Why less is more with your body . . .

If you’re like many people and are trying to

lose weight or improve your health, you may think that you have to follow a restrictive diet and exercise to burn the calories.  While this approach may work for some people in the short term, the reality is that most people who diet end up gaining all the weight that they have lost within 5 years. 

Similarly, you may be trying to improve your health and believe that taking many supplements, using natural products and exercising regularly will help you to raise your body’s defenses and physical health.   While there are certainly some key supplements that you want to include in your lifestyle (e.g., a quality multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D, Magnesium, and probiotics), there are several problems with this approach.  

By diverting your attention from what is important to you, your focus will be on what is wrong with your body to the exclusion of all the other domains in your life (e.g., relationships, career, community, service, leisure, spirituality) that enrich you with meaning and purpose.  Moreover, many of these behaviors are different forms of avoidance and may be masking the root cause of your illness and DIS-ease. 

Over-training physically, eating under stress, being dissatisfied with your relationships, feeling that you are “stuck” at your job that you only hold on to pay your bills all sound “alarms” to your sympathetic nervous system and will raise your cortisol levels dramatically.  This alone can directly contribute to adrenal fatigue, enhanced intestinal permeability (i.e., leaky gut syndrome) and low stomach acid production, which can open the gateway to diseases such as IBS, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.   

So rather than continue with these unproductive and potentially harmful behaviors, learn to shift gears and focus on what truly matters to you in your life.  And while you’re at it, make sure that you get the basics to good health down pat (i.e., adequate sleep and rest, savoring and enjoying whole unprocessed foods, nourishing the relationships with the people who are important to you, developing a spiritual practice, spending time outside in nature consistently).

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

Why you are NOT just what you eat . . .

“You are what you eat.” It’s an old adage in

many cultures throughout the world. However, it should really be you are what your body does with what you eat. Many people experience digestive problems because of what and HOW they eat. One of the simplest things you can do to increase your health is to slow down and appreciate the food that you are eating.

Digestion actually begins in your mind and then proceeds to your mouth, where contact with your teeth and digestive enzymes in saliva break down your food.  The cephalic (i.e., literally from the head) phase of digestion accounts for nearly 30% of your gastric acid secretions, which further cleaves your food into easily digestible parts.  The mere sight, smells, sounds and anticipation of the food that you eat triggers this response.

If you're like most people, however, you rush through the whole eating experience, barely acknowledging what you're putting into your mouth and eat mindlessly.  You eat while distracted—working, reading, talking and watching television—and swallow your food practically whole without conscious awareness.  If you're like the average person,  you chew each bite only eight times.  With all of these external pressures and distractions, it’s no wonder that as many as 70million Americans experience a digestive problem like IBS, Crohn's disease, GERD,  constipation, or abdominal pain.

Fortunately, there are a few simple steps that you can take to improve your digestion and restore your well-being.   Experiment with the following guidelines when you eat and notice how you feel afterward.

• Give Yourself Plenty of Time. Before you begin to eat your meal, give thanks and express appreciation for the abundance in your life.  By expressing gratitude, you also develop patience and self-control.  Work your way up to 20 minutes to complete your meal. Slowing down promotes a state of relaxation and will greatly enhance your digestion.
• Chew Your Food Thoroughly. Begin by chewing each bite of food 20 times.  As you chew, savor the food and enjoy the different tastes in your mouth.  By chewing more, you enhance your body’s assimilation and absorption of food.  The smaller food particles also prevent unwanted microbes from fermenting the food that can lead to gas, bloating and indigestion.
• Practice Mindful Eating: Notice the colors, shapes, and smells of the food.   As you chew, notice the sounds of the food and the chomping of your teeth the chewing produces.  Notice the feel and texture of the food.  Notice the taste.   Be aware of the moment and intention to swallow the food.  Be aware of the expansion and contraction of your chest/abdomen as you breath and chew your food.
• Create A Sacred Space. Set the intention of nourishing your body, mind and soul each time that you eat rather than simple “grabbing a quick bite.”  Play some relaxing music and/or use your best dishware.  Light a soft candle.  Turn your T.V. off.  Imagine that you are serving your meal to a welcomed guest.  Any distraction like the sound of your phone, email notification from your laptop or smart phone can wait.

As you begin to practice eating this way, you may experience discomfort from the silence or the thoughts that are racing through your mind.  Take the opportunity instead to know yourself and practice patience, compassion and kindness.  Doing so will not only improve your health and well-being, but may also lead you to discover new aspects of yourself that were previously hidden by all the distractions.

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

How to get back in sync with your body’s need for sleep . . .

If you are like many people, the shift in time

and “springing our clocks forward” with the passing of day light savings time arrived with a loss of an hour of sleep, a decrease in energy, forgetting important meetings you had planned to attend and the inconvenience of having your day hit by an unexpected “detour.”    

More than a simple inconvenience, the consequences of inadequate sleep are very damaging to you as adequate sleep is essential for you to regulate numerous hormones in your body, like testosterone, estrogen, melatonin, leptin and ghrelin that help you to lose weight.^1,2 Insufficient sleep also increases your risk for many mental health problems like depression and cognitive problems like ADHD.³  Getting sufficient sleep is also important for you to minimize the damaging effects of stress, support your brain’s detoxification system and repair your body.  Making sure that you get adequate sleep will also reduce your risk for many types of cancer, like prostate cancer (i.e., melatonin acts as a very powerful antioxidant). 

Before I talk about simple strategies to help you improve your sleep, there is no “magic” number of hours that you need. Listen to your body. Your needs for sleep will vary according to the cycles of nature (e.g., with the spring season now beginning and the summer approaching the days are longer and there is more sunlight; in the fall and winter the days are shorter and there is less sunlight) because your sleep and wake cycles are regulated primarily by your exposure to external cues that influence your circadian rhythm and your lifestyle.⁴   

Exposure to sunlight during the day (or high lux artificial lights) suppresses your secretion of melatonin and helps to reset your circadian rhythm.  More than practicing sensible sun light exposure, having good sleep hygiene is important.  So if you have tried different approaches and still experience problems getting back in sync with your body's needs for sleep or wake up in the middle of the night, follow my simple recommendations below: 

1. The most effective and simplest strategy to improve your quality of sleep is going to bed at the same time each evening and waking up at the same time every morning.
2. You also want to develop a night time ritual to help you transition into sleep. Try reading or meditating (e.g., Mindfulness Meditation or Loving Kindness Meditation) an hour before you go to bed. 
3. To help you sleep more easily, it is also important to avoid certain stimuli and avoid drinking or eating within 3 hours of your bed time.   Eating before you sleep can interfere with restful sleep as your body is still digesting food. 
4. As a rule of thumb, you also want to dim the lights in your room or house 2 hours before bed time to help your body produce more melatonin.  
5. Wear a sleep mask or install black out curtains in your bedroom to keep artificial lights from interfering with your sleep.  
6. Minimize or avoid your use of electronics like your T.V., computer or smartphone as they emit a blue spectrum light that can interfere with your body’s secretion of melatonin. 
7. If you must work and use a computer or your smartphone, use software like f.lux to reduce the interference on your computer and IPhone or EasyEyez for Android. Or wear orange or red tinted sunglasses like BluBlockers to protect you from blue spectrum lights. 
8. Set your smartphone on “airplane mode” and unplug your Wi-Fi router at home as you will not be using the internet during your sleep and the EMFs produced by your phone and Wi-Fi router may interfere with your sleep. 
9. Set the ambient temperature in your bedroom down to at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Your core body temperature drops during sleep and setting your climate control higher can contribute to restless sleep.

Upon waking, take a moment to notice how you feel. If you feel refreshed and alert, make a mental note of what you did the prior night and repeat the cycle.   Ideally, you will wake up without the need for an alarm. Otherwise, you need more sleep and need to adjust your schedule so that can go to bed earlier. It’s best to set your intention and go to bed by 10:00 pm and allow for eight to nine hours of sleep.

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

1. Czeisler, CA, Klerman, EB. “Circadian and sleep-dependent regulation of hormone release in humans.” Recent Progress in Hormone Research. (1999). (54):97-132.
2. Van Cauter, E, Knutson, K, Leproult, R, and Spiegel, K. “The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Hormones and Metabolism.” (2005). Medscape Neurology. (7):1.
3. Ilardi, S. (2010). The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs.
4. Wiley, TS & Formby, B. (2001). Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival.
5. Stalgis-Bilinski, KL, Boyages, J, Salisbury, EL, Dunstan, CR, Henderson, SI, and Talbot, PL. “Burning daylight: balancing vitamin D requirements with sensible sun exposure.” Medical Journal of Australia. (2011).194(7):345-8.