Dr. Angela | Regenerative Injection Therapies | Prolotherapy & Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections
  • home
    • Dr. Angela bio
    • mission statement
    • media page
    • conditions treated
  • Injections
    • Physician Training
    • other injection therapies >
      • trigger point injections
      • therapeutic scar injections
  • Learn From Me
  • when & where
  • new patient
    • insurance
  • blog
  • articles
  • testimonials

foodie?  ho hum.  try being a time snob.

3/30/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
What do you never seem to have enough of?

Time.
Money.
Matching socks.

Ok, well I can only help so much; those socks are up to you.

But how about your time?  

Yeah, you've heard of time management, but doesn't it seem like you're at the receiving end, being managed by some other force?  


A force which apparently hates the thought of you having time to yourself, of ever feeling relaxed. 

So let me shed a little light on this conundrum.  

Let's take back the reigns to your calendar, one step at a time.




First, it's time to face the hard facts.  
Let's just go ahead and rip off this band-aid.


Step One: time for a Time Audit


Your homework, should you choose to accept it is to track your time. 

All your time.  All your activities.  
Try doing this consistently for a week, but even a few days will be quite revealing.
(here's a few apps for fool-proof, forget-me-not time tracking, here, here and here)

Attempt to track all your waking hours, noting everything that took more than a few minutes of your time.


What do you see? Any patterns? Anything surprising?

Picture
look familiar? you're not the only one


Getting a few days or more under your belt will help you get the best picture of how you spend your time.


Like money, time can be spent, invested, wasted or saved.  


Are there areas where you could be spending your time a little more wisely?


Step two: craft your own inner time snob


After you have diligently tracked for a week or so, let the next week be all about time analyzing.  

Scrutinize your time spent in every area of your life.  

It's all about values and priorities.


Here are some areas where I help my patients find more time:


-- time for self care (exercise, sleep, hobbies, play)
-- time for cooking healthy meals
-- time for rest, restoration, nurturing and downtime when necessary


And where are we going to find all that time?  
It doesn't just grow on trees, ya know.


Well, let's run through an example.
Say you can't find the time to spend an hour cooking for yourself on the weekends, but you want to prepare a few batches of food for quick-to-reheat workweek lunches and dinners.  
(in slim down & happy up, I share with participants my exact steps to minimize kitchen time for maximum meal impact).  

Alright... where are we going to find an hour?  
How about cutting email time from six (or is it twelve?) times a day to three?

Or limiting facebook time to a twice a day indulgence 
(or better yet, just dump that app from your phone and remove the impulse entirely).


The success of time re-organization comes from you. 
Your input and your investment in its success.  


If you take a keen eye to how (and where) you use your time, you'll be surprised where all your free time is hiding out.

Picture
Now that I've given Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja the boot, watch out Rachel Ray!

Step Three: staying on top of it all


What's a sure-fire plan for failure? Lack of planning, and being stressed out.  

What can help both of those? 

Having a game plan, of course.  


Have a deadline, project or other event looming on your calendar? Then it's time to bring your best inner time snob and stay riding that to-do list wave (it's better than drowning in responsibilities, after all).


As someone who pretty much always has a full schedule, I definitely have to practice what I preach here.  


Since the last thing I want to do is add a huge list of tasks to an already bursting-at-the-seams schedule, I go into much more specific detail about my approach and strategy to do it all while keeping sane (and stress-free, in fact!) in slim down & happy up.

The fall session is just about open for registration, join us on this next round and find a healthier lifestyle for yourself and your family.

I'd love to hear what kinds of creative time planning you use, so please leave a comment below.


To your good health (which includes plenty of rest and play time!),
Picture


Haven't heard? 
Join me for slim down & happy up, a unique stress-reducing and healthy weight-achieving program crafted especially for you, the busy lady. 


More great stuff by me:
Just who do I think I am, anyways?
Bulletproof balance (make room for this in your schedule and you won't be sorry!)

photo credit: BeverlyLR 
0 Comments

Cycles and Rhythms, Bodies and Nature

6/8/2011

0 Comments

 
    In celebration of the much awaited upcoming summer season, this article will recognize one of the many bodily rhythms that keep us functioning.  It's all about balance. Things go up, then go down.  Reactions are monitored, excess levels are corrected, deficient levels are boosted.  And somehow, while holding the reins of all this potential chaos, the body keeps chugging along, keeping all the millions (or billions) of reactions in balance, constantly and simultaneously.
Picture
The body: more than just a machine.
    I'll profile one of my favorite bodily rhythms here (yes, I'm that much of a science geek that I've put some time into pondering this).  If the interest so arises I'll describe more in the future, but in the meanwhile I'd love to hear what comes to your mind as well when we think of important and/or interesting body rhythms.
    Sunlight, cortisol and melatonin.  I like this rhythm because of the integral interaction between humans and the sun.  It all starts in a teensy weensy spot right in the middle of the brain (halfway between the eyeballs and the back of the head) which contains a small bundle of nerves called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCM) within the hypothalamus, which is the traffic control officer for many of the brain's nerve signals.
    The SCM receives light and dark signals from the presence and absence of sunlight.  From this information it tells the body what time it is and thus what it should be doing.  A fascinating thing about the SCM is that although it receives the light signals through the eyes it is still fully active and functional in those who are otherwise completely blind (also, it's present and functioning in sightless animal species).  It's that primitive and important of a function, even more so than sight itself.
    When the SCM sees light, it says, "suns up! time to get moving!" The form of its signaling is called the morning cortisol spike.  Cortisol is most commonly known as a stress hormone, one which floods the body during those "fight or flight" body responses (previously helpful for escaping hungry predators, now used mainly in rush hour traffic).  This amping up of the system is a primary factor in getting someone up and moving in the morning.
    Throughout the day, cortisol slowly climbs back down to its low pre-dawn level, waiting for the next day's first morning burst of sunlight to start all over again.
Picture
     In the meantime, the absence of sunlight at night stimulates the release of melatonin from the same part of the brain.  Melatonin, in humans, is sleep-inducing.  It has a similar spike and gradual fall like cortisol, but at the opposite part of the day. 
    A fascinating aspect of melatonin is that it spikes at night for all animals.  Nocturnal animals which are most active at night appear to receive a similar effect from a nightly burst of melatonin as the average person does his or her morning burst of cortisol.  Each respective species has their own "wake up" and "go to sleep" hormonal response.
    Elegant, responsive, and endlessly adapting to signals both within and beyond our bodies, bodily rhythms are necessary, complex and deserve a little recognition every once in a while.
Picture
Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment if you enjoy my writing, have a comment or question or would otherwise like to add to my articles here.  I take suggestions on topics, do the research and answer your questions here, so please feel free to drop me a line!
-Angela
0 Comments
    Picture
    I'm Dr. Angela, and I want to help you and your joints feel their very best.
    Get on my email list!

    Archives

    August 2022
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    Categories

    All
    Acupuncture
    Acute
    Advertising
    Allergies
    Alternative
    Alzheimer's
    Anti Inflammatory
    Anti-inflammatory
    Antipyretic
    Anxiety
    Appreciation
    Asprin
    Attention
    Autism
    Babies
    Birth Defects
    Bitters
    Blood Sugar
    Body
    Bone Density
    Bone Fractures
    Calcium
    Cam
    Cancer
    Carcinogen
    Cell Phone
    Chemicals
    Children
    Chronic
    Chronic Disease
    Cortisol
    Crops
    Day
    Daylight
    Dementia
    Depression
    Diabetes
    Diet
    Digestion
    Disease
    Dry Cleaning
    Eating
    Energy
    Environmental Exposure
    Epilepsy
    Exercise
    Exposure
    Fever
    Food
    Foster United
    Fruit
    Functional
    Genetics
    Global Health
    Glycemic Index
    Glycemic Load
    Grocery
    Health
    Healthcare
    Healthcare Reform
    Healthcare Workers
    Healthy
    Heart Disease
    Heart Failure
    Heartmath
    Herbicide
    High Blood Pressure
    Hippocrates
    Hospital
    Hypertension
    Illness
    Immune Function
    Immune Response
    Infants
    Inflammation
    Insurance
    Intention
    Iq
    Iron
    Legislation
    Lifestyle
    Lunch
    Marketing
    Meals
    Medicine
    Meditation
    Melatonin
    Metabolism
    Natural
    Naturopath
    Naturopathy
    Neighborhood
    Night
    Nutrition
    Obesity
    Oregon
    Organic
    Pain Management
    Paleolithic
    Pesticide
    Pesticides
    Portland
    Pregnancy
    Primary Care
    Produce
    Publicity
    Quality
    Quiz
    Radiation
    Research
    Rhythms
    Rose City Health Clinic
    Roundup
    Seizure
    Sleep
    Stress
    Sugar
    Supplements
    Sweets
    Tai Chi
    Time Management
    Vegan
    Vegetables
    Vitamin D
    Vitamins
    Weight Loss
    Well Being
    Well-being

about the doc

Dr. Angela's bio
Regenerative Injections Therapies (Prolotherapy & PRP)
Other Injection Therapy Services

patient info

new patient page
insurance/payment

contact

when & where

verified by healthprofs.com
Privacy Policy
© Copyright 2011-2022, Dr. Angela Cortal ND LLC

website content is for educational purposes only and is no substitute for medical advice
(see the Terms of Use Agreement for this site),

you must establish a doctor-patient relationship to receive that!

Photos used under Creative Commons from star5112, Infrogmation, ripkas, conbon33, deansouglass, noricum, Mr. T in DC, gandhiji40, Gane, everyone's idle, Ed Yourdon, racheocity, Vivian Chen [陳培雯], William Brawley, taylor dahlin, RenaudPhoto, toddwickersty, Nick J Webb, Casey David, myfuture.com, apparena, aithom2, Don Fulano, AASU Armstrong University Archives, jakebwotha, Scootie, gnuckx, jemsweb, Avia Venefica, Dylan and Cindi Luder, EvelynGiggles, puliarf, Kevin Krejci, christyscherrer, Itinerant Tightwad, weegeebored, Micah Sittig, L_K_M, biofriendly, kirinqueen, jsmjr, Peaches&Cream, kcxd, Tambako the Jaguar, a.drian, quinn.anya, Fancy Mandi, Melissa Gray, avlxyz, a_whisper_of_unremitting_demand, linademartinez, Helga Weber, Kevin N. Murphy, Mikamatto, Vivian Chen [陳培雯], See-ming Lee 李思明 SML, Wonderlane, Images_of_Money, CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture, kirinqueen, Daquella manera, norwichnuts, jetsandzeppelins, Pink Sherbet Photography, Pip R. Lagenta, philwirks, BaileyRaeWeaver, heydrienne, nandadevieast, melloveschallah, cogdogblog, skampy, vintagedept, freeparking, mafe, John McNab, PhylB, FlexxyB, Pop!Tech, La Citta Vita, jimmiehomeschoolmom, A_of_DooM, Christofer Andersson, Rex Roof, mislav-m, Pixel Addict, chaysbc, colindunn, miss_yasmina, skedonk
  • home
    • Dr. Angela bio
    • mission statement
    • media page
    • conditions treated
  • Injections
    • Physician Training
    • other injection therapies >
      • trigger point injections
      • therapeutic scar injections
  • Learn From Me
  • when & where
  • new patient
    • insurance
  • blog
  • articles
  • testimonials