health

Breaking news! Some newly discovered compounds have just been found to turn off all of the genes that cause diabetes. Are these compounds found in a pill bottle? No!

Diabetes and insulin resistance are completely preventable and often reversible through aggressive lifestyle changes, including diet, supplements, exercise and stress management.

I’m back from my vacation, and what an adventure it was.

And in addition to being great, I found it completely amazing how physically exhausting a vacation can be (tour bus pick-up at 6:30 a.m., plane rides, bus rides, and scary car episodes with a French taxi driver who insisted on taking all the Corsican island curves — which, did I mention, are only one lane — at 100 kilometers an hour by looking BACK at me so that I could confirm that yes, the island was beautiful, and yes, I was completely relaxed … just not right at that moment).

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”     — Eleanor Roosevelt

By The FIRM Master Instructor Emily Welsh

You can work out every day or even hours a day and get little benefit if you are not fully engaged in the process. I have found that if I’m not paying attention to what I am doing when I work out, I move mindlessly through each set of exercises, not getting the best benefit from each repetition. I call this being on “auto-pilot.”

A few weeks ago, I taught my Core Immersion Training at the Century City Equinox in Los Angeles, Calif. Each day, we valet parked our cars before entering the club. Those who live outside of Los Angeles may have to re-read the prior sentence: Yes, we VALET PARKED our cars to go to the gym, as do thousands of other Angelenos all around the city, where valet parking is an unfortunate fact of life in a city where the car is king, and vast distances separate us from getting here to there.

Yes, you can have it all, really!

How you eat, think and exercise dramatically affects your mood. You can break the cycle of unhealthy habits and learn to have it all.

In my previous blog, I told you about low thyroid function and how it affects more than 30 million women and 15 million men.

So why are we seeing such an epidemic of thyroid problems?

Well, chronic thyroid problems can be caused by many factors, including environmental toxins, chronic stress, chronic inflammation and nutritional deficiencies.

What causes hypothyroidism?

Environmental toxins

Nothing can stop a perfectly good yoga practice (or day, for that matter) in its tracks like a hurting back. And sometimes, the poses you might think would help your aching body could actually be making it worse.

Are you one of the 30 million women and 15 million men who have a chronic medical problem that is both under-diagnosed and under-treated? Are you suffering from vague symptoms that you think are normal parts of life, such as fatigue, feeling sluggish in the morning, and having trouble with your memory, concentration or focus? Do you have dry skin or fluid retention? Is your sex drive not what it used to be?

In the weeks to come and into the fall, there will be many opportunities to participate in various charitable and community run/walks. Go online and you can probably find a race almost any weekend without having to travel too far. Whether it is a local 5K for the community center or a multiple-day walk for a national charity or the city marathon, get those athletic shoes on and join in the fun! There is power in numbers, and nothing is better for your motivation than improving your health and fitness alongside hundreds of other like-minded people.