Seasonal allergies occur when your immune system mistakenly identifies harmless substances—like pollen from trees, grasses, or weeds—as dangerous invaders. To protect you, your immune system releases chemicals called histamines. These histamines trigger familiar allergy symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, congestion, and itchiness. In...
Longevity. What longevity IS: healthy aging, quality of life, vitality. What it’s NOT: living forever, specific age, never aging. Here’s an interesting nugget. About 20% of longevity is determined by genetics. This means that about 80% is due to outside influences such as lifestyle and environmental factors. Here’s a...
Stress management often involves trying to eliminate stressors. John McEnroe, the famous tennis player, often smashed his racket when a match wasn't going his way. Somebody should have told Mr. McEnroe that it wasn’t the tennis racket that was the actual stressor. A healthy lifestyle coach would...
Let’s start with the muffin. Last week I wrote about the health benefits of eating wild blueberries. Saturday morning, I decided that I had to have a blueberry muffin. (It often happens that when I write about food, I think about it so much that...
In conversation, I’m hearing the sentiment of overwhelm from just about everyone. Too much. Too many. Not enough time. Decorations, parties, gift wrapping, cards, playing chauffeur, appointments, work. Time for you—WHAT? Let’s be realistic. Stuff has to get done and somebody’s got to do it. Odds are good...
Whew! Another Thanksgiving celebration in the books. Hope you enjoyed some great family time along with your traditional as well as some non-traditional dishes. If you’ve done any shopping online or in a store during the year, you’re probably getting way too many dings on your...
I’ve had conversations with lots of people lately, and everyone is a bit stressed. Well, maybe more than a bit. Stress shows up lots of ways. It is cumulative and sometimes feels as though it compounds daily. We’re all expected to “handle” it. Many times, we think...
Thanksgiving is only 3 weeks away. In this moment, it feels as though we have plenty of time to prepare. And we do. IF we start NOW! It hit me when I stopped in the grocery to pick up some fish for dinner yesterday and noticed all...
Some of us haven’t seen the sun in…well, days. There’s been so much rain that I’ve been looking around town to see if anyone is building an ark. Temperatures may swing from eighty degrees during the day to the fifties (or lower) at night. Do I...
Today, take some time to lighten things up a bit and do something you really enjoy—for about an hour. Warning: this may take some discipline. Monks refer to this as practicing Sabbath. (Yes, honoring Sabbath one day a week is on the list as well.) Practicing Sabbath...