Forgot what you were looking for lately?

By Diana Patton and Tonja Ward

Guest Column

Do you remember this commercial?  There’s a skillet with some grease heating up and an egg is shown, then the voiceover says “this is your brain” and then an egg gets cracked in the skillet and you hear a sizzle and the voiceover says “and this is your brain on drugs.”  

What a vivid memory forever etched in our minds. Some of you may not remember the commercial but it had a basic message: “take drugs and you fry your brain…your brain cells literally die!”

A lot of us are frying our brains and we aren’t even taking drugs. Well, okay, our brains will not literally die on the spot – but over time, if our brains are not exposed to environments that are enriched, complex and novel, our brains loses their “neural plasticity,” says Paul D. Nussbaum, clinical neuropsychologist and adjunct associate professor of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 

Here’s what losing neural plasticity means: Every day, sometimes twice a day, I go downstairs do laundry, pick up toys, clothes and other things along the way and be the “super-multi-tasker.”
 

One time I was headed downstairs to get some paper towels. Instead of heading to the storage cabinet to get paper towels, I went straight to the laundry room, put a load in the washer, picked up a few items and headed straight back upstairs.
 

As I hit the top step, I stopped and said to myself, “hey wait, that’s not why I went downstairs.” Then I shook my head and said “oh Lord, help me Father;” headed right back downstairs to get the towels and headed to get a cod liver oil pill!

Thank goodness, Dr. Nussbaum says that if we expose our brains to “enriched environments across our lifespan and adopt a Brain Healthy Lifestyle, we can develop new brain cells, build up our brain reserves, and increase our cellular connections which may delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and related dementias.” 

What does all that “fancy-shmancy” stuff mean? We need to “shake things up” a bit.

Dr. Nussbaum suggests we should be more forgiving, join social groups, develop new hobbies, walk more, become ambidextrous, play more board games, problem solve, pray daily, attend a formal place of worship every week, slow down, breath deeply daily, eat more Omega 3 fatty acids (cod liver oil), decrease our intake of processed foods and eat one sit down meal a day with others, among many other examples. 

Sounds like we need to adopt the FITatudes! Okay, so what does that mean? 

We have been teaching and living by the FITatudes method so that we can lead a High Performance Lifestyle or, as Dr. Nussbaum says, a Brain Healthy Lifestyle. We practice what we preach and we’ve seen lives change when we teach the FITatudes to others so we know it works.  Here are the FITatudes:

1^st – Absolute Trust in God – Go Big or Go Home

2^nd – Positive Thinking – Your Body Achieves what your Mind Conceives

3^rd – Devotion to Others – Birds of a Feather MUST Flock Together

4^th – Life Budgeting – Healthy Mustn’t Be Expensive or Time-Consuming

5^th – Healthy Hydration and Food – Heavenly Bodies begin with Healthy Foods

6^th – Respect and Rest – R-E-S-P-E-C-T Your B-O-D-Y

7^th – Forgiveness – Be Transformed Mentally

8^th – Humility and Gratitude – Don’t Get it Twisted:  That Hot New “Bod” Belongs to God

9^th – Responsibility – Own Your Own Dirt

10^th – Hard Work and Perseverance – Keep on Keepin’ On!

This is not an overnight process. When we do speaking engagements, we simply raise the participant’s level of awareness. The FITatudes typically become a lifestyle when we teach them in a workshop format (over a couple of days) or in our 12-week program High Performance Lifestyle program or our six-week Cleanse Program.

Are you pumped (pun intended!)? Learn how you can get your blood pumping to your brain and create tons of energy and excitement during your life span and join the 6-week FITatudes Spring Cleanse Program starting next month. E-mail us today at info@FITatudes.com to sign up!

Diana (Toledo, Ohio) and Tonja Ward (Houston, Texas) co-own and operate a company called FITatudes, a Christian based wellness organization that enhances and empowers women and sports families’ lives with the FITatudes concepts.  Go to www.FITatudes.com to learn more!

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