Starting in the fall, the ads pop up everywhere, urging us to get the flu shot to protect ourselves and our loved ones during the flu season. Here’s my take: there is no such thing as a flu season. There is sugar season, stressed out season, we’re-all-in-close-quarters season. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are well known holidays that come with a large heaping of sugar in the form of candy, desserts, drinks, you name it. Sugar is a highly inflammatory chemical and decreases your body’s ability to fight off illnesses. The more sugar you eat, the more inflamed your body is. I have noticed in my own body a correlation between times when I indulged and then a few days later, ended up with a cold. Coincidence? I think not. 
What do I mean by stressed out season? The holidays are stressful! There are events constantly, gifts to buy, meals to prep, family is in town visiting, the to do list feels never ending. When you are in a stressed out state, your body has a decreased ability to fight off sickness. When we are in close proximity to others, as we are in the colder months because hey, who wants to be outside when it’s freezing, it is easier to pass along viruses and bacteria to one another. 
So what can you do to not fall victim to the “flu season”? Watch your sugar intake! There is nothing wrong with eating a piece of pie at Thanksgiving. But do you need three desserts plus a sugar drink? No. It is short term satisfaction with long term inflammatory effects. Develop coping mechanisms for stress. Can you disperse your to-do list amongst those around you? Only you know what triggers a stress response in your body. Think about ways that you can mitigate this stress from increasing. And as for close quarters during the winter, wash your hands, be mindful of when others are sick, and get fresh air! It may be chilly out, but being outside is great for the body and mind.
Now what does this all have to do with chiropractic care? Research shows that chiropractic adjustments decrease inflammation in the body, increase your ability to respond and adapt to stress, and help your body heal and fend off sickness! This is a trifecta of reasons to see your chiropractor this winter. Reach out if you have questions or are ready to get on our schedule!

Peace, Love and Wellness

​Dr. Morgan

Who holds you accountable to your actions? A friend? A family member? How about you? Do YOU hold you accountable for your actions? You are the only one who actually knows what actions you take, what decisions you make on a daily basis. Do you let yourself slide by or do you make sure you uphold your word?

I thought of this recently as it applies to working out. I’ve been struggling to get back on the workout wagon since my family moved. I know the benefits of working out, and have definitely felt it in my own body when I was consistent and intentional with my movement. But I’ve begun letting excuses slip in and not holding myself to my word. It might seem as if not holding yourself accountable only affects you, but this isn't true. When I don't workout, not only do I suffer but my family suffers. I'm not showing up the best version of myself, as a woman, a wife, a mother. Everything that we do or don't do has a trickle down affect. 

As the new year is about to roll around, it is traditionally a time of setting goals/targets/resolutions for a new and better you. The thing is that you don't need a new you, just a more accountable one. To take the actions needed to make the changes that you say that you want. 

This is why we have created the Primal Reset. This January challenge is designed to hold you accountable to the targets you set for yourself. It will help you lay the foundation to actually make the changes you've been saying you want, but never have been able to pull off. Change is hard, having a team surround you can be the game changer that you need. Here's what you'll get:

• Sheets to track your habits to keep you on target
• A weekly accountability call
• Guidelines to put you on the right path to actually achieving those healthy behavior changes
• Support every step of the way to create a solid health foundation for the rest of the year

The price increases after Christmas, so give the gift of health to yourself, not only will your body thank you, but your family will too! Click here to buy now

Peace, Love and Wellness
​Dr. Morgan

Today a lot of you will stop and give thanks for what you have. You will spend time with loved ones and relish the time you have together. You may come together over a meal, a football game, a fun run, or just around a table. However you spend Thanksgiving, it's awesome that we are able to truly focus on our blessings. 

Gratitude is extremely important for us. It is part of what makes us a healthy human. It can help attract what we want in our lives to us. And it allows us to stop and be present to all that is going well in our life, even if we are in the middle of a shit storm. But, the world we live currently doesn't always allow us to practice gratitude as much as we should. Even during the holidays it can be left at home as we rush from place to place, gathering to gathering, and stressor to stressor. Our bodies take a beating and we can no longer keep up, leaving us stressed out, sick, tired and drained. Taking the time, even just 5 minutes, to stop, breathe and name 3 things that bring you gratitude help to change your harried state to one that is more peaceful. 

So as you count your blessings today, I challenge you to take this same gratitude and practice strengthening it on a daily basis. Use a journal and write down things each day that you're thankful for. Spend time with your significant other expressing gratitude for something. From having the dishes emptied from the dishwasher to a smile you received from a driver who let you into traffic to a note given to you by someone you love. Everything is on the table for gratitude and the more you are looking for it, the more you'll find things to be grateful for. 

What are your top 3 today?

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for you who is reading this, for the snow that has been coming down all day and bringing the quiet that only snow can, and for the note that my husband gave to me out of the blue yesterday.

Peace, Love and Wellness

Dr. Liz

There are a ton of misconceptions about Chiropractic. Everyday I'm in my office I get to witness powerful stories from clients on what they are experiencing through their care. Some are just what you might think - resolution from low back and neck pain and then there are days that surprise me! Even though I intellectually know what's possible, sometimes seeing really is believing. That's why I've decided that once a month I'm going to dedicate this blog to telling stories about what has happened in my office. One of the biggest reasons for doing this is that our current health status is dismal. We are told that we are victims of our circumstances and genes and unless we get on said medication there is no hope for us. I call bullshit. This next story is about pain resolution, but the way it happened was still a surprise!

Some of you may know that my husband Ian owns a gym. One of his coaches, John, had been dealing with wrist pain for quite some time. He had hurt it while doing a heavy barbell movement called the 'clean'. Basically, you take the bar from the ground to your shoulders in an explosive movement, catching the weight with you hands in an extended position. Anytime you ask your body to do things that are hard, there is an element of risk to it. John caught the barbell in a way that 'tweaked' his wrist. Except that it wasn't just a tweak because months later he still couldn't do certain movements in the gym without pain, including pushups. 

After months of checking in with him to see how he was doing, and constantly hearing about no change, I finally told him to sit so I could check out his arm and wrist. What I found were articulations within the elbow and wrist that had been jammed into a less that optimal spot. When joints don't work as they should, they send a pain message back to the brain. A lot of the time, the body can create the change needed without any help from an outside source. But, sometimes the body needs more help. I was able to adjust the joints that needed more help, and voila! With normal functioning joints, the pain message was no longer needed and John now has full motion and function in his wrist. One adjustment. Chiropractic care can be that powerful.

When you have your spine adjusted, you are improving the flow of information to the brain allowing the nervous system to send messages to your body that will ultimately improve function. Any joints that aren't working as they should, are sending messages that will cause aberrant outcomes. Over time this will eventually lead to pain, discomfort, dis-ease and dysfunction within the body, because we can only compensate for so long. This is why myself, my family, and my staff get checked at least once per week. An optimal spine leads to greater health outcomes.

Peace, Love and Wellness,

Dr. Liz

Full disclaimer: Normally, I don't only adjust an extremity that is painful. I am doing you a disservice to only look at the spot with pain because your body is connected from top to bottom so a pain in your wrist may be originating from somewhere else. 

Enjoy these easy recipes from the Primal Team!

Stuffing is a staple at most Thanksgivings. Delicious, yes, but also made with grains that can be inflammatory for your body. Here is an alternative grain-free stuffing recipe that is just as delicious! This recipe was easy to double and has a real classic stuffing flavor with the use of sage and Marjoram. 

A great way to get a plethora of vegetables into your side dish! You can choose your favs and try something new at the same time. Roasting vegetables all together is quick, easy and delicious. This recipe has a fun and tasty twist on the normal. 

This brownie recipe is easily adaptable to almost every dietary restriction. Additionally, it is made with indigenous foods!! (I highly recommend checking out the rest of the recipes on this site!!)

Plan ahead, and stay hydrated! It may seem silly and simple, but these two steps will help you stay sane and enjoy the busy time of year. 

I recently had a young new client come into the office. She had a few aches and pains that were the catalyst for her parents scheduling her an appointment. What I want to talk about today isn't her care or why she was in the office but one of the conversations I had with her mother.

Her Mom asked me, "Are we doing a disservice to our kids by having them rely on bodywork to keep them healthy?" It was such an interesting thing to me. She was worried that by reaching out to health care practitioners regarding her daughters health, she might be actually hurting her in the long run. Health is a dynamic state. You don't reach a certain healthy point and then say "I've done it!" and stop your healthy behaviors. It's something that you have to continually work on for your whole life. The more consistent you are, the better it is for your body. This is true for all facets of your health - movement, nutrition, mindset, and connection of the brain and body. Ideally, you are working on all facets at the same time for maximum benefit. 

The goal of Chiropractic is not to help you feel better (even though that usually happens) but to help you function better; adjustments do this through improving the connection of the brain and body. To allow your body to better adapt to daily stressors so you can go about your business. When the connection of the brain and body is working harmoniously, we know that your ability to heal, adapt and create resiliency improves. This allows you to carry on with your day knowing that you're more likely going to be able to deal with whatever life throws at you. But, when you see your Chiropractor only for pain, these benefits are muted because it takes time and repetition to improve the connection. Just like it takes time to improve your capacity in the gym or change your body composition through nutrition.

So, my young client is being given the best from her parents. We are now able to help her young body create ideal connections so that she can adapt and respond to her life free from interference between the brain and the body. As she gets older, this is going to hold her in good stead to not have to rely on bodywork - whether it be a Chiro, PT, surgeon, massage - to deal with the chronic pain issues that people are facing because they've allowed minor stressors (physical, chemical and emotional) to accumulate until the body can no longer compensate and something seriously goes wrong.

Peace, Love and Wellness,

​Dr. Liz

Got questions? Reach out! 

 I was talking with a client this week about his care. He continually used the word 'treatment' and I cringed. It's one of the words that I despise using in my line of work. It got me thinking about how important our language and verbiage is. But first, let me tell you why I can't stand the word treatment in my office.

To treat or treatment, in the terms of health care, is care given for a specific illness or injury. You might be thinking, why does this irk me so much? It all comes down to what can be achieved by a Chiropractic adjustment. An adjustment doesn't give care for a specific illness or injury. What it does do is allow the communication of the nervous system and the brain flow without interference. This means the goal of the adjustment is to improve the body's ability to send signals. When this improves then the function of the body as a whole improves. This may mean that the illness or injury that you came in for improves. Or not. It may mean that you sleep better, have improved energy, digest better, feel looser, less pain, just to name a few. Technically, the improvement is a side effect of the care provided and the care is not given for a specific illness or injury. It may seem like semantics and inconsequential, but when we are specific about WHY we are doing something, we can truly evaluate how it is affecting us.

At Primal Practice we use the terms adjustment instead of manipulation, care plan instead of treatment plan, and client instead of patient. All of these words are specific to empowering our clients to be an active part of their care. An adjustment is specific impulse to stimulate the nervous system to create change versus a manipulation which is more global with an intention to move stuck joints. A care plan is focused on you as a whole person rather than reducing you to treatment plan looking at a singular piece of you. The term client is used in lieu of patient because you are part of the process and your health is your responsibility. Our job is to be on your team and help facilitate the health that your body is already working on. Too often as patients we default to taking a back seat and letting somebody else have the responsibility for healing us. Healing never works that way. Your body is the one doing the healing and being present and engaged to this fact is important for the process.

We are defined by our language. Just as we take care with other parts of our life, using our words to support what we are trying to achieve is part of the process. At Primal we strive to create an experience that allows you to be heard, to be actively part of the process and to be excited to take your health to a greater level.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. What words do you use or avoid in your life/work/relationships to support what you want to achieve?

Peace, Love and Wellness

​Dr. Liz

 Trying to make change in our lives is hard. One of the biggest goals that people have is to be healthier. Being healthier can encompass a variety of different things, but it usually boils down to three. Look better, move better and feel better. There are many different avenues to take to achieve any or all of these goals, but for the most part the first thought is what can I stop to attain X, Y and Z goal. 

When we decide to do something to look better, move better or feel better (or a combo of all three), in essence we are creating greater health for ourselves. But generally, we are deciding first to eliminate or subtract something to achieve this result. For example, "I'm going to quit sugar, alcohol or fried foods etc', 'I'm going to stop bingeing on inane shows at night and go to bed earlier', 'I'm going to stop slouching and stop sitting for many hours in the day'.  All of these statements focus on what can be stopped with the goal of creating health. But here's the thing we can't create anything by subtraction. By the actual definition of create we must  produce something to bring a result. To create we must add to our lives. Therefore, to create health we must add healthy behaviors and habits into the mix, instead of removing ones we don't want. If we take the examples from above they become, 'I'm going to eat vegetables at every meal.''I'm going to be in bed by 9pm every night.''I'm going to get up from my desk every hour for at least 5 minutes and walk around, I'm also going to make an appointment with Primal Practice Chiropractic to learn how I can improve my posture.'

These statements all focus on the addition of healthy behaviors and this is what creation is all about. By implementing this way of thinking and behavior modification, the natural consequence is that you don't have as much time or energy to continue with the habits that aren't currently serving you. They fall by the wayside with much less fuss and fanfare, and it can seem like a Jedi mind trick if in the past you've been trying to quit things to get the result you want to create.

What healthy behavior do you want to add into your life? Let me know! And if you need help, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Peace, Love and Wellness

Dr. Liz