”Cauliflower is Nothing But Cabbage With a College Education”  Mark Twain

Where I come from we call cauliflower ”the flower cabbage”. Indeed the cabbage family is huge, and we can see even arugula and radishes parading as distant cousins. Scientists call these ”cruciferous veggies”, how about that for sounding fancy? Crucifers used to look a lot more like kale in our distant past, and  they grew in the Mediterranean for the gathering joy of our ancestors.

In recent decades, we are enjoying more and more varieties: colored cauliflower, romanesco (hello alien!), broccoli and broccolini, flowering kale, even our local supermarket has 5- 6 varieties of these.  A farmers market really has your head spinning with variety and freshness.

You’ve probably heard of their cancer fighting properties, due to a rich content of glucosinolates  and antioxidants (read a full list of the health properties of cauliflower here ). So why don’t we eat them more? They are pleasing to the eye, super filling, diet friendly and can be delicious.

My personal guesses are three:

1. They give many people gas. This can be due to cooking methods, food combinations, not using spices and herbs, and not eating them often enough. This ”musical” effect can be avoided if you experiment with short cooking times, or adding spices and herbs such as ginger, cumin, fennel, asaphoetida, or mint and lemon. You also don’t want to eat gas producing veggies with too much fat. The slower digestion of high fat meals prolongs the chance for bacteria to feed on undigested matter. If you haven’t been eating cabbage type veggies for a while, start with smaller amounts, chew well and do not overeat them.

2. They taste ”funny”, or in more scientific terms they are not very palatable (or rewarding for that matter). The same compounds that make them good for us also cause them to taste hot and bitter. The longer I live in the US, the more I realize people prefer sweet and salty with an occasional splash of sour, but bitterness is rarely on the menu. Get used to bitterness, as the bitter taste is guarantee that your veggie has some real detox power.

3. Cauliflower and broccoli that have been frozen or sitting on the shelf for a long time have a rubbery soggy and unpleasant texture, and they taste pretty bland unless you disguise them under coats of dressing and cheese (look at  #1 to remember the musical effect of that). This way, most people (and their kids) develop an undeserved aversion to a wonderful veggie, just because it has not been picked fresh.

Here is a dare for this weekend: go to a farmer’s market and buy a fresh head of cauliflower or broccoli. You can cook it any way you normally cook them. Let me know if you can see, taste, smell and hear a difference. If you are doing the ” The Real Food Reset” with us, just know you can enjoy these veggies as often as you like.

Jo Robinson, in her new book ”Eating on the wild side – the missing link to optimal health” shares some astonishing facts about the cabbage family, and maybe it won’t be of a shock to anyone that we eat 250 times more potatoes than we do broccoli. Here are some cruciferously fun facts.

• Broccoli is extremely sensitive to transportation and storage. 1 week in storage makes it lose 50 to 80 percent of its life giving nutrients. To get the most out of the green heads, buy them at farmer’s markets and eat within 2 days. Steam it quickly – 4 minutes is best.
• Cabbage keeps well, and you can keep it in the fridge for weeks. Score. Wondering which color cabbage to choose? Red is king – packing about 6 times more antioxidants.
• Purple, yellow, green and white are all varieties of cauliflower, with the darker being more nutrient packed. It’s believed that the pale variety is an albino mutant. Good news is it can be stored in the crisper of your fridge for a week, unlike the pretentious broccoli.

One of our favorite things to do on the weekend is scout the markets for seasonal, fresh and exciting foods. This weekend I happened to have a ton of cauliflower – a white, yellow and green variety. The recipes below were created in our cozy California kitchen over a few days, and we enjoyed them a lot with dinner.

It’s easy to work with cauliflower of any variety and color. I have health conscious  friends that freak out if you cook any veggie longer than a 5 minute of sauteing.  Roland and I  like to vary our cooking methods from steaming, through sauteing to roasting – every method has its pros and cons, and luckily by rotating you make sure you get valuable nutrients most of the time without making all of your food taste like you are on a vegetable fast at fat camp. Without further cruciferous delay, here are three awesome cauliflower recipes you can easily make – no experience needed.

Cauliflower ”pretend” rice

On this particular evening we had cauliflower rice, cauliflower puree and spaghetti squash and Roland remarked:” It’s really odd to have all pretend rice, mashed potatoes and pasta in the same meal”. It may have been odd, but it was delicious.

To make 4 servings you need:

1 medium head cauliflower (preferably white)

a steamer basket

ice

salt to taste

fat to taste (use ghee, butter, or olive oil)

To start making cauli rice, fill a pot with just a bit of water, and place a steamer basket on the bottom. Let the water heat while you clean and wash the cauliflower. Cut the thick bottom of the stem off and discard the leaves. My favorite way to wash is to submerge it in a bowl of water with a pinch of salt to get rid of little bugs that may be hiding inside the head.

Place the cauliflower, top up, in the steamer pot, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes depending on the size.

Take out and cool in a bowl of ice water.

When cool, use a coarse grater to grate the cauliflower and voila – you have cauli rice.

Season it with salt and fat to taste, and feel free to add extra spices: turmeric, asaphoetida, cumin, black pepper, and why not a touch of walnuts or sliced olives. Mint and cucumbers will make this heavenly.

We usually serve it plain like shown above as a side to hamburger patties, chicken or pork chops. It’s also great with slow cooked beef.

just like mashed potatoes minus the starch

Mashed cauliflower

For those times when you are not having potatoes, a delicious option of similar texture is mashed cauliflower. It takes a blender and a few minutes.

Serves 4

1 medium head cauliflower (steamed)

2 tbsp almond or cashew butter

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup almond milk

Take a steamed head of cauliflower and chop it in small pieces. Toss in a blender or food processor and add the nut butter, seasoning and almond milk. Depending on the consistency of your cauliflower you may need more or less of the almond milk, so don’t put it all in at the same time.

Serve the mashed cauliflower as a delicious side.

p.s. I used nut butter and almond milk because I eat dairy free at the moment, but you can also use half and half and melt in your mouth real butter instead of those.

say yes to color

Roasted colorful cauliflower

When you get your hands on some colored varieties, roast them, just for the dramatic effect. This is how we did it:

Enough for 4 health conscious eaters:

2 small cauliflowers

1 large lemon

4-5 cloves crushed garlic of 1 tbsp garlic powder

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

Preheat your oven to 375F.  Cut the cauliflowers into thin florets. Cut the lemon in wedges. In a big bowl mix the veggies and lemon slices, season with the lemon juice, garlic, salt and olive oil. Once everything is evenly coated distribute in a large pan and roast for 30 minutes. Enjoy hot as a side! Here we show it with some salmon – it was a fine combination!

Do you have any other cabbage questions lingering? Are you wondering if it’s high time you started cooking more? Do you need motivation to eat better? Join our Facebook page and download our free Kindle book – Lose Weight Today!

The post Cauliflower ideas for fall, for the love of crucifers! appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Fall is upon us.

I woke up early to meet the sunrise today – and as I stepped out the contrast was clear – my bare feet on the grass were freezing – and my face was totally enjoying the warm caress of the sun’s first rays. That soft warmth only early spring and fall share.

As I got inside to put some wool socks on and warm my feet, I remembered my Chinese medicine doctor saying – “It’s fall my friend, start warming up your feet – you don’t want your chi to run away!”

The ancients knew about how seasonal changes affect our bodies.

While I don’t have training in Traditional Chinese Medicine, I am trained in Ayurvedic cooking and a big part of our education was learning about the seasons, the elements, how our bodies respond to the transitions and changes.

Ancient systems of healing bring thousands of years of wisdom, and if we rest on sound nutritional principles and the knowledge that has been passed down, we can really start to navigate the changes in seasons with grace and without much difficulty.

In fall, our lungs and intestines are the most susceptible to the changes in weather. Many people will get upper respiratory infections, or just feel weak, bloated and unmotivated once the temperature drops. You know your drive and willpower lives in your gut, so no wonder that many students come to us in fall feeling stuck and lost.

Would you like to try something new this fall?

I have gathered the 11 principles that we share with our private coaching clients so they can move from summer to fall with ease. They are also a key part of our Fall Mini Reset program – our elimination diet to reduce inflammation, increase energy and help you feel great in your skin.

Galina’s 11 tips for a healthy transition to fall

1

Start your morning with a gut strengthening drink. If you already have a favorite warm morning drink – stick with that. Bone broth or a drink with added collagen is excellent.

2

Make protein the base of your meals. Go for a palm-sized amount of a protein of your choice – meat, fish, eggs, or natural cheeses like cottage and paneer. If meat is not your thing, opt for a serving of a high-quality whey or plant-based protein powder. Properly prepared soaked legumes, if you can tolerate them, are also great here.

3

Include seasonal sweet-tasting veggies or fruit with every meal. It’s best for your fruit to be warm and cooked. Baked and poached apples and pears are perfect here!

4

Drink warm tea between meals. You can sweeten it with very small amounts of honey, but best, keep it plain. If tea is not your thing, an infusion of warm water and some herbs or ginger may be a great substitute. Some people are happy to just drink warm water, and if that’s you, more power to you. Just avoid cold, carbonated or icy drinks.

5

Make the bulk of your food warm and moist. Avoid cold juices, smoothies, salads, and sandwiches. In short – anything that is cold or dry. Instead choose warm, cooked, soft, liquid foods.

“This is why you will see less raw and more cooked veggies in the meal plans for our fall Real Food Reset!”

6

Use seasonal spices that balance the cold elements: ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, mustard, cloves,  turmeric, black pepper, anise, vanilla, paprika. These will balance the cold and dry weather and increase your digestion and assimilation. You can buy a mix like Vata Churna to add to your spice cabinet.

7

Use seasonal herbs to balance the cold elements: dill, thyme, rosemary, fennel, mint, basil, bay leaf, oregano, parsley.

8

Keep alcohol, sugar, and processed foods to a minimum. If you are enjoying concentrated sweet foods such as chocolate or cookies, please have a meal before that or accompany with a protein and fat-rich snack.

9

Include fermented vegetables and condiments in your food: sauerkraut, ginger bug, pickled carrots and onions, naturally fermented pickles, kim-chi, fermented mustard, etc. Look for fermented nut cheeses, and naturally fermented cheese and sausage at farmers markets. Enjoy yogurt and kefir as you usually do, but make sure you have them at room temperature, as they are naturally cooling anyways.

10

Make sure you have plenty of bone broth or stock in your fridge. If you find yourself hungry before dinner, make a broth drink and enjoy as you prepare dinner – the warm and nourishing broth will prepare your digestion, curb your appetite and help you control food portions. Soup makes perfect breakfast!

11

Take time to notice your food, smell it, thoroughly chew it and swallow it with attention. Be fully done with one bite, before you continue with the other. Engaging all your senses with your food will help satiate you, but will also improve your digestion, which is easily challenged in the cold season.

And now notice

Take your time to read through these 11 guidelines a couple of times. Notice your response to those suggestions. For example, you might get super excited at the prospect of having warm food every night, yet frown at the idea of broth in a cup before breakfast. Ask yourself why that is and what are some practical ideas or support that you could ask of us to make this tip work for you.

Often, a visceral reaction may mean that you once had one unfortunate experience with a food, only to find out you actually quite enjoy a meal or a new combination of ingredients. Or say that you don’t like fermented foods – it’s ok to skip the suggestions that are really not your cup of tea (no pun intended here!).

Are you ready to feel the change?

We’re kicking off the Fall Edition of our Real Food Reset right now.

Just 30 days of Real Food to kick your cravings, tame inflammation, lose weight, and feel great in your skin

30 days can change your life

• Tired of feeling heavy despite watching what you eat?
• Are you so exhausted you need sugary food and caffeine to function?
• Do chronic aches and pains stop you from exercising and moving the way you love?

Dialing in your nutrition with a seasonal meal plan, real, whole foods, and healing fall spices is exactly what you need.

Learn More About The Real Food Reset and our Fall Special Edition

NOTE: If you’re on our email list, Facebook Group, or in our Eat Move Live 365 Membership Community, please contact me for your Real Food Reset special coupon, which lets you save up to 50% off – Roland@EatMoveLive52.com

We launched in October, but you can start to feel better any day with instant access to the program, all year round!

Find Out More

The post Ancient wisdom for your fall nutrition appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Yes, it’s that time of year, when you look ahead to January 1st and consider what big life changes you can make.

STOP!

If you’re trying to make change that lasts, a New Year’s resolution is the wrong way to do it.

80% of people who make resolutions don’t last more than two weeks.

I know, you’re different. But what if you’re not?

Why resolutions don’t build habits

Actually, they do build habits, but they’re the bad kind.

Here’s the deal: you’re making your goals too lofty.

It’s not your fault, it’s how resolutions have been pushed on us over the years.

Resolutions are big. And a big deal.

Resolutions are life-changing.

• Get healthy, eat more veggies, go keto.
• Journal every day, be happier, meditate daily.
• Walk more, stretch every morning, less screen time.

They’re also kind of all over the place. Some are specific (journal every day), while others are pretty vague (less screen time).

On each end of the spectrum, there’s a big chance of feeling like you failed.

It’s hard to measure whether you’re happier, or whether you ‘got healthy,’ so after a few weeks, you’ll stop and feel like you failed.

Did you know there’s an International Quitters Day?

It marks the day when most people have stopped following their New Year’s resolutions.

It’s the 2nd Friday in January, and 80% of people will have given up on their resolutions by then.

You might stop your resolution after a few weeks, and for a very good reason, but it doesn’t matter to your subconscious.

Not liking keto is a great reason to stop. Especially if it’s not working for you. But again, it doesn’t matter, because if you stop you will feel like you failed. 

At least that’s what your subconscious will tell you.

Good habits are built on successes

Of course good habits are built on success, but what most people don’t realize is that wherever you ‘fail’ at something it makes it less likely you’ll try again. 

And if you do try again, you’re more likely to fail again.

After you fail, it’s common to expect to fail again. 

I mean, the odds that it will be different aren’t great, even when you tell yourself “this time, it will be different.”

Really, what about it is different? This time you mean it? This time you really mean it?

I don’t want to be too harsh, but these are the conversations going on between you and yourself, down in your subconscious.

The bottom line is this: No one wants to fail, but if you think it’s going to happen, it’s probably going to happen, so why try?

Can you see how this gets harder with each attempt?

The solution isn’t to try harder, but to try something else.

Not a different resolution, but a different strategy. 

Build the habit of habits

The habit of habits seems like something a Mother Superior would wear, doesn’t it?

Instead, it’s the practice of forming small habits that build on each other, and doing it over and over again until habit building itself is a habit.

And once you know how to build habits, habit-building gets easier each time.

The best part is that you’ll not only learn how to build habits, but build cool habits at the same time!

The ‘Failproof’ Way to Build a New Habit

1. Pick something you KNOW you can do every day.
2. Do it for an extended but limited and definitive period of time.
3. Give yourself permission to stop if you don’t like it or it’s not working for you.
4. If you didn’t like what you’ve been doing OR the results you got, either modify it or stop it and move on to trying a new habit.
5. If you did like it AND the results you got, either keep going as is, or modify it slightly and start again at #1.

Step 1 — Pick something you know you can do

If you pick something you think you can do, think again. It’s too hard. Go easier.

You need to succeed in this task more than you need to build the ideal habit right now.

That ideal habit part comes later, and it’s often built up of many smaller habits, anyway.

Examples of good daily habits to start:

• Get outdoor light for 5 minutes in the morning
• Walk for 15 minutes after 1 meal
• Write one line in your journal
• Stretch your calves during a commercial break
• Meditate for 5 minutes

Do you see how simple, easy, and doable these are? 

It’s okay to do more, but you want to make sure your minimum is so easy that it’s foolproof.

Step 2 — Do it for an extended but definitive period of time

Two weeks is the minimum, but 21 days, 30 days, or a month might be better.

It takes time to build a habit, but it also takes time to know if you like the process and results.

Step 3 — Give yourself permission to stop

This is HUGE.

I use the word ‘permission’ a lot with my clients, and for good reason.

It’s important to give yourself permission to stop something if you don’t like it or if it’s not serving you. 

This is the key to not failing, or feeling like a failure.

If the habit you’re trying to build is getting up at dawn to go outside and walk, but after a few days, you realize dawn sucks, it’s not a problem to stop, because you gave yourself permission to stop.

Permission to stop is key to not feeling like you failed, even subconsciously.

Never forget you have a subconscious. 

I mean, technically it’s on your side, but its instincts are always the best. 

Step 4 — If you didn’t like it, stop doing it

If you don’t like what you’ve been doing OR aren’t happy with the results you got, either modify the habit or stop it entirely, then move on to trying a new habit.

If you followed rule #1, then it probably wasn’t too hard, but the parameters could have been wrong. 

Was it the wrong time of day or something that you just ended up not liking? 

No problem. If you think you can adjust it and try again, go for it.

If it wasn’t for you, now you know.

Either way, count this as a success.

Build on that feeling by picking another foolproof habit to try!

If you stop this habit, go back to Step 1, use what you’ve learned, and try another new habit.

#5 — If you DO like it, then keep going!

If you’re happy with the results you got and you like how you got them, either keep going (as is), or modify it slightly and start again up at number 1.

Wait, before you move on, this might not be a habit yet

Don’t fall for the myth that habits take 21 days to form. It’s simply not true.

Different habits take different lengths of time, and they are different for everybody (Eur. J. Soc. Psychol). 

You could form a habit in 21 days, but probably not. It will be easier after 21 days, but it’s technically getting easier every day you do it. Starting at day 2..

Congratulations you’ve just shown yourself you can do it, but it probably hasn’t been cemented. 

It’s still all too easy to let things slide if you’re not careful. 

If you want your habit to stick around, long-term, you have to ensure that you maintain the practice or patterns you’ve been doing.

Don’t forget to keep up whatever you did while practicing the habit. 

If you were tracking, logging, or setting up your schedule or workspace to make the habit work, keep doing that until whatever you’re doing is second nature.

The less ‘out of your element’ the new habit is, the longer you might need to keep on it. 

Consider adding a monthly reminder to your calendar to check in on your habits, goals, and progress.

Monthly check-ins are a great way to spot something slipping or needing a change before things get too far off track.

I’ve done a monthly health check-in (with myself) since about 2003.

I use it to check my progress against my goals, but also to make sure I don’t backslide on my healthy habits.

Long ago, I vowed to lose the weight and never gain it back. I credit these monthly check-ins for helping me keep my 110 pound weight loss since 2003!

Congratulations, you’ve built a new habit!

Two, actually, because the habit of habits counts, too. 

Keep this up with new habits, and soon you’ll not only be healthier and happier, but have the ultimate power to build whatever habit you want!

Talk soon,

Roland

PS. You can get my brand-new downloadable cheat sheet/printable, “5 Steps to Building Healthy Habits That Stick,” right here!

The post Instead of New Year’s Resolutions… appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Giving a diet book as a gift is dangerous, but if you’re careful you can give a book that’s healthy to a loved one without sending the wrong message.

The holidays are here, so it’s gift-giving season.

We’re all about books, health, and wellness here, but we realize it can be a bit tricky to give some healthy items as gifts and not offend.

Remember Father of the Bride, when Bryan gave Kimberly a blender?

He didn’t want to domesticate her, he just wanted her to be able to blend her smoothies before her morning runs.

But people in movies (and in real life) can jump to conclusions based on the gift. And a good blender is a great gift. You can blend stuff with them!

And that’s just a blender.

Years ago, my step-dad gave my mom a Thighmaster for Christmas. This was long before Amazon wish lists, and she clearly didn’t want one.

Remember this?

Yeah, Christmas was lovely that year

Now imagine giving your mother-in-law – who mentioned at Thanksgiving that she wants to go gluten-free after all the leftover stuffing is gone – our best-selling nutrition book, The Real Food Reset.

“Are you saying I’m fat?”

Or giving your Uncle Bob our ever-popular men’s health book, Man on Top, because you heard him say he wants to work out in the basement.

“Are you saying I’m fat?”

He was just saying he wants to work out, by the way. He doesn’t really.

With these scenarios in mind…

There ARE great healthy gifts you can give those you love

…without fear of repercussion.

Still, choose wisely, with a little help from my list

My best tips for giving gifts that are healthy is to focus on things I call ‘stealth health.’

Stealth Health Gifts are healthy, overall, and promote a healthy lifestyle, but without too much focus on things like losing weight, fixing people, or changing their appearance.

A book on losing 30 pounds in 30 days certainly sends a message.

A cookbook sends a better one.

Here are some sweet book suggestions to get you started.

Oh, we are affiliates for some of the stores in the links below, which means we can make a small percentage when you purchase, but there’s no additional cost to you.

Ready? We’ll start with the best one. Ours.

Seriously, if you don’t think your own book is great, why would you write it and put yourself out there?

Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well is our best book yet, and we are very, very proud of it.

Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well – 52 Ways to feel better in a week

Galina and I wrote the book with ‘stealth health’ in mind, even if we didn’t use that phrase.

This is the perfect book for people who want to just live a good healthy lifestyle, and explore what it means to be healthy. 52 chapters of simple, non-preachy, stealth-health habits.

We cover cooking, fun and unusual ingredients, movement habits, mindfulness, and more. All these things are simple and easy, but add up to a powerfully healthy life.

Until we write the Big Bathroom Book of Health, this is it.

And I know people already read it there. Talk about stealth health!

Give a Wild gift!

Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health

This is one of our favorite food books!

Ever since farmers first planted seeds 10,000 years ago, humans have been destroying the nutritional value of their fruits and vegetables. Unwittingly, we’ve been selecting plants that are high in starch and sugar and low in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants for more than 400 generations.

Jo Robinson reveals the solution–choosing modern varieties that approach the nutritional content of wild plants but that also please the modern palate. Many of these varieties can be found in supermarkets and farmer’s market! Jo gives you simple, scientifically proven cooking and prep methods that enhance flavor and nutrition, too.

Reclaim the flavor and nutrients we almost lost.

The gift that helps them as they help others

Movement Matters: Essays on Movement Science, Movement Ecology, and the Nature of Movement

Our friend Katy Bowman  asks “What if we can make ourselves, our communities, and our planet healthier—all at the same time—by moving our bodies more?”

That’s what she explores in Movement Matters, her collection of essays investigating the mechanics of our sedentary culture and the profound potential of human movement. Katy invites us to consider our personal relationship with sedentarism, privilege, and nature. Katy reminds us that living a movement-filled life is perhaps the most joyful and efficient way to transform your body, community, and world.

The gift of flavor

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs

It can be hard to choose a cookbook for someone because you might not know what they like, what they cook, and what their dietary limitations might be. That’s why we LOVE The Flavor Bible as a gift.

There are recipes in there, but the book is primarily a matrix of which ingredients go best with the others.

Do they have fennel growing in the garden but don’t know what to do with it? Flip to the fennel page and there’s a long list of meats, veggies, herbs, and spices that complement their mystery herb.

Oh, wait, fennel is also a vegetable? Who knew? The Flavor Bible, that’s who. The authors, I guess, since books don’t actually know things they just store the things we know.

Did you know that one of our top suggestions to ALL of our clients is to cook more?

Cooking your own meals, even fancy stuff

• saves an average of 134 calories per meal
• increases veggies consumption by 28%
• and moves one’s Healthy Eating Index up two whole points (poor to fair or fair to good)

And that’s without even trying.

Yep, if you want to give stealth health, there’s no better book than a cookbook or a book that promotes new and fun ways to eat.

Any of the books above can be helpful, but they are also beautiful, well-written, impressive and just make wonderful gifts.

Other healthy gift ideas

Look, if you know someone really wants a health-related gift, even a diet book, by all means, give it. Just be careful.

Be sure they really want it as a gift, not that they’ve just been talking about it.

Final tip – Just like cookbooks, cooking items like spices, tools, and classes make great gifts, stealth health agenda or not.

Remember, gifts don’t always have to have an agenda, but when they do, a hidden might be best

No matter what you give this year, consider that how you give is just as important as the stuff you’re giving.

Talk soon,

Roland

The post Health Books for the Holidays? Be careful, but do it anyway appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Moms throughout history have said…

“You’re not leaving the table until you finish your plate.”

“I didn’t pay for that dinner for you to waste it.”

“Eat the rest. There’s not enough food to save.”

These are just three of the sayings that lead us to eat more than we should.

We eat more than we need.

Often more than we actually want to.

It’s not your mom’s fault, and it’s not your fault.

These ‘clean your plate’ sayings make no sense.

Unless you consider your instincts.

Even a couple of hundred years ago we didn’t always know when our next meal was going to be.

It made sense to never waste food whenever you had the chance to eat it.

Not today.

Your mom’s instincts and training were passed down to her, just as they’ve been passed down to you, even if you don’t consciously know it.

Our instincts were designed to save us. To protect us. To keep us alive.

And they did, but some of them aren’t changing fast enough.

They need our conscious help to bring them into the modern world.

Our instincts brought us this far,  so thank them, and then tell them you’ll take it from here.

Break the cycle of overeating

A few reminders that should help.

● There’s no minimum size for leftovers if you think about it differently.

Even small amounts of leftovers are great in salads, bowls, or tacos.

Or even as a snack.

● You don’t save money by eating all the food at a restaurant.

No one pays for dinner out because it’s a good value. You eat out to enjoy the experience.

Besides, if you save it for the next meal, that’s when you save money, right?

● And actually, leaving the table BEFORE you finish your plate is a great strategy to stop eating more than you want to.

Better yet, take your plate to the kitchen, and save the leftovers for tomorrow.

The cycle of habits and myths that lead to overeating started long before you and your mom were even born.

It can take time, practice, and support, but you can have the power to override your instincts

They got us here — they got you here — but you no longer need them, so thank them, then break the cycle.

When you’re ready, here are three ways we can help.

Listen to Galina talk emotional eating on our podcast.

Get a free chapter of Galina’s latest book, Peace with Self, Peace with Food, at purebelonging.com/chapter.

Start building new habits that will help you for life with our Eat Well — 12 Habits to Success.

Sign up for a free discovery call and find out how we can help you reach your health, weight, or fitness goals.

Talk soon,

Roland (and Galina, too)

The post You’re not leaving the table until you clean your plate. appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Interview with Galina Denzel

Roland sits down and interviews Galina about emotional eating. We talk about the signs, the reasons why we do it, and three simple things you can do to help you stop emotional eating.

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest!

Stop Emotional Eating

Notes & Links

PureBelonging.com is Galina’s site dedicated to Peace with Self, Peace with Food!

1. We’re back from our super restful road trip!

2. How can you tell if you’re experiencing emotional eating?

3. What are the emotional and physiological reasons that we (yes, us too) emotional eat?

4. What can you do to stop emotional eating?

5. Galina’s drawing exercise can help you regulate your emotions and increase tolerance.

6. Sing! Take advantage of your ancient human social wiring and feel better instantly.

7. Self touch is a powerful way to help yourself feel better (without eating).

8. Stressed (or uber-stressed) by the holidays or anything? Chill Holidays is on hiatus, but check out Unstress Your Body, right here!

9. If you haven’t listened to our Kelly Coffey Episode, then you owe it to yourself to learn about self-love from one of the best!

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Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Stop Emotional Eating appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

If you’re looking for a fun story behind this roasted vegetable salad, think again.

The best I’ve got is this.

Galina had just gotten back from a trip, so she was super tired.

She made this salad, then asked me to write it up for our Eat Move Live 365 Membership Community.

“I’ll text you the ingredients,” she said from bed.

Two minutes later, here’s the text from Galina — 2 cups quinoa

2 cups quinoa? That’s it?

I waited for the rest, but it was too late.

She’d fallen asleep from her jetlag.

She sent the rest in the morning.

Enjoy the salad.

Roasted Veggie Salad with Quinoa and Tahini Dressing

Is this a good time to remind you that most ingredients in salads, soups, and stews are optional?

If you don’t have it or like it, just skip it! I’m looking at you, quinoa

Makes 4 servings

Salad Ingredients

2 cups quinoa dry, cooked, drained, and cooled

2 cups Brussels sprouts, quartered or halved

2 cups Romanesco or cauliflower, cut into florets

2 small or 1 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise, then cut into bite sized pieces

1 colorful bell pepper, seeded and chopped

3 carrots, chopped or cut into bite sized pieces

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

2-3 tbsp parsley, chopped

1-1.5 oz cashews for garnish

Tahini Dressing Ingredients

2 tbsp tahini

4 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt to taste

Directions

Toss vegetables in olive oil and a little salt, then roast in a 375° Fahrenheit oven until tender.

Set aside to cool for a while.

The salad can be served warm, room temperature, or cold.

While the vegetables are cooking and cooling, make the dressing by mixing the tahini, olive oil, garlic, and lemon.

Dilute with a little water if too thick, and salt to taste.

Mix the vegetables with quinoa and the chopped parsley.

Salt to taste and drizzle with the tahini dressing.

Sprinkle with the cashews.

Want more recipes?

If you liked this recipe, we’ve got a ton more. Signup here, or use the link below and I’ll send some over!

Sign up here to get more recipes

Talk soon,

Roland

PS. This is one of the recipes from this month’s Eat Move Live 365 Membership, and we hope you enjoy it!

The post Galina’s Roasted Vegetable Salad with Quinoa and Tahini Dressing appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Galina combines chocolate and orange with powerful chemistry, and creates a healthy and delicious dessert for Valentine’s Day.

Like lovers, the flavors kiss, and magic is made.

Who doesn’t love chocolate dipped strawberries? I surely do. But February in the Northern hemisphere doesn’t have amazing strawberries, other than maybe for decorative purposes. You might still taste the chocolate, but the fruit itself is lost. Tasteless and disappointing.

With a good chocolate dipped strawberry, the chocolate is the garnish, not the dessert itself. When you have a berry that’s lacking, you’re forced to lean on the chocolate, and pretty soon you have either a sub par dessert or a chocolate treat that didn’t need the berries to begin with.

When we’re looking for a healthy and delicious dessert for Valentine’s Day, we want the whole package. We want balance of flavor, texture, and presentation. We also want something light, because Valentine’s Day is not the day to feel heavy, stuffed, groggy, or sleepy. Romance is in the air, so when I pondered the best dessert for a healthy and delicious dessert for February 14th, I still went straight to fruit, but I knew that strawberries just wouldn’t cut it.

Enter the orange

You may have had dark chocolate flavored with orange zest before – a combination that works with the powerful kitchen chemistry usually only seen on a Discovery channel show about food. The elements of each somehow kiss and make magic, and before you know it it’s more than just chocolate and it’s more than just oranges, These two co-ingredients have mixed into a third substance, one that much more delectable, sensual, and even sensuous.

I won’t go into detail here, but as i write this, it’s the day before Valentines, and I am at home, sick.

I never get sick – I think mostly for fear of missing out (is that FOMO?) on my weekends with Roland. For months, sick students have been going in and out my door and I have not gone sick, not even an inkling of it. Yet, when Roland went to New York last week, my body finally sensed I can lay low, so I got it.

On my last day home, today, I felt some energy to get off the floor and do something other than boil water for tea. So I thought I would make some dessert for tomorrow, something that takes minimal effort yet maximizes the gorgeous seasonal fruit we have this time of the year, and celebrates the amazing chocolate and orange marriage so well.

Sweet and juicy Cara-Cara and Navel oranges

Cara-Cara oranges are the more orange ones, very juicy, fleshy and sweet, a variety only available for a few months every year in winter and definitely my personal favorite. Then comes navel oranges, which are more like a true orange and have that delicate bitter aftertaste that plays on the dark chocolate.

Done.

A healthy and delicious dessert for Valentine’s Day

As i hope you can see from my photos, the “recipe” is quite simple.

Chocolate dipped cara cara oranges

2-3 large oranges – wedges or slices

3 oz dark chocolate (melted in a double boiler)

edible flowers, dried fruit, coconut flakes, decorative salt, spices, anything colorful and smaller to stick to the chocolate as a texture element

Start by separating the wedges. The Cara-Caras are softer and you may have some break (more in the mouth while cooking!). Be gentle as you separate. I know you’ve cut oranges before, but the more even the better.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. I used a fair-trade dark chocolate, but any plain, unflavored chocolate would work.

If your double boiler is large or deep, you might want to transfer the chocolate to a smaller, warmed container so it’s easier to evenly dip the pieces.

Lay the pieces out on a plate or cookie sheet topped with a waxed paper or baking paper sheet, then sprinkle anything on top that you would like to stick; then move the sheets to the fridge to cool. Once cooled you can gently separate them from the paper and pick them up and arrange any way you want.

Like this?

Or like this?

There’s no such thing as leftover chocolate!

So what’s with the cashews?

There was “leftover” chocolate, so I dug through the pantry to see what looked dippable, and cashews fit the bill! I grabbed a handful, dipped, and sprinkled some sea salt to boost the fun.

Leftover chocolate is your chance to play around. Experiment. Leftover chocolate is fun and forgiving. Leftover chocolate is the best!

I hope you try this fruit and chocolate (and cashew) combination – I’m excited to hear how it inspired you to make your own healthy and delicious dessert for Valentine’s Day.

We invite you to slow down, savor and enjoy every bite. Food is to be loved and what better reminder of the power of love than celebration? What better way to bring the sweet taste than to use Real Food to nourish your senses and your body.

Want more healthy and delicious dessert for Valentine’s Day? Check these out!

What Roland made for Valentine’s Day + cheesecake in a jar

What Galina made for Valentine’s Day + chili chocolate truffles

The best ice-cream ever + there’s always room for ice cream!

The post Chocolate, fruit, & love – A healthy and delicious dessert for Valentine’s Day appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Whether you’ve got a whole family to keep moving or just yourself, the winter can be a challenge for daily movement.

The cold, rains, wind, and snow tend to keep us not only indoors, where it’s cozy, but also keep us more sedentary.

Luckily, our friend Heidi has some great tips to winterize your movement!

Winterize Your Family’s Movement

How to help your family move more this winter

by Heidi Goodreau, our friend, a busy mom, and a longtime Eat Move Live 365 Community Member

I was born and raised in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

When you grow up here, you understand the word ‘cold’ in winter means anything from single digits to below zero.

There is a Scandinavian adage that works anywhere you have a real winter:

“There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.”

So, let’s start there!

Heidi

Dress for the weather tips

Tip #1: Layers and warm socks

Wool is popular for a reason, and merino wool is easy to care for. The SmartWool  brand is a family favorite.

Tip #2: Warm + waterproof boots

I cannot stress this enough. I wear Manitobah Mukluks. Seriously great, even at -25 degrees.

We do compromise our “barefoot/minimal” footwear for warmth and waterproof in the winter. I do my best for the kids, which has been the Merrell Snow Bank 2.0, which are flat, warm, and waterproof.

Tip #3: Windproof clothes

A windproof, down insulated cover the butt parka for deep winter so you can keep walking outside. (Add in a hat, waterproof mittens, and a scarf.

Tip #4: Warm pants

Warm pants are often overlooked. Layers are key, but so is keeping mobility, so I like to add a wool base layer, fleece-lined leggings).

Snow/Ski/Snowboard pants are great for added warmth and waterproofness.

Now, how to get the kids outside!

Bribe them…

I know, I know. Not ideal, but you’re trying to make the good outweigh the ‘bad.’ Eventually, they’ll just enjoy the outdoors!

Hot drinks

My preferred way is to bring them cocoa or cider.  This is pretty much foolproof.

Add graham crackers or a healthy side for the cocoa.  Ginger thins go great with cider.

You can do this post-walk or activity OR even more fun is to take cocoa to go in a hydro-flask or something that will keep it warm on the go.

Night walks

Night walks can be way more exciting than day walks. Plus, if you are in the north, it gets dark at like 4pm, so take advantage of it.

Name your walks, and do them often so it becomes a ritual.

We call them ‘night walks’ or ‘danger walks.’ I borrowed the danger part from friends with kiddos in Colorado, even though there is literally NOTHING dangerous about the walks.

Add flashlights, lanterns, twinkle lights. candles in a jar, Jedi lightsabers. Make going for walks cool.

Anytime walks

Let the kids lead. They can choose the way, find snowballs, sticks, etc. to play with, or find their favorite trees or spots.

Scavenger hunts are always fun, night or day!

Take a break to build a snowman, snow sculpture, or snow fort.

Make outdoor time normal

Keep walks short, but frequent.

Take short walks even if it is below zero so you don’t go bat-s%%% crazy in the house.

You can literally just go around the block if it’s really, really cold.

Walk them home from school

Setup lights in the backyard so you can have nighttime play.

Remember, a little bonfire can add to the magic, and keep everyone outside more/longer.

Ideas to move more inside in the winter

Indoor movement is often a challenge, but adding a few tools to the house can go a long way!

• Indoor monkey bars (add TRX straps or ninja line)
• Create obstacle courses, pillow trains
• Balance boards
• Mini trampoline (rebounder)
• Hanging bar
• Build pillow forts or blanket tents
• Play games on the floor instead of at the kitchen table
• Play games that have movement built in like Twister or Silly Street.
• Go Noodle – check it out on youtube, below

Tips for managing screen time

Reducing screen time can be super hard especially if your child is not doing in-person learning from school.

1. Give/set time limits and be firm. You are the boss mom and dad.
2. Screen time only on weekends (non-school days/nights).
3. Break up screen time with movement breaks or change seating style.
4. Movement first, screen time after. Or make a movement ‘intermission’.
5. Chores/homework before screen time.

Is it possible to build in a ‘recess’ or walk before/after/during the virtual school day?

Hikes/walks/outdoor adventures for a large portion of the day make movie time, video games, or tv shows afterward more satisfying and rewarding.

Video games, tv, etc can still be off-limits during the virtual school week and saved for weekends, but I know this is dependent on your family’s needs/circumstances. Give yourself some grace during this pandemic.

Remember that you (the adult) also need to manage your screen time.

Take screen (eye) breaks as often as possible to look around the room and out the window.

Get up and move around the house or go outside even if it’s just 5 minutes for fresh air and a stretch.

If you have kids, don’t send them out to play when you can play with them!

I hope this helps generate some winter movement ideas

These are some things that I do with my family, and they’ve worked well for us.

By all means, we are not perfect. My kids, like most, love to gorge on Minecraft and Netflix kids programs.

But, since we’ve started our night walks after dinner, they’ve become a family tradition. We try to do them every night during the school week.

Enjoy your winter of more movement!

Heidi

How about 10 more great tips to get outside this season?

Get the tips here or with the button below.

If you want to get to know Heidi, you can find her in our Eat Move Live 365 Community or follow her on Instagram!

Heidi Goodreau on Instagram

Our Eat Move Live 365 Community

The post Winterize Your Family’s Movement appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

The best diet dessert isn’t a diet dessert at all. Any dessert can fit in your diet if you eat the right amount and it’s part of your plan.

In my opinion, the best diet dessert is one that you love, but only have when it’s part of your plan.

If you don’t know by know, cheesecake is my favorite dessert, and honestly, I’d rather have a smaller piece of normal cheesecake than most ‘healthy’ cheesecakes, anyday.

The same goes for cookies or ice cream.

I’d rather have less of a treat that tastes great than a daily dose of an ‘ice cream’ that’s 240 calories of meh in a whole pint. Yuck.

So, I eat real cheesecake when I want cheesecake, but make it part of my plan, and not an everyday thing.

That being said, most normal cheesecakes have too much sugar for my taste. They also use crusts that my family or friends can’t eat.

So I make most of my cheesecakes gluten-free, less sweet, and usually make them (yes, them) personal sized.

The style

I started with my mom’s cheesecake recipe, which is a thinner style that’s more of a pie than a tall cake, but then I made it my own.

The sugar

For the most part, sugar is sugar, so don’t get hung up on using some healthy sugar — white sugar will give you the whitest cheesecake, but feel free to use raw sugar or something like coconut sugar, but just be prepared for an off-white cheesecake vs white white.

Brown sugar has a strong taste, so don’t use that unless you want to taste brown sugar.

The crust

My cheesecake uses an almond flour crust instead of graham crackers, but you can substitute crushed nuts or another even go crustless, and it’ll be equally tasty, just different.

The size

One great way to eat the right amount of dessert is to only make the amount you plan to eat.

To make it even easier, I like to make them each in a personal size ramekin or dish.

For these, I used 4oz (150g) ramekins, but teacups, tiny bowls, or small mason jars work great, too. 

Don’t worry about not being able to remove them for serving, because you eat them straight out of the dish.

The taste

If you think it won’t be great, think again. 

I feed these to my ‘normal’ friends without telling them it’s a better-for-you cheesecake, and they eat it up like it’s some sort of decadent guilty pleasure.

Joke’s on them, right?

Enough story. Here’s the recipe.

By the way, I posted these pictures of my latest cheesecake creation on Instagram, and La Societe Prive asked for the recipe, so here we go…

Personal Cheesecake Recipe

Here is what you need for 4 personal cheesecakes.

Note that you need to bring the cream cheese and sour cream to room temperature before cooking.

Crust

4 ramekins, jars, or cups

1/2 cup almond flour

2 tbsp butter, melted

Salt to taste

Filling

1 8oz package of cream cheese (room temperature)

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp good vanilla extract or some real vanilla seeds (optional)

Sour Cream Topping

1/4 to 1/2 cup sour cream (room temperature)

1 tbsp sugar

Personal Cheesecake Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make the crust first.

Stir almond flour and butter together, and salt to taste. I like the sweet/salty taste with my cheesecake, so I typically add a pinch or two, especially if I’m using unsalted butter.

Divide the crust between the four dishes, and use the back of a spoon to press it down into a firm crust.

Now, make the filling.

Using either a mixer or a bowl, wooden spoon, and a strong arm, cream the room temperature cream cheese with 1/3 cup sugar until smooth and well combined. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Divide the filling between the four dishes, using the back of a spoon to smooth it out.

Bake the cheesecakes for 15-20 minutes. They will puff up quite a bit, but don’t worry!

Remove them from the oven and set aside for 15 minutes.

Time to make the topping.

Stir the room temperature sour cream and 1 tbsp sugar together. 

Carefully spoon the topping onto the cooled and deflated cheesecakes. Use the back of a small spoon to carefully smooth it out.

Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Serving the cheesecakes.

You can eat them warm if you like, but for a more traditional cheesecake experience, cool them, then cover and chill for a few hours or overnight before eating.

A few fresh berries make a nice garnish, but feel free to keep it pure, too!

What makes the best diet dessert for you?

Is it a personal cheesecake? A serving of fancy ice cream? A bakery cookie?

Let me know the best diet dessert for you!

Roland

The post The best diet dessert just might be a personal cheesecake appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

The internet is full of health hacks and advanced fitness advice, but when it comes to basic tips, sometimes the basics are hard to find.

Full disclosure, one of the most powerful health hacks out there is simply to go back to the basics.

Unfortunately, we’ve spent so much time trying to hack ourselves, that by today’s standards, the basics can seem basic.

Or even weird.

…but hey, I’ll take it!

#FullDisclosureFriday

If you hang out on social media, then you’re probably familiar with Full Disclosure Friday, where people let loose and share their innermost secrets!

Like admitting you don’t like coconut oil, or that you’ve never seen Star Wars, even though you quote it all the time.

That’s not my disclosure, by the way. I’ve seen Star Wars over 25 times.

That I’ve seen it so many times is not my embarrassing disclosure, either, although maybe it should be.

No, my #FullDisclosureFriday is about how much I love this 1-star review of our latest book.

“Basic advice sprinkled with weird advice.”

And yes, that’s the whole review.

The review itself is kind of basic.

And certainly weird.

My full disclosure is…

I always start with the 1-star reviews of any book I’m interested in.

1-star reviews are rarely about the book itself, but more about whether the book was right for the reader, so I can use them as a shortcut.

This reviewer obviously has the basics down (I hope), and is NOT interested in weird.

Whatever is considered weird is in this case is not specified.

That’s too bad, because I love weird, and basic totally works for most people.

At minimum, it’s a great place to start.

Do you want lasting, sustainable health, wellness, and fitness?

This particular basic and weird 1-star review is from our latest book, which, coincidentally is actually about simple, small habits that stack up over time, leading to big results.

Each chapter IS basic.

By design.

And weird? Let’s see…

Basic health advice?

Some of our chapters challenge you to go barefoot more often, sit on the floor, journal a little, or find a peaceful space where you’re not constantly blasted by outside noise.

We teach you how to find sustainable fish that you don’t need to fear, batch cook on Sundays, and move like a baby.

These things are pretty basic, but they aren’t random. Each one has a reason, which we explain every step of the way.

Besides, basic advice is only a flaw if you already know it.

And already do it.

Weird health advice?

Yes, some of it might be weird by modern day standards, but some of today’s most socially acceptable stuff is actually pretty weird. Like green smoothies?

Or worse, green smoothies that aren’t even green!

If you don’t think smoothies, green or purple, are weird, you’re not being honest with yourself.

Basic?

Most of us have tried the more elaborate stuff many times before, yet “here we are again.”

Weird?

Bring it on.

In the case of our book, I hope this 1-Star review will tempt people to get curious, maybe have a look at the table of contents and think ‘I do need basic. Now let’s get a little weird.”

Basic health advice equals better health

Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well is available at all major booksellers, like Barnes & Noble and Amazon, so check it out.

It’s got a lot of great reviews, including my favorite one, with that one star!

Weird is just a bonus

If you want a little basic, a little weird, AND a lot more good health, you can get it all in Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well – 52 ways to feel better in a week.

Click here or the book cover to get your copy

Here’s my #FullDisclosureFriday number two.

Health hacks are fine, but they’re if you ask me it’s actually pretty weird not to try the basics first.

Talk soon!

Roland

The post Full Disclosure Friday – Basic health advice, weird advice appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

No time for the gym?

Watch this quick video for ideas on how to use your Halloween pumpkin as a training tool to burn off all the candy coming your way!

Happy Halloween Tips!

If you want more Halloween tips, checkout Galina’s article “How to Trick Your Treats this Halloween!” and survive the candy onslaught in style!

Want a great, simple, and effective home-based workout to get you through the upcoming seasons?

Try 25 Minutes to Fit, available in all the best online stores!

Happy Halloween!

Roland and Galina

The post VIDEO: Happy Halloween Workout! appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

You gotta love Halloween! The costumes, the decoration, the pumpkins. …and all that candy calling to you from bowls set out weeks before the 31st. 

Halloween…

It’s all good until you realize too much candy has messed up your diet, your gut, your mood, and your energy …again.

Technically, there is nothing spooky about candy, but many Halloween seasons of coaching has taught us two things: first, if you don’t tolerate sugar well and you love candy, you may want to have a strategy around your consumption.

Second, if you are the kind of person who has all or nothing thinking, candy season can feel like a trap. 

But there is good news, you can take some steps and think about the kind of Halloween season you want to have, enjoy it, not let it wreak havoc on your body, and not feel like you have to do something right after to “make it right”.

After all, you want to have space for treats and have them on your terms.

1. It helps to buy candy right before Halloween 

In most homes and work places if candy is lying around, it will get eaten. But see, you have the choice and control over when to stock. The day before, or a month before.

What if you spent the weeks before Halloween focused on the activities, the decorations, the intricacies of pumpkin carving, and only leave the candy for the day of the 31st?

Wouldn’t that be kinder to your gut, your mood, your energy levels?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have it for a couple of days, and not really sweat it the rest of the time? 

2. Eat something nourishing in addition to candy

A real story here, but we have several clients who will eat just candy around the holidays, and skip important meals.

Candy is not a complete food, and while fine in small amounts around meals, is not a meal on its own.  Most of our clients share that just eating candy can interfere with appetite patterns and leaves them wanting way more than the original “just one piece”.

There’s nothing wrong with having some sweet food in addition to the whole nourishing food you are already eating, so make sure you just save that for last.

3. Don’t keep the candy around after the holiday

Your body can handle a bit more sugar once in a while. But many days in a row may see diminishing returns on enjoyment and increased discomfort.

A large percentage of our students report feeling better when they set their own limits on when to have candy around and when to keep it away.

We also know how powerful the effect of environment is on making choices and changing habits – if you are aware that candy is tempting, consider giving it all away on the 1st.

4. Respect other people’s candy

That includes your kids’ candy.

Often, as we sit with students the weeks after Halloween, we hear stories about candy around the house that was just there, because it is the kids’ or their spouses.

Choose what candy you enjoy and have a reasonable amount yourself while letting everyone else have theirs.

5. Eat the best candy

You can rate each candy and choose the best ones – this will not only allow you to truly enjoy your treats, but will probably be so much more satisfying.

Of course, portion size matters, so be gentle with you, rate how full or satiated you are, and use common sense.

6. Make the office NO-candy land

If you have a costume party, stick to offering candy there, but keep it off the desks and counters, as seeing it will make it easier to eat a ton of it.

In his book  Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink shows us how just being able to see candy raises your chances of eating it!

If you must have it at the office, keep it out of sight until party time.

8. Make moves

This is especially true for our students who are on a weight loss journey.

Planning an active day on Halloween is probably a great way to stick to your plan and make sure you are moving and enjoying your chosen treats. 

Check out our Pumpkin Workout for a fun way to squash your way to fit!

9. If you can’t have just one

If you are a person who eats some candy and then has days and days of intense cravings, or even blood sugar disruptions, you may want to look deeper into what’s causing that to occur.

While not that common, foods containing sugar can be a trigger for some people.

Consult a nutritionist or RD who can support you in returning to a balanced menu, so these disturbances don’t last long. 

What are your best tips for Tricking Your Treats this Halloween?

When you do eat candy, what is your favorite?

Do you have a strategy to enjoy your candy and feel great?

What do you notice about your eating behaviors around the holidays? Are there triggers? Or you are unaffected? Let us know!

We’ll be discussing this and more in our free Facebook Community.

Why not join in the discussion today?

With all that said – happy happy happy Halloween!

Galina

PS. This article originally appeared in 2015. We have since made some needed edits to reflect the current conversations and the needs of the students we support.

The post Trick Your Treats This Halloween! appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

The Nutrient-Dense Path to Good Health and Autoimmune Wellness

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Show Notes and Podcast Listener Links

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EatMoveLive52.com/PodcastGuest

The Nutrient-Dense Podcast with Mickey Trescott

Mickey Trescott – Author and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner

Mickey is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and author of three best-selling books, The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook, The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook and The Nutrient-Dense Kitchen. She is also co-host The Autoimmune Wellness Podcast and co-teach The AIP Certified Coach Practitioner Training Program with Angie Alt.

Her journey to the Autoimmune Protocol started as a vegan, having been diagnosed with both celiac and Hashimoto’s disease. Instead of feeling better after my diagnosis, she continued to suffer many months of deteriorating health until she made the transition to the Autoimmune Protocol, slowly reversing vitamin and mineral deficiencies and greatly improving my health.

Today, she lives with her husband, Noah on their homestead in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, with their cat Savannah and horse Bear.

When she’s not getting crazy in the kitchen or researching how to live better with autoimmune disease, she can be found riding horses on my family’s farm, obsessively knitting a pair of socks, or figuring out how to build a non-toxic, sustainable home.

Topics Discussed

• Where is the autoimmune paleo community today compared to 7 years ago when your first book was published?
• What was one defining moment for you and your mindset when you went from feeling ill and worsening to turning things around and starting to feel better? Was there a spiritually or emotionally significant shift?
• What do you have to say about listening to your body? When someone is symptomatic and feels like their body is betraying them or falling apart, what’s one piece of advice you have for them to help them start seeing the body not as an enemy but as an ally?
• What research do we have today that we didn’t have in the early days of AIP? Could you talk about the IBD, Hashimotos and Psoriasis studies that you are a part of? What aspects of the recent Hashimoto’s study would you like to discuss or you find very clinically significant?
• When reintroducing what are some common symptoms that people should look for?
• What are some foods you are enjoying today that you didn’t think you would ever eat again?
• What are your personal strategies for getting variety in your diet?
• Let’s talk coffee – what do you see as a practitioner? Does it matter how high quality it is or is coffee just coffee?
• If we look at movement as a nutrient what do you think the role of movement rich lifestyle is in healing from autoimmune illness?
• How do you define healing from autoimmune illness? Is there a “free” or “remission” point?
• Can we talk sweeteners – one thing people miss so much is the sweet taste – how do you help people with having their sweets and not feeling deprived or socially isolated from family and friends? Honey, maple syrup, etc, vs industrial sweeteners?
• Chronic illness is truly a test of character and it will test us down to our very soul – what do you feel got you through the most difficult times?
• Tell us about becoming a nutrivore – what do you have to say to people who are just embarking on that journey?
• Tell us about a day in your life – what’s it like in your kitchen, and in your life as a whole? What’s on your menu as far as eating, moving and living?
• Tell us about your latest book – and it’s so sweet that it opens with a picture of your grandma? How do you feel that connection has influenced your work and path?
• A question from an RD friend: Do people with Autoimmune conditions have a more difficult time losing weight and burning fat? If so, how can you remedy the obstacle? What is of top priority – calming the immune system or losing weight?
• A question from a long time AIP follower who literally called you her goddess Do you ever limit carbs, I have been gaining weight on AIP? Should I treat honey like a regular sugar – I put it in my tea and smoothies?

Mickey Trescott’s Links and Resources

Mickey’s Book (affiliate link) – The Nutrient-Dense Kitchen – 125 Autoimmune paleo recipes for deep healing and vibrant health

Website – Autoimmune Wellness – Seeking Health + Building Community

Podcast – Autoimmune Wellness Podcast

Instagram – Mickey Trescott on Instagram

Instagram – Angie Alt

Love the show?

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post The Nutrient-Dense Podcast with Mickey Trescott appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Coffee house-level coffee might seem hard to make at home, but it’s not.

Make fun of hipsters all you want, but those baristas at the coffee house make amazing coffee.

Sure they have all that cool equipment, but when you look a little closer it’s actually pretty simple dash–Good coffee, a good brewer, good water, and a good grinder.

Coffee house-level coffee might seem hard to make at home, but it’s not.

These three simple tips for better coffee will have you feeling like a barista in no time.

Hipster beard not required, but it couldn’t hurt.

Drink Coffee. Not Too Much. Mostly Black.

I’m a health coach, so I wouldn’t be writing about coffee if I didn’t think it was healthy for most people.

In fact, Chapter 13 of our book  Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well is called “Drink Coffee. Not too much. Mostly Black.”

Yes, black.

In our book, we recommend people try coffee black OR with just a little dairy or nut milk, because these are the ways coffee is at its healthiest.

Did you know coffee is a good source of antioxidants?

Coffee itself is pretty healthy, actually, and it’s one of the most potent sources of antioxidants in the western diet.

Coffee’s got a lot going for it, at least until you add in all those extras.

But drink it black?

When I ask my clients and readers why they don’t like our minimalist coffee recommendations, they usually tell us coffee without dairy, sugar, or non-dairy creamer is just plain nasty.

But it shouldn’t be.

Good coffee should never taste bad

Coffee can be an acquired taste, mostly because it’s bitter, but think about all the acquired tastes you’ve come to enjoy over the years, starting with dark chocolate.

Seriously, how does dark chocolate even compete with milk chocolate? It’s only because people gave it a chance and kept trying.

The same can be said of things like wine, beer, chili peppers, sauerkraut, kimchi, dandelion greens, mustard, and more.

And those are just a few things. Remember how much you hated when you were a kid. Kids don’t like anything, but adults like lots of the things we spit out back then. Because we gave them a chance.

Ok, speech over.

It’s easy to make great tasting coffee at home

Luckily it’s easy to make good coffee yourself – Coffee even a connoisseur would enjoy.

So easy in fact that my three simple tips for better coffee are all you need to get your coffee close to perfection.

Three easy tips for making better coffee

I’m going to skip over recommending better coffee for now because coffee preferences are so subjective.

I’ll assume you’re buying good coffee already, because if you weren’t you wouldn’t be wanting to read how to make it better; you’d have started by buying better beans.

So, good coffee in hand, here are my three easy tips to making better coffee at home.

I suggest starting with #1, as that’s your biggest bang for the buck.

1. Use a Better Brewer

This simple little thing brews coffee, then sits on top of a cup or small pot, and is my secret sauce to making barista-quality coffee at home.

The Clever Dripper can be used to make a pot or just set it on top of your cup if you’re making coffee for one.

Brewing coffee is a science, but it’s not rocket science. And it’s not hard if you have the right tool, like the Clever Dripper.

The Clever Dripper is not a pour-over device, even though it looks like one.

The Clever Dripper is actually a full immersion brewer (like a French Press), meaning the coffee grounds and hot water are mixed together, given time to work their magic, then the coffee is drained and filtered into your cup or carafe.

Why not just use a French Press?

Because a Clever Dripper has a filter so you have smoother, cleaner, more coffee house-like coffee.

It’s also easier to clean up, by far.

And if you live in a drought area or don’t want to waste a lot of water and energy rinsing grounds, this is the tool for you!

The Clever Dripper is foolproof

Stick in a filter, add your coffee, add hot water, stir for a few seconds to wet the grounds and wait. After 2-5 minutes, set it on top of your cup or pot. Easy.

The Clever Dripper is also inexpensive and uses standard #4 filters, which you can get at any grocery store.

Why not start with a pourover?

Because pourovers are the opposite of foolproof. They take practice, plenty of concentration, and even a special kettle for gentle pouring the hot water.

Heck, pourovers can be hard for baristas, too.

2. Use Better Water

Your water might taste fine in the glass, but maybe you’re just used to it.

Besides, even if it tastes good, the flavor is only half of the story.

Brewing coffee is a chemical reaction using heat and water, so it’s not just the taste of the water that makes the coffee. The mineral content of the water is kind of a big deal.

Minerals affect which compounds are extracted during brewing, and which are left inside the bean.

Water is so important that professionals at coffee houses and competitions use water that’s filtered, purified, or distilled, and then if it’s not perfect, minerals are added back in! Seriously.

Using better water isn’t hard, but it means buying spring water, drinking water, or purified water (but not distilled, because distilled water has no minerals at all).

We suggest a water filter for long-term savings and for environmental reasons, but you can test this tip out with bottled water.

Good water is available for under a dollar a gallon at any grocery store. Splurge and get a name brand for $1.25!

Want to get water crazy?

Check out Third Wave Water in the links, below. Third Wave Water isn’t even water itself, but tiny packets of minerals that you add to the store-bought distilled water I just told you not to use.

Distilled water by itself would make flat, lifeless coffee, but add the perfect minerals in via Third Wave Water and you’ve got water (and coffee) that a perfectionist will love.

3. Use a Better Grinder

Some would argue that a good grinder is critical, and it can make a big difference. That’s very true for some coffee brewers.

A special grinder is especially important if you’re doing a pour-over.

Luckily, the Clever Dripper isn’t a pour-over. Because it’s an immersion brewer, it helps minimize the differences between grinders, which is why this can be #3.

Standard blade grinders, like most people already have at home, produce inconsistently sized grounds.

That means you can have everything from big, jagged chunks down to tiny, rounded grounds. The whirling blades are pretty random, and make for randomly sized coffee grounds.

When hot water filters down through these inconsistent grounds (in a dripper or pour-over) they fail to bring out the flavor from the bigger bits and can over-extract flavor from the little ones.

You can end up with bitter, sour coffee. It can also be too weak or too strong. It will always be inconsistent.

Enter the burr grinder

A burr grinder is what they use at a coffee house, and what we use at home. It produces coffee grounds that are consistent, and always close to the same size and shape.

As a result, the water wets the grounds consistently. It also flows over and through the grounds smoothly and at a consistent rate, making a better cup of coffee.

Want to taste the difference before you splurge on a grinder?

Have your coffee shop grind half your bag of coffee, then do your own comparison at home with your blade grinder and your new Clever Dripper using the rest.

If you notice a significant difference, buy a burr grinder.

If you only have a cup or two a day, you can start with a hand grinder, which is an inexpensive burr-grinder.

If you make more than two or three cups per day at home, go electric!

Springwater, a Clever Dripper, and a burr grinder!

Here’s our “better coffee trifecta,” below.

Three simple tips for better coffee – Springwater,  Clever Dripper, and our Hario Mini Mill Slim Hand Grinder.

What about better coffee beans?

Why is ‘buying better coffee’ not even in the top three?

Before you splurge on better beans, I want you to see that the coffee that you’re already buying can be even better!

Even with steps 1 and 2 you’re sure to taste improvements in your Trader Joe’s Guatemala, your Starbucks Blonde, or your grocery store Colombian.

Yes, do buy better coffee, but not before you’ve seen what good water, better brewing, and a great grinder can do for the coffee you already love!

Tools to make better coffee at home

With better water, better brewing, and a better grinder, you’ll be well on your way to coffee as good (or better) than you can get at most coffee houses.

Check out the links below for some of our favorite coffee tools, all of which we’ve tried or own ourselves. Some of them are amazon affiliate links, which help support this website without costing you anything more.

Enjoy better coffee!

Better Brewer

Clever Dripper – The foolproof home coffee brewer that can do double duty as a pourover coffee maker. I’ve literally given three of my own away AND purchased several as gifts. That’s how much I love the Clever Dripper.

French Press – I’m not a huge fan of the French Press, but a lot of you are. If you like coffee more rustic, it might be for you. I recommend one made of metal, not glass. It’s safer, since it won’t crack under pressure from a too find grind and the double walls keep the coffee hot longer.

Better Water

Spring or Purified Water is available at the grocery store for about a dollar per gallon.

We recently started using a Berkey Filtration system, which makes our water (and our coffee) taste great!

Or, try Third Wave Water, which you simply add to a jug of distilled water (not purified or spring water) from the grocery store.

Better Grinders

Hario Mini Mill Slim Hand Coffee Grinder – This is the hand grinder we have. The jar is plastic, so great for traveling.

If you prefer glass for home use, try the excellent Hario Skerton Ceramic Coffee Mill.

Bodum BISTRO Burr Grinder – This is the electric grinder we have now. It’s a fine grinder, but does not have the level of grind adjustment I want. It’s a fine starter grinder, but when it breaks I plan to replace it with the Baratza  Encore grinder, below.

If you already KNOW you need a good grinder, start with the Baratza, below!

The Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder – The Baratza is more durable and adjustable than the Bodum, and is only about $40 more. This will be my next grinder!

Enjoy better coffee, black or not!

Coffee shouldn’t taste bad.

Ever.

Better water, better brewing, and better grinding make better coffee!

With these three simple tips for better coffee, it will never taste bad again.

Want to dive deeper?

My new coffee friend, Asser Christensen, takes my coffee knowledge to the next level,

If you want to REALLY know the hows and whys of great coffee, read his latest post on The Fundamentals of Specialty Coffee!

Asser is a licensed Q Arabica Grader and full time coffee writer, so he knows his stuff!

Enjoy!

Roland

The post Three simple tips for better coffee appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Figs are easily one of my top three fruits. In Bulgaria, everyone knows what to do with figs, starting with eating them right off the tree, and if any of them make it home, we just take it from there.

In America, not so much. But many of my clients and readers buy them at the farmers market, then end up asking me what to do with figs, now that they have them.

Figs are a super seasonal fruit, which makes them seem extra irresistible. Good figs can be hard to find, and once you have them you must move fast or they spoil quickly. Most people are familiar with the Fig Newton, but don’t really know much about figs on their own. It’s a shame, because figs are easily one of the most satisfying, delectably sweet and unforgettable fruits you can eat!

Health benefits of figs

Something this rare must be healthy, right?

Turns out that figs are full of fiber, potassium, magnesium and calcium. They are also beneficial to digestion and blood sugar regulation, and some cultures use them to help with weight loss and reproductive challenges.

In our work with weight loss clients, figs come in as a great addition to a rich and delicious diet centered around whole seasonal produce – much of what we teach is based on the principle of listening to nature when it comes to food. The four seasons help create a menu that will satisfy you, while providing energy and essential nutrients.

When you base your meals around what’s in season and really embrace it, you might find that cravings are lessened, you might feel fuller longer, and you are able to reach and maintain optimal weight without super strict (and unsustainable) dieting.

Roland and I give our seal of approval to figs. All 150 kinds of them. And yes, that’s how many there are!

What is a fig, anyway?

A fig is a synconium, or false fruit …or multiple fruit. It’s complicated.

Fun fact – the fig is actually many fruits in one, and the fig itself starts as an inverted flower. Lot’s of flowers, actually. That you can never see, because it’s, um, inverted. Like I said, it’s complicated.

Another fun fact – that thing at the bottom of the fig that looks like an eye is called an ostiole. It’s the only way into the fig, and that’s complicated, too. More about that, and how figs are pollinated through a crazy relationship with wasps – here.

Now stop thinking about the wasps that sacrificed so much for your figs, and read these recipes!

What to do with figs?

As you probably know, figs ripen quickly. So quickly in fact, that you want to bring them home from the market, or down from the tree, and do something with them just as quick. Don’t worry about what to do with figs, just pick out some good ones and bring them home! Now.

Like right now.

Because they are the best now.

Now that you’ve got them at home,  I’m sure you’re wondering just what to do with all the figs!

Fig Street Tacos

When you ask someone what to do with figs, you probably don’t expect them to say ‘make fig tacos,’ but listen, make fig tacos!

Serves 2

• 6 taco shells (whole corn gives these tortillas a darker look, but any organic corn tortilla will do)
• 4 oz goat cheese (use a nut cheese if you don’t do dairy)
• 8 figs, cut into circles
• arugula to decorate and add bitter crunch

Cook the tortillas on a pan, and arrange on a plate.

The rest of the work is just crumbling the cheese, arranging the figs and placing the arugula leaves on top.

What about making arugula pesto and taking things to the next level? Go for it!

Overnight Coconut Oats with Figs and Nut Milk

Overnight oats are super simple – they save cooking time, but they also taste more nutty and clean than cooked oats.

Here, the combination with coconut is spot on – texture and taste complement each other perfectly.

I only made two servings of these, but double and triple as you need.

Serves 2

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup coarsely shredded coconut
• 1 cup nut milk of your choice (almond or coconut is great here)
• 4 figs

Layer the dry ingredients in the two bowls and add the liquid.

Let the oats sit in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, add sliced figs.

You can add more nut milk if you like, but just added spoons and ate!

Spices and flavors you could add: cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon zest

Party Figs

Figs are a complete experience in and of themselves – smooth skin, juicy and delicate flesh, and crunchy little seeds.

As smooth as they are, they are even smoother when mascarpone cheese helps bring all the flavors and textures together.

For this recipe, we used just a bit of cheese on each fig.

For 16 figs

• 16 figs
• 3 oz mascarpone cheese
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground cardamom
• 1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)

Whisk the mascarpone cheese and cardamom together until smooth. Transfer the cheese mixture to a piping bag (or small plastic bag with a tiny hole). Squeeze just enough on top of each fig to cover it with the cheese.

Depending on the shape of your figs if you want them upright, you may need to slice the bottoms a bit, so you have a flat surface to rest them on.

Enjoy serving, sharing, and eating these little party figs – we love them so much!

Now you truly know what to do with figs

Fig tacos, overnight oatmeal, stuffed with cheese, or just eaten out of hand, figs are healthy and delicious. Now you’ll never wonder what to do with figs again!

What about you? Have you got your own favorite tip for what to do with figs?

Drop us a line below and let us know what you do when you have too many figs!

…if that’s even possible.

Love,

Galina

PS – Want more recipes? You check out the list of all of our recipes, here: EatMoveLive52 Recipes

The post What to do with figs appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

A coach and a lover of all things outdoors, the unbreakable Kate Galliett joins us to talk outdoor adventure, whether you’re in the city, the country, or anywhere in between!

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

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Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

Show Notes and Podcast Listener Links

For all show notes, links, and downloads, click here or the image below.

EatMoveLive52.com/PodcastGuest

Get Outdoors with the Unbreakable Kate Galliett

Kate Galliett has been a Fitness Trainer and Coach for 18 years.

Kate worked first in a commercial gym setting, then ran her own facility in the suburbs of Chicago for a number of years before moving her entire coaching practice online. She’s subsequently moved to Utah to become more active in the outdoors.

Her online writing and coaching programs can be found at her sites, Fit For Real Life and The Unbreakable Body.

She now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah where she puts her own unbreakable body to use moving through the mountains and nature regularly – and she hopes to encourage more folks to connect to nature in whatever way suits them best.

Topics Discussed

• Tell us a little bit about your work and what a day in your life typically looks like?
• How did you grow up and how do you think it influenced your connection with nature?
• How has your work as a movement teacher evolved through the years to include natural movement and the outdoors? What drove that?
• So much of your work is online and with a computer. How do you balance your still time and technology time with your outdoor time? And when you don’t how do you feel it in your body or mentally and emotionally?
• You help thousands of people through your work. What do most people who learn with you need the most and where do you feel nature-deficit has influenced their bodies?
• People who come to us have aches and pains and injuries and challenges and I’m sure it’s similar with your population. How can getting out in nature help?
• You climb, hike, ski, hunt – and for a typical urban person looking to be healthy and well this may look like it’s hard and even unattainable. What do you say to someone who wants to do more and prepare to get out and do these larger activities over time?
• When people come to you, what level of physical capacity do they have? How do you motivate clients at different levels of skill to get outdoors?
• What activities do you introduce to people who are in a city and can’t get out in the wild?
• Have you noticed any benefits or side effects when you camp longer? There are some studies that show regulation of sleep cycles with sleeping outdoors??
• Who or what are your inspirations these days? What keeps Kate ticking and getting out of bed in the morning?
• How can people connect with you and have a taste of the lovely work you do online?

Links and Resources

The Unbreakable Body

The Unbreakable Body on Instagram

Kate Galliett on Instagram

Love the show?

Subscribe and Review the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

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It only takes a minute to leave a quick review. Just try ten words and see how fast it goes!

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Get Outdoors with the Unbreakable Kate Galliett appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

These thinly sliced chicken breasts grill up quick and easy on the grill, and the simple fruit salsa makes for a cool, refreshing change of pace.

Whether you thinly slice or pound the chicken breasts, they’ll grill up quick and easy on the grill.

You can also use chicken breast tenderloins, which are already pretty close to bite sized, or swap in salmon filets if you’re in that kind of mood.

When it comes to fruit, use whatever is fresh.

I used a peach, two small red plums, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, green onions, and lime juice, but mango, cucumber, citrus sections, and even a serrano chili would be amazing.

Mix and match!

Grilled Chicken with Summer Fruit Salsa

Serves 4

1 lb thinly sliced or pounded chicken breast

¼ cup soy sauce

1 tsp fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce (optional)

½ lime, juiced

1 tbsp grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

About 2 lbs mixed, summer fruit, chopped into small pieces – peaches, nectarines, plums, mango, citrus sections, etc.

1 green onion, chopped

1 large tomato or 1 cup cherry tomatoes, chopped

1 colorful, sweet bell pepper, seeded and chopped

½ lime, juiced

Salt to taste

Directions

Add chicken to a large bowl, along with the soy sauce through the garlic.

Stir to coat and refrigerate 1-4 hours, but not overnight.

Make salsa by stirring fruit, onion, tomato, peppers, and lime juice together.

Salt to taste.

Salsa is best when made at least an hour ahead and served at room temperature.

Grill chicken over medium hot flame or in the broiler until cooked through, about 10-15 minutes.

Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Spoon salsa over the chicken and eat.

Serve with rice, tortillas, or grilled corn on the cobb.

Alongside tons of grilled veggies, of course!

The post Grilled Chicken with Summer Fruit Salsa appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Join us for the very best of summer fruits and vegetables!

Have you signed up for the Summer Refresh yet?

We’re doing it again, and we’d love you to join us and share with your family and friends.

The Summer Refresh is free, and includes…

5 days of summer recipes, new each day

Five seasonal vegetables and fruits, served in all-new ways

And on day 6, you’ll get a downloadable, printer-friendly book of recipes that are yours to keep

The Summer Refresh is free, low stress, and designed to introduce you and your family to easy, healthy, delicious, and refreshing summer recipes.

Sign up here or learn more at the link below!

Whether you’re focused on healthy, weight loss, or delicious eating, the Summer Refresh is here for you, and so am I!

Sign up now, and I’ll see you in the Refresh!

Roland

The post Are you ready for a summer refresh? appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

You can out supplement a bad diet. 

Vitamins, minerals, fish oil, goji berries, spirulina… It’s really easy to add a supplement or “superfood” to your daily routine, which is why those companies are so successful, right?

The thing to remember about supplements are that they are supposed to be SUPPLEMENTS, not the main way to get healthy.

Take some time to focus on the healthiest foods possible, eliminate, limit, or minimize the rest, then fill in the gaps with supplements. If you even need to by then.

Are there really bad foods?

Of course, there are healthy foods to focus on, but often (well, almost always, but I’m being nice), it’s better to stop eating foods that are effecting you negatively before you think about adding in another item to “fix” something.

A vitamin pill cannot counteract 150 calories of soda, for instance.

In our books, The Real Food Reset and Man on Top, we present the concept of Good Guy foods and Bad Guy foods.

Sure, it’s not always that simple, but if it’s complicated, most people won’t do it.

Here are the Good Guys and Bad Guys…

Good guys

The ultimate good guy?

There are foods that nature intended for us, foods that help us maintain optimal weight and health, and feel happy, productive and energized.

Make sure that at least 90% of your food comes from these sources.

• Water
• Butter or ghee
• Olive oil
• Avocado
• Nuts in shell
• Coconut oil and other coconut stuff
• Meat
• Poultry
• Fish (bonus points for fatty fish, like salmon)
• Shellfish
• Whole eggs
• Yogurt
• Cheese
• Cottage cheese
• Vegetables and root vegetables
• Fruits
• Potatoes
• Legumes
• Unprocessed grains (limit these because they are pretty empty of nutrition)
• Fermented vegetables (kim chee, sauerkraut)
• Fermented/cultured drinks

What about condiments?

Feel free to use sea salt, Himalayan salt, Morton’s salt, etc. Read all dressing and condiment labels carefully, as they often contain a lot of sugar and nasty oils. Moderation is key, so consider the amounts. A tablespoon or two of BBQ sauce every once is a while could totally be worth it.

Bad guys

The ultimate bad guy?

You know that there are ingredients in our foods that prevent us from being at our optimal health, weight or performance levels.

You may see these as ingredients on boxes and labels, items on restaurant menus, or you may encounter them as single items at the grocery store, either way, stay away for the most part.

If you do have some, minimize the nasty things!

You want to completely avoid:

• Corn oil
• Soybean oil
• Vegetable oil
• Seed oils (sunflower, safflower, etc.) in large amounts
• Margarine (most are full of the above oils)
• Shortening (same as margarine)
• Hydrogenated fats and oils
• Trans fats
• Non dairy creamer (read the labels, as there are some modern ones that are… ok)

You want to minimize:

• Sugars (all colors and types) and sweets
• High fructose corn syrup
• Artificial sweeteners
• Soda and juice
• Fancy coffee drinks full of calories
• Alcohol
• Heavily processed packaged foods
• Deep fried/breaded foods
• Most bottled salad dressings
• Processed grains
• High sodium foods

What do you think?

Did we leave anything off the list?

The post Good Guys, Bad Guys appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Earth Centered Therapy for Modern Day Growth and Healing

Andrea Bell, LCSW joins the EatMoveLive52 Podcast to talk about how nature, even in the midst of an urban environment, can promote healthy personal growth and a healthier planet!

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

About Andrea Bell, Ecotherapy, and Somaticwise

About Andrea Bell, LCSW

The primary focus of Adrea’s therapy practice is the treatment of trauma and its aftereffects. Along with Somatic Experiencing, she ncorporates aspects of other therapeutic modalities, including humanistic, behavioral and psychodynamic approaches.

Andrea is also an ecotherapist, which means that she supports healing the relationship between nature and humans. She helps people access and experience their love for nature, and how nature supports self-regulation (and feeling good!). She also support people in moving through the grief and pain of eco-anxiety, including engaging in giving back to nature.

Andrea serves as an Assistant for the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, where she organizes and helps teach SE to clinicians at SE trainings in Los Angeles, Orange County, and internationally.

Topics with Andrea Bell

• You are an MFT  (Marriage and Family Therapist) and SEP (Somatic Experiencing Practitioner), how did you become interested in eco-therapy? Are there any defining experiences, say from your childhood that you think prepared you for this path?
• Can you share with our listeners what ecotherapy and ecopsychology are? Who practices them and where are their roots? Does eco-therapy involve just being in nature or gardening or conservation?
• What are the benefits of being in nature? Short term and long term? Both physical and psycho-emotional?
• Can you speak a bit about eco-anxiety? Why do people often choose to do nothing to help the environment?
• When we do our part to clean up the environment, how does that help us feel better and impact our health?
• What does a typical eco-therapy experience look like and feel like? What have you noticed in yourself and others as a result of the practice?
• If you live in a city, what is the best thing to do to support your health? Will a park do? Or do you have to drive farther so you can be away from noise and pollution?
• To enjoy the benefits of eco-therapy do you have to be alone, or can you be in a larger group? Do we gain or lose something by being alone or in a group?
• What activities can people do for the Earth that have the biggest impact on their wellbeing? Roland shares that daily recycling really blends in, while the city clean-up makes him feel great.
• If people want to know more about you and what you do, where can they find you and what resources do you recommend for the eco-curious?

Andrea Bell, Ecotherapy, and Somaticwise Links and Resources

Find out more about Andrea.

Andrea Bell – SomaticWise.net

Andrea’s Email – Andrea (at) SomaticWise (dot) net

Andrea’s YouTube Channel

Watch Andrea’s “Urban Biodiversity Oasis” on YouTube

More…

Recommended Ecotherapy Book

Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind, by Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist

Listen to Andy Fisher talk Ecopsychology

This conversation is a wide-ranging exploration of the new field of ecopsychology. It includes discussions of how the lived body and Buddhist psychology figure in this field, as well as the radical implications of reconnecting our minds to nature.

https://somaticperspectives.com/fisher-andy/

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Ecotherapy with Andrea Bell appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

5 simple ways to make everyday Earth Day with the kids

The other day, I was walking to the store, when I saw a sign in the window of a local restaurant.

“Coffee grounds for your garden available on Earth Day!”

Um, what do they do with it the other 364 days of the year?

They go through A LOT of coffee everyday, so…

Most coffee houses have bins of free grounds all year long. Starbuck’s does. Peet’s does.

I guess every day is Earth Day at a coffee house.

Every day IS Earth Day

Yes, Earth Day is a great reminder to celebrate the Earth, nature, and more natural living, but don’t wait for the next Earth Day to start.

Instead, next year, look back and notice how much you’ve done!

Every day can also be Trash Day

When I was a kid, our school inundated us with movies and information on litter and trash.

Picking up trash and putting our own trash in the trash can was drilled into us.

Kids today don’t seem to get this message…

When my kids were young, I gave my kids bags to clean up the neighborhood.

Their friends joined in, and it was soon a little party.

Of course, we treated them with a bowl of fruit and some healthy snacks afterward, and soon it was a weekly tradition. 

Recycle

When you don’t recycle, it goes into the trash, and gets buried.

It stays there forever, basically.

You’re throwing this stuff away anyway, so tell your kids that recycling is worth money to them.

They’re kids, so even a few bucks is real money to them.

My son collected bottles and cans for years, and every few weeks we drove to the store to collect his $5-10 dollars.

It’s nothing to us, but in a month, we’re talking real Lego money!

Walking

Virtually everywhere you live you can walk somewhere.

A nature hike is an obvious choice, but introducing kids to walking, period, is critical.

Around here, we walk to the store, several times per week, even if it’s just to get two bags of groceries.

Kids want ice cream? Walk to the ice cream shop.

If it’s too far away, go to a park within walking distance of the ice cream, play for a while, walk to the treat, and walk back to the park.

Now that’s a real outing that also builds good walking habits for the rest of their lives.

Eat outside

That’s Roland in green!

In this day and age, we eat in front of the tv or on a short break from the computer.

We, kids and adults, are plugged in all day, all night, and even at mealtimes.

Why not take a break from all that?

Have a picnic, even if it’s in the local park. Start them young and build that habit when they don’t know any better.

Grow some food

roland and galina’s backyard garden

One of the best ways to get your kids to eat veggies is to grow veggies at home. Let them pick some veggies they like, and have them plant and tend them.

True, tomatoes are technically a fruit, but you never find it in a fruit salad, so…

It doesn’t have to be fancy, either.

Use pots, raised beds, an old bathtub,  or dig a hole along a side yard you never use.

It’s the fact that you’ve touched soil, dug holes, and grown something green that counts.

Still, you might as well pick something they can enjoy, touch, and taste, like herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, or even edible flowers.

I love Johnny Jump Ups, personally!

If you’ve read our latest book, Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well, then you saw the chapter Galina called ‘Getting Dirty,’ where she highlighted the benefits of gardening, soil, ecotherapy, and eating something you’ve grown yourself.

Every day should be Earth Day

…but celebrating Earth Day is still a great way to remind us of the importance of treating our planet right.

For more info on Earth Day, and to see what you can do to help today or every day, go to EarthDay.org

Want to share your favorite Earth Day ideas?

Pop into the Group and join us!

Talk soon, and see you in the group!

Roland & Galina

The post Every day can be Earth Day appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

I have a few new clients who are going grain-free for health reasons, and they often struggle with breakfast ideas.

Whether you’re gluten-free or just trying to focus on more nutrient-dense foods, replacing grain-based foods with vegetables, fruit, and protein sources is a great way to boost your nutrient intake.

And if you don’t replace grains with something else, but just eliminate them, you can easily cut a lot of empty calories!

I’m not saying grains are empty of nutrition, but they are compared to veggies, fruits, and your favorite protein sources, that’s for sure.

So, what are your favorite breakfasts that don’t contain bread, grain flour, oats, rice, wheat, etc.?

Photo by Maria Orlova from Pexels

A favorite go-to of my clients is coffee and an egg muffin, crustless quiche, or a frittata.

Personally, my go-to breakfast is simply last night’s leftover veggies and meat, scrambled with a couple of eggs, but I have simple tastes…

What’s your go-to grain-free breakfast?

I asked our Eat Move Live 365 Members for their favorites, and I’ve listed them below!

1. Frittatas are always delicious. I love zucchini and egg frittata.
2. Greens sautéed and served with over-easy eggs.
3. I have a protein shake – It sounds weird, but if you blend frozen spinach (which has been cooked before freezing) with fruit and protein powder it comes out pretty smooth. Fresh spinach DOES NOT, so don’t try it!
4. Scrambled eggs with onions and green peppers.
5. Yogurt with berries.
6. Egg muffins – scrambled egg, veggies, meat, and cheese poured into muffin cups and baked. These are great to make ahead because they store well and you can microwave them when you need one or two.
7. An apple with peanut butter.
8. I like to make a large quiche-like dish in a 9×13 Pyrex dish and reheat a portion in the morning. I use 1 sweet potato sliced thin on a mandolin to create a “crust” and then sauté greens, onions, any other vegetables or meats I have on hand. Then I beat 10-12 eggs to pour over that and bake it in the oven. It varies from week to week, but it is a great way to make the decision about breakfast once and eat for 5-6 days.
9. I’ve been enjoying Chobani complete yogurt (higher in protein) along with chia seeds, fruit, PB2 (powdered, defatted peanut butter).
10. I really love to eat last night’s leftovers for breakfast. So satisfying and easy.
11. Bacon, eggs (one plus egg whites), and leftover veggies. We’ve been curing and smoking our own bacon, to avoid weird chemicals. Unbreaded scotch eggs with avocado. Avocado and bone broth (home-made). My favorite is… leftover dinner!
12. Yesterday’s Sicilian eggplant for breakfast!
13. Plain Greek yogurt, walnuts, and raisins. Eat that almost every day.
14. Two eggs over easy, roasted kale, and a clementine.
15. We make a double batch of ratatouille, and the extras are great with eggs in the morning.
16. Scrambled eggs with seasoning, sometimes with salsa on top if I want it. A side of sauteed onions and peppers or garlic and spinach, and some fruit.
17. A protein smoothie … protein powder, peanut butter, cacao powder, almond milk, and ice.
18. Scrambled eggs with salsa and avocado mixed in.
19. Yogurt with a handful of almonds or a smoothie.
20. This morning I am enjoying Galina’s Bulgarian lamb stew with a spoon of Greek yogurt while watching a snowstorm out the window.

Want more great ideas for simple, healthy meals like these?

Check out our EatWell365 program, which gives you tons of recipes, hacks, habits, and systems to eat great with ease!

Click here or the image below to join us or learn more

The post What’s your favorite non-grain breakfast? appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

It’s been 18 years since I started my weight loss journey, lost 110lbs, and got healthy. I have this simple system to thank for my success!

On Saturday a notification popped up on my calendar.

It inspired me to share because it’s what has helped me stay fit for 18 years.

Yes, it’s been 18 years since I started my weight loss journey, lost 110lbs, and got healthy.

Statistically, most diets don’t last, with 95% of people regaining lost weight within 5 years.

I didn’t want to be that statistic, so I vowed not to let it happen to me. Easier said than done, so I made a system.

The good news for me and you is that a system like this is not only the biggest part of your success, but 100% free, simple, and easy to keep going.

I’m not very good at keeping you in suspense, so I’ll spill it right now.

My system to keep my health on track:

1. write down your plan, no matter what it is
2. check in on your plan on a regular basis
3. note what’s working for you
4. note what’s not working for you
5. modify your plan just enough to make it work again

Note that the key to the system isn’t sticking to one diet or exercise program, but sticking to your plan and never dropping the plan just because it’s not working perfectly.

You can modify your plan all you need, but always stay on your plan, modified or not – The hardest part of this journey will always be starting again, so don’t stop, just modify.

Part 1 – Fitness log

This is part one of my system.

My fitness log is just a simple text note, by the way.

Here’s a flashback to ten years ago!

I’m currently using Evernote, which is free, not fancy, and simply a way to check in on my plan, see what’s working, what’s not, and make small changes.

Remember, you can use a note on your phone, a paper journal, or keep it online somewhere. As long as you have access to it when the time comes to check in you’re fine.

Part 2 – Calendar reminders

This is part two of my system. I have calendar reminders set so I never forget to check in on my plan and my progress.

Because it’s on my calendar I can also block off the time to actually DO the check-in.

The frequency is up to you, but I suggest weekly at first.

When I started I checked in on my plan every Sunday night. That kept me on track with the frequent reminders, but also worked well with my job and our tendency to make changes on Mondays.

Today I check in monthly (the 1st Saturday of each month at 8am to be precise).

Why just once a month now?

I’ve been ‘maintaining’ for a long time, and many of my good health habits are just that, habits. I don’t have to think about them anymore, I just live my life. (You can get there, too.)

BUT, habits don’t mean I can’t still get complacent. Monthly check-ins have helped me keep on track, make small changes, and keep my progress for over 18 years.

Build good habits and you can stay on track for life

Photo by Jens Johnsson from Pexels

If you want to start making progress toward your health or weight goals, make a plan (any plan) and start keeping track of your progress with the system above.

I firmly believe that if you make a plan and follow the 5-step system above, you’ll not only make the progress you want, but keep your progress forever.

I’d love to know whether this has helped you.

If you’re making your plan and going to check in with yourself, leave a comment below or send me an email at roland@eatmovelive52.com.

Make it simple. Give me ONE word, like ‘in,’ ‘yes,’ ‘done,’ or even get fancy with two syllables, like ‘starting.’

If you’re too shy to say anything, here’s a free thumbs up from Keanu Reaves, instead. 

Talk soon,

Roland

PS. This self-check system is simple, but it can also be the most powerful part of your success. 

Remember, your success is bigger than any diet or exercise program, because all diet and exercise programs can work. …until they don’t.

The key isn’t to drop a diet or exercise program when it stops working (or you start to hate it), but to check in with yourself regularly so you can make the small changes and continue to make progress!

The post How to stay on the path to good health for life appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Many of us are working from home and are doing our office work with our home budget. Fortunately, the basics of a good ergonomic setup isn’t expensive.

Besides, it pays to use much of what you already have, which makes it even more affordable.

Start with the desk you love (or have), then add  a riser and a few components, and you’re off to a great start!

How to have a great standing desk on a budget

Some of these are affiliate links, which help us support the site at no additional cost to you.

Nexstand Laptop Stand

This is a good choice if you move your laptop around the house or write on the road a lot.

You can also see it above, because just because I have a sit/stand desk doesn’t mean my screen is high enough!

Nexstand Laptop Stand

Pair this with an external keyboard and mouse, and you’ve got a great basic setup!

If you want to take it to the next level, add a standing desk or a sit/stand desk.

Standing Desk Riser

This setup allows you to use the desk you have and make it a sit/stand desk with the least cost.

I have this one, but in white. They come in several sizes and colors.

VIVO Black Height Adjustable 36 inch Stand up Desk Converter Quick Sit to Stand Tabletop Dual Monitor Riser

This can be great alone, but some monitors and laptops need to be raised up to eye level.

See options, below.

How to raise your screen to eye level

These options bring the screen up to eye level so you don’t get tech neck!

If you’re using an external monitor, then those typically go up and down on their own, so you might not need a stand. Personally, I like the swing arm for its easy adjustability.

Swing Arm for monitor or laptop (requires laptop holder, below if using with a laptop)

Laptop user?

If you want to use the arm to hold your laptop you’ll need a tray or holder for it, like this one.

Laptop Holder (attaches to swing arm, above)

I like the one above because my laptop just lifts on and off vs having clamps or holders to keep in in there. I move around a lot…

Do you write in different places?

Another option is using a laptop stand, like the one below, which is what I started with.

I still love it and use it for travel and writing at the kitchen table!

Nexstand Laptop Stand

Nexstand Laptop Stand

The Nexstand is a good choice if you move your laptop around the house or write on the road a lot, but remember that you’ll still need a keyboard and a mouse!

Keyboard and Mouse

If you have a desktop computer or USB keyboard and mouse, you don’t actually need Bluetooth versions.

However, if you use a laptop and want to move around a lot without disconnecting cables, then Bluetooth is a good addition.

Bluetooth Keyboard

This is the one I use. It switches between my phone, tablet, and computer by pressing the three yellow buttons at the top.

This is one of the best and most popular keyboards you’ll find. My buddy Kevin Tumlinson uses one to write his [over 50] books, too.

It works on Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, and iPad.

Logitech K380 Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard

Bluetooth Mouse

This mouse is smooth and quiet, but any Bluetooth mouse will do.

Bluetooth Mouse – Slim, rechargeable, quiet

How about an adjustable stool instead of a chair?

I’m not a chair expert, but I was trained as a restorative exercise specialist, so I’m passionate about movement and ergonomics.

A perfect chair is only perfect for a short time, and can even leave you weaker than you’d be using a lesser chair.

I’d rather build a strong back and core, which means I’m not the biggest fan of chairs with a lot of support unless absolutely necessary. I’d rather build my strength vs letting the chair support me.

After  trying a few stools and backless chairs, I went with a ‘wobble stool.’ Learniture calls this one an ‘active learning stool,’

Either way, this one keeps me moving more and I end up less sedentary.

It’s actually very stable, even when leaning with it.

On carpet or a non-slip surface, it sort of becomes a tripod along with your legs!

Learniture Active Learning Stool

My current budget ergonomic writing desk

Put all this stuff together and you’ve got my basic desk setup. None of the pieces are particularly pricey, most do double duty, and I love them all.

The stool wobbles, but gently. It’s very stable and super fun, too!

Start with the basics, and upgrade a bit at a time

This is my basic setup, but I’ll be updating things for my home office as things change. Or I do!

Talk soon,

Roland

The post Budget ergonomics for the home office appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Rocket is another name for arugula, but I think rocket sounds cooler. Since this is a cooling summer salad, ‘cool’ seems appropriate.

Summer is over

Technically, summer is winding down summer is over, but since we live in Southern California, summer often seems to linger on. We still have tasty watermelon, and I have a ton of basil, and cucumbers to use up. When I got invited up to Lisa Wolfe’s Miracle Fitness (bring a dish) for an afternoon get together, I though this would be a great fit.

Rocket, Watermelon, & Feta Salad

Serves 4-8 (people really should eat larger salads)

Ingredients

6 cups cubed watermelon

4 Persian cucumbers or 1 large cucumber

2-3 tbsp chiffonade of basil (about 8 large leaves, cut into chiffonade)

2 tbsp olive oil

juice of 1/2 lime (or 2 tbsp vinegar)

4 oz feta cheese, crumbled

7 oz arugula (a typical bag of rocket is 7 ounces)

Himalayan salt to taste

Directions

Cut watermelon into bite size cubes, and slice Persian cucumbers into small wheels. If using larger cucumbers, you may wish to peel them and chop them into bite size pieces.

Sliver basil into a chiffonade (or just mince it), and stir in the olive oil and juice or vinegar. Toss the dressing with the watermelon, cucumbers, and 3/4 of the feta cheese. Salt to taste.

Gently fold in the arugula, and top with the remaining feta cheese.

Eat, and make it a larger serving of salad than you usually would.

…and by the way

It was suggested, as I was tossing the salad, that ‘Galya was rubbing off on me.’

Excuse me?

I will remind many of you that I’ve been cooking and creating recipes (even girly ones), for 28 years! This is simply ridiculous! I stole the idea from the restaurant, BJ’s!

But my version is better.

So there.

Roland

PS. Want even more great veggie recipes?

Download our Veggie Inspirations right now!

The post Rocket, Watermelon, & Feta Salad appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

These rosemary almond crackers have been a community favorite since we first introduced them, and continue to be one of our go-to recipes at home.

These crackers are great crisp, soft, spread with grass-fed butter, or even as bread for tiny sandwiches.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

This recipe is one of the monthly recipes from our Eat Move Live 365 Community. If you’d like to get a printable version of all of this month’s recipes, plus many more as they are released, signup to our recipe email list, here.

Signup Here For Free Recipes

– Galina

Every hostess has a secret

My secret is that I love baking recipes that have minimal ingredients.

These almond crackers can be a cracker or a cookie and have, well, 1 basic ingredient – almond flour.

They take no time to make and require absolutely nothing fancy from the home chef.

They taste amazing and no one can believe they are just almond flour…and magic, I guess?

What holds them together? Physics.

Let’s get baking!

Gluten Free Rosemary Almond Crackers

Ingredients

2 cups bleached almond flour

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp cold water

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp fresh or 2/3 tbsp dried rosemary needles (sub other herbs if you like)

Directions

Preheat your over to 375 F.

In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix well.

Add the oil and water and work them with your fingers into the mixture. They will fully absorb.

Spread the dough thinly (4-5 mm) over a cookie sheet oiled with olive oil.

Cut while still raw into the shapes you like. I like squares.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Easy, comforting, and 100% healthy and satisfying gluten-free almond crackers

They are especially good on a cool morning.

Or with tea.

Or when you just need a little something bready along with your protein and veggies.

Enjoy!

Galina

PS. If you like this recipe, you can get more just as cool by email. Signup below and you’ll them right to your inbox, plus more as we release them.

Get Your Recipes Here

Know one person who could use a plate of these almond crackers? Share this with them by email or using the buttons below!

The post Gluten Free Rosemary Almond Cracker Recipe appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

It’s not every day you get a chance to give a cooking presentation to Microsoft.

No, it was not on on the Bill Gates level. Better, these are the people doing the real work!

I’m sure they told him about me, though.

When the quarantine started, Microsoft sent its people home to work, just like so many of us ‘normals.’

Also, like us normals, they went stir-crazy. They turned to nostalgic foods, ordered in, and basically threw up their hands.

I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear that they, like you, had trouble finding the perfect foods at the store, because every store seemed to be out of everything.

No one knew what to eat, because none of their favorite recipes worked without the right ingredients.

Sounds pretty doomsday, right?

That’s when a friend of a friend recommended me, Roland, as the guy to help!

They reached out, I answered, and before long we’d schedule a workshop, where I got up in front of the entire Microsoft 365 Team.

Virtually, of course, because you know, quarantine.

My talk was all about reframing your meals, keeping yourself open and flexible, having a few staples on hand to tie ingredients together, and being willing to ‘mix and match.’

It went great.

It went so great that we ended up doing an article for their own customers!

While I can’t share my actual presentation with you, I can share the article we (Microsoft and I) did together that they’ve published on their MS 365 site.

I’ll be doing a webinar or workshop on the same topic soon, so be sure you’re on our email list to get notified.

Now, here’s the article on Microsoft.com!

7 fresh ideas to make cooking easy and fun – on Microsoft.com

Cooking is so much more than what ends up on your plate. From recipe planning to pantry organization and grocery shopping to sharing virtual meals with others both near and far, we can help. If spending more time at home has led to more time in the kitchen, check out these resources and tips for using Microsoft products to help you make the most of your efforts with the least amount of stress.

Read more…

I hope you enjoyed the Microsoft / EatMoveLive52 team-up, and maybe learned a few things!

If you want to download the mix-and-match charts and recipe guide, you’ll find it in the article, but it’s also just below.

Wouldn’t want you stuck in an infinite loop, after all

Bowls might be the perfect food right now

Maybe you have a bunch of random ingredients, but nothing seems to make a meal. Maybe you have plenty of leftovers, but not enough of one thing to serve everyone. Get your free tips on how to make bowls that are simple and healthy while still being delicious.

Build-A-Bowl Workshop – Are Bowls The Perfect Food Right Now?

Enjoy!

Roland

The post Cooking In Place – My team up with Microsoft 365 appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Cool weather has us craving the type of coziness only this warm breakfast latte can satisfy

It’s been a beautiful fall, and most of our autumn leaves have fallen and been raked, gathered, and used as mulch under our bushes and trees.

Even though fall just started, here in Colorado, we’ve already had a few days of snow and some pretty cold temperatures. At least for this California boy.

If you don’t know, Galina and I have a  health membership full of like-minded friends and family.  Each month we create recipes, movement programs, and mindfulness practices based on a theme.

This month, like most months, we asked the members of our Eat Move Live 365 Community what they wanted.

• With 2020 being what it is, everyone wanted easy, tasty, and comforting.
• With fall leading to cold weather, everyone also wanted warm, cozy, and full of spices.
• With us being who we are, we wanted healthy, quick, satisfying, and easy cleanup.

So, Galina created the Cozy Breakfast Latte

Galina has been enjoying warm, cozy drinks in the morning for some time now, and this is one of her favorites.

It’s not only comforting, but it also smells great and is a complete meal. It’s been a very popular recipe in the community, so I thought I’d invite you to try it!

I hope you love it.

Roland

Galina’s Cozy Breakfast Latte

Serves 2

2 cups oat milk or other milk of your choice

2 tbsp almond butter or other nut butter

1 cup roasted butternut squash or pumpkin puree from a can

1 scoop protein powder of your choice—we used vanilla, but plain will work, too

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp turmeric

A pinch of cardamom

A few dashes of pumpkin spice, optional

Directions

Heat up the milk and butternut squash in a pan.

Add milk, squash, protein, and spices to a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend until smooth.

Pour into mugs or cute cups and dust with cinnamon, if desired.

That’s it. Simple, tasty, comforting, and 100% healthy and satisfying, especially on a cool fall morning.

Enjoy,

Roland & Galina

PS. If you like this recipe, you can get more just like it every month in our Eat Move Live 365 Membership, plus get your free community cookbook, filled with over 100 recipes and growing all the time.

The 365 Community can help you meet your health, wellness, and weight loss goals in a warm and supportive community you didn’t even know you were craving.

Find out more at EatMoveLive365.com

The post Cozy Breakfast Latte appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Pumpkin seeds aren’t the only seeds you can roast. Did you know that you can make delicious, roasted seeds from almost any squash?

And yes, a pumpkin is just another squash.

We eat a lot of squash around here. Spaghetti squash and butternut, mostly, but all winter squash is fair game for us, including pumpkins.

And, they all have seeds!

I hate to waste pumpkin seeds, but also I just love them.

Calling them pumpkin seeds vs squash seeds

I’m going to call them pumpkin or squash seeds going forward, but any winter squash seeds work with these recipes.

My recipe for pumpkin seeds is not revolutionary, just simple.

The best part about it is that it allows you to easily make a variety of flavors as easily as you would normally make a big tray of simple salty ones.

Clockwise from left; smokey, salty, & mole

Pumpkin Seeds – Spiced Three Ways

A big pumpkin will generally yield about a cup or more of seeds, but strangely, the small pie or sugar pumpkins can hold even more.

Most small squashes have smaller seeds, but lots of them.

Feel free to mix and match. You can also collect and dry them over a week or more, then roast them when you have enough.

The seeds of different squashes are all different sizes, meaning they cook at different rates.

If you have a variety at the same time it’s best to cook them separately and mix them together after cooking.

Directions

First, scrape the seeds from one or more pumpkins or squash.

Separate the seeds from the strings and pumpkin flesh by putting it all in a big bowl of water and rubbing things between your hands, dislodging the seeds from the miscellaneous. Strain it all and drain it all in a colander for a while.

Spread the seeds to dry on clean dish towels and place it in a warm area, preferably with warm, moving air. The top of my refrigerator works great for me. Stir and turn them a couple of times a day for best results and less sticking.

When they are dry, it’s time to roast them.

While dry roasting sounds good on paper, it also means the spices don’t stick, so just give up on that idea right now.

Before the roasting happens, we have to get the seasonings ready. Ready?

You’ll need three bowls large enough to stir your seeds and some spices without making a mess.

Cereal bowls work well, and they will appreciate the company now that you no longer eat cereal! haha! I kid… sorta.

In a perfect world, just use three jars with lids, which you can use to shake the seeds and spices instead of stirring. Less cleanup, too, since you’ll also use them later to store the seeds.

Each of the following spice mixtures is to season about 1/2 cup of seeds, so adjust accordingly depending on how much you’ve got.

I’m listing the spice mixtures first because you need to have them ground and ready in the jars or bowls before you’ve roasted the seeds. So, get the three mixtures ready now, then get to roasting.

A few of the spices used today

Salted Pumpkin Seeds

I don’t know about your kids, but most kids are boring when it comes to pumpkin seeds and only like the ones that are seasoned by salt only.

I can add “exciting” variety by using more or less salt, coarse salt, fine salt, Himalayan salt, and sea salt. Sometimes I use butter instead of coconut oil, but aside from that, pretty basic stuff.

Even though my own kids tell me to make all the seeds with just salt, I do not.

First, who’s in charge here?

Second, they won’t eat them all anyway. They just think they will.

So nod your head, and wait a minute. They’ll put their earbuds back in and go away, and you just do what you want.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp plain or sea salt OR about 2 tsp coarser salts like Himalayan salt
• 1/2 cup (ish) roasted pumpkin seeds (directions to follow)

Directions

Put the spices in a bowl or jar and set aside until you’ve roasted the seeds.

Smokey Pumpkin Seeds

I like spicy. I grew up mild, but at around 20 years, I was suddenly thrust into the world of chili cookoffs and hot salsas via my old boss, Mike.

Mike cooked chili that burned.

Because of Mike, I’m a chili fan, a chili purist, and I also enjoy really spicy foods. My family, however, not so much.

That does mean that I get to keep my bottles of devil sauce to myself, yet rarely get to make foods that are spicy in and of themselves.

Today, I made mine smokey but not too spicy, using smoked paprika, which is hotter than the sweet paprika, and tastes deliciously like a milder chipotle chili.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp spicy powdered chili (smoked paprika, powdered chipotle, New Mexico, etc.)
• 1 tsp plain or sea salt OR about 2 tsp coarser salts like Himalayan salt
• 1/2 cup (ish) roasted pumpkin seeds (directions to follow)

Directions

Put the spices in a bowl or jar and set aside until you’ve roasted the seeds.

Mole Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

Yeah, I think I know you. You like the sensual touch. A bit of spice in your food, balanced out by something sweet maybe.

A bite of ginger in your cheesecake rather than a drizzle of overly sweet topping.

You can be lured in by a promise of mouthfeel, a tingle on the tongue, or that flush of temperature that mysteriously comes from some ingredient in the dish or from somewhere deep within yourself.

It could be your soul. We don’t always know.

You, my friend, are the reason I make mole sauce from scratch, put luscious mango slices alongside my cheesecake, and use foods like crème fraiche instead of whipped cream.

It’s for you.

You don’t need to know what mole (pronounced ‘molay’) is, but just know that it’s a Mexican sauce that’s typically made of chocolate, spices, and fruity ancho chilis.

Mole can be sweet, spicy, savory, or all of these at once. It looks and tastes beautiful on anything and everything.

While it’s a decadent and sensual little sauce most of the time, as a spice on your pumpkin seeds, it warms the mouth and leaves your lips tingling from the spice on your fingertips, all the while almost satisfying that inner desire for chocolate, and encouraging bite after bite.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp powdered ancho chili (or California chili or sweet paprika, if ancho isn’t available)
• 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1-2 pinches of powdered cinnamon
• 1 tsp plain or sea salt OR about 2 tsp coarser salts like Himalayan salt
• 1/2 cup (ish) roasted pumpkin seeds (directions to follow)

Directions

Put the spices in a bowl or jar and set aside until you’ve roasted the seeds.

Pan-roasting the seeds

• 1/2 to 2 cups of pumpkin/squash seeds, cleaned and dried
• 1 to 2 tbsp butter, ghee, coconut oil, or olive oil

In a large skillet, heat the fat over medium-high heat.

Be especially careful of the butter, because it can brown if too hot. When in doubt, do with lower heat and roast longer.

Add the seeds and stir to evenly coat with the melted fat. Stir and shake periodically, until the seeds are puffed up a bit and have browned spots throughout. Periodically remove one, let it cool, and test it for doneness. It should be crisp, hollow, and tasty. That’s called “done.”

Ready to season the squash seeds?

Divide the squash seeds into three portions.

One at a time, mix the squash seeds and the spices by stirring in the bowls or putting the lids on the jars and shaking well.

After shaking, remove the lids and allow the seeds to fully cool before serving or covering them again.

The seeds keep well for days, covered tightly in their jars.

Want more ideas for pumpkins and squashes?

Try one of Galina’s best!

Butternut Squash Recipes You’ve Never Tried Before

The post What can I do with squash seeds? appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Daan Timmers joins Galina & Roland to talk about her paleolithic adventure, living weeks in the woods, just like our ancient ancestors.

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Daan Timmers

Lives on a historic sailing ship in the canals of downtown Amsterdam, right across from the NEMO Museum. Although, since the 2020 pandemic, she’s temporarily located her family to a secret river location, deep in the forests of the Netherlands!

Our interview with Daan:

1. You are here to talk about your paleo expedition, but tell us first, what is your life like when not on expedition?
2. How do you view natural movement and its place in your life as a movement educator, in your own life, as a parent?
3. What are your sincere feelings about people’s interest and infatuation with the paleo diet in recent years?
4. Tell us about the year you took to prepare for the expedition? What did you have to learn? How was the learning itself?
5. Let’s dive in, and learn about the expedition itself: the mission, the day to day life, gathering and hunting, rest and energy, the collective space, movement….I would love to be a fly on the wall as you tell the story.
6. I was really touched by you talking about the keeper of the fire. I will read a little passage you wrote about it here. Can you talk about your relationship to fire and water before and after the expedition?
7. Tell me about your sense of our human activity effect on the environment – how did the expedition influence your view of our modern world?
8. What was it like coming back and starting “life as usual”
9. What was the effect of the expedition on your mental health, what did you learn, grow into or start to practice that you didn’t before?

Topics include:

• Living on a historic ship in downtown Amsterdam
• Relocating to get away from the unknowns of the quarantine
• Preparing herself to live like paleo man
• Living as our ancient ancestors
• Oh no, a paleo period? Using spagnum moss instead of modern feminine hygiene products
• Foraging, hunting, and having healthy stools
• No clocks, coffee, wifi, phones, or modern addictions
• Twelve days in the woods without shoes
• Positive separation –  Time away from it all to take care of one’s self

Who is Daan Timmers?

Daan loves being part of nature and shares this connection by homeschooling her 3 kids in nature as well as rewilding others to deepened their nature connection.

She offers a wild range of Earth Skills like ancients crafts, sit spots, games and stories.

With her tribe, she aims for a nomadic lifestyle roaming the water with their historical sailing boat.  She has been teaching Restorative Exercises for years for people to get connected to their bodies.

Now she takes people outdoors to experience Ancestral Movement hands-on.

I post my wild adventures at:

Daan Timmers on Facebook

Daan gaat Wild on Instagram

Websites:

Yogalab.nl

Verwildernis.nl

Did you like the show?

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Reviews help spread the word, big time!

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post A Paleo Expedition on The EatMoveLive52 Podcast appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

The bowl can be anything to anyone, all that you need it to be, and more.

When you have a picky family, but can’t please everyone.

When you have a lot of ingredients, but nothing that seems to make a meal.

When you have plenty of leftovers, but just not enough of one thing to serve everyone…

Enter the bowl.

Prepare to be bowled over…

So, are bowls the perfect food?

Bowls have really gained popularity in the last few years, and some of them seem to be a little full of themselves

There are bowl restaurants and cookbooks, but the most telling part is that you can buy them in the freezer section.

Like any frozen meals, eater beware. They can be filled with good guys or bad guys.

Still, the bottom line is I’m a bowl fan, so the more bowls the better.

the amazing choose-your-own-bowlventure poke bowl

When did things go ‘full bowl’?

Like I said, I’m a fan, and glad to see them becoming more popular, but I also remember way back when bowls were just my family putting leftovers in a… wait for it… a bowl.

We can’t talk bowls without crediting Yoshinoya Beef Bowl, which is still one of my little brother’s favorite places to eat. When he visits we go to Beef Bowl.

Yoshinoya has been around an astonishing 120+ years. One hundred and twenty!

I think it’s fair to say they were an early adopter, and beef, chicken, and rice bowls have been around in one form or another ever since.

When things got interesting for me was when Chipotle gave us the option to ditch the HUGE tortillas (~320 calories of empty calories, alone) and let us put our burrito bombs in a bowl.

once called the ‘burrito bowl’ to make you feel better about your decision

Calories were cut, nutrition went up, and because everything was right there in the open, we could see every ingredient, pick and choose, and it was every eater for themselves.

And everything changed.

Suddenly bowls were more than just bowls; they were healthy and suddenly, we loved them!

Ok. I don’t know if that’s how it actually started, that’s my history with bowls.

I’m going to pretend it was like that for everyone. Most people don’t think about it all that much, anyway. They’re more like “oh look, a bowl. I think I’ll have one.”

In bowls, I believe, and I am thankful.

Not all are believers, though

Someone also piped in to say a bowl is just a receptacle. *sigh*

One of the other commenters replied with “No, you’re a receptacle!”

Such a deep and spiritual response. I deleted the thread.

Back to the bowls at hand.

Building your own bowl is healthy

The dawn of the bowl has brought about plenty of change in nutritional attitudes.

Today we’re seeing taco bowls where there used to be huge, cheese smothered platters…

…breakfast bowls instead of pancakes, paleo bowls, kale bowls, veggie bowls, cauliflower rice bowls, and even bowls with fermented foods like kimchi!

Anything and everything goes great in a bowl.

So what’s the attraction of the bowl?

• They’re easy to eat
• They’re easy to serve
• They live by their own rules

‘Bowls’ as we know them are still new, and luckily, they are keeping their options open!

Healthy family meals

I’ve made bowls for my kids for years because they can build them exactly how they want them. Some of this, none of that. It’s their bowl to make.

one of my weekly homemade leftover bowls

It’s your bowl to make, too

If you also like bowls or are simply looking for new ways to eat healthfully, use up some leftovers, and keep the family happy with a meal they can help create, look no further than our free Build-A-Bowl ebook.

Build-A-Bowl Cookbook- Free eBook

We originally had our Build-A-Bowl Workshop in one of our live nutrition events, and it became so popular that we wrote up a cookbook for it.

The book and the bowls are a simple way to make busy lives easier, while also helping our readers, clients, and friends eat foods that promote good health, solid nutrition, and even weight loss.

Get Your Free Bowl Book

Just click right here or the book cover below, and we’ll send it right to you, absolutely free.

Dozens of ideas to build bowls your whole family will enjoy

Lots of Bowlspirations

Step by step steps to build bowls you’ll never forget and never want to!

Bowls, bowls, bowls!

Just click right here or the book cover above and we’ll send it right over!

I hope you’ll come back and share!

After you build your own bowls, I want to know what your favorite combination is, so be sure to come back!

Enjoy,

Roland

‘References’ and links

Chipotle Nutrition Calculator (aka, calories)

Yoshinoya Beef Bowl on Wikipedia

The post Are bowls the perfect food right now? appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

How’s the weather where you are?

It’s hard to complain about the weather here in Southern California, but my gosh it’s been cold. California Cold, of course, but when we have ice, hail, and snow on the local mountains, it’s cold for us.

Add in weeks of rain, and you get grumpy Californians who never get outside to walk!

My steps have been down, but luckily I have a step counter to keep me honest with myself. Then, I just have to be creative…

Five tips to walk more when the weather says you can’t

Walk when you can

This is NOT the time of year for planned walks, because the weatherman is rarely accurate to the minute! If I see a break in the clouds, I make a run for it. Or at least a walk for it!

Be okay with wet (and cold)

I’m sure most of you non-Californians have already made peace with rain, snow, or humidity, but we’re spoiled. Or we were. You can laugh at me, but I’m doing my best to allow myself to actually touch the weather for once!

Gear up

I don’t have rain gear because it doesn’t rain much (or for long) around here. BUT, I do have snow gear from visits to the mountains and cold vacations, so I dug it out and used it. Surprise, this jacket keeps me dry AND warm! I never realized how my better walking in a jacket is compared to walking with an umbrella.

Go somewhere

When it’s summer here, it’s hot, and I often tell people to go to the mall to walk. A friend’s daughter just told me she was going to the mall with her friends because they felt trapped in the house by the rain. I should have thought of that.

Malls, big box stores, museums, and even Ikea are great places to get in some steps. And meatballs.

Walk more often, even if you can’t walk more

Even with the first four tips, you still might find yourself with fewer steps than other times of the year. That’s okay. Do your best, and just move more OFTEN.

What? More often?

Yep. Getting up to move around has huge metabolic and physiological benefits. In fact, moving just 5 minutes every 30 can improve blood sugar and insulin sensitivity by 20%. That’s huge.

At home all it takes is getting up and walking around the house, cleaning, changing the laundry.

At work, you can go grab a new cup of coffee, empty your trash can, go outside for five minutes of actual air and natural light.

Have a drink of water, hit the bathroom, and stretch a bit, then relax knowing that it’s not always about moving more, but moving more often!

Walk more, more often, or both

How about 10 more great tips to get outside this season?

Get the tips here or with the button below.

Articles, references, and links

5-minute breaks for health and productivity by Roland Denzel

The Role of Low Energy Expenditure and Sitting on Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease, db07-0882v2, 56/11/2655

American Diabetes Association –doi: 10.2337/dc11-1931

The post How To Walk More When The Weather Says You Can’t appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Special guests join us to support families with kids at home and the extra challenges presented during the coronavirus and COVID-19 quarantine.

So many of our listeners, family, and friends are quarantined, in lock-down, or encouraged to stay at home, often with kids.

While we all love our kids, many of us aren’t used to being with them 24/7, much less while being expected to work from home, and with lots of stress and nowhere to go.

We asked a few of our friends who are experts in health, movement, kids, and family to join us for open and frank discussions on how we can all do ourselves and our families proud during these trying times.

I hope you find this special episode helpful. If you do, please share it with a friend!

Galina and Roland

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The Kids Are At Home

Tonight, on a very special quarantine edition of the EatMoveLive52 podcast

The Guest List

We’ve never quite had an episode like this, and we want to extend deep gratitude to all the guests who shared their experience and wisdom with us.

• Lisa Gillispie
• Katy Bowman
• Dr. April Graham
• Dr. Mike Valentine
• Joanna Zaremba

You can connect to each and every one of them, below!

Lisa Gillispie

First, we are joined by our friend and colleague Lisa Gillispie. As a trauma-informed body-worker and therapist, Lisa was the perfect co-host for this kids-at-home collaboration and we are so glad for her voice on the podcast.

To find more about Lisa and her work, visit Columbus Mind-Body Counseling.

Katy Bowman

Katy Bowman is the founder of Nutritious Movement, and author of multiple books and countless articles and education products on natural movement, including the award-winning, Move Your DNA.

You can find everything about her work and her excellent books at NutritiousMovement.com

Doctor April Graham

April Graham, ND is a naturopathic doctor specializing in pediatrics and fertility.

To find more about Dr. April, you can visit at DrAprilGraham.com

Dr. Mike Valentine

Dr. Valentine received his Doctorate from U.C.L.A. in Education with a specialization in Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology.

Mike has served in a variety of positions as a teacher, counselor, administrator, and school psychologist at the elementary, junior high, continuation high school, high school, and university levels.

He is the author of How to Deal with Discipline Problems in the Schools: A Practical Guide for Educators and How to Deal with Difficult Discipline Problems: A Family-Systems Approach.

He was a national and international consultant on school discipline issues and has helped turn around many out of control inner-city schools. One of these schools went from being one of the worst schools in New York to a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School Of Excellence.

You can shoot Dr. Mike an email at drmichaelvalentine@hotmail.com

Joanna Zaremba

Joanna Zaremba is a movement teacher and coach, who specializes in play! We hope her ideas inspire you as much as they did us and you hop in and take a class with her!

To take Joanna’s online play class with your kids you can visit her Core to Coeur Page.

You can find out more about her ColoradoMindfulMama.com

Galina and Roland Denzel

You probably know us, but just in case, we are authors, health coaches, and movement teachers.

One is a nutritionist and the other a trauma therapist. You’ll have to figure out which is which 

You can find the free, special resources we talked about here or at the link below.

Free resources to help you in difficult times

Did you like the show?

The best things you can do to help support a podcast you like is to share it with a friend,

Subscribe and Review the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Reviews help spread the word, big time!

It only takes a minute to leave a quick review. Just try ten words and see how fast it goes!

Oh, and subscribing to the show brings each episode to you and your phone automatically!

Subscribe or review on Apple/iTunes

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Use the RSS feed in your favorite podcast app

Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post The Kids Are At Home – A Very Special Podcast Episode appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

A couple of weeks into your 30 Days of Real Food and your sweet cravings are ridiculous. I’m not saying to go hog wild on paleo sweets, especially if you feel like you’re addicted to sugar, but for those of us who want the occasional compliant dessert on a hot day…

Banana “ice cream” isn’t really ice cream at all, but that’s a technicality. I’m just using the quotation marks this one time. you know what I mean when I say “ice cream,” right?

Note that you have to think ahead with this one. Buy the bananas, slice them up, and freeze them in a zipper bag. Use a big bag so you can spread the banana rings out in a single layer before they freeze, so you can separate them, later.

Now, on to the ice cream…

Coconut Milk Banana Ice Cream

Serves 2

2 bananas (previously sliced into rings and frozen in a zipper bag)

.5 oz unsweetened, shredded coconut (optional)

.25 cup coconut milk

Pour all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until it’s creamy. If necessary, drizzle a tiny bit more milk to get to the desired consistency.. It will never be totally smooth because of the shredded coconut. If you do want it super smooth, just use the coconut milk, and skip the coconut shreds.

Garnish with a few reserved coconut shreds, if desired.

Toasted Coconut Banana Ice Cream

Basically the same as above, but the toasted coconut is extra tasty, but you might not like the way it looks, you choose.

Serves 2

.5 oz unsweetened, shredded coconut

2 bananas (previously sliced into rings and frozen in a zipper bag)

.25 cup coconut milk

Heat a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Add the coconut shreds and shake and stir until they are lightly toasted. Set in a bowl to cool.

Reserve some of the toasted shreds, but otherwise pour all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend until it’s creamy. If necessary, drizzle a tiny bit more milk to get to the desired consistency.. It will never be totally smooth because of the shredded coconut.

Garnish with a few reserved coconut shreds.

Piña Colada Banana Ice Cream

I know, there are no bananas in a piña colada, and there’s supposed to be rum. Whatever…

Serves 2

2 bananas (Previously sliced into rings and frozen in a zipper bag)
.5 oz unsweetened, shredded coconut
.25 cup pineapple chunks, drained (Use unsweetened, fresh, in juice, etc. Like, don’t use the syrup ones)
.25 cup coconut milk (or less if the pineapple is good and juicy)

Pour the first three ingredients, along with half of the coconut milk, in a food processor or blender and blend until it’s creamy. If necessary, drizzle a tiny bit more of the coconut milk to get to the desired consistency.. It will never be totally smooth because of the shredded coconut.

Garnish with a wedge of pineapple or one of those tiny umbrellas.

Easy

The possibilities seem endless. Swap out the coconut milk for some other type of milk, throw in some berries, cacao nibs, cocoa powder.

Mix it up, and let us know what you discover!

Roland

The post Coconut Milk Banana Ice Cream appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Hey, Galina here.

If you’re like us, living in a densely populated part of the world, you too, probably are feeling the stress of social distancing measures strongly.

For some, it’s more manageable, and for others, it’s literally the most stressful time of their adult life. A time that they don’t have the tools to deal with. So we have a little library of resources we have created and now made free to everyone who would like to deepen their self-care and preserve their mental health.

Library of Free Resources

I am in a unique position as someone trained as a Somatic Experiencing and NARM practitioner to understand the physiology of stress, and to support people to find a state of well-being and regulation in the midst of difficult times.

I’ve spent the last week staying up to date on measures, supporting clients all over the world (and back home in Bulgaria lockdown happened earlier than here in the US), and really creating an oasis of rest in our home.

We canceled trips, adjusted house rules for coming and going and are doing the best we can to show up from the best, most compassionate parts of ourselves.

First, the basics

Please understand that your survival physiology and stress response will get heightened during this time. Some of you will feel more disorganized and in a state of flight or fight, others will tend more towards freeze, which can look like denial, but can also look like hopelessness and depression.

I cannot emphasize enough that isolation and being alone contributes to this, so please as much as possible reach out and connect via phone, online video calls, and social media – this is the one time that you actually want to connect on purpose, even if you don’t feel like it.

Stress at this time is coming both from unpredictability and a change in daily routines, which can feel like a ton. Suddenly, the kids are home, you are having to work from home, or can’t go into work. Every place you love to go to is closed. Your daily creature comforts – your latte and wrap from the local coffee shop, are gone.

Things as you know them aren’t there for you – so you will have to lean into your natural resources – trust in your body, trust in human connection, and the ability to adapt. That being said, all of these skills and flexibility are inherent to the function of the nervous system, so the tools I will suggest below are designed to support and shift its state.

To the people who have reached out feeling stressed and out of sorts, especially the ones who feel like they can’t calm down their kiddos. Please remember that these primitive protective responses are there for a reason, and an overwhelming global event and its perceived threat feel incredibly real to our bodies.

Be gentle with you, meet each response with care and understanding.

You, yes you, are the competent parent for your system. You must be on your own team and act wisely on your own behalf.

The last thing you want is to add judgment, feelings of “not handling this well” and being “not enough” in some way.

You are more than enough, and you are also beautifully complex.

Some of your complex wiring also needs particular support.  This is what people like me spend years in training for – learning how to provide it and teach it.

If you find that you can’t talk yourself out of your physical responses, it’s because the kind of “talking” your primitive wiring understands has a lot more to do with “feeling safe” than “hearing safe”. So language might not work well…but feeling does!

Here are a few simple things you can do right now to support yourself and your family. I will finish with links to our free programs you can use and share with loves ones.

Orient to your 5 senses several times a day

Our senses are the primary way that the brain determines safety. Tuning in to our senses and the body is way more effective than talking as a means of pushing back on the stress response. A few times a day, tune into your five senses.

Use your eyes, head, and neck to look around you.

Then, as much as you can, engage your vision in seeing as much of the landscape in front as you can, look in the distance, take in as much of the space around you as you can, even through a window. See softly, openly, let colors and shapes come towards you.

Relax into seeing. Find beautiful colors and art to observe and enjoy. If you have flowers, look at them, smell them. You can do the same with spices and pleasant smells around your home. Engaging vision and smell is first.

Then sounds, such as bird song and natural sounds are key (look up Gordon Hempton on Youtube for sounds of nature). Play them in the background if there is no nature around to listen to.

Take special time to taste the warm healing drinks and food you make. Eat mindfully.

If you enjoy touch, give yourself lots of self-massage, and have others at home massage each other, braid each other’s hair, paint each other’s nails, have a make up party, really any kind of grooming kind of touch between people or with your own body is incredibly helpful. Hug long and soft.

Use calm and soothing melodic voice, avoid raising your voice, arguing, or speaking in low, monotone voice (scary to kiddos).

This is prime time for “it’s not what you said it’s how you said it.”

Relax for longer periods of time

Do something that you know relaxes you for longer periods -20-30 min – at least once a day – a shower, take a bath, meditate, stretch, pray, journal, draw, take walks, ride your bike down a hill…whatever is relaxing, do that at least once a day and use as an opportunity to feel how you know that it relaxed you.

Breathe

Check-in with your breath. Breathing in and out through your nose silently is fantastic.

You can also do the 10 step practice from Lois Laynee that helps your cranial nerves wake up and your breathing regulate.

Lights on and then off

Be smart with your light rhythms. See the sun as soon as you can after you wake up and closer to sunset in the afternoon.

Spend 5-10 minutes outside doing something in your yard, walk, or just stand and enjoy the warm sun’s rays. Lower all light at home at night, candles everywhere, you know what to do.

Get off your phone or make it very dim. Wear the sexy orange glasses you got for Xmas.

Garden and play in the dirt

Being outdoors will help tremendously with mood and movement, but it will also add some beneficial bacteria to your gut -giving much-needed protection and an immune boost.

It’s also something you can do side by side with your kids, and that’s just added bonus!

Sing and chant

It’s super helpful done in groups, but alone works too.

There are plenty of worship songs and sacred songs out there to learn the lyrics to and sing along.

Feel the sounds in your body. Have a drum? Add it. Harmonium? Guitar? Pull them out and play!

Dance

Alone or with others, dance is magically helpful to discharge stuck and incomplete survival responses. Do it for short periods several times throughout the day.

Find rhythm in your body

If you have a trampoline, a balance board, Smovey rings, a vibration plate – start your day there, it will greatly support your nervous system. You can shake off your whole body and limbs several times a day. You can also try a regulating exercise program, like my Unstress your body, which is now free to everyone.

Co-regulate

Spend time with humans who feel helpful – you can still stay close and have coffee and lunch dates online or on the phone – as you can, smile and use your whole face to smile at them.

These things give us humans a sense of safety and connected well-being.

Laugh with others

Laughter is, the best medicine.

Feel awe

Seek out moments that evoke awe – at the mountains, at the coming spring, at human kindness, at your own body.

Awe is an incredibly helpful emotion to bring coherence in shaky times.

Feel awe at you, you are here in this time, we are all here together.

Free Programs and Mindfulness Practices

You will find our 30-minute movement sessions to unstress your body as well as bonus mindfulness and regulation practices down below.

Click here or on the image below to enroll for free.

5 Days to More Peace

Take a short audio lesson straight in your inbox. You can sign up here or click below, and get your first one right away.

Regulation Practices that you can do right now, and start to feel better right away

10 Steps to Better Breathing by Waking Up Your Cranial Nerves

Supporting you in these times of stress across the world

Nervous system support for difficult times

We wish you and your loved ones well.

Be safe, stay connected, and loving. All is well – we adapt, we heal, we grow.

Reach out with anything you need. We are both here for you.

Galina and Roland

The post Free resources to help you in difficult times appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

I’m not an animal, I’m a human being

Is there really a downside to being human?

Sure, we have to go to work, take out the garbage, and put the toilet seat down (or up), but that’s a small price to pay for all the fun and interesting things we get to do, like invent stuff, fall in love, race cars, vacation around the world, and argue on the Internet. We humans are in control of our lives to a large degree.

We are conscious, and we make our own decisions! That’s really awesome.

Yes, we’ve grown beyond reacting to our instincts, and now get to use our rational minds to control our destiny in ways that our animal friends can’t. We can grow our own food, invent things to eat that our ancestors never dreamed of, and concoct medicines that try to fix all of our ailments. All good stuff, right?

Unfortunately, free will and inventiveness do not always lead to good things… Today’s ‘mom jeans’ and the popular hairstyles from the ‘80s clearly show that we don’t always make the best decisions. It’s also pretty clear that it can take a while to realize our mistakes, and it’s not just fashion where we blow it; one of the most glaring areas of opportunity is in fitness and nutrition.

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The Downside to Being Human is one of my favorite chapters from our book, “The Real Food Reset.” – Roland

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We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic that is 100% our and our society’s own making – even if it’s not on purpose –  and we’re just starting to realize that our attempts to make life easier and tastier might be to blame.

Machines, computers, and modern-day jobs leave us less active. Modern foods have been engineered to be tasty, cheap, and plentiful, and provide a lot more calories than most of us need to be eating today, considering our mostly sedentary lives.

As a result, we get fat, weak, and sick, and end up less healthy than our ancestors.

According to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, we are living an average of 30 years longer since the 1900s, with 1.7% of us reaching ago 100 today compared to a mere .03% back in the 1900s.¹

We don’t have to compare today to 110 years ago, either; our lifespans continue to increase year over year², but how healthy are those last years?

So what happened?

There are arguments to be made that living longer gives us the chance to experience diseases and conditions that we would not have contracted in previous, shorter-lived generations, but there are also those who believe that many of the ‘diseases of age’ are preventable, to some degree or another.

Still, healthy or sick, we are living longer than ever before, thanks to a medical community that struggles to fight off these plagues that we bring on ourselves rather than stop them before they start.

So what happened?

Are we no longer listening to (or even hearing) our instincts?

Do our instincts conspire against us?

No, we hear and we listen, but the same instincts that have helped us survive through famine, plague, and drought are the same ones that now work against our health and waistlines.

Our bodies are designed to prepare for the worst, and in anticipation of the worst (like starvation), they take every opportunity to store fat for an emergency. Fortunately, in our modern world, it’s rare to be subjected to famine. Unfortunately, our bodies don’t know that, so they instinctively prepare for the famine that never comes.

So, why weren’t our ancestors as overweight and sick as we are today?

Easy calories, like cakes, breads, fast food, candies, packaged foods, and ice cream weren’t nearly as easy to come by as they are today. In fact, long ago, only the wealthy were overweight, but we’ve made empty calories so inexpensive that anyone can be fat, today. Go equality!

Our bodies know easy calories, and condition our minds (via our instincts) to recognize them. When we see, smell, and taste them, we instinctively eat as much of them as we can, merely to store the energy (as fat) for later, rich or poor, famine or no famine.

Because our instincts lead us to tasty foods (because they know that’s what stores fat and keeps us alive), that’s what we buy. Because we buy them, food manufacturers make them. Once the big food companies figured out that they can fine-tune the taste to make you buy more and more, things really got going!

Today, we eat foods that are made, produced, and manufactured instead of merely grown, raised, and prepared; food manufacturers have made them tastier and tastier over time, because that’s what ‘we’ demand!

We’re often told to listen to our instincts, but today our instincts are failing us. We are hoarding easy calories for a famine that’s never going to come.

We are solving a problem that doesn’t need solving, and in the process, creating a whole new series of problems.

Make no mistake; it’s all us. It’s all our doing, but we can also make it right.

“Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts.” – DH Lawrence

We are not the only ones with instincts.

Other animals also have instincts. Our planet is filled with an uncountable number of animal species, and each has its own instincts based on driving the behaviors designed to keep it alive and thriving.

In the wild, unless some natural disaster – or worse, mankind – has messed up the environment, animals thrive on instinct alone. They eat, sleep, mate, and raise their young to do the same. Success!

Animals in zoos? Not so lucky.

Pets? Yes, I’m sure they feel lucky to have you as an owner, but that doesn’t mean they are doing as well as they could be.

There is a key difference between animals in the wild, and the animals in zoos, on farms, our pets, and 99% of humanity – Animals in the wild eat the foods they are supposed to eat, and the rest of them, like us, do not.

There’s a growing trend in the pet world to feed our animal loved ones the foods that they are meant to eat.

In the case of cats, which are carnivores, the goal is to get them to eat mostly meat, and raw meat at that. Dogs are more omnivorous, but most modern-day vets and pet owners are coming to realize that dogs aren’t meant to eat processed food made of corn, wheat, and soy.

Dogs, and their ancestors in the wild eat meat and vegetation, not grains and legumes. Animals off of nature’s plan can suffer from some of the same diseases of lifestyle that we can.

My friend Lisa Wolfe, at Pasadena’s Miracle Fitness, has a wonderful, playful dog, named Annie.

Annie is fairly old, and had long suffered from the arthritis of ‘age,’ like so many humans do; and for years, Annie wasn’t playful at all.

After Lisa replaced Annie’s ‘healthy,’ high-end commercial dog food diet with one that eliminated grains, weird byproducts, and fillers, suddenly Annie runs around and plays like dogs years younger.

Do we love our animals more than we love ourselves?

If you spend any time on Facebook, you have undoubtedly noticed that people love to share everything about their pets.

People, for good reason, love animals, and they love their pets, and I don’t blame them. But, aside from dressing them up in little outfits and treating them as well as children, how far does it go? Pretty far, it turns out.

The other day, we were at a high-end boutique grocery store, and try as we might, we couldn’t find foods that weren’t processed, boxed, and filled with questionable ingredients. Not only that, but the produce was poor quality, and the ‘natural food section’ wasn’t natural at all.

As we were checking out, I spied a rack of gourmet canned goods; things like venison chili and bison stew. I walked over to the shelf, where I read the sign that said all the right things; all-natural, organic, humanely raised, and more. Even better, the ingredients lists were perfect, not a bad ingredient in them.

Have you guessed? Yes, it was dog food.

The dog food in this high-end store for people was of better quality than anything I’d seen while specifically looking for healthy people food.

Yep, we love our pets, so we love to feed them right.

So, what does that say about how we love ourselves?

Gorillas in the midst

…of heart attacks!

Zookeepers are now finding that animals thrive when fed the foods that their wild counterparts are eating instead of industrialized animal foods, which coincidentally are often produced by the very same manufacturers that produce mass-market pet foods.

Writer/blogger, John Durant (hunter-gatherer.com) turned me on to this great story, which I found particularly telling…

In 2005, a 21-year-old gorilla died of heart failure (heart disease is the number one cause of death for captive male gorillas, by the way), and prompted researchers to reexamine the lifestyles and diets of the gorillas in our nation’s zoos.

At the Cleveland Zoo, they started feeding the gorillas “food such as romaine lettuce, dandelion greens, endives, alfalfa, green beans, flax seeds, and even tree branches which they strip of bark and leaves. To top it off, they give the gorillas three Centrum Silver multivitamins inside half a banana,” writes David A Gabel, reporter for Environmental News Network.

As a result, the gorillas are eating more food and more calories, yet they are slimming down and starting to look more like their wild brothers and sisters.

“We’re just recognizing that surviving on a diet and being healthy on a diet are different. We’ve raised our standards and are asking, are they in the best condition to not only survive but to thrive?” says Kristen Lukas, adjunct assistant professor of biology, Case Western Reserve, chair of the Gorilla Species Survival Plan®.

The downside to being human

I know, you are not just an animal; you’re much more evolved, and you have free will.

You have the choice to eat as you want, while our domesticated and captive animals only eat what we provide them.

As you can see by the dog and gorilla stories, above, when we provide animals their ‘species-specific diets,’ they thrive. When we don’t, they don’t.

Dogs and cats love their treats, just like we love ours, and if they had free will (plus opposable thumbs and money), they might rebel like your teenager and buy their own junk food (just to spite you, also like your teenage daughter).

Your dog, eating his unhealthy treats, would continue to live a life full of aches and pains, and be overweight and diabetic, because, as an animal, he doesn’t know any better, …but shouldn’t you?

Are you enjoying this chapter of The Real Food Reset?

You can continue reading and start your own success story while reading the print or ebook, available at all the coolest bookstores, here, or in the link below.

Yes, the Downside to Being Human is one of my favorite chapters from our book, The Real Food Reset.

Grab the book today, and if you want help getting started, or are interested in joining one of my affordable and fun small group programs, schedule a free consult with me, today.

There’s no obligation. I’d love to point you in the right direction about the book or your diet and nutrition plans.

Schedule a Free Discovery Call with Roland

Enjoy the book, and I look forward to talking with you!

Roland

References and links

1. CDC, MMWR, Vol 48/No 12, CDC 1999
2. Arias E. United States life tables, 2008. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 61 no 3. Hyattsville, MD: NCHS 2012
3. Gorilla video and original article at enn.com/wildlife/article/42383
4. The Real Food Reset

The post The downside to being human appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Are you looking for new and sustainable ways to improve your health and deepen your self-care? Then look no further than the power of a habit that you can grow, sustain and reap benefits from.

Habits, very much like plants in a garden, need tending, time, and many adjustments along the way. As you skillfully navigate, like plants, they grow and give you the benefits you desire.

If you’ve known us for a while, you’ve heard us say that there are no hacks to health. There are no shortcuts. But, if there was a hack, it would be about becoming a skilled habit builder. It would mean making those eventually unconscious actions, which little by little, build our lives, easy to create and sustain.

Think to a time when you were able to build a successful habit and stuck to it long term. What benefits did you experience? What did you end up learning about yourself? What did it show you about your nature? What do you imagine the cost would be to your life if you hadn’t developed that habit?

Just recently, I’ve incorporated a few simple, yet powerful healing habits. And it didn’t take long to do so. I started on a new herbal remedy plan, which requires me to steep the herbs from scratch daily. I started practicing with a new meditation teacher. I started watching each sunrise and sunset…

You might say, holy cow, that’s a lot, but I was able to incorporate these fairly fast within a week with no starting and stopping. You too, can learn to do that, and get in a solid habit streak mode, but in order to do so, you need to get to know yourself and learn what helps you build sustainable habits fast.

Is it joining a group of people who successfully practice what you want to learn? 

Think of this as joining a gym, a club, a team or organization. It could mean starting your own group to help you practice your new habit.

Is it attaching a new habit to one you already practice?

Think of this as adding a glass of water alongside your morning cup of coffee. Or adding strength training to your yoga. Or some extra protein to your oatmeal? Or using a water-pick after flossing…

Is it combining a pleasant activity with the new habit?

For example Roland does his writing masterclass on the bike at the gym. The pleasant activity is the learning, and the new habit is the bike. I like the coffee place next to my doctor, so I have a nice latte before I see her. Win-win.

Is it tracking your habit and celebrating your milestones?

For some of us tracking a habit is what allows us to build it and keep at it. Roland tracked 4 years of calories on Calorie King back when he lost 110 lbs. I tracked 4 years of strength training workouts with my coach to find what my body needs to be strong and resilient. You can track water intake, log your stretching sessions, or even how often you walk with your friend around the local lake…Tracking apps and devices abound, so maybe it’s your FitBit that keeps you in check and motivated.

Is it making the habit emotionally meaningful?

I work with emotions all day, and I truly believe, that no matter what the habit is that we are trying to build, deep under, we are after a state, a combination of emotions, sensations, feelings, thoughts, and relations. So how do you feel when you are practicing your habit? Can you link how you want to feel with the habit you are building? That would be your inner winner combination.

Is it building unbreakable systems to make sure your habit sticks?

You can create an environment that prompts you to stick to your habit, for example you can place a glass of water and your supplements on the nightstand. Or, you can have a checklist you fill out every night, or you can have a habit buddy who checks in on you…whatever your system ends up being, remember that you can create it to work for you and the life you are building.

No matter how you learn to build sustainable habits of self-care, we find that the action and skill of building a habit itself has incredible merit. 

– A habit lets you know yourself better and better as you practice it

– A habit empowers you to create positive change and be adaptable to life

– A habit is an anchor and creates structure for the future of your life

– An established good habit can lead to more self-confidence and continue to strengthen a right relationship with yourself

So what habit are you building now? And where can that success take you?

We love helping readers out, so if you have any specific questions about building your lasting health habits, come over to our free Facebook group and join the conversation!

Let’s make it stick, but do it together!

The post Make it stick appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Healthy and fit is hard enough at home, but when your home is always on the move…

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

Show Notes – Healthy Van Life with Petra Fisher

Petra Fisher Bio

Petra was certified as a Restorative Exercise Specialist by Nutritious Movement in January 2013 and has completed over 200 hours of additional continuing education training from Nutritious Movement since that time.

She is a teacher trainer for Nutritious Movement, and an instructor for the international Move Your DNA workshop program.

She was certified to teach MovNat Level 1 in October, 2018. and certified as a Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist in March, 2019.

She lives and works as a full-time traveler since August 2018, camping, moving and exploring the world with her partner Chris in their 2003 Toyota 4Runner, Sophie. 

Prior to her career as a movement coach, Petra was a practicing Ontario lawyer, graduating with a JD from the University of Toronto in 2004. 

Topics Discussed

• A little about how the three of us met initially and how we have loved you ever since
• You live an active personal and professional life people “can see” on social media – as if it’s the most natural thing you’ve always done! Tell us a bit about how you went from working a normal day job that most people dream of, to living the movement rich life you live now?
• What was your initial motivation to start studying movement and how has it changed over time?
• How do you personally see the roles of a structured movement practice or exercise vs the role of environment in health?
• Tell us a bit about your van life journey – your inspiration, how you did it and what have you experienced and learned so far?
• How has this experience changed your body and how you feel? Are you able to feel the difference in circadian rhythms or quality of movement, digestion, stress, or any other measurable aspect of life?
• How has your “adventure” shown up mentally: do you feel an effect on your self-efficacy, or self-confidence, or ability to work with more flow and less pressure? How has it been for you and your partner?
  You work with people who are working on improving their quality of movement daily. What are some modern challenges you see everyone share and what would be a few steps you think everyone can take to remedy them?
• Both you and us are so passionate about healthy eating! What have you found has been a new baseline of organizing your meals and how does traveling in different countries, climates and local diets affect you?
• What is something you are working on right now that people should know about? How can they follow you?

Petra Fisher – Episode Links and Resources

Petra Fisher Movement

Petra Fisher on Facebook

Petra Fisher on Instagram

Get Petra’s Joints For Life program, and save with the coupon code CARS52.

Get Joints for Life here

Be sure to use CARS52 at checkout to save.

Love the show?

Subscribe and Review the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

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It only takes a minute to leave a quick review. Just try ten words and see how fast it goes!

Oh, and subscribing to the show brings each episode to you and your phone automatically!

Subscribe or review on Apple/iTunes

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Use the RSS feed in your favorite podcast app

Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Healthy Van Life with Petra Fisher appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Roland & Galina sit down to talk books, Q&A, and why the Personal Health Planner is the key to YOUR health success.

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest!

Roland & Galina – Q&A and Your Personal Health Planner

Galina and Roland. Alone.

Roland & Galina sit down (stand up, actually) to talk books, Q&A, and why the Personal Health Planner is the key to YOUR health success.

What’s up in this episode

• The best book review, ever – Adam lost 12 pounds by reading just the first 44 pages! Imagine what will happen when he finishes the book!
• Question – “I start off strong, but after a few weeks I lose steam and end up quitting. What can I do?”
• Question  – “I have issues with addiction. I’ve got the drugs and alcohol under control, but I still have issues with sweets and comfort foods when I’m feeling lonely.”
• Personal Health Planner time! If you haven’t watched Galina’s free lesson on setting personal health goals and setting yourself up for success, now is the time!
• Review Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well here!

Links and Resources

Emotional Eating Podcast Episode, including Galina’s three techniques to stop an emotional eating episode in its tracks!

Your FREE Personal Health Planner

Review Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well here!

Join our free Facebook Group  NOW!

Somatic and Developmental Trauma Resources and Practitioners

Somatic Experiencing (SE)

NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM)

Organic Intelligence (OI)

Love the show?

Subscribe and Review the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Reviews help spread the word, big time!

It only takes a minute to leave a quick review. Just try ten words and see how how fast it goes!

Oh, and subscribing to the show brings each episode to you and your phone automatically!

Subscribe or review on Apple/iTunes

Subscribe or review on Podbean

Subscribe or review on Stitcher

Subscribe or review on Google Play

Use the rss feed in your favorite podcast app

Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod  of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

PS. Don’t forget to try your Personal Health Planner!

The post Roland & Galina – Q&A and Your Personal Health Planner appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

We love coffee and think it’s healthy.

Everyone knows a good poop is healthy.

Hey, I’m not one to just share a video, but this one is so amazing that I can’t help myself!

It turns out…

Coffee and Poop are Best Friends

courtesy of Discovery News

If coffee just isn’t enough to keep you going (pun intended), I invite you to take a deeper look.

Start with Galina’s video below, then click here to get the next three.

Are you ready to get started?

Just click here and let’s get started with the three-day sequence Galina talks about in the video.

It’s totally free, and it’s going to help you find out what’s going on with your body.

And that’s why we are here — to empower you to take your first step, and then hang with you as long as you need our guidance and support!

Yes, please send me the three exercises!

Talk to you soon!

Roland

The post Coffee & Poop – Best Friends Forever appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Hey, when’s the last time you thought of movement being as important as nutrition?

My mentor Katy Bowman believes that so strongly that she even renamed her own method from Restorative Exercise to Nutritious Movement, and rebranded a whole organization to reflect that powerful message – how we move, how often we move, how we distribute movement and what the variety of that movement is will, to a large degree, determine the mechanical health of our bodies and tissues, down to our cellular DNA.

It might sound crazy when you first hear it, but you not only have a bony skeleton, you also have a cellular skeleton, and each wee little cell is supposed to get some movement.

Mechanical loads are then translated into biochemical and electrical loads, and voila – we have a part of the information that cells need to be healthy, downloaded through movement!

Cells make tissues and tissues, in turn, make systems and organs!

Our systems and organs are under-moved, which often happens in a sedentary society, and in a culture of convenience. When was the last time you lugged your water from the well and wood from the forest? Many of us suffer aches, pains, and various diseases of civilization – like high blood pressure, metabolic illness, or osteoarthritis…not to mention the epidemic of myopia.

So ponder this: for decades we’ve been trying to replace movement, the natural all day distribution of natural changes in our physical body, with exercise.

Alas, it hasn’t been enough.

To see a visual of that attempt and how it compares to nutrition, here is a handy video that explains in detail the philosophy behind the ‘movement movement.’

Roland and I believe so strongly that movement is incredibly important, that we created a movement-friendly home, moved near the Rockies so we can have more access to open nature and clean air, and even wrote a book about the way we organized our life and work with movement in mind.

If you too have realized that movement is super important, you may also have realized that lack of movement has limited you in certain ways that exercise hasn’t been able to remedy.

Where do you think your body could move better?

Which of your day to day challenges do you think movement can help?

Perhaps your hips ache when you go upstairs, or you have a bum knee, or your belly bloats after meals, or like many of our clients, you just feel sluggish and tired and don’t have the mojo you once used to have. Instead of going for a bike ride after work, you might be curling on the couch and blaming it on work, while, frankly, maybe your body just doesn’t feel great doing what you used to love…

A part of what I do here in our small part of the Internet is help people move better through creating targeted solutions, so you can do what you love without having to think like a personal trainer or movement coach.

And in my work,  I have always tried to answer these three questions

• What current challenges in your body can be overcome through targeted, specific and gentle movement?
• How can I teach movement and also deliver education about how the body functions?
• How can I deliver the movement solutions in a way that is playful and beneficial while simultaneously making it affordable…

Let’s be brutally honest, investing in 1-1 movement coaching is incredible and sometimes very needed, but many people juggle responsibilities and daily costs that leave little space to spend several thousand dollars in individual coaching.

This leaves specialized help out of the reach of so many, and Roland and I have devoted our work in recent years to make movement accessible to everyone. That’s why we released Healing Movement.

We wanted everyone who wants to learn how movement can help with various aches and pains, as well as chronic challenges, like this month’s Digestion Sessions, to be able to enroll and practice out of the comfort of their home.

And we wanted the content to be super specific – to get to these hardly ever moved areas of the body that typical exercise programs just don’t reach.

But here is the thing with ideas – we didn’t yet know if students would love this format – learning in 30-minute increments via recorded content, on a computer, phone or tablet…and it turned out that we had felt the pulse of our readers and students because many people totally loved the offerings we made in the first few months.

Healing movement has become our most popular offering. We could not be more thrilled that many of you have been learning with this easy format!

People are reporting feeling great, loving the learning, and kissing old aches and pains goodbye. Now, that’s something that our 1-1 clients experience all the time, but seeing it done in this way, just makes us so happy and proud.

How can you kiss your own aches and pains goodbye?

You have two ways to do it: grab an individual Healing movement series – like this month’s Digestion Sessions, or go all in and become a 365 member. 

Once you’re in the 365 Community, you’ll have access to all Healing Movement classes as a bonus, and that’s hundreds of dollars in savings through the year.

Here are our most recent Healing Movement classes

Digestion Sessions

Unstress your body

Strong Feet Better Balance

Low Back Relief

Hands, wrists and shoulders

To everyone who’s become a healing mover, thank you for pressing play and bringing your body to the mat!

I appreciate you so much!

Galina

The post Move better, move to heal appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Just because digestion is all about the food doesn’t mean it’s all about the food

I first came to Restorative Exercise in 2010. I had a myriad of body pains that weren’t being helped by conventional medicine and therapy.

You might have read about my chronic and persistent back pain prior to starting these gentle and mindful alignment practices.

I also suffered from stomachaches and had a very sensitive gut. It didn’t take much before I would curl into a pretzel after a meal, and holiday meals were torture. Some days, even a cup of tea would piss my stomach off.

Needless to say, I was tired of it and ready to try anything.

I was surprised to find that it wasn’t rocket science to help myself digest better. Between doing gentle tension releasing and breathing exercises, changing some postural habits, choosing to wear different clothes, and really being mindful of how I created my own tension and physical patterns of stress – it only took a few months for me to feel significantly better.

I was kind of surprised because for a long long time, I had been putting all my eggs in one basket – I was really looking at what I was eating and drinking, or even taking more and more sophisticated supplements to heal my belly, yet had never looked at my movement habits or the state of my nervous system. When you can learn complicated words like “zonulin” or “tight junctions”, why look at your breathing, right? It can’t be that simple…

You’ve probably done something to support your gut health just like me– like taken probiotics or excluded processed grains and sugar. Maybe you even went gluten-free. But sometimes, that doesn’t help enough and just leaves some of us more confused and frankly, discouraged.

It’s not that nutrition is not important, it is. But, if that’s not what’s driving the issue, it won’t be what solves it either.

Many coaching clients come to us after they’ve been told they have leaky gut, or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or simply because doctors can’t do anything more about their constipation…

Instead of asking them what they eat (we do that later), we first ask these questions:

– How many hours a day do you sit, and can you show us a picture of you sitting in your workspace in your usual and most comfortable posture?

– Do you have a daily practice to relieve stress?

– Describe the typical clothes you wear?

– Have you had any abdominal surgeries or falls on your sacrum and tailbone?

– How long do you walk daily?

– Is it easy and effortless to take a satisfying deep breath?

Of course, you, just like them might wonder, what does that matter? What do clothes have to do with my constipation or SIBO? Who cares if I walk?

But here’s the thing – digestion is not just about what goes in your mouth. We so wish it was, it would make our work and the work of NDs and RDs we collaborate with easier.

In reality, food and drink are really low on the totem pole of why digestion has been hampered in the first place and being told you need to continue to make your diet stricter or different might be barking up the wrong tree.

In our experience, once an acute illness is ruled out, in most chronic cases the two main reasons most people complain about digestion are nervous system dysregulation and lack of organ mobility and motility.

See, our organs need mobility and motility — movement from the outside and movement of the digestive system itself in order for the food to be guided along —  for the proper digestive juices containing enzymes to be secreted, and for the appropriate time between eating and elimination to pass…otherwise processes might stagnate and symptoms arise and persist.

Often, scar tissue, old inflammation, falls to the pelvis and other injuries may lead to the organs not moving well relative to each other.

In those cases we might refer you to someone who can manually help you with visceral manipulation or Arvigo. For more about these manual therapy options, listen to our Free the Belly Podcast episode, with digestive specialist and practitioner extraordinaire Barbara Loomis or refer to her self-study course.

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the two main reasons most people complain about digestion are nervous system dysregulation and lack of organ mobility and motility

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I was talking to my physical therapist recently about this. Manual work can make a world of difference, yet no matter how exquisite the manual therapy is that we get, no amount of it can balance the accumulated hours of poor sitting, lack of deep breathing and movement and the plight and pressure of restrictive clothing.

In fact, many of us need to include specific movements to support digestion and targeted practices to reduce stress.

While understanding how the movement of your body affects digestion might require some insight into biomechanics, the effect stress has on the gut is a lot more straightforward.

When the autonomic nervous system is responding to a stimulus with activating the nerves that exit the spine and mobilize us for a fight or flight response, the gut shuts down.

It’s a simple as that.

We don’t start to digest again, until we’ve relaxed…which in today’s day and age might be never.

Some people are so habituated to living in this heightened state that they might even wonder what’s wrong with everyone else who is so slow, not producing, rushing and responding to demands every moment of the day.

All that to say, friends, the power is in your hands

1. You can reduce stress right now through learning about and engaging the body’s relaxation response.
2. You can start to increase the mobility and motility of your organs with simple exercises.
3. You can become mindful of your daily activities and support your digestion with simple actions like switching tight clothing for comfortably fitting outfits that let you relax your gut without worry, paying attention to skeletal alignment and the way you breathe.

I’ve done the work of laying it all out for you, in the video below, and if something in you tugs you in this direction, jump in.

Start with my introductory video, below, then click here to get the next three.

Are you ready to get started?

Just click here and let’s get started with the three-day sequence I talk about in the video.

It’s totally free and it’s my gift to you!

When you know what’s going on with your body and you start to see changes, it’s that much easier for us to take you further in your self-care, and help you experience a free and happy life in your body!

And that’s why we are here — to empower you to take the first step and be with you as long as you need guidance and support!

Yes, please send me the three exercises!

Talk soon,

Galina

The post What no one told you about movement and digestion appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

A week from now, at the beginning of 2020, I will be doing my annual planning ritual.

l’ll be looking at large projects, the work and personal habits that I want to establish, and creating space in my calendar to make them happen.

Roland and I will be making vision boards at home and also with our 365 community members. We will be reaching inside to create the year ahead. The end of the year and the beginning of the next one is a natural time when we look back and look forward. And we feel called towards a brighter, more fulfilling future.

In January each year we meet long term and new readers and students who come to us to get support with their resolutions. The long term students come because they know support makes change faster and easier, and the newly aware students look for the best ways to achieve their goals. They share:

“I will finally get in shape.”

“I will start yoga for my stress.”

“I will meditate daily.”

We are glad to be in a position to support readers and students, because the resolutions statistics can make the most optimistic person seriously depressed.

Resolutions vs Habits

Take one study of New Year’s resolutions, in which 77 percent of people were able to keep a resolution for a week, but only 19% for 2 years.

You do the math, because changing a habit and making it stick takes a while. And some habits take even longer to make a noticeable difference. The main reasons most people in the study dropped their resolutions: stress and negative emotions.

Yet, each year, we keep resolving and promising things will be different and we will be different. Something inside of us is calling us from the future asking for us to express our health, creativity, and potential as partners, parents, and humans more fully. Something is pointing to a point of suffering in our lives, saying, this stress, this weight, this pain, this habit, can’t go on.

So we say yes and we jump in, rarely understanding the gravity of what it takes to make a habit stick, stay connected to the deep “why” of change, and how much support, resources and resolve it would actually take.

We chronically underestimate the effort and overestimate the result we will get – and of course, with all that at play, it’s not hard to feel disappointed, frustrated and throw in the towel.

We coach people 1-1 and in groups about these very challenges all the time, yet the end of one year and beginning of the next is when these patterns really start to emerge and ask for attention. We want to share with you the same mindset changing ideas we share with our clients, so you too can have an opportunity to make 2020 a year of meaningful self-care and enjoy your highest health.

Make your change as personal as you can

Often, we get resolution contagion. A colleague is doing the Whole 30. Someone is asking you to join a bootcamp with them. Your partner is going gluten-free, so of course, you should do the same.

However, in order for change to stick and last, you need the habits and daily actions that are personally important and meaningful to you. Not just at the surface level, but at the level of what you believe, how you want to live your life, and what kind of person you would like to be for yourself, those around you and the world you have influence over.

A bootcamp might be fun, but does nothing for how curious you are about human movement and the exploration of the connection between movement and emotion. So it will just scratch the surface, and soon you will get bored. Or, you really don’t believe that gluten-free should be even a thing. But you deeply want to be more connected to the land and start gardening, composting and supporting your local farmers.

In one case, you would join a bootcamp, in the other probably a movement studio where you can learn about how the body works and you can explore many mind-body movement styles.

In one case, you’d be eating gluten-free pasta once a week, in the other you’d be working in a community garden, sharing social time with neighbors and friends, and learning from a local farmer how to make your own cheese.

These are just two examples, but think about this: what’s your personal why? How will this affect you mentally, emotionally, physically? What would this habit need to be, so that once you have established it, you can’t imagine life without it.

Create time, space, and rhythm for the change you desire

Has this happened to you? You pick up a new resolution and just add it to your calendar. Which just adds more to do…hm, no wonder that study showed 81% of people don’t make it long term on their resolutions.

In order for anything new to take root in your life, you need to give it time, space and establish a rhythm, so that it can soon start to feel natural.

I was recently working with a client who has chronic illness and limited energy to meet the demands of her housework.

We found that dishes can build up for days, and then it takes 2 or more hours to clean up the kitchen and dishwasher. We also noticed that the pattern was self-defeating – not only did she not have the energy to do all this work, but when it was finally inevitable, she exhausted herself even more trying to complete the task.

So we looked at the three variables – time, space and rhythm.

Time meant that she was supposed to know how long it takes and factor that in.

Space meant some buffer before and after the task.

Rhythm meant finding the best times of the day when she had the most energy to do a little bit at a time, so mountains of work did not pile up.

You can do the same with any new habit you are trying to establish.

Doing exercise in the morning, for example. How long will it take? Can you build a few minutes for transitioning to and from the activity, and how often would you like to do it for optimal rhythm?

Rhythmicity is built within our biology – we inhale and exhale, our hearts speed up and slow down, we eat and then digest, we rise and then go to bed…if you can find the best time of day, week and month to plan for your new activity and synch it with natural rhythms, it will pay off.

Power yourself with positive emotion

Define aspects of the change that are easy to observe.

I personally think the notion of motivation is overrated. It’s much better to find an emotional connection to the habit you want to build and ride the wave of positive emotion. Using fear-mongering, pain-avoidance, and scare tactics won’t get you anywhere.

Fear puts the whole system in a defensive state – hardly a favorable place from which to learn.

With clients, we explore how would they like to feel when they have established a new habit.

“I want to feel confident in my body.”

“I would like to be relaxed at night.”

“I would like to be able to eat without worry about calories. I want to be at peace with calories.”

Whatever the emotion is, get a hold of it. It could be a whole state made up of several emotions. Then break it down into bite sized measurable signs that you have gotten there:

“I will know I am confident in my body when I can go to the gym by myself. Also because I will be doing my own yard work and walk the two dogs at once.”

“I will know I am relaxed, because I can fall asleep faster. I also won’t need wine to wind down from the day. And I will be patient with my daughter’s homework.”

“I will know I am at a point of peace with calories when I can go out to any restaurant and not look at the menu beforehand. I will also know, because I will eat without checking labels. And I can finally buy full fat milk again.”

Do you see the difference?

One is more general and the other a lot more specific, so you can measure how you are moving forward towards sticking to the habits that will get you to these specific outcomes.

It’s easy to say: “Oh, i just need to buy less packaged food, and little by little read fewer labels” instead of  “I will worry less about calories”, which is more broad and nebulous.

So whatever your resolution could be this year, write it down and then use the three principles discussed to help it stick.

Here are the three principles again

1. Make it personally meaningful.
2. Create time, space and rhythm.
3. Find the positive emotion and define the specific ways you will act when you feel that way.

This simple process has helped hundreds of trusted clients find a new and effective way to learn and care for themselves.

And, using these principles, you can learn any habit – and eat, move and live better sooner than you thought and make it stick forever.

As you know, as coaches, it’s our work to make sure that actually happens, so we would love it if you join us for a special January program.

We will take 30 days to introduce 12 powerful habits that will change your eating style and make a real food diet easy to follow.

We’ll do it in a way that helps you learn, implement and then use the rest of the year to solidify these 12 habits, so you can feel your best!

If you’re ready, jump in!

Our program requires no supplements or gimmicks, so there are no hidden costs, just real life, proven, client tested work, that will pay off one habit at a time for the rest of your life.

The Great January Reset

I hope to see you in The Great January Reset. If you have any questions, just ask!

Talk soon,

Galina

The post Make it stick – try this instead of resolutions appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Those of us who use computers and phones a lot tend to get head and neck aches.

It’s all that craning the neck forward to get close to those little, teeny, tiny letters 

In our latest book, we call this “the turkey head,” for obvious reasons!

Got some turkey head going on yourself?

It’s easy to take care of.

Watch below!

Improve your posture at work with this one simple move

Goodbye Turkey Head helps breathing, focus, and tension.

For even more help with your neck and work posture, get our 5 simple steps to feel better and more dynamic at work at the link below.

EatMoveLive52.com/Workspace

Let us know how it helps!

Roland & Galina

The post Head and Neck Aching from Work? appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

We’ve been fans of Amy Kubal’s humor and common sense nutrition for years, so when she said yes to joining us, we were (and still are) thrilled!

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

Want to work with Amy, Galina, and Roland?

That’s right, we got so excited about our conversations that the three of us are going to kick off 2020 by working together.

We’ve got a trend free, real food, and totally fun new project that we know you’ll love, and we’ll be announcing the detail in the new few days.

If you want to kick off the new year, make huge progress, and lasting change, then sign up right here to be notified and be the first to know!

Yes, I want to be the first to know!

Roland, Galina, and Amy

Now, onto the show…

Show Notes – Trend Free Nutrition with Amy Kubal, RD

Amy Kubal Bio

Amy Kubal MS, RDN  is a Registered Dietitian who is well-versed in working with Paleo, autoimmune, ketogenic, digestive and kidney health, performance, eating disorder, and figure/bodybuilding diet/nutrition plans.

She has served as a consultant dietitian for Robb Wolf, The Paleo Mom, Training Bible Coaching, and several Crossfit gyms.

Amy also works independently with a wide range of diets, health conditions, athlete types, and ages.

Topics Discussed

• Galina asked me how we met, and it’s been so long that I don’t remember. I had a really long commute in the olden days and suddenly, I used to listen to every paleo, real food, and low carb podcast I could find. It might have been through Robb Wolf’s podcast. Were you working with Robb Wolf at the beginning?
• When we started working with nutrition clients we were pretty focused on a paleo-style diet, which is how I learned about you. How has your relationship with the paleo diet changed over time?
• I’ve always seen you as a voice-of-reason when it comes to nutrition. Even on the Robb Wolf show you weren’t particularly dogmatic on paleo.
• Do you have core principles that you think are important for a good healthy diet? What about for weight loss?
• Is it okay if we talk about keto? When is keto the right diet?
• The Atkins diet got a lot of pushback from the paleo community so why is keto getting a pass?
• Carnivore? We have a friend doing it keto style because she had a hard time controlling her blood sugar on other diets (even keto with a few veggies here and there). What’s going on here? Is the carnivore diet good for certain people?
• Every year paleo-style diets get slammed as unhealthy by lists like the US News and World Reports diet rankings. Meanwhile, low-fat, low salt, and plant-based diets with less evidence of effectiveness and wholesomeness do better. What’s going on there?
• What’s your take on vegan diets for health? Can a vegan thrive? What are some signs that a vegan diet is not serving you well?
• You recently posted about problems that certain people have on a higher protein diet? Why and when can a high protein diet be a problem?
• They’ll take my cheese when they scrape it from my warm, greasy fingers. Let’s talk about that cheese article – https://www.facebook.com/wirlwindamy/posts/10158904451086040
• how does the public (or a health coach) make decisions about what to eat or not to eat when there’s so much nonsense floating around? Coffee good, coffee bad. Red meat bad, red meat not bad enough to say it’s bad? Doctors and personal trainers are still telling people to eat egg whites. How does one stay informed?
• Tell us about your style when you work with clients? What type of clients are your specialty and what do you do that’s different?
• How can people find you and work with you?

The TrendFreeRD with Amy Kubal – Episode Links and Resources

Amy Kubal’s website – TrendFreeRD.com

Amy on Instagram – Instagram.com/TheTrendFreeRD

Amy Kubal on Facebook – Amy Kubal, RD

Signup for news on the Amy, Galina, and Roland team up!

Love the show?

Subscribe and Review the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Reviews help spread the word, big time!

It only takes a minute to leave a quick review. Just try ten words and see how fast it goes!

Oh, and subscribing to the show brings each episode to you and your phone automatically!

Subscribe or review on Apple/iTunes

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Use the RSS feed in your favorite podcast app

Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Nutrition Myths & Realities with Trend Free RD Amy Kubal appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

I’ve been living this healthy lifestyle for years, but I still catch colds no matter how healthy I am. Whether it’s a cure for the common cold or just stopping it in its tracks seems like semantics to me.

A natural remedy that makes my cold go away? Done!

How to stop a cold with a natural cold remedy

Hi, it’s Roland, and I have a cold.

I’ve been pretty miserable.

I felt it when I woke up Thursday night with a scratchy throat and a little sniffle.

I’d just returned from a trip to Colorado, so there had been a lot of dry air, new types of pollen, weird smoke, and a plane ride home. I had high hopes that I’d feel fine in the morning, but when I morning came I was worse.

Full Disclosure: I DO get sick

I’m not one of those ‘fitness people’ who claims to never get sick since going paleo, vegan, or doing Crossfit. I do. Maybe not as easily or as often as when I was unhealthy and overweight fifteen years ago, but I still get sick.

Viruses are pretty clever at getting through one’s defenses.

“Life, uh… finds a way” – Dr. Ian Malcolm

Unfortunately, I’m also one of those people who tends to get a cold, then feel pretty sick for a week or more. I sniffle and my voice sounds terrible and hoarse for a long time.

I love medicine for its life-saving properties, but I hate taking medicine just to feel better, especially when it’s just covering up the symptoms and not actually curing anything.

A natural cold remedy that actually works is rare. Most don’t do anything at all, and most cold medicines do nothing except mask the symptoms and give you side-effects.

If only there was a natural cold remedy that actually worked.

Well, there is.

You can stop a cold with a natural remedy

I used to think not, but then back in 2016, I found what for me still seems like a miracle cure.

Zinc.

I know, I know, zinc is nothing new.

You’ve seen those lozenges in the stores, and people say they work, so…

But do they really? I tried them and nothing happened. I tried again. Same thing, so I gave up.

Then one of my ‘trusted online advisers,’ Dr. Chris Masterjohn, told me I was using the wrong kind of zinc!

I listened to what he had to say, and the science is solid on this one. I believe it!

It is zinc, but not just any zinc

Zinc has been scientifically shown to stop the escalation of a cold in its tracks, but only if you start the zinc treatment early, use the right zinc, and take it properly.

Don’t just go into the health food store and ask for zinc or some other natural cold remedy. The clerk will mean well, but I can almost guarantee you’ll get the wrong thing.

↑ Look for the right zinc ↑

Before you rush out and buy anything and everything zinc related for your cold, finish reading this post.

I’ll keep it short, so hang in there…

1. First, this has nothing to do with your body’s zinc levels. This zinc treatment works by covering the throat and sinuses with zinc, keeping the cold virus from attaching to the cells so they can’t multiply and spread.
2. Zinc lozenge treatment needs to start at the first sign of a cold, before the virus fully takes hold. Do not wait or this won’t work well, or possibly at all. Buy your zinc today so you’re ready when you feel the cold starting.
3. It has to be the right kind of zinc. Zinc Acetate is best. Common zinc tablets or pills will not work at all to stop colds.

Yes, it must be lozenges, and they need to be big enough so that they take 20-30 minutes to dissolve. The time matters. Also, the lozenges need to be taken every 2 hours during the day (but not while sleeping). There’s no need to wake up to take them during the night, either.

Unfortunately, the lozenges need to be the type that taste bad and dry out your mouth. Sorry, but the ingredients that mask the typical, nasty zinc taste will prevent the zinc from working. The science that keeps the virus from reproducing is in the pH balance, and tasty flavors reverse what the zinc is doing.

Bottom line, pharmacy and grocery store lozenges are not very effective (i.e., almost worthless). They can work in a pinch. Because of the type and amount of zinc, they are only half as effective at best. You’ll have to take A LOT more than the package recommends, which I would NOT recommend.

Look at the list above and see that the small, tasty lozenges from the grocery store and pharmacy dissolve too quickly. You would have to take two in a row to keep zinc in there for 20-30 minutes, every two hours. Not recommended.

What does the Doctor recommend?

The recommended lozenges are LifeExtension Enhanced Zinc Lozenges. Note – LifeExtension has two that look almost the same, so make sure you get the ones that say “Enhanced.” That sounds either silly or powerful, depending on your personality.

You can shop around, but they aren’t very expensive. Just buy the recommended zinc lozenges in the links below and kill that cold!

Links

Prime Shipping via Amazon – This is our affiliate link to Enhanced Zinc On Amazon.

If you need to get your bottle quickly, you’ve got Prime shipping ready to help!

Stocking up? – I still went with Amazon for the 1-click (I know, that’s where they get you), but you can save a little by buying 4 bottles directly from LifeExtension – LifeExtension Enhanced Zinc Lozenges.

You’ll need multiple bottles for the season, anyway, especially if you have a family.

Not in the United States? Depending on what country you live in, you might have to search them out wherever you’d shop for natural cold remedy, just be sure to find the right ones!

Here’s the label of mine, below, to help you find it in your own country.

↑ Look for Enhanced Zinc ↑

↑ There are multiple kinds of zinc, so look for zinc acetate ↑

Dr. Chris Masterjohn on Zinc and the Common Cold – How to Kill a Cold with Zinc

Skeptical?

Like I wrote above, I’ve been using this technique for years now with good success.

When I travel, I even take a few days worth in my bag.

If I don’t, I know I’ll feel a cold coming on, and there will nothing I can do to stop it. That feeling of hopelessness can be worse than the cold itself.

I was skeptical at first because the tasty zinc lozenges from the grocery store did nothing for me, but since then I’ve read up on this and personally spoken with Chris Masterjohn about it.

The science is solid on this one!

Three Days and Counting

As I’m writing this, it’s been three days since my cold started, and I’m already feeling much better. My sore throat is long gone and my nose is clearing up.

Before this zinc treatment, I’d still have at least a week to go before my cold would technically be gone, but weeks more before I sounded well again.

Stock up on your Enhanced Zinc today, and be ready for a cold tomorrow!

You know it’s coming…

But I Don’t Want to Get Sick in the First Place

Me, neither, but it happens.

Still, whenever I write about this topic, people want to know what they can do to improve their chances of not getting a cold in the first place, boost natural immunity, and feel better if they DO get sick.

I’ll be writing more about that in the next few days, AND we’re covering immune system boosters in Eat Move Live 365 this month. If you want to dive in, be healthier, and boost your immunity to colds, flus, and more, join us today!

Talk soon, and don’t get sick.

But have your zinc handy, just in case!

Roland

PS – If you’ve been thinking of joining us in Eat Move Live 365, now’s a great time. We’re covering the immune system, which is going to come in real handy as we get close to holidays!

If you want to be the healthiest you, join the Eat Move Live 365 Community today!

The post Stop a Cold with this Natural Cold Remedy appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

For Christmas we are hanging out in our kitchen, rolling dolmas for the feast!

Merry Christmas!

Today we are also taking extra time to reminisce about all the wonderful events of the past year and be thankful for our clients and readers!

We wish you all a Merry Merry Christmas!

May you be blessed with abundant health, enjoy the freedom of being physically active, and the joy of having a spark for life that always takes you to a place where you know yourself better!

We hope you are spending these days with family and friends, or working on your favorite projects, or just kicking back and dreaming of what you would want from the New Year!

You are in our thoughts and we send blessings your way, wherever you are!

Roland (& Galya)

PS. Old pictured, but they made me laugh, so…

The post Merry Christmas! appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Ask anyone how they take care of their digestion and you may get a range of answers – from taking probiotics and prebiotics, to drinking daily kombucha, to eating a special diet or even doing specific exercises.

As a culture, we like to pick one element of a “solution” and focus on it.  Trust me, as nutrition coaches and authors of three health books and a cook book, we wholeheartedly agree that the quality of food matters.

But what if we are missing the forest for the trees? What if it wasn’t so much the quality of food, but rather the ability of our organs being able to move freely that was important? Organs need both space and stimulation to have the mobility and motility that are their natural requirement for function.

As coaches who incorporate nutrition, movement and stress management in supporting our clients, we see that being sedentary and keeping organs stuck in one position negatively impacts almost everyone’s digestion. Once we set systems in place to get moving during the day, we see incredible changes – constipation and irregular bowel movements decrease, gas and bloating go away, and most of our students report better mood and energy, too.

Why do our organs get influenced by being sedentary? It’s close quarters in there – and between work clothes, being seated, and most of us not using the full range of motion of the torso and shoulder girdle (a lumberjack does, perhaps, or a professional athlete?!) – we are keeping our poor organs in stiff and unyielding positions. And no, standing won’t help much either, especially if you stand in the “not cool” way, as shown by our movement colleague and reproductive health specialist Barbara Loomis here.

Tight clothes and belt buckles can even press on parts of our gut and negatively influence internal pressures – we’ve referred many of our students to therapists trained in Visceral Manipulation or Arvigo abdominal therapy, only to get confirmation, that yes, that’s what’s bringing on the symptoms that often will get blamed on candida overgrowth or SIBO or even stress.

You can do something about this situation today and give your organs the space and time they deserve in your work life. Moreover, what you do for your organs to improve your digestion will impact your overall health and productivity, motivation and wellbeing – so you have a win-win.

To start making changes you need three key elements:

• change your position often
• move throughout the day
• include specific corrective exercises in your movement program

1. When you go for a walk between bouts of work tasks, walk a bit faster and let your arms swing freely – this will support the rotation of the torso, encourage deeper breathing and help organ mobility.

2. Change your positions often and develop a rich sitting vocabulary. For more read and watch the videos here.

3. Make your breaks at work active – do stretches that include the torso and ribcage, as well as the pelvis. Try this simple chair rotation.

3. When you exercise, include rotation exercises – like in this rotation flow that we taught in our 365 community a few months back.

Changing your work habits may just be the key to improving your digestion. To change any habit you need simple and applicable reminders as you find a new rhythm. Just for you, we’ve created a simple download you can print and stick on your desk or bulletin board as you create a more dynamic and physically supportive environment.

Click here, get your free download, your work body will thank you!

Do you have a favorite way to take care of your digestion through movement? Comment below and let us know! We would love to learn from you!

The post Can you use time at work to improve your digestion? appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

We recently had physical therapist Susan McLaughlin on the EatMoveLive52 Podcast to bust some myths and help us to better understand the role of the autonomic nervous system in chronic pain, tension, and discomfort.

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

Get Your Free Download

We’ve created a download just for you to help you regulate during times of tension and discomfort.

Click Here For Your Free Podcast Listeners Download

We hope these gentle practices bring a sense of regulation and wellbeing throughout your day.

Roland & Galina

Show Notes – Busting Myths in Physical Therapy with Susan McLaughlin

Click Here For Your Free Podcast Listeners Download

Susan McLaughlin is a physical therapist specializing in men’s and women’s pelvic health.

Her private practice is in Salt Lak City, Utah, but she also has a wealth of information online, where some of you may have already met her.

“I have been practicing physical therapy since 2001. In 2012I transitioned away from the major medical healthcare system to a holistic and eclectic collection of skills, all of which fit under the title of my business name: ALIGN Integration | Movement.

As a practitioner I meet each client with the empathy and compassion that I, too, have sat deeply imbedded in the suffering of pain, and have been able to transform my body, mind, and spirit to get out of it.”

Topics Discussed

• Could you tell us about your inspiration and inner guidance to practice Physical Therapy the way you do?
• What have you added to your eclectic practice that you never thought you would use as a therapist?
• Have you seen a change in the kind of complaints and conditions people come to you with over the years? For example, do you see more chronic pain?
• What’s the role of the nervous system and trauma in your practice? How do you educate patients and what resources do you give them if they are in chronic pain? Why do you think the medical profession has not been able to support those patients well so far?
• How do you help patients start to feel and deem themselves as a whole and not broken?
• What in your own journey with pain was key for your own healing and recovery?
• Let’s address some common myths in physical therapy and movement; let’s start with sucking in or bracing your abs, not locking your knees, keeping a flat back when standing or exercising, or needing to wear a small heel on your shoe?
• If someone has been in pain for a long time and watching all of those “precautions” for movement, what could be some undesired side effects?
• If you could design an ideal movement and therapy program for someone in pain, what would it absolutely include? What is something that you would never include?
• Where can people find more about you or work with you?

Susan McLaughlin Episode Links and Resources

We’ve created a download just for you to help you regulate during times of tension and discomfort.

Free Download – Click here to get your bonus download for podcast listeners

Susan’s Website – AlignForHealth.com

Susan on Facebook – Join Susan on Facebook

Love the show?

Subscribe and Review the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Reviews help spread the word, big time!

It only takes a minute to leave a quick review. Just try ten words and see how fast it goes!

Oh, and subscribing to the show brings each episode to you and your phone automatically!

Subscribe or review on Apple/iTunes

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Busting Myths in Physical Therapy with Susan McLaughlin appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Just like that – our dream came true.

For years we wanted to have a monthly membership platform.

We imagined and created a place to publish exciting and life-changing content and a group for discussions and support. When we set out a year ago we said let’s do this for a year, let’s try to see if our idea about self-care intersecting with life’s themes can work.

Our coach, Lyn Christian, our greatest cheerleader, asked if we were serious about this. She probed to find out whether it was another idea, or something that really came from our hearts and guts! She didn’t leave us alone until Galina, literally in tears, swore she felt that was the right way to go. It would take many hours of work and many months before we knew whether it was a viable idea.

Thanks to our founding members, who supported to this day, the idea and the community took off!

It is still in its toddler stages, but boy is it a happy toddler! Our pages and groups are full of love, life, and health – just like we imagined!

Someone yesterday asked me what was our inspiration for this.

“There’s so much”, they said. “It’s like Netflix in here…”

Yes. We were looking for a few things: an antidote to diet and wellness culture that want to fit us in a box, a way to be playful and creative with health, and a way to co-create with members.

There were months where we asked: hey, want to learn about the Vagus nerve next month? Hey, what recipes are you craving? Cioppino? No problem! And months where we called you to ask what’s wrong – how come this month’s content seems like it didn’t quite meet the expectations? And we fixed it.

We created content: recipes, mindfulness practices, movement practices, visuals, downloads, coffee houses, interviews, even a cook-along – month, after month, after month.

We edited, published, designed emails, met for coaching calls, and celebrated, overcame obstacles and moved forward together!

We are grateful you gave us a chance to do that!

365 is as much yours as it is ours.

So, armed with inspiration from our community members and knowing there are so many people who are not members yet, but whose lives could change for the best, we are embarking on year 2 of our membership community.

What’s new in the Eat Move Live 365 community for 2020?

• We will keep the basic structure of the three pillars – eat, move and live and the practices – recipes, movement, and mindfulness
• We will keep recording the audiobook chapters and publishing those (look for bonus chapters from Galina’s new book “Peace with self peace with food”, too!)
• You get 2 hours of Healing Movement classes as a BONUS each month
• You get any programs we do seasonally as a BONUS
• You get access to coaching calls starting in mid-October (each week we will have a conference call for anyone who wants extra support and Roland and Galina will take turns who coaches so you get both of us)

We’re evolving based on our community

The content and how we share it keeps evolving (members, see the new checklist?? Woot!).

Whatever happens in 2020 know we will continue to create with deep care and love for you and we are grateful for you!

Talk soon, and here’s to another great year,

R+G

PS – Want a flashback of the many themes from 2019? Here is a little something to remind you of all you have done!

The post Happy anniversary, 365-ers! appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Have you ever wondered why most diets and health plans fail? Human beings are a lot more complex than “Eat This Not That!” or “Move more, eat less!” or “No pain, no gain”. We are complex social creatures, capable of an incredible array or complex emotions and behaviors, most of them unconscious, automatic, and safe from our conceptual or cognitive reach.

We know this “human behavior is hard to change” thing firsthand – after all, our job is to support people in implementing the action steps and habits to get them from where they are to where they dream to be. If it were easy, the whole coaching industry would collapse! You know that firsthand too – after all, we have all, in our humanity, succeeded in changing some habits, and others not so much!

There’s an area of change where things are particularly tricky with food- and that’s on the intersection of neurobiology and emotional regulation. We are born prewired with receptors for the very neurotransmitters that signal connection, bonding, nurturance, safety. We are also born prewired with the expectation for bonding, safety and nurturance mediated by the nervous system and the nerves that wire the face, throat, and organs. Without getting into the complex wiring of the parasympathetic system, let’s just say that there is a system outside of your conscious control that responds to specific signals for safety – and if those signals are not in place – food behaviors can come in to substitute for those. In a way – food comes in to do what your nervous system, should it be wired and firing properly, and should you be in a safe environment, is normally able to do on its own.

If only, though, right? In my Peace with food retreats, classes and workshops, people share so many of the same struggles: gut issues, autoimmunity, fatigue, mental health challenges, and emotional regulation challenges. Their systems haven’t failed, they have just been coping the best way they can, and the best learned way is not always the best natural way.

Once you learn that there is a complex neurobiology that is the driver for these symptoms and how food has both provided temporary relief and has often caused long term suffering, you have taken the first step to peace with food.

If you too would like freedom from emotional eating or emotionally driven restriction, if you’d like to learn more about the role of the nervous system and how you can help yourself today, I invite you to take my online workshop on September 26. You still have time to enroll and experience the same freedom my clients have. It’s so powerful, you will wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!

See what people say about the Peace with Food process here!

Grab a free chapter from my new book on emotional eating!

Enroll in the workshop now!  Use coupon code EMLFRIEND to get 50% off the enrollment cost!

The post Peace with food online workshop appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Here is the tricky thing about movement – it only works if you do it.

It’s a hard truth to swallow – that even those of us who are more active, still spend more time sedentary, or stand-entary (if you have a stand-up desk, that is!). So unless you move, the power of movement isn’t really working in your favor!

We wrote about the importance of daily movement and included hundreds of ways to move more in daily life in our latest book! We even taught you how to organize your workspace and home life in a way that supports movement! And yet, cars, chairs and screens draw us down into stillness, like an anchor that needs to be pulled out daily.

It’s incredible how lack of movement shows up in our bodies and minds. Our students will describe symptoms ranging from nagging aches and pains, to mysterious digestive conditions, to irritability, lack of focus and clarity. Or just lack of drive and willpower, writer’s block, loss of motivation…

It’s not uncommon, on one of our coaching health intake forms, to see someone with jaw pain, headaches, low back pain, foot pain, digestive discomfort and anxiety all written in one neat line. And often, as we include the personalized movement programs, and as students start to move- many of those complaints lessen and even vanish completely.

Here is how movement is powerful – it’s not the calories burnt or the post-exercise oxygen consumption that matters the most, but that we open a pathway for blood, lymph, neural, and energy flow.

And when the body has open flow, the exchange of nutrients and metabolites, gases and fluids can happen easily. Your heart works with ease when the muscles are returning blood back to it, your fascia slides better when there’s hydration in the area, your lungs expand freely when your ribcage muscles are able to stretch and respond…it’s that easy.

As a human being, you are a marvelous work of art comprised of tubes, hollow spaces, wires, and pathways – from your bronchi to your meridians and from your endothelium to your skin – and they all need one thing – to move.

Even your brain has evolved to support movement – and that should tell you something right there!

Yet, for many people, it’s hard to move on a daily basis.

Some of the main obstacles we see have to do with time management, or not knowing exactly what to do. Some people overshoot in intensity and volume, so recovery suffers, movement looks like one step forward, two back… and progress is rarely made.

There are different motivations behind starting a movement program – and no matter what yours is – from healing your body to athletic performance, quality always precedes quantity. When you are able to move your body more – and move more of your body, keeping the pathways open – movement becomes easy, pleasant and a piece of cake to increase.

We are always looking for solutions, and you’ve probably seen or own our Every Body Moves course, or the 365 membership with new movement practices each month, but we wanted to do something to address three problem areas:

• Your limited time
• Your body that may ache and hurt with regular exercise
• Loss of proprioception, interoception (fancy ways to say your brain loses connection with your body when you don’t move) due to stillness and stress

So we created a new movement class, called Healing Movement, to help you get quality movement in, in a time that is available for most of us in a day, organized around a monthly theme and quite affordable, especially if you join during the launch month of each class!

For the price of a cup of coffee you get an effective and masterfully guided 1/2 hour class delivered straight to your email 4 Thursdays of the month.

The themes change monthly, and you can see them and enroll in the first class, here.

Why are we offering you a class like this?

Because our bodies are starved for movement and they give us so much back when we spend even 30 minutes with them! But how will you know if you just read about it?

Enroll two ways:

Directly enroll to get 4 classes for $19 – price goes up at the end of each month

Get the classes free when you enroll as a 365 community member 

The first class, Strong Feet, Better Balance,  is live now, and look at this feedback we got already!

And more:

We hope you join us for Healing Movement, today!

Jump in, we got you!

The post Move better today, move more tomorrow appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Maria Hickman helps kids get healthy one swap at a time!

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

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Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

Show Notes and Podcast Listener Links

For all show notes, links, and downloads, click here or the image below.

EatMoveLive52.com/PodcastGuest

Swap It Healthy with Maria Hickman

Maria Hickman – Certified Health Coach and Brain Health Coach

She believes food can be medicine when used properly.  Within her own family, the proper use of food has cured numerous diseases.

Her husband had high blood pressure, constant headaches, and aches and pains from playing football in the NFL. Maria was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and her children suffered from ADHD, eczema, asthma, and leaky gut.  All of this is gone with making simple, slow changes to the 4 pillars of health.

Maria specializes in children with ADD (all 7 types), plus kids with behavioral, weight and skin issues.

Although she loves to work with kids, she has many adult clients that have decided to get healthy!

Topics Discussed

• Dear Maria, please share a bit of your personal story. Where were you in your life when you first became interested in health and what was the defining moment when you chose to turn your life around?
• What were some of the health challenges in your family at the time you started changing your nutrition and what was it like to start making these changes? How did the kids respond?
• Where is the balance between modern medicine and a holistic food based approach to healing? Do you have any wisdom for parents whose kids may be prescribed medicine considering nutrition as a healing option?
• What are some of the most common conditions you see in kids and why do you think we see more and more ADD, skin issues, sensitivities, weight gain?
• What are the specific interventions you make with families? Can you talk about the four pillars?
• What are some environmental factors outside of food that may influence kids health these days? (EMFs, screens, blue light, sleep deprivation, etc.)
• What first steps can parents take to start shifting the mindset around processed food and what is considered a “normal” diet for a child?
• What is the role of movement and activity for kids? We see studies about cutting recess or adding recess and the effect movement has on focus! What do you see in your own kids with movement?
• Do you guys grow your own food? Do the kids take part?
• How do you “have fun” without the culturally expected feasts around food and sugar? How do you shift the kids from a fun with food mindset to a fun with family mindset?
• What is your encouragement for parents who think “I can’t do this!”
• Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming 12 week program and how it can help families transition to a natural food lifestyle?

Maria Hickman’s Links and Resources

Swap It Healthy

Maria Hickman on Instagram

Maria Hickman on Facebook

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Swap it Healthy with Maria Hickman appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

As coaches, people often come to us with an expectation to give them more things to say NO to.

Yet, they’ve already said “No” to so many. From gluten and dairy, to high heels and couches, from air travel to social media…we all build ourselves the scaffolds to keep us safe.

We build our own “biodome”, a predictable environment where we keep the “bad” out and hope that’s enough. Our culture’s hyper-focus on vilifying ingredients, activities, environments and groups of people ( think gluten, sitting, large cities, raw vegans) adds new rules and attitudes daily, thickening the walls of our dome, till we can no longer see out and others can no longer see in.

Yet, what you feel like and perform like, and more than that – what you experience life like, is a lot more about what you say “Yes” to than what you say “No” to. See, a “No” doesn’t affect you. A “Yes” is what comes inside your “biodome” – what creates your environment, external and internal – and ultimately, your life.

In the wise words of Annie Dillard:

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”

Here are four key “Yes” actions that help our clients and students thrive.

We hope they inspire you to watch for your own inner conversations and rules, and ask yourself if they contribute to the life you want. Or on the contrary, have created business, rigidity, limitations and patterns that have taken you farther from how you want to live.

YES to experience overhead knowledge

How will this new plan work?

Where can I learn more about this method?

Can you guarantee me that if I do this 3 times a week my pain will go away?

Can I read one more book on the feet before we start?

We live in a world where information is everything. We want to know before we do. We want to research before we try.

Yet, on the path of restoring natural movement or building a nourishing diet, or balancing a nervous system that’s stuck in a pattern, your body is the laboratory. You are the ultimate experiment. You have to wake up and meet the mat, get out and walk the hills, chew and swallow hundreds of lunches, before you really know and figure out your way.

Before you can trust an impulse and rebuild your inner compass system, you have to say yes to experience over being told what something will do for you.

You have to volunteer yourself to not knowing. Saying yes to experience is the best gift we can give our students. And we walk alongside them, and scream at the same stuff they do, and celebrate the same stuff they do. This Yes is the first.

YES to not doing

We are often so focused on adding elements to our plan. One more supplement, one more special ingredient, an extra meditation class on the weekend, extra looooong. Just drive there. You got this. In fact some of our group coaching clients are amazed that we don’t overwork them.

Wu wei isn’t woo-woo

Try “wu wei”. Literally “inexertion” or “not-doing”. Our bodies are an expressive complex system. All systems need downtime. In a world where we can be busy all the time, the concept of not doing or activity through inaction sounds insane. Yet, without downtime, all our efforts can go into a Pandora’s-like-box of good intentions. When you choose to rest, and just be, your system remembers how to organize, how to be rhythmical, and you stop believing that the reason your body works at all is that you are in charge. Yes, you can be a wise guide, but you are not in charge.

This is the second yes.

YES to impulse

Once the other two yes are at play, you will become a better listener. So you will be able to say yes to impulse. Hungry? Eat. Sleepy? Rest. Wired or sluggish? Move.

Do not try to force your system. You are in a relationship with your body. You can’t bio-hack a marriage, or a child-father relationship. You talking to your daughter is not a “hack”, it’s connection that is biologically wired, just like the bottom-up and top-down processes in your body.

When you start to hear the impulses to move, to get out, to get off the couch, to free your feet, to call a friend, to cook a warm meal – then, you follow.

We watch carefully in our students when the impulse following starts to arise. We encourage them to toss the structured exercise plans we wrote, we encourage them to play with food and ingredients and travel and explore and take themselves where they want to go. This is the emergence of a more organic process now, one that we can relax with. The third yes.

YES to pleasure

Decades of being immersed in diet and wellness culture may have some convinced that dieting, moving or developing a mindfulness practice is a necessary evil, a torture the disciplined come to enjoy. That being in shape is for the well-rounded masochist. Pro athletes will even openly talk about pain and how their pain thresholds is what allowed them to be great.

“No pleasure, no gain”

Yet, humans, we are pleasure-seeking beings. And not just us – even primitive ancestors like lizards find a nice warm rock. And look at primate cousins who love hammocks and mattresses. Comfort and pleasure are not a vice, but a biological necessity. Taking in what is pleasurable allows for growth, expansion, capacity, feeling safe in the present moment and being available for connection.

It helps us feel calm, settled, open to intimacy. We can even say that pleasure affects everything from our nervous system and hormonal state to our relationships, and forms the core of our resiliency.

So we support our students to do things they enjoy, cook meals they enjoy, find teachers and groups they enjoy being with.

Does that mean you don’t do anything hard? No! But it means finding the appropriate challenge so overcoming it can be pleasurable, not painful. And if you stick with pleasure, you will see it has the funny ability to increase your pain threshold. This is the fourth yes.

Like what you learn with us here? Come over and like our Facebook page so we can chat about things we have in common and we can share how we navigate this complex and incredible world in the healthiest happiest way we can.

Want to be a part of a group of people who are doing self-care this new way? Check out our 365 community and become a member. 

The post The power of YES appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

I was sitting in a circle at a dance workshop, and people were sharing their experiences and asking questions that came up during the practice. We talked about rhythm, tension, the role of eyes in confidence, power postures, self-defense moves. I was stretching and listening and truly not being there in my role as a movement teacher, and then a question snapped me out of my student state of mind.

“Do you guys activate your core when you dance? Do you hold it to turn it on?”

I didn’t know what the teacher would say, but I looked around the circle and most women were nodding and sharing their experiences of how they do it. The teacher gave a dynamic explanation of how she connects the ribcage to the pelvis that I thought was beautiful, but still left it unclear.

Should we? Shouldn’t we? Are we missing out if we are not?

In “Redefine your core” and “Bulletproof your low back” in our latest book, we talked just about that concept – that fitness and exercise culture have for the longest time told us that we need to “tense” or “activate” certain muscles, completely ignoring their reflexive function. While reconnecting to a muscle and regaining motor control after surgery or injury may require a conscious effort, people walking in and out of a dance class or a gym are way outside of that phase of healing. So why are we still doing it?

Picture this: you want to have strong and muscular shoulders – do you just keep your arms stretched out so they can work? Do you walk with your shoulder muscles on all the time? Why not? Other than the obvious bumping into things if your arms were out, you wouldn’t be able to do anything else – like lift an object, or swing your arms by your side when you walk to stabilize your spine!

Instead of the silly example above if you want strong shoulders you do some push ups and pull ups, you climb and go on the monkey bars, you lift appropriate weights for your strength and endurance level, you give yourself time to rest. You would never walk around with your arms out, so your shoulder can “activate”. They why do we do it with our bellies?

The muscles of the core are essentially all the muscles that are not your arms and legs, as it’s impossible to separate your pelvic floor or deep hip muscles from the function of the abdominal, low back and chest muscles. But let’s just say, for argument’s sake that most people perceive the core as the rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques and transversus abdominis. When you “activate” your core – what do you do? Try to do it right now as you are reading this? Are you bracing like you are about to take a punch? Are you pulling in like when you exhale all your air? Are you lifting up, belly button elevating to your chest? Are you flexing and tilting your pelvis? Lifting your pelvic floor? What is “activating the core” to you and how do you do it?

See – if we put 30 people in a room and ask them to activate their core, we’ll probably get 30 different combinations of muscle actions and tension, each learned, remembered and practiced by a different body. Each promising strength, protection, and performance. But are you getting those benefits?

Opposite to what you might have taught yourself, however you activate your abs, there is a way in which your brain is constantly monitoring where you are in space. There are infinite combinations of movements and joint angles, each happening under the force of gravity and ground reaction force. When you are moving your body’s 360 joints are changing in three dimensions with every breath and every reach of your arm and every step. Your complex core system is adapting to your breath, the position of your organs, and all the movements happening within your body in response to what you are doing and what kind of an environment you are doing it in. Your muscles all over the body, including your core, are there to respond. Read that one more time.

There to respond.

Now if you pre-tense and ask your abdominal muscles to be tight or activated in a certain way that you have taught yourself, are they available to respond? Not so much…

Within the context of dance we are changing direction, and the eyes, hands, feet, pelvis and torso lead in infinite possibilities of directions. We yield, push, pull, reach and grasp with infinite rhythms, relating to other bodies, the ground, textures, emotions and our complex human history. Do you think bracing your core allows for your full expression or are you limiting your strength, performance and expression? By now you probably know.

So the next time you go to a dance class, or even just now, relax your core. Take a few breaths and feel how it responds. Stand on one foot and feel how your core tightens to stabilize you. Lean back and notice how the rectus and back extensors work together to support your spine, and feel and grasp that they know how. And hopefully as you get out of the way and start to trust your core again, you will find that your body doesn’t need someone to tell it what to do, it just needs you to provide the environment so it can be with you as it’s been designed in ways more marvelous and perfect than a human mind can even conceive of.

Are you a passionate dancer? You might love our podcast with Monica Volkmar, a movement and dance educator we deeply admire.

Do you want to do more for your body and restore its natural function in a fun, yet conscious way: get our Every BODY Moves home study course, complete with somatic meditations, anatomy explorations, morning workouts, a rich library or movement breaks and lessons on natural movement and modern ergonomics. Really, our richest library of movement we’ve ever created!

The post Should you “hold in” your abdominals when you dance? appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

It’s been about 17 years since I had my own ‘now’ moment

I’d walked up the stairs and handed my daughter a glass of water. I guess I was breathing pretty hard, because she told me I didn’t have to run.

A rare picture of me back then (I hid from cameras)

Only I hadn’t run. I’d barely walked.

That was the day I had my ‘now’ moment. That time when I decided enough was enough. I wanted to be there for my kids, and for a long time.

That was the day I made a change. I was tired of the ups and downs and the diets over the years. I was done. Just done.

I’m pretty sure we were watching Cinderella for like the 100th time, and I sat there, a combination of happy and sad, enjoying the movie as best I could, but at the same time running all my past mistakes through my head and coming up with a plan that would have to be different this time. Because every time I’d quit before, it was that much harder to start the next time.

I couldn’t quit this time. I wouldn’t.

I couldn’t quit again. And it’s been 17 years, and I haven’t quit yet.

Looking back now, I think I’ve tried about every diet there is, so that wasn’t the secret. I’ve also gone through periods where I had a trainer, followed written gym programs, and even went so far as to get a kettlebell certification. I’ve also gone months where merely a lot of walking was my workout, so that’s not the secret, either.

What switch flipped inside me?

Sure, nutrition and exercise are important, but those weren’t the switches that flipped. The switch that flipped was me. When had I decided I’d had enough, and vowed not only to change, but to NOT quit again.

I remember making a list, both of the things I was going to do to change my eating and exercise habits that very day, but also there were a couple of rules I made up for myself. I used to have it on a sheet of paper, but I was too embarrassed to let people see it, so I lost it. I let that crap go, too.

That diet and exercise plan isn’t all that important, because it changed pretty quickly, but at first my entire plan was “eat what Todd would eat.”

Wait. Who the heck is Todd, anyway?

Todd was my coworker who was about the same height and build as me, only fit and lean. We ate lunch together, ordered the same things, but he rarely finished his meal.

“Eat what Todd would eat.”

After that amazing plan, I listed out my rules. Maybe they’re mantras or mottos. I don’t know.

Roland’s Rules, Still

1. Always be on a plan

And never stop the plan until you have a next plan. It’s so much harder to start than it is to keep going or change a plan, so I told myself that even if I needed to change plans, I wouldn’t do it until I knew what I was changing TO.

2. Every meal stands alone

I had a history of blowing it with one meal, then kicking myself and giving up on the whole thing. Sometimes I’d start again the next day, but usually, it would be days until I’d start again. Not this time. “Every meal stands alone.” If I messed up, which I would, I’d let it go and eat right for the next meal.

3. Build in some slack

I’m still working on the wording for this one, but this means that I didn’t want to be 100% all the time. I wanted to have some of my favorites. Not every meal or even every day, but sometimes. I gave myself three meals of slack each week. I wouldn’t feel guilty, either, because it’s part of the plan!

My plan to eat what Todd would eat didn’t last forever. Like I said, I’ve tried every diet under the sun these past 17 years, but I still think of that little guideline sometimes. It stuck with me, forever tied to my ‘now’ moment, even 17 years later.

Have you had your ‘now’ moment?

This is me with my ‘little girl’ today, 17 years later!

Everyone’s ‘now’ moment is different

Have you had yours?  If you have, let’s talk. I’d love to help you with your own plan, mantras, and mottos that will bring you the health and weight loss you want, so you can look back in six months, a year, and especially in 17, and remember how your own ‘now’ moment changed your life.

EatMoveLive52.com/Now

That’s the link to the workshop I’m holding on this very topic, you and your ‘now.’

Want to know if this is for you? Just listen…

EatMoveLive52.com/Now

That’s the link to the workshop I’m holding on this very topic, you and your ‘now.’

I’d love for you to join me.

Roland

The post Your ‘Now’ Moment and Weight Loss That Lasts appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

There’s a part of us wants to keep things exactly the way they are…

Each Monday morning we do a short Facebook Live on our Eat Move Live 52 page. It’s a way for us to keep the conversation between readers and students, and meet new people who are on the path of wellbeing and self-care.

If our sharing helps you – great – that’s why we do what we do – we love to see people feel better! To all of you who watch and share those short videos – thank you!

Three Ways We Avoid Making Change

This Monday we talked about three ways we avoid making change – procrastination, denial, and disembodiment.

In stepping forward to what we want, we often forget that while one part of us can see and feel into a different future, another part of us wants to keep things exactly as they are (I know, shocking!). It becomes doubly complicated when the part that wants the change works for the bad guys (more on self-sabotage here).

Even when motivation is pristinely clear, such as: “I have a condition that requires a lifestyle change, as well as following my doctor’s advice”, we may find ourselves stuck in the past, living the same uncomfortable life and suffering the painful erosion of self-respect and self-confidence instead of doing what’s being asked of a healthier future.

By observing your own patterns of avoidance, you can become a better detective and loosen these unconscious drives, so they no longer yield such power over you. When you can see yourself as a whole being, who’s human, you can also give yourself permission to try again, each time learning from past behaviors. When you pretend the avoidant behaviors are not happening, and tell yourself you are “fine”, you continue to drive from the past into the past, never really experiencing the changes you know you desire and deserve.

Procrastination

There’s a building on the main street in our town that has a funny sign they change each week. This week it was: “The procrastinators’ meeting has been postponed.” It’s only funny until it’s not. “I will get to this tomorrow, I will start next Monday, let me wait till after vacation, my kids are getting married, etc.” are just a few of the well-known excuses we use to tell ourselves it’s ok to put off our actions till tomorrow.

It’s not a big deal when it’s about washing the linens or sweeping the leaves behind the trash can, but when it’s about taking care of your health, following medical advice, or worse, procrastinating on a lab test you fear the results of, there are consequences.

What is procrastination buying you? Time, bliss, a faux sense of peace, more episodes of a Netflix show? The next time you find yourself procrastinating, break the pattern by asking yourself: what am I gaining here? What am I avoiding here?

Be curious why you are telling yourself that you can’t handle creating a positive change in your life. Let the procrastination happen, because you are human and it will, but don’t let it happen without asking darn good questions about it.

This is how we loosen the pattern.

This is how we make change possible.

Denial

Procrastination’s best friend, denial is what gets us through the day.

We deny that the discomfort we feel is real, we tell ourselves that the heaviness, pain of suffering is just a part of life, that it’s a matter of age or stage, or that everyone around us has the same problems.

Denial buys you a smile and a positive attitude, even when you realize it takes serious overriding to get yourself there. Underneath the surface, you are spending serious energy suppressing feeling not like yourself, and the crazy thing is that this same energy, channeled well, can actually move the dial on how you feel significantly. What smaller or bigger issues have you become comfortable with, what physical, emotional and mental struggle has become second nature?

One of the most remarkable things that happens when people do our Real Food Reset program is that when they fill out the symptom tracker in the beginning and the end of the month, they can measure and note a significant difference. How you eat matters, and here are the numbers that show it.

So often they will share: “I didn’t even know I was feeling so bad, I guess I was used to it.”

Disembodiment

Your body is not just a taxi for your head, yet, because of our modern lifestyle, we don’t need to pay attention to the environment or how it affects us internally.

We can afford to lose our bodies. Air-conditioning keeps our body temperature steady, smooth sidewalks make sure we step evenly, no wild animals means we can let down our guard and we don’t have to listen to our gut and heart when we make decisions. We have Descarte’s famous: “I think, therefore I am”, which has become so ingrained in our civilization, that we believe it and we live it. As long as you can hear your thoughts, you are good – they tell you what to do, analyze how you did and how you should feel about what you did and how you did it.

So much of our day is spent in our heads, that between work, leisure and study time, we probably check in with our bodies only when we are hungry, sleepy, or need to use the restroom (if that!).

Being divorced from your body means it’s harder and harder to feel the effects of the changing inner world of perceptions, sensations and emotions, and the influence of the outer world within which they are occurring.

Often, it’s hard to feel what food, activity, stillness, presence of absence of company, or a place does to our health and wellbeing. And so, it becomes harder and harder to create change since we don’t know which way to go or what needs to be changed.

How do you break this pattern?

Little by little, starting to pay attention to your body where it’s safe to experience its inner world.

For some people watching their breathing and taking moments during the day is a wonderful start.

For others, being aware of movement while walking, or exercising is a next possible step.

Mindful eating is another avenue to start paying attention – how food that is external to your body is becoming, through texture, temperature, taste – internal to your body. Something that is not you becomes you….try it out?!

I hope as you see some or all of these patterns, that you can observe them with non-judgment and see them for what they are – an opportunity to know yourself and make the change you want to have for your future.

Are you ready?

If you feel like you are ready to start making a change, you can try one of our free 5-day programs:

5 days to feeling lighter

5 days to more peace

5 days to break free from your chair

If you are ready for significant shifts and you want to start now, consider scheduling a free 30-minute coaching call with Roland, so you can determine which courses or programs, or personal work format are best for you.

Galina

The post Three ways we avoid making change appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

We just moved to higher altitude (5000 ft!) in May and the first few weeks we were so incredibly thirsty! Both of us drank lots of water and still felt like it wasn’t making a dent! A couple more weeks, and we had started to acclimate, but now, with summer, we are getting used to a drier kind of heat, so naturally, we’ve been drinking even more!

A few days ago, I asked in our Better in a week group for people’s favorite refreshing drinks, and today, I thought I would share a lemonade we make and love! At the end here, I am also sharing the wonderful suggestions people made in the group and hope they inspire you, too!

Strawberry basil lemonade

A family favorite, we make basil lemonade more than any other. The flavor is unrepeatable, gentle and the combination of ingredients supports digestion.

Serves 8

2 large lemons

1 large bunch basil

2 cups strawberries

8 cups water

ice

optional: raw sugar or honey to sweeten

Directions

Bring 2 cups of the water to a boil and add the basil. Cook for 2 minutes on medium and then let it sit and soak until it cools off.

In the meantime, juice the lemons, discard of any seeds and place the juice in a blender.

Add the remaining 6 cups of water and the strawberries. Add the basil water. Add any sweetener you may like. Blend well.

Strain into a pitcher, add ice as desired. Taste for sweetness and adjust.

You can add more basil leaves, strawberry and lemon slices to each cup for decoration.

For our picnic I served the lemonade in jars, and kept them closed in the fridge till it was time to go.

How will you enjoy your lemonade?

Ready to try some of the refreshing suggestions from our free group on Facebook? Comment below and let us know yours!!

Here they are! And thank you all for contributing your lovely ideas!

Ashley: “Love a strawberry basil combo! With lime bubbly water.”

Melissa: “Anything with juiced watermelon, basil, mint, with a little bubbly water”

Teresa: “Lime, mint, and sparkling water.”

Galina: “Linden flower lemonade: 4 cups soda water, 12 linden flowers, 1/2 inch ginger, 1 large lemon, topped off with soda water. In fridge for a few hours.”

Roland: “Kombucha diluted with soda water.”

Liane: “Ginger kombucha and lemon ginger carbonated water. Plain old fashioned water will also do!”

Rebecca W: “Fresh squeezed ginger juice, fresh squeezed lemons, limes and carbonated water and a few drops of stevia. Can also add a bit of San Pellegrino prickly pear catcus.”

Bethany: “I like making shrubs and last year I made a ginger-pear one, and a cherry-lime-yarrow one. Mixed with bubbly water they were super good. This year I made lilac syrup and lemon verbena syrup. Both are great to mix with bubbly water and I often add a bit of frozen fruit as ice.”

Mina: “Green iced tea infused with grapefruit!”

Rebecca M: “I have a essential oil collection. I like a few drops of grapefruit or a lemon/lime combo with a bit of stevia. I also take any tea we have and turn it into sun tea. Not always tasty but it clears out the tea drawer.”

Sandra: “Elderberry and mint. I still think elderberry and fresh mint with bubbly water!”

Martina: “Do you have albizia near you? Put a few flowers in the water and leave it for about 3 hours in the fridge. Tastes really fresh.”

The post Strawberry basil lemonade appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

The other day I asked this question on my Facebook wall:

“What does peace with food look like to you?”

For me, 8 years ago, this question wasn’t even up for contemplation, my body “felt” broken, I could not trust that food knew what to do once it was “in there”, and any invitation to eat or drink out felt like a mine field. Will it make me fat, give me a headache, how many carbs are there, can I log it, can I work it off tomorrow…?

Like many other women I work with, my days were hijacked by thoughts about food, planned actions around food, and fear, worry and dread. There were self-created bright moments: a new seed (hello chia!), a new approach (cycle this macro), a new diet buddy (hey, Annie!), and then – a new month of autoimmune protocols, supplements, tests…and retests…

Internally I knew intuitively that it shouldn’t be that hard. I felt that my body should organically “know” what to do, how to manage energy in and energy out. The fact that I didn’t live that made me feel more broken. I saw people who “trusted” and enjoyed being in their bodies. Not me and I had no idea how to get there. I knew I was “managing” what should manage itself. And knowing what I know now, it’s not a surprise that it wasn’t working.

Today, peace with food is possible. Through many twists and turns, and lots of unexpected paths, I am here, in that place I glimpsed was possible. I feel excited to enjoy new foods, I love creating new recipes with Diana for Art of Real Food. I don’t have a voice in the head that counts, measures and prepares my plates. I don’t balance food and exercise on purpose, I do not feel obliged to try new diets and trends in hope that they work. I am true to how much is really enough, I don’t use food to reward or punish. I am grateful for each bite, taking in nourishment, trusting I am whole and well and that I don’t need to constantly worry that food will make me feel worse or feed hopes that it will make me feel better. It’s all of this. It’s also having energy to live life, create work that helps people, and being available to my relationship and family. 

The post Peace with Food Online Webinar appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Coach & Author Josh Hillis helps people overcome emotional eating and finally lose weight.

Update – Josh’s new book is out!

Yes, we teased it in the episode, and now it’s OUT and ready to read.

Lean & Strong is available in print and ebook, and with the digital downloads included with the book, you can start immediately even if you choose the print version!

Order Lean & Strong through OTP – Support Josh and On Target Publications by buying direct.

Also available on Amazon and other retailers as it become available

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

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Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

About Josh Hillis

Josh Hillis is a nutrition coach who specializes in habits-based, positive changes. Lose Stubborn Fat, his popular fat-loss blog, has tens of thousands of readers, and his fat-loss and kettlebell-training books have helped people reach their personal goals for more than 10 years.

Josh helps people overcome emotional eating and finally lose weight.

Using a skill-based (not diet based) approach allows people to create a new relationship with their bodies and with food, and get results that have previously never been possible.

Josh is the author of Fat Loss Happens on Monday (2013) and the upcoming Lean and Strong (2019) and a yet-untitled emotional eating book (2020), for OnTarget Publications.

Josh has been writing his blog, losestubbornfat.com, since 2004, he’s written Strength Matters Magazine, and he’s been quoted or featured in Experience Life! Magazine, The Denver Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.

He currently attends MSU Denver, where he is doing his thesis on contextual behavioral science and emotional eating.

Topics Discussed

Habit & Skill-Based Weight Loss

Josh, please tell us how you developed your habit-based and skill-based approach to weight loss?

Was it a personal or professional evolution or both?

Tell us a bit about the diet and nutrition environment of your childhood and how you grew up.

Blind spots

In your experience when people set off on a weight loss journey, what are some of the factors they don’t take into account or have a blind spot about?

What do you see are the main obstacles to sustained and sustainable weight loss?

How do you talk to your clients about motivation? 

People in recovery have often been so conditioned by objectification that most of their motivation comes from a place of self-rejection, trying to fix themselves, hoping they will get to a place where they look at themselves and start to deserve self-acceptance and self-love, while in the process their own motivation is flawed and leads to a dead end. Shifting this is an intricate process. How do you do that?

Environment

What, in your experience, is the environment (intrinsic and extrinsic, personal and cultural) in which emotional eating starts to occur? What are the influences? And of course, what do you find is the way through?

Health at every size

How can we model a health-at-every-size-like attitude to our children and young people who are easily influenced by media?

What metrics, other than weight, tangible and intangible, do you track with your clients?

Milestones

How do you celebrate milestones? How do you meet obstacles?

The future of emotional eating

Tell us about your research in emotional eating? What are some surprises that you stumbled upon?

What inspires you now for the thesis you are working on?

Where can people find more about you?

Links and Resources

Josh’s Book – Fatloss Happens on Monday 

Fatloss Happens on Monday – Facebook Group

Josh Hillis’s site – LoseStubbornFat.com

Roland & Galina’s free 5-Days To Feeling Lighter – Free 5-Days To Feeling Lighter

Galina’s Peace with Food – Emotional Eating 101

Love the show?

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post The Art & Science of Emotional Eating with Josh Hillis appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

It’s spring, and summer squash is here – in the store, at farmers’ markets and sometimes in our CSA boxes in overwhelming quantities. Zucchini is one kind of summer squash we love – for its tender flesh and delicate flavor! You may have seen many other kind, such as these and you can use any of them in this recipe. And if you happen to find squash blossoms, we got you covered with a recipe for those that is our home’s favorite.

To make this delightful zucchini and tahini dish, you need just 30 minutes and you will be so glad you learned how to make it. Finally, you can use that jar of tahini for something other than hummus (which we love, too!)

Zucchini with tahini

It’s hard to make food that rhymes, yet here it is. Serve as a side dish, dip, or salad.

Makes 4

4 medium zucchini

2 tbsp tahini

4 tbsp greek yogurt or dairy free alternative

juice of 1/2 lemon

zest of 1/2 lemon

1 bunch parsley, dill, or mint or a combination

2 tbsp olive oil

pinch salt

Use a peeler to cut zucchini in thin strips. You can also spiralize them if you have the appropriate tool. Heat up the olive oil and cook them until they are soft. In some recipes you can fry the zucchini, but that’s up to you, we prefer just to cook them gently until they are soft. If you do fly them, use a paper towel to drain off any excess fat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the tahini, yogurt, juice of lemon and zest of lemon, the chopped up herbs, and salt. Mix well. Work the zucchini into that mixture, careful not to break them apart and keeping the length of the strips as much as possible.

Cool and serve cold. This is one of those dishes that tastes even better the next day and is perfect for a picnic!

Are you curious about other recipes you can take on your picnic? Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, so you can get recipes in our newsletter straight to your inbox or browse our library of recipes on the site!

Be well, and have fun making this one – let us know how it turned out!

Galina

The post Zucchini with tahini appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Have you stopped to think about the difference between being on a diet and being an active participant in a weight loss coaching process? A conscious skill-based weight loss coaching process, to be precise!

People seldom receive the invitation to pause and think about what diets are. Why are they designed the way they are? And when we start a diet and end a diet – how does that affect us? If you’ve never pondered this – take a moment to answer this for yourself before reading on.

“I’ve got this all figured out!”

We find most of the people who ever go on a diet do it with the best of intentions and sincere hope that it will work (this time). They may have read the book, article, or talked to the person who did the same fast, cleanse, detox or diet. They may feel like “they get it.” And the kinds of people who come to us are bright and accomplished people, so in most cases they are pretty good at following and completing a diet.

Only when off the diet and back where they started (or worse), do people reach out for our support and ask: “what did I do wrong?” Typically, they haven’t done anything wrong, it’s just that the diet was a temporary step, not a permanent one. It was the bandaid, the crutch, the time limited pain killer. It did what diets do – help us (in the best of cases) achieve a desire or goal short term. Dieting is one of the reasons many of the people who come to us have had so much difficulty with weight loss. They’ve started and stopped many times. And they often perceive that place where they feel good in their bodies to be a sort of a buried treasure, a holy grail – always on the hunt for the fabled gold, never really completing the quest.

And that sucks. Big time.

It’s a hero’s / heroine’s journey

This weight loss thing is a hero’s journey. It has its faithful turns and twists, its ups and downs, its moments of despair. It teaches us something about what we’re made of. I often look at Roland and think: man, to figure yourself out like this…to determine it’s your unhappiness that was at the base of your eating behaviors. To look emotional hunger in the eyes and to believe that you can feel better and you can have an empowered stance in your adult life. To trust that life can gift you health and freedom you may have never had before. And to do it with two little kids and a taxing corporate job at 36. Well done, young padawan.

And well done for helping others do the same.

As coaches, we invite people on a journey, not on a diet. This is why when you click over to our courses and programs, or read our latest book, you won’t see a diet. Even our Real Food Reset, the closest thing to a plan we ever created, is an invitation to get to know how your body responds to different foods. The symptom tracker and reminder to look at how our ancestors lived do just that – to consider the place of modern food in your life – and to see how it’s affected you (because it has affected all of us whether we like it or not).

In any successful journey you learn something. A coaching process is designed with that in mind. We explore, learn the most about your life, we determine the positive action steps, take advantage of your strengths and resources, then teach skills and insist you learn to be gentle and accountable to yourself. We draw on your deepest values, and we foster compassion for your most vulnerable times. We teach you how to become an expert on you. And how to live in this changed body and be a force of good in your own life.

A diet is none of the above. And that’s why starting now, we are learning how to record our students’ successes in ways that can teach and inspire others to follow the hero’s call and to trust the journey. To show how to lean into support and to recognize diets for what they are – anything, but a long term compassionate skill-based solution.

We start with Dave, who’s one of Roland’s Breakthrough weight loss coaching group clients. Thank you, Dave, for giving us the opportunity to share!

See and get inspired by his story below.

To learn more about how we work, take a peek at one of our 5 day free programs, or book a 30 minute free session to find if this kind of work is right for you.

Be well:

Roland and Galina

The post Weight loss coaching wins over dieting every time appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Dr Bryan Chung is the not-so-secret advice columnist behind Dear Doctor Ninja

Bryan is a methodologist and a surgeon who improves people’s relationship with science.

The biggest compliment Bryan’s ever received was from his mentor while in residency.

“You deserve this award because, after four years, I finally understand what you’re talking about.”

Bryan has been getting better at helping people understand what he’s talking about since.

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

About Dr. Bryan Chung and Dr. Ninja

Dr Bryan Chung, Phd aka Dear Doctor Ninja

“I want to change how we see our relationship with science in how we work and live.” – Bryan Chung, PhD

Bryan’s Introduction

1. You’re all kinds of doctors (MD and PhD). What inspired you to take both of those routes? How does one play off the other?

2. What inspires you to explain research with such passion and creativity?

3. People on the internet often talk about the medical profession as if they don’t know what they are doing when it comes to nutrition or exercise? What’s your take on this?

4. Can you explain what evidence-based medicine is?

5. Keto, Carnivore, and Low Carb diets and where they’re good

6. The thyroid, Hashimoto’s Disease, and gluten-free diets

7. Gluten-free diets and celiac disease

8. Healthy at Every Size – Can you have health at every size?

9. What does it mean to be healthy? What’s the definition of ‘health?’

To wrap up…

• You don’t just answer questions for lay people. You also help professionals see science and evidence in a different way. I hear you even wrote a book on this? Tell us about it.
• Can you tell our listeners where they can find you?

Dr. Bryan Chung, Dear Dr Ninja, and all the other links

Love the show?

Subscribe and Review the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Reviews help spread the word, big time!

It only takes a minute to leave a quick review. Just try ten words and see how fast it goes!

Oh, and subscribing to the show brings each episode to you and your phone automatically!

Subscribe or review on Apple/iTunes

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Use the RSS feed in your favorite podcast app

Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Dear Dr Ninja with Dr Bryan Chung appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Cravings are part of being human, but cravings go far beyond hunger, thirst, family, and friends. The weather is nice, and you’re craving outdoor time, whether you know it or not.

Humans are used to craving different foods and drinks. We even crave experiences like meeting with friends or going on a road trip.

What makes an experience crave-worthy is uniquely personal, yet many of our desires are deeply driven by a biological need.

For example, thirst, classified as a homeostatic emotion, is not a choice, but a physiologically primed behavior. While thirst is quite ordinary and mundane it can be so very pleasurable to quench. No matter how often you’ve had the experience of drinking when really thirsty, there is a joy and a satisfaction in taking those first sips. As soon as you drink, aaaahh, you are well.

Hunger is your body’s way of asking for energy, but hunger for certain foods can often be a craving designed to satisfy your body’s need for a specific vitamin or nutrient. Are you craving nuts or beans? Maybe your body needs some magnesium.  Potatoes? Is that vitamin B calling?

What if experiences, like heading outdoors, work in a similar way? Vitamin O?

The more we work with helping people weave natural movement and outdoor time into their lives, the more we become convinced of time outdoors being not that much different than thirst.

First, there is the indoor feeling – a sense some of us feel so strongly, it almost reminds you of the need to put on a fresh set of clothes or take an invigorating shower!

Then, there is the impulse to get outdoors. Is that vitamin O telling us something?

When you do follow the impulse and you get outside – especially in wild nature – there can be a deep relief.  A fulfillment of the craving.

Many describe a calming, a settling, an opening to joy through all the senses, a celebration in every step and every breath. And then we all agree that we carry this outdoor energy with for hours and even days after immersing ourselves in nature.

Until we feel the vitamin O deficiency again, and once again follow the call.

Multiple studies show the effects of the outdoors on well-being

In fact, connectedness to nature and happiness have been shown to have quite a straightforward relationship!

Whether you read about it in our book or heard about it on the news, you’ve likely already heard of the concepts of shinrin-yoku  (forest bathing) or the state of blue mind one experiences in proximity to the ocean!

Biophilia, the natural draw to nature, is common amongst all humans, and given that we evolved over millions of years and have only dwelled indoors for less than 0.01% of the history of the species, it’s no wonder we feel aligned with nature and powerfully affected by it.

We recently recorded a podcast with Andrea Bell, psychotherapist and eco-therapist, talking about the positive effects of nature on whole body and mental health. We even delved into deep topics like eco-anxiety and eco-grief. I know you’ll love the episode, and Andrea even more!

Nature is here to support you

No matter what your goals – nature is here to support you, and vitamin O (the outdoors) is essential to your human diet.

We’ve seen clients benefits in remarkable ways from spending more time outside, despite the wide variety of physical, mental, and emotional goals.

Some of their goals included managing high blood pressure, becoming more resilient to the stresses of work, creating a restorative sleep routine, losing weight, as well as improving focus and concentration, and recovering better from exercise.

More time outdoors has helped them all!

All Outdoors Matters

Before you start adding more pressure to your schedule by imagining that every weekend now has to be spent in a nature park, consider this: while going out in the wild is probably going to be best, the outdoors near your home or work, with plenty of microdoses of vitamin O spread out through the day, is always there for you.

We have made a list of the 10 most successful strategies our clients use to get their vitamin O without having to turn their whole life upside down or quit their job to become a park ranger.

You too, with some mindful consideration, can enjoy what’s possible when you make space for the outdoors.

Let’s play together and see how much vitamin O you can get this month!

Download your 10 tips here!

We love to hear from our readers, please drop us a line and let us know your own tips for more of the precious vitamin O!

Galina

The post June Is For Vitamin Outdoors appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Lois Laynee joins the EatMoveLive52 Podcast tell you how Restorative Breathing can help you think more clearly, and live a better, healthier life

“You should never have to think to breathe. Breathing should give you the ability to think”

– Lois Laynee

We all breathe

…all day long, day in and day out, and Lois Laynee’s goal is to help you get the most out of your life, through optimal breathing.

It’s not a method of breathing, but a way of neuro sequencing your brain so that you automatically breathe efficiently, easily, and effortlessly.

“If you’re breathing with your mouth open, your body is working one hundred times harder for every molecule of oxygen than it needs to.” – Lois Laynee

Ready to learn more? Let’s get started…

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

About Lois Laynee and Restorative Breathing

Lois Laynee is a dynamic pioneer and passionate lecturer in the fields of Education, Sleep, Scar Release Healing, Cranio Facial Neurodevelopment, and much more.

In addition to heading the Laynee Restorative Breathing Method, Lois is also the CEO of AZ Sleep Apnea Center PLLC; a speaker and educator of oxygen wellness and the creator of the Laynee Restorative Breathing Method.

By combining her decades of clinical experience, with the Laynee Restorative Breathing Method, she offers support for clients at all stages of life.

Laynee Restorative Breathing Method

The Laynee Restorative Breathing Method was developed to generate a natural pure energy source to help you have a healthier and more fulfilled life, regardless of your age or gender.

Think of the life improving possibilities that are within your reach with just four easy movements.

Our mission is to share information and support each person at every stage of life to breathe, sleep, move and thrive, through the philosophy and physiology of Restorative Breathing!

Topics and Questions for Lois

1. How did you become interested in the field of breathing? Where did the idea for Restoring Breathing come from – and why did you call it Restoring?

2. You teach from a multidisciplinary approach. Which common fields would you say meet in the science and practice of what you teach?

3. It seems like understanding breathing should be foundational, yet the medical field seems to not necessarily have a track for addressing it outside of the clearly defined ENT and pulmonology fields. And unless they find pathology – you are told you are ok. Why do you think that is?

4. In the world of health and wellness, breathing is usually addressed from the perspective of “calming down” or “regulating” yourself? What is being missed here? What else should people know?

5. What should everyone know about functional breathing and breathing competencies?

6. If someone was to look for symptoms of breathing challenges – what would we look for?

7. What is your advice for people who snore? Both children and adults?

8. What’s the role of early development in breathing?

9. How is breathing related to mental health, anxiety, eating disorders, etc? Do you see a correlation in your clinic?

10. If someone was to shift just one component of their breathing – say nasal breathing or silent breathing – where should they start?

11. You are available for consults online and also in workshops and seminars, and online events. What’s the best way for people to connect with you and what can they expect?

Free Video Lesson by Lois and Galina

10 Simple Steps To Better Breathing

Lois Laynee and Restorative Breathing Links and Resources

Find out more about Lois, and how she can help you through Restorative Breathing.

RestoringBreathing.com

Lois Laynee on Facebook

Love the show?

Subscribe and Review the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Reviews help spread the word, big time!

It only takes a minute to leave a quick review. Just try ten words and see how fast it goes!

Oh, and subscribing to the show brings each episode to you and your phone automatically!

Subscribe or review on Apple/iTunes

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Subscribe or review on Google Play

Use the RSS feed in your favorite podcast app

Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Restorative Breathing with Lois Laynee appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Desks, chairs, cars, and all modes of sitting are here to stay. Computers, tablets and smartphones, too…

As much as we have a love-hate relationship with our work tools — chairs and screens included — our bodies are always included in this complex relationship triangle.

In the physical world, what you do most matters most. As Katy Bowman, creator of Nutritious Movement, says:

“It’s not what you do with the best of intentions, it’s what you do most often that counts.”

If you’ve worked with us before, you know if you have come to us with aches and pains, we analyze high repetition behaviors first!

When you think of frequency, you probably don’t consider sitting a high-frequency activity – because it involves stillness and it’s the poster child for lack of movement.

But being sedentary is a kind of movement

It requires you to maintain your body in a position for a long period of time – on a scale of fully passive to fully active (think sitting on a couch slouched with a nice drink versus sitting on a stability ball with your core, leg and para-spinal muscles activated).

When you stop seeing sitting as passive and inactive, and you start seeing it as an opportunity to change how you sit and how you use your body’s structures to support you closer to the active end of the spectrum of sitting and as far away from the passive end of it, a whole new world opens.

The Top Three

The top three high repetition activities we focus on with our clients are breathing (10-20,000 times a day), swallowing (500-1000 times a day) and sitting (6-10 hours a day for most of our clients). The higher frequency an activity has, the more room for change – the more opportunity for new outcomes.

Back and neck pain, knee and ankle pain, migraines, fatigue, brain fog, lack of focus, digestive distress and constipation, vision challenges, jaw pain, sweet cravings, shallow breathing, mood swings, irritability…these are just the tips of the iceberg when it comes to the complaints we see connected to prolonged sitting.

I just got off two flights and a total of 20 hours of travel time, and I am spending my first day in Europe on restoring my quality of movement and helping my tissues recover from the long sitting. I feel it – in my mood, in my strength, in my vitality, I feel prolonged sitting as the loss of all those baselines of quality of life. And that’s where my commitment to shift it comes in. If I feel unwell, I can shift my behaviors and restore how I feel.

Some of us are better at tuning discomfort out, but over a long period of time that actually does us a disservice and can lead to the creep of insidious illness – if I had to choose, I would rather feel the discomfort of sitting and respond to my body’s need for movement nourishment other than be great at tuning it out.

It takes time to shift

Even with the best of intentions, it takes time to shift a habit. And to shift a habit, you need positive action steps and a system of implementation. Here is where the rubber meets the road, or I guess, when your hips leave the chair – you need to not just know that you have a chance to shift your sitting behaviors, but you need to understand how to implement the habits and harvest the gains of the change.

This is where we come in

We’ve created a new program, completely free, for any of you who are ready for step by step, incremental, effective, leave-a-mark-on-the-long-game-of-sitting change.

Are You Ready to Start?

5 Days To Break Free From Your Chair

Starts as soon as you join, so sign up now!

Desks and screens aren’t going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean you need to sit still and let them rule your life.

You are the master of desk, chair, screen, and human behavior navigation.

What will you do about it?

Start by taking just two minutes a day to free yourself from your chair!

Take 2 minutes a day to implement a new lesson and Break free from your chair!

The post 5 days to break free from your chair appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Our friends Dr. Mike T Nelson and Jodie Fabulous Nelson are a perfect example of ‘opposites attract.’

And their own Mr. Mole is an example of a perfect way to teach your kids about that thing that they never want to do… SLEEP!

“Mr. Mole is a scientist who reads research for fun . . .”

This is a line from the original children’s book authored by Dr. Mike Nelson, Jodie Nelson, and illustrated by the children and child-like people in their family.

Our friends and authors Jodie Fabulous Nelson and Mike T Nelson, Phd join us to talk about their new book “Mr. Mole Goes to Sleep.”

We think that Mr. Mole is not only very cute, but a fun and clever way to introduce kids to the idea of better sleep.

And, it’s a sneaky way to teach parents, too! 

Now, let’s get started…

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About Dr. Mike T. Nelson and Jodie Fabulous Nelson

Dr. Mike T Nelson and Jodie Fabulous Nelson are a perfect example of opposites attract.

Dr. Mike T. Nelson, PhD, MSME, CSCS, CISSN, is a research fanatic who specializes in metabolic flexibility and heart rate variability, as well as an online trainer, adjunct professor, faculty member at the Carrick Institute, presenter, creator of the Flex Diet Cert, kiteboarder, and (somewhat incongruously) heavy-metal enthusiast.

The techniques he’s developed, and the results Mike gets for his clients have been featured in international magazines, in scientific publications, and on websites across the globe.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, lifting odd objects, reading research, and kiteboarding as much as possible.

Jodie Nelson has a bachelors degree in both Secondary English Education and Communication. And since she loves words so much, she went back to school to get a masters in communication.

A published author, lover of dance and theater, Jodie experiences everything as a Broadway musical.

The Mr. Mole Book project was a culmination of combined Mike and Jodie superpowers — brash unfiltered creativity marries sciencey research.

Mr. Mole Goes to Sleep

Who is Mr. Mole?

Mr. Mole is a character is based on Dr. Mike’s love for the acquisition and practical application of science to fitness and life.

The Mr. Mole character actually is Dr. Mike because he also reads medical research for fun!

Each article Mr. Mole reads leads him into a research rabbit hole. He happily shares his geeky findings with friends like you, which is why you’ll see Mr. Mole sprinkled throughout Dr. Mike’s website.

Seeing Mr. Mole means there’s more in-depth discussion to be had about that particular topic or that there are more sciencey references attached.

From co-author Jodie Fabulous Nelson

Mr. Mole started as a funny saying between Mike and me.

He liked to turn off all the lights as it got closer to bedtime. Me? I can’t see very well in the dark. So, I always turn lights on in each room as the sun starts to go down.

I one night, as Mike left his desk from a long session of research rabbit-holing, he came around the corner squinting into my brightly lit room. I said, “Hey there, Mr. Mole. How’s it going?”

That little exchange started a funny conversation every time I would find him huddled in the dark researching at his desk as I came in to switch the lights on.

After one of these nights, one of us brought up the idea to write a children’s’ book about Mr. Mole going to bed. And then the idea got bigger.

“What if we write a children’s’ book about healthy sleep habits that adults will read to their children?”

The action steps would be simple enough for a child, yet probably things that many adults haven’t incorporated into their sleep and bedtime ritual.

This is how Mr. Mole was born and he’s evolved so much since then. It’s going to be a wonderful book for everyone. We can’t wait to share it with you!

Want Mr. Mole in YOUR Home?

Mr. Mole Goes to Sleep is currently available in paperback at MrMoleBook.com

Your kids will love it, but be careful, you might learn something, too!

Mr. Mole Book and all the Nelson Links!

• Direct Link to Mr. Mole Book Goes to Sleep book
• MrMoleBook.com
• Dr. Mike T Nelson

Additional Sleep Resources

• Our Sleep Hygiene Checklist
• Sleep Smarter with Shawn Stevenson

Love the show?

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Mr Mole Goes to Sleep – The EatMoveLive52 Podcast appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Is there an idea that sounds more appealing to us as humans as having a “balanced” life?

This notion of balance shows up many places, including within the complex math of balancing meals and exercise. Calories in – calories out, right? Even kids know about this! Ouch!

I used to believe that unless I exercised my food off, my body just wouldn’t do well… but as I’ve stepped back and done some honest observations both of myself over the last 20 years and my coaching clients, I’ve let go of that idea. I didn’t let go of it just because it doesn’t work for those of us wanting health and well-being, but because it’s also insidiously dangerous.

See, the science hasn’t changed. The laws of thermodynamics haven’t changed. What’s changed is my mindset, my posture towards my own body and having a deep respect for how it works. I’ve come to live with the unspoken rule that food is food, exercise is exercise and we no longer, in trusting our innate biological wisdom need to manufacture a balance of the two.

Yet, each time the holidays come, my students get into conversations about working off these holiday meals, the extra pieces of pie, cookies, goodies, chocolates, etc… If you also hold this belief – shall we examine it together and see if a new perspective wants to emerge?

First, where does this idea that we need to “work off” calories came from?

I don’t know when you learned this, but perhaps pause here for a moment and try to remember. When did you first learn that food has calories and exercise burns them?

I learned it two ways: one was my ballet teacher, telling me I need to jump 200 times using a jumprope after each meal, tightly covered in plastic wrap and wool leggings, so that “the weight could melt. “ My mom also had this old well loved book of “Advice for the modern housewife”, most likely translated from Russian, which contained advice on anything from “how to remove blood stains” to “how to repair a washing machine” and somewhere in there in the section on health, there was a list of calories in foods and how many minutes of climbing stairs, cleaning the house, dancing, running, biking, it took to burn that food off.

While under tightly controlled conditions in metabolic wards, for a short time, scientists can easily play with calories in and calories out, in the real world, things don’t look like that at all.

In any 24 hour period, your body is able to expend a tremendous amount of energy on just being alive, sustaining and renewing your tissues, and basic functions such as digesting and fighting off viruses and bacteria. Add to this the task of moving you around – to the yard, upstairs, to work, to the store, to pick up the kids, etc. Depending on the phase of life, such as during puberty, or around motherhood, or healing from a surgery or illness, that expenditure can be huge (a small surgery I had recently added 2 hours of sleep to my already 8 hour sleep cycle).

Your appetite and needs are always ebbing and flowing and adjusting to your moment-to-moment requirements. If you become attuned and aware of those signals and needs, and good enough at listening (not perfect, just good enough!) there is absolutely no need to do complex math in your head and “control” your expenditure based on what you ate…

I invite you to think about your body as an intrinsically intelligent self-adjusting system – if it takes in more calories, it will naturally expend more, and if it takes in less, it will naturally expend less. In fact you may have already felt how you naturally move less when you try a low calorie diet. Roland definitely noticed when I had some chocolate recently and acted like a Jack Russel terrier for about an hour….and parents, you remember why you don’t give your kids candy late at night….same rule applies to you….your body will up-regulate expenditure when it has the energy and decrease it when it doesn’t….Ever thought that your lack of motivation to do intense movement may be due to not eating enough for it?

When you start to meddle with this complex system and try to do the math yourself – adjusting your expenditure and calories, while simultaneously adding the stress of doing so, you are most likely to miss the mark. Your body is way more complex than that. Think of a time the math didn’t work, or didn’t work for long – I am sure you can come up with an memory that hits close to home.

But Galina, surely there are exceptions, like preparing for surgery or an athletic event? Of course, if you are needing to control your weight for a surgery, a competition, or some outside of the realm of normal life circumstance, you may need to do so under the supervision of the appropriate professional, but then have a plan about what to do when you come back to “normal.” Most of my coaching clients are not people getting ready for extraordinary life events, they are people trying to balance a sitting job with an emotionally driven appetite, a stressed out fearful attitude towards food, and a limited time budget.

Why do you think you need to “work food off”?

Many of us have made life decisions based on the ideas of diet culture. Diet culture itself comes from a place of having the goal of lowering one’s weight to reach a “perfect” size. This is done through calorie restriction, and exercising and moving with a lower weight in mind, not necessarily with health in mind. Often, we become confused, thinking that we need to “earn” the food we eat, because the changes we are moving towards are embedded within a paradigm of a malfunctioning body. Something is wrong – you need to fix it by eating less and moving more. This idea tries to convince you that you can figure out what your body can’t on its own, that you are to be trusted and your body is not, and that you are to manage what is broken.

This can cause unspeakable stress, as food is no longer considered a nourishment, something we need to sustain life, enjoy life, participate in creativity, intimacy, joy, reproduction, growth…but something we need to earn. In turn, every time we eat, feelings of unease, guilt, shame, worry and catastrophic thinking can occur – coupling the very act of nourishing ourselves with rejecting that nourishment. This inability to “take in” what is good, can also then cause episodes of overeating and bingeing – eating without feeling ourselves present in the moment, or eating without taking in the nourishment, in turn being still hungry and feeling empty, no matter how much we ate. Can you see the calories pile up? Can you feel the emotions weighing you down? You don’t need this.

So what the heck am I supposed to do? Throw away my Pedometer and sit on the couch?

Before you put on your Nike Pro Chiller Leggings courtesy of SNL, would you consider the following:

1. Your body is complex. It will self adjust to food intake and expenditure.
2. Any attempt to futz with it will create more stress, decrease body trust and increase chances of under and overeating.
3. You can develop a self-listening and self-aware attitude by befriending your natural impulses, learning to trust them and enjoying a less-stressed relationship with food and exercise.
4. This peace with food, exercise and your body is your birthright and learning how to do it will free tremendous energy for you to do what you actually want – like be creative, enjoy your family and friends, have dreams and adventures.
5. Diet culture will continue to teach you to work off what you eat. It’s up to you to believe that or not.

Do you want freedom from this? Start with listening to your body one day at a time.

Take our 5 days to more peace mini program and get a short body centered audio exercise daily in your inbox for 5 days.

After the 5 days, write me and let me know how you are doing, deal?

The post Is working off holiday meals a bad idea? appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Many of our readers want better gut health, so they focus almost purely on what they eat, drink, and swallow in the form of supplements.

Meanwhile, the solution to better gut health for many lies within the nervous system, the mind, and the emotional state before, during, and after eating.

Better Gut Health Isn’t Always About The Food

So many of our readers and students have made huge strides in eating nourishing whole food, eliminating potentially irritating ingredients, and adjusting to a new eating lifestyle.

Yet many, despite the changes, still feel that something’s missing,..

Their gut is still upset. Their reactions to foods are unpredictable and not always logical.

And try as they might, supplements and foods have not given them the better gut health that they’ve worked so hard to achieve.

When having these discussions, I’ll ask a few questions:

• What are you thinking about while eating?
• Tell me a bit about where you are eating.
• Do you notice any particular emotions?
• Do you eat when hungry and stop eating when full?
• Is your stomach relaxed or tense?
• Is your breathing easy or difficult?
• Are you out of breath while eating, chewing, talking?
• Who’s around when you are eating?

As you can see, these questions seem to have nothing to do with better gut health or the quality and quantity of the food, but everything to do with the physical environment and mood.

The state of the body and mind while food is making its glorious entrance to be chewed, digested, absorbed and assimilated can be as important to better gut health as the food itself. You can have the most pristine food, and still be in a physiological state that continues a cycle of poor digestion and gut distress.

There are many reasons why our bodies may not be in an optimal rest and digest mode.

The wiring of digestion and relaxation is ancient, sometimes jerky and largely unconscious.

Thus what you are thinking about, what happened this morning, who you are eating with, and what is about to happen next, may play more of a role in impaired digestion than you think.

It’s not just mindless eating

Mindless eating, the act of taking in food without paying attention, could easily be solved by just paying attention, but there is more going on.

While noticing and paying attention to your food is key, and I teach that daily, noticing your physiology while you are eating is an important piece of the digestive puzzle that you may need to think about.

Your nervous system state gets in the way

If your body is stuck in a fight or flight response, whether due to a physical stressor or an emotional one, shutting down digestion is a part of that response.

Luckily, there are many ways to settle the body and shift into a rest and digest state. A state characterized by peristalsis, a slower heart rate, and a specific tone of facial muscles and breath. A physiological state that’s supportive of taking in nourishment rather than defending the body.

It’s all about paying attention

Paying attention without judgment, moment to moment, is what will support your shift out of the tight and achy responses associated with fight or flight and allow you to enjoy, take in and assimilate your food properly.

You can start this process of paying attention and settling the nervous system by first developing excellent observation skills.

Luckily, these take little time, and are an important start to the process.

We will continue through future articles and discussions, but for now, let’s just work on your meals for today.

Answer 3 simple questions before and after meals

1. On a scale of 1-10, how hungry are you?

2. Are you noticing any strong emotions?

3. Are you having any particular thoughts?

Remember to repeat these three questions after you’ve finished eating, too.

For best results, download the printable card I created as a reminder and carry it with you.

Print it off, place at your table, stick to your fridge, or fold it up and tuck into your wallet.

Check in, and notice how you feel before and after each meal.

You’re already on your way to better gut health

This simple check-in is the foundation on which we will build further skills to support a settled nervous system for optimal digestion and better gut health.

I’ll be following up in a few days with some next steps, so be sure to check back here or watch your email for an update from me!

Talk soon,

Galina

PS. Click here to get your download and email updates on your next steps to better gut health.

The post 3 steps to better gut health (that aren’t about food at all) appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

A time management method named after a tomato, working shorter, not longer, and  better health while getting more done

Sounds too good to be true, like that ‘one weird thing’ headline that you see in your Facebook feed, and want to click on but don’t.

This, however,  is not a trick…

Everyone wants to be healthier

How do you measure ‘move more,’ anyway? How much more is more?

Besides, we’re starting to understand that it’s not always about moving more, but moving more often.

Everyone wants to be more productive

We’ve all read dozens of articles on how to work more efficiently, all the while we’re not actually working.

Instead of working, we’re following the links to yet more articles on how to…

OMG SQUIRREL!

Yeah, we are easily distracted, by anything and everything on the internet, just like we are by the squirrels in the neighborhood.

We know we need to limit ourselves, but we don’t want to, so Facebook and Twitter time comes between us and our productivity.

We want to, but we don’t.

5 minutes is all I ask

That’s all the time it’s going to take to read this, and it’s all the time you’ll need to get your body healthier and refresh your mind.

5 minutes will immediately make you healthier, allow you to do more and better work, and still allow you to have time to do what you love. …or at least can’t resist, like Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest.

And yes, there are studies. This is science based, so references at the bottom.

The Pomodoro Technique

Meaning tomato in Italian, this time management and productivity method was named after the tomato shaped kitchen timer of the inventor.

It is based on the concept that we can concentrate well for small, defined, and manageable chunks of time. In the case of Pomodoro, it’s based on 30 minute cycles, where you work for twenty five minutes, and refresh for five minutes, then repeat as necessary.

Pomodoro, in and of itself, has nothing to do with health; it’s about time management and productivity, but it works perfectly with studies that have shown us that similar cycles of work and breaks lead to better health.

Better health, in this case, is defined as improved cardiovascular function, lower blood sugar levels, and reduced insulin response.

American Diabetes Association –doi: 10.2337/dc11-1931

Before the idea of ‘light breaks’ scares you away, in the case of the studies, these breaks were merely getting up and walking around for 5 minutes. Not walking hard. Not exercising. Walking.

In fact, they also looked at people who took higher exertion breaks, and found that harder wasn’t better.

It was the breaks that mattered, not the level of exertion.

Easy. …and only 5 minutes.

Pomodoro for Health and Productivity

• 25 minutes of work
• 5 minutes of movement break
• Resist the urge to keep going after 25 minutes. Mark your place, take your break, and come back better than ever!
• Repeat up to 4 cycles, after which you take a 15-30 minimum break before doing more cycles
• The longer breaks are the perfect time for lunch, walking to the coffee house, or checking in on Facebook.

“Dude, I just pomodoroed the $#!@ outta my day. I think I got it. You are correct re: simplicity.” – Dani

Pomodoro Tips

Use a kitchen timer as the inventor did, or just use the built in timer on your phone. You can find apps on your phone or computer, or even use your microwave oven. Don’t worry about the perfect tool today, there’s plenty of time to get geeky later.

Planning is simple because each cycle is 30 minutes, you can easily see how your day can be broken into many manageable chunks.

You don’t have to sit down to do Pomodoro. Trying to use a standing desk? 25 minutes is a manageable amount of time to stand, especially when it’s new to you. Add more standing Pomodoros later.

Keep movement breaks easy by starting with walking to the bathroom, puttering around the house, making coffee, taking out the trash, walking the dog. Start off easy, and refresh your mind and body before getting back to work. More frequent breaks and movements are the goals, not perfection.

References

The Role of Low Energy Expenditure and Sitting on Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease, db07-0882v2, 56/11/2655

American Diabetes Association –doi: 10.2337/dc11-1931

Let me know how the Pomodoro Technique works for you!

I’m loving it!

Roland

The post 5 minute breaks for health and productivity appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Focusing on food as the cause of emotional eating is a classic case of your defense mechanisms at their worst. Emotional eating is not about the food. And by focusing on that, you can’t allow yourself to work on what truly IS driving the behavior.

Peace with Food

I just taught a one day Peace with Food Retreat, where I spent the day with a group of 10 wonderful women who gathered to learn about how emotions and food are related.

The biggest surprise in my Emotional Eating 101 course?

Emotional Eating is not about the food.

I taught about the physiological and neurobiological aspects of eating, laying out scientific theory and connecting it to behavior.

My students got a chance to practice powerful tools that aid the process of reconnection to self.

They also got to explore and gain insight into how food came to be the way to meet so many unmet needs.

We laughed, we cried, we shared, we felt met, known and seen. And in sharing our common humanity we were able to transcend the shame, guilt, negative self-image and pain that emotional eating was related to.

We were not alone. And you are not alone.

Emotional Eating 101

While a retreat like my Peace with Food may be the way for many of my students to really start learning about the deep roots of emotional eating, for many, this behavior has only recently come into light.

If you’ve just recently started looking at your patterns of eating as they relate to emotional regulation, you may want to read ahead.

And even if you are an Emotional Eating Insight Master, you may still use these points below to deepen your self-relationship.

No matter where you are in your emotions and food storyline, here are the basic truths that show up in most of my emotional eating workshops and retreats, one on one consults and conversations.

They are also truths I have personally faced, experienced, and still live with today.

1. Emotional Eating is not about the food

While food is the tangible character we can focus on, praise, glorify, vilify, reject, crave, hate, love…emotional eating is not about the food.

If food was a puppet, it’s still your own hand inside that is moving it.

Focusing on the food as the cause of emotional eating is your defense mechanisms at work, keeping the focus away from what is truly driving the behavior.

Emotional eating is not about the food, but that doesn’t mean food doesn’t play a big part. Only through looking deeper at the unmet needs that food is meeting, can we start to loosen the patterns, get insight, awareness and slowly move towards freedom.

2.  Emotional NOT Eating is just as much of a problem as emotional eating

While society has normalized food restriction as great discipline, willpower and commitment to well-being, food restriction can often serve the same goals as overeating, eating when not hungry, and obsessing over certain foods being good or bad.

It’s the same behavior, only using NOT eating to regulate emotions rather than overeating. You can eat or not eat to disconnect from self and manage how you are in your life, moment to moment.

One is not better or worse than the other, despite what we may be conditioned to believe.

3. “It’s not why the addiction, but why the pain” – Gabor Mate

By focusing on the behavior (eating), we may conveniently continue to look at behaviors, and not at what is driving them.

When we tell someone to just eat whole foods, or just start to eat healthy, the reasons they emotionally eat do not go away. At worst, other coping behaviors may show up. Oftentimes, healthier eating can end up taking the place of emotional eating, yet still serve the same purpose as the behavior you’re trying to overcome.

We just replaced one kind of emotional eating with another.

4. You are not alone

A part of the cycle of emotional eating goes like this…

• Something is too much or too difficult to bear.
• You find yourself overwhelmed or shut down.
• You need to eat to disconnect from what you are feeling.
• You eat.
• It works (or you would not be doing it!).
• Then you tell yourself that what you did was bad (or some version of that) and make a plan how to remedy it.
• You do something to yourself – tell yourself you screwed up, shame yourself, feel guilty or go for a compensatory behavior – a workout, a diet, shopping, a new relationship, you name it.

A big part of the shaming cycle is this feeling that you are alone, you are on the outside looking in, everyone else has their act together and you are the only person who is losing at this game.

The reality is you are not alone.

In a room full of women at a retreat like my recent Peace with Food, you look around and think: “wow, I am each of you and each of you is me. This is our emotional eating. Not just mine.”

5. Emotional eating helps you cope

This is everyone’s least favorite realization. The same behavior you often hate has helped you survive.

The truth is emotional eating is not black and white. It has helped you and it has harmed you. It has saved you and it has disconnected you. It points the way home and it points the way to hell.

It’s super hard to hold two opposing ideas in your head – but you can do it. It’s a secret of adulthood that that’s totally possible.

6. Emotional eating can be about body image

It goes without saying that the media and what is culturally acceptable has shaped us, our self-image and our expectations. Beauty Sickness, as Renee Engeln tells us below,  is real.

Listen to Renee Engeln at TEDx UConn

Acknowledging how each of us has been unconsciously brainwashed to have expectations of our bodies that are neither realistic nor healthy – like looking 20 forever –  is a big start.

We can begin to develop the media hygiene necessary to avoid the old, and start to surround ourselves with the new – images that inspire us, grow us and remind us of our common humanity.

Peace with Food

My retreat last week was an act of saying YES to connection and accepting ourselves as we are.

It was about committing ourselves to self-care that is not about fixing what’s wrong.

It was about saying YES to our complex nature, to the need to be connected, to stopping the madness of trying to do it all alone.

It was an act of vulnerability and courage of kindness and compassion.

Even though emotional eating is not about the food, can you see how big a role food still plays?

Let’s Connect

If reading this made sense to you, know that freedom from emotional eating is absolutely possible for you.

If this article touched you, I invite you to reach out to me at movewellstudio@gmail.com.

I’ve made room in my schedule for a few emotional eating coaching sessions. These thirty-minute working sessions are typically $75. Today I’m offering them at half price for those of you reading this article.

Just email me at movewellstudio@gmail.com  and let’s get started.

Peace with Food Retreats

My workshop and retreat schedule is always growing, and I’d love to meet you there.

If you’d like to participate in an in-person or online Peace with Food Retreat, let me know at movewellstudio@gmail.com and I will put you on my personal invitation list!

I look forward to talking to you soon,

Galina

PS. Want more tools to help with emotional eating?  I recorded a podcast episode all about it, and I know you’ll love it.

You can listen , download, and subscribe here or by clicking the picture or the links below!

Listen to our special emotional eating podcast, here!

The post Emotional Eating is Not About the Food – Emotional Eating 101 appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

In fact, self-sabotage might be the most self-sabotaging term of all.

No one, particularly your unconscious, is out to get you. In fact, your core self has nothing but your own best interests at heart. Through understanding this you can learn what stands between you and your genuine and successful self-care.

October is Self-Care Month in our Eat Move Live 365 Community

As we’ve been discussing and engaging with the practices, one burning question emerged: what’s in the way of establishing a fluid, organic, yet effective self-care routine? How can we act in ways that reflect our deepest longing for health and well-being?

If we really want something, and we pay a price for not having it, then what gives?

Are we lacking discipline, willpower, desire, are we just that weak or uncommitted to ourselves? You know the answer is no. Most of us dearly care that we thrive and feel good in our bodies. We’ll do what we can to support ourselves and live healthy, connected and meaningful lives.

Yet, more often than not, you start establishing a self-care routine with the best of intentions, and just when you start to see progress, something happens, and you can’t, don’t or won’t keep the momentum going.

You slide back, give up, feel bad, and give in to old habits and routines. Pretty soon, you only remember what the excitement of starting felt like, and you are more present to the feelings of defeat – defeat and disappointment that somehow seem to come from the inside.

Self-Sabotage. An often misused word

In daily conversations people refer to this as self-sabotage, not doing what would be supportive for you, and instead ending up acting in ways that don’t make much sense on the surface. I often have these conversations with students who will say:

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I know what I should be doing and I just don’t do it.”

Or…

“I do it for a little and then stop. Why am I self-sabotaging myself?”

Self-sabotage is an unfortunate term

You can probably already tell that I am not very fond of the term self-sabotage.

While it may be a convenient term to describe behaviors, thoughts, and patterns that may not be in your best interest, there is really no ministry of misery orchestrating this act.

No one is out to get you.

Your body and your psyche are not colluding against you, plotting the next perfect opportunity to trip you up and have a good laugh.

“screwed ourselves up today, what a good day!”

…I don’t think so.

It’s not self-sabotage to not understand what’s happening

In most cases when students speak of self-sabotage I see two clear patterns,.

I would like to invite you to stay curious and see if you have observed one or both of these patterns in yourself, whether relating to self-care, new projects and aspirations, or even relationships.

1.     Not all of you is on board

While one part of you would like to practice self-care and relate to you in a kind, caring way, staying aware of your needs and meeting them moment-to-moment, another part is not on board.

You can probably relate to an inner conflict like that even in this simple example:

“I’d like to go out with my friends, but I also want to cozy up and stay on the couch by myself.”

One part of you wants one thing and another doesn’t.

This internal resistance may show up often when you are trying to change habits and actions, especially when it comes to self-care, because we are talking about a radical shift in how you relate to yourself.

When you choose to take care of YOU that means you must

• stop ignoring and neglecting your own needs, or
• stop pretending that you are ok and can keep going because you don’t have needs

Acknowledging that as a human being you need to pause, rest, nurture, connect, take pleasure, and savor – not just push, produce, achieve, compare and win – is a challenge to most of us.

It challenges our beliefs and how we organize our view of who we are, who we take ourselves to be, and who others take us to be.

The next time you feel the inner resistance show up, and you find that one part of you wants to move one way, and another doesn’t, become aware; pause and explore the conflict, and be honest with yourself.

This is what life looks like sometimes – sometimes you are conflicted and need to negotiate with yourself. A whole new perception of you is about to emerge, a whole new relationship with self is being born.

Self-sabotage, then, is dissolved by this inner friendly and compassionate attitude, by patience and nurture. That in itself is self-care and a shift in how you relate to yourself. Win-win.

2.     Your inner motivator works for the dark side

Your self-care desires and efforts seems genuine. You are excited about the changes in health you will be making, yet you are unaware that part of that motivation is coupled with a lack of self-acceptance.

Often, we relate to ourselves harshly – we are unhappy with how we look or feel, tell ourselves that we need to change to feel better. In the process we reject ourselves and take on a controlling role, telling the body how we “should” be, instead of creating space and accepting how we really are.

In practice, when motivation is coupled with self-rejection, shame, or guilt, it’s difficult to find lasting change.

Even though one part of us is leading the charge, another is injured by this poor self-relationship.

Self-objectification hurts, no matter how we hold it all together on the outside.

Of course, this inner separation  – this inbuilt desire to fix yourself  – cannot be sustained long-term, because just like any relationship, the part that is being hurt and shamed is in pain.

And how do we soothe pain? Oftentimes through the same behaviors we are trying to change.

Think of the diet that ends on Monday night with a whole tub of ice cream. The same behaviors you were trying to shift while dieting are now helping you cope with the pain of not being able to stick to that same diet.

The patterns that lead to talk of self-sabotage

I find at least one of these patterns present, if not both, in most of my students who feel like they sabotage themselves.

As you read above, what got your attention?

And what do you feel could shift inside of you so you can have a different relationship with yourself until all of you is supporting the desires of your heart?

If you’re not already part of our Better in a Week Group, I invite you to join me there, today.

We’ve been discussing self-sabotage and its influence on our self-care, and I’d love you to join us!

Join our free Better In A Week Group

See you in the group!

Galina

The post Self-Sabotage Is Not What It Seems appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Our friend, author, health writer, and personal trainer Aleisha Fetters joins us to talk about self-care, how it started, how its perception has changed over time, and why it matters!

“Self-care, learning how to identify your own needs and then address them, is complicated. And, for each person, it looks different.

For me, self-care is about recognizing the behaviors, thoughts, and habits that signal my depression and/or anxiety are rising–or that I’m not using the tools in my toolboxes to address them, and instead am falling into unhealthy and counterproductive coping habits.

It is about recognizing what steps are important for me in times like that, and prioritizing myself. It’s about valuing my own health and wellbeing as I would anyone else’s. “

– K. Aleisha Fetters

Let’s get started…

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About K. Aleisha Fetters, M.S. C.S.C.S.

Aleisha is an internationally syndicated fitness writer and strength coach.

Aleisha has a master’s degree in new media from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she concentrated in health and science reporting. There, she also completed undergraduate work in magazine journalism and gender studies.

As a certified strength and conditioning specialist through the NSCA, Aleisha uses her background in research, writing, and gender issues to help people empower themselves through smart strength training.

She coaches online and in-person at HiFi Fitness and Symmetry in Chicago, and apart from SELF, contributes to publications including TIME, Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Runner’s World, SHAPE, U.S. News & World Report, STACK, Born Fitness, Vice, Furthermore from Equinox, and Girls Gone Strong.

She is the co-author of The Woman’s Guide to Strength Training.

She can usually be spotted in workout clothes and/or eating.

Self-Care Matters with K. Aleisha Fetters

Self-Care History

You’ve been a writer for quite a while now. When did you first start hearing about self-care in the media? What do you feel was the social climate at the time?

Why do you think the wellness field was so dominated by nutrition and exercise and how we look and just recently catching up with our mental and emotional health? Did more of us start reaching a burn out point?

Where to start?

If someone is brand new to the idea of self-care, what do you feel is a good place to start? What ideas and steps were foundational for you?

Learning how to recognize and honor your needs, and building healthy boundaries seems to be hard for many of us. How have you navigated through these challenges yourself?

How do you help your clients and readers navigate these challenges?

Self-Care in the Media

Without oversimplifying the social, political, economic and personal aspects of self-care, where do you feel that the media has done a great job of encouraging self-care?

Where have they missed the mark?

How are the self-care market and industry a part of the dark side of this?

Knowing when to start, and avoiding the traps

What are some of the common symptoms and signs that you see in yourself and clients that point to the need for self-care?

How can we avoid the trap of self-care becoming one more thing we need to check off our endless lists?

What about body positivity?

One of our listeners asked how one can be more body-positive or body-kind.

She shared she is terrified of going to the beach with people she doesn’t know well, for fear of being judged and rejected.

How does one accept their body when the media is constantly pouring out messages that we need to be thin or look a certain way. How can we start to accept our bodies the way we are?

I (Galina) personally practice very careful media hygiene – I have curated my social media feeds and the media I consume carefully to include body-positive role models and exclude images that make me spin down a cycle of self-rejection and self-objectification.

What advice do you have for her?

How has self-care progressed and changed?

Self-care may have started as a medical necessity, moved through the stage of civil rights and female rights movement, but now it seems like it’s addressing more than just specific groups – it matters to everyone.

Where do you see self-care as a way to connect to our communities and the world?

Thank you, Aleisha, for joining us on EatMoveLive52 Podcast!

K. Aleisha Fetters and all the links!

• KAleishaFetters.com
• Email Aleisha
• Aleisha on Facebook
• Aleisha on Instagram
• Aleisha on Twitter
• Galina on Claiming Your Personal Health Space

Love the show?

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.

Talk soon,

Roland & Galina

The post Self-Care Matters with K. Aleisha Fetters appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

Do you have a hard time choosing what to do for self-care in the morning?

Or just simply feel like you don’t have the time?

I know I can end up doing nothing and just walk out the door, no self-care in my account and a whole day asking for my energy ahead of me.

At 5:45 in the morning with about an hour till I have to leave for work, I could potentially read, stretch, journal, spend time in prayer, go to the gym, go for a run, a walk, or just gently wake up with a nice steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee.

If you have small children, scratch everything I shared above! …even then, there are still options.

We all have limited time, especially in the morning, and for some of us it may be extra challenging. If you are in any way sleep deprived or dealing with a physical or mental health challenge, choosing what to do to prepare yourself for the day ahead may feel like a daunting task.

No wonder many of us end up using the precious morning minutes getting caught up on the latest news, or sucked into social media.

Yet, how you start your day matters so much.

Take a moment to imagine what your typical Monday would be like if you did have the time to do some movement, meditate, journal, and be intentional about your day? If you made the physical and mental space to have the vast and peaceful awareness that you know you are capable of.

How creative, generous, happy, fulfilled and energized would you be?

How much less anxious, overwhelmed, worried when faced with the routine tasks at work and at home, and how much less reactive when real life difficulties strike? Just imagine…

Yes, but… we all have so little time.
The reality is that we have whatever time we have been given, no more or less.

Maybe you have 5 minutes, or 10, or 30. Maybe 45 …our best attempt at honoring what little time we have been gifted, today, is to fill it with what is meaningful, what prepares us for our day and what helps us nourish our bodies, hearts, and minds.

How you relate to yourself matters.

Many of our readers and clients share that they feel profound changes in how they relate to themselves and how happy they feel, day to day, when they start the morning with a self-care routine.

I have noticed in my own body that whether I choose to stretch, run, or lift weights, meditate, journal, or pray, my day ends up feeling different, more spacious, happier.

I end up feeling more fulfilled – and in the long run that is reflected in my mental and physical health.

Meditation can set the stage.

Several of my clients at the studio share that if they meditate in the morning, they end up choosing healthier options for lunch and dinner – and they go to bed on time. My morning meditators are more aware of how their actions throughout the day relate to their sensations, moods, symptoms, relationships.

See, it’s really hard to both be present to your life in the morning and then continue to treat yourself poorly during the day – nurture begets nurture, care grows care, kindness produces more kindness.

Does it matter what you choose to do in the morning? It depends on what you need and what you love!

There are powerful biochemical and neurobiological changes that occur when we move or exercise first thing in the morning – but the same is true of journaling, prayer, or meditation, walking the dog… And you won’t find your fit till you try several activities and choose what works for your life, today.

Common self-talk that gets in the way of a morning self-care routine:

• I have no time to go to the gym
• Everyone at home needs something from me
• I just don’t know what to do
• I don’t have energy for exercise
• I start a plan and can’t stick to it
• I wish I could just roll out of bed and go
• (insert your own barrier here)

Let’s break these down.

No time

Going to the gym may indeed take a bit more time, and if you aren’t able to wake up extra early, you may want to choose a home routine, instead. It takes 10-20 minutes to do a fast-paced bodyweight training session at home, maybe even less for a few rounds of sun salutations, or one of my 5 Minute Movement Breaks. Compare these options to a drive to the gym, a workout, and a drive back. …not to mention that you can exercise in your PJs if you stay home!

Everyone needs me

Everyone needs you in the a.m.? While it’s true that kids and partners may need our attention in the morning (and in reality, maybe all the time) being a good parent to ourselves means creating the space to meet our own needs, too. Sometimes just being there means they need you, when the reality is that they often do fine when you step outside for a bit. I have a client who is a busy dad of three small kids, and he takes 30 minutes to ride his bike in the neighborhood before everyone wakes up. One of my moms calls her best friend at 5:30 a.m., and they talk on the phone, each in their own neighborhood parks in completely different parts of the country.

I don’t know what to do

Not knowing what to do for your morning routine is a huge perceived barrier, but in my experience thinking that you have to do something big and significant is an even bigger one. If you don’t believe that a 10-minute yoga session or some time spent journaling will help you have a great day, then it will be very hard to be motivated to block out that time. You may indeed prefer an hour for your morning exercise (I sure would!), but if all you have is 10 minutes, use it, knowing that minutes add up to hours. Over the course of a week you will get your hour. If you skip it, you get nothing at all…

My advice for people who don’t know what to do is to try a couple of different options.

Want something active? Walk, jog, bike, do yoga or tai chi, try a short you-tube video of a dancing class. But try and do something, so you know how it makes you feel. You’ll always have it as an option in a rich menu of choices for your morning.

And if you’d rather tune in to what your body wants to communicate from its deeper levels of wisdom, then journaling, prayer time, or meditation may be just the right direction for you.

The mornings when I can split my time between movement and meditation are my favorites. Those are the days I feel really empowered in my work and in my personal life – I feel like I can really respond in the moment, rather than react (aka running around like a chicken with my head cut-off). I feel better in my skin, feel less susceptible to emotional eating and needing to “cope” with circumstances.

Lack of energy

Not having energy is a significant reason not to do anything active in the morning, but even my more limited chronic fatigue and chronic pain clients can do some gentle somatic meditation or movement, and report feeling better.

It’s all about knowing how much you can do that day, and really giving yourself permission to not be the perfect picture of self-care you have been sold by the media.

Honor that you are taking time for yourself, even if it’s just a few deep conscious breaths.

Take your first step toward morning self-care.

If you are just starting to create a morning self-care routine or have fallen out of the habit and would like to develop it again, here are the steps I normally go through with my personal clients:

1. Choose something you are likely to do. Can you do a 10 minute morning movement session? Would you use a meditation App like Headspace to sit and practice focused attention? Can you sip your coffee on a morning walk? Take the dog out? Choose one activity that you are most likely to do. Choose something that is of the nature and duration you can actually do. A 90 minute bike ride sounds good, but it is not likely to happen on a Wednesday morning.

2. The night before, make sure you have what you need. Is the app loaded on your phone? Do you know what movements you will practice in your morning routine? Is the video lesson accessible? Is your meditation cushion or morning journal out? Prepare and set the stage so you can just get up and do it. The fewer decisions you have to make, the more likely you are to complete your intention.

3. Notice how you feel as your morning routine ends. While you are showering or getting dressed for work, notice how you feel, physically, mentally, emotionally. Are you glad? Pleased? More energized? Relaxed? Focused? Hopeful? Motivated? Notice how it makes you feel to have that morning ritual in your day. Continue to note that throughout the day – tapping into the mental and physical energy you have stocked up on.

4. Give yourself permission to change and experiment with your morning routine. Just don’t fall into the trap of stopping your self-care routine because of one activity you find is not working for you.  As with anything, a rich morning routine, like a rich and varied diet, may take some time to design, try out, and fine-tune. Stay open to your needs and keep checking in with yourself – Your needs may vary day to day, week to week, season to season.

5. Respect your efforts by noticing the drive and energy you put into your morning routine. Congratulate yourself on any small or medium gains you notice. In a society where only the loud, bright, big and extraordinary are celebrated, you may easily forget the energy and courage it takes to go against the pull of old habits! Self-care is no small thing!

What first step toward morning self-care will you take today?

I hope I’ve given you plenty of ideas where to start and plenty of reasons to start right now.

Even better, if you want to start together, with a group of like-minded people, you can join our 5 Days to More Peace free online course!

Roland and I run free, fun, low stress 5 day challenges and programs regularly, featuring recipes, movement breaks, snack ideas, mindset, and motivation.

Why not join us to see how simple changes and the right frame of mind can put you on the road to great self-care, today!

Click here or the button below to see what it’s all about and to reserve your spot!

I hope to see you soon,

Galina

PS. Want to get to know us better?

Why not join me in our Facebook Group and see what we’re doing for our morning self-care?

I’d love to have you!

The post Sane steps to meaningful morning self care appeared first on #EatMoveLive52.

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, imagine what movement as medicine can do for your health!

We all love to move. It’s innate, intrinsic to life. Just watch kids at play.

How many of us, as adults, move with as much joy, curiosity, and as engaged with life as we did as kids?

Modern movement science is reshaping our understanding of the primacy of movement for a happy and healthy human existence. It’s changing the way we think about fitness, exercise, and overall wellness.

Our modern world, with all its conveniences, is significantly lacking in movement. Sitting, driving, phones, computers – They all take their toll. Neck pain, back pain, foot pain, joint pain, repetitive strain, and more.

You might already be taking care of your nutrition and food, but isn’t it time to look at your ‘movement nutrition,’ as well?

Our overall daily activity is just as important as our balanced diet- we want a variety of the good stuff, whether it’s food or movement.

Be sure to checkout Eat Move Live 365 and join at our special Founding Member rates, plus all the bonuses!

Go to EatMoveLive52.com/365 now!

Use coupon code FOUNDERS50 to save 50%

Let’s get started…

Listen to the EatMoveLive52 Podcast

Want to get the EatMoveLive52 Podcast delivered to your phone, tablet, or computer automatically?

Subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcasting service using the links at the bottom of the page, and let them take care of the rest! 

Movement as Medicine Links

• Michelle Bouvier (interviewer) – MichelleBouvier.com
• Galina talks about ‘furniture free here at EatMoveLive52.com/MovementAsMedicine
• Be sure to checkout Eat Move Live 365 and join at our special Founding Member rates, plus all the bonuses. Go to EatMoveLive52.com/365 now! use coupon code FOUNDERS50 to save 50%

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Our podcast theme music is “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0.