Hi everyone! I hope your week is going well so far. Happy you are here! 🙂
How great has the sunshine / warmer weather been for those of you who live in Michigan?? Such an instant upgrade to the week!
I wanted to do a post today sharing some of my general thoughts on gut health AND share about a tool that I’ve been excited to be incorporating more in my practice over the past few months.
First things first! Some random gut health and candid dietetics processing:
Hello, everyone! How is your week going so far?
I have been loving the sunnier days lately and am looking forward to a couple of days in the 50s and 60s coming up!
We went to my grandparents’ house for a quick overnight weekend trip which was nice. A change of scenery can be so refreshing!
During our stay we went on the toboggan run at Pokagon State Park in Indiana. It was quite the thrill ride with the weight of me, Alec, and my parents all on one sled! I was somewhat paranoid we were going to go flying off the edge.
I feel like the winter is flying by and soon we will already be into spring!
What have you been up to lately for fun on the weekends (or whenever your time off is)??
Recent February meals & snacks for your own eating inspiration!
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This antioxidant-rich berry cacao smoothie is a delicious and nourishing treat for any time of day! Featuring cacao powder, chia seeds, avocado, and organic frozen berries, this creamy and delectable smoothie is full of nutrients to keep both your immune system and tastebuds happy.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
On today’s chocolate-loving holiday, we are starting things off with my favorite berry cacao smoothie!
We have already covered some of my other favorite “chocolate-centric” recipes including my mocha almond joy smoothie, chocolate raspberry avocado pudding (the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert!), and – today’s recipe’s cousin – the best chocolate strawberry smoothie. You are on the Everyday Chocolate blog after all!
I don’t praise the cocoa bean just for its amazing taste potential… although that alone is reason to rejoice. Cocoa bean “products” in their purer forms, such as organic cacao powder (featured in today’s smoothie) and high-quality dark chocolate have the potential to ALSO add a hefty nutrition punch to your daily diet. Depending on the specific brand, we are talking quite possibly an excellent source of magnesium, iron, and antioxidants.
Winning on multiple fronts!
As your trusted nutrition AND flavor connoisseur, I would not lead you astray, especially on a holiday of all days. Let’s read on for the details!
I recently read Elaine Aron’s book, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You and found it incredibly helpful. As someone who often feels frazzled, overwhelmed, overstimulated, and in need of a great quantity of alone time, understanding this more and how I can “help myself out more” in managing this trait through various daily life choices has been quite useful.
I have known for years that I fall into the 15-20% of the population who would be classified as “highly sensitive,” but learning more in-depth about this is helping me to reframe some of my past experiences as well as move forward in making helpful changes in my life and business so as to not feel so overwhelmed, frazzled, and exhausted.
Thinking more about about the high sensitivity trait in general also has had me thinking more about how COMMON I think this trait is among people who end up developing anorexia nervosa at some point in their lives.
While I haven’t been able to find any stats that directly measure this, my personal experience with anorexia, my experience counseling people with anorexia, and what I know of anorexia from years of study leads me to believe that the vast majority of people with anorexia (past or present) are likely HSPs (highly sensitive persons).
Are you a highly sensitive person?
For many people, college can be a time of increased stress and anxiety. If you are a college student who is ALSO walking through anorexia recovery, it can certainly be a lot to manage.
In today’s blog post, I’m sharing 6 tips for managing anorexia recovery in college. College can be a time of GROWTH and HEALING in your anorexia recovery journey. With some additional intentionality and the right support in place, heading away for school doesn’t have to be a setback in your relationship with food and your body.
While a difficult stat to accurately quantify, according to this website, the average age of anorexia onset is 18.9 years — exactly the age of most college freshmen! While the vast majority of college students won’t ever end up meeting the strict diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, it is still a population at increased risk for the development of an eating disorder. And, formal eating disorders aside, many/most college women do wrestle with at least some degree of disordered eating. You can read more about what I mean by an eating disorder versus disordered eating here.
6 Tips for Managing Anorexia Recovery in College:
Happy Wednesday!
How is your start to 2024 going??
Personally, I am happy 2023 is behind us, but who knows what 2024 will hold!
Glad to be here posting after a couple of weeks! We were in Phoenix about a week and a half ago with Alec’s side of the family… it was so nice to get some sun for a few days! We returned back to the frigid temps in Michigan and a couple of cars covered in snow/ice. We forgot to put the car I usually drive in the garage before we left and it was the hardest time I think I’ve ever had getting the ice scraped off! 2 inches of solid ice on the back windshield… I was heading out to get groceries/run errands during which the almond milk I got from Costco froze/expanded/leaked onto my trunk and underneath the top flooring… and then all froze again making it much more of a hassle to try and clean up… let’s just say it was an interesting time getting back into the swing of things that day! Thankfully Alec, as the resident car expert, offered to clean up the almond milk debacle…
While it’s nice that it’s a bit warmer this week, I’m also not a huge fan of the constant colder/warmer cycles our winters seem to be composed of nowadays! I’d rather just take snow for 3 straight months compared to all this melting/back-and-forth/ice and cold rain…
In other news, how about Michigan Football??? More on that below.
Some recent eats from the holidays / into January!
Do you ever find yourself feeling chaotic and compulsive around food, whether that occurs once in a while or on a routine basis?
I think many of us likely answer “yes!” to that question (at least to some degree!).
If you’re like many of the clients who I work with, more often that not, you find yourself feeling “out of the driver’s seat” when it comes to your food decisions.
How do we go from feeling out-of-control and chaotic around food to a calmer and more centered place?
One place to start is by thinking about two of the main drivers of chaotic and compulsive eating:
(1) Physical food restriction and (2) Mental food restriction
In this post we will explore examples of what physical and mental food restriction can look like, and how these dynamics might be sabotaging your desire to feel more centered around food!
Hello friends!
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! I’m closing out the year of blog posts with a 2023 year in review… sharing some of what’s been happening in my life this year in high-level, summary form! I find it useful/fun/encouraging this time of year to take some time to reflect on the year we are finishing before heading into a new one, and I would encourage you to consider doing something similar if you haven’t tried it before! 🙂
2023 Year in Review:
Happy Wednesday!
I’m feeling epically ready to rest and recharge as we head into Christmas and New Years’. Anyone else?? I know the holidays can bring up a mix of emotions, and some years may be more joyful or difficult than others. I hope that with whatever you have going on in your life right now, you are able to take some time to rest and recenter a bit.
Backing up to the previous weekend, we had dinners scheduled Saturday & Sunday with friends we are connected to from college. It was so great to catch up — it had been much too long since seeing both couples/friends! Prior to that we were sick/recovering from colds… it seems everyone has been getting sick lately! Hoping we have gotten all our sickness out of the way before the holidays…
Before we get to some December eats, I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas! However you have found your way to the blog, I am grateful that you are here.
Closing out the year with some pre-Christmas December eats!
Hi everyone!
Today I wanted to share a round-up of my favorite/go-to simple meal and snack ideas. While cooking more involved dishes is something I do enjoy when I have time, most of the time I am thinking creatively about quick and easy ways to get nourishing, satisfying breakfasts/lunches/dinners together throughout our busy weeks. Anyone else with me???
I’m looking forward to a bit more time to make some of my favorite recipes over the Christmas season. At the same time, what I most want over my holiday time-off is downtime for reading, resting, and relaxing. That likely means a continued focus on simple, yet delicious meals and snacks.
I always find it helpful to see what other people are making throughout their weeks, and how they tend to go about getting dinner on the table on top of the busyness of regular life. Everyone’s life is unique, and thus we all may have such different preferences for going about prepping or acquiring meals and snacks, which I find fascinating!
I hope my go-to ideas inspire you as you consider ways to “navigate food less stressfully” in your life this holiday season and in the new year to come!
