What Is the Deal with Gluten?

Welcome back, friends! Today I want to spend a few minutes talking about gluten and why everyone seems to be hating on it. For the past several years this topic has become more and more popular and just about every health and fitness guru out there has contributed their two-cents to the conversation. While there are no shortages of opinions on the matter, what I do seem to not find nearly as often is simple information that explains what gluten is, why it’s been labeled as “bad”, and how you can determine if you should cut out gluten or not. So that’s exactly what I want to provide for you in this episode. You know me - I like simple, clear info so let me just jump right in! 

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What is gluten? 

Gluten is the main storage protein found in wheat grains. It’s most often found in products containing wheat, barley, and rye, as well as occasionally in oat products. Think of it as the component to most bread, pasta, and baked goods that give a stretchy, soft texture. Gluten can also be added to several different foods like soups or sauces to increase the thickness or volume, processed foods to make them more filling, and even seemingly random things like soy sauce.  

Why has gluten been labeled as “bad”?

There are a few different factors that have caused some in the health and wellness field to have a concern regarding the regular consumption of gluten-containing foods. Gluten intolerances can vary from mild to severe. 

Those with Celiac Disease have an allergic, inflammatory response to gluten in which their bodies attack their intestines and create an autoimmune response. However, in the past several years, it’s become more well-known that those with Celiac Disease are not the only ones who can have negative reactions or side effects from consuming gluten. 

Gluten has been found to be highly inflammatory for a lot of people. Those with non-celiac gluten sensitivities or intolerances experience symptoms like bloating and digestive discomfort, brain fog, headaches, joint pain, anxiety and/or depression, and often eczema or other skin issues after consuming gluten, but these symptoms typically go away when gluten-containing foods are removed from their diet. 

It’s not exactly known yet why gluten can be so inflammatory. Research has shown that when gluten is consumed (by anyone) it causes a temporary increase in the production of Zonulin - a protein that regulates intestinal permeability. So it can be assumed that high consumption of gluten would lead to chronically increased intestinal permeability (sometimes known as leaky gut). This allows gluten, plus other organisms, to be released into the bloodstream, which triggers inflammation in the body.

One of the most common questions I have heard in regards to eating gluten is “if people have been eating gluten for centuries, why is it just now become an issue? Isn’t it just a trend?”. 

This is just my opinion, but in a lot of cases I feel like gluten - or really most food sensitivities - may just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. As I’ve talked about before, our bodies were made to handle small amounts of inflammation - we have pathways designed into the functionality of our bodies for that kind of thing. However, due to the lifestyle of the majority of us, we have a much higher level of exposure to inflammation-inducing foods and experiences than ever before. Never has there been so many processed foods available and consumed on a regular basis. Never has there been this constant exposure to stressors both physical - like environmental toxins and emotional - like 60-hour workweeks, social media, and 24/7 news. 

I don’t think that gluten, by itself, is the issue. I think it’s that we have all these other issues going on, and in our Standard American Diet, we consume a lot of it. 

How can I determine if I should go gluten-free?

There are lab tests that can be done to look for certain antibodies but personally, I think that an elimination diet is often the easiest way to determine if you have a sensitivity. An elimination diet is just like how it sounds: you eliminate all gluten-containing foods from your diet for at least 30 days (60 is ideal). During this time you note your symptoms and how you feel. Then after the elimination time is up, you add gluten back into your diet and note how you feel. If your symptoms return or you feel worse, then you know that you have a sensitivity. 

If I cut out gluten, what can I eat?

Lots of things! There is a learning curve to going gluten-free, however, there are a lot of great alternatives out there. Our meals should be a combination of high-fiber carbohydrates, mainly vegetables, and healthy protein and fat. 

There are a lot of gluten-free alternatives available now like GF noodles, flours, crackers, bread, baking mixes, etc. You do need to make sure you are looking at the ingredients as sometimes those items can be full of unhealthy ingredients. Just because it’s gluten-free does not mean it’s healthy.

I’ve created a free guide with some of my fav gluten-free alternatives  - download it here. 

If I go gluten-free, does that mean I can never eat it again?

It depends. If you have celiac disease, then you really shouldn’t be consuming gluten at all, ever. However, sometimes those with just a mild sensitivity can occasionally eat gluten after they have allowed their gut to heal and worked to decrease inflammation in their bodies. In my experience, after following an elimination diet, those with gluten sensitivity prefer to avoid gluten long-term because they feel so much better. 

The Bottom Line

Gluten is not “bad”. Foods are amoral - they cannot be good or bad. We really need to change our way of thinking around this. Gluten is a hot topic because it is known to be inflammatory for the majority of people - likely due to other lifestyle factors in combination with the overconsumption of gluten. So, it’s not the enemy, but it can contribute to inflammation in the body and poor gut health, and in my opinion, that makes the idea of eliminating it something worth considering.

5 Simple Tips for Happy & Healthy Hormones

We all know that hormones can affect how we feel, for better or worse (most of us have experienced the negative side of this from time to time, right?). So, it’s no surprise that our hormones also affect the function of our bodies. In today’s episode, I’m sharing a few of the simplest and most effective ways we can support our endocrine system and get back to having happy, healthy hormones! 

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I think when most of us hear that word we automatically think of the negative side effects that we may have experienced from out of control hormones or hormonal imbalance like hot flashes and rollercoaster emotions, but really our hormones are responsible for so many functions in our bodies, and when well-balanced can help us feel energized, happy, and motivated as well as relaxed and calm.  

Hormones work as chemical messengers released from different organs and glands in our bodies. These hormonal messages are received by hormone receptors throughout the body that then signals a specific response. The entire endocrine system works together to control the level of hormones that circulate through our bodies and when just one of these hormones is even slightly imbalanced, it can easily cause other imbalances and trigger widespread health problems.

So what are some of the most effective things we can do to naturally support healthy hormone function? 

1. Get good quality sleep

Sleep is essential to our bodies’ ability to recover and regenerate. For example, Cortisol, one of our major stress hormones, is regulated in our bodies when we are sleeping (around midnight). So if we are staying up super late or really restless throughout the night, it can be difficult for our bodies to get out of the “fight or flight” response that cortisol creates. Sleep deprivation can also contribute to blood sugar dysregulation, which can lead to hormonal imbalance (which often only adds to sleep problems). Find tips for optimizing and protecting your sleep in Episode 29. 

2. Balance your blood sugar 

Blood sugar balance is so important for optimal hormone function. Unchecked blood sugar dysregulation often leads to insulin resistance, which often leads to hormone imbalances and sadly, often disease. One of the best ways to help regulate your blood sugar levels is to eat your meals at regular intervals (breakfast, lunch, dinner - no skipping) and be sure to include healthy carbohydrates, protein, and fat in every single meal and snack. This keeps the blood sugar (and insulin) from spiking and then crashing - which only creates a state of chaos in the body. Hormones do not like chaos! 

3. Eat a nutrient-rich diet 

Vitamins B6, B12, E, and D, as well as Folate, Iron, Zinc, and Magnesium, are just a few examples of essential nutrients that are necessary for proper hormone function and fertility. Unfortunately, a lot of women are often deficient in these nutrients. In addition, hormonal birth control and other common medications can deplete essential nutrients stores in the body. This is one of the many reasons why it’s important for us to make sure our meals are full of nutrient-rich foods like leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables; high-fiber fruits like berries; clean protein sources like fatty fish, grass-fed beef, and pastured eggs; healthy fats from nuts and seeds, avocados, as well as anti-inflammatory oils like coconut and olive. In addition, taking a high-quality probiotic will help improve the ability of your gut to absorb all of these nutrients. 

4. Manage physical and mental stress regularly

Stress is one of the most common factors of hormonal imbalance and can have detrimental consequences when left unmanaged. As I’ve already mentioned, the body releases cortisol and adrenaline in response to both physical and emotional stressors, which puts our nervous system in the “fight or flight” (sympathetic) state. While this is helpful for dealing with danger or an acute crisis, other crucial functions of our bodies like growth and reproductive hormone production, digestion, and tissue repair are all put on hold until we return to a calm “rest and digest” (parasympathetic) state.  Due to the nature of our lives, it can be easy for us to stay in this chronically stressed mode, especially if we aren’t actively managing the stress. 

In addition to getting quality sleep each night, a few other ways to help manage stress and return your body to a more relaxed state are things like engaging in gentle movement such as yoga or walking, being in nature, practicing deep breathing (boxed breathing is my favorite method - 4-second inhale / 4-second hold / 4-second exhale), enjoying prayer and peaceful music, or participating in a hobby that you enjoy. The key is to be aware of your body and actively work to return to a relaxed state.  

5. Reduce exposure to environmental toxins 

Environmental toxins like parabens, chemicals in plastics, and artificial fragrances (to just name a few). often create chemical responses in the body that can quickly lead the body into estrogen dominance and chronic inflammation. (I’ve devoted an entire podcast episode to this topic if you want to know more about common environmental toxins and how they affect our health). 

Using an app like Think Dirty or EWG to scan products, especially the ones you put on your body and clean your home with, will help make sure you aren’t exposing yourself to harmful chemicals that can disrupt your hormones. 

Here are a few easy switches that will help reduce your exposure: switch from plastic to glass or stainless steel for water bottles and food storage containers; use essential oils instead of artificial fragrances for personal care and cleaning products; ditch the fabric softener and use white vinegar in the rinse cycle instead (ditch those dryer sheets too!). 

An added bonus of all of these lifestyle changes is that they will also help to improve your gut health which is absolutely foundational for optimal hormone function. A lot of hormones are produced and transmitted in the gut, making it basically impossible to have poor gut health and healthy hormones. 

In addition to these tips, I also highly suggest working with a functional medicine practitioner, especially if you know you have a hormonal imbalance or inflammatory disease. This can often look like a team of professionals to help you get to the root of the dysfunction in your body as well as give you guidance for supplements and vitamins specific to your body’s needs. 

I love supporting clients as they learn to pinpoint and heal the root cause of their hormonal imbalance. They often notice such an improvement in their symptoms simply by adjusting their lifestyle and making changes specific to their body’s needs.

Learn how you too can improve your health and get back to having happy, healthy hormones! Click here to schedule a free 30-minute consultation call with me where we will work together to identify your specific health goals to help you move forward in your health journey.

How Adrenal Health Can Affect Your Whole Body with Reed Davis, FDN

Hi friends! In this week’s episode,  I had the opportunity to interview Certified Nutritional Therapist (CNT) and founder of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® (FDN), Reed Davis. As a Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP), Reed is an expert in functional lab testing and holistic lifestyle medicine. 

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In this episode, he teaches us about adrenal health and how the function of our adrenal glands affects the rest of our overall health. He also shares common lifestyle factors that may negatively affect adrenal health as well as the entire endocrine system. In addition, Reed shares how making changes to those exact same lifestyle factors can help reverse symptoms like chronic fatigue, low energy, brain fog, excess weight gain, and hormonal imbalance (sound familiar?).

You can find more information about Reed and the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition training program that he designed for health coaches by visiting functionaldiagnosticnutrition.com.

Creating a Healthy Foundation for our Kids

Hi friends! Today I want to talk to you about something that is on my mind a lot as a parent, and that is creating a foundation of health for our kids. Children learn from what they see us do and the culture of our homes, so I wanted to share with you some ways that we can help set them up for good health as well as a good relationship with food and their bodies in the future. 

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As I’ve already alluded to, this really starts with us! Kids really do default to doing what they see their parents or those in their homes do - so we first need to evaluate what we are modeling for them.

A few ideas:

• Let them see you make healthy choices. 

• Let them hear and see you taking care of your body 

• Let them hear you being appreciative of your body rather than critical

If you are feeling super uncomfortable right now because you know you haven’t been doing those things - that’s okay! It’s never too late to start making these changes and let your kids be a part of that. If they are old enough to understand, you can even give them a head’s up that you are going to be doing some things differently because you want to take good care of your body and be thankful for all that it does for you. Then let them watch you as you then follow through on what you’ve told them. It will teach them so much just by getting to see you start to make changes. *Just a reminder though - this needs to be through a very positive lens and from a place of appreciation for your body and not punishment of yourself. Nothing about how we engage in “healthy” habits or the language that we use should convey that our kids aren’t healthy or “good” if they don’t eat veggies, exercise, etc.  

In addition to setting an example and encouraging a healthy mindset, there are some healthy habits that you can start reinforcing in your kids very early on from infant/toddler age, again by modeling yourself and then encouraging in them as well. 

Some ideas:

• Drinking water throughout the day

  Try giving their milk, etc. with meals and then water in-between meal times. the more you offer them water, the more normal it will become. Consistency is key!

• Division of responsibility at family meals

  This theory for feeding states that it’s the parent’s responsibility to provide food and decide what food is served and it the child’s responsibility to decide how much of that food she will eat. For more about this theory, as well as one of my favorite methods for helping kids with healthy eating habits, check out Ashley’s “Love It, Like It, Learn It” method on her website veggiesandvirtues.com as well as on her Instagram account.

• Include your kids in your workouts and/or have active family time

  Whether it’s a family walk or dance party after dinner, letting your kids tag along for your jog, or a family workout in the living room, kids love to be active.

• Help them learn to deal with stress and anxiety

  We know how difficult this can be even as adults, so it’s important to give our children tools to help manage their anxiety and worries from a young age. One of my favorite resources for this is Sissy Goff, a child, and adolescent counselor. She offers tons of great tips and resources on her Instagram account as well as her website raisingboysandgirls.com

• Set healthy sleep practices

  Set them up for good sleep by doing simple things like ending screen time at least an hour before bed; avoiding any scary books or shows right before bed; getting them to bed on time; ensuring that their room is cool and dark and optimized for sleeping. It can also be helpful to have a conversation with them about why sleeping is so important to our health and makes a big impact on how we feel the next day.

• Don’t be overly restrictive with food

  Research shows that being overly restrictive on how much or what kinds of foods children can eat can often lead to an unhealthy relationship with food in adulthood - at times in the form of food addictions and eating disorders. One way to avoid having to restrict or say “no” all day is to only have foods in your home that you are okay with them eating regularly.

• Help your kids have a healthy mindset about food

  Help your kids understand how food fuels our bodies, how to listen to their bodies (hungry vs full, happy tummies vs sad tummies, etc.) Take them with you to the Farmer’s Market or try growing your own veggies in the backyard to help them understand where food comes from. Just let them in on the process!

• Get your kiddos involved with meal times

  Let them help you chop veggies or stir ingredients together. Commission them to set the table or fill the drinking glasses with water. It’s amazing how much more open kids are to new foods when they’ve been involved in preparing them.

Reminder: It is incredibly damaging to children if they are shamed for eating too much or too little of something or if their weight or bodies are scrutinized or criticized. Do NOT do that! They shouldn’t be the least bit concerned with what they weigh, size of their clothes, or the way their body moves or performs. If you are seeing that in them, please intervene and that may start by evaluating how you approach your own body. If you feel that your child needs some help from a professional counselor or therapist, please provide that for them while they are still young.

Remember they are listening to you and watching everything you do - so please be intentional with this. Be gracious with yourself and with them - it goes a long way.

I hope this episode has been helpful for you and given you a few ideas of ways to create healthy foundations for your kiddos and maybe even yourself! If you have any specific questions, leave them in the comments on this post or you can send me a DM on Instagram.

Staying Sane and Finding Joy During Quarantine

Hi friends! I hope you are doing well wherever you are. We are still in the middle of the COVID_19 crisis and in week 4 of staying at home. I both can’t believe it’s already been four weeks and also feel like it’s been four months since life felt normal. I know for many of us the novelty and newness of this new way of life has worn off and we might be feeling like we’re going to go crazy if things don’t change soon, so on that note, I wanted to talk to you today about ways that we can stay sane and choose joy during this time. 

Here are a few of the things that I’ve been trying to incorporate into my new normal almost every day:

• Getting outdoors 

• Listening to uplifting music (some of my current favorites: Renew Your Mind, Remind Your Soul playlist, Spring Favs playlist, Ellie Holcomb’s Sing Albums - Creation Songs and Remembering Songs for kiddos)

• Doing a lot of laughing listening to funny podcasts and Insta-stories (current favs - That Sounds Fun podcast by Annie Downs and The Made Up Morning Show on Jess Connolly’s Instagram account) 

• Making sure I’m getting enough exercise and sleep 

• Making myself drink more water (not coffee all day) 

• Doing a few things to make the weekend feel different 

I reached out to my followers on Instagram and asked what has been helping them. Here are a few other ideas that they had: 

• Daily walks 

• Listening to uplifting or encouraging podcasts

• Getting dressed every day

• Being intentional with their time/making to-do lists 

• Limiting tv and screen time

• Only checking in on the news 1-2 times per day

• Following a loose schedule for the day 

This season is going to look different for all of us. For some of us, we have tons of time on our hands right now and this could be a perfect opportunity to start something new or take on a project you’ve been putting off. For others of us, life has become extremely full and hectic juggling working from home, caring for kids, cooking multiple meals a day - and it’s probably not the time to start something new. No matter the exact details of our situation, the truth is that all of us will benefit from intentional adding activities or rhythms into our day-to-day that will keep us centered on the right things, help us stay sane, and help us feel the joy that can be found, even in this hard season. 

I hope that this episode has encouraged you to choose some of these ideas to implement into your own life. Hang in there, friends - we will get through this! 

For more healthy living encouragement, mixed with some very real-life moments, follow me on Instagram.

Have a great rest of your day friends! Talk soon!

What Covid_19 Has Taught Me about a Healthy Lifestyle

Hi friends! I’m going to be super transparent with you today. I don’t really want to record this episode. I’m weary, I’ve been fighting anxiety more than I want to admit and honestly, I’ve struggled with if I even need to continue putting out content right now because just about everything feels trivial in comparison to this virus and the effect it’s having on people’s lives. 

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As I’m typing this my husband, who is supposed to be working from home, is out on an on-site trying to help another company be able to work remotely, so they can stay afloat. Businesses are closing, everyone has to stay away from each other, people are getting sick and losing their jobs and some even their lives. It almost seems silly to come on here and talk to you about a healthy lifestyle - about what you eat or if you’re exercising or how you’re coping with the stress, but as these thoughts have been turning over inside my head, I keep coming back to this idea: During this pandemic, what has been made very clear to me is that the things I did and cared about from a vanity standpoint didn’t matter to me much at all anymore, but the rhythms and habits that I have put into place that make a difference in my mental and emotional health have never been more important. 

Even the really good things that I still believe are good and are beneficial to your health in the long run - like buying organic and trying to reduce toxin exposure, for example, just took a back seat, because, for the first time in my whole life, I entertained the thought that there might not be enough (and just let me add how much of an eye-opener this has been for me around the idea of privilege and how some people deal with these fears and realities every day - pandemic or not). However, the things that stood out to me, that have become necessary in order to keep some kind of control over my thoughts and emotions became front and center of my idea of a healthy lifestyle. Things like: 

• Having a daily quiet time and drawing near to God. Letting Him speak to my heart and mind the truth of His word has kept my mind centered where it needs to be. It’s allowed me to filter all my feelings through a lens of truth knowing that God is still good and nothing about Him has changed. 

• Moving my body and getting my heart rate up every day. There is a noticeable shift in my mental state when I do this. Not that it’s all better and fixed but I am able to think more logically about things and not just emotionally. Exercise has many benefits to our health but I’m more convinced now than ever that it’s greatest benefit is to our mental health.

• Getting enough sleep. This one has probably been the most impactful because it’s the one I’ve struggled with the most. Anxious thoughts flood my mind at night and make me really not want to go to sleep some nights and I can tell such a difference the next day based on how much I slept - not just mentally but physically too! 

Obviously, I still believe that eating nutritious food is important and protecting your gut health and the immune system is crazy important, especially now, and both of those things also have an impact on your mental health as well. 

I think this has just been a really good reminder for me that so much of our daily struggles can start in our minds and during a time like this when there is so much uncertainty, anxiety, and stress if we don’t make protecting our mindsets a priority, we’re likely going to stop caring about a lot of other things that help keep us healthy. 

(**Disclaimer - I’m not really talking about mental illness or chemical imbalances here. While some of these things may be helpful if you or someone you know is struggling with those issues, these things in no way replace a need for medicines or therapy.) 

So if you’re really struggling with your mindset and you don’t feel like you’re in a good mental/emotional state, take the steps - do the things - that can help with that first. Move your body, connect with God, laugh, sleep, connect with other humans (in a safe way). I think sometimes we have to choose to do the thing, and then the feeling and motivation will come later.  

I hope this has helped encourage you and I hope that you and your families are doing well. We will get through this crazy time and my hope and prayer is that we all choose to come out of it a little better than we were before. 

Hang in there, friends! Talk soon!

Prioritizing and Protecting Your Sleep

Welcome back, friends! I’m excited about today’s episode because we are diving into one of the pillars of good health - sleep! Sleep often gets overlooked because a lot of us think “well yeah, I sleep” but we haven’t really paid much attention to the quality of the sleep we are getting and often don’t prioritize getting enough sleep. 

In an article by Dr. Chris Kesser, it stated that “more than 1/3 of Americans have trouble sleeping every night, and 51% of adults say they have problems sleeping at least a few nights each week. 43% of respondents report that daytime sleepiness interferes with their normal daytime activities.” Can you relate to that? I know I can. There are many days that I feel like there isn’t enough coffee in the world to get me through! 

Why is sleep so important to our health?

Sleep is absolutely essential for the basic function and repair of our bodies! Our neurological, endocrine, immune, musculoskeletal and digestive systems all depend on us getting enough sleep for them to properly function. In its natural design, the hormone melatonin naturally increases after sundown and during the night, which actually increases our immune function and helps protect us against infection (this is why you’re so likely to get sick after not sleeping well for a few nights). Sleep has been shown to be so important to our overall health that total sleep deprivation has been proven to be fatal! (The article stated that lab rats who were denied the ability to sleep died within a couple of weeks.)

Among many others, here are a few of the health benefits of a full night’s sleep (7-9 hours is the National Sleep Foundation’s recommendation):

• regulates blood sugar and metabolic function

• decreases the risk of heart disease and diabetes as well as autoimmune diseases

• enhances memory and mental clarity

• improves athletic performance

• boosts mood and overall energy

• improves immune function

• increases stress tolerance

What happens when we don’t get enough sleep?

In the same article that I mentioned before, it stated that most adults admit only get an average of 6 hours of sleep in a 24 hr period (again, the recommendation is 7-9 hrs). This can greatly increase your risk for an impaired immune system, obesity, blood sugar imbalance and insulin resistance, diabetes, hypertension, mood disorders, impaired cognitive abilities, and systemic inflammation (which as we know leads to all kinds of other problems). Lack of proper sleep has also been shown to make you hungrier and lead to more severe cravings.  Honestly, there is no health condition or symptom that lack of sleep doesn’t make worse. We talk a lot about the importance of a nutritious diet but if you eat all the healthy foods and ignore dealing with your stress or prioritizing sleep, you will still be unhealthy. 

How can we make sleep a priority and protect it? 

Set good boundaries and protect your sleep environment:

• Reduce your exposure to artificial light at least 2 hours before bed (turn down the lights in your house, wear blue-light blocking glasses, turn screens off at least 1 hour before bed-time, use a salt lamp in your bedroom instead of artificial light)

• Find a ritual to clear your mind and de-stress before bed. Maybe a bath, maybe stretching or praying, reading a book - something that will help your body calm down and clear the thoughts and stress from the day in your mind. Remember when we’re stressed = cortisol and adrenaline and those two things are enemies of sleep! 

• Go to bed at a decent time (deepest sleep in the first half of the night (less REM) this is where most of the body’s restoration and regeneration happens) 

• Try to go to bed and wake at the same times each day (within a short window)

• Make your room a preferred environment for sleeping - cool and dark with no artificial light at all (blackout curtains, alarm lights off or covered, or use a sleep mask), use a sound machine if needed, keep phones and electronics out of your room. 

• Diffuse essential oils while you sleep (lavender, roman chamomile, and ylang-ylang are great ones)

Set yourself up for success during the day:

• Get outside during the day (the natural sunlight during the day helps the brain with regulating rhythms and will give you a good dose of vitamin D which can help with melatonin production)

• Move your body during the day (walking outside in the evening around sunset would be a double win! Movement plus red-light to trigger melatonin)

• Decrease caffeine consumption, especially at night (try switching to a caffeine-free herbal tea like chamomile)

• Stop eating at least 1-2 hours before bed (2-3 is really preferred unless you are hypoglycemic)

• Add extra magnesium into your day if you feel that you need extra support (Epsom salt soaks in the bath or take a multi-mineral like this one from Mary Ruth Organics). Most health professionals prefer magnesium over melatonin being that most people are deficient in magnesium anyway. Also, melatonin is a hormone, which means you should use EXTRA caution and if you take it, only do so short-term and under supervision from a health care professional.

I know that we do not live in a perfect world and something there are things that interfere with both the quality and quantity of our sleep (hello, parenthood), but there are still things we can do help prioritize and protect our sleep because it does matter and if we don’t do it, it will catch up to us! 

If one of these tips stood out to you, let me know in the comments or if you’re listening on apple podcasts, leave me a review (hopefully with 5 stars :)) and let me know which tip you plan to try! 

I hope you guys have a good week full of good sleep!

028 - Should You Be Counting Calories?

Hey friends! In today’s episode, we’re talking about calorie counting. I feel like calorie counting used to be the gold standard of nutrition when it came to weight loss. Even when I first started getting into the nutrition world, which has only been about ten years ago, that was still one of the main methods taught. There was just such an emphasis put on quantity - like it was a simple math problem: “You want to lose weight? Simple! Eat fewer calories than you burn!” Thankfully, since that time, so much research has been done and so many people have spoken up about the fact that there has to be more to it, or otherwise it would work for everyone every time. 

Now, I’m not going to go so far as to say you should never track a calorie or have any idea how many calories you burn on a regular day, but I don’t believe that counting or tracking calories needs to be your primary focus and I want to share why I believe that.

The main reason… it’s distracting!

Most of us have some level of dysfunction in our bodies due to our lifestyles and common exposure to toxins and focusing on calorie counting alone can distract us from noticing what is really going on in our bodies. 

Focusing on calorie counting alone can also distract us from focusing on the quality of the food we are eating and cause us to only focus on the quantity. 

The calorie counting method can also be harmful to those who have a history of eating disorders and food addiction. Even for those of us who haven’t shared in those struggles, it is easy to become obsessive and overly rigid about what foods you eat - even to the point where you can’t enjoy food any longer (this is a symptom of Orthorexia which is an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy).

One of my biggest concerns with the calorie counting method is that it distracts you from learning how to listen to your body. It is so easy to become solely focused on this number of calories we are “allowed” a day and logging every single thing that we do in order to stay in the good graces of this “health math equation”. Unfortunately, what often happens is that we lose out on noticing how eating a certain food makes us feel - how it affects our energy levels, our mood, our digestive system. We see that it meets our calorie count standard and deem it “healthy” or good for us with very little thought of how it actually affected us.

I want you to know that there are healthier ways to lose weight and there are tons of methods out there! Just make sure the one you are choosing actually TEACHES you how to care for your body, listen to your body, fuel your body well, and why it matters. 

Just a side note: I am not naive to the fact that sometimes choosing these methods is slower and more work - they can be - but here’s what I’ve found to be true: when someone is unhappy with their bodies or how their bodies are functioning and all they focus on is weight and numbers and physical appearance results - they often miss all there is to learn and heal along the journey. A lot of times they end up right back where they started, or maybe even less happy with themselves because they didn’t really fix the root issues - the physical ones or the emotional ones. Weight gain or difficulty losing weight is so often a symptom, not the root cause. So find out why things aren’t functioning well or why you are unhappy with your health and then work on that. Don’t miss what’s really going on looking for a quick fix or by trying to ignore the root issues. It will be work but the work is worth it! 

As always, if you have questions or are ready to take the next step in getting personalized support and guidance to move your health forward, feel free to send me an email or schedule a free 30-min consultation call. I’d love to help you! 

Talk to ya next week!

027 - The Secret to Healthy Skin Starts from Within

Welcome back, friends!  Today we are talking about healthy skin! We all deal with skin issues from time to time but for some of us it’s a major source of frustration that can really mess with our confidence and self-esteem. Especially when we can’t seem to get to the bottom of it no matter what we do! 

Well, today’s post won’t answer all your skin health-related questions, but hopefully, it will give you some helpful knowledge about what your skin may be trying to tell you and how you can help keep it looking and feeling healthy! Let’s get into it! 

It probably won’t come as a surprise to you that healthy skin starts from within our bodies. We tend to want to focus on products and things we can put on our skin from the outside - and we will get into that a little later - but really, we need to start by focusing on what we put into our bodies and what is going on with the function of the inside of our bodies first. That’s where the big difference is made. 

So often when we experience one of these skin issues, or maybe even cyclical hormonal breakouts, we tend to jump to what we can take or apply that might fix the problem. We think of it as only going skin-deep, so to speak. But really it’s likely giving you a clue of some other dysfunction or imbalance in the body. 

Our skin is our largest organ, one of our strongest defenses, and it’s also one of our few detox pathways - so it has a lot of functions that affect our whole bodies and visa versa.

There seem to be three main dysfunctions in the body that tend to show up in the skin. 

An overloaded, congested liver - which can often result in acne; poor gut health, either an imbalance in the microbiome or leaky gut syndrome - which can also result in both acne and eczema, as well as cause plenty of other health issues. And the other is blood sugar dysregulation or chronically high insulin levels - which leads to high levels of inflammation in the body and can show up as skin issues like cyclical breakouts, acne, etc. This will often be associated with other hormonal imbalance symptoms as well, maybe even PCOS. 

There can definitely be other causes as well but those are the three that are most common. So if you are dealing with any those issues, it’s worth it to take a look at your liver health,  as well as your gut health and make sure your glucose and insulin levels are where they should be as well. 

So now that we’ve talked about some common causes let’s talk about what you can do to help with these issues! 

Focus on what you are eating 

The first thing is to focus on what you are eating. The common thread in a lot of these skin issues is inflammation, so choosing to remove inflammatory foods (processed foods, sugar, refined grains, oftentimes dairy) will help and then also following an anti-inflammatory diet. This is going to look like a lot of plants - veggies and fruits high in antioxidants and fiber (think leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, blueberries, acerola cherries, strawberries), healthy fats (like avocados, coconut products, nuts like almonds and cashews, olive oil) and then clean, organic proteins (like wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, lentils, and beans, etc). 

Make sure you are well hydrated

Also drinking a LOT of water. Like a lot. Your gut and liver depend on you doing this in order to function well. This is key in helping to flush toxins from your body, as well as adding the hydration needed for the skin. Remember, your goal is half your body weight in ounces every day (weight in lbs.  / 2 = # of ounces you need to drink daily)

Take skin-loving supplements to boost your nutrient levels

Adding in key supplements like collagen (either in bone broth which is healing for your whole body or through a protein powder, like collagen peptides). Collagen is one of the main proteins in our bodies - it helps make up our skin, hair, nails, joints, gut lining, etc. so it’s important that we have enough! Also anti-inflammatory supplements like fish oil / omega-3 and curcumin (found in turmeric) can help lower overall inflammation in the body. Also, adrenal healing herbs like ashwagandha and ginseng can also help to help regulate cortisol in the body, which will help with the inflammation as well. And then, of course, you know that I’m all about getting good probiotics in - whether through fermented foods like sauerkraut and kefir or through a supplement, like a soil-based probiotics, or one of my current favs MaryRuth Organics Raw Liquid probiotics. 

Live an Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle

In addition to eating an anti-inflammatory diet, the other thing that will help is also living an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. This means getting good, restorative sleep (7-9 hours every night - this is when your body rebuilds and repairs) and also lowering your emotional stress (this has a huge effect on your gut health and adrenal health), so try to find ways to actively pursue peace in your life.

The other side to having healthy skin is obviously going to be what you put on it and what you expose it to.

Use clean skincare products 

Did you know that your skin has a microbiome, or ecosystem of bacteria, just like your gut? We need to be careful that what we are applying to our skin, to clean or moisturize isn’t something that will strip the skin or kill the food bacteria. Also, make sure that it isn’t full of parabens, sulfates, and artificial fragrances that contain who knows what kind of chemicals. Not only are those things damaging to our skin but they also absorb into our bloodstreams and only create more problems for our livers and gut, creating more inflammation. 

Look for products that are made of ingredients that you recognize, that are naturally sourced, and if you want fragrance, use natural sources for that too, like essential oils. 

You can use the Think Dirty or EWG apps to search for products that are safe for your whole body. I know that Beautycounter and Primally Pure are both really safe, clean options. I’ve also heard some great things about Honest Beauty brand, and Acure, although I haven’t used those myself. Even my girl, MaryRuth has a few facial masks and other skincare products you can check out. 

The good news is that most common skin-issues can be resolved! You may need to do a little digging into what is actually causing it and what may not be functioning well in your body - but that will only help to make you healthier overall, not just help your skin! It’s a much better option than just trying to treat symptoms and cover things up! 

If you have any questions about today’s episode or feel like you need some specific, personalized help - please reach out. I’d love to help you! 

026 - Ask Alaina: Q+A

Hey friends! Today we are doing something fun and a little different - we are doing a Q+A episode! A while back I asked you guys if you had any questions or needed help with anything in particular and I’ve compiled all those questions + a few others that I’ve been asked a lot and thought it would be fun to answer them all in one episode. If you guys like this format and it’s helpful for you, we may make this a regular thing!

So let’s jump right into the questions!

“How can I be motivated to cook healthy at home when I’m not a good cook?”

I think cooking can be intimidating. Whether you grew up in a family where your parent was a really good cook, so you just feel like you can never live up to that measure or maybe you were never really taught how to cook, so you feel like you have no idea where to begin. The good news is that cooking is a skill - it’s not really a natural-born talent. So if you are labeling yourself as “just not a good cook”... add a “yet” to the end of that sentence. It takes practice to feel comfortable in the kitchen. 

As far as how to feel motivated? I think it’s mostly a mindset of acknowledging that cooking your meals at home truly is the healthiest, most cost-effective, and loving way to eat. In cooking for yourself and your family, you are providing care and love. There is just something really rewarding about that. 

My suggestion would be to not bite off more than you can chew as you start out. Begin with 2-3 really simple, healthy meal ideas and get familiar with making those recipes until you feel more comfortable. Then you can slowly add new things in. Something like the sausage + sautéed veggies recipe in my Easy Healthy Eats recipe guide is a perfect example of this. It calls for very few ingredients and can all be made in one skillet. Win-win!

“What are some tips for handling social eating when it’s mostly junk-type foods and sugar?”

This can be so challenging! I think that it helps to find a balance in these situations. Unless you are following a short-term elimination diet, then I would recommend choosing which of the less-than-nutritious options look the best to you - which of those may be worth any negative side-effects you may experience and then making a conscious choice to enjoy them. 

Often when we find ourselves struggling or dealing with regret later, it’s because we just flippantly or impulsively ate rather than thinking about it and then making an intentional choice. Denying yourself and putting extreme limits on what you eat is rarely beneficial, but throwing all cares to the wind or thinking that if you have one bite, you might as well have 20 bites is also not a good thing. Just look for some balance and opt-out of the extremes. 

“How can I find time to eat a healthy lunch in the middle of a busy workday?”

This is going to look different for you depending on your job and workday structure, but first, let me just remind you that what and how we eat is a form of self-care. So, working through lunch or always defaulting to the drive-thru will not only have a negative effect on your body’s ability to function, but it will also have a negative effect on your mental health. 

As far as planning for a healthy lunch, I think that meal prep is key if your situation allows for it. Whether it’s left-overs from dinner the night before or a protein-packed salad or bowl - taking a few minutes the night before or at the beginning of the to prepare will go a long way in helping you feel like you have healthy options. You want to be sure that whatever you are choosing to eat consists of carbohydrates - high in fiber, clean protein, and healthy fat in order to keep your blood sugar balanced and help prevent the mid-afternoon crash. It’s a great idea to keep some nuts (my favorite is salted cashews) in your car or at your desk, just in case your lunch choice doesn’t contain enough protein or fat. Eating a couple of handfuls of cashews can give you that extra boost to keep everything stabilized. Just make sure that isn’t all you are eating. 

“What is the deal with Intermittent Fasting? Healthy or no?”

So, Intermittent Fasting is something that people have been doing for a long time to give their digestive system a break and to promote healing in the body. It has recently become more trendy again, but the idea isn’t new. I mean, if you think about it, we are already designed to do this to some degree throughout the night when we are sleeping. Some of the issues that we have run into in the standard American diet are that we stay up way too late and eat way too late. Ideally, we would all have around a 10-12 hour fast between our last meal of the day and breakfast the next morning. Our digestive systems really need that break, in order to work well.   Also eating too late can really interrupt our sleep patterns.  

The current trend of IF is more like 12-16 hours with most of those being overnight (there are some other methods that I’ve seen but I’m really not comfortable with any of those - particularly skipping entire meals or days of eating unless for a very specific purpose and very short term).  I personally feel that IF can be helpful when done correctly, however, I don’t believe it is the best idea for everyone. People with blood sugar issues, for example, can benefit from a smaller fasting window overnight, but I am personally not comfortable with skipping meals - and the same for those with hormonal imbalance. I think that it’s smart to talk to your doctor before trying IF and if you have a specific health issue, also talking with your specialist to hear their concerns. 

Ultimately, we want our bodies to be in a calm, relaxed state the majority of the time - not wondering when we will eat again. When our meals become very inconsistent, it can push our bodies into more stress - a fight or flight response - and that can cause a lot of dysfunction in the body, especially the metabolic system. 

“If you could change one thing about people’s understanding of their health, what would it be?” 

This is such a good question and honestly, it was hard for me to choose just one thing. But I think that I would want them to know that they can actually make a difference in their health. They can change. Things can improve. 

I think it’s so easy to get into a mindset, especially after we’ve received any kind of medical diagnosis, that this just is what it is, that there are no alternatives, and that they are powerless to affect the situation. And unfortunately, that kind of mindset often cements our reality. We don’t really try to change or improve because we honestly believe that we can’t - but that just simply is not true. 

Our bodies were created to heal, to function, to parts to even regenerate. Our decisions - what we put in our bodies, how we care for them - it makes a difference for the better or for the worse. I just want people to feel hope and not feel stuck. If you want to improve your health, you can. 

Well, this has been so fun! If you have any questions you would like for me to answer, leave them in the comments here or send me a DM on Instagram. I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your week and I’ll see you next time!

025 - How to Live a Healthy Lifestyle on a Budget

Hi friends! Today we are talking about how to live a healthy lifestyle on a budget. 

One of the most common arguments for not eating healthy foods or living a healthier lifestyle is that it is too expensive. While it is true that some healthier food options cleaner household products can be more expensive, there are ways to mitigate that expense and stay within what your budget will allow. 

Today I want to share a few tips that have helped my family as we’ve been on a journey toward a healthy lifestyle. 

Choose your priority 

It’s helpful to go into the idea of a healthy lifestyle knowing whether you prioritize expense or convenience more. There’s not a wrong answer here but just know that it’s rare to find a healthy, inexpensive AND convenient option. It’s best to just know ahead of time which of these is a priority for you and then adjust your budget or time accordingly. 

Eat most of your meals at home

I think most of us know that cooking our own food and eating in the comfort of our homes with the people we love is a healthier option, but it is also usually the less expensive option. It does take some planning and effort though. Here are a few ideas to make it a bit easier:

• Always have a meal plan and make a shopping list 

I do way better when I have made a plan, otherwise, I am likely to get distracted by a “deal” or new product and overspend. If you find yourself in the same boat, download my free meal planning guide and meal plan + grocery list template to help keep yourself on track! 

• Shop at multiple grocery stores

While definitely not a convenient option, I have found that I save a good amount of money on groceries each month by shopping at two different stores - for me, it’s Trader Joe’s for most of my produce, meat, and pantry staples and then Kroger pick-up for most of my household items plus a few items that Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry.  

• Stick to buying whole foods

A good way to remember what “whole foods” means is to think of foods that come from the ground or have a mother. These are mostly found in the perimeter of the grocery store and don’t come with an ingredients label - think kale or ground beef. By choosing mostly whole foods, you will be skipping a lot of the pre-packaged and more processed foods which will not only be helpful for your health but also your budget.

• Prep your meals ahead of time

Whether it’s all your meals for the week, just a few dinners for busier weeknights, or prepping some staple breakfast items, taking this time to prepare ahead of time will save you both time and money - and likely keep you from going through the drive-thru after a long day! Find my episode all about Meal Prepping here for some tips to get you started. 

• Use simple ingredients and make things from scratch

Okay - this one may not be as popular BUT hear me out! :) One way that we have been able to save money is by buying individual ingredients for things that I will use multiple times. For example, I buy individual seasonings rather than a packet of seasoning mix for things like taco seasoning, chili powder, ranch, etc. A lot of these packets use similar spices, so I can buy them once and then use them multiple times. They usually last a while and this gives me more control over exactly what I’m using to season our food.

Choose household and personal care products that have multiple uses 

This is similar to the point above, but specifically for household products, something like white vinegar can be used for a clean, safe fabric softener, multi-purpose cleaning spray, produce soak, an ingredient in recipes, etc. Another example is jojoba oil. It can be used as an oil cleanser and makeup remover, moisturizer for your face and body, carrier oil for essential oil rollers, a deep conditioner and probably more. We don’t necessarily need a separate cleaner or product for every room in the house or every part of our bodies.

Share meals and drink water when dining out

This is a very basic idea but also a great way to lower expenses. Eating at healthier restaurants or choosing healthier options can add up quickly, so choosing to share a meal can not only help reduce the cost but may also help with healthier portions. 

Skip the trends and stick to the basics

It’s easy to get swept up in the latest health trend or diet program, but when you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle within a limited budget, this probably isn’t the best idea. For example, things like diet programs that require you to buy a lot of products or have indefinite monthly fees can take a chunk out of your budget. Also, if your funds designated to health and wellness are tight, gym memberships may not be the best use of your money. You can get a great, effective workout for very little cost or maybe even free at home! Obviously, this isn’t the best choice for everyone, so consider your personal situation, but it’s something to think about!

Check with your insurance provider for free resources or discounts 

A lot of health insurance companies are offering free health coaching consultations or discounts on fitness classes and products. If this isn’t an option for you, check with your community center or local churches to see if they have free or low-cost classes available. There are also tons of free resources like this podcast, many other health-related podcasts, and social media accounts that can help you get started in the right direction. 

Friends, living costs money. The choice is do you want to prioritize your health and spend the money now, while enjoying a better quality of life, or do you want to wait to focus on your health when you don’t have as much choice and possibly a less optimal quality of life?

I hope that this episode has given you a few ideas of ways that you can continue living a healthy lifestyle without busting the budget. If you still feel paralyzed or just aren’t sure where to start, send me an email or DM - I’d love to chat with you. I offer a free 30-min consultation or discovery call where we can get to know each other and determine what your next steps should be. Sometimes one of the most cost-effective things you can do is hire a professional that will take a lot of the guess-work out of improving your health and can guide and support you along the way.

024 - How to Reduce Toxin Exposure in Your Everyday Life

Hello friends!! Happy 2020! I’m so happy to be back with you after taking a few weeks off for the holidays. Stepping away and letting my brain rest for a while was so helpful! If you are feeling burnt out, I highly suggest you try taking some time off or downtime in whatever capacity you can - I think it will really help! 

So for today’s episode, I want to talk to you about toxins we are exposed to in regular everyday life, what effect that the repeated exposure is having on our health, and simple ways to help reduce some of that. 

The reality is that there are toxins all around us, all the time, and it is easy to quickly become overwhelmed and frustrated as you start to learn about this topic. I first started learning about environmental toxins and their effect on our bodies during our fertility journey and oh, man - I remember feeling like I just needed to throw away everything in our house and live in a bubble! But something that I want you to remember as we start to get into this a little deeper is that the goal here is not perfection. None of us will ever be able to achieve a perfectly toxin-free existence, and our bodies don’t really need us to. They are designed to be able to handle some exposure - that’s why our bodies have detoxification pathways - we just need to keep them from becoming overloaded and performing at their best. And remember… stressing about your exposure to toxins is just as toxic for your body as the actual toxins themselves - so let’s not do that! Don’t go to either extreme of obsession and worrying about every little thing or feeling like you need to throw out every product in your home but also don’t just bury your head in the sand and ignore it because it feels too big. 

The best way to start the process of reducing your toxin exposure is to become informed.  

Let’s start with how environmental toxins affect our bodies. When we are exposed to something that is toxic to us - could be chemicals found in plastic or aluminum or synthetic fragrances in cleaning products or personal care products, they increase the toxic load on our bodies. 

Our bodies are designed to filter out toxins through our liver, gut, lungs, lymph system and skin.

Our gut, the first line of defense, filters out harmful substances with the use of our microbes and sends them to the liver to be further detoxed out. It’s easy to get into a bad cycle when it comes to toxins and our gut health. We need good gut health and a strong microbiome to help filter out and eliminate toxins we are exposed to, but the chronic exposure to toxins actually has a negative effect on our guts. Keeping our guts happy and healthy is something that takes ongoing attention. You can’t just take one round of probiotics and call it good. 

The liver, our main filtration system, has two detoxification phases, and each is very important. The Phase 1 pathway produces enzymes that change harmful substances and make them more water-soluble and/or oxidizes them. Although necessary, this oxidation process creates harmful free radicals associated with aging, cell damage and some cancers. These free radicals then must be rapidly acted upon by the Phase 2 pathway (conjugation) which uses antioxidants, such as glutathione, to cause them to be harmless. So we really need our livers to be functioning optimally to handle normal day-to-day exposures. If Phase 1 is overactive and Phase 2 is sluggish for any reason, we run a risk of a build-up of the toxic free radicals, which if left unchecked will adversely alter our DNA and can trigger a number of diseases. 

So, if our bodies are designed to “handle” the toxins, what’s the big deal with these environmental toxin exposures? Unfortunately, the number of environmental toxins that we are exposed to just by being alive has increased exponentially in the last several decades. As wonderful as industrial and technological advancements can be, they also have negative side effects. Our bodies, especially our livers, simply can’t keep up with the amount of exposure we are experiencing. There are so many people dealing with chronic health conditions or nagging symptoms that they can’t seem to resolve and a lot of times this is because their livers are overloaded and sluggish due to the number of toxins they are being exposed to on a regular basis. 

The most common toxins that affect us daily (at least that we have any control over) are: 

• Pesticides and herbicides 

These are chemicals most often used on crops (food sources, cotton, etc.) to kill insects or microbes that can cause damage to the plant. The issue with this is that those chemicals alter the quality of the plant which we then consume - and if they are designed to kill microbes, guess what they likely do in the body as well? The chemicals used in these products have been linked to cancer, hormone imbalance, and endocrine system disruption.

• BPAs 

Most of us are familiar with BPA. This is mostly found in plastics (like water bottles, plastic food storage containers, etc.). A lot of products claim to now be BPA free, however, that isn’t regulated, and unfortunately, BPA isn’t the only toxic chemical found in plastic products. These are known to be xenoestrogens (basically their chemical structures allow our bodies to perceive them as estrogens) and can lead to estrogen dominance and hormonal imbalance).

• Phthalates and Parabens

We hear quite a bit about these as well - usually in reference to shampoos, conditioners, hair spray, etc. These are known carcinogens and hormone disruptors, linked to breast cancer and banned in Europe - but unfortunately, not in the US. 

• Synthetic fragrances 

Ugh - this one is especially frustrating to me! If you look at the labels of just about anything, you will see the word “fragrance” or “parfume” - even a lot of “natural” products. The issue here is that there is absolutely no regulation on what those words mean in this context. The word “fragrance” can be used to describe over 4000 different ingredients and several of those have been found to negatively affect the central nervous system. 

• Triclosan

This is a synthetic antibacterial agent the Environmental Protection Agency registers as a pesticide. Triclosan disrupts hormones, can affect sexual function and fertility and may lead to birth defects. Triclosan has been linked to paralysis, suppression of the immune system, brain hemorrhages, and heart problems. It's widely used in antibacterial cleansers, toothpaste, and household products. 

Unfortunately, this list only covers the ones we are likely to encounter in our everyday lives. If you want more in-depth information, I encourage you to do some research on EWG’s website.

So we’ve now talked about how toxins affect the body and which chemicals we are exposed to the most and their specific effects on our health. Now let’s get into what we can actually do about it. 

As I mentioned before, it’s easy to get overwhelmed here so I want to just really focus on ways to get started. If you are like me, this will be a journey. Make one change and then when you are ready, move onto the next thing. A healthy lifestyle is built over time - not overnight. 

Get informed - do some research. 

The EWG is a great resource. There are also a few Instagram accounts that I love to follow for easy-to-understand info like Shawna @alittlelesstoxic, Karalynn @just.ingredients, and the girls over @branchbasics. These are great places to start and most have info saved to their highlights so that you can take in a little at a time, as you are ready.

Support your body’s natural detoxification pathways 

Things like eating clean, whole foods (organic when possible - especially for animal products and the dirty dozen), including plenty of cruciferous veggies(things like broccoli and cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kale for example) which increase your body’s detox pathways, taking detox baths, moving your body for 20-30 minutes every day, sweating regularly, and drinking plenty of water (half your body weight in oz). 

Focus on what you put IN and ON your body the most

IN Your Body

• Water (drink from stainless steel or glass. Best to use a water filtration system of some sort). 

• Organic for dirty dozen produce items

• Clean protein sources (organic and grass-fed best options / lean conventional meats if organic isn’t available to you.)

• Reduce or eliminate foods with artificial, chemical-laden ingredients as well as foods treated with pesticides and herbicides, antibiotics, hormones, or GMOs 

ON your body (Think Dirty or EWG apps make this so much easier!)

• Evaluate your home and personal care products that you apply directly to your skin looking out for the ingredients mentioned above. 

  • Laundry detergent, fabric softeners

  • Shampoos, dry shampoos, root lifters, etc.

  • Body Wash and lotions

  • Skincare products

  • Deodorant and perfumes/body sprays

Don’t stress about throwing everything out at once and buying all new stuff. Focus on becoming more informed and then as you run out of something, replace it with a cleaner, better option.

Ultimately, do what you can do - and what you WANT to do. It is not possible to shield ourselves from every single toxin - there are just too many; however, we can choose to focus on the things we have the most exposure to and are the easiest for us to control - our homes, our skin, our food. 

I hope that today’s episode has helped clarify why this is an important issue as well as helped you to feel empowered that you can have some control here! As always if you have questions feel free to reach out - leave me a comment or send me a DM on Instagram. 

023 - 2020 Is Coming! How to Set Smart, Healthy, and Meaningful Goals for the New Year!

Hi friends! Can you believe this year is almost over?! It’s winding down so quickly and I just wanted to take a minute and thank each one of you who have joined me here, and listened and subscribed! Starting this podcast was definitely one of the bigger and scarier (haha) things I did this last year, and the past few months of sharing with you each week have been so fun. I’m excited to share more with you next year! 

Speaking of next year, we’ve been focusing on goal planning and getting our mindsets in a healthy place for 2020, and we are continuing with that theme for today’s episode by talking about how to set smart and healthy goals for next year. 

When we think about setting goals for a new year or making New Year's resolutions, we often think big picture, end result goals — and I absolutely think we should start there! 

Focus on the Big Picture 

Lara Casey is the founder and CEO of Cultivate, a company best known for its PowerSheets and goal setting and planning resources. She is brilliant at all things future planning/goal setting and she says that you should start the goal-setting process by thinking about what you want your life to be like when you are 80 years old. What do you want to be doing? What will your priorities be? 

Do you see yourself pouring your time and money into your kids, grandkids, or maybe great-grandkids? Do you want to be able to get outside and play with them, teach them things, and pass down family legacies? Do you want to be well-traveled with tons of stories pictures share with your friends? Do you want to give your time and money to ministry after you retire or start a non-profit? 

Give yourself some space to really think about this and then make sure any goals you are setting will move you closer to this end goal. This becomes your why and will help keep you motivated when you feel like forgetting about the goals you have set. 

Set SMART Goals

The next step in setting goals is to make sure that they are actually achievable - and someone out there, who is way smarter than me, made up an acronym for the word “SMART” to use as a tool for realistic goal setting. 

Specific - Measurable - Achievable - Relevant - Time-Bound 

So let me give you an example of how to use this framework: let’s say your overall, big-picture goal for next year is to feel well enough to be active with your family. Putting that into the SMART goals framework may look like this...

Specific - Your family is running a 5k in the spring and you want to join them. 

Measurable - You will move your body by walking/jogging for 30 minutes 4 x per week. You will stretch for 10 minutes every night before bed and increase your water intake every day to help prevent injuries.

Achievable - You know that you only have 2 hrs a week to devote to exercise, so you’ve chosen to make exercise fit into that amount of time (30 minutes, 4x per week). 

Relevant - Moving your body regularly, along with the increased hydration, will improve your overall health and help you feel better, which is relevant to your overall goal.  

Time-bound - You will need to be able to walk/jog 3.2 miles by April. As you progress and build more endurance, you will work to increase your mileage with each walk/jog while staying in your time allowance. 

So from this example, instead of walking away with the goal of “I’m going to be active” or “I’m going to do a 5k”, you walk away with action steps that will specifically help you to do that and allow you to feel the “win” along the way. You also start out with a goal that will keep you committed as you envision participating in the 5k with your family! 

From this framework, you can use your calendar to actually schedule your daily and weekly intentions and action steps. When you put something into your calendar or on your schedule, it really increases the likelihood that you will stick to it and follow through. 

Own Your Goals - Be Accountable to Someone

My last tip on this subject is to share your goals and weekly action steps with someone who will hold you accountable. Someone who you know will check-in and ask if you have followed through and not just easily let you off the hook. Even better is to ask them to join you if that is something that would be good for both of you! This exponentially increases your chances of success! 

I hope that these tips will help you to set SMART and healthy goals for the new year!

For more support and resources, find Lara Casey’s Goal Setting blog series here.

022 - Why Losing Weight Should NOT Be Your Goal for the New Year

Hey friends! As I mentioned in the last episode, we are going to be spending the remaining episodes of 2019 talking about setting ourselves up for success with smart and healthy goals for next year! 

What Your Goal Should Not Be

We all know someone, or maybe we are that someone, who comes to the end of the year and says “my New Years’ resolution is to lose weight”. As a matter of fact, according to statistica.com, 45% of Americans made “losing weight” their goal for 2018. Today, I am going to share with you why that actually isn’t a good goal, why your weight isn’t how you should measure your level of health, and what you should be focusing on instead. 

Why Weight Isn’t A Reliable Indicator of Good Health 

My story is a perfect example of this. I recently shared my experience with Insulin Resistance and PCOS and how my physician and I were both surprised at the results of my blood work because I wasn’t considered overweight. I had a normal BMI and while I had gained a little weight, I was still within the normal range. As it turns out, I had inflammation and the beginning stages of disease taking a toll on my body, but I thought I was healthy because I wasn’t overweight. 

Our weight just isn’t a reliable indicator of the state of our health, for many reasons. One being that it isn’t a static number - our can weight fluctuates 3-5 lbs on a regular basis. This can be based on so many things including hormones, especially for women (weight will fluctuate at different stages of your cycle). This is why we do NOT need to be weighing every day! If you are getting on the scale every morning and beating yourself up because you seem to be battling the same 3-4 lbs over and over - STOP. You are creating undue stress on yourself by obsessing about your weight and being disappointed in your body or thinking that the work you are putting in isn’t worth it. This isn’t good for your physical or mental health, and actually, studies have shown that obsession with weight or dieting can actually lead to more weight gain. 

Also, standards such as BMI are skewed as well. They only take into account a ratio of height and weight and make absolutely zero adjustments for body composition and muscle mass. So people who are actually in great health and have a good amount of muscle mass will usually fall into the overweight or even obese categories.

Also, it’s important to note that in a lot of chronic diseases, studies are showing that weight gain or inability to lose weight is more a side effect of an underlying disease or dysfunction in the body, rather than the root cause. So when all we are doing is focusing on the weight, we could be missing what is actually going on in the body.

So if we shouldn’t be focusing solely on the scale or BMI, how should we measure our level of health?

Better Indicators of Good Health

Waist circumference

One better option for monitoring your health is by measuring your waist circumference. Studies have shown that having a waist circumference greater than 35 for women and 40 for men is indicative of higher amounts of visceral fat (a type of fat that lies deep within the abdominal cavity and pads the spaces between vital abdominal organs) and is associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, unhealthy cholesterol, hypertension, hormone imbalance, and Cardiovascular Disease. 

All you need to monitor your waist circumference is a tape measure. Simply wrap it around the middle of your waist, right above the top of your hip bones, Make sure the tape measurer stays flat against your skin and level all the way around. This isn’t something that should be done daily or even weekly. Every 2-3 months is a good increment of time, especially if this is something you are trying to work on. 

Health markers related to metabolic disease 

Another better option to monitor your health and risk for disease is by regularly monitoring health markers associated with Metabolic Disease (BP, Fasting Insulin and A1c, and Cholesterol)  specifically HDL/ Total Cholesterol ratio and Tri / HDL ratio)

As a reminder, you need to work with your physician to have these markers evaluated:

• Blood Pressure Levels 

• Blood Sugar Levels - Fasting Insulin and Fasting Blood Glucose 

• Cholesterol Levels - specifically HDL and Triglycerides

A Harvard-lead study reported that high triglycerides alone increased the risk of heart attack by 3 times and people with the highest ratio of triglycerides to HDL -- the "good" cholesterol -- had 16 times the risk of heart attack as those with the lowest ratio of triglycerides to HDL. The ratio of triglycerides to HDL was the strongest predictor of a heart attack, even more accurate than the LDL/HDL ratio

Optimal Triglycerides / HDL ratio is under 2 (the lower the better)

Body function 

Just taking a moment to evaluate how your body is moving and functioning can be helpful in measuring your level of health. 

How are you sleeping? Do you wake up refreshed or groggy and exhausted? 

Do you find your energy crashing throughout the day - especially the afternoon?

For the ladies, are your cycles regular? 

Is your skin clear?

Do you have repeated sickness or seem to catch everything that goes around?

Do you have chronic pain or stiffness? 

How is your digestive health?

These are all questions you can ask yourself to possibly pinpoint any areas that you need to focus on or work with a professional to address. 

Better goals 

We will get more into the specifics of how to set smart and health goals in the next couple of episodes, but for now, as you are starting to think about health goals for next year - I want you to focus more on establishing healthy habits and rhythms. You are much more likely to see progress in your health with those anyway.

If you feel like you could use some extra support as you set health goals for next year or work to meet your goals from this year, schedule a free 30 min consultation call with me! I’d love to help point you in the right direction and see if there are ways that I can help!

021 - The Power of the Pause

Hi friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

It’s December now, which means two things for most people 1.) They are in the thick of Christmas preparations and 2.) They are starting to reflect on this past year and think about the new year! I know I’ve found my thoughts wandering to planning for next year and goals I may want to set or things I may want to accomplish. I love goal planning and new beginnings - I just love all the potential that lies ahead! 

I’m going to spend the next couple weeks talking about goal setting and ways that we can set ourselves up for a healthy and successful 2020, and I want to start today by giving you a tool that can help you now, during the holiday season, as well as with your health-related goals in the new year. 

When I am starting a new coaching relationship with a client we will discuss their health goals and what they feel are the obstacles standing in their way and so often they say something like “I just can’t stop eating _______” or “I have such intense cravings for ______ and I can’t resist.” I think we can all relate to feeling this way and have experienced that at some point. 

So, let’s pretend that you and I are sitting across from each other, I would ask you if you are feeling this way now? Maybe you’re thinking about the goals you want to set for next year and know that you’d like to change something about your health - maybe lose weight, maybe regulate your blood pressure, blood sugar, or hormones - and as soon as that goal enters your mind, the next thought you have is “...but I can’t give up ____, so never mind.” Or maybe its “...but I’ve tried before and I make a little progress, but then I just go right back - it’s not worth it.” I want to challenge you to change the way you are thinking right now! You absolutely can overcome whatever food cravings, food addiction, or unhealthy habits you are struggling with and I’m going to give you a tip that has helped me so much! 

I like to call it the “Power of the Pause” but really it’s just the simple act of pausing and thinking before making a decision or continuing in an action. It sounds so simple, right? It is simple. But it’s not easy - at least not at first. 

Behavior change is part of any kind of personal growth - whether food-related or not - but especially when it comes to changing your eating habits and overcoming food cravings. You can’t change the behavior without first becoming aware of it, and in addition, I believe that in order to really change it, you also need to understand the root of where it’s coming from and be able to consider the effect it will have. 

Trace it back to the root

When it comes to emotional eating, addiction to foods or other substances, or even intense repetitive cravings there is usually something deeper going. When you do the work to identify where the desire is coming from, you can better understand what you are actually needing. Sometimes it’s physical - like maybe a type of nutrient or more sleep, and sometimes it’s emotional - like maybe you’re actually lonely, sad, or frustrated and need to talk to a friend or go for a walk. 

Consider the consequences

There is always cause and effect, right? Every decision we make has a consequence - whether good or bad. Taking a moment to pause gives us the opportunity to consider how an action or behavior will affect our health - physically and mentally. Eating that brownie at 10 pm or skipping your workout may make you feel good at the moment, but what about later? Are you going to be wired and unable to sleep well because your blood sugar was spiked right before bed? Are you going to be overwhelmed and anxious later because you didn’t move your body and get those endorphins flowing? This isn’t about punishment or guilting yourself into something, but rather in being intentional with your decisions and learning to listen to what your body needs. 

It’s worth noting that this is work. Good things always take work!  It’s much easier to just follow your impulses and cravings and enjoy the temporary high, but you and I both know that it won’t last. You will always need more and more, right? Also, using sugar or whatever the food or behavior is for you will only cover up what your body is trying to tell you that it actually needs - and you still won’t be fulfilled! It’s not worth it - the easy road rarely is! 

So practically, how do you do this? 

The next time that you have a craving for something that you know isn’t nourishing for your body - pause and think about why you are craving it - see if you can trace it back to the root. Are you trying to comfort yourself in some way - maybe after a bad day? Is there something that would actually nourish your soul rather than provide a temporary fix? Is your energy crashing and you feel like you need a pick-me-up? Should you maybe eat something with fat and protein, rather than sugar, a simple carb, or more caffeine, to stabilize your blood sugar so you can have more energy and be mentally alert? 

This can be applied to so many other areas of life as well, not just food. Whatever behavior or habit that comes to your mind that you’d like to change, take a minute to pause and think about what is at its root and what do you actually need instead? 

Whatever your goal may be for the new year, or even for tomorrow or next week, using this method of pausing can really help you learn to listen to your body and be intentional with your decisions. It can also help to open your eyes to other things that may be going on - be it a nutrient deficiency or buried feelings you need to deal with. This will also move you forward on your journey to better health! 

Remember, being healthy isn’t just about how you look or what you eat or how much you exercise. It’s your whole life and how it affects your overall health as a whole. So, friends, I encourage you to do the hard work - the heart work - it’s worth it!

Thank you for joining me today! If you put this tip into practice and give it a try, come back here and leave a review or leave me a comment on Instagram and let me know how it worked for you! I’d love to know!

019 - Planning Ahead for Healthy Holidays

Hi friends! Today we are talking all about planning ahead for the holidays. Thanksgiving is only two weeks away and most of us are making plans with friends and family - and while the holidays are such a fun time of year, they can also bring some challenges and stress.  Especially if you have been making progress working toward a health goal or if you’re trying to manage a health challenge, the holidays and all delicious but less-than-healthy foods that come with them can feel daunting, BUT it doesn’t have to feel that way! In this episode, I want to share a few ways that we can plan and prepare ahead to reduce some of that stress and keep us in the holiday spirit!

Make a Plan for Your Food

• Choose which holiday foods are your absolute favorite and be sure to eat/make those just the way you like them, then you can either choose to skip or upgrade the other less-than-healthy foods that you care less about. For example, if the stuffing and mashed potatoes are your absolute favorite parts of the meal, then make sure to eat those! But if you could take or leave the green bean casserole, then skip it or try making a healthier version using all whole, natural ingredients. Try using healthier sweeteners in your cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, if you are doing a lot of the cooking. 

• Drink water with your holiday meal! If the drinks are your favorite part, then plan to drink plenty of water before and after to help give your digestive system a little extra support. 

• Don’t take leftovers or only take enough for one day. It’s easy to take tons of leftovers home to snack on for the next several days, but it’s best if you can keep it to just enough for one. Most of the time our bodies will do just fine to process and digest all the extra rich, yummy holiday foods, but when we eat them every meal for several days, it will usually catch up with us and leave us feeling pretty bloated and lethargic. 

• Be sure to get some basic meal prep done for the rest of your week. This will help to ensure you are still getting plenty of nutrients and balanced meals into your week. It’s also common to just feel tired from all the festivities and you may not feel much like cooking for the next few days, so having prepped nutritious meals will keep you from going to the drive-thru. 

• If you’re hosting or making several dishes, do a holiday meal prep. Several dishes like mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and even your pies can be made several days (and even a couple of weeks) ahead. This will not only save time the day-of but will reduce so much stress from trying to cook a lot of things at one time! (Check out my friend Lindsey Loope’s story highlight to see how she is doing her holiday meal prep!)

• Remember that this is just one day - so enjoy it and allow your kids to enjoy it - and then get right back into your normal way of eating! Again, when you choose to live a healthy lifestyle, that just becomes your normal way of life. There is no wagon, so you don’t have to worry about falling off or ruining any kind of progress you’ve made. Even some of these foods that don’t necessarily nourish our bodies well can be very nourishing to our souls - so just take a deep breath and relax!

Make a Plan for Your Exercise

• Go for a walk or run your local Turkey Trot together as a family! There are so many fun ways to be active as a family and what a great way to start your day together!

• If it’s not possible for you to exercise on the actual holiday, plan your workout for the other days of that week. Even if you will be traveling and away from home, you can plan to go for a walk or jog in a near-by park or do a quick bodyweight circuit where you are staying. Yall know that I love Nourish, Move, Love’s Youtube workouts and those can go with you anywhere you go!

• Ask a friend to workout with you or to keep you accountable to your plan. Like I mentioned before, it’s so easy to get a little lethargic and lazy during a holiday week, so go ahead and plan that you will need a little extra motivation and accountability to keep you on track. Remember that moving your body will help boost your mood and keep your digestive system working well!

Make a Plan to Manage Your Stress

• Choose something you will do or a specific time that you will do something that renews you and fills you back up. We all know that the holidays are busy and you can feel like you are on the go all the time, so planning some time to decompress will be even more important than usual. 

• Set specific expectations with friends and family- and for yourself! Personally, a lot of my stress around the holidays comes from setting expectations that are just too high. Expecting that everything is going to go perfectly according to my plan for the day, and it will only be filled with sweet, memory-making moments isn’t realistic and will only lead me to stress myself and those around me by trying to make it happen.

• Shift your focus for the day to others! The best way to reduce stress and remove unrealistic expectations for the day is to take the focus off of yourself or your plan for the day. Instead of focusing on making everything perfect - perfect food, perfect memories or pictures, perfect environment - focus on the people you will be spending the day with and having meaningful conversations with them. Focus on being thankful for another year together. Focus on being thankful for the gift of life, health, and a good, good Father that loves you unconditionally. Holidays are fun, but the meaning behind them is what really counts. 

I hope some of these ideas help you as you make plans for the upcoming holidays and I sincerely hope that you choose to enjoy this wonderful season.

018 - How I Supported My Body Through Insulin Resistance

Hi friends! In last week’s episode we talked about ways to keep our blood sugar levels stable and why that is something that we need to be paying attention to (If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, hit pause and go do that real quick, so that we are all on the same page!). In that episode, I mention Insulin Resistance as something that can cause blood sugar imbalance, and that it is becoming more and more common.

Insulin Resistance occurs when our cells are no longer sensitive to insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by the beta cells in our pancreas to help allow our cells to utilize glucose. In last week’s episode, I gave the analogy of insulin being like a key that opens the door for glucose to go into our cells - and in someone with Insulin Resistance, it’s like that key just stops working. 

There are a few different theories as to why this happens. Sometimes it can be due to an overproduction of insulin caused by a continual release of glucose into the bloodstream. This is often, but not always, due to lifestyle and dietary choices. When we eat mostly carbohydrates - especially simple carbohydrates that break down very quickly into glucose - then our pancreas is continually releasing insulin as well. When this happens chronically, over time our cells simply become so desensitized to the glucose, that they stop functioning properly and can’t utilize the glucose as they should. Therefore we end up with high levels of both glucose and insulin in the bloodstream and our cells don’t get the energy that they need to function well.

 Another cause of Insulin Resistance, that research is showing as more and more prominent, is that chronically high levels of inflammation in the body actually cause damage to the insulin receptors on the cells. So, in this case, it’s not so much that the cells are desensitized and can’t respond to the insulin, it’s that they are actually damaged and can’t respond to the insulin. Although this is a different root cause, it results in the same issue of high levels of glucose and insulin in the bloodstream.

As we know, inflammation in the body is caused by so many different things - inflammatory foods like sugar, artificial and highly processed foods, food colorings and dyes, infections in the body, dysbiosis in the gut, chronic stress, lack of sleep, and so much more. Now research is showing that having high levels of this inflammation is actually doing damage to our bodies on a cellular level.

I actually experienced this myself several years ago when I went looking for answers to my hormone imbalance issues. My labs came back that I had both Insulin Resistance and PCOS. It really surprised both me and my physician, because I didn’t really have any of the other symptoms that, at that time, were thought to accompany IR and PCOS, but as I would come to find out later, my body was very inflamed. I had really poor gut health - dysbiosis and leaky gut, a candida overgrowth, endometriosis (which is an inflammatory disease), years of low-level chronic stress, and a long history of not eating well or really caring for my body well at all. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know! And for me personally, my genetics mixed with all of those things created a perfect storm for IR and then a cascade of hormone imbalance as a result. Thankfully, both insulin resistance and chronic inflammation are things that can be positively affected by lifestyle change, and with the blessing of my physician, that’s exactly what I did. She asked me to come back in 6 months to recheck my levels and thankfully, my insulin levels were back within the normal range and my cycles had also returned to normal intervals, as well. 

If you are struggling with Insulin Resistance or suspect that something is imbalanced with your blood sugar levels or hormones, I strongly encourage you to work with a physician and get some lab work done. Depending on your practitioner, you may need to specifically request that they check your insulin levels, as that isn’t always part of routine lab work. 

As far as how to manage, and possibly reverse Insulin Resistance with lifestyle changes, all of the tips that I shared in last week’s episode apply here as well. Things like eating balanced meals at regular intervals, regular exercise, getting quality sleep, and managing and reducing your stress levels will all help to stabilize the amount of glucose in your bloodstream and lower inflammation. 

There are a few specific recommendations that I would add for someone looking to manage IR though. Your key focus is going to be on reducing inflammation in your body and helping your body to become sensitive to insulin again. This is very important so that you don’t progress further into prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes. 

Be sure to always have a protein and fat with every meal and snack and try to reduce your intake of carbohydrates overall. 

Some people call this a low-carb diet. There are also paleo and keto diets that are similar in nature, but overall I’m just talking about when you look at your plate, or the portions of what you are eating, having carbs only account for about 30-40% of your food.

Eliminate simple, processed carbs altogether.

You need carbs, but you do not need simple carbs full of inflammation-raising ingredients. Stick to high fiber veggies, some nutrient-rich root veggies like sweet potatoes, and whole forms of non-gluten grains like brown rice or quinoa. 

Engage in strength-training exercises at least 2x per week.

We’re not talking about anything crazy here, but research has shown that doing bodyweight and added weight exercises helps to increase our cell’s sensitivity to insulin. You can click here to find a few of my favorite online strength training workouts to do at home or there are tons of classes at your local gym if you’d rather have some personal instruction and work out with other people. 

Add anti-inflammatory herbs and supplements to your diet.

• Make sure you are taking a good whole-food vitamin to fill in any nutrient gaps.

• Supplement with extra vitamin D and magnesium, if needed. Both can help to increase insulin sensitivity. 

• Cook with turmeric, ginger, and garlic which can all help to lower inflammation levels and they’re delicious! You can also get or make teas with inflammation lowering ingredients, too!

Work with a professional for more support.

While Insulin Resistance can be reversible, it isn’t always easy. It takes concentrated effort and some research, but it is so worth it! If you feel like it’s too overwhelming for you or you would just like personalized support as you make changes to your lifestyle, reach out to someone that can help. This is something that personally I am passionate about and have done a lot of research on, so I would love to work with you one-on-one if you feel you need more support. Click here to schedule a free 30-min initial session with me!

I hope that you have learned something from my story that is encouraging to you and that these tips help you see that there are things you can do to help heal your body! 

017 - How To Regulate Your Blood Sugar Levels and Why It's Important!

Hi friends! I hope you all are having a great week so far! Today we are going to be talking about something that applies to every single human being out there - and that is blood sugar regulation. How to regulate our blood sugar levels and why that’s something we need to be paying attention to.

So for most of us, we hear the phrase “blood sugar” mostly in relation to diabetes. So it’s easy to think, well I don’t have diabetes, so I don’t need to worry about it. But in reality, blood sugar dysregulation is at the root of many common health concerns that we face on a day-to-day basis, as well as a lot of chronic diseases. 

Let’s talk about the science for a minute: 

When you hear someone say “blood-sugar” they are referring to the levels of glucose in the bloodstream. When we eat, the enzymes that help break down our food also release glucose into our intestines, where it is then absorbed into our bloodstream. Glucose is the primary source of energy for our bodies but our cells can’t absorb it on their own, they need a buddy to help them with that - and that is Insulin.

Insulin is a hormone made by the beta cells in the pancreas. These cells are continually monitoring our blood glucose levels and when an increase is detected, Insulin will then be released into the bloodstream. Insulin is like a key that unlocks our muscle, fat, and liver cells so that the glucose can get inside of them and be used or stored appropriately, which also lowers the amount of glucose in the bloodstream. 

Problems maintaining normal blood sugar levels can arise when: 

• Beta cells that release insulin no longer work as they should and too little or zero insulin is produced, leaving blood sugar elevated (Type 1 diabetes).

• Cells become desensitized to insulin, either due to over-exposure or inflammation, and can no longer absorb glucose properly (Insulin Resistance). 

• When blood sugar levels aren’t managed well, hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) can then occur as those levels rise and fall. These come with many side effects including fatigue and low energy, intense sugar cravings, changes in blood pressure, weight changes, nerve-ending issues, anxiety, and (for women) cycle irregularity.

• Cells stop receiving enough energy since insulin is no longer doing its job of bringing them enough glucose, which also means that blood glucose levels remain elevated. This can cause damage to the kidneys, heart, arteries, and nerves — which in turn affects the whole body negatively. (Prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes)

So, as you can see, when talking about “blood sugar”, Insulin is always going to be the star player. When there is a problem with insulin, blood glucose will always become dysregulated.

I could go on and on about the science part of things, but let’s talk about some practical ways that you can keep your blood sugar regulated.

Eat balanced meals 

You want your meals to consist of good amounts of clean protein (about the size of your palm), always 1-2 tbsp fat (size of your thumb), and high-fiber veggies at every meal (about two hand fulls). 

Don’t skip meals

Eating at regular intervals prevents your blood sugar levels from dipping too low, which makes your liver have to release stored glucose to keep you going. This can alter your insulin production and mess with the stability of your blood sugar overall. You want to aim for three balanced meals at regular intervals (usually 4-6 hours apart).

Eat a snack if needed

Make sure it is also balanced and includes protein and fat. So don’t just grab a bag of chips or even just an apple. Make sure you are pairing any carbohydrates with protein and fat. 

Keep the sugar and alcohol to a minimum

Both obviously raise blood sugar levels and also inflammation in the body. When choosing a sweetener for baking, etc. go for a more naturally occurring, low glycemic index option like raw honey, stevia, dates, or maple syrup. 

Exercise regularly

Both cardio and strength training exercises help your muscles to be able to take up more glucose, which decreases the amount in the bloodstream. Also, strength-training specifically has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity in our cells. Exercise also helps to lower overall inflammation which helps to protect our cells and keep them functioning optimally. 

Manage stress

As we’ve talked about before, chronic stress has a negative effect on just about every part of our health, and our blood sugar level is no exception. High levels of cortisol in the body (which we know we produce when under stress) cause the liver to release some of it’s stored glucose back into the bloodstream. It also increases overall inflammation in the body, which can damage your cells and make them resistant to insulin. Over time this is like a double assault on your body and can lead to serious health complications. 

Get quality sleep

Again, this is something we talk about often because it is so important. Studies show that having disturbed circadian rhythms and not getting enough sleep both can cause stress and hunger hormones to be released in the body. This not only raises inflammation in the body but will also make it much harder to resist foods that will only raise your blood sugar levels further. We’ve got to make this a priority and make sure we are getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep each night. 

Take quality supplements*

• A good whole-food multivitamin will help make sure you aren’t deficient in any key nutrients (also, additional Vit D if needed)

• Omega-3 fatty acids can help increase insulin sensitivity

• Magnesium can help activate your cell’s insulin receptors

• Alpha-lipoic acid can increase your body’s use of glucose

• Cinnamon can decreases the rise in glucose after a meal

*Always consult your physician before adding any supplements or medications.

The good news is that for most of us, we can maintain a healthy blood sugar level by practicing a healthy lifestyle. And if this is something that you are currently struggling with - maybe you already have insulin resistance or prediabetes, you can manage and possibly reverse the condition with lifestyle change as well. I know that it’s possible because I did it! (I’ll share more about that another day!)

As always, if you have questions or feel that you need support in this area, reach out to me! I’d love to help you!

016 - My Favorite Tips to Stay Healthy While Traveling

Hi friends!! So, I don’t know about you but I feel like the end of the year is flying by! I can’t believe we are already well into fall and almost into the holiday season! I can already feel our schedule busier, and at least for us, that is just how it is throughout the end of the year! 

One thing that the holiday season typically brings with it is some travel, whether to visit family or just for fun. We just got back from a week in California visiting family and seeing a lot of fun things in San Francisco. It was a blast!

On the flight home, I got to thinking though about how while traveling is a lot of fun, it can be really hard on our bodies. We’re exposed to a lot of things outside of our norm, whether it be long times sitting in a car or being cooped up with hundreds of other people in an airplane. 

However, there are some easy things we can do to help support our bodies and our health while traveling, and that’s what I want to share with you today! 

Bring your own snacks!

- Bring snacks to eat on the trip and while waiting at the airport. 

- Most airports do not have healthy food options and if they do, their usually very expensive. Save yourself some money by bringing along balanced snacks (balanced meaning they contain good amounts of carbs, protein, and fat). This will help you stay full and keep your blood sugar levels stable. 

Bring your own water bottle!

- In my opinion, airplane water is pretty gross (and not filtered well). Plus, those little cups are bound to spill, especially with littles around.

- Fill your cups with water after security so you will be set on the plane (I ran out of time to do this on our depart flight last week and I was miserable while we waited for beverage service).

- Also, be sure to drink enough. Planes are super dry and it’s easy to not want to drink a lot in order to avoid the airplane bathrooms / rest-stop bathrooms, so when and where you can, try to get the water in. 

Plan ahead!

- Start packing several days ahead and make a list for all the last minute things. Traveling can be stressful with so many moving parts and so much to keep up with, so do yourself a favor and don’t wait until the last minute. 

- Go to bed early the night before your flight. While you may be lucky enough to catch a little snooze on the plane/ride, the quality of sleep won’t be nearly as good as a night’s sleep. Lack of sleep raises inflammation levels in the body, as well as lowers immune function. That’s like a double-whammy on your body. 

- Start taking immune support supplements at least a week before the flight. We chose these immune gummies by Mary Ruth Organics that have great amounts of vitamins C and D, zinc and elderberry extract in them - and they are sourced from whole foods and yummy too! You can also make your own elderberry syrup to start taking before your trip (it’s just a little more difficult to travel with, in my opinion). 

- I also think it’s a smart idea to take a regular whole-foods based multivitamin and a probiotic leading up to the trip, as well as for the duration of the trip. It really sucks to get sick while on vacation or visiting family for the holidays, so this is just one simple way to help prevent that. 

Manage the germs as much as you can, but don’t freak out about it.

Germs are everywhere and are unavoidable, however, you can use a clean, non-toxic hand sanitizer like the Honest brand, Dr. Bronner’s, or Branch Basics to clean hands before eating, as well as when you get off the plane. It’s also a great idea to spray down trays etc. if you can, but don’t make this something to stress about, that’s why all of the prevention measures are helpful. 

Eat a good meal before and after your flight.

Even your healthy snacks are usually decently high in sugar and just aren’t as rich in nutrients as whole foods, so try to eat a balanced meal both before and after. Obviously, if you’re on vacation or seeing relatives, you probably aren’t going to eat perfectly balanced or super nutrient-dense foods the whole time, and that’s totally okay, but being more intentional on the day you actually travel can help your body deal with all the changes / stressors and less nutritious foods better.

If you need to detox a bit when you get home, do it! 

Your body will tell you if you’ve pushed it too far. A few easy ways to detox are by doing a 5-7 day standard elimination diet (eating only whole foods and eliminating the main inflammatory ones like sugar, maybe gluten/dairy, any processed foods), drinking extra water, drinking Dandelion-Root tea and bone broth daily, and taking detox baths*. Also getting lots of good sleep and movement (walks are great for this)!

Most of all, relax and enjoy your trip!

Just like everything else, perfection is a myth. So do your best and make the conscious choice to not stress about the things that are out of your control. 

I hope these tips will be helpful as you plan your travels for the upcoming holiday season! As always, feel free to reach out on Instagram or Facebook if you have any questions. 

If you feel like you need more personalized support as we enter this holiday season, I would be happy to help you stay on track with your health goals or maybe set some for the first time! You can schedule a free 30-min consult with me by going to www.yourhealthforward.com/free-consultation!

*My fav easy detox bath recipe - Add to a hot bath and soak for at least 20 minutes:

• 1-½ C Epsom salts (unscented or only scented with essential oils, nothing synthetic)

• ½ C baking soda

• 1 tsp ascorbic acid (Vit C powder - this helps neutralize chlorine in the water)

• 5-10 drops lavender essential oil

** Some links in this post are affiliate links. I will earn a small commission if you choose to purchase items using these links. 

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!