Healthy Chicks

Let’s have some real talk for a minute: How do you spend your final two hours before bed? 

Do you watch Netflix?

Are you up late working on your computer?

Texting your friends?

Social media stalking?

Are you stressed out? Rejuvenated? Tired? Energized?

Do you fall asleep easily or does it take some time?

Do you feel your best self?

If you asked me this question a couple months ago, my answer would have been completely different, and I would have sheepishly said “yes” to the first four questions. In realty, my evenings were spent zoning out with my husband binge-watching Netflix episodes, while simultaneously finishing up work, checking my instagram and texting my friends the latest and greatest.

To be completely honest, it didn’t feel good. My “evening routine” was actually pretty darn draining, and that’s so not what we want right before bed.  

With a little bit of trial and error and listening to my body, I have developed a new routine that works for me. Below I outline my evening ritual, which you can feel free to pull from to get started on your own!

7 Evening Ritual Tips for Mindful Sleep

1. Play With Essential Oils

The first time I felt self-conscious about my body was when I started developing acne around 14 years old. This was followed by years of dieting, obsession with the scale and hating my thighs all throughout high school and well into my 20s.

While I’ve certainly come a long way and have learned to fall back in love with my body and discover joy around food, the journey wasn’t always easy. In fact, even I still have my off days from time to time where I don’t feel 100% confident with my body.

Because I’ve been there, I now make it my mission to empower women to break free from dieting and discover joy around food. A lot of this has to do with a woman’s overall confidence — inside and out.

While most of the woman I work with are in their 20s and 30s, it pains me to see that many young girls start feeling insecure about their bodies in some way as early as ten years old — or earlier! At my cousin’s 11th birthday last year, one of the girls was afraid to take off her shorts when she went swimming in the water … Read More!

Hey, friends! It’s been a while since I updated you on the latest and greatest with my thyroid journey, so I figured I’d check in to share what’s going on right now. (You can read Part 1 and Part 2 here to learn more about my journey with Hashimoto’s Disease and what’s been working well for me.)

Anyway, a lot has changed since I last checked in and I’ve hit some tricky setbacks along the way. For one, when I found out I was pregnant in July — which unfortunately ended in an early miscarriage — my thyroid hormones kind of went a little crazy. While they had been stable for months and actually improved drastically (my TSH dropped to a 2.66 in June!), my TSH shot back up to a 4 the week I found out I was pregnant. I’m not 100% sure it’s related, but in my gut I’m thinking it was.

Given my situation and the fact that your TSH should ideally be below a 2.5 during the first trimester, my Functional Medicine Doctor through Parsley Health prescribed me on a low dose Nature Desicated Thyroid hormone. I’ve also been working to maintain my stress levels and … Read More!

All the magazines and trainers are talking about losing 10 pounds for the summer and getting that “Bikini Body,” and quite frankly I find it super annoying. Meanwhile, I’m over here like, “How can I FUEL my mind, body and soul this summer?”

Don’t get me wrong, I get it and didn’t always have such a carefree attitude about summer. I used to live a life of deprivation, where I counted calories, avoided bathing suits like the plague and restricted myself from having “too much fun” by skipping margarita night and going out with friends.

Blah. Is there even such a thing as too much fun?

There comes a time when dinner parties with friends, adventures to the beach and seeing how many minutes you can hoola hoop without it falling to the ground becomes so much more gratifying than obsessing over cellulite, the calories in your Caesar salad and how many minutes you can squeeze in on the elliptical.

This past weekend, I went camping, hoola-hooped my butt off (and was actually really good, and seriously now want one for my 30th birthday), ate salmon straight off the grill and sipped on a vodka seltzer in a pink … Read More!

Happpppyyy Summer! Can you tell I’m excited? Summer is hands down my favorite season — for many reasons. Not only is my birthday coming up (I turn the big 3-0 in a couple weeks!), but it’s also the season of fireflies, cookouts, campfires, outdoor concerts and beach days. I love going outside without a jacket, longer days filled with sunshine, picnics and farmers markets.

Bright, colorful produce is finally in season like watermelon, zucchini, peaches, cucumber, blueberries and tomatoes, and life is simply buzzing with good energy.

In the midst of all the marketing telling us we need to drop 10 pounds to get that “Bikini Body” (which is a load of crap), summer is the perfect time to prioritize self-care by taking care of YOURSELF — mind, body and soul.

Join myself & fellow Certified Health Coach / Yoga Guru Kelley Abatzis for a 14-day Summer Self Care Challenge focused on putting yourself 100% first. Our signature self-care challenge is back by popular demand, with themes of body love, self-expression, and creating more time for play and fun in your life.

THE PROGRAM BEGINS MONDAY, JULY 17TH + INCLUDES:

1. Daily morning dose of positivity + clear action steps … Read More!

[Photo credit: Shivani Cotter]

A few months ago, I wrote about my journey with Hashimoto’s Disease and what I’ve been doing to jumpstart the healing process over here on the blog. I realize it’s now been about four months since then and a lot has happened in between so I wanted to share a follow up with you as to where I am now!

You can read all about what I personally did in my previous post, but just a quick recap of where we left things off in February 2017:

• I had just started the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) Diet in January, and had been one month on the protocol, and a little over two months 100% gluten free
• I was truly taking charge of my own health, since the doctor refused to listen to me or order any extensive lab testing
• I was feeling more energized, less puffy, and had lost about 9 pounds within a little over one month
• My TSH had dropped from a 4.5 to a 3.3 within one month on AIP!
• I was just about to start AIP food re-introductions, with Phoenix Helix’s e-book as a guideline
• I was not on any

When I traveled abroad in Italy the summer of my sophomore year of college, I was scared to death I’d gain weight by eating all the carbs and fat. To my surprise, I had lost about ten pounds and hadn’t felt that good about my body in years.

One of the things that really stood out to me was their dedication to high-quality food, particularly the rich flavors of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) doused onto nearly every meal — from caprese salads and pasta to ceviche and stir-fried veggies.

Since it clear I’m obsessed with EVOO, I was thrilled to partner with The Flavor Your Life campaign, whose mission is to educate US-based consumers to make informed decisions when purchasing European EVOO back at home. The campaign is supported by the European Union and Italy, and genuinely spreads the love and awareness around good quality, authentic olive oil, or as they like to refer to it as “liquid gold.”

The Extra Virgin Olive Oil Difference

You hear Rachael Ray talking about EVOO all the time and maybe have it stocked in your cupboard, but what the heck does it mean anyway? Put simply, it’s a fancy way of … Read More!

One of my favorite tanks I have has the words “No Bad Days” printed in big, black bold lettering. While it may sound a little extreme and preachy to tout that, it’s the meaning behind it that I love most. In reality, there’s going to be tough times and crazy sh*t that life throws at you, but it’s the way you handle those hardships that speaks volumes.

Life isn’t always rainbows and butterflies, and I don’t think we should pretend that it is. (BTW, anyone who claims that’s how is it, I think is living in a different Universe.) However, I’m a firm believer that life is what we make of it, and while we can’t control everything that happens to us, we can control our mindset. My “No Bad Days” tee reminds me that even when things aren’t going my way, it doesn’t have to completely ruin my day, week or heck even month. It just means I may need to take a new turn and look at things a little differently.

Learning From The Tough Times

One of the most challenging times for me was about a year ago when I decided to leave my full-time job for … Read More!