Clarity Wellness

Habits make our lives easier. They make things automatic and free us from the decision fatigue that hits us near the end of the day. However, you probably already know how hard it is to create a new habit. The old ones are so deeply ingrained. It should be simple—there really are only 3 steps involved. Trigger, behavior, reward. With some things it really is that easy. Walk into the bathroom, brush your teeth, enjoy the reward of fresh minty breath. Unfortunately, other habits are not so easy to implement. Habits around food can be the hardest! That’s where we bring in the big guns: habit stacking. Throw every trick you’ve got at it. There are lots of things you can do, but here are some of the most powerful tools I have found for creating better habits around food: 1. Put it in front of your face. If you want to drink more water, fill your water bottle and take it with you everywhere. If you want to eat according to a plan, print it out and post it on your fridge....

I really could care less who wins the Super Bowl.  I've never been much of a football fan, but I do love a good Super Bowl party.  I'm totally in it for the company, the food, the commercials, and the halftime show. I only wish it was Super Bowl Saturday instead of Sunday.  Or make Super Bowl Monday a national holiday.  But I digress... For many, the Super Bowl party marks the beginning of the end of a great streak of healthy eating .  You make it all the way through January eating clean, exercising, and maybe even abstaining from alcohol.  Then along comes the Super Bowl and wham!  All those yummy treats start you on a slide that continues through heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, Mardi Gras beignets, and Spring Break beach drinks.  It's the holiday season 2.0.   So what do you do? First and foremost, make a plan .  Don't let it take you by surprise.  Make sure that plan is reasonable and doable.  Recognize the p...

  In case you haven't seen my latest post, I recently had skin cancer surgery, and ended up popping a few stitches.  Now I have a hole on the top of my head that is healing very slowly.  It's been over a month now, and I'm still a long way from being healed.  My next stop is a wound care clinic, and then I'm on to a plastic surgeon.   Looking in the mirror in the mornings and trying to do something with my hair while hiding the mess under a headband is the hardest, and honestly, for a few weeks there, I had a really tough time dealing with it.   I'm tired of playing the victim role, though.  I know what I need to do to heal myself, and the answer doesn't lie at the bottom of a box of cookies.  Not that I had gone overboard with the junk food, but I did let things slip a little.   In my nutrition coaching business I give my clients a meal plan to follow each week, and those that do see the greatest results.  So...why was I ...

I am a fan of the sun.   I love its ability to warm me when I'm cold, to trigger vitamin D production in my skin, and to boost my mood.  As a kid growing up in Iowa, I spent long afternoons mowing lawns, hiking around the nearby woods, and lying in the backyard trying to get the perfect tan.  Most of this did not involve sunscreen. Ok, maybe some baby oil or Coppertone SPF4, but nothing really protective.   As an adult, I have always enjoyed a little bit of a tan, but I've been more careful.  I limit my time in the direct sun and wear a hat every time I go out for a long hike or run.  Sunscreen is part of my daily routine. Unfortunately, it all caught up to me this year.  I go to the dermatologist every year, and every year she burns off a spot or two that she refers to as my "barnacles," otherwise known as actinic keratoses. This year, however, she decided to take a couple of biopsies.  They were basal cell carcinomas, requiring Mohs sk...

We’ve already talked about the three questions to ask yourself when you’re eating .   Those were all about the mindfulness  side of eating.  Here are three ways to make sure you’re regulating your blood sugar and nourishing your body--in other words, the physiological side of what goes in your mouth.   Both are incredibly important, and often overlap.   Do these things and your inflammation levels will go down, your cravings will subside, your hormone levels will regulate, and you might even lose weight! Number one: Control your carbs. Carbohydrates are the one macronutrient that we really don’t need.   If we don’t ingest glucose, our bodies will make it.   If we don’t have enough glucose in our bloodstreams, our bodies will learn to run on ketones made from fatty acids.   That said, there are a lot of good things about vegetables and fruits that we can’t deny—they provide fiber and vitamins, and help our bodies detox.   Just try to ...

Are you ready?  Here are the questions to ask yourself every time you head to the kitchen or sit down to a meal: Am I really hungry? Have I had enough? What's my plan? That's all there is to it.  Those three questions will change your relationship with food, your health, and maybe even your weight. Am I really hungry? It all comes down to listening to your body and recognizing when you're eating out of some other need that has nothing to do with physical hunger.  The problem is that many of us have lost touch with our hunger and substitute it for something else.  That's where awareness comes in: taking the moment to notice, breathe, and create some space between the urge to eat and the action of eating.   You may be hungry for human connection.  You may be hungry for self-actualization (yes—I know that’s a big one.  I’ll let you and your journal or therapist work on that!)  You may be tired, thirsty, or honestly, just bored....

You may have heard a a lot about intermittent fasting lately. It sounds a little scary and it goes against a lot of the nutrition advice we've been told all our lives: breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you need to eat 5-6 small meals a day to stoke your metabolism, if you don't eat you will slow down your metabolism, and on and on. I'm here to dispel the myths, and help you get started on a habit that might help you get your blood sugar under control, regenerate your worn out cells, improve your relationship with food, and maybe even lose a little weight in the process. First myth: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Ok, so yes, eating is important. Our bodies need nutrients and energy, but those nutrients don't necessarily need to be ingested first thing in the morning. If you're not hungry when you first wake up, then don't eat. Whenever you "break your fast" can be considered breakfast. Push your first meal of the ...