I'M SOOO PARCHED!!! I NEED WATER!!!

A article from familydoctor.org is the perfect article to Why is it so important to stay hydrated.  My two cents is at the end.  Enjoy..

Your body depends on water to survive. Every cell, tissue, and organ in your body needs water to work properly. For example, your body uses water to maintain its temperature, remove waste, and lubricate your joints. Water is needed for overall good health.

Path to improved wellness

You should drink water every day. Most people have been told they should drink 6 to 8, 8-ounce glasses of water each day. That is a reasonable goal. However, different people need different amounts of water to stay hydrated. Most healthy people can stay well hydrated by drinking water and other fluids whenever they feel thirsty. For some people, fewer than 8 glasses may be enough. Other people may need more than 8 glasses each day. If you are concerned that you are not drinking enough water, check your urine. If your urine is usually colorless or light yellow, you are well hydrated. If your urine is a dark yellow or amber color, you may be dehydrated.

Water is best for staying hydrated. Other drinks and foods can help you stay hydrated. However, some may add extra calories from sugar to your diet. Fruit and vegetable juices, milk, and herbal teas add to the amount of water you get each day. Even caffeinated drinks (for example, coffee, tea, and soda) can contribute to your daily water intake. A moderate amount of caffeine (200 to 300 milligrams) is not harmful for most people. This is about the amount in 2 to 4, 8-ounce cups of coffee. However, it’s best to limit caffeinated drinks. Caffeine may cause some people to urinate more frequently, or feel anxious or jittery.

Water can also be found in fruits and vegetables (for example, watermelon, tomatoes, and lettuce), and in soup broths.

Sports drinks can be helpful if you are planning on exercising at higher than normal levels for more than an hour. It contains carbohydrates and electrolytes that can increase your energy. It helps your body absorb water. However, some sports drinks are high in calories from added sugar. They also may contain high levels of sodium (salt). Check the serving size on the label. One bottle usually contains more than one serving. Some sports drinks contain caffeine, too. Remember that a safe amount of caffeine to consume each day is between 200 and 300 mg (milligrams).

Energy drinks are not the same as sports drinks. Energy drinks usually contain large amounts of caffeine. Also, they contain ingredients that overstimulate you (guarana, ginseng, or taurine). These are things your body doesn’t need. Most of these drinks are also high in added sugar. According to doctors, children and teens should not have energy drinks.

If staying hydrated is difficult for you, here are some tips that can help:

• Keep a bottle of water with you during the day. To reduce your costs, carry a reusable water bottle and fill it with tap water.
• If you don’t like the taste of plain water, try adding a slice of lemon or lime to your drink.
• Drink water before, during, and after a workout.
• When you’re feeling hungry, drink water. Thirst is often confused with hunger. True hunger will not be satisfied by drinking water. Drinking water may also contribute to a healthy weight-loss plan. Some research suggests that drinking water can help you feel full.
• If you have trouble remembering to drink water, drink on a schedule. For example, drink water when you wake up, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and when you go to bed. Or, drink a small glass of water at the beginning of each hour.
• Drink water when you go to a restaurant. It will keep you hydrated, and it’s free.

Things to consider

Recognizing signs of dehydration is important. They include:

• Little or no urine.
• Urine that is darker than usual.
• Dry mouth.
• Sleepiness or fatigue.
• Extreme thirst.
• Headache.
• Confusion.
• Dizziness or lightheadedness.
• No tears when crying.

Don’t wait until you notice symptoms of dehydration to take action. Actively prevent dehydration by drinking plenty of water.

Some people are at higher risk of dehydration, including people who exercise at a high intensity (or in hot weather) for too long, have certain medical conditions (kidney stones, bladder infection), are sick (fever, vomiting, diarrhea), are pregnant or breastfeeding, are trying to lose weight, or are not able to get enough fluids during the day. Older adults are also at higher risk. As you get older, your brain may not be able to sense dehydration. It doesn’t send signals for thirst.

Water makes up more than half of your body weight. You lose water each day when you go to the bathroom, sweat, and even when you breathe. You lose water even faster when the weather is really hot, when you are physically active, or if you have a fever. Vomiting and diarrhea can also lead to rapid water loss. If you don’t replace the water you lose, you can become dehydrated.

i make life a little easier, go to https://www.calculatorpro.com/calculator/water-intake-calculator/ and use the calculator and see how much water that your body should have to be hydrated.  Also, put an app on your phone as a reminder of when to drink water.  I know I forget but the water chime, reminds me.  Crazy but necessary.

DETOXING

This is old but still helps

Detox Spirit & Detox Body, a necessary Balance

Toxic attitudes, behaviors, and cultural influences that you allow into your life put your soul in danger. You can’t avoid contact with such toxins in this fallen world, but you don’t have to be contaminated by them. You can detoxify your soul and start experiencing the pure life that God wants you to enjoy. Here’s how:

Realize that everything counts. Absolutely everything that you allow into your mind and life has on impact on how you grow or don’t grow spiritually. The little choices that you make every day add up to a significant effect on your soul. So take your everyday decisions seriously.

Identify the lies that have deceived you, and replace them with the truth. Examine your life for toxic: behaviors (what you do that harms your spiritual effectiveness or distracts you from God’s purposes for your life), emotions (feelings that lead you away from God’s truth), and consumptions (media you consume and people you spend time with). Ask God to give you the wisdom you need to discern which of all of those are toxic to you.

Clean up your thoughts. Since spiritual battles are ultimately either won or lost in the mind, it’s crucial to pay attention to what thoughts you focus on. Your thoughts shape what kind of person you become. If you think unhealthy thoughts, you’ll become an unhealthy person. But if you think healthy thoughts that reflect God’s truth, you’ll become more like Jesus, as God intends you to become. Regularly pray for the ability to view the situations you encounter as God sees them so you can have the right perspective on them. Every day, ask God to show you which thoughts that enter your mind are unholy and displeasing to Him. Whenever you identify wrong thoughts, take action to replace them with right ones. Choose to focus only on thoughts about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy. Spend time meditating on God’s wonderful qualities; the more you think about God, the more peace will enter your mind.

Choose positive words and avoid negative words. Recognize the incredible power of words to bring about either good or evil. Positive words create and heal, while negative words harm and destroy. So throughout each day when you’re speaking or writing, choose to communicate positive words to others as much as possible. When you hear the words that other people communicate to you, carefully analyze them to determine whether or not they actually reflect what’s true – and if so, embrace them, but if not, reject them. Pay attention to your self-talk as well, and ask God to help you say positive words to yourself in your mind.

Uncover your hidden sins. No sin is ever hidden from God, no matter how much you may deny it in your life or try to hide it from other people. God knows all of your sins and chooses to love you anyway, and He is always hoping that you will confess and repent of your sins so you can keep growing spiritually. So regularly confess your sins (to God and other Christians) and repent of them so you can receive forgiveness and healing.

Dig up bitter roots from your soul. When you allow bitterness to take root in your soul, it poisons you and blocks you from experiencing the grace God wants to give you. So get rid of bitterness by following God’s command to forgive people who have hurt you. You can rely on the strength that God will give you to forgive.

Get rid of envy. Envying people who have what you want but don’t have will only poison you. So stop comparing yourself and your life with other people and their lives. Instead, make a daily habit of noticing the many blessings that God brings into your life, and thanking God for them. Ask God to help you be content in all circumstances and trust that, in His great love and wisdom, He will always give you what’s best for you.

Express anger productively rather than destructively. It’s fine to feel angry, as long as you don’t sin because of the way you express your anger. Pray for the wisdom you need to discern the difference between constructive and destructive anger, and for the self-control you need to let go of destructive anger (anger that causes you to sin by hurting yourself and others). You can control your anger by making choices such as carefully listening and thinking to messages others are communicating to you before responding, so you calm down and respond without sinning. You can also redirect your anger by using anger as Jesus did: to fight injustice and work for righteousness. Ask God to make you angry about what angers Him, and then to use that anger to help bring about justice in the world.

Break free of fear. Whenever you feel afraid, remind yourself that fear never comes from God; it comes from evil. God gives you a spirit of power, love, and peace – not fear. Rather than placing your faith in all the “what-ifs” of life and feeling afraid of what may or may not happen, place your faith in God who is in charge of your future and wants what’s best for you. Pay attention to specific, persistent fears in your life, because they reveal the areas in which you’re trusting God the least. Pray about each area you identify as a problem, surrendering each one specifically to God and asking Him to help you trust Him more with it. Then be diligent about seeking God so you can consistently grow closer to Him. The closer you become to God, the less you’ll struggle with fear.

Get rid of toxic influences on your life. Break free of materialism and look to God (instead of money and possessions) to meet your needs for happiness, significance, and security. Whenever you consume media of any kind (from television shows and songs to Internet articles and books), honestly ask yourself: “Am I being entertained by sin?”, Is this pleasing to God?”, and “Does this lure me away from Jesus?”. Then stop consuming media that you recognize is toxic to you. Since bad company corrupts good character, set boundaries to protect yourself from being influenced by unhealthy people, and cut off unhealthy relationships with people who are dangerous to your spiritual growth but won’t change. Ask God to show you when religion is corrupting the purity of the Gospel in your life, and to help you focus not on external behavior to try to earn God’s love, but on responding to the love that God has already given you by trusting Him in every part of your life.

WHAT ABOUT IT!!

This is a new segment calls WHAT ABOUT IT?! I will be answering questions that you are too afraid to tell or ask the massage therapist in person.

Recently, there was an event that I attended, but was not a part of that included foot massages and chair massage.  Since I had done an event there prior, people kept coming to me after their service, asking me questions.  One person (a muscler man) stated the therapist who was performing chair massage, she had her elbow in his collarbone not on the muscle.  He stated that she never once asked him how was the pressure.  Which is a NO-NO?  When a therapist massages a client, within the second effluerage movement, the therapist should ask you "how is the pressure?".  This is manage the therapist pressure of the client.  As therapist we are not there to hurt, but to release tension.

So next time, you go to get a chair massage or a full body, and the therapist does not ask about their pressure on your body, you need to let them know or give them an indication whether is good, bad, hurts or not enough.  A massage is not suppose to hurt.  It is your body and it is not to be abused.

The WHAT ABOUT IT?! segment will be continuous.  So send me your questions.  Have a beautiful day.

Remember to Detox your spirit, body and mind from negative entities.  LOVE YOU!!

REFLEXOLOGY..WHAT IS IT?

REFLEXOLOGY

“What is Holistic?” states that Reflexology is an ancient Chinese technique that uses pressure-point massage (usually on the feet, but also on the hands and ears) to restore the flow of energy throughout the entire body. The science of Reflexology has been around for thousands of years. It is based on the premise that there are reflexes in our hands, feet and ears that relate to every organ and part of our body. By stimulating these reflexes with pressure and manipulation, nerve function and blood supply may be improved, which may alleviate stress and other health problems. Reflexology is based on the belief that each part of the body is interconnected through the nervous system to the hands and feet. Stimulating specific reflex points in the feet can bring needed nutrients to poorly functioning areas of the body. This can help restore balance throughout the body. 

THE MAP

A  reflexology map exists for the feet. Each foot represents a vertical half of the body: The left foot refers to the left side of the body and all organs, valves, etc. . The right foot refers to the right side of the body and all organs .

For example, the liver is on the right side of the body, and therefore the  reflex area is on the right foot.

When receiving hand reflexology, a person may experience a minor pain or some unusual sensation they have never felt before, either in their hand or somewhere in their body and if the sensation is in the hand, the person will want to know what that part of the hand represents in the body. A quick look at the “map” will provide an answer.

PRECAUTIONS

1. Persons with foot fractures, unhealed wounds, or active gout in the foot. osteoarthritis that involves the foot or ankle, or those with vascular disease of the legs or feet, open wounds.      
2. Clients who report current thrombosis or embolism (which is an obstruction of the pulmonary artery or a branch of it by a free-floating blood clot or embolus) should not receive reflexology therapy. Since reflexology improves circulation, it could potentially cause a clot to move towards the heart or brain.
3. For women in early pregnancy (the first 6 weeks) Caution should be exercised during pregnancy because stimulation may cause contractions.         

NOTE: Always consult your physician before receiving  any or taken any treatment.

THEORIES

Reflexology helps release stress, which in turn helps the body heal and regenerate itself.

Reflexology works with the central nervous system,  there is a neurological relationship between the skin and the internal organs, and that the whole nervous system adjusts to a stimulus.

Pressure is applied to feet, hands, or ears sends a calming message from the peripheral nerves in these extremities to the central nervous system, which in turn signals the body to adjust the tension level. This enhances overall relaxation, brings internal organs and their systems into a state of optimum functioning, and brings additional oxygen and nutrients to cells and enhances waste removal It positively affects the circulatory, respiratory, endocrine, immune, and neuropeptide systems in the body. (my notes in school)

Pain is a subjective experience created by your brain. The brain does this in response to the sensory experience of pain, but it can also work independently of sensory input and create pain in response to emotional or cognitive factors. Thus things that influence the brain, such as your mood or external factors like stress can also affect your experience of pain, Reflexology may reduce pain by reducing stressand improving mood. (my notes in school)

The human body creates a "vital energy" . If stress is not placed under control, it can lead to congestion of energy, which in turn causes bodily inefficiencies, which can lead to illness. Reflexology helps keep the energy flowing.



Zone Theory?

The body is divided into 10 vertical zones. Each zone corresponds to fingers and toes all the way up to the top of the head. What do you mean?  if you are standing up with your hands on your thighs (palms facing down) the thumbs and great toe would be zone 1. On either side of the body, the index finger and second toe would be zone 2, etc.

Every organ, valve, muscle, etc. that lies within a zone can be accessed via a point or area on the feet or hands. What do you mean?  Working between toes 2 and 3, or fingers 2 and 3, the eye point is found. These pathways between pressure points and other parts of the body are thought to be connected via the nervous system

The zones are similar to, but not the same as meredians found in Chinese medicine

New Day

Just wanted to let everyone know that it's a NEW DAY!! Healthy is in.  I will be giving you more education, more laughter, you can ask me any questions big or small, Insane or insane.  Looking forward to you talking back to me (in a good way please).  Will be working with Belle Ju Spa at 11770 Haynes Bridge Rd - (Salons by jc) ste 42, Alpharetta, GA  30009.  If  you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 770.383.2238.

What is a Body Wrap and what are the benefits?

The benefits of Body Wraps vary from detoxifying the body, removal of excess fat and fluid from tissues, restoring minerals, reducing joint pain tighten and tone the skin and nourish and soften the skin.

HISTORY

Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome body wraps have been traditionally known for beautifying the skin, detoxifying and healing the body, reducing weight and soothe the spirit; by using ace bandages or plastic wrap; that is wrapped tightly around the body or wrapped around each exemity

TOXINS

Toxins are in our food, personal care products, cleansing agents, buildings, air and water.  We can not smell them or taste them, but they enter our bodies through breathing, drinking and eating.  If toxins are not eliminated, toxins with accumulate and build up in the body and cause toxicity (low energy, feeling sluggish, foggy mind, headache, skin problems, foo cravings, excess weight, body odor, bloated stomach and flatulence) within the body.

SESSION

The Massage Therapist will gently brush the skin to get rid of all the dead skin cells and to stimulate your body's natural circulation. Then, warm elastic bandages are wrapped independently around your torso, arms, legs, or neck, depending on what process you have chosen. If the procedure is done by a massage therapist, he or she will also make sure to gently massage your body. These elastic bandages usually have been soaking all day in minerals and herbs, but some body wrap procedures use algae, seaweed, mud, or clay. Others will use shea butter and rich lotions to soften your skin. Body wraps can use minerals, herbs, algae or other natural products to soften and moisten the skin to allow your body to go through a detox process. 

DISCLAIMER:  It will be get extremely hot, so if you are very sensitive to heat or claustrophobic or allergic to anything, this beauty process in not for you and other beauty modalities can be used.

The body wrap is basically for the body to lose excess fluid.  HOWEVER, this way of lose requires you to perform a regiment. (What are you talking about Mo?  What do I have to do?  I knew it was too good to be true. :( )

To get the full effects of a body wrap results, you have to eat healthy and properly (contact a nutritionist), drink plenty of water and exercise (cardio is good).  The body wrap sessions will have to be twice a week for 4- 6 weeks to see the effects that you are looking for.  "WOW,  that's a lot!!!"  It pays to be beautiful and to feel good.

While you are being wrapped to your own perfection, the Therapist will either leave you alone in the room for approximately 30 - 40 minutes with soft music and a herbal face mask or perform and head, neck and feet massage.  Also after the body wrap, the therapist can offer you a full body massage (extra fee of course) or it can be offered in a package.  So, all together the process should take 80 minutes.

If you have any questions, contact me.

TRY IT, YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE WITH IT!! 

Benefits of Stone Massage

Hot Stone Massage is a style of massage therapy in which water-treated stones are placed at specific sites on the client's body to promote relaxation and to help open up energy pathways. Muscles are pretreated with the heated stones to allow the therapist to more easily to perform deep tissue manipulations. Cool stones are sometimes used alternately with hot stones. Massage oils are incorporated into the massage.

Stone Massage promotes deep muscle and tissue relaxation, alleviates stress, releases toxins, relieves pain, improves circulation, calms the mind.

Stone Massage relieves (does not cure) muscular aches and pains, back Pain, MS Arthritis, fibromylagia, stress, anxiety, circulatory problems, insomnia, depression

Origin

Hot stones warmed by fire were used by Native Americans to treat aching muscles, but the modern revival of hot stones in massage.

When Stones are not appropriate

Hot Stone massage is not appropriate if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or take medication that thins the blood. You shouldn't get a hot stone massage if you are pregnant or have a sunburn. You also may want to reconsider if you are menopausal, as it may trigger a hot flash.

Stone Massage Treatment

Every therapist has a different style.

Usually the treatment is started face down, with the therapist working on your back.

Towels are placed on the areas in which the stones will be placed so that the client will not be burned.  

Once the towels are removed, the therapist then will proceed with traditional Swedish massage while holding a heated stone. As the stone cools, the therapist replaces it with another.  This is to be the process for entire body (posterior and anterior body).

Therapist uses a variety of stone of various shapes and sizes -- big ones on the big muscles, smaller ones on smaller muscles.The therapist might also leave heated

stones in specific points along your spine, in the palms of your hand, on your belly, or even between your toes to improve the flow of energy in your body.

 Many therapists believe that the stones themselves have an energetic charge and that needs to be maintained by placing them in a spiral pattern.

 If you feel uncomfortable regarding the stones being hot, too warm or the feel of the stones; please let your therapist know. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.