Aromatherapy That Inspires Exercise

Working out is literally a pain for some people. However having an exercise regimen is an essential part of any weight loss plan.  You can use essential oil therapy to help you stay motivated and feel positive about working out every day.

Here is a short list of oils that can help stimulate you, wake you up and motivate you to get off the couch and on the bicycle, to the swimming pool or to the gym so you can adhere to your exercise regimen.

Orange 
Orange oil has a campherous quality that keeps you alert, energetic and sharp. The smell is Traditionally this oil is known as the oil of joy! Orange essential oil  is calming and energizing at the same time. Orange oil, whether it be bitter orange, blood orange, sweet oil, mandarin or tangerine makes you feel refreshed, alive and a bit more perky. It instills a positive attitude and uplifts the spirit. It is a natural agent of elation.

Lemon
Lemon is bracing and enhances focus, stamina and performance. It helps you exercise for  longer than you thought was possible.  Lemon oil also has the psychological effect of making it feel like "it's a brand new day."  For a brisker scent of lemons, try oil made from Meyer lemons.

Grapefruit
Like most of the citrus oils grapefruit improves mood and sharpens the senses. It makes you feel refreshed, awake and can prevent fatigue while working out. At the same time grapefruit also has a directly relaxing effect on you that relieves hypertension, irritability and the reluctance that sometimes comes when it is time to work out.

Lemongrass
Lemongrass essential oil improves focus and concentration so you are not prone to doing a sloppy or shorter work out.  It has a similar scent to lemon but a bit more herbaceous, grassy or floral. Lemongrass also uplifts the mood while at the same time instilling a sense of serenity and determination to get through your workout no matter what it takes.

Rosemary
Rosemary essential uplifiting, yet medicinal. It is a lovely oil for those who have lung problems to use.

Peppermint
Peppermint essential oil keeps you positive, alert and energetic. It has a nip to it that psychologically makes the brain “wake up” and usually the body follows. If you are nauseous or run out of breath while working out then peppermint can be of some use.
You can take a bath with diluted oils, apply the diluted oils to your skin or diffuse them through the air with a vaporizer.  Do this before you work out.  

One word of advice:  not every gym allows scent in their work-out spaces as some people are allergic or irrigated by strong aromas or perfume smells. If that is the case you just might have to be satisfied with smelling the aroma at home.

For more information or to book a consultation about  life style issues, anti-aging, diet and weight loss programs or any health issue you may be experiencing, visit the Pinewood Natural Health Clinic website that has a list of full services and products at www.pinewood.ca or call our Toronto Office at  (416)-656- 8100.  We also have an office in Pickering, Ontario at (905)-427-0057. You can also email us at info@pinewoodhealth.ca and we would be happy to answer any question that you have about our holistic health services

The Role of Calcium in Limiting Body Fat

Calcium does more than strengthen your bones it also helps you get rid of belly fat. Studies at Harvard Medical School have shown that those who ate three servings of dairy a day, the equivalent of 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day, were sixty percent less likely to be overweight. [1] A similar thesis study at the University of Tennessee also found that dieters that had calcium in their diet were more likely to lose weight than those who don’t. [2]  Two groups of subjects were put on the same 600 calories a day restricted diet but those who added yogurt to the diet doubled their weight loss.

Black Strap Molasses - a vegan source of calcium.

Of course, these studies are older and come before the advent of veganism that demands that we get our calcium from non-dairy sources, which of course is entirely possible given all of the calcium enriched nut milks, coconut milks and calcium-rich fruits and vegetables that are available to us today. The point is that people who tend to be nutritionally adequate in calcium tend to lose weight faster and also keep it off.  So even if you have quit eating and drinking dairy products, eating enough calcium should be part of your happy and healthy lifestyle.

Researchers speculate that calcium helps fight fat because it is a thermal (fat-burning) nutrient. You burn more calories eating calcium-rich foods then you would if you ate a food with the same amount of calories but with no calcium.

Sources of Calcium From Dairy

If you still eat dairy you stand the chance of losing the most calories and absorbing the most calcium.  Your goal is to eat about 1,200 milligrams of calcium per day so even if you are eating just one of these foods and combining them with vegan sources of calcium you are still ahead of the game.

Good example of calcium-rich dairy foods that provide approximately one quarter of your daily requirement for protein include –

• 1 once grated Parmesan cheese
• I cup large curd cottage cheese
• 8 ounces low-fat yogurt
• 8 ounces low fat milk
• 1 ounce Swiss chees
• 1 slice (1 ounce) cheddar cheese
• 1 once mozzarella cheese
• 1 scoop whey powder protein.

Vegan Sources of Calcium

In the world of veganism, the best sources of calcium are –

• Blackstrap molasses
• The dark green leafy vegetables including bok choy, broccoli, collards, kale, mustard greens, spinach and okra
• Soybean and soy nuts
• Calcium set tofu
• Beans and bean dips
• Grapefruit
• Melons
• Tahini
• Almond butter and almonds
• Cooked broccoli

However, the difference between these sources and the dairy sources is that vegan foods do not take as many carbohydrates to digest because they have fewer calories than dairy foods.  Most of these foods provide about one tenth of your daily requirement for calcium with the exception of blackstrap molasses, collard greens and calcium-set tofu which can provide as much as a third of your daily calcium requirement of 1200 calories a day.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41)440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Micheal Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

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[1] Danita R Shahar, Dan Schwarzfuchs, Drora Fraser, Hillel Vardi, Joachim Thiery,

 Georg Martin Fiedler, Matthias Blüher, Michael Stumvoll, Meir J StampferIris Shai, and for the DIRECT Group, Dairy calcium intake, serum vitamin D, and successful weight loss, “ The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition”. November 2010, Volume 92. Bethesda, MD: American Society for Nutrition. Retrieved online May 27, 2014, http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/92/5/1017.full.

[2] Bloom, Mary Millsap’s Bloom” Effects of Dietary Calcium on Weight Loss in Obese Adults (2001.) University of Tennessee Honours Thesis Projects. http//trace.tennesee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/447. Retrieved online May 26, 2014.

Understanding The Role of Basal Metabolism in a Healthy and Active Lifestyle

In general, the metabolism can be understood as being the rate at which your body burns calories just to keep itself alive.  You need calories to keep your heart beating and the blood pumping through your arteries. It is a fallacy to think you are not burning calories when you are at rest.

Your body is burning calories all of the time, even when you sitting as still as possible or asleep. In fact, you body burns a certain amount of calories per pound just to maintain body weight every day. The average woman burns about 10 calories per pound every day and the average man, about 11 calories per pound.

You Burn Calories When You Eat

Not many people realize this but you actually burn calories when you eat. About 30% of the calories that you burn each day are actually burned by the act of digestion. However, your body uses far more calories to digest a protein then it does a carbohydrate. You burn about 25 calories for every 100 calories of protein consumed and only about ten for every fat and carbohydrate you burn. This is why it is recommended that you eat lean healthy proteins to lose weight.

You Burn Calories Through Exercise

Every day you burn ten to fifteen percent of your calories as the result of moving your muscles. It does not matter what activity you do, you are burning carbohydrates every time you run, walk, lean over, flip a page in a book or press a key on the remote.  It is not really possible to burn more calories than fifteen percent a day, which is why it is important to lead a happy and healthy lifestyle and exercise as much as possible on a regular basis.

The Importance of Basal Metabolism

When fitness experts talk about the basal metabolism, they are referring to the calories that you burn per day when you are doing nothing at all.  Sleeping, watching television and sitting at you desk burn up between sixty and eighty percent of your available calories. That is because your body is at work all of the time, dividing cells, engaging in cell respiration and disposing of toxins.

The basal metabolism rate refers to the calorie burn that comes from the physiological functions that we don’t even think about or are not aware of it. That is why it is so important to eat foods and adopt a lifestyle that raises the basal rate of your metabolism so that all of your downtime is actually fat-burning time.  This is also why restricting calories works better than trying work off calories through constant exercise. Constant exercise works in shedding off the pounds to some extent but if you really want to lose weight it comes down to consuming less calories.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41)440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Micheal Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.