Posts Tagged ‘Tammy Parkinson’

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Wednesday Wellness : Is there a perfect body shape for all activities?

By Tammy Parkinson | August 18th, 2011 0 Comments

Over the weekend, I joined a riding group in the Sierra Foothills on a “bike shop” ride.  It was completely last minute and I went more for the comradery, exercise and scenery.  I only knew one or two of the 50+ riders.

As I hopped on my bike, bleary eyed at 7:30 in the morning, I was quickly humbled by the level of athleticism.  It was everything I could do to keep up with the “middle/slower paced” group.

On a 4 hour bike ride, you really have time to think and ponder ideas.  One that kept coming up for me was the varieties of shapes and sizes of each of the riders.

One might “assume” a fit rider would be tall, young, lean, and have muscular legs.  I have to tell you, the age range was from late 20’s to late 60’s, and just about every height and weight passed me by at some point!  (and  I mean ripped by me!)

I kept thinking about what “athleticism” or an “athletic” body is.  Society dubs what “should” be a perfect shape, yet these perfect shapes often have no strength or health.  We are “shaped” as apples, pears, eggplants, green beans and about any other vegetable or fruit we can dream up!  That doesn’t mean we aren’t “perfect” if we have something other than a magazine emphasized body.  What we DO with our shape, how we emphasize what we are designed by nature to do is up to us; and if we hone in on what our specific body is good at…we can improve in ways we can’t yet imagine!

I find that I excel better at endurance sports and get crushed at most fast quick activities (that doesn’t mean I don’t have fun…I just don’t do as well!)  I know several who have beautiful perfect “shapes” but are challenged on a 3 mile walk.

Who is to say what our “perfect” is except ourselves (and maybe our doctor).  As long as we try to do what we can with our physical bodies, our best is a gift!

Go out there, look around, notice what you like to do and what you find your body likes.  Explore new things; try your hand at activities you are inspired by.  No one but YOU can know what you are capable of! Maybe I’ll see you ripping by me on a bike ride!

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Wednesday Wellness: Your Diet and The Law of Attraction

By Tammy Parkinson | August 3rd, 2011 0 Comments

The other day I was listening to the “Law of Attraction” CD, by Jerry and Esther Hicks; one that I have listened to several times. This particular one is about the law of attraction and money.

Jerry and Esther Hicks use an analogy that if you put $100.00 in your pocket and walk around looking at items you can buy but don’t, by the end of the day you will have saved potentially thousands of dollars. The theory is attracting income and wealth by “vibrationally” pretending to spend.

Shortly after listening to this portion I went to Costco on a Saturday (can you picture it now) and there must have been 15-20 food sampling stands. I was amazed at how many people were standing in line waiting to fill up on empty calories! Then I thought, “What if we tallied up how many calories we would have eaten (for instance at Costco) by the end of the shopping trip and attracted actual ‘wealth and health’ by saving hundreds and possibly thousands of calories by not spending our daily calorie allowance?”

I further went on in the week to pay attention to how many times I “could have” eaten something extra and unplanned and chose not to. This showed me how many actual calories I eliminated from my diet every day.

If we pay attention to how often we pass on food options that aren’t our planned meals and/or snacks, we can become more and more aware of the weight we want to be. This attracts, or causes mindful choices, and ultimately is a key component in reaching and holding on to a healthy lifestyle.

I realize this is some heavy thinking, but take it just for a day. Take a pause each time you grab at a snack that you weren’t intending on eating, “Bank” the calories and tally up how much you’ve saved at the end of the day. You might have a nice little health fund!

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Wednesday Wellness: Be the change

By Tammy Parkinson | June 15th, 2011 0 Comments

Today I was listening to someone’s music and a song came on I had never heard before. The main theme of the song (could be the title) was, “If you don’t like something, change your mind.”  How SIMPLE!

Often, we tend to over complicate things that leave us feeling frustrated. When we try to change “it” or just continue to get frustrated, difficult times are on the horizon.

What if, rather than changing “it” or trying to change “it”, we changed our attitude about it; or rather we change our focus towards something a little easier.

Let’s say you finally threw on a pair of shorts because the temperature gauge finally reached over 65 degrees and *GASP* the shorts don’t fit! What happened? Maybe one too many coffee mochas you drank this winter to warm the body? We can focus on the tummy roll, we can convince ourselves the shorts shrunk over the winter or we can get real, laugh, reset and stop the coffee mochas until the shorts fit. If you want to change something, BE the change instead of hoping someone or something else will change! Change your mind about the resistance to whatever it is you don’t like.

How often do you find yourself wishing for a shift to happen and you just get to sit there and wait for the change? Consider this week to BE the change and change your mind so that “it” can be something you can like!

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Are the choices we make driven by our mindset?

By Tammy Parkinson | October 14th, 2009 0 Comments

Attitude; it’s the emotion which trumps and dictates nearly everything in our life!

For instance, have you ever experienced your paper jamming in your printer over and over again and on one day you are ready to take a sledge hammer to the printer, then on a completely separate day when it jams again,  you laugh it off and by that evening you barely remembered it occurred!

Take the day when you go out to dinner and you resist the chips and guacamole and choose a simple clean fajita sans guacamole, fried tortillas and no cheese. You enjoy the conversation and enjoy your time at the restaurant vs. focus only on the food. Then, there’s the following week when you go back to the same restaurant and can’t stop until you’ve eaten the entire basket of chips and will accept nothing less than something laden in cheese!

What happens here?

Why do we waver on our choices, our attitude?

Why is it so easy one day and so incredibly difficult the next time?   Could it be the way we choose to view the moment based upon our attitude?

I’d like to suggest this week you think about this when something you’ve overcome in your past (or want to overcome in your future) creeps up and becomes difficult in this new moment.  Consider your mindset, your stress and your attitude towards this event.   Consider that maybe, if you open your mind to the possibility that you can overcome it, even easily…you can!!

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Tags: , , , , ,      Categories: Breakthrough, Discipline, Positive attitude, Uncategorized, Wellness by Tammy Parkinson

To Be Physically Healed Takes Mental Healing

By Tammy Parkinson | September 1st, 2009 0 Comments

As many of you might have read last week, I had an accident which has “slowed me down” for a few weeks to say the least!

I’ve noticed through this experience that patience and mindset are two major factors in the process of healing, learning, and growing. This isn’t just about the body healing in a physical way, there’s a mental process of healing when “life’s obstacles” come in to play.

How about the person, who has been on a diet for a month or two, seeing some progress, then get’s extremely stressed at work, gets back to old eating habits and some of the weight comes back on.  Does this person give up because it’s just too hard? Or do they become patient with the process and respect the fact that true habits will take commitment, patience and determination in order to change?

Or how about the person who at one point had a great paying job, spent every last cent on wants (in addition to needs) and then loses their job.  Now becoming financially upside down in less than a couple months.  Does this person turn towards desperate measures, feel devastated, depleted, and give up? Or does this person heal mentally, learn, grow and find a way to change their life somehow, someway with a positive and patient mindset?

Another example might be the person who is a professional cyclist, gets cancer and has the choice to give up his profession and wonder when he will die or does this person make up his mind he will beat cancer and beyond that, he will become one of the (if not, THE) best cyclist in history?

What happens when we heal not only physically but mentally?  What happens when we slow down just long enough to stay positive and respect the process we are going through?  We become someone new who can appreciate the lesson and create changes which could benefit our health and well being for a lifetime!

I hope this can give you the strength to slow down long enough when you need to mentally AND physically ramp back up!

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Respecting the Nature of Nature

By Tammy Parkinson | August 26th, 2009 0 Comments

About a week and a half ago,  I was happily riding my bike up in Tahoe and while going down one of the easiest trails I’ve been on I went from chatting with my girlfriend to flipping through the air, landing on my knees and face and having my bike flip over me.  I don’t know why I fell and I really don’t remember how I hurt myself so badly, but I am bruised all over.

Of course I have run through the mindset of how lucky I am that nothing was broken and how much worse so many others have it.  I am thankful that in time, I will be up and “running”, and of course I am grateful that I still am excited to ride!

What I have spent a lot of time thinking about is WHY I fell.  I lost my focus.  I was thinking about what I was going to do later in the day and talking with my friend.  I lost respect for the nature of nature and the intensity of the sport I was practicing.

When we (I) go for a ride, workout, hike, water ski, river rafting, or anything we do during the summer, it’s important to think about the conditions of the trail, water, and terrain.  We need to focus on the way our body is moving, where there might be boulders and rocks, if there are other people around who might get in our path, etc.

Take great respect for nature and for the bodies we have worked hard to keep healthy.  Take a pause to focus on what you are doing and how you are doing it and keep your eye on the event!

As another “nugget” from this experience, I realize that although I don’t remember how I fell, I realize (based on where my bruises are) that I basically hit almost every body part!  What’s cool is although I have bruising, I realize I must’ve been pretty darn flexible to survive without anything broken!  Now I am ever so grateful for all those yoga classes and core workouts!  I’m sure they saved me weeks of recovery!!

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Overcome Your Negative ‘Self-Talk’

By Tammy Parkinson | August 19th, 2009 0 Comments

Twice in the last week I have heard the same variation of how to feel good about ourselves.  You see, so often it is easy for our “self talk” to negate the good things we do.    We get a compliment about something we did and we immediately think “yes, but, I wish I could’ve finished it sooner…” or we lose a pound and think “I still need to lose 10 more“… or we run a mile and think “I need to go faster and farther“…

So a practice which was suggested to me was every time we hear a small negative voice pop in our head, immediately we offer 3 positive affirmations about something which is positive and good about ourselves.  What will eventually happen is the positive affirmations will overcome the negative talk and in time, we will be over come with only thinking uplifting and productive thoughts!

Try this! You might find yourself coming up with affirmations every 10 minutes, but you will be amazed and the way you will feel at the end of your day.

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