health tips
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I have this thing that reminds me to keep moving, where I think of my insides as a flowing river so it doesn’t become a stagnant pond. The more I’ve learned about healthy habits, the more I realize how foundational circulation is for health.
Healthy blood flow delivers oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and organs, helping you feel energized. It supports recovery processes and digestion, and keeps your skin looking fresh.
It also supports mental clarity and mood, making it important for mental health too.
Ways I like to support my circulation:
moving regularly throughout the day
hydrating (aim for at least half of my bodyweight in ounces)
sweating to clear out toxins and stagnant energy
having new experiences (replacing the past with new, fresh material)
talking with a friend
venting and airing things out in a journal
getting inspired (like opening the windows to let fresh air into your imagination~)
Currently in my fridge:
Whole Foods 365 Wild Skipjack Tuna
Trader Joe’s Rainbow Trout
Trader Joe’s Organic Ground Turkey
Trader Joe’s Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Sausage
Whole Foods Grass-Fed Ground Beef
Also in the mix:
Trader Joe’s Organic Natural Chicken Thighs
Trader Joe’s Cooked Lentils
Trader Joe’s Nova Smoked Salmon
Something I’ve realized on my journey is that we can do a lot healing on our own, but when it comes to relationship stuff, there is only so much we can do on our own.
The real work is stepping back into where it started: relationships.
Through active listening, curiosity, and empathy, we are able to rewrite old patterns together.
Find the people who help you feel safe and supported again — without them, it’s easy to shut down and call it self-protection.
Set boundaries with those who can’t meet you there yet. If they’re still not friends with their own pain, they won’t know how to be friendly with yours either.
Finding your people takes trial and error. Keep going!
Food can be medicine—or it can be what’s causing physical and even mental health issues.
Regularly eating highly-processed foods that cause stress and inflammation in your body can lead to disease over time.
The gut is also known as your “second brain” for a reason: because the gut and brain constantly communicate through nerves, hormones, and the immune system, your gut microbiome can directly affect mood, focus, and overall brain function.
I’ve worked with clients who have overcome rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, acne, bloating/gut inflammation, clinical depression, and daily panic attacks—simply by changing what they eat.
Limiting processed foods and understanding your food sensitivities can not only change the way you look but also the way you feel.
…you have so much within your control before reaching those limitations.
Epigenetic expression is how your choices—environment, habits, stress, nutrition, sleep, etc.—switch certain genes “on” or “off.”
Blaming genetics can be tempting as the easy way out—owning the rest means taking responsibility but also puts the power back in your hands.
1) be uncomfortable staying the same, or
2) be uncomfortable leveling up.
Staying the same feels safe and familiar, and our brain’s number one priority is to stay safe.
But eventually there is a tipping point where staying the same feels harder.
Okay it sounds annoying, but we can train ourselves to look at obstacles as opportunities.
We can complain, or we can accept and adapt.
What’s a frustration you could look at with more curiosity?
Examples:
Ugh my weight is up again! → Hmm, why is my weight up again?
I’m totally off track again today, what is wrong with me! → What’s not working? How can I plan for tomorrow?
I have sooo far to go, I’m never going to reach my goal… → How can I put one foot in front of the other today?
Staying busy, seeking validation, controlling behaviors, people-pleasing, seeking attention, over-giving, over-performing, over-eating, alcohol, drugs, sex, video games…
When we don’t feel safe in some way and don’t know how to regulate ourselves, we find a way to cope.
Learning how to create safety within gets to the root of many struggles with weight and eating. For some of my clients, it’s healed lifelong eating patterns that aren’t resolved with more information, more custom meal plans, or more mindset work.
As you feel safer, your thoughts and behaviors begin to naturally align with your intentions.
Your body’s sensations—hunger, fatigue, tension, nausea—are the data that help you make choices for your health.
Awareness of how you feel improves the choices you make, which improves how you look and feel.
Listen to yourself!
Consistent, high-quality sleep keeps your emotions balanced and is one of the biggest ways to support your energy, focus, motivation, and body composition.
Sleep balances cortisol, insulin, and other key hormones that control stress, appetite, and metabolism.
Not getting enough can negatively impact your skin, posture, and outlook. Take your thoughts and emotions after a night of rough sleep with a grain of salt! And if you are short on sleep, skip the workout and opt for rest instead.
Aim for 7–9 hours per night, depending on your current stress and activity levels.
Have more energy, think more clearly, recover faster, have glowing skin!
Staying hydrated can also help you feel full and less hungry. It helps moves nutrients through your body, helps with digestion, and keeps circulation flowing.
Aim for about half your body weight in ounces per day—more if you’re active or sweating.
Magnesium is involved in over 300 bodily processes, including energy production, muscle contraction, nerve signaling, blood sugar regulation, and protein synthesis. It’s essential for balance, performance, and recovery.
Modern diets don’t provide enough, so supplementation can be helpful.
Types:
Glycinate — best for sleep, calm, and recovery.
Malate — good for energy production and muscle function.
Threonate — crosses the blood–brain barrier; good for focus and mood.
Citrate — helpful for digestion.
I think of exercising on low energy as going into “energy debt.” It can raise cortisol, increase inflammation, and slow recovery to feeling balanced again.
Because high cortisol can cause the body store fat around its organs, resting is actually more beneficial than the workout for your physique too.
Rest gives your energy levels a chance to recover, your body a chance to repair, and your nervous system to settle, allowing you to perform better and benefit more from your next workout.
Why:
Sugar can reduce sensitivity to signals that tell you you’re full, making you eat more overall
The liver processes excess sugar into fat, which can contribute to fatty liver over time
Spikes and dips in blood sugar can affect energy levels, focus, mental clarity, and mood
Frequently eating sugar can trigger reward pathways in the brain, making it habit-forming
If you’re trying to reduce your sugar intake, start by replacing highly processed options with minimally processed versions like fruit, dark chocolate, yogurt. Don’t worry about limiting portion sizes at first. These foods can satisfy cravings with fewer calories and less inflammation.
When you under-eat for too long, your body responds by conserving energy—slowing down your metabolism, increasing fatigue to reduce movement, and holding onto fat stores for safety.
Eating enough signals that it’s safe to use energy, rather than storing it as fat.
Many of the people I’ve worked with who struggle with fat loss are actually eating too little / not consistently getting enough to eat.
It sounds counterintuitive to eat more to lose weight, but it’s a common reason people struggle with it.
There have been a couple of times—doing CrossFit in the middle of summer in Texas, and doing hot yoga several times a week in New York—where I’ve experienced being electrolyte-deficient.
It shows up as extreme fatigue, brain fog, headaches, cravings, and a “wired but tired” feeling.
Especially if you’re active and in hot climates, be sure to get some high-quality salts (sea salt, Himalayan), mineral-rich foods (leafy greens, beans, nuts), and/or low-sugar electrolyte drinks. I get the Liquid I.V. electrolyte packets.
Vitamin D is a hormone precursor, meaning your body needs it to make hormones that regulate energy, mood, immunity, and metabolism.
Being low can leave you tired, moody, more prone to illness, and make fat loss harder.
Get regular sun exposure, eating vitamin-D–rich foods (like eggs, salmon, and mushrooms), and/or take a supplement.
Why: Eating sugar and high-glycemic carbs alone can cause a spike-and-crash and mood dips.
Protein and fats are more slowly digested than carbs, so eating them as part of a balanced meal keeps you full longer and your blood sugar steadier.
Eating a palm-sizing serving of protein at each meal is a great way to help with fat loss, body composition, and overall health.
It helps you full longer, stabilizes blood sugar and mood, and supports muscle repair.
It’s also essential for maintaining healthy hormone production—especially for women, who often under-eat it relative to what their metabolism and hormones need.
When protein is consistently low, it can show up as: irregular hunger, low energy, hair shedding, dull skin, mood swings, weaker workouts, slower recovery, and stubborn body-composition changes that don’t match the effort you’re putting in.
Your body naturally releases cortisol in the morning, which is a built-in “wake up” hormone. If you have caffeine before that system does its job, you train your body to rely on coffee instead of its own chemistry.
Focus on eating protein and healthy fats, which are digested more slowly and help you feel full for longer.
Sugar and high-glycemic carbs are more quickly digested, and can make you feel hungry again more quickly. We also tend to more easily overeat carbs than protein and healthy fats.
Sleep deprivation makes it more likely for your body to reach for fast energy foods (i.e. carbs) to compensate for low energy.
Lack of sleep also causes your body to create more ghrelin (hunger hormone) and less leptin (fullness), messing with your hunger cues.
Movement helps your muscles use up some of that sugar for energy, so it’s not floating around your bloodstream. This helps keep your blood sugar more stable and make it easier for your body to respond to insulin.
After a meal, go for a walk, dance, or do some squats!
If you eat more carbs than you need for your current activities, your body turns them into fat to store for later (an intelligent survival mechanism).
Crash diets don’t work because you can’t eat that way for the rest of your life. The goal is “the middle way”, where your favorite foods are still part of your routine.
Freedom is being able to make healthy choices out of awareness of energy balance and what works best for you, rather than blindly following restrictive rules forever.
When you understand how different foods affect your body and support your needs, you can make intentional choices that move you toward your health and physique goals.
If you’re struggling to find balance, let’s talk!
Pesticides often stay on or just under the skin, even after washing. Go for organic when you can.