Brunswick Blog

Leaving Languishing Behind

4/23/2021

2020 was, if nothing else, a year of health awareness, as many people were faced with the threat of health issues they thought they would never have to deal with. The pandemic has forced us all to be more aware of that aspect of our lives. Taking note of how you feel on a day to day basis is now, more than ever, the norm. In fact, the habit is encouraged by most friends and employers. While our physical health has been in the spotlight, the possibilities of related mental health issues loom in the shadow of this pandemic.

If you've noticed a dip in your overall happiness, productivity, or energy during the past year, you've most likely suffered from a little dose of what is called "languishing". You might have even experienced the full effect of this psychological state, which is recognized as a mode somewhere in between depression and a state of "flourishing". Languishing is, in simple terms, a sense of empty joylessness and a loss of direction. The intensity, shock and grief of the pandemic, the news cycle, the politics surrounding the effort to combat it; all of these things combined to form a cocktail perfect for instilling "languish" on a massive scale.

For those of us who live a sizable distance from the equator, the worsening conditions of the virus were coupled with a move indoors as the days began to freeze, and winter time inactivity became easily (and understandably) excusable for many. Languishing, while being a mental state, can manifest itself in very physically obvious ways. A habitual dent in your couch cushions could be a sign that you are suffering from a little bit of languish.

There has been a residual light at the end of the tunnel though, and many people feel hopeful about the coming summer, as more and more communities become vaccinated and the weather allows for more days spent outside. If you feel like that sentiment resonates with you, as if you have been in that tunnel waiting for the light, you may still be in, or are slowly crawling out of, a state of languishing! Recognizing it is the first step!
For many people, falling into a state of languishing has a lot to do with the loss of habits, and as this contributes to a loss of direction. Habits are the foundation of a healthy, purposeful life. Things like eating breakfast, drinking lots of water, and being active daily are great places to start. Creating habits will help rebuild some of that loss of structure that many of us are feeling.

Our Level Up Your Results Workbook covers these habits and more, as well providing some info on combatting stress, healthy snack ideas, better sleep, journaling prompts, and activity tips that will help you break out of your post-2020 languishing. You can download that workbook right here:

LEVEL UP WORKBOOK

Daily habits are essential, and also help to combat the other major symptom of languishing: joylessness. It has been shown that joy is tied to productivity. Many, if not all people, are simply happier when they possess a sense of accomplishment. While this may seem simple and obvious, as the need for this sense would seem to be a core characteristic of what it means to be human, it is important to recognize when we have lost the feeling that we are accomplishing something meaningful to ourselves.

A year of uncertainties, stress, more time indoors, a loss of income, a major overhaul of routines both at work at at home, learning to work from home, a hold on projects or public events: all these can lead to a loss of productivity, which will have huge impacts on mental health.

A great way to jump back into a happier, more productive state is by starting a plan, and making an agreement with yourself. A week of focused, pointed eating and activity could be what you need to shed your languishing habits. Our minds thrive within self-imposed discipline, and the reward can be a joyful sense of direction.

If you're not already a member of our amazing community here at Wilcox Wellness & Fitness, we are here to help! There are a couple of ways for you to get started TODAY!

#1: Our 7 Day Quickstart Guide with a jumping off point - a week of structured, healthy eating instructions, and workout sessions aimed at changing your mental status by changing your daily habits. Download that here and get INTO it:

QUICKSTART GUIDE

#2: Join us for a FREE 2-Week Trial through The Greatest Gift.
We truly believe that health & fitness is the greatest gift and we want to give it to YOU!
Through this gift pack you will receive a number of on-line tools to help you start working towards your health & fitness goals, as well as the option to join us for a free 2-week trial in our group personal training program.

Start by clicking the link below, fill out a short questionnaire to help us learn a little bit about you, and schedule an initial Fast Track Transformation Success Session so that we can help you set yourself up for success in reaching your goals. We would LOVE to support you in your health & fitness journey!

Understanding and diagnosing a problem is always the first step. I highly recommend reading the paper published in The Journal of Health and Social Behavior about languishing, cited in the sources below. The paper goes into much deeper detail about the detriments of this often overlooked psychological mode, and provides a lot of information that would help anyone seeking to understand their own mental blocks and hang-ups. These kinds of issues have, I'm sure, been on the radar for more and more people in recent times, and hopefully one of the things we can learn from the past year is how to recognize these problems and better address them for the inevitably tumultuous future ahead.

In Good health!

Allison

Sources:

The Mental Health Continuum: From Languishing to Flourishing in Life

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.htmlText

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Chronic Inflammation and Pain

4/12/2021

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Some of the most common sayings I hear from older people is “Oh it only gets worse from here”, “Wait till everything hurts”, or even “Pain is a part of life”. Why is it so common for so many people to accept pain into our lives? We should NOT be in large amounts of pain even as we get older. Our joints, muscles, and bones do age as we get older, and things do start to break down, but this doesn’t mean we have to put up with living with chronic pain every day. Pain is our brain telling us that something is wrong and that we need to take the proper steps to fix it. Sometimes it is about getting stronger, practicing functional movement, and staying active. Other times, we need to work on a deeper level within our body to address these problems.

Inflammation can be acute or chronic. Acute inflammation can happen when you sprain your ankle or knee, experience swelling, or even get a cut that gets red hot. Your body inflames a given area to help you heal with loads of white blood cells, among other helpful cells and materials. Chronic inflammation is the pain we experience deep in our joints or tissues that never seems to go away or get better.

When our body decides that inflammation needs to stay, it uses whatever it can to try and fix the problem area even if it's not needed anymore. This is when inflammation can turn bad and start breaking down our good tissue and further damage our weaker areas.

Our western culture diet is, in some ways, based around consuming heavily refined foods loaded with sugar, saturated fats and trans fatty acids. These fatty acids consist of large chains of carbon molecules coated in hydrogen that break down very easily in the body, increasing our LDL (low density lipoprotein) or ‘bad cholesterol’. More specifically these food groups are our fried, baked, processed, refined, bagged, canned, or bottled types of foods. There are so many different types of fats and sugars that make these products taste OH SO YUMMY, as well as provide a long shelf life.

These all contribute towards serious chronic inflammation. This is what may be causing you pain and stiffness in your joints. It sounds a little scary and it is! The longer you have this chronic inflammation, the more likely you are to be breaking down your healthy tissue, and the issue becomes harder and harder to reverse.

SO what can we do to help fix this? Well, if you are here you are probably on the right track.

We want to consume more omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. These are going to be high in our HDL, mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids. HDL stands for High Density Lipoprotein. This is a good cholesterol that we want high amounts of in order to help carry ‘bad’ cholesterol out of the body. Mono and polyunsaturated fats also help carry out bad cholesterol, as well as fueling the brain/body and building new healthy cells. When we start increasing the amounts of these fats in our diet, we are going to see a decrease in that inflammation in our body. Foods high in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids are:

Salmon or other fatty fish
Nuts and seeds
Olives, avocados, flaxseed oils

We also have to talk about refined sugar. Where we find high saturated fats, we will also find loads of sugar and this only feeds inflammation. These sugars are found in refined breads, pastas, baked goods, sweets and candies, along with fried foods and heavily preserved products.

This does not include fruit. Fruit actually provides a decrease in inflammation due to the natural sugar and antioxidants loaded within, helping to clear out that build up. If you are someone that is also affected by dairy products, you should really try to avoid lactose, as it is yet another sugary product.

Even though milk has natural sugar, a sensitivity to dairy could further inflame an already troubled area if dairy products are consumed. Try and stick to all natural sugars, unprocessed food, and lots of fruits and vegetables. The less sugar you have the better!

Be mindful when you eat, and think about how processed foods might be playing a part in your chronic pain. This is a process, and it may take months to start noticing changes in levels of pain around inflamed areas. Some other positive side effects from limiting these types of foods will be better, healthier looking skin, a greater store of energy, less bloated post-meal complaints and even weight loss.

Overall, limiting these types of foods that are high in unsaturated fats and sugars can improve our general health dramatically, and greatly reduce inflammation that causes pain for so many.

-Bree

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Congratulating our March Client of the Month

4/2/2021

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Each month we recognize one client who has really inspired us through their commitment to themselves and to their health & wellness. We are really excited to be recognizing Rachel Garland!

Rachel started with Wilcox Wellness & Fitness, Brunswick in January 2020 not long before COVID-19 rocked our world. Being a school teacher during a pandemic wasn’t enough to waiver Rachel’s commitment to her training program. She immediately embraced LIVEStream training and found a way to fit her training sessions into her unpredictable and ever changing responsibilities as an educator and parent.

Rachel recognizes that her commitment to her training program allows her to show up for her responsibilities at her best. Even when Rachel faced challenges such as a new puppy, or a work schedule change for her husband, she reached out to discuss strategies for reducing stress and concerns that she wouldn’t be able to meet her own expectations.

Rachel always shows up to her training sessions with an amazing attitude. She always has a smile on her face. If we all weren’t living through this pandemic together you’d have no idea of the challenges that Rachel was working through in her life.

Through Rachel’s ongoing dedication she has significantly improved her body awareness, dialing in her hinges, bridges and planks. When a movement doesn’t feel right she reaches out and asks for additional support. It is so common for us to work through things that just don’t feel right.

Perhaps we worry that the problem is with us and we need to just figure it out. Admitting to challenges with exercises may feel like admitting to failure, but that’s just not the case. It is through recognizing how our body feels, asking questions, and accepting help that adjustments can be made to dial in the movement and get the intended results.

When Rachel noticed that she was feeling more quads than hamstrings during bridges, she asked why and we were able to provide an adjustment to help her get the most out of the exercise. Not only has this helped Rachel do an awesome bridge, but it also helps to increase confidence in the movement so that she can put even more effort behind it.

WAY TO GO RACHEL! We are so proud of you and all that you have accomplished! Keep up the great work.

We would love to help you commit to healthy living too! We will be launching our SPRING KICKSTART PROGRAM on Saturday, May 1st.

KickStart is a 4-week program that is designed to help you implement healthy habits into your life and build momentum in getting active. We Kickoff the program as a KickStart group on Saturday, May 1st and then you will have access to 3-training sessions per week in our Group Training Program. What are you waiting for? The time is now and we’re here to support you every step of the way.

To learn more about KickStart go to www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/kickstart.

Not sure if this program is right for you? Let’s chat! Schedule a no-obligation phone call at www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/morekickstartinfo.

We would LOVE to support you in your health & fitness journey!

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Wilcox Wellness & Fitness’ Partnership with Midcoast Humane

4/1/2021

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Wilcox Wellness & Fitness is so proud to announce our partnership with Midcoast Humane. We are excited to support Midcoast Humane through our Check-Ins for Charity Program where we donate to Midcoast Humane for each Facebook Check-in.

Midcoast Humane has overwhelming support from the community at Wilcox Wellness & Fitness and we are incredibly excited to be supporting this incredible organization.

Midcoast Humane is one of the biggest shelters in the state of Maine, operating animal sheltering facilities in Brunswick and Edgecomb, and providing care and second chances to nearly 3,500 animals every year.

Midcoast Humane is not just about the animals. They are about the people, too, acknowledging that animal companions are for everyone, and we all can make a difference in the lives of animals, and in turn animals can make a difference in the lives of humans.

Every animal that comes through the doors of Midcoast Humane receives excellent medical care, spay/neuter surgeries, vaccines, and care & comfort while they are awaiting their forever family. Midcoast Human believes that every life is worth saving, and are proud of their successes in saving the lives of 97% of the animals who they care for.

The donations made to Midcoast Humane are put to good use. On average Midcoast Humane cares for 322 animals every day at a cost of $20/day per animal.

To date, we have donated this much money to Midcoast Humane through this Check-Ins for Charity Program:

Check-ins for Charity - LIVE Tracker by Allison Hopkins

We are so incredibly happy with the impact we are able to create in our local community!!!

I know what an important part my pets are to my family, to my mental health, and to the joy that I experience through their unconditional love. Our four legged family members hold a special place in our hearts, and I'm happy to be able to support Midcoast Humane and all of the work that they do to place animals into the loving homes who will experience the same joy through their adoptions.

I am even more happy to get behind the mission of Midcoast Humane to give back, and do more good.

You Check-In. We Give Back. Together We Do More Good.

Happy Training!

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Leaving Languishing Behind

Chronic Inflammation and Pain

Congratulating our March Client of the Month

Wilcox Wellness & Fitness’ Partnership with Midcoast Humane

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