What’s the Best Way to Boost Your Mood?

Easy answer: exercise. That’s almost too easy, right? But here’s the thing, exercise is a great mood booster and it helps you to relieve stress, tension and excess energy – but at the same time, it boosts your energy levels. This is one of those cases where you do get more out of it than what you put in. Short Walk A short walk can get your heart rate up and can actually give you a mood and energy boost. Feeling tired and depressed? Hop on the treadmill for ten minutes. Can’t shake the yawns and actually feel yourself fading … Continue reading →

Friday Fitness Funnies: Strengthen Your Funny Bone

Good morning and TGIF! It seems like Friday is coming around faster and faster. In some ways, that’s great because Friday means the start of the weekend. However, for a lot of us, Friday also means the start of the weekend hustle. This weekend, my daughter has a big Halloween party to go to at her gymnastics school. It’s a Parent’s Night Out that doubles as a Costume Party and Halloween celebration. She’s very excited about it. In the meanwhile, we have a dozen other things to do to get ready for Halloween on the 31st not to mention I’ve … Continue reading →

Mental Health Day

Yesterday, I got up and got started on my day as I normally do. But as I dove into the writing for the day, I recognized the fact that I wasn’t really getting a great deal done. I was having a hard time really stringing two or three thoughts together in a row. I’m a writer for a living and some of us who are writers can forget that we really do work every day of the week. As some of you may know, I write a great deal here at families.com, but I also write elsewhere. On average, I … Continue reading →

Mental Health Day

Brain Fitness: Mental Aerobics

I’ve been talking about Brain Fitness here in the Fitness blog and today, I want to share with you some mental aerobics that you can do in order to warm-up or refresh your mental muscles. You can perform these exercises whenever you are feeling sluggish or need a mental break from work, study or even just the mundane every day activities that we all do. You can do the following exercises in any order and you can do any or all of them as you see fit. Print out a copy of this and keep it somewhere handy if you … Continue reading →

Friday Fitness Funnies: Laughter Does a Brain Good

I like to go and look up Fitness funnies every Friday and I try to populate this blog with humorous stories now and then. As it turns out, my reasoning was that humor does a body good, but what humor does the mind good. There are plenty of physicians still debating the merits of humor, but did you know that there is an American Association of Therapeutic Humor? I didn’t. Though I have to admit, the idea that there are physicians and associations out there who take in serious note the fact that humor can be a healing tool brings … Continue reading →

Raspberry Water – A Cool and Refreshing Alternative

Do you drink the recommended 6 to 8 glasses of water a day? Do you drink a half-ounce of water per pound of body weight? Do you look at water and wrinkle your nose because water treatment has long since removed the refreshing taste of water for you? Would you rather drink a soda than a glass a water because frankly, soda tastes better despite the fact that you know it’s not as good for you as water is? Flavored water may be just the alternative you have been waiting for. I’ve found flavored water more and more often at … Continue reading →

Hot Summer Friday Fitness Funnies

Man is it hot in August! People say that every year and for some reason, when August rolls back around – we’re amazed by how hot it once again is. Keeping in mind how hot it is in August – here are some quotes, jokes and funnies to keep yourself cool with on this hot day! Friday Funny Quotes for Fitness The English have three vegetables and two of them are cabbage. — Walter Page Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. — Mark Twain Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you … Continue reading →

Kick the Back to School Stress: 5 Stress Busters

As well documented here, my daughter started kindergarten yesterday, but for many parts of the country, back to school doesn’t begin until the next three weeks. The soonest start date that I know of after ours is next Monday, but then I know others that will not be returning to school for another three weeks. Either way, if you are not feeling that back to school crunch stress, you will be soon. The following are 5 stress busters that can help you make the going back to school experience Take the Time to Meet the Teacher Most schools will offer … Continue reading →

Bring on the Funny in the Fitness

Happy First Friday of August and for many, the last Friday before school starts off again. For many local schools in my area, school goes back into session next Wednesday and Thursday with the rest following promptly on Monday August 14th. The funny part for me is I remember not going back to school until after Labor Day. So for those of you getting ready to send your kids back, getting ready to go back yourselves, getting ready to resume teaching and other back to school issues, here are today’s Friday Fitness Funnies! Mind Games at the Gym Wear a … Continue reading →