Oh stress.

You evil doer.

The shadow lurking around every corner of your life so it seems, affecting everything from your sleep, to your gut function, to your emotional health and......... your blood sugar.

There's so much to talk about when it comes to blood sugar. But for todays post, I'm going to focus on the stress connection because it's something we can ALL relate to, can't escape AND, I don't think it's something that comes to mind when we're talking about blood sugar. 

Blood Sugar, A Review

Just to bring you up to speed here's a little review of how it all works inside that beautiful body of yours......

Blood sugar in the body is a balancing act of many parts. Your hormones are designed to work as a team with each other. When you eat, food enters the digestive tract and the pancreas is signaled to release insulin to get the cells ready to receive all of the sugar as it gets digested and processed. Next the pancreas sends out a signal to glucagon to tell your cells to ...

The morning routine.

I've heard a lot of talk about it lately.

Particularly from Mel Robbins the author of The 5 Second Rule (a total must read, I highly suggest you get this book if you haven't already - total game changer). She is a HUGE fan of having a solid morning routine.

I guess you could say a seed was planted after reading her book. But still, as much as I agreed, I was still not totally sold (I just didn't want to get up that early).

After all, I never really understood its significance or why anyone would get up at the crack of dawn for anything, let alone exercise. Seriously.

I have literally struggled for YEARS to find the time to get my work out in. It was certainly a big HELL NO when the only alternative was to get up at 5:30 am. But I also hated working out after a long day of work. 

I would be exhausted and the idea of putting any amount of energy into a work out was less than appealing.

Until now.....

Yes, I have gone to the dark side and have.............. a...

I walk in. 

My heart starts to race. I feel it.

My anxiety is on its way to take a grip on me. Oh for what has brought great pain to the orbits in my head?

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ITS A MESS! 

Say it isn’t so. I HAVE GOT TO CLEAN.

This is true folks. This is me. The REAL me.

If I was to say I was any character from a popular tv show I'm soooo Monica from Friends.

If you were to ask me what brings me great joy aside from my family of course, it's a clean, well organized, everything in its place, home. I'm kind of a Virgo that way if you believe in that sort of thing.

Just writing about it makes me happy. I'm so not kidding (a bit cray cray? Well maybe).

I clean for fun. But really I clean to ease.... anxiety. My entire life I've had to clean a space thats messy before I can be in it. I can't think straight in a mess.

For some of you, you may be reading this and saying,

HELL NO! WTH is she even talking about? Cleaning gives her joy? Thats just...

Can I get a YES to organic fruits and veggies being spendy??

I hear you.

As a health coach you'll hear me talk about buying organic. Yes this is true, mainly because of what I have learned about pesticides, particularly Roundup and how dangerous it is. 

But, there is some produce that you can buy conventional. Those veggies or fruits in which you don't eat the skin is ok like avocados and bananas due to the limited exposure to pesticides. But others like grapes and strawberries are a no go when buying conventional.

Truth: for example, if I'm in a store where they only offer conventional grapes and strawberries, I absolutely will NOT buy them. I think of it as literally popping a pesticide soaked bomb in your mouth. Nope. My health is not worth saving a few bucks.

Pesticides do quite a serious number on our gut, our hormones and overall health. So its important for you to be informed of just what is used to grow your food and how to avoid it without breaking the bank.

That's...

It's stress awareness month, so lets talk about stress for a moment.....

Stress is inevitable and there is no escaping it. We live with it Every. Single. Day.

So there's two things here...

• The type of stress you're under, whether its your body going into fight or flight due to a lion chasing you, or chronic daily stress(which is pretty much all of us these days if you watch the news or just live above a rock), this second one we're gonna get into.
• How you perceive, approach, and deal with stress.

What Is Stress?

So lets talk about chronic stress as it affects you, me and everyone around us. Before I do, let me explain your adrenals.

Your adrenal glands sit on top of both of your kidneys and are a part of what we call the HPA-Axis. This is your hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal Axis. All are intricately connected endocrine glands. They are responsible for releasing 3 main hormones when your brain signals them that you are in danger:

• Epinephrine (adrenaline) increases heart...

It's endometriosis awareness month so I wanted to talk about this very important topic that effects so many women before the month ends!

You may have been diagnosed with it, or you may have heard about it, but you're not so sure just what it is and what it means.

As of late, it has been estimated that over 176 million women around the world suffer from the symptoms caused by endometriosis. There are various estimates noting that endometriosis symptoms are quite common: [1]

• 2-50% of women are thought to have what's known as "silent symptoms" leaving these women clueless this may be an issue
• 40-60% of women who suffer from painful periods also have endometriosis
• 20-30%  of women who struggle to conceive may have endometriosis

Endometriosis is a condition where endometrial cells are found on the OUTSIDEof the uterus where they don't belong because they are supposed to be indoors INSIDEthe uterus. These cells hanging out on the outside begin to develop into growths or lesions...

Oy soy!

Do you do soy? If so read on. But if you love the stuff, don't get mad at me for raining on your soy parade. Sorry, not sorry. It's only cuz I care and you need to know this stuff......

For so many years all that we have heard is how good soy is for you. The amount we consume is huge. From soy milk to tofu, and with soy proteins in so many products, we are inundated with it. The problem is that there is a lot of poor research on soy that has been misinterpreted or deemphasized that has led to inconclusive results. Several governments around the world including France, Germany and Israel have noted that soy does not prevent heart disease by lowering the bad cholesterol, nor cure it. Additional research done with soy has proven inconsistent, inconclusive, contradictory, and of poor design with too short of duration to prove the benefits they claim. In fact these governments have issued warnings regarding the consumption of soy.

In our neck of the woods, the FDA...

"You haven’t eaten breakfast? You haven't eaten All Day? WTH"?

Yes, I'm talking about something your mother would harp on you about.

It may be controversial, some may argue that it's not a great idea because it may slow your metabolism. This is a real hot topic right now and it has a lot of people wanting to know if it is the right choice for them. So I'm going to lay out just exactly what intermittent fasting is and let you be the judge if it's the right choice for you.

The concept of fasting isn't a new one. People have temporarily restricted their food intake for religious reasons going back centuries. Recently, intermittent fasting — when you don’t eat from anywhere between 16 – 48 hours (or more) — has become more widely well known for its incredible effects on disease and aging.

Just What Is Intermittent Fasting?

For as long as I can remember, just hearing the word *fasting* didn't have a real good ring to it. It sounded awful. Not eating...

Ok, ok get your mind out of the gutter. Only appropriate business here my friends.

I'm not talking about the *not on this kinda site!* post, or the self involved entitled jerk, you know, the narcissist.

No, no.

I'm talking about those of us who beat ourselves to a bloody pulp on a daily basis. You know the kind of anxiety about almost everything. I mean EVERYTHING.

You know its you when:

• You question everything that comes out of your mouth.
• You never can lose enough weight.
• That voice in your head (make sure it's yours), that keeps telling you that you suck at everything.
• You think you’re not good enough.
• You’ll never measure up.
• You’ll never meet your goals.
• You want to please everyone to your own detriment.
• Your dreams and goals are left on the floor because you are your own worst enemy.

Well if any of those ring true then keep reading cuz you seriously need some self-love.

We have an interesting culture, at the same time its beyond narcissistic, we also have...

This is part two of my series on hormone imbalance. For part one see How Stress Affects Your Hormones

Did you know that the molecules in food tell your cells what to do?

Yassss! I never really gave this much thought until the food I ate was causing my hormone imbalance and telling my cells to attack my body.

Your body requires vitamins, minerals, amino acids and omega's to stay in balance. Your body is a super intelligent machine designed to repair itself. When your hormones are in balance you have energy, are able to focus, sleep soundly, and handle stress.

BUT....if we are feeding our body endless processed junk, not only will it create chaos like a tornado blowing through Kansas, it can't make the repairs necessary for balanced hormones.

How I used to eat would surprise you.

Just years ago I was still running down to the local Dairy Queen to get chicken fingers in the middle of a busy day. And this was a regular thing. Eat "healthy"? Oh I thought I was. After all it was...