Your Best Body

November 3, 2018 By BalanceYourPower

Anti-Aging

Holistic Approach to Anti-Aging

As people live longer, many of us search for a way to slow down the effects of aging. Many people use different creams and gels, or use plastic surgery to keep their youthful appearance. But there is a holistic approach that we can use to combat aging.

Holistic healing, unlike the topical creams and gels, treats the underlying cause for the problem and not just the symptoms of the problem. While we may never be able to stop the aging process, we can use holistic practices to slow down the aging effects.

Your Skin

The skin is the largest organ in the human body and is easily impacted by day to day factors. You cannot have good skin if you are not eating right, getting enough sleep, or if you live your life in a state of constant stress.

Inflammation and Free Radicals

Understanding that free radicals cause inflammation in the body is very important because, according to Dr. Michael Klentze, international medical director of the Vitalife Corporation at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, inflammation is what causes us to age. Free radicals occur naturally and, if your body does not get enough antioxidants to fight them, they are free to go about the body and do their damage.

Damage caused by free radicals can be stopped by eating antioxidant-rich foods or taking supplements such as vitamin C, coenzyme Q10, zinc, and magnesium. Water is also an important factor in slowing the signs of aging. Your body is made mostly of water and if you allow it to dehydrate you will see more wrinkles. Ensuring that you get enough water will also allow your skin to retain its elasticity over time.

Proper Circulation

Using holistic healing to maintain proper circulation is important when it comes to slowing down the aging process. Your entire body relies on proper circulation, and without it you will quickly see your body start to age and “fall apart”.

How Holistic Healing Works

There are reasons one person ages faster than another, and it is those reasons that can be treated with holistic healing. You cannot separate the health of your skin, your mind, and your body. You must be treated as a whole person. The chances of you reducing the signs of aging by simply focusing on your skin are slim, but if you focus on your entire body ensuring that you are physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy you will see that you can significantly reduce the signs of aging.

Reversing the Signs of Aging

It is also possible to reverse the signs of aging with holistic healing. One way to do this is to ensure that your body is getting enough essential fatty acids. Each cell must have essential fatty acids in order to function properly, help to nourish the skin, and provide tone. You can find essential fatty acids in foods such as leafy greens, walnuts, fish oils, and flax seed oils.

Exercise

Physical activity is an important factor when it comes to reversing or slowing down the aging process. Our bodies are made to move, and physical exercise can help to raise your metabolism as well as reduce your weight. Ensuring that you are not over-stressing your body by causing it to carry around extra weight is an important part of slowing down the aging process.

Through adding exercise and supplements to your daily routine, ensuring you are getting enough water and sleep, and keeping stress levels at a minimum, you can help to reduce the signs of aging. The best way to slow down the signs of aging is to focus on your body as a whole ensuring that you are in the best health possible instead of focusing on your specific physical aging symptoms. This way you will be likely to keep your youthful appearance for years to come.

Balance

Keeping your body in its optimal state of balance will keep your stress levels low, your cells oxygen-rich, and your emotional and physical health at their peak. Knocking down the walls of resistance to exercise, healthy eating, and emotional stability are key to your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Schedule your next healing session now to explore your possibilities. You may even find your own personal Fountain of Youth!

October 31, 2018 By BalanceYourPower

Health Benefits of Probiotics

The Health Benefits of Probiotics

Most people spend a lot of time trying to get rid of bacteria in their lives, but what if we told you not all bacteria is bad for you? In fact, your body relies on millions of healthy, helpful bacteria to keep you safe and healthy every day. And by giving your body beneficial probiotics, you can improve the population of helpful bacteria inside your body that are necessary for your continued health.

Eating foods rich in probiotics can not only prevent illness but also treat some disorders and imbalances. Learning which foods are high in probiotics, as well as the benefits these organisms offer to your body, will help you feel better and stay healthier over time.

Understanding Probiotics

You have bacteria, yeast, and other microbes all over your body, both inside and out. Luckily, many of those organisms are helpful bacteria that perform vital functions for your cells, tissues, organs, and body systems.

Probiotics and the beneficial bacteria they support can help to:

Boost your immune system, allowing you to heal faster from sickness and injury.
Prevent infection by stopping hostile bacteria from taking over.
Improve your digestion, which allows you to better absorb nutrients from the foods you eat.

The majority of helpful bacteria in your body live in your gut and keeping your digestive microflora healthy not only aids your digestion but also ensures your immune system is working properly. These two systems are directly linked. When you throw off the balance of good versus bad bacteria in your gut, such as when you are sick or when you are taking antibiotics, you need to help your body replenish the friendly bacteria in your system. Eating probiotics can restore this balance, which creates a barrier against harmful microbes.

Probiotics and Antibiotics

When you take antibiotics to treat an infection, you not only eliminate the bad bacteria that are making you sick but also the healthy, beneficial bacteria that can make you well. When you take probiotics during and after using antibiotics, you are helping to restore the natural gut microflora that your body needs quickly. This also can help increase the effectiveness of antibiotics, which can help you feel better faster and require fewer and smaller doses of antibiotics in the future.

Probiotic-Rich Foods

Foods that are cultured or fermented are good sources of probiotics, as bacteria are what create their flavor and texture. Examples of foods that are high in probiotics include cultured yogurt, miso, tempeh, kefir, buttermilk, sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, and nattō. While some of these foods have bacteria which grow naturally, some include bacteria that are adding during the preparation process. These foods and beverages contain one or more of the following strains of probiotics:

Lactobacillus acidophilus
Lactobacillus casei
Bifidobacterium bifidum
Lactobacillus bulgaricus
Lactobacillus gasseri
Saccharomyces boulardii
Lactobacillus plantarum
Bifidobacterium lactis
Enterococcus faecium
Bifidobacterium longum

Adding probiotics to your diet is one health move you can make to improve your health. These foods contain beneficial bacteria your body needs to fend off unwanted visitors. Help your body today by including probiotics in your next meal or snack.

Eating Probiotics

You can also be sure the bacteria in your system have plenty of fuel by feeding them a high-fiber diet. The fermentable fiber in fresh vegetables, fruits, flax, and chia seeds are perfect for giving probiotics the food they need to maintain your healthy bacteria levels.

In addition to eating foods that contain probiotics, you can create an environment that is supportive of the healthy bacteria in your body. You can start by altering the pH of your digestive system by eating more sour foods. Fermented vegetables and vinegars contain small amounts of probiotic, but their acid content is the most powerful part of their benefits. They contribute to a gut environment that allows probiotics to flourish.

Supporting a Probiotic Environment

Any food that claims to have probiotics should contain at least one of the strains listed here. This is also true for probiotic supplements, so always read the label if you are in doubt. And it’s always a good idea to muscle test your supplements before you buy them to make sure you are purchasing something that will provide the best benefit for your body. If you don’t know how to muscle test, we can help you with that.

In addition to eating foods that contain probiotics, you can create an environment that is supportive of the healthy bacteria in your body. You can start by altering the pH of your digestive system by eating more sour foods. Fermented vegetable and vinegars contain small amounts of probiotic, but their acid content is the most powerful part of their benefit. They contribute to a gut environment that allows probiotics to flourish.

October 25, 2018 By BalanceYourPower

Challenge Your Body and Beliefs

How Often Do You Challenge Your Body

In order to improve we need to challenge ourselves. Having challenges involves setting new goals or changing our old goals so that we always have more to do. But how often do you challenge yourself? How often should you challenge yourself? How do you determine challenge?

How often we challenge ourselves should depend on how great a challenge we set for ourselves. Pushing ourselves a little bit every day can be good, and so can pushing yourself to the max from time to time. But, if you push yourself to your limits every day, you might not be giving your body enough time to recover.

Challenging Your Muscles

This is especially true for weight lifting and resistance training. When we use our muscles, acids can build up in our blood, which leads to that burning feeling. Muscle fibers can also undergo wear and tear. Both of these things are healthy and normal parts of exercising, but if we don’t give our blood time to flush out that waste, or our muscles enough time to repair those fibers, we can harm our bodies.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) advises against working out the same muscle group more than three times per week for beginners, four times per week for intermediate athletes, and six times per week for advanced athletes.

While you shouldn’t challenge the same muscle group every day, you can still challenge yourself every day by only working out one or two muscle groups every day and alternating days for each exercise.

The ACSM also has recommendations for how to challenge yourself. With a partner, a coach, or a spotter, find a weight or resistance that only allows you to successfully complete and exercise once. This establishes your “1 Rep Maximum.” As a beginner, you should be lifting no more than 75 percent to 80 percent of your 1 Rep Max, though advanced athletes may go for as much as 80 percent to 100 percent.

Challenging Your Heart

Your biceps aren’t everything. To be completely healthy you also need to exercise muscles that people don’t see – like your heart. The American Heart Association recommends half an hour of intermediate cardio five days per week, or half that much time if you’re doing rigorous exercise, which is discussed below.

Unlike with weight lifting and resistance training, there doesn’t seem to be a point of diminishing returns on aerobic exercise. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute recommends that for a real challenge you can do as much as 300 minutes of aerobic exercise per week, but also say that “the more active you are the more you will benefit” without placing an upper limit on that claim.

Just like with other muscle groups, there are actually ways to quantify whether or not you’re being challenged. Most of these recommendations involve percentages of your estimated maximum heart rate.

Most of us shouldn’t be going above 80 percent of our maximum heart rate. This is estimated by subtracting your age from 220.

So, if you are thirty years old, your maximum heartrate is probably around 190, so you shouldn’t be doing anything that brings your heartrate above around 150. In order to challenge yourself and get the benefit of exercise, however, you should probably be going above or around 60 percent of your estimated maximum heart rate. For that same thirty-year-old that would be around 114, or roughly twice the average resting heart rate.

There are easier metrics though: If you can sing a song while exercising, you’re probably doing intermediate difficulty or less. If you have trouble talking while exercising, you’re probably doing more rigorous exercise.

Challenging Your Emotions and Beliefs

Are you living in a perpetual state of stress? Is your lifestyle good for your health? Is your job a place to recharge or a place you hate? Do you enjoy your life? Are you living the life you’ve chosen?

You ARE good enough. You have the RIGHT to choose your lifestyle. You have the means to live a happy life. If any of those statements made you stop in disbelief, I challenge you to explore the underlying emotions and the belief system you’ve created that is not serving you and is not allowing you to live your best life.

YOU HAVE THE CHOICE. When you’re ready to take the first step toward your new life, schedule a session and see what’s possible.

October 22, 2018 By BalanceYourPower

Natural Remedies for Fatigue

Skip The Energy And Caffeine Drinks: 8 Natural Remedies For Fatigue

Have you been feeling exhausted or lethargic lately?

If so, you are probably experiencing fatigue. When you are fatigued, you are both physically and mentally drained. Daily tasks that were once so easy to perform can now feel like you are trying to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

There are many different reasons why fatigue may occur. Some of them include depression, lack of sleep, illness, over stimulation, and mental stress. No matter what the reason, here are a few natural remedies that can give you the energy boost you need without the crash later.

#1 – Eat a Good Breakfast

When you wake up in the morning one of the first things you should do is eat breakfast. As you have heard so many times before, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. When you eat breakfast, your energy levels get a boost. It is this boost that can help you perform your daily tasks more efficiently.

When you skip breakfast, you put yourself at risk for a variety of health problems. Even if it’s something quick, make breakfast a part of your everyday routine. Try to keep your meal around 300 calories.

#2 – Eat More Broccoli

Broccoli is a superfood that can help prevent stress and fatigue. It contains dietary fiber that can help reduce the amount of adrenal damage caused by stress and fatigue. The result is a better-controlled blood sugar level and less glucose being metabolized in the body.

Broccoli is also able to help eliminate the fat that is often found in the midriff area. Fat in the midriff area causes the hormone cortisol to increase in your body. When this happens, you gain weight. By eating broccoli, you will be able to reduce insulin resistance and improve the metabolism of blood sugar.

#3 – Get Plenty of Rest

Never underestimate the power of sleep. In order for your body and mind to function the right way, you need to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep every single night. Having a proper sleeping pattern is a key step to preventing fatigue. When you get plenty of rest your will feel rejuvenated and ready for the day. When you don’t get enough rest, you will feel very sluggish and unable to focus.

#4 – Have a Little Lemon Balm

This perennial herb is used to treat a variety of different ailments. The chemicals it contains have a very calming effect. When you are calm your level of mental fatigue is significantly lowered. For best results mix lip balm with nettle, raspberry leaf, oat tops, ginger, and licorice. Consume this fatigue fighting mixture at least 3 times a day and you may be able to completely eliminate fatigue.

#5 – Take a Nice, Warm Salt Bath

Salt baths are great for helping you release your fatigue. Just take a little salt and add it to a tub of lukewarm water. Sit in the salt water for about 10 minutes. Allow your body to relax as the salt massages your pores. Never let your face or hair get in the salt water. Tie your hair up and submerge yourself in the water from the neck down.

# 6 – Drink a Glass of Wine

All the wine lovers out there will love this remedy. When it comes to getting rid of fatigue all you may need is a glass of wine.

Take 1 liter of your favorite red wine and mix it with the following ingredients:

25gm of sage
25gm of rosemary
2 tsps. of honey

Find a glass container and mix in the wine, rosemary, and sage.

Put the glass container in a pot of boiling hot water for 20 minutes.

Remove the container, strain the liquid, and add in the honey.

Let it cool off a bit and enjoy. It is the perfect way to end a long day.

#7 – Consume Rose Petals

Rose petals are known for their ability to help combat depression and tension. Generally speaking, both are a direct result of mental fatigue. Get 20 to 30 rose petals and mix them in a glass of water. Boil the mixture for about 15 minutes. Once it has cooled down you will need to store it in an airtight container. Have a glass up to 3 times a day and feel your fatigue melt away.

#8 – Add Spinach To Your Diet

If you have chronic fatigue, consuming spinach is one of the better natural remedies. Spinach is a nutrient-rich food. The folate it contains helps fight chronic fatigue. Spinach also provides your body with other nutrients that give it energy and ward off fatigue.

For best results, consider having spinach at least once a day. You can eat it or drink it in a smoothie or juice. Look for recipe ideas so you can avoid burn out.

#9 – Bonus Tip

Muscle test your foods and nutritional supplements before you buy. Everyone’s body chemistry and tolerance level is different, and even the best quality food or supplement available isn’t a perfect fit for everyone on the planet. You may be missing a vitamin or mineral that is available in the produce or spice section of your local grocery store. It’s always a good idea to check in with your body to see what it needs. If you don’t trust your muscle testing, or if you’d just prefer someone else do that for you, we should talk.

October 19, 2018 By BalanceYourPower

Exercise After 50

Exercise After 50: What You Should Be Doing

Many people get exercise wrong as they age. Why? Because they often stop altogether. This is one of the worst things you can do to your body, especially at a time when exercise is needed more than ever.

The aging process speeds up breakdown of muscle and connective tissue, and can leave you immobile – especially if you sit there and do nothing about it!

Already over 50? No problem, you can still take action to help prevent an unfortunate outcome. Read on to discover what exercises you should consider incorporating into your fitness plan.

Aerobics

Aerobics, also known as cardio or cardiovascular exercise, is important at any point of life, but more so as we get older. Aerobic exercise plays an important part in maintaining the health of various organs, including the heart, lungs, and brain.

Though there are many different types of aerobic exercise, you should probably start with low-impact to protect your joints until you get ready to handle more.

Some to consider:

Walking
Swimming
Cycling (including stationary bikes)
Jogging
Dancing

Strength Training

Many people associate strength training with becoming a bodybuilder, but your body actually needs resistance to stay functional. People that weight train regularly have a greatly decreased risk of fractures, pain, and immobility typically caused by muscle atrophy.

You should consider basic strength training until you feel ready to add resistance. Added resistance is good, but do it only when you feel you are capable. Injury is a risk you don’t need to take to strengthen your body.

Some exercises to consider:

Squats
Bench presses
Push ups
Pull up/ assisted pull ups
Lat pull downs shoulder presses
Deadlifts / hyperextensions
Triceps presses
Dumbbell curls
Yoga
Pilates
Tai Chi

Flexibility Training

The single most underrated aspect of any training program is the flexibility component. It’s easy to overlook because you don’t see immediate physical changes, but in the long run it can greatly improve your ease of movement. Think of it as insurance – the insurance that safeguards you from possible immobility or injury. Flexibility training has numerous benefits on a body aged over 50, such as:

Decreased pain after training – One reason muscles and joints ache after a workout is because of an inability of muscles to elongate or stretch back out without placing undue stress on connective tissue.
It promotes balance – Loss of balance occurs frequently as we age due in large part to loss of muscle mass, but also because of stiff connective tissue. Flexibility training can significantly help you maintain balance as you age.

Include these in your flexibility training to reap the benefits:

Dynamic Stretches – These are stretches performed prior to your workout to get the muscle and connective tissue loose and ready for activity. This significantly helps to reduce the risk of injury during an active workout.
Static Stretches – These are stretches performed after working out a muscle group, to relieve muscle tension. Static stretches help stretch the muscle fibers and reduce pain after your workout.

Conclusion

A complete plan should include aspects from each of the exercise types mentioned above to maintain the integrity of joints, heart, and muscles. Staying mobile will help extend your high level of health and quality of life as you age. If you have physical pain that prevents you from beginning an exercise routine, talk to your doctor for suggestions. You can also set up an exploration session – maybe we can figure out why your body is sending you the pain signal and restore balance to that area so the pain signal can go away. Then you can exercise and enjoy it without pain!

October 9, 2018 By BalanceYourPower

Dehydration

The Health Consequences Of Dehydration

Water is considered a panacea for sustaining life as well as promoting health. You should drink at least eight glasses each day to replenish your body’s reserves and to prevent dehydration.

Dehydration can lead to a series of health issues. These complications occur as toxins and pollutants collect in the body when they aren’t appropriately “flushed” out of the system.

Side Effects Associated With Mild to Moderate Dehydration

When water is not regularly consumed, contaminants build up. These contaminants can cause illness or heath issues. People may complain of fatigue, digestive disturbances, headaches, pimples, dry skin, dry hair, or insomnia.

Severe Side Effects

While thirst, tiredness, dry mouth, dry skin, constipation, or lightheadedness may make up moderate symptoms, severe dehydration symptoms can include:

Rapid heartbeat
Shriveled inelastic skin
Dry mouth and mucous membranes
Extreme irritability
Confusion
Low blood pressure
Little or no urination
Sunken eyes
Rapid breathing
Fever

Check The Color Of The Urine

Thirst is not an accurate or reliable gauge if the body needs water. You can tell if you require more water by observing your urine’s color. While light-colored or clear urine means you are taking in enough water, urine that is dark yellow is a signal that you are not consuming enough H20. If you are observant, you can check your skin. If you can muscle test, you can immediately determine your hydration level.

Emergency Measures

If you are suffering mild to moderate hydration, increase your fluid intake by consuming Powerade or Gatorade besides water. These sports drinks contain electrolytes that can replenish what dehydration has taken away.

Immediate medical care is advised if you are suffering extreme thirst or feel dizzy or confused. If an older adult or child cannot keep fluids down, is disoriented, or has diarrhea, fever, or vomiting, either go the nearest emergency room or dial 911.

A “Nutrient” That Cannot Be Ignored

Both children and adults should drink plenty of water before and after exercise, or consume sports drinks like Gatorade that replace lost electrolytes. Water is a “nutrient” that cannot be ignored when it comes to good health. This is especially important when exercising because sweating removes water from our bodies and at this time, hydration is of utmost importance. Oral rehydration solutions can be given in the form of Pedialyte to ensure that dehydration does not become severe.

Make Sure You Are Getting Enough Water

In order to ensure you are getting enough water, also make it a practice to consume foods such as citrus, watermelon, tomatoes, and cantaloupe. Vegetables that help hydration include celery, greens, and lettuce.

Foods That Lead To Dehydration

While vomiting and diarrhea are the main causes of dehydration in people suffering from the flu or other illness, certain everyday foods can lead to dehydration too. If you are already mildly dehydrated, avoid the following foods:

French fries
Cured meats
Coffee (a natural diuretic)
Soy Sauce
Bouillon cubes
Soft drinks
Alcohol

Any sugary drink can lead to dehydration. So even if you think you are replenishing your system with that sugary cola, you are probably doing more harm than good.

Balancing Out Your Electrolytes

While consuming a small amount of soy sauce will not cause you undue problems, consuming an excess quantity can result in an electrolyte imbalance known as hypernatremia.

In fact, replacing one’s electrolytes can improve any health problems that stem from dehydration. That’s why sports drinks such as Gatorade are sometimes recommended for someone suffering from early dehydration symptoms.

Stay Adequately Hydrated Throughout The Day

Make it a point to get enough water each day. You can’t count that daily Starbucks in your liquid count, nor can you include that sugary soft drink you got out of the vending machine during your lunch break. H20 is still the best source for your hydration needs.

Healthy Substitutes

If you don’t like to drink plain water, choose a flavored water instead. Or find a good herbal tea with no caffeine (the caffeine acts as a diuretic and can contribute to dehydration). Juice, such as apple juice, cran-apple juice, or V8 are also healthy substitutes.

Be careful of additives, though. Steer clear of anything containing aspartame and other manufactured sugar substitutes, as they are foreign to the human body and have been shown to cause extreme health issues. Stick with natural sweeteners such as stevia, truvia, mung fruit, etc.

Vitamin water and various flavored water products have recently hit the market and can be a good alternative for those who really don’t like to drink plain water. However, keep in mind that some contain added sugars, so check the labels.

Read the label, and if you can’t pronounce the ingredients you should look for a cleaner, more natural alternative that will not introduce other toxins that can create new problems your body will have to process and handle. The fewer ingredients, the better. You want to drink water, not chemicals.

Final Thoughts

Make sure you are drinking enough water every day. Keep a container of H20 with you so you have it when you need it. Muscle test your hydration level or check the color of your urine regularly to make sure you are rehydrating properly. If you don’t know how to muscle test or don’t trust your muscle testing, we should talk.