Be Mindful of Your Summer Pace
I love summer, but I also find it challenging. Juggling my kids’ schedules without the predictable structure of a school schedule alone is enough to stop me in my tracks! And for my autoimmune clients, I’ve noticed that all the spontaneous social activity can be depleting and even debilitating. For many folks with autoimmune issues, a failure to effectively manage and balance energy throughout the season can lead to physical consequences in the form of exacerbated symptoms. Read more here.
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Why Rest and Recovery Matter?
Rest and recovery are essential components to building strength, feeling awesome, and warding off chronic disease. We live in a culture that downplays rest and recovery because there is so much play to be had and work to be done. We value productivity and doing and dismiss the necessity of sleep, rest, calming the body and easing the mind. I don't got time to sit and eat (only eat) or meditate or foam roll or breathe, even--sound familiar, at all? I consistently watch people focus on exercise and even diet to reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, and they conveniently ignore the power of sleep, calming the mind, slowing down, and nourishing the body in simple ways. The impact is devastating on our bodies—not only does it impede performance, but worse, it enhances the risk of major chronic illness.
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Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself: The Anger/Autoimmune Connection
Anger is a pretty loaded emotion. Culturally, we tend to try to suppress anger and oftentimes don’t allow ourselves to experience it. I have found that my autoimmune clients frequently experience SIGNIFICANT anger — at their disease, at their body for not functioning properly, at themselves for being the way that they are, and even at past events that continue to bother and haunt them — but they often also tell themselves that they shouldn’t outwardly express their frustrations. Instead, they ignore them or bottle them up, only adding to their body’s stress response, and, you guessed it, exacerbating their autoimmune systems (more on that in a minute.) Read more about anger and autoimmune disease here.
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Health is More Than Exercise and Performance Alone
Once we decide to get serious about our health, it can be really easy to get tunnel vision. I think we do this to avoid overwhelm. We want to make shifts manageable and digestible, so we FOCUS. Totally valid! Consequently, if we stay perpetually focused or obsessed on the same one thing over time, we can limit the opportunity to improve our physical, emotional and spiritual health. Exercise is a common place that people over-focus to "get healthy." I watch many people cling to exercise, athleticism, and burning calories with an iron grip, so much so that it can cause them to neglect other important parts of their whole health. This ultimately leads to subpar living. We get to set aside our comfortable routines, zoom out, and look at the big picture from time to time.
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You Are a Badass....With Autoimmune Disease
I’m a huge fan of the work of Jen Sincero, author of the bestselling You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Live an Awesome Life. Her work encourages us to set aside our fears and fiercely own our lives through awareness, intention, and gratitude. Through her use of real life examples — and with plenty of good humor — she helps the reader to feel empowered amidst the challenges we all face, elevating our lives to a place that is more authentic and loving.
It shouldn’t surprise readers of this blog that this work resonates in the world of autoimmune disease. We know the value of positioning ourselves in empowerment rather than victimhood. We understand the importance of intentionally creating our lives each day and nurturing a mindset of healing. These messages are resonating with my health coaching clients across the board in large part because they haven’t been present in our traditional approach to healing autoimmune disease. Read more here.
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The Secret to This Summer's Bikini Bod (RELAX - It's not what you think!)
‘Tis the season in North America for the annual barrage of messages about getting our bodies “beach ready,” or reminding us that, “bikini season is just around the corner!” There’s a reason this messaging is so common: it resonates with consumers. Gyms, diets, coaches—there is no fitness niche that is immune, because so many people want to look better and feel better in their bodies!
I tell my clients that it is one thing to have fitness and performance goals, and it is another thing to connect your body image and weight to your self-worth. I support fitness goals, but I work diligently with clients to loosen the death grip of body shame and judgment.
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