New Year, New Blog, New Wellness “truth” to question

Saturday night, I waited up for my son to come home (do other parents do this, please advise) and then couldn’t get myself back to sleep. I’m sure the remnants of jet lag didn’t help matters. My body has no idea what time it is. I did what every sleep expert would advise against and started reading things on my phone. My phone wouldn’t have been next to the bed, if not for the teen at a late movie, but still.

I started scrolling through my Instagram feed. I am a little bit of a quote whore, so many people that I follow tend to post quotes. However, some are snarky and hilarious (my preference) and others are more of the annoying Instagram variety, you know what I’m referring to. I get it, I should love myself and some days I do. I read this quote “watch your habits not your weight.” At first glance, I was on board. Habits, and establishing them, are a good use of your time. Fixating on weight and the scale, we all know that helps us as much as a Mallomar when it comes to actually feeling good. But the commentary- and I realize many people respond to this type of thing, bugged me. The poster explained she is starting the year at a higher weight and it doesn’t matter because she now cares more about habits. I felt a pang of doubt, I call it my quote intuition. It happens when I read a quote, wait for it to inspire me, and sometimes react with “nope, that doesn’t work.”

Carolyn and I had lunch, ok hot toddy’s with some eggs on the side, on Friday. We talked about this recent ethos of “weight doesn’t matter.” And we weigh our clients backward, so it’s not like we’re weight fixated but, call it what you will, size matters (to some) J I feel accomplished when I take my vitamins or make my matcha. It feels good. But so does putting on my ski pants, or any pants for that matter, and feeling fit and pretty. If things fitting snugly or a muffin or mini muffin top doesn’t get under your skin, that’s great. But I don’t necessarily aspire to not care about size. I care about my house being decluttered, I love pretty flowers and I love feeling confident or sexy. I like that boost.

I’ve talked about this holier than thou social media movement before. Diet is a bad word, as is thin, forget skinny- the wellness elite will excommunicate you for that one.  But we all agree, I hope, in using our energy to feeling good, have less negativity and guilt. If, for one person, that means weighing more and accepting that, amazing. But feeling that way isn’t necessarily morally superior to putting on an outfit and liking that way it fits. It’s all about keeping it positive and knowing which camp you’re in. Speaking of camps, our New Year’s Squeeze week starts today. Good luck to our 50 Squeezers, many of whom have goals, of feeling "lighter", "leaner" and "debloated", at the end of the week.

Happy New Year!

P.S. How do you like the new blog? Any topics you’d like us to cover? Are you a size doesn’t matter person or does it matter to you?

The Secret to our Squeeze Programs

Squeezers Insta story

Carolyn and I are both R.Ds, we seek out and sample fab food products (many are not fab)  and have years of nutrition counseling under our belts (I hate belts btw, where did that expression come from). I’ve noticed that the extraordinary success participants, in our Squeeze weeks, have doesn’t entirely depend on these things. It sounds so simple, and not groundbreaking, but one reason these programs are successful is because participants are focused on their food. I’ll explain..

We all talk about the juggle. My juggle is parenting and working and working out and cooking and walking the dog. I’m getting anxious just listing these items, so I’ll stop there. But we all have various things demanding our focus. Inevitably, some ball, or more than one, gets dropped during any period of time. If we have an important project at work, that gets moved to the top of the list. Our kids are going back to school (ahem), there goes a couple of workouts that week. You can relate, right?

During our week-long programs, our Squeezers move wellness to the top of the list. There’s also the financial commitment and daily accountability but I’d say the overall focus is paramount. Some Squeezers leave work earlier in order to have dinner at a normal hour (we suggest an early bird dinner on the Squeeze). Or maybe, on a typical week the wine, yogurt and old olives in your fridge are sufficient but this week, you’re going to get to that long, lost grocery store (see photo above)

Once you’ve signed on for a healthier week, the added structure isn’t overwhelming. You’ve carved out time and cleared, or somewhat cleared, your calendar. Even clients forced to travel during these programs find they have resolve they previously didn’t. So try it, you may have to plan it a few weeks out. Carve out 5-7 days to do all those healthy things that’ve been marginalized.

And if you aren’t satisfied with my “secret” I teased in the title, check out our September Newsletter, “Two, new must-have items for a September reset.”

Our best Squeeze program yet and fave new ingredient

 Oh structure we missed you so. We are midway though our Foodtrainers’ September Squeeze fall reset weeks.  Week 1, led by Lauren, concluded Sunday and week 2, my week, is off and running (shout out to our Squeeze achievers doing both weeks).

We design a new program, with new recipes each time (why do less work when you can do more?) but we never really know how it will go until we have a group of all ages, living in all different places, going through it. Many of Lauren’s week 1 squeezers told us it was our best squeeze yet…nice!  We asked our week 1 Squeeze grads to tell us how they felt:

I feel back on track/more confident/able to say no/in control/clear-headed, rested and resolved to continue.

This Squeeze is NO booze, grains, sugar, cheese or scale (yup a full week no weigh ins).  While it sounds like a lot of no’s we have a lot of yes’s too. We select special ingredients and what we call “secret weapons” to spice things up. My favorite this go around is ashwaganda. Ashwagandha is tough to say and tough to drink. Sunpotion politely says it tastes a little “earthy”, we say it tastes like dirt, unless you have it in our OMG Ashwagandha recipe. Why should you “ash”? It’s an Ayurvedic herb, used for over 3000 years, that lowers cortisol, helps body handle stress, balances thyroid hormones and improves body composition and sleep.

Try Ashwaganda and our other new favorites in our Squeeze Bundle 

Squeeze Nightcap: OMG Ashwagandha

We love us some golden milk and this ashwagandha nightcap is a spin on the classic. Don’t stress out about our recipe, if you don’t have all of these it’ll be ok.

And if you are stressing out…all the more reason to try this.

Ingredients:

·      1/4 tsp. Sun Potion Ashwagandha

·      1/2 tsp. Wakaya turmeric

·      1/2 tsp. Wakaya ginger

·      1 cup water

·      Pinch sea salt 

·      Pinch black pepper (pepper increases the effectiveness of turmeric)

·      1 cup almond or coconut milk

·      Optional drops NuStevia (optional)

·      *Add more sea salt or stevia as needed 

Instructions:

1.    Put ashwagandha, turmeric, ginger, pepper and water into a small saucepan, add water and simmer 8-10 minutes or until this mixture reduces and thickens.

2.    Add almond milk and stir, continue until mixture is warm (a few minutes).

3.    Add salt and stevia (if using) and stir again.

4.    Pour into a mug and sip. OMG, you’ve been ashwagandha’d.

If you want a reset, let us know and we’ll put you on the list for January “Whipping Week” info.

So what do you do when you need to reboot? Have you heard of ashwaganda? Any nighttime rituals you’d like to share?