Navigating Nourishment Podcast

In this episode of Navigating Nourishment Podcast, Wendy and Debbie discuss the importance of doing Just One Habit: small, consistent actions for significant life improvements. They emphasize that people often fail to achieve their goals due to unrealistic expectations and the "say-do gap." They share several real-life examples of their own habits and their clients. These habits, when practiced regularly, can lead to substantial long-term benefits. They stress accountability and the use of tools like apps to help maintain these new habits.

23 minutes

 

Transcription (edited for readability)

Small, Consistent Steps for Lasting Change

Wendy  00:00

So many of our clients come to us and say, I want increased energy, clear thinking, to get back to my ideal body weight. These are some of the things people come to see us for. And one of the questions we always ask people is, how long did it take you to get where you are? Say you're 60 years old and you're 10 pounds different than you were when you were 50, or you can't run a mile at the same pace that you used to 10 years ago. Today, we're going to talk about small, little-mini-wins done consecutive over time, yielding the results that you're really looking for

 

Debbie  00:44

You're going to walk away from this podcast with something that's really going to change your life. That's our goal, at least

The "Say-Do Gap" and the Importance of Small Actions

Wendy  00:53

That's right, and we want to be realistic about expectations and time. I think time gets away from us so quickly, and we have these great intentions for ourselves, and we think about it all the time, but we're not doing anything. There's this say-do gap that we see that we want to shine a light on. We’re here to give you some really easy, doable ideas.

 

Debbie  01:24

It's like, we have these intentions about things, and time flies away from us, and here we are at the very end of summer, just like that! (snap) I know I had many intentions of things I wanted to do this summer that didn't happen and that's just an example of a couple months. But think about the years, the things that you intended to do for years now that you didn't do.

 

Wendy  01:53

There’s a ‘static’ about that - when we want to do something and we still don't do it. Dana and I say this all the time: It's like ‘death by paper cuts,’ which is kind of this morbid idea, but it's these little things that we promise ourselves that then don't happen. That gap of promise causes us suffering. We want to shine a light on that and say you don't have to change everything in your life all at once overnight! We know with 17 plus years of coaching that that does not work.

 

Debbie  02:34

All or nothing doesn't work.

 

Wendy  02:39

It's proven time and time again. The marketing in this industry is sexy about these ideas of quick change. And we want to bring people back to the basics.

 

And if this is the first time you're hearing us, my name is Wendy.

 

Debbie  03:05

and I'm Debbie, and we're Navigating Nourishment. So let's talk about baby steps.

Baby Steps and Compounding Effects

Wendy  03:14

When we think of baby steps, sometimes we think we're not getting anywhere, but the compounding baby steps really takes us on long, long walks - one step at a time. And if we could strap on a little bit of curiosity and patience with ourselves, the baby steps really add up. So we have a bunch of ideas to share with you today,

 

Debbie  03:43

We do. And here's the takeaway, we're going to share a bunch of ideas. We're asking you to choose one, just one, because it's almost impossible to not do one thing. And these one things are not big. We're talking about doing a very small, one thing that'll change your life after compounding it over and over and over and over and over….

 

Wendy  04:12

Here's a visual example that, before we turned on the podcast, that you talked about was the Grand Canyon.

 

Debbie  04:20

It happened drip by drip by drip.

 

We have a bunch of examples of compounding. There's famous ideas about saving a penny a day. And we don't have the kind of time that the Grand Canyon had.

 

Wendy  04:40

No we don't, but one of the things we do talk with our clients about is: How many summers do we have left? If we reverse engineer that idea, it might speed up our intensity of doing these mini things. Not intensity, but dedication to doing these many small things. And how truly  important they are to our overall well being.

 

Debbie  05:03

So let's give some examples of baby steps. We want to challenge you to choose one.

Just One Thing for Daily Hydration and Movement

Wendy  05:11

Let’s start with something that we all know we need more of. Well, most of us, anyway, need to start out our day with hydration, we need to drink water.

 

Debbie  05:24

If you're not starting your day first thing in the morning with water, this is the one baby step you can do:  drink a glass of water every morning.

 

Wendy  05:38

Pretty simple. It's something that's doable, it's something that's easy, it's something that can clearly be a habit. I wake up, I go to the kitchen, I have a glass of water. Just one habit.

 

Debbie  05:50

And it doesn't necessarily matter if it's eight ounces or six ounces, start with whatever glass you want, and start drinking one glass every morning. And after doing this a while, perhaps you'll see your skin looking a little bit better, your energy maybe getting a little bit better over time. Maybe digestion will improve. Who knows? There are many, many things that happen when we become hydrated.

 

Wendy  06:17

The next one we wanted to offer up as an idea is a daily movement intention, and this could happen any time of day, but it's picking one thing that you'll do, one, just, just one piece of movement. Maybe it's a 10 minute walk or one push-up every day or doing a 20 second plank - some form of movement of any kind is helpful. We want to hook it to a habit, and it needs a time stamp, and it needs something that you can clearly know that you've done. So what one thing could you do every single day in the way of movement that could, over time, improve your cardiovascular health.

 

Debbie  07:23

And if you're someone who works out regularly and does activity every day, your movement is in a place that you like, maybe there's just one thing you can add that you haven't done yet. Or perhaps you choose another one of our habits. Not everybody's going to want to necessarily do all these things, and we're only saying to choose one. Hopefully one of these things resonates with you as something that you really could use. So if movement's not your thing, we have a few other examples.

Just One Habit for Mindful Eating and Gratitude Practice

Wendy  07:58

I really like this next one about mindful eating. This is something I need to continue to work on. I often eat too fast. YI don't have any story behind it, except it is kind of a habit. I'm just not conscious enough about it. It's not something that I'm practicing. So before I eat, if I could remember to chew more with intention. Maybe it's putting my fork down after every bite.

 

Debbie  08:30

It could be that you choose three minutes during one of your meals eating with chopsticks, or it could be that you actually sit down with nothing, nothing to read or watch, sitting there purposely without anything else to do but eat. Having a whole meal like that when you're not doing that is too much to ask, so maybe it's for three minutes or five minutes, but every day, sitting at one meal for five minutes without any other distraction, except for your food, your meal.

So if mindful eating is your one habit you need to work on, that's definitely something you can do as a practice pretty easily. Just choosing what would make you mindful for a few minutes, if you're not mindful at all, we often don't have mindful eating because we often eat familiar foods every day. You know, a lot of us have similar foods most days, and so it makes it an easy way to be mindless because it's nothing new. Whenever you eat something new or different, you're often mindful. And that might be too big of a thing to say, eat something new and different every day. So the practice has to be, eat something that you're used to eating, but do it mindfully, so choose your way of doing that just for a few minutes.

 

Wendy  09:46

And the compound effect of this is that you could become more aware of your satiety - how full am I? Your digestion might improve because you're chewing more. And maybe you'll actually enjoy that peanut butter and jelly sandwich a little bit more. Joy in food is really important. We kind of get away from that when we have the same foods, but if we are connected with the food a little bit more, we might have some more joy in the food.

Just One Habit for Sleep Routine, Gratitude, and Stretching

Debbie  10:20

If sleep seems to be something you struggle with, one habit you could choose is to get to bed earlier. If you have a habit around sleep that's not nourishing, you can start with something small. Maybe it's going to bed 15 minutes earlier. If you're struggling to get to bed a little bit earlier and you go to bed at midnight. And you say you really wish you could go to bed at 10:30 an hour and a half is a huge ask for someone who's not used to doing that. So maybe it's going to bed at 11:45 instead and making it a conscious decision to go to bed 15 minutes earlier than you usually do.

 

Wendy  11:07

I really like that example, Debbie, because it is a perfect example of overshooting your expectation for yourself. We're trying to get these ideas so they are so doable we can't fail at them. And so if it's five or 10 or 15 minutes over time, our sleep quality is better and so is our mental clarity....

When it comes to your health and wellness, when do you harness grit vs grace?

In this episode of Navigating Nourishment, Debbie and Wendy discuss the balance between grit and grace in overcoming adversity, emphasizing the importance of recognizing one's stories, practicing self-compassion, and maintaining resilience while also being gritty when necessary. They explore the need for balance between discipline and grace in various aspects of life, including fitness, and share practical strategies for self-care and personal growth.

To listen to a meditation by Wendy titled When To Use Grit Or Grace.

Transcript

edited for readability

 

Debbie  00:00

There's so many times, and I'm sure this has probably happened to some of you, where you're going about your business and doing your activities, doing your thing, and something happens, you get hurt, or you get sick, or plans are canceled, and everything just stops, and you're mad, upset or depressed because you can't do what you were going to do, and you just get down on yourself. And so before you know it, a few weeks have gone by, and even though you said, Okay, I'm going to pick myself up after a week, you didn't, because you just kind of went down that drain, and you find yourself a month later feeling terrible about yourself for not doing anything.

 

Wendy  00:46

That sounds like someone who is totally derailed.

 

Debbie  00:50

Yeah, and that happens a lot.

 

Wendy  00:54

It does. It happens a lot with our clients, if they've set out to do something specific, new habit, or if they've committed to a specific way of eating, and then don't do it, they just feel bad about themselves. It's really demoralizing, and it can have a ripple effect on other places and situations in our life. It can affect our work performance, our workout performance, and our relationships with our friends and our family.

 

Debbie  01:29

We see it happen all the time. I'm thinking of one of our clients in particular, who was really on a great roll of walking and being active regularly for the first time in her life, where she was really getting in shape and feeling good about herself. And she got injured, and she went down a drain fast because she had worked so hard to get there, and then all of a sudden, it had to stop, and she was told she had to stop by certain people as well, and that just made her go in a completely opposite direction.

 

Wendy  02:05

Today, we're going to be talking about grit and grace and that really fine line between the two of them. We’ll talk about how to pick ourselves up and hold intentions with grace AND where we need to be a little bit more gritty.

 

Debbie  02:25

Just those two words have helped me tremendously because I've felt myself starting to circle the drain a few times. I’ve had to say, wait a second here, where's my grit? I need to just get a little bit of grit right here, and it puts me into a different state of mind. So those two words are very powerful, and that's what we want to uncover here. Welcome to Navigating Nourishment. This is Debbie.

Questions to ask yourself when you need to decide on grit vs grace

Wendy  02:50

And this is Wendy. We're so happy you've joined us. I think this is such a human nature conversation, and we can apply the idea of grit and grace to anything in our life. And it's a matter of saying, All right, here's my situation. Here's my truth right in this moment:

Do I need to:

muster through this? Or rest?

actually get this out? Or wait till tomorrow?

put in more energy, more determination? Or relax?

focus on this a little bit more?

Am I giving myself excuses or being too soft on myself?

Maybe I'm being lazy?

Maybe you know the story you're telling yourself and ask. If I put more grit into this specific situation, is it going to move me towards my goal, or is it going to bury me?

 

Debbie  03:43

That's a big thing where you mentioned stories, because it really does come down to the stories that we tell ourselves and whether we choose to believe them or not. It's a matter of looking at yourself objectively, becoming your own coach, and saying: Wait, is that story really true? Do I want to believe that story, and is it serving me? Is it really getting me on the path that I want - being a strong, healthy, vibrant, resilient person? Or is it taking me down that other path?

Are you a perfectionist? or do you know one? Read on...

Wendy  04:20

I have a client who is struggling with perfectionism. Yes, I'm going to use that word.

She's struggling with trying to be perfect with her family life and her children and her professional life. She is an executive, and she's got some health problems that have most recently bubbled up, and it's pretty hardcore. She needs to be very disciplined with her food and also wants to double down on her movement, and so she's really being hard on herself and being very strict.

And I think when I see this in clients, I literally want to give them a hug and say, You're being really hard on yourself. You're trying to change so many things about your life right now. You've got a lot of pressure from work in addition to some situations that are new and difficult with kids in school. And I just want to help them breathe for a minute and offer her grace. And we had a really long conversation together about where in her life she can double down on things, and where she needs to let go and be a little bit more soft.

It's a difficult conversation because it goes back to her stories and her upbringing, it's about her belief systems. If you were told as a child, in order to get anywhere, you have to work really hard, and you feel like you're working really hard not getting anywhere, that's really difficult to unpack, and grace needs to be inserted in there.

It's a tricky conversation to try to figure out where we need to help clients find their own grit and grace. We hear a lot of excuses. Oh well, I was on vacation... my daughter was home from school...my girlfriends wanted to take me off for my birthday.

Debbie's story of grit vs grace

Debbie  06:45

And this goes into the all or nothing frame of mind that so many people have: The story - I'm all or nothing. I'm either really disciplined and doing it, or I'm not. And that's a very black and white way of being when life definitely is a gray area. I'm thinking of myself in this example, because I am pretty disciplined with my habits, and I've worked really hard to get here. And that said, it's summer, and my kids are home from school. It's rare that the four of us are together.

But last week, we ate late. I try not to eat after seven o'clock, but I wanted to eat with my family. I wanted the four of us to eat together, and it happened three nights in a row where I ate at eight o'clock at night. But for me, it was okay. I can do that. I can give myself some grace, because I'm disciplined, and I keep that habit and I'm gonna go back to that habit. I'm not even afraid of it not happening again. It was like, are those three nights really gonna derail me for the rest of my life? No, because I don’t have the ‘all or nothing’ mindset that I've worked really hard not to be.

And so I gave myself grace for those three nights, and I give myself grit for sometimes saying no, I'm not going to eat after seven o'clock. It's not worth it to me. I really want to sleep well. I don't want to feel gross afterwards, so I'm going to keep to my seven o'clock. And that's a place to feel good about yourself because you're not depriving yourself and at the same time you're keeping your discipline. Most of the time, it comes back to that 80/20 rule.

Wendy's story of grit vs grace

Wendy  08:52

I love that story. I think it's such a good story about keeping to your priorities and consistency of being with family. When we look at our Five Foundations of nutrition, sleep, movement, mindset and connections, sometimes the connection is more important in your example than the nourishment discipline of eating at seven. So we need to take a look at the whole life picture instead of just these single incidents. It's really looking at the whole week, the whole month.

It's one of the reasons we have people journal their days. We forget what happens day to day, right? We can start telling ourselves a story that I'm off my discipline and therefore I'm just gonna forget it. Forget it for the rest of the week. That's where we need a little bit of grit.

For me, I need grit almost every time I have leg day. And I think it has become a little bit of a story for me - that leg day is so hard, I don't want to do it. Truth is. It is hard. AND I want to do it because I want to be able to garden and not get hurt. I also want to be able to run faster. So the discipline of actually doing leg day is gritty sometimes, and I need to put aside my lack of momentum and just say, just go do it. Then be able to do something else fun that might have more grace to it - like reading.

And I think that's what we do as health coaches, is ask hard questions to say: Okay, are you being too easy on yourself? Are you not having the discipline, and could you harness more discipline in this situation? OR Do you just need to say, I need a rest?

 

Debbie  11:12

We just went over this with another client who is going to be getting surgery, and she cannot be active for a few weeks at least, because of her surgery. But her surgery is on the lower part of her body, and once she gets over the anesthesia and everything else, she can still work out the top of her body and maybe even a little bit of her lower body.

That's gritty - don't just stop. Stopping is the all or nothing because of whatever happened. Find out where you can do things, and it's not going to look the same. It's not going to be the same as what you're used to or what you used to do....

It might not be a sexy topic, but the value of fiber is preventive medicine!

In this Navigating Nourishment podcast, Wendy and Debbie discuss the importance of fiber in our diet, highlighting its various health benefits, including preventing constipation, lowering cholesterol, promoting gut health, and providing prebiotics. They emphasize the importance of increasing fiber intake through whole foods, a gradual approach, and tracking fiber intake to maintain optimal health resilience.

Link to the Grams of Fiber in Foods

https://nourishcoaches.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Fiber-is-Preventive-Medicine.mp3

Transcript

Wendy  00:00

Welcome to Navigating Nourishment. We are national board certified health and wellness coaches. And we know everybody wants to look feel and perform their best - your hosts included. And so on today's Navigating Nourishment podcast, we're going to be talking about fiber, the preventive medicine. We all know that fiber is good for us - but because we don't lump it in with carbs, proteins and fats, we often forget about it. So we want to highlight the benefits of fiber and how good it is for us.

 

Debbie  00:37

In doing a little bit of research for this podcast, of course, it reminded me and probably you too, Wendy, I can still add more fiber! We defiantly benefit from these podcasts, too. So today, we're going to be talking about how fiber is considered a preventive medicine because of its many health benefits.

 

Wendy  01:01

The definition of fiber: a type of carbohydrate that the body can't digest. And we'll dive into that a little bit more,

 

Debbie  01:11

There are three types, you might know two, but there are three: soluble fiber, insoluble fiber, and prebiotic fiber.

 

Wendy  01:21

We're just going to drive home the importance of fiber in our overall diet, and how we will all be eating more fruits and vegetables and nuts and whole grains after this podcast.

Adequate hydration is crucial when increasing fiber, water helps fiber move through digestive system.

Debbie  01:33

Right after this podcast probably because it's going to be lunchtime for me. So let's dive into those benefits. The one that's most obvious, and the one most people think about probably is our digestive health and fiber adds bulk to our stool, it makes it easier to pass our bowel movements, which prevents constipation, obviously. But it also absorbs water. And so if you have loose stools and you're on the other side of constipation, fiber helps absorb water to solidify our stools. So it's good either way.

 

Wendy  02:07

And I wanted to jump in here too, and just say that many people define constipation as not having a bowel movement every single day. There might be some controversy about that, because we are all individuals. Most people who don't have a bowel movement every day are constipated.

 

Debbie  02:31

Right, and it doesn't always mean that you're uncomfortable, it just might mean that you're backed up. And that might not necessarily be uncomfortable.

 

Wendy  02:39

Fiber helps reduce the risk of hemorrhoids, diverticular disease, and colorectal cancer.

 

Debbie  02:50

I've heard of people having these issues in my peer group recently. Some fiber ferments in the colon, and that prevents colon diseases. So that's another good reason what we need to get fiber in there for its fermentation benefits.

 

Wendy  03:12

Fiber also catches things, it's kind of a clearing house, it helps pull harmful elements out of our body into the waste, maybe it's allergens or hormone byproducts, which was new to me in this recent research. Fiber also helps eliminate environmental toxins. So the fiber helps if you know there are some environmental toxins that we can't necessarily control, like neighbor's spraying Roundup and mosquito repellent and that sort of thing. I can't control what my neighbors do. So eating more fiber helps my body process those toxins, right, that

 

Debbie  03:56

That turns the uncontrollable into somewhat controllable. Because we can't control our entire environmental toxins. So that's is a wonderful thing that you can control it a little bit. So here's one of the best things about fiber - it really helps with the struggle of extra weight. When you eat high fiber foods you feel full. And it also takes longer to eat high fiber foods because you have to chew them so that it automatically helps with controlling your intake of calories. So if you're really trying to do that, having a high fiber diet will help, and a bonus - - they are less caloric. So you're eating more food and less calories. It's a win - win.

Fiber helps control blood sugar, lower cholesterol, and promote gut health.

Wendy  04:48

100%.

Fiber also helps with blood sugar control. Fiber helps slow the absorption of sugar. And so anyone at risk with type two diabetes specifically could add fiber and watch the numbers go down.

 

Debbie  05:20

Including cholesterol numbers, because fiber really helps to lower the LDL cholesterol that we all are trying to get lower numbers for. If we have lower LDL numbers, we have better heart health, we have lower blood pressure, and lower inflammation. And that makes us live longer.

 

Wendy  05:41

And we all want to live longer, but in a really robust way. We all wish for vibrancy for the rest of your life, whatever definition that is for you.

 

And the last one is overall gut health, we need some prebiotic in our gut to feed our gut microbiome. And fiber provides those essential food to the gut and really impacts all aspects of our health.

 

Debbie  06:09

Let's talk about the sources of the different fibers. We talked about the three kinds. We know you going to walk around thinking this one is soluble, and this one is insoluble, and this one is prebiotic. However,  it is kind of important to know what they're doing.

Don't be boring. Food variety is key and fiber is preventive medicine.

Wendy  06:27

That's because we really need variety. One of the things we talk about with each other and also with our clients is that we can kind of get stuck eating the same foods all the time. One of my favorite foods is arugula. And so I have it all the time. AND I also need to make sure I get diversity with other greens – it is really important. So let's dive in.

 

Debbie  06:53

Soluble Fiber collects all of the biomolecules that are in our gut, in our liver - the metabolic waste products from hormones and chemicals for elimination. That's what soluble fiber does – it collects all that stuff, and gets rid of it through our stools.  Beans, peas, flax seeds, apples, psyllium husk, avocados, Brussel sprouts, peas, citrus fruits, carrots, barley, I can keep going on and on. It's really important for that soluble fiber because it's like a sponge, and it collects all the toxins, all the metabolic wastes, all the hormones, and it gets rid of it all.

 

Wendy  07:32

And the second is Insoluble Fiber. Again, many people know the name, but very specifically, it helps absorb extra fluid, excess fluid, it adds bulk to the large intestine, and helps us actually poop more easily

 

Some of the sources here are whole grains, nuts, beans, seeds, root vegetables, fruits with edible seeds in them, whole wheat flour, wheat bran, cauliflower is a great one, green beans, and potatoes. So those are some of the sources of the insoluble fiber,

 

Debbie  08:38

And there is overlap as you can see, because we both said some of the same foods.

The third is prebiotic fiber - the one that feeds our gut microbiome. Sources include bananas, onions, garlic, dandelion greens, chicory root. And there's plenty more. We're going to have a full list on our website, which we will link to in our show notes so that you can look at all of the different foods and see how many grams each holds.

 

Wendy  09:16

One of the biggest aha moments for us in preparing for this podcast is that 95% of Americans consume only 16 grams of fiber or less every day. And the recommendations are nearly twice that. So the Institute of Medicine recommends 25 grams per day for women and 38 grams per day for men, and those are minimums.

 

Debbie  09:56

Those are minimum! Which is why we have our recommendation which is more in alignment with integrative and functional medicine practitioners who say that we need 35 to 50 grams of fiber a day. And perhaps if you're one of the 95%, that eats 16 grams or less, you don't want to start going from less than 16 grams to 50 grams a day. But the idea is that eventually, once you've gotten your body situated, you're going to, it's better to have more fiber than just the minimum.

 

Wendy  10:32

I like that this is one of our first tips about fiber intake, you don't want to jump overboard, you don't want to double what you're taking overnight, it might not feel so good - literally. So make it gradual. Do an assessment for a week find out how much you do I have right now. Then gradually add. If you recognize that your breakfast is completely void of fiber, maybe that's where you start. This is something that as health coaches, we help people figure it out.

 

The number one tip for increasing fiber intake is to do it gradually.

 

Debbie  11:17

Take it slow and baby steps.  And right there with it, this is not even the second thing it should be kind of side by side to being gradual is to make sure that you're drinking plenty of water. Fiber needs water to help it move through your digestive system. If you're eating more fiber, and you're dehydrated, you're gonna get backed up.

 

Wendy  11:39

That's a that's a poor recipe for discomfort.

 

Next idea is getting a variety of fiber. If all you're eating in the nut family is cashews, definitely mix up a different mix of nuts. Mix up the fruits,...

There are unexpected health issues post-menopause.

In this latest episode of Navigating Nourishment, we speak candidly about our personal experiences with menopause. We acknowledge the lack of education our doctors are given in medical school and the lack of research on women’s health that has lead to the chaos women feel during this prominent time of life. As you know, hormone levels rapidly fluctuate, but you might not know that makes bloodwork almost useless. We emphasize the unique challenges of each individual’s experience and stress the importance of communication and understanding among women going through menopause. As always, we advocate for dialing in to our Five Foundations of Health.

TRANSCRIPT

edited for readability

Debbie  00:15

It's about our take on what we know about the health and wellness industry and what, how to sort through it all. Because it's not only is it confusing, but it's misleading. And we want to help people out trying to understand what's going on with their health.

 

Wendy  00:32

We need to be more of an advocate for ourselves, we often give away the decision power to other people. And so we're here to coach people along and help them really take care of themselves. We're the person who knows our body best, right? Our doctors and our coaches and our chiropractors and acupuncturists don't know us better than we know ourselves. But they can help. As long as we're really good communicators.

 

Debbie  01:01

That's right. And that's how we help people out exactly.

 

Wendy  01:03

Specifically for this podcast, we want to make sure everyone knows we're not doctors, we don't diagnose, treat or cure, we are here to have a conversation with people about their health.

 

Debbie  01:17

And a lot of it is our own interest in it because of what's going on with our own health and our clients health. So we come to you with real anecdotal stuff. But again, we're not. We're not doctors. So whatever information we have, we want you to be curious about and to check it out on your own as well. So you came in this morning, Wendy, not feeling so great. And this isn't the first time in the last few weeks. It's been a couple of times, at least

 

Wendy  01:47

I had a really bad migraine and now I've got a migraine hangover. I got off the phone with a client and bam, it hit me out of the blue. No warning. And it was a tough sleep for me last night. And it's still kind of lingering. I'm asking myself, Why is this happening again?

 

Debbie  02:13

I've been saying that all the time that I have a whole list of odd little things that have been happening, having to do with my hands hurting, having trigger finger, having higher cholesterol and blood pressure numbers, weird things. Considering all the practices that I do in my life – I’m fit, I eat really nourishing foods. I have low stress. I'm doing all the things that I can do to support my health. And you wouldn't know it by what's going on in my body right now.

 

Wendy  02:48

Similar here - my heart rate is sky high when I run, which is really disconcerting – but only sometimes. And I've got these cramps that are just like, out of the blue. I'll just be sitting there or I'll be walking and I'll get this random cramp. And it's just, it's unusual.

 

Debbie  03:09

It is very disconcerting. And it's frustrating. You know what, nobody told us!!! Nobody told us that this is so normal for being postmenopausal.

 

Wendy  03:24

Post menopause is a big subject and we've been diving into different research, reading new books and trying to get to know ourselves a little bit better. Trying to understand where the brain fog and frustration is coming from and just not completely feeling like ourselves.

 

Debbie  03:48

Exactly. There is a lack of menopause training in medical school, for sure. And there's a lack of research done on menopause. I mean, the numbers are insane. On a recent podcast, the hosts were talking about the number of research studies done on other things like diabetes or cholesterol. All those other studies compared to menopause. It's like millions of studies versus 1000 studies.

Menopause confusion and lack of research.

Wendy  04:16

That’s so disconcerting! To be fair, perimenopause and post menopause is very confusing. One moment, our hormones are at x level and then the same day, maybe in the afternoon, our hormone levels can be completely different. And that's one of the things we've learned is that getting blood work for our hormones is kind of a waste of time.

 

Debbie  04:47

Because it's a moment in time. I remember getting my bloodwork done and the numbers were always crazy and weird. It's probably not researched besides the whole woman issue, which is another whole podcast - but it's also because every single individual is so different. And so are the symptoms. Everything is different. So it's really hard for science to pin things down because of that. So we'll give them a little bit of leeway for that. But at the same time, we really need more research.

 

Wendy  05:27

We need more research, for sure. And I want to start off too by saying this:

Women who are really taking nourishing care of themselves with the Five Foundations of Health: Nutrition, Sleep, Movement, Mindset, and Connection - are going to have lesser symptoms overall.

People who are not in a wellness state, will most likely have more. So even though Debbie and I are taking super good care of ourselves (and of course, we could always do better!), we're still having all these really strange side effects of being postmenopausal. And so we just we want to normalize the chaos that's going on.

 

Debbie  06:21

I think that's the right word. That's what it definitely feels like, it does feel like chaos. And I have to apologize to anybody or any of my past clients who were ahead of me in this journey. I didn't know! I may have given advice that probably wasn't the best either, thinking, maybe they're just not doing the work. Maybe they're not telling me the whole story. Or maybe they're holding back some information. But you know what, and maybe that's true on some level, but I think for the most part, I just didn't understand that chaos was happening.

 

Wendy  06:57

I am glad you brought that up. Because I do think of previous clients who said, How can this belly fat be here!? I had a physical education teacher who was walking and she was running – very active. And she'd look at me like, What happened? At the time, I attribute it to the stress in her life. And yes, it was absolutely the stress in her life. But it was also that she was postmenopausal. And we didn't have conversations about it.

 

Debbie  07:38

And most of that, I would say, is because of lack of information. I think in the last two years, we've been hearing about it probably because of our age, too, but I think people are really talking about it more than they've ever talked about it. My mother didn't know to tell me these things. When she went through it, she didn't have any information. We have to talk about it with each other and with our younger women - our daughters or granddaughters, everybody. Just open up conversation.

 

Wendy  08:12

The bottom line is to support each other and communicate. Whether you're a woman listening to this, or someone who loves a woman, we need to have some patience with ourselves and each other. I know for me, I get irritated with myself when I'm in a brain fog, for example. And I'm like, How come I can't find that person's name? Or how come I lost my keys again? Or, we get super frustrated with ourselves and we start saying, What's wrong with me!? And that's not very helpful.

Menopause symptoms and hormone loss.

Debbie  08:49

No, it's not, we have to have understanding. We do know a few reasons for what's causing all of this. It's literally the fluctuation and drop of estrogen. What makes us go through menopause is our estrogen levels drop. Some people drop gradually, some people's drop, suddenly, which is why there's so many differences in how we feel. But the bottom line is we lose estrogen. And estrogen is a very, very powerful hormone and it is in charge of so much in our body that when it goes away, chaos happens.

 

Wendy  09:45

Chaos does happen. Loss of estrogen leads to bone loss, joint problems, neurological problems, migraines, anxiety, all that stuff. Weird random things like tinnitus, frozen shoulder, trigger finger and the list goes on.

Estrogen Receptors

Debbie  09:55

And the reason is because we have so many estrogen receptors all over our bodies, especially in those tender areas. Our urinary and vaginal areas, especially are affected. We get dryness, which causes pain sometimes, which makes intimacy really hard. Besides the fact that we also lose libido because we don't have estrogen and on top of that it hurts. For the times that we might have a smidgen of libido, it's not pleasant sometimes. And that's a big problem with a lot of couples too. Maybe the woman doesn't understand and the man definitely might not understand and that can be a big problem. So with all of these issues happening, we need to talk about it. Another affect is higher cholesterol and blood pressure, higher rates of inflammation, and we have higher sugar sensitivity.

 

Wendy  11:10

You might be eating a certain kind of way for years, and then all of a sudden your cholesterol numbers shoot up and your doctors like, Alright, here we go, you're going on meds. And there's never a conversation about where are you in your cycle? Yeah, are you pre or postmenopausal? And we are automatically put on drugs. OR you can say, I'm going to control this with diet and exercise and focus on the Five Foundations of Health. And for some of our clients, they've actually brought their numbers to normal.

Can hormone therapy help?

...

In this Navigating Nourishment Podcast, Debbie and Wendy discuss the essential elements for a nourishing summer.

They emphasize the importance of connecting with nature, practicing mindfulness, and prioritizing self-care through activities like napping, movement, and socializing. Debbie highlights the natural cravings for sweets during the summer and suggests replacing them with fresh fruits from local farmers markets. Wendy stresses the significance of sleep in the longer days and shorter nights and provides a practical tip for improving sleep quality.

Transcript

Debbie  0:06  

We are health and wellness coaches and we wanted to kick off this podcast, saying that coaches are a little bit different than, say, your doctor, or nutritionist who tells you what to do - we offer prescriptive.

 

Wendy: 0:23 

We work hand in hand with you, and really sit down and look at your entire life and see where you could make mini tweaks to get to feeling better. Because we want to live a really long life. And we want the vitality to go along with it!

 

Debbie  0:42  

Definitely. And one of the biggest things we do as coaches is: we're your accountability coaches. And that's where people really have struggles, because everybody knows what to do for the most part, and they know they need new habits or to get rid of old habits. Having someone that you have as an accountability person is wonderful. How do we do it!? We use our Five Foundations of Health. And today, we're going to be talking about Summer Tips paired with our Five Foundations.

 

Wendy  1:20  

At the time of this recording, we have just celebrated the summer solstice - the longest day of the year. And so we wanted to frame this podcast around very specific tips for the summer.

Nutrition and Sweet Cravings

Debbie  1:37  

Our first foundation is Nutrition. We want to talk about your sweet cravings in the summer.

 

Wendy  1:45  

I know I have them and it's natural to have them.

 

Debbie  2:06  

We often go towards things like iced coffees with a lot of stuff in them. Or ice cream, for example. And it's not that we don't eat those ourselves. We love them.

 

Wendy  2:07  

And there are tons of fruits now that are just popping like crazy. We just got through strawberry season and now we are in blueberry season - and we're headed into stone fruit season soon.

 

Debbie  2:20  

The whole reason we crave sweets is because we need energy. And we need our most energy in the summertime because we're so active, and there's so many things to do. And our days are long, and we need extra energy to get through these long days to be productive. So we crave sweets a lot in the summertime. Fruits are essentially what we crave. So we want you to think about that the next time ice cream pops into your mind. Maybe you can grab a handful of blueberries and see how that makes you feel.

 

Wendy  2:55  

Play around. Get curious.

 

Debbie  2:59  

And check out your farmer’s markets because they're going to have the most local and the most fresh fruits available. Oh, I'm so excited for this ongoing fruit season in the summer. It's like it's almost too much!

NJ Farmer’s Market Guide 

Wendy  3:12  

It is! We have a family tradition to go blueberry picking and we go really early in the morning. You're out there with all the birds and everything. And every now and then one pops in your mouth while you're out there.

 

Debbie  3:30  

Yeah, definitely. Here is our local, favorite blueberry picking place: Emery’s Farm https://emerysfarm.com/

 

Wendy  3:37  

Our second foundation of the Five Foundations of Health is Sleep.

 

Sleep - mask up

 

Debbie  3:42  

Yes. Sleep. It's ever elusive to so many people.

 

Wendy  3:47  

Yes it is. And like all of our Foundations, we want to bring awareness. For this particular one, we wanted to give a very specific and practical tip.

 

Debbie  3:58  

Right now, as you know, we have such long days and short nights as far as light goes. And a lot of people don't get enough sleep because of that. We're going to bed later. The light is waking us up earlier and yes, it gives us that much more time to get things done. But we need our sleep.

 

Wendy  4:18  

We need our sleep and we negotiate it more often in the summer. For me, I do take naps.

 

Debbie  4:31  

Great idea. I'd like to get into doing more naps, but I'm not much of a napper. But what I have instead is a sleep mask. I don't even wear it all night long. The robins wake me up at four o'clock in the morning and I know it's time to put my sleep mask on before the light comes. And so that allows me to get that extra hour of sleep that I need. So if you have blackout shades or masks - it will help you get that extra sleep. It's really needed this time of year.

OK, number three is our Movement Foundation. We're all about movement. 

 

Movement - get outside

 

Wendy  5:19  

And we love talking about movement snacks. But today our idea is to get outside. And maybe it's an early morning walk because you're up early because of the birds! Or maybe it's the evening stroll for sunset but it's really helpful to be outside. Connecting with nature and getting fresh air.

 

Debbie  5:48  

Yeah, because nature is such a beautiful healer. And we need to be outside in this weather.

 

Wendy  5:52  

We need vitamin D and we need the wind in our hair and the sun on our skin and sand in our toes.

 

Debbie  6:02  

Exactly. And the idea is that we often get into routines, and especially if you're really happy with yourself or having a routine of either being on the peloton or the treadmill or something or the gym. And we keep that routine in the summer. We want to remind you - maybe take that routine outside.

 

Wendy  6:36  

And again, these are ideas for you to be curious about.

 

Mindset - deep appreciation and present moments

Alright, the next one, is our Mindfulness Foundation. And this just goes along with everything. It's kind of like the cornerstone. And summer is a very busy time gardening, the birds and the bees, the butterflies and going sailing or going to the beach or having cookouts. And it goes so fast.

 

Debbie  7:16

Ah, yeah summer! It goes too fast. I don't know anybody who gets to the end of the summer and says, ‘Damn, this has been such a long summer.’ Right?

 

Wendy  7:23  

So we want to talk about the practice of deep appreciation. And maybe play around with how you do that. Maybe it's journaling something beautiful that happened every day or naming all the colors in the sky during sunrise or sunsets or asking: how can you be more present?

 

Debbie  7:44  

Yeah, being more present and mindful and appreciating, it will just make summer feel longer overall. One of the things that I do is I take pictures of wildflowers that I see outside. I’m seeing all the changes from the spring into late spring and now early summer. It's just really cool. And so I'm appreciating it. Or, I'll just stand outside and take some breaths and be like, Ah, this is so nice.

 

Wendy 8:00 

Yeah, we get to be outside!

We get so busy and days go by without even thinking about it. So take some moments each day to appreciate whether it's sunny weather, it's cloudy, whether it's raining, but it's summertime.

Connection - say yes!

Debbie 8:08

Our last Foundation, which isn't really our last, I mean, they're not really in any kind of order - they're just all so important - is about Connection. And we already talked about connecting with nature, which is a huge part of our connection. But connection with others is such a huge part of our health, as it's been proven over and over again. And we have a few podcasts about that, that we can refer to. (Hungry for Connection Podcast) But the idea is that it's this kind of big piggyback on the mindfulness about your opportunities to connect in the summertime.

 

Wendy  9:04  

Yeah, we really want to encourage you - if you haven't connected with someone or you get invited to someplace you haven't been, we want you to say yes! It's easy to be a homebody. I know - I speak for myself! It's so easy to just stay home. But getting out and connecting with other people and socialization is really good for the soul. So yeah, pick someone that you haven't seen for a while or a group of people and say yes, OR maybe you're the spearhead of a little gathering.

 

Debbie  9:49  

Exactly. And it doesn't have to be a big deal. Just say: Hey, let's go for a walk or Hey, let's go grab some lunch or go blueberry picking.

 

Wendy  9:59  

So you can combine a lot of the foundation's with this one Connection.

 

Debbie  10:04  

Okay, so these are our five foundations quick tips for the summer. We hope that you can figure out something to do to nourish yourself.

 

Wendy  10:13  

And if you have ideas for us, we'd love to get your feedback. And if you want to share this with your friends and family that you love and care for, and maybe you send it to them and say, Hey, let's connect.

 

Debbie  10:25  

That's the biggest compliment you can give to us is by sharing our podcast with your friends and family.

 

Wendy 10:28

Happy Summer.

https://nourishcoaches.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Whats-100-Calories.mp3

This podcast was inspired by clients asking us: "Are 100 calorie snack foods ok to eat?" It got us thinking - What makes up 100 calories of snack food?

Here is our answer.

In this Navigating Nourishment Podcast, Wendy and Debbie discuss the importance of prioritizing nutrient-dense snacks for sustainable health. Debbie highlights the manipulation of taste buds by the processed food industry, leading to false cravings. Wendy emphasized the importance of choosing snacks that provide a good balance of nutrients. They compared and contrasted various snack options, including blueberries, radishes, and cheese, and encouraged listeners to prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods for optimal well-being.

Transcript

Debbie  0:01  

I was out and about the other day, and I overheard a conversation - a couple of women talking about calories. They were talking about choosing between a couple of different foods because one had more calories, and one had less calories.  The foods that they were talking about, to me were not the most nutritious choices. And it made me think about how people focus on calories without thinking about the difference between one calorie means next to another kind of calorie.

 

Wendy  1:17  

We've been trained to talk about all food being equal, and it's just about calories in and calories out - as an energy expenditure, and it's so much more rich and nuanced. And this, I think, is where a lot of the confusion and difficulty comes with people and we want to simplify it by sharing some really interesting data.

 

Debbie  1:45  

Exactly. In talking about the different foods that are of the same amount of calories, you can get very different effects in your body. And and it doesn't come down to losing or gaining weight necessarily, because what happens in your body is so different when you eat one thing next to another one.

Wendy and Debbie discuss the nutrient density of different foods, highlighting the difference between 100 calories of real food versus ultra-processed foods.

Wendy  2:18  

Absolutely. Some foods are more easily broken down. The calories in their whole food form act differently once they're broken down inside our body. So there are so many layers to how our body absorbs and processes foods. That's where the confusion is. So let's come back to what is nutrient dense. What gives your body the language and the fuel and the energy to turn it into the skin and blood and energy. We are walking food.

 

Debbie  2:53  

We are what we eat. And besides that, 100 calories of one food versus another one can fill you up and make you feel satisfied and make you feel really good. And another 100 calories keeps you jonesing for something else 20 minutes later because it didn't fulfill any nutrition needs.

Different foods can provide varying levels of satisfaction and nutrition, despite having the same number of calories.

Wendy  2:53  

Satisfaction - is one of the big things we want to talk about today.  Satisfaction in the palate, like on our tongue has been manipulated so much by highly processed food industry, that our dopamine receptors are all firing with this false food.

 

Debbie  3:39  

Our taste buds had been hijacked. We have a podcast about that very sadly.

 

Wendy  3:43  

So we don't know what an apple really tastes like anymore. And so some of the calories we're going to talk about, they might make us tick, give us some sort of happiness via the taste, but it gives us no energy. It gives us no strength. And it's just empty calories.

 

Debbie  4:15  

So let's just start with our little list of 10 or 11 things, right? We

 

Wendy  4:22  

We're kind of doing a comparison with this list. We aren't demonizing any of these foods or making any of them a halo food. We are simply bringing awareness to what 100 calories looks like in food. The first example is 1/3 of an average size avocado is 100 calories, and so is one bite of a brownie.

 

Debbie  4:46  

One bite.

Who has one bite of a brownie?

I would eat a third of an avocado and be like, okay, good.

 

Wendy  4:55  

It fills you up. It's got fiber and it's got great fat and you'll I have some energy from it longer than just one bite of a brownie. Absolutely. So there's one example.

 

Debbie  5:08  

Another one is one large apple is 100 calories. Think of that compared to a pop tart. A half of a pop tart is 100 calories.

 

Wendy  5:25  

I used to like Pop Tarts! And now that's one of those ultra processed foods that has 100 ingredients in it. If you've got Pop Tarts in your kitchen right now, look at the very long list.

 

Debbie  5:40  

There's 100 Ingredients for each calorie. There's one for each ingredient! The apples I get are called envy apples. I don't know we're out of Apple season, but I'm having the stored apples from the from the fall season. They're still so delicious. It's like candy. It's so delicious. I'm getting the fiber and the real sugar that my body knows what to do with.

Wendy and Debbie emphasize the importance of chewing and digesting food properly, and how it affects our overall health and well-being.

Wendy  5:40  

And you're crunching - you're actually chewing which is really good for the jaw.  The shape of our face has gotten flat right and flabby because we aren't chewing our foods. When you bite into an apple and you're chewing you're also getting all of the bolus with the saliva and everything which starts your digestive process. All the mechanicals behind chewing an Apple versus a pop tart that is to kind of melts in your mouth.

 

Debbie  6:35  

And it's only half of one anyway. Again, you'll be more satisfied with the large apple.

 

Wendy  6:45  

The next example we have is blueberries. We're coming into blueberry season here in a couple months. Blueberries are just so fun to eat. A half cup of blueberries is about 100 calories. And we just arbitrarily threw that up against Oreos and 100 calories is under two Oreos. And who's going to cut an Oreo, right? We just recently had a very long, funny conversation about splitting Oreos.

 

Debbie  7:20  

Right! Who's gonna cut Oreo? Nobody.

 

Wendy  7:29  

A half a cup of fresh blueberries (or defrosted) popped into your mouth one by one, they're just fantastic.

 

Debbie  7:40  

And that blue color includes all those phytonutrients and fiber and other things that we don't even know about.

 

Wendy  7:44  

Even frozen ones popped into your mouth when it's really hot is very cooling. They're sweet and yummy.  This next one is interesting.

 

Debbie  7:54  

100 radishes is 100 calories. So one each radish is one calorie basically. Or you can have eight Doritos.

 

Wendy  8:24  

Again, who eats just eight Doritos?

 

Debbie  8:28  

I mean, I'm sure there are people who portion out Doritos or whatever because they know they probably are not going to be feeling so great.

 

Wendy  8:40  

And both liven up your taste buds. Radishes are crunchy and they have a little bit of spice to it. Again, you're chewing a lot. And the Doritos have a combination of sugar, salt and fat and artificial flavors. But bite into a crispy radish and it makes your taste buds zing also.

 

Here's another one. And they're pretty opposite. 13 large shrimp - and that's a lot - it's more than one serving - is 100 calories.

 

Surprising right!? And then we we put that up against something that we both used to eat in college a lot, which is the ramen noodle containers. And it's only half of a container of ramen noodles for 100 calories. We're getting a really rich source of protein in that shrimp, which turns into strength and muscle and all things good for the brain.

 

Debbie  9:50  

And shrimp has some good fats in there too. And unless you're sharing a ramen thing, nobody eats half of that.  Next - here's a really popular yummy treat for people - hummus. So four tablespoons of hummus, which is a good serving size is the same as a third of a cup of ice cream. Now, a third of a cup is probably even smaller than those little kitty cups that you get.  Not very satisfactory to eat a third of a cup of ice cream.

 

Wendy  10:43  

I don't think so. If I'm eating ice cream, I'm having more than a third of a cup. Right?

 

Debbie  10:48  

So if I have three tablespoons of houmous with a few radishes, there's 100 calories. Nice and creamy too.

 

Wendy  10:59  

Oh, this one's fun. Another 100 raspberries is 100 calories and they're absolutely delicious. Pop in your mouth with all those little tiny seeds vs 41 grams of marshmallows, which we didn't convert to cup.

 

Debbie  11:28  

Probably equals a couple marshmallows.

 

Wendy  11:34  

Marshmallows just kind of melt in your mouth. They're so temporary. 100 Raspberries take a little bit longer to eat and have all that great fiber and again, phytonutrients with that red brilliant color.

 

Debbie  11:49  

And if love olives 16 black olives is 100 calories. I love olives.

 

Wendy  12:04  

If I'm snacking on olives as I'm cooking or have it out as an appetizer on a platter with other food, I never eat that many.

 

Debbie  12:17  

Right, I wouldn't say I would eat 16 olives in one sitting. And 18 cheezits is also 100 calories. Roll that around in the brain.

 

Wendy  12:33  

Both have fat. Yes. But completely different kinds of fat.

 

Debbie  12:40  

The ones in olives is so good for us in so many ways. Olive oil is like the number one wonderful oil in the world. There's no downside to olives and olive oil

 

Wendy  12:54  

We both have asparagus growing in our garden. You have at least 31 spears right now, which is a lot a lot of asparagus to eat at one time....

Debbie and Wendy share their strategies for tackling clutter in a mindful and intentional way.

Debbie emphasizes starting small, dedicating five minutes a day to organizing, and promising oneself a win. Wendy highlights the importance of having an accountability partner and taking small steps towards a goal. Both agreed that letting go of unnecessary items can lead to a more organized and peaceful living space, and that clutter can contribute to anxiety.

Transcript

Debbie  00:39

It is spring as of this recording.

 

Wendy  00:43

And we have lots of clients talking about cleaning up.

 

Debbie  00:48

Yeah, cleaning up clutter, getting rid of stuff.

 

Wendy  00:54

Too much stuff truly causes anxiety. There's a direct connection with piles of stuff. And it might be wonderful stuff. It might be valuable stuff. It might be wonderful memories.  But stuff accumulated in corners and drawers and in closets can cause anxiety, it can really stress us out. When we're stressed, our hormones get all wonky, our metabolism gets all wonky.

 

Debbie  01:31

Let me step back for a moment, because this is such a natural human trait to collect stuff.  I always go back to our roots back in the day, 100,000 years ago, when we didn't have a lot of stuff. And so we had the urge to collect things that we needed to live and survive. That is built into our DNA and we still haven't evolved out of that. And so we end up with too much stuff. It's just this human nature to do it. And before we know it, we look around and we're like, How did we get here?

 

Wendy  02:09

We have a couple of clients who have inherited stuff from grandparents, and then parents, and it's hard to go through someone else's stuff, let alone your own. So when we're in the sandwich generations, you know, maybe the kids haven't left yet, and their rooms are still full of all their stuff. Maybe we have boxes of kids memorabilia, their arts and crafts projects, or their report cards and that sort of thing. I know, my mom and dad are doing a lot of purging themselves. And I got a box full of that material. And I was going through it. It really held some fond memories. So I took a couple pictures. And then I got the shredder out and it felt really good.

 

Debbie  03:03

And it may not only be stuff that other people gave you, I'm looking at my home office right now. It does cause me anxiety, because it's cluttered with a whole bunch of stuff. There are some things that were handed down to me, but most of it is things that I've accumulated over the years. Our generation is between worlds in that we used to do all things on paper. And we've moved so much stuff online or on the computer or virtual stuff that I don't know why I'm still holding on to so much paper. But it's there, there's so many things that I just need to let go of. It's a powerful practice to let go. And I think it's something that is always a message in my mind - in so many different areas, not just about stuff, but letting go. And it always always, always feels good.

 

Wendy  04:02

It does feel good. And I want to go back to these piles because you and I are wired a little bit the same way. I think it's really important this conversation between paper and computer. And I'm not going to get rid of my cookbooks. Right? I might purge a couple a year, right? For cookbooks, there's so much value in holding the paper copy. And so I'm bringing that up because I'm looking around my office and I have to make some decisions. I've got these cutouts from newspapers and from magazines. I'm like, Oh, that would be a good blog post or that would be good for a podcast.

It's trying to discern what's valuable, what's not and what's practical, what's not. And there's a lot of decision making. You know, there could be some decision fatigue. Yeah, that's what feels overwhelming for me when I look at my office and all the accumulation of stuff. It's the decision making that needs to happen.

 

Debbie  05:10

Right. And I'd have to say the biggest difficult part for me, in letting go of all this stuff is not the actual moment when I decide to let go. It's the approaching the piles, or the clutter, or whatever it is, and actually starting to do it. Because when you look at it, it's so big.

 

Wendy  05:36

Well, I think you just named another human nature, for all things health and wellness. If someone is looking to approach a new habit of maybe working out or going to the gym or moving more  by going for walks, the idea that you're this age, and you haven't moved for this many months or this many years. Just the idea of starting is overwhelming. And so our number one tip for whenever we feel overwhelmed, with either food choices, or movement choices, or sleep choices, or clutter choices. Our number one tip is to start super small. Baby steps. Because once we make a couple of baby steps, the feeling of relief of just starting. Dana always says "The hardest part is opening the front door of the gym." That's actually the hardest part.

Start small when de-cluttering and organizing

Debbie  06:45

It really is. And so what I've done in the past works, and I'm teaching myself again today, because I'm sitting here looking at all this stuff and saying, Okay, I'm going to do this - I'm going to take just five minutes today, because everybody has five minutes, no matter how busy you are. I'm going to just dedicate five minutes, maybe I'll set a timer just start. And then maybe tomorrow, I'll do another five minutes. Maybe that five minutes will turn into 10 minutes or 15 minutes if I get into a flow, and that'll feel really good, too. So it's just that promise, and maybe it's less than five minutes if it's that overwhelming. But the idea is to really just get yourself in that gym door, just that five minutes of whatever it is, just promise yourself, I can do this for one minute, two minutes, five minutes, whatever it is. And that's a win.

And when you have a win, it's motivating, and it helps you move forward again.

Set a timer and dedicate 5 minutes to starting the decluttering process.

Wendy  07:44

100% I love it. Just having this conversation makes me look around and feel inspired. And we hope it inspires you our listener as well.  I want to move into the kitchen now because we have a client who just recently cleaned out her spice cabinet not too long ago. But she felt so motivated. And she started with spices for whatever reason and then moved on to another cabinet. She felt lighter - literally. When I did the same thing, I found spices from when I first moved into my home from 27 years ago that I would never buy today, stuff with MSG and artifical flavors, and all these additives and preservatives. It was really an interesting exercise.

 

Debbie  08:31

It does feel so good when you actually start to organize and purge and let go. And that feeling are endorphins. That's the dopamine rush and the endorphins. So there is a reward for it, not only that you're clearing out, but it actually feels really good to if you can just promise yourself to get started in one or two minutes, five minutes, just get started. And you'll get that little reward, we promise.

 

Wendy  09:07

Okay, so with that in mind, I also like the idea of having a buddy system on something like this. You and I can be each other's coaches and accountability partners. And we could set our alarms. Yes, minutes after we finish this podcast, and then check in with each other later and see how it works.

Check in with each other via WhatsApp, email or message to report on progress and stay accountable.

Debbie  09:32

Yes, that's exactly what we do. We're each other's coaches. And when we are coaches to other people, that's what we do. We're accountability coaches. So it's a matter of just a little ping on WhatsApp, or an email saying, Hey, did you do the thing that you said you were gonna do? And it really helps to have someone who has your back.

 

Wendy  09:55

It's like showing up at the gym. We had this conversation with a 90 year old man recently, hopefully you have heard that podcast - and he loves going to the gym. And it's because it's a social connection. And even if it's over text or email, there's a social connection with knowing that someone else is thinking about you and eager to cheer you on for for your success.

 

Debbie  10:23

All right, set your timer, get going.

 

Wendy  10:25

Just start. If you want to check in and let us know, send us a note. Follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram. Get in touch with us through our email and share us.

It struck us as funny that day that one of our colleagues came in with an experience she had at a restaurant meal with friends recently. When she was talking about wellness with her friends and mentioning meditation practices, the woman declared that “meditation is dead,” meaning passe or not in style anymore. And though we laughed about the ridiculousness of it, it stuck with us.

Meditation dead?

Is this how some people view meditation or any other nourishing wellness practice–as something that comes in as a trend and then goes away? Of course, there are trends that come and go, usually because they are of the ilk of quick fixes. Meditation, however, is here to stay.

The practice of it is older than history itself. Research indicates that it has served as a spiritual endeavor for humans since the dawn of our existence. In 2007, psychologist Matt J. Rossano suggested that rituals and meditation practices around campfires between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago played a crucial role in the evolution of human working memory. He posited that the act of "fire-gazing" not only rewired our brains but also enabled the emergence of symbolism and language, fundamentally shaping our humanity.

So, in a way, meditation is in our DNA from ancestors past.

In our latest podcast, we talk about our own practices of meditation and how it doesn’t really need to look or be a particular way. It takes many forms and that’s what makes it completely doable for everyone. We also mention The Wellness Hub and their weekly Wednesday meditation group open to everyone at our space in Red Bank.

*Note: In the podcast Debbie makes an error in attributing a song lyric to Nirvana when it is the song "Machinehead" by Bush

If you are interested in Meditating, Wendy is a teacher on the app Insight Timer. Find her Grounded with Wendy meditations here.

Here’s the transcript:

Wendy  00:33

It's spring, and it's glorious out right now. And everything is popping. The flowers are just kind of making me high a little bit.

Debbie  00:40

Yeah, for sure. For spring does that it's so motivating. It's so, it's so cheerful, and it gets you wanting to do a whole bunch of stuff.

Wendy  00:50

Just the whole idea of renewal and birth is just really beautiful. If we pay attention, or it can feel like complete chaos.

Debbie  01:00

Yes, I mean, every transition of season feels a little chaotic. But I think that the spring one is especially chaotic, because I think we all feel like we need to be productive and get a bunch of things done.

Wendy  01:11

Oh my gosh, yeah. And in the winter, we're a little bit more quiet. And just the darkness leads to a little bit more quiet. But the lighter nights, it's really like I'm still supposed to be doing something, right. So true. It's harder to wind down when it's laid out.

Debbie  01:31

It is That's very true. And the thing about spring, too, is I think, including me, it's a time where you want to take on new things and take on new habits and say, Okay, this is a good time to start this.

Wendy  01:44

And it is it is.

Debbie  01:45

That's a great time to start. Yeah.

Wendy  01:48

And we have one number one thing we wanted to talk about today as a habit to start, right. And it stems from a conversation we recently had with someone who claimed that meditation is dead. It's so passe, it's gone. It's over the trend is a trend gone. The trend of meditation is gone. Yeah. And we disagree completely.

Debbie  02:12

Completely! It's funny, because, yeah, there are so many health trends; there's so many things that come, don't necessarily go, but they become popular for a little while. And then everybody tries it. And then it, you know, it doesn't get it, it kind of goes away from the scope of a lot of people. But there's a core of people that continue it. Yeah. And perhaps that's what's happened with meditation is that it got really popular again. And then that popularity is kind of, you know, it's not being marketed as much by the wellness people. The fix it people aren't really marketing it anymore.

Wendy  02:57

Yeah, that's so interesting. But it's such a core practice. It's so ancient, just the idea of stillness and quiet is the best medicine for, you know, practicing the quiet is the best, it's the best medicine of all in a chaotic time.

Debbie  03:18

Absolutely. And I think the best part about it is you don't have to be an expert, you don't have to find a quiet room and sit and stillness for an hour. It's not like that. It can be like that. It can be. But I would love to get to that point. But I'm certainly not here right now,

Wendy  03:38

I certainly cannot sit in lotus position for an hour. My body just doesn't do that anymore.

Debbie  03:46

For me, I'm kind of like a meditation snacker. Like, I find moments throughout the day that actually call me to meditate. And so I will take a minute or two or three, to find my breath to scan my body to just find stillness. And that's my, that's how I'm meditating these days. I really have not found a practice for more than a few minutes at this point. I will. But I'm practicing right now.

Wendy  04:14

Yeah, so you're doing these little mini ones. Yeah. Building up the practice. I think that's beautiful. Because some people have such high expectations because they think it's supposed to be a certain way. Yeah. And we've had clients, multiple clients, say, I'm not good at meditation where it's not for me. Right?

Debbie  04:32

I've heard so many people say that. Yeah.

Wendy  04:36

And first of all, there's not good or bad meditation, right? It's just a practice. Yes, it can come and go or it can be a practice that you really foster.

Debbie  04:49

It's a wonderful habit to begin if you haven't started it yet. It's an absolutely wonderful thing to start maybe with 30 seconds, maybe with a minute. You could do it on your own, which is what I do. And sometimes I use an app, if I really want to kind of tune in and hear another person's voice or another person's bells or whatever it is that they use on the app to get me meditating. But there are several apps that are out there. Two of our favorite, I think you use Insight Timer,

Wendy  05:25

I use Insight Timer. And I've been well, I'm not going to say how long I've been doing it--a long time, so much so that it's the first thing I do. When I wake up. After I go to the bathroom, I sit and I crawl back in bed, and I sit up in bed and I get cozy with my cats. And I meditate, and it might be five minutes, or it might be 25 minutes. It's just what I'm called to do right at the time. Yeah. And I think for me, allowing myself to do what my body's calling for--my mind, or my time or my space is calling for each morning without being rigid about it works for me, right now in my life.

Debbie  06:07

Yeah. Right. And, and for me, I would love to do that that would be ideal for me. The other app that I use is called Headspace. I don't have that lifestyle where I can get out of bed and go to the bathroom and come back into bed because I have a puppy who would really disrupt my meditation if I got back into bed. So that's not a time that I meditate, I have to finish feeding the cats get getting the dog walked before I can settle back down into meditate for my few minutes for my morning meditation. And it really is just a few minutes before some kind of interruption happens in my house. So yeah, and that's who the people who say “it's not for me, I can't sit still and keep my focus.” Yeah, you know, neither can I. But what I do is I sit there and I get thoughts. I say, oh, there's that thought. Hi thought! I let go of it for a moment. I'll get back to you later. And I do that, I can't tell you how many times that happens in just the three minutes. Exactly. That's it's so normal. And I don't beat myself up about it. Because I've learned that that's just the way my mind works. And it's happening less, the more I meditate, that happens less. So, the more consistent I am with meditation, the less my mind wanders, and that's really one of my motivations to keep doing it. Because I noticed that difference. And if I let it go again, I noticed the thoughts come back more often, so for me my motivation to meditate is so that it can get better for me because then I feel better.

Wendy  07:43

Yeah, we feel better when we meditate because the practice gives us a little bit more agency when things come at us in the world. And so when we've got these inputs, or when I'm cut off on the parkway on my way to work (my example that I use often). I have become less reactionary, and I know it's my discipline of meditation and just being with the breath and sitting and sometimes my meditations are walking meditations too. So some people can be silent and go for a walk in the woods or go for a walk by the water or in your community and no iPod or earphones or anything like that. Just silence. Sometimes people take the meditation app with them on a walk-- that can work too. I think making your own in any kind of discipline practice is really what we're trying to encourage people to just start someplace. Do something that creates some sort of, shall we call it, peace within or calmness or reflection or stillness. Maybe some people could send us a note and say, What does meditation mean for you? Or what's the gift that it gives you?

Debbie  09:05

Yeah, I've noticed I've said this before, I noticed a big difference in Wendy when she was doing her practice for a while. And it kind of just dawned on me one day when she came into work. And she had said that she sat through traffic. And I noticed a couple of months ago or last year when she would say that she had this tightness and this anger and this time it was more just like “yeah, I sat through traffic.” I noticed the big difference with you. And so it's sometimes it's easier to notice a difference in

In this week's episode, we embark on a journey of timeless wisdom with the incredible Patrick Edward Ryan, a nonagenarian whose dedication to health and fitness offers a breath of fresh air in an age-obsessed society.

At 90, Patrick's gym routine is not just a hobby; it's a testament to the boundless potential of embracing a healthier lifestyle at any stage in life. His stories, spanning from the soccer fields of his military days to the group exercise classes he enjoys now, prove that age truly is just a number.

Patrick also emphasizes the importance of community and social connections, particularly evident in his involvement with the local YMCA. He works out maybe six days a week, where he’s almost always the only man and often the oldest man, and he forms a close-knit group known as the "spaghetti group."

Additionally, we reflect on our experiences with aging, retirement, and finding fulfillment. We also explore topics such as sleep patterns, relationships with technology, the value of kindness and forgiveness, and the power of sincere compliments.

Tune in to celebrate Patrick's resilience, vitality, and zest for life, offering valuable insights into aging gracefully and living a fulfilling, healthy life.

In this episode of "Navigating Nourishment," the hosts and guest Stephanie Bricken discuss her journey in creating a unique beverage called Seraphim.

Stephanie shares her inspiration to create this non-alcoholic wellness tonic after experiencing negative effects from drinking wine. With a background in holistic health and a passion for creativity, she set out to develop a drink that would offer the same relaxing experience as wine without adverse effects.

Seraphim is made from organic sour cherries, wild blueberries, and other botanicals like Rishi Mushroom, cinnamon, hibiscus, and cacao.

These ingredients provide various health benefits, such as promoting sleep, boosting immunity, and improving gut health. Stephanie emphasizes the importance of using natural, organic ingredients and preserving the drink without any added sugars or preservatives. Stephanie's vision for Seraphim goes beyond just a drink – she aims to provide consumers with a holistic, mind-body-spirit experience that promotes overall well-being. With its unique blend of flavors and health benefits, Seraphim offers a refreshing alternative to traditional alcoholic beverages and sugary sodas, making it an ideal choice for those seeking a healthier lifestyle.

Stephanie Bricken is the Founder of Seraphim Social Beverage, a woman-owned and certified member of the WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise Council).

Reach out to Stephanie

www.seraphimsocialbev.com

Watch on YouTube