Category Archives: Lifestyle

One woman’s breakfast table wakeup call

This is a guest post written by Paige Engle, one of my coaching clients. When she told me this story about her daughter’s “healthy breakfast” and how it had become the wake up call that began her journey toward upgrading her family’s diet, I asked her to share it for the blog!

I love to see the connections and changes that my clients make so quickly when we begin to work together. Paige is doing a terrific job of paying attention to where she can make simple changes to continuously upgrade her family’s eating patterns. See if you can learn anything from this true story – and share your insights with me in comments or on Facebook!

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I am not sure what triggered my concern for sugars in my daughter’s diet.  Maybe it was a magazine article or something on the news.  Anyway, I felt like I was already ahead of the game since my kids do not drink soda and almost never have juice boxes or juice other than orange juice (orange juice must be super healthy–right?).  Being very much the amateur at reading labels I decided to just see how much sugar my daughter was consuming at breakfast.  Her average breakfast was this:  1 blueberry Eggo waffle, 1 helping of strawberry yogurt, fresh fruit such as strawberries and cantaloupe, 8 ounce glass of Tropicana orange juice.  Seems okay, right?  Hey, it wasn’t donuts and a juice box!  Well, all other issues such as whole grains, fats, sodium aside, I was astounded by how much sugar was in her breakfast.  As I said, I can’t remember why I was fixated on the sugar part of it, but here is the breakdown:

1 blueberry waffle: 3 grams sugar
Medium helping of strawberry yogurt: 9 grams of sugar
Fresh fruit: didn’t know how to count this, but since plain fruit is super healthy let it go
8 oz orange juice:  22 grams of sugar (YIKES)

Total: 34 grams of sugar (not counting sugar from fresh fruit)

So, my poor daughter was starting her day on a sugar high!  The World Health Organization says an average 50 grams of sugar per day is okay for an adult male.  BUT the American Heart Association has a different opinion on the matter.  The AHA says for an average adult woman it should be 24 grams per day (an adult man 36 grams).  My daughter was almost at the adult male total of sugar grams per day and she had only eaten breakfast!  Did I mention she was only 4 years old?  So, what did I do?  I admit she still gets the waffle as it is easy for me to pop in the toaster in the morning.  The plain waffles have less sugar than the blueberry.  She gets healthier yogurt with way less sugar (any “fruit” flavored yogurt has way more sugar than plain or even most vanilla flavors). The fresh fruit is still there. The biggest culprit was the orange juice.  Who would have thought that?!?  Anyway, now I give her 1/4 the amount I used to and add some water to it to make it about a 4 ounce size and that is her orange juice for the day.  I rarely give her any more orange juice the rest of the day.  Would it be better if she had whole grain/high fiber toast with low sugar peanut butter?  Sure!  But she won’t eat that.  Someday–sigh.  Why can’t I just give her broccoli for breakfast . . . hey, that’s a great idea . . .why not?!?

In conclusion, I have been working with Cherylanne at Nourish to learn to read food labels.  Now I know I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.  I am taking steps, however small they may be, to look at ALL things in the foods my family eats: whole grains, carbs, fiber, fats, sodium, protein, and, of course, sugars.  I feel good about it!!   Now, I would never claim to be anywhere near where Cherylanne is with nutrition, but I am moving in the right direction.  Plus Cherylanne has gotten me to a point where I get up and work out EVERY day.  Now that is a true feat!  Thanks Cherylanne.

– Paige Engle, Cincinnati, OH

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Begin Making Tiny Movements

(as originally posted 3/4/11)

At the end of each yoga class, our instructor settles us into “savasana” (alternately spelled shavasana), a pose in which we lie flat on our backs, perfectly still, for a few minutes of meditative silence. With nothing but a fan whirring overhead or (if we’re lucky) birds chirping outside, it’s the quietest moment of my day. It’s a period of complete rest, no matter how short-lived. When it’s time to end savasana, the instructor asks us to “begin making tiny movements with our fingers and toes” before we raise ourselves to a seated position and end the class with a single “om”.

That phrase “begin making tiny movements” has stuck with me for several weeks now. It seems to be a choicefully selected phrase, notable for its specificity. Not big movements. Not “okay, sit up now.” But “Begin making tiny movements…” For a room full of women who’ve just been completely at rest, tiny movements are about all we want to muster.

Then, this week, I read this little nugget on the Peace & Projects blog written by  Melissa Gorzelanczyk, and I thought “Aha!”

I’ll include it here so you can read it for yourself.

“Focus on tiny movements. That’s all it takes to change your life. If you want to quit smoking, you can stop putting a cigarette in your mouth and lighting the end. Once you master the way you move, you can do anything. You can decide to write instead of go out to lunch. You can put away the beer and go to bed early. You can feel your feet on the ground for a run. Movements, no matter how small, shape your entire life. How you go through the motions is up to you.”

So true. Change is simply a series of tiny movements strung together. It’s making “the next right choice” and every moment is a new chance to get it right.  I’ve blogged before about momentum and how it can be a helpful force if you are on the right track. But if you find yourself on the wrong track, one that doesn’t serve your goals, then perhaps the best thing you can do is to still yourself.  Completely.  Stop everything.  Find your own Savasana. And when you’re ready, begin making tiny movements… strung together, they’ll change your life.

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Shoebox Letters – Daughters to Dads

When’s the last time you wrote a letter? Not an email or a text, but an honest to goodness old fashioned letter?

My friend, Clay Brizendine, recently compiled a collection of letters from daughters to their dads for publication. He asked me to be a contributor and I happily obliged.

In a moment of perfect synchronicity, his request came just before my dad’s 70th birthday. I accepted the nudge to thank my dad for the role he’s played in my life so far. Here’s how my letter began:

Dear Dad,

Your 70th birthday has given me a good reason to reflect on our relationship at this stage of my life, and on what your role as my dad means to me.

I’ve thought back over your unfailing presence in my life – the days and weeks and years through which you’ve fathered like a steady heartbeat – dependable, rhythmic, never missing a beat. I’ve recounted the million hours of playtime, the thousands of tuck-ins and kisses goodnight, the countless chauffeured car trips. I’ve remembered the mended broken things and books read aloud and the meals shared. I’ve relived the moments for which you were there – no matter the sacrifice of work, leisure, or sleep. I’ve thought about the emails sent from your office and the phone calls made from the car, the advice dispensed in person. I’ve recalled the hours of grandparenting and home improvements and family dinners that have filled our recent years…

 

Writing was easy for me because I have a great dad and a lifetime of happy memories on which to reflect.

Not so for all of Clay’s contributors to Shoebox Letters – Daughters to Dads. Unlike mine, some of the letters unmask deep hurts and brokenness. Not all father-daughter relationships are alike but in the end each one reflected some aspect of deep and abiding love from child to parent, daughter to dad. In fact, Clay learned so much about the textured relationship between dads and daughters (he has two of his own!) that he was able to extract some key themes around which to organize the book.

I think even more importantly than what he learned about dads and daughters, Clay confirmed his hunch that there is magic in the written word – magic we’re losing in the technological shorthand of today that can be reclaimed by putting pen to paper and sealing an envelope.

At the end of the book, Clay encourages everyone to write a letter of their own – I’d urge you to do the same.

Whose day could you make by writing to them from your heart? Dig out that stationery and let the magic unfurl.

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