October 2005 Newsletter

An Inspirational Quote

"You create your reality by what you think, feel, see and hear in your own mind. The real battlefield for weight loss goes on in the mind of each person who constantly sees themself as being overweight. The most powerful ammunition is negative thoughts and feelings. These cause us to resort to using the softer artillery of food, alcohol and cigarettes. Think love, peace and acceptance - not war."

James Williams

See the PDF Version of This Newsletter

Stop Your Cravings With The 4s&p Program

For years, we at Total Fitness have empowered our clients to stop their cravings. Cravings? What cravings? Eat for a week on a Total Fitness program and you won't remember what that means any more! To make it simple to remember, we have put together a 4S and P Program for you.

1.Sleep
Get 10 hours rest every day, preferably most of it sleep. If you don't sleep enough, your insulin won't work right. If you are tired and your insulin doesn't work right, you'll be more fatigued and end up eating more for energy. Get to bed by 10 pm. Whatever number of hours you sleep, subtract that number from 10 and take the rest of that time in relaxation throughout the day. Meditate, take a hot bath or lie in your hammock. If you sleep 8 hours, find a total of two other hours to rest and relax. If you can't find 10 hours to restore yourself every day, re-evaluate your priorities.

2. Sunshine
Sunshine benefits the pineal gland in your brain and stimulates the production of serotonin. When your serotonin level is low, you tend to be depressed, tired and hungry and may need more sunlight. When your pineal gland is happy, some of that serotonin will be used to make plenty of melatonin, the hormone that blesses you with deep, sound sleep. Many people suffer from SAD - seasonal affective disorder - when they get less than 30 minutes of direct sunlight every day. Some people of northern European descent may need up to two hours of sunlight. That's why we would rather our clients walk outside in the sunshine than trudge away on some treadmill in a gym lit with fluorescent lights (our lighting at Total Fitness is all full-spectrum).

3. Supplement
Ask us to test your zinc level. When your zinc level is low, you tend to crave sugar and have a suppressed immune system. Your pineal gland wants zinc and sunlight to make melatonin for sleeping. Consider drinking a cocktail of flaxseed, fenugreek and liquid chlorophyll to balance your blood sugar naturally - 1 tablespoon of each. Take this mixture on an empty stomach every morning and watch your appetite, LDL cholesterol and high triglycerides disappear! There may be other supplements that will also be helpful. Ask us to make recommendations based on your individual health challenges.

4. Skinny Meals
It is not possible to gorge on food and keep a normal blood sugar long-term. Medical research shows it takes about 15 years to become a type 2 diabetic. Learn to eat like a naturally thin person. That means stop eating before you are full. We have seen countless clients who fail because they are eating too much at one time - no matter what it was they were eating. Your body will release too much insulin if you eat too much food. Our clients report they feel less hungry when they eat smaller portions on a Total Fitness meal plan, compared to when they used to eat lots of junk food. That's because insulin is the hunger hormone - secrete too much, and you'll end up hungrier.

5. P for Protein
We kept the P for Protein for last because it is too important to forget. Every time you open your mouth to eat anything, some form of protein has to go in. If you do otherwise, your major hormones - insulin, cortisol and adrenalin - will not stay balanced and you set yourself up for hormone hell - exhausted adrenals, no sex drive, gaining weight around the midsection, buttocks, thighs and everywhere else. When you get to menopause, all the hormone replacement therapy in the world, bioidentical or not, won't manage to balance your hormones if you don't eat enough protein. When you get the right amount of protein, you won't crave sugar.

Client Testimonial

Client: Ashly Margenthaler. No More Migraines

What can just one visit to Total Fitness do?

Ask Ashly Margenthaler, age 22.

Since the senior year of her high school, Ashly had suffered four to five migraine headaches every week. Her parents, both medical professionals, had sent her to five different medical doctors. The five doctors had put Ashly on five different medications - either muscle relaxers, preventive medicine or pain killers - but the migraines still kept coming.

"The medications increased my symptoms and made me feel worse. Usually for about an hour after I took them, I was immobile. Sometimes I would have tightness in my chest and trouble breathing," she recalls. "I felt very nauseous.

"I didn't want to take medicines every day. I didn't feel they were doing anything for me because I was getting more headaches. I was very frustrated because I was told this may be something I would have to live with." Fortunately, Ashly had heard about Total Fitness through her boyfriend's mother, a regular client.

Ashly came to visit us from Princeton, N.J. We only had 2 ½ hours to see her. As usual, we went through our thorough protocol and did what we could in the time we had before she went back to school. We used specialized kinesiology, Total Body Modification, identified her food sensitivities, made specific recommendations for nutritional supplements, explained a personalized eating plan and did craniosacral therapy with her. In other words, we identified multiple factors that were aggravating her migraine headaches and addressed each one using an integrative approach with nutrition and alternative healing.

Result: In the 8 weeks since coming to see us, Ashly is off all 5 drugs and has not had one migraine since. "I am very, very happy!" she reports.

"I have not taken any medication and I feel 100 percent better. I was worried that when I started school, maybe I would get more stressed and the headaches would come back, but that hasn't happened."

"Ashly studies rigorously as a second year graduate student in music education and opera. "I am writing six papers a week and testing a lot of the time. It was worrying me that the migraines would start again, but they haven't! "I feel more energetic, I am not tired. I have also lost about 10 pounds. I feel healthy. I'm eating smaller meals more often, and that has controlled my shakiness, which hasn't happened since I started all this.

"For six years, I have been trying to figure out what has been plaguing my body, and Total Fitness has been the only thing to fix the problem."

Congratulations, Ashly!

Delicious Food For You!

Patty's Walnut Salmon Salad

Ingredients:

• 3 cups lettuce greens.
• 1 tomato, chopped.
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.
• 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts.
• 1 tablespoon flaxseed or olive oil.
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
• ¼ tsp. lemon pepper.
• 1 garlic clove, minced.
• 4 oz. grilled salmon (wild caught), sliced.

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine greens, tomato, parsley and walnuts. In a small cup, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, lemon pepper and garlic. Add dressing to greens and toss to coat. Top with salmon. Enjoy!

Questions For Total Fitness

Do you have a question about fitness, nutrition or healing? Get your questions answered for free by calling us live during our Total Fitness radio show, 10 a.m. EST (7 a.m. PST, 3 p.m. GMT). The toll free listener line number is 1-866-369-3742. Listen to the show by clicking here or click on the radio show link on our website.

New Seminar Dates!

Join this two-day seminar for a truly transformational process. Learn how to remove the REAL blocks that have held you back from making major beneficial changes in your life.

Saturday and Sunday 29-30 October, Atlanta, GA. $375. View the brochure by clicking here. To register call 404-350-8581 or Email:catherine@totalfitness.net

Total Fitness Classes

Yoga Classes: Every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 4465 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA.

Qi Gong Class: Every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m.
1951 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA.

Pilates on the Ball: Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. Kennedy Club Fitness, Atascadero, CA.

Mat Pilates: Thursdays, 5:30 p.m.
Kennedy Club Fitness, Atascadero, CA

Booking Appointments With Total Fitness

To schedule an appointment to find out about a personalized fitness, nutrition or healing program, please contact us at:

Patty Bonafede: Patty@TotalFitness.net

Catherine Carrigan: Catherine@TotalFitness.net

James Williams: James@TotalFitness.net

Or visit us on the web at: www.TotalFitness.net