Compass Chiropractic

On Sunday, August 28th, we completed our first Pedometer Challenge here at Compass. It was exciting to turn a vision into a reality and to now look back on the completed event. With it being our first challenge, we had high hopes, and those who participated exceeded our expectations! Amazingly enough, between the 26 people who sent in their numbers, the total number of steps reported to me was 4,847,441 steps! I can’t believe that! That roughly equates to 2500 miles taken!!! AMAZING! We were thoroughly impressed with those who participated and are excited to reward them!

Through the Pedometer Challenge, we were hoping to provide an opportunity for our patients to set healthy lifestyle goals, work toward those goals, and in many cases match those goals! We really appreciate the involvement of everyone who participated, and seeing that we like to support other local businesses we are able to reward some of those participants with gift cards from the Blue Mile here in Broad Ripple. Here is a list of the prizes we were able to give:

Top Stepper: $50 gift card to Robert G. (594,225 total steps)
Second Place: $30 gift card to Phyllis H. (543,357 total steps)
Third Place: $20 to gift card Carrie P. (389,212 total steps)
Highest Stepper Week 1: Free Massage to Phyllis H.
Highest Stepper Week 2: Free Massage to Lindsey R.
Highest Stepper Week 3: Free Massage to Robert G.
Highest Stepper Week 4: Free Massage to Nicole G.
Sent numbers in all 4 weeks: $10 gift card to Nicole G.
Sent numbers in all 4 weeks: $10 gift card to Christan S.
Sent numbers in all 4 weeks: $10 gift card to Beth A.
Sent numbers in all 4 weeks: $10 gift card to Liz D.
Sent numbers in all 4 weeks: $10 gift card to Karessa S.
Sent numbers in all 4 weeks: $10 gift card to Glenn D.
Sent numbers in all 4 weeks: $10 gift card to James D.

Every few months I like to take a personal inventory of how I am doing in varies areas of my life.  Heavy stuff,  I know.  But several years ago I was given a simple tool to make this journey easier… the wheel.  Whenever you go on a road trip of any kind, it’s always best to have your wheels in tip top shape.  The same is true when we look at the big picture of our realistic current state, ideal current state, and long term goals.

How does this wheel work?  The wheel provides opportunity to define eight major areas of our lives, including: money, health, relationships, spirituality, creativity and hobbies, our environment, parenting, and school. To the left is an example of one of these wheels. We can define our eight major areas beyond the basics of financial, health, and alone time.

One visual way to gauge how you are doing at maintaining a balanced wheel is to draw spokes onto your wheel. Begin at the center, draw a spoke out toward the edge in each section. The more time you put toward developing that specific area, the closer to the edge you will draw. If it helps, you can think of it as rating each section on a scale from 1-5 (5 being the edge of the wheel). Ideally, all areas would be somewhat equal. It’s always interesting to identify the areas we put more energy towards and those we neglect.

If there is an imbalance in your wheel, I would love to develop a clearer picture of how to develop some of your “lower” spokes. I’ll be writing two posts in September and two additional ones in October as we bring in the often stressful holiday season (I can’t believe another holiday season is almost here!), so keep your eye out for those articles with tips and ideas of how to increase and combine our “spokes” to get back on track with our lives and goals!

I love making recipes that give me the freedom to pick and choose the combination of vegetables that are in season and that I love to eat. This recipe is vegetarian and a great way to incorporate a your choice of vegetables. I would recommend using those vegetables that are fresh and in season but use any variety of those I included in the recipe or any of these: zucchini, peas, yellow squash, eggplant, yellow or orange bell pepper, broccoli, cabbage, or mushrooms.  In this recipe, I additionally included quinoa to increase the amount protein! So here’s how to prepare it!

• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed
• 1/2 cup dry quinoa
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1-2 ears worth of corn kernels
• 1 cup (1-inch) cut green beans
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tablespoon sea salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 diced fresh tomatoes (can also use 1 can diced tomatoes, drained, if not in season)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/4 cup blanched almonds
• fresh basil

1. In a saucepan, add chickpeas, quinoa and 1 ¼ cup of water. Heat on medium-high heat, bringing water to a boil. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and reduce heat; simmer for 15 minutes, or until quinoa has ‘opened’ (quinoa will look translucent with a ring around it) and chickpeas have softened. Next put the sweet potato in the pan, put the lid back on, and steam for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the veggies to the pan and steam for an additional 5 minutes until desired tenderness.

2. While vegetables are cooking, a separate skillet, heat coconut oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until the onion is translucent. Add all of the spices. If you don’t have each of the individual spices, feel free to use a store bought curry powder mix.

3. Add the chickpea-quinoa-sweet potato mixture to the skillet. Add tomatoes and coconut milk and mix all together.

5. Allow temperature to rise again and bring to a boil. Reduce heat back to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Serve into bowls and top with almonds and basil.

I hope you enjoy it!! Happy Cooking!!!

The ingredient I am highlighting today is Coconut Water. This item has increased in popularity recently, and for good reason. Coconut water, the liquid found naturally protected inside of the coconut ‘meat’ and outer shell, is a pure liquid that is even used in some cultures intravenously to rehydrate patients. In addition to re-hydrating, it also is full of minerals and vitamins to boost immune system, brings your pH back to a more optimal level which makes your body function more efficiently, replaces electrolytes (great for dehydration and sweating), is high potassium levels,  promote cardiovascular health, and even more.

With the unforgiving heat this summer, we thought we’d share a fun and kid friendly way to use coconut water! Coconut Ice Pops! This is SO easy and if you don’t have popsicle molds, you can use Dixie cups or even a muffin tin! You can honestly be really creative with these to match your taste buds, but here are a few starter recipes for you. Let me know recipes you come up with and if you like it!

Coconut Sunrise Ice Pops

• 1 pint Coconut Water
• 2/3 cup thawed orange juice concentrate
• 2 large bananas
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Blend coconut water, orange juice concentrate, bananas, and lime until mixture is even. Pour mixture into popsicle molds, and place in freezer until frozen, about 4 hours. If you are using popsicle sticks, push them in after about an hour in the freezer. To release pops, dip molds into hot water until pops loosen and slide out. If using cups, peel away paper.

Strawberry Coconut Ice Pops

• 1 pound strawberries, washed and hulled
• Coconut water
• Agave Nectar, if needed

Fill a blender halfway up with strawberries. Pour coconut water halfway up the berries. Blend until smooth. If you need some more sweetness to the popsicle, add agave nectar a little at a time and continue blending blend. Repeat with the rest of the strawberries. Fill popsicle molds and freeze until frozen, about 4 hours

Simple Mixed Berry Ice pops

• Any variety of mixed fruit (pineapple, kiwi, peach, pear, strawberry, blueberry, honeydew, ect),  cut into blueberry-sized pieces
• Coconut water

Place the fruit pieces into the popsicle molds. Pour coconut water on top of the fruit, and freeze!

Berry Explosion Ice Pop

• 1 cup mixed frozen berries
• 1/2 – 1 cup or so of organic plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup carrot juice
• 1/4 cup coconut water

Combine all ingredients, pour into popsicle molds, and freeze! Easy as that!

by Katie Culver

For a lot of you, you come in for your adjustment, and afterwards, I ask you to do a few minutes of balance work. Whether its performing exercises while balancing on the exercise ball, Bosu, balance disk, or even just standing on one of the balance boards, I’m sure you’ve wondered why. Rest assured… there is method to our madness.

Because life is lived, at times, in unstable positions (such as walking on icy surfaces in the winter, running on uneven ground, or dodging toys and other obstacles as you chase your kiddos around the house),working on balance boards helps you safely and quickly keep up with the demands of life. Working on balance boards improves the strength of the small  muscles of the foot and lower leg, improves reaction time, reduce the incidence of injury, increases your body’s awareness of where it is at in space, improves movement mechanics, and helps the body to work together as a whole!

One of the main reasons that we want to do balance work with our patients is to increase your proprioception (your body’s awareness of where it is at in space… ie knowing where your foot or arm is at without having to look down at it). After a spinal adjustment, when the body is in its corrected alignment, working on a balance board creates continuous neural stimulus that is perceived as information in the brain. It reinforces that correct alignment and encourages the body to remain in that position (which in turn would lead to more spread out adjustments).

Conclusive research has also been done with balance boards. In one study, it was found that simple balance exercises, as part of early treatment for injuries such as ankle sprains, increases the strength and stability of the joint and therefore decreases the chance for residual symptoms and sprains. Additional research has shown that exercising on these unstable surfaces significantly strengthens muscles when tested against stable equipment. For instance, in one particular study, untrained men approximately doubled abdominal muscle activity when a crunch was executed on an exercise ball versus a static bench.

So if you want a stronger and quicker body whose muscles all work together in unison, try doing exercises on unstable surfaces. Remember, though, to be safe and begin easy, with no weight, and progressively get more difficult, as exercises on these surfaces can be deceivingly difficult!

by Katie Culver

Can you name the medical condition that is one of the easiest to recognize, hardest to ‘cure,’ and responsible for over 300,000 deaths each year? The answer: Childhood obesity. This epidemic has spread like wildfire through our country and is continuing to become more prevalent… and destructive. According to an article on Stop Childhood Obesity’s website, the annual cost to society for obesity is estimated at nearly $100 billion! Since the 1980s, the childhood obesity rate has increased by more than double for very young kids aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and for the midrange, 6-11 years of age, it has increased by 3 times.  Those are just alarming statistics!

We are starting to see diseases in children that only adults experienced.  In our office we are also seeing more cases of kids with neck pain, back pain and headaches that is complicated by obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.

Here in our home town of Indianapolis, a wonderful thing has begun that will hopefully begin to flip these childhood obesity statistics over. This summer, a pilot program summer camp named Forever-Fit Summer Camp was launched for local 8- to 12-year olds. On their 24 acre facility, kids are educated on nutrition, with others who also want to see life change, and encouraged to take advantage of an array of fun amenities on site. The focus away from a legalistic mindset of counting calories and feeling forced into exercise and placed on cast vision to these kids as to how they can enjoy taking ownership for their choices and practically live healthier lifestyles. Beyond the actual camp, parents are asked to be a part of the process and encouraged be a leader to their kids through regular meetings, post-camp.

I’m so impressed with this camp. I think the camp’s vision and focus are on target to changing countless lives. The camp is even made available very inexpensively and is one of a kind when compared to what the rest of the nation has to offer. Overweight children are prone to become overweight adults, but the generational cycle can be changed as we adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating, thinking, and exercise.

For more information – click US Kids