Healthy habits

Just as it is wise to think long term about your financial or business health, it is just as wise to think long term about your physical health.

With this in mind I encourage a longer-term approach to getting into shape rather than a six or eight-week burst that you can’t sustain.

Optimal health is about having daily practices that rebuild all the systems in our body. How we live on a daily basis is what replenishes these systems.

Our nervous, musculoskeletal, digestive, endocrine, immune, lymphatic, circulatory and reproductive systems are constantly renewing themselves or breaking down through our lifestyle choices.

We all know that we should drink water, exercise and eat good food. But if you look a little deeper, and understand that this is actually how we rebuild our body, then maybe we will take our lifestyle a little more seriously.

It does not matter how big your house is or how many cars you have if you are to sick, tired or too constipated to enjoy them

The Dali Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered “man.”  Because he sacrifices health to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health.

It takes years for poor health to accumulate in our bodies it does not happen over night. But the good news is our bodies are also constantly renewing and rebuilding.

Here are some fundamentals to work on below:

1.     Deal with emotions that cause fear, anger and sadness.  Many studies link emotions to poor health now.  The more you feel chaotic on the inside the more important it is to deal with these symptoms. Many amazing therapies can shift our emotional states for the better.

2.     Deep diaphragmatic breathing. The eastern world has practised this for thousands of years through meditation, yoga, Thai chi, qui gongs and other techniques. Shallow breath creates toxicity, sore tight neck muscles, acidity and poor physical function. Find a practice that you enjoy that involves breathing even if it as simple as 20 diaphragmatic breaths before you go to sleep.

3.     Take notice of how much good quality, clean filtered water you are consuming daily. Every system in the body depends on water.  We are all different. For every 30kg of body weight you need 1 litre plus a cup. (For 60kg you need 2.5L; for 90kg you need 4L daily. Herbal teas are a great way to increase your water intake.file

4.     Eat living food like clean proteins (anything with eyes), vegetables, legumes, fruits and good quality fats such as avocados  oils,  nuts. Stay away from food that lives in packets; if it can live on the shelf for a long time it has no life force for you.

5.     What would you enjoy doing to stay fit and healthy? Find an activity that you look forward to instead of begrudging. Include family and friends in your daily exercise.

6.     Getting to bed around 10pm will improve your health significantly. We get our physical repair between 10pm and 2am, and physiological and nervous system repair from 2am till 6am. 

Have a wind down routine of relaxation such as dim lights, hot baths and enlightened reading so your body knows it’s getting reading to sleep. Make sure your room is dark like a cave, as this promotes melatonin our recovery and repair hormone.

      

There is no magic pill to health, only basic life principles. The more you do them consciously the healthier you will become. Our bodies love routine. Focus on one thing at a time and when that is a habit you can add another.

Michelle Owen is a CHEK practitioner, holistic lifestyle coach, and corporate health and wellness speaker. For more detail, www.michelleowen.co.nz

michelle@michelleowen.co.nz

Cut the wheat and lose the weight

The world’s most popular grain is also the world’s most destructive dietary ingredient.

When it comes to wheat it doesn’t matter if it is disguised as a white French stick, pasta, muffin, pancake or a piece of organic whole grain bread – wheat is wheat no matter what form it comes in or what we have been taught in the past.

Wheat that we eat these days is very different than what our grandmas used to eat. It’s a plant that has been created by genetic research in the 1960s and 1970s that has a new protein called gliadin. 

Everybody is susceptible to the gliadin protein, which is an opiate and in most people stimulates appetite making them consume 400+ calories per day, 365 days a year – that’s a lot of weight.

There are many diseases that result from wheat consumption; celiac disease is the devastating intestinal disease, which develops from exposure to wheat.

Alongside celiac disease is an assortment of neurological disorders, Crones disease, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, skin rashes, schizophrenia and irritable bowel.

More subtle symptoms are bloating, excess mucus, brain fog, diarrhoea, constipation, weight gain, muscle ache and joint pain, leg swelling, acid reflux and depression.

Case studies

If wheat can cause so many problems, will removing it from the diet cause amazing benefits?

William Davis, cardiologist and author of the book Wheat Belly, says he has seen protuberant flopped over the belt belly fat vanish when his patients have eliminated wheat.

One of the amazing things he writes about is a 38-year-old woman with ulcerative colitis who was facing colon removal but was cured by eliminating wheat – with her colon intact.

Another is 26-year-old man, who was barely able to walk because of joint pain. He experienced complete relief and not only walked but ran after taking wheat off the menu.

These events may sound extraordinary but there is ample scientific research to implicate wheat as the root cause of these conditions.

Diet benefits

So the advice over the years to eat more healthy whole grains has not done everyone any good at all.

There is not an organ in our body that isn’t affected by wheat, although the waistline is the most visible way we see it.

According to Dr Jeffery Bland in The Rejuvenation Diet, mildly to moderately ill patients – “the walking wounded” – can improve their health substantially in just 20 days by eliminating wheat gluten and dairy, and adding phyto-nutrient rich foods.

These are derived from plant material that has been shown to be necessary for sustaining human life.

If you have any signs or symptoms that are unexplained or you just want to improve your health, weight or function, I challenge you to cut wheat totally from your diet for 20 days and see how you feel.

I am sure you will notice many benefits.

There is no such thing as a wheat deficiency: The side affects of being wheat free are slim, energetic, more energy, toned, clearer thinking, etc.

Eating wheat-free

Back to basics vegetables are one of the best foods on the planet – they are rich in nutrients such as flavonoids and fibre.

Extend your vegetable variety beyond your normal habits: steamed asparagus, kumara chips (baked), Greek salads, healthy coleslaws, steamed spinach, avocados and olives.

Carrots or celery dipped in hummus and tapenades, eggplant sliced and baked with olive oil, Caprese salad with sliced tomato, mozzarella, fresh basil and olive oil.

Mix meaty mushrooms with good quality meat, fish, and eggs.

Roll food in large lettuce leafs instead of wraps.

Replacing wheat with gluten free can be okay for someone who is wheat intolerant to have a treat. But it is better to clean up and get rid of all of these processed foods. Gluten free does not necessarily mean healthy.

Stay away from food in packets.

Michelle Owen is a corporate health and wellness speaker, and a level III CHEK practitioner.
www.fitness-n-function.co.nz
michelle@michelleowen.co.nz

Why Cholesterol is your Friend

For years we have been told to stay away from cholesterol – to the extent that one would think it is a poison.

The truth is that cholesterol is extremely important for the proper functioning of the human body, not only for repairing and rebuilding but also for many vital functions.

In fact, cholesterol is so important that if we eat too little of it our body will produce more. And if we eat too much, production goes down. So why are we all trying to get it as low as possible?

In her book Diary of a Legal Drug Dealer, K L Carlson tells of her experience as a pharmaceutical sales rep for statin drugs.

“We where trained to emphasise to physicians the new lower LDL guidelines that where ostensibly created by health experts.” She states the majority of experts who created the lower guidelines have multiple financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. The lower the guidelines the bigger the lasso to rope people into needing these drugs.

Important functions

The human brain is rich in cholesterol – thinking, memory and brain function are totally reliant on it.  If you interfere with the body’s ability to produce cholesterol you will put the brain and nervous system under threat.

Dr Duane Graveline, a former Nasa scientist and astronaut, managed to save his memory by stopping his pills and eating lots of cholesterol-rich foods. He describes his experience in Lipitor: Thief of Memory – Statin drugs and the misguided war on cholesterol.

After the brain, the organs hungriest for cholesterol are the adrenals and sex glands.

All of the sex hormones (testosterone, progesterone and estrogen), plus adrenal hormones, Vitamin D and bile production all require cholesterol. These hormones have many functions from metabolism regulation, energy production, mineral assimilation, brain, muscle and bone formation, behavior, emotions and reproduction.

Cholesterol is also essential for immune health and fighting infections. A mother’s milk provides a huge amount of cholesterol for the development of newborns. It also acts as an anti-oxidant in the body dealing with free radicals.

Cholesterol is essential for the integrity of cell walls and without it cells would not be able to communicate with each other or to transport various molecules into and out of the cell.

Blood cholesterol goes up when we have infections and when something needs healing, such as after surgeries or dental treatments. It also goes up due to stress of any sort, poor quality food, toxicity, gut inflammation, emotional stress, too much alcohol and much more.

Should we not be looking at the reason cholesterol is high and addressing that? Low fat diets are making people fatter, sicker and more tired.

Good quality eggs, meat and fish, coconut oil and butter are essential building blocks for life – don’t be afraid of them.

Saturated fats heal and sustain us mentally, physically and emotionally.

Michelle Owen is a corporate health and wellness speaker, and postural and wellness specialist

www.michelleowen.co.nz

Posture - More than just Standing Up Straight!

As soon as I speak of posture people want to sit up straight. Unfortunately this does not last more than a moment. Poor posture is hitting our society like a plague. 

This is leading to many conditions such as neck and back pain, headaches, poor breathing patterns, RSI, rotator cuff tears, hip replacement, hemorrhoids, varicose veins just to name a few.

What is good posture?

Good posture is the ability to sustain our body mass where it is evenly distributed and balanced in sitting standing and movement. This is the optimal mechanical position of the spine and joints.

Our body works on a tensegrity model (tension integrity) just like the golden gate bridge – where equal tension should occur in opposing positions to keep our joints functioning well.

This muscle balance has to occur around every joint.

I get asked a lot “why do we get poor posture”. It is hard to pin point exactly as we are all so different but I see it starting in children very young. We are not taught anywhere where our body should be in space. So we adopt poor patterns from our parents, teachers, and coaches, anyone around as we grow up. We sit at desks and carry heavy bags and play sports that are one way dominant, eg: tennis, golf, soccer etc!

So over the years of holding our bodies in these patterns we develop muscle imbalance, leading to niggles and pain in our bodies.

When correcting posture we must look at the big picture, addressing all the muscular imbalance and the nervous system with new pathways and movement patterns - not just one joint ie: shoulder. The longer we have operating in a poor position the more stuck we can become – “a stitch in time saves nine”.

Training the postural system is very different work than what you will do at the local gym.

It is extremely important to start with a Postural and Orthopedic assessment to assess the body. This determines what specific exercise you will need to bring you body back to a strong, functional and integrated unit. If you don’t assess you guess!

It is really important to know that when you have poor posture you will need an imbalanced program to create balance!  You cannot expect to do even or balanced exercise and expect to change. This is something that I see everywhere I look. 


Through an appropriate skilled exercise program made up of stretch, mobility, stability and strength you can get better with age and enjoy life to come. This is the long-term approach of structural repair.

The more athletic you are the more important it is to have your body balanced and intrinsically (internal muscle system) strong. People imagine that just because you are fit for a sport that you will have good posture – this is not so and many of our athletes are in pain. An example of this is the faster you drive a car the more finely tuned it should be, you would not want the diff to be bent and the wheels wobbly. 


Athletes often get more injuries that the sedentary just because they are moving their bodies so much more and because of the one sidedness of their particular sport. It is intrinsic postural stability and functional strength that is needed to keep athletes from reoccurring injury.

Our bodies are our vehicle for life, correcting imbalance now saves us a lot of trouble later. Don’t wait till you break. So many times I hear the story of a client who just bent over to pick something up and blew a disc in their back or some other injury.  This is just a straw that broke the camels back and the body has been in poor position for a long time– correct your posture now – don’t wait till you break!