How to Jumpstart Your Fitness Plan

Tip #1 - Set Goals

Creating new challenges is imperative to keeping you motivated. Motivation is critical if you are to ever get up off that couch and move. When you set your fitness goals, you need to be realistic. If you make a goal that is impossible or extremely difficult to make, you will get discouraged and possibly quit all together.

Break your goals up. Create a list for short term goals and one for long term goals. An example of a short term goal is to run a small race in 6 months, while a long term goal is to run a marathon within 18 months. Having a long term goal will keep you moving towards that goal once your short term goals have been met.

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Who's Ready For Snack Time?

Here are 10 healthy options for the mid-day munchies:

Ever failed on a healthy eating plan because you denied hunger and ended up overeating later? Most healthy eating plans become more successful when you snack throughout the day. Snacking helps control your appetite and can prevent you from overindulging later on. In order for snacking to be effective, your snacks should be satisfying and eaten in moderation between meals. "A snack should fill you up, be reasonably nutritious, and be in the 100 to 200 calorie range," Tara Gidus, R.D., of the American Dietetic Association says. Tamar Haspel from Women’s Health gives us 10 snack ideas that will keep us satisfied, from livestrong.com:

1. Kashi Chewy Granola Bars are around 130 calories and contain 4 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. The protein and fiber will keep your hunger at bay and you'll avoid overdoing your calorie intake.

2. Frozen vegetables and fruit, such as peas and grapes, provide a good source of fiber while remaining low in calories.

3. Total yogurt, such as Fage Total 0% Yogurt, is fulfilling because it is full of protein. It has no fat and has 80 calories a serving. Adding a few drops of liquid stevia and some blueberries makes this an ideal snack.

4. Add apples to any snack or try apples and peanut butter. This treat is high in fiber and low in calories. Rui Hai Liu, Ph.D., an apple researcher at Cornell University states, "The best way to lose weight is to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables. That increases volume and decreases calorie density."

5. Try microwaveable oatmeal. "Studies have found that oatmeal is more filling than dry cereal with the same calories and fiber content," Gidus says. Oatmeal has an array of health benefits such as insoluble and soluble fiber, countless vitamins, protein and fiber. Adding liquid or powder stevia to plain oatmeal produces sweetness without added calories. Top it off with blueberries for more flavor.

6. Soy chips are a low fat, high fiber and protein snack. Soy protein has shown to help aid in weight loss and cause a decrease weight loss in more fat than muscle. "The isoflavones in soy act like estrogen and inhibit the enzyme that facilitates fat deposits" said Paul Cooke, Ph.D., a soy researcher at the University of Illinois.

7. Frozen juice bars are a low calorie snack that also provides vitamins.

8. Barbara’s Cinnamon Puffins is a cereal that contains a high amount of fiber. In a serving of ¾ of a cup, there are 100 calories and 6 grams of fiber.

9. Licorice contains glycyrrhetinic acid, an active ingredient proven to aid in the decrease of body fat. This candy blocks enzymes to prevent fat accumulation, as well as reducing your appetite. Instead of snacking on candy licorice, opt for a less artificial licorice by choosing one that is high in licorice extract.

10. Gum is a good option when you are mistaking your hunger for boredom. If you’re not really hungry, grab a piece of gum instead. It burns an additional 11 calories an hour, which can amount to a pound a year if you chew an hour a day. You are also saving yourself the additional calories you would have eaten in your snack.

What snacks do you munch on throughout the day? Please feel free to share your suggestions!

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Hiccup, Hiccup, Hiccup

How to Get Rid of Hiccups or Heartburn - What Really Works

We’ve all heard the old home remedies and old wives tales for getting rid of hiccups. Getting scared, holding your breath, drinking water, fake burping (yeah, I’ve heard that one). Most of us have tried most of them with little or no success. So what does work? This:

For adults or children - Get a tablespoon of sugar, put it in your mouth, grin and bear it while it dissolves.

For toddlers or infants - Mix a teaspoon of sugar with half an ounce of water and have them drink it. For infants still on a slow-flow or medium-flow nipple, please be careful. Water is much thinner than formula/milk and comes out much faster, so let your baby get a sip or two, take a couple second break, and go in again.

That’s all… Really. My son had horrible hiccups when he was a baby - bad enough to make him cry - and this always worked like a charm. I’ve also never had the “Spoonful of Sugar” remedy fail for myself or friends and family.

For heartburn, obviously you can simply take a few Rolaids or Tums, but some doctors recommend against one or both of these if you’re pregnant. Many people also don’t like the taste or texture of these two products, and taking them regularly can be bad for you. Here are some tips for avoiding heartburn and getting rid of it once you have it.

Don’t drink milk- This is a very common suggestion, and while it may feel very good to drink milk when you have heartburn, you’re actually making your problem worse. The fat and calcium in milk actually cause your stomach to make *more* acid.

Don’t lie down - This just makes the acid’s upward travel easier. Try to stay upright, or at least prop your upper half up a little.

Try Ranitidine - This is just the generic name of Zantac. You can get it OTC for fairly cheap, and it’s a pill, not something you have to chew up, so it’s easier to take than a chewable or liquid antacid.

What what/how much you eat- Avoid spicy and greasy foods. Spicy foods cause more acid, and greasy foods sit in your stomach longer, keeping it fuller longer. Avoid alcoholic beverages and caffeine as well. Also avoid over-eating. If there isn’t enough room in your stomach, it’s going to push acid upward.

Relax - Stress can cause heartburn.

Don’t eat before bed - You should really wait a minimum of 2 hours after eating to lie down for the night, so try eating dinner earlier or avoiding late night snacks.
- Kelli, Factoidz

Chiropractic Rehab Center and
Advanced Wellness Studio
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(859) 331-9566

Hiccup, Hiccup, Hiccup

Chiropractic and Oil Changes: What the Similarity Means to You

Maintaining your health is very similar to maintaining your car. When you really think about the comparison and look at it on a very basic level, there is not much difference.

The Parable of the Poorly-Maintained Truck

When I was 18, I had a white ’97 Chevy S-10. It was my first vehicle and I really enjoyed it.

The dealership we bought it from gave me a checklist of things that needed to be done on the truck i.e. oil change every 3,000 miles, rotate the tires regularly, etc.

I enjoyed having a truck, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t the most intelligent human being at 18.

I was also pretty lazy.

Case in point: I did not get my first oil change in the truck until about 12,000 miles.

That was my first and last oil change for a long time.

The truck had a warranty for 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever came first, which is pretty standard with a new vehicle.

At about 36,001 miles, my truck started making a clicking noise. I didn’t pay much attention to it for a while. What’s the big deal, right?

The clicking gradually grew louder and louder, until finally I decided I better take it in to the shop. I took it to the dealership we bought it from and they looked at it. I waited for a while while they looked at it, until finally the service manager came out and asked me a question.

“Have you changed the oil lately?” He asked.

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “I think I changed it, uh, just last month.”

“Really,” he said in a very skeptical tone. “Because there’s nothing but black sludge in the engine, and that usually happens when the oil hasn’t been changed in a very long time.”

While he was talking, I was thinking to myself that it wasn’t a big deal and they would just fix it.

Then I snapped out of it when he said “Your engine has to be replaced.”

I suddenly felt a pit in my stomach. Getting an engine replaced was a big deal… and it was expensive. I knew that much. I also knew that I did not have that kind of money.

He told me he was going to see what he could do and get back to me in a few days.

Eventually it worked out. They were able to replace the engine, and somehow, by the grace of God, they were able to apply the engine replacement to the recently expired warranty. I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but I escaped that incident without paying a dime. But, I did learn a very potentially costly lesson: change your vehicle’s oil more than every 12,000 miles.

Needless to say, I make sure to get the oil changed regularly now.

Comparing a Truck to a Human Being

What happens if you don’t maintain your health? Let’s take a look.

Let’s say Bob slips and falls and smack his head on the ground. That fall shakes his spine up and his atlas (C1) misaligns. He starts to develop headaches not long after the fall. He begins feeling achy everywhere as well, due to spinal compensation, which is a re-alignment of the rest of the spine to compensate for the misalignment of the atlas… Not a good thing.

Over time, the headaches get worse and Bob goes to see a general practitioner (GP). They prescribe him Thorazine to relieve the pain and occasional nausea that accompanies it.

At the same time, Bob’s spine is beginning to degenerate a much quicker pace than normal. Because his atlas has misaligned, the rest of his cervical spine has leaned forward to compensate. This gives him a forward head posture that stretches his spinal cord, which over time may lead to leg weakness, incontinence, and scoliosis. His cervical spine begins to develop a reverse curve, which his thoracic spine compensates for by curving more than usual. His lumbar spine then responds by straightening itself out.

Now Bob begins to have bad low back pain. He begins to take over-the-counter NSAIDS like ibuprofen.

Bob also realized, from his recent trip to his GP, that he has high blood pressure, so he is now on Sectral as well.

Because of all his pain and discomfort, Bob has become depressed. He goes to a psychiatrist and gets a prescription for Prozac, but it needs to be balanced out so he doesn’t get too much of a high, so the psychiatrist prescribes Bob lithium as well.

During this time, Bob’s spine continues to degenerate. His intervertebral discs start to degenerate in his neck. The friction that the newly touching vertebrae are creating causes bone spurs to form in his cervical spine.

Meanwhile, all the drugs he is taking are causing him severe abdominal pains and his liver is not functioning properly anymore. His cervical spine begins to fuse in places where the intervertebral discs have now almost completely disintegrated.

And the process of dis-ease becoming disease goes on and on until Bob is finally relieved by death.

How many of us want to go out like that?

Prevention is the Best Medicine

Just like getting an oil change maintains the health of your vehicle, getting your upper cervical spine checked and/or adjusted on a regular basis is key to allowing your body to function at 100%. Allowing your body’s Innate Intelligence to express itself properly so that dis-ease does not take hold is paramount.

The only way to do that is to make sure your body is free of nerve interference.

The best place to start is a specific upper cervical adjustment.
- By Dr. Brandon Harshe, The Atlas of Life


Chiropractic Rehab Center and Advanced Wellness Studio
www.nkychiropractor.com
(859) 331-9566

Healthy Tips for Everyday

Just like brushing your teeth, healthy habits should be cultivated on a daily basis. The following is a guide to daily tasks:

1. Activity should be a daily occurrence. Walk, run or jump for a minimum total of 20 minutes a day.

2. Protect your skin. Sun block should be applied on face, neck, arms and hands even in the dead of winter. It protects against climatic toxins too. Moisturize skin daily.

3. Eat fruits, vegetables, grains, low-fat dairy products and small amounts of protein. Avoid sweets and other processed foods.

4. Meditate or spend a minimum of five minutes daily in quiet time.

5. Find your spiritual self. Discover what inspires you, raises your level of consciousness, motivates you, and satisfies your soul.

6. Exercise your brain. Read, study, solve problems, and learn new skills. As does the body, the brain atrophies with lack of use.

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