Aroma Therapy

I am going to be blogging some book reviews for Thomas Nelson Publishing, and I am in the middle of my first read. It is a book called This is Your Brain on Joy written by Dr. Earl Henslin. (Review coming later.) But today I was struck with a great idea that I wanted to pass along to you.

Dr. Henslin writes that “… of all the senses, smell hits the brain first…In fact, the olfactory nerve fibers run a path directly to the limbic system—the mood center of the brain—bypassing the run around that the other senses go through.” So if you want to provoke emotions, smell is the quickest way to do it. Baking bread reminds us of grandma’s house and nurtures warm fond memories. Gingerbread makes us think of Christmas; certain perfumes may remind us of our mother, and on and on it goes. Good smells make us feel happy.

No wonder I am completely enamored with fragrances! They make me feel happy! A month ago I tested all of the perfumes in my Mary Kay inventory. Mary Kay carries two types of perfume, the less expensive Eau de Toilette, and the Eau de Parfum Fragrances.   My most favorite fragrance was the Exotic Passion Fruit Eau de Toilette, but I really loved all four of these less expensive perfumes. (Warm Amber, Simply Cotton, Exotic Passionfruit, and Sparkling Honeysuckle)

Each fragrance sets a different mood, so I like a little variety to choose from. Sexy, pretty, or sassy…hopeful, endearing, bold… They all have a different effect. And for me they provoke positive emotions, aroma therapy at its best.

My Nightmare

I have the most amazing daughter in the whole world! Her name is Natalie, and her unique personality keeps us laughing around our house. She has never been very fond of baby dolls, even though she loves to nurture. She has always invented her own brand of parenting.

A friend gave her a doodle monster on her second birthday, because Natalie had an intense interest in monsters. We had already read every picture book that we could find on the subject. Natalie’s favorites were Mercer Meyer’s books (There a Nightmare in my Closet and There’s Something in my Attic).

Natalie instantly bonded with her doodle monster (as all good mothers do). She took it with her everywhere she went. She called it “My Nightmare”. She would read to her nightmare, put it to bed, feed it, dress it, etc. “Time to eat nightmare.” “Night night Nightmare”. It was hilarious!

Creeping Obesity!

I gained quite a lot of weight during my second pregnancy and found myself overweight for the first time in my life.  Still, I didn’t worry excessively over this fact, but simply put my two babies in the baby jogger every morning and faithfully went for my daily run.  I lost twenty pounds, slowly but surely, without tweaking my diet at all.

Still, as my youngest grew from infant to toddler and then to a preschooler, I was still lugging around an extra ten pounds that was beginning to bother me.  I decided to speak with a sports trainer at my gym to find out what I was doing wrong.

I told her that I was ten pounds heavier, but maybe this was just the new me.  After all, I was older now and had been through a few pregnancies.  Her few words motivated me to change some habits.

She said, “We call that creeping obesity.  You gain about ten pounds per decade and before you know it you’re obese!”

I was appalled!  I wasn’t going to let obesity creep up on me!  I asked her to help me calculate the number of calories that I would need to eat to loose this last ten pounds.

I lost that weight in one month, and I am happy to report that I have easily kept it off these past four years.  Below are a few of my personal diet success strategies:

1. Eat three meals per day.  By filling up on healthy and nutritious food, I find I don’t crave junk food.
2. Fill your whole plate with food at each meal.  Concentrate on complex carbohydrates like fresh fruits and veggies and complete proteins. Eat small portions of high calorie foods like starches and less complex carbohydrates.
3. Drink water throughout the day.
4. Exercise daily.  Find something you enjoy to help you to be consistent.
5. When craving something yummy, just eat it.  Indulging when you need it will not pack on the pounds, and your healthy lifestyle won’t leave you filling deprived.

For the love of running

I have been running since I was ten years old. I never participated in any organized sports. I would just ran around and around the block all by myself. When my mother clocked the miles I was running, she took me out to buy proper footwear. I was running three, four, five miles in flip flops!
My mother encouraged me to run cross country and track when I was in middle school, and I did learn a lot about the dynamics of running (proper form, stretching, interval training, etc.) that I have found to be very helpful. Still, for the most part, I found competition annoying. I just like to run for the joy of the movement itself. I love the feeling of being strong and healthy.
In college I would wave goodbye to my roommates and run for several hours. When I would return they would ask how many miles I had run. We were all surprised to calculate that I had just run 17, 18, 19 miles! They were the ones who suggested that I should run a marathon. (At least this would make my strange habit more socially acceptable.)
In the past few years, I have thought more and more about the possibility of actually running a marathon, but my body has been extremely uncooperative. I keep getting this strange injury in my calf muscle. It started out in my left leg, but over the past year it has happened in both legs. It is a tight cramp that feels like a Charlie Horse that won’t go away. It used to heal in a week or two, but lately it has been taking longer. My family would like it very much if I could run on a regular basis. (I’m afraid I can be a bit of a grump without my fix.) So I went to a sport’s doctor who gave me several suggestions. I needed to cross train more, strengthen my core (Sit-ups! Yuck!), stretch more, but most importantly, run less. I need to learn when to stop! This is the tricky part. I am allowed one long run per week, and other than that I have to stop running like a crazy lady! After all, I’m no longer ten or even twenty years old!
She did give me one more tip to help me train for my marathon that I would like to pass along to any running maniacs out there. Some running stores provide a gait analysis service (The Eugene Running Company). They ask you to run bare foot on a treadmill for a minute or two while they video tape you. Then they play it back in slow motion to watch where your foot strikes so they can tell which shoes might be the best fit for you. I learned that I don’t pronate and don’t need special support. The shoes I was currently using had more support than I needed and may have been contributing to my injuries.
So now I am back out there pounding the pavement again with my new shoes and hopefully some self-control. Wish me luck!