Mind and Body

by Brian Tuck

Our body is made up of 70% of it and we’ve all heard the rule: drink 8-10 tall glasses of water per day. Most people find that recommendation hard to live by, so let's break that down into realistc ways to get into the habit of drinking more water.

Always an icy debate, the original 8-10 recommendation includes dietary water found in fruits and vegetables. The exact minimum amount of water one requires can vary depending on our body weight and level of physical activity. It becomes difficult to quantify what each individual needs when most people don’t eat their 8-10 daily portions of fruits and vegetables per day, nor exercise enough as it is.

by Brian Tuck

A massage.  Most of us would love to have more of it, but regular massages can be costly and insurance only covers so much, if you have any at all.

The manipulation of the body tissues to alleviate pain, tension is one of the oldest forms of therapy that exists. Depending on the type of massage, the therapist uses their hands, elbows, knees, feet or specialized tools to like hot stones. The process induces relaxation, improves circulation to the tissues and stimulates the lymphatic system to remove toxins from the body.

The Benefits Of Hydrotherapy

The Scandinavians have been doing it for centuries, the Romans and Ottomans were famous for their dry saunas followed by a jump in a cold lake or roll in the snow. Some of us may cringe at the thought of even taking a cold shower, but the therapeutic qualities of hot and cold immersions, also known as Nordic Spas, have been around in North America for years now.

The benefits are endless and the tradition is timeless, cold water plunges have been known to provide excellent health benefits.  In conjunction with heat, the dry sauna or hot baths are used to bring blood to the skins surface to improve healing, creating an artificial fever in the body to detoxify the organs. The sweaty results also remove toxins from the body’s tissues.

When to say “No”

If we can count the amount of times we say “no” during the week, we’d be quite surprised.  It comes in different forms: refusals to try that new restaurant, unreturned phone calls to an old friend and even that guy you had a date with once because he doesn’t look like James Franco. Sometimes “no” even translates when cannot forgive someone who has hurt us. They are all different ways that negate, excuse or halt a progressive move we can make in our lives.

There is a lot of power in the word “no” and depends entirely on the context that it is used.  It is absolutely respectable to refuse things that may put you in a potentially harmful situation.  Using it in the right context is what makes all difference. Perhaps it’s good to examine why we say “yes” to more hours at work, to countless favors for others, to filling up our schedule with everything else except getting a good night’s sleep, a day of hiking, night of dancing or an evening with a good book. Sounds like “yes” has the potential to be wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Brian Tuck 

Breathe Deeper To Live Better

We did it as babies, we even it do it when we are sleeping. Breathe deeply. At some point in  our hectic day, we may even begin to feel fatigued and our mind, scattered. Our breath shallow, we hardly ever notice it.

Taking in just enough to survive, but not enough to potentially live a little better. We've somehow retrained that innate deep breathing animals know how to do when they breathe through their belly. Watch a cat lounging around and observe their belly rising and falling.

By Brian Tuck

Our hamstrings. Known as one of the tightest set of muscles on the body and the most challenging to gain flexibility with.

Depending on the type of stretch, when we target the hamstring we may include other muscles at the same time. We will examine different ways this can occur, but also how to isolate the hamstring to maximize your improvement in this specific area. Indirectly, we sometimes compensate the stretch on the hamstring with the flexibility of our back, hips and shoulders. Let's clarify

by Brian Tuck

If you are reading this from the comfort of your own home, you are one of the world's richest to have a personal computer, therefore most likely have access to clean tap water. The irony is, major corporations would have you believe otherwise so they profit from your fear of municipal water supplies and sell you something that's readily available in your kitchen for free.

by Brian Tuck

Getting your 8-10 fruit and veggie portions per day is not as difficult as it seems

When dinning out, we easily fill up on massive portions of everything, but when it comes to eating more fruits, vegetables, beans and grains per day, it's suddenly appears to be an unrealistic task to fit it all in. When we are on the go everyday, the options available to us  are staff room vending machines, food courts or  service centers on long road trips. Healthy? Not so much.  It's all about planning ahead. Follow these easy tips to load up on your healthy food portions throughout your day.

by Brian Tuck

Make your Bucket List a one-year plan

If 30 is the new 20 and creating daily intentions is the new way of making New Year's resolutions, then our bucket list should be time adjusted as well.  If you don't know already, a bucket list  is a checklist of everything you have always wanted to do before your time is up, inspired by the 2007 comedy The Bucket List, starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.