Articles of Health and Wellness – 2009

December -2009

5 Ways to Avoid Holiday Stress Eating

1. Plan your meals for the week. Even if it wasn’t the holiday season to avoid eating extra or junk food planning your meals have been proven time and again to help keep you focused on what to eat.

2. Prepare your own meals. Preparing your own meals goes hand in hand with planning them. When you prepare them you get to decide what is healthy or not. In your preparation make sure you include snacks between meals. These snacks will help you to avoid those unwanted treats that make it to your office or friends hand out.

3. Stay focused it’s only 31 days. Staying focused on what’s going to be best for you to enjoy the holidays. Allow yourself to enjoy a treat every now and then without beating yourself up for it, don’t stress out about it. Look up healthy treats on the internet and take them to work or give them away the recipient may enjoy them more than the sugary sweets.

4. Use EFT. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique; the theory behind EFT is that your body/mind creates a negative energy within it energy pathways (meridians). These negative energies may be cravings or impulses to eat certain foods at certain times of the day  By using EFT it will help shift those energies the cravings or impulse eating to go away. It may sound strange, but it works.

5. Share the Christmas love. Pass it on or share the holiday sweets that are given to you. Take them to the office or give it away, it’s all apart on the holiday cheer. Just because you gave them away doesn’t mean you didn’t value you gift, your just spreading the love.

November – 2009

Protecting Yourself from Stress May Prevent Illness!

Stress compromises your immune system, enabling germs like viruses and bacteria to enter your system and wreak havoc more readily. Want to know why this happens?

Whenever you’re sick, your body calls in the army of cells to protect you. When you’re stressed, the body thinks you’re sick and those same cells are used to try to make you feel better. The stress over-extending your army. Then when a cold or flu bug comes into contact with you, your good cells (army) are exhausted and nowhere to be found, leaving you vulnerable to infection. Try to reduce your stress and stay healthy this cold and flu season!

There are some stresses in our lives that we can’t control, so let’s just focus on some that we can control.

5 tips to lower your stress and boost your immune system:

•  Give yourself more time in the morning . Set your alarm ten minute earlier so you don’t have to rush around getting ready for your day. Also if you take a few of those minute to calmly get out of bed, this will lower the stress levels as well.
•  Listen to uplifting music throughout your day could help you shake off coughs and colds. Researchers at Frankfurt University, Germany, asked volunteers to listen to choral music and used saliva tests to measure hormone levels before and after the performance. Levels of cortisol, a hormone known to suppress immune system response, was much lower after the show. Cortisol undermines the body’s ability to produce T cells which fight infection. High levels of cortisol are also linked to blood pressure and blood sugar problems.
•  Take a walk. Sitting at your desk all day can not only make you feel sluggish, it can leave your immune system sluggish, too. Studies show that regular, moderate exercise – like a daily 30 minute walk — increases the level of leukocytes, an immune system cell that fights infection. When you’re a non-exerciser, your risk of infections — such as colds — increase compared to those who exercise.
	•  Get a massage. Massage helps fight infection, massage increases the activity of white blood cells that target and destroy infectious agents. With regular massage, the immune system is strengthened rather than stimulated and it becomes more robust. Massage strengthens the immune system, restoring balance. Massage increases antibody production in immune deficiency and reduces autoantibody production in autoimmune disease.
•  Take deep breaths. The key to deep breathing is to breathe deeply from the abdomen, getting as much fresh air as possible in your lungs. When you take deep breaths from the abdomen, rather than shallow breaths from your upper chest, you inhale more oxygen. The more oxygen you get, the less tense, short of breath, and anxious you feel. So the next time you feel stressed, take a minute to slow down and breathe deeply.

October – 2009

Moving to a New Location:

On Friday, October 2nd, 2009 Massage by Wil, Wil Adams will be at a new centrally located office in St. George 75 So. 100 E. Suite 1B. Massage and like therapies will be provided at the new location. There is a wonderful waiting area and two spacious massage rooms. Massage will be available five days a week (click for days and hours). For groups of three or more Saturdays may be available as well with advance scheduling.

I’m offering a fantastic Grand Opening Special during October and November, so come on by.