Tag: Yoga

Categories
Health Nutrition

The Secret of Maintaining a Slim Figure

I think in the US we’re led to believe that some women across the world naturally stay slim and it’s genetic. Unfortunately, to those of us born in the states, our genes must have mutated and now we all carry the fat gene. Can that really be true, even if our ancestors hailed from these magical lands of effortlessly slim people?

Of course it’s not true.

No one’s genes mutated. What changed are our daily habits and what’s considered normal here in the states versus abroad.

1) Walking- people in places who walk more stay healthier

2) fruits/vegetables/meat/fish – yes people in France and Italy love bread and desserts but it’s quality over quantity.

I read “French Women Don’t Get Fat” in college and it really changed the way I view food. It’s not our enemy but our life long love affair. We must eat to survive and we can choose to love the food we make.

3) We don’t eat enough soup- many cultures value eating soup for a meal or for a weekend to slim down after a particularly voracious week of eating.

4) Less soda, beer, and empty calories

5) Movement beyond Walking- walking is a part of daily life to get from point A to point B. On Google maps, you can choose a car, bus, or walk! That’s right, even Google maps considers walking a mode of transportation.

Therefore to maintain an ideal shape you must walk and put in some effort a couple of days a week with either light resistance weights, yoga, pilates, etc….

That’s it, it’s not a big secret. Unfortunately, we don’t want to give up our bad habits and we would rather take a short cut. Short cuts don’t last and on and on yo yo dieting goes.

The fitness industry has to be a 10 billion dollar industry these days, maybe more ?

If it worked so well then why are there new methods every day? Doesn’t make sense to me.

Categories
Fitness Health

Yoga for Back Pain

I wanted to write a quick post for people who are interested in using yoga for back pain.

Yoga in and of itself a great practice and one in which I regularly participate.

I find the breathing exercises, synchronizing my movement to the breath and the overall toning/stretching benefits to be very helpful.

One movement that we often do in yoga is the baby cobra or up-dog. When most people have back pain they are experiencing a disc issue, a spinal misalignment causing pressure on a nerve, tight muscles pressing on nerves, or possible spinal stenosis.

Often I find, that people have the mindset of ‘no pain no gain’, STOP! This might be true for high schoolers in football practice who would rather play video games than run a mile but this not true when it comes to spinal pain. In fact, this mindset can actually lead to real problems.

As a chiropractor, I would be remiss to not tell you that you need a spinal check and that includes x-rays. You need to know exactly what the problem is before you can start forcing your way to health.

One reason, I love yoga is that from my first class a good instructor will always tell you, if it hurts then slow down, modify or take a child’s pose. This means that you should not just push through the pain.

For my weekend warriors this might be disappointing but I’m here to tell you that too much of a good thing is still too much.

Or if you already have back pain and you think now is a good time to try something totally new like yoga, think again.

You need to get to the root cause of the problem and then you can heal it in the most effective way possible.

Throwing yoga at it, as if that is going to make up for all your years of not exercising and not stretching is not necessarily going to be good for you.

Back to baby cobra versus up-dog. Many people who try yoga for the first time in the hopes of fixing their back pain jump right into up-dog but this is way too much lumbar extension if you have a back issue.

Instead, baby cobra is a widely used physical therapy exercise for back issues. I use this as an example, not medical advice to show you that while you may have good intentions for yourself, you simply don’t know which exercises are safe and which could lead to more problems.

I highly encourage you to go to someone who is trained in yoga therapy or have a one on one with a certified yoga instructor and tell them you are in pain!

They need to help you to find out what is appropriate for you in the muscle, tendon and ligament scene before you just pop in a DVD or join a class.

Blocks and straps are also helpful tools to help you to get into and out of poses safely so you don’t hurt yourself. Again, a good teacher can help you to avoid falling or injuring yourself by teaching you how to use these aids.

Everyone wants you to enjoy yoga for it’s lifelong benefits and you can’t do that if you get hurt at your first class and then swear it off because it didn’t work for you.

Morgan

Resources:

If you’re going to use a yoga DVD, at least look for one that is for people with issues like the one below. As an Amazon affiliate I earn a small commission from any purchase made through these links.

Categories
Health Uncategorized

Morning Gratitude

Gratitude is the practice of thinking about all the people, opportunities and material wealth that you have been blessed with. It’s not always easy when there is much negativity surrounding you to keep a positive mental attitude. If you start a simple practice of morning gratitude it will transform your life from the inside out.

What To Do:

When you wake up each day, start by keeping your eyes closed and mentally go through all the people who help you every day, your parents, your kids, coworkers, staff members and thank each person individually and be specific about why they are important to you.

Next go through your material possessions like house, apartment, clothes, food, and be sure to be thankful all of the extras that you don’t need to survive but you have anyways.

Finally, go through all of the opportunities you’ve had recently. Maybe you were able to continue working or you took a trip. Sometimes it’s the small opportunities we can be most grateful for.

Gratitude is the quickest way to success fast. If you are at home googling how to make money fast from home or how to be more successful in 2021 then try adding this free and easy method to your morning practice. It will take you about 10 minutes at the most and you will feel so much better.

Not to mention, it helps to start hard wiring your brain body connection to look for these opportunities. You’ll start seeing more good people to connect with, more business opportunities, more ways to make more money.

It’s a skill that we develop when we want to move ahead and succeed, when we want to make money online or make more money for 2021 we need to begin within by creating the environment.

If this all sounds a little far fetched for you then you have nothing to lose but pride. We could all benefit from a little less pride. Work on first being open to making these changes and committing a few days a week for the rest of the month to morning gratitude.

Trust me it’s better than spending the morning reading the news or worrying about something that will probably never happen.