During the month of February we’re focused on how you can best give yourself a Valentine with some Self-Care. I know you’ll agree that some healthy, self-caring behaviors can deliver immediate results or in a very short term. For example, you might have some favorite music that you play that always cheers you up or a hobby that gives you a lot of joy and its not hard to make time for it.
 
There are also some areas of self-care, though, that deliver more results in the long term and can, for some people, seem like a tough choice in the moment. For many people, good nutrition is an example of this, especially if they’ve never experienced the long-term benefits before. People know they need to have good habits in this area to feel their best, but when it comes right down to it, they can struggle with making those sensible, long-term choices. We know this to be true because of the massive failure of dieting as a strategy for getting healthy. It turns out diets are hard to stick to!!
 
So what is going on? Well, two different parts of the brain are in a battle here.
 
The emotional part of the brain responds positively to instant gratification. It can seem so much more appealing in the short term to eat that brownie when you get home from work. After all, it tastes delicious and the sugar and processed flour give a bump to your feel-good brain chemicals. You are on a sugar high! Actually we humans are designed in our hard wiring to seek out high calorie foods so it is natural for us to want them.
The emotional brain says “Yes” to the brownie!
 
The logical part of the brain, though, tries to reason it out. It knows that you should just wait to eat a healthy dinner, that would be better for your long-term health and that you’ll feel better in the long run.
 
Unhealthy choices usually happen on impulse when the emotional part of your brain triumphs over the logical one.
So how do you keep your logical brain in the driver’s seat?
 
I’ve found that one of the biggest reasons for the emotional brain to be running the show is stress and overwhelm. The logical brain can only function well when you have some reserves in the tank. If you are run ragged emotionally and physically depleted, then there is a good chance you’ll be short on logic and behave more impulsively. It’s going to be really tough in these conditions to implement any healthy, new habits that will only pay you back in the long term.
 
Reducing stress and overwhelm by having a backdrop of regular self-care and ensuring that you include positive activities in your life that bring you joy, are essential to you being able to respond well in the moment.
 
Ways to do this could be hobbies, connecting and being present with loved ones, reading, regular exercise, yoga, massage therapy, daily meditation, daily affirmations, being organized, setting boundaries, essential oils or journaling. I am sure you have many other ideas so brainstorm your own list and start incorporating them in your routines.
 
Of course there are a number of other things you can do to increase your chances of success with transforming your unhealthy patterns. I love helping people figure out and implement these strategies. It’s a huge piece of the Break the Yoyo Diet Cycle Program and for many people it is foundational to being able to implement real and lasting change in their lives. After all, if it were easy to stick to a nutrition self-care plan more people would be doing it.
 
We’ve got some great deals this month to help you with Self-Care so please take a look, we’d love to help. <3

You’ve probably heard about lots of the benefits of taking magnesium due to its many important roles in the body. Perhaps you also know that many of us are magnesium deficient, estimated at around 80% of the US population. Maybe you’ve even heard about its benefits for brain health but here’s something you may not know about…
 
Certain forms of magnesium have benefits for those suffering from anxiety related disorders such as social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorder, specific phobias and others.
 
You may know someone dealing with anxiety. Anxiety disorders impact a whopping 18% of the US population and are the most common mental illness.
 
Here’s what’s happening:
When in real danger, fear is essential for survival. Fear triggers the brain to use its Cognitive Ability and respond with many split-second changes in the body to prepare to defend against the danger or to avoid it. This response is a healthy reaction meant to protect us from harm.

In anxiety disorders, the fear memory continues or is triggered even when the danger is no longer real or present. Cognitive ability is not sufficient to control the fears.
 
Boosting Cognitive Ability:
Magnesium, in the form of Magtein™, magnesium I-threonate, has been shown in studies to improve magnesium concentration in the brain, which boosts cognitive ability and enhances control of fear and anxiety. Other forms of magnesium have low brain bioavailability and are not able to effectively raise the brain’s magnesium levels.
 
You can find products containing Magtein™ at our dispensaries with EmersonWellevate, Natural Partners NPScript (use code W2O) and Fullscript You’ll SAVE 5% off the retail price when you use our dispensaries compared with going direct. FREE SHIPPING on orders over $49.
​We also love Xymogen’s Magtein™ containing products. Contact us for information and to discuss your needs and we can provide you with a referral code plus a 5% DISCOUNT there on your first order site wide.

As I’ve been focused on writing a new workshop on Anxiety, I’ve been digging more into the many connections between food and nutrition on the one hand and mood and brain functioning on the other. Despite the fact that there are so many logical links between the two, what I find is that many people really don’t think of nutrition and food as serious contenders when they are considering ways to deal with their mental health. More often than not, people go straight to pharmaceuticals or to a therapist before they consider cleaning up their diet.
 
If you think about it though, you already know that food makes a difference in how you feel and your brain functioning. If you’ve ever been really hungry, you have probably experienced feeling grumpy and angry, plus it’s hard to focus and you make more mistakes. If you’ve never been really hungry then just ask anyone you know who’s been on a very calorie restricted diet and they will confirm…It is just not fun!
 
For more evidence on this matter of hunger impacting mood, we can look at Judges’ decisions, which we tend to hope and believe will be logical and balanced. But no, not entirely! Did you know that Judges make more lenient decisions just after they have eaten breakfast or lunch, whereas before a meal break they are more likely to rule unfavorably?
 
This is a blood sugar issue and something that many people overlook as a very simple way to improve their mood and brain functioning.  Just in the last week I’ve had several clients who skip breakfast or go most of the day without food. Sometimes people are trying to eat less to lose weight (which is often counter productive anyway!) and sometimes people say they are just too busy to pay attention to it.
 
Clearly many people are just not connecting the dots and realizing the impact that food has on their brain. Blood sugar is just the tip of the iceberg. We also need to consider neurotransmitters, hormone balance, micronutrient deficiencies, gut health, and more. But if these links are just not tangible enough for you, then how about this?
 
Recently, the SMILES Trial was published. It is the first randomized controlled trial to test whether dietary improvement can actually treat (yes, I did say ‘treat’) depression. In the trial, dietary changes from a junk food diet to a real whole foods diet reduced depression in 30% of the participants.
 
I can only imagine what the results could have been if the participants had taken a deeper nutritional dive and been given more individualized dietary changes to work on.
 
So if I haven’t already made it clear, if you’re experiencing mood or brain functioning issues, I highly recommend paying attention to your diet. The brain is a key organ connected to the rest of our body and it cannot function well without the body functioning properly. If you can fix your body, you can likely fix your brain.
 
If you have questions or need further help the please reach out to us. We’d love to support you!
 

One of the biggest issues I find with clients is their addiction to sugar.  They know they need to stop eating it but try as they might it lures them back in every time. Understanding why is always the first step to figuring out what to do about a problem.  So I’ll tell you…

It’s all about Blood Sugar Control and Brain Chemistry!

You can learn more about how sugar gets us hooked if you keep reading my full article.  In my next blog I’ll look at the other negative health consequences of a sugar laden diet to give you some real motivation to change.

Breaking the cycle can be a challenge and most people need some guidance and support through the process.  We can work with you to find other ways to support you with blood sugar stabilization and healthy brain chemistry.

So here are the addictive aspects of sugar that plague us. Maybe you identify with some of the symptoms of situations I talk about. 

Blood Sugar
Many people are feasting throughout the whole day on sugar (and white processed foods) that turn to blood sugar quickly.  When they wake in the morning their blood sugar is low.  The grab their sugar laden morning coffee and muffin which causes their blood sugar to shoot through the roof.  There is a temporary good feeling and a burst of energy.

The blood sugar spike is a warning signal to the body that causes it to pump out adrenaline.  When this is going on throughout the day the adrenals can become over worked and a consequence can be adrenal fatigue.

But back to the coffee and muffin story….Soon after the high, the blood sugar crashes back down again quickly. Someone who is affected by low blood sugar may experience tiredness, restlessness, confusion, forgetfulness, poor concentration, irritability and anger.  Low blood sugar is a danger situation for the body and triggers it to look for their next sugary carb fix.  And so the pattern continues.

Serotonin
This is the feel good chemical that our body produces. People low in serotonin are often fretful, anxious, depressed, short in attention span, scattered, angry or aggressive.

Blood sugar assists with driving tryptophan across the blood brain barrier to make serotonin. Of course we need serotonin and we want to have some glucose in our system to do that.  But the reason doctors prescribe so many SSRI anti-depressants is not because people are lacking in sugar intake!  The trouble comes with too much sugar which gives a temporary serotonin rush but stresses the adrenals as we said before and so ultimately depletes us.  It’s one of the reasons we get hooked to sugar.

Beta-Endorphins
Beta-endorphins are the body’s pain killer.  Those with low levels experience self esteem issues, poor coping skills, feelings of inadequacy and isolation, a sense of being stuck, have a victim mentality and an extreme response to criticism.  Heroin is a beta endorphin and addicts can take up to six months to deal with their feelings of low self esteem which is why recovery rates are low.

Sugar can also affect beta-endorphin levels.  Not surprisingly people who have low levels of beta-endorphins reach for sugar.  It is actually just the taste of the sugar that activates the beta-endorphins, not it’s effect on the body, so eating other foods that give pleasure will produce the same affect.

Dopamine
Sugar’s taste ultimately leads to dopamine being released, which provides us with motivation, concentration, alertness, euphoria – the long term planning chemical that allows us to work hard now for something that will benefit us later.


Let us know how you relate to this and what worked for you if you managed to get off your sugar habit.