, especially the kind that loads your entire skeleton, can increase spinal bone density to create an entire strong and healthy body. And what better way to load your entire skeleton than by lifting something heavy over your head using a weightlifting move known as the Overhead Press?

Before I tell you how to do an Overhead Press, let's talk about its benefits. 

Core Strength

Overhead Press requires all of the stabilizing muscles in your torso to engage to keep your posture strong as you move the weight up and over your head. This includes the muscles the good old rectus abdominis, erector spinae, and the external obliques. The overhead press requires activation of all three of these muscle groups, especially when the lift is done with dumbbells, and unilaterally (one hand at a time). 

Shoulder Strength

The main muscles involved in the overhead press are the anterior deltoids and medial deltoids. These muscles make up the front and the center part of your shoulder. The anterior deltoid stars the lift, the medial deltoid keeps the lift going, and then the posterior deltoid stabilizes the lift when you get to the top.

Research has shown that weight training, especially the kind that loads your entire skeleton, can increase spinal bone density.

Back Strength

The trapezius (or trap for short) is a major muscle in your back and it moves, rotates, and stabilizes your scapula (shoulder blade) and your head and neck. The trapezius will engage to stabilize the weight during the overhead press when you do what is called the lockout (when you hold the position at the top of the lift). 

Skeleton Strength

Weight training, weight lifting, or nearly any type of strength training creates resistance against your muscles in order to strengthen them. That resistance then produces a strong pull on the adjacent bones when the muscles contract. That stronger tug on the bones then stimulates the bone-building cells in your body to be activated. The force (or loading) on the skeleton, through its axis, has been shown to stimulate the bone's natural function of increasing in density. The greater the load on the skeleton, the greater the effect it has on the density of bone.

The greater the load on the skeleton, the greater the effect it has on the density of bone.

How do you do an Overhead Press?

It's really quite simple.

1. Stand with your heels hip-width apart and your feet flat on the floor.
2. Hold both dumbbells with a 90-degree bend at your elbow.
3. Start with your elbows at shoulder height.
4. Keeping your core strong,
5. Press the weights overhead without letting your back arch.
6. Don’t press in front or behind your head - press over your head.
7. Lower the weights back down to the starting position. 
8. Repeat. 

As simple as it is, the overhead press involves technique and precision, especially when the weight gets heavy. So here are some things to watch out for:

• Don't press in front of your body.
• Don't arch your back (too much).
• Don't start the lift in your legs and let momentum do all the work.
• Don't stop before you get your arms straight.

Approximately 26.2 million postmenopausal women have either osteoporosis or osteopenia and are at an increased risk of fracture, particularly at the vertebrae, forearm, and hip. Of these three body parts, fractures of the vertebrae are the most common (approximately 56% of all fractures). One potential intervention for increasing or maintaining vertebral bone mineral density (BMD) is weight-bearing exercise. So let's all take advantage of this low-cost, nonpharmacologic intervention whether you are a postmenopausal woman or not.

Strong bones are important for everybody and every body.

For more boney info, dense tips, and to join the skeletal conversation, head over to Facebook.com/GetFitGuy or twitter.com/getfitguy.

Also don't forget to subscribe to the Get-Fit Guy podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Play or via RSS.

5 Things Doctors Wish Their Patients Knew

Someone recently asked me a very interesting and controversial question. What would I truly wish my patients would know about their medical care? It made me think. There are so many details I wish patients knew that I cannot possibly include all of them here.

But here's a sample of what goes through my mind as a practicing primary care physician: all this fascination with the numerous medical TV shows and news in the past decade, why can’t we doctors just simply give a straight answer? Why are people obsessed with non-evidence-based gimmicks created to simply deflate their wallet? Dr. Oz, why do you do this to your integrity?  Honestly, it’s depressing to see other physicians lose themselves in this world full of temptation and deception. We need to be honest with our patients—whether it’s in social media, TV, or in the office. How else can we live with ourselves and sleep at night?

One word: integrity.

So what would I want my patients to personally know as a primary care physician striving for premium patient advocacy and education? Here’s my top five list

1.  Know What Medications You Are Taking

You have one body, one mind, one life. Please learn as much as you possibly can about it (and not from the Internet!). I always find it a tad comical when a patient comes to see me to complain about a certain medication they are taking, without knowing the name or dose.

“It’s a little white pill, Doc. You must know which one it is.” The truth is doctors don’t know. Because there is an endless list of “little white pills”on the market. Generic drugs are also often manufactured by multiple pharmaceutical companies, so they can come in almost any size, shape, or color. There is no way that doctors can keep up with that type of rapidly changing information.

“Don’t you have it in the computer, Dr. Majd?” I do hear this one I hear quite often. Here’s what you need to know about me and many other doctors—we will ask you what medications you are taking at every single visit. Yes, we have a list of your filled prescriptions in the electronic medical records (EMR) system, but just because they are listed there doesn’t mean that the patient is actually taking and ingesting them. And even if they are, it doesn’t mean they are taking it exactly as prescribed. I cannot tell you how many inconsistencies of patient medications I find on a daily basis—more than I care to think about.

Imagine you end up in the Emergency Room for something unexpected (as ER visits often are). And it’s a facility that does not share medical records with your private doctor’s office (as they commonly don’t). They ask you what medications you are taking. Oh-oh … what to do? You are there for severe abdominal pain, are puking your guts out … and they need it now. It cannot wait. Their decision-making often depends on your prior diagnoses and medication lists.

So, yes…please take charge of your own health and understand:

1.   What medications you are taking

2.   The dosage of each medication

3.    How many times a day you are taking each one

4.   And just as importantly, for what indication you are taking each drug for

If you feel more comfortable carrying a medication list with you on a piece of paper, you may do so … even though it’s not quite the same as truly understanding it all inside and out.  What I find, unfortunately, is that patients who whip these pieces of paper out of their wallets have inconsistencies on their lists, and are not keeping it updated. If you do decide to keep a list in your wallet, please update it every single time a change is made to that list (including over-the-counter drugs you take or change on your own, and medications that specialists manage or tweak).

If remembering these long and complex-sounding drug names is too much of a challenge (which is quite understandable), another option is to bring your bottles to every single office visit.  But please make certain that you have grabbed all the bottles you take (including OTCs).

I have a patient that brings me her bottles every time. And about every other visit, I find either a double bottle of a drug that she’s taking both of inadvertently, or she leaves one or few bottles at home but “swears” she’s taking it. I’m never sure what she’s actually consuming on a daily visit. She even neared dialysis because of her medication bottle inconsistencies.  I worry about her every time I see her.

2.  The Common Cold, Flu, and Acute Bronchitis Are Viruses

The winter season brings a seemingly endless list of patients with viral syndromes to the doctor’s office. Viruses thrive in the cold environment, and therefore, tend to run rampant during these months. They are much, much more common than bacterial illnesses.  And are not treatable with antibiotics. Yes, antibiotics do not do a thing for those sometimes just-as-nasty viruses.

And antibiotics are not harmless. They have very serious consequences and risks, especially when used unnecessarily. Please listen to my previous podcast on this very important topic that I honestly believe every single person should be aware of.  Because unfortunately, I too often see a patient who requests antibiotics to treat their “sore throat” or “runny nose.” Not that these symptoms are for the light-hearted … certainly not. They are downright invasive, and sometimes debilitating, for a short period of time. But it doesn’t mean they are bacterial.

How can you tell if you have a virus (versus a bacteria)? I’ve discussed that one, too.  In order to save yourself and your family members an unnecessary visit to the doctor for something that is, yes, highly disrupting and ill-producing, but that self-resolves within 7-10 days without producing any red flags (such as shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, inability to break a fever with various OTC meds, etc.), make sure to understand when it’s viral and when it’s possibly something more serious.

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3.  Reasons Why Doctors Run Late

Like I’ve previously mentioned, I hate it when people run late.  Even more so when it’s myself. I also hate excuses. This is why this one kills me. Because the truth is that the primary care predicament in this country is quite a messy one. It’s mayhem. Clinics have a tremendous high overhead, and primary care office visits are not well-reimbursed. Therefore, there needs to be a high volume of patients seen in order to even break even, and office visits are often 15 to 20 minutes maximum.

This is the exact reason why there’s a shortage of primary care doctors in this country, because medical students are not selecting a primary care specialty because they realize they will not only have to live a high-stress, fast-paced work schedule on a daily basis for the next 40 years, but that they cannot pay off their school loans doing so.

My previous article on this topic went viral. Perhaps partly because I have struck a nerve with those in the trenches of primary care, like myself, who can relate. Listen to the podcast (or view the article) to learn what a very realistic and typical chaotic schedule and day for a primary care doctor really is like.

So if your doctor is running late, believe me, they are not out to lunch or on a Starbucks run.

4.  Be Honest

We are here to help you take charge of your health. 

I recently had a patient come see me for a routine physical. After asking my long list of questions to decipher his overall health, I ran some routine labs that returned with anemia and abnormal liver enzyme results.  At his second visit, even though he had denied alcohol use initially, after much further prodding and poking he finally admitted that he’s a heavy drinker. He also uses marijuana on a daily basis.  Why does he do these things? He’s self-medicating another underlying mental health issue, like many patients with alcohol and drug abuse.

I remember also seeing a young woman in her early 20s, brought in by her mom for severe abdominal pain.  Her mom was very visibly worried about her. I was, too—even though I sensed there was a missing piece of mysterious information at the time.

I kicked the mom out of the exam room like I always do with teens and older patients. She didn’t reveal a thing. So I had no choice but to send this young patient to the ER. Turns out, she was simply severely constipated. So when I saw her back in the office for a follow-up visit, she admitted to having taken her boyfriend’s “vicodin” while on a trip to a local amusement park after some “foot pain” she experienced there. Then later, she finally revealed … it was really to heighten her roller coaster “high.” Narcotics are notoriously known for causing constipation, and sometimes quite severely.

I see these cases more often than I like. But the bottom line is this: please be honest with your doctor. Doctors are not in law enforcement, we are not reporting alcohol and drug intake. Your medical records are protected by HIPPA laws, and no one can have access to them without your consent. We are here to help you take charge of your health. There’s no reason not to be completely honest. How else can we care for you to the best of our ability? 

5.   Stay Off the Internet

Last but certainly not the least involves a topic that is highly unpopular within the physician community all-over … Google University. Googling your symptoms on the Internet is plain unhealthy.  Especially if you are the anxious type. Honestly, I am telling you this not just as a physician but as a doctor who truly cares about her listeners.

Just think about it:  If Google could truly replace your doctor, or be as accurate, wouldn’t doctors be out of business? Why would we need to go through a minimum of 11 years of schooling past high-school to get to where we are? How can Google replace this extra and prolonged amount of complex problem-solving knowledge and experience?

No, Acai berries are not the answers to your weight loss dream. Please stop listening to resources on the television and Internet that are simply after your wallet and not in your best interests.  I know it’s sometimes not easy to hear the truth. But a physician with integrity will always give it to you straight, no matter how much you don’t want to hear it.

The truth is … TV, Google, and social media simply cannot replace your doctor’s knowledge and experience. It just can’t. Leave it alone. Really … just stop it.

If you don’t trust your doctor, then it’s time to find a new one.

If you do decide to search the Internet for medical information, for goodness sakes, at least select sources and websites that will tell you the truth (like the House Call Doctor who is dedicated to providing her listeners with the most evidence-based and truthful advice available). My prior podcast on this topic is exactly the advice that I give to my own patients seeking medical information on the Internet. If you want to learn how to seek more valid information, please check it out.

OK, that one was truly close to my heart.  I’ll let it go now.

And there you have it: the five things that I wish all my patients knew. If they all could only obtain these five pieces of information, we would be so much closer to reaching our goals, which are to keep you as healthy as possible, and to help you take charge of your health.

Share your ideas and learn more quick and dirty tips with us on the House Call Doctor’s Facebook and Twitter pages.  You can even find me on Pinterest.

Please note that all content here is strictly for informational purposes only.  This content does not substitute any medical advice, and does not replace any medical judgment or reasoning by your own personal health provider.  Please always seek a licensed physician in your area regarding all health related questions and issues.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Optimize Your IELTS Essay with Relevant Vocabulary

Writing can quickly become a rather daunting and stressful task for your IELTS essay. This is mainly because not only do you have to successfully discuss your essay, you have to do so with convincing and relevant vocabulary. Yes, vocabulary is extremely vital in producing a high-quality essay that will yield a good grade.

The importance of relevant vocabulary during essay writing

We guess the question you want answered now is “Why is vocabulary so important in essay writing?”

When you are tasked with writing an essay, whether it is for academic purposes or creative purposes, what you’re really doing is telling a story. Your essay is your story, it tells the essay evaluator your point of view, your opinion, and essentially your answer to the essay question.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the words you choose to use should be relevant to your story. Relevant vocabulary will tell your essay story in the most authentic, captivating, interesting, and optimized way. To get the best out of your IELTS essay, you will need to go vocabulary hunting.

We will take a look at some of the ways in which you can ensure you find and use the most relevant vocabulary to optimize your IELTS essay.

Analyzing your essay topic

Before you can determine the best vocabulary to optimize your essay, you need to first understand what your essay topic is asking you to do. IELTS essay topics can vary widely: some topics require a discussion, others require you to offer an opinion for or against the topic, others require you to analyze a particular subject matter and reach conclusions, while others require you to simply answer the essay question. The essay topics are also spread across various disciplines including art, communication and personality, business and finance, government, family and children, tourism, technology and many more. This means not only are you addressing an essay topic but you are also delving into a niche environment to do so. This means that your vocabulary needs to not just be relevant but specific.

We are going to look at five different types of vocabulary that you can apply to your IELTS essay to ensure it is optimized and tells the story you want to tell, correctly.

Descriptive Vocabulary

When you are writing an essay, you are looking for the best adjectives to articulately describe the message you are trying to get across. This message can be your opinion, a fact, or your perspective. The purpose of descriptive vocabulary is to add meat to the bone, color to your painting, or seasoning to your food. You are basically taking your words and making them brighter, clearer, and visible. Descriptive vocabulary allows you to paint a visual image using words. This is especially helpful when you are writing a discussion essay, where you have to describe a character’s personality or appearance. It is also a powerful way of adding nuance to your essay. We would suggest that you write out your essay and then revise it by adding words that highlight your message.

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One great example of using descriptive vocabulary to optimize your essay is to look for words in your essay that could be improved to tell a better story. Let us take the word “abuse.” On its own this word has meaning; it means a form of mistreatment. However, if you are writing an essay on sexual misconduct, then using the word “abuse” on its own isn’t the most descriptive choice. It tells you there has been a mistreatment, but it doesn’t tell you what kind of mistreatment. Adding a descriptive word “sexual” to the word “abuse” paints a clearer narrative of what you are trying to say. Therefore, not only do your readers know that you are talking about a mistreatment, they also know what kind of mistreatment you are referring to.

Reported Speech Vocabulary

Writing essays often requires you to cite a third party or a secondary source. This is imperative to showing your reader (the essay evaluator) that you have consulted previous studies and that you are well versed in your understanding of what you are writing about. Reported speech vocabulary is essential to conveying this. Phrases and vocabulary such as “according to,” "based on the assumption made by,” “it can be said,” and so on all help to strengthen and optimize your essay narrative.

Conjunctive Adverbs Vocabulary

Conjunctive adverbs are critical for forming coherent thoughts throughout your essay. Think of them as thought processors. Conjunctive adverbs thread together your entire argument or discussion. They help your reader to understand when you are making a specific point, reaching a verdict, or highlighting a point or conclusion. The most popular conjunctive adverbs include: “therefore,” “however,” “thereafter,” or “nonetheless.” I myself have used a few in this article, and I have put them in bold for you to see how I have incorporated them.

Argumentative Vocabulary

Familiarizing yourself with argumentative vocabulary can prove to be an awesome ace up your sleeves when writing your IELTS essay. These words will help you argue a point of view and perspective in a way that is relevant to your essay topic. Words such as “bias,” “credibility,” “insurance,” “facts," “generalizations,” “hypocrisy,” “rhetoric,” “statistic,” and many more all show an argumentative writing position or style.

Jargon Vocabulary

Remember earlier when we mentioned that IELTS essay topics tend to come from a variety of disciplines? Well, this is the time when you can optimize your essay by knowing which vocabulary is specific to your essay topic. During the essay topic analysis, you will have determined the requirements of your topic but also which industry or discipline you are focusing on. Thereafter, you will need to look up relevant jargon that applies to your topic. You want the evaluator to know that you are familiar with terms and words relevant to your topic. A great example would be if you wrote on a customer relationship management (CRM) topic, to optimize your essay you will need to incorporate CRM specific terminology such as “retention," “database management," “demographics,” or “customer loyalty.” We call these jargon, but they are specific to your topic or discipline.

We hope this has been helpful to you! If you would like to find out more on how to use vocabulary and also find a list of helpful essay vocabulary then check out our vocab guide.

Image of the word English © Shutterstock

How to Be Less Sedentary at Work

Even though we’ve made huge strides in prevention and cardiovascular healthcare in the past 50 years, heart disease still accounts for 1 in 4 deaths every year. Especially for people who remain sedentary for most of the day, heart disease is a major risk.

The good news is that being more active is a great step to reducing this risk. The bad news? The place Americans spend the majority of their lives—the office—often isn’t built to accommodate this need for movement.

From cubicles to open floor plans that promote prolonged periods of sitting, the modern office is on the front lines of the battle against heart disease. What’s the solution? Being more active in your workspace helps to foster greater health, wellness, and overall well-being—all of which translate to a happy heart.

Transform Your Workspace Into an Active One

While being sedentary in the home certainly is a problem, people’s jobs account for more than 80 percent of their inactive lifestyles. And as the world becomes increasingly digitized, internet-fueled, and tech-oriented, a sedentary workspace likewise becomes even more ingrained in our culture.

With all that we now know about these health risks, though, it’s difficult to justify acquiescing to an office setup that fosters inactivity. Besides long-term cardiovascular issues, being chronically sedentary (even while throwing in periods of exercise) also leads to more illnesses and chronic back problems, which means reduced engagement for employers and reduced longevity for employees. Fortunately, by remaining active throughout the day, people can balance heart-healthy activities with productivity right in the office.

So how can you make your sedentary workspace more active? It’s simpler than you might think.

1. Stretch your legs.

When you can, get up and take a short walk to stretch your legs, even if it’s just around the office. When you can’t get up, stretch your legs at your desk.

Sit straight with your feet firmly on the floor, then raise one leg until the knee is at a right angle. Hold that pose for three seconds, then slowly lower the leg and repeat this process with the other one. You can even change up this routine and implement more intense reps by lifting both legs and lowering one at a time.

2. Have fun in the swivel chair.

While you shouldn’t roll your chair around the office, you can still have fun in it and work out your core simultaneously.

Sitting straight and with your feet suspended off the floor, lightly hold on to the edge of your desk and use your core muscles to twist your body. Make sure you twist slowly, as the slow movement will give your core a better workout and will be less likely to disturb nearby co-workers.

3. Move your arms. 

Standing while you work is the obvious goal, as it’s been shown to increase both health and productivity.

When your arms, hands, and fingers are confined to a keyboard for hours at a time, you’re more likely to develop arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome. You can also grow tired a lot faster due to the inactivity.

Try raising your arms and lowering them to shoulder level, as if you’re lifting a barbell over your head. Or hold a bottle or small dumbbell in each hand and do bicep curls with each arm right at your desk.

4. Get on your feet.

There’s only so much you can do while sitting, so a truly active workspace should include dynamic workstations that you can adjust as needed.

Standing while you work is the obvious goal, as it’s been shown to increase both health and productivity. But you can also do more comprehensive exercises, such as calf raises and leg lifts, at your desk if you’re standing. Raise onto your tiptoes, then slowly lower your heels to the floor. When you get used to that, switch it up by standing on one leg at a time.

5. Walk—or work—outside.

Few things can revitalize you like fresh air and sunlight on a beautiful day, especially if you’re used to being stuck in the office.

Take a stroll, have a small picnic during lunch, or host a “walking meeting” around the building, and you’ll return to your desk feeling rejuvenated. If possible, you can also work outside while soaking up the sun or hold meetings on the patio of the nearest coffee shop.

We know too much about the adverse effects of sitting these days to ignore the issue. And because only a few of us can be professional athletes whose job it is to stay fit, take better care of your heart by seizing opportunities to stay active in the workplace (and at home) this week, this month, and every year afterward.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Jason McCann has over 20 years of experience building and running successful companies. As a founder and the CEO of VARIDESK, Jason’s mission is to help companies reimagine the workspace. VARIDESK started with one innovative product and has grown to be a global leader in workspace innovation with products sold in over 100 countries.

10 Retirement Rollover FAQs That Will Make You Richer

Understanding how retirement accounts work and using them the right way can make the difference between having a secure future or just scraping by, after you stop working. They have powerful benefits, such as cutting taxes, automating contributions, and even receiving additional matching funds from an employer.

Problem is, retirement accounts are loaded with strict rules, which can be confusing and keep you from managing them properly. Rollovers are an often-misunderstood way to avoid taxes and penalties when you need to move money from one account to another, such as after leaving a job.

Even though “doing a rollover” sounds like a cute dog trick, don’t underestimate its ability to save you some serious money on taxes. A tax-deferred rollover occurs when you withdraw cash from one retirement account and contribute it to another account within 60 days.

When handled correctly, doing a rollover is the best way to move money between retirement accounts. But when mishandled, taking money out of a retirement plan can be expensive.

When handled correctly, doing a rollover is the best way to move money between retirement accounts. But when mishandled, taking money out of a retirement plan can be expensive.

In this article, I’ll answer 10 common questions about how to use a retirement rollover correctly. You’ll learn how to avoid paying tax penalties, get more investment options, and continue building your retirement nest egg when you need to change accounts.

Question #1: What is a retirement rollover?

Answer: As I previously mentioned, a rollover is when you move some or all your money in one retirement account to another retirement account, without incurring a tax penalty. Investments in the old account are sold and then you invest the proceeds in the new account by choosing from its menu of available options.

Withdrawing funds from a retirement account, without doing a rollover, typically causes you to pay income tax plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty, if you’re younger than age 59½. So, a rollover gives you a way to move your retirement funds without triggering an expensive, taxable event.

The most common reason to rollover retirement money is after you leave a job with a retirement plan, such as a 401k or 403b. If you don’t want to leave the funds with an ex-employer, you can move them into an IRA (Individual Retirement Arrangement) that you own as an individual.  

Even though it’s different than a 401(k), doing a rollover to an IRA within 60 days doesn’t trigger income tax or a penalty. Your new earnings in the account will grow tax-deferred, just like they did in your old workplace plan.

Question #2: How do you do a retirement rollover?

Answer: Let’s say you plan to leave a job with a 401k and want to move your funds to a traditional IRA. As soon as your employment ends, there are three simple steps to complete a rollover:

1. Open a new traditional IRA, if you don’t already have one 
2. Send a transfer request to your 401k
3. Choose investments for your new IRA funds

You can download a rollover request form from your online retirement account, or get one from your account custodian or the benefits administrator at work. Depending on the institution, you may have the option for funds to be sent electronically, known as a trustee-to-trustee transfer or rollover. This is the best option because you never touch the funds.

The second-best option is called a direct rollover, which is when you receive a paper check made payable to your new account. You’re responsible for forwarding it to your new institution within a strict 60-day deadline.

If you don’t contribute all the funds to a new retirement account within 60 days (including weekends and holidays), it’s considered an early withdrawal, subject to income tax plus a 10% penalty, if you’re younger than age 59½.

There’s a third option for receiving a rollover distribution that I don’t recommend: having a check made payable to you. When you receive retirement funds in your name, there’s a mandatory 20% withholding penalty applied—even if you intend to complete a rollover. This is a safeguard for the IRS, just in case you change your mind and decide to keep the cash.

For example, if you want to roll over $10,000 from your 401(k), the custodian withholds 20% for taxes and you’d only get a check made payable to you for $8,000. If you complete the rollover, you eventually receive a refund for the withholding when you file taxes.

But that could be many months away and you lose the ability to earn potential investment gains every day that you don’t control those funds. So, remember that a trustee transfer or a direct rollover is the best for your wallet.

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Question #3: Can I do a retirement rollover before leaving a job?

Answer: You may have the option to take a hardship withdrawal or a loan from your workplace retirement plan while you’re still employed. Some plans may also allow for “in service” withdrawals if you’re over age 59½. But in general, you can’t do a rollover until after you leave the company, become disabled, or retire.

Question #4: Do I have to do a retirement rollover if I leave a job?

Answer: You don’t have to rollover retirement funds from an old job, but it’s typically the best choice. Here are the three other options:

1. Leave funds in your former employer’s plan, if allowed
2. Rollover funds to another employer’s plan, if allowed
3. Cash out

Even if your old employer allows you to keep funds in their retirement plan, there’s typically a minimum balance requirement, such as $5,000, and you’re prohibited from making any new contributions. But you can manage the funds as you wish by reallocating investments and enjoying their tax-advantaged status and growth potential.

The final option for your old retirement account, cashing out, is the easiest, but worst one for your financial future.

If you go to work for another company that offers a retirement plan, most allow rollovers from another plan (but not from an IRA). This option gives you the same tax advantages and consolidates funds into one account.

The final option for your old retirement account—cashing out—is the easiest, but worst one for your financial future. As I previously mentioned, you’ll owe income tax plus an early withdrawal penalty when you’re younger than age 59½. You also give up huge amounts of potential growth and security for retirement.

Let’s say you have a balance in the account of $100,000 and decide to cash out. If you must pay 40% for federal and state tax, plus an additional 10% penalty, you lose 50%. Your $100,000 nest egg just shrunk to $50,000 in one fell swoop.

Before deciding what to do with an old workplace retirement plan, consider factors including account fees and expenses, investment choices, services offered, and the treatment of any employer stock you have. Using an IRA usually gives you many more investment choices, but may charge higher costs for certain funds compared to an employer-sponsored plan. Just be sure to choose low-cost investing funds to keep a lid on fees.

One benefit of keeping funds in a workplace plan is the legal protection provided by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). It gives protection from creditors, except the federal government.

That means if you got into financial trouble and couldn’t pay a creditor, they could sue you, but couldn’t take your 401k or 403b funds to repay your debt. Whether creditors can touch some or all of your retirement money in an IRA varies from state to state. So, if protecting your retirement from creditors is a concern for you, be sure to ask your existing or potential new IRA custodian about your state’s regulations.

Question #5: Can I rollover a 401k into a Roth IRA?

Answer: Since traditional retirement contributions are made on a pre-tax basis and Roth contributions are after-tax, you can only roll over workplace accounts into like accounts without triggering a tax consequence. For instance, you can roll over a traditional 401k into a traditional IRA and a Roth 401k into a Roth IRA.

Moving money from a traditional workplace account into a Roth IRA would be considered a Roth conversion, making you responsible for income tax on any amounts that weren’t previously taxed. So, I generally don’t recommend doing a Roth conversion because it can result in a huge tax liability.

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Question #6: Can I combine my rollover and new contributions in the same IRA?

Answer: If you open a new IRA to facilitate a rollover, you can always add new contributions or use it for additional rollovers. If you already have an existing IRA, you can use it for a rollover, if it’s a like (traditional to traditional and Roth to Roth) account, as I mentioned earlier.

For 2018, you can contribute up to $5,500, or $6,500 if you’re over age 50 to either a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or to a combination of the two. Your rollover funds don’t count toward the annual IRA contribution limits.

Question #7: How often can you do a retirement rollover?

Answer: The only rollover restriction is when you move money from one IRA to another IRA, which you can only do once per year. There are no restrictions on how often you can do:

• Rollovers from a workplace plan to an IRA
• Rollovers from a workplace plan to another plan
• Rollovers from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, known as a Roth conversion
• Trustee-to-trustee transfers from one IRA to another IRA

So, if you request a trustee-to-trustee transfer or a direct rollover, where funds are never put in your name, there’s no limit to how often you can rollover your money.

Question #8: Do I have to report a rollover on my taxes?

Answer: When you complete a timely rollover, you’ll receive two tax forms at the end of the year. Form 1099-R shows that you took a distribution from a retirement plan and Form 5498 reports that you made a rollover contribution.

Even if no portion of your rollover is taxable, you’ll need to submit these forms with your tax return.

Question #9: Can I do a Roth rollover if I earn more than the annual limit?

Answer: Doing a retirement rollover is different than making an account contribution. So, the annual income thresholds that make high-earners ineligible to contribute to a Roth IRA don’t apply for rollovers.

For 2018, married couples filing taxes jointly are prohibited from making Roth IRA contributions when their modified adjusted gross income exceeds $199,000. Singles and heads of household who earn more than $135,000 are also ineligible.

Question #10: Can I rollover a 401k with pre- and post-tax money in it?

Answer: Most traditional workplace plans give you the option to make pre- and post-tax contributions. This might be a good idea if you max out a 401k or 403b, but still have more to invest. You would have to make the additional contributions on an after-tax basis.  

You can roll over a mixed workplace plan to a traditional IRA, with the after-tax portion getting designated as non-deductible contributions. Or you could rollover the after-tax portion into a Roth IRA without triggering any tax consequences.

If you choose to maintain non-deductible contributions in a traditional IRA, make sure you report it properly using Form 8606 and discuss it with the account custodian. It’s important to keep track of the after-tax amount so you don’t pay tax on it twice when you take distributions in retirement.

The goal is to position your retirement money where you can keep it safe and allow it to grow using low-cost, diversified investment options.

What’s the Best Place for Your Retirement Rollover?

To sum up, the best place for your old retirement account depends on the flexibility and legal protections you want, the quality of your old plan, your income, and whether you have a new retirement plan that accepts rollovers. The goal is to position your retirement money where you can keep it safe and allow it to grow using low-cost, diversified investment options.

If you have questions about doing a rollover, go straight to your retirement plan custodian for advice. They can walk you through the process to make sure you don’t break the rules and end up with a botched rollover.

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Can You Run Faster by Training Slower?

In the article “How To Start Running” you learned how to get started and you gathered some important tips on how to be efficient and strong. Then the article “How to Run Faster” offered you six quick and dirty tips to run faster for longer without getting tired.

Those six tips were:

1. Lose Weight (body fat)

Think about carrying a bag of potatoes up a flight of stairs. Compared with simply carrying your body weight, the consequences of lifting one, five, or 10 extra pounds with each step can have you instantly huffing and puffing. You can find out more about that in the article “Can Losing Weight Make You Run Faster?”

2. Increase Your Cadence

Specifically, a cadence around 90 steps per minute has been found to be ideal.

The fastest runners in the world have a few defining characteristics, and one is that they take more steps per minute than the rest of us. In running terms, that means they have a higher cadence. Specifically, a cadence around 90 steps per minute has been found to be ideal.

3. Use A Treadmill

Including tempo runs, where you set the treadmill to a slightly faster speed than you are comfortable with, can train the nerves and muscles in your legs to move faster. Since there are no stop lights and street crossings on a treadmill, this can also help you focus on the proper running form that I discussed in the article “Does Your Footfall Really Matter?”

4. Run Hills

Running up a hill is a lot like putting some extra weight on the barbell.

The beauty of running up hills is that they allow you to achieve high intensities without the same amount of joint impact and pounding that you would experience while running on flat terrain. Running up a hill is a lot like putting some extra weight on the barbell, it will make you stronger faster. You can learn more about hill training in the article “The Ups and Downs of Hill Training.”

5. Use Plyometrics

The benefit of plyometrics is that they teach the muscles of your legs and feet to quickly absorb your body weight and then rebound from the ground. As a result, you minimize your ground contact time and maximize the distance you travel with each step. Even if you improve by just milliseconds per step, over thousands of steps, that can be a substantial speed boost.

Remember that when it comes to consistency, even a short 15-20 minute jaunt is better than nothing at all.

6. Be Consistent

Running every 48-72 hours keeps your muscles prepared for the specific movements of your running gait. Remember that when it comes to consistency, even a short 15-20 minute jaunt is better than nothing at all.

Today, I would like to add a Quick & Dirty Tip #7: Slow down to get fast!

Slowly by Slowly

The runners who train with the legendary coach Patrick Sang have a term for their run training, “Slowly by Slowly.” Sang is one of the most notable run coaches on the planet, and he told Ed Caesar, a writer from Wired Magazine, about this philosophy. He said that if you thought about only one workout at a time, you were missing the point. The idea of a training program is to improve every aspect of a runner, holistically. One single good training day is worth little on its own, but a good week, or even better, a good month is really worth something. And that is how “slowly by slowly” the athlete builds his or her fitness.

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“Slowly by slowly” is something I have a tough time getting across to the runners I coach. People usually come to me expecting and perhaps hoping that I will kick their butt into shape. I can often see a bit of relief in their eyes when I tell them that we are going to spend a few weeks preparing their body for running before we even start the run portion of their run training, but I can also see some disappointment in their eyes. We westerners are not good at this little thing called patience. We just want to dive in and exhaust our willpower in as short amount of time as possible and then bask in the results. That is not how “slowly by slowly” works.

If we are not hurting, panting and covered in sweat, how can it be effective?

The other issue we westerners have is that we want all of our workouts to leave us exhausted. If we are not hurting, panting, and covered in sweat, how can it be effective? Well, again, this is where the Kenyans, particularly those in Patrick Sang’s group, outdo us. They are extremely dedicated to being the absolute best runners they can be but they know that busting a gut, day after day, is not the way to do that.

And that leads me to the other aspect of the “slowly by slowly” philosophy I want to highlight today: the actual speed at which the runners train is all over the map. And that includes running surprisingly slowly the majority of the time. 

Slow Down

In a study titled How do endurance runners actually train? Relationship with competition performance, researchers found that total training time spent at low intensities might be associated with improved performance during highly intense endurance events. Now that seems contradictory, doesn’t it? The event is high intensity but the training is low? How does that work?

Well, we know that a runner's heart rate usually follows a linear relationship to their running intensity (your heart beats faster the faster you run), so these particular researchers took eight well-trained, sub-elite endurance runners and had them perform a maximal cardiorespiratory exercise test before beginning a 6-month training block. Their heart rate was then continuously recorded using telemetry during each and every training session over the 6-month macrocycle, which was designed to achieve peak performance in the national cross-country championships. By monitoring them so closely, they were able to quantify the total time that the runners spent in three intensity zones.

Zone 1: Light intensity. This zone had an average heart rate below 140 beats per minute or 60 percent of the runner’s VO2 max.

Zone 2: Moderate intensity. This zone had an average heart rate between 140 and 171 bpm or 60 to 85 percent of VO2 max.

Zone 3: High intensity. With an average heart rate above 171 bpm or over 85 percent of their VO2 max.

During the training block, the fastest runners performed 71 percent of their training in Zone 1, only 21 percent of their time in Zone 2, and a paltry eight percent in Zone 3.

The runners who had shuffled the most training time in the low-intensity zone fared the best in the big race.

So as you can see, and as I indicated earlier, the runners who had shuffled the most training time in the low-intensity zone fared the best in the big race.

The reason why low-intensity running yields such great dividends is that it improves what we call Maximal Aerobic Fitness, Maximum Aerobic Function (or just MAF). Meaning that it has a more significant impact on heart and lung function while also putting in the necessary stressors on the legs, feet, and hips. So, yes, spending time enjoying a leisurely run is not only a nice way to spend some time but it can have a direct and positive impact on your race time. As long as it is countered with some of the hard stuff!

Going back to Patrick Sang and the “slowly by slowly” philosophy, “Every session is a building block,” Sang said. They work hard but not every day.

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Go Fast, Occasionally

Remember in the study, the fastest runners spent 71 percent of their training in Zone 1 but they also spent eight percent giving it their all! And when I say giving it their all, I mean it! Running at 85 percent of your VO2 Max is uncomfortable, to say the least. And this is the other piece of the puzzle. Yes, you need to spend time going slow but when it is time to go hard, you have to be ready to go hard! And this is a mistake that many of us runners make. We don't go slow enough on slow days but we also don't go fast enough on fast days. We tend to just fiddle around in the middle somewhere. 

Elite coach, author, and researcher, Dr. Phil Maffetone, says that building a solid aerobic base fitness is accomplished by training exclusively aerobic (or Zone 1) for three to six months depending on the runner’s history. Dr. Maffetone also says that during this period, anaerobic workouts should be avoided because it can actually impair the aerobic system. Therefore, each workout during base training should be 100% aerobic.

After a solid base is built, that is when I like to start introducing some of those fast and hard Zone 3 training sessions. Here are three of my favorites:

Hard Strides After a good warm-up, run one minute at your maximum sustainable pace (as fast as you can sustain without pooping out before the minute is up) and then jog easy for four minutes. Repeat this six to eight times. Then cool-down appropriately.

30 by 30s Warm-up with an easy 10-20 minute jog. Then run 30 seconds at your maximum pace followed by 30 seconds at a very, very easy pace. Repeat this 30 seconds hard and 30 seconds easy 20 times. Cool down with 10 minutes easy jogging, slowing to a walk and hit the foam roller and the showers.

7 and 3s Warm-up for 5-10 minutes with an easy jog. Then do the following four times through: run hard for seven minutes (as fast as you can sustain for the entire interval without slowing down), then recover with a light jog (or fast walk) for three minutes. Cool-down for 5-10 minutes with an easy jog and walk. Then foam roll and stretch out.

Smart, Not Lazy

To echo what Dr. Maffetone says on his website, training slow has often been seen and considered as a sign of weakness or, worse yet, laziness. However, as we have learned today, if you want to run (or bike, or swim) faster, a smarter approach is to slow down and go “slowly by slowly.” but also remember that when it is time to go hard, you must truly make it count.

You will still encounter people who think that anaerobic training (or speed work) is the only way to build speed, but by developing a strong and solid aerobic system you will indeed get faster and you will also avoid the wear and tear (that can potentially lead to sickness and injury) that often accompanies anaerobic training, especially when it is introduced too much, too soon.

And finally, remember, in the words of Patrick Sang, “work hard, not every day.”

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How to Tame Your Distractible Mind

Distractions are dastardly. Europa, the secret ruler of the Eastern Bloc, decided it was time for her yearly strategic planning session. After all, she’s been growing her empire since the 1980s, and these things require maintenance. She sits down, takes out her maps, positions the meeples she uses to represent world leaders on the map, and hunkers down to plan the next step of her world domination. Four hours later...

She’s responded to a dozen emails, participated in nine Facebook discussions, browsed three websites of kittens doing the most outrageous things, and read two chapters of Pirates versus Ninjas: The Shocking Truth They Never Told You. Horrifyingly, she even knocked over some of her meeples and didn’t notice. No matter how powerful you might be, distraction is even more powerful.

Our tools are made to distract

Distraction is a chronic problem these days. Distractions are like interruptions, but they come from inside us, so they’re much more insidious. When a minion comes to your cubicle door and interrupts you, you can turn around, activate the sonic transducer, and your handy dandy audio-vibratory-physio-molecular transport device will send your minion to Antarctica where they won’t bother you anymore.

When a distraction comes from inside us, however, there’s no escape. Even our productivity tools are no help. Our technology was once designed by people who were trying to help us work better. Then they discovered that addicting and distracting us was a much better way to make money. So now our tools, themselves, are designed to distract.

But there’s one tool that can’t distract: a pencil and paper. We’ll use this to tame our other distractions.

Distraction to-do list

Grab a piece of paper and write the important thing you want to stay focused on in big letters at the top. Underneath the title, in smaller letters, write Distraction To-Do List. This piece of paper will become your mind’s best friend. When you need to reorient, glance down and the paper will tell you what you should be doing (but probably aren’t). 

Europa grabs her paper and titles it, “Create Strategic Plan To Remain Ruler of Everything.” Then she opens her laptop to fire up some mind-mapping software that she can use for brainstorming.

As the software opens, it informs her there’s a critical update that needs to be installed. She clicks “OK” and while it’s downloading and installing, she idly clicks over to her web browser and opens Zooborns.com where the most adorable little baby penguin is being featured. This reminds her that she needs to get her son Thomas a tuxedo for his junior prom. Just as she’s about to head over to a tuxedo website, she glances down and sees “CREATE STRATEGIC PLAN.” She’s off course, but...but…but Thomas actually needs a tuxedo for the prom. What to do?

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Notice & triage your distraction

The hardest part of dealing with distractions is realizing you’ve just been distracted. There’s no perfect way to do this. I just keep the sheet with my focus area clearly in view, and when I glance at it, it shocks me into realizing whether or not I’m off course. When you realize you’re off course, the distraction list comes into play. When a distraction beckons, triage it. Decide if this is a real distraction that’s worthy of time and attention, or whether it’s a fake distraction that really doesn’t matter right now.

Schedule distraction time blocks in your calendar.

There are many reasons something might not matter. It could be genuinely useless. Europa has no actual need to browse Zooborns at the moment. She was intending that solely as an idle exercise while waiting for her mind-mapping software to download.

Other things might be important. If you have a cybernetic teenager who’s due for his first prom even as his body introduces him to hormones for the first time, you want to make sure his tuxedo is ordered on time.

So jot your distraction down on your Distraction To-Do list, with a star next to the ones that are truly important. “Browse Zooborns.com” (no star). “Order Thomas’s tuxedo” (star). Then take a deep breath, and get back to what you were doing. If you were waiting for something, like a software update to load, now’s a perfect time to close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and do a mindfulness exercise. Just don’t follow the distraction.

Establish a distraction time block

It can help to schedule a distraction time block in your calendar, just as you might do with interruptions. Four 4 p.m. works nicely. Then when four o’clock rolls around, you can pull out your distraction to-do list and review the starred items.

Free from the seductive impulses of the moment, you can consider your distractions dispassionately and take action only on the ones that really are important. 

Europa tried the distraction to-do list with great success. Her focused strategic planning complete, she was all set to call Cambridge Analytica to for some advice on the 2020 elections. And when she combed through her distraction list, she discarded the emails, eliminated the Facebook discussions, postponed Pirates versus Ninjas, and decided that ten minutes on a single Zooborn website was enough to restore her sanity. And of course, being a child of the '80s, she ordered Thomas his junior prom tuxedo in sky blue with pink trim. I suspect she’s going to discover that fashions have changed.

I’m Stever Robbins. Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter and Facebook. I'm developing accountability groups to help self-employed people finish unfinished initiatives and develop the habits to do the stuff they normally put off. Find me at http://SteverRobbins.com or join my personal mailing list by texting GETITDONE to 33444. You’ll also get a free copy of my secret book chapter on how to build relationships that help you succeed. 

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave an honest review on iTunes at itunes.com/getitdoneguy. Reviews really help, a lot! 

Asteroid, Meteor, Meteorite, and Comet: What's the Difference?

Adding up all of the mass in every asteroid in our entire solar system totals only less than the mass of our Moon. Despite their small physical size, however, these space rocks offer important clues as to how our solar system formed. The terms asteroid, meteor, meteorite, and even comet are often used interchangeably...but what is the difference?

What is an asteroid?

Asteroids are rocky objects smaller than planets that are left over from the formation of our solar system. When the cloud of gas and dust collapsed to form our Sun, much of the remaining material went into forming the rocky terrestrial and gas giant planets orbiting our star. Smaller dust fragments that never made their way into planets are left behind as asteroids.

Of the millions of known asteroids, the largest is Ceres, 584 miles (940 kilometers) wide. Luckily we do not expect to cross paths with this Texas-sized asteroid any time soon. NASA tracks a subset of asteroids, called "near Earth objects" or NEOs, whose trajectories have been nudged by the gravitational push and pull of nearby planets enough so that they may pass close to Earth.

Thanks to infrared surveys of the sky like NASA’s WISE and NEOWISE missions, we know of roughly 1,000 near Earth asteroids that are larger than 0.6 miles across (or 1,000 meters) and 1,500 more that are between a third of a mile and 0.6 miles across (from 500 to 1,000 meters). Smaller near Earth asteroids, both known to exist and predicted based on statistical analysis, number in the 18,000s.

Most are not round like planets but rather irregular in shape sometimes due to repeated impacts over time. They are also known to orbit each other, making their way around the Sun in pairs or small groups. They are not large enough to hold onto their own atmospheres and their compositions vary mostly due to the location where they were formed, in particular how far away they were from the Sun when they originated.

Most asteroids reside in the asteroid belt, the space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, most likely because the gravitational pull of Jupiter prevented them from accumulating into a larger planetary system. Some asteroids are also found in the orbital paths of planets like Earth. Until recently all known asteroids orbited our Sun as members of our solar system, but that changed in October 2017 when astronomers discovered the first interstellar visitor just passing through our solar neighborhood. Named Oumuamua, which comes from the Hawaiian word for “scout,” the asteroid has an unusual elongated shape (800 by 100 feet in size) and is moving too fast to be captured by our Sun’s gravitational pull. That means Oumuamua will eventually leave us and continue on its journey through interstellar space.

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What is a comet?

Comets are also composed of material left over from the formation of our solar system and formed around the same time as asteroids. However, asteroids formed toward the inner regions of our solar system where temperatures were hotter and thus only rock or metal could remain solid without melting. Comets formed at farther distances from the Sun, beyond what we call the frost or snow line and past the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, where temperatures were low enough for water to freeze.

Comets are thus chunks of frozen gas, rock, ice, and dust that orbit our Sun earning them the nickname of dirty snowballs. They are identified by their tails which consist of trailing jets of gas and dust that has been melted off as a comet approaches too close to the Sun.

Meteorites are meteors that survive the dive through the Earth’s atmosphere

What is a meteor and a meteorite?

A meteor is simply an asteroid that attempts to land on Earth but is vaporized by the Earth’s atmosphere. The resistance on the rock due to the Earth’s atmosphere causes its temperature to rise. We sometimes see the glowing hot air created by these burning meteors and dub them “shooting stars.” Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes by many meteors at once. For example, if chunks of a comet melt off as it passes close to the Sun, this debris can be left behind to later dazzle us Earthlings with a meteor shower.

Meteorites are meteors that survive the dive through the Earth’s atmosphere and manage to land on the surface of our planet. They are typically composed of either iron or stone, i.e. a mix of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, and other elements.

Studying asteroids helps us understand the formation of our solar system and how our planet came to be. We don’t just have to wait for meteorites to find us to know more about their composition, however. The OSIRIS-Rex mission to the asteroid Bennu aims to take samples from the asteroid and bring them back to Earth. You can learn more about why Bennu was chosen for such a special mission and check out the countdown to the spacecraft’s approach to the asteroid on the OSIRIS-Rex mission page.

Until next time, this is Sabrina Stierwalt with Everyday Einstein’s Quick and Dirty Tips for helping you make sense of science. You can become a fan of Everyday Einstein on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, where I’m @QDTeinstein. If you have a question that you’d like to see on a future episode, send me an email at everydayeinstein@quickanddirtytips.com.

Image courtesy of nasa.gov