Small Step Sunday: Rest

My wellness advice for this week is probably the most difficult to do, even though it sounds easy. Our modern culture has conditioned us to feel as though we always need to be working to be making progress, and that we don't have enough time in our lives for all the tasks we must do. This makes it almost impossible to let yourself take breaks and rest.

A restful place

I struggle with this, and it's been even harder during a time of emotional unrest. Days when I'm not busy unfortunately are often paired with a low mood. I've realized that feeling sadness is okay, just as getting adequate rest is okay. Rest might mean putting your feet up, or spending time in a peaceful place, or doing light yoga/walking, or getting a massage.

Take some time this week to force yourself to take a break from your day to day, and from modern distractions. If there's something in your life that's causing undue stress, take some time away from it to see if it's genuinely an activity you need to pursue. On that note, I might be posting to the blog less frequently. I've enjoyed it but am not feeling the same passion. I'll be traveling for most of the rest of the month and am planning to re-evaluate after that. If you enjoy my food pictures you can follow them on Instagram, I'm hoping to eat some good food in NYC!

Small Step Sunday - Break Your Fast

One of the easiest habits to start is also one that many people skip: eating breakfast. Depending on when you eat your last bite of food at night and the time you get up in the morning, you may be without food for 8-12 hours. This might surprise you, but our bodies were designed to run on food! ;)

It's important to start your day with nourishment, to break the fast from the night before, and to set yourself up for a day of positive eating habits. If you are already a breakfast eater you can make an attempt to eat healthier breakfasts. If you are not, get started!

The timing of your breakfast will depend on your day. I usually work out first thing in the morning so my pattern is to work out on an empty stomach or eat a small bite before I start. After my workout during the week I eat about 100 calories worth of food after, and then eat my full smoothie when I get to work. On the weekends I usually make my smoothies from scratch and eat them when I am done exercising.

Here are some filling plant based breakfast ideas:

• Smoothies
• Oatmeal, rice, or quinoa with assorted toppings (nuts, nut butter, fruit, dried fruit, seeds, coconut, spices, etc.)
• Whole grain or gluten free toast with nut butter, mashed fruit or natural jam
• Pancakes
• Tofu scramble
• Cereal, muesli or granola with nut milk and fresh fruit
• Chia pudding
• Breakfast cookies

I'd love to hear your favorite breakfast and welcome any recipes!

Small Step Sunday: Minimize Choice

My goal with these Sunday posts is to quickly convey something you can do to achieve your health and wellness goals. I also aim to find things that are easy steps that can build incrementally to a healthy lifestyle. Many of the posts in this series have hinted at today's tip: minimize the choices you make in your life. 

I've had this on my list of things to write about for a few weeks, and was inspired to go through with it when I heard Tim Ferriss read his essay "The Choice-Minimal Lifestyle: 6 Formulas for More Output and Less Overwhelm" on his weekly podcast. It's worth the time to read/listen because it outlines the science behind minimizing choices.

Essentially you only have so much mental energy to expend on making decisions each day. You can call it motivation or willpower or another term of your choosing, but it's all on the same spectrum. If you can automate many of your daily choices, you will use less of that energy. This can make you more productive and feel happier in general.

Here are some easy tasks you can turn into routines:

1. A daily meal - I know I always eat a smoothie for breakfast, and that I bring oats and fruit with me if I'm traveling.

2. Your commute - You know what type of commute fits your personality, and if you can automate the route you take each day and the time you leave.

3. Exercise - Even if you can't control your daily schedule you can control your workout routine. You can set a plan to alternate forms of cardio and do the same strength workouts in a pattern.

4. Clothes - Take 10 minutes on Sunday to hang your outfits for each day of the work week in your closet in sequence so you don't have to decide in the morning.

5. Shopping - There are a ton of great free grocery apps for phones and tablets. You can put them to work for you - they remember what you've bought in the past and you can easily tap your most common items to add them to your list. You can also set quantities to help make your store experience as easy as possible.

Small Step Sunday: Connect with Nature

Humans evolved to co-exist with nature. There are direct psychological benefits to spending time in nature. A 2013 article by British researchers published in Global Environmental Change used a unique GPS based collection method to study the effects of nature on happiness. The study found that "On average, study participants are significantly and substantially happier outdoors in all green or natural habitat types than they are in urban environments." 

A pretty yellow flower at Leu Gardens in Orlando

My personal experience has always been that nature has a calming, grounding effect on my feelings. One of the reasons I chose to move to Orlando was to have weather that would allow me to spend a lot of time outdoors and in the sunshine. An article from Psychology Today titled "Does Nature Make Us Happy?" discusses several other current research findings about this topic if you're interested. 

The Blue Ridge Mountains, photo taken outside Asheville, NC.

It isn't hard to find opportunities to connect with nature, even in urban environments. Many cities have parks, nature gardens, and other dedicated green spaces within the urban setting. The photo of the flower I posted above was taken at Leu Gardens in Orlando which is right in the middle of the city. 

One of the many gorgeous beaches of Curacao

Here are some easy ways to get time in nature:

• Take a walk or a hike
• Ride your bike in a new area
• Go for a scenic drive and stop to take photos when you feel inspired
• Find a park or beach to have a picnic
• Invest in some cheap outdoor games like bocce ball or lawn darts
• Sit on the beach with a good book
• Take a child in your life or the child in yourself to a playground
• Sit in outdoor spaces at your home when you're reading, writing blog posts, or playing on the computer
• Find an outdoor fitness class
• Look for local festivals and events held in parks
• Sit quietly outdoors in your favorite setting and listen to the birds

Small Step Sunday: Mother’s Day

I have a tendency toward cynicism, and I think most holidays have been created or monopolized by marketers to sell products. Fortunately, we can choose to celebrate holidays in unique ways that don’t buy in to the mass marketing ideal. Today is Mother’s Day and I am incredibly blessed to spend it with my Mom for the first time in at least 8 years. It is also the first time she’s been able to come visit in the year since I moved to Orlando. 

Me & my amazing Mom this summer

I know that many of us aren’t able to have our mothers with us on this day, or have mothers who are no longer in our lives or have mothers that never were in our lives. Some of us have other strong women in our life who have taken a motherly role. We can all choose to honor the women in our lives who have been important in helping us navigate through the ups and downs of life. 

One of my favorite photos of my Mom's parents. 

On this Mother’s day I encourage you to take some time to reflect on the important women in your life. If they are still alive, find some way to connect. If they aren’t, find a way to honor them - maybe listening to their favorite music, visiting a special place, or just sending a silent thought of deep gratitude. 

Me and my Grandma on my Father's side

I hope you all are able to make this holiday meaningful for yourselves and the mothers in your lives. 

Small Step Sunday: Pick a Day

One of my co-workers who reads this blog is having some health issues that could be improved by weight loss. Unfortunately, this can be much harder than it sounds. When I talk to people on a weight loss journey I usually see the same pattern. Something in their life causes them to commit to losing weight. They go crazy and drastically change all their eating and health habits overnight. They keep this up for a few weeks and lose weight. The changes become unsustainable and they either stop losing or start gaining. They resign themselves to this pattern and wait a year or so to start again. Sounds familiar, right?

This week my wellness tip is to start small. Most diet plans have you pick one day each week to indulge. I'm recommending the opposite if you're just starting out. Pick one day a week to eat healthy. Don't eat out. Only eat foods that you recognize. Skip the artificially and regularly sugared beverages. Once you can sustain that for three weeks, add another day.

Another alternative is to pick one meal each week to eat healthy. Depending on your schedule, this might make more sense. Breakfast is that meal for me. I always drink a smoothie. I make them fresh on the weekends (and random days off work), and I spend an hour each weekend making a set to be frozen for the week.

This picture was from yesterday morning. I got home from the gym and whipped up this green delight. It has a frozen banana, 1/2 C frozen cherries, a handful of carrots, 1/2 a zucchini, 1 C frozen broccoli, a handful of romaine, a handful of kale, frozen collard greens, frozen spinach, Vega protein powder, spices & a cup of unsweetened almond milk. When I start  my day with that much veg and green I know that I made at least one great health decision.

In summary: don't make drastic changes. Pick one day or one meal each week to be super healthy. Once that feels normal, add more days/meals. You can do it!

Small Step Sunday: Chew on This

I like food. That should be obvious from the content of my posts. Wellness begins and ends with what you do to your body, and food is a huge part of that. I don't believe one diet or one macronutrient/calorie target is right for everyone. I think we should all focus on eating whole foods and not ingesting things with ingredients we can't identify, but that's where I draw the line.

Discussions of diet and health usually only focus on what you eat or when you eat, but often forget HOW you eat. I've talked about mindful eating in some of my other posts, and I think it's so important that I wanted to offer it up as my weekly wellness tip. One of the key behaviors I've changed in my eating is that I now take time to eat slowly and chew my food more.

When I was in junior high we had 20 minutes to get to the cafeteria, find a seat, and eat lunch. I trace my habit of wolfing down food back to this key time in my life (in high school we got 10 extra minutes - not a huge help!). I used to be able to put down a plate of dinner in about 5 minutes. Of course it only makes sense that if you eat that quickly, your body doesn't have time to register that you've eaten. It hasn't started breaking the food down. Therefore, you still feel hungry and eat more.

It took me a long time to realize how destructive my habit of eating fast with minimal chewing was. I am one of those unfortunate souls that feels hungry most of the time, and I've found that when I make an effort to eat more slowly and really take time to chew my food I feel more satisfied at the end of a meal. This can be difficult to implement so I recommend picking one meal a day (ideally the one where you have the most time to eat so you can get used to the habit), and force yourself to chew at least 10 more times than you normally would.

I take a half hour to eat each meal from breakfast smoothies to dinner plates. The slow chewing helps a lot. I used to be able to eat a baby carrot in about 2 seconds, now I can chew that sucker for at least 30. It often brings out a stronger flavor in the food. I also make a habit to put down my fork, spoon, chopsticks between each bite. In summary, with some more tips:

1. Chew your food more, add at least 10 chews per bite when you start
2. Put down your utensils between bites
3. Aim for 30 minutes of eating time, and adjust your bite sizes dependent on this
4. Add a handful of raw veggies to a meal, and eat one bite of them between bites of the rest of your meal
5. Take time before each bite to think about all the people that made your meal possible (farmers, distributors, retailers, and whoever cooked the meal) and send them a silent thanks
6. Close your eyes while you chew and savor the delicious flavors

Small Step Sunday: Freeze it!

Your freezer is probably not doing everything it could be for you. Many of us only use our freezer for ice, desserts, and frozen meals. I've written before about how important it is to make a plan for your week of meals and your freezer can be a big help.

Here are some ways to better utilize your freezer:

1. Buy pre-cut frozen vegetables for use in recipes or smoothies. They can sometimes be cheaper than fresh, and are more nutritious than canned (and also don't have preservatives and exposure to BPA). 

2. Make extra portions of soup, stews, cooked beans, loaves, casseroles, etc. and freeze them for later use. I like to use masking tape and a sharpie to label each item. 

3. Keep your nuts and seeds in the freezer. This will keep them from going bad as quickly.

4. Make your smoothies ahead. I make smoothies for my whole week on Sunday. I freeze them all and take one out the night before and let it defrost in the fridge. It is ready for me to eat by the time I get to work.

5. Keep a tub of frozen bananas ready for fresh smoothies and quick ice cream. Sometimes I'll only need half a fresh banana, and having a tub in my freezer to store extra bananas is very helpful.

6. Make your own protein bars/balls and store them in the freezer. This is especially nice in the summer when you are warm from a workout. Cold bars from the freezer help you cool down and fuel up. 

Small Step Sunday: Laugh

We've all heard the phrase "laughter is the best medicine". According to the Mayo Clinic, laughter increases oxygen in your blood and releases stress in the short term and can have long term benefits such as improving your immune system and relieving pain. If you've been reading my blog you know that I've been simultaneously dealing with breaking up an 11 year relationship, my first serious running injury, and some mysterious/troubling blood test results. It's been a very rough few months, and I was feeling really down about it all on Friday night. Luckily we had just gotten "Anchorman 2" from Netflix and it was exactly what I needed to relieve some of the stress, sadness, and tension.

The Internet makes it really easy to laugh thanks to YouTube and memes. Here are a few of my favorites to get your bellies laughing:

Videos:

Animals Jumping on Trampolines

Funny Talking Animals

Small Step Sunday: KISS

When I teach classes about presentation skills this is one of my slides:

I make them tell me what KISS stands for (it's usually good for a cheap laugh): Keep It Simple Stupid!

It's really easy to over-think things, especially when it comes to diet. I know a lot of people don't eat healthy because they think it's more difficult and time consuming. That can be true, but it's easy to make healthy choices if you keep them simple.

What this means in practice:
1. Use pre-sliced veggies and salad blends
2. Don't get fancy - if you want fruit, eat a whole piece! Don't worry about making fruit salads or smoothies if all you can manage is to eat the banana. I do this a lot with my dinners. I want to have a salad but don't feel like chopping things up small, so I just throw a handful of baby carrots or a few small peppers on the side of my plate.
3. Always make leftovers.
4. Use easy recipes. One blog I love for that is Lisa's Project: Vegan
5. Don't eat anything with ingredients you can't pronounce or that are a mystery. AKA eat real food

A good example: the main dish, a defrosted muffin and quick sliced veg!

Small Step Sunday: Say Thank You

The University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center "studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society." They are doing some great work, especially with studying gratitude. They've found that people who have a consistent practice of gratitude have lower blood pressure, stronger immune systems, more compassion, more positive emotions, and less feelings of loneliness.

It can be easy to get wrapped up in the things that make us feel stressed and angry and like the world is unfair. I've had my fair share of those moments lately, but I try to balance them with gratitude. The key to reaping the benefits of gratitude is to practice consistently. The easiest way to do this is to make a point to thank someone every day. You don't even have to thank them in a way they are cognizant of or even choose someone you know personally.

When I remember I try to spend a few seconds before I start a meal thinking about all the people who made it possible for the food to be on my plate, and to send them my thanks. I like to practice gratitude at work and in social situations by thanking people for things they do that go above and beyond what would be expected (like holding a door or picking up random trash). I heard a podcast the other day where someone said they literally begin each day by laying in bed and thanking someone in their life. I think that's beautiful and it's so easy to do.

No matter how badly you think your moment is, there is likely something to be grateful for. Take a moment today to make yourself aware of that thing and to be thankful for it. Today I'd like to send my thanks to YOU for reading my blog.

Small Step Sunday: Set a Goal

Goals are important. They help us organize our thoughts, energy and time to achieve what we truly value. Without a clear idea of your goals it's much harder to make any change. Set a goal for yourself today. It can be a small one or a huge one. It's often helpful to set a big, scary goal (like running a marathon) and then break that down in to smaller goals that can be achieved along the journey.

Once you set a goal, let someone know about it. Post it to social media. Tell your parent, spouse, child, best friend, co-workers, etc. Identify people in your life who will be supportive of your goal or who have experience in achieving something similar.

I'm going to announce a new running goal to the world right now. Once my foot heals, I would like to work on training for a marathon. I'd like to run it sometime in December depending on my health, my schedule, and the races that exist.

I know my first small goal is to run another half marathon before then. Another small goal will be to research the various marathon plans, invest in one, and follow it closely. Up until now I've been combining plans I find online into my own mishmash, but I wonder if that caused this injury so close to my races. I have another goal to find a different pair of shoes that support my foot better, and this will help me achieve the marathon goal. Once you get started it's easy to break these big dreams down into sequential steps.

The last part of this challenge is to write down your goal and any small steps it takes to get there and put it somewhere visible. I keep an online to do list for all my work and personal goals. This is helpful for me because when I'm at work and checking my list I'm keeping my personal goals in sight as well. I hope some of you might reach out and share your goal with me!

Small Step Sunday: Unsubscribe

This is what my email inboxes look like on a Sunday afternoon when I haven’t checked my email for 4 hours. If I had my work email on my phone it would be even worse! I’m sure many of you have a similar experience. It’s easy to sign up for contests and newsletters and store coupons, but having these items clogging your inbox can lead to more stress. It can also encourage you to spend money you don’t need to or to take time away from more important tasks.

My tip this week is to pay attention to the emails you receive and ask yourself if they are adding value to your daily experience. If they aren't, unsubscribe! Most emails have an Unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. I try to do this once every few months and I find it to be a cleansing and rewarding experience. Also, I know many of you have reached out about my last post and I am deeply moved and grateful. I will post an update on that tomorrow.

Small Step – Listen Up!

I just finished reading the book “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. It was an easy read and most of it wasn't new to me as I've been studying the topic of achievement and goal setting for awhile. The biggest takeaway I got from the book was that small changes can have huge effects when applied consistently over time. This is good when we have good habits, but terrible when we have destructive habits.

One extra 150 calorie cookie a day doesn't seem like much, but in a year that means 54,750 calories added to your diet! I struggle with this myself and know that if I want to be the best physical version of myself I should stop cheating on hard workout days. It’s a work in progress. That is part of why I am doing my best to share an easy wellness tip each Sunday – over time these small steps will add up to big changes!

This week’s tip is to start listening to motivational/inspirational podcasts or radio shows or CDs at least once a day. You can sneak them in while you exercise, drive to and from work, while you run errands, in the shower, on your lunch break, while you cook, etc. (I knew the knee jerk reaction would be that there’s no time – busted!). This is a great way to constantly be learning or motivating yourself without taking extra time in your day. Over time, a half hour of Spanish a day might get you speaking like a native!

It doesn't have to be motivational/inspirational in the traditional sense. If you are trying to learn a language, listen to a language learning option. If you are trying to write, listen to a conversation with an author. Here are my top picks for podcasts in several areas.

No Meat Athlete – this one is great for anyone plant based or that’s a runner or both!

Rich Roll – Rich Roll is a plant based ultra endurance athlete. I've listened to all his podcasts and he has some amazing guests – mostly athletes, plant based experts, and people in the wellness community.

Runner Academy – I've only listened to a few of these but they are short and sweet with great running tips.

5AM Miracle – The premise of this podcast is that you can be very productive in the morning and that will trickle to the rest of your life. The host is a plant based athlete but his podcast covers a plethora of topics.

School of Greatness – This one is hosted by a former NFL player who dubs himself a “lifestyle entrepreneur”. His guests are all doing inspirational things in some way, and each one is asked to define greatness at the end of the episode.

NPR’s Ted Radio Hour – I like this one because it identifies a theme and then combines clips from various TED talks with interviews with the original speakers.

On Being – I can’t describe this one adequately in my own words so here is the description from their website “On Being is a spacious conversation — and an evolving media space — about the big questions at the center of human life, from the boldest new science of the human brain to the most ancient traditions of the human spirit.”

Good Job Brain – Trivia nerds unite! This show is four friends who play pub trivia and created a show that includes quizzes and trivia on all sorts of subjects. I laugh out loud at least once per episode so it’s good stress relief too!

Podcasting while I stretch!

Small Step – Make a Plan

Take some time this Sunday to look at your upcoming week. Figure out what your work, family and social commitments are. For example, this week I have to work late on Tuesday to teach a class.

Once you've looked at your time commitments, you can plan your meals or workouts or both based on this. If you’re new to planning I’d only pick one at a time.

For food, Carly does our shopping on Friday because she has that day off each week. We plan our  meals for the week from Saturday to Thursday (Friday we always eat leftovers or salads with leftovers). This week she has an appointment Monday after work and I work late so we planned to pre-make soup today for Monday and to eat leftovers on Tuesday (either from the freezer or what we made through the weekend).

We also try to plan meals that use vegetables that go bad quickly (like bean sprouts) earlier in the week and feature meals with pantry staples like beans, rice, artichokes and olives later in the week. We also try to analyze the fridge and pantry to make sure we’re using up what we have before buying new things. Once this is done, we make our weekly list in an app called Our Groceries. This app is great because it saves your previous items, so it’s easy to add the things you buy regularly.

For workouts, I’m loosely following a combination of half marathon training plans for my race on March 23rd. I schedule 4 run days (1 with strength training), 1 crosstraining + strength day, 1 yoga day, and 1 day to rest or take a long walk or do yoga. I usually do the same thing each day of the week, but will be switching my long run to Sunday (from Saturday) in 2 weeks since my race is on Sunday. It’s important for me to consider my other time commitments when I make my training schedule, and I try to make sure I take advantage of days where I have off work or go in late. I've shared my training plan before if you’re interested in taking a look!

Small Step Sunday

Drastic changes make for drastic relapses. Restrictive diet plans don’t work in the long term because they’re not sustainable. It’s easier and more realistic to make small changes, one at a time, and make them part of your life. It’s also easier to feel like you’re adding something rather than taking something away. In this vein, I've decided to start posting semi-regular suggestions on Sunday that are small steps you can take toward a healthy lifestyle.

This week’s tip: buy a fruit or vegetable you've never tried before the next time you go shopping.

Many of us are trained to seek the most common fruit and veggies that we grew up with. There was a scene recently on one of my very favorite shows “Parks and Recreation” that made me think about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1EcMoDCdp4

When you’re picking out the new item don’t be afraid to ask someone else buying it about how they prepare it. If you don’t see anyone nearby, look it up online when you get home. I can guarantee you will be able to find recipes and even step by step guides for how to prepare any produce on the planet. I recently bought a cactus pear for the first time and found a video online that showed how to peel it and what parts to eat.
I love this idea because it’s fun, it could add something that you really enjoy to your life, and will make you more adventurous with your future food choices. I suggest starting with one of my two more exotic favorites: jicama or plantains.