Feeling weak at the knees?

Follow these useful tips from Hopewood’s Naturopath Wendy Hannah to build your bone strength:

• Exercise is key to bone integrity. Try weight resistance work such as yoga, Pilates, stretching or dyna band sessions. Aim for four or five 20 minute sessions per week.
• Avoid stimulants such as sugar, soft drinks, coffee, smoking, salt, alcohol, excessive protein, and processed foods. Stimulants can affect the balance of minerals resulting in bone loss or protein loss and can lead to inflammation in the joints.
• Increase your intake of magnesium. Eat regular servings of seaweeds, mixed green leaves, parsley, nuts, egg, low fat mozzarella, figs and soya beans. Magnesium is important in immune function, general movement and bone structure.
• Spend 10-15 minutes daily in direct sunlight without sunscreen. Vitamin D is essential for bone density and formation.

Wendy is an Naturopath at Hopewood Health Retreat, for more visit www.hopewood.com.au

The Suffering from foot pain? Hopewood’s expert Doug shares these helpful tips

 Hopewood’s expert Doug shares these helpful tips:

• Treat yourself to a hot foot bath. Heat water to 30 degrees, add half a glass of Epsom salts and three drops of lavender oil. Soak feet for ten minutes.
• Massage your whole foot from toes to arch to heel. Use your hands to bend and stretch your joints as you go.
• Roll a golf ball on the floor with the bottom of your foot while seated. This massages the bottom of the foot and can help relieve the discomfort of heel pain, cramps or arch strain.
• Avoid wearing high heels, cheap or old runners or poor fitting shoes.
• Don’t persevere with discomfort; a visit to the podiatrist could save you a lot of money and pain.

Doug is an Osteopath at Hopewood Health Retreat, visit www.hopewood.com.au for more information and health tips.

Gentle Benefits

If you suffer from an injury or don’t have time to attend a session at the gym, you may feel like it’s time to ditch your sneakers and give-up on exercising all together.  However first – let’s have a look at the benefits of gentle exercising.

Staying active, albeit at a leisurely pace, will maintain bone mass, increase flexibility and cardio fitness; these are only some of the physical side effects. By following a gentle exercise program, you can also reduce stress and enhance self esteem.

There are several ways to include gentle exercise in your daily lifestyle. For instance, gardening, mowing the lawn and walking will raise your heart rate and reduce knee pain (as less pressure is placed on the knees with lower impact exercising). Tai Chi, Yoga and Aqua aerobics can also be beneficial, increasing co-ordination and muscle strength.

The trick is to find something that suits you. You want to choose something you will enjoy and stick with it, because these helpful exercises are too important to your wellbeing to ignore.

10 tips to terrific skin

Do you want radiant glowing skin? Follow these simple tips to keep your skin healthy and hydrated.  

1. Drink H20 – by keeping your body hydrated, you moisturise your skin from the inside out. Drink 1-2 litres a day or more if you need it. 
2. Use a good moisturiser – using a good moisturiser on exposed skin areas helps to protect the skin from sun and wind damage. 
3. Sunscreen is essential – you need to protect your skin from harmful UV rays. So slip, slop, slap or chose a foundation with SPF 30.  
4. A little Vitamin D – 10-15 minutes of sun a day is good for bone density, red blood cells and energy, but make sure it’s no longer than that. 
5. Stay cool – avoid very HOT showers as they tend to dry out your skin. 
6. Let your body breathe – cotton and cotton-blend clothing is cool. It allows the body to breathe and regulates body temperature. 
7. Love lemons – citrus contains antioxidants that support the skin, so include a good serving of lime, lemon, pineapple and orange into your diet. 
8. More fruit! – paw paw is excellent for skin and aids digestion. It can also help aid minor burns, cuts, cold sores and cracked lips and other skin conditions. 
9. Vege out – boost energy and support your immune system by eating more vegetables. Try water-based vegetables such as cucumber, zucchini and lettuce to hydrate the skin. 
10. General care – use a ‘loofah’ to stimulate circulation of blood and exfoliate dead skin cells before your shower. Finish with cold water to close pores and apply a moisturiser. 

Slow down on the caffeine

Do you wake up with a cup of coffee? Pick up an energy drink when you feel tired? Or snack on a chocolate bar for a sugar hit? Caffeine, found in all of the above, speeds up the messages to your brain, increases your heartbeat and creates more acid in your stomach. You feel more awake, but how is it affecting your body?

If you drink more than two cups of coffee a day, you may begin to experience headaches, restlessness, agitation, tremors, depression and severe palpitation. Caffeine can also lead to weight gain, heart disease and diabetes. Plus there is the general toxicity, links to potential cancer and its negative effect on calcium balance and bone integrity.

Ever wonder why you can’t sleep at night? We can blame caffeine for that too. So next time you reach for your caffeine hit, consider the health impacts and slow down instead of speeding up.

DID YOU KNOW? 

Caffeine increases the adrenaline in your body, but when that adrenaline leaves your body, you become fatigued, requiring more and more caffeine to function normally. Like always, moderation is best. 

Quick tip - Speed up your metabolism!

Your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns energy. If you enjoy the occasional delicious morning tea or yummy dessert, make sure you eat the right foods to burn of those calories quicker!    

Try to regularly include metabolism boosting foods in your diet such as chilli, cayenne pepper, spices, low fat dairy, rolled oats, raw almonds, grapefruit, apples, eggs, spinach and beans.   Broccoli, cauliflower, celery and lettuce are also great as they require lots of energy to be broken down.  

DID YOU KNOW? 

If you under-eat it actually slows down your metabolism! To maintain a good metabolism, your body needs regular fuel and time in-between meals to digest.  So try to eat at least every 4-5 hours to maintain a good metabolism.

No time to exercise? Keep reading…

We all know the feeling of yet another week gone by without stepping foot in the gym, taking the dog for a walk or spending some time stretching our worn out muscles. With our increasingly busy lives, pressing deadlines and family responsibilities, finding time for exercise can too easily be put at the bottom of the to-do list!

Follow these handy tips from Hopewood to put the spring back in to your step, and help you feel more energetic:

• Take the stairs instead of the lift. Unless you’re located on the 20th Floor, walking up the steps can give you some much needed exercise and only takes a few minutes longer. Stairs are really good for aerobic fitness and strengthening the legs. Try to go use them as much as you can throughout the day. Plus, you’ll avoid those awkward silences in the lift!
• Walk wherever you can. If your work is too far away from home for an easy jog, try parking in a car park further away from your office and walk the last few kilometers. Or next time you go to the shops, instead of grabbling for the closest spot to the entry, choose one of the empty ones right at the back. You’ll save yourself some stress and increase your daily exercise.
• Sit up straight. If you find that you slouch a lot, try this simple exercise. While your sitting in your chair (you can also do this standing) sit up straight, hold your tummy in, push your shoulders down, keep your head straight, squeeze your bottom in and push your feet into the ground. Hold this for 30 seconds if you can, as it becomes easier, hold for longer.
• Take exercise breaks. Try to take four minute breaks from your computer at work (or home) and walk a measured distance. For example, the distance could be from the study to the back fence, or down the corridor at work. Keep the distance to about 30 metres. Do this simple exercise five times each day and before you know it you have walked 7km in one week! How easy and simple is that!