Fall is here and Halloween has kicked off the holiday season. Each new season brings different needs in your nutrition and fitness routine. Are you in danger of falling out of every good habit you have built in 2019 because of two months of social events, stress and holiday treats? Fellow dietitian Ciara Ferguson joined me for podcast 11 where she discussed “Frequency and Quantity – The magic bullet to meal planning”. Today she is here to give you her best tips and tricks to get you through the holidays confident, proactive and worry free.

Colder weather brings with it the desire for comfort food, much of which is heavy in calories, fats and carbohydrates. This is a carryover from our ancestors who needed to bulk up to survive the winter. Unlike our ancestors, we have central heat and readily available food so bulking up is not necessary nor desirable. To prevent this, work on portion control and frequency of eating. Set up your environment for success. Hide or get rid of extra candy. Take a healthy dish when going to a potluck. Put your snacks in a small bowl and put the bag away.

Because it is dark earlier, you are indoors much more and often in front of the tv which brings on snacking. Pick healthier options like tortilla chips and salsa, lightly buttered popcorn, veggies or fruit. Fiber rich foods will help you feel full faster. Multi-task by watching your favorite show while riding the exercise bike. Log your food. Most people under-report their food intake. Knowing what you are actually eating is powerful. Also log your movement. People truly don’t understand how much winter decreases movement if they aren’t tracking. Have a dance party with the kids, burning off calories while having fun. Find things you enjoy so you will keep it up. Join a museum so you can get walk around and get movement when it is rainy/snowy and cold. Even walking the mall works.

SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is common as the days get shorter and it is darker much more of the time. It saps your energy and leaves you moody and depressed and can be serious and difficult to manage.

Tips to help:

1. Light therapy

2. Brightly lit rooms

3. Control carbohydrates

4. Exercise

5. Get more sleep

Focus on what you can do during the holidays. You may think you have no control, but you do. Manage your portions. If you are worried about offending people by not eating what they have made, have a strategy ready beforehand. Take a bite and make sure they hear you say you like it. Some people push food on you, and you want to make sure they feel loved for making it. Have a statement ready ahead of time. You don’t have to finish the plate. They will get over it.

Empower yourself to go into situations with pre-thought out strategies. Mindfulness of knowing what you need. Start a list of all the previous years and the barriers that existed that may have prevented you from keeping your health goals as a top priority. If failing to plan is planning to fail… then we have to plan our way through the holiday season! We cannot fly blind and expect to come out shining come January 1st! Instead, we need to plan for anything that could, should or maybe won’t even happen. Come in over-prepared for whatever life is going to throw you in the next few months as we close out the year!

Resources:

https://www.facebook.com/ciaradietitian/

Instagram: @ciaradietitian

https://www.stemilt.com/stem-blog/roasted-honeycrisp-apple-and-squash-soup/

I say “keep your eyes on your own paper” where Andrea would say “Hike Your Own Hike”! Andrea Dale, my business coach and I were chatting one day about the concept that when we hit that point in any journey where we feel like we fell off the wagon… whether that be in food or exercise or business ventures… we don’t fall off the wagon and hit total rock bottom every time. Our rock bottom or our baseline changes over time.

Since we are on the topic of hiking let me give you a great visual…why don’t you go ahead and picture a large hill or mountain for me. Let’s pretend our baseline looks like this: you had an injury in the last year, which has kept you from doing any intentional exercise, because fitness went out the window, your motivation for healthy eating has drastically decreased… you are sitting around more and not drinking as much water … you really feel like all of your good habits don’t exist anymore.

You are at the base of the mountain looking up and it feels daunting, but you gear up and gain a bunch of motivation and start to do things like: increase water intake, put on a pedometer and walk more, log your food intake, decrease eating out, cook 4 out of the 7 dinners a week (you can visualize this as climbing the mountain… each goal, each habit is a step forward… maybe months go by like this and THEN you hit a crazy season at work and the wheels fall off. This is the point where we always think we blew it, all is lost… this is the rock bottom part… EXCEPT if you take a minute to truly look at your habits and what is still working, the truth is, you stopped making dinners and food logging, BUT you are still wearing your pedometer, bringing extra water to work… your baseline has changed. You are no longer at the bottom of the mountain, you did back tracked a bit, you slid back down a couple big trails… BUT YOU ARE NOT AT THE BOTTOM.

When you gear up to implement habits your habits again, you already have a few that feel like part of your routine (you are already drinking water, you are already walking more) so now you pull back in the things you let go… like food logging and eating out of your own kitchen… EXCEPT now you are wiser. You know that when life gets busy, it’s hard to find time to cook, so you decide to pull in a service where dinner shows up at your door to preempt the strike of falling away because of chaos at work. You start food logging again and you even start a yoga class because it fits your lunch hour schedule. Climb climb climb. You have not only recovered the steps your fell back from, but now you have pushed further and higher.

Another barrier hits! A parent gets sick… food logging disappears, the yoga class gets put on hold, except this time you keep eating dinners out of your home because they are showing up at your door. New baseline. Ok, I think you are getting the point… but your main take away from all of this is that your baseline continues to change and quit telling yourself that you completely failed because I highly doubt it! This is where Andrea would be telling us to journal along the way so we have proof to look back on and see our progress. Like I said, Andrea is my coach and has always kept a running list of the tasks I have completed and now that we have been working together for years… that list is pretty fun to look back on… needless to say, my baseline has changed!

I’m so excited to introduce you to Andrea Dale! You can find her at: www.tothepoint.coach

As an executive and marketing coach, Andrea Dale helps leaders and business owners who are struggling to influence executive decision makers. Her program “Influencing Leadership for Sales” empowers her clients to develop the crucial connections, visibility, communication skills and messaging that lead to gaining bigger billing clients.

Personal trainers have the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to design safe and effective fitness programs. They teach and help people on their journey to be healthy and fit. Claire ??? is a shining example of what you should look for in a trainer. As a personal trainer with 14 years of experience at a sports club, she brings creativity, attention to detail and love to her career every day.

She takes a personal interest in every client and designs personalized routines to help them be the best version of themselves. Clients are kept motivated by the constantly changing routines and workouts, so they feel like they want to work out rather than they have to work out.

As a former semi-pro soccer player and present-day coach for two select soccer teams she uses a similar approach with her players.

Takeaways from today’s interview:

- Aspects of personal training cross over into your everyday life.

- Always have a game plan. Taking a few minutes to make a plan will make your day flow more smoothly.

- “Make good choices”

- “Don’t think about the problem, think about the solution”.

- “Work hard and have fun doing it and good things will come”.

- “Respect people and always give them a chance to prove who they are.''

- “Be the best you can be”

- “Don’t try to change the world in a day”.

There is no specific one workout that will work for every person and the same workout will not continue to have the same effects. A good trainer will evaluate your strengths, weaknesses and injuries to tailor each workout to fit your goals.

Claire goes the extra mile by keeping contact with her clients between sessions. She recognizes birthdays and sends ideas of things she thinks will be helpful to you. She believes that a trainer and a client have to be a right fit. A trainer won’t be able to help you if you don’t communicate with them. If the fit doesn’t seem right, find a new trainer.

Claire is one of my friends and one of the first trainers that pulled me out on the fitness floor and showed me how it was done! I am forever thankful and still pulling from her expertise today!

Resources:

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

It’s 5:00 somewhere.

Rather than sitting back with a nice beverage, many of us are standing in front of the open fridge, staring blankly. We are hoping that we will find fresh ingredients that will quickly transform themselves into a dinner that everyone will enjoy. When that magic doesn’t happen, we resort to pbj’s, cold cereal or takeout

. Does this sound like you after a busy day at work or at home with the kids? Are you feeling frustrated or defeated?

As an accountability coach, my job is to help you set goals such as planning your meals. However, how to do that is not my area of expertise. I too struggle to figure out what to put on the table that will be healthy, quick and everyone will eat.

Randa Derkson is a busy mom from British Columbia who has gone through countless diets and weight loss plans over the years. Many times she got short term results but there were also adverse effects and they were not sustainable.

Randa created the blog “Bewitchin’ Kitchen” to share healthy recipes and tips to provide “everyday nutrition to everyday moms”. In today’s interview we focus on meal planning. By spending a little time once a week to plan your meals you can take control of your mealtimes.

Benefits:

-Save money by not eating out

-No more frustration

-Less food wasting

-Easier portion control

-Healthier choices.

Tips to get you started on meal planning:

-Write down what you and your family actual like.

-Look at Pinterest or other recipe sites for visual inspiration and bookmark them so you can find them again.

-Start with planning dinners only. Get a handle on that before expanding to full-day plans.

-Make double or even triple quantities. Freeze some for quick dinners and portion some out for lunches.

-Make it simple. They do not have to be gourmet meals

-Make it fun. Put in Pizza night

Randa has a meal planning method you can purchase which goes into much more detail. Check her site for more information…

https://www.facebook.com/randaderksonnutrition/

https://randaderkson.com

Direction Not Perfection Resources:

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

Myth: Therapy is only for crazy people or people with really big problems.

Fact: Therapy is an effective, high quality treatment within a safe, confidential, and respectful environment in which clients can explore their concerns, express their feelings, and learn new skills to manage themselves, their relationships, and their lives.

Being mentally fit is an important component of living a healthy lifestyle. It affects how we handle our nutrition and fitness needs which in turn affects our mental health.

We all have our own personal struggles on our journey to be happy, healthy and fit. They can be caused by things like depression, anxiety, trauma, loss, etc. To handle those struggles, we may have learned habits that are not healthy, but we don’t know any other way to be. Changing bad habits allows us to work towards our goals, but If we don’t talk about or start to work on the underlying problems that created those habits, it becomes nearly impossible to truly change.

A therapist can guide you on a journey of self-discovery to identify the cause of your struggles and give you tools to handle or eliminate them. It takes strength to open up and be vulnerable to a stranger. Just investigating your therapy options is a first step towards taking control of your thoughts and emotions. It is very empowering to identify what you are struggling with because then you can learn to deal with it, manage it or eliminate it.

A focus you will hear today will consist of:

Thought traps

Generalizing

Too much focus on the negative

Fortune telling

Generalizing

Negative self-talk is harmful

We will hear techniques to work with these cognitive distortions, such as:

Breaking negative thought patterns

Helping you tune in to how often it is happening

Give you suggestions to help you analyze your thinking

Help you realize that change is a process… working on changing is the first small step

Give credit where credit is due… suggest you use a victory journal to see that you are making progress.

Interview: Sara Mills, PsyD

Email: [email protected]

Pyschology Today:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/45208/198698?sid=5d9e11159a36f&ref=13&rec_next=41&tr=ResultsProfileBtn

Direction Not Perfection Resources:

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

Time and energy are two of our most valuable resources. When we say yes to too many extra activities, we deplete the limited supply available to us. This leaves little for our kids, spouse, family, friends and ourselves. When time and energy are given away too frequently, one of the first things to suffer is our health. We end up with not enough time to work out, not enough time to cook dinner, not enough energy to go for a walk and not enough energy to meal prep and plan. When an extra activity is soul filling, exciting or builds us up, a “Yes” can be good. But we often say “Yes” when the answer should be “No”. Michael Hyatt, a leadership mentor, writes about this in his blog “5 Reasons You Need to Get Better at Saying No”. He shares a quote from How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty by Patti Breitman and Connie Hatch.

“Out of guilt or fear of confrontation, we take on more projects, invest in someone else’s priorities… In the process, we dissipate our most valuable personal resources—time, energy, and money—on things that aren’t important to us. Each time we agree to something without enthusiasm or interest, we waste a little more of these precious resources.”

In order to assess when it’s the right time to say no, therapist Alena Gerst, LCSW offers the following suggestions:

1. Check in with your body – Do a gut check of how does this decision feel.

2. Ask yourself this question – “Do I really want to do this?"

3. Take time before answering – Have a sentence that you can always come to, such as “let me think about it” or “thank you for thinking of me, I’ll get back to you”

4. Start by saying no to little things – Practice saying “No”.

5. Don't give elaborate excuses – People don’t necessarily want or need your excuses.

Today I interview my friend and neighbor Michelle Debevec, a happily married, full time working mother of 3 active children about why she declared this “The Year of “No”.

Michelle realized that volunteering at school, being on committees and feeling guilty for utilizing the flexible schedule she has at work was leaving her with little to no time for the things that filled her heart.

She describes herself as a people pleaser, someone who doesn’t want to hurt feelings or rock the boat by saying “No”. She was saying “Yes” to too many things, robbing herself of time and energy to do the things she really wanted to do. She needed to learn to say “No”. Michelle found that by declaring a “Year of No” the pressure was off of her to feel like she needed an excuse to say “no”. She could say yes if it was something she really wanted to do but she was able to say a hard “No” and mean it.

10 years from now, when she looks back, it won’t be a committee meeting or work schedule she will remember. It will be the discussions around the dinner table and the activities with her family she (and her kids) will remember. Of course she will also remember laugh-till-you-cry times with wonderful neighbors.

Resources:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553804987//ref=cm_sw_su_dp?tag=mhyatt-20

The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes by William Ury (Author)

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/why-saying-no-is-necessary-for-good-health

https://michaelhyatt.com/5-reasons-why-you-need-to-get-better-at-saying-no/

http://amzn.com/0767903803/?tag=mhyatt-20How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty by Patti Breitman and Connie Hatch.

Eating right and getting appropriate exercise are important components of a healthy lifestyle. There is also a large emotional component. We can strengthen our emotional health by being intentional in our actions, present with our family and friends and by delving deeply into the connections in our lives.

Getting past the surface level of relationships with those we care about can create soul filling moments that positively affect our health and well-being. Today I interviewed Jennifer Zumbiel, creator of Togather™, a game you play with your family at the dinner table that helps to create those special moments. Family members are encouraged to think beyond simple yes or no answers and dig deeper for meaningful responses. It can be surprising and insightful to hear your little one’s answers.

Jennifer describes the game best on her website:

“Togather™ is a game in the form of a book. The game features seven categories, each with fifteen stickers. All 105 stickers were designed to create moments where you complement each other, where you share your good deeds, and where you can't stop laughing about things around your house.

WHY STICKERS?

The passing of a physical book and peeling of stickers achieves 100% involvement. It creates feelings of togetherness and individuality knowing each person chose a unique sticker. Take turns going around the table reading your sticker and answering the question.”

The importance of gathering your family together around the dinner table is a hot topic on the internet. If you google “kitchen table and health” you will find these phrases:

· Benefits of the Dinner Table Ritual - The New York Times

· 7 Reasons to Eat Meals at the Table with Your Family

· Eating meals at dining table is healthier, researchers claim

· The Benefits of Eating Together for Children and Families

· 9 Scientifically Proven Reasons to Eat Dinner as a Family

o Family dinners mean better family relationships

o Family meals lead to healthier food choices

o Eating as a family leads to better grades

o Family dinners are a chance to explore new foods

o Family dinners lead to greater happiness

o Homemade meals promote portion control

o Family dinners equal healthy kids

o Family dinners relieve stress

o Eating at home saves money

Resources:

https://www.goodnet.org/articles/9-scientifically-proven-reasons-to-eat-dinner-as-family

www.togathermoments.com

www.facebook.com/togathermoments

Instagram: @togathermoments

Go to Jennifer’s website to learn more about Togather and download some sample questions to see how your family can benefit from this new game.

Connect with me:

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

The airwaves are full of podcasts, TED Talks, blogs, interviews, etc. all offering information to help you in various aspects of your personal life, your business an/or your relationships, to name just a few subjects.

Whenever I listen to one, I take in the info and realize that what they are saying can be helpful in the world of health and fitness too. Today I am going to help you sort through that overload of information by giving you a few examples of talks that inspired me and explaining how they can be refocused to help you on your health and fitness journey.

Links to your motivation:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/friendship-20/201605/5-ways-stop-sabotaging-yourself

https://www.trishblackwell.com/category/podcasts/

http://mindyourbusinesspodcast.com/

https://elevationchurch.org/podcast/

https://subsplash.com/newlifechapel/messages/ms/+kxbd4s7

Resources:

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

The airwaves are full of podcasts, TED Talks, blogs, interviews, etc. all offering information to help you in various aspects of your personal life, your business an/or your relationships, to name just a few subjects.

Whenever I listen to one, I take in the info and realize that what they are saying can be helpful in the world of health and fitness too. Today I am going to help you sort through that overload of information by giving you a few examples of talks that inspired me and explaining how they can be refocused to help you on your health and fitness journey.

Links to your motivation:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/friendship-20/201605/5-ways-stop-sabotaging-yourself

https://www.trishblackwell.com/category/podcasts/

http://mindyourbusinesspodcast.com/

https://elevationchurch.org/podcast/

https://subsplash.com/newlifechapel/messages/ms/+kxbd4s7

Resources:

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com