What is Cortisol? A Trendy Influencer Topic or Just Another Hormone?

While cortisol as a whole is often demonized in health and wellness circles, it’s clear that this hormone plays an essential yet complex role in the body. The key is not to eliminate cortisol but to maintain balance. Good news is that we can train for this! Kind of like the classic Goldilocks and the Three Bears story - we don’t want too little and we don’t want too much - we want jusssst the right amount. And we especially want the right amount at the right time! There are tactics we can explore to push the threshold of tolerance higher (or lower) depending on the individual.
Acute stressors—like exercise, goal-setting, and trying something new—can trigger healthy spikes in cortisol that ultimately benefit the body and mind. However, chronic stress, negative emotions, and poor lifestyle habits can lead to prolonged high cortisol levels, which have detrimental effects on health.

Nutrition 101 / Fiber

Among the abundance of fads and buzzwords - fiber is high up on that list currently. So let’s dive into what it is, why you need it, and what it does.
Fiber is one of those unsung heroes of nutrition that so often gets overlooked. While most of us know we should eat our fruits and veggies, the significance of something so small like fiber intake can fly under the radar.
Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that the body can't digest. It comes in two forms: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and can help lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels, while insoluble fiber adds bulk to your stool and aids in digestion. Both types are crucial for overall health. Sometimes it can make it easy to picture fiber like glue, it is helping bind things together while picking up other stuff along the way.

Just Start / "Walk Slowly - But Never Backwards"

Remember back in high school or college when you’d have to write a paper for an assignment? Even if it was just 500 words, starting the paper was always the hardest. I’m not alone in that feeling, right?
It’s interesting, because the same issue is often felt with any intimidating or daunting task we need or want to pursue in life.

But when it comes to ACTION, we generally falter after a few good college tries. This is the difference between motion and action.
Motions are strategizing, planning, and learning. And at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how much you do any of those things - they don’t produce results. Action on the other hand is what delivers an outcome.

How to Create a New Habit / New Year's Resolutions

Good news is that you've only had 3 days to screw up writing down '2023' instead of '2024.'
That said, you've also had three days to already screw up your New Year's Resolutions. How's that a for a slap in the face eh?!
Want to eat better? Workout? Maybe combine the two to lose a few pounds?
Or maybe you want to read 24 books in 2024.
Or quit smoking/drinking/etc.
Or maybe you want to rekindle old relationships and foster better, new ones.

If previous failed attempts of Resolutions has given us anything to learn from we have to ask the big glaring question - how do we formulate a new habit?

SHUT. YOUR. MOUTH! / Nasal Breathing

While at rest (parasympathetic nervous system drive) we should be mostly nasal breathing. Merely by breathing through our nose, we stimulate more diaphragmatic inhales and exhales. Our Parasympathetic Nervous System is known as the ‘rest and digest’ system whereas our Sympathetic Nervous System is responsible for the ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ response.

Now, which one of those systems do you think we should be tapping into most throughout the day?

The SIMPLE Way to Form a Habit / Happy [early] New Year!

Habits are defined actions triggered automatically by a contextual cue that is linked to performance (1). To make sense of this, let’s think of an easy day-to-day example. Think about the habit of putting on our seat-belts (defined action) after we get into our car (contextual cue)

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Hours

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Minnesota Movement Chiropractic & WellnessSport & Spine

Contact Us:

Find out what makes Minnesota Movement Excelsior’s best Chiropractic Clinic

Minnesota Movement
Chiropractic & Wellness
Sport & Spine