Tip 1: Welcome the abundance of food around you, but plan to pace yourself rather than deprive yourself. The truth is one or two meals are not going to add on the pounds, it is the consistent overindulgence that gets you on the sugar roller coaster.

Tip 2: Regular exercise, of course.   Never underestimate a walk around the neighborhood. Walks are a great way to clear your mind and find some alone time during the holiday time. A brisk 30 min walk on a daily basis will keep your metabolism going. Or try something fun and different like Rollerskating or Zumba to get you excited and moving.

Tip 3: Everyone else is bringing the OooyGooy. Bring the food you want to eat.   I love Elizabeth Rider’s new E-cookbook Whole Eating . Check her out on Amazon or her blog. Here are some of her great recipe ideas to keep from being swept away by holiday sugar and carb cravings. Bring these to your next party or keep them in the fridge to satisfy cravings.

Endive with artichoke dip and pine nuts head endive leaves, washed and separated

• 1 large clove garlic, peeled
• 1 15 ounce can organic artichoke hearts packed in water, drained well
• 1 cup loosely packed baby spinach leaves
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese (pecorino cheese works well here, too)
• ¼ pine nuts, lightly toasted
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Arrange the endive leaves on a large platter and scoop 1 generous teaspoon into the end of each leaf, leaving one end of the leaf up for easy grabbing. Sliced cucumber rounds also work great here if you can’t find endive leaves. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until 15 minutes before guests arrive.

Herbed Goat Cheese Cherry Tomatoes

Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, washed 7 cut in half lengthwise
• 4 ounces herbed goat cheese, room temperature
• Sea salt
• Coarse black pepper

Check out my previous post of The Sugar Roller Coaster.

Want an extra boost of help against sugar cravings? Try my Sugar Buster Reset program.

1. Don’t gain those extra 4-5lbs* . Lose them!
2. It will be much easier to pass by those sweets laying around, if you can take control of your cravings.
3. Sleep like a baby while your body healthfully detoxes.
4. Don’t wait to get healthy – do it now!  Look GREAT for the holidays and after.
5. Increase energy/immune system
5. Save money on your grocery/food bills with our healthy and inexpensive Meal Replacement Shakes and Snack Bars.
6. Receive phone and email coaching from Wellness and Fitness Experts Dr’s Karen Wolfe and Deborah Kern, and Michelle Wald- everything from nutrition to fitness, stress reduction to overcoming emotional eating and making your health a priority, a lifestyle and FUN!

It’s common to think of our organs as floating bowls of jelly inside us, but each organ is actually held within a sack and then double or evn trippled bagged by facia. These sacks are then connected to our deepest tissue layers lining the neck, back, groin, and abdomen. They act as another nervous system which stores our deepest feelings and hurts, and are usually treated with the least attention.  As embryos we develop from our stomachs out. From this perspective, it seems intuitive that muscle tensions in our limbs could have root in our deep core.

Working with clients who have chronic problems. I find using visceral massage to be quite useful. Paying attention to the organs offers detox, deep relief, mobility, and relaxation. By balancing the viscera, the improvements gained during the rest of the session  seem to last longer.  Visceral work may leave you feeling a bit bloated at first, but then the detox benefits will kick in. You will need to void more often (this may be a blessing for some)  and due to the nature of detox you may feel a little tired for the day. Drinking lots of water and or green tea will help this process along.

In balancing the organ system my clients enjoy more integration through their bodies as they progress through physical therapy.  My advice is, follow your gut!

SAD = Standard American Diet = Highly processed high glycemic meals are abundantly all around to feed our sugar cravings.

It wasn’t until I went on a Low Sugar Cleanse followed by a transition to a low glycemic lifestyle; I became free from my sugar cravings.

Anyone have Cravings, anyone?
The rise and fall of your Blood sugar and how it effects your body

There has been a lot of information about how to best lose weight over the last 30-40 years, the diet industry is booming, but as a culture we are still gaining weight out of control! What is going on?

In Physical Therapy school I learned that burning more calories than you take-in is how you lose weight (i.e. Calories IN < Calories OUT). While that simple equation is true, the details behind how your body processes calories makes the situation not so simple.

Now I am reading all this information on keeping our blood sugar under control — in a narrow range- can actually help us be healthier and release fat! Low glycemic eating is about more than just weight loss. It has been shown to lower blood cholesterol and decrease need for medication in type II diabetes. And best of all, Low Glycemic eating is about new, yummy, and better food choices and combinations

Let me give you a little Physiology lesson to give you some background on why low glycemic eating is so healthy.

There are 2 important hormones in the regulation of our blood sugar levels.

1. Insulin  is released when blood sugar rises to lower the blood sugar- allowing the cells to take in sugar to be used as fuel (in your muscles) or stored as fat in your fat cells.

2. Glucagon  is released when insulin is low. It raises blood sugar by releasing sugar from the liver and fat from your fat cells through lypolosis.

Insulin lowers blood sugar, and Glucagon raises it. Your blood sugar range should be narrow, between 70-120mg/dL a 50 point range.

Where it all goes wrong is in our SAD Standard American Diet. So what is on the menu for the upcoming Holiday? The 4th of July….. anyone? Corn on the cob, potato salad, macaroni salad, pizza, fried chicken…. And for dessert there is some gooey, sticky something or a light and fluffy something. This menu is sure to spike your blood sugar and drop it just as fast to leave you in a semi coma before the end of the afternoon.

This is a SAD state of affairs. We spike our sugar first thing in the morning, cereal and milk, our blood sugar spikes, insulin is released and by mid morning it is diving, we feel sluggish, and need a little pick me up, and reach for the first thing we come across. Or perhaps we have the will of steel and make it to lunch and our body is screaming “I am starving!” At this point we can’t make our best choices. We choose the low fat pasta over the salad, spike again, insulin release….. we get these big swings up and down of our blood sugar and our body keeps thinking we need more and more insulin. Over time our bodies become resistant to our own insulin as our bodies make more. Insulin resistance progresses to what is known as syndrome X or metabolic syndrome, which includes other risk factors such as high blood pressure and triglycerides LDL, low HDL, and potentially type 2 Diabetes.

Our metabolic regulation system is now spinning out of control. This causes inflammation and swelling of our capillaries further reducing our metabolism at the cellular level.

Insulin which is spiking because of the SAD diet. And remember Glucagon, the fat releasing hormone which raises blood sugar? Its being suppressed because there is too much insulin. This unhealthy struggle stores sugar as fat particularly around the midline. This is why there is so much buzz about waist circumference. Increased waist circumference is an early indicator of this pre-diabetic state. Dr Strand has researched links between this state of increased glycemic stress which is oxidative stress as a causative factor in most of the degenerative diseases that plague us today. Dr Strand did Clinical Trials with people not going hungry, improved health parameters, all slowly gradually = released fat

So the choices you make ahead of time are most important. Set yourself up for success. For me a low sugar high fiber cleanse was essential  to address the sugar addiction. Especially at the beginning of my lifestyle change, because I felt powerless over it. I feel a cleanse is a great tool, and I revisit it from time to time to reset my system when I get off track.

Basically it takes 5 days to reset your sugars but 12 weeks to retrain habits. I did a great sugar busters boot camp with the support of Dr Deb and Dr Karen Wolfe. I used a low glycemic shake 3 x daily with 2 low glycemic snack bars in between. For lunch and dinner I added some veggies or a salad with a vinaigrette dressing (healthy fat) followed by the shake for dessert. I really felt great and it totally curbed my sugar cravings. I gradually added in low glycemic meals but I still supplement with shakes when my schedule gets busy. I noticed I my belly fat gradually releasing. My clothes felt better and I did not feel deprived. That was the key for me. I ate a variety of delicious food without feeling deprived in any way. The other important thing that Dr Strand recommends is high quality vitamins to improve insulin sensitivity and decrease combat oxidative stress. Moderate exercise such as a Brisk walk 30 min per day which also improves insulin resistance.

Ready to get started yourself?

I’ll be hosting a 4 WEEK SUGAR BUSTING CHALLENGE starting October 7. Registration ends September 26. Contact me at info@michellewald.com for details.

Here are some of my favorite books on Sugar Busting: 

Dr Deb Kern and Dr Karen Wolfe “Create the body your Soul Desires.”

Lucy Beale and Joan Clark-Warner “The Complete Idiot’s Guide Glycemic Index Cookbook”

Dr Ray Strand:

“Healthy for Life”

“What your Doctor doesn’t know about Nutritional Medicine (may be killing you).”

“Bionutrition”

Helpful Websites:

http://www.lowglycemicdiet.com/breakfastgi.html low glycemic food listing low to high sorted by category

www.glycemicindex.com

http://drdebkern.com/category/food Free health podcasts for 5 weeks to Reset your sugar cravings and learn more about the low glycemic lifestyle.( it is embedded in her blog)

www.Drkarenwolfe.usana.com More health info and Usana Associate

http://www.owningpink.com/ Cool website by another supercool doctor thinking outside the box about getting our mojo going.

www.raystrand.com Nutritional Medicine Specialist

http://www.livewellintl.com/ Dr Ray Strand talks about Reset and low glycemic eating.

The movement of bending over the sink for someone who has back pain may be a difficult endeavor. So I would like to take you through a movement sequence that may make brushing your teeth strain-free.

The Aston concept of sequencing your movement can change the feel of actions by breaking them down into their steps. Making the bigger action more manageable.

The next time you go to brush your teeth, rather than just hunching over the sink in one motion, try this:

Step close to the sink with one foot and push off your back foot to come forward, hinge at your hips, and place your free hand on the sink. Use your hand for support and  bend over the sink. Hinging at your hips first and then rounding your back, provides better support as you sip water or rinse your mouth. Use the hand already on the sink to  push off and come back standing.

Another simple tip is to use a glass to get the water closer to your mouth, this allows you to hardly bend at all.

Breaking down the simple everyday task of brushing your teeth is a great example of how Aston-Kinetics ® can make a functional difference in your life.

I want to send out a huge hooray for Judith! Join me in celebrating her pioneer work and 40+ years of massage service.  Judith will be giving a keynote speech and teaching classes over the weekend. I’ll be there. Save your spot now. Click HERE to register.

In Physical Therapy, I think of these opposing forces acting along the bone segments. In order to harness the possibility of GRF we must understand that GRF and Gravity aren’t just effecting us from top and bottom. As 3 dimensional creatures, we exist up and down, side to side, and front to back in both motion and stillness. The opposing actions of physics are a sum of all these motions. This paradigm shift changed my world.  We talked about 3 dimensions and dynamic motion in PT school, but everything was simplified down to measuring angles, width, length, etc. We collected information in 2 dimensions or less but rarely integrated these observations into the 3 dimension that we feel. I would go so far as to say that as physical therapist we hardly even address the 4^th dimension of time in which we live. Using Aston Patterning in my physical therapy practice, I now integrate all of these observations into a dynamic vision of  the body within both time and space.

Judith Aston has developed the play between gravity and GRF in her work – creating sophisticated technology for keeping your body healthy. We can use our awareness of GRF to un-weight our segments and unload our joints, creating hydration in our tissues.

Try this simple experiment: Rock side-to-side and forward and back. Now push into the floor feeling motion up to down.  You have just experienced GRF in all the planes. Find a comfortable position within these planes. There should be a range of motion in your optimal posture. As you breathe for example, you should notice slight bending and straightening of your spine.  As you inhale the breath straightens you, as you exhale your spine bends.  Your ribs expand side to side and front to back. There is a change in motion up-to-down, side-to-side, and front-to-back throughout each section of your body. None of these motions exist in one plane. You should feel supported from all angles. Now that you have noticed this 3 dimensional wave of motion, try and hold onto the awareness in other daily practices like walking, doing the dishes, or even brushing your teeth. Use GRF and Gravity to support you not just weigh you down. I talked about this concept in my previous post about Good Posture From The Bottom Up.

Judith takes this concept of using the Earth to support our movement even further by suggesting that we also support the Earth’s movements.  I wanted to include a clip of Judith talking on the subject:

If video doesn’t show below click here: Judith Aston Video on Supporting the Earth

This type of posture control stems from  top-down thinking.  The main concern is that your head is balanced over your shoulders; your shoulders are over your pelvis; and so on.  Leaving the feet as a last thought.  Unfortunately if you are starting with the top of the body, then you are almost ignoring what is supporting it. This way of thinking about posture is trapped by stillness – holding and forcing your body to be in a position that it might not naturally go.  It’s time to consider another way to find your best posture with ease and grace. Time to find an alignment that will work in both stillness and motion.

Back in the 80’s when I just started working in the physical therapy field, postural awareness and stabilization was all the rage.  We were seeing the negative effects of the Super Slouch coolness factor. We wanted people to know how to prevent back injuries.  I trained hard to educate people about “good posture”, and I’m guilty of preaching all the above rules.  Many personal trainers, teachers and aerobics instructors were as vigilant as I was. Today, most people know “the rules”; they almost know them too well. I see people now with what I call super posture.  They are so tight and over stabilized in their spine that they are causing problems, not preventing them.  They are compressing the spine and losing flexibility.

I am here to show you a different way.  I would like to show you how to get postural alignment without unnecessary holding patterns. I believe there is no perfect point of posture.  I don’t have a string pulling me up from the top of my head, keeping me straight as an arrow by pulling the rest of my body up following skull. What I do have are my feet.  My feet firmly plant on the floor with my weight balanced. I have my calves that easily balance over the middle of my feet, hinging slightly forward at the ankles. In this neutral position, my weight is on the middle of my feet at the front of the ankle joint. My knees and thighs balance on top of  my shinbones. My pelvis balances on top of my thighbones, while my spine with its natural curves balances over the pelvis. With this support, my shoulder girdle forms a ring around my ribs and rests there, supporting my arms.  Finally my neck and head balance over the whole thing. I guess if there was a string on my head it would just be resting there, because my base is supporting me.  This base support is an elegant option, instead of forcing your body into a position that is not natural to it.

When thinking about your posture try checking in with your body from the base. Imagine you body segments as blocks  stacking and balancing on top of each other. Walk yourself through my description of posture above starting from feet and finishing with the head.

Check out my previous post on Standing Comfortably with a video demonstration on finding your best posture.

Judith Aston has a video about posture starting over the middle of the feet. Check it out: