Category Archives: Lifestyle

Packing for a Healthy Road Trip

I was happy to be invited back to FOX19 Cincinnati this morning to share some tips for Packing for a Healthy Road Trip. It’s a topic close to my heart since I am getting lots of practice loading up the car with two adults, our three kiddos, the contents of our dressers, and a cooler full of reasonably healthy foods! Our family is spread out across the Midwest and Northeast and we try to make the rounds to visit them as often as we can – that’s a lot of miles in the car and a lot of meals on the road!

I’m sure you’re planning your own road trips this summer. How often have you fueled yourself on these trips with fast food, chips and candy from convenience stores, and bottle after bottle of soda? By the time you arrive at your destination, you feel icky and your energy is drained. That’s no way to start a vacation, and it doesn’t have to be that way. With a little advance planning, road trips don’t have to be diet disasters. In fact, you can arrive at your destination feeling terrific. And as Sheila noted this morning,  packing a cooler can save you money, too!

Here is the clip from the FOX 19 Morning Show to inspire you, as well as the recipe for the Healthy Chicken Salad I shared.

Here’s to summer of happy, healthy travel!

 

Healthy Chicken Salad

serves 4

about 175 calories per serving

Ingredients

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, poached, broiled or grilled, then shredded with your fingers or a fork or cut into small cubes   OR 2 – 8 oz. cans of chunk white meat chicken, drained

3-4 Tbsp. lowfat mayonnaise

1 tsp. Dijon or spicy mustard

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Optional: Add any of the following –  1/4 cup chopped celery, 1 Tbsp chopped parsley, 1 c. red grapes, halved, 2 Tbsp. chopped walnuts

 

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl and divide among 4 tortilla wraps. I like Ole Extreme Wellness High Fiber Tortillas (81 calories and 12 grams of fiber per wrap!).

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted in All blog posts, Featured on Home Page, Food, Lifestyle, Recipes on by .

Organically Organized

I was leafing through an issue of O magazine while drying my hair this morning (because really, when ELSE does one leaf through magazines?) and came across this quote from Peter Walsh, better known as Oprah’s Organization Guru. You’d recognize him as the guy who helps hoarders unearth their homes from years of accumulated clutter. That Peter Walsh.

His quote was “The words organic and organize have the same root. Organic makes me think of things that are fresh, natural, whole, and healthy—and organization brings the same mood into a space.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself! I often find that when people decide to get healthy, they simultaneously decide to get organized. It’s as if the two go hand in hand. When you begin to bring order to one aspect of your life, you’ll start to seek it in others. This natural gravitation to organization can be a catalyst to complete projects that have been languishing on your to-do list for quite some time.

Closet overhauled? Check.

Junk drawer emptied? Check.

Fridge shelves cleaned? Check.

Spice rack alphabetized? Check.

It’s hard to be healthy amid a pile of clutter. Have you ever seen a messy yoga studio? No, right? And don’t you feel healthier just by walking in the door? Yes! So, make that spa environment your inspiration for getting your surroundings in order to support the healthy habits you are trying to maintain.

Step back and assess your home environment. Look for messy places that drain your energy just by looking at them. Where can you eliminate some clutter and get organized in support of your organic lifestyle? You’ll be grateful for the space to sip that glass of fruit-infused water in your newly zen surroundings.

This entry was posted in All blog posts, Featured on Home Page, Lifestyle, Uncategorized on by .

Be a Healthy Living Superhero – No Cape Required

Note: This article first appeared in Cincy Chic, an online publication for which I am the monthly Healthy Living columnist.

When it comes to healthy living, sometimes we think we have to be super-heroes or heroines to make the magic happen. Able to work out daily at 5AM without an alarm clock! Able to resist the donuts and birthday cake on every floor of the office! Able to whip up healthy gourmet meals in the blink of an eye! It’s daunting to think that we may be missing some rare gene or bionic chip that is required to live well.

Yet, in my experience, being a superhero is simply not required. Instead, healthy living is all about stringing together small, intuitive, simple practices that together create a rhythm of vibrancy and vitality that will only make you FEEL like you have super powers.

Healthy living is not about extremes – there’s no need for ironclad willpower or a superhuman metabolism. There is no secret formula. It’s not about no carb or no fat or no red meat. It’s not about marathons and triathalons and insane workouts from infomercials. You don’t have to meditate for an hour a day.

Healthy living is far simpler than that. It’s about knowing yourself. It’s about having clear-minded intention and staying focused on how you want to feel and what you want from life. It’s about eating well, and moving your body. It’s about getting adequate rest and making ongoing adjustments to your lifestyle that continually raise your energy level. It’s about learning to be gentle with yourself as you make changes to the way you live.

I am fortunate to spend my days helping people figure out how to integrate healthy living practices into their lives. I’m no superhero and neither are my clients, but together we are able to transform lives, one small step at a time.

If you’re reading this and wondering where to begin, I would suggest you start by choosing one practice you think you can implement with consistency beginning today. Just one.

  • Eat breakfast.
  • Or spend 10 minutes stretching in the morning.
  • Or upgrade your donut to a bowl of oatmeal.
  • Or get 8 hours of sleep.
  • Or drink one fewer soda each day.
  • Or go for a walk at lunchtime.

You probably have a list much longer than this in mind of healthy habits you could do or should do. But remind yourself that you don’t have to do them all at once. Just pick one thing that you believe with all your heart you can do…and see how doing it makes you feel. When you connect your chosen action with the inevitable result of feeling better, you’ll be far more apt to repeat it, and to find the next action, and then the next. On and on you’ll go until before you know it, your life has been transformed. Choose one thing and commit.

You can do it, Wonder Woman.

This entry was posted in All blog posts, Featured on Home Page, Food, Lifestyle on by .