Deepak Saini Health

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My first Psilocybin Experience

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As many of you know, I am a self-experimenter, within reason I guess. But I wanted to share my experience trying Psilocybin mushrooms. These were not pure mushrooms or dried or ground up, but rather in a pill form that I had acquired.

The pill consisted of:

100 mg of Lion’s Maine mushroom

100 mg of Psilocybin

40 mg of Blueberry extract, and

40 mg of Niacin

Note: I do get Niacin flush with as little as 20 mg sometimes, especially on an empty stomach.

I had three pills, so I decided to break it up into 1 pill one day and 2 pills the second day.

For both of these experiences, I set myself up this way.

I was approximately 14 hr fasted, no caffeine in system (was on caffeine reset), only had 16 mushroom bled tea beforehand, wanted to see if that would help. Laid on my back on the floor in a dimly lit room in my house in the basement. My wife was working and the kids were at school, so it was nice and quite

I did a 1.5 hr Guided Meditation both times. The first and second experience were 8 days apart.

So what was my experience?

1st – Again, 1 capsule. I had a dream or vision of my hair growing really long, longer than at any time of my life and very tight spirally hair, which is not my hair type at all. So that was weird, maybe some hair envy?

2nd – Again, 2 capsules. My dreams or visualizations, I’d say more visualizations to follow the guided meditation were absolutely more vivid in colour. I don’t really know if I dream in colour, I don’t think I do, but this was crazy colourful, like something you would imagine from the 70’s tie-dye era or new age videos or something. I also had a massive skin flush response with two capsules, did not experience that with only one, but that is not a surprise since I had 80 mg of Niacin, which would be 4 times what I normally take daily.

Both times, via the guided meditation and focusing on contracting muscles with the focus on the brain, I felt a rush of blood to my head. It felt exactly the same as when I hang upside down on my inversion table and have all the blood rush to my head. I don’t know if that was the meditation itself or anything to do with the ingredients in the capsules.

I would say my experience was Psilocybin lite for sure, definitely compared to some people I know.

But a nice entry level experience none the less. I will definitely try just taking Psilocybin sometime in the future and see what experience I have.

I feel there is definitely a role for plant medicines in health and healing. To keep up to date, don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel “Deepak Saini Health” or if you would like to work with me on your Health, Performance and Longevity goals, click the link.

What happened when I did a Caffeine Reset?

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A couple months back, I was re-reading some materials on Energy, fatigue, cortisol levels etc., and the notion of a caffeine reset was brought back to my attention. A few fellow biohackers and health professionals swear by doing a quarterly reset or taking a break once in a while.

One of the reasons being that caffeine raises your cortisol and many of us are already in states of high cortisol due to stress, so taking a break or reset can be beneficial.

Another being that we can build a tolerance for caffeine and need to get more and more to function at the same levels as in the past. This could potentially be bad for a number of reasons that I won’t get into here in this blog post.

Also, not to mention the effects caffeine can have on sleep, dependent on timing and genetics.

After reading these materials, I began pondering and realized that since I was introduced to coffee back in 2nd year University, I have never taken a break from it, except maybe a long travel day or something where timing was a bit off. I have been consuming caffeine for 23-24 years straight.

I am writing this post on the 14th day of my caffeine reset. Tomorrow I will reintroduce caffeine via coffee and see if I get a cognitive boost or whatever.

This is how I began. I did one day of 75% of my normal load, the next day I dropped it down to 25% of normal, this was the only day where by the end of the day I had a caffeine withdrawal headache. I never get headaches, and I have had a few withdrawal headaches before (those travel days I mentioned before), so I am confident it wasn’t for another reason.

The next two days I stayed at 25%, no headaches, then went completely off for 2 weeks. I have to say, I had no issues, no headaches, I wasn’t any more tired by the end of the day than normal. It wasn’t like I was falling asleep at 8pm or anything like that.

Many of you know who follow me, I track my sleep religiously, but there were no real effects to my sleep. There are so many variables that effect sleep, that my sleep data was pretty much normal.

I did not take any other non-caffeine cognitive boosters and I did not feel like my cognition was affected at all. I was able to keep up with my regular routines and work habits.

So what did I learn? Well, I didn’t do any testing of cortisol levels or anything like that, but I know I can go without caffeine if I need to, and I may make it a routine reset protocol twice a year, because why not?

If you would like to work with me on all things related to your health, reach out and let’s have a conversation.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my youtube channel “Deepak Saini Health” so you never miss a video. Cheers!

Photo by Ante Samarzija on Unsplash

What’s the Point? -Guest Post

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When I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my back a number of years ago, one of the things I tried was dry needling. My wife had also tried traditional acupuncture back 10-11 years ago with an issue she was having. So, I am no stranger to acupuncture, but I am far from an expert in it and have never done a post or video on it.

Please find a guest blog post below by second time contributor Jennifer Gordon.

What is the buzz about acupuncture? It seems to be everywhere now and there are many different techniques and terminologies – Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), dry needling, trigger point needling, Intra-Muscular Stimulation (IMS)…

What does it all mean?

Firstly, acupuncture is a safe and effective, natural and drug free way to eliminate pain and restore health. This practice originated in China and has been around for over 2000 years! Recently, western medicine has expanded its horizons and many practitioners are incorporating this into their practice – such as physiotherapists, chiropractors, medical doctors, and naturopathic doctors. There are various types of acupuncture techniques used, where a thin needle is inserted into the skin, but nothing is injected (dry needling). All techniques use pre-sterilized disposable needles of various lengths that pierce the skin or muscles. These needles are typically left in the tissue anywhere from a few seconds to 20 minutes. Occasionally, the needles are hooked up to a small electrical current, called electro-acupuncture.

Classical acupuncture, or Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), involves inserting needles into specific points along 12 meridians on our body. These meridians are channels of energy mapped out along the surface of our skin that relate to internal organs (small intestine, gall bladder, heart, liver…). Needling certain points along these meridians is believed to help restore imbalances in the flow of Qi (“chi”), or energy throughout our body.  Anatomical or medical acupuncture are Western forms of acupuncture that integrate current knowledge of anatomy and physiology with classical acupuncture techniques (TCM).  Motor point needling, dry needling, myofascial acupuncture all describe similar techniques used to target the neuromuscular junction of the muscle (where the nerve innervates the muscle) or trigger points in the muscle belly. Trigger points are tight, palpable knots that can be painful and often refer pain to other areas of the body.  These techniques specifically target injured muscles that have contracted and shortened from distress.  Dry needling may provide nearly instantaneous relief from the painful trigger point as well as improve function and mobility.

Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS) is another form of dry needling. IMS is a total system for the diagnosis and treatment of myofascial pain syndromes.  Initially developed by Dr. Chan Gunn in British Columbia in the 70’s, this technique follows the radiculopathic model of pain.  The needling sites often target both the locally tight muscle bands and the nerve root at the spinal level that may have become irritated and hypersensitive.  For example, elbow pain and a local tendinopathy may have its origins at C6 where the nerve root is existing the spinal cord. If you only treat the local elbow symptoms, you wouldn’t be targeting the whole system.

How does it work?

The penetration of a needle into normal muscle tissue should be painless with no effect. Penetration into tight, shortened muscle tissue that is supersensitive will cause a ‘grasp’ of the muscle around the needle. This is often described as a cramping sensation.  When this occurs, a stretch receptor in the muscle is stimulated which then produces a reflex relaxation phase. Secondly, the needle causes a micro irritation that draws blood to the area and stimulates the healing process. Thirdly, by relaxing the tight muscle bands the pressure on surrounding nerves, joints and soft tissue is reduced.  Increased muscle flexibility, joint range of motion and reduced pain can be achieved. It is common to experience some discomfort when tight muscle bands are being released. This is similar to the soreness experienced after a deep tissue massage or an intense workout. This sensation is temporary and may last from 12-48 hours. There is also the potential for a superficial bruise, but this is not serious.

All forms of acupuncture are thought to directly stimulate local nerves in an area, thereby stimulating impulses that connect to the spinal cord and brain. These impulses help stimulate the production of endorphins in the brain, our natural pain relief hormones. Furthermore, neural pathways are stimulated that inhibit the pain perceived in our body, therefore causing an analgesic effect. In other words, happy hormones are released in our body that lessen the pain!

Classical acupuncture points can stimulate weak muscles and direct energy and blood flow to an area to alleviate pain, improve circulation, and speed the healing process.  Motor and trigger point release can target those stubborn knots that reduce flexibility, compress nerves and cause pain.  The combination of these treatments in addition to manual therapy and prescribed exercises can be very effective in restoring muscle balance, function, alleviating painful syndromes, and enhancing performance.

Our physiotherapists at Bragg Creek Physiotherapy offer a variety of techniques with certifications through the Acupuncture Foundation of Canada and Gunn IMS.  If you are struggling with a stubborn injury that just isn’t getting better, these techniques might help get you progress to the next stage of healing.

Jennifer Gordon (BSc.PT, AFCI, GunnIMS)

Physiotherapist, Medical Acupuncture, Gunn IMS

Bragg Creek Physiotherapy www.braggcreekphysio.com

If you would like to learn more about Acupuncture reach out to Jennifer or myself. If Jennifer’s office is not convenient for you contact me and I’ll connect you with practitioners in my network across the world.

Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash

Book Review: Fast This Way by Dave Asprey

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Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation, and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be, is the secondary title of this book, which is a mouthful for sure. For anyone who follows me, you know that I am a fan of Dave Asprey and even use a few of his products. This is the sixth book of his that I have read and the fourth I have done a review on.

My take is that if you really want to get into the depths of fasting or are already an experienced faster there are better books out there. However, if you are new to fasting this book is easy and engaging to read, and it gives you a roadmap for planning how you would personally approach incorporating fasting into your overall health routine.

Throughout the book Dave weaves a story of his first three-day water only fast in a cave in the Arizona desert to illustrate points about the benefits of fasting, which was a nice touch.

How men and women approach fasting needs to be different and he addresses the differences for men and women as well as really detailed strategies for being successful with fasting.

I appreciated the fact that fasting doesn’t just mean from food, it could be from anything that is holding you back in your life, and the same strategies would apply. If could be a Social Media fast (which I have done), a caffeine fast (I have also done that) or any number of potentially unhealthy habits that one may have.

As I have become more spiritual myself over the years, I like the fact that this book delves into the synergy between fasting for spiritual reasons and fasting for health reasons. I have done a few 24 hour fasts and regularly practice Intermittent fasting of 18 hours. This book has only enhanced my desire to try a three-day water only fast.

My favorite takeaway for a new comer to fasting and certainly something I emphasize with my clients is, the goal of fasting is to be metabolically flexible, so it’s important to switch up eating patterns every so often to keep the body guessing and ready to adapt to whatever comes its way.

I have to admit there is a lot of overlap from the authors book the Bulletproof Diet, and if you follow his podcast, you have heard a lot of this before. I do prefer his other books that go far deeper into a topic and share more cutting-edge research.

That being said, if you are new to fasting or interested in fasting, it is worth a read even to just have an understanding of how your eating patterns affect your health and wellness. Need a bit more guidance, let’s have a conversation.

Mitochondria and The Future of Medicine – Lee Know, ND: Book Review

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The secondary title of the book is: The Key to Understanding Disease, Chronic Illness, Aging, and Life Itself. We have known for some time now that Mitochondrial health is the key to energy, health and aging. Why this does not receive more attention in the front-line medical system is beyond insane, especially with that we all have been dealing with in 2020-2021.

I cannot recall how I came across this book, if it was a podcast interview with the author or a recommendation from someone, but I found it very insightful and here is my quick review on it.

The author is obviously a fan of the Star Wars movies as he named the three long chapters in the book based upon “The Force”, which is actually a very good way of looking at Mitochondria, as they are the life force within each of us.

The first part of the book is very science heavy with setting up the background and understanding of Cell Biology, Cellular Respiration, the Electron Transport Chain etc. Towards the end of the first section the author discusses the now discarded theories of aging and introduces the Mitochondrial Theory of Aging which is growing and gaining more and more acceptance.

The second part of the book discusses and reviews Bioenergetics, ATP production and turnover, and most importantly, the role Mitochondria play in nearly every disease or condition you can think of. There are some very handy reference charts that I flagged, including: A) Medications Documented to Induce Mitochondrial Damage, B) Signs, Symptoms, and Diseases associated with Mitochondrial Dysfunction C) Inherited Conditions that Implicate Mitochondrial Dysfunction and D) Maternally Inherited Mitochondrial Disorders Caused by mtDNA Mutations.

The last section of the book discusses the nutritional and lifestyle factors for Mitochondrial health. And also provides the evidence for some supplement recommendations. Luckily, I already take most, but there are a few others I am considering adding to my and my wife’s stack. The author ends off by bring all the concepts introduced together in a nice conclusion.

As I have reiterated many times before in previous book reviews, I always appreciate thorough sourcing, which this book did have.

While the beginning of the book does get a little technical if it has been a while since you took a biology or chemistry class, it is not that bad, and at right around 200 pages is actually a very easy read. However, do not take the length of the book to be any indication of its depth. This book goes deep and will become a resource as I work with clients who may have various Mitochondrial conditions, and really most everyone does.

I highly recommend this book. And if you want to learn more about how to work with me, click here.

These Everyday Health Strategies Make Wellness Easy, Right Now

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Staying healthy takes a long-term commitment, which is why so many people falter in meeting their goals. The right strategies, modifying your diet and exercise regimen, nurturing relationships, and signing up for a tailored program offered by Deepak Saini Health’s Personal Blue Zone Masterclass, can help you achieve better health, improved performance, and increased longevity. Try these simple tweaks to promote wellness every day—starting right now.

Start with Simple Exercises

Engaging in regular exercise is beneficial. Experts recommend a variety of exercises, from endurance to strength to balance and flexibility, to keep you at your best.

Even exercise like taking the stairs (when it’s safe to do so) can improve health outcomes. You’ll build muscle, improve your cardiovascular health, and even reduce your risk of experiencing a stroke. Of course, stair climbing isn’t the only suitable exercise. From yoga to line dancing to tennis, there’s a physical activity out there that’s right for you.

For example, as the National Osteoporosis Foundation highlights, weight-bearing exercises such as bodyweight workouts are excellent for improving bone density. Muscle-strengthening moves are also crucial for your bone health.

Starting with a low-impact fitness regimen—such as walking, cycling, and swimming—is ideal, especially if you are new to regular exercise. It’s also easy to fit into your day. If you want to keep an eye on your progress, a fitness tracker, smartwatch or Oura ring is a terrific tool. Not only will you be able to track your workouts, but you’ll also be able to monitor all your activity whether you’re walking to work or going up the stairs.

Round Out Your Healthy Diet

No matter how healthy you eat, it’s likely you have nutritional gaps in your diet. Processed food and inadequate micronutrient levels make you more susceptible to illness.

Even the healthiest foods don’t contain 100 percent bioavailable nutrients. This means that your body can’t glean all the good stuff from your diet alone, even if each meal is a plateful of veggies.

To address deficiencies, talk to an expert that can help support your nutritional needs. The right supplements can promote gut health, clear up your skin, deliver extra energy throughout your day, and even promote longevity.

The best vitamins are ones that contain high levels of bioavailable nutrients, so take care to read labels and research supplements thoroughly. Then, you only need to remember to take your supplements each day (ideally with food) to reap the health benefits.

Focus on Relationships

Nurturing meaningful relationships is one way to stay healthy throughout adulthood. AARP highlights a survey which found that older adults who valued friendships enjoyed “better functioning.” And while family relationships are valuable, too, friendships proved most beneficial, according to the survey results.

You might not think your emotional well-being is directly linked with health. But surveys like the one mentioned above remind us of the mind-body connection and the importance of tending to your mental state.

Studies have also proven that social and emotional support can help protect people against early death, illness, and roadblocks toward recovery after surgery or a health scare. This means that friendships and family relationships are more vital than anyone might have guessed, especially in older age.

If you are dealing with relationship issues such as criticism or the blame game, it can bring more negativity into the home and contribute to stress. Negative relationships can be nurtured with house cleansing. Gather a few key ingredients — sage, lemons, white vinegar, sea salt, selenite, a bell, and a fireproof dish — to create a cleansing solution that you’ll then use on door knobs, windows, doors, and frames. This can allow more positive energy to manifest in the home and help improve everyone’s mood.

Check Out Health Programs

While you can benefit from the above tips, every individual has different health needs, so it is important to focus on wellness strategies that are suitable for you. The good news is whatever your age or ability level, you can find a health program that supports your wellness goals.

Deepak Saini Health offers a program designed to help you live a longer, healthier life. It is not a one-size-fits-all program — you will get a customized plan that will teach you about nutrition, functional movement and proper exercise, toxicity and the environment, and sleep and stress techniques. Making such changes a part of your everyday routine can make a big impact on your overall health.

Staying healthy requires balance—and that can even include occasional well-intentioned indulgences. But by taking these simple steps toward better health, you can pursue optimal wellness without drastically changing your habits. And you don’t have to spend unnecessary hours in the gym, either.

I would like to thank Jennifer McGregor for this guest article. She can be reached here:

mcgregor_jennifer@publichealthlibrary.org

PublicHealthLibrary.org

Photo via Shutterstock

Past Year Reviews

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This is a post I recorded on my YouTube Channel. It was Part two of a two part series. Part one, can be seen on my YT channel Deepak Saini Health and don’t forget to subscribe.

This Blog Post is about Past Year Reviews. This is a concept I learned about from Tim Ferriss, so all credit to him.

Some people find Past Year Reviews more informed, valuable and actionable than goal setting and certainly more so than resolutions, which I hate and most people break anyways.

This is what the process looks like:

1. Garb a paper or notebook and create two columns: Positive and Negative

2. Review your calendar from last year, looking at each week

3. For each week, write down the people, activities, or commitments that triggered high positive or negative emotions for that month. Put those down in the proper columns.

4. Once you’ve gone through the whole year, review your list and ask yourself, ‘What 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful highs?”

5. Based on what you come up with, take your “positive” leaders and schedule more of them in the New Year. Book them in your calendar now! Book things with friends and family and even go so far as to prepay for activities/ events/ commitments that you know will work. Remember, its not real unless its in your calendar. That is the first part. The second part is to take your “negative” leaders, put “NOT-TO-DO LIST” at the top, and put them somewhere where you can see them each day for the first few months of 2021. These are the people and things you “know” make you miserable, so don’t put them on your calendar out of obligation, guilt, fear of missing out, or other nonsense.

Remember, it is not enough to remove the negative, that simply creates a hole, fill your calendar with the positive as soon as possible so you don’t get crowed out with BS that otherwise would fill your day.

This is the first time I have attempted this exercise. For the positives, I found it useful to go through my gratitude journal as well.

A couple of the things on my positive list were: going bike riding or to the park with my kids, and standup paddle boarding with friends or clients and reading at the beach. So I am going to try and do those things more.

I have plenty of negatives too. To protect the innocent, I won’t elaborate any more than to say remove or limit the people who add no joy to my life. Maybe it is just me, but if there is one thing that 2020 highlighted was how some people truly are. Life is too short to engage with people who do not share my values.

If there is anything on your Positives List that you want to do more of or to rekindle in your Health, Performance and Longevity, then let’s have a conversation, perhaps I can serve you or steer you to someone who can.

Don’t forgot to subscribe to my YouTube channel Deepak Saini Health to never miss out.

I would love to hear about your positives and negatives lists, add them to the comments.

Here’s to a Productive 2021! Cheers!

Life Will Get Better- By Nicole Beurkens, PhD -Book Review

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Health is not all about Nutrition, Push-ups or attaching Lasers to your head. As I have mentioned previously, our relationships play a big part in our health and that is why I read books on parenting, relationships and emotionally coping with others.

A family member had this book, so I borrowed it to learn as much as I can.

The secondary title is: Simple Solutions for Parents of Children with Attention, Anxiety, Mood and Behavior Challenges.

While this book is geared towards parents and dealing with their kids, I would argue many of the tips are for the parents themselves and how to deal with other adults. It’s funny how sometimes we want our kids to act or behave a certain way, yet we don’t do it ourselves or we don’t practice what we preach with other adults. I am just as guilty.

There are five main sections of the book: Nutrition, Sleep, Movement, Connection and Cognition. These are all things that I work on with my Personal Coaching Clients.

I will provide the Key-Take Away(s) for each Section.

Nutrition

Reducing sugar intake is a sensible strategy to improve your child’s physical, cognitive and emotional health.

Artificial sweeteners have no benefit for physical or mental health, and have the potential to cause many problematic symptoms including inattention, hyperactivity, irritability, headaches, anxiety, and more.

Avoid feeding children foods and beverages with artificial dyes, preservatives and other chemicals, as they have been shown to worsen attention, mood and behavior symptoms.

Some children have specific food allergies and sensitivities that negatively impact their functioning. Identifying and removing these specific foods can lead to significant improvements in attention, anxiety, mood, and behavior.

Start the day with a high-quality protein-packed breakfast to support attention, mood, behavior, and learning throughout the morning at home and school.

Increasing fruit and vegetable intake helps ensure beneficial levels of essential vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, and reduces the amount of less-healthy food consumed over the course of the day.

Drink more water! Increasing water consumption throughout the day can have a positive impact on mood, behavior, learning, and physical health.

Increasing Omega-3 fatty acid intake through foods and supplements supports improvements in mood, attention, behavior, and learning.

Specific nutritional supplements at the proper doses can be an important component of treating attention, anxiety, mood, and behavior challenges in children and young adults.

Moving children toward healthier eating habits is a process that happens over time. Small steps implemented consistently will help your child expand food preferences and eat more of the foods that support optimal health and function.

Sleep

The quantity and quality of your child’s sleep matter. Knowing how much sleep your child should be getting allows you to determine if your child is sleeping too little or too much.

Keep the routine leading up to bedtime consistent in order to provide the predictability and order a child’s brain needs to prepare for sleep.

Calming activities in the hours leading up to bedtime help children settle down for sleep more quickly and easily.

What your child eats and drinks before bed can make the difference between sleeping well and sleeping poorly. Provide a small sleep-supportive snack to help ensure a good night’s sleep for everyone in the family.

Reducing exposure to electronic devices -screen time -in the hour leading up to bedtime reduces the time needed to fall asleep, and improves sleep quality.

The physical environment can support or prevent quality sleep. Creating an optimal sleep environment for your child can be a simple solution to better sleep.

It is important for children to learn to fall asleep on their own at night. There is a systemic process for moving your child to greater independence with falling asleep, and the time and effort spent on it will save years of frustration and poor sleep.

Using specific supplements at the proper doses can help children fall asleep, stay asleep, and have good quality sleep at night, without the side effect risks of prescription medications.

Movement

Reducing the amount of time children spend on screen time activities supports improved mood, learning, social development, and behavior. Less time spent with electronic devices allows for increase time spent on movement activities, which benefits both physical and mental health.

Household chores can provide structural purposeful movement that promotes sensory integration, develops motor skills, enhances problem-solving skills, improves frustration tolerance, and encourages a healthy sense of personal competence.

Games involving physical activity are great for encouraging physical movement and building family relationships.

Obstacle courses are simple to create, can be used with children of all ages and developmental levels, and provide opportunities for structured movement indoors and outdoors.

Lycra fabric can provide movement benefits as well as a very calming sensory environment useful for reducing anxiety and improving emotional and behavioral regulation.

Unintegrated reflexes can be an underlying factor for many children with attention, anxiety, learning, and behavior challenges. Movement in general, and specific prescriptive movements used in reflex integration therapy, are essential to help children shift from struck unintegrated patterns of development into more mature patterns of functioning.

Implementing brief movement breaks at appropriate time intervals during sedentary activities supports your child’s attention, learning, mood, behavior, vision, and physical health.

Movement enhances learning, and children should be provided options to move in ways that facilitate focus and work completion at home and school.

Connection

The guided participation relationship between parents and children is essential for supporting child development across all domains in order for children to attain the highest degree of competence and independence possible.

A parent’s ability to stay calm when their child is distressed or angry is critical for managing the situation in a way that promotes calming, and builds a positive relationship between parent and child.

Reducing verbal communication, especially during moments when a child is stuck, frustrated, upset, or anxious, helps the child more effectively process language, reduce stress, and promotes a supportive relationship between parent and child.

Statements set a supportive tome for communication between parent and child, reduce impulsive responses, and encourage development of thoughtful communication and language processing skills.

Slowing down the pace of activities and communication can have a positive impact on a child’s ability to process information, stay calm and relaxed, and respond to task demands throughout the day. It also leads to a more positive supportive relationship between parent and child.

Situations that are overly complex can be frustrating and create a sense of incompetence for children and parents. Simplifying activities and expectations promotes a stronger parent-child relationship, lessens resistance on the part of the child, and leads to more successful engagement.

Intense emotional and behaviorally charged situations can arise between parents and children with attention, anxiety, mood, and behavior challenges. When this happens, the “stop the action” strategy supports the needs of the child, reduces the duration and intensity of the child’s reaction, and strengthens the connection between parent and child.        

Zone of connection is the amount of space between parent and child that allows for continuous engagement and attention to one another. Establishing the appropriate zone of connection for children allows then to stay better engaged and attentive to people and activities.

A great way for parents to strengthen the relationship with their child, reduce anxiety, and promote positive communication and relational skills is to engage in periods of uninterrupted, non-demanding time together on a regular basis.

Cognition

Constant direct prompting, such as repeated verbal reminders or telling your child what to do can create prompt dependance. This reduces opportunities for children to grow in their ability t think and problem solve independently.

Children with rigid inflexible thinking and behavior have weak flexible thinking skills. Implementing a consistent process for helping them become more comfortable with change in routines and environment is necessary to reduce anxiety, and improve tolerance for change.

Understanding that mistakes are expected and manageable is essential for children to develop positive self-esteem and appropriate coping skills.

Children with attention, anxiety, mood, and behavior challenges tend to have low frustration tolerance that can lead to poor emotional and behavioral regulation. Using strategies to improve frustration tolerance allows children to persevere in the face of challenging or uncomfortable situations.

Providing your child with opportunities to solve problem throughout the day supports the development of problem solving skills and emotional resilience.

Teaching children to accurately identify the problem they encounter is essential to helping them feel a sense of control over their lives and circumstances, and to implement effective solutions.

Guiding children to generate and think through potential solutions is a critical part of helping them learn to manage and solve problems independently.

Problem solving journals are a simple way to teach children to anticipate problems they may encounter, as well as to reflect on past experiences in order to learn from them.

Activities that promote mindfulness help children slow down, improve awareness, attend to what is going on within and around them, and develop the ability to think before acting.

Spotlighting positive experiences, modeling our own positive outlook, and communicating is more positive ways can help children with chronically negative attitudes shift toward a more positive focus.

I believe many of these key takeaways are pretty obvious and easy to understand, even without reading the book. Some others you likely need the context of the book. If you want to be a better parent, especially if children or anyone in your life has challenges, I would recommend this book.

While I don’t work with children (excluding my own), I often have my clients ask me things relating to their kids. If you want to work with me to enhance your Nutrition, Sleep, Movement, Connection and Cognition, let’s have a conversation.

Winter Training for the Stand-Up Paddleboarder

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This post is a long time coming. To all of you who have read my story, you know that I was really into running and golfing before I hurt my back a number of years ago. For the most part I have replaced those activities with my new favorite summer activity, Stand Up Paddle boarding or SUP.

I love getting out on the water nice and early, when it is usually just me and natures creatures. When all I can hear is a slight wind, birds singing, the splash of my paddle in the water and my own breathing, I find it therapeutic almost meditative. I have only been doing SUP for five years, so it is a relatively new sport to me, so I am always trying to improve and push myself. I have done SUP on vacation in the Caribbean and Hawaii, but the vast majority of the time it is in the lakes and rivers near my home. Unfortunately I live in a cold climate so my SUP season is pretty short. Which means I spend more time off-season training to be better than I actually spend doing it. The following are some of my thoughts on off-season training for SUP.

Cardio Cross Training

  • For those of you like me who live in places where it snows during the winter, cross-country skiing or snow shoeing are great full body exercises to keep you in shape during winter and works all the muscles you need for SUP.
  • The rowing machine if done correctly is also a great full body workout that works many muscles throughout the body including your back and shoulders.
  • I am a fan of the Elliptical machine (make sure it has the swinging arms) to not only build a general cardio base, but to also lessen the impact on the knees and lower body.
  • Another low impact exercise is to swim. It is a great full body exercise and you never know when you may need to swim yourself to safety or swim after your board or paddle.
  • You can always run or bike as well to build or keep your cardio capacity, but these two activities are the least comparable to SUP.

Core strength is very important for SUP, and your core obviously constitutes both upper and lower body, so for the purposes here I will split the body into both specific upper and lower body exercises. Keep in mind this is not a one day circuit (it could be), nor an exhaustive list for all training goals, but rather some exercises I like to sprinkle into my weekly routine to help with preparing for SUP. Some I do daily, some weekly and some only once a month.

Specific Upper Body

  • Strong Abdominals are key for not only daily life activities but for sporting activities like SUP. My go to exercises are plank varieties. I do multiple sets of both lying and side planks.
  • Pushing motion (ex. Pushups) help to strengthen your chest, shoulders and triceps.
  • Pulling motion (ex. Pull-ups or Rows) help to strengthen your back and biceps and are the key muscles when paddling.

Specific Lower Body -Balance Exercises

  • Lunges are a great foundational exercise. There are many varieties to choose from, specifically for SUP I like to incorporate Side lunges to work the adductors.
  • Squats will strengthen your legs all-around. For SUP training I prefer Single leg squats to work on balance.
  • Calf raises -Again I really like Single leg to work on balance.
  • Toe raises -Many people will neglect all the small muscles in their feet, but I recommend every once in awhile throwing in some toe raises to keep base strong.
  • Barefoot -Whether you SUP barefoot or in a minimal water shoe, I like to do my lower body exercises barefoot or in socks to work the muscles, especially those in your feet more naturally without the support of a shoe.

When you are out on the water, there are always a lot of variables that need to be taken into account. Being in tune with how my body is feeling is the number one thing that drives how hard I’ll push myself or not, where I’ll go SUP etc. However, balance and being physically prepared for the day are the two things that when I am on point, make for a better experience.

Not sure where to get started with exercise or SUP? Contact me.

Book Review: Unschooling to University: Relationships matter most in a world crammed with content by Judy Arnall

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I’ll admit this post may take some of you by surprise, mostly because many of us have Cognitive Dissonance in many areas of our life (a discussion for another time), but especially when it comes to the education system. Now nearly all of us, myself included have gone through “traditional” schooling, many of us for many additional years to go to collage or university, and maybe even graduate studies or professional designations etc. I’ll hear people say they turned out all right or you turned out fine. I strive to be Exceptional, not alright or fine. I want this for my kids too. So, before my oldest child had even started school, I began to ponder these types of questions. I learned about this book and others like it (ex. Free To Learn) about three years ago. However, it wasn’t until this year and the madness that has ensued that I finally decided I need to learn more about this subject.

Relationships, and especially those with our family and children is a huge part in one of my 7 Pillars of Health, Performance and Longevity, hence why I have chosen to share this review with you.

There are many types of learning situations, traditional school, home learning facilitated by the school, home learning where the responsibility is shared and as per the books title, Unschooling. Keep in mind there are many different flavors and a spectrum where all of these reside.

Education encompasses all the learning in a person’s life. Parenting is a major factor in education, guiding the whole child in all four developmental domains: social, physical, cognitive, and emotional. Research shows that the longer children avoid formal schooling and instead determine their own education, the more likely they are to attend postsecondary education and love it. (Gray 20014) That last part is key, “and love it”.

Just speaking for myself, I only went to university because that was what I thought I was supposed to do and felt the pressure from my parents to attend and get a “good job”. While I did receive two full degrees, I spent 5 and a half years there and mostly hated it. I liked being with people, many friends, being an adult and partying, but I cannot say I loved it. It was a chore for me. I chose a field where I thought I could get a good well-paying job, thinking that is all that matters. For many years, my first career was very good to me, and I cannot complain. I came to health and my current passion by overcoming my own health challenges, but I sometimes wonder what would I be doing if I followed one of the things I was passionate at as a kid.

This book is broken out into four main sections or themes. The first describes what is Unschooling or Self-directed learning. It discuses why the need for changes to the education system, how students are now borderless in a digital world, how we learn, that any adult can provide the 7 Critical C’s of education (Curiosity, Caring, Creativity, Competencies, Context, Conversations, Community).

Part one also goes into the research on whether unschooling works, what unschooling is and what it is not, how play in its many forms is the primary learning vehicle of children and the myths of childhood education (again back to the cognitive dissonance I mentioned at the top).

The second section of the book is titled: The digital generation needs adults and self-direction more than peers and curriculum. It briefly discusses the history of education and then digs deep into the academic, social, emotional and physical benefits of unschooling, as well as the benefits to society.

The third section of the book describes the critical components of a personalized education. These being an Adult or Facilitator, Resources, Unstructured Time and what many of you are probably wondering about, Assessment.

The final section is about development stages and begins with the basics of the brain and then moves on to discussing different age ranges from babies to 25 years old and how they learn and how to master the requisite skills we as a society feel is important to have by the time you are an adult. This section will be eye opening for many on how children can learn to read, write, math etc. in ways completely contrary to what most of us believe in, namely copy, memorize and repeat.

For anyone who decides to read this book, my hope is that you appreciate that there are many ways to learn and even the most so-called advanced schools are still working off a 100-year-old model.

In the spring of 2020, schools and families around the world were disrupted. Some handled it better than others, both from the perspective of the families and the school boards. Regardless of your thoughts on the back-to-school policies of the new school year beginning in fall of 2020, I hope many people from parents, to teachers, to administrators, to policy makers are opening their eyes to the need for changes to our antiquated education system.

Even if homeschooling does not work for your family at this time, I would recommend anyone to read this book to get a better understanding of what your child actually needs to learn and educate themselves. It has opened my eyes and I look at learning situations through a different lens now. Again, I truly feel this is part of relationship building within your family and a major component of you and your families health and longevity.

For full disclosure, by the time I finished this book in late August 2020, and after reviewing our family situation and dynamics and reflection on my own personal strengths and areas of improvement, we chose to send our children back to regular school. That being said, we are using this year as a barometer to see if traditional school works for our kids or if we need to revisit Unschooling in the very near future.

Contact me, if you would like to discuss this or any other topics further.

Boundless: Upgrade Your Brain, Optimize Your Body & Defy Aging by Ben Greenfield -Book Review

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I have been following Ben Greenfield for seven or eight years, back in the days when I was only focused on my physical performance, specifically trying to become a faster runner. I have read and own his last book titled Beyond Training. You can look up Ben and his history to know more details, but Ben has been one of the pioneers for the Biohacking and Self-quantification movement. He is still a young man, but it has been interesting to follow his journey over the years to be less focused on athletic performance and more so on relationships and spirituality. When I hurt my back a number of years ago, I credit Ben with putting Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) treatments on my radar. PRP along with a low inflammatory diet is what saved my health. I was fortunate enough to meet Ben Greenfield at the Canadian Biohacker Summit a few years ago and thank him personally. I have even taken his 10-week Kion Masterclass. That’s probably enough back story, let’s get to the review of Boundless.

Let’s start off with that this is not a book you can easily lug around with you. I pre-ordered the book and when it arrived, I decided to wait a few months to dig in, as I wanted to immerse myself in the proper setting to really absorb this beast of a book. I bet many of you remember your high school or university textbooks, particularly the science ones. Well this book is basically a biohacking textbook. It is hard cover, has illustrations and color and comes in at a whopping 640 pages. If you have read any of my previous book reviews, you know I appreciate references and sourcing. Boundless is so comprehensive that the publishers need the book cut down. So, all the references and three bonus chapters are available online to those who have purchased the book. I downloaded and printed those off and it filled a two-inch binder. Imagine, basically another book in itself. Also, I went ahead and counted, and I had 51 pages flagged and countless lines of text highlighted.

There are twenty-one chapters in Boundless. I will briefly discuss some of the main topics in the three themes covered.

Upgrade Your Brain

The first couple chapters discuss how to rewire your brain and fix a leaky brain for better performance, then moves on to reducing high cortisol and how to fuel your brain properly. He then moves on to Nootropics and Smart Drugs, an area I am becoming more interested in myself. Next up is tech, games and other tools for brain health.

The last chapter in this section, and I would argue the most important, is all about sleep. In my opinion, the number one thing you can focus on for your health.

Optimize Your Body

This section begins with how to burn fat without destroying your body, how to build functional muscle and fitness for longevity in an efficient manner. Then he discusses some of the gear and tools to work on your body.

A whole chapter is devoted to recovery, which is something I really appreciate and couldn’t stress more with my clients.

Then the book gets into fixing your gut, optimizing digestion and nutrient absorption, and how to customize your nutrition. I truly appreciate this last point, as I have been stressing this for years, with my clients, when I give presentations or speeches; Nutrition is highly individualized.

There is a chapter titled, Never Get Sick, on building a robust immune system, and this couldn’t be more appropriate in 2020.

The last chapter that I am including in this section is on how to test, track and interpret blood, saliva, urine and your stool. This chapter helped nudge me into taking a course to learn about optimal blood markers so I can provide this additional service to my clients.

Defy Aging

This next section begins with a chapter on maximizing your body symmetry and beauty. While I have made it my goal to be a Centenarian for a number of years now, I never really thought too much about how my skin etc. would look. I have been more focused on the mental and physical aspects. This chapter has pushed me to make some changes in my own life and look into some new practices. It should be noted that this isn’t for those aging and wanting to look and feel younger, these are strategies that anyone can use and I plan to incorporate them with my kids when they are age appropriate.

There is a chapter that delves into libido, sexual satisfaction, hormones and more. Followed by how we all can use ancestral wisdom and modern science together to maximize our health span. This is essentially the outline I use for my Masterclass.

Another chapter is titled Invisible. I would call it the hidden sources of stress. These are all the little paper cuts you get all day long, every day, without even realizing it. If not mitigated, all these little paper cuts will eventually harm you beyond repair. I give a corporate presentation on this exact topic.

The last chapter of this book (I won’t discuss the bonus chapters mentioned earlier) is about putting all these topics and things you learned into a plan for you, a ritual or series of new habits for you to become Boundless.

Boundless, along with just a handful of other books (see previous reviews) are my go-to books, if I need to refresh my memory on a topic or reference something for one of my clients or myself.

While I don’t agree with everything the author follows or believes, I am a Ben Greenfield aficionado. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to take a SERIOUS dive into upgrading and optimizing yourself. Why did I just all-caps SERIOUS in the last sentence? I realize tackling this book is daunting, as is wading through all the information about health, performance and longevity. You need to be committed to tackling it on your own. I hope you do! But if you want to, or need to work with someone to upgrade your brain, optimize your body and defy aging, contact me and perhaps we can work together.

Fascia – The Missing Body Maintenance Link

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One of my 7 Pillars of Health, Performance and Longevity is movement in the right dose for you. No movement practice is complete without adequate rest and recovery, a step many people completely ignore. Besides stretching the muscles after exercise, you want to keep your Fascia healthy. To dig a little deeper into Fascia, I have asked Sheena Taggert to provide another guest blog post below.

Did you know that scientists are considering fascia to be the largest system in our body instead of skin? What is Fascia? Wikipedia defines it as “a band or sheet of connective tissue, primarily collagen, beneath the skin that attaches, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles and other internal organs”.  It allows free movement of the muscles, carries nerves, blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and fills spaces between muscles.

Think about fascia and why it needs to be maintained this way: When you are preparing chicken for supper and you go to remove the skin it is the white membrane that holds the skin down. Now these chickens that we eat are only a few months old. Over time our fascia can become stuck and it may be stuck in a bad position that can cause pain. Fascia can become shortened, adhered, or restricted due to surgery, trauma, sickness, inflammation, or postural imbalances created by tension patterns of the muscles. Myofascial release is the technique that maintains your fascia. It separates the fascia from skin to muscle, muscle to muscle, and muscle to organ fascia.

Here’s my experience with myofascial release technique: I’m not sure why exactly I have issues with my fascia but since releasing it I have been able to maintain the gains I’ve received from massage. I notice when I have a spot missed by myofascial release that within hours my massage gains seem to disappear. I have hyperypkyphosis which is the excessive curvature of the thoracic spine and after a massage it was feeling great! Unfortunately, as soon as I started driving home the pain was back. I realized that releasing the fascia over my spine was missed. On my next appointment we corrected it and the gains were maintained for weeks instead of hours and I was once again able to maintain my new posture.

Pain is the body’s way of telling you something is not right. By the time you feel pain it means your body is already pulled out of proper alignment. Bones keep the body upright, ligaments hold the bones together, muscles create movement, and holding it all together is your fascia attaching, stabilizing, enclosing and separating.

Have you been dealing with a problem that has not been remedied no matter what you do or professional you have seen? Myofascial restrictions can be remedied with a combination of massage therapy, heat, and by stretching and strengthening the muscles to obtain your optimal physical health.

I look forward to seeing you,

Sheena Taggart RMT 

Restore function and life through the re-education of muscles and elimination of pain.

Many people are carrying a lot of stress from many sources, including the many hidden sources of stress that I discuss in my courses. Fascial release is just one of the ways to reduce the stress on your body. If you need to optimize your Health, Performance and Longevity, lets talk about all the strategies that can work for you.