In this month’s newsletter:
This month we are excited to welcome a new health provider to Thrive, share recipes, info on fascia, prolonged sitting, white vs. brown rice, and a great perspective on acute illness. We look forward to serving you, your family and friends. Please contact us with any questions or comments.
Health Coach Zach Now Seeing Clients at Thrive Chiropractic
In a newsletter last year, I introduced you to Zach Franke, Health Coach Zach. I’m excited to announce that Zach is now operating at our location. I encourage you to check out his website. Zach offers complimentary initial consultations to decide if his services would be good for you. From Zach’s website:
I assure you, getting healthy is not as hard or as terrible as most people think. The problem is, the vast majority of us have never been shown what to do, how to do it, when to do it, why to do it, etc…
This is something that I am out to change.
It’s why I decided to quit my corporate job to pursue my passion and it’s why I want to help YOU achieve what you’ve never thought possible for yourself: TRUE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS.
Here’s a little secret: It is possible and it isn’t as difficult to achieve as the rest of the world (magazines, talk shows, diet books, doctors, news outlets, food companies, etc…) would like to make it out to be.
It’s time to take control of your health, and I’d love to help you do it.
Your personalized program will radically improve your health and happiness. Together, we will explore concerns specific to you and your body and discover the tools you need for a lifetime of balance.
As a client of my health coaching program, you will…
- set and accomplish goals in a way that is empowering and exciting
- work to achieve and maintain your ideal weight
- understand and reduce your cravings
- increase your energy levels
- feel great in your body
- learn about new foods and how you can easily incorporate them
- improve your personal relationships
- discover the confidence to create the life you want
Your program includes…
- two 50-minute sessions per month
- e-mail support between sessions
- recipes that are healthy and simple to prepare
- coaching and support to help you make the dietary and lifestyle changes you want
- simple but informative handouts that will increase your nutrition knowledge
- access to my monthly newsletter with the latest health tips and recipes
- my personal commitment to your health and success
To decide if health coaching is right for you, I would highly recommend you schedule a free initial consultation with me. During this session, we will discuss your health and lifestyle to determine how I can best support you in achieving your goals. Plus, they are pretty fun!
White Rice Versus Brown Rice: Which is the Healthier Option?
Several years ago I discovered the Weston A Price Foundation and Nourishing Traditions. I learned that some whole grains and brown rice actually contained enzymes in the outer part of the plant that made them HARDER for us to digest. Think of it as natural protection mechanism for these plants. This organization and the authors recommended soaking certain grains and legumes to deactivate the enzymes that impair digestion. Makes sense, right?
Recently, I read a blog post from a nutritionist, Mike Kesthely. He cites two studies that show white rice to be a better option than brown rice in terms of nutrient availability (zinc), protein digestibility and nitrogen balance. He also points out that we should not count on our dense carbohydrate foods (rice, potatoes, etc) to be major contributors of vitamins and minerals. Our fats, proteins, and vegetables typically supply much higher percentages of these nutrients.
I now will include white rice in my diet. If I have a recipe with brown or wild rice, I soak first. I do find my digestion to be easier using these methods, compared to standard use of brown rice. Have you noticed any differences in your digestion or your responses to different ways of preparing rice?
Prolonged Sitting? Help Yourself!
How many hours each day are you sitting? The answer to this question could have a greater negative impact on your health than you might expect. Check out this informative graphic.
Beyond a sore neck or back, prolonged sitting affects many aspects of our health:
- Foggy brain function due to decreased circulation
- Higher incidence of heart disease
- Less flexibility in the spine; more pain and higher incidence of herniated discs
- Weaker bones and conditions such as osteoporosis
- Poor circulation in the legs; varicose veins
- Weak abdominal and butt muscles, tight hips
- Negative effects on the pancreas and insulin production
- Take brief, yet important breaks every 15 to 30 minutes while you sit. Stand, bend, stretch, walk or move in some way for even 20 seconds.
- Begin to use some new yoga and postural stretches like cat/cow, child’s pose and hip openers.
- Use a standing desk part of the day. Sit on an exercise ball for intervals during your day.
- Insure you are moving and exercising regularly when not at work.
- Plan ‘walking meetings’ whenever possible with co-workers.
- Chiropractic adjustments
Here’s a good way to eat your greens when it’s cold outside and you crave heartier, warm food to stoke your body’s furnace. Thanks to The Paleo Mom for this quick and easy hot salad recipe.
- 1½ Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
- 2 cups kale, chopped
- 3 cups fresh spinach
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- 2 Tbsp sliced almonds
- 1-2 Tbsp water
- Heat coconut oil in a skillet (cast iron works well here) over medium-high heat.
- Add kale with 1 Tbsp water. Cook, stirring frequently, until kale has softened, 3-4 minutes.
- Add cranberries and continue to cook 2-3 more minutes.
- Add spinach. If the kale is starting to stick, also add another Tbsp of water. Stir and cook until spinach is wilted. Stir in almonds.
- Serve!
Check out this fascinating article about fascia. For years the role and importance of fascia has been overlooked. The main points of the article include:
1. Fascia is a tensional fluid system.
2. Variation matters.
3. It’s all connected.
4. Its springiness wants to help you out.
5. It is the largest and richest sensory organ of the body.
Some excerpts of the piece:
In anatomy-speak we describe all muscles as having an origin and an insertion. So for example, the gastrocnemius muscle (our most superficial calf muscle) originates on the lateral and medial condyles of the femur (thigh) bone, and inserts on the calcaneus (heel bones), via the Achilles tendon. It makes it sound like it is taped or stapled to be “attached” at its origin and insertion points – like it’s this separate thing that gets stuck onto other separate things.
A more clear and true to human anatomy description would be that the gastrocnemius becomes the Achilles tendon (by weaving more densely until muscle becomes tendon) and that then becomes the calcaneus bone (by weaving more densely until tendon becomes bone).
I am not just trying to belabor anatomy semantics. This is important because it gives us a handier understanding of how you just plain can’t have something “happen” to one part of the body and not have it affect every other “part” of your body, albeit in varying degrees of intensity. Often in the fascia-geek worlds we’ll use the example of wearing a tightly knit sweater. If you tug on one end of that sweater, you see the tug travel long distance to other ends of the sweater. For athletes, this brings the dreaded domino effect into a clearer perspective.
New Location for Our Friends at Flourish Massage and Bodywork
New Location:
309 Artillery Park Drive, Suite 101
Fort Mitchell, KY 41017
[email protected]
www.flourishmassage.com
ph: 859 445 9570
Our friends at Flourish Massage and Bodywork have a great new location and you’re invited to an event to celebrate…
Come celebrate with us the opening to our New Location! After 5 years of working with our partner Modo Yoga, We decided to move our practice to better serve your needs. Same great therapists, same exit but expect beautiful rooms in a convenient, serene and intimate location only 3 minutes away from our previous one.
Save the Date!
Friday February 21st 2014
Ribbon Cutting & Opening Party
Free Chair Massage – Appetizers & Refreshments – Lots of Fun
4-6pm: Ribbon cutting with the NKY Chamber of Commerce
6-9pm: After Party & Meet our Therapists and Partners
New Client? Opening Discount & Referral! Receive 20% OFF any 60 or 90mins therapeutic massages if you are a New Client to our practice & Receive $10 on your account for referring a friend or family member! Give us a call at 859 445 9570 to learn more.
Valentine’s Special! Any occasion is great but this one specifically, so don’t hesitate to ask what Flourish can do for you and your Valentine! Couples Massage, Aromatherapy, Beauty Products and much more.
Could Acute Illnesses and Infections be ‘Housecleanings’?
Dr. Philip Incao wrote a wonderful article that empowers us with a real understanding of what happens when we feel ‘sick’ and how best to help ourselves feel better. Consider this excerpt from the article:
If we understand the illness to be a housecleaning, then these concerns are very much minimized. “Your immune system is doing a good job—you will soon bring this healthy, much-needed housecleaning to a successful conclusion” is what a physician of the housecleaning persuasion might say.
If we believe the illness to be an attack of hostile predatory microbes, then physician and patient are both anxious to get rid of the symptoms along with the nasty microbes we mistakenly assume are causing the symptoms. As we saw earlier, the immune system, not the microbes, causes the symptoms. The microbes, however, are an important stimulus which provokes the immune system to react, causing symptoms of acute inflammatory illness. Therefore, when we kill or inhibit the microbes with antibiotics, we inhibit the immune system at the same time. This inhibits the inflammatory symptoms that belong to an active working immune system, creating the illusion that we have healed the illness when in reality we have suppressed the symptoms and interfered with the immune system’s work before its job was done. This is a suppression, not a healing, and it is crucial to understand the difference between the two.