Remind Yourself of "Why"

Before you try to make a change in your life, you have to make sure you know why you're doing it first.

Are you happy with your life and happy with where you are today? Are you happy but could be even happier with some kind of change? Figure out WHY you want to make that change.

It could be for your own enjoyment of life, your family or other relationships, for finances, or for your job.

Once you figure out what's going to inspire you, then you're going to be able to move in a direction towards change.

Add Gratitude to Your Life

"I have a simple gratitude habit that I have been following nearly every day for three years. When I sit down to eat dinner, I say one thing that I am grateful for happening today.

Why does it work?

1. It is a good idea to force yourself into a positive frame of mind at least once per day.
2. The individual impact of any one piece of gratitude is small, but the cumulative effect is huge.
3. You start to realize how insignificant monetary things are for your day-to-day happiness.
4. I have stuck with the habit because it is stupidly small.
5. I have stuck with the habit because it is perfectly tied to another behavior - eating dinner."

#begratefullyaligned

Link: https://jamesclear.com/gratitude-habit

The Science Behind Gratitude

"The benefits of practicing gratitude are nearly endless. People who regularly practice gratitude by taking time to notice and reflect upon the things they're thankful for experience more positive emotions, feel more alive, sleep better, express more compassion and kindness, and even have stronger immune systems.

And gratitude doesn't need to be reserved only for momentous occasions: Sure, you might express gratitude after receiving a promotion at work, but you can also be thankful for something as simple as a delicious piece of pie."

#begratefullyaligned

Source: https://www.happify.com/hd/the-science-behind-gratitude/

Financial Stress

Self Inflicted Financial Stress: Stop pretending to be someone you aren't and start saving money!

Mental stress has a massive impact on overall health and poor managed finances is one of the biggest causes of mental stress. We see this in our offices on a daily basis and it takes a huge toll on someones health.

In almost every one of these financially stressful cases it comes down to the fact that people value appearance over long term financial stability.

Some of the culprits are:

1. Buying a house that's at the top end of your budget
2. Driving a car that's more than you can afford
3. Paying for cable and all the extra channels
4. Eating out frequently
5. Shopping daily on Amazon
6. Expensive Vacations

You can easily save money by stopping these things immediately, and it's really not that hard to do. Sell your house and buy a cheaper one, buy a cheaper used car, etc.

"Northwestern Mutual found that Americans with retirement savings have an average of $84,821 saved"

If you were to only cut out $200 of your spending per month (Some cable packages are almost this much alone) which is very possible for most people and invested it instead over 30 years, you could easily have at least $250,000 which is much better than the average $84,000 and a great start towards reduced financial stress! Many people could do way more if they really wanted to.

You can make a huge impact on your overall health by managing your finances properly. Stop buying ridiculous stuff and trying to impress the people around you when it's more than you can afford!

Mental Health = Physical Health.

                                          Mental Health = Physical Health.

                               Article: https://www.themorningsun.com/lifestyles/health/loneliness

Depression, Anxiety and Nutrient Deficiency

Depression, Anxiety and Nutrient Deficiency:

Our bodies require certain nutrients from healthy foods to function properly. When we replace those foods with processed junk food we start depleting our body of those vital nutrients.

Anytime your body is lacking nutrients you will start to feel different, and not in a good way. This feeling usually comes across as depression, anxiety and just feeling blah. Your body then tells you to eat more food because it needs more nutrients but eating more junk food that has no nutrients will only magnify the problem leaving you more anxious, depressed and deficient but now you start gaining weight! The cycle only stops when you change what you are eating.

The best way to fix this ASAP is to overload your body with healthy food and to take a natural anti-inflammatory and a multi-vitamin. I find that smoothies loaded with greens and berries are an excellent way to do this along with reducing processed carbohydrates and drinking lots of water.

Negativity Leads to Depression

“Negativity is a downward spiral, meaning that the more you focus on problems instead of solutions, you eventually start to see the negative side of everything in life”

It takes 120 days of focusing on being positive to start rewiring your brain to be positive.

Every time you have a negative thought or comment stop yourself and change it to be positive.

Link: https://dailyhealthpost.com/complaining-brain-negativity

Good Vibes are Contagious

We talk about how a positive mental outlook improves your physical health, but let’s take it one step further...

It can improve the health of the people around you, as well

Link: https://www.outsideonline.com/2391572/send-good-vibes

Diet and Depression

Many people eat themselves into depression. Junk food and processed carbs increase inflammation inside the body and anytime normal metabolism is altered it makes you feel blah which can lead to depression:

"A pro-inflammatory diet including fast food, processed food, and refined sugar is associated with a 40% increased risk of depression according to a meta-analysis of 11 studies."

6 steps to reduce risk of depression:

1. Eat less processed carbohydrates
2. Eat more healthy protein
3. Normalize your vitamin D-3 levels
4. Sleep more during the winter
5. Move more sit less
6. Get adjusted

Source: https://www.clinicalnutritionjournal.com

The Importance of Magnesium

The number one nutrient deficiency I see on a regular basis is magnesium. Magnesium is one of the most prevalent elements in the human body and is involved in over 300 metabolic reactions. It's also the first thing to be depleted when someone is stressed out.

Signs you are deficient:
Anxiety
Headaches
Constipation
Muscle spasms
Poor sleep

The average person should be getting around 1000 mg of magnesium per day. If someone is eating pretty healthy they could easily get around 600 mg from their food, so it is suggested they supplement with 400 mg of magnesium on top of that. However, most people are not eating healthy so they can require more than 400 mg per day.

The more stressed out you are the more magnesium you should take.

The quality of the supplement makes all the difference. Cheap supplements will have fillers, less magnesium than is listed on the label and it will be less pure than higher quality products. You pay for what you get in the supplement industry.

I suggest a combination of magnesium from amino acids chelate, malate and citrate. We carry Anabolic Labs Clinical Magnesium that has this exact combination.

The only side effect of taking too much is loose stools, and if someone is depleted it's suggested that they take enough to hit this point and back it off slightly.

Do You Eat Enough Fiber?

Are you eating enough fiber? Research has shown it's massively important for good health and most people need between 40-50 grams of fiber per day.

"Out of all the variables that we looked at, fiber intake -- which is a type of carbohydrate that the body can't digest -- had the strongest influence," the study said. "Essentially, we found that those who had the highest intake of fiber or total fiber actually had an almost 80 percent greater likelihood of living a long and healthy life over a 10-year follow-up. That is, they were less likely to suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dementia, depression, and functional disability."

Avocados, broccoli, berries, nuts and flax are all great sources of fiber!

Upcoming Meditation Workshops in Saginaw & Midland

Practiced for thousands of years, meditation is a tool for rediscovering the body's own inner intelligence. Primordial Sound Meditation uses individually selected sounds of nature called mantras to disconnect us from the activity of life.

Taught by Libby Rapin, join us for these free classes on May 21st and June 6th. She will discuss the harmful effects stress have on our bodies, the countless benefits of a daily meditation practice, the basic principles of meditation and how Primordial Sound Meditation is different than other meditation techniques. 

This session is experiential and you will be led through a guided meditation and learn basic breathing exercises that can help you reduce stress.

Visit facebook.com/kehreshealth to RSVP and for more information. 

Shop with a Hero

Read negative news have negative thoughts, read positive news have positive thoughts! 

79 kids were given $100 gift cards to shop for whatever they wanted at Meijer. To a kid that’s like winning the lotto! 

#GreatLakesBayGoodNews

Full article of this amazing story can be found here at this link www.mlive.com

Positivity Reduces Risk of Chronic Disease

Thoughts and attitude do influence your health! 

" People who experience not just positive emotions but a diversity of positive emotions appear to have lower levels of systemic inflammation, which may reduce their risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, according to research published by the American Psychological Association." 

Try to look at things in a positive light, no matter what it is you are doing.

Read more on this topic at http://www.apa.org

3 Proven Steps to Happiness

Happiness isn't something that comes around so easily anymore. With our fast paced, stressful lifestyles we need to work on being happy. Ultimately, it's our decision to be happy or not depending on how we see the world. And it is critical to our health.

Negativity is so prevalent in the news and conversations that there is no way we aren't going to be surrounded by it on a regular basis. So how do we not let it affect us?

Be grateful

Being grateful is one of the most powerful ways to be happy. Research has shown that those who are thankful release more dopamine and serotonin than those who do not. These chemicals are known as the "happy chemicals," and help to improve our mood. They have also been shown to work on the same pathways that anti-depressants do and some believe that they just as beneficial if not more beneficial than taking anti-depressants.

Action step:
Find ways to be grateful in your daily life. Make a journal or start a blog to write down all the ways that you are grateful! After doing this for a few months it will become a habit and you will start automatically being grateful.

Make decisions

To-do lists stack up every single day and the more things that we have on our to-do lists the more stressed out and unhappy we get. Eventually we get overloaded and even the smallest and easiest things on the to-do list seem like a mountain of a task.

Making decisions and moving forward on them is one of the best ways to be happy. Decision making has been shown to calm neural activity in the brain reducing stress levels.

Action step:
The key is make the best decision possible under the circumstance. If you sit around and try to make the perfect decision then you are going to let other tasks pile up and you are going to end up right back where you started. Look at your to-do list and start making the best decisions you can and move forward!

Help out

Similar to gratitude, helping out has been shown to reduce stress and increase happiness by releasing serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine. Not only does helping out make other people happy it also gives you a sense of satisfaction improving your happiness level. Helping out at work has shown to improve work atmosphere, productivity and rate at which someone gets a promotion.

Action step:
Keep an eye out throughout the day to lend a helping hand. Typically before you know it something will come up and you just have to jump to the occasion.

Start adding these steps into your daily ritual and before you know it your level of stress will decrease and your happiness will increase. Remember, habits don't happen overnight so you need to continue doing it for a few months before your brain will automatically do it for you.

The Big Why

Why are you losing weight? 

Why are you eating healthier? 

Why are you exercising? 

Do you know why?

When trying to make a change it’s always hard to stay on track. Most people set a weight loss goal such as losing 15 lbs. and try whatever is the latest and greatest fad diet, which often includes pretty extreme caloric restriction. It’s not easy, and they feel deprived most of the time but the weight starts to fall off. Eventually they reach their weight loss goal!

The problem that arises is that the diet is not sustainable. Once they hit their goal, their pre-diet lifestyle starts to creep back and the weight comes back just as fast as it fell off. Sometimes with a few extra pounds. Research has shown the more times people diet, the more weight that they eventually gain.

Making a lifestyle change shouldn’t be for weight loss, it should be for long term health. Weight gain year after year increases the risk of all sorts of diseases including heart disease to diabetes to cancer.

Determining why you want to change your lifestyle is the most important aspect of making a long term change.

Do you want to be able to do your own yard work as you age?

Be healthy enough to play with your grandkids?

Prevent deadly conditions such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease?

Find your why that is bigger than your weight loss goal. 

  

Feeling depressed? Eat healthy fat!

Feeling depressed? 

Our hormones are made from fat and cholesterol! Reducing healthy fats and cholesterol can lead to hormonal imbalances and depression. 

Load up on healthy fats from fish, tree nuts, avocado, grass fed butter, eggs, grass fed meats, coconut, etc.!

Positivity breeds positivity

Positivity breeds positivity.

Humans by nature don't want to be negative, unfortunately it's contagious as well.

Be kind to someone today and spread the positivity, you never know what battle they are fighting.

Inspiration: Opportunity

 

 
Many people talk about how they never "got the opportunity," to do something in life but in most cases it's not just something that comes to you. You need to go out and create your own opportunities.

Opportunity does not come to people sitting on the couch watching TV every night.

It comes to those who are out looking for it... the athlete who trains hard in the off season. The kid walking around the neighborhood with a shovel every time it snows. The employee that works an extra hour off the clock to finish a project. The person who takes the time to make their health a priority.

It could take two months or 20 years, but opportunity will come when you are out looking for it.

Surround yourself with the right people

Crabs in a bucket, which crab are you?

Making a change is not easy. Some people will tell you that you can't do it, others will literally try to stop you from making a lifestyle change.

People don't like to feel left out, but they also don't want to get out of their comfort zone. They are stuck right where they are and never want to change.

Crabs in a bucket is the perfect term to describe this situation. Any crab that tries to climb out literally gets pulled right back in.

Have you surrounded yourself with people who will help you change or people that will pull you back down?