The Secret to Sticking to your New Year's Resolutions

Happy, healthy 2016!!

Wow! My gym was so crowded this morning I actually had to wait for a machine for the first time in a while. I wonder what it will look like 2 weeks from now at the gym?? I remember last year the same thing happened, and by early February it was back to normal at the gym and many of the new folks were nowhere to be found.

Why does this happen?

In working with many clients over the past year, and in my Nutrition School studies, I have learned that many of these people are missing a key understanding. They do not have the most important piece of information on how to change their health habits. What is that key? ....Awareness.

As Deepak Chopra says "The body is a physical reflection of choices you make over a lifetime. Knowledge is important, but adding more good advice is not the solution to healthy eating (and living). The solution is to transform your awareness."

In my coaching program I teach clients how this transformative awareness works, and why and how they can achieve it.

Become aware of why you are eating - I mean really aware!! Do you respond to triggers without even thinking. Are you really just stressed, angry, upset, seeking comfort, bored or unfulfilled??

Become aware of how you are eating - If you are busy or distracted while you are eating you will tend to overeat. Are you in front of a TV? Online? With other people who are eating CRAPPY food you don't really want but feel pressured? Just trying to clean your plate without focusing on how hungry you really are? Rushing and not chewing and breathing?

Become aware of how your body feels - Your body wants to move, but movement is personal. Pay attention to what kind is right for you. If your muscles are strained, if you feel aches, if you are not getting proper sleep and making poor food choices, you will feel sluggish and you will not stay motivated to continue with your exercise routine.

Start slow if you have not been exercising much. Get up at least once an hour everyday stand and stretch and move. Your blood fat and blood sugar levels mount when you sit still, by moving you restore those levels. Add in some walking outside, and then add a few minutes of vigorous exercise to warm your muscles up. Maybe try some yoga. Increase your awareness of what type of exercise makes you feel happy, connected, balanced and clears your mind. If your exercise choice feels like a chore you will not stay motivated and you will stop by mid February.

My 2016 Harmonious Health Motto
Be easy on yourself
Take extra time to make good choices about food and exercise
Speak positively to yourself
Stop judging
Be patient, don't look for instant solutions. It took you a lifetime to build the body you have, it will take more than just a few weeks to change it.

As always, I am here to support you in any way I can! If you have health goals, need support, accountability or guidance please reach out. I love my work as a health coach and I love watching someone become the happiest version of themselves.

Wishing you all much happiness and success in 2016.
Harmoniously yours,
Suzy
Health and Wellness Coach
www.harmonioushealth.com

Email Suzy

Did You Hear I'm Writing a Book, Why Potatoes are Stressing Me Out, and The Truth About Cravings.

So peace out November and welcome to December and the Holiday frenzy. I kind of  freaked out when I realized that Hanukah begins on December 5th this year. That's Saturday folks!
I realized how early Hanukah was this year during Thanksgiving morning when my son's dear friend was over hanging out with us, watching the parade and casually asked, "we are having mashed potatoes with Thanksgiving dinner tonight, right?" Oops, um, oh gosh, sure we are.... so I got busy texting the hubby to pick up a bag of potatoes, and scrambling to come up with a healthy mashed potato recipe with 3 hours notice. Then I got a text from my son's other friend who was headed over to join us for Thanksgiving dinner, "Since we won't be in Dallas for Chanukah can we do latkes (that's fried potato pancakes eaten on Hanukah, for those of you who don't know)? I know they aren't very "thanksgivingy" or healthy, but they are tasty!" I love these boys like my own sons, yet all these potato requests were stressing me out, .... but I digress!

The holidays can be a source of stress despite the pleasures associated with them. The food prep, the shopping, the lack of quiet time, and for many people...the cravings!! Which brings me to my big announcement, I am currently writing a book that is expected to be completed in the Spring and I can't wait to share it with all of you in my Harmonious Health Community.  My book will be a simple step by step guide to many of the topics I teach in my Health Coaching Program. One of the big topics I work on with my clients is helping them to deconstruct their cravings, and how to satisfy them in a healthy way. Today I was working on the "Cravings" chapter of my book.  I originally thought I would include it in the EATING section of the book. Then I realized, no, cravings need to be discussed in the section of the book that talks about HABITS TO CALM YOUR MIND, and here is why.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I have heard statements like this from clients and friends, "I was bad this week", "I f**'kd up yesterday", "I have no self control", "I suck I can't stick to anything".  So much negative self talk, so damaging to our self-esteem when really, giving in to those cravings is brilliant. This negative self-talk upsets us, creates guilt, stress, and disappointment none of which are good for someone seeking good health and a calm state of mind.  Learning what our body is trying to tell us through cravings is brilliant, we should feel great about ourselves when we notice our cravings, it means our minds are in tune with our body, and that is the first step in making baby steps toward a healthy diet and lifestyle. That is why I am including cravings in the MIND section of my book.

Cravings are your body's way of telling you what it needs, and when we listen to what our body needs, we are actually doing something wonderful for ourselves. Now don't get me wrong, I am not praising you for giving in to your craving for a pint of Ben & Jerry's. When we crave sweets our blood sugar is probably dropping, when we crave salt we are likely deficient in certain vitamins and minerals. We also have cravings related to mood swings, events (like an argument with your boss or friend), lack of exercise, memories (especially around holiday time). Smells and sounds can also trigger cravings, especially in December.

So during this busy time of year, stay alert to the cravings you are experiencing. Remember you are not weak for having them. Do the best you can to deal with them. If you need something sweet choose the healthiest sweet option available, do the same with salt cravings, stay hydrated, get fresh air, take a walk, stretch, and do the your best to eat a whole food diet which will keep you balanced and help minimize these cravings.  Only a superhero can fight a craving. We are human, deconstructing cravings is a process, but sometimes step one, just recognizing them, before you give in to them, is the beginning of healthy progress.

As for my potato dilemma, the mashed potatoes mixed with rice milk and sea salt were delicious, and the latkes, sadly never made it onto the Thanksgiving table, they may show up this weekend in a healthier format if I can find a good recipe....but honestly I will likely make the real ones fried in vegetable oil, because I always CRAVE them this time of year!

For more info on surviving the holidays, for a one-on-one health coaching session with me during the December craziness, to motivate me to keep writing my book, to tell me if you are enjoying my blog posts, or that you just polished off a pint of Ben & Jerry's,  send me an email here


Harmoniously yours,
Suzy
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Finding comfort in Primary Food so that the food we eat becomes Secondary Food

One of the concepts that I studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) that distinguishes my Health Coaching Program from other programs is the idea of "Primary Food".  You will not see Primary Food on the USDA Myplate, it is a concept developed by Joshua Rosenthal, the founder and director of IIN. Primary Food relates to lifestyle factors that create optimal health.  This includes relationships, physical activity, career and spirituality.

When I first began Health Coaching, I did not expect to be discussing these areas of my client's lives with them. I encourage clients to look at these 4 aspects of their lives as a form of nutrition, because these aspects of life "feed" them on a much deeper level than food. The food we eat plays a central and critical role in creating our health and wellness, and it is extremely important for us to discover the right foods for our bodies.  However, the 4 forms of primary foods will nourish us and can make our lives complete and wonderful.  When our primary food is balanced and satisfying, our life fills us up with joy, it "feeds" us. Our hunger for the food we eat diminishes as we feel "full" in our soul and the food we eat becomes "Secondary Food".

Ask yourself the following questions to see if your primary foods are in balance:

1) Are my relationships with my spouse, children, other family members, friends, co-workers healthy and do they support my individual needs and wants?

2) Is physical activity a habit that I fit into my weekly schedule? Different types of movement nourish our bodies in various ways. I work with my clients to help them identify what form will keep them feeling balanced, nourish them, and fit into their schedule.  Some of my clients who have been rigorously doing aerobic exercise several days a week, substitute one day with yoga which helps them in unexpected ways such as reducing their cravings because they are feeling less tight and tense.  Ask yourself, does my current exercise routine fit my current condition?

3) I spend 8-10 hours a day at work, am I doing work I love? Maybe you do not need a new career, just a change in work space, a raise, a more flexible work schedule. Go after whatever you need to make your job a more positive place to be. I do not think it is a coincidence that 2 of my recent clients  in my 6-month Coaching Program switched jobs within their field.  Feeling happier and productive in your workplace will dramatically increase your well-being.

4) What is my spiritual practice that I am committed to and how can I deepen my practice to add more meaning to my life?  Spiritual nutrition feeds us on a very deep and profound level. For me,  I find that connection when I am in harmony with nature, on a walk or a run, listening to music. I also feel it when I am connecting with my community attending religious services and chanting prayers.  When we have meaning in our life, we will stop searching for meaning and purpose in the bottom of the potato chip bag (where it certainly is not hiding), because we feel at peace in the world and that satisfies us and there is no void we need to fill.

To learn more about my Health Coaching Program and working with me please visit my website or send me an email

Suzy Harmon
Harmonious Health
Health and Wellness Coaching

Green Chile Chicken

This is a great recipe I just tried courtesy of the Whole 30 diet. It is a delicious tasting  chicken recipe that is prepared in the crockpot. I love having this in the fridge during the week to serve for dinner with rice, or to top on a salad or in a taco shell for lunch.

What is also great about this recipe is that you can prepare all of the ingredients ahead of time and freeze it in a large ziplock bag. When you are ready to prepare it just defrost the bag the night before and in the morning just dump it in your crockpot and it is ready to cook.

The recipe below will provide you with 2 gallon sized bags that you can use one at a time to prepare in your crockpot.

Ingredients

4 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts

2 (12oz) jars of salsa verde (I like Trader Joe’s Hatch Valley Salsa)

2 cups chopped onions, divided

4 (4oz) cans diced green chiles, drained

2 Tbsp cumin, divided

2 Tbsp chili powder, divided

2 Tbsp garlic, minced

2 tsp salt, divided

Instructions

LABEL two gallon-­sized zip­-top bags with the date and cooking instructions:  “Thaw. Crock pot for 2-­3 hours (high) or 4-­6 hours (low).”

DIVIDE cleaned chicken between the two bags.

ADD remaining ingredients in no particular order.  To each bag:  1 jar of salsa, 1 cup of onions, 2 cans of drained chiles, 1 Tbsp each of cumin and chili powder, 1 Tbsp minced garlic, and 1 tsp of salt.

Freezing Instructions

REMOVE as much air as possible, lay the bags flat, and freeze!

To Serve

THAW the chicken overnight. Dump ingredients into slow cooker and cook on high for 2­-3 hours or low for 4-­6 hours.

Creating Sacred Space for Yourself Everyday

Marilena Minucci a great coach taught me to "Create sacred space for yourself everyday."

That is what I love to teach my clients to do. When we don't do this, we let distractor factors such as perfectionism, procrastination, fear, and the normal ups and downs of life get in our way. Sacred space provides the energy and perspective we need to fuel our passions and give us a special appreciation for life. It is very hard to attain this energy and perspective through the normal pace of our busy lives without time out. 

When I first began this process, I found it very scary because transforming ourselves creates discomfort. Deviating from my normal routine and habits made me uncomfortable. Procrastination often felt more comfortable. However, when I pushed passed the discomfort, and the fear that I was "wasting" time, and began making a daily commitment to creating time and space for myself everyday, I began to notice a lot more joy and calm in my life.

How can you create sacred space in your day? It will look different for everyone. Some find it at their place of worship. Many of my clients have set up a special spot in their bedroom or living area with a comfortable chair, surrounded it with pens and pretty paper journals, a special scented candle, a pretty tea cup and some special dark chocolate and relaxing music. They try to spend 20 minutes there in the evening before getting ready for bed. Others take the dog for a walk outside, listen to their favorite tunes and appreciate nature. Others find it at the gym or in the yoga studio. I often suggest that clients find a special recipe they have been wanting to try, take some time to shop for the ingredients, schedule time on the weekend to pour themselves some wine and enjoy the cooking process when they are not rushed to get dinner on the table. 

Recently I spent a week visiting with my mother in New York. I grew up by this beautiful bay by our home, but I  did not take advantage of its beauty by visiting it and appreciating it as much as I could have when I was younger. On the morning of September 11, while I was visiting Mom, I ran along the bay in an effort to create some sacred space and snapped this photo. I took a moment to pause and think about the lives that were lost on September 11 as well as the lives of those  people who I have loved and lost. This is what creating sacred space does for us, it takes us out of the minutiae of our day to day problems and lets us see the bigger picture of life. My whole run only took about 20 minutes, but the perspective it gave me transformed my entire day, and gave me a deep sense of appreciation for the life I have and the people I am blessed to have in it.

Let's get together in a sacred space and discuss how you can create time for yourself everyday despite your busy schedule. EMAIL ME and lets find a time to get together to talk. Visit my WEBSITE to see how working with a Health Coach can help you improve your energy, reduce your stress and create vibrant Harmonious Health in your life and for your family.

Harmoniously yours,

Suzy Harmon

Health and Wellness Coach

Harmonious Health

Creating Sacred Space on an early morning walk

As my Facebook news feed fills with first day of school photos with freshly cut bangs, college dorm rooms with new comforters and matching pillows with scripted initials hanging overhead, sorority girls wearing matching clothing doing I don't know what (never joined a sorority, but that's another post), cars loaded with college gear, and for my East Coast friends photos of kiddos returning from summer sleep-away camp..I can't help but think back to a year ago today. Moving my middle son into college (even making his bed), for his Freshman year, driving my then 10th grader back and forth to band camp practice, and wondering about my college senior's future.

What a difference a year makes. My now 11th grader, wakes herself up and drives to band camp as I roll over in bed.  My now sophomore son loaded up his car, drove himself to college and has hopefully unpacked, and my college graduate now lives in Washington DC, employed and paying his own rent. A year ago I could not have even imagined!

What seemed so challenging and emotional last year, does not even seem like it should have been a hurdle this year.  I have noticed this same sentiment among the clients I have worked with this past year.  A client who a year ago could not imagine going gluten-free is now bragging to me about all the yummy quinoa recipes she is preparing. My " I am too tired to exercise" client is now out after work walking the dog or doing yoga moves in the morning before work.

What seems foreign to us seems hard.  What is not a part of our usual routine and pattern is outside of our comfort zone, and this unknown...its SCARY! When I left my son at school last year I had to adjust to a "new normal", and with each passing day the newness and emptiness I felt became my "new normal" and it became easier. The same is true with new health habits.

The more you add drinking water to your routine the less you will have to remind yourself to drink it.  The more you take time out of your day for self-care the more you will become aware that you are a bit "off" when you skip it.

I am writing this post as I sit here at the Dallas County Courthouse serving jury duty. We are blessed in this country to have the freedoms and judicial system we have. We are free to choose how we worship, where we send our children to school, what we choose as our career, what and how we eat, and how we take care of ourselves. I encourage us to appreciate these freedoms, and while it may be scary at times to embrace the changes we want to make in our lives, we must do so with gratitude and trust in our ability to navigate these new roads.

To learn more about my health coaching email harmonioushealth@sbcglobal.net or visit my website

Fondly,
Suzy



Photo from my most recent "change embracing" climb up these rocks in Utah on the Iron Canyon hiking trail!!

Are you struggling to lose those stubborn pounds?

As I close in on my first year working as a health coach, I have noticed many reasons why women are choosing to work with me to improve their health and well-being, but weight loss always seems to be a big factor.   I often hear women say, “at my age I just cannot lose weight anymore”, “my body is different than 10 years ago and now I can’t eat certain foods”, “I just have to accept this weight I am at, and I can’t do anything about it”  

While I believe as we age our body’s requirements do change and that we should accept our body types and love ourselves at every weight; I strongly believe that all women can drop unwanted pounds and gain more self-confidence and energy by incorporating many of these tips I share in my Health Coaching Program. Here are just 4 that I share with all of my clients

1) Are you drinking enough water? 

Often your body is dehydrated but the signals are similar to hunger signals. Try drinking a tall glass of water and wait 20 minutes. If you are still feeling hungry than it probably is real hunger not thirst. If you are not drinking enough water, your kidneys are not functioning optimally and your liver is working hard which stresses your liver and stops it  from metabolizing fat as quickly and efficiently as it should. As a result, your metabolism slows down to conserve water, which causes you to retain weight. Try increasing your water intake and see if this helps your weight loss efforts.

2) Are you getting enough sleep? When you sleep your body regulates 2 hormones, leptin and ghrelin that impact weight loss. Ghrelin increases your appetite and leptin signals to your brain that you are full. Without enough sleep, ghrelin levels rise and leptin levels fall. Can you see the disaster that is created without enough sleep…your hormones will increase your appetite and decrease your body’s ability to signal to your brain that you are full. Try getting 7-9 hours of sleep in order to help balance these important hormones which can sabotage your weight loss efforts.

3) Are you eating mindlessly? Mindless eating done standing at a table, while driving, or staring at a TV screen can cause you not to pay attention to your true hunger levels. Try to eat in a relaxed setting whenever possible, and focus your attention on the food and your body. Chew slowly and notice your pace. I often give my clients chopsticks to train themselves to slow down while they eat. Think about where you food came from, and be grateful for it. This simple act of being mindful and grateful can help satisfy you longer and prevent you from overeating.

4) Do you have an accountability partner? Often when women are struggling in their weight loss efforts it is because they do not have a friend or spouse who is there to encourage & support the healthy changes they are trying to implement. Seek out support from friends who share your desire to be healthy, educate your family on why you desire to be healthy, and educate yourself on what is right for your individual body type. Hiring a health coach who can guide you, motivate you and hold you accountable while you begin to make gradual changes can be just the tool you need to help you sift through all the confusing and conflicting information out there. A health coach is trained to create the perfect solution for you, as our motto is, there is no one way of eating that works for everyone, we are all unique and our bodies all have different needs.

For more tips on losing those stubborn pounds visit my website.
Interested in getting more support? Let’s get together for an initial Health History Consultation and talk about your goals and what is standing in your way,email Suzy