More on Na-PCA

Back to Na-PCA - just found this on Amazon. This is a terrific price. I've continued to use this stuff and it continues to amaze me. We had a heat wave today - I think we got up to 28 degrees (F), but the past few days we've had temperatures in the single digits. Normally this would mean it's time to really slather on the goo in order to keep my skin from getting flaky - but I've just been spraying this stuff on my face, and adding a little eye cream around my eyes and I have been good to go.
How can something so light keep my skin so soft and supple? Amazon also has this in the non- aloe formula and in multi-packs for even bigger savings.
 Now if I can just get used to the idea of those needles...

Needles and Syringes and Swabs, Oh My!

There's a lot of prepping for this hCG diet. I've bought grissini (Italian breadsticks - all I can figure is that the doctor who created this diet was located in Rome) and liquid stevia to sweeten the tea and black coffee that I'll be having instead of breakfast. Today I received all of the stuff to manage the injections - a scary box full of needles and bottles, syringes and alcohol swabs. The needles are 2 1/2 inches long. At the moment I just can't see myself having the courage to puncture myself with one of those things. Having doubts and second thoughts. Yet ...I've seen the results, and they are really impressive. The hCG hasn't arrived yet, and I have no plans to start until just before the new year so I guess I can put off thinking about those needles a little while longer.

Na-PCA

I'm starting to collect the stuff I'm going to need on the hCG diet. One of the really interesting things is that in addition to eating (and not eating) very specific foods, it seems to matter quite a bit what you put on your skin. Anything with oil (fat) in it interferes with the loss of body fat. My friend and business mentor Vi recommended something called Na-PCA, which is made by Twinlab. Vi likes it so much, she has continued to use it even though she no longer needs to restrict her skin care products. I found a bottle in the health food store, and have been using it for a few days. I'm sold - this stuff is really wonderful. Here's what Twinlab has to say about their product:

Twinlab Na-PCA Description

non-oily

The Natural Moisturizing Factor In Human Skin Twinlab Na-PCA is a Ph-balanced, concentrated solution of the sodium salt of pyrrolidone carboxylic acid, the natural moisturizing factor found in human skin. Na-PCA is synthesized from glutamic acid, a nonessential amino acid. The skin contains natural moisturizers, the most important being Na-PCA.

Old skin contains only about half the amount of Na-PCA as that found in young skin. The ability of skin to hold moisture is directly related to its Na-PCA content. It is water, and not oil, that keeps skin soft and supple. Na-PCA pulls water out of the air, moisturizing the skin, improving its appearance, and giving it a moist and youthful glow. This is not a cosmetic cover up; it is a physiological correction of an age-related deficiency state.

Ingredients: Purified water, Na-PCA (the sodium salt of pyrrolidone carboxylic acid), eucalyptus, ethanol, monolaurin (the principal antimicrobial factor in mother's milk).

Twinlab Na-PCA Directions 

After bath or shower, spray Na-PCA liberally on the hands and apply to the face and other skin areas. Na-PCA may also be used to condition dry or damaged hair. To condition hair...wet hair before using. Apply Na-PCA and leave on hair for 5 minutes. Then rinse.

Disclaimer

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

I haven't tried it on my hair yet, but my skin seems to love it. It doesn't feel like I have anything on my skin at all, but my skin isn't dry - it just feels ...healthy. I have really sensitive skin, so getting something that doesn't irritate it or cause me to break out is challenging. I bought the version with Aloe Vera in it because that's all they had at the store. Since then I've found a plain version (and the Aloe one too) at about half the price I paid, on-line at Vitacost. There are a number of on-line stores that carry it as well. Finding this stuff is an added bonus for me - and I haven't even started the diet yet.

The New Year's Diet Adventure

I've been studying the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) diet. When I first heard about this diet, it sounded insane to me. Like so many other things in life, I formed an opinion about it without doing any research, based on very limited knowledge. I mean seriously, a 500 calorie a day diet based on shooting yourself up with a pregnancy hormone? Sounds crazy doesn't it? I saw friend after friend lose an amazing amount of weight, while reporting that they felt great, and weren't hungry despite the tiny caloric intake. They looked good too, none of that haggard, saggy look that dieters sometimes get. It seemed too good to be true, and so I watched, thinking that they would quickly regain the weight they had lost. They didn't. It still wasn't enough to get me to open my mind. Yes they had lost weight, and they looked and felt good, but I just couldn't believe that something that sounded on the surface, so odd, could be GOOD for you. Then my friend Jenn, who has been a competitive bodybuilder and has more than a rudimentary understanding of health and fitness did it. Now honestly, I didn't think she could look any better than she already did, but... you guessed it, she lost those few naggy little pounds she could never seem to take off before. That started to make me think, but only a little, if I'm being honest. It wasn't until Lynn, who is a wellness professional, and one of the smartest and best educated people I know when it comes to nutrition, did the diet and lost seven inches around her middle-aged waist that I had enough belief to do my own research.
I thought this was a new diet, but it's been around since the fifties. The creator of the diet was a British physician, A.T.W. Simeons, who treated countless thousands of (mostly wealthy) fat folks in his clinic in the Salvator Mundi International Hospital in Rome using this method. He wrote a book, "Pounds and Inches", which explains the rationale behind the diet, as well as how to administer the diet itself.
It's fascinating reading - at least it was for me - and makes an amazing amount of sense. Rather than try to explain it here, I'll just point you in the direction of the original manuscript and the very bright Dr. Simeons. Bottom line - obesity is a symptom, and this diet is purported to be the cure. My anecdotal evidence says there is some truth here - I've seen over a dozen friends attempt this diet over the past year with stunning results. They range in age from early twenties to mid-fifties, and include men and women, PX90 freaks and couch potatoes.

Photo by James Farmer

As is true with anything that is not a part of "conventional wisdom" and many things that are, there is a lot of controversy, opinion, and misinformation all over the internet regarding the diet. My belief is that if you want unconventional results, you have to do unconventional things, in the realm of health or anywhere else in life.
So I'm going to try it, and I'll be blogging about how it's working, how I feel and anything else that seems relevant. The planned start date is January 1st, enough time to run through a 23 day cycle (the minimum time to change your biochemistry according to Dr. Simeons) before our TEAM Major Convention at the end of January.  It's a rigorous protocol that requires very specific foods. along with a daily dose of hCG. I think I've got about 25-30 lbs to lose, although the diet is self-limiting; that is, you lose till you don't have anymore extra fat to lose and then you don't. If it works the way it's supposed to I should be able to get it all off within two 23 day regemines. More to come soon on the hGC adventure.

Still Recovering

Yeah, it's been a long time since I posted. The auto accident took more out of me than I first realized. Walt and I have both been seeing the chiropractor three times a week, plus having a weekly hour long session of Muscle Activation Technique (MAT). Recovery has been weird. I would string two or three or maybe even four days together when I felt good, and then wake up the next morning feeling like I was back at square one, the day after the accident, the proverbial "hit by a Mac truck" feeling. For my husband it was even worse, with almost constant pain and fatigue. I didn't want to even go there, but we finally had to consider the possibility of Fibromyalgia, which is often triggered by auto accidents and other body trauma. The good news is, we are both feeling quite a bit better, and have "graduated" to a once weekly chiropractic visit, plus the ongoing MAT. A friend gave us a packet of diclofenac epolamine topical patches, and I was researching those (it turns out this is an NSAID) and I came across this little slide show, which I thought was kind of cool: Fibromyalgia Slideshow: Fibro-friendly Exercises on RxList.com

For us, exercise lately has consisted of a group of gentle stretches prescribed by the Dr. John Gentner at Gentner Chiropractic. What I really like is that Walt & I did not get the same stretches. We each got an individual treatment plan, tailored for how we were injured, and we're recovering with the treatment that we are getting. Even though the stretches are super-gentle, I hurt afterward, which was a total surprise and more evidence that the accident was more severe than I thought.

And the knucklehead that hit us? Seems he's pleading innocent to the criminal charges so a court appearance may be in my future. Watch out Judge Judy.

Crash

We had a little too much excitement over the weekend. In keeping with our "Let's be healthy" theme, Walt and I went for a walk in the park, which is absolutely gorgeous with fall color. On the way home, we were hit head on by a drunk driver, who promptly shook it off, threw it into reverse, and ran. A chase ensued, in which I am informed that I was spewing a string of curse words that rivaled the dad in "Christmas Story" when he tangled with the furnace. We were able to get his license number and the make and model of the car which I called in to the Lakewood PD. While we sat in a parking lot and tried to metabolize all of the adrenaline we had generated, they went to his house (he went home) and arrested him for DUI and fleeing the scene of an accident.

It's funny, the car has minimal damage. My bumper did exactly what it is designed to do - absorb the brunt of the impact. It really falls into the "fender bender" category, if not for the added excitement of the Dirty Harry car chase that followed. When the adrenaline wore off, we both discovered how sore we were, and we were even more sore, stiff and achy the next day. I think it would have been even worse if not for icing and massive doses of MonaVie active...antioxidants and plant based glucosamine. We're always looking for an excuse to drink more of it because it tastes so good, and this seemed like a good reason to polish off a bottle in a couple of days.

Still, Walt is really feeling it in his neck and shoulders, so it's off to the chiropractor today for an evaluation and treatment. It made me think about what I know about soft tissue injuries, and how important it is to treat them. If we are this tender from such a small bump - no air bags deployed - then how much trauma occurs in a really big crash? In my years in practice as a massage therapist, I've seen a number of people who did not treat their injuries following an accident only to have them return later, sometimes, years later.

The body does all kinds of things to adjust. Trigger points -small areas of muscular dysfunction - form, and can be active or latent. The active ones will cause pain, often referring it to some place other than the actual location of the trigger point. Those are the ones that are likely to make you seek treatment now. It's the latent ones, the sleepers, that can be activated at some future date due to additional stress on the body. Trigger Point Therapy is very effective in treating post-accident muscle pain, whether it's done immediately after the accident or later on.



The other thing that often happens is that the neuro-muscular connections of one or more muscles become compromised. Those muscles don't function as well as they should, and other muscles have to pick up the slack... this causes a sort of chain reaction of dysfunction that can continue to grow over time, involving more and more muscles as the body keeps on trying to compensate and keep on truckin'. The only way I know to fix this is be treated by someone like my friend Kim, who is a Muscle Activation Specialist. She practices Muscle Activation Technique which was developed by Greg Roskopf to treat athletes. Fortunately it works equally well on the athletically challenged.

What's best is to get treated right away and avoid needless suffering, and all of the additional compensations that the body creates when muscles are not able to function the way they are supposed to. The good news is that it's never too late to seek treatment. Even if it's been years since the damage occurred, you can get better and feel better.

The Neti Pot

Ah, wellness. Sometimes it's not pretty, as in using the neti pot to irrigate your nasal cavity. But before you say "eeeww", consider this: moist, clean mucus membranes are much more resistant to invasion, plus you can actually wash out pathogens before they have a chance to get in there and do their dirty work. I have friends who use the neti pot daily, as part of their personal hygiene routine, along with brushing and flossing their teeth. I don't use mine that frequently, but when my nose feels dry, or I start to feel congested or sniffly, out it comes. If you haven't ever used one, this might be hard to believe, but it really does feel very soothing. It used to be difficult to find a neti pot but now that we're all into prevention, and so many folks need low tech (read low cost) solutions to stay well, they are everywhere. I got mine at Walgreen's (there were three models to pick from) and it even has the Walgreen's logo on it. How much more mainstream can you get? The downside is that the first time you use it, deciphering the directions can be a bit challenging. That's why I have included this neti pot demonstration. It's got a bit of a commercial in it but it's really clear. Even if the girl does look like a robot.