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5 Secrets to a Gentle Spring Cleanse

April 29, 2011 By

vegetable

Spring has definitely sprung here on the east coast. The flowers are in bloom, the grass is green and everyone is ready to lighten up and cleanse by getting rid of the heaviness of winter. Spring is a time of hope and renewal and the perfect time to take on new projects, clean, refresh the diet and set new goals for your exercise routine. Spring certainly puts a bounce in my step but also makes me a little anxious…in a few months I’m wearing shorts, sundresses and bathing suits. It definitely stresses me out. But I’ve got a little secret, I eagerly take on all that Spring has to offer including cleaning up my diet.

Here’s what I do as my mini-cleanse:

1. Eat with the season. It’s the season on greens; asparagus, beans, lettuce, spinach, kale. It’s the perfect time to include more greens in your diet as they are naturally cleansing and high in chlorophyll which is helpful for refreshing your cells. Include greens at lunch and dinner. Place more emphasis on them (let them take up half of your plate).

2. Cut out heavy and fried foods. They may be okay in the winter time but in the Spring it’s time to start eating lighter. Heavy foods are perfect in the cold winter months but as Spring arrives you don’t need to eat food that is so rich. Bake, broil and start grilling.

3. Juice. Get out your juicer and carrots and juice away. Make up about 4-6 ounces of carrot juice and drink it in the morning. It’s a natural way to cleanse your liver and allows you to help it eliminate the excess heavy and sweet foods you’d been eating all winter.

4. Berries. This is the beginning of berry season and berries are deliciously sweet but not overly sweet. Include them in your smoothies, salads and have them for a dessert. Let these be your sweet treat and take a break (even if it’s temporary) for all unnatural sweets. I promise that after a few days you won’t miss the real sugary sweets.

5. Eat More Salad. I love salad especially this time of year and I encourage you to include more in your diet. A good rule of thumb is to eat a small salad before your meal (or make it part of your lunch).

Here are a few salad tips for you:

1. Stay Away from Iceberg..the greener the better as they have more nutrients and health benefits.
2. Add FAT..this can be done in a variety of ways such as nice oils, seeds, nuts, avocado or organic sheep, cow or goat cheese
3. Clean Well. Make sure you wash it well. Reduce the amount of pesticides you’re adding to your diet.
4. Stock ‘Em. Keep salad ingredients in the house. Buy them at the store or maybe start your own garden this summer.

Got a favorite salad recipe you love to eat? Please don’t keep it to yourself…share, share, share!

What do you do in the Spring to gently cleanse? How do you feel after you’ve cut out the heavy foods and start eating in the season?

Filed Under: Health & Wellness

3 Ways a Mom Can Live Easier

April 22, 2011 By

grand-central-station

There’s no question that in my house I’m Grand Central Mom, everything runs through me. It’s okay, I like it this way. I want to know everything that’s going on because I don’t want to miss anything. My kids are teens and they are very busy. They have full schedules at school, play sports and have social lives. When they were young I remember planning everything for them including their play dates, activities, after school programs…everything. Not only was I managing their schedules but I was certainly in charge of my own which included my work, exercise and social life.

There was a time I had it all committed to memory but then one day I realized that I had a lot to manage and I couldn’t remember all the details. I tried everything, memos, calendars, planners, leaving voicemail messages for myself and yet I always felt like I was forgetting something. So we called a “Family Meeting” and discussed how we could better manage our lives so that we could enjoy it more.

We decided to do three things:  schedule less things, involve the kids, research really good organizational systems.

This is how it went down:

  1. Schedule Less. In order to schedule less we took on less. As a family we began to choose what our priorities were and how we wanted to spend our time together. We looked at what each of us wanted to do in a day and what we had to do during it (school, work, home chores).  We realized that all we wanted to do couldn’t happen unless we figured out how to make the time for it. It came down to choices. By freeing up wasted time in our days we soon learned how to make the most of the time we had together and then I found more time to do the things I needed and wanted to do to take care of myself.
  2. Involve the Kids. Because I worked I felt that I should “pamper” my kids. I wasn’t around all day so I wanted to treat them wonderfully when I was with them. What I didn’t realize was that my enabling really wasn’t a very wise choice. I soon learned that they couldn’t do chores or simple tasks because  they hadn’t been taught how, we or I had just done things for them. Some of it I rationalized was because it was faster to just do things myself than have to explain it. My husband and I made a conscious decision to start teaching the kids how to do the basics: fold and wash their clothes, wash the dishes, clean, vacuum, sort through the mail and take out the trash. All things they’d need to learn to do when they were on their own anyway. As they began to do more I had to do less and I felt so much better..no more arguing, no more resentment and more time for me to go for a walk or practice yoga.
  3. Choose great organizational systems. This took me a while to figure out because I had so much to organize. The kid’s paperwork, our home, my work, emails, multiple voicemail boxes. It’s gotten much harder as we have more to manage. I resisted technology for a long time but when I finally caved it made all the difference. I’m not a purist, I do carry a paper organizer as well but now I’ve learned a way to keep up better. One thing I do is follow Digitwirl, Carley Knobloch searches out the latest tech gadgets that can help make tech work for you. She puts out a weekly 3 minute video to show simple ways to organize life digitally.

Life has gotten far easier since I’ve started simplifying and managing it better.

What do you do to make life easier for you?

Filed Under: Health & Wellness Tagged With: , , , ,

Givin’ Up the Joe

April 15, 2011 By

coffee

This was a hard one for me but several years ago coffee was the blood running through my veins. Now I know this is a touchy subject but I do think it’s worth going there.

You see I’m a working mom and my day job for over 20 years has meant long work hours and significant stress at times. When I realized how much more I could accomplish in a day while drinking coffee then  the java became a staple in my day. Not only was it a staple but it replaced all other drinks, okay there was some water in there. Then you have to consider how I drank the stuff; lots of splenda and lots of fat free hazelnut creamer. The reason you might ask? Because I didn’t like the taste of black coffee but I wanted the productivity that it gave me. It started as one cup and turned into another in the afternoon and another in the evening. My little cup of coffee quickly turned into a latte and cappuccino habit. I was seeking out every trendy coffee shop there was.  Boy did I feel great, able to work long hours, sleep only 5 hours per night, get much more done in my job and be a powerhouse wife and mom. I thought I’d figured it all out. It didn’t occur to me that I was getting false energy from my caffeine habit or that it might be contributing to my ever increasing stress level. It certainly never made me realize that all I was doing was heading down a path toward burn out. I just kept drinking the stuff and feeling pretty pleased that I could conquer it all.

My low point finally arrived. It was about 6 years ago when juggling everything got really hard. I’d lost a lot of weight (mind you I wasn’t eating or sleeping) and I wasn’t feeling too terrific. For some reason the coffee wasn’t giving me the energy I’d needed and my fuel tank seemed to be on empty. The reserves were low and I didn’t know exactly what to do about it. It wasn’t until I started having some physical symptoms did I realize that maybe I should start paying more attention to what I was eating or drinking. They weren’t big concerns but headaches, lack of energy, inability to handle stress like I had before. I didn’t feel like I needed a doctor more like I just needed more energy because I was so tired all the time.  Now I knew that work was going to still need to be a factor in my life and that I was actively raising my family but I had to make a decision, keep doing what I was doing or change gears and start taking better care of myself so that’s exactly what I did. The first thing I did was give up the coffee and then I started to clean up my diet and within time I started learning how much I could realistically handle in a day. I found out that it was all about balance and I learned how to manage my day, my priorities and my health. I gave up the “Joe” because it wasn’t allowing me to be in balance with my life. Had I been a one cup a day gal things might have turned out differently. I don’t miss the stuff now because I work off of my own natural energy.

How do you deal with coffee? Able to drink just a little or do you rely on it for an energy boost to get you through your day?

Filed Under: Health & Wellness Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

3 Tips to Cut the Junk

April 8, 2011 By

“All in moderation” my parents always used to say. The same comes out of my mouth when I’m coaching my clients now too.

I strongly believe that you can eat more balanced when you don’t give up ALL the junk at once. Now let me clear here, there are certain foods I think are incredibly poor choices and I no longer include in my diet. Then there are some that I have every once in a while. Many people make the assumption that they need to throw all of their favorite foods out the window when they’re trying to lose weight or live healthier. I don’t think it has to be all or nothing. I think it’s about adding in the better foods while balancing out the junk.

Let me put it into perspective for you.

If you decide to run a race, you don’t just put your running shoes on and expect to be able to do well without having trained or warmed up first. You need to prepare for it. It’s the same thing with incorporating better food alternatives into your diet. You gradually increase the quality of your food to alter your taste buds and reduce your cravings. Now of course if you have a medical condition in which you can no longer eat a certain food then that’s a different story but for many it’s not the case and they’re looking to either lose some weight or improve the quality of their food.

To make it long lasting and not just a diet or fad you can start with a few simple steps:

  1. Reduce the Food You Have the Most. Take a look at your diet and see what you are eating a lot of. Sugar, white bread, white potatoes, chips, cookies, candy, soda? Look at how much you’ve been eating of that particular food. Are you having it in moderation or are you not able to stop once you start. If it’s the latter then you need to consider that this particular food might need to be eliminated from your diet for a period of time. If it’s not then you may be able to have it in moderation even while you’re gradually moving to a healthier diet or attempting to lose weight. Keep in mind though that junk craves junk. The less you have the more likely you are to not be drawn to it.
  2. Up the Healthy. Include more veggies, fruits, lean meats, vegetarian proteins, nuts and seeds in your diet. The more you include real foods the less you’ll be wanting to be eating foods of little quality and substance.
  3. Don’t Keep Them In the House. I’ve known people who buy their top offender foods and still keep them in the house for their family because they don’t want to deprive them. This is a set up. You’re buying foods that you’re still drawn to and if you have a busy, stressful day chances are you’re going to fall back on them. Don’t buy them for yourself or your family. Slowly begin by incorporating better real food choices that you know everyone will eat and like. Do yourself a favor and let someone else buy them at the store.

The real secret is to try to crowd out the junk by slowly incorporating better quality foods in your diet. Begin by looking at a healthier alternative of the same food you crave. Consider that it’s a transition and that you can always have some of the foods you so desperately love right now. You can have them but in time you’ll actually want them less and less.

What are ways you can begin eating healthier and transition to a better way of eating? How do you think you can cut some of the junk out of your diet?

Filed Under: Health & Wellness Tagged With: , , , ,

6 Questions to Ask Before You Start Your Next Diet

March 31, 2011 By

vegetables

Have you ever been one of those women that says “I’m going to start my diet on Monday so I’ll just enjoy myself now”? It’s come out of my mouth before. I’ve also started, stopped a diet and restarted the same one all in the same day before. It’s not uncommon, we decide we want to start a diet without really being ready. Diets don’t work, lifestyle changes do.

So, what do you need to do to get ready to lose weight?


See the tips below to determine if you’re really ready to invest in an eating or lifestyle change before you start your next diet:

1. Decisions, Decisions. Ask yourself if you’re ready to make lifestyle changes. Are you ready to do what you need to do to get where you want to go? A quick assessment will help you decide.

2. Are you ready to take it slow? Making lifestyle changes take some time. Habits take time to break. Knowing what will work for you takes time to figure out. Expecting fast results will only lead to disappointment and frustration when you don’t see the results you’re expecting.

3. Is this for REAL? Is the eating plan you’ve decide to follow realistic? Is it something you can follow in your day? Does it require a lifestyle change. How easy or difficult will the changes be? These are some things you need to consider before you jump in.

4. Ease into it. Fasting and detoxing can be tough on your body.  Be careful in choosing what you will do. Make sure the approach you are taking is appropriate for you.

5. Take Care of You. Have you been taking care of yourself? What’s your baseline? Have you had your check ups? Do you need to make significant changes or small ones? Along with looking at eating and lifestyle changes you can also look at what you need to do for further wellness.

6. Get Support. If you have been a chronic dieter or struggled with losing weight then you may need additional support. Working with a professional may be just what you need to get the ball rolling and make this the last time you need to lose weight and get back in balance.

Are you ready to start your next one or are you on one right now? What has worked for you before? Can you think of things that have gotten in the way?

Filed Under: Health & Wellness Tagged With: , , , ,
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