“Let food be your medicine,” says Cathy Moore, PA-C, a Physician’s Assistant at One Agora Integrative Health. Cathy explains that many of us have started treating food as a passing need rather than a vital fuel. We often eat on the go and may not even remember what we ate for lunch by the time we’re eating dinner! This approach critically disrupts our gut health, since we aren’t taking the time to rest and digest before, during and after each meal.
Rather than rushing through meals, Cathy suggests that we instead be intentional about what we eat and how we eat it. By taking deep breaths before starting a meal, for example, we activate our parasympathetic nervous system, prepping our bodies to better digest our food. An increase in mindfulness around food also allows us to establish a better relationship with what we’re eating, promoting an attitude of gratefulness rather than the fear that so often surrounds restrictive diets.
Tune into this week’s episode of Beyond the Basics Health Academy for a conversation with Cathy Moore about digestive health. Learn about the differences between healthy and harmful bacteria, the strategies you can use to retrain your taste buds, and how best to balance between your emotional and nutritional worlds. Improving your gut health is not an impossible feat! Join Cathy and host Meaghan Kirschling for some simple steps you can take to kickstart the journey towards a balanced microbiome.
Quotes
• “If you’re going to sit down for a meal, it’s important to take some time and look at your plate, just connect and be intentional with what you’re eating instead of eating emotionally. Because most of us are eating out of emotional needs that haven’t been met. So, when you’re intentional with what you’re eating, you’re looking at your plate, you’re sending gratitude and thankfulness into those foods, which really actually brings good frequencies into that food and helps with the structure of the food.” (4:25-4:52)
• “I think every meal is a chance to heal the body. It’s either that food is going to bring life-giving frequencies and health and life into our body or it’s going to bring cellular death.” (5:39-5:47)
• “We have the good, healthy bacteria that’s really necessary to be able to regulate and govern over our immune system function. And you want to have plenty of what’s called acromancia. I call them the ABCs: acromancia, bifidobacterium, and clostridia. Those are our main healthy, good bacteria that we really need in balance, and when those have too much, then that causes problems, but when there’s not enough, the immune system is really suppressed and low.” (18:48-19:17)
• “Oftentimes, patients will feel like, ‘Gosh, I’m just anxious all the time. I’m so nervous.’ And you think about...what’s going on in their brain, when actually we should be thinking, ‘What’s going on in their gut?’” (22:33-22:45)
• “Let food be your medicine.” (26:46-26:48)
Links
Book a session with Cathy: https://www.oneagorahealth.com/
BE KIND TO OTHERS, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, AND MAKE GOOD CHOICES.
Stay connected to Dr. Meaghan and her work:
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBvlMzs8K94
• Instagram: @oneagorahealth // @drmeaghankirschling
• Facebook: One Agora Integrative Health Clinic
• Twitter: @btbhacademy
• LinkedIn: Meaghan Kirschling
• Clinic Website: https://www.oneagorahealth.com/
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
“The average person checks their cellphone 160 times a day,” says Edmund McCormick, author of Happiness Power: How to unleash your power and live a more joyful life. “If you didn’t have a cellphone, what would you do with those 160 moments?” Edmund explains to our listeners that he actually got rid of his cellphone a few years back, after noticing how much time the people around him were spending on their devices, completely unaware of their surroundings. Now, he is only reachable by landline and much happier because of it!
Edmund decided to do a deeper dive into the power of happiness after reading the 2020 World Happiness Report, which indicates that, on average, US citizens are the least happy they’ve been in 20 years. This finding piqued Edmund’s interest, and he ultimately wrote a book detailing his findings, including 50 powers that typically accompany an increase in happiness.
Tune into this week’s episode of Beyond the Basics Health Academy for a conversation with Edmund about happiness and how to find it. Learn about the many powers that come with happiness, how to cultivate a glass-half-full mentality, and why self-love and positive self-talk are key to finding long-term contentment.
Quotes
• “Happiness gives us things that people who are not happy don’t have. And that’s where the title Happiness Power came from because there’s a great deal of power if you are happy and content in life. Those that are happier tend to earn more money, they tend to get promotions, they tend to have a greater circle of friends, and so on.” (2:23-2:51)
• “I wound up with the conclusion that you really can’t find happiness directly. It will elude you….How then do you find happiness? You find it indirectly. You find it by practicing self-kindness, by looking for your purpose in life...having more family and friends and building that circle builds our happiness, showing gratitude even for the smallest things increases our happiness, and also giving increases happiness.” (3:10-4:09)
• “The average person checks his cellphone 160 times a day. If you didn’t have a cellphone, what would you do with those 160 moments?” (8:17-8:25)
• “It’s not the material things that make you happy. It’s how you feel about the material things….You could be acquiring the best automobile and then after a week or two the smell wears away and you think, ‘What’s next?’ Or you could be getting a raise, and you’re so excited about that raise, and then a month later, gee, you deserve another one. So, it’s your mindset that’s creating your happiness, it’s what’s inside you.” (20:58-21:47)
• “Use a mantra, meaning repeating to yourself the same few positive words about yourself….Just take 45 seconds to a minute to do that when you get up in the morning or if you’re feeling a little down in the afternoon. Just say it to yourself, don’t say it outloud, and you will find that in several weeks, you’re going to see that the light gets brighter, the curtain lifts, and things look better! All of a sudden, that half empty glass is now looking like it’s half full.” (29:02-29:55)
Links
Link to Edmund’s book Happiness Power: https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Power-Unleash-Your-Joyful-ebook/dp/B08R2ZSJ11
BE KIND TO OTHERS, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, AND MAKE GOOD CHOICES.
Stay connected to Dr. Meaghan and her work:
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBvlMzs8K94
• Instagram: @oneagorahealth // @drmeaghankirschling
• Facebook: One Agora Integrative Health Clinic
• Twitter: @btbhacademy
• LinkedIn: Meaghan Kirschling
• Clinic Website: oneagorahealth.com
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing