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Need Some Gift Ideas?
Stuck on what to buy for the people in your life? How about something healthy that they will actually like?
- A gift certificate for one of our services
Choose the amount you would like to give. You can specify a service or
simply choose a certificate for the clinic and let your recipient
choose his or her treatment and/or product.
- A gift certificate for our far-infrared sauna (prices will increase at the beginning of 2007)
- Chinese hand exercise balls
to help combat arthritis and keep fingers flexible and nimble for
musicians, writers, and keyboarders. They are also believed to
stimulate points in the body for overall wellness.
- Hot scarves
are stylish fleece scarves with pockets that can hold up to four
environmentally-friendly disposable heat pads which last up to seven
hours. Whether just to warm you up or to help relieve pain, these
comforting scarves are great! Available in red, green, black, fall
orange, tan, lavender, baby blue, and greyish-blue. Made in Vancouver,
B.C. www.hotscarves.com
- An air purifier
that can fill your entire room with health beneficial Negative Ions,
getting rid of dust, pollens, pet dander, allergens, mould spores,
bacteria, tobacco and smoke smell and many other airborne
pollutants.
- Aromatherapy roll-on bottles
- Beauty and Function together: magnetic jewellery
The Eating Healthy Challenge
No, this is not an article to tell
you not to enjoy your holiday goodies, but I thought that you might get
a kick out of some of the food horrors that I found. From deep-fried Coca-Cola batter drenched
in cola fountain syrup and whipped cream to 1500 calorie (that's
approaching a day's worth of calories for most people) burgers!
Ever hear of a "Hamdog" or a "Luther Burger"? I hope you
haven't tried either! The hamdog
is a hot dog padded with cheese and half pound of ground beef. That's
dropped in the fryer, then loaded onto a hoagie roll and topped with
chili, bacon, onions and a fried egg! The Luther Burger is a
bacon cheeseburger with a Krispy Kreme doughnut for a bun.
Okay, so you KNOW that those foods
aren't good for you. But did you know that sometimes foods that
might sound good are just good marketing disguising bad foods?
Take for example some of the items at your local coffee shop.
The 2nd highest calorie beverage at Starbucks is the Blackberry
Green Tea (sounds promising at this point, but wait...) Frappuccino
Blended Creme whip. It is 560 calories and 78 g of sugar (that's
nearly 20 tsp of sugar!) in a Grande cup. How about the food?
The Starbucks Classic coffee cake has 890 calories and 75 g of
sugar. So, maybe you should eat the Reduced-Fat Marble coffee
cake instead? While it only has 320 calories and 29 g of sugar,
it has 3.5 g of trans fats (and you don't want any of those).
Okay, so how about a healthy Starbucks granola bar? Surely
that must be alright? It's stil 450 calories, 25 g of sugar (over
6 tsp sugar), and a shocking 7 g of trans fats. Too see for
yourself, visit their website and click on the beverage and food items links yourself. So, there's the bad news.
Here's some good news.
Enjoy food and don't stress over the occasional treat (although a
treat does not need to be a daily routine or super-sized). Choose
a regular or herbal tea or coffee. Like the special coffees? Choose
a regular cappuccino or cafe latte. For foods, a better
option is a pumpkin scone or for something sweeter, maybe a cranberry
bliss bar.
How about bringing your own food?
My favourite seaonal food now? Japanese mandarin oranges.
They are sweet, portable, easy to prepare, and can be broken down
into finger food bite-sized pieces! And they even come wrapped in
that green paper that you can use to wrap up the peel in so you can
throw it out. What more can you ask for?
The 12 Days of Christmas... On the ... day of Christmas my true love (yourself!) gave to me (yourself!)...
1st: Give a compliment to yourself. Congratulate yourself for something good that you've done.
2nd: Breathe!
Stop what you are doing. Breathe in deeply through your nose, feeling
your belly expand as your diaphragm moves downward to allow your lungs
to fill. Slowly and completely exhale and repeat.
3rd: Give and receive a hug.
Whether it's to a spouse, partner, child, pet, or acquaintance,
or even a stuffed animal, hugging helps you to feel connected.
4th: Smile.
Look in a mirror and smile at yourself. Just the calling of
action of those facial muscles to pull up the corners of your
mouth makes your brain fire signals reminding itself of a true smile
and the associated joy. Fake it 'til you make it. Smile at
someone else and they might just smile back!
5th: Think of what it is that you really want. Sometimes we get so wrapped
up in daily to-dos and such that we never get a chance to think whether
we are headed in the right direction for ourselves. Ever hear of the law of attraction?
It states that you will bring into your life the things that you think
about, whether for good or for bad. If you are thinking about how you
don't want to have your car towed, you are sure to have your car towed.
Instead think about what you want. I'm sure you've done that before.
You envisioned an available parking space and there it was. You
mentally hear your name being called at a draw and sure enough it is.
Practice this and believe it.
6th: Stop. Stop and look around you. Really look and listen and smell and
feel your environment. It isn't just about smelling the roses.
Sometimes you can find the simplest beauty in the most mundane of
things. It's there if you just search it out. Ask any photographer or
other artist.
7th: Get creative.
Do something that requires you to use the creative parts of your
brain. Draw, doodle, photograph, scrapbook, write, glue, knit,
crochet, paint, fingerpaint, play an instrument, make up a song,
decorate, act, pretend, imagine....
8th: Help
someone who could use your help. Volunteer or donate money to a
cause that's important to you. You will feel good knowing that
you have helped and made a change for the better for someone or
something else.
9th: Give
a gift that means something. In this consumer-driven world where
we feel the need to give the trendiest clothes and the newest
electronics, we often find that we have more stuff than we need, can
use, or want. Instead, consider giving a present that will be
meaningful to the gift recipient and a worthy cause. Some
examples are to adopt an animal and its habitat at the World Wildlife Foundation, buy a family a goat or other provisions for survival in Africa through World Vision, or adopt an animal at the Vancouver Aquarium. (thanks to my patient Tanya for these great ideas!).
10th: Move your body. Exercise.
From walking to marathon; from lifting weights to lifting kids;
dancing while you vaccum and dust to taking a salsa class; from BootCamp to Pole Dancing Fitness Classes.
Exercise releases endorphins, the same feel-good hormones that
are released when you have chocolate, sex, or, believe it or not,
acupuncture!
11th: Eat right.
Enjoy food, but learn to enjoy foods that are also healthy for
you. Take it from a reformed sweet-a-holic, it's possible!
Need help? Ask.
12th: Sleep well.
Create a regular schedule around sleep times. Try to go to
bed early enough so that you can get close to 8 hours (more or less for
different people). Create a routine around bedtime that is
conducive to rest. In other words, start winding down and try to
avoid things that will stimulate you physically and mentally right
before bed, e.g. the late night news, work, worries. Still having
problems? Ask.
Now go back to number 1 and congratulate yourself and compliment yourself for being kind to you!
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