Happy Holidays to everyone...wishing you all the best
in the upcoming new year.

Just a reminder, we are in the office
throughout the year..till the 31st.

~ Dr Lynn

Successful Resolutions

The top two new year's resolutions that Americans make are 1) to keep a healthier diet and 2) to exercise. Unfortunately, the majority of well-intended people fail to keep those new habits after the first month. After all, more than two-thirds of Americans do not meet the minimum amount of necessary physical activity, 30 minutes per day/5 days per week.

Here are five guidelines for being successful at keeping your healthy-minded resolutions:

KISS! - "Keep is simple..." Set your goals in small, attainable steps.
Purge old habits to make room for new. - For example, if your resolution is to workout in the morning, before work, you will have to forgo watching the 10 o'clock news and late night "Law & Order" re-runs.

Moderate. - Anything in large quanitities can be bad for you. Moderate all of your portions; a small cookie is ok, the whole box is not; a wedge or two of melon is good, the whole 2 pound melon is sabotage.

Release all guilt. - A little indulgence (reference aforementioned guideline), once in a while, is encouraged. If you had a few extra fries and/or a cookie at lunch, don't feel like the day is lost; make your dinner a good one. If you stub your toe, you wouldn't bang up the others, would you?

Make it fun! - As adults, we tend to forget to play. Make lifestyle change a game, not a task. Challenge yourself to meet some goals and reward yourself. Participate in physical activities you enjoy, and make up games as you go along.

Balanced Strength, Inc. founded by Christine Kwok, is offering a health & fitness New Year prep workshop on December 10. Contact christine.kwok@balancedstrength.com to RSVP. You can also find out more about her fitness & wellness strategies and upcoming online health club launch at www.balancedstrength.com and check out her blog at www.christinekwok.wordpress.com

Your neck is made up of seven bones, referred to as cervical vertebrae, with discs between them.

There are a lot of structures in your neck. Your bones are strapped together with ligaments; tendons attach your bones to muscles and your neck is full of muscles that attach from your head and vertebrae to your ribs, shoulder blade (scapula), collar bone (clavicle), breastbone (sternum) and other structures in your chest.

Your neck vertebrae are numbered from top down, C-1, C-2, C-3 all the way to C-7. Two neck vertebrae have special names: C-1 is also called the atlas (because it holds the globe of the skull) and C-2 is referred to as the axis (because it is involved in the turning of your head).

Chiropractors pay particular attention to the neck because inside your neck, inside your vertebrae, is a special canal: the spinal canal. Your spinal cord passes through your spinal canal. If the neck vertebrae are not properly aligned, the billions of nerves making up your spinal cord may be affected.

The result? A misalignment (subluxation) of a cervical (neck) vertebra can cause almost any health problem. Your resistance to disease, your immune system, your brain, your internal organs -- all can be adversely affected by an unhealthy neck.

This is a photo of one kind of spinal adjustment to the atlas vertebra that sits just under your skull. There are many ways chiropractors can adjust the atlas (C-1). An atlas subluxation can affect your entire spinal column and therefore the health of your entire body. Chiropractic has developed over 100 different safe, gentle and effective ways of analyzing and adjusting your spine so you'll be free of health-damaging subluxations.

Men who ate even a little soy-based foods had dramatically lower sperm counts than men who didn't.

Soy products that do this include tofu, natto, tempeh, soy milk, soybean oil, soy flour and various soy products (isolate, isoflavones, soy protein, textured vegetable protein [TVP], and xanthan gum). (2)

The spinal cord

The illustration to the left is a cross section through one of your vertebra looking down. In the center lies the spinal cord -- a tight bundle of billions of nerves that starts in the brain and travels down the spine. Nerves exit from your spinal cord and go to every part of your body.

HUMOR!

WHAT IS A GRANDPARENT?
(taken from papers written by a class of 8-year-olds)

Grandparents are a lady and a man who have no little children of her own. They like other peoples'.
A grandfather is a man & a grandmother is a lady!
Grandparents don't have to do anything except be there when we come to see them. They are so old they shouldn't play hard or run. It is good if they drive us to the shops and give us money.
When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars.
They show us and talk to us about the color of the flowers and also why we shouldn't step on 'cracks.'
They don't say, 'Hurry up.'
Usually grandmothers are fat but not too fat to tie your shoes.
They wear glasses and funny underwear.
They can take their teeth and gums out.
Grandparents don't have to be smart.
They have to answer questions like 'why isn't God married?' and 'How come dogs chase cats?'
When they read to us, they don't skip. They don't mind if we ask for the same story over again.
Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don't have television because they are the only grown ups who like to spend time with us.
They know we should have snack-time before bedtime and they say prayers with us every time and kiss us even when we've acted bad.
A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh,'' he said, ''she lives at the airport and when we want her we just go get her. Then when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport.''
Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him!
It's funny when they bend over, you hear gas leaks and they blame their dog.