Flourish TCM Clinic specializes in non-narcotic and non-invasive practices in healing pain such as headaches, chronic pain, joint pain, back pain, and Sciatica. Flourish TCM Clinic uses Chinese Medicine Bio-Current Massage Treatment which combines the benefits of acupuncture, cupping, Tui Na (Chinese acupressure massage), and Gua-Sha as well as Cold Laser Acupuncture to treat any body, mind or internal organ conditions. We combining the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine to take a holistic approach to preventing and reversing diseases and heal the body and mind from within.

In the wake of a global pandemic, there is a new understanding of the role stress and anxiety can play in our everyday habits. One topic I have heard more about than ever before is stress eating. Clients tell me about it as if they are reporting the weather, “I have gained five pounds in the last few months…. I have been doing a lot of stress eating”. I am grateful for how comfortable my clients feel talking to me about this.

However, I also see it as a sign that stress and stress eating have become almost accepted as our new normal!

Yikes!

Our bodies and our health are not designed to withstand prolonged stress. I am a firm believer in not just managing our stress, but also reducing it.

Overeating, as a result of stress eating or emotional eating, takes its toll. Most often weight gain is the main complaint, but depending on where those calories come from, overeating may also increase our risk of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and chronic disease.

So how do we tackle stress eating and emotional eating in a healthy way? Let us start by understanding mechanisms that are making us reach for food in the first place—executive functioning and conditioning.

Executive Functioning

Executive functions are a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. When our executive functions are working well, they allow us to make good, well-thought-out decisions. They are at their best when we are well-rested, well-oxygenated, and are relaxed. When we are tired, oxygen-deprived or under stress, our executive functions don’t work as well. We aren’t as quick or as clear in our decisions.

When someone tells me that they “don’t have any willpower around food” I always think about executive functioning.

Consider this. What time of day do you struggle the most with emotional eating or stress eating? In my practice, I don’t think I have ever had a client tell me “first thing in the morning.” They typically tell me “later in the day” or “evening.” This makes sense. This is when we are most tired, following the stressors of our day.

Conditioning

Conditioning is a learned behaviour in response to a “condition”. These learned responses often come from our childhood or past experiences, leading us to associate a certain condition with a specific response. In essence, when we are in a particular environment, or experience a certain sound, taste, emotion, etc., we may respond in a specific—learned—way.

For example, in childhood, perhaps someone gave us a food “treat” when we were upset to help make us feel better and stop crying. The action seems innocent enough, but when the situation is repeated over and over again, we can become conditioned. We may start to associate having “treats” with making us feel better. Then later, as adults, we reach for food for comfort.

Often we are not conscious this is happening, unless we pay close attention to our thoughts, emotions and actions. This is the beginning of what we call “mindful eating”.

As you set out to overcome stress eating, I would like to give you some important advice:

1. Let go of shame and guilt – There are some strong internal powers at play. There may be times when you still give into stress eating along the way. Be gentle with yourself.

2. Have patience – Changing our behaviours means retraining our brain to be conditioned in a new way around food. It will take time.

3. It is okay to intentionally choose to have a “treat” – The idea is not to avoid all the foods you enjoy; it is about being aware of why you are eating. Don't just eat mindlessly.

In my practice, I often spend several sessions working on mindful eating. However, if you are ready to get started, here are 4 steps to get going:

1. Focus on regular, well balanced meals – If you are hungry because you are skipping meals or eating more processed foods, you might have a tougher time tuning into the difference between physiological hunger and emotional eating. Start by nourishing your body well.

2. Keep a journal – It can be helpful to track your hunger, emotions, and thoughts as they come up along the way. You can use any kind of journal you like, but if you are looking for one that focuses on eating, check out my Daily Health & Self-Care Journal.

3. Pause before you eat – As best as you can, try to slow down before you put any food in your mouth. Take a few seconds to reflect on the emotion you are feeling at that moment (e.g. tired, stressed, excited, bored, and so on). No judgement about the emotion, just write it down in your journal, along with some details about what was happening in your day at that time.

4. Look for patterns – After a week or so, review your journal to see if there are any common themes in the emotions you wrote down. This might help you uncover the triggering emotions or situations.

Once you have created an awareness around your eating behaviours, you can then start to use some mindful eating techniques to start shifting to healthier habits.

As well, it is important to look for healthier ways of handling our stress and emotions.

Remember, stress eating and weight gain are often the symptoms of something deeper. It is equally important to address the underlying emotional concern as well.

As a trauma-informed practitioner, I understand how emotional eating and body confidence may be intertwined with past trauma. Whether you have struggled with c-PTSD or have simply had upsetting experiences with past weight loss programs, my priority is to provide a safe, judgement free space to work on your health. I offer one on one and group programs, to best meet individual needs.

Food for thought.

As the last month of Summer 2021 begins, it’s time to reflect back on all that we learned about health and wellness. As part of PromptHealth’s Summer Virtual Wellness Series, we had the opportunity to sit down and speak with different experts on the topics of mental health, understanding our bodies, fitness, nutrition, and emotional health and lifestyle. For a summary of what we learned, keep reading below!

Mental Health 

When it comes to taking care of our mental health, there are so many proven methods to choose from. Did you know that acupressure can actually help with your mental health? We spoke to Clara from AcuPro Academy to explain this. Acupressure is the process of inserting tiny needles, as small as a strand of hair, into the area on the body being treated, which triggers mynute nerves that send signals to the brain to trigger the body to self heal and balance itself. Another method to support your mental health journey is through how you actually think. Dr. Shaheem explained that as humans, we are always looking for things to make us feel good and give us dopamine. However, when we get that feeling of extreme happiness and normalizes as it naturally will over time, that feeling subsides. When we are confronted by unpredictable circumstances your first instinct is to resist and pull from things we cannot control. Instead, stop and reflect. Take a breath and allow yourself to make better decisions with a clear mind - that’s when you thrive. A fun way to teach yourself to think positively is through laughter yoga. We learned from the Laughing Lovebugs that laughter improves your mental, physical, and emotional health all at the same time. Even spending 5 minutes a day can boost your mood and put you in a better headspace to tackle the day. Your body and brain does not know the difference between real and fake laughter, so our bodies get to take advantage of the happy chemicals our body releases like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, even if we are fake laughing. 

Breathwork and meditation is another way to give yourself a break and focus on relaxation. It is a balancing practice that is safe for everyone to try. Payal Khanwani’s breathwork routine involves finding somewhere comfortable to sit and arriving in your position by taking a few moments to feel yourself in your body. Inhale into your stomach and expand the belly. Then, try the nostril breathing technique: with your index and middle finger down, block your right nostril with your thumb and inhale with the left nostril. take your ring finger and cover your other nostril, releasing your thumb from the right as you exhale. continue inhaling and exhaling through each nostril for 4 counts each way and equal in length. If you are feeling more anxious or stressed, make the exhalations longer to help with letting go of negative emotions. Inhale for 4 and exhale for 6 or 8 counts, depending on lung capacity. Adjust the counts as you’d like to until the practice is comfortable for you. Finally, Dr. Nima walked us through healing from attachment trauma. For many people, there are emotional attachment traumas that they go through in their childhood that they don't ever heal from. Our emotional injuries show in our bodies, from our posture to our ability to make eye contact; to heal from this, guidance is needed to become “unstuck” in our lives, which is where finding expert care comes in. 

Understanding Our Bodies

On the topic of understanding our bodies, Dr. Sheldon Bjorgaard from MOVE Health and Wellness explained how people may suffer from insulin resistance without even knowing it. Insulin resistance occurs when the cells in your body don’t respond to insulin anymore and therefore can’t use the glucose in your blood for energy. Your body creates more insulin to make up for it and over time, your blood sugar levels go up. If you notice changes in your weight or level of energy, you may benefit from testing for insulin resistance and getting on a health plan that will support you. Michael David Huey talked about how what is in our genes affects how our bodies function, all throughout our lives. The gut microbiome is acquired by everyone at the time of birth; richness is the total number of bacterial species that are in your gut microbiome and diversity is the amount of individual species of different bacteria in your gut. Being intentional about hydration, your gut, and your sleep, watch what happens to your skin, energy levels, and overall health. Dr. Marc Bijman spoke about spinal health and how it is a general indication of your overall health. Like many health topics, there are a lot of myths around spinal health so it's important to not believe everything you hear, unless it comes from a credible source. Our bodies are adaptable and resilient, as long as you slowly adapt your body, it is capable of a lot. When it comes to your spine, your best option is to invest in preventive care. 

Hormonal health is another great way to understand your body. We spoke to the Menopause Chicks to better understand the process. Because of the way menopause has been depicted in the media, there is often a lot of misconceptions and misinformation being spread about how it actually looks and is experienced. Menopause happens on the12 month anniversary of your last period, and marks the end of our reproductive lifestage, and of menstruation. The period of time before menopause is called perry menopause which is when your hormones are fluctuating, preparing our body for menopause. The same way a young girl’s body prepares for puberty. For men, we spoke to Dr. Pollock about how 50% of men over 40 experience erectile dysfunction. Men may not realize some subtle symptoms they are experiencing, such as low testosterone. To help with this, lifestyle changes are very important, aerobic exercise 4-5 times a week at a moderate or high level. Another tip he gave was to stop watching pornography, as it increases the threshold that men can get an erection. 

Lastly, an important part of understanding our bodies is to make sure you are getting complete and effective care. We spoke to JR Burgess about how patients can ensure they’re getting the best quality care. He explained that it is important to ask the practitioner that you are working with if they feel they can help regenerate or restore you through their treatment, rather than helping you manage it. Learning how to ask powerful questions will greatly benefit you in finding the right treatments. 

Fitness

On the topic of fitness, we spoke to Mark Campbell on the benefits of TRX training. TRX training is a form of exercise that uses suspension cables, your own body weight, and gravity to create resistance. It helps increase: strength, balance, coordination, flexibility, core, and joint stability. The movements can be adjusted to meet any fitness level, making it a good choice for almost anyone, and there are so many different ways you can use the TRX to reap the benefits. We also had the opportunity to speak to Farinaz Lari, Olympic Gold Medalist, about creating the mindset of a champion. Farinaz told us that investing in a mindset coach can be highly influential and helpful for maintaining the motivation for a goal. Something you can try at home yourself without any professional help is to try not to turn on your phone immediately when you wake up. Instead, have some meditative time with yourself, even just 10 minutes in the morning. Setting your day up at the beginning through gratitude gets you in touch with your intention and your “why.” During these 10 minutes, think about what you are grateful for; the repetition of understanding how grateful you are for what you do will give you energy and help you enjoy what you do! 

Looking for a physical workout? We spent some time with Bree Munno from Balance with Bree as she walked us through a simple summer at-home workout. Check it out on our Instagram or on the Knowledge tab on our site to watch and follow along!

Nutrition

For our nutrition segment, Jenn Messina, a dietician, spoke to us about how we can help our kids have healthy relationships with food and their bodies. Often, our distorted relationship with food as adults affects our children and their relationship with food. Parents are responsible for the where, when, and what, when it comes to food, while the kids are in control of how much, and whether they eat. How a child feels about their body affects many other aspects of their life, and it is important to encourage healthy relationships with food from early on. No matter what their body size is, there are many people who are never fully satisfied with their body, and that makes us realize that it is not about the appearance of our bodies, it is about the way we feel about our bodies and the relationship we have with it. Jill Schmelke, a nutritionist, covered healthy hydration and happy hormones. Hydration is something people tend to overlook. Did you know that tap water does not hydrate you on a cellular level? Adding lemon and sea salt to your water in the morning, as well as getting in electrolytes throughout the day helps deepen your hydration. A lot of people are struggling with hormone balance but do not realize it. Some signs and symptoms include weight gain and weight loss, pain and stiffness, and increased thirst. She reminded us that diet and nutrition are very important for your hormones, and we should be avoiding sugar and alcohol and instead focus on eating whole foods. 

Andy De Santis, also a dietician, spoke to us about the connection between nutrition and mental health. Three facets to mental health and nutrition include the way you react to different foods physiologically, how you think and feel about food, and the management of conditions that affect your daily quality of life. If you suffer from anxiety, try adding more omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin d, and foods high in antioxidants to your diet. In the winter, due to the lack of sun in most places, people need more supplementation for vitamin d. A simple way to incorporate healthy nutrients into your lifestyle is to figure out what nutrients you are likely to be low in, and increase your nutrient intake with foods like legumes and vegetables that you like. Finally, we spoke to Kelly Carter who walked us through three simple, delicious recipes you can easily make at home. 

Emotional Health and Lifestyle

Our final segment of experts covered emotional health and lifestyle improvement. Pari from the Naaji Podcast explained that low self-esteem usually manifests from when you are a child or teenager, which is when you start to criticize yourself. The six pillars for creating self-esteem are living consciously, self acceptance, self responsibility, self assertiveness, living purposely, and self integrity, and it is important to practice building these up to lead a fulfilling life. We need to work hard everyday to change our mindset and opinion of ourselves. Remember, it is not selfish to want to take time and energy for yourself. Samira Hoghoughi stated that when it comes to relationships, we commonly think that our needs are the same. However, everyone's basic needs are different, so the best way to manage conflicts is to firstly understand the needs of the people you’re in a relationship with. Figure out what you want out of the conversations and time you spend with your partner or people in your life. Communicate your needs about what you need and why so they better understand. Remember to make your needs clear, accurate and doable!

Rao Kolusu reminded us to practice meditation in our daily lives. When you are at work, try to take one minute of each hour to take deep breaths, and recenter yourself. You will find you are more focused and are more intentional about the work you are doing.Take deep breaths and inhale into your stomach, letting your belly expand and retract with each deep inhale and exhale. Being in the present is so crucial to your yoga practice, and approaching life in general. Solmaz Barghgir explained that the most important relationship is the one we have with ourselves. If our relationship with ourselves is full of self hate, we will be more likely to enter into and attract toxic relationships. This is why we must connect with what we value in ourselves and the world around us, and then behave according to those values. Next we must figure out what brings us a sense of purpose. Without feeling like we are bringing value into the world through our sense of purpose, we may feel empty and lost. We need to look out onto the horizon of our life, and look into our future. If we can see our horizon, the one we want without limiting beliefs and negative thoughts this will guide us to getting what we want out of life.

With our Summer Virtual Wellness Series concluded, we hope you learned as much as we did! To watch all of the mentioned sessions, please visit our Knowledge tab where you will find the full videos. 

Follow us on our social media channels to stay up to date on other events happening in the future!

In this conversation, Hedieh Safiyari speaks with Jill Schmelke about some top tips on how to stay hydrated this summer and keep our hormones happy.

You can find Jill Schmelke on the PromptHealth platform and app.

Subscribe to our newsletter, if you would like to receive a recap summary of all the tips shared during our summer wellness series.

This one's for the parents out there! In this session, we speak with Jenn Messina about how to support positive body image in our kids and how to help them have a healthy relationship with food.

Andy De Santis, a registered dietitian with a masters in public health, will be talking with us about mental health and nutrition and the link they have.

This event is part of the PromptHealth Virtual Summer Wellness Series and will take place on Instagram Live with @prompthealth and @andytherd.

Please visit @prompthealth on Instagram at 8:30 AM (PDT) on July 25th to join the live event.

Dr. Lacresha Hall, a board-certified psychiatrist in child, adolescent, adult, and forensics will talk to us about eating disorders.

This event is part of the PromptHealth Virtual Summer Wellness Series and will take place on Clubhouse with @prompthealth and @lacreshahall.

Please visit @prompthealth on Clubhouse at 6:00 PM (PDT) on August 29th to join the live event. 

Nutritionist Kelly Carter teaches us how to make 3 nutritious, delicious and easy on-the-go snacks to kick off our virtual summer wellness series. You can find Kelly on PromptHealth today!

Jill Schmelke, functional nutrition health coach and RNH, will teach us about hydration and hormones and how we can attain a healthier self. 

This event is part of the PromptHealth Virtual Summer Wellness Series and will take place on Instagram Live with @prompthealth and @nourishmenutrition.

Please visit @prompthealth on Instagram at 11:00 AM (PDT) on July 27th to join the live event. 

Jenn Messina, a dietician with a focus in women's health and motherhood will take us through how we can help our kids create healthy relationships with food and their bodies. 

This event is part of the PromptHealth Virtual Summer Wellness Series and will take place on Instagram Live with @prompthealth and @jennthedietitian.

Please visit @prompthealth on Instagram at 10:00 AM (PDT) on July 14th to join the live event. 

Nutrition expert Kelly Carter will guide us through three of her favorite quick and easy snacks, perfect for when you're on the go. 

This event kicks off the PromptHealth Virtual Summer Wellness Series and will take place on Instagram Live with @prompthealth and @kellycarternutrition.

There are many different factors of wellness that contribute to complete wellbeing. When one is out of whack, it can throw off the rest. Picture this, if you get a flat tire, what series of consequences and outcomes would follow? Your steering would become compromised, the ride might get bumpier, your speed would lower, and if we don’t gain control of these factors in time, we might cause a crash. 

This is the reason why it is important to look at health and wellbeing as a whole. It is not just the physical aspects such as fitness, nutrition and sleep. It is also psychosocial and mental well-being. 

When there are imbalances, you have to make conscious decisions to take steps towards change. 

We believe that supporting people in their health and wellness journey should be in a wholesome manner and have a holistic approach. 

At Prompt Health, we connect people to all aspects of their wellbeing that might need some TLC, including physical, mental and social factors. We provide knowledge to aid people in finding the right solutions, as there is not always a single solution to one problem.