Category: Health & Fitness

Understanding and Honoring Your Energy

In the last post I mentioned starting a new project, and with starting any new project I dive in 100%. The excitement and working with people I love is what drives me.

However, the twist to this was that it requires 60% travel along the west coast.

Now, I haven’t traveled this much in years and what I’ve realized is that there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed! That’s an understatement of the year 😉

What’s changed this year compared to years prior is that I have a deep relationship with my body and my energy, and I know when I’m reaching my limit.

Continue reading “Understanding and Honoring Your Energy” →

Spring And Moving Forward

Where did the time go? It was as if it were just yesterday when I was savoring the holiday spirit and experimenting with gluten free baking, kombucha brewing, and all things HRV! And now it’s officially Spring?

I’ll tell you what happened – WORK! After taking a much needed break over the holidays and grounding myself in new interest while being close to family and friends, an old client (whom I adore!) called me asking to come back for another big project.

What was not so crazy (because really I know once you put something out there it typically comes back 😉 ) was that I had been truly thinking of my next client and how I wanted to feel the feelings of:

Continue reading “Spring And Moving Forward” →

Kombucha at home

Home Brewing Kombucha

I did it! As an avid consumer of kombucha I finally brewed my first batch of kombucha.

For years I wanted to brew my own kombucha but didn’t find the time to “tackle” venturing into this new territory. You see, the way I learn is to either go 1) ALL IN or 2) ensure I have read all that I can about the topic and dive in from there. You see back in 2006, from what I read from the interwebs at quick glance, it didn’t look like I could go ALL IN with 100% guarantee of a successful first batch so I waited until the time was right. And baby it’s now 😉

Funny side note, back in 2010 I was drinking GT’s kombucha on the daily. As I headed into a local health foods store for the week’s supply I was horrified to find the shelves where GT’s was normally placed to be empty! I quickly scanned the area around me and found a woman who worked in the store and asked her what was going on. She too, sadly informed me that GT’s was pulled from stores nationwide due to the high levels of alcohol content and wouldn’t be placed back on to shelves until it was dealt with. “Whaaaaaaaaaat?” was all I could muster and perhaps it was the saddened look on my face she told me to wait and after a few minutes handed me a couple of bottles from the back. If there was ever a time to start home brewing it was probably then! But back to original programming…

Continue reading “Home Brewing Kombucha” →

How The Flu Affects Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Man oh man, I got reminded of how much I hate being sick once again.

On a whim I decided to go to Portland for a day trip. We left at 7am, and here in the Pacific Northwest, depending on the weather, the day actually doesn’t brighten up until about 8:30am – 9:00am. That morning the sky was showing off in a fabulous way. The silhouette of the Cascade mountains, the sun peeking over from behind the mountains, and the sky…. the beautiful mix of orange, red, pink, and purple. It was a masterpiece.

And Portland? Portland was a blast! The coffee scene is on point and people are incredibly friendly. One of my favorite parts of the day was walking around the different neighborhoods and getting a feel for what each had to offer. I even had a chance to go to the Saturday farmer’s market and pick up a set of pasture raised farm fresh bacon. Let me just tell you – DELICIOUS!!!

Unfortunately I didn’t dress for the occasion and was freezing while walking around. I was lent a scarf and beanie which saved me from the worst misery 😉  Though I could tell by the way I was going from freezing one second to burning up another second that this wouldn’t end well.

Continue reading “How The Flu Affects Heart Rate Variability (HRV)” →

Connect To Your Heart In Minutes

Have you ever gotten so stressed from life, whether from work, family, relationships, obligations, that you feel disconnected from yourself?

Lately, when it comes to transforming stress, I’m realizing how important it is to take a step back and stop feeding the stress…and ultimately the story. Furthermore, I’m realizing there is power in the NOW, the present moment, to stop feeding the vicious cycle of stress.

One practice that I thought was particularly helpful is called Quick Coherence, a technique from the HeartMath solution. It involves three simple steps which I explain below:

Continue reading “Connect To Your Heart In Minutes” →

hrv

Experimenting with Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

In recent years I’ve heard of heart rate variability (HRV) time and time again. It was the newest thing to the quantified self but I had no interest… until now.

First, what is HRV? In short, HRV is an indicator of how well your body is managing stress. Over time, your personal HRV should be able to tell you whether or not you are ready for an intense workout, or if you should take it easy and go for a walk instead. If working out isn’t your thing, it can also indicate whether or not you have other stressors in your life, such as that big project you’re on at work, relationships, or simply taking on too much. Remember, your body doesn’t know the difference between mental/emotional/physical stress so it truly is about how well balanced you are with your life.

So why the sudden interest in HRV? Well, after experiencing adrenal fatigue, and knowing how I actually like the feeling after a hard training session, I thought it would be nice to find a way to measure A) how well my body was managing stress, and B) get a second opinion on how “ready” my body was to train for the day. While I’ve gotten a lot better with intuitively knowing when to rest and when to go hard, I also found that it’s pretty fun geeking out on this sort of thing too  🙂  Who knew?!

Before buying any gadgets I decided to first do my research. After scouring the internet and reading every article I could, I then read Mark Sisson’s Primal Endurance: Escape chronic cardio and carbohydrate dependency and become a fat burning beast!.

Here’s what I ended up purchasing as part of my arsenal. We’ll see how it goes in the next few months:

Continue reading “Experimenting with Heart Rate Variability (HRV)” →

Series on adrenal fatigue

How I Recovered from Adrenal Fatigue Pt. 4

I remember a time, after I first saw the cortisol test results, of scouring the internets in search of some testimony to how someone out there cured their adrenal fatigue. Anything. A book, a pill, a guru, yes… I was desperate.

I wrote about how I felt despair and a whole host of other emotions in previous posts and how at the end of the day, it was the core thoughts, beliefs and emotions that I needed to switch up in order to truly make recovery in leaps and bounds.

While I don’t discount the professionals I consulted and the plans I was on to help heal the adrenals, it all couldn’t have been possible without being at peace first.

Yes, thought management.

All that said, I do remember how I felt hoping I could find some source of information that could accelerate my path to recovery, and thought I should share a bit more on the supplements side of things.

Continue reading “How I Recovered from Adrenal Fatigue Pt. 4” →

Richmond District Farmer's Market. San Francisco, CA

The Zone vs. Paleo Journey

Yesterday I wrote about how I found Paleo and why I still follow this way of eating. I’ve found that it’s truly a lifestyle and I love the way it makes me feel.

While it may have sounded like an all too easy transition to cut grains, gluten, and processed foods, I wanted to share a bit more about why I was miserable on The Zone (Enter The Zone: A Dietary Road map), how it affected me psychologically, and how I made the transition to Paleo.

Continue reading “The Zone vs. Paleo Journey” →