Community News
Hot Flashes, Be Gone!

Celebrating International Women’s Day by attending to your hot flashes may not be a bad idea! If you are experiencing hot flashes, night sweats or other disturbances in mood and sleep, you might like to know that Brainwave Optimization has been shown to be a safe and effective therapy to manage these symptoms. During the menopausal process, estrogen levels fluctuate and eventually fall enough to cause impaired temperature regulation, possibly associated with resetting in patterns of brain electrical activity. Hot flash severity scores, insomnia and depression have been shown to be significantly reduced after participants attended to that brain electrical activity with Brainwave Optimization. Imagine yourself at a “brain spa” where you sit in a chair listening to the acoustic feedback of your own brain activity translated into auditory tones. Not only do you relax; more importantly, your brain relaxes and rebalances its activity, reducing those disturbing menopausal symptoms.

Joanne Couture, RMFT, RSW, www.lalobatraumarelease.com

Clean Eating: Easy Ricotta Protein Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups ricotta

4 eggs (or 1 cup egg whites)

½ cup natural sweetener of choice

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp orange zest (opt)

Instructions: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners and then spray the liners. Mix everything until very well combined. Evenly divide batter into muffin tin. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. The tops are golden brown when done. Makes 12. Great warm or cold and a healthy dessert served with maple syrup, berries and greek yogurt. Switch up to savory by omitting vanilla, sweetener and orange zest. I like sundried tomatoes, parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning for a pizza version. Original recipe: Laura Hickman, bakingoutsidethebox. com.

Lisa Kehler, offyourplatenutrition.ca

What is Your Mouth Telling You?

The state of your mouth can offer valuable insights into your dental, oral and overall health. Any bleeding when you brush your gums is a sign that you should see your dentist. Unhealthy gums can affect your overall health. Atherosclerosis, clogging of the arteries, has a strong link to gum disease. Pain on biting might mean a cracked tooth. Sugar sensitivity usually indicates a cavity. Tenderness to cold might just need a change of toothpaste. Tenderness to hot is likely to be more serious. The pulp of your tooth can become inflamed for many reasons. The only way to find out, for sure, what’s going on is to see your dentist. Bad breath can be caused by poor oral hygiene. A good electric toothbrush, flossing and scraping your tongue all help. Throat infections also cause bad breath. Don’t assume that problems will resolve by themselves. See a dentist at least once a year. Remember: “You don’t have to floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep!”

Dr. George Cadigan, Exclusively Dentures, exclusvielydentures.ca

How to Eat Mindfully

It makes sense that we actually have to set an intention to slow down as we pick up our fork. We’ve all scarfed down a meal and not long after feel like we swallowed a bowling ball. Recognizing physical fullness is part of mindful eating and ditching dieting. Ideally, you can gift yourself 20 minutes to eat mindfully, the time it takes to register fullness. If you only have 5 minutes, make them mindful minutes. Create a speed bump on your plate by taking a moment to visualize what half of your serving looks like. Once you are half done put your fork down for a moment. How full are you? Place your hand on your belly if it helps you connect. If you’re still hungry continue eating slowly and mindfully, until you feel physically satisfied. The goal is NOT to eat less, it’s to FEEL GOOD!

Lisa Kehler, Off Your Plate Nutrition, www.offyourplatenutrition.ca

Float Your Way to Happiness

People generally have heard about floating by the terms “pods” or “tanks,” and start to feel claustrophobic. Float “Cabins” are different. Float Cabins come as large as four feet wide, eight feet long, and nearly seven feet high, and they are easily accessible easy to come out of with standard swing or sliding doors. Within each float cabin, 10 inches of water is infused with up with 1,000 pounds of dissolved Epsom salts, this makes the water extremely buoyant. With the option to remove light and sound, you experience the sensation of floating through space. Other options include the ability to play your own music and enjoy colour therapy as well. Floating regularly helps reduce physical and mental stresses on the body. The brain gives out alpha waves associated with meditation that allows the body to recover from stress and relax. Floatation therapy is a simple way to invest in your own health and happiness.

Fluid Float Studio, www.fluidfloat.com

Have You Tried Kefir?

Kefir is a unique cultured dairy product and one of the most probiotic-rich foods on the planet. Drinking Kefir has incredible medicinal benefits for your digestion and gut health. It’s tart and refreshing flavor is similar to a drinking-style yogurt, but it contains beneficial yeast as well as friendly probiotic bacteria found in yogurt. The naturally occurring bacteria and yeast in combine symbiotically to give superior health benefits when consumed regularly. It is loaded with valuable vitamins and minerals and contains easily digestible complete proteins. For the lactose intolerant, kefir’s abundance of beneficial yeast and bacteria provide lactase, an enzyme which consumes most of the lactose left after the culturing process. Drink up for benefits to your immune system, your bowels (see you later, IBS symptoms!), and your bones. It helps fight allergies, improves lactose digestion, supports detoxification, and even kills candida.

Disability Tax Credit, www.disabilitytaxcreditwinnipeg.com

Positive Mental Health is a Laughing Matter

While living with mental illness is no joke, laughing for positive mental and physical health seriously works. In fact, evidence supports the claim that a joyful heart provides a similar benefit to that of medicine. Although not considered a replacement for medical treatment, some doctors are using laughter as an adjunctive therapy. In the short and long term, laughter has been shown to, 1. Stimulate/boost the immune system; 2. Alleviate pain; 3. Reduce anxiety and stress; 4. Reduce depression; and, 5. Promote a sense of hopefulness. What if you don’t feel like laughing? No problem, fake it until you make it. Physiologically speaking, for the most part, your body doesn’t know the difference. And, faking it often leads to the real thing which may be exactly the health supplement you need to get to the positive side of negative circumstances.

Sean Miller, Canadian Mental Health Association, mbwpg.cmha.ca

Book Club: Big Magic Creative Living Beyond Fear!

Empowering author Elizabeth Gilbert asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

Did You Know?

Blue corn has been popping up as an ingredient everywhere from tortilla chips to breakfast cereal. New research suggests that anthocyanins, the nutrients that give the corn its blue color, may help protect against metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer!

www.newhope.com

Clean Eating: Spaghetti Squash “Mac ‘n’ Cheese”

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash

3 tbsp coconut oil

3 tbsp spelt flour

2 cups unsweetened almond milk

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp onion or garlic powder

pinch ground black pepper

1 cup (4 oz) any hard cheese, shredded.

Red pepper flakes, to taste. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Wash squash, cut in half lengthwise and remove seeds with a spoon. Place cut side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 40-50 minutes. Let cool and separate into strands with a fork. Preheat medium pot on low-medium heat and melt oil. Whisk in flour and milk until smooth. Add salt, onion powder and pepper; whisk and let simmer for about 4 minutes or until sauce has slightly thickened. Add cheese and whisk again until smooth. Add squash and mix gently with a spoon to combine. Cover and let squash warm through for about 5 minutes. Enjoy!

www.ifoodreal.com

Make Exercise Fun!

It’s a brand-new year and the gyms are busy with people starting their new year’s resolutions. There are different goals we can choose, ie – burn calories, increase strength, improve cardio, or simply be more active more often. There are different exercise approaches to attain these goals, but they must be right for you. You can tailor it for yourself to ensure you are getting what you want out of it, but are enjoying it as well. Cycling, swimming and even playing tennis are just 3 of the many ways you can attain your goals. You can burn between 475-550 calories for just 1 hour of moderate intensity of one of these activities. There are so many ways to meet your goals without simply lifting weights and running on a treadmill. By performing one of these you can get a workout, get a sweat, and of course, have a lot fun!

Heath Vermette, CAT(C), www.southsherbrook.com