Integrative Health Coach Blog About Healthy Living Choices
Breast Cancer Coaching For Recovery
You never see it coming. I didn’t and that’s what my breast cancer clients tell me too. Breast cancer is a diagnostic ambush that leaves you grasping for answers, while facing a series of hurdles ahead. My role as a survivor and coach is to bring compassion, understanding and a plan for a new normalcy. I am a kindred soul on the breast cancer recovery team. I know the medical story, and the personal story and I serve as a translator, and collaborator.
Changing Your Physical Space
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
~ Henry Ford
I have spent most of my life surrounded by clutter. Piles of unfiled receipts, financial statements, projects, articles, books, unused clothes, and kitchen appliances we barely use have occupied our living spaces. For a long time, I had spent more time avoiding my clutter than considering there might be another way. Avoidance is a self-directed brain skill. If avoidance is your strategy, your brain does exactly what you tell it to do. It figures out how to avoid fixing the clutter. We have all kinds of messes we avoid because we tell ourselves there isn’t time, resources or energy to solve.
A New Mindfulness Tool for Stress and Anxiety
This is the season for getting it all done, and women everywhere are feeling stressed and anxious as the holiday clock ticks down. I love the holiday traditions, but the truth is women have been doing most of the work for a long time. We are the organizers, managers, and doers for the big family events. We do the shopping, the cooking, the planning, the decorating, the gift wrapping, the card sending, and then somehow make ourselves look fabulous for the family meals and holiday parties. At the same time, many of us are raising a family and working for a living. Often our holidays are complicated with visiting family members who’s mere presence raise conflicts rather than warm memories.
Dancing With The Sugar Plum Fairy
No matter what, they call about food. People want to feel and look better and they suspect there is a connection to the food they eat. I have some clients who have been addicted to sugar most their lives. Many of us grew up on sugar beginning with childhood. Now we can’t get through a day without at least one meal or one snack that has sugar in it.
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Hitting Home: Breast Cancer, Part 2
Sometimes irony can be divine intervention in disguise. That’s what happened to me on the road to finding a new gynecologist. My health insurance changed and my current gynecologist fell out of network. Time to find a new one.
After a search of “in network” options, I met with a well-respected female physician in my community. During the first visit she quickly signaled she was listening and had done her homework by reviewing my past records before our appointment. It was a pleasant visit. I liked her and her staff. Little did I know at the time that a “perfect storm” was just days away from upending my life. A few days later, the women’s mammogram center called. There was a problem with my annual mammogram, and I needed to come back immediately for more testing. The cancer storm had arrived. (more…)
Hitting Home: Breast Cancer, Part 1
After much deliberation, I have decided to speak out about my breast cancer. I was diagnosed earlier this year and have been reluctant to reveal it because I was afraid it might be a distraction. However, October is breast cancer awareness month and the time has come to share my story.
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Telling The Truth About Diet Sodas
A few years ago, when my daughters were in middle school, I chose to stop buying sugared and diet sodas to have at home. I knew as a health care provider that diet sodas were an unlikely good choice for my family because they were loaded with chemicals to enhance the taste and appearance. My girls and my husband didn’t really complain much about my decision at the time. If they really wanted it, they could order sodas when we ate out.
Often we crave something sweet that will “pick us up” and diet sodas taste sweet and deliver the punch of caffeine to make us feel a little better for a short time after we drink them. (more…)
Healthy Food Buys
Wild-caught Salmon
This week Costco has wild caught sockeye Copper River salmon fillets for $9.99 per pound. Having grown up eating fresh caught salmon in Western Washington, I recognize Copper River as some of the best wild caught salmon available for a short time every year. The salmon is a deep red color naturally, high in omega 3 fats, exceptionally tender and grills easily on the BBQ. These fillets run (more…)
Organic Produce versus Agrichemical Produce
Last Saturday I dropped by our local farmers market in Calabasas for fresh produce. I had missed shopping at the farmers market for the last few weeks and was pleasantly surprised to see a bigger presence of US certified organic farmers. More importantly there were a couple hundred shoppers buying fresh organic produce, eggs and beef. Even at our local Ralphs super market, the organic section in produce has grown from a tiny section of vegetables and fruits just a few months ago to a triple tiered section that is about 25 feet long offering 46 different organic vegetables and fruits. (more…)
Introducing Food Fights
I am introducing a new column on my blog called Food Fights. Food Fights recognizes that there is a direct relationship between the food we choose to eat and our health. Food Fights purpose is to educate readers about food so healthy choices can be made (more…)
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