Discover the Components of Sustainable Weight Loss

Butt in Jeans
Two weeks into 2017 … how are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? Did your resolutions – like so many others’ – include an intention to lose weight? I’m going to go out on a limb and guessing that you aren’t having a great deal of success.

Now, I don’t doubt your intention or your efforts. Yet I do know something about how our bodies work. We women tend to focus on body size, or more specifically, on the number on our scale.

How long have you been fighting the battle? How many different plans have you followed – counting calories, skipping meals, depriving yourself, feeling hungry, and counting more calories? Yes, calories matter. But hormones matter more. Read more

Simple Truths for Wellness

Keep It SimpleAs January comes to a close, how would you evaluate this first month of 2017? Were you, like so many others, working to improve your health by losing weight and changing your food habits? How is that going? Don’t beat yourself up. Let’s regroup and simplify.

I have written frequently about food choices and I’m not going to rehash that subject here. What I do want to emphasize is what I call eating hygiene – as simple as HOW you eat. Read more

Get A Positive Start Daily

Good ThingsA new year has begun and 2016 is behind us. If you are like me, you have a new calendar and turning to January you see a fresh page before you … full of possibilities and potential.

Do you view each New Year’s Day as an opportunity to begin again? Why not consider each day that way? Each morning that you awake lays before you the opportunity to shift and grow.

You aren’t bound by your past. It doesn’t define your potential. You are a living being who has the potential to grow each and every day. Ask any parent with a baby who is just learning to walk. They will tell you their baby stumbles, plops down or rolls onto the floor, but they get right back up and try again. You did, too, when you were little! Read more

Strategies for a Healthful Holiday

holiday-partyAs you look over this month’s calendar are your weekends filling up with social events which will involve the gathering of friends and family, not to mention a variety of tasty morsels and assorted bubbly or creamy drinks.

Have past holiday seasons left you with extra pounds displayed on your scale, a pesky foggy brain, lagging energy, and a nagging sense of “oops, I’ve done it again”?

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Give Yourself the Gift of Gratitude

gratitudeWhat is your focus in these last few days before Thanksgiving? Are your thoughts dominated with a grocery list for the food you will prepare, the arrangements that must be made for guests, the seating arrangements or perhaps the calorie overload that comes with the traditional feast? Or perhaps your primary thought is where you will settle for your post-turkey nap?

All of these demands on your attention are significantly contributing to your stress level, which hinders your digestion, affects your cardiovascular and respiratory function, and makes you susceptible to viral illness.

There is a fairly simple practice that can improve your health, your relationships, your emotions, and your career … all in only 5 minutes a day. Curious?
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Stoke the Fire in Your Gut

stomach-acidIn prior articles, I have outlined the path that our food takes when we eat a bite. Starting with chewing, and then swallowing to send the food down the esophagus into the stomach, where it meets with stomach acid to aid in the next stages of digestion.

We aren’t aware of the intricate process that our food goes through once we swallow a bite. You may have heard the phrase “you are what you eat,” yet I would say that is not a complete statement. Simply eating doesn’t make the food become a part of you. It must be broken down into its constituent components – proteins into amino acids, carbohydrates into starches and glucose, and fats into fatty acids – in order for your body to absorb them. Read more

Edit Your Digestion – Chew!

digestion-chartDoes your day revolve around the meals you eat, or is your schedule so tight that you give food little thought? Whatever your situation, you don’t likely put much thought into what happens as you eat.

That bite you take is just the beginning of digestion. Chewing the bite not only breaks up the food but mixes it with digestive juices. Swallowing sends the food down your esophagus into your stomach where it meets highly acidic stomach acid to continue the process of breaking the food down into constituents that can eventually be absorbed. When liquefied, the food (now called chyme) passes into the small intestine where it is joined by digestive enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the gallbladder. The small intestine is where absorption begins, finishing in the colon before excretion of waste. Read more

Edit Your Breathing Pattern

Breathe InThere are many things in life that we take for granted. That the light will turn on when we flip the switch, that you have the freedom to choose how you will live today, and that the sun will rise each morning, to name just a few.

Many things happen without our having to coordinate them, and that’s a good thing. When you are focused on a very busy day, it’s nice to know that you will continue to breathe without having to think. Yet how effectively are you breathing in that situation?

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Five Ways That Gratitude Nourishes Life

GratefulThe Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching and thoughts are turning to how many will gather, what to include in the menu and counting our blessings. I would like to suggest, however, that you not wait for a holiday to practice gratitude, but begin to cultivate it as a daily practice.

Cultivating gratitude doesn’t cost any money and it doesn’t take much time, but the benefits are enormous! Read more

Do Your Thoughts Support Your Dreams?


henry-ford-quote-whether-you-think-you-canHave you heard of the energy experiments with potted plants, where one plant was spoken to lovingly over a period of time and the other verbally abused with harsh or negative words? The result? You guessed it. The abused plant shriveled while the loved plant flourished.

It’s the same for us. Our self-talk can nourish – or quench – our ability to manifest our dreams. Read more