Tag: health pulse

Seasonal Cleansing, Get The Spring Back into your step.

Posted on by Shelli Thompson

images-1Kapha season is late winter and early spring, time for seasonal cleansing.

At that time of year our Kapha energy is more likely to go out of balance. Kapha is immobile and stable and strong. During the late winter Kapha tends to accumulate, we become less active and many times we crave comfort foods which tend to be Kapha-genic. This is usually a time that suggests it’s time for seasonal cleansing.

With spring comes a shift in the weather and it becomes time to rid our bodies of excess Kapha. In order to do that we plan some seasonal cleansing (ridding ourself of excess Earth and water elements in order to avoid imbalance).

Ayurveda provides a nourishing and effective approach to seasonal cleansing of the body that seeks to balance and restore harmony to the system.

Ayurvedic Suggestions for Seasonal Cleansing:

Drink lots of water and shift your diet to lighter fare. What we eat has the greatest overall impact on our health and Most Americans get less than half the required amount of fiber-needed daily.

Ayurveda suggests a diet that support the bodies natural purification systems. Including complete servings of fiber and protein in order to stave off hunger between meals. Herbs and spices are used to help detoxify and cleanse the body as well as make the foods tastier.

What are some signs that you need Seasonal Cleansing?

  •  Crave Junk food and sugar but have a poor appetite
  • You notice it takes longer to feel hungry after a meal
  • You find yourself eating  large portions
  • Feeling heavy, congested or constipated
  • Bloating and gas cause discomfort
  • Feeling tired with little energy
  • Mind feels a little foggy and “spaced out”
  • Lack of motivation.

What is the first thing you need to do when preparing for a seasonal cleanse?

The first thing is to remove the foods that create sludge or Ama in the system such as foods with preservatives and additives, junk food, sugar, cheese, deep fried foods, carbonated drinks and left overs. These may be things that you normally do not consume but you may have found that some of them have snuck into your diet.

Do not eat raw foods, they are harder to digest and we are trying to cleanse the system. Foods that are cooked are partially digested since digestion is our systems way of cooking. Eat plenty of cooked vegetables and eat fresh fruits (ripened fruit is not considered raw as the ripening process is the plants way of “cooking” the fruit until it is done).

Eat foods that are whole, fresh and organic as much as possible and make sure you are eating according to your dosha. When we eat according to our dosha it makes the food easier to digest for each of us individually.  Make sure and eat your cooked food warm and drink only warm or hot water.

Tea is a great way to help detoxify your body. Boil equal parts of coriander, cumin, fennel and ajwain, take it from the heat and let it set for about 20 minutes to seep. Drink the tea throughout the day, make fresh tea every day.

For seasonal cleansing the best vegetables are cabbage, celery and cilantro, and fresh ginger, and lemon are excellent herbs to assist the system your detox.

Get plenty of rest because a rested body will digest and assimilate the foods more effectively. Exercise is very important as it will increase your metabolic levels, help sweat out toxins and increase energy levels.

Using healthy oils on your skin and in your diet will help to loosen toxins embedded deep in the layers of the bodily tissues. Generally coconut oil for Pitta and Sesame oil for Kapha and Pitta.

Regular elimination is also important when seasonal cleansing, including lots of vegetables and fresh fruits in your diet will help such as cooked apples and pears, prunes, pomegranates and pineapple.

Within a week you will feel the fog lift and you will feel more energetic, as you continue you will feel lighter and release weight. When you began you may have been craving your old lifestyle, after a while you will wonder why you would ever want to go back to unhealthy eating again.

 

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What’s For Dinner?

Posted on by Shelli Thompson

images-3In our fast paced world with all of the conveniences at our fingertips it’s hard to imagine having enough time to actually cook a nutritious meal that doesn’t have some ingredient that is processed. Many recipe’s today include opening a can of this or a box of that. I may be a cooking snob but when I see these things I usually discard the recipe unless I can make the ingredient fresh.

The media helps us in this thinking that we need nothing but convenience when it comes to our meals. I love the Olympics so I dusted off the TV and turned it on and really enjoyed the stories of the athletes and their competitions. What I didn’t enjoy is the bombardment of the media and their convenience foods. The Mom talking about how “toasted” she is at the end of the day so she stops by KFC and gets her family a meal.

I was thinking now she isn’t only toasted she’s fried too!!

With a little bit of planning it is not difficult to cook healthy meals with nutritious single ingredient simple foods. The best place to start is on the weekend, this is a great time to plan the weeks meals and strategize about how to make it more simple and convenient. Planning ahead will guarantee you will have all ingredients at hand and any prepping can be done ahead of time.

Todays meal is Cajun Chicken Gumbo so I planned ahead.
This take about 7 hours to cook in a slow cooker so the best part about it is that you put everything together and leave it. When you get home, dinner is cooked.

Last night because we had a planned out meal it was simple to chop up the onions, peppers, celery and garlic and seal it up in the fridge. Then this morning I took 15 minutes to make my roux and cook my sausage at the same time and drain. A small amount of Italian sausage is the only processed item in this recipe, Gumbo just isn’t the same without it. When it is pre-cooked and drained it is much healthier than cooking it in the gumbo like most recipe’s call for.

Another thing that I do for convenience is that I can organic chicken breast meat in jars. It is amazing for quick meals where chicken is called for. I only use it if time is an issue or there is no chicken on hand, it is an amazing time saver. I will go through the steps for you so you can learn how to can your own chicken in an upcoming blog but for now lets stick to the gumbo.

Shelli’s Cajun Chicken Sausage Gumbo:

1/3 cup Flour
1/3 cup Canola oil/ cooking oil
3 cup Water
12 OZ Cooked Italian Sausage
1 1/2 cup Cooked Shredded Chicken
1 cup Onion chopped
3/4 cup Sweet Green Pepper chopped
1/2 cup Celery chopped
6 cloves Garlic minced
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red peppers
3 cups cooked rice

Prep time 30 minutes
Cook time 7 hours

DSC_0174

 

To make roux: combine oil and flour in pan, cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes stirring constantly until it is a rich dark reddish brown color like the photo, set aside and let it cool (hint: take if off the heat before it is to the finish point and it will finish as the pan cools, make sure and stir it occasionally)
Cook and drain the sausage and cook and shred the chicken (or open a jar of home canned chicken)
Chop all vegetables.DSC_0176
Add 3 cups of water to a pan, add the roux, it will look like the photo

 

Add the sausage, chicken and vegetables and let it simmer all day.
When you get home it will be done. Serve over rice. it’s delicious!

 

Because dinner was so easy tonight, you can plan for tomorrows meal and prepare anything that needs to be chopped ahead of time.

A great hint if you don’t have a timer on your crock pot is to buy one for the wall and plug the crock pot into that, set the time for 7 hours and head off to work.

There is no substitute for fresh locally grown food that is cooked freshly delicious.

Bon Appetite!

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Lower Cholesterol Naturally

Posted on by Shelli Thompson

 

Are you one of the 255 million people a year filling prescriptions to the tune of 19 billion dollars annually? This is just in the United States alone. Many do this instead of looking for ways to lower cholesterol naturally.

What do you know about the drugs you are currently taking? Are you aware of all the side effects? Some of them you can’t even feel.

I like to ask people, “What Do You Know About Pharmaceuticals?”

Let’s take a moment to take a look at statins for instance.  Over the age of 45 years 1 in 4 americans take statins. That’s 25% of the population, that’s incredible.  In fact it horrifies me that some doctors think this is a “miracle drug”.  They joke that they would like to see it injected into the water supply. The only problem I see is that statement is it’s NOT funny. We should find ways to

lower cholesterol naturally.

I was surprised to find out statins are routinely prescribed for people over 45.  Some of whom only have a slim chance of developing heart disease. I decided to educate myself on the side effects.  It concerns me because my parents take statins.

First I wanted to look at the risk reduction and I was surprised to find that taking statins only lowered the POSSIBILITY of having a heart attack by 25% to 30%.  The fact is that long term users are 50% more likely to develop diabetes.  Another reason to

lower cholesterol naturally.

What Are You Doing To You?

In my mind the pro’s do not out weigh the cons.  I decided to continue digging and this is what I found.

Statins caused these side affects

Short term memory loss
depression
mood swings
liver disfunction
kidney failure
cataracts
muscle myopathy…..Chronic muscle pain.

Continue reading “Lower Cholesterol Naturally” →

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On Taking A Handful of Vitamins and Jumping Off A Cliff

Posted on by Shelli Thompson

 

No Choice but To give an Interview...=D

We all are comfortable in our routines, at our homes or at work. We do certain things to keep us comfortable, healthy and happy.

But what happens when you are away from home and out of your natural routine? It can be easy to ignore all of the little things that we are used to, like for instance 8 hours of sleep. Sometimes we completely loose our routine and we find our self out of whack.

You see when you allow this to happen, not only are you heading down hill to the “outta whack” place but it also takes time to come back from that place and all of that time reduces your productivity.

It is imperative that you bring some comforts of home with you when you are away, maybe some food that you are familiar with or it could be as simple as your pillow.

I had the pleasure of interviewing a friend of mine, Wayne Allyn Root. He talks about the ways he keeps him self in top notch condition and about his “healthy addictions” and how they work positively in his life.

The key here is that he refers to what he does as a habit. He has made a habit of having healthy, affirmative, positive things in his life and because it has become a habit, he doesn’t leave his habits behind when he leaves home. He continues to exercise, watch his nutrition, take his supplements, meditate and all of the other healthy habits he talks about in the video.  Make sure and check it out.

We had a wonderful day on the zip lines in Jamaica and we were all able to do that because we were all fit enough to go and we were all below the 250 pound weight limit. Not only that but we were all willing to try something new and adventurous, with terrific friends and I have to tell you there is nothing better for your health.

I really appreciate the time that Wayne took to talk about his healthy habits because as you can tell, He is a very busy person, he is generous with his time and such fun to hang out with.

Wayne is the economic advisor to Wealth Masters International and lends his name to that organization because he believes in what we are doing collectively, in addition to what he tells you on the video which is impressive all in itself.  He has written several books, his latest is Conscious of a libertarian and I suggest you pick it up and read it, it’s an eye opener.

Wayne is someone worth following so I suggest you find him on Face book and connect, he has some great things to say and he makes it his business to find out what is going on and keep all of us informed.

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Battle Brittle Bones

Posted on by Shelli Thompson
Click image for more information

Our bones are alive, in fact, your bones are continually remolding. The way you eat and exercise has a lot to do with the way your bones remold.

Collagen is a glue like substance made up of vitamin c and water and this makes up the structure of our body such as skin, bones, teeth, blood vessels, cartilage, tendons and ligaments so that includes all connective tissue in our body.

Calcium is a mineral that is stored in the bones so that it can be used whenever it is needed for many of our body’s vital functions. Our bones are made up of a combination of these two substances, Collagen and Calcium.

Our bones give off calcium and as they do that new bones are molded. The body always needs calcium so it will take it from your bones if the supply is low. This determines how the bones are remolded. Bones remolded with less calcium will tend to be brittle so eating a diet high in calcium is you first order of business.

As we get older bone production slows down. Our bones start loosing the ability to reshape new bones, over time the bones become less dense, brittle and more at danger of getting a fracture.

We have all hear of osteoporosis, that is the disease that accelerates the loss of bone tissue but natural aging is a culprit as well. Osteoporosis is most noticed by a humping over in the back, it can be slight or it can be quite severe.

The good news is that the rate of bone loss can be minimized by regular strength training. Lifting weights and Yes, that includes Pilates. During a mat work out you utilized your body weight for resistance and the equipment utilizes springs to allow for resistance.

Find out about resistance training, click here

The discipline of Pilates gives you the same benefits of a weight training. In addition to exercise make sure you get good amounts of calcium.

Study after study shows that you can slow the rate of bone loss just by walking and adding a resistance training to your exercise program along with good nutrition. Nobody wants to walk around with a stooped back or be susceptible to fractures.

The best thing to do is to build the bone density in your 20’s, 30’s and 40’s with exercise and good nutrition.

Did Joseph Pilates create the fountain of youth? You can be the judge of that but he did live a healthy life well into his 80’s. You too could grow old with Pilates, as us boomers get older it is more fashionable to grow old gracefully.

Find out more about Pilates by clicking here

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Impressive crowds at the Race for the Cure

Posted on by Shelli Thompson
Racing for the cure

We were so impressed by the crowds at this years Race for the Cure.

It was dark when I got up but I could see the sun coming up on the horizon and I knew it was going to be a beautiful day. Rain or shine we were on our way downtown Portland with 40,000 other people.

We put the harness and a race for the cure T shirt on our 100 pound Labrdoodle and headed to meet our team at the MAX tracks for our 7 AM train.

Lilee our Dog had never been on a Max train but she didn’t mind it at all, she likes people and seemed to have a pretty good time.

We got on the train at the end of the line, the farthest it goes from Portland. As we went along and made stops, more and more people continued to get on the train until the pup was just a little squished.

Finally the train stopped in downtown and we got off. The crowds were just as impressive off the train as on.

The Race for the Cure is always so much fun. Everyone there is celebrating life in general or in specific ways so the energy level is pretty intense.

I saw people meeting and hugging and crying, teams that were pretty “snazzed” up with silly costumes. beautiful balloons and other pets joining their masters on the walk. I saw a Cat and even a turtle in costume. (imagine that).

The crowds were overwhelming to say the least. When the race starts they actually seperate us up two main roads for about 6 or 7 blocks before both streets join, it is a complete sea of people where ever you look.

I watched the survivors come across the finish line and was totally amazed and inspired by what I saw. I saw women with only one breast or none. I saw survivors walking and in wheel chairs. I saw a survivor that was a Man. Then there were a few that didn’t look to be more than 20 years old. Everyone was happy and smiling. The support that was on the streets of Portland on Sunday September 20th 2009 was something that makes my heart swell with pride.

THEN I FOUND OUT WHY

PORTLAND HOLDS THE THIRD LARGEST RACE FOR THE CURE IN THE WORLD

reported by oregonian newspaper

We were honored to be a part of that celebration

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Yoga Feels good

Posted on by Shelli Thompson
Balance and Stretch click image to read more

Why Yoga feels so good.

Are you looking for a self-help treatment that you can give yourself? Look no farther than a local Yoga studio. Practicing Yoga regularly revitalizes every single part of the body right down to the cellular level. Nothing quite beats Yoga as a great source of natural health care.

There are many reasons to practice Yoga. Yoga grants physical health and vitality, relief from pain and stress, emotional strength and clarity during difficult times and the list goes on and on. Of course, not even Yoga can be touted as a cure all for everything but if I find myself needing a mental or physical boost, a little Yoga goes a long way.

How you look impacts the way you feel about your self and it goes the other way around too. One of the many blessings of practicing Yoga is a youthful appearance. Yoga poses tone your muscles much the same as isometric exercise When you add inner focus to Yoga stretches, there will be little or no chance of muscle injury. Toned muscles hold the posture erect, reduce the risk of injury and give you an awesome physique.

Looking to fight the battle of cellulite? Yoga can help you to do that because rather than building muscle, Yoga builds muscle tone. Yoga stretches muscles lengthwise, causing fat to be eliminated around the cells and that is what reduces cellulite. Because Yoga helps to maintain balanced metabolism, Yoga also helps to regulate weight.

You can help your self to look years younger than you are. In India, age is measured by flexibility of the body and especially the spine. The spine works as the messenger for the brain, when the spine is flexible; the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain and other organs is unrestricted. Many poses and exercises in Yoga are aimed at keeping the spine flexible by gently moving, twisting and flexing the spine in all directions.

We all know that stress will zap your energy faster than anything. Finding ways to relax and enjoy life will bring more energy. Yoga gives you tools to turn stress into energy by allowing you to recognize the stress when it begins before it becomes too large to manage because Yoga will give you a greater self awareness.

With your higher awareness will come peace of mind and that equals freedom. Freedom from the load on our minds that we often carry unconsciously, that load, you will realize, holds you back. Becoming aware of how your mind works is your first step to peace of mind.

After you practice Yoga for a while it may help you to overcome some self-limitations you may be placing on your self. When you are able to do that you will feel lighter and you will have an “acceptance” of your life as it is. You start to learn that challenges have their place in your life but they will not “rule” your life.

Yoga helps you realize your true potential and it encourages you to grow and improve towards that potential always striving to reach peace of mind.

Yoga helps you to focus on your breath. Breathing is the first thing we do when we come into this life and it is the last thing we do as we leave. However many of us are often not even aware that we are breathing.

Have you ever forgotten to breathe? There are some things in life that are so frightening, exciting, dangerous or amazing you may momentarily forget. Think about the way that you are breathing and how it relates to what is happening in your life.

Your breathe is rapid and shallow if you are afraid, or you take short sharp breaths when you have exerted your self with intense work. We take in a deep long breath when we are tired, we yawn to draw in additional oxygen. A sigh releases anxiety and if you were to stand on a windy cliff over looking the ocean you would likely take a deep long breath.

Taking the unconscious process of breathing and making it conscious is an essential aspect of yoga. The Sages of old found that as they became aware of their breathing as it moved in and out the mind could be consciously controlled. They then began to use the mind to control the breath, which happened to benefit the entire body and mind.

The ancient yogis were aware of the life energy that all things on this earth are made of. They revered the vital energy that enters on the breath. The exhale or releasing energy of the out-breath also being vital. The interplay of the two, inhale and exhale is what keeps us alive by circulating the vital life force and eliminating the used-up energy.

To read more about Health Pulse and Shelli Thompson visit our blog

http://www.meetgordonandshelli.com

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What are you doing to you?

Posted on by Shelli Thompson
Looks can be deceiving click picture to read more

Our bodies are a miraculous thing. Sometimes we get out of whack. Our bodies start behaving “out of whack” and suddenly everything goes “crazy”. There are changes to our bodies that we would love to reverse if we just understood how. So what are you doing to yourself by…..

Drinking soda

Diet soda does NOT help you to lose weight. Quite the contrary it is actually responsible for excess eating and resulting weight gain. The sweet taste causes Insulin to be produced by the pancreas (which is a “storage” hormone) and tells the liver to stop converting fat to sugar for energy because an influx is on the way. When it does not arrive, your brain tells you to eat. This is particularly dangerous to diabetics. Sugar, wine, refined carbohydrates in our diet causes our blood sugar to go up. When it crashes quickly we release a stress hormone called Cortisol.

Cortisol is responsible for shutting down the metabolism and locking down fat. That puts the body into the mode of burning sugar instead of fat. It is the cause of “belly fat”. Cortisol creates a craving for sugar. The brain is the only organ that actually needs sugar. Without sugar we die. The sugar we Need is NATURAL SUGAR. Drink Your Water. Many of us are not sick, we are just thirsty but we have misinterpreted. Every 24 hours our bodies recycle the equivalent of four thousand glasses of water to maintain the normal physiological functions. It does this each and every day, day in and day out.

During this recycling procedure the body comes up short about 6 to 10 eight ounce glasses each day depending on environmental conditions. If we are to replace the deficit we would need to drink 1/2 our body weight daily. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR WATER. Water is a nutrient. Water dissolves all proteins, starch, minerals and other compounds so that the blood can distribute them to the rest of the body. The start of many diseases in the body is caused by dehydration. The body does not know the difference between hungry and thirsty. Most people walk around severely dehydrated.

What should a meal look like? Your meal needs to include lean protein and be “vegetable heavy”, your diet needs to have some fat in it, good fats such as oil and vinegar dressing or use olive oil. 400 to 600 calories will look something like this. 6 to 8 cup salad (not ice burg) 1 1/2 cups any other vegetable Protein (5 to 6 ounces of lean meat for example).

ALL PROCESSED FOODS ARE LOADED WITH MSG.

Things like Taco Bell, Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers frozen meals (along with the ones at the store) include MSG. MSG is a brain-toxin. It is highly addictive and affects the same receptors in the brain as Valium.

MSG stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin and it stimulates your appetite. Many people in the United States live on a “processed diet”. No wonder our nation as a whole has become more and more unhealthy. Have you seen the lines at the drive thru? When we make a habit of eating poorly it will change the way your body functions and we need to be patient in restoring our good health, sometimes the damage is irreversible.

You can have all the money in the world but you can not buy good health.

click here to visit our blog about eating

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Importance of Weight Training

Posted on by Shelli Thompson
click picture to go to Health Pulse Magazine-Weight training

Many Americans under estimate the importance of weight training.

Many Americans under estimate the importance of weight training. Not only that but they have a misconception about what weight work can mean for them. Many times when I ask someone if they do any type of resistance training they say, “oh, I hate weight work but I do it anyways.” Or,” I don’t” and they leave it at that. Many women say that they don’t want their bodies to look like a man. So there is the misconception.

Weight work need not include the “bulk up”. Some women like that on them self but it is hard to maintain for women especially (who aren’t made to look that way). It includes many hours at the gym and most likely a trainer.

What People need to understand is that first off, muscle weighs more than fat but it takes up less room. Muscle burns more calories than fat to maintain. Resistance work also increases the density of bones. This is a crucial factor for women because we tend to decrease our density as we grow older and sometimes our diets aren’t very helpful.

What is helpful for women is to lower the weight way down and do more repetitions. The reason that you do this is because with smaller weight you will not bulk up at all, you will just tone and give shape to what you already have.

You will strengthen your muscle in a different way, a way that will increase the endurance of the muscles. This will allow you to continue doing your favorite activities for longer periods of time without being tired.

The most recent testing on the human body concluded that weight training burned more calories and fat than aerobic training. That does NOT mean to discontinue your aerobics because that is exercising your heart. A strong heart is an important key in keeping your blood pressure down.

If you don’t belong to a gym, you can do simple weight training exercises at home with simple house hold items. Be aware of what the weight is and go for it.

Read our article here about weight training

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