5 Reasons Why People Don’t Exercise
Monday, March 30th, 2020
This May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. We know that exercise is such a crucial element to good health. However, approximately 70% of people in American are overweight and out of shape. Heart disease is still our number one killer and the average American spends five hours in front of a television screen daily. This wellness observance is an excellent time to promote fitness at any level and work to lessen those numbers. Here we will address some common reasons why people may not exercise and offer some suggestions to overcome them.
Reason #1. “I have no time to exercise.”
This is perhaps the most common misconception about exercise. Many of us have very busy, hectic schedules. But the reality is that what we make time for reveals our priorities. You may think you have no time to exercise, but do you have time for all the health complications that may come from a sedentary lifestyle?
Time is relative. Each of us has twenty-four hours in a day. Take a look at your daily calendar and make a note of what you actually do to fill each hour. You may not have time to devote two hours at the gym every day. However, nearly everyone has ten to twenty minutes a day. You can take a brisk walk on your lunch break or after dinner each night.
Often times we believe that if we can’t do something the “right” way or invest in it the way we think we should, we can’t do it at all. But if we truly understood the value of consistency over time, we would realize how even small efforts make a big difference. Where our health and fitness is concerned, 20 minutes a day of exercise can make all the difference in the world.
Reason #2. “I can’t afford a gym membership or personal trainer.”
With technology being what it is today, you really don’t need a gym membership to get in shape. You may still enjoy the social, community aspect of fitness. Join a Facebook group or on-line fitness group. Accountability is great, but it doesn’t have to cost money. Even meeting up with a friend can be a great way to stay motivated and get healthy together.
There are plenty of workout videos for free on platforms like YouTube and Pinterest. Find your favorite fitness blogger to follow on Instagram for diet and exercise tips and programs. The number of resources is plenty, but that can also be overwhelming, especially to a beginner. Start small and go from there. Perhaps choose one workout plan or video to stick with first and then branch out as you progress in your fitness.
You don’t really even need technology or a gym. Just get outside and move your body! Have a private dance party in your own bedroom, play a game of basketball, go for a swim. The main idea is just to get up and move every single day. Get your heart-rate up and build muscle. Your body will thank you for it.
Reason #3. “I have bad knees/back/other health issues.”
It’s certainly a legitimate concern when you have underlying health issues that make it more challenging to exercise. However, it’s only more detrimental to your health to let them stop you. Be sure to consult your doctor about what exercise may be beneficial to you. Do you have bad joints? Exercises like walking, the elliptical machine or swimming may be your best options. There are even some seated workouts available.
Don’t hesitate to modify strength training exercises to fit your needs. When you are carrying a lot of extra weight, it can be difficult to perform certain exercises. Modification is a great way to get started. Gradually, as your fitness level improves, you may not need to modify. Many of your current health issues may even disappear as your habit of exercise increases your overall health.
Reason #4. “I have too much weight to lose. It won’t make much of a difference.”
It can be overwhelming to start an exercise program when you feel you have so far to go. Set small, incremental goals for yourself. Don’t expect changes in your body overnight. Your main goal in creating a habit of exercise should be just that – creating a habit. Exercise is part of a lifestyle. Losing weight or gaining muscle can be great benefits, but they should always come secondary to your health.
Take it one day a time and celebrate what your body is capable of doing! When you exercise, it isn’t to punish yourself for eating poorly. Exercise is a way to care for your body and your health.
Maybe you’re already thin and think you don’t need exercise. Thin does not equal healthy! Your heart and lungs still need exercise. Exercise is not about weight, but about health.
Reason #5. “I just don’t like to exercise.”
Maybe you genuinely just don’t like exercise. That’s fair! But if you don’t like to do something, it is very easy to find reasons not to do it. If you don’t like an exercise, don’t do it! Find something you do like to do. Don’t like running? Don’t run. Simply walk or ride a bike. Take a dance class or take up yoga. You have plenty of options to choose from. Exercise can be fun! You just have to find the right fit for you. The more you enjoy it, the more likely you are to stick with it!
Visit our National Wellness Calendar to learn more about National Physical Fitness and Sports month.
Read our Wellness Blog on Promoting Observances in your workplace.
How to Bring Wellness to Your Workplace
Tuesday, February 11th, 2020
IAB Health Productions was founded as a tool to bring Wellness into the Workplace. We believe wellness education is important, given the amount of time individuals spend in the workplace and the impact health has on employee performance and associated benefits cost. At IAB, we promote workplace wellness in various ways: through our corporate health fairs across the nation, our National Wellness Calendar downloads, monthly Wellness Newsletter, blog posts, and a variety of social media platforms.
We utilize our social media accounts to highlight wellness observances and promote our health fair events to vendors. But how can you make the most of them? Here are some ways that you can achieve Wellness in your Workplace.
2022 Wellness Observance Calendar
We provide perhaps the most comprehensive list of Wellness Observances and resources available on the internet. Each year it is updated with new links and information to benefit you most.
We highly recommend staying ahead of the curve and planning the observances you want to highlight in your office setting. Not every observance will be relevant to every place of employment, but there is plenty to choose from.
Many of the resources listed have posters and infographics available. These are excellent tools for your workplace education that you can post on bulletin boards and in break rooms. Think of common areas where employees will frequently see the information and be able to apply it to their personal health.
Downloading our Wellness Calendar will also give you access to our monthly email newsletter. Newsletters highlight upcoming wellness observances a month in advance, giving you plenty of time to gather resources and information for your employees. We’ll also provide links to relevant wellness blog posts that include in-depth information about carefully selected wellness topics.
Utilize our Free Health Fair Planning Tools
As an employer or broker for a company, you are eligible to use our FREE health fair planning tools. Corporate events of any kind can be time-consuming and exhausting to plan. From the very beginning of IAB’s inception, we’ve done our best to simplify that process for you.
Rather than spending time hunting down appropriate vendor booths for your Health Fair, we take care of promoting the event and capitalizing on relationships with vendors that we’ve already built. You’ll also have the option to use some tried and true vendors that you know you want, and approve or deny any who apply to participate.
Once you’ve registered your free account with us, you’ll receive personalized instructions on how to move forward in the process. We’ll help you every step of the way. There is no charge to you for these services. The fees paid by the vendors cover those costs.
Many of our Vendors also offer Health and Wellness Workshops that can be offered on-site at your workplace. We have a database available for you to search for desired health topics and instructors.
Share Information
You can locate IAB Health Productions on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We post about each upcoming event that is accepting vendors, giving opportunities for multiple health care providers in each area to participate. We also emphasize important Wellness Observances each month, linking to Wellness Blogs and our Wellness Calendar.
These observance posts are always filled with key information about the importance of each specific issue. The posts are easy to share and a great reminder for what’s being talked about in the health and wellness arena at that particular time of year.
Our main goal is in bringing Wellness to the Workplace. We want to make sure that you are equipped with as many resources and opportunities as we can possibly provide. We welcome your feedback! How can we do more to help you spread awareness in your place of employment? IAB is always seeking new and effective ways to help people stay healthy and informed.
Common Reasons to Visit a Pediatric ENT
Saturday, December 28th, 2019
This February, we observe Kid’s ENT Health Month. Children experience a myriad of ear, nose and throat illnesses like ear infections, sinus infections, asthma, allergies, even hearing and speech delays. Many of these issues may be initially handled by your child’s pediatrician. But recurrent illness may need to be referred to your local Pediatric ENT.
Children’s Ear, Nose and Throat Issues
Tongue Tie
From the time of birth, children may need the expertise of an ENT. Last year, we focused on spreading awareness about ankyloglossia, or tongue tie. As infants, children may struggle to breastfeed or even bottle feed due to ankyloglossia, which hinders the movement of the tongue. Increased awareness over the last 20 years has led parents to ENTs to perform a simple corrective surgery called a frenotomy. This in-office procedure has a quick recovery time with a very low risk of complications.
Tympanostomy Tubes
Some children have repeated difficulty with ear infections. With frequent or lengthy bouts of ear infection, your pediatrician may refer you to an ENT for Tympanostomy tubes. Built-up fluid in the ears can lead to temporary hearing loss as well as discomfort. The procedure involves drilling a small hole in the eardrum, suctioning out whatever fluid may be trapped there, and inserting a small tube. These tubes allow air to reach the middle ear, providing relief from the built-up pressure.
Snoring and Sleep Apnea
Mouth breathing or snoring in children are other indications that a trip to the ENT may be necessary. Nasal obstructions can lead to blocked airways that hinder a child’s breathing. This can exhibit itself as noisy breathing, a runny nose and sleeping with the mouth open. There are various causes for these obstructions such as swelling from allergies or infections, a foreign object, or a deviated septum. Your pediatric ENT will be able to assess the cause and proceed with the proper treatment.
Children who snore experience what’s termed Sleep Disordered Breathing. Two to four percent of those children who snore also experience Obstructive Sleep Apnea. With Sleep apnea, the airways are completely obstructed for a brief period of time, causing the body to behave as though it’s choking. Blood oxygen levels drop, blood pressure rises and sleep is disrupted.
Snoring in children can usually be attributed to enlarged tonsils or adenoids. In children who are overweight, it may be due to fat deposits that gather around the throat and thus narrow the airway. All children who snore experience some level of disrupted sleep.
Improper breathing at night causes poor sleep quality, which can lead to other problems. Irritability, mood swings, hyperactivity, and slow growth can all be attributed to insufficient sleep due to poor sleep quality.
For all these ailments and so many others, we value our Pediatric Ear, Nose and Throat Doctors. Visit our National Wellness Observance Calendar to view other resources on Kids ENT Health to help educate you and your workplace. Our 2020 National Wellness Observance Calendar is Free to Download, so you can stay up to date on other important health observances throughout the year.
How to Age Gracefully
Friday, September 6th, 2019
Age is just a number, they tell us. But it seems we’re getting older, younger and younger. Some twenty-somethings feel as though they’re pushing sixty. How do we keep our minds and bodies in tip-top shape as we age? Are the aches, pains and ailments just inevitable? Let’s discuss how to age gracefully. Hopefully, you’ll find a new lease on life in the paragraphs that follow.
Eat A Balanced Diet
This first tip is a simple one. It’s used so frequently, it may seem trite. But the simplicity and importance of eating a balanced diet cannot be overestimated. With all the fad diets and extreme restrictions out there, balance can be hard to come by. The fads will come and go. There is no one food group that can be termed “bad.” Most everything has a benefit in moderation.
Don’t deprive yourself of good foods that you like to eat. Just eat more fruits, veggies, lean meats and whole grains. Even carbohydrates are important. It can be tempting for weight loss to eliminate carbs almost entirely. Just like carbs are important, many healthy fats are rich in Omega vitamins essential for good heart and brain health.
Some people do have to monitor carbs more closely for other health concerns. But an extreme diet can deprive your body of nutrients it actually needs. While you may experience weight loss in the short term, what’s most important? Losing weight quickly, right now? Or sustaining a healthy, balanced diet over time that will lead to a healthy weight in addition to a long healthy life.
Move Your Body
Never stop moving your body. A body at rest remains at rest. Muscles that aren’t used deteriorate over time. That can lead to your body ceasing to function and move the way it used to. Simple walking and daily stretching can do wonders for your cardiovascular and muscle health. Getting your heart rate up and releasing those feel-good endorphins fights a world of health issues.
Studies have shown that older adults who maintain active, healthy lifestyles, are 60% less likely to develop dementia. The way you treat your body affects your mind, just as the way you treat your mind affects your body. The mind-body connection is a powerful thing.
Think Youthful Thoughts
Our mental health contributes much more to our overall health than you might think. There are many who are dead long before their bodies are buried. Don’t be one of them! Live your life to the fullest. Make plans, set new goals, dream new dreams. As long as you have breath you have a purpose to fulfill. Meditation or Prayer has even shown to improve age-related memory loss. Meditation can contribute to your physical and emotional health by decreasing stress and improving mental clarity.
Invest in our youth! Mentor someone younger than you. Volunteer with after school programs or be a big brother/sister. Being around young people keeps you dialed in and aware. We tend to be most like the people we spend time around. Keeping our associations varied opens our minds to learning new things. Learning new things keeps our minds healthy.
Sharpen and challenge your mind to think. When you cease to learn, you cease to truly live. Take up a new hobby or audit a college course. An endless supply of knowledge can be found simply by taking up the habit of reading. When you continue to utilize your thinker, you guard yourself against dementia and strengthen your mind.
Wear Your Sunscreen
Your skin is your largest organ. Don’t neglect to take care of it! It’s the first thing people see and one of the biggest indicators of your age. Sun damage to your skin is a huge cause of aging. Not only does it age your skin, but you also run the risk of developing skin cancer. Skin cancer takes many lives every single year.
Never underestimate the impact of a good skincare routine, both for men and women. Begin your preventative care as young as age 25. The damage done to our skin only shows up about ten years after it occurs. Be diligent in your skincare routine and you will see a marked difference in your youthful appearance.
For women, it’s important to use a cleanser, toner, eye cream, treatment product (anti-wrinkle or brightener) moisturizer, and exfoliate regularly. Men tend to exfoliate and moisturize the lower portion of their face through shaving. They show their age on their forehead and around their eyes. Daily sunscreen in addition to an equally good skincare routine is just as important for men.
Own it!
Don’t fight the aging process, embrace it. You’ve earned your age and you have the wisdom and life experience to prove it. Every new day is a gift. You’ve been given this life and this body and it’s up to you what you do with them. Take care of yourself, whether you’re 22 or 92. None of us lives forever, but let’s live well.
