ancestors

What is the Best Type of Exercise for My Body?

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Best Type of Exercise for My Body

There is so much conflicting information about the best way to exercise. How do you know what is best for you?

Our bodies were designed to withstand the need to make surges of speed, but not to withstand long distance running. Our ancestors would run short distances to get out of harm’s way, to chase down dinner or to help a friend in need. We were not designed to run for great distances over long periods of time.

There are many forms of exercise that bring this principle into effect, such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), where you work out as hard as you can for a short duration of time, potentially even for only 45 or 60 seconds (which seems like a lifetime when you’re doing as many push ups as you can!!) and then resting for the same timeframe or a little less. This kicks your metabolism into high gear, adds a significant surge of adrenaline into your body to keep up with this form of exercise and pushes your body to grow and develop muscle and improves your fitness.

The opposite form of exercise would be traditional cardio. You jump on a treadmill or hit the road for 30-60 minutes of fast walking or jogging until the time is up. Sustained movement for a long period of time, generally at the same pace and difficulty level to make your body move and cooperate. Cardio can help to lower your resting heart rate, increase your good HDL cholesterol and lower blood pressure, as well as improving circulation, blood flow and lymphatic drainage.

But cardio can also cause your body to produce higher levels of cortisol which can stimulate your appetite, increase fat storage and inhibit recovery.

How is this possible when exercising is supposed to be helping you lose weight and/or get fit? It has to do with the hormones that are released with each type of exercise. Cardio can decrease testosterone production and HIIT can improve your growth hormone levels while lowering your insulin resistance to help regulate blood sugar and reduce fat storage.

What is the best form of exercise for me? How do I know?

The best form of exercise for you is the one that you will actually do!! The risks of a sedentary lifestyle are much worse than the risks involved with either HIIT or cardio. Additionally, there are many other forms of exercise that offer corresponding benefits and risks, such as yoga, pilates, rebounding, kickboxing, hiking, crossfit and many others!

So talk with your natural health practitioner about what he/she would recommend as the best form of exercise for your personal situation and do that! Fall in love with joyful movement – find something you love to do and do it often. Or mix it up and take on different forms of exercise to keep your body guessing and working toward your optimal fitness levels. Have fun!

With Sources from:

http://drhardick.com/say-no-to-traditional-cardio

Why Do We Make Young Children Sleep Alone?

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Sleep

Let’s think about this for a moment. Announcing to your children, “Go to sleep and stay there by yourself all night.” (while Mom and Dad get to share the night together)

This is simply an outdated model of children’s sleep habits, as research is now coming to light that there is an incredible amount of value that is added to the health of the child and the family by co-sleeping.

Putting a baby into a separate bedroom at night causes parents to wake for much greater periods of time and creates added exhaustion in early parenthood. It is much easier to have the baby or toddler right beside the bed with you, or depending on your level of safety comfort, sharing the bed with you. This makes it much easier to be able to comfort and nurse or feed your baby when he/she is unsettled in the night.

Babies are born very immature neurologically, and require close connection to their parents – not just during the daylight hours, but also at night! Being separated for too long elicits a stress response in the young child (ie. abandonment, fear, separation anxiety) and can cause issues with healthy development.

Additionally, when each child has her/her own separate room, it forces the size of the home to grow significantly, as the family is spread out across much more space (which requires more resources to build the home, energy to heat it, light it and maintain it). Sleep has become a detriment to our environmental that adds a huge carbon footprint.

Why did we stop co-sleeping?

Our ancestors used to co-sleep for much of their growing-up years, as well as many families across poorer nations where they simply do not have the real estate to have separate sleeping rooms.

In the 20th century, there were several prominent physicians, such as Dr. William Whitty Hall, who insisted that it was uncivilized to sleep as a family, and that it was associated with poverty and social ills. In 1928, behavioural psychologist John Watson argued that children should occupy their own rooms or risk stunting the child’s development. And in 1985, Dr. Richard Ferber wrote that solitary sleep was meant allowing the child to become independent and reminded readers that co-sleeping was a primitive practice.

What are the benefits of co-sleeping?

• improved infant emotional health
• promotes more convenient breast feeding• it is natural and healthy
• creates closer-knit families
• can help to prevent SIDS
• helps your baby feel safe and protected
• less intergenerational conflict
• deeper sleep as individuals learn to be unaffected by snoring, a trip to the bathroom or tossing and turning
• kids grow up to be more tolerant of each other and fight less
• have better capacity to share
• more caring attitudes toward each other

What are the risks of co-sleeping?

• loose bedding
• waterbeds
• if parents are under the influence of drugs or alcohol – won’t have same level of alertness and responsiveness as usual
• parents who smoke should not co-sleep – some studies indicate a higher risk of SIDS
• if parents are incredibly deep sleepers

If you are worried about the safety of co-sleeping with your little one, talk to your natural health care provider. There are also many options for having them sleep very close to you, but with a little added protection, such as this bassinet: https://www.thebump.com/a/best-bassinet-halo-bassinest-swivel-sleeper-luxe-plus

With Sources From:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-reiss-sleep-alone-20170324-story.html

Baby Wearing…A Fashion Trend or a Benefit to Your Newborn?

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baby wearing

Baby wearing has long been used by our ancestors and many cultures around the world as a means to care for an infant while maintaining existing responsibilities.

After your baby is born, we need to think of the first 6 to 9 months after birth as the fourth trimester. This fourth trimester is a crucially important time for your baby’s growth and development.

The first nine months were spent in the womb, where the baby is warm, comfortable and is feeling and listening to the rhythms of the mother’s heart, breathing, voice and movement. Once the baby is born, their environment changes drastically, so baby wearing is a means to help the baby adapt to their new reality.

Research shows that skin to skin contact between a baby and its mother promotes brain development, helps the baby adapt to the outside world, promotes milk production in the mother and can help promote healthy weight gain for the infant.

Some of the benefits of baby wearing for the baby are:

  • Close contact with mom or dad promotes development
  • Provides baby with contentment and calmness
  • Creates baby attentiveness and allow for faster learning
  • The sensations and sounds the baby hears and feels while being worn reminds them of the womb experience and balances their environment (Sound of heart beat, sound of breathing, the rhythm of the mother’s walking patterns and voice)

Some of the benefits of baby wearing for mom or dad are:

  • Convenience
  • Baby bonding
  • Allows you to perform tasks while you carry your baby or to care for other children
  • Picks up on needs of baby more easily
  • Easier errands – no need for stroller
  • Easier access for breastfeeding

How to choose the right baby wearing attire

This will likely come down to the preference and comfort for the parent using the attire. Some people will prefer a sling style and others will prefer a more structured support. The style of carrier is less important than following the safety protocols of each individual carrier style.

Baby Wearing Safety Tips

  1. Ensure clear airway. Think of your baby’s airway as a straw that when pinched either slows or restricts completely its effectiveness. When your baby’s chin drops to their chest the airway is being pinched off. Ensure that the baby’s head is positioned in a slightly upward direction to allow for a clear passageway. Also, be sure to provide support to your baby’s neck and back.
  2. Check your baby carrier regularly for wear and tear and to ensure that the it will securely hold the weight of your baby.
  3. Test the baby wearing device using a weight similar to that of your baby before using with your baby. The first time you use the device with your child, use a spotter or do it over a bed or couch to ensure safety.
  4. If you have questions or concerns about baby wearing, speak to your chiropractor, midwife, or other natural health practitioner who is familiar with your family.

With Sources from:

http://www.becomingmamas.com/babywearing/

What is behind your pain?

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What is Behind your PAIN?

During my 20 years of practicing Energy Healing I have found one Universal Truth: PAIN means “Pay Attention Inwards Now”

Pain stems from unresolved and unacknowledged repression of emotions. E-motions mean energy in motion. If energy is repressed then dis-ease and pain results. We label these pains Arthritis, Allergies, Anxiety, Angina, Headaches, Migraines, Frozen shoulder, Fibromyalgia, Cancer, Carpal Tunnel… the list is endless.

Pain is just information. Neither negative nor positive, pain is just ongoing feedback, “an indication of our current energetic vibration”. Or an indication of parts of our body that are not in sync with our total energetic vibration.

PAIN lets us know that we have something to discover and resolve. Stressful thoughts, limiting beliefs, worrisome stories replaying in our unconscious mind… these are reflected in your body. Often we inherit them from our ancestors, other times we pick them up from the energy around us, our environment, our media, our families and circumstances. When communication within the body cells is disrupted, we blow fuses, set up handicaps, and our perfect blueprint is derailed.

Your BODY is  your GPS, or rather it has the key to an effective built-in Human Guidance System that unlocks these hidden blocks preventing our mind and soul to communicate effectively. When we experience emotions that don’t feel good, it simply means that we are not in-line with our ‘true’ or ‘higher’ self. Our spirit is the part of us that lives at the top of the Guidance Scale in joy, love and self empowerment.

This is where we embrace the basic spiritual truths that:

We are worthy, deserving, loveable, loving, brilliant eternal BE-ings
and each of us is an important significant part of the Divine plan
we have a miraculous perpetually healing organism we call a body.

Knowing this truth, is not the same as embodying it. I love witnessing my clients RECLAIM their health and life after sessions. I love doing demonstrations and talks (group healings) at corporations and watching employees have ah-ha moments.

Helping people Reclaim their healthy body, by Refreshing their Mind, and Renewing their Spirit keeps me in my energy vibration of truth, joy and awe. We can all attain Complete BE-ing Clarity, if we listen to our body. Are you listening? What is your body saying to you?

The really fascinating truth is that all of this can be reversed and healed. Energy consciousness work is quick, easy and fun, you don’t need to rehash the past, get stuck in the story, or stay in the pain. If you are in pain, explore energy healing … Reiki, BodyTalk, Psych-K, Acupuncture, and other modalities. You will be amazed at the quick results, and love your new found understanding of your Self and your energetic vibration.

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Blog by Guest Author:

01Jessy headshotJessy Morrison

Jessy Morison  has tremendous success in helping those to whom doctors have given no hope of recovery at all to Reclaim their Life, Refresh their Mind, Reclaim their Body, and Renew their Spirit.
A Reiki Master Teacher, BodyTalk & EFT Practitioner, Soul Genesis Facilitator, Founding Member of the Ontario BodyTalk Assoc., and Founding Member of The Whole Life Learning Collective, and Transformational Tuesdays, Jessy is also a  contributing author to “The Joy of an Ex”, Women With Vision Magazine, and Another View Magazine.

You can contact her at
[email protected]
705-241-8680
www.jessymorrison.ca

5 Hacks to Upgrade Your Paleo Diet

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5 Hacks to Upgrade Your Paleo DIet

There are so many diet plans that you can choose from to follow, but it really comes down to how your body functions best. You know your body and how you function, and how your body feels after eating certain foods.

That’s not to say that you can proclaim “my body feels best on bread and chips” just because your taste buds like it.

This is a real observation about how your body feels after eating meat, or dairy or starches.

It’s time to listen to your body because it’s easier to hear it when it whispers, than when it has to start shouting.

So if you have listened to your body and chosen to follow a Paleo diet, there are a few ways to make it even better.

But first of all, let’s break the Paleo diet down.

A Paleo diet consists of foods that mimic what our pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer ancestors may have hunted, gathered or foraged for in the wild. Such as a variety of meats and vegetables and a small amount of fruits and nuts. No grains or processed sugar.

Hacks to Upgrade Your Diet:

1. Buy Organic!

Organic foods that are not treated with pesticides and heavy metal toxins contain more accessible vitamins and minerals that conventionally grown produce. They may cost a bit more, but they are definitely worth it. To learn more about the value of organic, check out our previous blog on The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 here.

2. What Meat are You Eating?

Think back a few million years. Were there abundant sources or added growth hormones, antibiotics or vaccines added to the animals’ feed? I doubt it. So steer clear now!! Choose organic, grass-fed beef, buffalo, free-range chicken, wild caught salmon, elk, venison, etc.

3. Focus on Veggies

Choose a variety of leafy and cruciferous veggies to go with every meal! That means kale, lettuce, spinach, Bok Choy, Celery, Brocoli, Cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts. Also add in low-sugar fruit, like raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, cranberries and Granny Smith apples. These fruits will not spike your blood sugar. Raw nuts and seeds and avocados are great sources of healthy fats.

4. What else are you eating?

Food marketing companies are very tricky – they can put Paleo on just about anything and get away with it! I don’t think that cookies, bread and chips were available in the wild a million years ago, but somehow they have found their way to the Paleo aisle at the grocer. They tend to have excessive amounts of sugar, sweeteners, preservatives and varying degrees of unhealthy additives but fly off the shelves because they are “Paleo”.

I also don’t think that our ancestors had a deli they strolled up to and ordered salami, pastrami or any other nitrate-filled preserved deli meat. Eat real food!!

5. Mix it Up

Who says you have to be purely Paleo every day? Agricultural developments and transportation advancements have allowed for nutrient, vitamin and fibre-rich foods to come along. If your body likes legumes as they are significantly lighter to digest than meat, give it legumes! Or if you like freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning, have at it! Listen to your body and hear what it has to say.