April 2008 Newsletter

An Inspirational Quote

"He who sleeps half a day has won half a life."

Karl Kraus

25 Ways To Get A Better Night's Sleep
by Catherine Carrigan, catherine@totalfitness.net

One of the most important things you can ever do to improve your overall health is to get a better night's sleep.

Sleep is so essential that it's considered equally as important as your nutrition and your exercise in the body building equation. It's the R in B=ExAxRxN. Your Body equals your Exercise times your Attitude times your Rest times your Nutrition.

You must sleep enough hours every night and sleep soundly enough to repair your physical tissues, rebuild your brain chemistry and balance your hormones. The New York Times reports Americans now spend about $5 billion each year on sleep medications, so there are countless numbers for whom these essential processes are not happening either easily or naturally.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that to look fit they have to starve or work out harder when in reality the critical factor in their appearance may actually be the amount or quality of their sleep.

The simplest form of torture is sleep deprivation. Nicole Bieske, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International Australia, has stated, "At the very least, (sleep deprivation) is cruel, inhumane and degrading. If used for prolonged periods of time it is torture."

Are you torturing yourself by overlooking this essential step?

In fact, among new clients to Total Fitness, adequate rest is the key ingredient that we find most consistently overlooked. Many of our clients are aware that they need to exercise or eat better, but they continue to think they can overwork and deprive themselves of adequate rest and look the way they really want to look. That's simply not possible.

Given the physical, energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual components of a good night's sleep, there may be multiple areas where you could improve if you are not sleeping soundly every night.

Here are a few suggestions on where to begin:

1. Allow yourself enough time to get the job done. Start by getting into bed at 10 p.m. Every minute of sleep before midnight is worth 10 minutes of sleep after midnight. Give yourself permission to stay in bed as long as possible - ideally, until 8 a.m. the following day if your work or family schedule allows. Research at the National Institutes of Health shows that even adults need 10 hours of rest daily. Even if you are not a good sleeper and tend to wake up in the middle of the night, if you allow yourself enough time, you can go back to sleep and get more rest.
2. Use this equation. 10 minus the number of hours you slept last night equals the total number of hours you need in rest and relaxation the following day. If you sleep less than 10 hours, as many people do, then make up the difference with a combination of meditation, hot baths, naps or prone activities like lying on the couch reading a funny or spiritually uplifting (not work-related) book. If you don't know what we mean by relaxation, that may be a problem in and of itself.
3. Make your bedroom as dark as possible. Even shining a light on your knee in the middle of the night can inhibit your brain's production of melatonin, which is required for deep sleep.
4. Remove electronics like TVs and clock radios. Keep all electronics, including digital telephones, at least 6 to 8 feet away from your head where they may interfere with your brain wave activity.
5. Give yourself permission to eat a small, glycemically balanced snack before bed. Eating before bed may be helpful for those with a high metabolic rate who tend to wake up when their blood sugar drops. Each person is metabolically different. If you tend to high insulin levels, you will do better if you eat dinner earlier and avoid a bedtime snack. Experiment to find what works for you. A good bedtime snack may be kefir with berries or turkey with hummus.
6. Keep your serotonin level balanced during the day. You'll know if your serotonin is adequate because you will feel generally happy and will not be craving carbohydrates. In the brain, serotonin is used to produce melatonin. If you are low in serotonin, your brain will have a hard time producing the melatonin necessary for deep sleep. Make sure your diet includes enough carbohydrates - at least 150 grams of carbohydrates per day if you tend to be depressed, preferably from low glycemic carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables. If you don't eat enough carbohydrates, you can't make enough serotonin. Paradoxically, long-term use of antidepressants has actually been proven to block serotonin, so turn to more natural solutions. Read my book, Healing Depression: A Holistic Guide (New York: Marlowe and Co., 1997).
7. Ask your Total Fitness practitioner to test your food sensitivities. Many people are not aware of the fact that over 90 percent of their serotonin is produced in their GI tract. Eliminating foods you are sensitive or allergic to can go a long way to improving your mood and the quality of your sleep, not only in terms of serotonin production but also in eliminating GI distress that might keep you awake.
8. Teeth grinding, especially at night, is a symptom of parasites. Ask your Total Fitness practitioner about appropriate testing and you'll find yourself feeling more in control of your hunger and able to sleep more restfully.
9. Lower your stress level during the day. Negative thoughts, staying constantly busy and rushing to multi-task can all deplete your brain chemistry. The more depleted your brain chemistry, the harder time you will have getting a good night's sleep.
10. Purchase the Loving Kindness Meditation CD and listen before bed. One of our clients asked us to produce this CD so she could go to sleep more easily. Not only is the Loving Kindness meditation CD helpful for relaxing, it will also help you to resolve any outstanding tensions between yourself and other people that may keep you awake worrying at night.
11. Avoid caffeine. Ask your Total Fitness to test to see if you are sensitive to caffeine. You can also find out by filling out this free questionnaire on our website at this link: www.totalfitness.net/radio_show_free.htm. Fill out free file No. 39, Caffeine Addiction.
12. Avoid alcoholic beverages, which interfere with REM sleep.
13. Get enough exercise during the day to release muscular tensions.
14. Avoid high intensity exercise in the evening. Your body has to secrete the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol in order to keep your heart rate over 90 bpm for continuous aerobic exercise. Cortisol has a 6-hour half life and has the unpleasant side effect of keeping you awake. If you want to exercise in the evening, choose relaxing exercise like a walk after dinner, relaxing yoga, qi gong or Tai Chi. Join Total Fitness yoga class that meets every Tuesday and Thursday and ends at 9 p.m. after a 10 minute meditation.
15. Avoid getting angry. Just five minutes of anger will raise your cortisol for six hours. If you argue late at night, you can almost be sure to find yourself sleepless. Practice forgiveness - it is not only good for others, it is good for you.
16. Keep your brain chemistry balanced. If your brain chemistry is depleted you may not be able to sleep well even if you are exhausted. Ask us your Total Fitness practitioner to test your amino acid levels and eat enough protein and the good fats the brain needs to function well. Eating less than 1800 calories per day will deplete your brain chemistry within 24 hours, so avoid low calorie diets and choose high quality, nutrient dense foods that satisfy what your body is really craving.
17. Keep your blood sugar balanced during the day by eating 5 to 6 mini meals. Your stress hormones go up every time your blood sugar drops. If your blood sugar roller coasters during the day, chances are it will continue doing so during the night.
18. Ask your Total Fitness practitioner to test your kidneys. Many people are chronically dehydrated but still not absorbing the water they drink. Improve the health of your kidneys so you don't have to wake up to answer the call of nature.
19. Eliminate inflammation. If your tissues are inflamed, your cortisol levels will be out of balance. We see many clients who wake up with abnormally high cortisol levels due to chronic inflammation. Avoid inflammatory foods like gluten and alcohol and use natural anti-inflammatories, beginning with the basics of a high quality fish oil.
20. Say prayers of thanksgiving and gratitude. When you pray and align with God Source, you let go of stress and worry that might keep you awake.
21. Ask your Total Fitness practitioner to check to see whether or not your atlas is off. Misalignment of your first cervical vertebrae affects your sympathetic nervous system as well as blood supply to the head and pituitary gland. You may be able to sleep better if you visit a non-force chiropractor for an adjustment or ask James Williams for an appointment for cranial sacral therapy.
22. Test your adrenal glands. Before menopause, your adrenal glands make 40 percent of your sex hormones. After menopause, your adrenal glands make 90 percent of your sex hormones. Don't let depleted hormones keep you awake. Find out how to balance them naturally.
23. Choose organic foods. Many people are not aware how much food additives and artificial ingredients like MSG and aspartame affect their nervous system.
24. If you find yourself waking up between 1 to 3 a.m., ask your Total Fitness practitioner to test your liver. In Chinese medicine, the liver is most active at that time. Following a simple detox plan can help you sleep better.
25. Find out if any of your medications are causing your insomnia. Look up the side effects of your medications at www.rxlist.com.

Is Your Job Making You Fat?
by James Williams, james@totalfitness.net

Here at Total Fitness, we're very fortunate to be able to reflect on our practice and notice the trends we see in our clients' lives. One of our more recent observations is a change in the values of younger working women who consult with us.

The stereotype of the man being the breadwinner seems to be slowly fading as more and more women are fulfilling their professional desires. The number of working women in the United States rose from 18.4 million in 1950¹ to 65.7 million in 2005², and the number of working women is forecast to reach nearly 76 million by 2014³. Participation in the labor force has increased most among married women⁴.

What we're seeing is a gradual shift in the priority of young women's values so that their work takes precedence over their health. It could be said that each woman forms her values based on the behavior she's observed in her parents, siblings, and peers, as described by social learning theory⁵. However, many of the world's cultures are unfortunately still male dominated and at Total Fitness we have seen the male value of working lots of hours being adopted by more and more women. Our observations are limited to women working in corporate environments and those who own their own businesses.

We're hearing women tell us that they will not stop working excessive working hours even if it is detrimental to the success of their health and fitness goals. This typifies the values held by many men who, like the Duracell bunny, just keep on going, often until they are worn out, die, or are stopped in their tracks by a life-threatening illness.

Is it something in the work environment that seems to condition women to give more and more of their time? Is corporate America taking advantage of the female altruistic urge to give and nurture? Is a woman's decision to overwork based on personality factors such as her using working long hours to avoid dealing with unhappiness in other parts of her life? No doubt the answer is highly individual.

While the dynamics of each work environment differs, there are often unwritten rules which employees adhere to. For example, employees and self-employed contractors may be willing to work far more hours than their contract specifies and go unpaid for their time. Whether this is done to be seen to be a team player and feel connected with their colleagues, or to show the boss "I'm a worthy candidate for promotion" to increase status or salary depends on the values of the individual woman.

Because of their more complex endocrine interactions, women are more liable to be affected by stress than men. This means that while feeling stressed, women will see a change in their figure and accumulate body fat far faster than men. The hormonal complexities of women's physiology also translates into them taking longer to regain their natural body shape.

We've heard women and men make excuses for their employers and their long hours. They say, "there's not enough money available" and "there's not enough staff." Is that really the employee's problem?

Intense, on-going working schedules of nine or more hours a day, combined with a feeling of pressure to then take care of the laundry, cleaning, and other chores usually results in a tired-out, overweight, pre-diabetic, and hormonally-unbalanced woman. We've had many women tell us that they regularly start their housework or grocery shopping after 9pm. Being active at this time of night makes it more difficult to get to sleep, and reduces the quality and length of sleep time. The next morning these unfortunate women wake up feeling unrefreshed, which predisposes them to being stressed more rapidly...and so the cycle continues.

If your work is stressful then get help. You can either change your job or change how you think and feel about it with our life coaching and kinesiology. The results are well-worth it and will produce much greater long-term happiness and better health. You'll also be more productive at your job while working fewer hours!

Call or email Catherine, James, or Nina to discover how our life coaching and kinesiology can help you.

1 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Perspectives on Working Women: A Databook", Bulletin 2080, 1980.

2 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings, Annual Averages, Table 11, "Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity", 2006,http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.pdf

3 Toossi, Mitra. "Labor Force Projections to 2014: Retiring Boomers" (excerpt), Monthly Labor Review Online, November 2005, Volume 128, No. 11, http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/art3exc.htm

4 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Women in the Labor Force: A Databook", Table 23, May 2005, http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-table23-2005.pdf

5 Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.

Recipe: Isle of Capri Chocolate Mousse
by www.Kristensraw.com

This delicious, rich and refreshing dessert was inspired by the isle of Capri, where they grow tons of lemons and use this beautiful citrus in almost all of their food!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 avocados, pitted and peeled
• ¾ cup agave nectar
• ¾ cup raw chocolate powder or raw carob powder
• zest from 1 whole lemon

Yield: 2 -2 ½ cups.

Listen To The Radio Inteview About Medical Intuition

On Tuesday, April 22, host Jean Adrienne interviewed Catherine Carrigan about her work as a medical intuitive. Listen to the radio interview by clicking here.

Total Fitness Supports Sally Bs Skin Yummies
by Catherine Carrigan, catherine@totalfitness.net

Total Fitness is a proud supporter of Sally Bs Skin Yummies. Many people are not aware that anything they put on their skin is directly absorbed into their internal organs. Toxic personal care products contribute to toxic overload in the liver and kidneys, inhibit your ability to lose weight and cause many of the problems they are meant to solve - breakouts, redness and irritation. Why spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on cosmetics that claim to make you look gorgeous when you can look even more beautiful naturally?

This month, Total Fitness customers can enjoy $2 off cuticle bars. Just enter the coupon code TOTALFITNESS when you check out at www.sallybskinyummies.com.

Our client, Sally Larsen, makes all her organic products herself with love and kindness. We appreciate the dedication she puts into her business.

At a recent conference, Sally was one of many small business people selling skin care products. A fellow kinesiologist muscle tested all the lotions and potions and determined Sally Bs Skin Yummies were the purest products there.

I have helped so many clients achieve gorgeous skin naturally. Just take a look at my skin next time you come and visit me - I am 49 years old. I rarely wear makeup, but when I do, I use Sally B's mineral makeups, which blend easily and are completely pure.

Yoga and Qi Gong Classes in Atlanta

Yoga Classes: Every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Holy Spirit Catholic Church
4465 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA.
$15 per class or $65 per calendar month.

Qi Gong Class: Every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m.
1951 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA. $15 per class.

Booking appointments with Total Fitness

To schedule an appointment to find out about a personalized fitness, nutrition or healing program that will help you get results, please contact us:

In Atlanta

Catherine Carrigan catherine@totalfitness.net

James Williams james@totalfitness.net

In California

Nina Lynn nina@totalfitness.net

You can also visit us on the web at www.totalfitness.net