Most people are unaware of their breathing habits and practice unhealthy breathing such as holding their breath or breathing high in their chest in a shallow way.  Certain breathing patterns can cause intense stress and anxiety in a person - just because of the way they are breathing.

Most of us were never taught how to breathe.  We tend to breathe from the chest up when it should be the stomach that initiates the breath.  When you are feeling stressed or anxious, if you take time out to do 20-30 deep breaths (from the stomach), you will feel much better.  If you have indigestion or stomach issues, try taking 10 deep belly breaths prior to eating.  It has been proven that oxygen is responsible for healing all by itself.

So you might be asking, how do I learn to breathe? What is the proper way to breathe?  The easiest way to start practicing deep breathing is to lie down, inhale, and feel your stomach moving outwards.  As you exhale, your stomach should move inwards.  You can do this while focusing on specific areas that hurts or needs attention.  Massage therapists often ask their clients to breathe into a tight area as they press down on it. Yoga instructors tell students to breathe into a tight muscle area to relax and loosen the muscles.  Areas of the body always loosen up with breath; this proves that oxygen alone does in fact loosen tight muscles.

If you are stressed, you will likely notice your breathing is shallow.  This is the time when you really need the extra oxygen to help relax your tense muscles & body.  A combination of deep breathing and water can often get rid of a headache, stomach ache, fatigue, anxiety or stress.  I am not talking about severe anxiety here that is a diagnosed medical condition.  I am talking about the anxiety that you feel, for example, when you are overdue on a project or assignment.

Breathing is also a way your body detoxifies…the more toxic substances you inhale, the harder your body has to work to get them out of your system.  If you smoke or inhale too many contaminates from the air, respiration can’t keep up, so some respiratory or lung disease may develop. Under normal conditions, the breath does remove normal contaminates from the body.

Below, I’ve included 3 deep breathing exercises that will help you stay slim, relieve stress and maintain a healthy body.

Square Breathing

1. Inhale for count of 4
2. Hold for count of 4
3. Exhale for count of 4
4. Hold for count of 4

Kung Fu Breath - practice before eating

1. Inhale deeply with face toward ceiling
2. Exhale forcefully through mouth - shouting something

Goddess Breath

1. Stand with feet shoulder-length apart
2. Take deep belly breath, and pull the strength of the ground up with it
3. Feel your oneness with the planet
4. Exhale through mouth.  Let go of excess emotional baggage carried around, and forget it - it’s not important.

Overwhelmed by food labels at the grocery store

Watch the video below to learn:

• Where to look for the healthiest foods
• What to look for on food labels - the good and the bad
• Easy ways to scan labels for vital ingredients
• Why it is vital that you know what’s in your food

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Coreen

This question is MOST common with people with blood sugar issues since I include a little more fat to help stabilize their blood sugars.  Fat and protein help to block the sugar from going too high in their blood stream, so if they don’t eat enough fat and protein, too much insulin will be signaled to be secreted as blood sugars climb. Then too much insulin pulls out too much sugar, and the need for food, or specifically sugar, comes back.

It often takes a lot of convincing before someone trusts me enough to do what I am suggesting.  Many people are so used to decreasing fat and avoiding it as much as possible that when I talk about the need to increase healthy fat, they can’t quite put their head around it.  There are more calories in fat, so this is why I really don’t recommend that my clients count their calories.  I allow it ONLY after a person is eating balanced.  However, when people start eating balanced, they rarely have a need to count calories since they are feeling better, not craving - not needing to limit - since they are not overeating.

People start to trust me and understand where I am coming from when they eat more calories than ever before (because of increased healthy fat and protein) and find they are losing inches and weight.  To be quite honest, I don’t ever recommend calorie counting…if someone is obsessed with calories, I work with them towards the goal of stopping calorie counting altogether.  I love the success stories of my clients when they laugh at the times of the past they were obsessed with calories, eating less food and never feeling good.  Now they have dropped their obsession with calories, are eating balanced, feel fantastic and look slimmer than ever.  The “calories in versus calories out” theory just doesn’t fit into my way of teaching and educating.

Watch this video to get essential breakfast tips, including:

• The best options for a jumpstart breakfast
  
• How to increase your energy during breakfast
• What to do if you’re not hungry at breakfast time
  
• How to lose weight by eating more at breakfast

Do you feel like stress invades every aspect of your life

Jennifer York is dedicated to providing cutting edge research and results in the field of psychotherapy to help individuals relieve stress and make the changes they want to see in their lives.  She uses Emotional Brain Training (EBT) as a treatment method for her clients.  This form of treatment incorporates new advances in neuroscience and improves emotional, physical, relational and mental health.

Listen to this interview to learn:

• How the wiring in your brain affects your stress level
• What EBT is and how it helps with stress management
• How EBT helps with letting go of eating disorders
• Lifestyle changes that will help you manage stress
• What managing stress has to do with weight loss

Get the complete interview below.

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Some of the causes of fluctuating and unstable blood sugars include:

• Stress
• A high carb diet
• Not eating often enough
• Not enough protein in each meal and snack
• Not enough healthy fat in each meal or snack

Hypoglycemics (people who struggle with lower than normal levels of blood sugar) and diabetics need to pay similar attention to their eating habits.  Over time, hypoglycemia often leads to type II diabetes.

Below are recommended labs to get if you suspect you have blood sugar issues:

• Fasting glucose (goal is between 80 & 88)
• Fasting Insulin (goal is less than 10 but as it goes above 5 you know you need to change something)
• Hemoglobin A1C – (goal is 4.5-5.7) measurement of  how body deals with sugar over a period of time; it is in percentages.

You can buy a glucometer and test your fasting blood sugar over a period of 7 days.  You can also test your blood sugar 50-60 minutes after each meal to see how the meals you are eating affect your blood sugar.

• Goal for fasting = 80 - 88
• Goal for 50-60 minutes after each meal = 85 - 115

Blood sugar needs to be between 70 and 110 for fat burning.  If it is too high, your body uses the sugar from your blood for energy.  If it is too low, your body uses muscle for energy as it is a more immediate source of energy than fat.

Supplements to take if you have high blood sugars (pre-diabetes or type II diabetes):

• Omega  3’s (at least 1200mg of EPA and 900mg of DHA daily… more is even better)
• Chromium picolinate (1,000mcg – 2,000mcg daily; best to take 400-500mcg with each meal).
• B-Complex (best to take sublingually)
• Drink Green Tea (2-3 cups daily)
• Cinnamon (has been proven to be very helpful in helping lower blood sugars)

Below are 7 key tips for stabilizing your blood sugar:

1. Include increased fiber if you have high blood sugars or are sensitive to sugars.
2. Eat balanced every time you eat (protein, carb & fat).
3. Avoid sugary beverages including juice. Drink mostly water, unsweetened tea, or stevia sweetened beverages.
4. Limit caffeine – try to drink it with food if you do drink it. On an empty stomach it can increase blood sugar.
5. Exercise – this is very important to help decrease blood sugar.
6. If you have fluctuating blood sugars, you should plan small meals throughout the day and especially something balanced before and after exercise.
7. Tune in to your stress level.  Even without eating food, stress alone can increase blood sugar.  Stress is like adrenaline, i.e. sugar.  This makes it more important to eat a lower carb diet when stressed.  It’s also important to limit caffeine, alcohol and sugary snacks or beverages when stressed.

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What do I need to know about the restaurants where I eat? How can I make better choices and eat healthier while still enjoying dining out?

Learn quick ways to make better choices when dining out, including:

• Best practices and quick tips for ordering food
• Where to find nutritional data when dining out
• How to determine the quality of food you’re eating
• What to do when you walk in a restaurant to improve your health

Click play below to get helpful, quick tips on dining out today.

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