Love Tanks

We hold a positive book club here at the office every other month.  The last book was called “The 5 Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. This is a great read that I think everyone should read.  It will help you create quality relationships with friends, loved ones, even strangers.  Basically this book will teach you how to discover what your own love language is, and how to discover what other people’s love language is too. 

Chapman suggests that there are 5 love languages:

1.       Words of Affirmation

2.       Acts of Service

3.       Receiving Gifts

4.       Quality Time

5.       Physical Touch

This book really hit home for me, especially being newly married.  When Rex and I took the online test, we found that our love languages were completely opposite.  My love language is quality time with receiving gifts as my second, and Rex’s was physical touch with words of affirmation a close second.  I then asked myself – we have been together for 4 years and our love languages are completely different! How did we make it this long? I then realized that we do a pretty good job at keeping each other’s love tanks full. (We do work together, so that is a lot of quality time!)  But this has also made me aware of what his needs are and now I can consciously work at making sure his love tank is always full. 

Each person has their very own love tanks, just like your car has a fuel tank.  These love tanks are different for everyone, and requires different fuel.  I feel the most loved when you spend quality time with me, making amazing memories, laughing, and just hanging out.  Words of Affirmation may not fill up my love tank as much as quality time or giving or receiving gifts might. Find out what kind of fuel fills up your love tank. 

As we discussed this book, I looked at present and past relationships – my husband, friends, ex-boyfriends, parents, brother, etc. – and saw how these love languages affected these relationships.  Looking ex-boyfriends who didn’t want to go out and do fun things with me, travel, and create memories – my love tank was empty – and it admittedly made me a little crazy. J But, knowing that my parent’s primary love language is probably also quality time, they taught me that just spending time with friends and family can fill up my love tank.  I believe it is really how you were raised that determines how you feel the most loved. 

Find out what your love language is: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/

And its a great read, I highly reccommend. 

Hungry

How many of you had New Year’s resolution that included: weight loss, eating better, getting healthy? I hope that your everyday resolution includes being healthy.  This week at Complete Wellness Chiropractic we watched a great film called “Hungry for Change.”  This is a great movie for anyone who does not know a lot about how bad processed foods can be and about making those healthy changes at the grocery store.  I would highly recommend that you watch this film; you can stream it from Netflix. 

Health and weight loss really starts with your hands, and what you put into your mouth.  Everything you put into your body, should be of something your body needs, otherwise it will turn into fat and toxins, causing dis-ease. 

When you are at the grocery store, do you read food labels, or do you assume just because the front of the box states it is healthy you trust that source? If you don’t read food labels – start reading them! Don’t trust those marketing labels stating that it is healthy.  Here are a few tips and pointers for those beginner food label readers:

·         If you can’t pronounce the word, it is not good for you

·         The less ingredients the better!

·         The first ingredient listed on the label is the ingredient that is used the most in that food, stay away from things such as: High fructose corn syrup, sugar, sugar, and sugar!

·         Do not buy anything with “Natural Flavors” – what are these natural flavors? They are lab derived flavorings with nothing natural about them to make the food taste good

·         Do not buy “fat-free” or “reduced fat” etc… There is a lot of chemicals in these ingredients such as found in artificial sweeteners: sucralose and aspartame

·         Avoid MSG (monosodium glutamate), there are many names that MSG can be hidden under, here are some commonly found names:

o   Autolyzed yeast

o   maltodextrin

o   sodium caseinate

o   hydrolyzed protiens

MSG is a neurotoxin related to weight gain, headaches, fatigue and depression just to name a few.  Here is a great article by Dr. Mercola if you would like to know more about the dangers in MSG, and more common foods it is found in.  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/21/msg-is-this-silent-killer-lurking-in-your-kitchen-cabinets.aspx

All in all, what I want you to get out of this blog is to be informed.  Don’t let those monopoly marketing companies decide what is healthy for you (they want you to eat their product so they make money) – find out for yourself.  Start reading those food labels! BETTER YET, don’t eat only food that has labels; eat real food like fresh fruits and veggies (organic when you can).  We know these are healthy for you, as Mother Nature intended them to be.