by Summer D Clemenson | Feb 7, 2020 | Fuel Your Wellness
National Toothache Day is Sunday February 9, 2020.
Toothaches can make life pretty unbearable. They can affect your ability to eat, talk, sleep, travel or even kiss your loved ones. Did you know the first bristled toothbrush was invented in 1498? In China people cleaned their teeth with a bristled brush with a handle made of either bamboo or bone. Interesting fact, huh? National Toothache Day was first celebrated in the early 2000’s. No one really remembers who started it but since mouth care is vital to good overall wellness, we though we would share with you some helpful information on how to take care of your teeth. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Feb 6, 2020 | Fuel Your Wellness
February is American Heart Month and because we love you we will be sharing several topics related to heart health this month. In this article I will be sharing with you some information about Heart Defects.
According to the American Heart Association, about 9 out of every 1,000 babies born in the United States have a congenital heart defect.
Congenital heart defects are conditions that people are born with when the heart doesn’t develop normally before birth that effect the structure of the heart. In fact congenital heart defects are the most common of all birth defects. They might involve the walls or valves of the heart or the arteries and veins near the heart. These defects might disrupt the flow of blood through the heart by slowing down the flow of blood, making the blood go in the wrong direction or to the wrong place or completely block blood flow. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Jan 31, 2020 | Food, Fuel Your Wellness
As you travel your path to wellness you will want to become more food conscious. In today’s society is impossible to completely cut out eating out. Americans spend almost half of their food budget on restaurant experiences. Overall restaurant foods are higher in calories, salt and fat than foods created at home; this is true even if the restaurant claims they have made their menu more healthy. A lot of this is because restaurant portion sizes are so much larger than what actual serving sizes should be. We do recommend that spend more time exploring foods at home but when you do go out there are healthy swaps you can make to help you feel better and continue to make your wellness goals. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Jan 24, 2020 | Fuel Your Wellness
Over 50% of all Americans take one or more dietary supplements either on occasion or daily. Although not all people require supplements which generally include vitamins, minerals, herbal products (botanicals), and enzymes, some people can use these products to make sure they get enough essential nutrients and maintain or improve their overall well-being.
What are Botanicals?
A botanical is a plant or part of plant that is found to have medicinal or therapeutic properties. Herbs are considered botanicals. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Jan 20, 2020 | Fuel Your Wellness
What is Testosterone?
Testosterone is a hormone that is created in males & females in humans and some animals. Testosterone is vital to sex drive & sperm production but it also affects bone density, muscle mass, how our bodies store fat as well as facial & body hair. Testosterone affects red blood cell production and even mood stability. Testosterone is created in the testicles in males and, in much smaller amounts, in the ovaries of females after the pituitary gland sends a signaling hormone to induce testosterone production. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | May 21, 2019 | Food, Fuel Your Wellness
Karen and I are so blessed to have people in our lives who care about us and help us while we are growing Karen’s dream of a successful business. The other day one of our clients gave us a small roast and Karen asked me if I could figure out how to make it stretch for about 4 days. I searched the list of ingredients I knew we had in my head, and I told her I would make soup.
Soup is something I ate a lot of growing up. But it was usually out of the can and I never really liked it. I remember 2 times my mom made soup from scratch and it was amazing! My mom was a single mother and she worked a lot. She also doesn’t really enjoy cooking so that soup was like a miracle to me. Since I was the oldest I was stuck with feeding my sisters and I wasn’t very good at it; I was always more creative than my ingredients. But Mom really loved bean with bacon soup and chili from the can and that was probably what my sisters would have preferred when I cooked too. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Apr 17, 2018 | Fuel Your Wellness, Wellness
You probably wonder what all the hype is regarding Probiotic Supplements, but did you know that 70% of our body’s immune system lives in our digestive tract? Poor eating habits, high stress and chronic illness can cause our immune system to become irregular and even disrupt cellular processes. People who live with chronic illness, especially auto-immune disorders need to pay special attention to their digestive health.
Inside our entire digestive system, mostly our intestines and colon, there are 300 to 500 different kinds of bacteria that contain nearly 2 million genes. These bacteria live next to viruses and fungi, making up our gut microbiota. To maintain our health, 90% of the bacteria in our intestines should be good bacteria. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Dec 7, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
I wasn’t planning for The Importance of Self-Care to be the next article I write for Wellness Works NW; I knew a blog about self-care was brewing, but it wasn’t until Monday afternoon that I understood the timing of this article. You see, Veda is here. If you haven’t read my article about Veda, I will let you know that is what I call the depression that overcomes me at times and tends to push me in directions I don’t want to go. At some point I decided to name her something so that I wasn’t getting mad at myself for my feelings that can be really opposite of what I want to be experiencing. When Veda comes, she makes me VERY tired. So fatigued that it can feel impossible to do anything other than lie in bed and feel bad. It was all I could do to get out of the car and go to bed after church on Sunday and even my little nephew could not get me to fully wake up, and I REALLY love him. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Dec 1, 2017 | Essential Oils
AKA Cinnamomum Cassia
A close relative to cinnamon, Cassia has a wonderful fragrance and thousands of years of historical use. Small amounts of Therapeutic Grade Cassia Essential Oil can be used to transform any essential oil blend.
Cassia is a “warming” oil that helps promote a healthy immune function.
It is also a great oil to diffuse during cold months due to its warming properties and spicy scent. Due to its caustic nature, Cassia Essential Oil should be diluted with Fractionated Coconut Oil when applied to skin and can be very strong when inhaled directly. When diluted, Therapeutic Grade Cassia Essential Oil can help soothe the body.
(more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Nov 28, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
Fads come and go but we all need our diet to be a Trusted Wellness Tool. Instead of relying on any Fad Diet, I think we can all say that Healthy Eating should be a goal we all work towards.
I have a beef with diets. It is personal. I don’t mean to color your Wellness Philosophy (more than you want me to) but there are a lot of diets out there. From the sounds of it they are meant for a goal that is quick and referred to as easy, but not…instead of a life-long action plan that meets our Wellness Goals and fuels our day, every day. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Nov 27, 2017 | Food, Fuel Your Wellness
I am super excited to share this recipe with you because it is so DELICIOUS! Karen and I were invited to Jamie’s house for Thanksgiving and she let us know that she was cooking a KETO Thanksgiving. As she listed the menu I noticed she didn’t name a dessert (possibly because she knows I like to make desserts) so I offered to find a yummy one. I found a few but in order to make the group happy we decided on Keto Caramel Macchiatto Tiramisu. I found all the recipes on IBreathImHungry.com. The recipes were meant for a party smaller than mine so I adjusted the amounts. It also called for me to make at least one other recipe, Cream Cheese Pancakes, and because I have never enjoyed sugar free caramel sauce, I googled Keto Caramel Sauce which led me back to the same site and found one that I added to my plans for this wonderful concoction. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Nov 22, 2017 | Poetry
Under the branches of You I hide
I live
I learn
I breath in the scent of You
and smile
The wind and waves roar inside me
They crash
and shake
Yet You are dependable
to save
You know the wars that tear at my flesh
You validate
You heal
You know who I truly am
I’m yours
Even in this wilderness
You are
I am
and I know You know where we are going
even now
That’s enough
by Summer D Clemenson | Oct 17, 2017 | Food, Fuel Your Wellness
There are many names of sugar. There is a lot of added sugar in processed foods. Manufactures often use several kinds of sugar so they can hide the actual amount of sugar in a food item because the rules the FDA requires for food labels require manufacturers to list ingredients by weight. If food makers relied on only a few types of sugar to sweeten and preserve their foods than sugar would appear in the top 3 ingredients and health conscious people and parents would think twice before buying their items. By creating so many names for sugar they can keep the weight of ingredients down so the names of the ingredients can be lower on the label…and make it more difficult for people to recognize how much sugar they are eating when they consume processed foods. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Oct 5, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
I live in a body that hurts. Always. Living with Central Sensitization Syndrome, more commonly referred to as Fibromyalgia has changed my world in many ways. For nearly 14 years Karen G Clemenson has been getting me ready for this challenge because she always is trying to find the positive; eking our every bit of goodness in my life is my greatest tool!
Although there is no specific x-ray, labs or physical exam that makes it easy to diagnose, fibromyalgia is very real. When you have fibromyalgia you are used to chronic pain and tenderness all over your body but there are specific spots that doctors use to diagnose fibromyalgia. These tender points are: (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Sep 21, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
Welcome to part 4 and the final article in our Fat Cells Series. To think I had thought this would be an easy topic! After all we have learned about adipose tissue, Karen G Clemenson thought it would be appropriate to write about Fat Cells Connection to Eating Disorders. Let’s begin with a quick summary of some of the things we have learned in this series:
- Everyone needs to have some fat.
- Our bodies store energy and vitamins needed to create hormones that send messages throughout our bodies in our fat cells.
- The number of fat cells we have in our bodies is usually set at puberty and stays the same through adulthood.
- We do not lose fat cells, we shrink them.
- We lose weight when we burn up triglycerides that fill our fat cells.
- Used triglycerides turn into waste products that can be eliminated from our bodies through breathing them out, sweating, urinating or having bowel movements.
- Being obese changes the chemicals in our bodies forever. To change our path toward chronic disease we must be willing to commit to a lifestyle change of proper nutrition and exercise.
- Our bodies lose and replace about 8% of our fat cells each year.
- When we have too many toxins in our bodies toxins are stored in our fat cells causing sickness and disease.
- Drinking plenty of water is one way to detoxify our fat cells.
(more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Aug 29, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
Our bodies lose and replace about 8% of our fat cells each year. Our fat cells also shrink when we lose weight and use up the stored lipids inside of them. One way of helping our fat cells shrink is to get rid of the toxins that build up in our fat cells. Toxins are easily absorbed into our body, they are found in the air, our water, chemicals we work with, the food we eat and more. We absorb them when there are forest fires or people burn trash or other combustibles, when factories make herbicides or bleach paper pulp and many other situations. In the 1980’s the EPA conducted a program called National Human Adipose Tissue Survey and they found that all human fat samples they took contained traces of industrial solvents, dioxins and chemicals. The goal of this article is teach you about washing fat cells. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Aug 22, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
Learning How Our Bodies Use Fat is Changing Me
I know a lot about nutrition and exercise. I have always been fat and my family and doctors have always educated me. In the past I was very active, and at one point, I had committed to working out every day for an hour and successfully lost weight. But I had never committed to a lifestyle change. As I have gotten older I have made a lot of changes because I have watched friends and family deal with aging and now I am chronically ill, I have become sensitive to several foods and some medications I have to take require me to do certain things, however I must admit that I have had trouble committing. I have commitment issues…lots of them. You would think that since my wonderful wife, who is the greatest cheerleader I have ever known, helps so many people that she would be the perfect help for me, but when Karen G Clemenson finally comes home, she is drained. This leaves me to myself because I spend a lot to time alone…for several reasons… (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Aug 8, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
Everyone needs to have some fat cells on their body. Our bodies store energy and vitamins to create hormones that send messages throughout our bodies in our fat cells.
Did you know that no matter what we do our bodies have the same number of fat cells for all of our adult lives?
In 2008, a molecular biologist named Kirsty Spalding discovered this fact and that even if some cells die, our bodies will quickly replace them. Some people just have more fat cells than others. Fat and fatty acids that help nerve development and function make up over half of our brain. Fat develops important hormones in our bodies and also provides shock absorbers for our internal organs and some kinds of fat help to keep us warm. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Jul 25, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
Are You Wearing the Correct Bra?
The other day Karen G Clemenson tried on a sports bra that wasn’t the right size and we started talking about how important it is to wear a properly fitting bra. In years gone by I was the lingerie manager at a women’s clothing store and I learned a lot about how bras should fit. This was the first time I had considered how important it is to wear the right bra to support my breasts. While Karen was listening, she suggested I write an article about it, since most women do not wear the right size bra. Bras are only as good as their fit. If they don’t fit they are uncomfortable but your bra should make you feel good in your body and excited to wear it, regardless of whether you live in a sports bra or you live for lace and ribbons. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Jul 18, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
In this day and age it is not uncommon to hear of people having surgery to replace or repair their back, knees, hips, etc…It is something that has been happening for a long time, but as technology and medical knowledge has become more and more stellar so has the need to learn the best way to manage healing.
The other day Karen G Clemenson walked in the door and asked me to write an article about what to do after surgery, so here it goes!
Rehabilitation is just as important as the surgery. Many patients’ attention is so focused on the actual surgery that they don’t even think about healing time. Healing takes time and patience. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Jul 11, 2017 | Fuel Your Wellness
Make Time for Boomer’s Immunizations
Believe it or not, it is hard to get Karen G Clemenson to go to the doctor. You would think since she is such a cheerleader for your health that she would take great care with her own but she finds it difficult to get away from regular life, to do anything that doesn’t happen in the gym. Don’t get me wrong, Karen’s wellness journey has increasingly gotten healthier in the last 10 years or so. She has made a lot of good choices, while easing herself into a life of wellness to learn to eat better, get regular exercise, drink more water and take her medications and supplements properly and this has helped her reduce her weight and bring her blood pressure down while giving her more stamina. I have given up bugging her too much but luckily our doctor makes sure to force her to stop and get a check up annually by refusing to refill her medications until she comes in. It isn’t that she doesn’t like our doctor or that she is afraid of what the doctor will say, she just doesn’t want to miss out on anyone who needs her help. (more…)
by Summer D Clemenson | Jun 6, 2017 | Poetry
I asked Jesus for someone to love me like Him
He sent me a soldier
to fight for me
to look past my ugliest and remember who I am
to see the path when I cannot
to remember that He is the one in charge
My head on your chest is my favorite spot
the sound of your heartbeat
is just one more reason to remember the mission
My Father has saved me over and over
He created me for a life
that requires much faith
and more grace
So when I needed someone on earth to hold my hand
He created you
Even sound asleep
you are working hard
and I am glad to lie here until fibromyalgia makes me move
Without you who would He send home
to wake me from a PTSD nightmare
Help me remember all the things I forget
Inspire me to push past my burning skin and screaming joints
when you need help
Make me want to imagine tomorrow
Your smile lights up my heart
makes it easy for me to never leave you behind
Helps me understand why Jesus would choose me
Until you wake and make me laugh
I will agree with Jesus in my prayers for you
I will hug you close until you stop snoring
laugh at the jokes you tell in your sleep
massage the muscles that twitch while you dream
I will revel in all the times I chose not to fight you
You are the love I wanted
You are my favorite blessing
When I thank Jesus for you every other care is silent
except for the tears that fall on your shirt
This poem is dedicated to My Love
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