Formula for Change

BEHAVIORAL CHANGE

If you look at any habit that is out of balance or conflicts with your goals, behavioral change is a vital piece in the process of altaining your desired outcome. This may include eating habits, lack of exercise, procrastination or compulsive behaviors. Here are the 4 stages of behavioral change, and each must be addressed in order to effect lasting change:

CONTEMPLATION

It’s that initial period where you spend a fair amount of time thinking about a specific change you want to make. It could be that you want to stop night eating while watching TV.

PREPARATION

Here’s where you’ve make a decision that you want to and are going to make a change

ACTION

Now you begin taking small steps and noticing how it feels, addressing roadblocks that come up. Your first action may be to stop buying the items you generally eat while watching TV. It may be to drink water or tea in the evening without food. Consciously note any positive outcomes from this change in habit.

MAINTENANCE

This is the last and final step in making change, and can be the hardest. It takes 21 days to solidify a new habit, so be patient with yourself, and stay with it. Once you have these 21 days under your belt, you will have created a new routine that will feel easier and more natural as time passes.

Food Is Medicine

Some years ago, Dr. Conrad Esselstyn and Colin Campbell combined their expertise in clinical nutrition and nutritional research and reinforced the finding that there is one true path toward lifelong wellness, and that is food.

Like Dan Buettner. who wrote The Blue Zone, they showed that eating fresh unprocessed food makes a world of difference in health and wellness, and may be the only medicine needed throughout life.

It’s been my mission since completing my training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2005 to help whoever is ready and open to living with the simple belief that whole foods are the answer. It doesn’t mean you can never have a treat, or a pizza, or fried clams or chips. What it means is that most of your food falls into the categories  of fruits, vegetables. whole grains, clean meat and seafood, nuts, beans, fermented foods and seeds. Real food.

It also means that while  staying within these parameters, there may be times when some of these foods don’t agree with you or you just don’t like them. That is your bio-individuality speaking to you, and it is up to you to listen.

You may know I offer nutritional cleanses 3 times annually.  These are times designed to acclimate to changing seasons and in one case reset from the holidays. Here’s an example of what you might discover through this experience:

Karen was a first -time cleanser with Wellness and You.  This is what she relayed back to me a week after the cleanse ended:

“I finished the cleanse 6 days ago and I’ve re-introduced coffee, bread and yogurt into my diet. 
  Coffee:  Have changed cups to 1 eight-oz cup and thoroughly enjoy 1 cup in the morning.
  Bread:  2 slices per day/max - not every day
  Yogurt:  about 1/2c to 1 cup per day with breakfast and occasionally with fresh/frozen berries and nuts as an afternoon treat or in an afternoon smoothie.  
  Sweetener:  maple sugar only and the amount is regulated.

Here’s what I have noticed since finishing the cleanse:
  Hair Loss:  Definitely have noticeably less hair loss when I wash my hair.  I love it!  That benefit alone is worth changing one’s diet!
 Mornings:  hip pain is gone (yeahhh); overall stiffness diminished; no morning fog at all upon waking.
 Throughout the day:  higher energy levels.  
  Sweet tooth lower:  Last weekend, my daughter purchased a lemon meringue pie to share.  I ate a slice and noticed that I didn’t enjoy the taste that much while I was eating it - that surprised me!. 
Again, I’m delighted.  I’m not craving sugary sweets and deliberately not bringing any into my pantry.

I like your meal plan so much!  It has given me a simple, viable, healthy plan to follow and remove the angst around grocery shopping and quantity to purchase.  

Peg, thank you for your expertise.  Your cleanse plan really helped me understand what I , needed to do to live well and age well.  I am very grateful for the experience.
”

— Karen

The Proof Is Here

Look at Drs. Esselstyn, Campbell’s conclusions. Look at The Blue Zone, And look at Karen.  Eating healthy is the best medicine and it heals quickly.  I’ve seen it over and over.  You may know Dr. Mark Hyman, another doctor who espouses food as medicine. The bad part is we hear so little from mainstream medicine about the power of food,

Instead, we hear one should lose weight, or exercise. Excess weight and the lack of exercise is the result of poor quality food. In my book Food Becomes You I talk about malnutrition.  You might think I’m talking about not having enough food, but I’m not. I’m talking about eating highly processed food that offer few if any nutrients, causing you to always feel hungry. That hunger turns to over-eating, and if the food offers no nutrients, your brain will continue to trigger your appetite.

Join Me on the Path to Wellness

We all want to feel good. No one wants to be crippled by pain, digestive distress, headaches, depression, high blood pressure or excess weight.  Taking time to commit yourself to a healthier way of life with your food is so worth it. It takes time and attention, but like Karen, once you see how much better you can feel, you see how worth it healthy eating really is.

I invite you to read over my programs page to see if something may be right for you. I work virtually and in person in my Six Weeks and Comprehensive Coaching programs. We start with a detailed health history and goals statement to be sure the program is right for you. Everything is confidential.   And the best news of all, getting your food right will create a ripple effect in all aspects of your life.