The Secret To Staying Young!

The key to lifelong vitality is following the 6 foundational principles.

1. Thoughts: thoughts create emotions and emotions create hormones that affect every cell in the body. You are what you think.

2. Breathing: life begins and ends with breath. Cultivate and control your breathe to control your life.

3. Hydration: The simplest solution to pollution is dilution. Drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces.

4. Food: “you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit”. Whatever you are eating now is what you’ll become later. Any questions?

5. Exercise: Use movement to know yourself physically, mentally and emotionally. Move in a way that builds structure and function. Do use your body like a rental car or it will get repossessed.

6. Sleep: A true Warrior knows how to rest. Rise with the sun. Sleep with the moon.

If It’s On Your Skin Your Drinking it

Any personal care products that you put on your skin that have unatural chemicals can create metabolic stress. Symptoms can include weight gain, headaches, sex hormone imbalance (estrogen dominance/low testosterone) and thyroid problems just to name a few.

For more information on what chemicals to look for message me on my fan page Terrence Thomas Physical Excellence Coaching!

Are You Bonking In Your Sleep?

Eating the wrong food before bedtime will disrupt sleep quality. Often times when you wake up in the middle of the night and can not get back to sleep it is because your blood sugar has dropped low enough to cause your body to produce adrenaline which pulls you out of a deep sleep. Before bedtime make sure your fuel mixture is balanced for your individual needs.

In Season vs. Off Season

An athlete’s diet in season and off season can vary just as much as the conditions of their sports vary from in season to off season. The athlete must be aware of their nutritional needs when changing environments, time zones, weather situations and any other stresses that could possibly increase demand in terms of nutritional reserve. By taking a holistic approach to sports performance, athletes will put themselves in the best position to maintain peak performance throughout the entire season and throughout their career.

Four Tips to Squash the Cold and Flu Bug Before They Bite

Four Tips to Squash the Cold and Flu Bug Before They Bite.

By Terrence Thomas, Holistic Lifestyle Coach

The holiday season is upon us, which means food, parties, and of course the winter cold and flu. Spending time with family and friends is always fun and the holidays are meant to be a time of celebration and reflection. As exciting as the Holiday season is, it does come with its inherent stressors such as late night parties, excessive alcohol consumption and the wonderful holiday desserts. This is in addition to being right in the middle of cold and flu season. It is a bit ironic that the immune system will be suppressed at the very time that it needs to be at its peak efficiency.

In addition to colds and flu, consider that a large majority of health incidents such as heart attacks and strokes occur during the holidays. Studies have shown that the cardiovascular system is under great stress after a high fat meal. The arties actually go into spasm or constrict as a result of the excessive calorie consumption. If there is a pre-existing cardiovascular condition, a mega holiday meal can mean disaster for some.

I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t care what he says, I’m stuffing my face anyway!” Well I’m right there with you. However if you are going to play the game, you may as well know the rules. There are steps that you can take to help you navigate thru the rum cake and eggnog with minimal damage. With that said here are 4 principles that will give you a fighting chance at staying healthy during the holiday season.

 

 

Sleep; The optimal resting time is between 10:30pm and 6:00 am. This is the time of physical and psychological repair based on the body’s natural sleep and wake cycles. The time of physical repair for the body is between 10pm and 2am.You will be able to predict your likelihood for getting sick by the number of days that you go to bed late. The less time the body has to repair, the greater the chances of not being able to fight off infection.  Pace yourself when it comes to staying up late. If staying up late is unavoidable, a great way to catch up on lost “zzz” is to take 20 to 30 minute naps during the day. These naps are called “adrenal naps” because they are great for helping the adrenal glands recover from stress. The adrenal glands are very sensitive to sleeping patterns and they also play a major role in maintaining a healthy immune system. The adrenal glands are the body’s Vitamin-C reservoir and we must keep them healthy and strong to keep our resistance up.

Sugar; One (1) tablespoon of sugar will suppress the immune system for 4 hours. Consider that the average American consumes about 150 pounds of sugar per year. I truly believe that this one fact is the reasons for the increasing rates of disease.

Sugar consumption is a problem for most during any time of the year but it can be a significant source of stress during the holiday season. Just like sleep, choose your sugar battles wisely. If you plan on indulging, exercise can reduce the sugar spikes. Exercise will help shunt or redirect some of extra sugar into usable glycogen or muscle fuel. If you can time your workouts so that you are eating your sweets no later than 3 hours after the workout, you may be able to take advantage of this “sugar shunting” technique.

Another tip is to eat all the major food groups before you start on your dessert. When we expose our taste buds to a variety of tastes and textures, it creates powerful sense of satiety. This will prevent you from overeating when it is time for dessert. Sample the different foods that are available. If you can get a small green salad, a cooked vegetable, a protein source and a complex carbohydrate source, this will expose the palate to all the necessary tastes and textures to satisfy the appetite center in the brain. Eating in this manner will make dessert even more enjoyable in my opinion because it then becomes the “cherry on top” rather than filling in a nutritional deficit.

Supplements; The reality is that we will all indulge during the holiday. This brings with it the increased consumption “non-foods”.  Another name for non-foods is called displacing foods, which means that the body must expend its own nutritional resources to process the non-food.  An easy way to fill in the holiday nutrition gaps is through supplementation. Supplementation should be in a natural and whole food form.  Increase your intake of antioxidants to boost immune capacity and support the processing of non-foods.

Suppression Detection; early detection of a potential bug can save you days of sick time and missing out on the holiday festivities. At the first sign of a tickle in your throat or runny nose, begin to relax before the tickle becomes a full-blown cold. Being able to detect a cold or flu is simply about self-awareness. When you wake in the morning, notice if your nose is runny or if your lymph nodes are swollen. In regards to lymph nodes, if the lurking bug is a head cold, the nodes in the neck will often swell. A lung or “chest” cold will often cause the nodes in the axilla or “armpits” to become overactive. It is not uncommon for people to experience arm or should pain just prior to an infection. The point is to mind your body or your body will do it for you.

Keep these 4 tips in mind as you enjoy this holiday and winter season. As simple as they are, they will keep you in the game with a smile on your face and eggnog in hand.

 

Terrence Thomas draws from 20 years of experience in health coaching, and exercise instruction.  The author of “Get Fit Now and Feel Great Forever, his company Hallandale based Expert Fitness Solutions gives clients control over the way they look, feel and perform by teaching the 6 foundational principles of health, fitness and vitality. For your complimentary Holistic Health Inventory contact Terrence at tt@physicalexcellence.org. 

Why Organic? Why Gluten-Free?

Why Organic? Why Gluten-Free?

By Terrence Thomas

 

First let’s tackle organic food.  We’ve discussed organic food before, but it goes without saying, there are multiple studies that prove – without a shadow of a doubt -that organic food has higher levels of nutrition than conventionally farmed food.

I won’t get into a huge debate about this because there’s a lot of politics and a lot of bureaucracy around organic food. It’s now a profitable industry and people are changing the standards that govern organic farming, but organic farming and organic food in its original and pure state have more and higher nutritional values than conventionally farmed food.

 

 The second thing you should consider with organic food is that it’s going to have a higher level of the secondary nutrients. Primary nutrients would be your proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.  Secondary nutrients are all of your phyto-nutrients, that is; the thousands of plant based plant chemicals that are in foods that give it their anti-cancer, immune building and health building properties.

  In regards to organic meats and protein sources, you’re going to have fewer toxins in your body. A cow that has been raised strictly on grass and water and a plant based diet without it being injected with hormones and antibiotics and synthetic chemicals, is going to be a healthier animal.  Obviously if you’re eating a healthier animal you’re going to be healthier as well. Eating organic food is also better for the environment.  If you’re not spraying pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and giving the animals hormones and antibiotics, it’s going to be less stress on the environment. You’re not going to have any toxic run-off in the water, you’re not going to pollute the environment and the ozone with toxic chemicals, which in turn puts humanity in a better position to achieve optimal health.

Aside from these very tangible reasons for eating organic,  it tastes better, it more flavorful and it stay fresh longer.  It may be a little bit more expensive but you get what you pay for in terms of quality!

Now let’s talk about gluten. Some experts believe that 60% of white skinned people and 40% of people with colored skin are intolerant to gluten. What is gluten?  Gluten is a protein molecule, not only found in wheat, but also in rye and barley.  Gluten has been connected to everything from chronic inflammation, irritable bowel, Crohn’s Disease, even issues with hormones and fertility in women.  So if you’re having any of these symptoms or just general body aches, weight gain or hormonal issues, it’s worth eliminating gluten from your diet for a month or so and see how you feel. A month gluten-free will give your body enough time to clear it out of your system and then when you reintroduce it, if the symptoms come back, you’ll know gluten is most likely the culprit. ####

Playing Catch Up With Your Health Is A Bad Idea

Playing Catch Up With Your Health Is A Bad Idea

By Terrence Thomas

 

This goes back to the old saying; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. As a holistic lifestyle coach, I am often presented with the challenges of helping clients  “play catch up” with their health, and unfortunately, this is one of the primary reasons people hire me.  They are looking for viable solutions to undo years of neglect to their health and vitality.

 

It’s my job to help them cultivate enough life force and energy to regain the quality of life they want. Consider this message a strong admonition to you that it is much easier to put a little bit of effort in over a long period of time rather than trying to play catch up – it just doesn’t work.

 

Things left unto themselves tend to move toward chaos, UNLESS there is energy used to maintain order. Your health, fitness, vitality and just about every aspect of your life is on exception.

Focusing on the foundational principals: water intake, getting enough sleep and eating quality food. These simple actions if done consistently make all the difference. Food for thought… ###

 

Why Eating Clean Sucks

Why “Eating Clean” Sucks

by Terrence Thomas

 

Let’s discuss a mental construct that I believe is one of the major causes of yo-yo dieting. The idea that I’m talking is the “eating clean” and I believe has infected the entire health and fitness industry.  Here are three concepts about eating clean that explain how this mindset can sabotage your health, fitness, weight loss, and physique goals and what you can do to make sure you are not doing this to yourself.

 

1. Stop using the term “eating clean”.

The very idea that you are eating clean means that at some point you are not eating clean.  In other words you’re eating in a way that supports health and performance during a certain time and then the other times you are eating like crap. I don’t know about you but that sounds very much like an eating disorder. The mindset behind eating clean is that you are in some way depriving yourself. When the mind is in a dynamic of deprivation, it is relying on willpower to resist temptation. Eventually you will run out of willpower and the natural tendency is to either quit eating clean or go to the other extreme, which is to eat garbage or binge eat. Having “cheat” days are supposed to help deal with the deprivation aspect of “eating clean” but the mental dynamic of resisting or succumbing to temptation is still in play.

 

If you are constantly bouncing from eating “clean” to not eating clean you are on a yo-yo diet. On average, when you ask someone what eating clean means, they say eating in a way that helps them lose fat or get healthy. Why not eat like this all the time or at least consistent enough that when you do choose not to “eat clean” that it won’t totally derail your efforts.  Follow the 80/20 rule. In other words, if your are eating, living and managing yourself in a way that promotes health, fitness and vitality 80 percent of the time then when you should be able to tolerate the occasional culinary, or recreational vice without irreparable damage to your body.

 

2. Send the idea of Bulking up back to the 1970’s. If you want to gain quality muscle that lasts for a lifetime, eat quality whole food all the time. Eating garbage foods and supplements that only make you look swollen and puffy will give you the illusion that you are BIG.  If you want to have a real, bona fide brick shit house of a body, you must feed your body real whole food, train intelligently and consistently. Training intelligently means knowing when to crank it up and push it to the limit but also knowing when to back off.

 

3. Stop playing Tug Of War with our mind.

If you want achieve your health and fitness goals with zero resistance and a feeling of peace, stop creating extremes in behavior. Think lifestyle instead of dieting. Eat real food all the time and sprinkle in some treats instead of eating pathologically strict and then totally flying off the handle and single handedly keeping a local ice cream shop in business.

 

Disclaimer: With that said, I am fully aware of what it takes to achieve extreme levels of fitness, leanness and muscularity. For example if you are a physique competitor and are in pre contest training, you are asking the body to do something that by nature it does not want to do. This takes some specific training, diet, and supplementation strategies to achieve this and when done with a relative degree in intelligence can be done safely and at a high level. The key here is intelligence.  #BeBeautiful #BeStrong  #BeHealthy

Motivation-Inspiration

If this don’t light your fire then your wood is wet. 😉

Enjoy…

Chakra Heal Your Way To Financial Success

It was a great run but we knew it had to end. The recent decline in real estate and the volatility of the stock market is eliciting bona fide “root chakra” stress.
The word chakra is a Sanskrit word that means wheel.  Liz Simpson in her book Chakra Healing says, “These spinning vortices of energy are a part of the subtle energy system which forms the ancient Indian approach to healing our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual selves”.
You may be asking “What do chakras have to do with you losing your shirt on Wall Street or real estate”? Keep reading for the answer.
At the least common denominator, everything in the universe is energy. The chakra system allows one to use energy to their advantage and help them heal and evolve in any area of their lives (this includes finances). Liz Simpson also said that “Each of the seven chakras deal with different parts of a bigger picture and directs us to those areas where we may be functioning out of balance.

There is a strong connection between the chakras and our physical body. The human body is a dynamic energy channel and all parts are associated with the 7 main chakras. The root chakra is located right in the “nether region” between anus and genitals. Structures associated with the root chakra are bones (specifically the pelvis, legs and feet). Common physical problems associated with root chakra imbalance are lower back pain and “sciatica” (pain that radiates down the leg). If you look at the structure of the sciatic nerve you will notice that it looks very similar to the “roots” of a tree”. Symbolically and emotionally, the root chakra is associated with safety and security and anything that could be a threat to it such as a sudden drop in income or any of threat to one’s livelihood.
A very important organ connected with the root chakra is the adrenal glands. These are the “flight or fight” organs in the body and play a major role maintaining normal body metabolism. Typical signs of adrenal stress are; poor sleep quality, Inability or difficulty losing weight, not having enough energy unless stimulants such as coffee and sugar are consumed. Root chakra stress in any form places a stress on the adrenals. Chronic adrenal stress leads to adrenal fatigue. One of the most common symptoms and or complaints associated with adrenal stress is chronic fatigue.

Again you ask, “How can this information help me make more of the green stuff?” Finally we get to the point at hand.
The Sure Fire Investment
In these times of economic uncertainty, investing in one’s health and wellness will always pay major dividends in the future. The universal law of attraction says that to get what we want in life, we must first be in alignment with our goal. The higher your level of health and vitality, the greater likelihood that you will become an “energy channel” to receive all that you want.

As we become out of balance with the stress of everyday life, we create blockages that literally block our ability to bring into reality what we want. When we lack vitality our energy channels are blocked on all levels (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual).
Whether it be the teachings of Napoleon Hill or through Hindu healing philosophy, these principles hold true in helping you achieve optimal health, vitality and personal success in whatever form you choose. To have more we must first become more and living a Holistic Lifestyle will help you along this journey.

The 6 Foundational Principles of Holistic Living
1.    Thoughts:
In the popular documentary “The Secret”, Bob Proctor stated that the laws of the universe dictate that we become what we think about the most. It is from your thoughts that everything in your life is created. This holds true for positive or negative events. When you can fully wrap your head around this concept, you will control your life like a puppet on a string.

2.    Breathe:
Life begins with breath. Proper breathing sets the rhythm for all other body functions. Daily breathing exercise will make you efficient at bringing energy into your body.
3.    Hydration:
Adequate hydration is the foundation of good metabolic functions. The body is predominantly made of protein and water therefore the body is very sensitive to dehydration.
4.    Food:
Eating according to one’s metabolic type will allow the body to achieve optimal levels of health and vitality. Metabolic Typing has proven effective in weight loss and improving chronic health challenges.
5. Exercise:
Life is movement and a corrective exercise program will teach you how to be a master of your physical body.
6.    Sleep:
Sleep is vital to maintaining normal biological rhythms, which can affect weight loss, pain management and even hormone levels. The closer our body ‘s natural rhythms are to that of the earth and nature, the better we can fully express ourselves as healthy and evolved human beings.

What is your dream? Whatever it is, these six principles are your ticket to achieving them. Embrace the Holistic Lifestyle philosophy and use it to take charge of your destiny. ###

Next Page »