Elizabeth Taylor's Love Nest

My mother sent me this email from Puerto Vallarta  and I thought it would make a  mildly strange, hopefully amusing, post Valentine's Day post.  It doesn't really work for Valentine's Day.

From Mom ->

I went into Old Puerto Vallarta this week and wandered through the shops selling silver, sarongs, and embroidered clothes. It got repetitive quickly so I kept walking, hoping to avoid being

Heart to Heart

Valentine’s Day bombards us with movies, TV specials and a landslide of things to buy to show our ‘love’.  The flowers sellers and candy manufacturers  are working around the clock. The LA Times reports that jewelry sales rose 7.7% last year, recovering somewhat from the previous year’s recession so bling is back.

Don’t get me wrong; jewelry is great. I’m a fan!!! I also think that flowers and

Recent Favorites in Self-Care

We are six weeks into the new year and the enthusiasm for goals or resolutions may be waning or have been abandoned. Since health and wellness are almost always on everyone's let for improvement,  wanted to share some of my favorite tools and products I have been recommending and personally using for health promotion and disease prevention.

You Are Your Own Gym by Mark Lauren
Long, steady state cardiovascular exercise may have it's place when training for races, but in the real world, functional training that encourages strengthening of the muscles you use most for activities of daly living should be the focus of any exercise plan. This book has over 100 body-weight exercises, some of which incorporate common household items, with 10 different methods of combining them for an optimal 20 minute fitness routine 4 times per week.

Personal Training With Jackie: 30 Day Fast Start
This DVD offers two 20-minute workouts, one upper and one lower body, where you combine two exercises in sets of increasing reps. Short, powerful, effective with minimal equipment needs.  It is a great addition to her XTreme Timesaver DVDs and book This is Why You're Fat.

Pure Lean Protocol Weight Management
All the supplements you need in one box without a lot of unnecessary additives. This set includes choice of pure or blended whey protein powder in chocolate or vanilla, pure lean fiber, and a daily pure pack containing a multivitamin, Omega-3,  magnesium, alpha lipolic acid, and taurine. For about $2/day, it is a great way to establish a baseline of nutrition. These are hypoallergenic and made in the USA.

Fertility Friend
My favorite app, website, and community support system for women to understand and track their menstrual cycles. There are tutorials on how to chart, factors that impact cycle regularity, and expected signs and symptoms. The majority of the site is free, and they offer a VIP subscription for a few extra bells and whistles that you may or may not be interested in.

emWave Biofeedback
This is an amazing daily tool to help train you to bring the mind and body into cohearence.  It is best used in conjunction with a health professional to learn the basics, track your progress, and troubleshoot issues.  For those with stress, anxiety, panic, or emotional lability, you can learn to control your reactions by staying calm and present in the moment. It may be part of a self-improvement plan or used in conjunction with other therapies to manage mood and anxiety disorders.

What is Qi ?

Qi (pronounced 'chee') is one of the most basic concepts in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) but also one of the hardest to define. Other names for it are ‘ki’ in Japan and in India, yogis call it ‘prana’. It was known in ancient Egypt as ‘ka’, and in ancient Greece as ‘pneuma.’

What we can say for certain is that qi is a nonmaterial and essential substance that is at the core of our universe

Acupuncture Pre & Post Surgery Instead of Painkillers

Here is an interesting example of a patients medical need producing innovative results!  In Florida, at Jupiter Medical Center, acupuncture physician Dr. Ken Grey, A.P., D.O.M. performed acupuncture on the patient who wanted the alternative treatment because she was allergic to most pain medications. Grey performed acupuncture prior to surgery, at the beginning of the procedure, and

Be Careful Which Seeds You Nurture

"Don't water your weeds." ~ Harvey MacKay.

5 Health Tips for Winter

Living in harmony with the seasons is an ancient Chinese belief.  We’ve been lucky so far with the winter weather in Chicago but it remains cold and dark. Winter urges us to slow down. This is a natural time of year to replenish energy and conserve strength. In Chinese Medicine, each season is associated with a specific organ in the body and winter’s organ is the kidneys. We need to consider our