Stay Strong Immune Boosting Seminar

“Stay Strong” Immune Boosting Seminar

with Ricardo Boye N.D.

November 10,2011 5:30 pm -7:00 pm

YOU are YOUR first line of defense in fighting the cold and flu. This seminar is designed to give you the tools, through tips and strategies, to naturally boost the immune system and conquer the 2011-2012 cold
and flu season. We will unveil our new Immune-Boosting packages and treatments at this event and give the attendees the first opportunity to book these customized Immune-Boosting specials!!

Topics to be discussed:

• Most Important nutrient to keep you healthy.
• Exercise, nutrition, sleep and their roles in
  boosting the immune system
• Special attention for kids – ear aches, fevers,
  and the ugly cough.  Are you prepared for
  the season’s challenges?

And many more interesting
topics!!!!!

Reserve your spot today as space is limited!!!!!!

Where: The Spa on Green Street

When: November 10, 2011

Time:  5:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Cost: $10.00 to reserve your spot, which will then be applied as a Spa
credit for use on the day of event.

Fitness in the Round Success !!

Last night we had our first “Fitness in the Round Meeting” of 2011 here at The Spa on Green Street, it was a great success. Everyone arrived enthusiastic, excited and full of appreciation for the opportunity to gain education and connect with others who have chosen to take on the daunting task of making “permanent lifestyle changes”.   We discovered over the course of our very short time together, that each one of us has many things to learn and that we each have the ability to make a difference to others.  The sun had set on a great day and signaled a new start for all of us, a new mindset is emerging.

Our country is currently in the middle of a massive health crisis, mostly due to “lifestyle” related diseases, preventable diseases. The only way we can make a difference on a larger scale is to create connections and communities where health and wellness are priorities, and exercise is not considered an option. Exercise can look different for each of us, depending on our goals, physical abilities and our interests. It does not have to look like spending every Wednesday in the gym or slinging around heavy weights to a video in your living room.  Exercise is not about getting in a workout on Wednesday, it is about adding 20 years to your life! If we can look at getting active as a way of extending our lives with quality living, maybe we can find the motivation and inspiration to do so.

A great man passed away recently who lived this motto to the very end, Jack Lalane. He was a heavy child who fell in love with physical fitness in his teens and lived every day as an example to others, an inspiration! He set out to do things that nobody had done relative to group exercise and fitness instruction. He leaves behind an amazing legacy, he revolutionized the world of fitness and created many of the fitness tools we all use today. The last few years of his life were lived vibrantly, not in a nursing home carting around oxygen tanks and various other external containers. Isn’t that how we all want to live our lives?  What we choose to do each day will be the example we set for our children and grandchildren. If we can change the course of OUR future relative to OUR  health we can lift a  great financial and physical burden off of our loved ones, and hopefully break the cycle of disease and create  a legacy of health for our descendants.

 The following are a few questions we left with our group to ponder over the next few weeks . Please take the time to answer these questions and feel free to make any comments or ask any further questions. We will be providing solutions along the way to help with the challenges we face when we are making long lasting lifestyle changes. Hope to see you on February 22,2011 at 6pm for another great Fitness in the Round meeting!

• What have been the biggest obstacles to achieving your fitness goals?
• What is your biggest concern relative to exercise: time, energy, money, motivation?
• What is your biggest challenge when it comes to eating healthy?
• What percentage of ingredients do you understand when you read food labels?
• Do you pay attention to how you feel after you eat? Are you aware of how certain food affect your body?
• Do you know which foods are good to eat and which ones you should be avoiding? Ie: healthy fats, sweeteners, salt, natural foods, soy, etc….

The Big 3

Continuing along with the theme of ‘effective simplicity’, I’d like to dive in some more with you on the 3 main areas to focus on regarding your health that you will derive the greatest benefit  and get the biggest bang for your buck from, if you simply apply these consistently.  This is what I call ‘The Big 3’ – nutrition, exercise, and sleep.  This is to help you sort through all the competing influences of health information that you read  and see in the magazines, newspaper articles and television shows, which if you are like most people, end up leaving you more confused and not sure what to do to improve your health. 

It goes something like this —- Should I use the microwave?  I heard it’s bad for you.  Oh yes, gotta throw out the plastic – bad for you too.  Drink goji juice.  Don’t eat starch and meat at the same time.  Never eat fruit with other foods.  Umm, let’s see, also have to eat oats to lower my cholesterol right?  Oh yeah, gotta stay away from egg yolks, because that will give me a heart attack.  And don’t put anything in aluminum foil – it will give me Alzheimer’s.   I have to get my heart rate in the ‘fat-burning zone’ to burn fat because other exercises will boost my cortisol too much and cause me to gain belly fat – can’t do that.  What’s that special pill my friend was telling me about?  She heard from someone somewhere that it cured their diabetes — gotta remember to ask her………you get the picture, on and on, ad nauseum.   While some of this may be true, where is the leverage?  What are the things that are going to make the most difference?  Enter ‘The Big 3′.

 ‘Big 1’: Nutrition

Perhaps the single most important factor in your nutrition is a diet that works for you to keep your blood sugar stable.  I have spoken extensively about the role of proper blood sugar management here and here.  Keeping your blood sugar stable will greatly contribute to greater energy levels which don’t rise and fall as the tides do, but stay steady and calm providing you with a sense of well-being including better mood and emotional balance.  Good blood sugar control is paramount to healthy aging; in fact, the aging process – how rapidly you age – is determined by the damage that high blood sugar exerts on your tissues over time.  Serious stuff here.

Appetite is directly tied into blood sugar levels, so when there is balance here, your appetite is normalized and you won’t constantly crave processed foods – the sweets and treats and refined baked goods that oftentimes for many of us are hard to resist.  Multiple studies have shown that processed, refined carbohydrates are the key players in the onset of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and many forms of cancer; we know this well by now, but we need to get to a point where we don’t crave them because willpower will only get us so far in helping us avoid eating these ‘foods’.  Our bodies have to come to a point where there are no strong desires for them, and this is done simply through a process of regulating your blood sugar. 

So how do you know if your blood sugar is stable or not?  Please go back to my radio show posts I mentioned above, take a listen to them, and find out.  You’ll know by some reference ranges in your bloodwork such as fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1C, as well just seeing how you feel after eating meals.  For instance, if you find yourself tired or grumpy after eating, that particular combination of foods is probably not helpful to you.

So the question is, what to do about it.  Drawing from my own personal experience, my professional clinical experience in working with hundreds of people, and what the overwhelming majority of research studies done in this field has to say, a diet that is low in these highly refined carbohydrates is a starting point for everyone.  These are the ‘foods’ that cause massive disturbance in blood sugar levels, so of course you would want to avoid them.  What about whole grains?  For many of you, these can be worked in your diet just fine, but keep an eye out for the above symptoms, for these also can generate high blood sugar levels.  Note that some of you will simply not do well with whole grains – you could be genetically predisposed to blood sugar problems and thus it is not surprising that you don’t do well with them.  You may experience bloating or have the same energy crashes I mentioned above as with the simple, refined carbohydrates.  Furthermore, many of you are sensitive to gluten, a substance found in most grains, and that just adds to the problem, insult to injury.  If you are pre-diabetic or diabetic (type II), I would suggest to work with your doctor or healthcare provider to gain control over this, because with proper care and attention, your body may be able to recover, heal and return to good health.  Diet is key, no question about it, and as Hippocrates indeed stated so long ago, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.” 

What to eat?  Well, let’s take a good look around us, and in particular, around the grocery store, along the perimeter.  What’s there?  Fresh foods – fruits and vegetables, meat, chicken, seafood, eggs, dairy and cheese (if you are not intolerant).  I gave a whole 2 hour seminar recently where I spoke of the necessity of having the bulk of our diet come from these foods, in an effort to stabilize blood sugar levels, stabilize the important hormone insulin, and therefore vastly improve our health.  Ditch the soda, fruit juice and sports drink and develop the fresh taste of pure water.  No need to count calories on this type of approach, for your appetite normalizes, you feel fuller longer, and your energy levels consistently improve while your body composition and weight balance out.  Other benefits soon follow – lower blood sugar levels, improved cholesterol profiles, better blood pressure control, lowered inflammation – all major risk factors for chronic illness tend to improve.  I will write much more in this topic in future posts to do this piece justice.

 ‘Big 2’: Exercise

One quick, casual glance at the human body and you can immediately see that it was designed for movement.   The vast network of structural, functional muscles as they attach to the various bones in our body which act as levers for muscle to attach to, allow for swift and efficient movement, movement that has to occur regularly if there is going to be any use for our muscles and bones.  The fact of the matter is, that our muscles are very metabolically active tissue, meaning that they require lots of energy from food if they are used properly and they contribute a very very large portion to our overall health.  When used, energy requirements go up and lucky for us, we get to eat more.  The key here is, of course, used properly.  If we don’t use them, then we must lose them. 

In a time where we had to physically work for our food, our muscles were constantly being called into action and we did not have to think about exercise for it was a natural part of daily living and our survival depended on it.  With the advent of agriculture and the commodities of modern living, our physical exertions became less and less, and as a result we have become more sedentary.  The consequences of this have come at a high cost, because first and foremost, the more sedentary we are, the more our caloric needs go down – yet we leave in a time of abundance, with all types of artificial foods around us which trick our natural appetite and hunger mechanisms to the point where we cannot intuitively rely on them.  We then have to consciously curb portions, and one question to always ask here is – “how’s that working for you?”   Remember that willpower alone will only get you so far if you are constantly feeling hungry.   You gotta work the balance, and this balance relies on blood sugar.

Well guess what?  Exercise is well known to enhance insulin sensitivity, which helps maintain stable blood sugar levels.  That’s right, exercise is good medicine.  It effectively allows you to eat more carbohydrates than if you did not exercise, and that is most helpful in the sea of carbohydrate abundance we live in today.  Most people when they crave food, they crave chips, breads, pasta, cereal, cookies, crackers —- refined carbohydrates; they don’t crave meat, eggs, vegetables and fruits necessarily, do they? (Unless they’re pregnant of course, then all generalities go out the window!)  Well, part of this is because these carbohydrates cause a quick increase in serotonin in the brain, and that is a feel-good neurotransmitter – you are immediately rewarded with stress reduction when you eat these foods; however, the price you ultimately pay for that down the road is far greater.  Spiraling out of control glucose levels and associated inflammatory damage is occurring when this gets out of hand, and statistics do show that 50% of adult Americans will be either full blown diabetic or at the least pre-diabetic by 2020 if this continues.  Regular exercise and physical fitness allows us to get away with more carbohydrate in the diet, plain and simple, because the blood sugar is burned off for energy, not left floating around in the bloodstream causing harm.

So, exercise for good health and well-being.  Find something fun and stick to it consistently.  Explore what may be a new type of fun for you – try some yoga, pilates, strength training, swimming, biking, tennis, etc.  What is fun you will most likely continue with.  Find a friend to make this fun for you if you are the more social type and need motivation.  But by all means, as Nike is famous for saying, “Just Do It.”  Many more posts to come on this topic too.

 ‘Big 3’: Sleep

Ok, now right after reading this, turn out the lights and go to sleep.  Seriously?  Seriously folks.  What’s the average amount of sleep you get per night?  If you are like most people, then roughly about 6 to 6.5 hours per night.  That’s not going to cut it for optimal health and well-being.  It has been shown that the body will sleep about an average of 8.5 hours if left uninterrupted, and this is to facilitate the regeneration and repair of all tissues and organs in your body.  Your body grows most at night while asleep, if you are looking to put on muscle.  Your body works more diligently to combat infection while asleep, which is why oftentimes fevers are more pronounced at night.  Your conscious, active part of the nervous system takes a back seat to rest and lets other parts of the brain become more dominant so that it can wake up in the morning and do it all over again.  Once again, with the advent of modern living and technology, we have sacrificed sleep requirements for getting more things done.

You owe it to yourself to rearrange your priorities and responsibilities to slowly but surely allow for more sleep.  Many of you are wakeful at night and/or have difficulty falling asleep.  If it’s a chronic problem, seek attention and please view my previous posts on the importance of sleep and what you can do about it.  It’s that critical, because so many things in your health hang on this one very critical facet of life.  Case in point: a study was performed on two groups of Olympic athletes – people who were very fit and ate a healthy diet.  One group was the control group, where everything was the same, and the only difference  in the test group was that they were instructed to restrict their sleep to just under 6 hours.  Within 3 days, this control group developed blood sugar levels in the range of pre-diabetes!

Your quality of sleep is an effective barometer of how your body is dealing with stress.  Typically good sleep equates with good stress control.  You can probably see how poor stress control also dovetails into less healthy food choices and lack of motivation for physical activity.  Better sleep, better stress control, more motivation to live a healthier lifestyle.

The Road Ahead

How can you have more energy and experience a greater sense of well-being?  How can you most simply and effectively improve your health condition?  Acknowledge the  ‘Big 3’ and start letting the big changes into your life that are surely to follow.  No matter what your limitations may be, there is always something you can do to help yourself here, and if you need further help, please ask us.  This is who we are, and this is what we do.

I trust that this helps you as you read and hear about the next dietary or fitness trend that is due to hit the bookshelves, magazine stands and airwaves – ask yourself, how does it square up to the ‘Big 3’?  My hope is that this simplifies your understanding of what it takes to be healthy and feel well, for these 3 areas will always be the foundation of health.

A prosperous 2011 New Years to you and yours, and feel free to let me know what your thoughts are on the topic.  We always love to hear from you!

Ricardo Boye

The “Clock Out” Syndrome

In today’s world we find that there seems to be little time left in life to take care of our health and fitness needs. Everything around us is pre-packaged and marketed for the on the go, fast paced lifestyle. The evidence has revealed itself that this lifestyle has become destructive and is deteriorating our health. We are and have been too busy to take care of ourselves. This time of year we are busy with holiday parties and the grand Thanksgiving Day meal, where we not only stuff the turkey but we stuff ourselves as well, vowing to work it off after the New Year. Sound familiar? Do any of us stop to think how our society has found itself in such a devastating place, both financially and physically? I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that our country’s financial breakdown and our physical breakdown have been working out in a congruent manner. The patterns of behavior and habit are similar in both areas.

 When did we lose control and why do we seem to wait until something tragic happens before we consider our finances or our health? These are good questions to ponder in order for each of us to find a new starting point on the road map back to health.  Our society has been blessed in the past with great economic success allowing for the “American Dream” to become a reality for many hard working individuals. This level of success and priviledge also brought about quite a bit of responsibility as expenses rose with income.

 With the current pressures of keeping up and making ends meet, we lost sight of our most basic and primary needs: sleep, exercise and good nutrition. The stress to maintain lifestyles and to produce results in business led to what I call the “clock out syndrome”. When we get into overload we tend to “clock out” and go on auto pilot, subconscious patterns begin to take over. We will spend money without concern and eat mindlessly as a way of compensating for stress. Both of these habits tend to be emotional stabilizers for many people who are “busy”.  Sometimes years go by until something occurs that jolts us back to reality, we suddenly look in the mirror and are shocked by the reflection or we get devastating news from a doctor about our health. Why wait until it’s almost too late or too difficult to return to normalcy,to regain health and fitness?

Now is the time to take back the control that has always been yours to have, don’t wait for another year of broken resolutions! Start making choices with conscious deliberation regarding your heath, fitness and financial worlds. Use your resources to invest in education, fitness and health management through a variety of modalities. Did you know that just 3 months with a personal trainer can add years to your life, reduce body fat and lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease? If you are given the right instruction, you gain the ability to take care of yourself on a regular basis, forever. This is an actual cost savings over your lifetime, reducing the risks of costly healthcare in the future. Make the time for a professional massage once a month, it can lower cortisol levels and boost your immune system, taking away the finacial stress of dealing with doctors and insurance companies. Why not take the time and the resources that you have and begin to invest in your health? Let’s stop the “Clock out syndrome” before it’s too late and we teach our children how to perpetuate this pattern. Let’s instead model for them what it looks like to make heath and fitness a priority in 2011. Please take the time to let us know what your plan is to begin your journey to health, hire a personal trainer if you need help, your life is worth the investment!!! Have a Happy Thanksgiving, giving thanks expecially for your health and the health of your loved ones!

BSI Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.  ~Irish Proverb

Now that we’ve come to appreciate more the benefits of proper sleep, I’d like to discuss some good habits that will help facilitate a restful eve’s slumber.  Remember that sleep is just as important as being awake, as the two help balance out that basic biological pattern I spoke about in my last post, the ‘circadian rhythm’.  Ever wonder why it’s almost considered normal these days if you have trouble falling asleep, but if you ever have trouble waking up, and I don’t mean just feeling groggy in the morning, but actually waking up, then you’ve got a first class ticket to the emergency room?  Double standard, I say.  Anyhow, our brains sometimes won’t shut off, and we tend to just shrug it off as not much of a big deal.  Little do we know we are contributing to some serious problems down the road.

This circadian rhythm helps manage your natural, internal sleep clock.  When this cycle works correctly, sleep comes easily and you will tend to sleep through the night.  Your body asks for sleep on time, and wakes on time, not even needing an alarm clock – ever had that happen?  When the cycle comes off its axis, then the sleep clock gets damaged and no telling when you’ll get to sleep or how long you will remain asleep or when you’ll awake for that matter!  As a result, your whole body and metabolism suffers and then a host of problems associated with your appetite, weight gain, hormones and energy levels soon follow.   These are the first signs of sleep deprivation, and others much more serious can develop over time.

Deep sleep allows your body to produce human growth hormone, also known as hGH, and this is the most potent anti-depressant and mood-elevator there is.   Furthermore, this hormone is an essential player in cellular regeneration, helping your body to repair damaged, worn out cells, and replace them with new, fresh, healthy cells.  Do you have some illness you’ve been struggling with for some time?  Well then get too sleep.  Are you tired, achy from a hard day’s work and subsequent exercise session?  Get some sleep.  Are you feeling run down with a cold or the flu?  Sleep it off.  On the converse, are you feeling energetic and vibrant?  Maintain that state by relying on good sleep.  Sometimes it’s easier said than done.

So, here’s my top 10 (plus 1!) things to do to get some shut-eye:

1. The attitude of gratitude.  This I learned from a friend a few years back and since then, I’ve seen this method employed by many people with great effect.  In the spirit of journaling, write down everything you can think of that you are grateful for, that very day.  No need to go over 1 full page, but just write and think about people, places, events that you are grateful for.   Start your sentences with “I am thankful/grateful for…..”.    This helps keep one’s world in perspective, as it is quite easy to allow the mind to get wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of the day.  As you write, the heart will soften and you will tend to entertain feelings of greater confidence in that things will work out just fine.  The mind can have ‘a mind of its own’ and it can easily get whipped up into a frenzy of anxiety and worry — the attitude of gratitude can swiftly soften these tensions.  This step may be the most important one for you – please do not overlook.
2. The golden rule.  Look at your day and think about one nice thing that you did for someone that nobody asked you to do.  Write it down.  Then think about one nice thing that someone did for you.  Write it down.  Then write down anything you may have learned in the process, any valuable life lesson that taught you how to be a better person, a greater person.  This takes honesty and humility and can be challenging, but life surely ends up rewarding those who display these very same qualities in due time.
3. De-clutter and darken your bedroom.  Make your bedroom a sanctuary.  Make it a dark sanctuary for the purposes of relaxation and regeneration.  This means, get black-out curtains if you need them and shut off all sources of light.  Better yet, move out any electrical appliances such as TVs and radios, entertainment systems – multiple studies have shown the hazardous effects that even small amounts of light have on our body’s internal clocks by upsetting the release of various nighttime hormones such as melatonin.  Yes, even the small lights from an alarm clock – it’s true!  Turn it around or stand it on its face.  Have a sleep mask at hand if your loved one insists on staying up to read.  If you need to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, do not turn on the light.  Some folks will need to even remove all electrical appliances that are plugged in to the wall of their bedrooms because of the radiating electromagnetic fields that these cause, and how they potentially upset brain waves (more on this topic in the future).
4. Avoid carbohydrates and sugars before bed.  This is especially true of processed, refined starches such as breads, crackers, cereal and the likes – not to mention candy or even fruit for some.  The reason is that these can provoke a low-blood sugar response hours after you eat them (reactive hypoglycemia), stressing your adrenal glands and this will cause you to wake between 1 – 3 am.  Ever had that happen?  A snack of just a small handful of nuts can be helpful if you need, as these contain magnesium and tryptophan which can relax the nervous system.
5. Eat a light dinner.  This is for those of you who lie down and feel heavy, uncomfortable, and perhaps suffer from digestive reflux.  No chance for a good night’s sleep when this happens.  Eat light, and have at least 3 hours between the end of dinner and bedtime.
6. Drink in moderation for best sleep.  This one has to be mentioned because it applies to many people.  One glass of a nice fine wine can do wonders to help many people de-stress, but more than one can end up interfering with a good night’s sleep.  It has to do with the liver’s detoxification mechanism which gets up regulated during the night, and more so if it has to process more alcohol.  Alcohol is a toxin and toxins are dose-dependant.
7. Drop the temperature.  Now this is very interesting.  Research has shown that optimal sleep temperatures are somewhere around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.   I can remember in more than one client of mine, that nothing helped them improve their sleep, absolutely nothing short of sedation, until they dropped the temperature in the room to at least 70 degrees.  Try it.  Best to pile the covers on, as there is nothing worse than being uncomfortable at night just because your body temperature is up.
8. Do some simple stretching.  This provides amazing benefits to the nervous system.  The best stretches for relaxation are those that you hold for 15 seconds and breathe deeply.  Target the lower back, hamstrings and neck for best effect.  Try a light yoga workout if you are more adventurous.   If you can’t do any of this, then lie on the floor, and prop your legs on a chair or on your bed if it’s not too high.  Lie there for 5-10 minutes while you focus on breathing deeply – this helps to activate your parasympathetic nervous system which is the first step towards your body relaxing.
9. Use aromatherapy with or without a bath, along with a cup of ‘sleepytime tea’.  Essential oils like lavender, and certain herbs like chamomile and valerian, have long been staples in homes across the world for their restorative properties.  They help bring about a sense of ease and calm, very gently and naturally, and can even be used with children.
10. Instead of the nightly news, watch a comedy.  Laughter is golden, one of nature’s best cures.
11. Take your supplements.  This is the last one here, and I won’t go into details about which supplements to use because there are many, and in my practice, as many of you are already aware, I test people for what nutritional supplements they are best suited for individually.  What works for you may not work for your friends and family members as we all share both similars and differences.   Most people will do fine with the first ten steps, and if you really have further problems, then consider getting tested with our (click here) bioenergetic assessment. 

Folks, remember this old saying –

Early to bed, Early to rise (and proper exercise!), Makes a (wo)man healthy, wealthy and wise.

or…….sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite!  (did I have to go there….?)

Have a great night’s sleep!