by Debra Arko Novotny | Jun 21, 2018 | Health Coach
Is your body driving you nuts? I mean are you trying to lose weight and nothing is working. The doctor said everything is okay, but you have read a lot about thyroid and think it’s the problem stopping you from a slimmer you from showing up in real life.
I believe you.
I also believe that most medical professionals use outdated normal blood ranges for what is a healthy thyroid. Well, and then many don’t run all the tests that really show the whole picture.
Do You Need Lab Work To Know If Your Thyroid Is Not Up To Speed?
Yes is the quick answer but you can go by symptoms. Some health coaching clients want to get started feeling better right away. They ‘report’ all or most of the symptoms of hypothyroidism. The goal to lose weight is only one of these problems.
Does this list sound like you too?
10 Signs It’s Your Thyroid Stopping You
- Feeling Tired
- Gaining Weight [it needs to be on the list]
- Feeling Cold
- Weakness and Aches in Your Muscles and Joints
- Hair Loss
- Itchy or Dry Skin
- Feeling Down or Depressed
- Trouble Concentrating or Remembering
- Constipation
10, Heavy or Irregular Periods
Can’t Lose Weight?
Shara only had two symptoms from the list. Yet when we started working to optimize her thyroid function, she lost 21 pounds. She noticed that she had more energy and her infrequent bowel movements became what is considered normal self-corrected too.
Because she had more energy Shara began to exercise more regularly which promoted weight loss. Not realizing that daily bowel movements were vital to good health she didn’t think much of not being ‘regular.’
She quickly discovered that if you want to lose weight what goes in must come out!
Health Coaching to Lose Weight
How did we approach Shara’s weight gain problem? She became a health coaching client. No, I don’t advise you or tell you what to do. You already know what you want to do. A good health coach is more a mentor who works with the idea of helping you find what works for you. I don’t give you a diet or workout plan.
I do help you with the plan you choose. But it’s your body, and you’ll use me to be a mentor or coach – a listening ear who has information that can help you. Now, this isn’t like a high school coach that cheered you on.
Nope if you want to lose weight, you need a coach who respects you know yourself and they help you do what you want and know works best for you.
Find out more about how you can lose weight especially if it due to diagnosed or undiagnosed hypothyroidism by contacting Debra at her office 720-515-4602
by Debra Arko Novotny | May 28, 2018 | Functional Medicine, Health Coach
I had one of those strange new client calls today. She wanted to lower high cholesterol with supplements. She also has type I Diabetes.
As the conversation went, it was a fantastic complimentary consult. We hit it off. She was ready to make changes in her life and work with a Health Coach. We’ll call this lady Alice.
Naturally lower high cholesterol
Alice asked about supplements to help lower high cholesterol. She has a cousin who has successfully worked with me for the same health issue. While her cousin doesn’t have Diabetes I, this chronic illness is part of the whole healthcare dynamic. Autoimmune disease is something other qualified health coaches or I can help with. Her cardiovascular issue is part of the health problem too.
You learn a lot about people just on the phone. I do anyway.
The following week, she phoned me before most people are up and moving around. It was the day before her first scheduled appointment with me.
Forming a connection
“I haven’t done my paperwork because I don’t have a printer. I also can’t download it or anything,” Alice said. Every good relationship in health and wellness begins with some information. Paperwork is a conversation starter. It helps a health coach or practitioner create a connection with you.
“I just want you to tell me what supplement will lower high cholesterol, so I don’t think I need to tell you more about me or do paperwork.” she went on.
My reply, “Alice, I need to know what you eat. I would like to know what you ate yesterday and today if possible. It will help me help you feel better.” I paused and heard her breathing speed up.
“Also, the information lets me know if you have other problems or what all your health symptoms are. I can’t just say take this supplement without knowing more.” I continued.
Lowering LDL is more than taking a supplement
After another pause, Alice said, “I don’t feel that’s necessary, I only want you to fix my LDL which is too high. “My cousin said you can fix that with a supplement. “
I went on to explain to Alice that this problem didn’t happen overnight and knowing more about her helps me to coach her. She didn’t buy it.
Alice explained she had a support group for diabetics and didn’t want to make any changes. My goal wasn’t to change your existing support but to add my support to her and her goals!
It was clear Alice was a professional story-teller. She likely wasn’t eating and exercising like she was reporting to her group. Now with me. I presented a threat.
She would need to let me know what she ate for 7 days after her first visit. We’d do some brainstorming around fitness. Discover what she is currently doing which in our first call she told me was a lot. Now she didn’t want to ‘admit’ to doing anything specific.
There’s More To It Than Taking A Pill To Lower High Cholesterol
Alice wasn’t ready to really feel better or lower high cholesterol. It might change any joint pain she was experiencing. It might help her diabetes. Working with a health coach meant she has to take care of herself. “I just thought I could talk with you and you’d give me a supplement to fix the problem. You know like my medical doctor does.” This sounds like I have to do something other than pop a pill. I’m not ready for that!”
How many times have people shied away from taking responsibility for their own health? Many people do. I feel for Alice.
Change is hard. She knows that the solution is more than a pill. Alice isn’t honest with herself and her support group.
From my first conversation with her she talked about how good she ate and the fitness she does. Then when it came down to sharing details is was scary. Was what she doing right or enough? We’ll never know.
Alice likely called her doctor asking for a ‘pill’ to lower high cholesterol.
Photos by BigStock, Icons8 team Pavan Trikutam on Unsplash
by Debra Arko Novotny | Jul 18, 2016 | Acupuncture, Functional Medicine
Any type of pain is no laughing matter. It can ruin your day even your week. When you are dealing with chronic neck pain, it’s a lifetime struggle to stay fit and enjoy life too. As a health care provider, I see many patients with different types of discomfort. Some of it nearly beyond a person’s ability to cope.
Neck pain comes with its own unique problems like stiffness, or trouble sleeping. Rarely is this problem a ‘stand alone’ issue. It interferes with many parts of our life and it shouldn’t.
5 Ways Dealing with Chronic Neck Pain Works
- Maybe you’ve invested in expensive pillows only to wake with headaches and neck pain. Night’s can be long when you shift all every 30 or 45 minutes trying to find a way your cervical spine feels relaxed. By morning you wake exhausted. I once invested in a $100 pillow just to stop my own neck pain, it didn’t do much. Yet changing your pillow can have significant benefits.
Chronic Neck Pain and Fitness
2. Not all patients complain about sleep problems along with their discomfort some have problems staying fit with chronic neck pain. I personally have trouble lifting weights; many times neck muscles become stiffer as you try to do a standard workout. So what can you do to sleep better, and do the fitness program you like best?
My discovery and that of the majority of my patients take it slow and go light. Use lighter weight freestyle works best in most cases. For women 3-10 pounds. Men do well up to 35 lbs. If you’re shaking your head why bother, it’s a start. The right moves can make the difference with these lighter routines.
Stay away from bodybuilding moves where you lift your arms above your shoulders lifting heavy weights. This will help reduce pain. Ask your trainer or Accent On Health for some alternatives. Use a 10 to 20-minute upper body program.
Chronic Neck Pain and Acupuncture or Dry Needling
- One of my clients injured years ago when he fell down stairs at work had messed up his knees. Later he realized his neck was hard and stiff too. By then he’d changed careers, but the pain and tightness continued. In Colorado, a qualified acupuncturist or Chinese Medicine professional are fully trained to provide you with acupuncture and dry needling. Insurance covers these in office visits with us too!
So what can you expect for results? Most patients even ones with chronic pain in the neck found acupuncture reduced the pain by 70-99%. Many discover they maintain the relief for 4-6 weeks or more and then schedule ‘tune-ups’ like you do with dental cleaning, car oil changes, or getting manicures and pedicures. The best part is health insurance covers acupuncture OR dry needling. Let our office make a quick inquiry for you dry needling uses a specific code.
Acupuncture Injection Therapy Better Than Cortisone
- Remember my client with the fall? With acupuncture, we achieved a 60% reduction in pain and an increase in movement of 45%. That’s good since the injury was very old and there is degeneration, but he wanted to try acupuncture injections to see how much better his chronic neck pain would improve.
The great news – he is over 90% pain-free! He has about 80% better movement, and his tightness is gone.
How’s Your Micronutrients?
5. As strange as it sounds you are what you eat and sometimes you’re not. Recently a client came in struggling with insomnia and nothing else. She proudly announced that she had no other problems. So we did a micronutrient test and a Methylation test. These two together revealed a large problem with her ability to absorb minerals in her food or orally. These are genetic problems that are treated in our office. It had taken four months before she began to sleep something she had never done more than 45 minutes at a time her entire life.
So what does this have to do with chronic neck pain? She referred many people some with various types of pain all who had problems with their micronutrients, hormones, or methylation. Sometimes we do acupuncture, add fitness and still don’t fix our discomfort because our body can’t restore balance if our ability to absorb our food is low or our hormones are off.
Personally, I don’t know why you have chronic neck pain my job is to help you find out and get you feeling better. Don’t give up on yourself. Don’t buy into the story that you’re getting old or pain happens with age. This isn’t true! Many of these people are in their 60’s or older. Dealing with chronic neck pain can be difficult some things can improve it and help you.
Find out more by calling our offce. Call today!
720-515-4602
images from BigStock and by John Arano, Jesper Aggergaard, and rawpixel on Unsplash
by Debra Arko Novotny | Sep 18, 2015 | Acupuncture
I believe healers remember their first patient. “Michelle” had migraines and I had migraines. After many medical doctors and drugs, she wanted to try something new. I was new and different because I do acupuncture and at that time, few people had heard of it. Acupuncture for migraines is an ancient remedy in Chinese Medicine.
Acupuncture For Migraines A Positive Move
Michelle came in excited at the idea she might be able to stop using prescription drugs. I, on the other hand, was nervous! After all, she was my first patient outside of my internship. She didn’t mind coming to my home it felt cozy she said.
It’s hard to believe that was over 20 years ago and today still, my favorite thing to help people with is migraines. Michelle’s migraine success still makes me smile. She didn’t do anything hard. She just used homeopathy, with acupuncture for migraines.
The first thing I notice was the heavy perfume. Michelle didn’t smell it as it wafted around her. On inquiry I discover she had migraines almost daily she told me as I gagged on the heavy scent of vanilla.
As we continued to talk, I found out she loved Victoria Secret and the Bath and Beauty stores at the mall. She had matching garments and matching body lotions for each set of clothing. Interestingly she loved the yellow color pairing it with Vanilla body lotion.
How Migraines and Chinese Medicine Work Together
Yellow is a color we associate with nourishment, support, and digestion in homeopathy. It also is the color in Chinese medicine for the Spleen and Stomach organs that also mean these things. Michelle had matching sets of yellow paired with Vanilla for 4 to 5 days a week.
As we dug deeper, Michelle was overwhelmed too. She was taking care of everyone else. She was the nourisher of her family a typical Spleen personality. Her husband worked long hours, she had to deal with four small kids alone and didn’t feel she had much support. She wanted to make his life as comfortable as possible and wanted to be attractive to her husband. These special gifts made her feel good – plain and simple.
Then the big question, “Have you noticed that your migraines happen on a particular color day?” “Often we know the answer. We sense it, feel it in our gut.
There was an enormous silence. She looked at her hands, then fidgeted her feet a bit. “Ah, maybe on the days I wear yellow?” she said.
Remember I was the nervous one now Michelle seemed uneasy but continued. “I worry a lot. My mom got fat after having kids so I don’t eat a lot. My husband didn’t seem to notice me even though I haven’t put on the weight until I started wearing these attractive undergarments. Now, well I feel appreciated sometimes.”
Homeopathy Along With Acupuncture Can Be Key
Worry and fear are emotions homeopathy and acupuncturists see with migraines due to Spleen and Stomach energy imbalances. Vanilla, a typical base scent in many perfumes and body lotions, triggers migraines for many users or family.
Michelle wasn’t eating enough, she also likely had an allergy to perfumes very common in migraine patients. These are not good things when we think acupuncture and migraines.
It took a few weeks but she stopped using vanilla scented products and we began moving healthy foods into her diet. Her headaches nearly stopped. We did acupuncture twice monthly once we were able to uncover a hormonal imbalance beneath the other problems.
My Inner Health Coach Enters The Picture
Now came the hard part. Talking about her mindset or what I like to call your personal spiritual journey. She worried a lot. Michelle had a story around her childhood and now she was repeating it as an adult.
We dug deep into some beliefs around her role as a mother, wife, and woman. Doing the style of treatment, I practice there is an element of looking at how our attitudes and beliefs interfere with our healing or aid our health.
It turned out Michelle obsessed over how to please others. The stress of trying to be perfect was adding to her migraines. She spent more time focusing on others over what made her happy. A cycle learned as many women from other women in our lives. She set up some special events, weekly personal times and other ideas Michelle came up with to nourish herself.
Within a year, Michelle was headache free. She was happier than she’d been in over a decade. She enjoyed more time with her husband and felt like a better mother. Was it acupuncture, was it the homeopathy or Chinese Medicine? Maybe it was the health coaching It was all of these and her desire to grow.
Health coaches spend a majority of their time working with people in this area as do acupuncturists. This is why some people who are terribly sick get well while those who should heal quickly linger. Belief systems play a significant role in health and wellness. It’s why cancer patients with a healthy outlook on life usually overcome their disease against odds, not in their favor.
Acupuncture isn’t a placebo, though. Our minds are powerful and can override the effects of illness and opposition in our reality. Examples of mental strength abound in stories of people living through battles or war.
3 Quick Questions To Ask Yourself
- Do I take time for myself and my health?
- Do I focus more on pleasing or helping others forgetting that I have to first care for me to be there for them?
- Am I happy most the day living in the moment or do I dwell on yesterday or worry?
Acupuncture, homeopathy, and health coaching are a smart way to balance your life and health. They can help you have more health and happiness. It can help you show up in life for the ones you love in a better way too that set an example of confidence and joy.
images copyrights – Bigstock and Dreamstime
Names of our patients are changed to protect them and their families.
by Debra Arko Novotny | May 1, 2015 | Health Coach
Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do that. What the world needs is more people that have come alive. ~Howard Thurman
Do you ever have those moments when everything is going right? I know I do when I’m writing from my heart, everything is right. It’s a feeling of joy and it’s almost as if something else is doing the work. I can’t even call it work it’s so rewarding. We all have something that makes us come alive.
Health Coaching
As health coaching goes, we often focus on this because our careers aren’t always the same thing. It’s not always a relationship. It’s usually very personal something that you do. One health coaching client found it to be volunteering at an animal shelter. Another found that setting up bicycle rides with other men after work changed his personal relationship with his wife because he loves riding and she didn’t. He didn’t have to not ride, he had to find riding partners.
What Makes You Come Alive?
The world seems to be at a standstill on new ideas. I believe every idea is fresh and unique because it has you in it. Yet many people don’t use their life to live it. They move through relationships, careers, their entire lives forgetting to be passionate about the one thing that sings to their heart. What I mean by this is we simply exist in the world waiting for whatever it is we’re to do.
What is it that makes you smile and come alive?
Instead, what if everyone you knew spent 15 minutes a day doing what makes him or her smile? What if you did the thing that brings you joy? That one thing that feels so perfect for 15 minutes each day. What would it be?
I am not talking about a bubble bath with candles and rose petals, it’s something that makes you come alive in an ah-ha state of awareness. It brings you that feeling everything is right. Often it has some level of service to others involved. For me, I get calls and comments from people telling me how my writing helps them. For the guy setting up the bike rides, he’s created a group of about 30 men who love to cycle and they appreciate that he makes it possible weekly.
Everything Is Right
Howard Thurman rather challenges us to bring it on; to come alive and do what sings to our internal sphere of self. As a health coach, my job is to listen and let you stretch yourself. I don’t tell you what will challenge you, you find what makes you come alive and then you do that – like Howard Thurman suggests.
When were happy if feels like everything is going right and we sit on top of the world. If we know what this emotion feels like then why do we let negative stressors take us out of this state of mind?
Some authors and researchers believe being in a happy mood all the time isn’t possible or healthy.
They reckon that it slows creativity. I beg to differ as I mentioned I feel everything is right when I am writing. My creative juices come alive and what I want to stay seems to flow easier for me than many others. It’s this way too when a client really wants my mentoring. I can feel it. I know by their questions and laugh or smile that we’ve touched that place in health coaching that resonates with them.
My Challenge To You
Do you want to make a simple change in your life? Something that makes you feel like the world belongs to you.
My challenge to you is simple; what makes you happy find that and do it for 15 minutes each day. I’m not talking careers as much as I’m speaking about life in general. For one client taking a walk with her dog, every day made everything right. Do this one thing for 21 days enjoy the sense of happiness? As Howard Thurman would say, That’s you coming alive.
