Nourish yourself. Savor eating REAL food.

Feeding ourselves nutritious, REAL FOOD IS SELF CARE.

My nutrition template:

I’m not vegetarian but I do eat a TON of vegetables, most often in the form of kale, or some other dark leafy green. While I do not adhere to a specific diet, I do have a few rules like avoiding processed foods and sugar, and when choosing carbs, choose sources that provide the most nutrition, like chick peas and whole grains, and I no longer drink alcohol.

I’m currently working on building muscle, so am paying extra attention to macronutrients. Macros are the three categories of nutrients you eat the most and provide you with most of your energy: protein, carbohydrates and fats. My breakdown is 44% protein, 33% carbs and 22% fat. Your breakdown will depend on your goal.

Learn more about macronutrients, MD Andersen

Learn more about good carbs, Harvard School of Public Health

Healthy-ish is my go-to for healthy and simple recipes. I also drool over and devour the superior writing, photography and trend reporting. Substitute things like white rice with brown rice, quinoa, or beluga lentils.

The Slow Running Lifestyle.

Running is more than just running. It is a lifestyle. It offers the most profound and positive consequences and trickle down effect:

Self Discipline. Your mastery of self discipline will amaze and delight you! It will make you proud, and will show up in other areas of your life.

Personal Growth. Running forces you into a flow state, allowing you to set aside self-consciousness and negativity, and focus on your intention, positively. Intentional running allows you the space to work through your most personal issues, resulting in personal growth.

Dare I say, self-acceptance. Yes. I dare say!

Naturally, it contributes to improved physical health.

Better than the few pounds you will shed, you will begin to supplement your new running lifestyle with powerful life habits, like:

Going to bed early. Get enough sleep! The data around sleeping for well-being is there, but for me it’s so obvious—if I don’t sleep well, I don’t manage stress well. Then I’m too tired to run and, well, there goes that vicious cycle again! Once you realize that you actually really enjoy feeling good in the morning, and you prefer feeling good over, say, one more episode of Shameless or another glass of wine, then it becomes easier to make the decision to go to bed early. Yes, you will fall asleep. You’re a runner now. Your body needs it!

Less alcohol consumption. Alcohol affects sleep patterns. Again, this isn’t easy! But, the more conscious you are about your decisions, the easier it will be (I’m speaking to the moderate drinker). Do you sleep better after 1 or 2 glasses of wine? Do you feel better in the morning after 1 or 2 glasses of wine? If not, it’s up to you to choose which you prefer, another glass of wine or feeling amazing in the AM. <insert self-discipline here>

Nutrition awareness. You’re running, sleeping more, drinking less and starting to feel a difference in your health. Next stop—nutrition. Feeding yourself well and making good choices is another side effect of a running lifestyle. You’ll want to. You’ll crave it.

Intentional running for creatives.

There is problem solving in any profession, but as a creative, I use running to solve most of my design ‘problems’. My process is always the same: Define the problem, research, research, then go for a run. When being very intentional about what I need to find or work on during my run, my mind acts very quickly and freely to run through solutions.

Why does running work? The purpose of this passion project is to better understand this. When applying my ‘method’, running puts me in a meditative state. My mind becomes lucid and open, allowing for clearer and more organized thoughts. I’m able to see the big picture and plan and strategize the future.

I always come home with ideas and solutions, jotting them down the second I run through the door. There have been times where I’ve almost turned back halfway through my run as I was so excited by the idea I’d dreamt up and didn’t want to forget it. It’s a beautiful, harmonious cycle - running allows ideas to flow and the ideas and emotions that accompany them fuel my running.

Intentional Running for mood management.

I approach running to manage mood and anxiety in a similar way: define the problem, then set an intention. What do I need to solve? As hard as running is, it is relaxing for the mind. It opens and allows clearer perspective and allows you to get in control of the anxiety, lack of confidence, or whatever it is that weighs you down. I feel like a superstar when I run. Out there, running in the woods, over hills, rocks, roots, as graceful as an antelope (or so I’ve been told by strangers who encounter me, true story!). Strong, bold, wild. Unstoppable. These feelings trickle in and leave you no choice but to upgrade your mood.

Running is hard, I think this is why it is such a powerful tool. It You need to work through some discomfort to reach your end goal, as in life.

Don’t avoid hills. They are the perfect opportunity to show yourself how strong you are. Have an issue or an insecurity? Define it, then crush it on the hill. Equate the physical push you feel to the determination you give the issue at hand. Example: Upcoming job interview—Prepare for it on the hill. Visualize it.

Crush it!

Just do it.

This slogan is so powerful and right—you have to just do it. You literally need to FORCE YOURSELF to get up, get dressed and get out the door for a run. Don’t wait for motivation—it won’t come! Motivation comes once you’ve started running (or anything, really). Try just committing to 10 minute run. Easy, right? You can turn around after 10 minutes. No judgement. Once you’re out, it’s likely that motivation will kick in and 10 minutes will turn into twenty, and so on.

In all the years that I’ve been running, I’ve never returned to say, ‘I wish I didn’t do that’. Quite the opposite. You will be so glad you did.

Just do it!

I need this as much as you do.

I am my biggest audience for this site. I can go through long periods of time where it just feels like too much effort to get running. When I’m tired or am simply feeling blue. The most common scenario for me is when I am anxious about the amount of work I have to do. I get caught up in a cycle of waking up and getting straight to work because obviously it feels like my priority, but then I slide into not being able to control my anxiety, then not sleeping well, not being as productive, becoming scary mom and wife, yadda yadda, you know the spiral. I know that precisely when I don’t feel like running is when I need it the most. It is SO HARD to make the right choice. Again, we need to actually force ourselves. Motivation happens while you are running! Pease visit my resource page for inspiration around this.

So, allow me inspire you and by doing so, inspire me! We all need help sometimes. Me, I need it often.