Laura Motes - Sport Can Prevent Cancer

As a physically active person who spent the vast majority of her professional career in law enforcement, Laura Motes knows that exercise is one of the most crucial tools one can rely on to become healthier. Various studies found a link between being active and reducing cancer risks. When we are talking about sport as a way to prevent certain diseases, the implication is always a reduced risk, rather than a complete, bulletproof immunity from these medical conditions.

                                             

Waistline and Breast Size

 

More than 20 studies have found that women who regularly exercise have a vastly reduced chance of developing cancer. These women had 30 to 40% less chances of developing breast cancer, when compared to women of similar age who lived a more sedentary lifestyle.

Colon Cancer

 

Each year, more than 150,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with colon cancer. Similarly to the occurrence of breast cancer, studies have found a link between increased activity levels and the potential prevention of colon cancer. In general, those who exercise a lot enjoy significantly reduced odds of developing any form of the disease.

Can It Be Too Much?

 

According to various guidelines, the goal should be to exercise every day, at least half an hour. If one really wants to get all the potential benefits, however, one hour is closer to the daily recommendation.

Laura Motes exercises regularly, and hopes that people of all ages will realize just how massive a difference it can make in our lives, both from a physical and mental standpoint.

Sources:
https://www.fredhutch.org/en/events/healthy-living/Trim-Risk.html

Laura Motes - Healthy Living and Emotions

As a former police officer, Laura Motes knows how important it is to stay emotionally calm no matter what.

When thinking about healthy living, many people focus on physical exercise, eating properly, and sleeping enough hours, and completely forget to pay attention to their emotional well-being.

Physical energy is what we need to be able to do any kind of work or activity. At the same time, to be able to perform well we need to have pleasant and positive emotions in addition to having physical energy.

Negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, and sadness release stress hormones into our bodies. This is why they are associated with feeling toxic.

In addition to having a healthy body, healthy living is impossible without the capacity to skillfully manage emotions, have high positive energy, and achieve full engagement in both personal and professional life.

Emotional energy works very similarly to physical energy. Our emotions need a balance between exercise and recovery. When our emotional muscles are weak, for example if we lack confidence or have too little patience, we need to learn to push through our current emotional capacity and then rest and recover.

Not only do physical and emotional aspects of our lives work in a similar manner, but physical and emotional capacities are extremely interconnected.

When we have a deadline that we need to meet, we emotionally feel a sense of urgency. This emotion immediately influences our physical state. We start moving faster and working quicker to meet the deadline.

This is why mastering emotional energy is so important for a healthy and productive life, especially if you work in a profession with high levels of stress like Laura Motes, who was a police officer for twenty-one years.

Laura Motes - The Importance of Exercise for Healthy Living

As a former police officer, Laura Motes is passionate about being healthy and exercising.

Given the number of benefits that even moderate physical exercise brings to our bodies, physical energy, and emotions, it may seem incredible that only a small percentage of our society exercises on a regular basis.

                                       

There is a simple explanation for why this happens. Physical exercise is about experiencing discomfort and getting our bodies out of their comfort zones. The benefits occur only after the discomfort, which makes most people quit before they can actually experience any of the benefits. 

Both strength and cardio training have a paramount influence on energy levels, health, and performance. 

The typical recommended exercise routine for the average adult includes twenty to thirty minutes of continuous exercise three to five days a week. 

In recent years, researchers have been saying that interval training, defined as short periods of intense aerobic activity followed by complete recovery, has profound positive effects, too. 

Interval training has not only physical benefits, but is also a practical reflection of our daily lives. Running up and down the stairs, bicycling, and sprinting are all examples of exercises that rhythmically raise our heart rate.   

There are many studies by scientists and businesses that prove the direct link between physical exercise and performance. 

For example, DuPont claimed a 47.5% reduction in employees skipping work over a six-year period of employee participation in DuPont’s corporate wellness program. DuPont also reported that employees who participated in the wellness program used fourteen percent% less disability days than other workers.  

Laura Motes believes that staying fit and healthy played a tremendous role in her advancement during her career with the police.

Laura Motes - Healthy Living, Stress, and Recovery

Laura Motes worked as a police officer for twenty-one years and she knows a lot about stress.

Our bodies require stress in order to grow. This is true for physical, mental, and emotional aspects of our lives. Stress needs to be followed by renewal.

Laura Motes

A lot of people think that a healthy life is a stress-free life. This is simply not true. A muscle that does not experience any stress dies very quickly. A muscle that gets no rest breaks very quickly. Growth and health require both stress and recovery.

A healthy life is a life that has a balance of stress and recovery. All great athletes and performers in all areas of life have rituals that help them optimize moving between recovery and stress.

The more effective and precise your recovery rituals, the quicker you can move to high performance.

The bigger the challenge, the more precise the rituals need to be. The Navy is a great example of this. It has rituals so precise and exact that it is able to turn soft and slow teenagers into mission-driven, confident, lean soldiers in about ten weeks. Recruits are forced to build rituals around all areas of their lives. There’s a ritual for how they talk, how they walk, what time they wake up in the morning and go to bed, when they eat, what they eat, and how they act under pressure.

In the same manner you can introduce rituals, stress, and recovery in your life. For example, Laura Motes loves spending time outdoors. It helps her relax and rejuvenate.

Laura Motes - Tips For ImproLaura ing Your Bedside Manner

As she prepares to start her studies in nursing at Georgia Regents University, Laura Motes has been putting a lot of thought into the skills that she will need to develop in order to excel in the role. The bedside manner displayed by medical professionals is crucial when offering care to patients, so try to keep the following in mind if you work in a medical role or have aspirations to do so in the future.

                                                                                         

Focus On The Patient

If you appear distracted when talking to your patients, the odds are high that they are going to be less likely to talk to you and provide information that you may need to provide treatment. This is because you will be giving off the impression that you have more important things to do, rather than speaking to the patient. Pay attention and deal with distractions after the conversation.

Establish Common Ground

By creating a personal connection with the patient, within the confines of professionalism, you can have conversations that extend beyond the treatment that your patients are undergoing. This is useful for building trust in the relationships that you have with patients, making them more likely to talk to you when you need information from them.

Keep Thing Simple

Laura Motes understands that many patients will be intimidated by hospital settings, especially if they are dealing with a new condition that needs treatment. By using too much medical lingo you run the risk of further confusing patients and making them feel even less in control. Keep things simple and explain issues in words patients will understand.

Laura Motes - Tips For Preventing Underage Alcohol Sales

During her time serving with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, Laura Motes spent three years as part of the Alcohol Compliance Unit/Vehicles For Hire Unit, during which time she worked with the Georgia Department of Revenue to deal with alcohol license violations, while also placing much of her focus on the issue of underage drinking. There are a number of things that premises that sell alcohol can do in order to remain compliant and ensure they don’t end up selling alcohol to minors, including all of the following.

                                          

Always Check ID

It may seem like a simple tip, but many new store owners or employees often end up becoming incompliant because they have assumed that the people they are serving are of legal drinking age. If you have any doubt at all about a person’s age, ask to see some ID. Be wary of any customers who make a big fuss about showing ID and don’t give into any pressure that may be placed on you by people who haven’t brought a form of identification along. You should also improve your knowledge of the various forms of ID that people can use to purchase alcohol, so that you are abler to spot fakes.

Train Employees

Your store’s employees are essentially representatives of your premises, so if they make mistakes or purposefully sell alcohol to minors the responsibility will usually fall on you. As such, you need to make sure that you are careful when hiring new employees and that you have a rigorous training program in place. Put special emphasis on the consequences of selling alcohol to minors and try to train employees in the best ways to spot when an underage person might be trying to acquire alcohol.

Keep Alcohol Separate From Soft Drinks

In many cases, minors may pick up alcoholic beverages, particularly those commonly referred to as “alcopops,” by mistake if they are on display next to soft drinks or other beverages. As such, it is good practice to create a display specifically designed for alcohol. It may also be a good idea to have that display somewhere that is in the line of sight of employees, so that they can keep an eye on any suspicious behavior.

Assess Groups

If a group of people attempts to purchase alcohol from your establishment, Laura Motes notes that it is important to examine everybody in the collective. In some cases, somebody of age may try to purchase alcohol for minors who are with them, so if you have any suspicions that this is happening you should ask to see the IDs of every individual. Try to keep an eye out for awkward body language, such as a member of the group who is fidgeting or purposefully avoiding eye contact.

Laura Motes - Fervent Supporter of the ASPCA

Laura Motes grew up with animals all around her in her parents’ home in rural Georgia. She knows how to properly care for and treat them and she wants everyone to have the same knowledge and caring nature that she does. Unfortunately, the United States is still a long way from being completely educated of the proper way to take care of domesticated animals. Pets still go neglected and get abandoned all the time. Motes, a former police officer and current nursing student, wanted to join the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

The ASPCA has two main causes that it as an organization works hard to fight for: the end of animal homelessness and the end of animal cruelty. Laura Motes works closely with her local animal shelters near her home in Watkinsville, Georgia, but across the country animal shelters are routinely stretched thin because their budgets just don’t do enough to place animals in good homes. With 2.7 million animals being euthanized in the United States every year, the ASPCA works to provide alternatives to euthanasia for shelters throughout the country. The ASPCA also works to help abused animals find new homes and to educated people about the causes and effects of animal cruelty in our society, as well as the signs to watch for. Laura Motes is a vocal advocate of all of these issues.

Laura Motes plans on beginning her Master’s degree in Nursing in the fall of 2016 at Georgia Regents University.
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Laura Motes - Career Progression from Law Enforcement Officer to Nurse

Laura Motes isn’t a nurse yet. She has completed all of the prerequisites to begin her Master’s degree in nursing from Georgia Regents University and plans on starting classes in the fall of 2016. She is prepared to enter the medical profession on the strength of her sense of duty to her community and her experience working for the Athens Regional Medical Center and Managed Medical Transport. Motes has always been committed to helping her community by keeping it safe as a police officer, now she hopes to help the community by keeping the people in it healthy.

Laura Motes spent 20 years working for the Athens-Clarke County Police Department. She started as a patrol officer in the Athens area, helping to ensure that crime is prevented whenever possible and that the streets and residents of the area are as safe as possible. Motes left the police force as a Sergeant in the West Precinct administration. She helped coordinate crime scene investigations, manage office personnel and officers on the street, and work with department leadership to ensure that all rules and regulations are being followed by all officers on the streets at all times.

Laura Motes then left the department because she wanted a more hands-on experience. She found said experience while working for six months with Managed Medical Transport and the Athens Regional Medical Center. Motes learned much from her time there, including how to serve and assist doctors, physicians, and other medical professionals in their duties and responsibilities to their patients with all kinds of medical conditions and ailments. She plans on using this experience during her studies as a Master’s degree candidate at Georgia Regents University in the fall of 2016.
                                              

Laura Motes works hard to keep herself in shape and healthy. Her passion recently has been distance runs of five kilometers or more. She has competed in several 5Ks in the area in the past and she plans on continuing her training to run marathons in the future. Motes hopes that her expertise as a nurse will put her in a position to help instill healthy habits in patients that could prevent serious medical conditions like heart disease and more. With too many Americans suffering from preventable diseases like adult-onset diabetes and obesity, especially in rural Georgia, where she lives, the more healthy habits she can instill in people around her community, the better.

Laura Motes believes that her calling is in the local healthcare system because she cares about the health and life of everyone around her in her community. She has always been there for her neighbors, protecting them from crime and investigating. She also helped keep the police force itself honest during her time in the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, reporting on alleged incidents of officer misconduct and other issues frequently besetting all police departments around the world.