Emotional Health

November 3, 2014 In Emotional Health, Food and Recipes, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Preventing Childhood Eating Disorders and Food Anxiety

Childhood obesity is a hot topic in North America, but we should also be discussing the increasing rate of all eating disorders in school age children. Eating disorders such as compulsive eating, binge eating, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia make it harder for our children to experience academic, athletic, and social success. Disturbingly, researchers have found that early dieting puts children at risk for developing these disorders. About 40% of 9 and 10 year old girls are trying to lose weight, according to a study in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. What frightens some researchers is that many...

October 27, 2014 In Emotional Health, Family Fitness, News By Vancouver Health Coach

Got Stress? Alpha-Lactalbumin to the Rescue

Most people these days will tell you that they are stressed! Chronic stress has been linked to North America's five leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung disease, accidents and cirrhosis of the liver, but there is also much evidence that also implicates stress in the number one cause of disease (and death) these days--obesity. Author and stress researcher Kenneth Pelletier has contended that, in America, between 80-90% of all illness is linked to stress and that 75-90% of all visits to the doctor are for stress and anxiety-related concerns. Many people realize how detrimental the effects of excess stress can...

October 24, 2014 In Emotional Health, News, Spotlight, Yoga By Vancouver Health Coach

Finding My Voice Through Yoga

How can a simple, unassuming four letter word change your life? I found that answer the day I unrolled a yoga mat, had a comfortable seat and took my first conscious deep breaths. Inhale….. Exhale….. It was the spring of 2010. At that time I was completely unaware of the miracle that was about to unfold. My mat has become my mirror. As my yoga practice has begun to evolve, the past eleven years of my life are slowly being reflected back at me. On December 13th, 1999, working as a Radiation Therapist at the BC Cancer Agency, I suffered a...

October 15, 2014 In Emotional Health, Green & Healthy Living, News By Vancouver Health Coach

Do You Need Therapy?

Although you might enjoy therapy – who wouldn’t like having someone’s undivided attention and invitation to talk about themselves without need for reciprocation – do you need therapy? While deciding the answer to that question is an inside job each of us has to do for ourselves, if someone were asking me to answer it for them, I would want to know a couple of things: the nature of the issues they have experienced or are currently experiencing, and the quality of the support they currently have available to them. Ultimately, that’s what a therapeutic relationship is, high quality support to...

October 14, 2014 In Emotional Health, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Natural Methods for Treating Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is more than just the “Winter Blues.”  It is a form of seasonal or temporal depression that typically affects people during the winter months of longer nights and less sunlight.  If you suffer from SAD, there are many alternative therapies that can naturally help you improve your mood and reduce depressive symptoms, even if you already use a light box for treatment. Improve your mood with food.  Certain foods have proven relationships to brain function.  Healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, amino acids, and lean protein are essential parts of a healthy diet...

October 13, 2014 In Emotional Health, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Stress and Digestive Issues

Did you know that the reason your gut may be rolling may be due in large part to stress? Whether it is Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ulcerative colitis, or simply a stomach ache before you are about to give that really important speech, stress may be playing a significant role in the health of your stomach. If you are hiking in the woods, you round a corner and come face-to-face with a grizzly bear, your body is not going to prioritize digestion at this moment. Instead, it’s going to go "Oh sh*#t" - quite literally! If you were given enough of a...

October 4, 2014 In Editor's Picks: Must Haves for Staying Healthy, Eliminating Toxins, Emotional Health, Green & Healthy Living, Holistic Health, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

8 Tips For Better Digestion

Digestive disturbances can be irritating and uninvited, like your in-laws. Symptoms like  bloating, flatulence, constipation and acid reflux can be your body’s intelligent way of trying to to let you know when something isn’t peachy. Proper digestive function is essential to optimal health and vitality, energy and prevention of disease. It is intimately connected to weight loss (or weight gain), your mood and how you feel overall on a regular basis- which should be fantastic for the most part. Here are 8 simple and effective tips to help promote digestion. ** If you do experience these symptoms frequently on a regular basis, it’s...

October 3, 2014 In Emotional Health, Family Fitness, News, Spotlight, Weight Loss By Vancouver Health Coach

Stress and Weight Gain – What’s the Connection?

Ongoing stress results in the production of cortisol, a steroid hormone produced from the adrenal glands. Cortisol mainly functions to regulate energy production and mobilization; it does so by selecting the right type and amount of macronutrients (carbohydrate, fat or protein) that is needed by the body to meet the physiological demands (eg. stress) that is placed upon it. This hormone mobilizes energy by moving the body’s fat stores from one location to another to provide fuel for muscle tissues. Under stressful conditions, cortisol can provide the body with protein for energy by converting amino acids in muscle into useable carbohydrate (glucose) in the...

September 28, 2014 In Emotional Health, News By Vancouver Health Coach

Looking Through the Johari Window: At Self Perception

As Robert Burns famously (and with Scottish flair and inflection) put it: “O would some gift the Power gie us, to see ourselves as ithers see us”. Only slightly less famously, two psychologists, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, developed their own tool for exploring the world of self-perception and perception by others. Taking the Brangelina form of their names, they called it the Johari Window, which they propose has 4 panes:     Known to Self     Not Known to Self   Known to Others    Open    Blind   Not Known to Others      Hidden    Unknown               The Open Quadrant represents information that is readily seen or easily inferred about someone: for example, walking past a stranger you...

September 19, 2014 In Eliminating Toxins, Emotional Health, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Feel Emotionally Lighter by Cleaning Out the Clutter

Clutter produces harmful energy that sabotages us from achieving our personal best—it is the nemesis to success. It is deceptive because it manifests itself in various guises. Physical clutter is the stuff we fill our houses with to the point some people actually go into deprivation mode and develop an illness known as hoarding. In our society, we have learned to purchase stuff not for the stuff itself, but for the emotions that stuff evokes in us. What we buy no longer serves a basic utilitarian purpose, but has come to denote status and a luxury lifestyle. The more we own,...