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Is it Okay to Cheat? Self Care vs Self Indulgence - Thomas DeLauer

Self-Care & Well-Being

A study published in Social Indicators Research conducted interviews with over 1,000 participants asking them about the types of self-care practices they used

The most common self-care activity reported by participants was exercise

Other common self-care activities listed by participants included getting social support from others, making time for fun activities (such as pursuing hobbies, reading, or watching a movie), and taking time to relax (for example, by spending time in nature)

The researchers also looked at which self-care activities were related to well-being - they found that seeking out social support had the strongest link to well-being

Note: Well-being is tough to quantify, hence why most self-care studies are seemingly quite subjective

https://link.springer.com/article/10....

Mindfulness

In one study, published in the American Psychological Association, psychology graduate students were taught about mindfulness and participated in a variety of activities designed to increase mindfulness (meditation and yoga) for 8 weeks

Compared to other students who did not practice these mindfulness activities, the mindfulness intervention reduced stress and anxiety and reported feeling more compassionate towards themselves


The scans still detected changes in the subjects’ brain activation patterns from the beginning to the end of the study, the first time such a change — in a part of the brain called the amygdala — had been detected.

After eight weeks of training in mindful attention meditation (right) note the amygdala is less activated after the meditation training

During the scans, participants completed two tests, one that encourages them to become more aware of their bodies by focusing on their heartbeats (an exercise related to mindfulness meditation), and the other asking them to reflect on phrases common in the self-chatter of depressed patients, such as “I am such a loser,” or “I can’t go on.”

This training boosts body awareness in the moment, called interoception, which, by focusing their attention on the here and now, arms participants to break the cycle of self-rumination.

The amygdala is involved with interoception, and we know that’s involved with rumination and depression

Additionally, the hippocampus, shows increased amounts of gray matter in the brains of our mindfulness program participants

It’s part of the limbic system, a set of inner structures associated with emotion and memory - it’s covered in receptors for the stress hormone cortisol, and studies have shown that it can be damaged by chronic stress

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Hobbies/Relaxing/Leisure Activities

A study, published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, followed over 100 adults as they went about their daily activities

Participants wore heart monitors and also completed surveys periodically to report their activities and how they were feeling

After three days, the researchers found that people who engaged in leisure activities were 34% less stressed and 18% less sad during the activities

Not only did they report feeling happier, but their heart rates were lower-and the calming effect lasted for hours

Surprisingly, the scientists say that it didn't seem to matter much what the participants did just so long as it was something they deeply enjoyed

No matter the passion, people showed the same huge decrease in stress

*Believed to induce ‘relaxation response’ a term coined by Dr. Herbert Benson, professor and founder of Harvard’s Mind/Body Medical Institute that

Defined as your personal ability to encourage your body to release chemicals and brain signals that make your muscles and organs slow down and increase blood flow to the brain

Opposite of the flight or flight response

https://www.ucmerced.edu/sites/ucmerc...

Exercise

Exercise increases the neurotransmitter anandamide, and anandamide is thought to be involved in increasing BDNF

In your brain, BDNF not only preserves existing brain cells, it also activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons and effectively makes your brain grow larger

Exercise induces neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons - the new neurons are created in the hippocampus, the center of learning and memory in the brain

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...

Pho is one of the healthiest foods that you can eat! Learn more about the healthy restaurant foods at http://www.thomasdelauer.com

When most of us think of Asian cuisine, we think high sodium. We think high levels of MSG. We think lots of grease, and lots of foods that we shouldn't eat if we're being health conscious. But honestly, that's not always the case. See I recently discovered the health benefits of Vietnamese pho.

Now, I'm going to admit, I was kind of closed minded. I didn't look at Asian foods a lot because I was always trepidatious of the sodium. I was always trepidatious of what other things might be in it. Kind of a lot of mystery ingredients, mystery spices. But when I discovered Vietnamese pho was made with bone broth, it initially piqued my curiosity and I dove in a little bit deeper, so here I am doing a video on the three reasons that everyone should try eating pho at least a couple times per week to try get the most out of their health and get the most out of their workouts.

All right: What I want to talk about first is the fact that it's made with bone broth. Okay. I've done videos on bone broth before. Bone broth is not like traditional broth. It's not traditional stock. It's where the bones are actually cooked and you're creating a broth from the bones for a period of 12 to 36 hours depending on the case.

Now why is that beneficial? That's beneficial because you get all the benefits of the collagen. You get that collagen out of the bones, and plus you get a high abundance of red blood cells, so you get that good oxygenated material that's coming from the marrow, which offers a very healthy, nutrient-dense form of broth. Vietnamese pho is very unique in the sense that it uses this kind of broth. In fact, that's what it's predicated on. That's what all the hub bub is about. The higher quality the broth, the higher quality the Vietnamese pho will typically be.

Now what that collagen does for you is it can help heal a leaky gut. Now that's just one thing that it can do. It can help your skin, it can help your nails, it can help your hair. But when we're talking about inflammation, we're talking about healing the gut, we're talking about absorbing nutrients, well, collagen converts to gelatin within the body. That gelatin heals up some of the gaps that occur within our intestinal tract as a result of inflammation, so a huge, huge bonus there.

Then we get into a couple different things. The next one I want to talk about is the fact that if you get it made properly, and you ask for vegetables instead of the rice noodles, you actually get a high abundance of cruciferous vegetables. You get, of course, broccoli, and then you also get something called bok choy. Now bok choy and broccoli are both cruciferous vegetables that are extremely high in something called di indole methane. That di indole methane, also known as DIM is something that is shown to help combat high estrogen levels, so if you're a male and you're trying to keep your estrogen levels a little bit lower, a very, very, very good option for you. If you're a female trying to keep your estrogen levels in check, it's also a very good option for you.

Also, super high in something called indole three carbinole which what it does is it actually raises estrogen in the body, but it raises estrogen in the body temporarily, creating a negative feedback loop so the body slows down the overall production of estrogen in the long run. These are things that can help you reduce water. They can actually drop that water retention and help you reduce inflammation and potentially even moodiness.

Now the next reason that Vietnamese pho is a super food, is simply because of the onions. Simple onions, and the way that the onions are cooked within the broth makes them extremely fermented. It makes them extremely good at generating good, healthy bacteria within your gut. Now fair warning, if you're someone that has SIBO, a small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, you usually want to avoid the higher FODMAP foods like onion. You can always ask for it without onion.

There you have it. The three simple reasons that Vietnamese pho is one of the best super foods that you can possibly eat. This has now been indoctrinated into my diet one, sometimes two times per week. As long as you can get past a little bit higher level of sodium now and then, just make sure you hit that sauna the next day and sweat it on out. There you have it… 3 good reasons to go out and enjoy some Asian cuisine. I'll see you in the next video.