Category Archives: Lifestyle

The First Run…

Saturday was a landmark day! I went for my first run in 8 months and BOY was it a high! There are only two things that could get me to take that long of a break from running – pregnancy or a serious injury. This time, Baby #3 was the cause of my running hiatus and at 3 weeks postpartum, I was thrilled to feel good enough to officially hit the road again. I’d kept up with the elliptical machine and strength training during my pregnancy, but running was against my doctor’s orders. And running is what I’d been longing to do.

I firmly believe that the key to having regular exercise in your life is to find things that you love to do – activities that draw you to them. If you hate to run, then you are not going to get out there every day and log the miles. You’re going to pull the covers over your head and say “maybe tomorrow.” So while this post is about my love of running, I hope you’ll use it as inspiration to find what YOU love. Maybe it’s tennis, or Jazzercise, or the Wii Fit, or kickboxing, or spinning, or WHATEVER turns you on. I urge you to keep exploring options until you discover something that lights you up. Because when you do, you will never look back. That activity will call your name, drawing you out of bed or out of your office and into the gym or onto the field. And you will willingly, gladly, eagerly respond.

How do I know this? Because I absolutely love to run. Ever since I first discovered the mood-enhancing, endorphin-releasing, calorie-torching power of a long run on a warm sunny day 13 years ago I’ve been hooked. I’ve dabbled in all sorts of distances from the rather long (including several marathons – 26.2 miles each) to the rather short (like Saturday’s run) and everything in between. No matter the distance (okay, maybe except for those last few miles of a full marathon) I love every single second that I’m out there; I think better, feel better, look better and am a better wife-mother-daughter-friend when I am running regularly. It’s not about the distance or the speed for me; it’s really just about being out there! And often, about with whom I’m sharing the road.

Some of my closest friendships have been built on running trails as we’ve logged miles and shared the humdrum fabric of our day-to-day lives. We’ve worked through significant life decisions, comforted one another, and slain demons together during these runs. Laughter, tears, and quiet companionship each have had their place as the seasons have changed and our lives have marched on.

I ran solo on Saturday. I’m not fully back up to speed yet and my running friends would be seriously slowed down if they were to run with me right now. Being out there alone is fun in a different kind of way – I’m focused on the exhilaration of breathing and moving and feeling the wind on my face. It’s pure running. But I’m glad that one day soon, I’ll hear footsteps landing next to mine and there will be new stories to mark the miles.

Photo Credit: The Running Bug

The Power of Zzzzzzz

I used to think sleep was overrated – my philosophy mandated that I squeeze as much activity as possible into every 24 hour period, lest I miss something! Rest was for the weak. The less I slept, the more productive I believed I was! I lived this way throughout my youth and my 20s and maybe even the first year or two of my 30s…but I’ve changed my tune.

So what do I believe now? I believe sleep is grossly under-valued. We take it for granted, those of us who generally get a good stretch of it every night. I suppose that the chronically or severely sleep deprived have a better handle on the true value of sleep than the rest of us, since the absence of it makes its value painfully clear. I have great empathy and respect for night shift employees, those who suffer from insomnia or sleep-related disorders, etc. And at the moment I can relate just a teensy bit as the mother of a newborn. My 2-week-old daughter is actually a good sleeper so far, going 3-4 hours between feedings and not waking up much otherwise during the night; relative to some newborn behavior, I clearly have nothing to complain about! Nonetheless, the interrupted and shortened nights I’ve been living with lately have reminded me of how valuable good sleep is to my overall health and well being! With just 2-3 hours a night shaved off my norm, I can see and feel negative effects on my skin, my eyes, my patience, my energy level, and my temperament. In my go-go-go days gone by, I’m not sure I even noticed the ill effects my lack of sleep and rest were having on my body, but now I’m acutely aware of the impact of lost sleep and inadequate rest.

At Nourish, I eventually talk with all of my clients about Rest. Rest with a capital “R” encompasses sleep, but also includes other forms of recovery and rejuvenation (like quietly reading a favorite book or magazine or sipping a lemonade in a lawn chair). But sleep? It’s at the very core of Rest.

Why? Because sleep has physical and psychological benefits that can’t be overlooked. To highlight just a few:

Cellular Repair
As we sleep, the cells in our bodies produce proteins that repair damage inflicted by stress, exercise, pollutants, and all sorts of other things we battle during our waking hours. The more sleep we get, the more restoration our bodies can perform.

Easier Weight Maintenance
Adequate sleep is believed to keep two appetite-regulating hormones (leptin which signals fullness and ghrelin which stimulates the feeling of hunger) in check. When they are in the right range, you are less likely to overeat. Beyond that, people who are overtired have less willpower to make healthy food choices – they are more tempted by sugar, caffeine and snacks with their promise of quick hits of energy.

Enhanced Focus and Alertness
Simply put, sleep refreshes us. We are more alert and can think better, drive better, and perform better after a good night of sleep.

Improved Memory

Sleep has a positive effect on short term memory, allowing the brain to consolidate information taken in throughout the day so that it can be more easily recalled. This is why the ubiquitous college “all nighter” is counterproductive – wrapping up a study or work session and getting some sleep actually improves performance the next day.

Increased Energy
I used to believe that NOT sleeping a lot increased my productivity – I had more waking hours to get things done, right? Wrong. What I know now is that getting enough sleep actually boosts my energy level and focus so dramatically that I’m able to get more done in less time.

Better Skin and Clearer Eyes
Pick up virtually any women’s magazine and you’ll find an article touting the benefits of sleep on skin and eyes. When you haven’t slept enough, it shows. Simple as that.

More Even Temperament
Tired people are prone to mood swings, anxiety, anger and depression. Simply getting more sleep can help to regulate all of these emotional conditions, thereby improving relationships and overall quality of life.

Most adults need between 7 and 8 hours of sleep a day to perform at their peak. Yet many people today pride themselves on how LITTLE sleep they need. Haven’t you heard people bragging that they can get by on 4 or 5 hours? To that I say, if you feel great on 4-5 hours of sleep, just IMAGINE how you’d feel on 7!

Having learned and experienced the benefits of sleep, it’s now easier for me to justify an afternoon nap after a rough night with the baby. It’s easier to choose to go to bed early vs. staying up to finish one more thing on my never-ending To Do list. It’s easier to make those choices because I know they will pay dividends in all the benefits outlined above.

My hope is that you’ll give yourself the gift of experiencing these benefits firsthand by ensuring that you, too, are getting enough Zzzzzzzs.


Do What You Love…

First things first! I’m thrilled to announce that we have a new addition to our family! Brooke Arianna, our third child, was born on Friday evening and she is practically perfect in every way. Our whole world has been turned upside down in the best of ways, as I suspect has happened throughout history for everyone blessed with a new child. There’s a never-ending list of newborn needs, two other children beside themselves with excitement, visitors to entertain and major sleep deprivation…and yet, I’m blogging. It might make you ask “WHY?!”

In fact, throughout my pregnancy I was often asked how much time I planned to take off with this baby. With each of my other two, I took a one-year maternity leave from my corporate marketing job to fully immerse myself in being a mom! Those were two incredible and memorable years filled with wonderful moments and I wouldn’t change a thing about them. But there is something different this time around that is leading me to take a different approach. What’s different? I am doing what I LOVE.

I simply can’t imagine wanting to “take a year off” from my work with Nourish because it never really feels like work to me at all! I love every second of meeting new prospective clients, speaking about wellness topics, working with clients 1:1, leading group classes, researching wellness topics, blogging, creating new content for classes, working on marketing plans and ideas, testing recipes, you name it! Sometimes I feel like I’m cheating because I’m getting paid to have so much fun! And yet, isn’t that exactly how life should be?

Have you ever had a morning when you woke up before the alarm because what you had scheduled for that day literally drew you out of bed and into the activity? It may have been something at work or something for leisure, but I hope you’ve experienced that feeling of anticipation where getting out of bed outweighed the appeal of staying under the covers. Lately, I have been experiencing that feeling every day! And it’s the most incredible thing. In fact, it’s my wish for you. To discover a life you love, one that fuels you with energy as you apply your talents to worthwhile work – at home or outside the home. I feel so blessed to be living my own version of that life.

So…you’ll continue to hear from me throughout these chaotic and amazing newborn days and beyond. For now, Brooke is my most precious reason for being drawn out of bed and into my day…but I’m so grateful that my work is a source of energy for me as well. What are YOU doing to discover the life you love? Are you living it yet?