Yes, please. Cancel if you are sick. Great! We’re done here.

 

Nah, we’ve got a bunch more to cover. There are lots of variables to being sick. What does that even mean and why does it matter? Let’s dig in.

What is ‘sick’?

 

For determining your ability to receive massage, ‘sick’ means one or any combination of the following:

• Fever and related symptoms
  • Chills
  • Aches
  • Unusual fatigue
• Respiratory issues
  • Coughing
  • Sneezing
  • Very runny and/or stuffy sinuses
  • Sore throat
• GI issues
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea

If you have any of the above happening, it’s best to cancel.

Massage isn’t going to help you get better

A sick body needs rest. Receiving massage is an active task. Massage causes change in the body and your body has to work to maintain stability. Getting a massage when you are sick takes attention away from rest and recovery. That’s not helping.

 

You’re not going to be cozy on the massage table. Sure, it sounds like a warm squishy massage table would be great. But the moment you put your already-stuffy head into that face cradle, you’ll realize the error of your ways. Gravity and pressure are not your friend here. Even if I do a great face massage to drain your sinuses, you’ll likely feel worse when you get off the table.

 

If you’re feeling at all dizzy or loopy, laying face down can make that sensation even worse. Remember getting ‘the spins’ when you drank a little too much? That. Only worse because you’ll be worried about puking on my office carpet and not just your terrible dorm comforter.

There is often some gray area, especially if you are in the recovery phase of a virus or bacterial infection. You may have that lingering dry cough well past the stage of contagion or actual illness.  Or you could have seasonal allergies that make you a runny mess.

 

If you’re unsure about your situation, please call me before your appointment and we can make a decision together. 

It’s really, really easy to spread those germs

If you come in sick, you may get me (and my other clients) sick. Even with the best handwashing, coughing into your elbow, and precision skills depositing your dirty tissue into the trash bin, you’re likely to leave a few germs hanging in the air and I’m likely to breathe them in.

Fun fact, when you sneeze the little droplets of doom can travel up to 8 meters and can stay suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes. Yikes.

 

There’s a lot we just can’t control about cold and flu season. We may have been exposed without knowing and be contagious for a few days before symptoms show up. That’s just part of living in a world with other people.  But we can control where we go and who we see while we are symptomatic. I know it’s a bummer to delay your massage, it’s also the right thing to do when you are contagious.

Stay healthy

You already know the best ways to stay healthy through cold and flu season. (But I’ll remind you.) Get a flu shot, wash your hands, get enough sleep, get out into the fresh air when possible.

 

If you feel something coming on, do your best to cancel whatever you can, keep your activities to a bare minimum and just rest. Stay hydrated. Ask for help. That’s hard to do, but worth the effort.

 

Here’s to staying healthy through this season and the whole year!

 

—–

More sources on contagious factors, etc

https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/how-long-flu-contagious

https://www.healthline.com/health/cold-flu/contagious#am-i-contagious

https://www.medicinenet.com/how_long_is_a_cold_or_flu_contagious/article.htm#how_will_i_know_if_i_am_cured_of_the_flu_or_a_cold

We usually don’t think about our feet. Until they hurt. We tend to take them for granted, but like other parts of our body they can get tired, overused, sore, and in need of some attention.

When they start to hurt it can lead to many other problems.

 

When your feet hurt you don’t want to do much of anything. You just want to stay off of them. Your body likes to move, though. And your brain functions better when you are active. So foot pain can quickly lead to other issues.

 

Foot pain can cause of other pain in your body. If your foot hurts, you change the way you stand, walk, and move. Those changes affect your legs. When your legs hurt, you make more changes in what you do, which affects your hips, then your back, then your neck.

 

Some jobs involve being on your feet most of the day. Often it is on hard floors or rough terrain. You may have a long walk from the parking lot to your job.

 

At home we walk around to take care of our place, our family, and our belongings. We shop, stand chatting with a friend, stand in lines, and walk around doing errands. We cook, do laundry, clean and put things away. You may make multiple trips up and down stairs every day. Yard work and home maintenance keeps us on our feet as well.

 

You may kick things out of the way or stomp your feet to let out some frustration. You may do extra walking for exercise or from an inconvenience, or run to make it somewhere on time.

 

If you enjoy sports you use your feet to run, jump, and kick. Your feet take a real pounding since they support all your body weight along with the extra force from the exertion.

 

For exercise or fun activities you use your feet for yoga and fitness classes, hiking, climbing, kickboxing, and dance – and hauling all of your equipment around..

 

Your feet have things dropped on them and they get stepped on. You step on unexpected things such as rocks, tools, or toys (Legos!).

 

All of your leg joints are all affected by your feet. Joints are under pressure from muscles and bones pulling and twisting on them. Relieving foot pain allows your muscles and joints to be in their proper positions and with less pressure on them you feel better.

 

We squeeze our feet into uncomfortable shoes or boots. Sometimes it may be for the sake of fashion, such as high heels. Other times work footwear is uncomfortable. Sandals may be more comfortable but they may not provide the support your feet need.

 

Massage provides relief from Plantar Fasciitis, heel pain, and other common foot pain. Most muscles that move your foot start in your calf, so relieving foot pain can also reduce calf pain too.

Your feet do a lot for you. Give them some attention with a massage so you can keep doing what you want.

 

 

It’s not hard to think up great ways to treat yourself. We’d all love a spa day topped off with a meal prepared and served by someone else. Maybe get a sitter for the night, so the little angels are asleep when we get home. Or just a morning where the cat doesn’t wake you up by sitting on your windpipe.

 

But for every article about self care, I roll my eyes at least 12 times and think “Who can afford that?”  Yes, it would be great to have an afternoon to myself and a bucket of fried chicken and a cookie dough chaser. But that’s not particularly healthy.

 

I’m all about realistic self care. That is, activities that aren’t expensive, don’t involve food, and will make you feel good about how you spent that time. Here’s a list of my favorites (bonus: most of these you can do with kids).

 

Meditate, the easy way

 

If you’re the kind of person who can’t sleep during the day, napping can be  more like torture. But guided meditation is a whole other story. It gives your mind something (easy) to do so the rest of you can relax a bit. There are plenty of free guided meditations online. Check out the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center website and the free version of the Headspace app, which has plenty of options to get you started.

 

Read a book

 

When was the last time you read for pleasure? Even if you can’t get to your library, there are plenty of free ebooks on Amazon, and your local library may have a free online borrowing program. Or reread some of your favorite books from childhood if you have them hanging around.

 

Learn something

 

If you choose the topic right, learning is great self-care. Pick a topic for FUN. Don’t feel like you need to learn something pertinent to your work or a current hobby.  Check out Coursera, MIT or Harvard to start. (But there are PLENTY of sources for free online classes, do your own searching, too!)

 

Draw

 

Bust out a piece for paper and draw something. Even if you don’t have fancy pencils or crayons or markers, you can play with shading and pressure and make something cool. There are plenty of free coloring pagesyou can download and print out.

 

 

YouTube Karaoke

 

For nearly every song out there, there’s a karaoke accompaniment channelon YouTube. For reals. Crank it up and let ‘er rip. You’re a stress-free superstar now.

 

 

And when all else fails: Nap

 

Put your jammies on and take a nap. In your bed. Not all jammed up on the couch with the TV on. Close the shades in your bedroom and hunker down for a proper sleep.

 

There. You don’t have to spend money or fill your belly to feel great and treat yourself well!

 

 

A guide to Wellness Routines

 

Begin with Why

Before you get a chance to get overwhelmed, I encourage you to start with a pen and paper. The strongest foundations begin with why you want to build and maintain a health regimen. Here are some ideas to get you started:

 

• Would you like to increase strength to be able to keep up with the little ones in the family?

• Would you like to drop 15 lbs to fit in your clothes better?

• Are you realizing that it doesn’t get any easier as we get older and are understanding the importance of building a routine now?

 

Be as specific with your goals as possible. A good goal will follow the SMART principle.

Goals must be

• Specific – Be as specific as possible: lose 15 lbs. Gain upper body strength. Eat quality foods. Really narrow down exactly what you are trying to achieve.
• Measurable – This is where it gets even more specific. How much upper body weight would you like to gain? Do you want to be able to do push ups?
• Achievable – Be real with yourself. Set goals that you know are appropriate for you. You may not physically be able to run a mile in under 4 minutes, so try to achieve something that you know you can achieve.
• Relevant – This piggybacks off of achievable. Your goals need to be relevant to you. Just because your neighbor is doing a crazy mountain endurance race this spring, doesn’t mean that is an appropriate goal for you.
• Time Bound – This one is important. Set deadlines, put your goals on the calendar. This is your accountability system. Losing 10 lbs in 3 months is an achievable, relevant goal that has a deadline on it.

Once you have established what it is you are trying to achieve and when you would like to achieve it, work backwards! If you know you need to drop 10 lbs in 3 months, that is 0.8lbs each week. That seems totally doable!! No need to get overwhelmed at all!

 

Set Yourself up for Success

With your foundation laid strong, and your “why’s” as the biggest tool in your toolbelt, you are already set up to begin the process of reaching your goals.

I want you to have a plan as you go into this. Don’t just fly by the seat of your pants all willy-nilly. Understand that Willpower Doesn’t Work. (There is a great book by Benjamin Hardy by the same name, it’s worth checking out.) You must change your habits to get results. Instead of not having a drink in the evening after work, remove yourself from your normal habit and go for a walk. You’ve got to change your environment. If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do things you have never done.

Meal planning is a great topic for setting yourself up for success.

Step 1: Start with your schedule. Know when you need a pack lunch, when you already have lunch scheduled with friends, when your kids will have extra crazy schedules so that you can be prepared with snacks in the car.

Step 2: Go to your cupboards. Know ahead of time what ingredients you have on hand so that you create meals around those and stay on top of your grocery budget.

Step 3: Shop online! City Market Clicklist is a gift from God himself! As you are planning out your meals for the week, put the ingredients straight in to your favorite online grocery program. This keeps you with in budget by preventing pesky impulse buys and saves you time by making chores more efficient.

Step 4: Meal Prep as you put groceries away!  When we are mindful with our schedules, and plan to have time to prep as you put groceries away, it speeds things up later in the week. Chop onions, lettuce for salads, and snack carrots as they go into the fridge, store them in containers and pull them out as you are ready throughout the week. Meal prepping doesn’t mean making all 21 meals for the week all at once, but it does mean having tedious prepping done all at once to cut down on time and dishes as the week progresses.

Step 5: Make breakfasts ahead of time. I don’t know about you, but in our neck of the woods, mornings are always hectic. Save time and ensure quality food for your family by whipping up breakfast burritos or breakfast sandwiches all at once for the week. Store in the fridge or freezer and see how smoothly your mornings sail!

Follow Through

The beginning of the week always feels so strong! I have my goals for the week, I have a plan, I have my meals prepped… now the hard part.. Actually doing what I set out to do.

The best piece of advice I have is to utilize your calendar. Know that today, no matter what, the things I have on my calendar have got to get accomplished. I know that things come up throughout the week and plans change, but remember your why. This is why we spent so much time laying a strong foundation. When the girls want to get a drink after work, but you know you are trying to cut back on the cocktails, take a big swig of ice tea and remember why you set out to accomplish these goals. It is more important to me to be strong and healthy than to potentially miss out on a happy hour. There will be more happy hours. They don’t have to be gone forever. Just for right now while you work on yourself. It is your greatest investment. Imagine the reward. It will feel soooo good to see the best version of yourself in the mirror and know that you did what was right instead of impulsion that derails you. Now this is the hardest step. Trust me, I struggle with it daily, but as the great Zig Ziglar says, “Motivation is like bathing, you must do it daily.”

 

The Reward

The most important part! Don’t forget to reward yourself. Daily. After you put your body through a workout, have something to look forward to . A soak in the hot springs, a hot shower, your favorite tea. Come up with something to work toward. Pretty soon, before you know it, not only will you feel your best, but you will look your best as well, and people will notice! Accept compliments, because, you know what? You earned it. You work hard on yourself and you deserve to feel good about it. Hard work is a good thing. Don’t forget.  

 

I encourage you wholeheartedly to become the best version of yourself in any season.

 

Can you believe it?? We are about 6 weeks away from the New Year! I encourage you to set yourself up for success by being mindful with the way you close out 2018 and step in to 2019 as the best version of yourself.

By having a focus each week, directed in a different category of your life, the goal is to start you out on the right foot by the time January 1 rolls around; giving you an actionable plan to reach your goals. When you are mindful about where you are in time and space, it won’t catch you off guard and leave you wondering where the time went and why you aren’t reaching your goals.

Beginning each Monday from now until New Year’s Eve, your challenge is to incorporate each theme into the week ahead.

Week 1: Gratitude

Week 2: Wellness & Self Care

Week 3: Family

Week 4: Personal Finance

Week 5: Adventures

Week 6: Time Management

Week 7: Community.

 

The First Monday: Gratitude

Happiness begins with Gratitude. In the process of ending this year strong and starting the next off great, it seems fitting that we center our thoughts on what we have to be grateful for.  It can be scary in this off season time wondering where the money is going to come from for the holidays or how you are going to pull off having so much company in the next few weeks. My challenge to you, is the next time you find yourself worrying, stop wasting time and think instead of what you are grateful for . Everything works out just the way it is supposed to anyway, so why fret?! Instead, take the opportunity you have been given to look around you, be happy that you get to live in such a beautiful place. Be happy you have a family to cook dinner for (even for the hundred-millionth time this week!). Pretty soon you will notice mundane tasks like dishes and laundry become a meditative practice you look forward to.

 

The Second Monday: Wellness & Self Care

Step 1: Schedule a Yoga Class. You’ll thank me later. Step 2: This week I want you to take a look at what you are doing well in your self care routine. You feel really good after the gym, even though the act of getting to the gym is tough… focus on that! Remember how much better you felt after your last massage? Book one last one for 2018 and start 2019 off feeling caught up and in a place to take on a New Year. All too often it is easy to forget that “You can’t pour from an empty cup!” Whenever I start feeling overwhelmed, I begin with myself. Take a hot shower, say a prayer while you are in there, get out and look your best for the days ahead. When you look good, you feel good. So look good!! Set yourself up for success when everyone else needs you, you will be in a position to give them your all.

 

Week 3, almost half way! Third Monday: Family

The holiday season is the best time of year to be inundated with reminders of how important family is. Family means someone or a group of people that will love you unconditionally and support you in times when it seems everything else fails . You need that network. Others need that network. My challenge is a little different than you might expect (that doesn’t mean it’s an excuse to not call your grandma…) This week, I want you to be that person for someone that is not a blood relative of yours. Go out and find a friend or a coworker that could really use a supportive bond this season and reach out to them. It can be subtle, but trust me what you get out of helping other people feel secure will blow your mind. Just do it. Step out of your comfort zone and be family to someone that wouldn’t typically expect it.

 

Fourth Monday: Personal Finance

This topic will set you up for success in such a way that has the potential to blow 2019 out of the water and truly call it the best year ever. Get ahold of your finances, people! (If you consider yourself financially stable , i.e., not living paycheck to paycheck, congratulations! Now get out there and help someone else figure it out. Share this incredible gift!) It really isn’t hard. The first step will take you 20 minutes. Ready for it? Here’s the solution… Create a budget. I’ll even walk you through it. Step one: Get a pen & a notepad. Go ahead, I’ll wait. … Ok, now that you’ve got that, write the date at the top and which month you are budgeting for. Have this project done before the beginning of the month. Ok, so you know what month you are budgeting and what date it is today, now write down your income. Let’s say you will get 2 $500 paychecks that month; your income is $1000. Next list your bills in the order they are due. Rent, water, phone, groceries, transportation. Don’t get caught up in not knowing how much gas you will use, just estimate. Once you know how much money you have and where it went, then you can determine whether to save, spend or pay down debt with the remainder. Feel free to contact me directly if you need help. For more on the topic, go to DaveRamsey.com (this is not a plug and I am not getting paid. This stuff really works and it would be a shame if I didn’t share the secret with you!).

 

Fifth Monday (about Dec 17th): Adventures

Correct me if I’m wrong, but you cannot expect to live a full life if you are constantly working. This is one of the goals of getting your finances in line, so that you have more time to play! Well, let me encourage you to take a new approach to your play time this year. I want you to prioritize it. That’s right. Make play plans first. The goal this week is to go out and buy your new 2019 calendar . Make this a fun event! Sit down with your spouse and family, and as a team, write on the calendar everyone’s birthdays, special events, long weekends, camping trips, family vacay and anything else you’d like to bucket list this year. When it is on the calendar, your likelihood of sticking with it greatly increases. Create the life you want to live and then figure out how to do work around it. Life is too short to not have anything to look forward to as you trudge through paying off debt and working to cover expenses.

 

Sixth Monday: Time Management

This parlays nicely from last week. I want us to have a goal where we spend more time doing the things we enjoy and become more efficient with the tasks that we must accomplish, even though we may not want to. The biggest thing to help me is meal prepping. There are countless videos on Youtube, just put “Meal prepping” in the search bar and you will see what I mean. Learn this. Master this. If you can get all your meals for the week on a plan and schedule in when you will prep what, I guarantee, all of your weight loss goals and time management goals fall right into place. If you are prepared with food and snacks to get you through the day, the impulse to purchase crappy food will diminish. Have a plan. Be mindful. Pack a lunch .

On a similar note, housekeeping… Also countless YouTube videos. My biggest recommendation (this is my biggest area of struggle, so I am constantly “working on it”) is to do a little every day . If you can do one load of laundry every day, you don’t have to confront laundry mountain once a week. Try to accomplish your tasks quickly. Like, fast . Don’t let yourself get distracted. Just get the house clean so you can spend intentional time relaxing later and the guilt will go away because there is truly nothing else you are supposed to be doing, but relaxing .

 

Seventh and final Monday of 2018: Community … & more Gratitude!

Ahhh people. They need you, you need them that equals community. So often it can be a nightmare thinking of putting yourself out there. Talking with people, interacting with them. It’s just like the gym… really hard to talk yourself into it… really glad that you did. I want you to understand something out of this… It boils down to your value. You are more valuable to your community and those around you, then you will ever realize. It is your duty not to let these people down. You have a responsibility to connect with those around you. Because if you don’t, who will? You know what it feels like to be lonely. To need help . Understand that everyone around you feels the same way and you have gifts, talents, something to offer them . …and it’s not up to you to know what that is. If you are stuck in defining your gifts, then don’t. Don’t define them. Let others define them for you. Spend enough time around other people and they will tell you what is beautiful about you. Just trust that it is the symbiotic nature of humanity. If you tell someone else their beauty, they will tell you yours. So, start small. Introduce yourself to your neighbor. Pick up a piece of trash that you walk by. Do something for someone else and see how it comes back to lift you up.

Technically this is the first week of the New Year, so fill your heart with gratitude and start it out helping others. You will be amazed at how this year is truly the year you are your best self. (and appreciate the path it took to get you there)