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The Sequoia Advisor

IN THIS ISSUE December 15th 2010

Winter Health Tips

Beware... It's Almost Diet Season

Cats and Reiki - A Purrfect Combination

Watch the YouTube Video on LIVe Again!

Healthy Lifestyle Consultations Now Available

Feel Better... Live Better

Winter Health Tips

by Woody McMahon

Stress Levels Are High

If you want to keep your health at optimum levels this winter, it's going
to require extra effort and vigilance. People are getting stressed out due
to higher prices for food, job instability, long lines and continued
economic uncertainty. The extra stress negatively affects your immune
system and its ability to fight infections. The way to maintain good health
this winter is to stay active and healthy while paying attention to a few
simple habits.

Stress and Your Immune System

Stress in the form of anger, fear, depression and uncertainty strongly
influences how well your immune system works in three major ways. High
levels of stress severely deplete your immune system cells that are
responsible for maintaining good health. With fewer cells available, your
body has a more difficult time adequately fending off the flu, bacterial
and other viral infections.

Constant stress also changes your hormone balance promoting higher levels
of cortisol (stress hormone) and reducing levels of serotonin (feel good
hormone). As serotonin levels move lower, you tend to eat more simple
carbohydrates because of their serotonin stimulating effect. The shift to
more cortisol and less serotonin promotes overeating and weight gain.

Finally, stress increases inflammation in your body speeding the
development of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis and many
other diseases.

How to Keep Yourself Healthy this Winter

Staying healthy through these stressful times is easier than you think.

Here are three suggestions to get you started.

#1 Take Time to Rest and Relax

Keeping a positive attitude even in the worst of times gives you hope that
there will be a better day. Skeptical and negative thinking erodes your
physical health by further increasing cortisol production. Read a book with
a positive message. Watch a movie that will make you laugh. Listen to music
that makes you relax and feel good. If you have the cash flow, get a
relaxation message, facial or other pampering activity. For you water
lovers, drive to the lake or beach and sit and watch the water. This is a
very relaxing activity especially if coupled with a nap.

#2 Burn Stress with Fun Activity

Fun activity is a great stress buster. Mentally you know you're doing
something good for yourself. Physically your body loves the stimulation
that comes from harder breathing, increased heart pumping and a little
sweat. Fun activity also stimulates serotonin production and distracts your
mind from negative thoughts. What exercise is best? All exercise is good.
It really depends on what you like. In a perfect world you would
participate in weight training for two hours a week and walking, running
and sports or active games you enjoy for another hour. Total of about 3
hours a week is a good activity goal.

#3 Keep Your Food Intake Balanced

Eating balanced meals is a good way to strengthen your immune system.
Getting enough proteins, carbohydrates and fats at every meal is a very
healthy way to eat. Eating adequate amounts of daily fruits and vegetables
provides vitamins, minerals and most importantly fiber. Fiber helps your
digestive system work more efficiently. Adequate protein is essential for
strong bones and cellular repair. Complex carbohydrates found in whole
grains provide essential fuel for the active body. On the other hand, over
eating is a physical stressor. It takes a lot of work for your body to
digest all that extra food. Eating less food reduces the burden on your
digestive system improving your health and your weight.

Practice these three essential health suggestions and you'll stay illness
free all winter long.

Would you like to improve your health but don't know where to start?

How about an exercise program that alleviates pain and strengthens your bones?

Do you have weight problems but are tired of dieting? We provide an easy to
follow program without the gimmicks or fads. You'll also get the education,
motivation and accountability necessary to improve your health while helping
you feel and look your best. Please call Woody McMahon for a no cost
consultation, at 703-464-5171 or email to Woody@SequoiaHealth.com.

Beware... It's Almost Diet Season

by Woody McMahon

Dieting is Unsustainable

Dieting, or more accurately, calorie restrictive eating plans are never
the way to shed excess body fat. Study after study has shown that dieting
is a failed weight loss strategy for many ways. The two most important are
dieting does not teach you how to eat properly so even if you lose weight
initially, you will gain it back. Secondly, taking the weight off in a
short period of time has you losing more water and muscles weight than fat.

This leaves you dehydrated and with plenty of baggy skin to contend with.
Research has also shown that the repeated rapid weight gain and loss
associated with dieting can double the risk of death from heart disease,
including heart attacks, and the risk of premature death in general.

Dieting Erodes Your Health

Reducing excess body fat (if you have a lot of it) is important for
improving your health (all reasons of vanity aside). Dieting has never been
the answer to permanent weight loss because it only damages your health in
the process. Dieting is bad for your health for two main reasons. The first
is the body does not like it when your weight fluctuates up and down. The
fluctuating weight places you under increased physical and mental stress.

This added diet stress is the reason so many people "fall off the wagon."
Restriction is the second reason diets are unhealthy. It's human nature to
rebel and want something more when you are restricted. The rebound from
restriction is why most people regain the weight they have lost once the
diet has ended.

Changing Your Focus

It is time to finally stop wasting time and money on dieting and figure
out why you ended-up with extra pounds in the first place. By its very
nature, dieting blames food as the reason for your excess weight. But is
that really true? Can food really be the culprit? A certain amount of food
is required for your daily sustenance; beyond that, everything extra that
is not needed for activity or bodily functions is stored as fat.

So the food you eat is not the issue; it's the amount that is the problem.
A harder question to answer is why are you eating more food than you need?
A change in desire for all that extra food is the only way to fix your
overweight condition. Unless you can change the desire, you can't
permanently fix your excess weight problem. Dieting is and always will be
an unhealthy "Band-Aid" solution to a much more complex problem.

The Healthy Alternative to Dieting

Healthy weight loss takes a comprehensive approach to the problem. It's
important to take into consideration three major factors; stress, activity
and food. These three factors are important to successful weight loss and
must be modified together. Your weight loss program also needs to be
individualized; one size will not fit all in this case. You may help
learning new "stress busting" strategies to make life easier. Physical
limitations could prevent you from participating in certain types of
activity Food allergies or sensitivities may prevent you from eating
certain foods.

Just like trying to do your taxes without an accountant or going into
court without a lawyer, don't try to do this alone. Come talk to me
and I'll create a sustainable eating and exercise program that will help
you improve your health while losing the weight.

High stress living can cause calcium loss from bones and excess weight gain!
Follow our Be Bone Strong! system and you'll increase the strength of your
bones and improve your health at the same time. We provide the education, motivation
and accountability necessary to improve your health while helping you feel and
look your best. For a no cost consultation, please call Woody McMahon at
703-464-5171 or email to Woody@SequoiaHealth.com.

Pets and People

Cats and Reiki - A Purrfect Combination
by Ingrid King

Reiki is a hands-on healing method that originated in Japan. The
practitioner channels healing energy through her hands to a person or a pet
through a light touch either directly on the body or from a distance. The
word Reiki (pronounced "ray-key") is a Japanese composite word usually
translated as "universal life energy". It is based on the idea that all
living beings have life energy flowing through them. When life energy is
high, you and your pets are healthy and balanced, more relaxed and less
likely to get sick. When it is low, pets and humans alike will be more
easily affected by stress and less resistant to illness.

Animals, especially cats, are naturally receptive to the Reiki energy and
tend to gravitate toward it readily. Although it may be a little
far-fetched, some people even say cats invented Reiki. Cats are sensitive
to energy, and because of this, they are ideal recipients for any kind of
energy therapy, including Reiki. A relaxed cat is the embodiment of
balanced energy, harmony, and contentment. Cats also seem to have the
ability to transmute negative energy into something peaceful and calming -
another reason why they're such a good match for energy healing.

As a Reiki Master Practitioner, I work with both animals and humans, and
more than half of my current clients are feline. I work with cats both in
person and via distance treatments. The concept of distance healing can be
a bit of a leap for some people (although never for the cats!), but keep in
mind that Reiki is energy, and energy works regardless of physical
proximity. For more details on distance, or remote healing, read Distance
Healing for You and Your Pet.

I work with cats for various issues. I treat feline clients with diseases
ranging from asthma to kidney disease to diabetes to cancer. Reiki can be
beneficial for behavior challenges such as integrating a new cat into the
household. Reiki is particularly helpful for older cats with arthritis.
Cats are masters at hiding pain, and their caretakers often don't recognize
the signs of arthritis until it is fairly advanced and causes the cat great
discomfort. Reiki is a gentle modality that can greatly enhance comfort and
help with pain control.

Many cats prefer Reiki at a slight distance, even during an in-person
session. Due to their great sensitivity to energy, hands-on treatments can
be too intense. Reiki still works. I've done Reiki for a cat that never
came out from under the bed for her entire session, but she pulled the
energy with amazing intensity, and her human noticed improvements after
just one session.

My most dramatic experience with how cats utilize Reiki happened when a
woman who fosters cats for a local rescue group asked me to come work on
one of her cats for a specific problem. I was vaguely aware that there were
quite a few cats in the house, and I saw some out of the corner of my eye
in the next room, but once I began the session, I focused on the cat I was
asked to work on, and had my back turned to the rest of the room. When I
finished the session, and turned around, there were six or seven cats
zonked out in various states of relaxation behind me.

They had gotten an energy "hit" just from being in the same room during the
session. One cat got up, walked up to me, and rubbed her face against my
hand. The woman was amazed - this was a feral cat that she had barely been
able to touch herself. That's how powerful Reiki can be, and how receptive
cats are to it-even though I directed the energy at one specific cat, the
other cats still knew what to do with the residual energy.

Ingrid King is a former veterinary hospital manager turned writer. She is
the author of Buckley's Story - Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher. Her
online magazine News for You and Your Pet goes out to subscribers around
the world. Her blog, The Conscious Cat, has been called "educational cat
nip for the cat lover" and is a comprehensive resource for conscious
living, health and happiness for pets and their people. For more information
about Ingrid, please visit http://www.ingridking.com/

Osteoporosis Support News

"Healthy Bones Come From a Healthy Body" Woody McMahon

Podcast Series Being Developed for Marodyne LIV Tablet

We are working on something for you to do while standing on your Marodyne
LIV Tablet for 10 minutes a day? Sara Meeks and I have been asked to develop
a series of 24 audio podcasts that will accompany every LIV Tablet as a part of
the LIVe Again! program. You will be able to improve your bone health while listening
to us help you learn how to LIVe Again!

See the new YouTube video with Sara and me: http://sequoiahealth.com/live_again

LIVe Again! will be the first Complete, Safe and Effective, Drug Free and
Empowering approach to improving bone health. It will be easy to follow and
allow you to relax knowing that you are doing the very best for your bones.

If you are not familiar with LIV, it stands for low intensity vibration.
The research of Dr. Clint Rubin and others has shown that LIV helps
stimulate the bone cells, especially the osteoblasts, which are responsible
for new bone production. LIV has also been shown to improve postural muscle
strength, balance and circulation. Marodyne has taken Dr. Rubin's research
and developed an LIV device (looks like a bathroom scale) they call The
Marodyne LIV Tablet.

If you have questions about LIVe Again! or the Marodyne LIV Tablet, email them to
Woody at bebonestrong@sequoiahealth.com.

Healthy Lifestyle Consultations Now Available

Do you have questions about how to live a healthy lifestyle? Do you need
accurate, cutting edge solutions to lifestyle and other health problems?
Sign-up for a healthy lifestyle consultation and get the answers you need
now. Click Here for more information.

You can also contact Woody McMahon directly at 703-464-5171 or email to Woody@SequoiaHealth.com.

Continued Good Health,

Woody

Woody McMahon
The Sequoia Advisor

Sequoia Health and Fitness, Inc.
483A Carlisle Dive
Herndon, VA 20170

Required Disclaimer: The material provided herein should not be construed as a health-care diagnosis,
treatment regimen or any other prescribed health-care advice or instruction. The material is provided with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in the practice of medicine or any other health-care profession and does not enter into a health-care practitioner/patient relationship with its readers. The publisher does not advise or recommend to its readers treatment or action with regard to matters relating to their health or well-being other than suggesting that readers consult appropriate health-care professionals in such matters. No action should be taken based solely on the content of this publication. The material and opinions provided herein are believed to be accurate and sound at the time of publication, based on the best judgment available to the authors. However, readers who rely on material in this publication to replace the advice of health-care professionals, or who fail to consult with health-care professionals, assume all risks of such conduct. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions.

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