015 - Boost Your Health by Moving Your Body

Hi friends! Today we are continuing to talk about ways to support our health, specifically our emotional and mental health by moving our bodies. 

Our bodies were designed to move! Our bodies will not function well if we aren’t engaging in regular physical activity. You’ve probably heard the tagline “Sitting is the new smoking” and that is because research is starting to show just how detrimental inactivity is to our health. 

Benefits 

Just as a reminder, some of the health benefits to exercise are:

• Happiness - endorphins / serotonin

• Mental clarity / increased memory

• Better sleep / supports natural circadian rhythms

• Energy boost

• Reduces stress in the body

• Reduce overall disease risk

• Pushes toxins out of the body

• Increases strength and endurance

• Supports healthy weight

• Facilitates Longevity

Guidelines 

Everyone seems to have an opinion on which type of exercise is the best or exactly how you should go about it, but there’s not a specific kind of physical activity that is best for everyone. Just like most things, the method or type of exercise that is best for you depends on your specific situation, needs, and preferences. 

There are a few general guidelines, however, that apply to everyone:

• AMA recommendations - 150 min of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, plus 2 days of strength training / 30 min / 5 days a week is ideal (You can start by doing 10 min x 3 per day).

• Bodyweight / weighted strength exercises are good! 

  Women have been known to be scared of doing weightlifting or strength-training exercises because they don’t want to get bulky or look like a body-builder. But this is actually not possible without externally altering your hormones or working out so much that you increase natural testosterone production, so this isn’t something we need to fear! 

  Bodyweight strength-training exercises, as well as weighted exercises,  have significant benefits to our health. 

  • Builds bone mass

  • Increases the body’s sensitivity to insulin

  • Helps to prevent and/or manage autoimmune diseases

  • Increases strength and ability to function

• More is not always better

  • Two-a-day workouts or high-intensity workouts that last more than 1.5-2 hours can do more harm than good. Not only can it increase the risk of injury and fatigue, but it also can lead to sustained high rates of inflammation in the body. This can cause the body to be under too much stress, for too long and will lead to inflammatory issues, like hormone imbalance. 

Most important - choose something that you enjoy!

If you hate exercising, you’re not going to do it, so choose an activity that you enjoy. You can choose to workout in a gym, at home, with a friend, or alone - just whatever you feel works best for you and that you will stick to! 

Evaluate yourself and pinpoint what you need: 

• Is it to find something you enjoy? Choose a new option to try this week! Accountability? Ask a friend to join you or give them permission to ask you about it.

• Sit all day at work? Set reminders to get up every hour and walk around for a few minutes - fill up your water bottle or do a few stretches! Even better - be the change and start leading office-wide stretches or a walking group in your department! You never know what kind of impact you can have with just a little suggestion and it will benefit everyone! 

• Can’t afford a gym membership or don’t want one? Search for quality workouts on youtube (Nourish, Move, Love, is a great resource!) Also, now that the weather is cooler, just get out and go for a walk! 

• Prefer to have more support? Sign up for a personal trainer to show you exactly how to workout in a way that will help you grow stronger and prevent injury! OR join a fitness class at your local gym! You will be surrounded by others doing that exact same exercises, with the instruction of an instructor! You get both a social connection and a great workout! 

There really are so many options and with a little effort, you can find something that will work for you! 

Well, friends, I hope this episode gave you a little reminder and boost to get up and get moving! It did for me! 

013 - Feeling Stuck? This Could Help You Move Forward!

Hello friends! Welcome back and Happy October! October is one of my favorite months of the year for a lot of different reasons! The weather gets cooler (or at least it’s supposed to), and we celebrate some fun things in our family - like our anniversary, our daughter’s birthday, and some other fun celebrations for other family and friend’s birthdays! 

October is also the beginning of the holiday season. There are lots of fall activities and get-togethers with family and friends for football games and Halloween. It can be such a fun time of year, but from experience, I know that it can also turn into a super busy, rushed, and kind of stressful time of year. So, I want to use the next few episodes to focus on things we can do to support our mental and emotional health before all of the fun, holiday craziness really sets in!

Our physical, mental, and emotional health are all so connected and all affect each other. How we fuel our bodies and move our bodies, how much sleep we get, what our relationships are like, how busy we are - all these things affect our mental and emotional well-being. 

Today I want to focus on a concept that a little different. It’s something that my husband shared with me a few months ago - it’s an IT term called “Release and Renew” (that’s not the actual technical term but it’s the general idea). 

It’s something that techies, like my husband, use when dealing with a particular issue that prevents a computer from accessing the Internet.  The solution is to “release” and then “renew” the computer’s connection. He explained that sometimes, simply using “renew” would solve the problem; but often it doesn’t because the computer will simply “renew” itself in its current state with the root problem still there. However, if he uses “release” and then “renew,” that will force the computer to let go of what’s causing it to fail, making room for the computer to “renew” in a new state - one free from the thing causing it to fail. 

He shared that he feels like there is a parallel that can be taken from this concept and applied to how we handle things in our lives (so yes, this is his original idea - I can’t take all of the credit), but I couldn’t agree more! Although this is a pretty nerdy analogy, when we apply this concept to our thoughts and emotions, I feel like it gives a great perspective! 

Often things happen in our lives, some small and some monumental, that leave us feeling stuck or paralyzed. We try to pick up and move on - to renew, or start over, but we keep getting tripped up by this thing! Maybe it’s a past experience, maybe it’s something that someone said about you, maybe it’s a really bad habit or maybe even an addiction to something, maybe its a grudge or bitterness about someone or some situation - whatever the thing is, it feels like you just can’t get past it. You commit to doing better, you are motivated and have great intentions, but then you just find yourself in the exact same place struggling with the exact same thing. 

Does that sound familiar to you? Most of us have experienced at least some level of this, but for some, it starts to define their lives. 

The lesson that we can learn from this analogy is that it doesn’t always work to just “renew”. We can’t always just pick up and move forward. Sometimes, a lot of times, we need to first “release” or let go. 

This sounds like an easy thing to do, but in reality, it can be so difficult! Releasing control of a situation that you’re fearful about; releasing a relationship that you know is unhealthy but you’re clinging to; releasing the comfort of a habit or addiction; releasing the pain or injustice that was done to you; releasing the negative, self-limiting thought that you believe about yourself - none of these things are easy to let go of, but these kinds of things will keep you in a cycle of frustration, and just like in our analogy, missed connections.  

So how do we apply this practically to our lives? How can we “release and renew” these things that we are struggling with? I’d like to encourage you with a couple of things that have helped me personally. 

Release - Surrender!

The first is to surrender. Whatever your struggle is -  the thing, the thought, feeling, person, or situation - to God. Scripture tells us that His love for us is so deep and unending that He wants us to cast our cares, our burdens, our fears, and anxieties on Him - and to leave them there - to truly release them to Him. 

In a message series that our Pastor recently taught at our church, He talked a lot about how the things we hold on to, the things that we find ourselves worrying about, reveal a lot about the condition of our hearts and of our beliefs about who God is - whether He is really good or not, whether He really loves us or not, whether He really is powerful or not. 

So maybe you need to start there - evaluate your heart and the thoughts and feelings that seem to be tripping you up, and ask yourself 1.) if you truly believe that God is good, loving, and powerful enough to be trusted with your situation, and 2.) if so, why haven’t you released this thing to Him. 

If this is something you know that you don’t believe or struggle to believe, but want to know more, please reach out to me - I would love to talk more with you about this. 

Renew -  Speak truth over yourself!

The second thing we can do is to renew our minds - our thoughts and our feelings - by speaking truth over ourselves. Once we’ve released these things, there’s a void, right? When we take captive thoughts or feelings that are harmful to us or are untrue and then release them, we can then renew and replace it with something that is true. There is so much freedom to be found in this! We can do this by reminding ourselves of who God says that we are - who He has made us to be. 

Practically, for me, this looks like spending time reading God’s word, listening to worship music, surrounding myself with people who will help encourage me, uplift me and remind me of truth when I start to struggle. Also being careful of who and what I allow to speak into my life! I’ve even started to apply this to who I follow on social media. If I find that an account I follow is posting things that cause me to start to struggle with comparison or to start having negative, untrue thoughts about myself, my body, or my life, I just unfollow or hide them. It’s just not worth it!

I encourage you to think about ways you can implement this concept for yourself! Our brains are so amazing! They can forge new neural pathways, replacing the old with the new, but it takes work and repetition. A practice as simple as shutting down a negative, untrue, or unhealthy thought as soon as it enters your mind, and replacing it with one that is true, positive and healthy can actually change your brain and your thought patterns! 

Thirdly, I want to add one more thought on this topic and that is that sometimes you also need to seek the help of a professional. A counselor or someone who is specifically trained to know how to navigate things like trauma, grief or addiction - even if it’s something that seems less serious, damage can be done to our minds and our bodies by things that have happened to us or hurts that we’ve been through. There is absolutely no shame in talking with a professional, and as a matter of fact, if you know me personally, you’ve probably heard me suggest counseling to you or someone else because I think it is so important and can be so helpful to your health! 

Today’s topic may feel a little out there when thinking about your health, but I feel like it’s so important to look at our health as a whole. Everything is connected and one part of our lives affects all the others. As we move into this new season and are preparing for all the holiday gatherings with friends and family, it’s a great time to do some evaluation of the things that cause you to feel stuck or may cause you to dread or struggle with the upcoming season. 

Please know that this is something that we all deal with and find those people who will uplift and encourage you when you are struggling. As always, if you feel you need additional support, you can always send me an email or set up a free consultation to see if there is something I can help you with. I’m happy to help or if I can’t, to connect you with someone who can! 

011 - Meal Prepping Could Be the Key to Your Success

Friends! In today’s episode, we are talking about the benefits and methods of meal prepping!

Once again this is one of those topics where the “right way” to do something is the way that works best for you and that you will actually do! Last week we talked about how to plan our meals (if you haven’t already listened to that episode, I encourage you to check out Episode 10  first), but as much as the planning part can overwhelm people, the prepping part for sure stops a lot of people in their tracks. 

There are so many ways to do this and it can be challenging to figure out which is best for your situation. I hear a lot of questions like “how do I know how much food to make ahead?”, “Which foods will still taste good prepped in advance and which are better to prepare right before you eat them?”, “How much time does it take?” and so many more - and, don’t hate me, but a lot of the answers to these questions are “it depends…”. The answers change based on how many people are in your household, how you personally tolerate left-overs, and how much time you have to do the prep.

Today I want to just do an overview of how beneficial meal prepping can be as well as give you a few tips to help make it simple and helpful for you! 

Benefits of Meal Prepping 

So, why would someone benefit from prepping some or all of their meals in advance?

Well, one of my favorite things about it is how much time it can save throughout the week. This is especially helpful for people who work long hours or crazy shifts and know that they won’t have the energy to cook when they get home from work. It’s also great if you and your spouse work differing shifts and maybe can’t eat your meals together every night. It’s been really helpful for me because as I mentioned in the last episode, the dinner-time hours also seem to be the neediest hours for my toddler, and it keeps me from having to spend as much time in the kitchen when she is needing more of my attention. 

Another great benefit, and the one that I think is key for most people, is that prepping your meals ahead helps you stick to your healthy eating goals. This is so important, especially when you are trying to make changes to your health. Let’s be real, the temptation to grab take-out or swing through the drive-thru on your way home is high - especially after a long or stressful day; however, that temptation will be so much lower if you know that there is a delicious home-cooked meal that you love waiting for you at home and one that you’ve already put work and effort into. You’re not going to want to waste that effort! 

This is one of the keys to success for my clients. Not only does it help them to fuel their bodies well, but it helps to also change their habits and gives them the confidence they need to cook more at home. So now they are both making healthier decisions and saving money by not eating out as much! Win-win!

Methods for Meal Prepping 

As I mentioned before there are different methods for prepping your meals ahead. I personally have used two different methods that I go back and forth with depending on how much prep time I have. 

The first method is what I call the “big prep”. I use this method when I have a little more time, maybe on Saturdays or during one of my daughter’s nap-times throughout the week. I got the idea from the book “Cook Once Eat All Week” by Cassy Joy Garcia and it usually takes around 1.5 hours, maybe 2 if I have more interruptions. But essentially, I will prep most all ingredients for 3-4 dinners, plus a few breakfast or lunch items if I have time. In the book, Cassy teaches you exactly how to do “prep day” - which items to prep first, in what order things should go into the oven, etc. in order to make the most of your time and your space. I highly suggest this book if you are new to the process of meal prepping or if you would like to learn a new method. She includes recipes for 26 weeks worth of healthy meals, and even if you don’t use her recipes, and use your meal plan instead, you can still apply her principles of meal prepping to save yourself time. 

The second method is my “mini-prep”, which is what I default to a lot, especially if I haven’t had a chance to spend a couple of hours in the kitchen. Using this method, I just try to prep 1-2 extra things when I am cooking dinner on Sunday or Monday evening. Simple things like browning ground beef or pre-chopping veggies for other meals can save you so much time later in the week. I’m already in the kitchen and in cooking mode, so while I wait for the oven to preheat or for water to boil or something, I just prep an ingredient for another meal. Also, a lot of times you put what you’re having for dinner in the oven to cook for 20-30 min and instead of going and doing something else with that time, on those nights, I just prep for other meals. Another reason I like this method is I don’t know about you, but I start most weeks with pretty high motivations and good intentions, but by  Wednesday or Thursday night, I’m tired and that motivation has usually decreased significantly. 

Even just prepping your lunches for the week while you are cooking dinner one night will keep you from being tempted to eat out for lunch every day! 

Simple Meal Prepping Tips 

Here are a few tips that can help you with your meal prep, no matter which method you choose:

• In order to have a game-plan for what to prep, you will need to have your meals planned out. It’s hard to prep meals ahead when you don’t even know what those meals are. You can grab my free meal planning guide here, or over on Instagram if you need some help with planning your meals. 

• I highly recommend that you do your grocery shopping and you’re meal prepping on different days. Now, I will say that this is dependent on your personality and the amount of time you have, so you can experiment with it and see how it goes. Personally, it stresses me out too much to try to do both on the same day. I do like to wash my produce and maybe do a little pre-chopping or something when I’m putting groceries away, but actually cooking a bunch of meals right after I come home from the store and having to put all the groceries away is just more time than I want to spend in the kitchen at one time

• Along those same lines, I recommend that start your prep with a clean kitchen. It doesn’t have to be spotless, but at least have mostly cleared off counters and an empty sink. Believe me, it is not an enjoyable experience to try to chop, mix, and cook when you’re working with about 6 inches of clean counter space or if a pile of dirty dishes is staring at you from the sink (ask me how I know :)). You want the process of meal prepping to be as enjoyable and stress-free as possible, so do yourself a favor and clean your kitchen up a bit before you start your meal prep and turn on some fun music (or maybe your favorite podcast {wink, wink}) while you’re at it. 

• As far as storing the food you prep, you can store it in a few different ways. One way is to store in the fridge in the pot that you used to cook it in. This is really helpful for when you’ve made soup or something large that you will need to reheat before you have it as a meal. It couldn’t be more simple than that, just take it out of the fridge an hour or so before you’re going to need to heat it, and then just put it on the stove or in the oven to reheat! Then for smaller dishes or if I’m going to divide a certain ingredient up to use in multiple meals, I will use my glass food storage. When it comes to storing food or anything that is going to be going into your body, it’s better to use glass or stainless steel than plastic. Even BPA free plastic still has many other kinds of estrogen-like chemicals in them that can easily leach into the food, especially when the plastic is heated. So, if you don’t have glass containers, use what you’ve got but please don’t heat your food in the microwave in plastic containers - move over to a ceramic or glass bowl or plate before you eat it.  These chemicals do a number of things in our bodies, including increasing the overall toxic load on our livers, but increased usage of them can lead to hormone imbalance, in both men and women.

• The last tip is also going to be one of preference, but personally, I wouldn’t prep more than 3-4 days of food at a time unless it’s something that you’ve prepped before and you know will stay good for the entire week. Chopped raw veggies or hard-boiled eggs are great examples of things that should last the whole week, but some cooked veggies will become mushy and some meats will become dried out when left in the fridge over a few days. This may take a little trial and error to figure out, but as a general rule, I stick to about 4 days for cooked meals. 

Friends, I hope you found a few tips helpful and were able to see that meal prepping can be done in many different ways and how it can be key to helping you stick to your healthy eating goals! 

As always, if you have any questions about the episode, feel free to reach out! Have a wonderful rest of your week and I’ll see you back here next week!

008 - Part 4: The Top Four Reasons Women Struggle to Lose Weight - An Unhealthy Mindset

Hi friends! This week we are finishing up the month-long series on The Top Four Reasons Women Struggle to Lose Weight with Part 4, which is an Unhealthy Mindset. 

While an unhealthy mindset may be the last part of this series, it absolutely should not be the last thing you think about when considering why you may be struggling to lose weight (or to reach any goal, really) - it should be the first! The truth is that you can eat all the kale, never miss a workout, and drink tons of water, but if you don’t deal with the heart work - the part that addresses how you feel about yourself and the value you place on your health - you’re not going to make any true, lasting progress. 

This principle is along the same lines of what we talked about in the first part of this series with having The Wrong Goal, but it goes much deeper than that. Your mindset about your health, your body, and really your worth is at the core of who you are and whether consciously or not, almost every decision you make about food, exercise, self-care, boundaries with others, etc. is related to it. 

We all have struggled with this at some point - let me give you an example of what I mean. Let’s imagine that I have a client that is frustrated because she can’t seem to make any real progress with her health goals. She has tried multiple diet plans and has lost weight on most of them, but after a few weeks or months, she gains the weight back and is right back to feeling sluggish and depressed, she starts going through the drive-thru every night instead of cooking at home like she was before, she hardly ever works out anymore, and is back to drinking more soda than ever. This has happened to her time and time again and she can’t figure out why nothing ever seems to stick. She knows the things to do - but something is missing. She just can’t stay motivated! When I get to know her a little better, I learn that she has been dealing with these feelings and frustrations for several years. When I asked her when she remembers first feeling this way, she shared that it all started in college when she and her long-term boyfriend broke off their relationship. She told me about how he had made a few jokes about her gaining some weight and how it had hurt her feelings but she just brushed it off. Then she found out he was cheating on her with another girl who was much thinner and in her opinion, much more attractive than her. She told me that she blamed herself for their breakup and immediately started trying different diets and workout programs, and it worked - she lost all the weight she had gained in college. But nothing else in her life really seemed to change and after a while, she just went back to the same kind of lifestyle she was living before because it didn’t make the difference she was hoping for. She became very insecure about the way she looked and started spending more time alone. Even if other guys became interested in her, she would end things before they ever got started because she was afraid that if she couldn't control her weight, the same thing would happen again and this cycle just continued throughout her early twenties. 

Can you relate to this client? Do you feel like you’ve tried every diet program under the sun but nothing really sticks long-term? Have you had a similar experience where you started to doubt that your body was good enough or that your identity was somehow wrapped up in the number that showed up on the scale? 

There are a few questions that I would ask my client - and that I’m also going to ask you: 

• How do you define what “health” is? 

What does it mean to you? Not a number on the scale or a certain size. I want you to dig deeper than that and think about what health means to you. 

• What would it look like for you to be healthy? 

What would your life look like? How would it be different than it is now? What would your energy be like? Your relationships? Your career? 

• Do you think that you can actually be healthy? 

When you picture that healthy version of yourself, do you actually believe that it’s possible for you? 

• Do you feel that you deserve to be healthy? 

Like the client in my example, have you allowed something that someone said to you to become your own belief? Do you think that you are somehow undeserving of being healthy because of something you did, or maybe something you continue to do? Are you subconsciously punishing yourself because you feel like that is what you deserve?

Those may seem like weird questions but you would be surprised at how many people have never thought about these questions and honestly have a hard time answering them. It is so common for people to believe that truly being healthy isn’t actually possible for them or is something that they don’t deserve. So, I want you to take the time to reflect on your answers to these questions. 

Now that you’ve thought about your answers, I want to spend the rest of today’s episode focusing on ways you can move into a healthier mindset. 

Self-Worth

The first is to remind yourself of your worth! You were intricately and specifically made to be you! It sounds cliche to say but it’s true - no one else can be you!  We spend so much time getting caught up in what others might think about us or maybe even in something that has been said about us by another person, that we forget what our Creator said about us - that we were fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139)! We are who He says we are - not what the internet says we are, not what our friends or family say that we are, not even what our own thoughts and feelings say that we are. We have to do the heart work of letting that stuff go, of laying down our insecurities and the lies we’ve allowed ourselves to believe. We have to remind ourselves that we were made by God and God doesn’t make junk, and He doesn’t make things without a purpose. We were given life and a body to live it in, and it’s our responsibility to honor that gift by stewarding it well. 

Overwhelm

The second is to work through the overwhelm! Listen, I get it - trying to improve your health or make any health decision is overwhelming. There are so many options and so many people with opinions about the best way you to do it, but you can’t let that paralyze you. I’m all for making informed decisions and researching which option might be best for you, but it’s so easy to get caught up in all the noise that you end up not doing anything at all. So, my advice is to pick something - pick one action step that you know will improve your health, something simple. Things, like drinking more water or moving your body for 20-30 minutes every day, are great places to start. Action begets action. Once you start to make one change and stick to it, the more motivated and confident you will feel to move on to the next thing. 

Maybe your situation is more overwhelming than most. Maybe like me, you are dealing with a health condition that needs specific considerations and recommendations. If so, your first step needs to be contacting a professional that can help you, then commit yourself to learn as much as you can from them. 

Whenever I get really overwhelmed, usually with a list of things that I need to do, my husband always tells me the same thing. He says, “Line them up vertically - stop looking at them horizontally, as if they all need to be done at the same time, and just do the first thing.” As much as it may annoy me sometimes, he’s right! You can’t think about changing all the things at once - you will psych yourself out - but if you choose one thing to do first, you will begin to make progress and it will get easier from there!

Support

The third thing is you need to have a good support system. It’s critical for success! Research has shown that your health is greatly affected by the people you spend the most time with. Now, I’m not saying that if you have unhealthy friends that you need to stop hanging out with them, but I am saying that you need to find at least one person, preferably more, that will have your back and support you! Who will celebrate your wins and encourage you when you’re having a hard time. It’s going to be really difficult for you to make lasting lifestyle changes when the people you surround yourself with are making fun of you for going to work out or for not eating pizza for the third night that week. Again, the point isn’t to lose your friends, but to choose carefully who you have in your corner for this journey! Most of the time, if they truly care about you, they will be supportive and if not, it’s usually due to their own insecurities, so just keep that in mind. 

If you need a group of people to be in your corner, who are experiencing similar struggles and have the same kind of goals, join my group coaching program! This is the last week to sign up for it (registration closes on 9/1) and there are a couple of spots left! Maybe this is the first step you need to take. I really can’t think of a more fun way to get started on your health journey, or maybe to restart on your health journey, than with the guidance and support from a coach, as well as with the support from other women all experiencing and learning the same things. 

The group will meet twice a month from September - November and the meetings will be held virtually, so you’ll be able to join from the comfort of your own home! I’m really excited for this group and I would absolutely love for you to join us! 

Friends that wraps up today’s post and our August series! I hope that you heard something that encourages you! Enjoy the rest of your day!

006 - Part 2: The Top Four Reasons Women Struggle To Lose Weight - Misleading Health Myths

Hi friends! Today we will be continuing with part two of our month-long series on The Top Four Reasons Women Struggle to Lose Weight. 

Today’s topic is misleading health myths and oh my - there are so many of them! Today I’m just going to cover a few of the ones that I encounter often when working with a client and how these myths could be getting in the way of your weight loss progress.

If you haven’t already listened to part one of this series, please go back and start there! The info in that episode helps to build a solid foundation and also ensures that you understand where my heart and intention is with this series.

Let’s get into talking about misleading health myths! 

These are so common and understandably so... The nutrition and health world is constantly changing and just like anything else is subject to all the advertising fads and trends. This can make it so difficult to tell what is actually true and supported by the most up-to-date research. Unless you have had nutritional training (heck, sometimes even when you have) there’s not much of a constant point of reference or a trusted source of truth to base your decisions off of. For my family, I like to use a simple rule that helps me decide whether a health theory or new trend is good for us or maybe something I need to research more. I like to think of it this way: If the main ingredients of that item or product are made by God or come from the earth (for the purpose of eating) then it likely has a purpose in our diet and is good for us. If it’s something that has been manufactured or processed in a factory or industry, then I think twice. That doesn’t mean that I don’t eat it or use it, but I don’t just blindly accept it either.

Myth # 1 - Eating Fat Is Bad For You

One of the health myths that I encounter the most is a perfect example of following this rule. And that is the myth that eating fat is bad for you and should avoid it. Ugh… if only we could go back in time and tell the nutrition experts of the 60s that this simply isn’t true! In their defense, this was the best research they had at the time, but now there is so much research that proves that eating the right kinds of fats are not only good for us but are also absolutely vital for our health!

In studies comparing a high-fat diet, identical in calorie count, to a high-sugar diet, they found totally different effects on metabolism. The higher-fat diet caused people to burn an extra 300 calories a day (that’s like going for a 45 min run, without actually running)! These studies show that dietary fat actually speeds up your metabolism, while sugar slows it down. Not only does consuming healthy forms of fat speed up your metabolism, but it also helps to keep you full longer and helps to reduce cravings! 

In addition, eating healthy fats (like polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and even most quality-sourced saturated fats) has a long list of health benefits like reducing bad cholesterol (LDL) and increasing the good cholesterol (HDL), reducing inflammation in the body, fueling your brain (which is made up of 60% fat, by the way) and building stronger hair, nails and clearer skin. One of the most important things that consuming healthy fats does is to help balance our hormones. Fat is absolutely essential for hormone production in the body and also allows for the absorption of essential fat-soluble vitamins (like A, D, E, and K), which are all needed for hormone balance. 

I could go on and on, but as you can see thinking that including fat in your diet will make you gain weight or make you unhealthy couldn’t be further from the truth! Do make sure you are thinking about the quality of the source of the fats you are eating and avoiding inflammatory ones like trans fats and other inflammatory oils like canola. 

A few examples of healthy fats to include in your meals are things like avocados and avocado oil, coconut oil and butter, olive oil, flax seeds, chia seeds, salmon, pasture-raised eggs, nuts, and nut-butters.  As far as how much, a good general rule is about 2 Tbsp per meal (1 Tbsp is about the size of your thumb).

One more thing to add to the myth about fat is that if it’s true that healthy fats are good for your health, then it’s also true that all the “low-fat” and “diet” foods and drinks out there are not good for you. When in doubt, refer back to the basic rule that I mentioned in the beginning. Look at the label - are there a bunch of words you can’t pronounce or understand? Is it super low in fat but high in sugar? If so, it’s not a good choice! 

Myth # 2 - All Calories Are Created Equal

No… just no! I think if most of us really took a minute to think this myth through, we would see it for exactly that! All calories are not created equally and therefore will have different effects on the body. You will never get the same amount of nutrients, feeling of satiety, or energy from a can of coke as you will from eating an apple with almond butter, even though they are almost the exact same amount of calories.

Our intake of food is about so much more than calories, which is why I feel that a hyper-focus on calories alone can often do more harm than good! When your main goal is just to stay under a certain calorie count for the day, it becomes easy to lose sight of focusing on quality. The calorie-focused mentality can also cause us to mistakenly think that the key to losing weight is to just always burn more calories than you consume. As a matter of fact, I used to think that! I wouldn’t have any problem at all eating those donuts or that bag of chips, as long as I knew that I was going to go “work it off” later. But, the truth is that our bodies are way more complex than a math equation and our food is more than just calories and flavors! Food is information telling our cells what to do! It is actual fuel for our bodies! Whether we like it or not, everything we eat affects our hormones, our brains, and our metabolism. We have to be more concerned about the quality of the calories we consume, instead of the quantity.

Myth # 3 - The More You Exercise, The Thinner You Will Be

Without question, exercise is a foundational component of good health. There are numerous benefits to our health from regularly moving our bodies - things like lowering chronic inflammation, improving mood and memory, strengthening muscles and bones, increasing energy levels, improving sleep quality, increasing metabolism and many more. But just like in so many other areas, balance is key in exercise too! As we are now learning, more may not always be better when it comes to exercise - especially for women and especially if you struggle with hormone imbalance.

It may seem like common sense to try to work out as much as possible when you are trying to lose weight, especially when you’re working toward a goal like balancing your hormones or improving your fertility. But doing things like two-a-day workouts or multiple hour-long cardio sessions can tip the scale of benefit versus risk. As I just mentioned, regular, moderate exercise actually helps to lower inflammation and overall reduces levels of stress hormones, like cortisol,  in the body. But when you crossover into “over-training”, the opposite starts to take place and you start to have elevated cortisol levels in the body for a prolonged amount of time. If cortisol levels are chronically high, it can increase hormones like testosterone and subsequently estrogen, while also decreasing hormones like progesterone. This can quickly have a domino effect and start to cause things like irregular cycles, acne, increased appetite, extreme fatigue, and blood sugar dysregulation. These are things you certainly don’t want to deal with. 

So, I say all of this, just to say just be mindful of your workouts - both the frequency and the intensity! You want a good balance! 

I often recommend to my clients, especially when they are just starting to get back into exercising regularly, or they are already dealing with some hormone issue or inflammatory disease, to shoot for a goal of just moving their bodies for 30 minutes a day! This can be walking, jogging, weight-training, HIIT style workouts, barre, yoga - really whatever you enjoy! Picking something that you enjoy and won’t dread, will increase the likelihood that you will actually do it. Ask a friend to join you, if that will help you stay accountable and feel more motivated, but just don’t go to any extremes. Remind yourself that the point of exercising is to move your body, to increase oxygen and nutrients to your tissues, to help calm stress and inflammation, and ultimately to help your body to be strong and to function well. 

I hope that this episode has helped to clear up any of these myths that you might have been taught and will help remove potential roadblocks on your way to moving your health forward in the area of weight loss!

Please remember that sign-ups are open for my Fall Group Coaching Sessions that will start in September! If you feel like you need some extra support and accountability to reach your health goals, this is a great opportunity for you to not only work with me but also to be a part of a community of women all working on similar goals! Sign-ups will be open until September 1st, but spots are limited, so make sure you get your spot! 

005 - Part 1: The Top Four Reasons Women Struggle To Lose Weight - The Wrong Goal

Hey friends! I am so excited today because we are kicking off something new here - a month-long series about weight loss. Each week in the month of August, we are talking about the top four reasons that women struggle to lose weight. I think this is something that most of us have experienced, at least at some point in our lives. Whether it’s something you’ve battled for most of your life or it’s something that you are newly facing after having a baby, most of us can relate. And while it always takes effort and intention, for some, it seems downright impossible.

Can you relate to that? Do you feel like you are doing all the right things but nothing is changing? Have you tried every fad diet out there only to find yourself frustrated and pretty much in the same place you were when you started? Well, if so - the episodes this month are specifically for you and I hope that you will hear at least one thing that encourages you and can help point you in the right direction! 

Another reason that I am SO excited today is that I’m announcing the launch of my next group coaching program! So real quick, before we get into today’s topic, I want to give you a few details about the program and how you can sign up! 

So my Group Coaching Program is personalized coaching and support, just like you would get in a one-on-one coaching program with me, but in a group setting. This will be a small group of women, all with similar goals that will meet virtually - so in the comfort of your own home, twice a month. One of my favorite parts about participating in a group coaching program is that it provides you with not only education and coaching from me, but also with both accountability and community with other women just like you. It’s also a super affordable program and is great for those that feel that they need support, but maybe not to the point of needing a one-on-one session. Sign-ups for the session are open now and will remain open until September 1st! As I mentioned before this is a small group, so spots are limited!  Click here to sign up! 

As I transition into the topic of this month’s series, which is weight loss, I want to take a minute and just get clear on something that is really important to me and something I want to be sure that you understand. You, my sweet friend, are so much more than whatever number shows up on your scale in the morning. As a matter of fact, your weight, your pant size, your waist circumference has absolutely zero impact on your worth and what you bring to this world. If you never lost one pound, you would be just as valuable and loved by your creator as you are right now. So, while the topic of this month’s episodes may talk a lot about weight loss, it 100% does not need to be the focus of your entire life or the thing that defines you. 

As a matter of fact, when I’m working with a client, one of the very first things I tell them is that losing weight isn’t going to be the focus of our work together. Losing weight is a side effect, a symptom of becoming more healthy physically and emotionally, just like a lot of times gaining weight is a side effect or a symptom of becoming less healthy. Good health, increased energy, an optimally functioning body, a joyful and clear mind are all examples of a great goal, but losing weight cannot be the core goal! This leads me to today’s topic (finally, right!?)

One of the most common reasons that women struggle to lose weight, and to keep it off, is that they have the wrong goal! 

When a client comes to me and says “I want to lose weight” my very first question to them is going to be, “why”? Why do you want to lose weight? Is it so that you feel better? Feel better how? More energy to play with your kids? Fewer headaches and joint pain so that you can go out and be active with your friends and family? Is it because you hope to have a baby soon and you want to increase your chances of a healthy pregnancy?  Maybe it’s so you can feel more confident as you enter the dating world or as you prepare for an upcoming job change. Maybe you know that you have a genetic predisposition to a disease like diabetes, hypertension or an autoimmune disease, and you want to reduce the chances of that becoming your reality. Whatever the reason is, it has to go beyond losing weight for the sake of losing weight. It has to be something meaningful to you... Something that will keep you motivated when you are exhausted or when you aren’t seeing results as fast as you think you should. It has to go beyond the surface of just wanting to be thinner before vacation because guess what… that vacation is going to come and go, and then what? You go right back to where you were and then do it all over again next year. That just doesn’t work! 

Also, not only does it need to be meaningful, it needs to be both specific and realistic. Friends - this can be so frustrating for you! Having either a vague goal or thinking that you are going to be able to drop 25 lbs, safely, in 30 days will have you feeling defeated before you even start! As I mentioned in the beginning, this is one of the reasons that I believe that losing x # of lbs in x # of days just isn’t a healthy goal. There is so much that goes into your body functioning well and releasing weight, especially if it’s something you’ve been battling for a while, you can’t think that you’re just going to somehow will it into being. It’s a much better idea to set a meaningful overall, big-picture goal, and then to set small, specific, action steps that you can take as well as small, specific, results you would like to see.

So, let me give you a quick example - Let’s say that you come to me and say that you want to lose 30 lbs. After diving a little deeper, we realize that the reason you want to do this is that you are getting married next year and want to not only feel amazing and confident on your wedding day, but you also want to start this new chapter of your life as healthy as possible. So now we’ve identified your main, big-picture goal! Next, we set a few action steps that involve eating more meals at home - made up of whole, nutrient-dense foods, increasing your water intake daily, and moving your body 30 minutes every day. In our conversation, you also mention that you are struggling with acne and are so stressed out about taking pictures because of that. So, knowing that the food you eat has a major effect on the condition and quality of your skin, we set clearer skin and reduced acne as your small-goal/result # 1. 

Can you see how you would leave that session feeling much more hopeful and motivated, than if I said, okay - get to work and I want you to have lost 5 lbs before we meet again? That isn’t helpful! So why do we set those kinds of goals and expectations for ourselves? 

Your homework for this week is to make time to really sit down and think about your goal. Does it go beyond just seeing a certain number on the scale or fitting into that pair of jeans that you have tucked away in your closet? Is it meaningful? Is it reflective of your true desire and is it something that will keep you motivated? Also, is it specific? Do you know what action steps you need to take to get there? What results will you look for on the way, to help you know that you are making progress and on the right track? 

If you can already say, “no - I have no idea where to even start” or, “my goal feels too overwhelming”, let me help you! Sign up for the group coaching program or if you feel like you need more personalized, one-on-one support, send me an email or schedule a free consultation. I would absolutely love to help you! 

Next week we are going to be talking about health myths that could be making it more difficult to move forward in your health journey! Until then, enjoy your week and I’ll see you next time!