Edition 17! Introducing a NEW Practice and my current obsession that I love hate: COLD WATER. I can't wait to share with you all the benefits, but also the whole story. It's not right for everyone, read on to learn more.
❤️ 🥶 Stephanie
The Freedom to Live 5 things Friday
Every Friday, 5 things of value from the integrative health sciences.
The best of the best functional medicine, educational resources, research, quotes, books, tips, advice etc. all from the key pillars of the integrative health system.
1. Nutrition: Make your Lunch!
Making a healthy lunch is one way to assure that you know exactly what ingredients are going into your body.
If you make kids lunches, make your own at the same time.
2. Mindset Perspective: What others Think
3. An Integrative Perspective on COLD WATER therapy and the Wim Hof Method: the whole picture.
Before you submerge yourself in a bath of ice cubes, step # 1: Learn HOW to BREATH
I wasn't breathing for 35 years of my life. I didn't know how. I couldn't consciously activate my belly breath. It was foreign. I was the class demo in our JOGA training 2 years ago, precisely a real-life example of someone who had spent the last 35 years in a constrictive, restrictive state, a chest breather, not delivering enough oxygen to my body and brain.
I see it in my 10 y/o son, he has difficulty activating his diaphragm breath. He stores a lot of anxiety and tension in his body.
So breath is the first step to changing the physiology. This is step one before you even begin with cold water training and I suggest easing into it.
Ease into it with cold showers, try to get to a state of calm.
There are 4 stages:
Stage 1: Initial Shock which takes your breath away and usually lasts 30 to 45 seconds.
Stage 2: Calm where you can control your state with your breath. This is where we get the neurological response and control over our autonomic nervous system
Stage 3: The body will shake and go into nervous convulsions, this is a survival state notifying you that you don't want to push it any further.
Stage 4: Danger Zone, hits when you've gone for too long and organ systems start to shut down.
*If you are in a state of burnout, adrenal fatigue, have a heart condition, or a weakened nervous system, this therapy is not for you.
In any case, and with anything extreme, the key is GRADUATED training. Take it all in levels and strides. Our Western-based mindset often thrives on novelty and pushing things to the extreme.
Ease-in.
Start with cool showers.
Build up your vitamin and minerals.
Build resistance and resilience over time.
Start indoors.
Use a bathtub.
You don't need to take the highest level right away, or EVER by going outside into the 30 degree Fahrenheit glacial water.
Wim Hof did get frost bite when he did his barefoot adventures; his ability to endure pain and the cold is at a record, but perhaps at a long-term cost to health.
This is the question people need to ask before doing anything extreme, an extreme diet, an extreme sport, extreme physical stress.
No matter what, anything extreme will impact the survival stress state response in the body-mind.
You don't just sign up for a full marathon without training.
Cold water training is the same.
In this video below, it's a mashup of some of my influencers, mentors, and teachers.
Lessons from:
Angie Fletcher @angigreene how she uses this therapy to combat physical PMS pain, mental depression, and anxiety to overcome and be more present.
Wim Hof himself, showing us how to breath.
An interview with Wim How and Lewis Howe, and of course, before anything on the extreme, I consult my Doc. Dr. Stephen Cabral
Enjoy this video! (10 minutes) below: How to Breath
4. Nutritional Supplements: But What is the Cost?
Let's address the cost factor first. This is based on the standard dosage and amount of product in each.
Retail (CanPrev) $1.50/day for 45 days
Practitioner (NFH) $1.50/day for 90 days
Practitioner (Designs for Health) $1.80/day for 72 days
So there you have it! It's all relative and the actual cost should not be a deciding and determining factor, but rather:
1) What is your health goal.
2) What are you currently taking.
Vitamin C is part of a foundational general health requirement for:
Repair
Collagen Formration
Iron Absorption
Bone/Body Maintenance
Immunity
All 3 are amazing. For a balanced and healthy individual looking for maintenance, we can go with CanPrev. The NFH brand I will use for people who need more rebalancing, used:
In management of common cold, acute upper respiratory infections, and asthma.
To promote iron absorption, especially in patients with iron-deficiency anemia and hemodialysis-induced iron deficiency.
To improve inflammatory conditions, allergic conditions, and stomach ulcers.
To help support the management of cardiovascular disease and cancers.
To improve wound healing, capillary fragility, and bruising.
If I want to take a higher therapeutic dosage, I will do the Designs for Health. Many nutritionists argue the body's need for vitamin C far surpasses the RDA recommendations. Dr. Linus Pauling, who pioneered extensive research on vitamin C, believed optimal amounts exceed 2,000 mg daily.
C + BioFizzTM offers 2,569 mg (per teaspoon) of vitamin C in the combined form of ascorbic acid, calcium ascorbate, and magnesium ascorbate. Mineral ascorbates are buffered and less acidic and can benefit people who experience gastrointestinal problems with plain ascorbic acid.
So here it is. Sharing with you my Integrative Health Practitioners notes with you.
Check out episode #3 of the podcast for our interview discussion on Vitamin C + Zinc at the Health Shoppe Niagara.
5. Exercise: Take it UP a notch with SUPERSETS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8VHPD2l4hUStrength Training with Supersets
A superset is a form of strength training where you don't take a break and move up in difficulty.
Here in the above video, I take the basic strength exercises below and add 5 reps of super strength sets directly after.
5 reps classic push ups + 5 reps ring push ups
5 reps goblet squat + 5 reps bar squat
5 reps each side bent over rows + 5 reps ring rows
10 second hang + 3 pull ups
5 classic glute bridge + 5 bar glute bridge
Typically, I aim to have at least 1-2 days of formal strength-based exercise, but this of course depends on your goals, body type, etc.
Remember, always graduated. If the above is too hard, start with just the basic 5 exercises and move up gradually increasing reps, sets, and weight every week.