NIFS Healthy Living Blog

It’s no secret that our emotions impact what we eat, when we eat, and how much we eat. In fact, sometimes it seems that the strongest cravings hit when our emotional and mental well-being is at its weakest. Emotional eating is a way to, in the short term, relieve or suppress negative feelings, such as sadness, stress, anger/frustration, or boredom. However, emotional eating can also lead people to make poor choices, such as skipping or forgetting meals, consuming fast food frequently, or consuming alcohol or caffeine in excess, all of which may have health consequences, including unintentional weight gain.

To help prevent emotional eating, focus on the following steps.

Identify the difference between emotional hunger and physiological hunger.

Emotional hunger typically comes on suddenly with an urge to resolve the “hunger” quickly, often involves a desire for a specific type of food or food group, and usually results in overeating. In contrast, physiological hunger tends to be more gradual, allows us to stop eating when we are full, and doesn’t typically cause guilt that is experienced with emotional hunger.

Establish a healthy eating routine.

Aim to eat two to three well-rounded meals each day. Meals don’t have to be complicated: the easier and quicker, the better. Try pairing a protein source (chicken, salmon, ground turkey or lean beef, and so on) with various grilled, roasted, or steamed vegetables and seasonings and sauces of your choice for a quick, inexpensive, and easy meal.

Ensure you’re consuming enough of the right foods. Consume plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and low-fat dairy products while limiting your intake of highly processed foods, added sugars, salt/sodium, and alcohol. Talk with a registered dietitian to develop a healthy eating routine that meets your individualized needs while helping manage causes and symptoms of emotional eating.

Manage your overall stress.

There is evidence to suggest that increased cortisol, the hormone released during stress, may result in an increased appetite, leading to overeating and potential weight gain. Rather than turning to food for comfort, be sure to control stress by journaling, exercise, practicing mindfulness/meditation, and/or social support.

This blog was written by Lindsey Recker, MS, Registered Dietitian. To learn more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

Conjugate training is a term coined and expanded upon by the late, great Louie Simmons, a well-known strength coach at Westside Barbell. Conjugate means to bring together, so conjugate training is literally joining together different training styles into one micro or meso training cycle. Conjugate training is bringing together training styles such as power, strength, agility, and hypertrophy into one training cycle.

Balancing Across Different Days

The key to conjugate training is to balance the volume across the different days. It’s common to have a setup as follows (but this is only an example):

• Day 1: Upper-body pull—hypertrophy
• Day 2: lower-body push—strength
• Day 3: Upper-body push—power
• Day 4: lower-body pull—speed

With these days an athlete or coach will need to make sure to balance out the loads and not have too much volume across the days. So if the hypertrophy day has a high level of volume, the power day needs to be lower to not apply too much load to the upper body, which can increase the risk of injury. The athlete or coach will also need to know the recommended rep ranges, set ranges, and percentages of max for each of the different training styles in order to find that necessary balance to push the body but not hurt it.

Pushing the Body to Adapt to Change

This approach is a great way to keep the body guessing what your next move is and pushing the body to adapt and change to reach your goals. So, if you find yourself plateauing and your maxes are not moving, maybe the conjugate method is for you.

This blog was written by Grant Lamkin, Health Fitness Specialist. To learn more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

So, if you’re like me and have been scrolling through the various social media outlets out there, you might have been seeing an uptick in a very niche fitness trend. Lately it’s all I see on TikTok, and I will admit it is intriguing watching these people on social media freeze their butts off in a cold tub of water. Often, the results are hilarious as people realize how unbearable sitting in a tub full of ice water really is. I mean look at this video and tell me whether you think this looks enjoyable. I think not, but watching these poor people suffer did have the gears turning in my mind about whether there is anything that can come out of subjecting your body to frigid temperatures, and maybe I should be partaking more regularly in these freezing experiences.

Cold Water Therapy Through the Ages

The experience of taking plunges into cold or even freezing water can be traced all the way back to nearly six millennia ago. Ice baths and cold-water immersion have been used for recovery purposes for centuries. Even as far back as 3500 B.C., the ancient Egyptian medical textbook Edwin Smith Papyrus (named for Edwin Smith, who purchased it in 1862), referring to using freezing water as a therapeutic modality. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates in the 4th century B.C. wrote about the benefits of immersion in his work On Airs, Waters, and Places.

Looking more recently, in the 19th century, researchers looked at immersion to alleviate various ailments. Scottish physician William Cullen began prescribing cold-water therapy for patients with a wide range of symptoms including fever, inflammation, depression, and even insomnia. In the 1960s, D.H. Clark investigated cold-water immersion for post-exercise benefits. Throughout millennia and centuries, there have been numerous accounts of the benefits of immersion, both medicinal and therapeutic. But as with any modality, there is a delicate balance between the risks and the benefits.

What Are the Benefits?

Over time, a lot of work and studying has been done to investigate the benefits of cold plunges and cold-water immersion and a possible therapy for many different symptoms. There are a couple of things to consider when doing ice baths. To start, benefits of cold plunges have been studied thoroughly throughout the past couple centuries, and it has been found to reduce inflammation of sore and aching muscles, help sleep, and limit inflammatory response in the body. Anecdotally, many recreational and professional athletes swear by ice baths to help their bodies and boost their energy levels.

Know the Risks

But there are some key risks to keep in mind before plunging into freezing cold water. The biggest risk is the shock associated with plunging into cold water and the sensation that it “might take your breath away,” but a good way to combat this is focusing on breathing. Also, there is a risk for those with cardiovascular diseases as the cold water will constrict the blood vessels and create a risk for reduced blood flow. All these risks can be serious and should be discussed with a physician prior to cold-water immersion.

Something to Consider

With the introduction of cold temperatures to rehabilitate athletes and non-athletes, the benefits have proven to be significant and is something even the recreational athlete should consider.

This blog was written by Ricky Rocha, Health Fitness Specialist. To learn more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.