Albert Lea Community Education

Acupressure is an ancient healing art and self-help tool. It can offer great relief with no side effects and help you feel your best. Along with the specific points to help relieve stress, insomnia, anxiety, irritability and even weight gain, learn the Nine Master Pressure Points which are the most helpful and most frequently prescribed to help and assist every system in your body.

Acupressure is a healing technique that works with how energy flows through your body. Just as you have blood that flows through vessels, you have energy that flows through pathways called meridians. Acupressure involves pressing or massaging key points on the body to stimulate energy flow which can offer great relief with no side effects. We will focus on the points that relieve and prevent migraines and headaches as well as nausea and vertigo.

Dementia can result in difficulties with walking, talking, and thinking. Difficulties with eating and swallowing, or dysphagia, can also occur. This can result in troubles with nutrition, hydration, UTI, and respiratory infections. Symptoms of dysphagia include coughing, wet sounding voice, sensation of food sticking, food remaining in mouth after eating, and slow eating. This course will provide knowledge to understand this part of the disease and how a speech language pathologist can provide support, resources, and therapy to help a caregiver safely feed their loved one. An informational handout will be provided with the course for participants to take home.

A 6 week course led by RN and Health Coach for women over 40 who believe that age is just a number and vitality matters more. This course focuses on taking control of the aging process to make transformative and lasting changes. The basis for the change is scientific research behind the traditional wisdom of the 6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine: Plant Forward Nutrition, Daily Movement, Restorative Sleep, Avoiding Risky Behaviors and Social Connection. Get the tools for designing your best self yet!

There are 19 flat muscles in your face, all of which can be strengthened and toned, just like arm or leg muscles. Facial exercises can take years off your appearance by reducing frown and forehead lines, reducing “puppet mouth’ lines, lifting and firming neckline, making upper and lower cheeks fuller, reduce puffiness and sagging around eyes, improve circulation and nutrient flow into cells and improve lymph circulation. Learn simple exercises that will rejuvenate your face. You will need a regular teaspoon for a few of the exercises and a little of your favorite facial moisturizer.

We have become a nation of professional sitters, causing lower body muscles to weaken and sag. In this workshop, you will learn: my famous ‘10 Minute Miracle Exercise’ series to strengthen lower body muscles quickly and, in the process, increase metabolism and bone density; decrease 2 inches off saddlebag area in 2 weeks; trim inches off lower body by getting rid of excess water weight; breathing technique to stimulate fat metabolism; acupressure points for lymph circulation and drainage. If you don’t have time, money, or inclination to haul yourself to a gym, you will love these powerful and effective techniques. You will need a resistance band, tied in a loop for some of the exercises.

Strategies for Beating Belly Bloat Have you ever found that in the a.m. your pants fit fine but by mid-afternoon, the waistband squeezes you like a tourniquet? Or that no matter how many crunches you do, your stomach still hangs out? Getting rid of a potbelly is much more than just doing abdominal exercises. In this workshop, you will learn the main causes and 6 strategies for getting rid of belly bloat. We will do a few exercises designed to strengthen the deepest layer of abdominal muscle - the layer that is responsible for flattening your stomach, shaping your waistline, and supporting your lower back. And we will do this without getting on the floor.

In the past you probably could drop weight by cutting back on calories or exercising a bit more. But then suddenly the scale stops moving, and you just can’t seem to lose weight. THE GOOD NEWS - You could lose up to 20 pounds in a year – without eating less. Just by revving up your metabolism, you can burn more calories every day, lose fat, boost energy, feel stronger and more fit. In this class, you will learn 20 SIMPLE things you can do every day to boost your metabolism.

Ever had a day where you can’t stop eating? Do you crave starches, snack foods, and sweets and find the more you eat, the more you want to eat? Is your snacking out of control? In this workshop, we will discuss a two-week plan that will STOP your cravings (no kidding!), help you lose weight and help keep your insulin levels balanced. Overcoming carb cravings is not a matter of willpower but a matter of biology. Learn how you can stop the vicious cycle of food craving and weight gain. No hype – just the facts.

Are you finding no matter how well you watch what you eat or how much you exercise that weight is not budging? Your inability to lose weight probably has more to do with hormone levels than anything else. Until any imbalances are corrected, trying to lose weight will be like shoveling sand against the tide. We’ll discuss concrete solutions (not tricks, not using your will power) for controlling appetite and cravings; simple things you can do every day to boost your metabolism; major sources of hormone mimicking chemicals and how to get rid of them; what HRT or birth control pills have to do with weight gain; how to have your hormone levels checked reliably; what steps need to be taken to safely break the vicious cycle of hormone related weight gain.

If you currently take thyroid medication but are still gaining weight and still have a variety of symptoms, there’s more you need to know. Fatigue, weight gain, depression, anxiety, rising cholesterol levels, inability to focus, thinning , digestive problems, abnormal blood pressure, reduced sex drive, and heart palpitations are only some of the symptoms. We’ll discuss the 5 things that need to be measured, but usually aren’t; why the #1 thyroid replacement may not be helping you; foods that help or hinder; commonly misunderstood rules of how and when to take thyroid meds; environmental triggers and info you need to discuss with your doctor. This workshop is a source of information only and should by no means be considered a substitute for the advice of a qualified medical professional.