Elizabeth Bandeen

I hope that January is shaping up nicely for you all, and that if you made New Year resolutions, you are sticking to them!

My big resolution was to not keep chocolate in the house.  I have done pretty well so far but it did involve eating ALL the chocolate that I did have in the house at the end of December…

I thought I would post up things that I will mostly be doing this week.

I am always trying to think of ways to fuel myself better, choosing smart food groups, and realising that if I eat cake after lunch I am the type to have a HUGE sugar slump about an hour later.  Are you aware of how you react to different food groups?  Keeping a food diary is a fantastic way to give you a good heads up as to what you really are eating as opposed to what you think you are eating.  With me, its all about preventative maintenance, and keeping my energy levels up as I have a pretty physical job.

2 Smart ways to tackle this are…. investigating what other people have done.  A fantastic book I bought last year and have decided to dip into again is The 4 Hour Body by Timothy Ferris, and also a brilliant website at www.marksdailyapple.com which gives ideas on re vamping your diet and lifestyle.

Following on The 4 Hour Body theme I went to EZSports today in Great Western Road and bought a Russian Kettlebell.  Get swinging!  If you have seen them at your local gym, ask an instructor about using them but please do NOT pick one up without talking to a professional about how to use them.  I recommend going to The Griphouse in Possil Road Glasgow, www.thegriphouse.co.uk and speak to one of their coaches.  The Griphouse is a Mixed Martial Arts gym, and the coaches are all Sports Science qualified as well as being World Title Holders in Muay Thai and BJJ.  In Short, speak to one of them for the best advice in weight training.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that I started Muay Thai classes in October last year I have come down a dress size  ( Thank you Tommy, Paddy, Paul), lost 3% body fat, lost my bingo wings, and all my clothes just seem to fit better.

And finally, I was out running in Bellahouston Park this morning and there were buds on the trees, spring is really just around the corner, so being the complete girl that I am I’ll be investing in some Salt Body Scrubs as it’ll soon be time for arms and legs to be on show again!  Start prepping now ladies!

Have a fantastic week.

Best

Elizabeth

I hope that January has kicked off exactly the way you wanted it to!  Do everything with a positive intention!  I have had a brilliant start to the year and am totally excited by the fact that Spring really is just around the corner.  Its that time of year to start getting yourself ready to show off legs again by treating yourself to salty scrubs, lashings of moisturiser, and conditioning massage.  I am lucky enough to be in an environment where if I put my best Puppy Dog eyes on I can get a great massage from some of the best practitioners in Glasgow.  So what changes have you decided to bring about in 2012?  Whether its business or personal, make a commitment to not take your foot off the peddle and have great follow through!

New things with me are:

I am currently studying for my Diploma in Sports and Remedial Massage and will pass my exams in April (notice how I say ‘will pass’… ) and also I am attending a course in Reflexology hosted by Ruth Chappell at the Complementary Medicine Centre in February .  Information on the course can be found at www.compmedcentre.co.uk .  I think there are 2 places left so move quick!  I have also come down a dress size after taking up Muay Thai at the best MMA Gym in Glasgow, The Griphouse.  The trainers there really are world class and they have the belt cabinet to prove it.  Its not every day that £5 gets you a fitness class with a World Title Holder.  For more information go to www.griphouse.co.uk .  Something else new that I will try tomorrow night (I’ll let you know how I get on) is meeting up in the West End for Park Circuits!  This is a running club and that is all I know right now!  I shall do another post tomorrow evening once I have recovered and possibly eaten the contents of the fridge.

FHP (Forward Head Position) is one of the most common causes of headaches and neck pain.  With a rounded shoulder and FHP, the cervical spine goes into extension, which increases the cervical curve, closes the intervertebral foramen slightly and potentially leads to nerve root pressure.  The facets are compressed which creates increased weight bearing on the cartilage,mdecreasing its lubrication and nutrition and leading to early degeneration.  The joint capsules shorten and develop abnormal crosslinks, leading to loss of normal joint motion.  The tension in the neck area can lead to headaches and neck pain which can affect the quality of an individual affecting work patterns, sleep patterns, and concentration.  The head is actually quite heavy when you think about what it is perched on, how it manages to stay put, and how many muscles, some about the same size as your thumb help keep the head in place and give it all the multi directional movement it has.  It is so important to have good bacak health but also equally important to have good neck health.  Its amazing how a small area of your body, if it has dysfunction, can affect the rest of your body creating stress and anxiety.  Good practices in your daily life can be making sure that your PC if you work with one most days, is as eye level as it can be so that forward head position does not occur.  Taking adequate breaks and not working through lunch breaks is also good practice, and if you are working in an office making sure that you keep up your water intake too as working in an atmosphere with false lighting and heating can affect concentration and stress levels also.  I perform Medical Massage of the Neck area (cervical spine) which greatly helps with eliminating FHP, muscle imbalances, and headache pain.  Sometimes doctors advice people with neck pain not to move their head and neck area so much which is the worst thing to do.  Medical massage can help to release hypertonicity (tightness) is the shfot and tight muscles, broaden the fibres, and faciliate any weaker muscles.  Having bad posture is also a major source of of neck pain.

This article is for information purposes only to guide a client towards the best massage possible.  A couple of my clients have reported a reduction in headaches and neck pain after a couple of massages but if I feel a client has a more acute injury I will refer them onto an injury specialist.

My availability over the Holiday Season is as Follows

Black =Embody Integrated Health Clinic

Orange = Complementary Medicine Centre

Monday 19th                 9am til 7pm

Tuesday 20th                9am til 7pm

Wednesday 21st            9am til 7pm

Thursday 22nd              9am til 7pm

Friday  23rd                        Off

Saturday 24th                    Off

Christmas Day

Monday 26th                     Off

Tuesday 27th                     Off

Wednesday 28th    9am til 7pm

Thursday 29th        9am til 7pm

Friday 30th                 am/pm

Saturday 31st          9am til 5pm

I am off also 1st, 2nd and 3rd of January and normal hours will resume 4th January

Sleep is extremely precious, imperative for health as well as for a relaxed and stress free life. It ought to leave us feeling refreshed, energetic and alert, and yet many of us wake up still feeling knackered!

Earlier this year, a report for the Mental Health Foundation found that a third of us experience sleep disorders sush as insomnia, and it doesn’t just leave us grumpy, it can have a major impact on our health and well being and day to day lives.

So, top tips for a great nights kip…

Realise that sleep is an important part of the recovery/preparation process if you have been exercising or just have a demanding workload

Optimise your sleeping environment….keep your bedroom at a cool temperature, don’t go to bed to watch TV, or work on your laptop, go to bed to read, and sleep! Also make sure you have a good set of blackout blinds for when summer comes around again

Cut down on caffeine… avoid from mid afternoon onwards (this one caused me to take a sharp intake of breathe I will admit)

The key to any sleep plan is a good routine so try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, find a routine that works for you and stick to it.

Make sure that you have a great mattress and pillows, when was the last time you bought new pillows or turned your mattress?

So there you have it, a comprehensive guide on small ideas for sleep that could make a big difference.

Be Well and Sleep Well.

Elizabeth

Many of us take our backs for granted, that is until it starts to play up! The moment a person has back pain their quality of life diminishes. Although slips, trips, and falls are a common cause of back pain, along with slipped discs, the biggests reasons for back pain occuring are in fact obesity, staying in the same position for too long (for example, working at your PC) and lack of fitness.

So, here are a few ideas on how to help yourself beat back pain and discomfort

1.Ask your occupational health professionals at work for a risk assessment to be done on your work station
2.When driving make sure your lower back is pushed into the back of the seat for better support of your spine
3.Ease back pain with knee stretches, lie on the floot and slowly bring one knee to your chest and hold, then the other
4.Increase your intake of anti inflammatory omega 3 oils with flaxseed to keep your joints supple.

Its getting cold outside so now is a great time to take stock of how you look after yourself during the winter months when there is not as much sunshine going around to help make vitamin D!

Be happy!

Elizabeth

This month, I am all about getting a grip of my sugar cravings by snacking on nuts and seeds and trying to stabilise my sugar spikes!  I am lucky enough NOT to be diabetic but I am one of those people who have no will power around chocolate, cakes, and biscuits.  So, this month I am really making an effort to not be around temptation!  I shall report back.

The last post I did was all about starting to think NOW about how you look and feel for the up and coming Holiday Season, thinking about getting yourself together diet and exercise wise, putting aside that time every day to do something active ( always consult a specialist before starting any new exercise programme), and looking after your skin.

I recommend my Natural Lift Facial Massage as part of facial rejuvenation.  At the Complementary Medicine Centre in Park Circus, I work with Ruth Chappell who practices an acupuncture protocol for Facial Rejuvenation and working together we have had fantastic results!  (Look out for ‘Before’ and ‘After’ pictures very soon) You can go to the Centre website for more information on this at: www.complementarymedicinecentre.co.uk

In the meantime, things that you can do are to look at what your are using on your skin.  This is of course very dependant on your skin type but I’ll tell you what I get up to.  My skin is normal to oily, the oily bit being the classic T Zone.  Big changes that I have made are to exfoliate morning AND evening.  Nothing harsh and I never scrub at my skin.

My morning routine is as follows…

Fall out of bed and drink strong coffee… ok I’ll be serious.

Cleanse with an organic cleansing balm, I smooth it over my face and remove it with a hot muslin cloth

Exfoliate – nothing harsh and certainly not something that will dry out my skin as that makes it more oily

Tone with organic Rosewater

Moisturise – always something with an SPF

This is a routine that I never rush!

Then in the evening…. its the same again excelpt that I cleanse TWICE, the first time takes off the make up, the 2nd time, really makes sure that it is off.  And in the evening I use an organic face oil.

You may think that I mentioning the word organic alot, organic is great but I must admit that it would be unfair to miss out on the stuff that can make a big difference to your skin like salicylic acid and AHA’s.  My skin needs a little help and to be honest I hadn’t used anything synthetic on my skin for ages until I decided not that long ago to get some pre Christmas help and Wow what a difference!  What to use though?  This is all dependant on your skin type and please do not take my advice on this but what has worked for me is…

Splashing out – Saaf products, absolutley beautiful and the effect on my skin is amazing – difficult to get hold of but we stock it an Complementary Medicine Centre.  Not tested on animals, and vegan friendly too.  The Facial oil is a must and excellent for mature or ‘partied out’ skin.

Saving a bit - Boots own Organic Skincare range called Botanics – their cleansing balm coming with a cleansing cloth too and smells amazing.

Using the cleansing cloth exfoliates but I do love Olays facial exfoliater and its gentle enough to use twice a day.

Well, thats enough to be getting on with….. my skin is feeling alot better since I started taking a bit more time over it.  See the difference you can make in a month!

All The Best

Elizabeth

PS – make every 2nd drink you have a glass of water and feel how different your skin is after a day!

Oh boy.  Its comin up for the end of September we have all noticed the Christmas Displays in various shops.  However, it’s never too early to start thinking about how you want to look and feel for the Festive Season.  I am starting now!  Things I have been thinking about are taking better care of my skin, getting to bed at a decent time and not having my laptop or the TV on too late (unless its a weekend, I’m not that much of a geek), and eating enough protein, and in general, over hauling my diet and exercise programme.  I change my exercise programme every 4 weeks.  July was all about Kettlebells workouts, well, hardly a workout I did 5 minutes every morning of Kettlebell Swings every morning for a month and I lost 5lbs.  August was all about Tracy Anderson workouts, and September is about Tai Chi.  Changing things every 4 weeks keeps things fresh!  Find something that you either want to do, or already works for you and do it!  For those who need a kick start I thoroughly recommend Tracy Andersons 30 day plan, its a book with a DVD you can get cheap as chips from Amazon.  Word of caution, do NOT use Kettlebells until you have been instructed by a member of the IKFF.

I hope I have given you something to think about, next post will be about polishing up your skincare act.

Cheers!

Elizabeth

My recent discovery courtesy of ‘Oprah’ is a book called 20 Years Younger by Bob Greene.  And lets face it, who doesn’t want to feel, if not look, 20 years younger?  The main areas that seem to make the biggest difference are diet, exercise, skin care, and sleep.  Sounds pretty obvious but if you think about it….. diet, how much protein do you really eat at your main meal?  Could any white foods like bread, biscuits, and sugar be reduced?  Exercise, do you move enough? With so many of us at desk based jobs that we drive to, are we really giving our bodies the mobility they need and want?  Skin care, a big no no is going to bed with your make up on and Sleep, making sure that when you go to bed you’re not watching TV in bed, that your bedroom really is somewhere to get peaceful sleep, and of course, step away from the iphone, switch off your computer ( I have a no PC’s after 9pm rule that I really try hard to stick too.)  Sleep well.

Is this something that we decide or does it just ‘happen’? Do we say that we’ll be happy when we finally own something (an ipad…) or have something ( less than 15% body fat…..).  Here is my new thing.  I am happy right now.  Yup, you read that right now.  Right now.

This week I have been mostly thinking about things to be grateful about, and getting over hangups.  I am grateful that my body ‘works’, no big malfunctions to worry about, and I have also decided to stop giving my body into trouble for maybe being a big saggy in places, because at the end of the day, it works!  Take a moment to think about all the things that your body does, every day, without fail, and we don’t even have to think about it.  Breathing, pumping blood, protecting us, getting us from A to B, keeping us upright.

So, I have done 2 big things this week, learned to like my body and bit more, including the saggy bits (I just have to step away from the Starbars more often) and getting over my hangup about showing my legs.  I bought a pair of shorts.  And it feels good.

This week have a think about what you need to ‘build a bridge and get over’, and challenge yourself to do it!

Happy Friday everyone!

Elizabeth x