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Archive for the ‘Healthy Lifestyle’ Category
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Every issue of Oprah’s Magazine ends with a page called, “what I know for sure.” It got me thinking. If helping you achieve your optimal health potential is our goal, what do I know for sure will help you achieve this. And I continually return to two concepts that I know for sure, without a doubt, with 100% assuredness, and with unwavering certainty. How’s that for being sure!
First I know that I know that I know that your thought life determines the quality of your life. So many people ‘poo-poo’ all this positive thinking mumbo jumbo. But the same people that don’t place value on their thought life happen to be the same people that wake up each and every day to a rather dreary existence. Two things are amazing about your thoughts. First, they are free. Second, they are a choice. Your thoughts don’t choose you. You choose them. Each day when you put your feet on the floor you get to choose how to react and how to think about what life brings to you that day. You get to plant goods seeds at the start of your day. You get to ‘think about and thank about’ what your day may bring. I believe knowing and more importantly, applying, this simple principle can greatly change your life.
The second thing I know for sure is that our purpose during our relatively short time on earth is to serve. What we serve can vary from serving dinner to serving your family to serving your boss to serving on a missionary team to serving a compliment to serving a meal to the homeless to serving a tennis racket. It’s all in the ‘serve.’ And this includes serving yourself too. When we focus outside of what we think, need and feel and place our focus on service to others, our life is immensely better. I’ll give you an example. Joanie C., a patient in our practice over 40 years, once asked an elderly woman if she would like her cart (that she was putting away) while in the parking lot of a grocery store. The elderly woman said thank you and also let Joanie know it was her birthday. Joanie immediately went into her car and got the bouquet of flowers she had just purchased for herself and handed them to this elderly woman and said Happy Birthday. So I ask you, who got more out of this, Joanie or the elderly woman.
Think better thoughts. Serve more. These are two things I know for sure. It’s a simple as that.
Make it a great week.
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Meditation | Comments Off
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Just got back from an amazing trip to Chicago where The Masters Circle held a fantastic seminar for chiropractors, staff and family. I was able to present on a topic called, “Why Wellness Works.” Of course much of my presentation revolved around the Eight Weeks to Wellness Program. 8WW is changing lives one person, one community, one city, one city, and eventually one country at a time. A program that consists of chiropractic care, on-site hard exercise, a healthy eating program, massage therapy and meditation instruction, how can you go wrong? If fact you can only GO RIGHT. So share 8WW with your family and friends. It IS how we will change the face of healthcare in America by taking the focus off of sickness care and disease prevention, and placing it on wellness care and restoring God-given health potential. Make it a great week!!! Spring is right around the corner. Yipeeee.
Posted in Chiropractic Care, Diet, Exercise, Healthy Lifestyle, Massage, Meditation | Comments Off
Friday, February 19th, 2010
I’ve just reread Good to Great by Jim Collins for the 4th or 5th time. It’s one of my all-time favorites and I highly recommend it. In the book Jim Collins talks about a trait that CEOs of great companies share. He describes the trait as the ‘mirror and the window’. He explains that great CEOs when facing adversity or problems look in the mirror and blame themselves or take personal responsibility. The weaker CEO’s look out the window and blame their problems or adversities on situations or people outside of themselves.
On the other hand, when crediting their success, great CEO’s rarely look in the mirror or take the credit. They look out the window and give the credit to the people around them, as opposed to other CEO’s that take the credit for their companies successes.
We should take a look in the mirror and take responsibility for that which we can control. Likewise, we should look out the window and thank those around us who make our lives beautiful: our children, spouses, friends, wellness coaches, mentors, etc… Build a team of people around yourself that will hold you to a high standard of living life. Steven Covey teaches us in his best selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, that responsibility means the ability to respond. When you look in the mirror and accept responsibility for the current health status, rather than looking out the window and blaming others, you will be able to respond by making better healthcare choices. Do you blame your genetics for your health (looking out the window) or do you know you could make better healthcare choices (looking in the mirror). Do you blame your boss for working you too much and therefore you don’t have time to exercise (looking out the window) or do you commit to waking up 30 minutes earlier each day to begin an exercise program (looking in the mirror). Take responsibility for your health by choosing to respond to your health with a proactive approach. And find a great wellness center that can hold you accountable to this higher standard.
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Recommended Reading | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
Dr. Dane’s, co-founder of 8WW, is flying to Chicago on Thursday, to celebrate the grand opening of Dr. Jason Fennema’s 8WW center, the Ravenswood Health Center holding their first 8WW orientation 2/18/2010. Dr. Fennema and his team are making a difference in the health of the people of Chicago. Way to go!
Posted in Chiropractic Care, Healthy Lifestyle | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
I recently read a book by Matthew Kelly, The Rhythm of Life. In it he states that when making decisions in life, especially important ones, the number one question to ask is:
“Will this make me a better version of myself?“
I love that! Another book by Jim Collins describes it slightly differently. He states you want to make decisions that will take you from being “good” to being “great.” Life is short and I’ve decided that I want to be GREAT at the things that I’m most passionate about in life and I also want to become the best version of myself.
Here is my list of what I try to do to achieve that goal:
- Can’t find time to exercise? Wake up earlier and do 20 minutes of a cardiovascular activity that gets your heart rate up. The only rule is that you have to be sweating by the end of the twenty minutes.
- Take two hours every Sunday (or best day for you) and plan your meals for the week; cut up fruits and vegetables; cook meats; get the crockpot going with some chicken and vegetable soup; anything you can do so you don’t say to yourself on the way home from work – mmmmmmmm, I wonder what I should pick up for dinner?
- Live within 70% of your income each month; take the remaining 30% and divide into 3; give 10% to charities of your choice (it truly is more blessed to give); put 10% in your savings account; put 10% toward debt reduction; if you can’t do this you are living above your means.
- Shut off the TV for good; there can be no better way of freeing up time and reducing stressful feelings that comes from watching stressful TV events.
- Write down EXACTLY what it is that you want from life in detail; write down personal and professional goals; read those goals aloud each and every day and visualize yourself achieving those goals.
- Try to bless at least one person each and every day; doesn’t have to be a big deal – smile at someone, complement them, listen to people’s needs and try to respond when possible.
- Eliminate ALL high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils from your diet; by doing this you’ll easily eliminate 50% of all bad foods on the market.
- Eat in MORE often; we eat too much; and we really eat too much when we go out to restaurants; eat out one to two times per week (and that includes lunch and dinner); open up those cookbooks buried in your cabinets and start experimenting.
So tell me, what are you going to do to become the best version of yourself?
Tags: Diet, Exercise, goals, life choices, self improvement, stress
Posted in Diet, Exercise, Healthy Lifestyle, Recommended Reading | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Statistics covering health and wellness in America are shocking. The CDC states that over 60% of adults in the U.S. are overweight and over 25% or 1 in 4 is obese. The CDC also gives an equally alarming statistic on the growing trend that 40% of adults in America never engage in any type of physical activity.
Could you be taking better care of your mind and body? By answering YES or NO to following 10 questions, you’ll be able to tell just how healthy you are.
- Do you exercise at least 4 times a week for at least 30 minutes making sure to get your heart rate elevated? (In other words – you are sweating!!)
- Do you know your know your health “numbers” – BMI, blood pressure, blood sugar, body fat percentage, waist to hip ratio and cholesterol, and are they within normal range? (Remember your ratios – Cholesterol/HDL is ideally less than 3.0; Triglyceride/HDL ratio is ideally less than 2.0. Waist to hip ratio for a woman should be less than 0.80 and for a man should be less than 0.95.)
- Are you a non-smoker?
- Do you adapt well to stress in your life, staying calm and relaxed during most of life’s ups and downs, and do you practice mental relaxation techniques such as meditation, yoga, massage, listening to calming music, prayer etc.?
- Do you understand the benefits of nutritional concepts such as: what, when and how often to eat and proper vitamin/mineral supplementation, and do you take a high quality multi-vitamin supplement daily?
- Do you avoid whenever possible “fast foods” and foods made with trans fats, saturated fats and highly-processed carbohydrates, such as high fructose corn syrup?
- Do you understand the importance of adding lots of fruits, vegetables, lean meats and fish, and whole grains to your daily diet and do you get at least 25 grams of fiber from these foods daily?
- Do you drink at least 8 glasses of water a day?
- Are you satisfied with how you look and feel and are not overly critical of yourself?
- Do you keep your mind active and place a high priority on good relationships with friends and family?
The more you answered YES to the above questions – the healthier you are. If you had lots of NOs, perhaps today is the day to get started taking some real steps to better health.
Did you notice there was no question regarding your genetics and whether “this or that” runs in your family? The reason is that I want you to focus on things that you can actually DO something about. What you eat, how you exercise, and how you think are all things that you CAN actually control.
Although it may seem foreign to you, health is indeed a choice. Health is not merely determined by the genetics our parents give us, which is actually just a very small percentage of what determines our overall health. So take some responsibility and CHOOSE to be healthy. And then of course take the right actions steps to make that a reality in your life.
Tags: Diet, Exercise, fitness, health, quiz, wellness
Posted in Diet, Exercise, Healthy Lifestyle | Comments Off
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Hello, and welcome to the 8 Weeks to Wellness (8WW) blog!
My name is Dr. Denise Chranowski. Together with my twin brother and fellow chiropractor, Dr. Dane Donohue, I developed the 8WW program to help empower people of all ages to take responsibility for their own well-being and positively impact their God-given true health potential.
8WW will help you optimize what you think about, how you eat and supplement, and how you exercise and care for your body. As reinforcement for our comprehensive wellness program, we’ve updated our website, launched interactive profiles on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and created this blog to support you as you learn how to live a happier, healthier life.
Check back often as we’ll be sharing practical exercise tips, recipes and advice for healthy eating, success stories from 8WW patients, before-and-after photos, videos and much more.
Feedback is appreciated and encouraged. Have a question? Want to share your personal story? Please post a comment – we’d love to hear from you!
Tags: health, wellness
Posted in Chiropractic Care, Diet, Exercise, Healthy Lifestyle, Massage, Meditation, Recommended Reading, Uncategorized | Comments Off
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