Hi folks,
This week I have been mostly…
Listening:
To the new album by Andy Shauf called The Party. If you like The Shins or Grandaddy you might enjoy this.
Contemplating:
The concepts that I am trying to communicate most clearly to my clients with regard to Chiropractic care:
1. There is a natural force within us that constantly heals and repairs us. We call this Innate Intelligence.
2. There are things that can confuse or interfere with this intelligence. We call these things Subluxations.
3. Our purpose is to address your Subluxations and help you return to a natural state of healing and health. We call these Adjustments.
Watching:
The build up to the McGregor vs Mayweather boxing match on Sunday. Whatever your views on combat sports and who will win, I appreciate the stoic philosophy and the positive mindset that Conor McGregor has espoused in his rise from nowhere to superstar in four years vs the legendary technician.
“An injury is not just a process of recovery, it’s a process of discovery.” - Conor McGregor
Eating:
A lot of super squidgy, stinky, raw cheese. August tends to be the month when friends come to stay and this time brought with them my favourite cheeses. The stinkiest was some unpasteurised Reblechon. My fridge may not ever smell the same again. The fact that this cheese is made from raw milk makes it taste better and is possibly better for us as it has more natural, and greater numbers, of bacteria in it which may be good for your ‘microbiome’ (the sum total of helpful symbiotic bacteria that populate your gut and your skin). The idea that full fat cheese is bad for us is highly questionable and in my opinion has been largely de-bunked; fat is essential and good fat is good for you.
Exercising:
Been revisiting the Bear Crawl. A great exercise for all joint mobility, balance and co-ordination. Good for core and spinal stability also. Here is a link for a beginners form of the exercise.
Have a great bank holiday weekend!
Simon
Finemore's Five for Friday (13)
Hi everyone - next week I may not post a FFFF as I am adjusting at Glastonbury Festival all week (I’m back on Tue 27th)
anyway back to this week I have mostly been,
Reading:
‘Neither Wolf nor Dog’ by Kent Nerburn which is an interesting narrative about the author and his conversations with a Lakota elder. If you romanticise the history (like me) of what the invading europeans called America then you will love this book. For example I am thinking about this early exchange between the author and mentor,
“You’re not a good liar.”
“Have I lied?”
“Not in words. Only by silence.”
“By silence?”
“Yes. Silence is the lie of the good man, or the coward. It is seeing something you don’t like and not speaking.”
Playing with:
http://www.authentic-happiness.com/home/Discover-Your-Strengths
I’m re-reading one of my all time favourite non-fiction books, ‘The Happiness Hypothesis’ by Jonathan Haidt. This above link is a great resource to many different personality (what used to be called character) tests from your self-esteem to how strong is your moral foundation? Fun on a rainy day.
Contemplating:
The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it. - Marcus Aurelius (Meditations, 4:3)
You are in always in a constant state of change. You are relatively healthier or sicker on a day by day, hour by hour, second by second basis. There is no such thing as stasis in living systems. Unhappiness and illness can come from us expecting or trying to impose stasis, consistency or routine upon a universal state of change. Embracing change is the real deal.
Cheating with:
Sometimes you just have to cheat. When you cheat just make sure it’s worth it: Cornish Carbonara (at least it has 3 healthy egg yolks, cream, garlic, sea salt and bacon)
Whisk 3 Organic egg yolks in a bowl with lots of parmesan cheese, black pepper and good teaspoon of Cornish Clotted Cream.
Fry 1 clove of Organic garlic and Cornish bacon (or pancetta cubes) in a pan until just going brown.
Cook your spaghetti with lots of Cornish Sea Salt in the water then drain.
Swirl the egg mix, bacon and garlic and pasta together and serve immediately with a pinch of black pepper in top.
Nice n easy.
Listening:
Getting funky with Pastor T.L. Garret and the Youth for Christ Choir and the album ‘Like a Ship (Without a Sail)’
(Note: I always put the Amazon link on my posts for reference but it would be great if you went down to Jam Records in town to buy anything you like…)
Cheers
Finemore's Five for Friday (11)
Hi folks,
Welcome to Volume 12 of Finemore's Five For Friday, my weekly missive to the masses. This week I have been mostly ...
Impressed by :
Tylko. A company who engineers formica covered plywood shelving/storage to fit any space and allows you to have a hand in the design of your shelving. It comes in a flat pack but you fit it together very easily with a clunk-click sliding system. Looks great is super easy to construct (no screws, no tools) and is hard wearing. Check it out www.tylko.com
Using:
Epsom salts in my hot bath. It is common to have a deficiency in magnesium and a great way to boost those magnesium levels is to take a hot bath with at least a mug full of Epsom salts. It can help with those cramps, post work-out or otherwise. If you are deficient in anything it makes sense to become sufficient if you can. I find the cheapest way to buy mine is in 25Kg boxes from Amazoncourtesy of epsomsalts.co.uk - but you can buy it smaller quantities from the same company.
Listening to :
The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses. Will always sound amazing. I first heard it when I was about 17 when Manchester and the Hacienda was changing pop culture. Sometimes an album will pop back into your life when you least expect it. For those of you too young to remember this album or have never listened to it, please do. Love Jon Squire’s guitar work.
Working :
My legs. Doing a series of box jumps. Jumping up a foot or so and landing on both feet then jumping down in semi squat position. Jumping down facing both forwards and backwards. Great work out for your quads, hams and gluts. You can try jumping up from 2 feet then standing on one leg and jumping down from that 1 leg but landing squarely on 2. Hard work. Try 10-20 in a session.
Watching :
The first episode of the Handmaid’s Tale from the novel by Margret Attwood on Channel 4 every Sunday. Pretty gripping and scary stuff. This dystopian vision written in 1985 is one of those novels that was recommended to me many times but I never read. It describes a future where fertility rates decline to desperate levels due to pollution and the president of the United States and most of congress are assassinated as a religious order takes control of society and women’s rights. Go figure.
Until next time,
Simon
Finemore's Five for Friday (10)
Hi folks,
Welcome to the latest edition of Finemore's Five For Friday. This week I have been mostly ...
Listening to:
‘is a woman’ by Lambchop. Finally been released on vinyl. Sounds great and brings back memories of one of the best concerts I have ever been to following the release of this album back in the day.
Watching:
Twin Peaks - The Return. On Sky Atlantic at the moment. If you loved the first 2 series then you will also love this new series some 25 years on even though the story escapes the town of Twin Peaks. David Lynch being his fantastic surreal self with most of the old cast. Love it. Not for the faint hearted or squeamish however.
Remembering:
A quote from philosopher Alain de Botton, “When people seem like they are mean, they’re almost never mean. They’re anxious.”
You cannot expect to understand what someone else is going through at any given moment. Communication and understanding is difficult whether in contact with others or understanding who we see in the mirror every day.
Eating:
A great sweet but nutritious and fibrous treat when watching Twin Peaks. Organic dates, stone removed, split down the middle and filled with clotted cream. Yum, it works, try it.
Drinking:
Mushroom Coffee. Some clever chaps in Finland have combined certain healthy varieties of mushroom with coffee to produce interesting and tasty warm beverages that seem to boost your mental performance (I find). The company is called Four Sigmatic and I like their products. Sounds a bit weird, not cheap but tastes good and feels good plus the mushrooms are considered superfoods (whatever that means).
Until next time,
Simon
Finemore's Five for Friday (9)
Hi folks,
Here's the latest Finemore's Five For Friday for you. If you've got anything you'd like me to cover in these weekly emails or any questions please just ask and I'll do my best to answer them for you.
This week I have been mostly ...
Eating:
Organic Fennel. I love the taste and it gives a great crunch to salads. When celery can be a bit bland, fennel knocks it out the park. You can roast it and it’s yummy but this week I made a salad with organic: cherry tomatoes, fennel, chick peas, squeezed lemon, avocado oil, chopped garlic and Big Tony’s Pesto. Fennel also tastes great with Oysters.
Listening:
to an album called m_o_d_e_s by Tomemitsu. Lo-fi music to chill by. Calm.
Attempting:
To make sure that I have 13+ hrs of gut rest per day. Your gut works hard digesting all the food that you do or more commonly don’t chew enough. It needs a break. Relative or intermittent fasting is good for you. It helps you sensitise to insulin and regulate your fat-burning mechanisms. It has even been shown to help reduce cancer risk in some studies. So I’m playing with eating only 2 meals a day, breakfast and late lunch or lunch and early dinner. Ideally if you eat your evening meal at 7pm, you should not eat or drink anything but water until at least 9am the next day. Try it and see how you feel and how your brain works.
Hugging:
Nothing like a good hug. Here’s a technique that I heard from Wim Hof (the Ice Man). Wim throws his Left arm over the shoulder of the recipient placing his head on the right side of theirs and his heart (to heart) right next to theirs. Do it. Hug more often.
If you’re a man’s man. Do it more. Especially with other men. You need it more than most. See how your relationships and your life changes.
Plus if you’ve never seen the 70’s TV series ‘Hart to Hart’ then you should. Genius.
Retro exercising:
Squat Thrust. We all did them at school. Easy to do. Great for your core, upper body strength and helps those surfers out there with their surfer get ups. Try 10-20 every day as part of your daily 3 minute workout.
Until next time,
Simon
Finemore's Five for Friday (6)
Hi everyone,
Here's some music, poetry and musings for you to ruminate on over the weekend. I hope you enjoy them.
This week I have been mostly...
Listening to:
The new album by Sean Rowe called New Lore. Great voice and a good beard. Emotional stuff. Song to listen too : Gas Station Rose.
Appreciating:
I have a new appreciation of how love is giving; a letting go as opposed to a holding on and reminded me of one of my favourite poems by William Blake :
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.
Pondering:
In modern physics light is a recurrent theme, Consciousness is often spoken in terms of ‘light,’ indeed if we work hard enough we may become enlightened. In Chiropractic we often talk in terms of “switching the lights on”.
“With all your science - can you tell how it is, and whence it is, that light comes into the soul?” - Henry David Thoreau.
Attempting:
To not be afraid to make mistakes as quickly and efficiently as possible in learning something new. Make glorious, fantastic mistakes. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn and become more proficient. As Michael Jordan said, he was only as good as he became because he had made more mistakes than anyone else with a basketball.
Recommending:
My Finnish relatives were over for Easter so it’s about time I ranted about the benefits of Sauna once again. There are many anecdotal accounts of professional athletes banging on about the benefits of regular sauna time. Sauna or hot baths help to increase Growth Hormone levels and endurance levels as well as reduce DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). Also Sauna has been shown to produce a bump in prolactin which plays a role in wound healing. If you don’t have access to a good traditional sauna then have a hot bath until your heart rate rises and generally you feel like you want to get out. Do it regularly.
Finemore's Five for Friday (4)
Hi folks,
In another international instalment of Finemore’s Five for Friday this on finds me en route to Panama and that's exactly what I'm pondering...
I'm about to get on a plane to to meet 50 other Chiropractors and help as many people as we can in the space of a week.
People travel from all over Panama to receive Chiropractic and we shall each be adjusting up to 500 people every day. I can’t wait to serve the people of Panama but I also love new experiences. I have never been to central America or been on a Charity Mission trip.
New experiences lead to new feelings which inspire new thoughts which inspire new choices which inspire new actions and behaviours which in turn lead to further new experiences. Change. Doing the same things every day in the same routine does not inspire much. New thoughts lead to growth.
You (and all biological systems) are never static, you are always in a state of flux. You are either upgrading or downgrading, expanding or contracting. Do something new each day, even if it means walking a new path to the supermarket. Taking a new path is a metaphor for making new neural connections in your brain. Learning something new means you wire new nerve connections. Grow your brain.
This week I am mostly listening to...
Idris Muhammad - Power of Soul, getting back to my jazz/soul/funk roots. You’ll notice there is a riff that the Beastie Boys stole for Paul’s Boutique (another great record).
This week I am mostly practicing...
Meditation. It sounds a little ‘hippy' or 'woo woo' but the scientific evidence for the positive benefits of a regular meditation practice is solid and growing all time. It makes you sit with your thoughts long enough to try not to have any. Your body will tell your mind to do many things instead but with practice your mind will have dominion over your body and relax into the present tense; quietening those thoughts of the future and the past. With practice each meditation leaves you in a state of gratitude and sets you up for the rest of your day. Everyday is a gift.
This week I am mostly moving...
My hips and legs with a "Cossack Squat" recommended by Pavel Tsatsouline former PT to the Soviet Special Forces and all round strong dude. You can do this with or without a kettle bell to your chest. Point your feet out, knees inline with your toes, heels on the ground throughout. Hip immobility is the #1 reason for the rates of hip replacement surgery we see in the west as Pavel says, “Grease the groove!”
This week I am mostly wearing...
My Vans High Tops which have a particularly low profile sole (and soul) which allows the millions of receptors you have in your feet to fire more often as they feel the surface you walk on and send more information up the nerves of your legs to the spinal cord and then to your brain. The more input your brain receives the better able it is to process that information and provide your body with exact output it requires to make you perform and be healthy (this is also the premise of Chiropractic).
Until next time,
Simon
PS - Would love to know what you think of these or if you've got any questi
Finemore's Five For Friday (2)
Hi folks,
Welcome to the second instalment of Finemore’s Five for Friday, my weekly roundup of the five things I can’t stop doing this week, I’m enjoying or are simply on my mind.
This week I am mostly listening to...
The Feelies : Crazy Rhythms (Chiropractic band in the most appropriate sense) - great post punk poppy sound. This is their debut album; spring is on the way. Listen to them on Spotify here or check out the album on Rough Trade here.
This week I am mostly reading...
You are the Placebo by Joe Dispenza : an amazing description of the power of self healing that we all have access to from miraculous recovery to changes in the thoughts we choose that allow us to take the first steps in a preferred direction. Joe advocates meditation as a ‘way in’... here's the link to the book.
There's also a great podcast on the same topic from the Ice Man, Wim Hof, psychologist Stanley Krippner (85 yrs young) and Chris Ryan Phd that you can listen to here.
This week I am mostly appreciating...
The sound of vinyl - analogue in a digital world is rebellious. Dig ‘em out.
This week I am mostly exercising...
My low back stabilisers and Gluteus Medius integration with an exercise called ‘Flying Aeroplanes’ - one of my favourites : great to do when cleaning you teeth. Try it. Here is me doing it on YouTube.
This week I am mostly pondering...
The cultural specificity of productivity and progress. Are these concepts just cultural norms and is the idea of continual growth an illusion on a planet of finite resource?
In the podcast below Wade Davis (Ethnobotanist, explorer etc) mentions the fact that as late 1910 it was legal for white immigrants to shoot and kill ‘indigenous Australians’. It was considered that indigenous Australians were 'not human’ as they were not ‘productive' in normative immigrant terms.
In Indigenous Australian culture it was sacrilege to change, destroy or build upon the perfection of nature. Nature above all had to be appreciated and respected which resulted in the perceived lack of ‘progress’. This murderous clash of culture has stuck with me all week. Great podcast.
Have a great weekend and see you soon.
Until next time,
Simon
PS - Would love to know what you think of these or if you've got any questions you'd like answering send them through and I'll do my best to oblige.
In 2017 a drive to increase HEALTH awareness in the young: a Discount for Students and Children
In 2017 LivingRoom is on a mission to increase awareness of health potential to the young. Health potential as opposed to disease potential. We are often told what we should NOT be doing but we are rarely informed about what we CAN do to improve our health potential, to be as good as we could be.
A few minor tweaks to our lifestyle choices can make a massive impact on our general health and wellbeing in the long term. If only someone could tell us what tweaks to make and how to make them.
For example globally in 2012 (YN Harari):
620,000 people died from human violence (war and crime)
800,000 died from committing suicide
but 1,500,000 died from diabetes which is a largely avoidable complication of modern lifestyle choices
At LivingRoom we want to increase health awareness sooner rather than later. We want to help more Children and Students. We are offering a discount of 50% on the initial consultation fee (one of the most important things is to know what your challenges are and the best course of action to improve). We will also give a 20% discount on any further visits to all Children and Students.
All you have to do to be healthy and happy is to make the right consistent small steps to relieve the stress on your system to allow to heal and improve naturally.
‘There is but one cause of disease. The body’s inability to comprehend itself and or it’s environment.’ Fred Barge DC.
Consistent small steps...
Our daily bread and Glyphosate - the modern global health catastrophe thanks to Monsanto, agricultural practice and governmental policy.
Glyphosate is known as a weed killer and is everywhere, you can pick up a bottle at your local garden shop (‘Round-Up’). It’s sprayed on our parks, on our fields, on the crops we eat, on our livestock feed. It’s been found in the rain, our water, in the air we breathe. It is commonly found in our urine and breast milk, it bio-accumulates in us and in our environment and is really hard to get rid of. Surely it must be safe? Surely there must have been long term animal and human trials of safety before its global use? Erm...
Depending on what studies your read it has been labelled a ‘probable carcinogen’, an endocrine disruptor at 0.5 parts per million (which can lead to diabetes, hypertension, kidney dsease, thyroid disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, autism, fertility issues…), a neurotoxin, a gut health disruptor, it has been shown to be toxic to your liver and kidneys. There are correlations with chronic disease and poor fertility in animals (and humans) and even birth defects and the microcephaly associated by some with the Zika virus.
What is clear is that Glyphosate is a powerful chelator: a chemical that has an ability to remove metals and minerals (that is how it kills weeds by removing essential metals like Zinc or Manganese). This is what Glyphosate does to the soil and ultimately to the animals that live in the soil and those that eat the plants with Glyphosate: livestock and us. Glyphosate is therefore a powerful broad spectrum anti-biotic (it kills the essential bacteria in and on you).
Currently we are very concerned about anti-biotic resistant strains of bacteria in our hospitals because of the consistent over use of anti-biotics, yet we continue to allow millions of tonnes of more powerful anti-biotics to be dumped on our soils, in our food chain and ultimately in us.
When you consider the GMO or ‘Round-up Ready’ genetically modified crops that are designed to tolerate Glyphosate in greater concentrations things get even more scary. Not only has it been shown that there are mutagenic (cancer causing) changes in Rats in response to GMO feed but that there have been recorded large scale effects on herd immunity, fertility and survival of animals fed GMO feed compared to non-GMO fed animals.
Some forward thinking countries are have banned the use of Glyphosate in public spaces and its use in farming. We can only hope that Europe follows suit.
My advice:
1. Buy everything ORGANIC NOW or grow your own.
You can attemmpt to reduce your intake of Glyphosate for you (especially if you are considering having kids) and for your kids by growing your own. The easiest way is to only eat ORGANIC and NON-GMO and you can attempt to grow your own but make sure the land you grow on has not been previously sprayed with Glyphosate because it can take up to 10 yrs for it to naturally degrade.
http://www.cusgarneorganicfarm.co.uk
2. Take Humic Acid as a supplement which may help you to rid yourself of this chelator.
3. Avoid all GMO containing products and GMO fed animals as much as you possibly can.
For more information you can listen to this:
https://www.bulletproofexec.com/don-huber-318/
And read this:
http://www.examiner.com/article/is-it-the-gluten-or-is-it-the-glyphosate