Weight Management and Health

There is an epidemic of obesity in the world; recent studies have shocked us with the news that obese children
today may not live as long as their parents

1.  Even countries traditionally immune from the phenomenon,
like France, show increased incidence of obesity
2.  Why?  There is evidence the body protects itself from
toxins by storing them in fat cells. Other studies show environmental toxicity in 100% of post mortem fat tissue
biopsies!
3 Weight management is no longer simply an aesthetic concern; we must understand overweight as a symptom
of living in a toxic world.  A regular program of detoxification is a crucial element in any wellness plan for optimal
health today!  Including cleansing programs & regular Sauna use in your wellness plan will effectively eliminate
the need for extra weight & fad diets & create balance in your body/mind. 

 

Thermal Therapies are Central to any Wellness Plan

From the Chinese Medicine perspective, most diseases today are caused by stagnation:  Pain, Cancer, Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Endometriosis, Heart Disease…the list goes on and on1.  We now know thermal
therapies rejuvenate the body/mind by increasing delivery of oxygen & nutrients to all parts of the body,
encouraging energy flow in stagnated systems.  Watch water come to a boil & you will see the power of heat to
move energy!  Traditionally, Sauna was used to rejuvenate & refresh the spirit & cleanse the mind. 
High heat (70-80 C) & steam vapor cause bathers to perspire & strengthen the heart & lungs by forcing them to
work as hard as an aerobic workout.  Infra Red Sauna uses lamps which emit at the same wavelength as the sun,
providing lower heat (50-60 C) & deep penetration into the tissues; it's tolerable by many more people, providing
additional therapeutic advantages.
Making heat therapies central to any wellness plan will accelerate its effectiveness!  

 

Balance and Health

Your body/mind is a living system.  Holism proposes that under conditions of health, a living system will
organize itself in balance & health.  Conversely, if merely one part is imbalanced, imbalance results in all parts.
  There is also an interconnection between you & your larger environment.  When you create balance & health
in yourself, you create balance & health in your environment.  Likewise, choosing balanced environments will
create balance in you.

Bringing consciousness to the messages of wellness or imbalance from your body, thoughts, emotions &
environments is the goal of the holistic approach & a path to balancing physical, mental, emotional &
environmental health.  We open to learn to listen to these messages to identify what we need to bring ourselves &
our environments back to our essential state of balance & wholeness.  Let us learn to meet imbalance
enthusiastically as an invitation to wholeness & optimal health!  

 

Balancing Sugar and Stress

We all enjoy a little sweet flavor with our meals.  Traditional Chinese Nutrition suggests that balancing all 5 flavors
(Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Pungent, Salty) in every meal is a simple way to achieve balance in diet. Cravings for sugar,
on the other hand, are a signal of imbalance which may be traced back to stress & the adrenal glands. 
When you are stressed, the adrenal glands produce adrenalin for a fight or flight reaction.  To have energy for the
battle, cells get the message to release sugar to the bloodstream.  Blood & nutrients leave the internal organs and
flood the muscles of the limbs & brain to ready them for battle/flight & quick decision making.   Digestion and all
metabolic processes shut down temporarily to allow us to fight.  This is a wonderful feature of human biology,
allowing us to survive in the presence of larger predators.  The problem is that when we start to live this way,
we've learned to use stress for energy, rather than using food for energy.  The result is nervous tension caused by
stressed, depleted adrenal glands which can no longer accurately control blood sugar levels, incomplete digestion
of food and sluggish metabolism.  High or low insulin levels are often the end result of a lifetime of stress. 
Learning how to balance sugar with diet education and lifestyle choices, then, is also Diabetes prevention & stress
management.  Imagine meeting life stress free!   

 

Tips for Detoxification and Optimal Health:  How to Include
Cleansing as Part of your Personal Wellness Program

There is an epidemic of obesity in the world; recent studies have shocked us with the news that obese children
today may not live as long as their parents
1.  Even countries traditionally immune from the phenomenon, like France, show increased incidence of obesity
2.  Why?  There is evidence the body protects itself from toxins by storing them in fat cells. Other studies show
environmental toxicity in 100% of post mortem fat tissue biopsies!
3 There is no 'safe' place on Earth to avoid contamination, as there are reports that far to the north in the 'pristine'
arctic regions, the breast milk of nursing Inuit women was found to contain PCB's 4

Quality of life is the ability to meet life with high energy levels, a clear mind, emotional stability and enthusiastic
creativity.  In a body burdened with toxicity from stress, environmental toxins or overweight, normal metabolic
balance is disrupted-affecting every organ system of the body and consequently the ability of the body/mind to
successfully handle everyday challenges. Detoxification and weight management are no longer simply aesthetic &
spiritual concerns; we must understand overweight as a symptom of living in a toxic world.   Since everyone shares
the reality of environmental toxicity, overweight can be seen as an adaptive response; if you are not overweight,
the toxic burden is greater relative to body mass.  If we want to be well, we all want to respond.   What can we do?

The body automatically does a 'self' cleanse each Spring and Fall as our energy either springs forward from
deep in the body or falls back deep into the body with the seasonal changes.  These are the optimal times to
assist your body with a cleansing program for a few days to a week. 

The main goal of a cleansing program is to allow the body to have more energy to invest in eliminating toxins and
rebalancing metabolism than it invests in digestion.  We work with diet and tools like gentle exercise, massage,
lymphatic drainage and sauna to increase circulation and eliminate toxins released from the deep tissues. 
There is no 'right' cleanse for everyone.  If you are a very robust, hot person, you will be able to tolerate a more
stringent cleansing diet.  If you are a low energy, cold person, you will want to make sure your cleansing diet
supports the body with lots of easily assimilated nutrients to avoid further depletion. 

Additionally, a regular maintenance program of detoxification is a crucial element in any wellness plan for optimal
health today!  Including seasonal and regular cleansing in your wellness plan will effectively eliminate the need for
extra weight & fad diets and will create balance in your body/mind.  It will liberate the liver from its burden
to protect the body from toxicity and allow emotional stability, mental clarity and proper digestion and assimilation of nutrients.  You will return home to your balanced self, able to meet life with all your energy and enthusiasm!

 

The Articles written by Helen McGrath

Spa Orange II

514-866-1772