Sleep Hygiene for Optimal Health & Fitness

Good sleep hygiene, done on a consistent basis, is your best, first course of action in supporting overall optimal health and vitality.

If I told you that there is one important habit that if focused on, would automatically make all your other health and fitness disciplines work more easily, would you consider trying it? Of course there are no absolutes when it comes to nutrition and wellness science. But based on observation helping clients in nutrition and health coaching, sleep would be that one thing to focus on. There is a lot of old and emerging data on the impacts of sleep quality on our day to day lives. With that, a great place to start when considering what you can actually do within your control to improve sleep, is to begin the process of learning and mastering good sleep hygiene. So I thought I’d provide some information to help you assess your own sleep quality, sleep hygiene practices, and decide for yourself if and what you may want to do to embrace a better night’s sleep.

Good Sleep Hygiene Just Makes Sense

Sleep is a fundamental pillar of our overall well-being and plays a pivotal role in maintaining a healthy mind and body. Embracing the benefits of sleep and adopting healthy sleep hygiene practices can significantly enhance your quality of life. Beyond providing rest and rejuvenation, a good night’s sleep fosters improved cognitive function, memory consolidation, and emotional stability. It also bolsters our immune system, aids in weight management, and contributes to better cardiovascular health.

Read More


Tips for Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

Here are some tips for avoiding holiday weight gain.

Indulging and gaining weight
over the holiday season is kind of like going into debt. It’s wonderful to
experience the immediate gratification that many high-fat, high-sugar,
carb-dense holiday foods  have to offer, but the pleasure doesn’t last
very long. And then it can take months for some people to recover physically
from the weight gain and other negative effects of unhealthy eating and
drinking. Wouldn’t it be nice to just avoid the holiday weight gain in the
first place, without sacrificing your fun?

According to this recent
study
in the New England Journal of Medicine, chronic holiday
weight gain, and slow recovery time, are a reality for most Americans and
people all around the world. But you don’t have to be a part of the
statistics. Even though it is so close to Christmas, and you may feel like
any hope for managing your weight is lost, there is a lot you can do between
now and January 1st to give your body a healthy, helping
hand.

Tips for Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain
  • Burn Calories Daily.  All you
    need is about 30 minutes of brisk activity to keep that metabolism pumping.
    If you already have a daily workout, great! Keep it on the calendar. If not,
    just try to get anything in that will burn some calories. Or do things in
    addition to your daily Read More


Ketogenic Diet- An Objective Review

The ketogenic diet seems to be on everyone’s minds and googling fingertips. This ultra-low-carb, high-fat, moderate-protein eating plan is gaining a great deal of traction on social media. If you search #keto on Instagram, you’ll get nearly two million posts in return.

So what’s all the rage? Is it another fad diet, or is there some solid, evidence based substance behind this diet that you can count on as a real nutrition lifestyle solution? I gave this diet a shot, a couple different times, to find out

Read More


4 Ways to Create Healthy Lifestyle Habits that Last

Sometimes no matter how much great nutrition advice we get, it really comes down to our ability to create sustainable healthy lifestyle habits. With that, I created this quick “pop-up” blog post to help readers simplify their healthy lifestyle routines. See if you can apply any of this to your day-to-day life. Enjoy, and tell me what you think in the comments!

Start Early in the Day

Your willpower tends to be highest at the beginning of the day, so harness that energy and use it to your advantage.  A great example is crockpot cooking: your desire to be healthy can motivate you to toss ingredients into a crockpot in the morning, so you’re not dealing with cooking when you’re tired after a long day at work.

Read More


Healing the Gut with Diet and Lifestyle

healing-the-gut-with-diet-and-lifestyle

(function(){ var widget_id = ‘C1crUxI5cv’;var d=document;var
w=window;function l(){var s = document.createElement(‘script’); s.type =
‘text/javascript’; s.async = true;s.src = ‘//code.jivosite.com/script/widget/’+widget_id;
var ss = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];
ss.parentNode.insertBefore(s,
ss);}if(d.readyState==’complete’){l();}else{if(w.attachEvent){w.attachEvent(‘onload’,l);}else{w.addEventListener(‘load’,l,false);}}})();
I’ve been seeing a lot more clients lately who want to know
if healing the gut can be done through nutrition and lifestyle changes. So I
thought I would share some of observations as a way of helping readers better
understand how their lifestyle and nutrition choices might be impacting their
gut health.

Gut health and healing the gut naturally are fairly new in
mainstream media, but increasingly popular wellness topics. I see this as a
natural byproduct of society’s increasing awareness of holistic, functional
and preventative wellness as essential practices for the best possible health
outcomes. Since good nutrition is so intimately tied to natural wellness,
digestion and gut health become a key cornerstone in any worthwhile nutrition
and health improvement program. That’s simply because you
Read More