Welcome to mind and body education and mastery!
Want to learn about why you may be at risk for diabetes, why you store extra weight, why you crave certain foods, or why you overeat or over drink? Learn about your mind and body in an entertaining, practical and easily-understandable format by browsing the collections below.
What are insulin resistance and diabetes, and how do you reverse them?
How and why do you store body fat, and how do you decrease how much fat you store?
What are urges, cravings and habits and how do you stop them?
What is emotional eating, and how do you stop doing it?
How does sugar and alcohol addiction happen, and how do you get over it?
Scroll through the posts to see what catches your eye!
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What’s the “OFC” and Why Should You Know About It?
The OFC is the part of the prefrontal cortex that helps make decisions, and that has EVERYTHING to do with changing urges, cravings and habits!
Want to learn more?
Food Addiction is a Real Thing!
I didn’t use to believe it, but I sure do now.
It’s a real thing, and it is caused by the food, NOT by YOU. Want to know more about it, including how to recognize it and what to do about it?
Contrary Action!
This sounds like something a two-year-old would be good at!
But it’s actually an incredibly useful strategy when you are trying to change habits that fail to serve your best metabolic health.
Want to learn more?
100% of nothing
When you try to follow a “diet plan,” ANY plan, aiming for perfection, you will experience 97% failure.
Want to know why? And how to have 100% success instead?
Survival by FAT!!
Survival by FAT! This answers those confusing questions about why we gain weight so incredibly easily! And how to reverse that scenario!
How do humans, just like bears, turn on the emergency fat storage systems?
And why are most humans in the US always in this emergency mode when bears are not?
Prepare to have your mind blown when you read all about it.
Are you the lucky one?
Have you ever felt that if you were “scared straight” you could quit all kinds of habits?
One of my clients recently said he “wished he would have a heart attack” so he would finally take his health seriously. He wanted to be “scared straight.”
Does this approach work?
Forgetfulness….wait, what?
Forget remembering, it’s forgetting that is powerful when it comes to lifestyle change!
We are forgetful. And that’s a good thing!
As the era of Covid moves from “pandemic” to “endemic,” just as influenza has done in the past, we will all notice our memories of these difficult years will fade. Just lately I have dealt with some very difficult times in my own life, apart from the pandemic, and it comforts me to remember that forgetting is a normal and necessary part of our mental health, and that my memories will become less acute over time, exactly as mother nature intended.
I will wait patiently.
So what does this have to do with lifestyle change? Quite a lot, actually!
Why do you need a coach?
If all it took to make effective changes to your health were the information on how to do it, we would have no lifestyle-related health problems in the United States. It takes something more. Enter Coaching!
What is the difference between a Nurse Practitioner and a Coach?
I have been a Nurse Practitioner for over 30 years, and in that time I became a skilled medical provider, an expert in the exam room.
I was the authority, the educator, and the problem-solver, focusing on what was wrong and coming up with appropriate treatment plans. If we were discussing preventative health, such as weight loss and diabetes prevention, I would define the visit agenda.
I felt responsible for the patient’s health, and sometimes found I was working harder than the patient was at pursuing the health goals I outlined for them to help prevent further disease. I enjoyed excellent rapport with my patients, and I felt I was an effective provider of excellent medical care.
And yet, I was no more effective at helping my patients prevent the major lifestyle-related diseases than any other random medical provider.
And then I discovered coaching!
Coaching focuses on helping clients grow into becoming the unique experts in their own well-being and personal behaviors. The client is helped to become the decision-maker, to blossom into the role of personal expert on the way forward.
Coaching fosters personal responsibility, reflective thinking, self-discovery, and self-efficacy.
Clients have their own answers if they are simply given a reflective environment in which to see and listen to themselves. The coach is a partner, focusing on what is right, eliciting the client’s agenda, co-discovering the answers, and facilitating change.
I’ve been thinking about “body love” lately.
I’ve been thinking about two related concepts lately: “loving your body at any size,” and “can your body be healthy and also overweight?” Why are these concepts interesting? Why do they matter?
I’ve actually been thinking about the two related concepts “loving your body at any size,” and “can your body be healthy and also overweight?”
Want to read more?
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Curiosity is Your Science and Journaling is Your Tool
Curiosity is a fantastic mindset for change, but learning something about yourself also requires data.
I am my own functional nutritionist.
I focus on myself as a person instead of on a disease, personalizing methods of optimizing my health based on my individual genetics, lab values, lifestyle, how my own body feels and behaves, and more. I gather and evaluate data to make decisions and plans that work well for myself.
But here is the best news: YOU can be YOUR OWN functional nutritionist!
Want to read more?
The Blame Changer
Why do you drop out of a program, or stop striving for a goal? What reasons do you hear yourself using?
Have you ever given up on a goal? If so, when you think about why you gave up, what are the reasons that came immediately to mind?
“I was under tremendous stress.” “The time was just not right to focus.” “My wife kept bringing home junk food, so it was impossible.” “The weather was too terrible to keep exercising.”
Do you notice a pattern? Blame. But you know what is really going on? Simple connected neurons in your brain! Nothing to feel ashamed about or defensive about, but something that is empowering to learn and master!
Want to read more?
Factory Reset
You were born a perfect human. If you feel anything other than today, it’s time for a factory reset!
When you were born, you were a perfect specimen straight out of the Mommy and Daddy factory, born exactly the human you were always meant to be.
Every part of you worked exactly as it should right out of the box!
You were perfect.
If you feel anything other than perfect today, it is time for a factory reset!
Time for Problem Solving!
Three little questions can change your whole game.
Lately I have been loving and using the following phrases with myself:
Does this solve a problem I do not have?
Does this fill a void that does not exist?
Does this fill a need that is not there?
These three little phrases have been a Game Changer for me! Want to find out why?
Welcome that BURN!
Are you wondering what bodybuilding has to do with you? You might be surprised by what you learn!
I have a couple of clients right now who are competitive body builders, and it has gotten me to thinking about what it takes to build that “holy-cow-that’s-amazing” kind of muscle.
Are you asking right now what this has to do with you and me, the average Joe with the average muscles and no desire to make them bigger??? Read on!
Calling all Neuropathways!
If devices can capitalize on how your brain works, so can you! Learn how right here.
What does an iPhone have to do with lifestyle change?
Abdicating Responsibility
How does it feel to avoid taking responsibility for your own decisions? It’s easy to do, but does it help?
Have you ever thought something like: “If I had a personal chef who did the grocery shopping and cooked everything for me, always had healthy food prepared and fresh chopped vegies in the frig, then I would be able to stick to my eating plan.”
Or maybe this: “If I had a trainer who would come over to my house every day, then I'd exercise regularly.”
That does sound like it would be helpful. You think that if someone else took over for you and just made it happen for you, then you would be successful.
Yeah, not so much.
The Problem with Focusing on Results
Focusing on results is indeed important, but what gets results? Actions.
You DO need to focus on your result, but if you focus ONLY on that result, it can actually interfere with your ability to achieve it!
Emotional Fasting
Emotional Fasting. What is that? And why is it a horrible thing to do?
I have been thinking about fasting lately, including our daily motives for doing so.
I had a conversation recently with a client who was talking about her urge to change-up her fasting routine, to fast longer, because she had overeaten the day before. It got me to thinking, so of course that got me to writing!
Our motives to engage in ANY activity come down to an emotion we are having. And those emotions come from thoughts and directly lead to our results. How we are thinking about fasting has an enormous impact on our health!
Interested in reading more?
Magical Thinking
What is magical thinking and how is it impacting your health?
I used to engage in Magical Thinking in many ways that did not support healthy living.
Now I am amazed that I could believe any of it, really, although it is a perfectly natural phenomenon. But it turned out, that way of thinking was getting in the way of making real and substantial changes in my life.
No more.
Want to learn more?