via gocomics.com

I wonder if this works?

Posted via web from My Strong Medicine

The latest installment of Change of Shift is up over at Mamatrauma.

Do I really need to tell you about all the great stuff there?! Be sure to check out the latest edition of our beloved blog carnival.

No excuses for me, I just don’t have the time these days. But I will still lend my support and kudos!

As always a BIG THANK YOU to Kim over at Emergiblog for getting the CoS party started, and keeping the fire going!

Carpe Diem

So we place them in different levels of isolation precautions to minimize if not eliminate this possibility. We don the endless combination of gloves, gown and mask all for the sake of sterility and safety. Everything that is in the room stays in the room, and no object can come into the room and then leave the room due to the potential for spreading the infection.

All of our supplies are ‘isolated’.

We segregate anything we would need as well as have specially made supplies that go on the ‘isolation cart’ to care for these patients. Everything from the gloves, gown, mask and all other predicted supplies needed.

Including the ‘let’s pretend-play’ stethoscope.

Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The stethoscope that looks like it was stolen from the ‘Playskool’ catalog shelves. It even comes in the wonderful ‘Playskool’ colors of chalk-white and mustard-yellow.

I’m all for increasing our patient safety – but don’t you think these things should actually do the job they are made for?? It’s a stethoscope right? So conventional wisdom would have you believe that you should listen to heart and lung sounds with this ‘toy’ instrument right?

Wrong.

Have you ever TRIED listening to a patient’s heart or lungs with those darn things? Using that stethoscope is about as effective as banging your head against a wall to burn calories. While both get the job done, it’s a horribly painful and ineffective way of getting results.

Those darn yellow plastic stethoscopes in isolation rooms. Am I alone on this?

Playskool Nursing originally posted on Scrubs Magazine|The Nurse’s Guide To Good Living

I used to bark this all the time. “I’d exercise if I had the time”. “Who has the time to do cardio for 30-45 minutes”.

The list is endless.

The bottom line is most of us have a finite amount of time to ‘exercise’, so how are we to attain a healthy state of fitness if we just don’t have the time to do it.

Interval Training : Interval training can cut exercise hours sharply – Fitness- msnbc.com

I’ve been preaching this concept for over a year now. I’ve known about it for decades, but can’t say I used it personally until last year. I tell you it’s heaven sent. Not only do you get what you need done, you get it done in a fraction of the time.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or Tabata intervals. Both are training concepts that originate with the high-caliber professional athletic world (Olympic athletes).

You go ‘all out’ for a set amount of time. Then you ‘rest’ or move at a tolerable level. Then back to ‘all out’. You do this cycle for a set amount of time.

Your training will consist of a rollercoaster. Going fast and hard then backing off.

You find yourself working harder and getting your cardiovascular benefit in just minutes a day as opposed to hours.

I won’t go into the juicy details, but interval training works. I do it as my only cardiovascular exercise. I do not waste my time doing 30-45 minute runs, walks, biking or hiking. I do interval sprints.

This alone would be enough, but there is also a theory out there (EPOC – Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) that suggests you actually burn more calories (and possibly fat) well after your interval session is over. 

If the ‘no time’ excuse is high on your list of reasons why you’re not exercising I highly suggest you give this a try. Do the research (quick internet search will do) and give it a go. Don’t worry about the exact minutes needed or required. Just try the interval of maximum intensity coupled with bouts of low intensity for a sustained 5-10 minute period. Don’t worry about not being able to go maximum effort. Don’t worry if you only could last 3 minutes. Just get started. You’ll be surprised of the results if you stick with it.

Aren’t you getting tired and bored with long steady state cardio. Don’t you watch the clock a lil too much? Or worse, are you not exercising at all?!

Give it a try.

The latest installment of Change of Shift is up over at INQRI Blog.

There are a lot of great submissions as always. This installment is all about Nursing Educaiton! Be sure to check out the latest edition of our beloved blog carnival.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.. not only did I not submit an entry – but I’m almost a week late posting Change of Shift. Sorry, this semester is grueling.

As always a BIG THANK YOU to Kim over at Emergiblog for getting the CoS party started, and keeping the fire going!

Carpe Diem

via news.yahoo.com

So, you think you’re job is tough? Think you want/need a new job?
Maybe we should all be a little more appreciative of the conveniences we have.
Would you commute over 1000 miles for a job?
What if you didn’t have a choice?
Whew..
I really need to complain just a little bit less.
Things that make you go hmm.

Posted via web from My Strong Medicine

“If I eat this cheeseburger, that just means an extra 40 minutes on the treadmill”

“I’m going to have just this one… just this one donut. I’ll just squeeze in a couple more miles on the bike”

“Ooooh OK. I’ll have another piece of pie. I’ll just have to visit the gym an extra day this week”

Does any of this sound vaguely familiar? Bartering, bargaining, and rationalizing your bad eating habits, those empty promises to your body, and being comfortable with your overall eating lifestyle without the guilt. It’s that guilt factor that keeps us from becoming a down right glutton, but this habit of bargaining a food item for some extra exercise is a disastrously imbalanced deal that ultimately leads to failure.

Weight loss and ‘dieting’ (yes, I still hate that word) come down to a game of numbers. You have to get rid of more than you take in. There’s no way to trick, bend, warp or fudge those numbers. You consume a certain number of calories, and your body ‘uses up’ or ‘burns’ a certain amount of calories. We all make the deal with the devil by trying to satisfy this equation. If my actions will add ‘X’ number of calories to my body, then I have ‘work off /burn/melt” ‘X’ number of calories. That way I have net gained zero. At least that’s what we tell ourselves…

Please read on over at Scrubs Magazine There’s No Bargaining In Weight Loss