Gain important tips from the guides and staff at Mountain Trek. Improve your health, wellness and increase weight loss with these helpful tips and ideas.

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Letting the Body Heal

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By Jennifer Keirstead, Holistic Nutritionist

Close-up of a woman hiking with poles and backpack

Listen to your body’s cues for health.

Listening for Clues to Health

The body’s ability to heal itself has always amazed me. I suffered from asthma my entire childhood and now I’ve been puffer-free for over 15 years. I attribute my healing to listening to my body’s cues. These are the little, hidden messages that your body gives you and is its way of communicating. My asthma was a clue, a sign of my body’s obvious distress–but I just wasn’t listening.

I had never linked my need for steroid puffers to my food choices.

We all have our own unique needs. Some of the most common barriers to healing I see in my practice are food-related or stress-induced. While inadequate sleep, food allergies, and toxic overload can be contributing factors as well.

Most people suffering from chronic pain and disease are handed a prescription. I believe the self-healing approach to illness involves identifying the cause of the pain; emotional or physical. My experience has been that addressing the cause of the pain at all of the emotional, mental and physical levels brings about the most successful long term results. By addressing the underlying causes, rather than chronically masking the symptoms with medications we allow our body to heal itself.

Taking Time to Heal

There are several approaches one can take to heal themselves naturally. One important component is to remember that true healing takes time.

Begin by seeking out a healthcare professional to help discover what the root causes are. From there, create a day-to-day approach, integrating/removing one thing at a time. This tends to be less intimidating than trying to navigate everything, all at once, on your own.

Symptoms are gifts

Like life itself, our body sends messages to us daily. This feedback conveys valuable information. Listening provides insights and a deeper understanding of ways to improve our own personal health.

Drugs and other medications, which suppress symptoms, can convey a false sense of healing. Then, we may not bother to search for reasons, or to ask “why?” While drugs may certainly have a place for certain cases, pharmaceutical drugs come with their own side effects.

Just think how comforting it is to know and trust in the fact that the body is inherently programmed for healing. But, to let the body do this important work, we must allow it time and we must be patient. We do our part by adopting a sense of trust rather than fear, as we provide for ourselves simple healing balms like good food, rest and sleep, fresh air and sunshine, exercise, as well as a sense of gratitude – as well as enough time and space to connect with ourselves.

“The body is a master at self-healing. Its natural blueprint of healing wisdom is far too complex for us to completely unravel. And, that is good. It allows us to replace fear with trust. All we need is to appreciate that simple nutritional and lifestyle habits attuned to nature can do much to restore and support the body’s inherent harmony and congruency.” –Carol Kenney, Ph.D. in the Science of Natural Health

We can all heal our bodies naturally. The key is to listen to what it needs.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Be the Change: 10 Tips for Transformation

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Action expresses priorities.

What do you envision for yourself?

It’s pretty easy to get into a rut – eating patterns, inactivity, stress and lack of adequate rest all settle into a predictable rhythm. Each January, many of us plan to transform our lifestyle, but those high hopes can fizzle.

Here are 10 tips to help you make transformation a reality.

  1. Focus on one or two resolutions instead of many; dividing your mental energy in many directions makes it harder to stay on track.
  2. Choose your focus carefully; take time to sit quietly in a space free of distractions, and have a tool on hand to record your thoughts.
  3. Take time to mull over your resolution wishlist; if you can’t choose just one, begin with them all, and over the course of the month let some fall naturally away so the key ideas can emerge.
  4. Visualize your success; if you want to feel healthy, envision what that will feel like and what some of your new habits will be.
  5. Vow that you won’t stop short of attaining your goal; this can be a personal promise, with the support of friends, or to a higher power but the act of taking a solemn vow has been shown to have real benefits.
  6. Break your resolution into smaller, achievable parts; drink water instead of soda, exercise three times a week and take the stairs instead of the elevator, eliminate processed food from your cupboard are some examples.
  7. Track your progress; a journal or app will make it easier to see progress and strengthen commitment.
  8. Focus on the joy of your new habits instead of missing the old ones; remind yourself of your goal every day to keep it fresh and alive.
  9. Embed at each level; although transformation can take a long time, each step of the way is a new normal. Notice the positive habits that make each place happen and enjoy them.
  10. Celebrate your success! Choose a reward that doesn’t undermine your achievement and share your victory. Some people share in a big way, others might celebrate by taking a beloved dog for a walk.

A change of scenery like a fitness retreat of adventure vacation can be the catalyst for lasting transformation. Above all be kind to yourself as you progress. You might backslide, but bravely face getting started again. You are worth the effort.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Sleep Tips for Beating the Winter Blues

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Sleep better and peacefully

Nothing could impact our health, mood, and vitality more than a good night’s sleep. Without it, we simply can’t function our best.  Less sleep directly compromises our immune system, lowers our stamina, and promotes the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (“SAD”).

Our sleep-wake cycle is regulated by the “drowsiness” hormone melatonin, which is produced by the pineal gland. Melatonin levels are higher in the winter due to decreased sunlight, and without bright morning sunlight, it lingers longer in the morning. This makes it difficult to wake up.

Tips for Regulating Melatonin and the Sleep-Wake Cycle

Keeping your batteries replenished through the darker winter months is achieved by keeping your sleep-wake cycle similar to other times of the year.  Here’s how:

  • Maintain a regular sleep schedule as much as possible, even on the weekends.
  • Try to get as much natural light as possible in the morning hours before 8 am, to help lower melatonin levels.  Sit by the window or go for a morning walk.
  • Use a lightbox for phototherapy to help balance your circadian rhythm and combat SAD. This full-spectrum light can be placed next to your bed and programmed on a timer to get brighter in the mornings, to mimic sunrise. This helps shut off the production of melatonin. However, it’s important to use lightboxes according to the natural pattern of summer sunlight, because too much bright light at the wrong times can result in insomnia. So use them to stimulate dawn (6 am – 8 am) every morning for the duration of the winter.
  • If you take melatonin supplements, do so in consultation with your physician, and take it around 8 pm to avoid staying up too late, and sleeping in too late.
  • Keep active with exercise!  Not only does it release endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine hormones to lift your mood, but tiring your body with healthy exertion will naturally contribute to a restful sleep, and keep your energy levels higher during the day.

Although melatonin is the hormone that regulates hibernation in animals, we don’t have to spend the winter months drowsy and holed up in our houses. You can maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle through the winter, and get out and enjoy the season!

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you unplug, recharge, sleep deeply, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

The Discomfort of too much “Comfort” Food

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Getting a Handle on Emotional Eating

During the holiday season, eating healthy can be hard when you are surrounded by temptation. The holidays can also be stressful and trigger psychological reasons to munch, even though we’re not hungry. Whether it’s due to loneliness, or to distract from an issue brewing in our life, it’s tempting to snack or over-eat to fill a void that isn’t in our stomach.

We equate a lot of emotion and nostalgia with food, from associations formed in childhood and clever advertising that equates eating with happiness. But we’re certainly not happy when we gain weight and become burdened by extra pounds, elevated cholesterol, heart disease, and Type 2 Diabetes.

Recognizing the triggers that compel you to snack is an empowering eye-opener.  Observe yourself to become aware of your eating habits, and with each mouthful, understand exactly why you are eating, and if you’re really hungry or not.

How to break your emotional eating habits

Eating in response to emotions or certain situations can be a habit well ingrained since childhood.

  • Commit to a daily log of everything you eat, and when. Include a column for writing the reason you’re eating at that time. Is it because you’re hungry or something else?
  • Recognize your eating patterns, and become aware of emotional issues that are “eating you” and trigger you to over-eat.
  • Consider therapies such as counseling, life coaching, or hypnotherapy to address unresolved emotional patterns, and meet with a Nutritionist to establish new food choices.
  • Catch your negative food choices (like reaching for the chips) and choose another action.  Distract your mind by replacing the snack with another activity. Fill up with water or a cup of tea, write in your journal, do something physical like a walk, stretch- you get the idea.  Set new habits in motion, which make you feel better about yourself and motivate you to keep at it!
  • Keep only healthy foods in your kitchen, and stop buying junky snack food.  If you find yourself craving something sweet in the evening, try chamomile tea with honey or natural sweetener, or a few dates instead of chocolate to reward yourself.
  • Relieve stress in other ways besides eating.  You know, that e-word (exercise!), meditation, or by doing something creative.
  • Incorporate new routines and activities in your life to reduce boredom, and decrease your “trigger” times. Instead of watching TV, talk to a friend, do housework or a project you’ve put off for too long.

Enjoy the holiday season, knowing your waistline doesn’t have to expand!

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Stress Less on Your Business Trip

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How to stay health on business travel
Does your career require you to travel?  Whether you love or hate it, it doesn’t have be a dreaded journey of indigestion, poor sleep, stress and anxiety.

Is it possible to adopt a “spa retreat” state of mind along the way, so your cortisol isn’t sky high?  With a bit of planning and intention, there are things you can do to stay more relaxed and calm amidst the hectic pace.

Physical and Psychological Management of Stress on the Road

  • Stretch and/or Massage – release those tight muscles with a stretch. Massage increases the “feel good” hormone oxytocin by 30% and lowers the “stress” hormone cortisol. Hop on the 15 minute chair massage at the airport, or have a quick visit to the local spa.
  • Support your body – maintain your energy levels and immune system with nutritional supplements, especially with B vitamins.
  • Eat well – bring healthy snacks from home, such as protein or super greens powder for smoothies on the run. At restaurants, choose salads and slow burning complex carbohydrates, which will sustain you better than a muffin, and will keep your blood sugar levels normal.
  • Exercise – bring workout or walking clothes; it will burn off stress, raise serotonin and endorphin levels, and help you sleep.
  • Hydrate – drink plenty as dehydration hits quickly on planes and in stuffy offices, leading to fatigue and foggy thinking. Take a water bottle with you everywhere.
  • Sleep – bow out on the 10:00pm cocktail and honor your body’s need to rest.  Have a bath, bring earplugs and a good book to help you doze off.
  • Meditate – calm racing negative thoughts and visualize positive outcomes.
  • Listen – travel with your iPod or MP3 and fill it with relaxing music
  • Breathe – practice mindful, deep belly breathing
  • Go with the flow – don’t worry about circumstances you have no control over
  • Bring a “stress ball” – squeeze it to release anxiety
  • Practice gratitude – be grateful for all the gifts in your life; it will lift your mood and shift your perspective.

Enjoy your next business trip!

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Tabata Training: The 4 Minute Miracle

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woman sprinting training on a track

If you’re thinking you’re legs are about to fall off, and sucking wind like crazy, signs are you’re doing a Tabata workout correctly. You may be wondering why anyone would intentionally do that to themselves, but there is a reason that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a go-to workout. 

This Japanese exercise import is super effective and super hard! Tabata is the name of the Japanese researcher who discovered a way to increase both anaerobic and aerobic pathways at the same time. It’s an excellent training program. It fits across all training disciplines, for athletes and beginners looking to increase their VO2max and lose fat quickly. To read the whole study, check out this article published by the National Center for Biotechnology.

How to do a HIIT Workout

It’s simple! After warming up, choose a maximum intensity exercise and perform it in the following manner:

  1. For 20 seconds, do as many reps as possible of your maximum intensity exercise. Or run/bike as hard as you can–with 110% output.
  2. Rest for 10 seconds.
  3. Repeat seven more times for a total of 4 minutes.
  4. Cool down and stretch.

Yes, it’s short, but you have to go ALL OUT to get the big benefits.

Getting Started with Tabata/HIIT

Choose the Right Exercise or Movement

Tabata can be done with any exercise, but the best exercise options are those that use a large number of muscles. Examples include bicycle sprints, squats, jumping rope, mountain climbers, push-ups, row machine, or running on a mini-tramp or treadmill. Start with the one you’re comfortable with.

Watch the Clock

Get a timer. Many apps are available for your iPhone, iPod or a gymboss works great.

Be Your Own Cheerleader

Get the right mental attitude; a positive mantra that will get you through it!

Increase your weight or intensity if you are able to complete each round without reaching MMF (momentary muscular failure). 

A ten-second break is a ten-second break! Ten seconds is not watching a video, talking to the cute girl on the bike, talking to a friend, then doing the next set. If you cheat, you’re only cheating yourself out of reaping the rewards of this intense workout.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Caring For Your Feet – Tips and Products To Use

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Foot Care at Mountain Trek

At Mountain Trek, guided hikes are a part of our daily schedule. When we are so used to being seated for most of our days, our feet can take a beating when it’s time to hit the trail. Long distances require some care for the feet, especially if the feet are kept prisoner in city shoes for the week. So we want to share a couple of our favorite products with you.

Foot Care Tips for Hiking and Walking

Friar’s Balsam

The first product is Friar’s Balsam or Tincture of Benzoin. It is a brown liquid that you dip a Q-tip into and paint on the heel of your foot as an anchor to put bandages on. You can get this at any pharmacy.

Mefix Tape

The second product is a tape called Mefix. This is a slippery thin tape that takes barely any room in your shoe. We cut this tape to a 2 ½ inch length, round the corners so your sock doesn’t peel it off, and we stick that from the sole of your foot over your heel bone, working up the Achilles, and that picks up the friction that occurs as your foot goes up and down.

Molefoam

Molefoam is a fuzzy foam pad that protects from pressure in our shoes. We cut little donuts out of that and place it over bone spurs, bunions, callus points, any place you’re worried about the pressure that you normally feel in any shoe. You would cut a little rectangle piece out of it, flip it over, cut a half-circle, round the corners, and voila, you have a little donut.

Pedicure

Remember to cut your toenails back, because if they’re too long and they slide at the end of your shoe, they’re going to hammer and you’re going to lose a nail. Make sure that the corners are filed so that your toes fit in your shoe, when they’re continually moving for balance, don’t dig in and scrape each other.

Lamb’s Wool

To that point, I also want to talk about another product, which is Lamb’s Wool. You may have used this with Mountain Trek before. We take this product for some of you that get blisters because your toes are overworking for balance, and we weave this in between the toes so the toes have something that picks up the friction and doesn’t allow moisture from sweat to cause the skin to get soft and rub and peel off. So that’s something you can also pick up at the pharmacy.

All the best to you, and happy trails and enjoy the sun as spring starts to come forward.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Exercise Doesn’t Do Depression

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ThenExercise to avoid depression

It is no secret – regular exercise is not only a vital contributor to fitness and health but is the key to boosting mental health. The evidence clearly shows that exercise is a magic bullet in combating illness in all areas of our being; physical, mental, and emotional.

At Mountain Trek we know how exercise contributes to fitness and weight loss – we’ve built our program around it. We’ve also been witness to the stress release and mood elevation experienced with every guest that comes through the Mountain Trek program.

Prescriptions vs. An Active Life

There is a growing backlash against looking for a cure to depression in a prescription bottle alone. With new research showing that antidepressants can actually cause depression, many are turning to natural and holistic solutions. Dr. Peter Breggin, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist points this out in his article on antidepressants:

It has been apparent for many years that chronic exposure to SSRI antidepressants frequently makes people feel apathetic or less engaged in their lives, and ultimately more depressed.

With antidepressants being the second most prescribed group of drugs in America, there is a pressing need to reclaim our natural birthright of health and vitality another way.

Studies show that exercising, in conjunction with anti-depressants produces better results than medication alone. As a preventive measure, or as a management strategy in conjunction with prescription medication, exercise deserves a closer look as a better solution to combating depression.

So what happens during exercise to shift your mood and outlook on life? Besides obvious benefits to the rest of your body, let’s take a look at what happens in the brain.

The Science Behind Exercise and Happiness

Exercise causes a variety of chemical reactions that help with everything from improving your memory to your mood, and to get better sleep – naturally. Exercise also:

  • Rebuilds and generates new neurons resulting in increased brainpower
  • Enhances mood and resistance due to endorphins
  • Slows aging and improves cognitive ability in seniors

Essentially, depression negates the brain’s ability to adapt by limiting the ability of neurotransmitters (such as dopamine and serotonin) to communicate throughout the brain. Then, your brain gets locked into a loop of self-loathing and also loses the flexibility to work its way out of the hole. Exercise counters all that by boosting the production of BDNF (brain-developed neurotrophic factor); which is a protein that helps neurotransmitters perform their function. This, in turn, helps people emerge from their depressed state of mind.

How to Start Curbing Depression Through Exercise

The best part is it doesn’t take much to produce BDNF protein and start curbing those depressed feelings. One simple solution is to go for a walk in nature. When surrounded by fresh air while moving your body has a two-fold effect of clearing the mind and strengthening it. In Japan they call it Shinrin-yoku or “Forest Bathing” and studies have proven 50 minutes in nature helps to lower cortisol and increase dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin levels. (For more about the effects of being outdoors on your psyche, check out a book called Your Brain on Nature by doctors Eva Selhub and Alan Logan.)

There are other exercises you can do anywhere and you don’t even have to think about going to a gym. In fact, here are five full-body exercises you can do right now.

So try on a few easy exercises, like walking up and down one flight of stairs, and treat your brain to some self-esteem and mood enhancement!

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia and featuring daily sunrise yoga and night-time restorative yoga, will help you unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress, anxiety, and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Get Moving for Your Health in 2012

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A day in the alpineAre you still looking for a bit of inspiration to get moving and stay active?

Again and again, the message is about how vitally important it is to incorporate exercise into your life. Dr. Mike Evans, a physician and health columnist has made a strong case for walking as the best and easiest preventative medicine.

If you already walk as your means of exercise, why not enhance your training? You can walk smarter and burn more calories with Nordic walking poles. Poles can literally turn a 20 minute walk into a calorie torching, full-body workout.

At Mountain Trek we incorporate Nordic walking poles for just this reason, and more people are now catching on to them for use at home. Not only do they enhance cardio and provide stability and balance on the trails, but they help straighten posture and tone muscles in the upper body.

Here are some benefits of walking with poles. They:

  • lessen the impact when hitting the ground by 26%
  • engage over 90% of your major muscles (not just your legs!)
  • increase your cardio by a minimum of 20% and increase your calorie burn by up to 48%
  • give a full body workout for all ages and fitness abilities
  • pack up and go with you anywhere
  • support the walker in slippery winter conditions, great for seniors and those recovering from injury.

“Pole walking” is more than a passing trend. It originated in the 1930’s for cross country skiers in Finland to keep fit during the off season. It soon became popular with non-athletes once the total-body benefits and the overall fun of the activity were discovered. For decades it has been the activity of choice for millions of Northern Europeans.

Exercise is a lifestyle

It doesn’t just stop there with walking and cardio exercise however. As we are increasingly aware, maintaining wellness and vitality is a lifestyle, and healthy balance in all areas of life is the key. But without the vital ingredient of regular exercise, we simply won’t achieve the strength, stamina and weight loss that we desire.

Why are Mountain Trek Programs so successful for kick-starting weight loss and vitality? With men losing an average of 6-8 pounds a week and women, an average loss of 4-6 pounds, we provide the ideal combination of cardio, strength training, nutrition and detoxing that guarantees the pounds drop off.

What’s the best thing you can do for your health in 2012? Get active and get walking!

Take 10 minutes to watch this important and clever VIDEO by Dr. Mike Evans to get you motivated!