Keeping our brains fit and flexible with neurobics

If there is one thing that I have learned from working with my clients who've had strokes, it is just how much I have always taken my healthy brain for granted. I have never truly focused on any sort of strategy for keeping my own brain fit and flexible at all, until that is I started looking for ways to enhance workouts for my clients whose brains had sustained damage.

Once I started down the path of searching for everyday exercises for the brain, it became sort of like a scavenger hunt! One that makes complete sense when you stop to reason on the theories behind why different things work so well. Of course all I can do is read, read, read! The cool thing is, that with the ability to look at and image a brain, literally as it is thinking, neuroscientists are able to learn more about enhancing and improving our mental capabilities, this means a lot of fun reading for me to choose from!

I think it is just crazy that the new scientific evidence clearly shows that our brains do not have to go into steep decline as we age, in fact in 1988 a team of American and Swedish scientists showed that in adult humans NEW brain cells were generated!


This lays the responsibility of keeping our brains sharp and fit squarely upon our shoulders doesn't it?!

Here is where Neurobics enters the scene. Neurobics is a big key to taking charge of our mental health and fitness. Basically what Neurobics is, is a cute little name for literally giving yourself a mental workout! How do we do this? It is so simple, we do this by breaking from our routines and patterns, so anything that is non routine and unexpected is good. Why? Because by reliance on different senses than what is our normal pattern or routine we create new patterns for neuron activity in our brains!

Think of these exercises as you would think about the training that you give your core. Keeping your core strong and fit enables you to move and exercise with less difficulty and more efficiently, do the same for your brain!


Here are some great ideas, don't get discouraged if it is harder than you think, have fun pretend like you are a little kid! If you get frustrated just think how much harder these would be had you already sustained some sort of damage to that wonderful brain in your head!


Wake up to a different smell in the morning than you are used too, instead of coffee keep an aroma in a container next to your bed and release a little smell each morning for a week. This will link different smells to your morning routine thus activating new neural pathways


Put your toothbrush on the opposite side of the sink or in a different drawer


Brush your teeth with your eyes closed


Shower with your eyes closed


Move the shampoo to a different spot in the shower


Eat with chopsticks


Eat with chopsticks with the WRONG hand


Perform tasks (that are safe) around the house (this could just be moving about from room to room) while blindfolded


Write with your Wrong hand


Wear earplugs experience the world without sound


Don't drive the same route each day change it up


Swap cars with someone so that you are driving with different controls


Don't sit in the same chair at dinner, or while watching TV change it up!


Okay I'm sure you get the idea, no getting old and set in your ways!
Go for it, see for yourself how much fun and how challenging this can be!

Challenge for week of Jan 4th

I know that many of you saw this on our fb page, but for those of you that did not here is the challenge of the week.
Rid your home, and or office space of all the holiday goodies that may have accumulated! This of course does not mean eating everything in sight, as was pointed out as one option on fb (thank you Sam)! Pack it up and give it away (to someone that you know will welcome the goodies.) Or how about simply tossing stuff that has already seen it's best time for being eaten. If this seems incredibly wasteful to you, think about it this way, you will either waste it in the trash can or you will wear it for the next few months in the form of extra pounds! What will it be? Are you up to the challenge?

New year brings new changes at Fitness by Design!

A fresh year is always bound to bring new challenges, new rants and raves and new awesome accomplishments! There will be new recipes to share, and new ideas to kick around. What will never change is our need as humans to have a net in place that is always there to support us with our everyday healthy endeavors!
Last year Fitness by Design tried adding a forum to the website as a trial to see how many of you would get on and talk, or at least read in silence and be encouraged.
While there was plenty of traffic there was not a lot of talking going on, so I am making some changes! If I am going to do most of the talking this is a much nicer platform to use! I will be leaving the recipes on the fitnessbydesignseattle.com website as they will be cataloged easily.
I also am discontinuing the newsletter in favor of the blog. It is my hope that this will be more interactive!