Green & Healthy Living

September 7, 2014 In Editor's Picks: Must Haves for Staying Healthy, Food and Recipes, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight, Uncategorized By Vancouver Health Coach

Get Healthy This Fall. Introducing the Vega One Starter Kit

Are you looking to get healthy this fall season? Kickstart your health with 5 days of Vega One. Made from natural, plant-based, whole food ingredients, Vega One is packed with the complete foundational nutrition your body needs to build your day on. Each packet in your starter kit contains: 50% daily intake of vitamins and mineral 15 g protein 6 g fiber 1.5 g Omega-3 3 servings of greens Antioxidants Probiotics And all with less than 150 calories! Vega One is dairy, gluten and soy free, and contains no added sugar, artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners. Use as a delicious,...

September 7, 2014 In Green & Healthy Living, Holistic Health, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Gut bacteria could be key indicator of colon cancer risk

In a paper published by the University of North Carolina the authors suggest that the balance of healthy versus pathogenic bacteria in our gut is an important element in the development of colon cancer. This is only the latest in a continual stream of research over the past decade showing the importance of a healthy gut flora. But the benefit doesn't extend to just the bowel. A quick survey on the database of the National Institute of Medicine will quickly show that these probiotic organisms are not only good for the gut, but are equally important in the proper health...

September 6, 2014 In Editor's Picks: Must Haves for Staying Healthy, Food and Recipes, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Spud Delivers Affordable, Organic Food Right To Your Door

Combine a modern day on-the-go lifestyle with the task of grocery shopping for a healthy, well balanced diet and you have what most would consider a stressful situation. This is why it’s no surprise that organic grocery delivery services have become increasingly popular in cities such as Vancouver. With organic grocery delivery services such as SPUD (a delivery service offered in the lower mainland, Vancouver Island, Calgary and parts of the U.S.) your shopping worries can be put at ease with this service that allows you to choose your items online in a virtual grocery store. Once you have chosen your items, you...

September 4, 2014 In Family Fitness, Green & Healthy Living, Holistic Health, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Asthma, Allergies and Th-2 Dominance

Asthma and allergies are caused by dysregulation and hyperactivity of the immune system. The part of the immune system that becomes overactive is a subset of T cells known as thymus helper 2 lymphocytes, or Th-2 cells. What are T cells? T cells are a type of white blood cell that carry out the functions of the immune system. T helper 1 cells identify pathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi) and stimulate the activity of macrophages, another type of white blood cell, to digest the pathogenic material and cellular debris. In this way, Th-1 cells, when functioning optimally, help us from contracting infections and getting...

September 3, 2014 In Eliminating Toxins, Family Fitness, Green & Healthy Living, News By Vancouver Health Coach

H20 bottles and the Gym

Are you still bringing plastic water bottle to the gym every day? Worse, are you throwing it away in the trash on the way out? It's time to move to a reusable bottle. Preferably one that is not plastic to avoid toxic BPA chemicals leaching into your H2O. Bottled water has become the indispensable prop in our lives and our culture. It starts the day in lunch boxes; it goes to every meeting, it's in our cubicles at work; in the cup holder of the treadmill at the gym or beside our yoga mat during a hot yoga class. How can...

August 30, 2014 In Emotional Health, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Make Your Health a Priority During Menopause

For many women, menopause can be trying on the nerves, marriage, and the waistline. When your hormones start driving you batty, take the opportunity to make a commitment to your health and well-being. Embrace Exercise If you lead a sedentary life or if you have long been considering a lifestyle of increased physical activity, make the “change of life” your excuse to embrace exercise. If you suffer from hot flashes and night sweats, two of the most common menopause symptoms, evidence shows exercise may help reduce the frequency of these symptoms. In addition, exercise can help you get a better night’s sleep, shed...

August 30, 2014 In Green & Healthy Living, News By Vancouver Health Coach

On the Issue of Sunscreens

For most of us summer is an easy going time where we can cast off the burden of winter, dispense with the winter coats, hats and boots that clog up the mudroom or front hall, walk barefoot in the grass and lie in the shade of the trees, meditating on the shapes of the clouds as they pass by. Yet despite what should be a rather pleasant time, for many years we have been told that summer holds out something rather sinister and almost totally unavoidable. It has become such a problem that government health agencies have instituted warnings and...

August 28, 2014 In Food and Recipes, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Being Healthy About Your Health

Everyone has their own idea on how to be healthy.  There are so many different variables: age, culture, gender, lifestyle and values.  These all create different opinions on what health means.  Health is unique to the individual.  But sometimes, I feel like people become a little unhealthy about being healthy.  Striving to do our best, we often get caught up, losing balance. I don’t believe that counting calories, or balancing ratios of protein, fats, or carbohydrates is healthy either.  It’s an unhealthy way to look at food.  Food is so much more than a science, just as we are more...

August 27, 2014 In Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Will Getting to Bed Late at Night Make You Fat

Many of our hormones are intimately related to circadian rhythms, and their function gets thrown off when we completely ignore the fact that night follows day, and day follows night. During the longer days of summer, mammals are hardwired to find sustenance to store as fat, to help them last the shorter days of winter where they will be either hibernating or eating less due to lack of food availability. In humans, this hardwiring shows up as a desire for carbohydrates. By choosing to stay up with the lights on, watching TV or doing computer work late at night long after the...

August 21, 2014 In Fitness, Green & Healthy Living, News By Vancouver Health Coach

Fitting in Health & Fitness When Your Life is Jam-Packed: Part 1

Another evening of mottled sleep leaves you wandering around like a strained zombie? Deadlines at work are looming, yet more keeps piling on your plate? When these are your primary experiences, it’s a challenge to make time for exercise and healthy eating. Does your work life stretch you thin and leave no time for extras? Or perhaps your children and busy life consume most of your waking hours and leave you exhausted, with hardly any energy left at the end of the day for more than a glass of wine and some primetime TV viewing. If you find yourself way too...