Green Tea Health Benefits Blog

Many pregnant women have asked me if it’s safe to work your abdominals.  With healthy pregnancies it is typically safe to do traditional ab work (i.e. lying on your back) up till week 12.  After week 12 it is no longer recommend to lay on your back.  However, you can still work your abdominals without laying on your back. 

Try this simple exercise to strengthen your abdominals:

On all your knees on all fours, head in line with the spine bring one knee in towards your chest.  Hold for 2-3 counts.  Release and repeat 10-15 times.  Then repeat on the other side.  Work up to 2 sets of 10-15 reps.

Myth 9: Mild TBI is not permanent.

Over and over again defense doctors testify that everyone who sustains a mild traumatic brain injury gets better; that mild traumatic brain injury is not a permanent condition. This simply is untrue.

Dr. Alexander has pointed out that at one year after injury, 10 percent to 15 percent of mild TBI patients have not recovered. Many are more symptomatic than even immediately after the injury. Some have had persistence of one particularly troubling symptom –usually headache, neck pain or dizziness. Most have persistence and even worsening of the entire symptom complex. Both groups are at high risk of permanent symptomatic persistent post-concussive syndrome.

Work to date shows that mild brain injury results in measurable deficits in speed of information, processing, attention and memory in the immediate post-injury period. Recovery from these deficits is the rule occurring over a variable period ranging from four to 12 weeks. For small group, recovery may occur much more slowly or remain incomplete.

As Silver and McAlister explain, a good recovery is not universal. They note that although the long-term prognosis is favorable for the majority of patients with a mild TBI, it is well recognized that there can be significant short-term behavioral, somatic and cognitive sequelae. Furthermore, a significant minority of patients develops a chronic, often-debilitating constellation of signs and symptoms known as the chronic post-concussive syndrome.

You can read my other posts on the 10 myths of traumatic brain injuries here.

Many new moms want to lose the baby weight, but just don’t have the motivation to do it.  One thing I often remind my clients is to think about how good they feel after they work out.  After each workout I talk about how much stronger and toned their muscles are becoming, and how much better they feel about themselves in body and mind.  The more you equate working out to feeling and looking good the more motivated you’ll be to exercise.

For personal or group coaching info visit: http://fitbysara.com/coaching.php

As a follow up to my previous post at the National Academy of Neuropsychology’s (NAN) 27th Annual Conference in Scottsdale, AZ, below is a link to an MP3 of my presentation.  The topic of the presentation was “Neuropsychology in the Courtroom.”

My presentation was designed to give neuropsychologists an understanding of the admissibility of neuropsychological testimony at trial through a retrospective look at neuropsychological testimony and admissibility in the past and my observations of where neuropsychology was headed in the future.

You can listen to the presentation in its entirety here. (42 MB)

There is so much emphasis on weight gain when you’re pregnant, it can be quite consuming.  My suggestion is to listen to your body and “fuel” yourself and your baby with nutritous foods when you feel hungry.  It’s normal to have cravings.  Listen to them, just chose wisely!  Cravings for sweet foods can be satisfied by eating fruit, a glass of juice (orange juice is a great choice since it’s high in folate, which is good for baby’s development), or a fruit smoothy.  Salty cravings can be satisfied with nuts, whole grain crackers with cheese, or a bagel with peanut butter.