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Featured Weekly Tips

MENTAL WELLNESS: “Soul Food” by Golda

A 4 Part Plan for Dealing with Mild Food Allergies and Intuitive Eating

This week, consider trying my 4 Part Plan for intuitively eating while still attending to your food allergies. Click here to read the basic steps in more detail:

1) Take a deep breath and check in with your belly, and ask it what it wants.  

2) If you’re not getting a clear response, give it some non-allergenic options.  Try to pick foods from different categories until you hit on ones that feel right.

3) Feed yourself what your body is telling you. I truly believe that the vast majority of the time, if you’re checking in with your stomach, it’s going to lead you toward non-allergenic foods. If you find that this isn’t the case for you, consider the potential consequences of eating the allergenic food, and whether or not you think your body knows what’s best. Because this can be risky, it’s something that I would recommend chatting about with me, so that we can come up with what would work best for you, whether trying the food in question, looking for suitable alternatives, or even consulting your doctor.

4) Focus on feeling good, not being perfect. Eating well is about listening to your body and nourishing your body.

Want to learn more about whether or not this tip is appropriate for you considering your food allergies?  Then check out Soul Food.

NUTRITION: “Feed Your Life” by Sara

Reframing Our Thoughts: Harness the Power of Your Mind for Good, Young Padawan

Try this reframing exercise as a way of analyzing and challenging some of your more hurtful and negative thoughts: 

 •  Write down some of your most common and critical thoughts or phrases on a note card.
•  Alone or with a friend go through your stack of cards, flipping them up one at a time.
•  Each time a new thought card is up, refute the thought with logic and facts.  For example, if your thought is, “Boy, I sure am stupid,” state all the ways you are smart (e.g. you began combatting your negative self-talk!).  Refute your self-talk out loud and with conviction.
•  Go through your stack of thoughts often so that the process of negative self-talk refutation becomes second nature.

Learn more about minding your thoughts, the power of self-talk, and challenging your thoughts in this week’s Feed Your Life blog.

FITNESS: “Fitness For All” by Sue

Move Your Body Once More a Day than You did the Week Before

Here are some suggestions by Jon Robison to get you started:

~ Park further away from the entrance to your work.
~ On a daily basis, take 1 flight of stairs and catch the lift the rest of the way.  Increase the amount of stairs when and if it feels comfortable for you.
~ When you talk on the phone, walk around rather than sitting still

Want to learn more about why just a little movement can make a big difference and how to deal with some common objections to moving more? Check out Fitness For All.

Blog Topics, Resources and Forums

• Mass Media and Body Image: A Brief Review of the Research
• The Great Weight Debate on ABC News
• Fat Yoga in Austin - Feature on CBS Dallas-Fort Worth Local News
• Eating Disorders Prevention Through Research, Community Involvement, and Media Activism

Word of the Week: Water

As living organisms, we are mostly water. When you drink more water you hydrate your body, awakening yourself and allowing your blood-flow to improve and helping your organs work better. Take the water challenge.