Never has the adage ‘count your blessings’ resonated with all of us here at Oxygen more than this week when one of our colleagues was struck by a car as she stepped off a bus just outside our offices. (she was fine, btw, and back at work a couple days later). Kirstyn was featured in our Fat LossSpecial last year, describing how she began to get into shape and eat clean when she came on board the Oxygen lifestyle.

In this busy time of year, I'm a big believer in heavy breathing (really!). Research shows that breathing from the diaphragm reduces stress - instead of short shallow breaths, the Ontario Kinesiology Association for one says that breathing deeply and slowly from the diaphragm works much better.

I recall an interesting illustration of this in a spinning class. The instructor had all of us with heart rate monitors to watch the numbers - without changing our cadence or resistance, he had us take three deep slow breaths and it was fascinating to see the numbers decrease so rapidly. 

Okay, I have to admit, I don’t rest enough – and I’m not talking shut-eye! At lunch hour today, I was in the gym here at the office and had to force myself to rest between sets. I know, I know; muscles need rest to grow and yet I am so impatient I literally have to step away and count the 40 seconds before I turn back to the weights. Is it just me? Or do we all have trouble resting?