healthy and beautiful

  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 ash...

I am not a fan of stress and how it can make me feel.  Unfortunately, stress is part of the life package deal with no opting out button.  Stress can become a chronic ugly thing with negative physical and emotional side effects.  Studies are also linking stress to hypertension, heart disease, and weight gain.  Who the heck wants a whole bunch of extra fat with the heart attack waiting to happen sign sitting on our stressed out shoulders? So many of us are living in a constant state of stress whether from family problems, illness, financial strain, or unhappy marriages and are accepting it as our normal way of life.  Stress places wear and tear on our body as cortisol is leaking out of the adrenal glands in abundance and causing increased blood pressure and waistlines. Stress, straight up is a fitness killer.  I for one refuse to live in a constant state of stress and do implement healthy strategies to eliminate it from my life. The way stress is handled...