Honoring our Teachers

There’s a big holiday coming up next week, and it’s not just the fourth of July.

July 3rd, the day we will  celebrate Independence Day is also a day of celebration called Guru Purnima.

So what is Guru Purnima? 

 

In Hindu culture, Guru Purnima is a day to honor our teachers, past and present, for all they have contributed to our lives. 

It is a day to remember and give thanks.

 

I learned about Guru Purnima from my hot yoga teacher Ricky. 

His casual reference stuck with me because I’ve been blessed with so many wonderful teachers in my life.

Teachers like Ricky who’s helping me open my hips, regain my balance, and surrender my pride.

 

With reverence and gratitude, I write this blog to offer thanks to all the amazing teachers and mentors I’ve encountered through the years. This list is not complete, but it is a start..

Hale Cook Elementary School
  • Stella Jacobi My fourth-grade teacher at Hale Cook Elementary changed my life when she encouraged me to explore the limitless world of books and reading.  The stories she read to us each day ignited a deep respect and hunger for the written word.

  • Loraine Sheehan Gordon

The high school English teacher who drove me to tears when she gave me a big fat D on my Caesar Chavez term paper.

Loraine didn’t suffer fools or accept less than your best.  She pushed me to take myself and writing seriously. We also share an awkward story when I ran away from home, but that’s another blog.

  • Elaine Fischer The fitness director at Hilltop Racquet Club who managed to keep a straight face when I auditioned with a dance to “Ride Like the Wind” by Christopher Cross. Instead of laughing, this diminutive ball of fire asked me to take her class the next Sunday, handing me my ass along with a job offer. Thank you, Elaine, for taking a chance on me. This was the beginning.
  • Phil Freeland– Phil, my boss for the twelve years I worked at Woodside Tennis and Health Club was the shadow teacher of all shadow teachers. His brutality and toxic management style forced me to confront my fear, self-worth, and integrity.  The best gift he ever gave me was firing me. The next best gift was my therapist.
  • Shelley Stelmach– I started seeing  Shelley during my years at Woodside. She helped me stop agreeing to bad bosses, toxic boyfriends, and rampant self-sabotage. She put me back in my body and resuscitated my hope. The courage we mined together allowed me to leave an abusive boss and start over in business.
  • Rosita Arvigo–  My spiritual teacher in Belize, Rosita reminded me that faith is not a feeling but a practice.

    She taught me the power of plants, prayer, and ritual in spiritual healing, as well as the joy of community and celebration. 

    Thank you, Dr. Rosita, and your teacher Don Elijio Panti for showing us the immense healing power of plant medicine.

     

  • Sabin Bailey Sabin is an amazing mystic, numerologist, and reader who guided me to Rosita and that life-changing experience in Belize.

    She’s been a constant source of revelation and a trusted counselor for many years.

    If you’d like Sabin’s contact information, I’ll be happy to connect you.

     

  • Scott Schwenk – I’ve never actually met Scott in person but his impact on my life has been huge. I found him through an online search for breathwork and meditation programs. He is authentic, gentle, and kind, easing the way for expanded consciousness.

    Scott’s like the best friend, brother, and childhood pal you’ve never met but feel you know. 

    You can learn more about Scott, via his website: www.scottschwenk.com

  • Ehret Oscar Ramey – My father was my first teacher and the greatest single influence in my life. How lucky I was to get him as my Dad.

    Thank you for seeing me, loving me, and believing in me. The lessons you shared are still teaching me today.

    I love you and I miss you. 

Who are the teachers that have touched your life?

Who would you like to honor for Guru Purnima? You don’t even have to wait until July 3rd! 

Post below or shoot me a private message!  I’d love to hear! 

With love, Tina

What your hormones are trying to tell you?

Your hormone’s powerful impact

Despite what you may have been told, and the pervasive amount of food- and fat-shaming in our culture, the number on the scale isn’t always a simple reflection of the number of calories we consume vs. the number we burn. 

In fact, the added stress brought on by extreme diets and exercise can undermine them entirely—and actually cause weight gain. Often the real key to losing what may be unwanted belly fat, and gaining energy, clarity, and a better mood lies with your hormones.Weight loss resistance is nearly always hormonally based in women.

Most diets don’t work for women, because they fail to address the hormonal root causes that are the most common reasons for weight loss resistance, like excess cortisol, insulin and/or leptin blockage, estrogen dominance, a sluggish thyroid, low testosterone, and problems with the adrenal system.

Learning more about your hormones and how to eat and move to support balance will help you get off the diet roller coaster, reclaim your vitality, energy, and sex-drive, as well as stablize moods and reduce anxiety.

Do you RECOGNIZE ANY OF THESE?

Do you suffer from any of the symptoms above?

You’re not alone if you do. Nearly 70% of us will experience symptoms of hormone imbalance in our lifetimes.  The main culprits of haywire hormones include:

Nutrient deficiencies. For instance, not enough vitamin C can lower your progesterone. Progesterone is nature’s Xanax, so a deficiency makes you feel overwhelmed and anxious. We’ll discuss simple ways to supplement in the Metabolic Reset program. 

Excess toxins. Bisphenol A is a good example: It can interfere with the estrogen, insulin, thyroid, and testosterone messages in your body. (Look for more about toxins in a future email.) 

Poor stress coping. I put myself in this category. Again, the root cause is that the alarm system in the body doesn’t turn off, so you make too much cortisol at the expense of other hormones. 

Age. Women’s hormone levels change throughout their reproductive years and through perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. Common life events, such as menstruation and pregnancy, can throw your hormones off balance, as can medications like birth control pills. 

Poor sleep. Only 3 percent of the population does well on less than 7 hours of sleep. Sleeping 7 to 8.5 hours every night keeps cortisol in check. Alcohol raises estrogen and cortisol levels, robs you of deep sleep, and lowers metabolism by more than 70 percent, as mentioned previously.  

Exercise. While exercise is an essential part of balancing your hormones, it can also throw them further out of whack if not managed properly. Overtraining can stress the body to create or undermine hormone imbalance. Running actually places so much stress on the body that cortisol shoots sky-high. Think of a Tibetan monk versus a marathon runner. Who ages more rapidly? The runner, due to a higher load of cortisol, a wear-and-tear hormone.  More on cortisol next. 

The fab four

Our hormones are complex and interconnected affecting literally every function in our bodies.

For the purpose of the Metabolic Reset, we’re focusing on four main hormones, (your Fab Four): Thyroid, Estrogen, Cortisol, and Insulin

Thyroid
Your thyroid acts as the gas pedal of your metabolism, managing how fast or slow you burn calories. The wrong food choices can prevent your thyroid from getting the nutrients it needs to work well – slowing down your metabolism and putting you into sluggish, fat-storing mode.

When the thyroid is sluggish, it can cause weight gain, fluid retention, hair loss or thinning, depression, and constipation, among other problems.Women are more likely to have an underactive thyroid. In fact, 1 in 8 women will develop hypothyroidism. The disease gets more common with age. People over 60 years old experience it more frequently.  

Cortisol
Cortisol is the main stress hormone secreted by our adrenal glands. An alpha hormone, cortisol helps regulate blood sugar, blood pressure, and immune function.When your stress is high, it makes your cortisol rise. When it is consistently high (due to daily challenges, poor diet, or lack of sleep), it affects other hormones like your thyroid and insulin leading to dysfunction and weight gain.

Too much cortisol can slow your thyroid down and overstimulate insulin production resulting in low energy, increased fat storage, brain fog. and low mood.Stress and cortisol are inextricably linked so a major part of hormone balance is finding ways to increase your stress resilience.

Estrogen
Estrogen is a group of hormones produced in the ovaries that makes you female. It’s what makes you menstruate, grow breasts and hips.Estrogen keeps you flush with serotonin, the feel-good neurotransmitter so your moods are better.  Estrogen also keeps your joints lubricated, your sleep and appetite balanced, your sex drive high, and your face relatively wrinkle-free.  

Estrogen dominance is when you have too much estrogen compared with its counter-hormone, progesterone. Having too much estrogen in the body causes a number of symptoms, including weight loss resistance, moodiness, PMS, and heavy periods. 

Insulin
Insulin plays a role in regulating blood sugar levels and converting food energy into fat. It also helps break down fats and proteins.During digestion, insulin stimulates muscle, fat, and liver cells to absorb glucose. The cells either use this glucose for energy or convert it into fat for long-term storage.

Too much sugar can result in too much insulin which leads to insulin resistance.Insulin resistance or block means your cells can’t absorb the extra blood glucose your body generates from the food you eat—when that happens, your liver converts the glucose into fat. Insulin resistance usually causes weight gain and sugar addiction. If you are insulin resistant or have that tendency your cravings will be worse.

Lifestyle and hormones

Lifestyle influences your hormones. Diet, movement, environmental toxins and mindset all impact our hormone, immune, and metabolic function.

Once you understand these factors, you can start to see how your daily choices are affecting your hormones and metabolism, and what you can do about it.So the first of these influences is your DIET.

Food either feeds your hormones or disrupts them. Unfortunately, our standard western diets tend to be nutrient-poor, and our busy lifestyles tend to send us to convenience and processed foods.

When you start experiencing symptoms of hormone imbalance (fatigue, weight gain, mood swings, brain fog, etc), it also makes us crave a fast fix in the form of carbs, sugar, bad fats, which only end up making our symptoms worse.

The Metabolic Reset program is where you’ll learn how food meets physiology to heal your body. Say goodbye to mood swings, night sweats, sugar cravings, and premature wrinkles. Say hello to satisfying sleep, stress resilience, and lasting energy throughout the day.

Take the quiz

Take this hormone quiz to see which hormones might be out of whack in your body.

Questions? Email me at tina@tinasprinkle.com