Once I made the commitment to find a way to get better, things that I never heard of just kept showing up in my life.

– Elaine Gardner

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m so excited to talk with holistic health expert Elaine Gardner. Elaine’s experience with debilitating pain during her period, intestinal discomfort, seasonal allergies, brain fog, severe fatigue, and horrible muscle spasms led her to her holistic lifestyle.

Elaine began her body healing journey with supplements and a variety of bodywork. When her son got ear infection after ear infection and had endless childhood viruses, she also used body work with him to reduce the problem.

Elaine has made changes to her food and taught her kids to pay attention to food and how it affects them. Elaine explains how she made small steps toward change and how she encourages people to do the same.

We talk about:

What our hormonal system does (so much more than we think)

Why we need to control stress

What we teach our kids and how they navigate their bodies and food as they get older

How to find alternative medicine practitioners for kids (and why it’s worth paying for services for our kids and ourselves)

The power of sleep and water

Why we have to learn not to just push through

Elaine Gardner is a holistic health expert. She’s working on a new program called Food Freedom, a guide to loving and planning and buying the right food for your health. Elaine helps people find the right foods that serve them and their health.

LINKS

http://www.designyourhealthylife.com

Doable Changes from this episode:

COMMIT TO MORE SLEEP. For one week, make a commitment to getting more (and quality) sleep. Remove electronics from your bedroom. Make sure the room is dark. If you have to get up at a certain time, get yourself to bed earlier. And if you get woken up in the night, work on an alternative—have a partner take over childcare one night, allow yourself to nap the next day.

CHOOSE ONE FOOD CATEGORY TO CHANGE. Elaine talks about taking fruit juice out of the house and then cutting out non-organic foods. Pick one thing to adjust this week. Get it out of the house and buy a healthier alternative. Maybe you cut out sugary juices or only buy organic produce this week.

PUT YOURSELF FIRST. As moms, it can be hard to take care of ourselves. You have to make the effort and put yourself first; it’s not selfish it’s actually the best thing you can do for the other people in your life. So choose what you will do for yourself and put it on your calendar. Then make that a non-negotiable appointment.

REALLY getting healthy as a family can be a big lifestyle change. But no matter how insurmountable it may feel, focusing on one doable change at a time can help you take small steps toward your big goal.

A healthy lifestyle is really made of lots of little things that when repeated regularly and added together over time make a huge impact on your life.

Choose one Doable Change every Sunday night — one thing that you are willing to play with for the week. The key is to keep it doable and fun! Write that thing on a sticky note or your phone so you remember it. Then put 3 things on your calendar that support it.

Choose from the changes above or download a list of 101 Doable Changes we made for you.

http://plansimplemeals.com/101-doable-changes/