Posts

5 Strategies to improve your health in 2022: New Guide

We all resolve for the new year to follow. It can be anything from learning a new language to improving your health in the coming months. If you decide to have excellent health, better driver fitness, or want to do better than last year, this blog is for you! Here, we tackle the five strategies to improve your trucking fitness and make 2022 a year of health. Without further ado, let’s jump right into the five strategies to improve your health in 2022.

Top 5 strategies to improve your health in 2022

Look After Your Mental Health.

Our brain is the powerhouse of our body, and having good mental health can reflect physical and emotional impacts on you. So how do you look after your mental health and driver fitness? Start with meditation and mindfulness. 

Please pick up the habit of unwinding by writing in journals because it provides emotional comfort and stability. Drink green tea because it delays age-related cognitive decline and makes us more agile. Be kinder to yourself and remind yourself that you are only human!

Eat Right

A balanced diet today goes a long way! Enrich yourself in low-fat diets that include plenty of fruits and vegetables and sources of protein, fiber, and carbohydrates. Avoid having excessive sugar as it can lead to a condition known as insulin resistance, a precursor to developing diabetes. 

Find a balanced diet that works for you, and stick to it! Reduce your intake of alcohol, especially after 3 pm. Keep your system free from nicotine and caffeine, as these stimulators yield harmful benefits to your body.

Get Your Body Moving

It shouldn’t come across as a great surprise that exercise is critical to your health. Exercising improves cardiovascular strength and releases endorphins, which are happy hormones. It is linked to improving immunity against diseases, and exercising outdoors can enrich your body with vitamin D from the sun. 

Now here’s the thing: you don’t need to go to the gym to exercise. You could exercise with the help of online blogs or YouTube videos- like Mother Trucker Yoga’s YouTube page, teaching just a few minutes of exercise in your trucking fitness routine.

Be careful there are many people out there with fitness videos, but many of them are not trained to teach. Look for videos and blogs written by experienced professionals and ones geared towards a driver’s pain points.

Get Enough Sleep

Happy sleeping! Busy living has disrupted many of our peaceful lives, but it is critical to have an excellent 8-hour sleep each night. Sleeping well has many proven health benefits, and you’ll be surprised to know so. Sleeping boosts your body’s immunity, increases your cognitive reflexes, reduces aging of the brain, and helps in memory strengthening. You should ensure you’re sleeping and waking up each day simultaneously, don’t eat heavy meals before bed, and turn off devices an hour before sleeping.

Hydrate Yourself

Water is mostly what we are made of, which keeps us healthy. Water aids in alertness, keeping your skin and organs healthy. It helps you remain refreshed and work at the best of your mental abilities. An average adult needs eight glasses of water, and so should you if you want to have the best trucking fitness! This concludes our five strategies to improve your health in 2022.

5 Strategies to improve your health in 2022: New Guide Hydrate Yourself Mother Trucker Yoga blog image

Conclusion

We have brought you some driver fitness tricks to put up your sleeve this year. All you have to do is gather motivation and willpower to stick through and become healthier, happier, and have an excellent trucking fitness routine this year!

 

If you are ready to shift gears and join the movement.

Sign up to be a part of Mother Trucker Yoga’s LIFESTYLE JUMPSTART Platform & APP!

Mother Trucker Yoga LIFESTYLE JUMPSTART App and platform image

/0 Comments/by

How to Avoid Injury When Working Out: Safety Tips

It’s no secret that working out can be great for your health. But if you’re not careful, you can easily injure yourself. This blog post will discuss some safety tips to help you avoid injury when working out. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced athlete, these tips will help keep you safe and healthy.

Via Pexels

Warm Up and Cool Down

One of the most important things you can do to avoid injury is to warm up and cool down properly. A good warm-up will increase your heart rate and body temperature, which will help prepare your muscles for activity. A cool-down, on the other hand, will help your body recover from the workout and prevent excessive soreness.

 

Stretch

Stretching is another important way to reduce your risk of injury. Before working out, take a few minutes to stretch all of the major muscle groups that you’ll be using. This will help improve your range of motion and flexibility, reducing your risk of injury.

 

Choose the Right Exercise

Not all exercises are suitable for everyone. Choosing an activity appropriate for your fitness level and health condition is essential. If you have any injuries or medical conditions, be sure to consult with your doctor before starting a new workout routine.

 

Use Good Form

Using good form is essential for preventing injury. When lifting weights, for example, be sure to use a controlled motion and avoid jerking the weights. If you’re unsure how to do an exercise correctly, ask a certified personal trainer from a reputable organization for help. You can click here for different fitness certifications available.

Know The Difference Between Good and Bad Pain

There’s a difference between the excellent pain of a challenging workout and the bad pain of an injury. It’s essential to be able to distinguish between the two. Good pain is usually muscle soreness after a day or two. This is called delayed onset muscle soreness, and it’s nothing to worry about. Bad pain, however, is sharp or persistent pain that doesn’t go away. This could be a sign of an injury. If you’re ever in doubt, it’s always best to consult with a medical professional.

 

Listen to Your Body

It’s essential to listen to your body and pay attention to any pain or discomfort you may feel. If something doesn’t feel right, stop doing the exercise and consult with a medical professional. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

 

Rest and Recovery

After a workout, you must rest your body so your muscles can recover. Avoid working out too often or intensely, as this can lead to overtraining and injury. Make sure to get plenty of sleep and eat a healthy diet to support your recovery.

 

Nutrition

Eating a healthy diet is vital for overall health, but it’s also crucial for preventing injury. Eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains will help improve your joint and bone health. Getting enough protein is also essential, as it helps repair muscle tissue.

 

Following these safety tips will help you avoid injury when working out. Remember to warm up and cool down properly, choose the proper exercise, use good form, and listen to your body. And don’t forget to rest and recover after your workout. By following these tips, you’ll be able to stay safe and healthy while achieving your fitness goals.

/0 Comments/by

 Can’t Sleep? Top 3 strategies for better sleep for truck driver health 

 Are you getting enough sleep at night? Do you have trouble staying focused during the day? Not having quality sleep can result in worsened health, and it’s as simple as it sounds. Your cognitive functions, ability to stay alert, assess situations, and handle stress are health qualities that are important in many professions, especially truck driver health and those who have long stressful work shifts. So if you’re suffering through bad nights of sleep, we’ve got you covered with our three strategies for better sleep for truck driver health.

Top 3 strategies for better sleep for truck driver health 

  1. Enforce a sleep schedule.

Your brain requires 7-8 hours of sleep to perform its duties efficiently. Usually, you wouldn’t need more than 8 hours in bed to be fully recharged and ready to go. So how do I enforce a sleep schedule on myself for truck driver health? 

Now for a person with a typical job, I recommend that they go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. However, if you are a truck driver working long late-night hours, these naps are necessary to cover your sleep debt. Try to minimize the time difference on weekends so your body can get used to a consistent and healthy sleep-wake cycle. Eliminate daytime naps as they interfere with your sleep cycles and impact overall agility. 

I understand the above might not work for most drivers. So you have to get creative and try to find some consistency. If your driver time is all over the place, what about your sleep schedule can you be consistent with. Not having screen time 15 – 30 minutes before bed, exercising and getting movement in, not eating a heavy meal before bed, and listening to a relaxing meditation help you relax before bed. Aromatherapy to relax, all of these things can help you get the sleep you need despite your erratic schedule.

sleep schedule mother trucker yoga blog

Pay attention to what you eat and drink.

Here’s the thing: your body has an intimate relationship with everything you eat and drink, so no wonder these habits may leave you restless throughout the night. It would help if you didn’t go to bed hungry or stuffed. 

Avoid having heavy meals right before bedtime as the discomfort may keep you up. Having a snack before rest is wonderful, so long as you are away from highly energizing meals or meals with foods that require a lot of digestion power.

Here are eight foods and drinks to consider before bed if you need that quick snack:

  1. Almonds.
  2. Turkey. Turkey is delicious and nutritious.
  3. Chamomile tea.
  4. Kiwi.
  5. Tart cherry juice.
  6. Fatty fish.
  7. Walnuts.
  8. Passionflower tea.

As for drinks: alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine are not your friends. Stay away from beverages that include any of these if you want to have a good night of sleep. Alcohol may leave you feeling drowsy but will disturb you later in the night. Alcohol can also lead to weight gain, other health issues, and other truck driver health issues. Consider drinking in moderation and never when it would cause problems while out on the road. 

 Nicotine is a stimulant, much like caffeine, and will keep you awake when your body heavily needs sleep. You may want to remember that cigarettes introduce nicotine to your system and keep you awake. If you can’t fall asleep, look at your smoking habits. 

Create a calming environment

Here’s the strategy that will certainly help you wind down before bed. Turn off light-emitting devices like phones and TVs at least an hour before the time you intend to sleep. Create an ideal space for sleeping soundly. 

Pick up reading, writing in journals, taking a bath, or listening to calm music with earbuds to relieve stress. The blue light emitted from these disrupts the sleep-wake cycle of the brain. This is important to note as a truck driver’s health is tied to stressful environments.

Every driver needs to find time to take a break, even if it’s a mini-break, to refuel and recharge your body and mind.

Light some scented candles for relaxing effects or leave the room pitch black, whatever fits you best. Make sure your room is the right temperature and comfortable. Don’t lie in bed awake if you can’t sleep within the next twenty minutes. Read or listen to slow sleep-inducing music until you’re fast asleep.

Conclusion:

We have crafted this blog just for you, and if you follow the strategies we’ve mentioned above, you will achieve an A1 truck driver’s health, especially in terms of sleep. With these three strategies for better sleep, you will experience a change; you’ll find yourself at peace and better equipped to do your truck driving duties.

 

Better sleep for truck driver health is essential and within reach for any driver with just one of the strategies above. But if you are looking for more sleep strategies, support, and driver wellness help, check out our NEW Mother Trucker Yoga LIFESTYLE JUMPSTART Membership Platform & APP. 

You can join for 30 days FREE using the code: MTY30

Mother Trucker Yoga LIFESTYLE JUMPSTART App and platform image

/0 Comments/by

Be a Happier Driver: 10 Ways Being Thankful Impacts Mental Health

“I think the first question we should ask ourselves is “what IS gratitude”? When you look up the definition it talks about kindness, but to me what is most important is gratitude is the act in which we “return” kindness. 

10 Ways Being Thankful Impacts Mental Health

Gratitude is what keeps the cycle of kindness going.

It not only returns the favor to the giver of kindness, but it can transfer it to the next in line. It makes me think of the concept of Random Acts of Kindness, which are really gifts to someone new in the form of kindness that one was shown from another. Gratitude keeps us in that cycle of kindness towards one another. And when we step out of that cycle that is typically when you see people start to only think of themselves. Where the mountains in their own lives get too high to see over or even look back from and kindly help another up. And that not only affects their health but those around them as well. 

An article from VeryWellMind noted that “gratitude is a positive emotion that involves being thankful and appreciative and is associated with several mental and physical health benefits. When you experience gratitude, you feel grateful for something or someone in your life and respond with feelings of kindness, warmth, and other forms of generosity.

They went on to say: “In general terms, gratitude stems from the recognition that something good happened to you, accompanied by an appraisal that someone, whether another individual or an impersonal source, such as nature or a divine entity, was responsible for it,” explain researchers Lúzie Fofonka Cunha, Lucia Campos Pellanda, and Caroline Tozzi Reppold in a 2019 article published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.”

What kinds of cycles are you caught up in? It might not be so bad to adopt this one.

This is where meditation comes in.

Meditation calls time out on us wherever we are in life to gain perspective, insight, and foresight. Meditation doesn’t necessarily change our lives, but rather changes our perspective on them and while we are currently in them. All the way down to our heart rate, our breath, and how we feel the feeling we currently have present in our bodies. 

 

As someone who has survived a life strangling eating disorder and several mental health obstacles, meditation and yoga allowed me to see that I wasn’t the only one. To see despite my own mountains, I could still offer a handout. And when I did, something magical happened…I felt good. And when I felt good, I wanted to do good. It made me more grateful and focused on the good rather than derailed and dismantled by the mountains. 

 

But unlike most. To me, meditation isn’t just sitting on a cushion for 20 minutes in a quiet room for 20 minutes twice a day. Meditation is the simple act of paying attention. Think of meditating in Times Square (pre-COVID). The busyness all around you and you standing still and observing. Not affected by the smells, sounds, sensations, or sights. You just take it in and appreciate it all. Notice it all, and notice your place in it all. Where instead of reacting, you are being present which will positively impact mental health.

So many of us are REACTING to life and that is because we are not in the moment, we are not practicing gratitude and this idea of a living meditation. We react when we are focused too much on the future and obsessing about the past. Your health is living proof of what being grateful and thankful can do for your life.

Try this:

A way to get back into the present moment is to take 30 seconds and mentally go through everything and everyone you can possibly think of and offer them a moment of gratitude. Feel it, see it, send it. Just like taking your medicine, this is your mental medicine.

So don’t just close yourself off in a room to practice meditation. See mediation as an opportunity to practice being present in your everyday life and that experience of being present will offer you the opportunity to practice gratitude through random acts of kindness. How? Because now you are more aware of the opportunities to do so. 

Be a Happier Driver: 10 Ways Being Thankful Impacts Mental Health health image

The health benefits of positive thinking and being thankful

Increased life span. Lower rates of depression. … Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease and stroke. Reduced risk of death from cancer.

The Mayo Clinic did research and discovered that positive thinking and gratitude create a great life!

Researchers continue to explore the effects of positive thinking and optimism on health. They found health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:

  • Increased life span
  • Lower rates of depression
  • Lower levels of distress and pain
  • Greater resistance to illnesses
  • Better psychological and physical well-being
  • Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease and stroke
  • Reduced risk of death from cancer
  • Reduced risk of death from respiratory conditions
  • Reduced risk of death from infections
  • Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

You don’t need to be a yoga person, a spiritual guru, or go to church every day to practice the art of gratitude and thankfulness. Try it out for a few days and notice how you feel. It’s hard to be angry when you are offering out thanks. When you shift gears mentally you can impact mental health immidately.

For another Daily Dose of Hope check out the Mother Trucker Yoga LIFESTYLE JUMPSTART Membership Platform & APP where you get access to Hope regularly alongside health and fitness-focused videos, audios, and downloads to help you get the most of out of your day, every day!

Try us free for 30 days with the code: MTY30

 

Mother Trucker Yoga LIFESTYLE JUMPSTART App and platform image

 

/0 Comments/by

Why Yoga Is Ideal For Every Type Of Person

Whether you are a newbie to yoga in particular or are just looking to get more from your practice, this age-old exercise is packed with a whole plethora of benefits designed to increase your fitness and improve both your mental and physical wellbeing. Yoga is ideal for every type of person. No matter what your fitness level is, whether you are someone who works out regularly or someone looking to get fit, or if you have done yoga lots or never before, it is a workout that will suit you.

Why yoga is ideal for every type of person trucking yoga mother trucker yoga blog

It is something that can be done in pairs, in a group such as at HOTWORX, on your own, or by downloading our new Mother Trucker Yoga app and joining our LIFESTYLE JUMPSTART Platform family, you can always reap incredible benefits from yoga. If you are a truck driver and tight on time and trucking fitness is essential, yoga can be a solution. Here are a few reasons why yoga is ideal for every type of person, no matter your ability or fitness level…

There are many different levels.

One of the best things about yoga is that you will find one suited for you no matter what type of yoga you are looking for. There are many different levels of each type of exercise and movement, meaning that you can start easy and then progress as you get better. This means it’s not too daunting starting, and you can adapt the workout depending on your skill level and need, pushing yourself when you want to or taking it more gently when you wish. And when you work with an instructor that is educated, experienced and understands the environment you are in, yoga or what we call trucking yoga can be easy.

It can improve your strength, flexibility, and balance.

Yoga is one of the best exercises for improving your strength, flexibility, and balance – all essential qualities for keeping your muscles, joints, and body healthy. As a truck driver, it’s easy to become stiff and sore from sitting. Trucking yoga can be a great way to limber up. The slow movements and deep breathing also help increase the blood flow around your body, which in turn warms up your muscles, making them more robust, more flexible, and healthier. Holding poses and building on this can help you become much stronger in yourself and teach you how to balance much better. And remember, trucking fitness doesn’t have to mean push-ups or running. It can be as simple as yoga.

It helps manage stress and relax you.

Life throws us a lot of stress, and unfortunately, it is something that we will all experience every once in a while. If you often suffer from stress, you probably also suffer from other symptoms such as headaches, trouble sleeping, and perhaps dizziness or irritability. This can significantly impact your life, but yoga can help with this. Doing yoga regularly has been found to reduce stress levels and help you feel more relaxed. Yoga encourages mental and physical relaxation, reducing tension in your mind and body, removing muscle knots, and alleviating any pain you might have. It also sends positive endorphins to your brain.

These are just a few reasons why yoga is ideal for every type person. No matter what you are looking to get from your yoga practice, whether helping you when you’re on the road to improve your posture or sorting out any back pain, it can do this. What are some top benefits of yoga you’ve found? Let us know in the comments below. We would love to hear from you!

 

If you want to learn more about yoga and how it can fit into a trucking lifestyle. Read more about Mother Trucker Yoga and our mission >> https://www.mothertruckeryoga.com/about/

/0 Comments/by

Mobile Meals Made Healthy: Easy Truckers Roasted Veggies & Country-Style Ribs

,

Cooking on your truck can seem complicated. But here at Mother Trucker Yoga, we believe that when you are armed with the right knowledge and support and are willing to take just a few minutes. And when mobiles meals are made healthy, you can’t go wrong because you can make a great meal right from your truck. No one said you need to be a gourmet chef, spend thousands of dollars on food, or have hard-to-find ingredients on hand. But, like anything, a little preparation and mapping out where you might need to stop can set you up for a delicious meal on the go.

Meet Cheryl.

Cheryl is a team driver with her husband and has changed her health and her husband for good by learning how to move more with Mother Trucker Yoga, and the other piece is eating better from the truck. Cheryl will be our feature truck driving chef for our newest column, Mobile Meals Made Healthy, where Cheryl will be sharing what she makes while the wheels are turning. Warning. These meals are simple. Delicious for you. Cheryl, alongside Mother Trucker Yoga, believes you shouldn’t have to live in a bubble to lose weight and that eating healthy should not be based on restriction. But rather learning moderation and how to eat real food. If Cheryl and her husband can do this, you can do this too!

Ingredients for roasted veggies:

  • 1 eggplant peeled and quartered
  • 2 white and green zucchini sliced and quartered
  • 2 crookneck squash sliced
  • Red onion sliced
  • Yukon potato sliced and quartered
  • OPTIONAL: carrots, butternut squash
  • Sweet baby bells seeded and sliced
  • 1 tbsp of EVOO
  • 1/2 tsp of sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp of garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp of onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp of turmeric
  • 1/8 tsp black pepper.

roasted vegetables and country style ribs mother trucker yoga blog

Directions:

  1. Mix..microwave for 8 minutes.
  2. Next, put country-style ribs in an air fryer seasoned with garlic and onion powder.
  3. Place on bake 375 degrees for 15 minutes
  4. Then flip ribs and continue to bake for 15 minutes
  5. Next, make a fresh salad (optional) check out our post on Mother Trucker Yoga Blog about leafy greens!
  6. And if you like a little BBQ on your ribs, go right ahead!
  7. Ready to serve.

Mobile Meals Made Healthy: Easy Truckers Roasted Veggies & Country-Style Ribs Mother Trucker yoga blog ribs

Ingredients for Ranch Dressing:

  • 2 tbsp of light sour cream
  • 1/4 cup half-n-half, milk, or almond milk
  • 2 tbsp of ranch powder (Hope here, I personally love Flavor God seasonings!)
  • Mix and enjoy.

YUM! Try this over a burger without a bun, on a salad, even on hard-boiled eggs. You can always make extras and store the extra dressing in your truck frig or cooler for the next day.

 

What To Do With Leftovers:

Put all your leftover veggies in a baggie that seals shut and save for leftovers for the next day. Then, consider adding hardboiled eggs, a water-packed tuna package, or wrap those veggies in a bowl and munch away. Food shouldn’t be complicated, and with a little preparation, it should be an easy, fast, and yummy next-day meal.

 

Where To Purchase Your Ingredients?

Veggies can be bought at most grocery stores, vegetable markets, summertime food stands. Oftentimes mom and pop truck stops often have local vegetables for sale from local farmers and growers. So keep your eyes open.

The country-style ribs pictured in this post on Mother Trucker Yoga’s blog were purchased at the Dollar General Market in Hugo, Tx for 1/2 price on Wednesday for $3.84, which made 2 meals for 2 people.

The vegetables cost approximately $10.00. This was a complete meal plus leftovers for another meal, $13.84 ($6.92 per meal)..plus extra for herbs and seasonings startup.

What Ingredients To Watch For In Seasonings:

Herbs and seasonings can spice up any food or recipe and can be purchased just about anywhere. However, when purchasing seasonings, make sure you read the ingredients; oftentimes, there will be extra ingredients hiding inside seasonings that you don’t want to be consuming.

Ingredients like caramel coloring, Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG are considered one of the 23 worst food ingredients to consume in America, soybean oil, and watch out for sodium levels in spices. More important than the nutritional panel is the ingredients that create that food, or in this case, spice.

 

Driver Review

I know what you are thinking. How will I ever be able to make that? And the beauty is this recipe was made up! And you can do the same. Look at the ingredients and then take note of what you have on hand, or can you get nearby or on your route? Don’t overthink this. If you are already thinking, “I can’t do this. It’s too hard,”. Then you already know your answer for how this will turn out for you.

You can eat healthily and be a trucker! We know you can!

Leave a comment in the comment section below and tell us what you think, and share your first mobile meal creation with us!

For more great recipes from Cherly and other drivers join our community on Facebook – Accelerate Your Health with Mother Trucker Yoga

/0 Comments/by

We Are Your Trucking Fitness Company

Welcome to Mother Trucker Yoga, your trucking fitness company. Here at Mother Trucker Yoga®, we focus on small, simple changes that lead to the big results™. We are not interested in giving you another gym-based fitness program or fitness app for you to watch exercises and then do them for maybe a day, week, or month and then never do them again.

We focus on “fitting health and movement into your everyday life”. We are the first and only trucking fitness company that uses the lifestyle practices like mindfulness, breathing, and stress relief taught through yoga to help drivers in their health and wellness journey.

Our Mission at Mother Trucker Yoga

Mother Trucker Yoga® believes that you can feel better wherever you are with small, simple changes that will lead to big results. No matter your situation, no matter your environment.

Mother Trucker Yoga® wants to help 1 million drivers change lanes in their health and fitness by 2031. Whether you are a truck driver, an Uber driver, a bus driver, an Amazon driver, someone who finds themselves behind the wheel for hours a day- we want to help you.

As your trucking fitness company, we want you to know that we understand. And just like you want a lifelong expert mechanic working on your truck, you definitely want the same when it comes to working on your body, mind, and health. For many, jumping on the health and fitness bandwagon is an afterthought. Meaning everyone else is talking about it, so we should too. But not at Mother Trucker Yoga.

For nearly 20 years, I have been deeply rooted in health, fitness, mindfulness, and movement.

Hope Zvara, CEO & Founder of Mother Trucker Yoga

why we are differnt MTY page

Our Method at Mother Trucker Yoga

Most people focus on the WHAT when trying to help others solve a problem. And when it comes to fitness and health, this is where people stop. And in turn, you never get the results you are looking for.

Here at Mother Trucker Yoga®, we help drivers just like you implement small, simple changes that will lead to big results by adding more movement into your day, every day. So rather than removing yourself from your day-to-go “workout” and only focusing on the what, we focus on the HOW, WHY, WHAT and WHEN. And it’s these small, simple changes, when implemented correctly, where drivers see the biggest changes.

We want to help you feel good again and show you the path to improving your health by moving more, and making small yet powerful changes. And when implemented correctly, you are looking at lasting results that you, your family, and your company can enjoy.

Find out about our Trucking Fitness Corporate Programs HERE

STIFF Mother Trucker Marc Springer

/0 Comments/by

6 Things That Are So Important for Your Wellbeing

6 Things That are So Important for Your Wellbeing Blog Mother Trucker Yoga

We all want to be well, and we all do our best to be well, but the fact is, many of us are not well in one way or another.

 

Obviously, some factors affect our wellness that we cannot change, things like illnesses and disease, some aspects of our job, but on the flip side, there are lots of positive actions we can take to boost our well-being.

 

6  Key Things That Are So Important For Your Wellbeing:

 

  1. Getting enough sleep

 

If you don’t get enough sleep, your body doesn’t get enough time to repair itself, which means you will wake up feeling tired, headachy, lacking in energy, and possibly even depressed. A lack of sleep has also been shown to increase your likelihood of gaining weight, having a heart attack, and suffering from mental health issues, so if you aren’t already, make sleep a priority in your life. Sleep is just one of the 12 topics Your Wellness Pitstop Program with Mother Trucker Yoga covers. 

 

  1. Self-compassion

 

When it comes to mental wellbeing, one of the most important things you can do is show yourself compassion. Doing so will help to stop feelings of guilt, anger, and sadness in their tracks. If you don’t know how to offer yourself compassion, this article on empathy vs. compassion may be helpful, as may reading Radical Compassion by Yogi and therapist Tara Brach. Read up and start practicing so you can stop ruminating and start living a happier, healthier life. 

 

  1. Eating clean and healthy.

 

This is pretty much a no-brainer, but the healthier and more natural your food, the more nutrients you will receive and the healthier you will be as a result.

 

6 Things That are So Important for Your Wellbeing Mother Trucker Yoga Blog Eating Clean

 

  1. Moving your body

 

Whether practicing yoga (particularly practicing yoga because it is good for the mind and the body), hitting the gym, or going for a run, moving your body every day is so important for your wellbeing. Not only will it help you to stay in good shape, but it can also help you eliminate stress and get those positive endorphins flowing to boost your mood too. Join the movement and join other drivers just like you inside Mother Trucker Yoga’s membership site full of videos, audios, and strategies to help you feel good again. 

6 Things that are so important to your wellbeing mother trucker yoga blog truckers subscription blog

  1. Spending some time in the sun

 

Spending time in the sun helps your body produce vitamin D, which is great for boosting mood and helping you to maintain healthy bones, amongst other things. Natural light has also been shown to be a great stress relief booster, and if you spend time out in nature, well, you could lower your blood pressure, decrease your risk of depression and have an easier time getting to sleep at night, too – it’s a great wellbeing all-rounder.

 

  1. Spend time with people you love

 

Humans need connection, which is why spending as much time as you can with people who love you and who bring joy to your life is one of the simplest and most effective wellbeing practices there is. It’s just so good for you.

 

There’s certainly more to good wellbeing than the six things alone, but there is no denying that adding the above to your routine will make you feel better, happier, and healthier all around.

/0 Comments/by

5 Reason Truckers Need A Food & Fitness Journal

,

When is the last time you saw someone advertising to a truck driver to keep a food journal?

Have you ever kept a food journal?

Have you ever tracked what you eat, when, and in what quantities?

 

You might be surprised to find that most Americans eat more than what their brain cares to remember.

Some of you may or may not know, but I found yoga as a means to step into recovery from a long battle with an eating disorder. One that I was told, best case scenario is I would “learn to function in the world on medication.”  But something in me said that would not be my future.

Having a food and fitness journal helped me establish a healthier relationship with food, fitness and myself. I used food to not have to deal or feel with anything in life. Maybe you can relate better to the word numb. I wanted to be numb.

But if you want to change anything, and I mean ANYTHING, you must first be aware of it. Aware of what it is you desire to change. And then be willing to step back from your excuses and loaded reasons as to why you are the way you are (be them true or not) and see things as they actually are.

I have worked with thousands of people over the last nearly 20 years and trucker or not, most of us have a skewed perception of what and how much we really eat and do over the course of a day.

Drinking that Diet Coke and Monster at 10 AM every day is so automatic that you most days forget you even do it. But when you don’t have it. Watch out world, things might get ugly.

And when it comes to moving more (some call it fitness or exercise), well we all know the response. I’m to BLANK. Or I do move a lot (except it’s only in small bursts one to two times a day straight off of sitting for several hours behind the wheel.

So what is the benefit of keeping a food and fitness journal?

Well, its really quite simple.

Eating is for fueling, not feeling.

When you track what you eat. How much you eat. Alongside how you are feeling or why you are eating what you are eating. It is important to point out that food does not fix how we feel-talking from experience. And many of us are eating out of boredom, loneliness, oral fixation, sadness and so on. And when we can see on a piece of paper right in front of us what is really going into our mouths only then can we start to do something about it. And when you tie in how you are feeling, well Dr. Phil we may have just found a very important piece to the puzzle.

It is easier to create a plan when you have data.

Trucker Food Journal

Have you ever tried to plan a route to get your load from point A to point B but it’s your first time running the load? So that initial time feels like a shot in the dark.

Hoping things go smoothly.

Hoping there are no delays.

Hoping you didn’t miss or forget something.

And because you have no real data to compare to, it’s shot in the dark. It’s only after you run the load that you gather data and then for future loads you can become more and more effective. Food and fitness are no different. Journaling (logging) what you eat and how much you move daily, as much of a pain in the ass as it may seem will only help you be more effective in the changes you desire to make. Those shots in the dark can easily become frustrating. And what if some of the changes you decided to implement weren’t even necessary? And could have been avoided having first collected data. AKA what you ate, and how much you moved in real time.

Fitness really can be at your finger tips. It really can be. It’s available to you each and every day. Except you and everyone else struggling with working out. Is just that, only looking at fitness as exercise. Hitting the gym, heading to a yoga studio or dying as you try to keep up with a P90X video that seems to have skipped absolute beginner mode. And if you are still wondering what yoga can do for you here are 60 benefits for truckers to read up on.

Fitness to me should be an equation incorporating your every day life movements.

Downward Dog Stretch while filling up with fuel + Core Marching while in the drivers seat waiting to unload + wrist stretches while driving + ANYTHING else you can throw in there = WAY more than you would be doing otherwise!

The little things can easily go unnoticed.

Three little packs of ketchup (sugar) here, sugar added to your coffee over there. Sweetened Ice-Tea at 2 PM, and on it goes. All those little things DO ADD UP! And all those little things are usually packed with sugar, preservatives, and you just don’t need it. Let me say that again. You just don’t need it. You want it, it’s a habit, extra ketchup, mayo, sugar, sweetener, and now your body craves it because it’s addicted to it.

But trust me when I say the world will keep turning when you opt out. But in order to opt out, you have to have a true sense of of much you are opting in on those condiments in the first place. So say hello to your food journal. How many ketchup packets, how many sugars, how large is the sweetened ice-tea and what are you feeling when you reach for them?

You might be doing better than you think.

When I talk to people about how much they are moving and what they are eating it is not uncommon to have a slightly slanted view of how good you really are doing. It’s easy to let the few not so great choices cloud our vision of success (talking from experience). Writing down everything can help you gain a better sense of where you truly are in your journey. Trust me when I say lying to yourself will not get you anywhere. And it is vital to celebrate the little wins, and acknowledge what you are doing right.

It is easy to want everything to change tomorrow and when it doesn’t we can easily get frustrated. But let’s be real for a moment and say where you are, and how you are did not happen over night. When I was going through the early stages of recovery I would have a slip up or bad day and think I just suck, and am doing everything wrong. But I had learned how to live this way over the course of 10 + years. So it was unrealistic to allow myself to think that I would be all good in a week, a month, even a year. And to be really honest, it’s been 15 years and and I am STILL working on things. Layer by layer.

Where to start.

Where to start? Seriously, where to start? Overwhelm can easily set in and before we know it we are complaining to our friends that this and that, and the other thing just aren’t working. Maybe it’s because you never really, truly laid out a plan. You never really figured out where to start because you never really stopped and took a week to figure out where you are.

This is a big mistake I see many people make. keeping a food and fitness journal can help you create a clear focus of where you truly are. But you have to be truthful and honest with what you write down, and don’t miss a thing. The will be a part of your brain that will say “this is dumb”, “just give up”, “you don’t need this”. My advice: “throw down some cuss words and do it anyway”. (that was my humor again). You got this. You really do.

So now what?

Well, you start to write it ALL DOWN! EVERYTHING. Don’t miss a thing!

For how long?

No less than three days, but ideally an entire week! And don’t forget to write down what you are feeling as well.

Here is a quick cliff notes sheet of everything to write down in your food and fitness journal:

  • Date
  • Time
  • Feeling/Emotion Connected
  • Are you truly hungry
  • What did you eat
  • How much did you eat
  • Movement: when, how long, how you feel

And most importantly, go easy on yourself. This is day one, step one on your journey to a healthier and happier you. And if anyone gives you grief. Just have them answer to me!

Here are a few suggestions for paper and pen food and fitness journals that could help get you started.

Not a paper and pen kinda person? Try texting to yourself your data. Look for an app. Whatever method you decide, commit and be honest. Because tracking your food and fitness in a journal is step one. And if you can do this, you and I, my friend, can do anything!

 

/1 Comment/by

Trucker Fitness: Expectations vs. Reality

Trucker Fitness: Expectations vs. Reality IS something that needs to be discussed because it IS tricky to stay fit and healthy while on the road. But with a little planning ANYONE, can improve their over the road lifestyle.

Now lets be clear: I am not a trucker. But I have had the privilege of working with drivers over the last fifteen plus years locally in my Wisconsin yoga studio. And now hundreds of drivers through Mother Trucker Yoga.

And as someone who does travel quite a bit, fitness on the go has to be a priority or, it can fall to the bottom of the list quickly.

Fitness first.

Let me say that again: fitness first.

I don’t care how old you are, how stiff, overweight, arthritic , what your gender, skin color or what brand of truck you drive. Fitness first.

And to be even more clear: Fitness does not mean you have to be the most fit. And it surely does not mean you have to chisel out 60 consecutive minutes each day to qualify for such a badge.

When many hear “fitness” they instantly think long workouts, classes, and getting to the gym. But for most drivers that is not reality.

Reality is, you if you are a driver, then… wait for it… you are driving for most, if not all of the day or all night.

But wedged in between tough traffic and arranging your load are small bouts of time where you CAN insert fitness.

Yes! You, the one who rolled your eyes at the sight of my website titled: Mother Trucker Yoga, but were intrigued enough to read on CAN be fit while being a truck driver.

I’ve done a lot of research, I mean a LOT of research when it comes to fitness, and what I call everyday functional fitness. Meaning: movements that make sense for your life and lifestyle and enhance your abilities to keep doing what you love and assist in you living life.

So that means for you- AKA the truck driver, that trucker fitness IS a reality and can be achieved. If you are open minded enough to start to make some small yet powerful changes to your every day life.

Exercises for Truck Drivers (small changes you can make to improve your health):

  • Stretching your fingers and wrists against the steering wheel to help combat tightness and arthritis in those very necessary joints.
  • Twisting your entire spine on purpose when reaching for your seat belt and buckling up- because it’s the law.
  • Stepping up into your rig, and instead of doing those two steps just once and in. Creating your own stair climber and for a minute straight stepping up and down as quick and safely as you can.
  • Filling up with fuel and down dogging it like no one is watching (like the Half Dog pictured below). And if they are… Asking them to join. Trucker Fitness - Downward Dog Blog

These are just a few ways you can create a reality around fitness for YOUR lifestyle.

When I dove deep into research on yoga and fitness for truckers I found a few videos with someone standing next to a truck doing push ups or jumping rope. And for the one app I downloaded, it was again someone doing jumping jacks next to a big rig, toe touches and then a few demonstrations of sit ups. That with all my research on core health, I wanted to come through the phone and offer some tips on how to safely and more effectively work your core.

Today, I want you to not over think fitness. Consider what you can insert into your already busy day. What moments (and that is all it takes) do you have that you can make a conscious effort to insert a quick move here or there.

Mother Trucker Yoga’s whole premise is 3 – 5 minute EASY moves explained for the drivers body for a move that make sense and you can feel the difference with. Why? So you can keep doing what you love with less pain.

So don’t be distracted by someone telling you you NEED 60 minutes of exercise daily. And what they mean is hitting the gym for 60 straight minutes.

What I’m telling you today is if you add a move here, and a move there and a few moves at the end of the day right inside your rig. You WILL feel the difference! And as a result start to make more positive changes to your life.

Because every little movement adds up! And we are meant to move. Not just once a day for 60 minutes. But all day long. And Mother Trucker Yoga is here to show you that it CAN be done! And currently truckers all over the US are incorporating this very idea into their day with BIG results.

So what is one move, one thing you can add to your day today?

What one move?

For just a few minutes?

Master that move.

And before you know it, fitness will become a reality.

 

/2 Comments/by