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Score Yourself On These Four Pillars Of Clean Living: Part 2

By Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

In part 1 of our Four Pillars Of Clean Living, we covered Real Food (Pillar 1) and Antioxidants (Pillar 2). These benefits are critical for both physical and psychological well-being, as well as overall performance regardless of what you are doing.

We asked you to score yourself on the first two pillars, now it’s time to determine your overall score with the remaining two pillars.

Pillar #3: Find your level of movement 

Parallel to your circulatory system is another system called your lymphatic system. It’s a series of tubes just like blood vessels interspersed with lymph nodes. This is your superhighway for immune cells to travel between sites of infection, and also where most of your immune cells become activated to help protect you. The lymphatic system is also our big sewage system in a sense. It’s where our tissues deposit their waste and end products to be flushed out of our body and eliminated once and for all. 

Unlike our hearts however, the lymphatic system does not have an organ to pump the fluid around. Instead, it uses our movement, the contraction of our muscles, and the bending of joints to move things along. When we stay stagnant, guess what? Our body can’t launch an immune response as quickly, and we get a build up of waste which starts to impair the function of our body and mind.

Movement doesn’t have to be intense to produce the benefits, but if you love hard and intense exercise, that is also great to incorporate especially when guided by experts such as an accredited trainer, physio or chiropractor to keep you safe as you build up. Simple exercises include walking, swimming, yoga, pilates, and tai chi. 

For others movement can be as simple as flexing, stretching any joint area because this also helps squish and pump fluid around. Examples include:

  • Rolling your neck side to side or down and around – lots of lymph nodes in your  neck
  • Circling and then flexing your arms – lymph nodes in your armpits and elbows
  • Body weight squats – lymph nodes in your groin and knees
  • Deep belly breathing – lots of lymph nodes in your abdomen 

Pick a level of movement that is most enjoyable for you to incorporate on a regular basis.

Score yourself out of 10 (1 low, 10 high) on how well you move. ______________

Pillar #4: Create a sleep sanctuary 

While we sleep, your body is not latent. The amount of healing and cleaning up your body and mind undergo while sleeping is tremendous and is the ONLY time for full repair and taking out the garbage. Specifically, deep sleep is when our brains get a deep clean. 

Our brains have a system that becomes active while we sleep called the glymphatic system, a continuation of the lymphatic system. When we sleep, cavernous bins of the glymphatic system open up by 60% and are where the brain tissues can dump all the waste that accumulated throughout the day. 

If we shortchange sleep, we see an accumulation of waste products and toxic proteins in our brains which are associated with cognitive decline, memory impairment and an increased incidence of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers’s. 

One powerful way to protect your sleep is to create a sleep sanctuary in your bedroom. This means the moment you walk into your room, it feels cozy, welcoming and is device free. This is how we can use your environment to trigger better quality of sleep and quicker onset with less interruptions.

A sleep sanctuary is one of the easiest ways to help your sleep, but there are many others. Pick one to practice at a time and as you get stronger with one, and it becomes second nature, layer on the next. Make it enjoyable – do it with others, do it to music, or make a game or checklist so you can satisfyingly check it off daily. 

Score yourself out of 10 (1 low, 10 high) on how well you move. ______________

Now let’s find out how you did overall. Add all of your scores to get a total.

Total Clean Living Score: ____________________

If your total is 30 or above, you are doing well. 20-30 you are average. Below 20 you have an opportunity to make a big difference in the quality of your health. It’s the compounding of these life enhancing routines that truly has the power to alter the trajectory of your health now and for your future!

Reference:

How not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Dr. Michael Greger

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams  by Matthew Walker

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/are-toxins-flushed-out-of-the-brain-during-sleep

Zhang N, Jiao S, Jing P. Red Cabbage Rather Than Green Cabbage Increases Stress Resistance and Extends the Lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans. Antioxidants (Basel). 2021 Jun 8;10(6):930. doi: 10.3390/antiox10060930. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8228718/

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Saucy Salad Rolls

By Tim Irvine

With our workshops, we try to provide unique ways to help people understand health-related concepts. Our summer salad rolls workshop is an excellent example of one.

Dr. Tamara Kung, ND, demonstrated how to make fantastic salad rolls in no time while at the same time explaining some of the nutritional benefits of the ingredients. For example:

  • Turmeric, garlic powder, and cumin are great for flavour, but they are also big antioxidants that fight inflammation
  • Sweet potato is a yummy root vegetable, but it’s also fibre-rich
  • Green lettuce promotes good gut health

You get the idea.

If you want to try it on your own, the recipe is below. Have fun and enjoy this healthy and tasty treat.

Notes:

Soy Free: Use Coconut Aminos instead of Tamari
Filling Variations: Sliced mango, avocado, or any vegetables you enjoy, roasted cauliflower, eggplant, cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms, and purple cabbage.
Sauce Variations: Hummus, guacamole
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All For your Info King West Performance Promotions Recommendations Resources Tips

RunSmart!

Are you or someone you know hitting the pavement or trails this spring? If so, we have two awesome resources for you.

RunSmart Workshop

We are hosting a RunSmart workshop on May 10th, 6pm at our King location. Our running physio, Victoria Lavinskas, and our running nutritionist, Tara Postnikoff, will help you…

  • Run Faster
  • Run farther
  • Stay injury free
  • Nutrition, technique, resistance work, and more

There is no cost to the workshop, but all attendees will receive 15% off a massage. Sign up here

RunSmart Immersive

If you are looking for the latest and most comprehensive look at running performance from all angles, we have you covered. Whether you are just getting started with running or you are experienced and looking for an edge, this program is a great match.

  • 20+ videos
  • Nutrition advice
  • Warmups
  • Injury prevention
  • 5k and 10k programs
  • Direct access to our professionals

Find out more or sign up here.

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All For your Info Performance Promotions Recommendations Resources Success Story Tips

Do your workouts make you feel this good?

Dr. Stacy Irvine, DC

Why We Care So Much About What We Do……

An important part of working in the Health and Fitness industry, includes staying on top of the latest research along with developing an awareness of what is being presented to your clients and patients through a wide variety of media sources.  The normal scenario is when a completely bonkers fad diet is being promoted by a well-known celebrity, or a risky new type of workout is all over Instagram. We need to be prepared to explain what is happening and why is it probably not the best answer or solution any of us are looking for.

Rarely an article comes along that reflects a GREAT story of why we do what we do, and how our hard work and efforts can pay off. That happened with the article below from 56-year-old Nicole Haggerty.  In this well written, First-Person account, she eloquently explains what weightlifting has done for her, and how it has changed her life….

My favourite quote from this article is as follows:

“The past five months have unfolded as the most empowering journey I have every been on – and that includes getting a PhD. Every other accomplishment has been centered in my head……..But on reflection, I wasn’t paying much attention to my body.”

Please take a moment to read the full article. If you are an avid weightlifter, or just starting out on your weightlifting journey, we are sure you will find some extra motivation in these words.  

In the event the link above does not work, here is the article in full.

Nicole Haggerty

Published in The Globe and Mail, February 27, 2022

Red-faced, sweating and gasping, my brain tries to focus on what my trainer just said. I’ve just set down a 130 lbs hex frame and stepped off the platform to gulp water.

“Describe that to me,” asked Rob. He is looking for an answer that requires me to do something I’m just learning to do – connect my brain to my body.

Yes, I know. My brain is connected to my body – that slowly and inexorably expanding thing, below my neck that has been carrying my head around for the last 56 years. Since completing my undergraduate degree, work life has increasingly immobilized me. Sitting stationary at a desk, staring at a screen – it’s mostly through my fingers that I connect to my brain. I am an academic working at a business school – so they work feverishly to keep up as I pour out my thinking onto the screen, into the memo, e-mail, journal article … whatever the work is.

“It felt great,” I reply. “I could feel the work down my whole posterior chain.” (Who says that? – oh ya, I do!) “But my breathing and bracing weren’t great and I think I let my knees fall inward a couple of times.” Rob is quick to correct, encourage and set up more weight. Then cheerfully he’ll say, “Okay, next set.”

The last five months have unfolded as the most empowering journey I have ever been on – and that includes getting a PhD. Every other accomplishment in my life has been centred in my head – grades, degrees, promotions, published papers, even teaching. I’ve had a few close calls with fitness before – short triathlons, spin class, jogging. But on reflection, I wasn’t paying much attention to my body. These were instead, great opportunities to think my deep thoughts or focus on the world around me while I drowned out my panting breaths with the throbbing 80s music of my youth.

Weightlifting is different. Rob, my guide, has patiently walked me through a whole new world of specific functional movements, made possible by specific muscles moving in particular ways with increasing weights. He is a trainer and manager at my local gym and I was seeking someone who would help me with a single goal – get strong. I was tired of obsessing about steps and macros, and infinitely weary of the “eat less, move more” advice.

Getting strong (“not toned, not thin, not ready for a 5k”) seemed simple if a little embarrassing at my age. But Rob immediately took me seriously. It started with a humbling assessment of my strength and mobility.

Despite my age, size and beginner status, Rob has made me feel safe. Through his knowledge, patient demonstrations and encouragement, he has induced this body to squat, hinge, press and squeeze its way to all kinds of personal bests (which frankly is a low bar when you start from nothing but still – they keep coming). He’s taught me a new language – hypertrophy, eccentric, isometric … and more. He’s there when I falter, ready to ensure I don’t hurt myself even as he grins and asks for three more torturous reps.

The first weeks, I did everything he asked (glad for the mask mandate since it hid my ‘ugly lifting face’ though not my groaning). And always, he was there, clipboard in hand, a watchful gaze and posing questions like “Where did you feel that?” or the more general request, “Describe that for me.”

Early on I took these as rote pleasantries. Over time I realized he wanted more than rote answers. They were part of what needed to be trained. Having shown me how to do an exercise, Rob would explain where I should feel it and he encouraged me to think about the muscle or chain of muscles as they moved, stretched and strained. The questions were a test of that connection. Gradually, I started thinking my way back into my body. Not my body as an undifferentiated whole but as individual, electric connections to newly identified places – my traps, my quads, my delts, my glutes, my triceps and much more. Intentionally. Specifically. Magically. It’s surprisingly difficult and often funny. Like my recent five-second pause, struggling to repeat a lunge move that Rob had demonstrated because my disconnected brain couldn’t fathom what my legs were supposed to be doing. It’s hard work and relentless – every rep, every set, every time. Unnatural and unfamiliar. Yet infinitely natural and amazingly powerful. Rob has led me on a journey of discovery that I didn’t know could be so sacred and so glorious.

I am five months into a new way of living with this 56-year-old body. It talks to me in a totally different way now. A year ago, the simple act of standing up would provoke a cascade of little pains in my knees and hips, and a unique sort of unbending, wobbling walk as I unfolded myself. Today, my body still aches when I stand up – but the pains I feel now don’t scare me with their portending impairments. They are my quads, glutes, pecs and more – I’m still getting to know them all. Now they remind me of their capabilities, they call to me for movement, they demand to be challenged. And I long to continue this dialogue with them and represent their needs and experiences so I’m ready the next time Rob says:

“Describe that to me.”

Nicole Haggerty lives in London, Ont.

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Fitness Promotions

Totum Virtual Bingo!

To help you get ready for our eventual return to work and a more normal life, Totum has put together a challenge to focus on getting you and your immune system in great shape! Just follow the instructions below and start playing. The challenge will run for five weeks (April 27th-June 3rd).

How to play:

  1. Get your Totum bingo card by downloading it (link provided earlier).
  2. Complete five activities in one week. Complete a row, a column or diagonal and you get a Bingo. One bingo per week only
  3. Let us know you you have a BINGO by emailing.

Extra points:

  1. Post on Instagram and tag 3 friends. Use #TotumBingo and #TheTotumApproach
  2. Challenge three friends or family.
  3. Post a picture or video of you working on one part of the card
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Fitness Promotions

Upcoming Summer Events: Youth Performance Camp Registration

Youth Training. when done correctly, can make a huge difference in athlete performance and resistance to injury.
Registration is now open for our 2018 summer youth performance camp running from Aug 13–17. This year we will be returning to the York School Senior school for the morning portion of the day and then complete the day at Totum Performance (1073 Yonge Street, 2nd Floor).
Earlybird pricing is available before June 15th at $399 + HST. Regular price will be available from June 15th at $449 + HST. For full camp information, you can see all details here.
If you are ready to register, you can do so through this link.
Please contact us at 416.928.2108 | yongestudio@totum.ca if you have any questions.
Here’s to a great summer ahead!