Learn to Read Labels

Last week I discussed keeping a health diary. If you tried it, you may be just starting to see how complicated our eating habits are. So many things that we eat come in a box or a can. Anything that is pre-packaged will likely have many ingredients that you may never have heard of. Many of these ingredients have possible allergy-inducing properties for some people.

I will be doing lectures on how to read labels in the future, but for now, start by looking at the label of everything you eat. You may find that there are many ingredients that you don’t recognize. Go online or buy a book on foods and ingredients that will help you learn about what you are eating. A few suggestions are:

Yours in Health and Happiness,

Pam
New Awakenings Massage

Keep a Health Diary

Many people come in to me complaining about allergies, insomnia, bowel disorders, and frequent illness. Often, these symptoms are a result of things that can be altered with a little self-awareness. One of thebest ways to bring about this awareness is through a health log.

Start with columns or the date, time (you can keep it general like morning, afternoon, and evening),meals, activities, location, and any symptoms you might have. If possible, be very specific about foods eaten. Certain foods are known to cause inflammatory responses in some people, others for causing bowel irritation, or mental fatigue and mood swings. I will be covering food-related allergies and how to read labels later, but for now, try at least to be aware of what prepared foods you are eating…pre-packaged foods, anything with sauces, flavorings, etc.

You may discover that every time you eat Italian foods, your arthritis flares up. Or after you eat a meal with a lot of bread or pasta, you feel very tired. Or that late-night glass of juice seems to be linked to the sleepless nights that you have. This is the first step to learning how to control your health through diet and lifestyle. Play with it awhile and see what happens. You may be surprised at what you learn!

Yours in Health and Happiness,

Pam
New Awakenings Massage

Driving-Induced Pain - Part 2

Last week I discussed doing regular body checks. You may be surprised at how hard it is to keep good posture while you drive. Old habits die hard!

One simple thing you can do to force yourself to do body-checks as you drive is to adjust your rear view mirror as soon as you get in to a height where you have to sit up straight to see out of it. Then adjust your seat so that you can comfortably lean into it and also see out of the mirror.

You may be surprised at first about how crooked you sit when you drive. It may feel weird or awkward, but keep with it. Habits can take up to 6 weeks to change with regular awareness. Keep at it…your body will thank you for it.

Yours in Health and Happiness,

Pam
New Awakenings Massage

Driving-Induced Pain - Part 1

In spite of the fact that we can send a man to the moon and we can communicate with someone thousands of miles away with a touch of a (wireless) button, somehow something as simple as the design of most car seats is poor to lousy for healthy body ergonomics. This, combined with poor postural habits (yeah - your mom was right!) and the amount of time we spend in our cars provides many opportunities for what is in essence a number of repetitive stress injuries, including sciatica, headaches, carpal tunnel, and chronic shoulder pain.

You can do a number of things to reduce the incidence of driving-induced pain. The simplest is to do a body-check as soon as you get in the car. Are you sitting straight, with the weight evenly distributed on both butt-cheeks? Are you leaning forward, or back? Are your eyes level with the road, or do you look down your nose or over your glasses? Do you use one hand predominantly to drive?

So, for this week, try to get into the habit of a regular body-check as you drive. Next week, I’ll have another driving tip for you to add to this.

Yours in Health and Happiness,

Pam
New Awakenings Massage