Habits.
28 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
This is a transcribed version of our video blog. Check out Dr. Pikens You Tube Channel for more info! We encourage you to follow our video blogs to get the whole picture!
Hello and welcome to Innate Chiropractic’s video blog were in just a few minutes we are going to be educating your mind and empowering your body to get healthy. The topic for today is creating habits. So how do you create a habit? First you have to plan out 4 months. If you can’t keep up a change for 4 months you really haven’t made a change at all! You’ve just been on a temporary kick even if it is a “health” kick.
Let’s take exercising, let’s say your goal is to work out 3 times a week for the rest of your life, forever because this is a healthy habit that you never want to give up. The first thing you have to do is you got to make it through 4 months or else you really haven’t created enough momentum to keep you going.
The hardest part of that is the first 3 weeks. So if you can make it just through the first 3 weeks without any excuses then 4th week will be a little easier, the 5th week easier and so on. Throughout the 4 months you’re still going to have little struggles but if you can keep up that 3 time a week exercise habit, even if its merely 15 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day an hour just as long as you show up 3 times a week. If you can keep it up for 4 months you have created so much momentum that it’s hard to break the habit. It’s actually harder to stop then to just keep going! So remember 3 weeks and 4 months. Hope that helps!
For more information, check out our website www.innatechiro.com. Call our office for a free screening!
212.581.9079
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Eat.
27 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
This is a transcribed version of our video blog. Check out Dr. Pikens You Tube Channel for more info! We encourage you to follow our video blogs to get the whole picture!
Hello and welcome to Innate Chiropractic’s blog where in just a few minutes a day we are going to be educating your mind and empowering your body to become healthy. Today’s topic is about food intake. How many times you REALLY should be eating on an average day. This topic comes up often in my office. The best way to explain it is, you should be eating like a body builder not a sumo wrestler. The main thing you need to know is frequency of eating has just as much an importance as the quality of food you eat and the calories you eat. Sumo wrestlers and bodybuilders eat very similar amount of calories but in a different way. The typical sumo wrestler eats 1 to 2 times a day. The typical day is wake up have 4 hours of intense exercise. Eat a gigantic meal and go to sleep. Then they wake up, do chores around the house and then eat again really late and then go back to sleep. Basically the work eat sleep, work eat sleep with only eating 2 times a day gets you fat like a sumo wrestler. Sound familiar?
Meanwhile the body builder who eats 5, 6, and 7 times a day stays leaner and healthier. The lesson you want to take away is the more often you eat, the more likely you are to build muscle. The less often you eat the more likely you are to store fat. Hope that helps!
For more information on healthy digestive track, check out our website www.innatechiro.com. Call our office for a free screening! 212.581.9079
Sleep.
25 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
This is a transcribed version of our video blog. Check out Dr. Pikens You Tube Channel for more info! We encourage you to follow our video blogs to get the whole picture!
Hello and welcome to Innate Chiropractics blog where in just a couple minutes a day we are going to be educating your mind and empowering your body to be healthy. Today’s topic is sleep. The first thing we need to address when we are talking about sleep is the amount of time you are actually doing it. The best research says 6 to 8 hours. Personally 7 to 71/2 is my optimum. If you’re not sleeping at least 6 hours a day you are not giving yourself enough time to heal from the activities from the day before. If you are sleeping 9 hours of more, you are hopefully a teenager or younger because as you become an adult 6-9 should be you’re max.
Next is sleep position. The average person does not sleep on their back, but if you do the best way to do it is to use a thin pillow or no pillow. You don’t want a pillow that is going to disturb the natural curve of your neck. Stay neutral! When you sleep on your back you should also be sleeping with a pillow under your knees.
Next position is the most common. Side sleeping. As a side sleeper should only be sleeping with one pillow not to. Just like a back sleeper, you really need pillows under your knees to keep your legs in a comfortable position. The final thing you need to really get the best sleep possible a hugger pillow. Hugger pillows allow you to comfortably drape your arm avoiding arm cramps and back pain. The worst position of all is stomach sleeping. As you distort your head and twist neck you begin to compromise the small nerves that come out your neck, compromising arterial flow to your head causing extreme stress on your body. So if you’re a stomach sleeper GET OFF YOUR STOMACH!!!! Hope that helps.
For more information on healthy sleep habits, check out our website www.innatechiro.com. Call our office for a free screening! 212.581.9079
Constipation.
22 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
This is a transcribed version of our video blog. Check out Dr. Pikens You Tube Channel for more info! We encourage you to follow our video blogs to get the whole picture!
Hello and welcome to Innate Chiropractic’s video blog where in just a few minutes a day we are going to be educating your mind and empowering your body to become healthy. Today’s topic is constipation. Constipation comes up in my office all the time. Yes I’m a chiropractor but about a third of my patients have digestive issues. The truth is chronic digestive issues can create chronic pain. So here is a quick lesson on constipation. You really need 4 ingredients in order to have good healthy poop. The first 2 are the most important. Fiber and water. Here are your guidelines for fiber and water. If you’re not drinking half your body weight in ounces of water then you’re not getting enough water. Now that’s something to strive towards. I don’t actually get there every day but it’s something I’m working on. My number that I get is at least 50 ounces a day because I drink a 40 ounce Kleen Kanteen filled with water on the way home every night and that takes care of a lot of my water. One thing to do if you’re constipated is to try to get more water into your diet. If you have that then next thing to look into is fiber.
Fiber should be in your diet everyday and should be consistent. Anywhere from 25 to 35 to 40 grams based on your size. I would try to get 30 grams a day on average. So how do you figure out how much fiber you’re getting in your diet? It’s really easy! Google fiber chart and you will get a listing of a few different websites that will list the amount of fiber in the food you eat. Take a one day food diary of what you eat on an average day and just add up how much fiber you’re getting. If you are nowhere near 30-35 grams then you know you have to increase the fiber in your diet.
If you have enough water and have enough fiber in your diet then the next ingredient is probiotics. What is a probiotic? They are friendly bacteria that naturally live in your gut. We have anywhere from 5 to 6 to 7 hundred diffrent species of little bugs or micro organisms that live inside our gut and one of the main jobs of these micro organisms is to break down our undigested food. Human beings have absolutely no ability to digest fiber. So we need these bugs inside us to symbiotically work to help us digest our food properly. So if you tried fiber and water next stage is get a good probiotic. Some probiotics names are Acidophilus, Bifidus, Lacto bacillus. There is one product that I use most often in our office made by a company called Metagenics called Ultra Flora DF. There are about 6 different probiotic supplements that I use because everyone needs something specific. That’s why we get a good history and find out more about people before I prescribe. But in general get a good probiotic and that should help you.
Next if you get enough water and fiber and you’re taking good probiotics, the last ingredient that is the most common reason for constipation is a lack of Magnesium. Everyone talks about Calcium! Calcium! Calcium! It’s one of the most important minerals in our body and a good percentage of your body is made of calcium. Just remember we also need magnesium. Calcium and magnesium to put it simply tend to balance each other. If calcium causes muscles to contract then magnesium causes things to relax. When magnesium is in your large intestine and unabsorbed it draws water into your large intestine and makes your poop fluffy. Magnesium will relax your muscles and allow the poop to come out easier. So in general what you should be getting is a minimum of 400 milligrams of Magnesium a day. Best sources food wise, dark, bitter leafy Cruciferous vegetables. They’re going to have a lot of Magnesium in there but you gotta get enough of them in. If all you’re having are 5 or 6 pieces of broccoli a day you’re not getting enough, you gotta up your intake of those green leafy veggies. That’s what’s going to help you the most. If you can’t get enough vegetables, take a magnesium supplement before you go to bed, 400 milligrams before you go to bed that will be great. It’s a great start a least. If the magnesium is not working at 400 milligrams, boost it up to 800 or 1200. If you get to much magnesium you’ll know because you will get diarrhea. Just play with you levels of Magnesium based upon what you’re getting in your diet and based upon what you need that particular day. So remember water, fiber, a good probiotic and magnesium. Hope that helps!
P.S. Remember to always consult your doctor when taking supplements. Everyone’s needs are different.
For more information on healthy digestive track, check out our website www.innatechiro.com. Call
Juice
21 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
This is a transcribed version of our video blog. Check out Dr. Pikens You Tube Channel for more info! We encourage you to follow our video blogs to get the whole picture!
We all need to drink more water here’s a way to make water more fun!
Hello and welcome to Innate Chiropractic blog where in just a couple minutes a day we are going to be educating your mind and empowering your body to become healthy, Today’s topic is how to make something to drink. It’s something simple but too many people are drinking juice. I recommend Pomi. I think it’s a great tasting Pomegranate juice but it says on the back that an entire container is 6 servings. 6 servings is crazy!!! There is so much sugar in that. Its natural sugar rather than added but that’s still tons of sugar. If you use that as recommended you will be getting 160 calories per serving. So here is my refreshing drink recipe.
1. Fill a big glass with water
2. Squeeze in one slice lemon and drop it in
3. Splash in some Pomi. Literally a splash! Enjoy!!!
For more information on healthy food alternatives, check out our website www.innatechiro.com. Call our office for a free screening! 212.581.9079
Daily Habits
20 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
Today’s topic is Diet diaries and exercise logs. I use them with my patients all the time to track their progress. There are plenty of free ones you can download online. We use a few different ones in our office. I spent a day detailing my own exercise and dietary habits for one day on our video blog which you can check out on you tube. The following text is a transcription of the part of the video that details what I do on an average day. Some of the wording has been changed in order to make this entry more acceptable to those who are editors and English teachers…its still not perfect…please watch the video’s from now on if you care:
“What I wanted to go over today is my eating and exercise habits. On a typical day I wake up 5 -5:30 am and do a 10 minute trainer. Normally I don’t have time to do an hour of exercise so at least 4 or 5 times a week I do 10 minutes of intense exercise to get the blood flowing and to get the muscles moving. Next is breakfast on this day I had 8 cashews. That’s it! You don’t need much to have breakfast. Just a handful of something and pop it in your mouth. It’s great to just have a little bit of protein after a workout even though cashews are not the greatest source of protein, it’s mostly fat, but it’s something that keeps your blood sugar level from crashing. Next is coffee on the way to work. A little coffee in your diet is ok; too much can cause problems. Next is a high fiber cereal. High fiber means 6 to 8 grams of fiber as a minimum, 10 would be better, 14 would be best. The thing you have to watch out for is sugar. When you raise fiber, the sugar tends to go up so make sure you’re eating a cereal that’s high in fiber and low in sugar. Next I had an UltrainflamX shake. UltrainflamX is a medical food I use in the office that works on digestive health and is a multi vitamin as well as a meal replacement which is high in quality and low in calories. Next is a salad. It’s really ideal that you have a salad every day. At least a third of your dietary intake of food should be raw. Raw food gives you a lot of good nutrients a lot of good enzymes and in my salad I have a lot of different colors in there. It’s not just lettuce! Its lettuce and carrots, peppers, artichokes, broccoli, cucumber and there’s beans. You want to have a nice big variety in your salad so you get a lot of different servings of vegetables. Next was Snack time. I had a hand full of pumpkin seeds. Raw organic pumpkin seeds are a great healthy snack. More fiber, more protein, a little healthy fat and Pumpkin seeds are especially healthy for men because it is good for the prostate. Next my dinner was turkey burgers, no bun just the patty with roasted Brussels sprouts. That’s my day’s worth of food. Throughout the day I had about 50 ounces of water. I have a 40 ounce of water that I have on the way home and I have about 10 ounces throughout the course of the day when I was thirsty. Hope that gives you some info on what a healthy diet is like and how simple and easy it is to eat 5 times a day instead of skipping meals.”
For more information, check out our website www.innatechiro.com. Call our office for a free screening! 212.581.9079
