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carol@inkwellcoaching.com

Crown Point, IN

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August 28, 2025

7 Late Summer Wellness Tips

The nights and days are cooler. Darkness comes earlier. The sky looks like fall. I even saw some leaves in Michigan that had turned brilliant red. How

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Blog
August 21, 2025

What to Do with All That Zucchini

Yesterday, my friend Lisa presented me with a zucchini that looked as though it had taken growth hormones. It was gigantic! She told me that she grate

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Food, Fun, Health
August 14, 2025

Echoes of Summer

Can you feel the shift? The days are steamy–yet the calendar is getting a bit crowded with commitments that pair better with the cooler days of

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Food, Fun, Health
August 7, 2025

August Anxiety. Sunscreen vs. School Bells

This time of year, I feel a mixture of emotions. On the one hand, summer is in full swing. The flowers are thriving, temperatures still soar, and ther

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Family, Health, Personal Development
July 30, 2025

Recharging After Your Vacation

Have you ever returned home from a vacation and thought to yourself, “Gee, I could use a vacation.”? I know I have. It seems wrong. We have such a

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Food, Health
July 20, 2025

Traveler’s Guide to Food and Fitness

Summer vacations. I’ve always been a big fan of vacations any time of year. They are SO FUN, and people are usually very nice to you when you’re a

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Food, Fun, Health
July 16, 2025

The Peach vs. Nectarine Debate

I love them both. Lately I’ve been wondering about their slight differences, which sent me down the rabbit hole of looking into their unique charact

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Food, Health
July 9, 2025

The Dog Days of Summer

How often I’ve heard this phrase, yet never knew that Dog Days were official. Turns out, the Dog Days of Summer run from July 3 to August 11. This t

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Food, Fun, Health
July 3, 2025

Can Bananas Ruin Your Berry Smoothie?

This past week I received an email with this question: “I recently read an article about bananas reducing the nutrition of the berries in a smoothie

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Food, Health
June 26, 2025

Hot Weather, Cool Tips

Lots of ideas swirling around in my head today—to which Mr. Non-Compliant would say, “Uh Oh!” Since I couldn’t decide on one topic, thought I&

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Food, Health

The Scoop on Avocados

April 13, 2023
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Food, Health

The avocado can sometimes be a heartbreaker.

If you’re a fan, you know what I’m referring to. You buy what appears to be a beautiful avocado.

You allow it to sit the perfect number of days until it is just right. 

Finally, you’re ready to add it to your fish tacos or make it the star of your avocado toast. You cut it in half. 

Heartbreak. It’s black and ugly inside, with nothing worth salvaging.

It’s highly disappointing.

While I don’t have the answers on how to prevent this from ever happening to you, or me, again, I do have some storage tips to help keep them fresh and delicious.

Tips to Keep Haas Avocados Fresh and Delicious

  • When choosing your avocado, the proper way to feel for ripeness is to gently squeeze it with the palm of your hand–not your fingers. Firm avocados will need to ripen at home on your kitchen counter.
  • If you want them to ripen more quickly, put your avocados in a paper bag with bananas or apples. They all produce ethylene gas and the ripening process will be accelerated for them all.
  • Once they are ripe, eat them or move them (unpeeled) to the crisper drawer of your refrigerator. They’ll keep for up to one to two weeks, as refrigeration stops the ripening process.
  • Avocados contain an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, which causes the flesh to brown when exposed to oxygen. To help prevent this in cut avocados, there are a few tricks you can try. Leave the pit in the half you are going to store so that there’s less flesh exposed. Store it in a sealed container with a piece of onion. Or rub with lemon or lime juice or olive oil, and cover with plastic wrap. Always refrigerate cut avocados. Eat soon.

The good news about avocados: they are full of nutrients, contain more potassium than bananas, provide heart-healthy fat, are loaded with fiber, help you absorb nutrients from other plant foods, contain antioxidants that contribute to eye health, and help you feel—and stay—full.

Happy Easter Season!

Last week I told of the blessing of Easter baskets on Holy Saturday.

It was a beautiful sight.

I hope you had a wonderful celebration. He is risen!

Much love,
Health Coach Carol

“Yesterday, I really wanted avocado toast. Now, I’m eating avocado toast. Follow your dreams.”—Unknown

Time for a Reset

April 6, 2023
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Family, Food, Health, Hope, Personal Development

Spring.

The time of year when we think of new life, cleaning, outdoors, daffodils—and rain. Lots of rain.

Winter was mild here in the Region. Thankfully. The season was still long, cold, and extremely dreary.

There were at least two weeks when my sunglasses never left their case. 

I’m ready for the freshness and warmth of spring. Unless you live in Florida, my guess is that you are too.

As we enter the second quarter of 2023, how are you feeling?

Don’t say, “Fine.” How are you REALLY feeling?

Perhaps you set some goals back in January. Are they still important to you? Have you accomplished some of them, or are you in the process of working through them?

Do you need to do some adjusting?

Maybe you haven’t given it much thought.

Whatever the answers are to these questions, it’s okay. Now is the time to correct the autopilot of day-to-day life if you’re not pleased with your year to date.

If you’re finding it hard to believe that we are one-fourth of the way through the year already, I encourage you to take a bit of time in the next week and consider what is important to you.

What, and who, deserves your attention and precious time?

This is all “Deep Health” stuff. Everything affects everything.

Good health is about much more than your cholesterol, body composition, and fitness level.

Research shows it’s also about your mental and emotional well-being, feeling connected to others, and just enjoying life overall.

Should you need more clarity around living out your goals, I’m just an email away.

Easter Blessings

For Christians, Holy Thursday through Easter (or Pascha or Resurrection Sunday), is the most holy time of year.

When I was a little girl, my mother and grandma would gather the specially prepared Easter foods in our baskets. We would then go to church on Holy Saturday morning to have the foods blessed.

Beautifully decorated eggs, pascha bread (a sweet, egg-rich round bread made especially for Easter), Polish sausage, nutroll, chocolate bunnies, lamb-shaped butter, beet horseradish, ham. 

It felt like more penance because everyone had these baskets filled with delicious (smelling) foods and we couldn’t eat any of it until Easter Sunday.

Although the contents of my basket are a bit different, I still carry on that tradition today.

Food connects us, invokes memories, comforts during tough times, helps us celebrate everything.

If you celebrate Easter, and even if you don’t, I hope your Pascha Sunday is filled with your favorite people and foods.

May you enjoy the blessings of spring and new life.

Much love,
Health Coach Carol

 “You are here. You are loved. God is good. And that’s enough.”—Brandon Heath, from his song That’s Enough

Foods for Healthy Skin

March 30, 2023
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Food, Health, Personal Development

Here’s a big surprise (not): your diet influences the health of your skin.

Besides the natural aging process, other factors that affect our skin include sun exposure, alcohol consumption, stress, smoking, high intake of processed foods, dry weather, certain soaps.

Dairy products and whey protein have been linked to acne in some studies.

A diet high in refined sugars, carbohydrates and unhealthy fats contributes to inflammation in the body and may lead to breakouts and other skin conditions.

Remember: if you choose to eat foods that don’t serve your health, do so in moderation and only when they are AMAZING! (Mr. Non-Compliant has gotten very good at this rule. Applause.) 

Foods that help nourish and support healthy skin:

  • Omega-3 fatty acids found in wild-caught salmon (or canned sockeye or pink from Alaska), mackerel, herring, sardines, chia seeds, flaxseeds, walnuts, almonds
  • Tomatoes
  • Foods high in Vitamin C: citrus fruits, bell peppers (recall last week’s blog—red bell peppers have loads of Vitamin C), broccoli, strawberries, kiwi (did you know that the skin is edible and has lots of fiber and antioxidants?)
  • Foods high in Vitamin E: almonds, sunflower seeds
  • Tea (especially green) and coffee—be mindful of your caffeine intake, since not everyone can metabolize it easily. Decaf is an option.
  • Grapes
  • Dark chocolate containing at least 70% cocoa/cacao. About an ounce is plenty.
  • Hydrate your skin by consuming plenty of water each day.

Be sure to see your dermatologist for annual cancer screenings, perhaps more often if you have a family history of skin cancer, experience increased sun exposure or notice any skin changes.

Oh by the way, if you’re looking for my recommendation on skin care products that also promote healthy, hydrated skin, shoot me an email. They don’t take the place of healthy eating and lifestyle habits; however, they help!

No Regrets Workbook

In February, I wrote about No Regrets: A Fable About Living Your 4th Quarter Intentionally by Allen Hunt and Matthew Kelly.

A number of you have told me how much that book has inspired you to practice a specific virtue in your fourth quarter. Or, second or third quarter, depending.

The accompanying The Fourth Quarter of Your Life Workbook is back in stock. You can order it for 33% off and get free shipping by clicking Check out the Workbook

Sweet!

May you live today, and every day, with intention.

Much love,
Health Coach Carol

“It’s not just what substances you put on your skin. Inappropriate inflammation is rooted in diet, how you handle stress, how you rest and your exposure to environmental toxins.”—Andrew Weil

The Truth About Green Bell Peppers

March 23, 2023
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Food, Health

Green bell peppers are not a favorite of mine. In fact, when I order veggie skillets, I usually request that they be omitted.

I find them to be bitter. Here’s the reason why.

 Green bell peppers are unripe red bell peppers. They truly ARE bitter. 

Since they take less time to grow, they are more abundant. This is the reason they typically cost less than the other colored peppers.

As the pepper is allowed to grow, it may turn yellow, orange and finally ripen into a sweet red bell pepper. Some varieties turn purple, white or brown.

While green peppers offer a good amount of Vitamin C (twice as much as an orange), along with Vitamins B6, K, A, and E, minerals and antioxidants, red peppers contain the most nutrients.

Another interesting health nugget is that as the pepper ripens, the cancer-fighting antioxidant properties change. This makes the case for including a variety of peppers in your diet.

Peppers are great for skin health, thanks to the high levels of Vitamin C. People with high levels of Vitamin C have skin that is less dry and wrinkled. They also are at a lower risk of developing skin cancer.

Other pepper insights:

  • Through an extremely casual survey, I learned that peppers often don’t agree with people as they age. (Cooking them may help ease digestion.)
  • Bell peppers are part of the nightshade family of vegetables.
  • Botanically, it is a fruit. Nutritionally, it’s considered a vegetable.
  • Red peppers are the
  • If you typically stuff green peppers, you may like to get a little crazy and stuff some other colors for fun.
  • Add to stir fry recipes for color and additional health benefits.
  • They add crunch to any sandwich, are perfect for dipping in hummus and taste great roasted.

Choose your favorite colors and enjoy, as long as peppers still agree with you. 

Something New

As many of you know, I’ve been a contributing editor to Get Healthy magazine, a publication of The Times of Northwest Indiana, for a number of years.

Beginning this month, I have a video accompanying my Get Healthy article. If you have an online subscription to the NWI Times, you’ll be able to view it by clicking the link. If you don’t, you may be blocked. (Sorry)

Get Healthy Facebook Page

Thanks for reading and following my work. I appreciate you!

Much love,
Health Coach Carol

“You must prune to bloom. If the dead weight is not pruned and removed, it compromises the quality, performance, and output of the vine. When you prune what’s not working in your life, you make the space and place for renewal to happen and for new growth to spring forth.”
— Susan C. Young

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