On my morning walk this morning, a neighbor joined me and within minutes, I found myself in a deeply passionate conversation about living vegan.  My neighbor wanted to know what being vegan meant to me.  Their understanding was that it is all about food.

I am not sure exactly when it happened but somewhere along the way, my love affair with exercise changed.

Growing up, I was fortunate to live in a city that valued activity for the community. We had community parks within walking distance of most of our neighborhoods, public schools had community school directors and part of their job was to keep the school open later into the evening with activities for kids and everyone could attend even if you didn’t go to that school.

Today’s smoothie was a new creation for me: Pistachio matcha, avocado smoothie.

As I was going through my morning activities, I noticed I was feeling ow on energy.  Ever since I was introduced to match tea, it has become one of my favorite ways to increase energy and decrease that sluggish feeling I sometimes experience.  Matcha contains, L-Theanine, a natural calming agent that works with the caffeine to keep you calm, focused and filled with energy that makes me happy and content.  Matcha also is high in antioxidants and helps control blood sugar, cholesterol levels and some studies show it can boost your metabolism.

Having lived with various autoimmune disorders for over 30 years, I have learned and unlearned quite a bit. 

The most important aspect for me is to be the best detective I can be.  I check in with my body daily for changes and have learned that before acting immediately to sit and listen for guidance.  For the past few months, I have had this nagging and at times intense left shoulder pain that has affected all aspects of my life.  There have been days when I haven’t been able to lift my arm to shoulder height, washing my hair was difficult as were most other tasks I do daily.

As the holiday season winds down, many people notice a change in their immune systems.  From all the holiday gatherings, being busier and changes from normal eating and sleeping routines, you many know being feeling more fatigue, experiencing digestive issues or just an overall rundown feeling.

For most of my life, this is not the question that was asked.  It was always, “How are you feeling today?”  Having lived with illness for a majority of my life, it became easy to just say, I am fine, which may or may not have been the truth.  In looking back, I realize that saying I am fine, answered the question, and told others, very little.  Along the way I had learned that “How are you today”, is a polite question and very few people who were around me at the time really wanted to know how I was feeling.  I also have since come to the realization, I really had no idea how I was feeling.

Living with an autoimmune disorder, chronic pain or illness, brings more changes to one’s life than for most is even imaginable. 

In the beginning there is just relief for having an actual diagnosis.  The end to “it’s all in your head”.  The story so many of have heard and attempted to make sense of for so long.  Receiving the diagnosis in many ways feels like an ending as you finally know what is causing you to feel exhausted, in pain, irritable, shaking, scratchy and a myriad of other things.  Yet, once the diagnosis sinks in, then a new reality begins.  How do I live, now?

After being diagnosed with an autoimmune illness or a chronic illness, there is such a relief just to have answers as to why you have been feeling so bad.  I remember the day vividly when a confirmed diagnosis was made after many years of speculation.  While I wasn’t thrilled with the diagnosis, there was relief that finally, I knew what was going on and now my focus would switch to what can I do now versus, what is wrong.

Have you ever given thought to how important staying hydrated is?  For many of us we take having water to drink for granted and yet, a huge percentage of our population fails to consume the recommended.

For many years, breakfast consisted of a bowl of cereal with cow’s milk, my family’s traditional breakfast of bacon/eggs/potato’s or pancakes or waffles.  Once I realized that my body was not functioning well on dairy, meat, gluten or processed foods, everything I ate in the morning needed to be adjusted.

Depending on what my schedule looks like each week, lunches can either be very light or they may be my main meal of the day.  In putting together 3 lunches for you to enjoy, I decided to go with two very simple and one that takes a bit more time, yet if you batch cook early, preparation is cut down quite a bit.

3 Easy Healthy Dinners

I hear often from clients that they would like to make healthier meals, but they take too much time, are more expensive than processed foods or take out, or I just do not know what to make.

In my role as holistic wellness coach, helping clients to see that all of the above are just stories that they have come to believe or rely on for many reasons, but ultimately, they are choosing to sabotage themselves in some way.

From our brains to our digestive system our bodies are always working and need a constant supply of fuel/energy to keep them work optimally.

That ‘fuel’ comes for the foods we choose to eat.

Chronic illnesses, multiple sclerosis, chronic migraines, chronic body pains and chronic emotional pain are all ‘pains’ I lived with for years.

I am grateful that I have healed from being in constant pain, grateful for knowing that my body was built to heal and to also know, that depending on what brought me to experience all the pain and suffering that I have in this lifetime, some healing, may or may not happen.  Believe me, it has taken a lot of unlearning, being and digging in to some very deep emotional wounds to finally understand and come to peace with this.

For years, living with migraine headaches was just something I did. Truthfully, the days that I didn’t have one were the oddity. I spent time in a headache clinic, tried every medication available and often, it was just a wait and see kind of experience. At times they were debilitating and took up so much of my life. I truly began to believe they were never going to end.