by Moana Schwertsik | Mar 15, 2023 | Body, Self Care Toolbox, Uncategorized
Healthy Habits
Healing our Bodies with Nutrition
As a craniosacral and polarity practitioner I have had the privilege of working closely with several clients who wanted to make changes to their lifestyles because they realized how unhealthy they had become. Although my involvement was as a bodywork practitioner I could observe how they made changes to their daily eating habits. Once they were able to create healthier eating habits we could all see how they were healing their bodies with nutrition. It was often a profound change. And it makes sense, the food we eat today creates the cells for tomorrow and gives us the energy to keep our bodies healthy and strong for the work tomorrow.
So I set out to get my certification in nutrition coaching because I realized how spectacular the body is at healing itself, but also how difficult this can be for so many of us. It is a challenge to change something so habitual for us. But once we understand that we can really make a difference and improve our lives with healthy eating habits it becomes a little easier.
I always thought I was eating pretty healthy, but over the last few years I have learned so much and I feel I want to share some of that with you. It’s is a long journey and really a change for life. The way I approach it is not a quick fix or a one size fits all diets. I will not dictate what you can or cannot eat. You will be doing the work to find out what works best for you, and I can help you with whatever challenges come up along the way.
My goal is to help you understand what is beneficial for our body and soul, help you get through or over some stumbling block, (because we are going to find some), and get you out much stronger and healthier the other end. Rather than dealing with the treatment of disease I focus on wellness and prevention of illness through proper diet and nutrition to achieve optimal health.
Let’s get started
Firstly, finding your starting point is important. It helps to take a close look and evaluate where you are today. What and how have you eating so far? Simply by making a list of what you are eating on a daily basis will give you a better understanding and greater clarity of where you truly are. Often we forget some of what we ate and do not realize the impact that had on us. So be very honest and take the time when you make your list of foods consumed.
Secondly, setting a goal of your end result. Create a detailed image of what you want your end result to be. Here again, be specific, immerce yourself and feel the outcome as if you’re already there. Create a vision board for your goal.
Thirdly, the hard work starts. Now we have to create smaller short term goals. These smaller goals should be realistic and fairly easy to achieve at the beginning. It is important to recognize that it will be difficult at first to make changes to lifelong habits. But be persistent!
Nutritious Foods
Even if you only change one small thing and stick with it, that change will become a habit on which you can now build another new habit.
Making habit changes requires a lot of determination. Having the support from family and friends could have a great impact. It is important to surround yourself with people who will support you on this journey.
The changes which you are deciding to make should be to improve a balanced diet. There are several ideas out there but my plate.gov is a great resource and will get you started in the right direction.
Figuring out the ideal calorie intake for you is the next step. This depends on many factors which include but are not limited to age, sex, and activity levels. Most women need 1,600–2,400 daily calories to maintain their weight. Most men need 2,000–3,000 calories.
If you want to be very exact you can reach out to me or any nutrition coach and we can help you with the calculations. But for starters you can figure out how many calories you are eating daily right now and adjust you amount of calories.
That being said I believe it is important that you do not go hungry and this is where things can become a little tricky for some people. This is where you need to learn which foods will help you feel full and satisfied and keep you within you caloric goals.
Then there is also the task of learning to read food labels. That can be a little tricky, but it’s good to make it a habit to look at the labels and check for the ingredients. Remember the ingredients are listed in order of predominance, with the ingredients used in the greatest amount first, followed in descending order by those in smaller amounts.
Healing our bodies with nutrition is a life journey, but it is worth taking the first step.
If you want to start your journey with me come join me in my first of a series of workshop starting on Mar 28th 2023.
by Moana Schwertsik | Jan 18, 2023 | Body
Why did nutrition became important to me?
Why did nutrition become important to me? Well, I grew up in a family which took great care in eating healthy and nutritious foods. We’d often go to the farmers directly to get our milk, eggs, and sometimes even the whole chicken. I remember special trips to get some honey right from the beekeeper, this was quite the experience. One time the bee farmer gave me a piece of honeycomb and as you can imagine the honey dripped all over me, because I couldn’t eat it fast enough. It was soooo very sweet and yummy. My hands and clothes were sticky for the rest of the day, but that was ok, that experience of fabulous honey straight from the comb will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Nutritious Foods
We also sat with the family for most meals and it was a relaxing time. We would sit and enjoy our food and a conversation, chewing our food slowly and enjoying the flavors.
Then I grew up and went out into the world on my own. I got swept up into the world of rushing all the time and not taking the time to sit and eat and truly enjoy my food. Short lunch breaks if you got any at all. What I realize now is that when you are in it you don’t stop and think about how hard that is for you body.
The journey can be long.
Then one day I realized that my digestion was suffering. There had been a series of events that happened in my life and I decided to stop and reevaluate what I was doing. The one thing I learned was that as they say ‘we are what we eat’. I did take a closer look at that and started to recognize that I was not choosing my foods wisely. Most of what we need has been provided by nature. All the good and nutritious stuff, the vitamins and minerals are all provided to us. I set out on a journey to change my diet habits and improve on the foods I was eating and get back to enjoying the process of nourishing my body.
It has been a longer but fun journey and I honestly feel better. There have been a lot of changes, some easy and some quite hard. Some habits are really hard to break. Many habits have an emotional component attached to them and the were the most difficult to change.
As I continue to make changes and learn more about nutrition and what the body truly needs to be healthy, I have become stronger with more energy and fewer aches and pains.
Along the way I became a nutrition coach and would love to pass on some of my knowledge and support on. I will continue to share some of my journey and how the different changes have helped me feel better and stronger. Feel free to check out our Youtube channel for some more insights.
by Tracey Payton | Nov 8, 2022 | Body, Heart, Mind, Self Care Toolbox, Spirit, TOOLSday
Gratitude!!
Looking for some more ways to express gratitude. Check out this quick one minute video on gratitude.
http://youtu.be/eDf8OlmQWso
by Tracey Payton | Oct 5, 2022 | Body, Heart, Mind, Self Care Toolbox, Spirit
Stress Sucks! I’ve never heard anyone say, “I cannot wait to be stressed out today!” or “I’m so excited out all the stress I’m under”. Have you? Well, probable not. That because we all know stress sucks!
The more people I coach, the more I get the same answer – “well stress is just part of life, and we have to get used to it.” Does that feel like a good answer? Because I don’t like it at all.
Stress is how we react when we feel under pressure or threatened. It makes us feel out of control. The stress may cause physical, emotional or psychological strain on us. While stress, like some many of our amazing mind and body responses, was originally designed to cause awareness and help keep us safe. But in today’s world stress has taken on a life of it own.
According to the American Psychological Association, more than 70% of adults have some significant form of stress in their life. The last 3 years of a global pandemic certainly have played a key role in the amount of stress people feel. Plus the uncertainly of our economy, politics, mass shootings, healthcare, climate change – just to name a few. And by the way most of the above are external things there is still the everyday stress of life, family, friends, job, cooking, cleaning and living. It can seem overwhelming.
All this stress is probably affecting a lot of things you do every day; including your sleep, your food choices, what you do for fun, how much movement you get and how you feel. These are just a few of the reasons to create stress awareness in your life.
So now that we recognize that stress sucks, and I have totally bummed you out with all the ways stress surrounds you. (sorry about that!). Let’s talk about what do we do or how do we make it better.
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another” – William James
Here are my 5 favorite away to help minimize and eliminate stress:
• Guided Mediation
• Connect with other
• Get outside – movement
• Play
• Sleep
Guided Mediation – meditation can be tricky for some. But honestly, I made it so much harder for myself. If you are new to meditation, or getting back into it or even an daily meditator – guided meditation can always help. Many apps have 5-10 minutes free guided meditation. This isa. Great way to meditation without having to be in charge. You get to sit back and have someone else help you clear your mind and guide you to a place of peace.
Connect with other – people, whether it be friends, family or strangers, can be a wonderful stress reducer. You may need to be a bit picky about who those people are, so that it is not causing more stress for you. But the people you can be totally yourself, laugh and share space with can help reduce your stress.
Get outside – Movement – So much of our loves are spend at a desk, or inside. Getting outside, smell the air, seeing the tress and birds, enjoying the sunshine. These are all ways to give you brain a break. You might even take it a step further by incorporating movement going for a walk, or run, a hike, a jog or even a skip. Anything that is just a few moments of movement can help clear our brain and create a few moments of stress relief.
Play – Children never stop playing, they play with boxes, pots and pans, there food, their clothes. They are always playing. But as adult we hardly play with anything. Play does not have to include a jungle gym, but could include anything that bring you joy, that make you laugh and provide you a moment of relief. You can see why play is so important to stress reduction. It is hard as an adult to find ways to play, but in encourage you to try,
Sleep – Is one of my favorite self-care and stress reduction tools. I’m not just talking about a good nap (which I also love); but planning and creating a good night sleep more nights than not. Let me take some planning and experimentation to find what your best sleep routine is. But when you wake up clearheaded you are able to more clearly and concisely look at the day and the to-do list. Without sleep everything can feel overwhelming only creating more stress.
Which one of these ideas are you willing to try? Do you have another way you love to reduce stress, comment below.
by stephdaviswebsites | Apr 7, 2022 | Body, Featured, Heart, Mind
Tracey has coached with hundreds of people around the world who struggled with too much on their plate, helping them create focused clarity to start and end their day. Tracey spent 15 years in corporate America, many of them feeling overwhelmed and too busy to live.
Learning and practicing Reiki as well as beginning her coaching career helped her to gain perspective about “our busyness” and fueled the desire to help others find peace, playfulness, and productivity to live their best life. She is offering 25 minutes Comfort Chats to help prepare and cope for the holiday and the overwhelmingness of 2020. Click here to book your comfort chat.
by stephdaviswebsites | Apr 7, 2022 | Body, Featured, Heart, Mind, Spirit
Moana helps individuals of all ages relieve their pain so that they can live enjoyable and productive lives. Her unique therapeutic approach blends several treatment techniques into a personalized treatment session to unite your body, mind and spirit, leading you to inner harmony and vibrant health.
Polarity and CranioSacral Therapy completely transformed her life and healed her chronic pain, which is why she became a practitioner to heal others using the methods that helped her.
Now as a Board-Certified Polarity Practitioner, her intention is to support you in your journey to better health with result-oriented bodywork.
