Go to the Core for Power

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What is your core? Your core is comprised of all the muscles that make up your torso including the: rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, external obliques, internal obliques, psoas and the erector spinae. This set of muscles are the main muscles that give you your core power.

What is core power? It is the same power that Martial Arts, Pilates and Yoga target for optimal body strength. I did Karate for three years and we were taught to bring all our punching, kicking and blocking power from our core, this is very important for women as our limbs are not as strong as men.  From the power you build in your core all other movement can rise without injury and you will be much more unlikely to develop back ache (and you can also minimise or delete backache from your life altogether just by developing core strength.

Your core muscles power all movements that require bending, pushing, pulling, and extending the trunk, just ask anyone who has just taken part in a picnic rope pull and ask them which of there muscle are sore the next day.

How can you build your core and move from this centre with balance and power from now on? Get yourself a Yoga or Pilates instructor, they will give you sets of exercises like the ‘Bridge’, the ‘Plank,’ the ‘Side Plank,’ and the ‘Bird dog.’ For even greater degree of difficulty and greater control and balance they might even get you to do these exercises on a ‘fit ball.’

A personal trainer can also add in working the abdominal muscles with a medicine ball or weight plate, rowing and  the erector spine with a ‘Back Extension’ exercise.

balance your life today

Pilates Tones Up Your Torso

Joseph H Pilates developed a method of exercise he called Pilates, he borrowed some of the movements from Yoga ‘asanas’ and created a system that increases core strength more quickly than anything else. He claimed, “in ten sessions you will feel the difference. In twenty you will see the difference and in thirty you have a whole new body.”

I don’t know about you, but I could use a new body after having 4 children. I have often prescribed pilates sessions to clients as most of us need to create core strength. When we have core strength our spine is straight and stays that way, we lose a lot of back pain as we learn to use our core strength to give us strong limbs.

Pliates teaches that all movement should come from this core and that if we use this as our foundation our bodies will stay strong and lithe for many years. Pilates actually changes the way people use their bodies, students begin to move more gracefully, with better posture and more fluidity, like a dancer.

So get out there and find a Pilates studio or better yet, if you live on the Sunshine Coast have one of our Pilates specialists come to you.

live a balanced life

Fat Burning Foods = Negative Kj’s

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Yes, there are foods that give you a negative kj result and some of them even help you burn more fat and create more health, and I will give you a short list of the best of them right here:

1. Grapefruit – now I am one of the few people I know that truly loves a fresh, cold grapefruit. These healthy citrus are one of my favourite fruits, I will admit that I like the pink or red variety as they are the sweetest. Grapefruit is well known in weightloss circles and with good reason, not only does it take more kj’s to digest a grapefruit than it does adds, they are so healthy for you. The pink and red varieties are rich in lycopene (anticancer antioxidant), Vit C, and bioflavonoids, and fibre. The best news of all for those wanting to slim down is that research has found that grapefruit contain special enzymes that cleanse the liver and burn fat and lower insulin levels.
2. Coconut Oil – is a functional food because it provides many more benefits than its caloric content would suggest. It is the most misunderstood of all fats as it seems to be our worst enemy (a saturated fat), however this one contains no cholesterol and it raises your metabolism, enhances thyroid function and burns fat. When they added it to cattle food in feed lots thinking the extra fat would create fatter cows, they had an ooops! moment, within less than a month all the cows were stripped of excess fat and becoming more muscular, with no difference to their life in any other way. They had to remove all coconut oil from the feed and replace it with a different oil.
3. Hot Peppers and Cayenne – Both of these foods contain capsaicin a natural compound that naturally speeds up metabolism and fat burning. Adding these to your recipes regularly adds zest and heat to your meals and that little bit of extra heat burns away those kj’s.
4. Broccoli – Broccoli has been in the news for the past few years as researchers have found some amazing compounds in the humble broccoli. Natural compounds that can help you avoid and perhaps even heal cancer. Regular consumption has also been found to significantly lower the risk of coronary heart disease. So eat your ‘trees’ as my kids called them as they were growing up, you will be healthier and slimmer for it.

Live a balanced life…

Once Upon a Time in Another Life

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Once upon a time in another life… I had time

time to spend with my friends

time to feel good about myself

time to be with my family

time to laugh

time to dance

time to walk on the beach holding hands with someone I love

time to walk the dog or maybe the dog was walking me, too long ago to remember

time to lie in bed and snuggle under the covers and play peek-a-boo with my child

time to think, create, innovate and inspire

time to love

time to sift through old memories and laugh at old times

time to remember who I am and what I started our trying to achieve

time to just be me…

Now I am trying to be successful, I too busy to feel successful – like I used to when I had time to do all those things that made me feel like a successful person. Maybe I need to take some time right now to reevaluate who I am, what I am doing and why I am doing it.

May be I need to take some time to get back on track…

Take the time today… when you are too old to care

• you won’t regret not working so hard, you will regret not spending time with your loved ones
• you won’t regret sleeping in you will regret missing out on your children’s lives
• you won’t regret not making manager, you will regret the time you spent wishing you were somewhere else while trying to make manager

Remember success is a feeling and you can feel successful at any time just by choosing it, for me success means doing something I love doing and making the money I need doing it, because it doesn’t feel like work, and having the time and energy left after I have played at work to laugh and love and have time…

balance your life, today.

http://gigaom.com/2008/04/14/downside-of-always-on-society/

Superfood, Superfruit the Research is In

Here’s a question for you? What fruit is high in all these essential nutrients, and remember I said all of them?

• essential fatty acids –  Omega 6 and Omega 9
• phytosterols (lower cholesterol and inflammation)
• the highest ORAC score therefore the highest in antioxidants
• dietary fibre
• calcium (prevents osteoporosis and builds bones, helps us sleep)
• all the macro minerals (essential for life, we cannot use vitamins in our diets unless we have enough minerals)
• micro minerals (as above)
• low glycemic index (lowers blood sugar and prevents diabetes)
• celadrin (anti-inflammatory – reduces aches and pain and most doctors now think that many diseases even cancer are causes by chronic inflammation)

Do you know which fruit has all this and more? I’ll give you some hints: it’s a berry, found in the Amazon and is taking the world by storm. ACAI, yes this little black palm berry is the source of all these nutrients and has researchers amazed. Dr Perricone stated on Oprah that it was,   “one of the most nutritious foods in the world” and topped his list of superfoods.

Get some today. How? I hear you ask. Here: http://balancenoosa.com.au/page23/default.asp

balance your life, today!

Yoga Keeps Older Women Standing Tall

A nine week study into the effects of regular yoga practice on older women has concluded that after nine weeks it added, on average 1 centimetre to their stature. While past studies have investigated yoga for helping to improve balance in elderly women, they have not investigated its effects on posture or stature.

Perhaps this is one way to help reverse osteoporosis along with a good calcium, magnesium, and Vitamin D intake. The type of yoga used in this study was Iyengar, and the researchers one of whom is a certified yoga instructor worked with BKS iyengar, the originator of Iyengar Yoga, to develop a program specifically designed for older people.

The results were nothing short of amazing, after the program of nine weeks the women aged from 24 to 65 walked faster, used longer strides, and could stand for a longer time on one leg. The also felt more confident in their ability to balance while standing and walking.

While the women had been balancing their weight on the ball of their feet before the yoga, afterwards their weight was more evenly distributed across the bottom of their feet as they walked leading to greater stability. (Rueters 2008)

So get into yoga girls and stride into old age with a smile on your face.

be balanced, be beautiful, be boundless

Hello from balancenoosa

It is so good to get our first blog up and running, we aim to bring you information to help you create balance in your body, mind and spirit from the very best resources and experts. Come back often as we will be growing and evolving over time.

At balancenoosa we bring wellness to you, your wellness is our prime focus and we will do our best to create an environment of balanced blogging with something for everyone.