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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Search for Diabetes Game Changer on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify! Or use the QR code to go right to it!
What’s the difference between self-efficacy and self-esteem?
Self-efficacy is the thought, “I can do this!” Self-esteem is thinking “I am worth doing this.”
You do NOT need a high self-esteem to achieve your goals! And in achieving your goals, you can BUILD your self-esteem.
Want to learn more about this?
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!
What’s the “Food Matrix”?
What’s the “food matrix”? And why does it matter to your insulin resistance and fat storage?
To start to understand the complexities of nutrients when they are consumed either individually or in combination with other foods, researchers have coined the term the “food matrix” to describe the nutrient and non-nutrient components of foods and their molecular relationships with each other.
The nutritional aspects of food are the vitamins, minerals and other health-influencing components, such as antioxidants, while the non-nutrient component is the actual physical structure of the food. The mix of nutrients plus structure are BOTH highly important to your digestion, absorption, metabolism, insulin levels, blood sugar levels and fat storage.
Want to read more?
Add 30 a week!
What’s better than that incredibly low bar of 5-a-day?
30 a week!
Sound daunting? It’s not, because I’m talking about plants, not just fruits and vegetables.
What’s better than that incredibly low bar of 5-a-day? 30 a week!
Sound daunting? Scary? Impossible? Expensive? It’s none of those things. It’s fun, exciting and delicious!
Are you Upper Limiting Yourself?
Your unconscious upper limits may be the cause of self sabotage. Want to get rid of those shadowy barriers?
Your unconscious Upper Limits may be the reason you fail to achieve sustainable goals.
Luckily, you can recognize those shadowy barriers and blow them out of the water.
Want to read more?
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?
Inflammation! It makes me hurt just thinking about it!
Inflammation! It can cause body pain, fatigue, memory loss, as well as contribute to cancers and heart disease. But there are things you can do about it! Learn what causes it, what to avoid, and what to try. You can feel better!
Last night, I had a terrible time trying to sleep - I hurt all over!
I could tell my body was suffering from widespread inflammation. So, of course, I had to examine what I did during the day that might have contributed to my pain. And boy oh boy, did I find some things!
Want to read all about it? Including what can cause inflammation, the dangers of inflammation, and what you could do to decrease it?
What is Your Investment Potential?
Do you feel YOU are worth the investment of time, energy and sometimes money it takes to make a permanent lifestyle change? If not, you can learn some proven neurological hacks to increase your investment potential right here!
Do you feel you are worth the investment of time, energy and sometimes even money it takes to change your life?
Want to learn some neurological tools to increase your investment potential?
Let’s Commiserate!
Commiserating with friends is the best way to get the support you need! Or is it? It might just be keeping you stuck!
Our friends are there for us when we need them.
They listen to us kvetch about this and that, they empathize and sympathize and agree that so and so should never have done that and such and such should never have happened, and it is just terrible how we were treated and what we are up against. They buy in to our story and they support what we are believing about it.
That’s what friends are for, right?
It they didn’t do that, we would probably drop them as friends! They wouldn’t seem that “friendly.”
Commiserating has its place, and we do need friends to fill that role for us.
But when commiserating is a habitual practice, (and perhaps the only way in which you share your experiences), you may be setting yourself up to remain stuck.
Want to learn 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!
Sleep!
Inadequate sleep and obesity are linked. What can you do about it?
Did you know that inadequate sleep is associated with obesity and insulin resistance?
Do you struggle with insomnia? Do you fail to allow enough hours in your day to get adequate sleep? Are there other reasons why you may not be getting enough sleep? Are you worrying about your sleep for nothing? What can you do to improve your sleep?
Why does it even matter?
If you’d like to read more, I am happy to oblige.