https://www.facebook.com/113507381630131/

Nourish Your Health & Healing, Lancaster, PA (2025)

05/21/2024

May is a month when the colors and diversity of nature are at their most striking 💐. As plants and animals burst forth with life, it feels like a natural time of rebirth and nurturing - so there’s no better time than May to recharge our food choices with beauty, nutrients, and diversity!

One of the best ways to eat a diverse diet is to think about making our plates as colorful as nature itself. With a spectrum of fruits and veggies to choose from, each color in the rainbow represents a different set of nutrients and benefits. So, this May, let’s make our plates as colorful as the flowers blooming outside!

🍓🌶️🍎🍒🍅🥕🍌🍋🌽🍍🥭🥑🥝🍏🥬🫑🥦🥒🫛🫐🍇🍆

04/24/2024

April is Stress Awareness Month. Though it’s no secret that we live in stressful times, stress can sneak up on us, and it can start affecting our physical and mental well-being without our noticing it at all!

Eventually, however, the effects of stress will get so loud that we can’t help but notice them. And if we ignore the root cause, stress can start to disrupt our lives in a variety of ways - possibly even leading to health crises we could have avoided had we reacted earlier.

Fortunately, we can help prevent that from happening by being aware of our stress levels and using a few easy techniques to manage stress. In fact, the best time to start making stress management a part of your daily routine is when you’re not feeling that stressed! That way, de-stressing can become a habit, and when times get particularly tough, you’ll be more ready to deal with the challenges.

Prioritizing stress management doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. It can be as simple as exercising (simple movement you enjoy will do), spending time with loved ones, or just taking regular breaks to focus on your breath. Practices like these often feel so basic that we underestimate their effects – or leave them out of our schedules entirely. But along with being basic, these techniques are powerful… So powerful, in fact, that practiced consistently over time, they can be life-changing.

Remember, it’s okay to take time to help yourself, and it’s okay to ask for help if you need it. Stress is an inevitable part of life, but with the right tools & habits, we can all become more resilient in the face of it. So, here’s to Stress Awareness Month!

04/04/2024

Happy International Carrot Day! 🥕

Until recently, I’d never even heard of Carrot Day… but I felt quite happy when I discovered it on Google!

Have you noticed that most holidays (at least those dedicated to a specific person or subject) seem to fit into two categories?

The first category includes those holidays dedicated to a special and/or unique person we revere and honor in our celebration; think Martin Luther King Jr. Day, for example.

The other category encompasses celebrations of the regular, commonplace things we tend to take for granted; things like mothers 👩‍👧, the Earth 🌎, burritos 🌯…or even Star Wars!

Without a doubt, the International Carrot Day falls into the latter category. Carrots are so readily available and easy to eat that we don’t think much about them… but what a treat and gift the humble carrot truly is!

Carrots are high in Vitamin A, fiber, and antioxidants. They’re known for being good for eyesight, but they’re such nutritional powerhouses that they’re a great contribution to overall health and well-being. So, in celebration of International Carrot Day, I wanted to share my four favorite ways to eat plenty of carrots:

• Raw carrots and hummus (or any healthy dip you like!)
• Juicing (carrots’ natural sweetness adds a pleasant element to many other juices)
• Roasting (tossing them with olive oil, garlic, and herbs and then roasting them until they caramelize makes a delectable side dish)
• Baking treats (carrot muffins, cakes, and cookies are delicious and wholesome)

So let’s all raise a carrot (and eat it) in honor of this amazing vegetable on its special day!

03/29/2024

Each year, spring brings us a bounty of delicious and nutritious foods. Asparagus, artichokes, spinach, kale, rhubarb, peas, and fresh herbs are just some of the seasonal delicacies we get to enjoy this time of year!

Though it’s especially rewarding to enjoy a food that you (or someone else) pulled straight from the ground, there are many spring foods that you can’t just rinse and eat. Some require a little seasoning and preparation, and for many people, that poses the biggest barrier to enjoying fresh produce year-round.

Luckily, all it takes is a few good recipes to make seasonal food & meal prep easy and tasty! 😋

One of my favorite simple spring pleasures is a spinach recipe I return to again and again. It’s basically a non-dairy creamed spinach. You can eat it as a stand-alone dish, add other seasonal veggies to make it even heartier, or use it as a sauce for pasta or rice. What could be better than a tasty, nutritious, multi-purpose meal? Here’s the recipe:

03/17/2024

Spring is a natural time for rebirth and new beginnings. As we witness nature blooming all around us, many of us feel the urge to imitate our environment with some new beginnings of our own – whether that’s jumping into spring cleaning or trying new things.

When most of us think of spring cleaning, we think of things like organizing our drawers and giving away stuff we don’t use anymore.

While I love a good old-fashioned dust & declutter, when I think spring cleaning, I like to think beyond my physical surroundings. Spring is a perfect time to reboot your wellness routine so you can feel re-energized for the year to come!

1️⃣ DECLUTTERING YOUR MIND: Just like the closets & drawers in your home, over time, your mind can become cluttered. In place of the old rolls of tape & miscellaneous knick-knacks that fill your junk drawer, your mind gets filled up with thoughts, memories, hopes, and anxieties – though, unlike dust, you can’t just wipe away old memories and feelings. What you can do is learn to give your mind a break by practicing mindfulness. One simple yet effective way to practice mindfulness is to pause and take a few deep breaths a couple times a day. As you do it, focus on your breath - in and out - which will help pull you out of the “focus autopilot” most of us fall into. Another approach is to journal and focus on your thoughts in a concentrated way, dumping them out onto paper or on a screen. This tends to give you more perspective and stop the cycle of mulling over things or ruminating. This can also leave you feeling more focused and refreshed!

2️⃣ REFRESHING YOUR DIET: This one is so simple it only involves things we’ve all heard a million times before–incorporate more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole foods, and cut down on processed foods and sugar. As basic as they are, when practiced consistently for a little while, these changes can leave you feeling surprisingly nourished and refreshed.

3️⃣ RE-ENERGIZING YOUR EXERCISE: One of the best ways to shake off those winter blues is to get out and move in the warmer, sunnier weather we’re starting to have now. Getting some sunshine ups your Vitamin D and the smells, sounds, and sights of nature are naturally uplifting. It’s almost like seeing nature on the move makes you want to move yourself.

You can also look at what a fresh start in spring would personally mean for you. Maybe you want to get more sleep, or change your sleeping hours. Maybe it’s time to experiment with new foods or a new hobby. Whatever feels right to you, here’s to a refreshing, re-energizing Spring!

02/29/2024

February is Heart Health Awareness Month! ❤️

It’s kind of funny that we need to devote a month to something that we should always be thinking about, but when it comes to our health, it’s easy to get distracted. Our attention tends to go to the newest and most unexpected information, and that’s not always helpful.

You know those studies that aim to shock you with some unexpected health benefit or health risk you’ve “never heard before”❓ If you do, you probably also know that, with time, most of these “shocking studies” turn out to be incomplete or inaccurate 🤯.

🍀 Luckily, when it comes to heart health, there’s good news: what we need to know and do to take care of our heart doesn’t really change. That means it can be pretty simple to implement healthy heart practices as long as we stay focused.

So here are the simple things that lead to better heart health. They might sound boring, but if you reframe that thought and focus on their simplicity, you might just find a reason to celebrate!

• Know your numbers: Be aware of your blood pressure and cholesterol
• Heart-healthy eating: Eat more whole foods, fewer processed ones, and consume more fiber and less saturated fat
• Exercise: Find a way to move your body that you enjoy enough to make a regular part of your life
• Stress less: Try to do things that help you feel calm, and even make you smile, on a daily basis

02/28/2024

Back when I used to do my workouts in a gym, I looked forward to mid-February because that was when the crowds thinned out and I could get back to using any piece of equipment I wanted.

These days, I work out at home. During one of my recent workouts, I found myself wondering… What caused all those people to give up their fitness goals just a month or two into the new year?

It’s a common phenomenon: People set goals they feel good about, and yet in just a few weeks or months, they feel down about those goals and disappointed in themselves.

If that’s happening to you, know you’re not alone! You might be starting to feel your motivation slip, and you may feel stuck and a little disappointed. It’s perfectly normal, and luckily, there IS a way to turn it around so you can still feel good about yourself and the year ahead!

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Do the goals that you set still feel aligned with what you really want? Are they realistic and attainable? If your answer is “no” to any of those three things, then let’s do a little fine-tuning.
First off, if your goal no longer feels aligned, it may be time to drop the goal and choose another that’s more meaningful. For example, someone with a weight loss goal might really feel better with a goal to just feel better in her body and have more energy. So alignment is the first thing to look at.

Now, if your goal doesn’t feel realistic or attainable, but you still want it, then it’s time to explore whether the goal needs to be broken down further. A goal will never feel attainable or realistic if you feel overwhelmed whenever you think about it.

For example, if your goal is to give up sugar, you might find yourself thinking about the sweet treats you’re craving all the time and wondering if it’s even worth it. A kinder approach to take with yourself is to set a smaller, more achievable goal like this: This week, I will limit my sugar to once a day. Do you see how this is measurable and time-limited? It’s easy to know whether you’re meeting this goal and there is an end in sight.

This doesn’t mean you’ll go back to your old way at the end of the week… it just means you can evaluate what’s working and what isn’t! Then you can set another goal – whether it’s time to increase the challenge, decrease the challenge, or keep at it for another week. And of course, celebrate your effort at the end of the week!

Also, please don’t think you have to have done it perfectly to celebrate. We tend to focus on all the ways we fall short, but it’s much more helpful to think about all the things we did right and give ourselves a pat on the back.

Part of this is about self-compassion, and self-compassion comes from breaking out of all-or-nothing thinking. Life is often challenging, and *nobody* is perfect. But acknowledging yourself for striving for better self-care, and for taking steps that are positive and meaningful to you even when you don’t do them perfectly, is a major part of creating a year that’s happier and healthier.

02/13/2024

Valentine’s Day can make you think of the perfect romantic love. The love that makes you rush out to buy someone a card, chocolate, jewelry, etc. And on the heels of that, it might make you think how imperfect your love is or it might make you long for that kind of love and even feel lonely. Whatever you’re feeling about Valentine’s Day, you can be sure many other people are feeling the same thing.

So what a great time to go beyond all the marketing and actually think about putting love into action for yourself. Not the love that’s dependent on another special person in your life (although if you have that, definitely celebrate that, too), but the love of yourself. Most of us don’t feel self-love all the time, but love is so much more than a feeling. Maybe the most important part of love is the part that involves doing – that warm, kind, compassionate way of being that love inspires.

How can we turn that kindness and compassion on within ourselves? One of the most powerful ways is to practice being present. At any given moment, whatever concerns are on your mind, it’s great to return to the present, and ask yourself what is the most positive, loving action I can take right now? Also, whatever challenges you may be going through (and we’re all always facing some kind of challenges), build in breaks to notice and appreciate the positive.

Here’s to a Valentine’s Day that’s filled with kind actions toward yourself!

01/29/2024

It’s a New Year! Once you get to a certain age, it’s almost a cliche to say that New Year’s resolutions don’t work. We’ve all started a year (or many years) with a promise that somehow, we’re going to be different. This is the year we’ll get in shape, give up sugar, stop snapping at people we love, etc… But the problem is that a resolution is basically just a promise that we’re going to be different than we’ve been before - and that almost never works!

Thankfully, there *is* a better way to approach a new year, and it doesn’t mean giving up your intent to make it a bit better than the year before.

Instead of thinking about resolutions, let’s think about what a goal really is. When we set a goal, we’re identifying a new behavior that we want to turn into a habit. And a habit is just a goal that we no longer need to think about. So the first step to making a change that helps us reach a goal is to make a small commitment that’s easy to put into practice.

For example, let’s say you want to eat less sugar and right now you have a habit of eating ice cream every evening. If you tell yourself “this year, I’m not going to eat ice cream!”, it probably won’t last too long. Instead, you could tell yourself “this week, rather than eating ice cream in the evening, I’m going to eat a delicious, blended no-added sugar fruit sorbet.” (Making this sorbet is as simple as putting semi-thawed frozen berries in a blender with a touch of stevia to taste.)

Do you see how small and specific that is? It doesn’t just eliminate an unwanted behavior – it gives you a positive replacement that can feel just as good! The beauty of this approach is it’s time-bound, so you’re only committing to do it for a week. Then, if it goes well, you can commit to it again. And if it doesn’t go so well, you can recommit the following week, or change the goal… no self-blame or beat-up necessary!

Are you getting a sense of how this can work? The important things to consider are this: What behavior do I want to let go of or change? What behavior am I going to replace it with? How long am I committing to do it for? (A shorter time period is better, as you’re more likely to succeed!). What feelings or circumstances might get in the way? (Knowing these will help you mentally prepare for them so they don’t derail you.)

And don’t forget to acknowledge yourself for what you have achieved, no matter how small, at the end of the time period you committed for. For example, at the end of your no ice cream week, tell yourself what a good job you’ve done, and even reward yourself in some healthy way that feels good.

12/24/2023

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season can be stressful. Even in the best of years, many of us alternate between magical heart-warming moments and feelings of overwhelm. What a perfect time of year to unwrap the gift of stress reduction!

After all, when you’re less stressed, it’s a gift to you *and* everyone else in your life. Here are a few ways to destress this holiday season!

1️⃣ Set realistic expectations for yourself and others: Focus on creating meaningful moments and memories rather than trying to live up to an idealized version of the holiday season.

2️⃣ Plan ahead: Procrastination can lead to last-minute holiday chaos, which can lead to emotional pain. To avoid that, try planning early, creating a to-do list of achievable goals for decorating, gift shopping, and meal planning.

3️⃣ Establish boundaries: Learn to say no when necessary (often this is a yes to you and self-care). Prioritize your time and energy for activities that truly matter to you and your loved ones.

4️⃣ Practice self-care: Don’t forget to take care of yourself in order to relax and recharge.

5️⃣ Delegate and share responsibilities: Don’t try to do everything on your own in an effort to create the perfect holiday for your family and/or loved ones. Realize you deserve to have a great holiday, too, and delegate some of the holiday tasks to those you’re sharing the holiday with.

6️⃣ Focus on gratitude: Take time to reflect on what you’re grateful for during the holiday season, no matter how small. Gratitude helps shift focus away from stressors and toward the beauty and joys of the season.

7️⃣ Eat mindfully: We’re surrounded by tempting treats during the holidays, so it’s easy to overindulge. To avoid putting a damper on your health or mood, focus on savoring your favorite foods and eating them slowly.

8️⃣ Stay active: Exercise releases endorphins which are natural stress relievers. So physical activity is an excellent way to reduce stress and boost your mood.

12/10/2023

The holiday season brings together two things that can do a number on your immune system: cold weather and the ongoing busyness of social commitments!

It can be fun… and stressful. Either way, it’s a great time to boost your immunity and ensure you stay healthy so you can enjoy the season to its fullest.

Here are a few of the top ways to boost your immunity. This is stuff we all know but almost all forget to do this time of year.

1️⃣ Maintain a Balanced Diet 👉 with plenty of fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean protein.
2️⃣ Stay Hydrated 👉 with plenty of water (herbal teas and infused water are great, too!).
3️⃣ Get Enough Sleep 👉 Travel and parties may keep you up late into the night sometimes. But as much as you can try to maintain a consistent sleep routine so your body can repair and recharge.
4️⃣ Manage Stress 👉 Since chronic stress can weaken the immune system, sprinkling in moments of stress-reduction such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing, and taking short breaks is a simple and powerful thing to do for yourself this time of year.
5️⃣ Regular Exercise 👉 Even short bursts of exercise can boost immunity by improving circulation, reducing inflammation, and elevating your mood.
6️⃣ Be Mindful of Alcohol and Sugar Intake 👉 It’s okay to enjoy some of the treats of the holiday season, but since alcohol and excessive sugar can suppress the immune system, try to avoid overindulging to the point that it takes a toll on how you feel and your overall well-being.

Remember that maintaining a healthy immune system is a year-round commitment, so continuing your self-care practices is one of the best gifts you can give yourself over the holidays.

11/23/2023

Taking care of yourself during the holiday season can be tough.

Even when we’d feel better saying “no”, the social expectations and guilt that often comes with the holidays can tempt us to say “yes” to anything and everything that comes our way.

When that whirlwind 🌪️ of “yesses” leads us to put self-care on the backburner, all the holiday events, food, and social commitments can leave us feeling stressed and overwhelmed 😩 – and that can lead to flare-ups.

Each of us has a limit to our willpower; there’s only so much we can resist throughout the day!

One highly effective way to avoid the negative impacts of willpower fatigue is to plan ahead 📆 . To ensure that I care for my mind and body when life gets crazy, I do a little pre-planning each day for the day to come!

I don’t create a rigid or packed schedule, and I avoid making big to-do lists… those things can just lead to more stress.

Instead, I make a short list of *essential* self-care elements I commit to practicing the following day, regardless of what happens. They’re often simple practices like getting some movement 🏃‍♀️ , eating a few foods that truly nourish my body 🥬, paying attention to my breath 🧘‍♀️, or making time to pause or rest throughout the day.

I tend to make my list for the day each morning, and I even put sticky notes around my house as reminders of what I’m going to do. You might prefer to write your list on a piece of paper 📝 or on your phone 📱 the night before; I encourage you to find a practice that feels easy and works for you!

Planning your self-care in advance can make a big difference in your wellbeing 😌. What self-care routines will you practice this holiday season❓

Nourish Your Health & Healing

05/21/2024

04/24/2024

04/04/2024

03/29/2024

03/17/2024

02/29/2024

02/28/2024

02/13/2024

01/29/2024

12/24/2023

12/10/2023

11/23/2023

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category