Life in the Mood Swing Lane

Mood swings are reflective of age and lifestyle.

Changes in temperament are normal for everyone on earth; mood swings are the more abrupt and seemingly extreme changes that seem to come on without reason. If we take the time to probe a little deeper, however, there is always a reason. Perhaps stress has been insidiously stacking for weeks; perhaps you haven’t been eating quite right and your cells aren’t getting the nutrition they need; maybe your activity level has been down and your body is responding with signals of pain that affect your mood; most likely, it is a combination of all of the above.

Mood swings are about imbalance.

The body and brain are constantly striving for homeostasis, which taken broadly is the tendency of your body and mind to seek equilibrium between the interdependent systems. As we get older, the pressures facing the body and minds’ attempts at homeostasis grow, our bodies trend toward becoming weaker, activity levels go down while stress levels go up and diet affects us more than when we were kids. Mood swings are a natural reaction to these pressures, but when they become unpredictable and destructive to our state of mind, it is time to take action.

Accounting for mood swings with help

At our office, we believe that many of the factors contributing to our mood swings can be reined in naturally, without pharmaceutical intervention. Chiropractic helps to correct subluxation and regulate the nervous system, the main vehicle of communication between brain and body. By streamlining nerve function, homeostasis becomes easier to achieve when you exercise control over other key lifestyle factors including diet, exercise, sleep and stress management. To start coordinating an action plan for dealing with your mood swings, give our office a call to schedule an appointment today!

Putting your Body Weight to Work

It’s time to make your weight work for you!

No matter your body weight, or your level of activity, body weight training allows you to utilize the most basic resource of all, the body weight you’ve accumulated, to condition your body and build muscle. Best of all, no gym membership is required and you won’t even need to spend a dollar on a dumbbell. 

Here are some advantages to bodyweight training: 

  • Boosts circulation and improves range of motion in the joints
  • Increases core stability, easing the burden on the lower back and helping with posture
  • Increases relative strength: strength in relation to your body size. 
  • Increases reactive strength: the ability to stretch and contract muscles and prevent injury. 

Body weight training works best in circuits

And circuits are intense: the methodology relies on the fact that you do workout after workout with no break in between, conditioning your heart to work at a higher level and boosting your Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption, which means you will continue to burn calories after your work out. Body weight training circuits are much more efficient at burning calories and contributing to weight loss than basic cardio. 

As chiropractors, we would love to see people find better balance through increased core strength- this helps immensely with posture, especially if you have to sit all day at work. Furthermore, we would like to see you move with less pain and we can help you do this, through chiropractic adjustment and devoted attention to sore and tight muscles. 

Healthy-ish: Starting Small with your Fitness Plan

Why is it so difficult to join the wide world of working out? 

The start of a fitness plan is where many of us will fail. The reason is that with no momentum and no visible results, we lose motivation. We must therefore begin by redefining attitude: rather than obsessing over lost pounds, focus on the importance of fitness for your body and how it makes your brain feel. You should be getting at least a mild endorphin boost post-workout, so use what you have as motivation in the early stages. 

Walking before running

If you work at a desk, in front of a computer, chances are that between home and the office you spend up to 70% of the day on your butt. So when it comes to starting small, walking more may be the place to look and it is certainly the easiest. Experts recommend getting up to 10,000 steps a day, a goal that can be tracked with a fitness app on most smartphones.

Focus on activities that make you happy

Your brain is the most powerful muscle in your body, so we want to get it involved! The best way to do this is by choosing an exercise that makes you happy. Running bores you? Don’t make running the center of your exercise plan. The gym isn’t for you? Choose an environment, like your own home, where you feel most comfortable. At our office, we help people create clearly defined goals and stick to them. We are about making your body feel better- through chiropractic adjustment and treatment of muscle dysfunction, we get your body into conducive shape for exercise. From there, we help you maintain a fitness plan for the benefit of your body and mind.