Blue Zone Your Memory No. 41: Fitness Workout Woes

 

 

The latest research concerning why we derail our own workout efforts involves the Disconnect Value Model and the amygdala regions of the brain. Evidently, we sometimes decide to make a trade off and seek immediately gratification instead of sticking to our short and long range value-driven goals for fitness.  This break in self-regulation can be much needed at times; however, if you would like to be more consistent with your workout plan try connecting to your values again. When you detect a threat to your values and see yourself finding other things to do instead of working out connect to your amygdala regions of the brain and try practicing value driven self-regulation.

Virtual Team Brain Storm: Brain Teaser!

It still doesn’t look much look or feel like Winter. Do you think we will have a White Christmas? I hope so!


This will be our last holiday brain teaser before Christmas. Let me know how you do! There are a few hints below the brain teaser if you need help.

My father gave me a brain teaser with two groups of words missing. The four words in each group are anagrams of each other. I've solved the first group, but I'm stuck on the second group. Can you help?

Time to decorate the Christmas tree! Putting up the lights was my job, but after that it was time to ENLIST some help. While the kids were busy adding TINSEL, I put on some music to LISTEN to; my favourite song is "SILENT Night".

After we finished decorating the Christmas tree, I hung the stockings on the __1__. Feeling a chill, I looked down and had to __2__ my __3__ lapse; the fire was out. I threw on my __4__ and stepped out into the cold night to gather some firewood. Upon my return, we were soon roasting chestnuts and sipping eggnog to complete a wonderful evening.
Hint

Here are definitions of the missing words:

1. a shelf above a fireplace

2. to express sorrow

3. relating to the mind

4. a cloak

Kelly Lance
Team Captain

                     










I would like to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and many blessings for the New Year. May the Hope & Joy of God’s gift fill your hearts this Christmas. -Kelly

Answer


1. mantel

2. lament

3. mental

4. mantle

Blue Zone Your Memory No. 38: Christmas Shopping

Your brain becomes hyper alert during the Christmas season and the marketing stimuli directed toward the senses can cause you to exceed your budget. According to Psychology Today (2012) our senses play a powerful role on our mood during holiday shopping, and just being aware of this phenomenon can help shoppers stay within their budget. For example, did you know that the red and greed colors of Christmas can change your mood? The color red energizes and excites the brain, and the color green is associated with optimism and well-being. So stepping into a store filled with these colors, and the smells, sounds, and textures of Christmas can trick or overstimulate the emotional heart and the brain to react, which is often the trigger needed to overspend.

Virtual Team Brain Storm: Update!

Kelly Lance
Team Captain

Welcome to our newest member: Paula Harrison! Paula is one of our wonderful Franciscan Center volunteers! This week, I have a few Rebus brain teasers. A rebus uses words or letters in interesting orientations to represent common phrases. Good luck! The answers are below.



1. What phrase is shown in the figure below?

S-n-o-w


2. Can you decipher this:

issues

issues

issues

issues

issues

issues

issues

issues

issues

issues

Hint: It’s something you wear.

Have a great week,

Kelly
Answer


1. Dashing through the snow.

2. Tennis shoes

Virtual Team Brain Storm: Update!



Team Captain
Kelly Lance





Team Brain Storm is still at 15 members…please tell your family & friends to sign up so that our team can grow.


This week we did some “Mentalrobics”, exercising our brains to stay mentally fit.





Tim Barringer, Massage Therapist at TFC, submitted this play on words:
 
To the point.
Not pointed.


What is the word? The answer is below.

We then looked at how well we could remember quotes! The following are humorous quotes from famous people in history. Can you match the quotes in Part 1 with the person who said it in Part 2? Answers are below.

Part 1:

1. "Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."

2. "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down at us. Pigs treat us as equals."

3. "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."

4. "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

5. "Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."

6. "God heals and the doctor takes the fee."

Part 2:

Albert Einstein

Will Rogers

Abraham Lincoln

Benjamin Franklin

Winston Churchill

Mark Twain

Blue Zone Your Memory No. 33: Be Patriotic!

Patriotism is a healthy emotion finding its origins in the hormone secretion known as Oxytocin. This hormonal secretion is the foundation for the emotions involving trust and loyalty, which can also provide a sense of well-being and safety. This neurotransmitter is also responsible for the desire to hug, and to be hugged, and touched. Fostering these secretions will also help to promote stable bonding with significant others, and socialization in group settings.

Virtual Team Brain Storm: Update

We are still at 13 members... ask your friends and family if they would like to join us! -Kelly

By being a part of “Team Brain Storm”, you are fulfilling both of the following statements quoted from “Luminosity”: “The human brain continues to create new neurons throughout life. Exercise and cognitive stimulation can impact the number of new cells created in your brain.” “Be social: Interacting with others supports cognitive health by exercising diverse areas of the brain.”


For the week’s Brain Teaser, we looked at the following math problem…

Please add the following numbers in your head:

Start with 1000.

Add 40

Add 1000

Add 30

Add 1000

Add 20

Add 1000

Add 10

Write down your answer.

Math Problem Answer: Many will get 5000. But the actual answer is 4100!

No one on Team Brain Storm that responded got the problem right. The numbers seem to add up fine until you get to that last 10, and your brain wants to add an extra 0 to the 10. Being the “numbers person” that I am, I even got out my calculator, sure that the problem was wrong. Myself, along with others, completed the problem until we got it right. You have to go slowly and be careful on the last number.

Blue Zone Your Memory No 10

Walking

Did you know that walking is good for the brain and that walking is considered a complex sensorimotor reflex? Walking requires combining information from vision and information from the feet, knees, hips, arms, and the physical orientation of the body in order to walk with balance and rhythm. In addition, the semicircular canals of the inner ears provide information about balance and changes to terrain and external stimuli, and movement from the arms and body, which may also affect balance (Pinel, 2009). This combination of information and the ability to quickly adapt to the many different ways that we walk can help our brain remain incredibility plastic, which is our brain's ability to adapt to new information and change.

Blue Zone Your Memory No 6

Hydration and Brain Function

The brain is said to be made up of between 70- 80% water, and this nutrient is considered by leading health experts as one of the healthiest things that we can balance concerning our diet and brain function. The opposite of hydration is dehydration, which can increase stress hormones that can damage the brain and impair both memory and the brain's decision-making ability. To be on the safe side discuss this important nutrient with your doctor and be sure to tell him specifics, such as the medications that you take, your current weight, and how physically and mentally active you are within an average day. He can recommend the optimal water intake for you to support your lifestyle and current activity level.