1. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). This is a popular energy psychology tool. Most people can learn this gentle tapping technique in several minutes. EFT can help balance your body’s bioenergy system and resolve some of the emotional stresses that are contributing to the insomnia at a very deep level. The results are typically long lasting and the improvement is remarkably rapid.

2. Listen to White Noise or Relaxation CDs. Some people find the sound of white noise or nature sounds, such as the ocean or forest, to be soothing for sleep. There are a number of relaxation CD’s on the market that are readily available.

3. Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars. This will raise blood sugar and inhibit sleep. When blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia) often people are woken up easily as their sleep patterns become disrupted.

4. Sleep in complete darkness or as close as possible. If there is even the tiniest bit of light in the room it can disrupt your circadian rhythm and your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and seratonin. There also should be as little light in the bathroom as possible if you get up in the middle of the night. Please whatever you do, keep the light off when you go to the bathroom at night. As soon as you turn on that light you will for that night immediately cease all production of the important sleep aid melatonin.

5. Avoid TV right before bed. Even better, get the TV out of your bedroom or even out of your house, completely. It is too stimulating to your brain and it will take longer to fall asleep. It also disrupts your pineal gland function for the same reason as above.

6. Wear socks to bed. Due to the fact that they have the poorest circulation, the feet often feel cold before the rest of your body.

7. Read something spiritual or religious. This will help you to relax. Avoid reading anything stimulating, such as a mystery or suspense novels, as they may have the opposite effect. In addition, if you are really enjoying a suspenseful book, you might wind up unintentionally reading for hours, instead of going to sleep.

8. Avoid using loud alarm clocks. It is very stressful on the body to be awoken suddenly. If you are regularly getting enough sleep, they should be unnecessary. I gave up my alarm clock years ago and now use a sun alarm clock.

9. Journaling. If you often lay in bed with your mind racing, it might be helpful to keep a journal and write down your thoughts before bed. This is a powerful tool to help you recover from the effects of stress and helps get things out of your head before you sleep.

10. Melatonin and its precursors. If behavioral changes do not work, it may be possible to improve sleep by supplementing with the hormone melatonin. However, I would exercise extreme caution in using it, and only as a last resort, as it is a powerful hormone. Ideally, it is best to increase levels naturally with exposure to bright sunlight in the daytime (along with full-spectrum fluorescent bulbs in the winter) and absolute complete darkness at night. You can also use one of melatonin’s precursors, L-tryptophan or 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). L-tryptophan tends to be the safest but must be obtained by prescription only. However, don’t be afraid or intimidated by its prescription status. It is just a simple amino acid.

11. Get Blackout Drapes for Your Bedroom. This will prevent light from coming in from the outside. Even very tiny levels of light are sufficient to completely shut down your body’s production of melatonin. Sleeping in complete darkness and having bright light exposure in the daytime is a powerful natural method to increase your melatonin levels and decrease your risk of cancer.

12. Get to bed as early as possible. Your body, particularly your adrenals, do a majority of their recharging or recovering during the hours of 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. In addition, your gallbladder dumps toxins during this same period. If you are awake, the toxins back up into your liver, which then secondarily back up into your entire system and cause further disruption of your health. Prior to the widespread use of electricity, people would go to bed shortly after sundown, as most animals do, and which nature intended for humans as well.

13. Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can disrupt the pineal gland and the production of melatonin and seratonin, and may have other negative effects as well. You will need to purchase a gauss meter to measure EMFs. Some experts even recommend that you pull your circuit breaker before bed to kill all power in your bedroom.

14. Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 21 degrees. Many people keep their homes, and particularly the upstairs bedrooms, too hot. Try to keep your bedroom cool by shutting out sun that comes in, particularly the afternoon sun, and opening windows after dark to let in some cooler air.

15. Eat a high-protein snack several hours before bed. This can provide the L-tryptophan need to produce melatonin and serotonin.

16. Also eat a small piece of fruit. This can help the tryptophan cross your blood-brain barrier.

17. Reduce or avoid as much medication as possible. There are medications that you will have to take, but discuss with your doctor if there are any alternatives. Many medications, both prescription and over-the-counter, may have effects on sleep.

18. Avoid caffeine. A recent study showed that in some people, caffeine is not metabolised efficiently and therefore they can feel the effects long after consuming it. So an afternoon cup of coffee (or even tea) will keep many people from falling asleep. Also be aware that some medications contain caffeine or stimulants.

19. Alarm clocks and other electrical devices. If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from the bed as possible, preferably at least three feet from your body. This will minimize potentially hazardous electromagnetic fields.

20. Avoid alcohol. Although alcohol will make people drowsy, the effect is short lived and people will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol will also keep you from falling into the deeper stages of sleep, where the body does most of its healing hence the fact that after a big night of drinking you wake feeling restless even after many hours of sleep.

21. Lose weight. Being overweight can increase the risk of sleep apnea, which will prevent a restful night’s sleep.

22. Avoid foods that you may be sensitive to. This is particularly true for dairy and wheat products, as they may have an effect on sleep, such as causing apnea, excess congestion, gastrointestinal upset, and gas, among others.

23. Don’t drink any fluids within two hours of going to bed. This will reduce the likelihood of needing to get up and go to the bathroom or at least minimize the frequency.

24. Take a hot bath, shower or sauna before bed. When body temperature is raised in the late evening, it will fall at bedtime, facilitating sleep.

25. Remove the clock from view. It will only add to your worry when constantly staring at it … 2 am … 3 am … 4:30 am …

26. Keep your bed for sleeping. If you are used to watching TV or doing work in bed, you may find it harder to relax and to think of the bed as a place to sleep.

27. Check hormone levels. If you are menopausal or peri-menopausal, get checked out by a good natural medicine physician. The hormonal changes at this time may cause problems if not properly addressed.

28. Don’t change your bedtime. You should go to bed, and wake up, at the same times each day, even on the weekends. This will help your body to get into a sleep rhythm and make it easier to fall asleep and get up in the morning.

29. Make certain you are exercising regularly. Exercising for at least 30 minutes everyday can help you fall asleep. However, don’t exercise too close to bedtime or it may keep you awake. Studies show exercising in the morning is the best if you can do it.

2. Prevent Soil Erosion. The Soil Conservation Service estimates that more than three million tons of topsoil is eroded from our shores each year. That means soil is eroding seven times faster than it is built up naturally. Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming. But in conventional farming the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position so they can be chemically fertilised. As a result, Australian farms are suffering from the worst soil erosion in history.

3. Protect Water Quality. Water makes up two-thirds of our body mass and covers three-fourths of the planet. Despite its importance, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates pesticides (some cancer-causing) contaminate the ground water in all states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half the country’s population.

4. Save Energy. Farms have changed drastically in the last three generations, from the family based small businesses dependent on human energy to large-scale factory farms highly dependent on fossil fuels. Modern farming methods use more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming 12 percent of the country’s total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilisers than to till, cultivate, and harvest all the crops in the Australia. Organic farming is still mainly based on labour-intensive practices such as weeding by hand and using green manures and crop covers rather than synthetic inputs. Organic produce also tends to travel a shorter distance from the farm to your plate.

5. Keep Chemicals off Your Plate. Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers that 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% insecticides are carcinogenic. Consider that the average conventionally grown apple has 20-30 artificial poisons on its skin, even after rinsing. The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms and can also be harmful to humans.

6. Protect Farm Workers Health. A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a greater factor of six, than non-farmers of contracting cancer. Farm workers health is a serious problem in developing nations, where pesticides can be poorly regulated. An estimated 1 million people are poisoned annually by pesticides. There are several pesticides banned from use in Australia that are still manufactured here for export to developing countries.

7. Help Small Farmers. Although more large-scale farms are making the conversion to organic practices, most organic farms are small, independently owned and operated family farms of less than 100 acres. It’s estimated that Australia has lost more than 150,000 family farms in the past decade. With the Department of Agriculture predicting that half of this country’s farm production will come from 1% of farms by the year 2020. Organic farming could become one of the few hopes left for family farms.

8. Support a True Economy. Although organic food might seem more expensive than conventional foods, conventional food prices do not reflect the hidden cost borne by taxpayers, including nearly $4 billion in federal subsidies. Other hidden costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and clean up and environmental damage.

9. Promote Bio-diversity. Mono cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year. While this approach tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. To replace the nutrients, chemical fertilisers are used, often in increasing amounts.

10. Taste Better Flavour. There’s a good reason many top chefs use organic foods in their recipes - they taste better. Organic farming starts with the nutrients of the soil that eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant and ultimately our palates.

Making the switch to organic can be difficult to justify when considered purely from a monetary point of view. To help you in making the decision ask yourself, “What is the real cost to my body of eating the foods I am eating now?” If you are not satisfied with your current level of health and wellbeing then maybe it is time to consider a change.

You don’t have to change everything all at once. Start by investigating the organic suppliers in your area. There are numerous organic sellers in Sydney including markets, health food shops, specialist organic stores and home delivery services. Compare prices at all of them and find what works for you. If you are going to do it in stages I recommend that meat & poultry are the first to become totally organic, followed by fruit & vegetables, dairy (as tolerated), and then fats & oils.

Remember once you are eating right for your type and consuming predominantly organic food you actually need less so the cost goes down.

What is the price you put on your health?

While the human shift to agriculture produced indisputable gains for man - modern civilization is based on this epoch - societies where the transition from a primarily meat/vegetation diet to one high in cereals show a reduced lifespan and stature, increases in infant mortality and infectious disease, and higher nutritional deficiencies.

Contemporary humans have not suddenly evolved mechanisms to incorporate the high carbohydrates from starch- and sugar-rich foods into their diet. In short, we are consuming far too much bread, cereal, pasta, corn (a grain, not a vegetable), rice, potatoes and snacks such as cakes and scones, with very grave consequences to our health. Making matters worse, most of these carbohydrates we consume come in the form of processed food.

That 61.4% of the Australian population are either overweight or obese (statistics from the 2007-2008 National Health Survey), in a nation addicted to sesame seed buns for that hamburger, with a side of French fries and a Coke, is no coincidence. It is not the fat in the foods we eat but, far more, the excess carbohydrates from our starch- and sugar-loaded diet that is making people fat and unhealthy, and leading to epidemic levels of a host of diseases such as diabetes.

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, chances are very good that the excess carbohydrates in your body are, in part or whole, to blame:

• Excess weight
• Fatigue and frequent sleepiness
• Depression
• Brain fogginess
• Bloating
• Low blood sugar
• High blood pressure
• High triglycerides

We all need a certain amount of carbohydrates, of course, but, through our addiction to grains, potatoes, sweets and other starchy and sugary foods, we are consuming far too many. The body’s storage capacity for carbohydrates is quite limited, though, so here’s what happens to all the excess: they are converted, via insulin, into fat and stored in the adipose, or fatty, tissue.

Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates generates a rapid rise in blood glucose. To adjust for this rise, the pancreas secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream, which lowers the glucose. Insulin is, though, essentially a storage hormone, evolved over those millions of years of humans prior to the agricultural age, to store the excess calories from carbohydrates in the form of fat in case of famine.

Insulin, stimulated by the excess carbohydrates in our overabundant consumption of grains, starches and sweets, is responsible for all those bulging stomachs and fat rolls in thighs and chins.

Even worse, high insulin levels suppress two other important hormones - glucagons and growth hormones - that are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle development, respectively. So insulin from excess carbohydrates promotes fat, and then wards off the body’s ability to lose that fat.

Excess weight and obesity lead to heart disease and a wide variety of other diseases. But the ill effect of grains and sugars does not end there. They suppress the immune system, contributing to allergies, and they are responsible for a host of digestive disorders. They contribute to depression, and their excess consumption is, in fact, associated with many of the chronic diseases in our nation, such as cancer and diabetes.

Lower Your Grains & Lower Your Insulin Levels! A Novel Way To Treat Hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia is a common problem. Over the past fifteen years, our dietary establishment has made a virtual industry of extolling the virtues of carbohydrates.

We’re constantly told that carbohydrates are the good guys of nutrition, and that, if we eat large amounts of them, the world should be a better place. In such a world, the experts tell us, there will be no heart disease and no obesity.

Under such guidance, Australians tend to include carbohydrtes in every meal in the form of rice, potatoes, bread or pasta.

This creates a terrible paradox: people are eating less fat and getting fatter! No medical authority will tell you that excess body fat makes you healthier. In fact, a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet may be dangerous to your health.

Overeating carbohydrate foods can prevent a higher percentage of fats from being used for energy, and lead to a decrease in endurance and an increase in fat storage.

Eating fat does not make you fat. It’s your body’s response to excess carbohydrates in your diet that makes you fat. Your body has a limited capacity to store excess carbohydrates, but it can easily convert those excess carbohydrates into excess body fat.

It’s hard to lose weight by simply restricting calories. Eating less and losing excess body fat do not automatically go hand in hand.

Low-calorie, high-carbohydrate diets generate a series of biochemical signals in your body that will take you out of the balance, making it more difficult to access stored body fat for energy. Result: you’ll reach a weight-loss plateau, beyond which you simply can’t lose any more weight.

Diets based on choice restriction and calorie limits usually fail. People on restrictive diets get tired of feeling hungry and deprived. They go off their diets, put the weight back on (primarily as increased body fat), and then feel bad about themselves for not having enough willpower, discipline, or motivation.

Weight loss has little to do with willpower. You need information, not willpower. If you change what you eat, you don’t have to be overly concerned about how much you eat. Adhering to a diet of low carbohydrate meals, you can eat enough to feel satisfied and still wind up losing fat-without obsessively counting calories or fat grams.

Food Can Be Good or Bad

The ratio of macronutrients protein, carbohydrate, and fat in the meals you eat is the key to permanent weight loss and optimal health. Unless you understand the rules that control the powerful biochemical responses generated by food, you will never achieve optimal wellness.

Unfortunately, many people don’t really know what a carbohydrate is. Most people will say carbohydrates are sweets and pasta. Ask them what a vegetable or fruit is, and they’ll probably reply that it’s a vegetable or fruit-as if that were a food type all its own, a food type that they can eat in unlimited amounts without gaining weight.

Well, this may come as a surprise, but all of the above - sweets and pasta, vegetables and fruits - are carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are merely different forms of simple sugars linked together in polymers - something like edible plastic.

Of course, we all need a certain amount of carbohydrates in our diet. The body requires a continual intake of carbohydrates to feed the brain, which uses glucose (a form of sugar) as its primary energy source.

In fact, the brain is a virtual glucose hog, gobbling more than two thirds of the circulating carbohydrates in the bloodstream while you are at rest. To feed this glucose hog, the body continually takes carbohydrates and converts them to glucose.

It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Any carbohydrates not immediately used by the body will be stored in the form of glycogen (a long string of glucose molecules linked together).

The body has two storage sites for glycogen: the liver and the muscles. The glycogen stored in the muscles is inaccessible to the brain. Only the glycogen stored in the liver can be broken down and sent back to the bloodstream so as to maintain adequate blood sugar levels for proper brain function.

The liver’s capacity to store carbohydrates in the form of glycogen is very limited and can be easily depleted within ten to twelve hours. So the liver’s glycogen reserves must be maintained on a continual basis. That’s why we eat carbohydrates.

The question no one has bothered to ask until now is this: what happens when you eat too much carbohydrate? Here’s the answer: whether it’s being stored in the liver or the muscles, the total storage capacity of the body for carbohydrate is really quite limited.

If you’re an average person, you can store about three hundred to four hundred grams of carbohydrate in your muscles, but you can’t get at that carbohydrate. In the liver, where carbohydrates are accessible for glucose conversion, you can store only about sixty to ninety grams.

This is equivalent to about two cups of cooked pasta or three typical candy bars, and it represents your total reserve capacity to keep the brain working properly.

Once the glycogen levels are filled in both the liver and the muscles, excess carbohydrates have just one fate: to be converted into fat and stored in the adipose, that is, fatty, tissue.

In a nutshell, even though carbohydrates themselves are fat-free, excess carbohydrates ends up as excess fat. That’s not the worst of it. Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates will generate a rapid rise in blood glucose. To adjust for this rapid rise, the pancreas secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream. Insulin then lowers the levels of blood glucose.

The problem is that insulin is essentially a storage hormone, evolved to put aside excess carbohydrate calories in the form of fat in case of future famine. So the insulin that’s stimulated by excess carbohydrates aggressively promotes the accumulation of body fat.

In other words, when we eat too much carbohydrate, we’re essentially sending a hormonal message, via insulin, to the body (actually, to the adipose cells). The message: “Store fat.”

Hold on; it gets even worse. Not only do increased insulin levels tell the body to store carbohydrates as fat, they also tell it not to release any stored fat. This makes it impossible for you to use your own stored body fat for energy.

So the excess carbohydrates in your diet not only make you fat, they make sure you stay fat. It’s a double whammy, and it can be lethal.

Insulin is released by the pancreas after you eat carbohydrates. This causes a rise in blood sugar. Insulin assures your cells receive some blood sugar necessary for life, and increases glycogen storage.

However, it also drives your body to use more carbohydrate, and less fat, as fuel. And, insulin converts almost half of your dietary carbohydrate to fat for storage. If you want to use more fats for energy, the insulin response must be moderated.

Diets high in refined sugars release more insulin thereby allowing less stored fat to be burned. High insulin levels also suppress two important hormones: glucagon and growth hormone. Glucagon promotes the burning of fat and sugar. Growth hormone is used for muscle development and building new muscle mass.

Insulin also causes hunger. As blood sugar increases following a carbohydrate meal, insulin rises with the eventual result of lower blood sugar. This results in hunger, often only a couple of hours (or less) after the meal.

Cravings, usually for something sweet, are frequently part of this cycle, leading you to resort to snacking, often on more carbohydrates. Not eating makes you feel ravenous shaky, moody and ready to “crash.” If the problem is chronic, you never get rid of that extra stored fat, and your energy is adversely affected.

Does this sound like you? The best suggestion for anyone wanting to utilize more fats is to moderate the insulin response by limiting (ideally, eliminating) the intake of refined sugars, and keeping all other carbohydrate intake to about 40% of the diet. Generally, non-carbohydrate foods-proteins and fats-don’t produce much insulin.

Insulin responses can vary greatly from person to person. But generally, more refined foods evoke a stronger and/or more rapid insulin reaction. One reason for this is refined carbohydrates lack the natural fiber which helps minimize the carbohydrate/insulin response.

Consumption of natural fiber with carbohydrates can reduce the extreme blood sugar reactions described above. Low-fat diets cause quicker digestion and absorption of carbohydrates in the form of sugar. By adding some fats to the diet, digestion and absorption is slower, and the insulin reaction is moderated.

Recommendations for them include long-term restriction of carbohydrates and an increase in dietary fats. For some of these people, it means lowering carbohydrate intake to below 40%, sometimes even as low as 20%. By moderating carbohydrate intake you can increase your fat burning as an optimal and efficient source of almost unlimited energy.

Perhaps a third to a half or more of our population is unable to process carbohydrates-sugars and starches efficiently. In many people it’s due to genetics, with lifestyle contributing to the condition.

This can be termed insulin resistance or IR. Like many problems, IR is an individual one, affecting different people different ways. You must determine if you are carbohydrate intolerant, and if so, to what degree. Blood tests will only diagnose the problem in the later stages, but the symptoms may have begun years earlier.

As we now know, insulin has many functions. While it can’t get glucose into the cells efficiently when they’re in a state of insulin resistance, insulin still performs its other tasks, including converting carbohydrates to fat and inhibiting stored fat from being burned.

In a normal person, 40% of the carbohydrates eaten is converted to fat. In the IR person, that number may be much higher. Many people with IR have a family history of diabetes.

Don’t think of IR itself as a disease, although left unchecked, it can create problems that lead to disease. It may be quite normal for some humans to be unable to eat large or even moderate amounts of carbohydrates.

As a matter of fact, we evolved for hundreds of thousands of years from the so-called cave man’s diet, which consisted solely of meat and vegetables.

With the onset of modern civilization about 5,000 years ago, our physiology suddenly was asked to digest and metabolize larger amounts of sugar and starch especially refined sugars. But if we are unable to utilize the amount of carbohydrates we eat, certain symptoms will develop.

Below is a list of some of the most common complaints of people with IR Many symptoms occur immediately following a meal of carbo-hydrates, and others are constant. Keep in mind that these symptoms may also be related to other problems.

1. Fatigue. Whether you call it fatigue or exhaustion, the most common feature of IR is that it wears people out. Some are tired just in the morning or afternoon; others are exhausted all day.

2. Brain fogginess. Sometimes the fatigue of IR is physical, but often it’s mental (as opposed to psychological); the inability to concentrate is the most evident symptom. Loss of creativity, poor memory, failing or poor grades in school often accompany IR, as do various forms of “learning disabilities.”

3. Low blood sugar. Brief, mild periods of low blood sugar are normal during the day, especially if meals are not eaten on a regular schedule. But prolonged periods of this “hypoglycemia,” accompanied by many of the symptoms listed here, especially mental and physical fatigue, are not normal.

Feeling jittery agitated and moody is common in IR, with an almost immediate relief once food is eaten. Dizziness is also common, as is the craving for sweets, chocolate or caffeine.

These bouts occur more frequently before meals or first thing in the morning. The old hypoglycemic diet, still in use today, recommends frequent snacks, and individuals with IR usually know to eat often. However, the hypoglycemic diet contains too much carbohydrate for most IR people.

4. Intestinal bloating. Most intestinal gas is produced from dietary carbohydrates. IR sufferers who eat carbohydrates suffer from gas, lots of it. Antacids or other remedies for symptomatic relief, are not very successful in dealing with the problem.

Sometimes the intestinal distress becomes quite severe, resulting in a diagnosis of “colitis” or “ileitis,” although this is usually not a true disease state. However, IR is often associated with true gastrointestinal disease, which must be differentiated from simple intestinal bloating.

5. Sleepiness. Many people with IR get sleepy immediately after meals containing more than 20% or 30% carbohydrates. This is typically a pasta meal, or even a meat meal which includes bread or potatoes and a sweet dessert.

6. Increased fat storage and weight. For most people, too much weight is too much fat. In males, a large abdomen is the more evident and earliest sign of IR. In females, it’s prominent buttocks, frequently accompanied by “chipmunk cheeks.”

7. Increased triglycerides. High triglycerides in the blood are often seen in overweight persons. But even those who are not too fat may have stores of fat in their arteries as a result of IR.

These triglycerides are the direct result of carbohydrates from the diet being converted by insulin. In my experience, fasting triglyceride levels over 100 may be an indication of a carbohydrate problem, even though 100 is in the so-called “normal” range.

8. Increased blood pressure. It is well known that most people with hypertension have too much insulin and are IR. It is often possible to show a direct relationship between the level of insulin and the level of blood pressure: as insulin levels elevate, so does blood pressure.

9. Depression. Because carbohydrates are a natural “downer,” depressing the brain, it is not uncommon to see many depressed people also having IR.

Carbohydrates do this by changing the brain chemistry. Carbohydrates increase serotonin, which produces a depressing or sleepy feeling. This is the reason nice hotels place candy on your pillow in the evening; it literally helps you sleep. (Protein, on the other hand, is a brain stimulant, picking you up mentally.

Here’s another example of how trends distort the real picture: many people have been taught that sugar is stimulating. This is a significant consideration for those trying to learn, whether at school, home or work.

10. Insulin Resistance is also prevalent in persons addicted to alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes or other drugs. Often, the drug is the secondary problem, with IR being the primary one. Treating this primary problem should obviously be a major focus of any therapy.

IR sufferers may have other symptoms as well. However, when a person with this problem finally lowers carbohydrate intake to tolerable levels, many if not most of the other symptoms may disappear.

With the stress of IR eliminated, the body is finally able to correct many of its own problems. It is possible, although unlikely, that so many of these symptoms can be found in someone who tolerates carbohydrates quite well.

Rules of the Road to reach Balance

1. Protein. Know how much protein your body needs. Never consume more protein than your body requires. And never consume less. For precise measurements our nurse can determine that for you.

You can also perform the calculations reviewed in The Zone. Generally adult protein requirements range from a low of 35 grams per day or a sedentary 250 pound obese individual to as much as 200 grams per day for a lean heavily exercising 100 pound athlete.

You should have protein at EVERY meal and the total per day should equal your daily requirement. For every three grams of protein at a meal you need to have four grams of carbohydrate and 1.5 grams of fat.

You can multiply protein by 1.25 to obtain the amout of carbohdrate and by 0.5 to obtain the amount of fat. This is a rough estimate and you should not become overwhelmed trying to get this absolutely precise. It is important though to be in the general area.

If you find yourself hungry and craving sugar or sweets two to three hours after a meal, you probably consumed too many carbohydrates that last meal. Whenever you have a problem with hunger or carbohydrate cravings, look to your last meal for a clue to the reason why.

No matter how consistently you follow this dietary strategy, you are bound to make mistakes. This is especially true at parties or when traveling. Remember, if you’re only unbalanced for a short period of time, you’re only one meal away from rebalancing. It’s like falling off a bike - you just get back up and continue your journey.

The Pelvic Floor Muscles

The pelvic floor is a layer of muscle that stretches from the pubic bone at the front to the base of the spine.  The pelvic floor muscles are classified as postural muscles, which mean that they need to be active when the body is in the upright position. Without the support of a healthy pelvic floor, the ligaments that hold the bladder, bowel and womb in place can become damaged.

The pelvic floor muscles need to be slow to fatigue, enabling them to cope with everyday occurrences like a sneeze, cough or jump which create a rise in pressure, squeezing the bladder.  The muscles must be strong enough to respond efficiently to this rise in pressure with short bursts of power, in order to prevent urine from leaking from the bladder.  If the muscles are unable to respond efficiently a condition called stress incontinence may occur.

Many women are unaware how weakness of the pelvic floor muscle originates, but it is commonly associated with pregnancy, childbirth, menopause (when changes in hormonal production affect the pelvic support) and strenuous or vigorous activity (such as weight lifting).  Although these muscles do weaken with age, teenage girls can also display symptoms of pelvic floor weakness.

Exercising the Pelvic Floor Muscles

Many women wrongly believe that they are strengthening the pelvic floor through everyday workouts.  However, this is not the case so it is of paramount importance to incorporate exercise (see below) for the muscles into daily activity.  Frequently exercising the pelvic floor muscles will also raise the awareness of this part of the body, enabling you to detect any weakness or change in condition.

Basic Exercise

Sit or lie comfortably with the knees slightly apart.  Concentrate on the pelvic floor muscles.  Attempt to lift and squeeze the muscles.  Imagine you are trying to stop a flow of urine.  Breathe naturally throughout, without squeezing your buttocks or tensing your abdomen.

Endurance Exercise

Use the same protocol as explained in the basic exercise.

Contract the muscles for at least two seconds, but as long as possible would be preferable.  Rest an equal amount of time, then repeat

Strength Exercise

Repeat the same exercise again, this time making the contractions faster and stronger.

The frequency that the exercises should be performed is dependant on the level of weakness discovered, but as with any exercise routine, workouts should be a gradual build up of duration and strength contractions.  If you find the exercises demanding, aim to achieve ten contractions.  However, if you suffer from stress incontinence and find these exercises do not improve your condition, you may wish to seek professional advice.

1. Rheumatoid: An inflammatory, multi-joint, multi-system disease. Affects wrist, hands, knees, feet and cervical spine. Suffers morning stiffness >30mins, acute and chronic inflammation and loss of joint integrity.

2. Osteoarthritis: A degenerative joint disease. Affects hands, spine, hips and knees. Joint pain and stiffness, osteophyte and cartilage destruction.

3. Psoriatic: An inflammatory, systemic disease. Affects spine, hip, shoulder girdle and knees. Joint pain and fusion occur.

Other Types:

1. Lupus: Affects hands, knees, elbows and feet.

2. Ankylosing Spondylitis: Affects spine, hip, shoulder girdle and knees

3. Gout/Pseudogout: Affects big toe, ankles, knees and wrists.

Effects on Exercise Response

• Vigorous exercise is contraindicated in the presence of acute joint inflammation or uncontrolled systemic disease.
• Persons with joint involvement tend to be less mobile.
• Pain, stiffness and biomechanical inefficiency and abnormalities in gait are usually evident.
• Range of motion limited.
• Inability to perform rapid movements.
• De-conditioned and poorly supported joints at higher risk of injury.

Effects on Exercise Training

• Able to participate in regular, conditioning exercise to improve CV fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility and general health status.
• Considerations to disease-specific patterns of joint involvement should be made during exercise prescription, monitoring and follow-ups.

Recommendations for Exercise Programming

• Select low-impact activities.
• Avoid stair-climbing, jogging and running (particularly those with hip/knee involvement).
• Condition muscles prior to more vigorous activity.
• Include flexibility and range of motion as key exercise components.
• Avoid over stretching and hyper-mobility.
• Reduce load on joint (exercise in a pool, bike or rower).
• Select shoes for maximum shock attenuation during weight bearing activities.
• Use low intensity and duration during initial phase of programming.
• Use modified “interval training” of brisk/rest exercise session.
• Set time goals, rather than distance goals.
• Use aerobic activities that incorporate alternative forms of exercise.
• Avoid morning exercise.
• Encourage clients to take warm showers/spa prior to exercise.

Chinese

• Always choose a plain vegetable dish first. eg Chinese broccoli or bok choy or choy sum in soy sauce.
• Steamed vegetables are better than stir fried.
• Plain rice is better than fried rice. Otherwise avoid rice unless you are making home made Chinese and can cook brown rice.
• Avoid refried noodles eg chow mein.
• Entrée: Avoid deep fried spring rolls, curry puffs, fish cakes. Better alternatives: steamed dim sims, fresh spring roll with rice paper, tofu steamed.
• Sauces: choose chilli, garlic, pepper, shallot and ginger rather than satay, oyster, coconut, curry, sweet and sour or honey soy.
• Soups are generally OK.

Thai

• Always choose a plain vegetable dish first. Steamed mixed vegetables are best.
• Avoid curry with coconut milk (unless curry is made with a yoghurt base).
• Soups – clear is better than coconut based. Eg Spicy hot and sour, lemon grass, limes chili are better choices.
• Stir fry sauces – shallots, ginger, pepper, soy sauce, fresh chilli, basil. Avoid honey, oyster, black bean, peanut/satay sauces.
• Thai steamed jasmine rice best. Otherwise avoid rice unless you are making home made Thai and can cook brown rice.
• Fresh thai salads eg beef, duck or prawn are great.

Italian (best avoid pizzas, but if you have to…)

Always choose a vegetable dish first with protein. And the following is best avoided while trying to lose fat but for future take away meals.

• Pizza – Avoid mozzarella cheese based pizzas. Ask or choose for white cheese eg goats or ricotta cheese pizza. Thin bases are better than thick based. Avoid too many marinated vegetables. Avoid deli meats eg sausage, salami, ham, etc
• Pasta – Tomato based. Avoid too many marinated vegetables (most are saturated in poor quality oil) and always include a protein source. Avoid creamy based sauces. Always have a salad with pasta.
• Bread – Avoid garlic bread or herb bread.

General Choices

• Sandwiches – avoid foccacias (very fatty) and burgers. Wholemeal sandwiches with salmon, avocado and salads are good. White cheese eg ricotta, cottage cheese may be added to increase fat content. Avoid plain jams and spreads.
• Salads – avoid those with creamy or pre-prepared dressings ie Caesar, Thousand Island. Aim to get as much fresh content as possible. In some cases you are better consuming a meal entirely made up of salad vegetables as this will also add water to your diet
• Be wary of hidden fats, oils and sugars in many commercially products. Eg. Sugar in tomato sauce, hydrolysed oils in margarine, preservatives in deli meats. Where possible ensure you have a serve of quality protein, some vegetables and some fat/oil.
• If you know you are going to be travelling carrying a snack of fruit/nuts will often be your best alternative.

Deserts

• Sorbets or fruit is best.
• If you must indulge choose a full fat desert otherwise do your best to avoid temptation!
• If you do eat dessert try to do something active after dinner, a simple walk can do wonders for your digestion.

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
3. Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.
4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.
5. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.
6. Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
7. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.
8. Sugar can weaken eyesight.
9. Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis.
10. Sugar can cause premature aging.
11. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.
12. Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.
13. Sugar contributes to obesity.
14. Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.
15. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)
16. Sugar can cause gallstones.
17. Sugar can cause appendicitis.
18. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.
19. Sugar can cause varicose veins.
20. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.
21. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
22. Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.
23. Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.
24. Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.
25. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
26. High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).
27. Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.
28. Sugar causes food allergies.
29. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
30. Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.
31. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
32. Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.
33. Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.
34. Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.
35. Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.
36. Sugar can cause emphysema.
37. High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.
38. Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.
39. Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson’s disease.
40. Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.
41. Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.
42. Sugar can damage your pancreas.
43. Sugar can increase your body’s fluid retention.
44. Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.
45. Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.
46. Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.
47. Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.
48. Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children’s grades and cause learning disorders.
49. Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind’s ability to think clearly.
50. Sugar can cause depression.
51. Sugar can increase your risk of gout.
52. Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
53. Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.
54. Sugar can lead to dizziness.
55. Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.
56. High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.
57. High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
58. Sugar is an addictive substance.
59. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.
60. Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.
61. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.
62. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.
63. The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.
64. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
65. Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.
66. Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.
67. Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.
68. I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.
69. Sugar increases your risk of polio.
70. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.
71. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.
72. In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.
73. Sugar may induce cell death.
74. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.
75. Sugar dehydrates newborns.
76. Sugar can cause gum disease.

1 cup barley flakes or oats
Half a cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
Half a cup slithered or raw almonds chopped
Half a cup coconut
Half a cup sesame seeds
1 cup ground almonds
Half a cup dried apricots or apples
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons protein powder (vanilla)
Half a cup of tahini
2 egg whites (optional)
Half a cup of honey (or rice or 100 % maple syrup)
Half a cup of apple puree

Directions

Add honey and Apple to all dry ingredients

If adding eggs, beat egg whites and fold into other ingredients. Press into a greased tray.
Bake for 20 minutes on 180°C. Cover when golden brown with alfoil.
Store in fridge. Great for breakfast on the run, and for snacks.

Sydney’s most exciting gym has joined forces with the best trainers in town and want you to come and experience TBC Gym and the LaVanda Elite Personal Trainers!

Programs to suit all:

• Fat Loss
• Strength Training
• Exercise Rehabilitation
• Circuit Training

Achieve your goals through:

• Indoor rock climbing
• Kettle Bell training
• Altitude training
• Circuit Training

Apply Now!

Simply send an email to training@lavandaelite.com or contact us via our Contact Us form.

Don’t forget to quote Summer Offer!

The TBC Gym is located at:
Shop 2205A
The Entertainment Quarter
122 Lang Road
Moore Park NSW 2021

Offer ends December 11th, 2009

Functional strength training should be thought of in terms of a movement continuum. As humans, we perform a wide range of movement activities, such as walking, jogging, running, sprinting, jumping, lifting, pushing, pulling, bending, twisting, turning, standing, starting, stopping, climbing and lunging. All of these activities involve smooth, rhythmic motions in the three cardinal planes of movement-sagital, frontal and transverse.

Training to improve functional strength involves more than simply increasing the force-producing capability of a muscle or group of muscles. Rather, it requires training to enhance the coordinated working relationship between the nervous and muscular systems. To check out some of the challenges you would be put through when undertaking Functional Fitness Strength Training, view our functional fitness gallery.

Functional strength training involves performing work against resistance in such a manner that the improvements in strength directly enhance the performance of movements so that an individual’s activities of daily living are easier to perform. Simply stated, the primary goal of functional training is to transfer the improvements in strength achieved in one movement to enhancing the performance of another movement by affecting the entire neuromuscular system.
In functional training, it is as critical to train the specific movement, as it is to train the muscles involved in the movement. The brain, which controls muscular movement, thinks in terms of whole motions, not individual muscles.

We are truly governed by thoughts, desires and actions!

Components of a functional exercise program
To be effective a functional exercise program should include a number of different elements:

• Specific to the sport. Any program must be sport specific, working to develop and maintain sport specific strength.
• Integrated – It should include a variety of exercises that work on flexibility, balance, strength, power and core
• Increases Core Stability – core stability is crucial for any sport or activity. A stable core allows for more efficient transference of power from the lower to upper body, and an increased ability to maintain correct athletic posture over long periods of time.
• Progressive – Progressive training steadily increases the strength demand from workout to workout. While most people are aware of the need for this in relation to traditional strength training, it is sometimes overlooked in functional training. For functional training is also means varying speed of movement to make it more sport specific.
• Periodised – for competitive athletes, their functional training needs to fit into their competitive cycle of competition. In broad terms this means that they will vary their program throughout the year to achieve optimal results, peaking for competitions or races and building in recovery time also.
• Individualized – An athlete’s program need to be designed for them. The only way to do this is to work with a coach or trainer who specializes in the particular sport and can custom design a program. A LaVanda trainer can easily include functional training in their clients’ exercise programs, whether they are recovering from an injury or looking for weight loss.

To make a booking for Functional Fitness Strength Training

Benefits:
Fat Loss
Core Strength
Functional Fitness

Equipment used:
Power Bags
Kettle Bells
TRX
Boxing
Sand Running
Sled Drag

Times:

Pricing:

$20 per session

or $50 per week (3 sessions @ $17)

or $180 per month (12 sessions @ $15)

Bonus rewards for attendance and commitment: 2 4 1 Cinema Ticket/ 2 4 1 Pamper Treatments or 1 Free Night Hotel Accommodation.

Celebrate with us on completion of each block of 12 sessions with a BBQ on the beach Last Saturday of the 12 session block.

All sessions are to be paid for in advance by online transfer:
LaVanda Elite Pty
Commonwealth Bank
Acc: 10840103
Bsb: 062124

You can also pay by credit card - Contact Us for more information.

Location:

We always meet North Bondi grass area next to Life saving club and the car park. Check out the Google Map below for an exact location.

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