Submitted by Michael Massie, B.A.A.S, C.P.T

(The following is an excerpt from Michael’s book, The Simplified Diet.)

If you’re looking for quick, easy-to-implement tips on losing weight, then this article is expressly written for you. For those of you who don’t know me or train with me, you should know that I’ve actually struggled to lose weight and keep it off. I used to be naturally skinny, but a string of injuries and a chronic illness wrecked my metabolism as well as my ability to exercise two to three hours a day (yes, I really did exercise that much, for years in fact).

As you can imagine, I had to learn how to control my weight in spite of being limited in my exercise options and despite having a slowed metabolism. This makes for a tough challenge when it comes to losing weight.

Although this list is not comprehensive, these are the best tips I know of for losing weight permanently. Some of these tips may be things you already know and accept as common knowledge. However, if you’re not doing them, then saying, “I know that already” doesn’t help. If you see something here that you already know but aren’t doing, start doing it!

Continue reading Coach Mike’s Top 10 Weight Loss Tips →

Submitted by Becky Wooster PT, DPT & Wells Branch resident

A basic quality common to all humans is our upright posture and I find this information from a pain management doctor in Tallahassee, FL quite resourceful.  As humans are vertically oriented, gravity takes a toll on our bodies.  We must fight gravity to remain upright to perform our normal human functions like eating, sitting at the computer, and walking about our environment.  With the affect of gravity on a poor posture, muscles of the neck and upper back become weaker, knotted, and either stretched out or tensed up.  Our body then lets us know that something is not quite right by sending our brain pain signals.  Ouch!

Improving posture is not difficult knowing just two tips. First of all, get moving.  Staying in one position for an extended period of time is the worst thing that you can do to your body, and that goes for any part of the body not just the main players of posture.  Take a 30 second break to roll your shoulders in backwards circles and stand up to increase blood flow to lacking areas.  Do this every 30 minutes while typing away at work or relaxing watching television.  Set a timer to remind yourself.  Your body will thank you.  Secondly, think proper alignment – ears over shoulders over hips.  Whenever we fall out of this proper alignment, the curves of the spine increase, facilitating certain muscles on the back to become weak, and other muscles on the front of the body become tight.  Stand along a flat wall with your head, upper back, and buttocks touching the wall, and with your feet six inches away from the wall.  Now you have good posture!

The key to improving posture is consistency.  Putting these tips consistently into practice will give your body a healthy, confident start to the New Year.  For questions, contact Becky at chrcpt@gmail.com.