Savour Your Christmas

by Deirdre | Dec 14, 2012 | Mindful living

Christmas is coming!  Christmas is coming! 

Christmas has become the season of abundance – lots of, parties, prezzies catching up with friends, concerts, cooking, shopping, and decorating. So much fun and joy packed into one small corner of the year.

This abundance has a stressful side. So much eating, drinking, staying out late, rushing from one event to the next, and shopping in harried crowds, too. Unless you have a your own merry band of elves to make stuff appear you’re probably feeling a little run down and, dare I say it, fed up with Christmas by this point of the seasonal festivities.

I’ve started to give thanks at Christmas that my “make it perfect” days are behind me. While I fondly remember the painstakingly coordinated Christmases of yore – the lovely traditional dinners, the mounds of presents under the tree, the gingerbread house decorating – I’m putting a different emphasis on the joy of Christmas. And it’s the joy of celebrating what’s here now.  

I had a stunningly simple idea last year at Christmas. 

I asked my family what would make Christmas most meaningful for them and then made those things happen first. Before I bought a single gift, or planned a single meal. I was guided by what they said they wanted to experience to make it a joyous and memorable Christmas for them.

This is what happened – what everyone wanted was really, really easy to organize. Nobody really likes turkey, so off the menu it went. We’re having raclette instead and I’m saving myself hours of work. It was all about connecting with friends and having time to enjoy the respite from the usual routine. Chocolate was on the list. Watching movies we don’t get to during the year. Staying late at parties.

The biggest difference for me is that Christmas has stopped being a “project” I need to push through and then recover from. I don’t need the same supports I gravitated towards in other years – sugary treats, a steady flow of wine, protective crankiness, emotional eating. I feel more like I’m choosing those pleasures rather than using them as a prop to get through the next task.

And it’s starting to feel more like joy.

Posted by Deirdre Walsh

Image: Green Christmas Balls by Christmas Stock Images. Licensed under Creative Commons

Keep Your Brain Cool

by Deirdre | Dec 3, 2012 | Mindful living

A fave part of my job, after coaching itself, is being ever on the hunt the latest and greatest in body-mind-spirit healthy news for you, my dear readers. I was at a really interesting talk last week by Dr. Erin Wiley about brain health. She was sharing the latest information about chronic inflammation and mood disorders like depression and anxiety on behalf of Orthomolecular Medicine.

Inflammation is the body’s response to injury or infection. The reaction is really powerful and helpful when it’s defending us from outer threats. But there’s growing evidence that stress (and the way we deal with it) is linked to a low-grade inflammatory response. That response starts to overload the body as if it was constantly fighting an infection. There’s also good evidence that chronic inflammation contributes to heart disease, cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and other diseases. We start to notice chronic inflammation with things like allergies, skin conditions, aches and pains and the like.

The damage of inflammation comes from a process called oxidative stress. This is the havoc that free radicals cause to our cells by degrading the structural proteins, fat and DNA. One way to think about it is how oxygen changes iron to rust when it’s left outside in the weather. Dr. Wiley had a lot of suggestions to manage inflammation through lifestyle and diet changes:

What to eat

• Use coconut oil for cooking and olive oil for taste. Don’t skimp on healthy fats because your brain (like your butt) is made of fat. They both become big and beautiful when you treat them with good fats.

• Low carb diets reduce inflammation. A couple of better known are the paleo diet or the ketogenic diet.

• Vegetables and fruits. Your plate should be half full of green and colorful veggies. And broccoli for the win.

What not to eat

• Refined sugar. Plain and simple. Refined sugar is inflammatory, which is the opposite of what you want.

• Foods you are sensitive to. The most common ones are gluten, dairy, soy, eggs and sugar. They make you bloated, foggy, achey, and older. I’ve written more about how to find them here.

• Carb-y meals followed by carb-y treats, and chased with carb-y drinks. Your daily recommended dose is 3 – 6 servings per day.

Here’s how you soothe your inner 4 year old – the one who’s lower lip is quivering at the thought of giving up her favorite carbs. Make them good ones! Be a connoisseur of carbs. Spend time making yourself your most favorite carbs and really, really enjoy them when you have them. (In technical terms, that’s called mindful eating!)

How to exercise

Walking half an hour a day will do a lot to manage inflammation in your body. Dr. Wiley suggested watching 23 ½ Hours by Dr. Mike Evans if you’re still not sure about this.

• Bonus points for walking in a forest. They are full of organic chemicals that are antimicrobial and generally good for you. (It’s called forest bathing in Japan – that’s a fun thought)

Just move your body: yoga, pilates, running, dancing, trampoline, whatever you like.

• Strength training is really, really good for you if you can fit it into your exercise routine.

How to live with modern products

One of the first tipoff’s that our brains and bodies are inflamed is that we start to react badly to chemicals in our environment. You’ll notice it with wine, coffee, perfume, fragrances, and cleaning chemicals. But the damage has been done over the years of exposure to pesticides, solvents, BPAs and phthalates.

Cut down on the allergens that make you feel crummy, in order of least important to most important to you. Maybe you can stop before you get to your favorite allergen (ahem . . . wine).

How to relax

Your brain needs to relax, too. Try mindfulness (yes!) and any meditative activities to soothe your stress. Yoga, tai chi, qi gong are all good for the inveterate multi-taskers. Prayer is superb.

How to supplement your diet

Dr. Wiley had two unreserved recommendations to combat inflammation – fish oil and probiotics. They have unblemished safety profiles, even at these therapeutic doses.

• Fish oil of 1000 – 2000 mg/day of EPA. You are going to have to hunt around for this because most commercial blends are much lower. The ratio of EPA:DPA should be 6:1 because we get enough DPA in our diet.

• A probiotic containing lactobacillus Rhamnosus daily.

How to repair the damage

Now this is where the talk started getting even more interesting.

There are a few different ways we can help our bodies turn on our healing response and clean up the damage that free radicals cause to our cells. You need to work with a naturopath to follow these so they can make sure that you’re dosing properly and using good quality products.

• Turn on your genes. There’s a molecule called an nrf2 activator that will actually turn on your genes to stimulate your body to make glutathione, a powerful anti-oxidant that protects your cells against oxidation. Nrf2 activators are found in low levels in common foods – green tea, coffee, turmeric, broccoli, and red wine.

• Supplement with glutathione. Glutathione is the body’s superstar anti-oxidant, so it makes sense to supplement with it. The problem is that it breaks down in your stomach and becomes ineffective. So save your cash and don’t buy oral supplements or protein powders with glutathione added. You can find vitamin/glutathione IV therapy through some NDs.

• Supplement with glutathione precursors. There are two precursors of glutathione — alpha lipoic acid and n-acetyl cysteine. Dr. Wiley said there was evidence that supplementing with these two can make sure you have enough raw materials to make glutathione on its own. Work with a naturopathic doctor on this one.

What I Learned From a Badass Buddhist Monk

by Deirdre | Nov 16, 2012 | Mindful living

Ajahn Brahm is one badass Buddhist monk.  We went to see him speak at U of T a while back. One of my friends had seen him before and said he was wise and entertaining. He was in town on a retreat and lecturing at U of T to students about psychology, Buddhism and science.

At first it was a bit trippy to hear him parse Buddhist teachings in a London cockney accent. But that soon passed as he opened into his musings about how science should try to tear down Buddhism (and vice versa), his stories from Cambridge (he studied theoretical physics, and got drunk, with Nobel laureates in the late ‘60s), and his Buddhist jokes.

There was a ferocious noise one day just outside the spiritual centre that Ajahn Brahm runs in Australia. The monks ran out to see what was going on and found their beloved cat squished on the road. It lost its nine lives, one after another, when it was hit by the 10-wheeler.

Ajahn Brahm loves iconoclasts and was begging the students to question everything. Traditions, conventional thought, and mindless habits in particular. He asked them to hold everything to the same burden of proof, whether the ideas come from Buddhism or science.

He had three lessons for everyone that I thought I’d share with you.

Lesson #1

Don’t react to life with a canned response. You must react with your truth, no matter what others might expect of you. Something that’s difficult for most people may not be difficult for you. Or something that’s easy for most people may not be easy for you. He talked about the connection that was possible by approaching people he’s visited in hospitals and prisons in a lighthearted, joyful way. We all get tired of being treated as our outward circumstances and long for people to connect with us from our mind and heart.

Lesson #2

Mindfulness is great. But without compassion it is ineffective.  Ajahn Brahm spent a little time “gloating” about how psychology is turning to Buddhism to look for answers to mental health. He noted the popularity of mindfulness these days – how it’s being touted as a cure for almost everything.

But mindfulness on its own is not really effective at working with our psychology. True mental health comes from welcoming difficult feelings with kindness, setting a place at the table for them and holding them closely with love.

Feelings show up in both our body and our mind. He talked about using mindfulness to see where the feeling was showing up in our body – your chest, solar plexus, or shoulders. Then soothe the area by rubbing or breathing into it with kindness and tenderness. When he’s used this with people they’ve found that the difficult feelings become much less frightening and easier to manage.

Lesson #3

You cannot know reality until the mind is as still as a lake, without the winds of anger and desire. I never understood why Buddhists were so keen on working with attachment. It seemed a bit dry to me. I’m very attached to the pleasure of a good meal, or a walk by the river, and I couldn’t understand why that would be discouraged. But what I saw through him is that if we run after things because we want them so badly, or we react with anger when they don’t come true then we’re not really experiencing real life.  We’re just experiencing the winds of our mind.

Is there a place in your life to test some of these lessons for yourself?

Posted by Deirdre Walsh

Exercise Your Way Out of Burnout – No Really!

by Deirdre | Oct 19, 2012 | Mindful living

Why is it that when we need exercise the most – stress is everywhere and we’re craving more and more comfort – we pick that exact moment to have trouble finding time to fit it in? We drift so far away from regular exercise that we start seeing the lack show up in our health.  Insomnia, digestive issues, pain, you know the drill.

Then the day comes when we want to rise up out of the hole of inertia and recommit to fitness.  We see how much fun our fit friends are having and sign up for boot camp or hot ashtanga yoga or a half-marathon.

Bad idea.

I know, I know — all the people who love those hot, sweaty highs are thinking that I don’t know what I’m missing.  I’ve been there and had those highs and loved them too. But if you’re coming off a long period of stress with little to no exercise it may not be an endorphin high that you’re getting. 

It may a raging b*tch low.

Here’s why . . .  

Your aerobic energy system is de-conditioned. It’s not up to the job of producing that much energy that fast. To pick up the slack, your body switches to your anaerobic energy system. That’s the slow twitch muscle fibres that fuel up with glycogen (sugar) and gives you power, speed and big muscles. 

But your anaerobic system isn’t designed to power you through a boot camp class.  Think more like 2 minutes of fast, strong activity.  You know what you’re doing when you grit your teeth and muscle through??  You’re stressing out your poor, tired, stressed body. 

When you don’t have the underlying aerobic conditioning to improve your stress resilience you’re doing yourself more harm than good. You’re taking a stressed system and stressing it further, all in the name of regaining fitness. 

And it ain’t gonna work. 

Phil Maffetone, athletic coach to many world-champion triathletes back in the day, has called this aerobic deficiency syndrome. Doesn’t that sound official?  It’s caused by underuse of your aerobic muscles and overuse of your anaerobic muscles.

Here are the symptoms: 

• Physical fatigue

• Mental fatigue

• Brain dysfunction

• Recurrent physical injuries

• Excess storage of fat (your body doesn’t burn fat so it stores it)

• Blood sugar stress (your body can’t pull fat from your system so it pulls it out of your blood stream, causing cravings and moodiness)

• Hormonal imbalance (the excess stress messes with your cortisol levels, throwing off all your hormones)

• Poor circulation

• Reduced immune function

• Exercise intolerance 

Seriously, if you’re splitting a gut, ready to escalate a minor disagreement into violence, and super important, STILL PUTTING ON WEIGHT, you need to rethink how hard you’re exercising. 

Phil recommends building an aerobic base first, before you start making big plans for weight training or intense exercise.  He’s a big believer in using a heart rate monitor and keeping in a moderate aerobic level.  Here’s what he has to say in his book, The Big Book of Health and Fitness, about building your aerobic base: 

For a workout to be truly aerobic, you should be able to exercise the same way for many weeks and months with continued benefits. And, when you’re finished each workout, you should feel great – not tired or sore, and certainly not ready to collapse on your couch. Nor should you have cravings for sugar or other carbohydrates – your workout should program your body to burn more fat, not sugar.

How long this takes depends on your aerobic fitness today. He suggests up to six months of slow, steady progress. 

This may be new, but think joy and fun with exercise.  

Posted by Deirdre Walsh, Image: iStockphoto

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5 Tips for Working with a Naturopath

by Deirdre | Oct 15, 2012 | Mindful living

During difficult periods of stress – when pain, unstable moods, poor memory and inability to cope rear their ugly heads – it can be very helpful to seek out the advice of a health practitioner.  They can help you with the symptoms of stress as you find the time to bring your life back into balance.

But who to call?

Your doctor has a few goodies in her tool-kit, like anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs and counselling. Complementary health practitioners — like naturopaths, osteopaths, traditional Chinese medicine, massage therapists, etc. — all have methods to treat stress that may be more effective in the long run and work to rebalance your system. I’ve been to quite a few different practitioners and have found pros and cons to each of them. I’ll share my experience with you and add some great resources I’ve found on the Web. 

Let’s talk about naturopaths

Naturopathic medicine is another form of primary care – the front line for health concerns. They’re looking for the root causes of illness or disease, not just the symptoms. They promote health and healing using therapies derived from the natural world.

Natural is a loose term here as many naturopaths rely on supplements. Sure, they can be derived from natural sources, but sometimes they pull one or more active ingredients from a natural product and then put it into pill form, much like pharmaceuticals.  Some of the therapies that NDs draw from are:

• Clinical nutrition – food is medicine!  NDs may suggest special diets or nutritional supplements such as vitamins, minerals, or enzymes.

• Botanical/Herbal medicine – using plant substances to stimulate healing and add nutritional value

• Homeopathy – using minute amounts of natural substances based on your personal profile to stimulate the self-healing abilities of the body.

• Physical therapies – like massage, hydrotherapy, use of light, heat and cold, or instruments like ultrasounds.

• Traditional Chinese Medicine – acupuncture and Oriental herbs

So how do you find a good ND?

Ask people you trust for a recommendation.  Why, specifically, do they like working with them and what the are the ND’s best qualities?  What they would change about the relationship?  These questions will get to what they value in the relationship and you can tell whether it matches your values.  You may be really into their knowledge of herbs and supplements while your friend may really value their empathy. 

A typical story of working through stress with a naturopath can be found at Best Health Magazine.  

Here are 5 things to insist on:

1 – You feel completely heard by your naturopath and feel they understand where you are.

Success comes from following the treatment plan your ND creates for you, so see if you feel a level of trust and teamwork between you. If you don’t feel that you’re able to discuss the treatment plan then you probably don’t have the right naturopath.

2 – You don’t walk away feeling like you’ve been talked into doing a lot of tests.

Yes, there are a lot of really cool tests you can do. You can test your hormone levels, your sensitivity to foods and a ton of other really interesting things. But they’re expensive and your ND should be able to give you a really good reason for you to invest in them.

3 – They make recommendations to food and exercise that you can implement yourself.

Your treatment plan should be easy to follow and implement yourself.  You may choose to speak to a holistic nutritionist or exercise specialist, but it shouldn’t be required to follow the plan.

4 – They have a solid clinical education.

There are different levels of professional certification within naturopathic circles. In Ontario and British Columbia, naturopaths are licensed and have had four years of training with supervision and practicums. In Alberta they are regulated. In the United States the distinction between different types of naturopaths isn’t as clear.  Some can train in distance programs for under 1000 hours and others require thousands of hours combined with practicums.  If you’re in the States and interested in more information, you can find it here. 

5 – They recommend good quality products.

There are a lots and lots of supplements and natural products on the market and few of them are tested for quality.  In the U.S. when there’s no government-verified seal on the label then there’s only a 2 in 3 chance that the contents will match the label. I’ve written about the ins and outs of knowing what’s in the bottle here.

The bottom line is that you should feel like you have good communication with your ND, that the diagnostic and treatment plans fit within your budget and you’re getting good quality products. A good naturopath is an amazing ally to beating back stress.

Posted by Deirdre Walsh