Being mindful is paying attention to yourself and your own inner dialogue.  There are many ways to practice mindfulness and you can't go wrong if you pick one and give it a try.

Working with your breath is a great place to start.  When you feel triggered reminding yourself to stop and breathe can provide a simple reset.

Progressive muscle relaxation takes breathwork up a notch and can lead to full body relaxation and is great to wind down at night or any time you need a hard reset.

The ability to sit quietly and let your thoughts flow through you can be difficult.  Much easier to really be in the moment and experience the event with fresh eyes.

I love to journal as a way into mindfulness.  I like to start the morning with a list of things I am grateful for.  It puts me into a mindset of abundance and helps me start my day with grace.

Try it this week.

Make space for you to work on yourself.

Come follow me on Instagram this week for more www.instagram.com/melissahall klepacki  

When sleep is good you feel like a million bucks and when it's not....well, lots of things go wrong.  Your focus is off, your coordination wanes, your mood could be lower and your immune system tanks.  While there are lots of theories about how much sleep is best no one argues that a good night's sleep is important for wellness.

How to get better sleep?  Listen in for details but here is a shortlist:

1. Start in the morning with sunlight in your eyes.  It primes your system for good melatonin release in the evening.  Pair that with some exercise and you are golden!

2. Make sure your magnesium levels are good.  HINT: chances are that if you don't supplement your levels are most likely low.

3.  Avoid eating after dinner.  Optimally give yourself 3 hours of no food before sleep.  You sleep best in a fasted state.  Ideally, avoid alcohol.  While it may help you drift off it often wakes you up in the middle of the night.

4. No caffeine after 12 noon.

5. Create nighttime rituals.  Brushing teeth, washing your face, getting into pajamas, closing shades, turning off lights all let your body know that it is time for sleep.

6. Perfect your sleeping environment – temperature needs to be low (65-68 degrees) absolutely no light, avoid blue lights before bed.

7. Exercising in the daytime makes for a fatigued body that often sleeps a bit sounder.

8. An evening Epsom Salt bath works on 2 fronts: increasing magnesium levels and raising body temperature.  The shift from a higher body temperature into a chilly room preps that body for deep sleep.

9. Utilize technology for better sleep.  The OURA ring, the FitBit Charge or the Whoop are all wearables that can give you data about your sleep.  You need to understand what is happening before you can make changes. 

I'll be sharing some favorite sleep podcast and other ideas for sleeping better over on Instagram.  Follow along at www.instagram.com/melissahallklepacki

We have four weeks left in 2021 and this week we're going to focus on creating habits to better hydrate our bodies. First things first, I'd love for you to take a look at what is in your tap water. Please visit the website www.ewg.org/tapwater and enter your 5 digit zip code to learn about what is in your tap water. Please remember, what is legally allowed in your drinking water is far from what is best from your body. Please also know that most commercial filters like Brita or even the Berkey water filter are not doing an adequate job of removing toxins and radioactive elements from your water. The only safe water to drink is distilled water and whether you do that yourself with an in home water distiller or you buy plastic jugs of distilled water is up to you. But the safest water again is distilled water. How much water should we be drinking? At least half of your body weight in ounces but I would ask that you watch the color of your urine as a better indicator of hydration. Unless you are taking handfuls of vitamins especially B vitamins, which will turn your urine electric yellow, your goal should be urine that is close to clear. If you are peeing dark yellow you are not hydrated adequately. I like to use my 30 ounce Yeti mug for a few reasons. It keeps my water cold, I know exactly how much I'm drinking, and at this point, because I have only used this mug for the last few months it has become an ingrained daily habit. First thing in the morning I fill up my water while I'm making my coffee. I like my beverages to be functional so I'm always adding products like CellCore’s Hydroxygen, CT Minerals, or mitoATP to my water. (www.cellcore.com) I also find that when I have taken the extra step to add products to my water I do not want to waste the water and I'm sure to drink it all. Also please remember if you are not pooping at least once a day (preferably twice a day) make sure you are drinking plenty of pure water.

So in a nutshell:

1. Drink more water: at least half of your body weight in ounces so that your urine is close to clear in color.

Follow along on Instagram all week for more on water: www.instagram.com/melissahallklepacki 

Movement every day is non-negotiable.  Dedicated time for moving your body, that is built into your daily life becomes a habit.

You gotta plan it though guys.

If you fail to plan - you plan to fail.  Make a plan, make a dedicated time for it.

Find an accountability partner.  A person, a class you pre-pay for a group activity where your presence is essential....all can serve as an accountability partner.  Even a dog can be your accountability partner - they need to be walked 2 times a day.

Make it PLAY as often as possible.  Movement that looks like play feels less laborious.  A hike with a dog, an adult sports league, tennis, golf, train for your first 5k (walk or run!) with a pal. - there are so many options.

If you are not regularly moving your body  FIND A NEW WAY that looks like PLAY.

Make YOURSELF - your WHOLE self a priority.  It starts with daily habits.

Come find me on instagram - www.instagram.com/melissahallklepacki 

“Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals.

This week as we head into Thanksgiving in the U.S. it is a good idea to take stock of what we are grateful for.  To name it aloud or write it down to be captured and ruminated on.

This week try a new practice of writing down 3 things you are grateful for each morning as a way to start your day from a place of abundance.

Remember when you think happy thoughts you attract more happy thoughts (and happy people) into your reality.

My morning short list:

Sleeping in this morning

Taking time for morning meditation (YAY ME!)

Hot coffee on rainy mornings

Dogs

Feeling healthy

Clean water

A home I love

Come see me on Instagram where I share lots more on gratitude as a practice and as a perspective.  www.instagram.com/melissahallklepacki 

(last week we brought awareness to Nutrition looking for a 1% improvement, did you get it done?  Remember, fueling your body with healthy whole foods DAILY is the way forward.  You can go back and listen to any pervious podcasts on iTunes)

There are only 7 weeks left in this year - let's end it feeling better (and healthier) than when it began.

This week we focus on what we are eating.

Here are a few guidelines:

1. Go to the fridge when you are hungry.  Choose whole foods first.

2. Avoid bags and boxes.  Food in bags and boxes contains chemicals, preservatives and bad oils we need to avoid for optimal health.

3. Drink only water.  Save the calories. Lose the sugar.  Distilled water is best.

Come join me this week as we discuss simple changes and better choices in nutrition.  We can do this!!

http://www.instagram.com/melissahallklepacki

A great resource for household products and personal care products is Grove Collaborative.  I order online and it’s delivered right to my door.  Lugging that stuff home from the grocery store no more!!  My favorite non-toxic all-purpose spray cleaner – even for glass is this one https://grove.pxf.io/LP4oWa

My favorite non-toxic laundry detergent http://grove.pxf.io/x9QXRO comes in few scents as well as unscented. I also like their fabric softener.

I love many of their non-toxic beauty offerings from so many great brands you will be familiar with: http://grove.pxf.io/P04YWq   They have some great choices in facewashes and lotions.  Easy to make those swaps.  Simple changes and better choices is my mantra here at The Güüd Company – and this is a great way for you start.

PLEASE REMEMBER:  you still need to check products for yourself using the EWG Healthy Living App.  You can either scan the barcode of a product or enter the name, and you will see a report giving it a grade from an A to an F and listing any toxic ingredients that you should know about.

I encourage you to start somewhere today. Perhaps under your kitchen sink, your laundry room, or in your very own bathroom. Scan your products and make a list of the products that get D’s or F’s. Then armed with your mobile app head to Grove Collaborative and find better products.

While I am not affiliated with many brands I just started working with Grove Collaborative and this post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

If you are finding yourself comparing yourself to others it is important to remember the great quote by Theodore Roosevelt, "Comparison is the thief of joy."

Social media has highlighted our insecurities when we look at the lives of others.  We need to remember that people only show their best sides, their life highlight reels.  Carefully curated - you rarely see people letting it all hang out...the ugly sides of life.

You are perfect as you are.  You are whole and complete whether others acknowledge that or not.  On days when you forget this - stay off social media friends.  xo

In this episode I talk about the importance of an accountability partner when goal setting.  When we make a plan and are held accountable to that plan the chances of follow through are very high.  When we tell just ourselves that tomorrow we will go to the gym but then get invited out for drinks after work and we only have ourselves to disappoint it’s easy to let ourselves down.  Interesting, isn’t it?

Want to get fit? Hire a personal trainer. Make appointments and stick to it. A gym membership guarantees you nothing. You gotta do the work.

Want to lose weight? Weight Watchers works! Why? Because they hold you accountable.  It’s you that’s gotta do the work.

Training for a marathon?  It’s hard to motivate for a 12 mile run alone on a Sunday morning.  Much easier when a group from the running club is counting on you to show up. You gotta get yourself there first, right?

Whatever your goals are - seek out a mentor, a teacher, a practitioner or a friend to be your accountability partner.  Reminding you that you alone must first choose a goal and find an accountability partner but then the work begins.

Making changes and reaching goals takes work.  There are no two ways about it.

In many ways I serve as an accountability partner for the Wellness clients I work with.  Weekly check-ins to mark progress, the use of a wellness journal to watch trends, a detailed plan of action with steps and milestones on the journey to wellness.  For more information you can email me at [email protected]

It’s something to consider if you want to make some changes and have been struggling to go it alone.

#fitness #wellness #weightloss #accountabilitypartner #wellnesscoach #goalsetting #meetyourgoals #healthiswealth #motivation #training #showupforyourself #dowhatyousayyouwill

In this episode I talk about how to find the right practitioner and I use the words interchangeably "doctor" and "practitioner".  Really it's about how to find someone to help you with your health.  The best place to start is by asking your friends or colleagues that you think are healthy about who they see to maintain their health. You should create a list of practitioners to interview.

Next, you need to come up with a list of qualifying questions. A qualifying question might be something like, “Does this doctor use any alternative treatments or techniques or does he or she rely entirely on pharmaceutical products?”  Another might be “Does this doctor only see patients out of this office or are there other opportunities for an appointment?” which might be important if you are trying to get in immediately or if you have mobility and transportation problems. Whatever the questions that you deem important to making your decision are the questions you should have a list of at the ready.

Then, call the doctor’s office and ask those qualifying questions of either the practice manager or the doctor directly. This is how I initially found my Lyme disease doctor. When I called her practice and asked what percentage of patients in her practice have Lyme disease, and the answer was 100%, I knew I was in the right place.

Please understand that the first appointment with this practitioner should be considered an interview. You are interviewing them about their ideas on your health based on their findings. And I think that's an important distinction to make, you are simply getting advice from someone more qualified than you but ultimately it is your decision what you do with the information you are given.

Finally, if your practitioner is not suggesting lifestyle recommendations (diet, hydration, mindfulness, movement, and better sleep) as the first step in healing you I highly suggest you find a new practitioner. Our Wellness is built on our daily habits. I'm going to say it again for the people in the back, "Our Wellness is based on our daily habits” and the people we are looking to for information on how to keep ourselves healthy should be working with us to educate and encourage us to be our own healers first.

-- Come see me on Instagram www.instagram.com/melissahallklepacki