Exercise for Balance; Squats; Healthy Homemade Marshmallows
Health Tip:
Bad knees? Squats, though feared, are great for improved knee stability, leg strength, and hip health when done correctly. Here’s how: Standing in front of your chair, move to sit back in the chair. Stop before actually sitting, and then stand back up; repeat. Make sure your knees don’t extend past your toes. Putting your arms out in front will aid in balance. See, you’ve been doing squats every day anyway! Add more and help your knees!
Monthly Article:
Balancing Act
We know that exercise isn’t just to help us lose weight. It is essential to our overall health. It benefits our heart, lungs, cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, muscle and bone strength, and even our sense of well-being to name just a few. One area most people don’t think about is your nervous system! Did you know that by doing a few simple exercises you can strengthen your Dorsal Columns? Let me explain:
The Dorsal Columns are the areas of your nervous system that control position sense. This is the system that helps you touch your finger to your nose with your eyes closed. The medical term for this is proprioception. You use a combination of memory and proprioception (position sense) every time you drive your car. How else can you look ahead at the road and still be able to find the pedals at your feet without looking?! When this part of your nervous system is weak people have a greater problem balancing, have increased incidences of ankle sprains, and even run into doorframes! Balance is an important issue, especially as we age, when falls can be deadly.
Enough about physiology, here’s how to help yourself. These exercises are good to do during your regular workouts or just to incorporate into your daily routine.
Basic exercise: Stand next to a wall or a chair where you can reach your hand out to steady yourself if necessary. Lift one foot off the floor, balancing on the other leg. Hold this position. Ten seconds is really good. If you can only do a couple of seconds, that’s okay, it’s just like any other exercise and will take some time to build up strength. Try not to rest the foot you lift on the leg you are balancing on (that’s cheating!). Try working up to 20-30 seconds. This simple exercise not only strengthens your proprioception (position sense) but also helps strengthen your leg muscles and the gluteal (butt) muscle that supports your hip while walking.
More Advanced: Once you feel more comfortable with the basic exercise, try closing your eyes for a few seconds. Remember to have something nearby to help steady you if you need it. While this one is more advanced it is the ultimate goal. When your eyes are closed you are relying totally on your proprioception (position sense) and not using visual input for help (which uses another part of your brain).
As with any exercise, if you experience pain while performing any of the above, please stop or try changing what you are doing. Pain is an indicator that something is not functioning properly. It may indicate that your muscles and joints need some “tender loving care” to help them function their best. Remember that taking care of yourself now will prevent problems in the future!
Recipe of the Month:
Healthy Homemade Marshmallows
Ingredients:
1 Cup water (split in half)
3 Tbs. Gelatin
1 Cup Maple syrup
1 tsp. Vanilla
Instructions:
1. Grease an 8x8 (or larger) pan.
2. In your mixer bowl, add the gelatin with ½ cup of water.
3. While the gelatin is softening, pour the other ½ cup of water in a sauce pan along with the maple syrup and vanilla. Turn the burner to a medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Place a candy thermometer in the sauce pain and continue to boil the mixture until it reaches soft ball stage or 240 degrees, about 8 minutes. Immediately remove from heat.
4. Turn your standing mixer to low/medium. Slowly pour the syrup mixture into the bowl combining it with the softened gelatin. Turn the mixer to high and continue beating the mixture until it becomes thick like marshmallow crème (about 10 minutes).
5. When the mixture is creamy and fluffy, transfer the marshmallow crème to the prepared pain. Smooth the top.
6. Lightly grease your hands with oil and pat smooth. This will keep it from sticking to your fingers.
7. Let set in refrigerator for 4 hours.
8. Remove from fridge and cut apart. If you let them sit exposed to the air for a few minutes they will no longer be sticky.
9. Enjoy!
(Pinned from http://thehealthyhoneys.com/healthy-homemade-marshmallows/)
Like this recipe? We have more pinned on our Pinterest Page! www.pinterest.com/smithchirop0683
Upcoming Activities and Announcements:
Roots to Health talk Tuesday October 11 & November 15 at 6:15. Please sign up at the front desk. Bring a friend and write a question! This is a casual time to learn about the real Roots to Health! For October, Dr. Smith is going to do a class on creating a Botanical Medicine Cabinet!
Are you happy with your care and progress? Please tell others! We love getting online reviews to spread the word. Not happy? Please tell us so we can fix it!