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Feel Better Naturally

Heather Morneau
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Feel Better Naturally

I feel like the older I get, the more I know about stuff that doesn’t even matter anymore.  Singing songs that the kids have never heard. Quoting movies that aren’t yet on Netflix. But at the same time, I am learning so much more than I thought I would be at this age.  

One thing that I am so amazingly grateful to have learned about is essential oils.

I know they are abuzz right now.  I am finally on the right side of cool knowledge.  I have a few ‘go to’ oils that I absolutely love.

First, let me tell you.  I don’t sell them. There are a couple of companies out there selling oils, that is not me.  But, I do have a favorite store. Saje. It is based in Canada, but they ship internationally.

I first learned about oils years ago but didn’t really use them to their full extent until just a few years ago.  Then something amazing happened. We, Doug and I, went to a business event and in the swag bag from sponsors was the best thing ever.  It is called the pocket pharmacy, from Saje.

In a previous blog; Aromatherapy, I touched on a couple of my go-to oils, peppermint halo, and solace. But this pocket pharmacy I love so much, I bought for each of my kids to use.

Inside each little pouch are 5 small bottles of oils with roller tops so that you can take them anywhere, apply anytime, and feel better so quickly.

 

  • Peppermint Halo;  the best headache remedy I have found.  
  • Immune; helps when you have a cold and helps prevent you from getting one.
  • Eater’s Digest;  we actually buy this in the large bottle and refill this one all the time.  This is a wonder for upset tummies, indigestion, irregular poops and gas. Oh boy!
  • Stress release; is like a mini massage and relaxer.
  • Pain Release; with the amount of discomfort I am generally in after the gym, I should be bathing in this.

These are not crazy, strange remedies.  They have been around for a really long time, they have only just become more mainstream and it is a really good thing.  They are way healthier for you than popping pills all day long. I am not advocating that these oils will fix everything, I am letting you know about a more natural way to make your body heal itself without resorting to the regular pharmacy.  Btw: I also have a cupboard of anti-inflammatories and other ‘fixes’, sometimes that is just the way it is.

What I am trying to encourage you to do is to go a little more natural.  Let your body do what it was made to do, which is to work and then to recover. And to do it with just a gentler way that may not be quite so chemical to your body.

A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree. Spike Milligan

Growing Old with Grace

Heather Morneau
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Growing Old with Grace

I love the saying that I have seen going around “I hate it when I see some old person, then realize that we went to high school together”.  

It’s funny because I find that as I get older, I realize that I have no idea how old people really are.  I look at some people and truly cannot begin to guess their age. And then am glad that I didn’t guess because boy was I wrong inside my head.

The one thing that I know for sure is that when I was young, people were ‘old’ a whole lot younger than they are now.

Now, I realize too that it had something to do with my age.  I remember realizing that when the millennium was going to change to 2000, I was going to be too old to enjoy the celebration.  I must have been around 12 and that meant that at 12 I thought 34 was ancient. But, I also remember looking at my grandma and she was grey haired, wrinkled, and kind of hobbled when she walked.  She passed at 72 and that felt really old. Was it really just my perception or are people aging just a little better than they used to?

The actual answer is that yes, we are living longer.

The statistics show the average life expectancy in North America for those born in 2017, in Canada, is 79 years for males and 81 years for females. For the year that I was born, 1965 the average life expectancy for males was 68 and for females 78.  Oh, my!

So, by those statistics, we should be looking and feeling younger as we age.  How about that, it isn’t my imagination that we look better at our age than our parents and grandparents did at the same age.

That brings me to my next question, why?  

  • Are we living a healthier lifestyle?
  • Are we eating better?
  • Is it all the chemicals we eat?
  • Are we that much better off?
  • I don’t really have any idea. It may be all of that or some of that.  It may be none of that. But we are going to live longer than the last generation, so what are you going to do about that?

When we, Doug and I, made the decision to get healthy and lose our extra lbs coming up 7 years ago it didn’t occur to me how this would affect our kids and subsequent grandkids.  At the time it was all about us. Our health. Our need to never allow ourselves to become this unhealthy again. But through our journey, we realized how our actions were impacting our kids.

I truly didn’t give much thought to how much our change would change our kids.  Our family has never been a family of just sitting around, but making a conscious effort to get up and move is now a constant thing and a great habit that is now part of our world.

We also eat way better than we did as kids and way better than the way we fed our kids.  I wish that I had this knowledge when I was raising little ones. Although it’s never too late, our grown kids all have so much knowledge about nutrition and it is already passing on to our grandson.

So although we are living longer, it is super important to make sure that you are not just living, but thriving in the life that you are living.  Making smart choices that not only will improve your health but also improve your lifestyle and will be something that you can pass onto the next generation.  If the stats are to be believed, our kids and grandkids will outlive us and will need to be shown a good foundation to have a really great productive life.

This means to me that we should be;

  • trying new foods.  
  • Sitting less, laughing more.
  • Learning all we can, passing all that knowledge on.  
  • Trying new activities, enjoying the sun.
  • Drinking more water, listening to the rain.  
  • We are meant to love the life we have not the one we thought we were going to get.
  • So, pass on the zest for life and show the world that you can age gracefully, energetically and not just gather cobwebs in the corner.

 

I have known plenty of people who, in their later years, had the energy of children and the kind of curiosity and fascination with things like little children. I think we can keep that, and I think it's important to keep that part of staying young. But I also think it's great fun growing old. – Johnny Depp

Do You Have a Work-Life Balance?

Heather Morneau
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Do You Have a Work-Life Balance?

Just out of curiosity, what is your work-life balance like these days?

We all go through seasons in our lives.  We will be young a carefree for a while. Then a broke student for a time.  Typically that is followed up with young married and no responsibilities. Moving quickly to mortgage and babies.  After that, there will be a blur. In that blur, there are kids, daycare, football practice, field trips, emergency ward visits and any number of things including pets that make this time in your world pure chaos.  The teen years are fun, stress, anxiety, middle of the night calls, varying degrees of truths being told. Then you become your parents. Kids are more independent, you hear from them less and you look across the table and see someone who resembles that person you met 20-30 years ago.

That last part is where I am now.  Two out of three kids have moved out.  The third is so independent, she may as well be moved out.  So that means it is time to look at our work-life balance. Do you make time for leisure?  Do you make time for the gym? Is there room in your day for reading? What about me time, do you have any of that?

Actually, it doesn’t matter which of the above stages you are in, there needs to be a work-life balance.  If it isn’t a priority during the chaos, it will be really hard to put it into your world later. Putting yourself first is really hard to do for some people.  I fall into that camp. I am no longer that high in demand on the go for the kids, mom. I have spent the last 28 years being at the mercy of my children and husband.  I absolutely chose this role, make no mistake. All I wanted to be when I grew up was a mom. I still am that mom, and now the best part, a Grandma, I just am not living by the calendar as much as I once did.  So for me, finding the balance is actually tough.

If you have spent your adult life leaving for work every morning and having the weekends off, the idea that there is a separation between work and not work is a whole lot clearer than it is for people like me.  Even my husband who has been a serial entrepreneur for all of his adult life struggles with this new balance in life.

The balance is found in putting small bits of me time into your day.  How can I get a gym workout in when I have twelve other places to be? So, as you watch a little tv in the evening, do some yoga, stretching, or body weight exercises.  It is found in parking at the outside edge of the parking lot to get just a few more steps toward your 10 000 step goal in. It can be choosing green tea at coffee break instead of a can of cola.  Sometimes, the balance comes in the form of saying no to an event that you really don’t want to go to but instead of just hanging out at home, you go for a walk or a paddle, or a game of tennis.

Balance is found in the small things.  Doing a squat challenge with your spouse, thanks Caroline for that great idea.  It is walking the dog together so that you can walk and plan at the same time. Choosing to go a week without meat and finding new sources of protein that you like.  Working toward having a life outside of work and after raising kids can be really tough. But it is completely worth the effort.

Keep in mind too, that you may need to look for an accountability partner to remind you that you have a life to live outside of work.  Balance may mean grabbing a walking buddy, yoga partner, softball friend, dance partner, golfing caddy. Balance may also mean doing a little of nothing.  If you are constantly on the go, a balance may mean taking a book to the park and unwinding.

This, to me, is not talked about enough.  We are meant to be well-rounded beings, not round beings.  There is something to be said for a Sabbath day each and every week.  A day of rest, not chores. A day to remember who your friends and family are.  A day to call old friends, and to open a favorite book.

So, do us all a favor and learn to find a balance between work and life.  You will feel better and in return, the people around you will feel better.

 

Overcome your barriers, intend the best, and be patient. You will enjoy more balance, more growth, more income, and more fun! – Jack Canfield

 

How Do We Trust the Information Out There?

Heather Morneau
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How Do We Trust the Information Out There?

There is always something new out there in the world of eating healthy.  There is always new foods to try and foods that used to be good for you but now are not.  There is always a new study telling you what to eat and what to avoid and what will cause you cancer.  This has been true for a very long time. But what the difference is now is that we have the internet at our fingertips and we get access to these studies.  Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes it is not.

For most of us the old saying is very true “a little information can be a dangerous thing” Just because we have access to all these studies and information, it doesn’t mean that we understand them and that we know what to do with the information once we get it.  We lack the knowledge, understanding, and background to know if this info is true, skewed, complete, or even worth knowing. Studies done for a very small percentage of people from a very small part of the word in an environment that we will never be in, is completely irrelevant to us, but if somehow somebody decides to publish it in a place where people may see it and share it, now it is ‘trending’ and yet it really has no value to us.

But how do we decide whether to trust the information out there?  

At what point do we believe this ‘thing’ that we just learned. I was having a conversation at the gym and the common belief is that the person who is the coach, trainer, or whatever usually appears to be in a position of authority.  That is the way it is supposed to be. But, they actually should only be that position of trust for the reason you came to that gym.

We need to do our own due diligence.

  • Is that trainer actually certified to offer that opinion?
  • Did that coach actually have the knowledge to give that information?
  • Are we asking too much of the person in charge of that one hour of gym time?
  • Is our trainer actually trained in the area that they are training?
  • Do they have any other schooling?

 

Also, we need to ask the same questions on the websites we visit.

  • Is there any real evidence to back up this article?
  • Has this article cited its source?
  • Are there more than one site offering the same information?
  • Does the website have doctors, certified coaches, trainers to confirm their info?

 

We have to be our own best advocates.  It is, after all, your body and nobody else values it as much as you do.  You need to be as educated as you can on the things that are important to you.

So whatever you are looking at eating, doing, not eating or not doing, do your research first.  Whatever you do, don’t fall for the latest fad, newest fake study, undiscovered new fruit, an unresearched piece of equipment.  Find out all you can and even after that, decide if it is truly something for you. The miracle fruit may cost too much. The magic exercise routine may injure you. The latest supplement may actually be harmful.

After all of that is said and done, if you want somebody else to do the homework, I am here for you.  We, here at Q4fit, spend a lot of time researching the things that we talk to you about, let us do the work for you.  If we do, we will share it with all of you so that we can all be just a little bit wiser and hopefully a little healthier.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. – Winston Churchill

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