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December 19, 2024

Easy Holiday Baking and Cooking Substitutes

Holiday meals are about bringing people together, but when some guests have food sensitivities or allergies, it can feel like a challenge to make ever

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Christmas, Food, Health
December 12, 2024

Doorstep Dining Done Right

‘Tis the season of parties, buffets, Christmas cookies and oodles of joyful gatherings that include delicious, even healthy, food. At the same time,

admink
Christmas, Food, Health
December 5, 2024

Post-Thanksgiving Mini Reset

Thanksgiving may have left you feeling a little too much like the stuffed turkey centerpiece. If you’re ready to shake off the sluggishness before m

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Christmas, Food, Fun, Health
November 28, 2024

Savor, Stroll, and Stay Thankful

Thanksgiving. A time to enjoy the company of loved ones, share stories, and of course, indulge in delicious food. Here’s a tip to help you savor

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Family, Food, Fun, Health
November 19, 2024

Gobble Up These Thanksgiving Preparation Tips

Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude, gathering, and indulging in an amazing feast. However, hosting can sometimes feel more like a marathon than a ce

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Food
November 14, 2024

Mediterranean Feel-Good Soups for Fall

As we transition from fall into the holidays, staying mindful of our health goals can help us enjoy the season without feeling run down or overwhelmed

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Food, Health
November 7, 2024

Healthy Eating FAQs and Answers

Before I get into this week’s topic, I must first retract a statement that I made last week about Mr. Non-Compliant. I stand corrected, as he did NO

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Food, Health
October 31, 2024

Mr. Non-Compliant’s Birthday Fest

This week Mr. Non-Compliant (aka my dear hubby) celebrated a birthday. He flaunted his morning non-compliance by leaving the EMPTY cinnamon roll box o

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Family, Food, Fun, Health
October 24, 2024

Not a Vegetable Fan? Read This

It’s not just kids that wrinkle their nose at a plate of green stuff. Lots of fully-grown adults feel the same—inclined to hide their Brussels spr

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Food, Health
October 17, 2024

How Safe is Your Cinnamon?

I’m a huge cinnamon fan. I shake it in my coffee, smoothies, muffins, stewed apples, and of course, pumpkin pie. Years ago I mixed it with a little

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Food, Health

5 Ways to Stop Playing the Comparison Game

January 25, 2023
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Health, Personal Development

We all do it. As human beings, it’s part of our nature. We compare for points of reference.

But we don’t have to play the game anymore. If you find that playing it brings you negative feelings about your body, work, success, life, leave the game.

Yeh, right. I hear you. It’s a tough thing to let go of. Comparing.

Stuff happens, like seeing a post and photo of your buddy from college who has the perfect physique, job and healthy-looking meals EVERY DAY on social media. Oh, and even the dog is super cute. 

(Little did you know that she spent 3 hours getting set up for a “smoke and mirrors” photo of all that—including the super cute dog that actually belongs to the neighbor.)

Or, you feel good about sticking with your exercise plan for the new year, until you hear that someone in your inner circle is working out LESS than you and has lost 10 pounds already. Grrr.

You’ve got to be kidding.

For me, it goes something like this, “How can person XYZ eat THAT and be so active and energetic? I’d be dead by now.”

This everyday kind of stuff can bring us down. Some days I feel like throwing in the towel and downing a gallon of ice cream. In one sitting.

So, here’s a novel idea. Let’s practice NOT playing the comparison game.

Here are 5 ways to help you (and me) stop playing in relation to body image and health:

  1. Concentrate on your actions, not your outcomes. Complete daily actions that you’ve set in place and stop worrying about the result. Let’s say you want to lose 5 pounds and you decide to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. You’re also committed to exercising for a minimum of 30 minutes 3x a week. Follow through with your habits and be less concerned about the number on the scale. Oh, and less concerned about how much weight your friend lost in 3 days. Weight loss is complicated.
  2. Keep things in proper perspective. Choose to be happy about what you’re grateful for (3 things), what you’re excited about (1 thing) and something you’ve accomplished (1 thing). Quickly jot them down at the end of the day and sit with reality. By focusing on the positive, there’s less room for the negative. Look back in a month or so and check out your progress. Gold star for you. 
  3. Drop the comparison triggers. If participating in an advanced aerobics class week after week brings out the comparison monster, making you feel less than, stop. Stay in a place that motivates you but doesn’t derail your mindset. Grow into tougher as you get stronger, then go for it. Same idea for your eating plan. The “diet” that works for your best friend may be horrible for you.
  4. Declutter your social feeds. If you have virtual friends or follow someone who makes you feel bad about what you’re accomplishing, drop them like a hot bag of greasy French fries. Stay around positive people—virtually and in real life. You’ll love yourself (and others) more. 
  5. Build meaningful connections. Surround yourself with genuine people and be vulnerable with one another. You’ll realize that so much superficial stuff doesn’t matter anyway. You do YOU beautifully.

Wishing you the best day ever.

Much love,
Health Coach Carol

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dining Out Made Simple

January 19, 2023
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Food, Health

We know that home cooking is the healthiest. For starters, we’re not loading our meals with ingredients that we can’t pronounce and preservatives to make the food last for weeks.

There are times, however, when it’s socially correct to go out and enjoy a meal with family or friends. After all, it’s fun to be waited on and skip the planning, cooking and clean-up.

(By the way, Mr. Non-Compliant is great at doing dishes. Thank you, Mr. NC.)

There are also business lunches and dinners and various celebrations. 

When we dine out, it’s easy to get swept away and lose control with all the goodies that appear on the table before us. While some restaurants inquire as to if you’d like bread, it often shows up uninvited.

And it brings along some very tasty friends: butter, olive oil, cheese, vinegar.

Then there are the cocktails, wine, appetizers, rich creamy soups, homemade pastas, desserts.

Indulging in the “extras” on occasion will probably not send your healthy eating goals out the window.

It’s the excessive number of food-centered meetings and events that tend to pack on the pounds, especially when there are several in one week.

Should you find yourself in this situation, here are some simple guidelines to help keep you from outgrowing your clothes.

Health Coach Carol’s Simple Dining Out Guidelines

  1. Skip the bread.
  2. Skip the alcohol.
  3. Skip the pasta.
  4. Skip the dessert.
  5. If steps 1-4 are not possible for you, choose two options out of the four—sort of like “You Pick Two” at Panera Bread.
  6. Whatever two you choose, make sure they are AMAZING!

When desserts are AMAZING, often a table shares a few options so that everyone can have a sample of each.

Perfect. 

Mr. Non-Compliant is a tough negotiator. Even he can handle choosing two. For example, when the bread is fresh out of the oven, he’s going to enjoy it, slathered with butter.

If he’s at a banquet hall dinner where the dessert is sitting by his place at the beginning of the meal, it’s probably not going to be AMAZING. Same goes for the bread or rolls.

These simple guidelines allow for a delicious dining experience without feeling as though you’ve overindulged.

No calorie counting. No food stressing. No outgrowing your clothes.

Bon appétit!

Much love,
Health Coach Carol

“We should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life.”—Julia Child

Look for the Bright Spots

January 11, 2023
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Fun, Health

It’s been almost 2 weeks since we’ve celebrated the newness of another year. Perhaps you’ve set up some small action steps that lead to a positive change.

Keep in mind, this could be about anything, not only health and fitness related goals. 

Whatever the case may be, how are you doing with them? Are you tracking your successes? Are you stuck in a mindset of failure?

About 99% of the time, when I talk with clients and friends, I first hear about the “mess-ups” that happened.

True confessions.

I don’t ask. They just tell.

My response to whatever I hear is, “What went well for you? What did you do that you feel good about?”

It’s much more fun and beneficial to uncover positive accomplishments. Nothing is too small to note. Every win counts.

Next time you feel as though you’ve “messed up,” try looking for the bright spots. Odds are that you’re doing a much better job with reinforcing your new habits and sticking to your commitment than you think. By focusing on the bright spots, you maintain forward momentum. You’ll feel successful and accomplished.

If you’d like a Bright Spots Tracker to help you practice this, shoot me an email telling me of a success you had this week, and I’ll send it to you.

A Little Goes a Long Way

Movement, that is.

Just in case you’ve committed to going to the gym, walking, swimming, playing volleyball, etc. and are struggling, know this: Anything is better than nothing.

And since consistency is key, discovering movement that you enjoy is critical.

Check out the wide range of possibilities and go for it. Do what you can and build upon that. 

Even walking 15 minutes a day 4 times a week is beneficial.

Exercise adds to longevity. It reduces the risk of cancer mortality, cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality.

For example, there is a 14% decrease in coronary heart disease for those who exercise 150 minutes per week compared to those who do not exercise. 300 minutes a week lowers the rate to 20%.

At my gym, I always see the 3 Musketeers, as I call them. Three women who do a class or two a day, usually together. They are older than me. They have fun. They keep moving so that they can move. I aspire to be like them, and hopefully will age just as gracefully.

Trying to figure out what is possible for you? Let’s talk.

 Much love,
Health Coach Carol

“Just for the record darling, not all positive change feels positive in the beginning.” —S. C. Lourie

5 Ways to Stay Committed to Your Goals

January 5, 2023
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Health, Hope, Personal Development

We’re into another year in what seems like a flash.

Even if I didn’t look at a calendar, I’d know this.

How, you ask?

BECAUSE MY PARKING SPOT IS NOW OCCUPIED WHEN I GO TO THE GYM. 

I go to my same classes, at the same time of day, and I typically park very far from the entrance.

No more parking spot. So, I now park even further from the entrance.

Good news is that I get more steps into my day.

Good news is that more people are exercising.

Bad news is that in a few weeks, I’ll get my parking spot back.

It’s a pattern that I’ve witnessed for decades.

The excitement of the new year and goals of getting healthy tend to go by the wayside when real life takes over. It’s easy to fall into familiar patterns that often don’t serve us.

If they did, we wouldn’t have the desire to change them.

Today, I give you 5 ways to stay committed to your health (or any) goals, even when you don’t feel like it, life gets really messy, you lose hope and feel like nothing’s working or you absentmindedly eat an entire bag of cookies/chips/fill in the blank.

  1. WHY do you have the desire to get healthy or lose weight or whatever it is you’d like to do? Now, go deeper, with that WHY. Then, go even deeper. You know you’ve hit the real reason WHY when it almost (or does) make you cry. Getting clear on the REAL rock-bottom reason you’d like to accomplish your goal is key to making it happen. When you get off track for any reason, go back to the big WHY.
  2. Remember to practice one small activity at a time that takes you in the direction of your commitment. When you figure out what that is, put it into your calendar or it won’t happen. If you tell yourself you’re going to walk 10 minutes 3 times a week, schedule those times and keep the dates. You’re important!
  3. When you mess up (because we all do) admit it and begin again immediately. You’re in good company so don’t beat yourself up over it. Do not wait until Monday or after another social gathering or when the birthday cake is gone. Now is the only time we have. Make it count.
  4. Be flexible. If you decide on a plan that isn’t working for you, adjust accordingly. Sometimes we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves. It’s best to set yourself up for success, master one thing, then add another desirable habit.
  5. When you feel stuck, do an activity for 5-10 minutes that gets you back on track toward your big WHY. Even the tiniest action can get the momentum going again.

Need help with your big WHY? Email me and we’ll set up a time (for about 30 minutes) to figure it out together. It’s my New Year’s gift to you! WHOOT WHOOT! 

Oh, and my word for 2023 is…CLARITY. If you haven’t chosen your word for the year, it’s not too late. Go for it! Then practice living it.

May 2023 bring you health, happiness and clarity.

Much love,
Health Coach Carol

“Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.” – James Clear

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