A Shift Towards Wellbeing At The End Of This Year

Pre-New Years Resolutions?We’ve noticed more people are taking action to support their wellbeing recently!

For a while now, people have been talking about getting back on track from the pandemic disruptions to our schedules, eating, exercise, health and self care appointments, not to mention social lives. But all the talking about good ideas wasn’t resulting in very much action for many people.  However, it feels like there’s been a shift recently, and we’ve noticed a lot more people are making real, positive changes.

In some ways we are surprised at the timing.  As the end of year holidays and vacations ramp up, a lot of people say “Eff it!  I’m going to enjoy myself now and pull it together in the new year.”  The problem with that is that the average American doesn’t loose the weight that they gain at the holidays and it builds up every year.  Seeing so many people making healthy changes as we enter the end of the year feels like a true shift.

In other ways this is not a surprise.  Smart people have predicted that there will be a lot of reinvention after the pandemic, so it makes sense that people are open to doing things differently.  We can’t just go back to how it was before because we see things differently now.  So let’s reinvent the way we approach the end of the year by taking more action to support our health and start the new year feeling good!

Things we’ve seen people doing more of recently:

• pulling their exercise equipment out and making it easy to exercise,
• drinking less alcohol, taking a break from sugar,
• eating more green vegetables,
• setting up regular appointments for acupuncture, massage, & chiropractic care,
• finally making those doctor’s appointments for check ups or about that nagging thing they’ve been meaning to get looked at,
• taking supplements regularly,
• expanding their social circles,
• making space for some quiet reflective time… 

One interesting thing we’ve noticed is that many people are saying that they just knew it was time or they just started doing it.  When it’s time, it’s time and it takes less effort.   Not that you’re not doing things, it’s that you’re in action with less of the niggling thoughts about wether or not you’re gonna do it.

If you know it’s time to make some changes for your wellbeing and want some support, come on in for acupuncture care for mood (stress reduction, clarity, motivation), aches & pains, or whatever else is holding you back from feeling your best. It can take some time to break old habits of thinking, plus it is so helpful to have a support team.  And even healthy changes sometimes feel tiring or make us sore so we can use some help getting back into balance–hello to my arm muscles that forgot what 3 minute planks are!

• Established patients can make an appointment at our online booking site. You’re also always welcome to call or email us to make an appointment.
• New patients need to call or email us to set up their first appointment because there is just too much information we need to share with you.

Here’s to reinventing end of year traditions and habits in ways that better serve us, our friends, and families!

Holiday Eating SupportAs we enter the end of the year holidays and vacation times it’s good to set ourselves up for success to deal with all the abundance headed our way–gratitude, gifting, celebrations, and especially abundant eating.  Here at Thrive we think one of the benefits of being healthy is that you can consciously choose to indulge here and there and still come back to balance easily.  If you are working on a specific health challenge or goal, now is not the time to indulge.  But if you’re feeling pretty good, moderation of all things, including moderation sometimes, is healthy.

The folks that are constantly overly rigid about what they are eating don’t get the benefits of all their hard work because the stress undoes a lot of the benefits of the healthy eating.  And the folks that eat whatever they want, but then beat themselves up also have stress degrading their body.  So it’s good to be real about where you are at, make conscious decisions for health and pleasure, and then make sure you have support so you can come back to balance easily.

If you are going to consciously indulge in that rich holiday meal, treat, cocktail–or all three–how do you plan to support your body?  Here’s 5 tips that will support you through the holiday eating:

1. Staying well hydrated is key.  Aim to drink between 80 ounces to 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water a day.  And make sure you get some electrolytes or natural salts in there so all the water doesn’t just rush through you.
2. ???? Don’t starve yourself in anticipation of big meals.   That will make it harder to make any good decisions and cause your blood sugar to spike.  Make sure to eat some fat and protein in the meals leading up a to a big meal to help stabilize blood sugar.
3. ???? Fresh ginger tea is supportive to digestion before and after rich meals.  Cut a few slices of fresh ginger and boil it in water for 5 minutes.  The fibers from the ginger are really good for your digestive system so that’s why it’s worth it to use fresh ginger.
4. Keep moving.  Plan some exercise to start the day and you’ll not only feel like you’re starting the day healthy, you’ll also most likely make better choices throughout the day.  Exercise is funny that way.  The more we exercise, the more we tend to make healthy choices.  Invite friends and family to go for a walk after a meal together.  You may be met with some resistance, but I’ve never heard anyone say “I wish I didn’t take that walk after dinner.”
5. Stock up on simple Chinese herbal pills to get your digestion back in balance.   New this year we have two options of our favorite pills to support digestion: Curing Pills or Ease Digestion Pills.  They’re both so helpful for any kind of digestive upset that every acupuncturist and herbalist has one of these ready in their medicine cabinet, first aid kit, purse, and in the car.  I always have extra around the holidays and my friends and family have learned to do the same.

Option 1: Curing PillsWhat are Curing Pills?  They’re a Chinese medicine herbal pill that’s good for all kinds of digestive imbalances that are common during the holidays including: upset stomach, indigestion, overeating, hangover, bloating, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, and even food poisoning (hopefully that’s not happening during the holidays).

How can they be good for so many things?  Unlike western medications that are specific for certain kinds of digestive imbalances, Curing Pills don’t move your digestion in a specific direction, instead they regulate your digestion back to harmony.  That is why their other name is Healthy Peaceful Pills.

Here’s how we recommend taking Curing Pills:

• Prevention (My eyes were a bit bigger than my stomach): 1 Packet after a meal.
• Upset Stomach (As soon as I can tell something I ate or drank did not agree with me or I realize I really overdid it):  1 Packet now, 1 More Packet every hour for the next 3 hours if things aren’t feeling good yet.
• General Digestive Imbalance (My digestion is moving slower or faster than normal and I just realized it’s been happening for a few days): 1 Packet 3 Times/Day for a day or two.

Warning: Curing Pills are not for you if you have true Celiac disease because they contain an herb that is a relative of wheat and you should aim to avoid all contact with anything wheat related.

Reassurance: Curing Pills are well tolerated by people who are normally sensitive to wheat because the herb is grown in China and it’s fermented before it’s made into the tea that is freeze dried into a pill.  Many wheat sensitive people in the US have no problem when they eat wheat grown from other places around the world.  And fermentation changes the building blocks of wheat proteins and carbohydrates which makes wheat tolerable for most people, even for some people who have Celiac disease.  I still recommend people with Celiac disease avoid it because it’s better to be safe than sorry.  But I’ve never met someone who is simply sensitive to wheat that has found that Curing Pills don’t agree with them.

Option 2:  Ease Digestion PillsWhat are Ease Digestion Pills?  They are modified Curing Pills that are gluten free.  Even though I’ve never seen anyone who is only sensitive to wheat have a bad reaction to traditional Curing Pills, we know a lot of people are careful about what they consume and we wanted to have this cleaner option for you so we started stocking them this year.

The other difference is the size of the pills.  Ease Digestion comes as a bottle of medium/large pills that you take as 2 pills at once.  Curing Pills come in packets of a bunch of tiny round pills that you take at once (the idea being that if you have digestive upset you might not want to take a medium/large pill).  So everywhere above that it says the dosage is 1 packet of Curing Pills you instead take 2 pills of Ease Digestion.

Holiday ScheduleThanksgiving:  We’ll be here the week of Thanksgiving through Wednesday, November 23 until 1:30pm, then we’re taking some time off Thursday and Friday, November 24 & 25.

End of the Year:  We’ll be here in December through Friday, December 23, then we’re taking the last week of December off.  We have appointments in the new year starting Tuesday, January 3.

Fun Facts About Jasmin Jones, LAcThe number one question we get about Jasmin since she joined our practice in June is how much experience she has.  That’s a normal question and we welcome all your questions since it is your body and you get to choose who is on your healthcare team.

Jasmin is new to Sonoma County but she’s not new to acupuncture.  She has been practicing acupuncture since 2008.  She is a licensed acupuncturist in 6 states: Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico, South Carolina, Washington State, and California.  That’s no small accomplishment to complete licensing exams and procedures in all those states.  She spent most of her time in private practice in Alaska, and now we’re excited she’s realized her dream of moving to Sonoma County.

Here’s what one of her patients had to say about her:

“My first experience with an Acupuncturist was with Jasmin. I was having severe pain and lack of mobility in my neck and shoulder. Jasmin was very caring and had a gentle touch. I bought a packet of treatments and noticed a difference in my pain that day. Today I am pain free and it feels wonderful. I highly recommend Jasmin to everyone.” ~B Beasley

And if you haven’t checked it out already, there’s more info in her bio on our website.

Immune Support“I don’t know if it was the herbs, but I started to feel better after I took them.”  
–so many people

Not surprisingly we’re seeing more people catching viruses with the transition back to school and into autumn.  And we’re hearing great feedback that the herbs and supplements we recommend are helping.

We agree! If you start the herbs and supplements after you’ve been sick for a day or two and start to feel better, it could just be timing.  And if you’re just one person there isn’t much data for you to know if it was the herbs or the timing.  But if you’re us and you hear this over and over, you feel confident you have enough data to know that the herbs are helping.

If you want to be prepared with herbs and supplements on hand, check out the updated recommendations we’ve been sharing for the past 2+ years called The Golden Window For Treating Viruses.  If you treat viruses preventatively, or as soon as you feel symptoms, it’s surprisingly effective at preventing a virus from taking hold which reduces symptoms and duration.

You can find the link for The Golden Window For Treating Viruses handout here: https://thrive-acupuncture.com/the-golden-window-for-treating-viruses/.  Take a look and let us know if you want help creating a plan that will work for you. 

Here’s to putting our health first during this time of reinvention!
Christina and Team Thrive