The He(Art) of Listening

This year, what if we commit to being more of a heartfelt listener? Imagine the impact that would make, if we all just listened a little more. Think about it… We learn when we listen. We expand when we listen. To listen is to love and to lead.  We grow and create space for courageous conversations, the kind we all need right now, when we listen. And, peace of mind comes when we listen with our heart.  The problem is that most people aren’t listening but merely waiting for their turn to speak (or talk over each other). So, we aren’t really hearing one another or honoring the kind of understanding that comes from deeply being with another.   As we open up to this new year ahead with so much turbulence that surrounds us, deep heartfelt listening has never been more important. But, to truly be a heartfelt listener, you need to tune into yourself and what’s happening in your heart. Listen with your heart rather than your head… Where Do We Begin? The shift from head to heart when listening is the key. So, start by creating a space to tune in and really listen. Your heart naturally has the capacity to recalibrate you and recognize your truth. And by space, I want you to pay attention to the mood, tone, and underlying energy of what is really being communicated beyond the words or what you’re thinking.  Pay attention to what you feel (in your heart) rather than listening for what you’re used to hearing (in your head).  The head keeps us in “autopilot listening” where we are subconsciously seeking things to validate what we already think. When we are more present, we can anchor within and witness what comes our way instead of being so quick to judge. DEVELOP HEART-BASED LISTENING Many of us live in the mind’s busy spin cycle. We are constantly over stressed and feeling stuck in that stress and negativity. I created HeartRise, a modern method of meditation and an empowering lifestyle, to change this. One way to start is our 4-step method that helps you to develop more heart-based listening. This is something you can apply every day.  Step 1: SEE with Heart Vision This means to observe what’s there without attaching meaning to it (HEAD). Step 2: FEEL with Heart Focus This is critical as it allows you to FEEL what’s there when you’re observing the trigger, behavior, idea, or circumstance that arises with your SEEing. Step 3: FREE with Heart Knowing This takes practice as it’s about letting go of what’s coming up with breath…moving through  the feelings to release them, and build the self-trust that it takes. Step 4: FLOW with Heart Wisdom This is where you really cultivate a deeper connection with Heartfelt listening. Once you’ve let go of what you’re holding, you’re that much more open to trust what’s coming up and through you. Again, with practice, you can build conviction and resilience so that your listening becomes more aligned with your truth rather than what you’ve been conditioned to think. YOUR EMOTIONS CAN GUIDE YOU Flow is a way of living where synchronicity and resonance move you, and you can lean in to listen more clearly, and go deeper when needed. Your emotions are gifts of guidance that can help you to tune in.  Instead of stuffing those feelings down and putting a brave face on, you can actually heal what you’ve been holding and listen more deeply by actually feeling your way through. The heart is attuned to another frequency (literally, an electromagnetic field). It is an invisible language of vibes that we can pick up and be guided by when we’re present to the mood, the tone, and the texture of what’s really being said beyond the obvious words and cues. Your feelings are energy wanting to be expressed when you learn how to safely experience them. With practice, it gets easier and your heart grows stronger. You can recognize and repurpose stuck energy (blocked emotions) as fuel.   LISTEN WITH YOUR HEART Think of your heart as your engine. Now, for a moment, consider what happens when you don’t “listen” to the engine to see how you may be operating. This is where the head keeps you busy—running on autopilot listening to all the “shoulds” that surround you, or worrying about what others think of you. That is completely exhausting and ineffective.   Heartfelt listening gets you out of your busy head and into your knowing heart.  When you take the time to really listen to your own heart, you strengthen self-trust and reinforce your capacity to have compassion and understanding when listening to others.    So, essentially, to be a better listener, you need to tune into yourself. You need to feel good within your heart so you can open yourself to hear others. HOW TO PRACTICE LISTENING Take a moment now and place both hands over your heart. BREATHE. Take a long, expansive breath…in and out…through your heart. As you breathe, ask these questions:  How connected do I feel?  Am I listening to what’s here?   What feeling is present that I’m not letting breathe?  How can I connect and honor myself today?  Where can I express love?  What am I grateful for?  How can I be more present and really listen to someone else today who I may not agree with? What can I appreciate in someone else today?   As we cultivate the He(Art) of Listening in our own lives, we can embrace these times as the cue to remember the compassion and expansion we’re here to co-create.  (photo credit: Shutterstock)

How to Build Diversity and Inclusion into Your Wellness Practice

Ask Keri: As a wellness professional, how can I make sure my practice serves clients from a diversity of backgrounds?   Keri Says: This is such an important question to tackle at this moment and time, but it’s also a question we should be asking ourselves every step of the way—from the start of our careers onward. After many years teaching and engaging with all kinds of wellness professionals through the Nutritious Life Studio’s educational programs, I know that nutritionists, trainers, yoga teachers, and health coaches are service professionals. Almost all of us choose these jobs because we are driven to help people live healthier, happier lives. Figuring out the best way to do that is an ongoing process. As a registered dietitian who has been seeing clients for nearly 20 years, one of the important principles I’ve come to depend on is that “wellness is personal.” The concept is even part of the Nutritious Life Manifesto: “Whatever science or tradition says, if a strategy isn’t right for your body and your lifestyle, it won’t work. Every individual is unique, and there is endless variation in terms of what your most Nutritious Life looks like.” But here’s the thing: The fact that every individual is different doesn’t mean that overarching factors like race, gender, and economic status don’t have a serious impact on health risks. In fact, scientific evidence tells us those factors are inextricably linked to varied outcomes in terms of diet-related diseases, mental health, and more. So, if we want to support a diversity of clients, we have to recognize those factors, when, for example, a Black woman comes in to work on her nutrition goals versus a White man.  Here are some tips and resources to prepare yourself and your practice to better serve a diverse clientele, especially to support historically underserved populations in living their most Nutritious Lives.   How to Build Diversity and Inclusion in Your Wellness Practice   1. Educate Yourself on Racial Healthcare Disparities Recently, it’s become clear that Black Americans are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Unfortunately, that’s a current example of how people of color have long faced higher disease risks and worse health outcomes in the US. A 2017 report found that Black Americans are at higher risk for high blood pressure and are twice as likely as White Americans to die from heart disease, and that Black people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are more likely to live with or die from conditions like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, which typically occur at older ages in White people. Another example: The mortality rate for African American women diagnosed with breast cancer is 42% higher than for White women.  As a wellness professional, your first job is to educate yourself on these disparities before a client sits down in your office or steps onto a yoga mat. That doesn’t mean you should stop treating each client as a unique individual (don’t!), it’s just about educating yourself so that you’ve got context whenever you need it. 2. Consider Culture and Life Experiences Race and culture are not the same thing, but they can be intertwined in many ways. And dietary patterns and preferences are heavily influenced by culture. If your client is Jewish and keeps Kosher, your Simply Roasted Shrimp recipe isn’t going to fit into their healthy eating plan.  By the way, it’s also important to respect and give credit to the cultural roots of health foods that are presented as new “trends” in wellness. Often, those foods are “new” only in the sense that White people are starting to eat them. Take turmeric, for example, which we love at NL. While it’s gotten a lot of attention in the past few years, it’s ancient. In fact, Indian people have been using it in food and medicine for thousands of years. Acknowledging those cultural roots is an important step towards making sure the way we talk about health and wellness is not framed entirely by a White perspective. Finally, another piece of wisdom from the NL manifesto: “We like to ask big, philosophical, and scientific questions about the best ways to lose weight and stress less, but it’s the stuff of life—meetings, bills, phone calls, family drama, and annoying errands—that distracts, damages, and derails us from our true purpose. Dealing with those details is where the magic happens…” In order to serve diverse clients, you’ve got to acknowledge that that “stuff of life” may be very different for people from different racial and economic backgrounds. Acknowledge that you may not know what a client’s “stuff” looks like if their background is incredibly different from your own, and ask questions instead of assuming. 3. Consider Issues of Access Some of the health disparities mentioned earlier are partially attributable to the fact that Black people are also less likely to receive preventive care  and often receive lower-quality care. They’re also less likely to have health insurance. As wellness professionals (and especially for those of us in a position of white privilege), it’s our job to actively work to address those inequities in care.  Maybe that means making an active effort to change your marketing to diversify your clientele or offer special services to historically underserved populations. Or maybe it means pricing your services on a sliding scale, offering discounts for people of color and/or low-income clients, or setting aside a certain amount of time each month to offer free or donation-based sessions. In the end, we can all do our part in making nutrition and wellness more inclusive and tackling health and wellness disparities. One of my most important principles is the idea that all of the different pillars of living a Nutritious Life—from stress to relationships to eating habits—are connected and influence each other in all directions. It’s a philosophy that intersects with tackling disparities, since race and gender and economic status are all interconnected, too, and influence each person’s ability to live their healthiest life. And learning to

3 Ways to Waste Less Food, According to Chef and Activist Tom Colicchio

Tom Colicchio knows a thing or two about food waste. “My wife likes to joke that I’m a Depression-era housewife,” Colicchio shared at Food Tank’s Food Waste Summit. The celebrity chef and activist, who is owner of Crafted Hospitality restaurant group, was referring to his obsession with not wasting food, which is a topic that’s been getting more and more attention due to some staggering stats. In the U.S., the USDA estimates that 30% to 40% of food produced is wasted. That added up to 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010, when the USDA last offered stats. (And you thought Sweetgreen was expensive.) Why should you care, though? After all, you’re now old enough to know that clearing your dinner plate won’t, in fact, help feed starving children in Ethiopia, despite what your mother told you. First, you’re basically throwing your money in the garbage. The most recent stats from Nutrition Connect, an initiative of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), found the average American family spends more than $1,600 a year (that’s a vacation!) on uneaten produce alone. Most importantly, food waste is the largest category of garbage filling landfills. Once in the landfill, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to climate change. It’s also bad for the planet since it’s not just wasted food, it’s a waste of all of the resources (like water and transportation) that go into its production. RELATED: The One Simple Diet Change That’s Best For the Planet “The real cost of food isn’t understood,” Colicchio said, referencing how cheap the end cost of food can be in America, a fact that confuses our perception. “We don’t value food.” Ready to start trying? Here are a few simple tips from Colicchio that will help you cut food waste, save the planet, and put money back in your pockets. Win-win-win! 3 Tips to Cut Food Waste 1. FIFO your fridge. There’s a rule in restaurant kitchens referred to as FIFO, and it stands for “first in, first out.” Every time you stock the fridge, you take the older stuff out and move it to the front, putting the newer, fresher foods behind. This prevents you from forgetting about things that are hidden before they go bad. It’s a super simple strategy that adds a couple of extra minutes to your post-grocery routine but makes a huge difference. RELATED: Genius IKEA Kitchen Hacks that Make Healthy Cooking Easier 2. Get to know your freezer. Our collective obsession with fresh ingredients in restaurants might have steered us a little too far from our freezers, according to Colicchio. Everything fresh all of the time is “a great strategy for restaurants, but not necessarily for home,” he said, where it’s often hard to finish foods in the quantities they’re sold in. His tip: Freeze stuff! When he buys too much kale, for example, he blanches it and freezes it. When tomatoes are popping at the farmers’ market, he freezes a bunch and then turns them into sauce at a later date. 3. Eat out. This may sound a little self-serving coming from a chef, but it’s true. While we recommend cooking at home as much as possible to ensure healthy ingredients, restaurants are better at managing food waste than consumers are. (Makes sense since every food item purchased equals dollars on a spreadsheet for restaurants). So, consider this your one good excuse to dine out a little more often than you should. Tell your friends about how you’re working on reducing food waste, too. “We’ve got to get this message out to more people,” Colicchio said. “Nobody wants to waste money. Nobody wants to waste food.” (Images: Shutterstock)

From Comfort to Culture: How Food Meaning Drives What’s on Your Plate

By Naomi Arbit, PhD, NLC You know which vitamins your dinner delivers and how much protein is on your plate. But have you ever thought about what that salmon or broccoli you’re enjoying means to you and how that meaning might affect your food choices? According to new research, connecting with how you derive meaning from food could change how and what you eat—and therefore impact your overall health. The Background What do we mean when we say “food meanings”? My research team and I have defined it as encompassing the ways food is embedded in non-food related aspects of people’s lives and worlds. In fact, seeing and evaluating our food in terms of the calories and nutrients it provides is a relatively new way of orienting to food. For much of human history, food was evaluated in terms of its spiritual value, purity, ecological availability, and social and cultural implications. Think about the importance of the sacrament, or the laws of kashrut and halal, all of which heavily emphasize the spiritual or religious symbolism of foods. RELATED: How Yoga Star Caley Alyssa Follows an Awareness Diet Even in our modern food system, there are ways of connecting to food that transcend its nutritive and health aspects. For instance, in recent years there has been increased attention on food’s moral and environmental implications, its cleanliness, and its aesthetic, artisanal, or creative taste profile. These approaches all capture different food meanings, and this is important because, as our research has shown, the meaning that food holds for people matters greatly when it comes to food choice. When you see food only in terms of calories, nutrients, taste, availability, and convenience—which is how the majority of Americans relate to food—you miss connections between food choice and the important aspects of a person’s life and world. The Research In our research, we found five primary domains of food meanings: aesthetics, health, moral, sacred, and social. We are currently investigating cultural identity as well. Our key finding is that the domain that is a source of meaning for you will very much inform which foods you eat, as well as the potential environmental situations where you might be cued to eat more. RELATED: The Best Portion Control Hack to Avoid Overeating Connecting food to important aspects of your world may help you orient yourself more appropriately to the multitude of food options available, make better food choices, and generally feel less anxious about selecting foods. It is important to note, though, that not all domains are associated with healthier dietary intakes. While the sacred, moral, and health meanings are generally associated with healthier dietary patterns, in the US, the social and aesthetic meanings are associated with slightly less healthy dietary patterns. This will differ from person to person and across cultures, but the key point is that the meaning matters. What This Means For You A meaning-based approach to food takes into account what food means to you and why, and makes the relationship more conscious, to inform the selection of better food choices and increase your overall wellbeing. For example, people who derive meaning from the social aspects of eating might use their knowledge of this to more purposefully structure their meals around social occasions and reduce their food intake in non-social settings, such as when snacking. RELATED: Try These Strategies to Eat Healthy While Dining Out Similarly, people who find meaning from the moral aspects of their food choices might think about deliberately aligning their food choices with their ethical principles, if they are not already so aligned. This might involve eating more local or organic food, vegetarian or vegan food, or simply less meat. Overall, a shift away from the caloric and weight-loss implications of food choice to the meaning-conferring benefits of people’s relationships with food might not only alleviate some of the anxiety around food and eating, but can help people orient to food in a healthier, more constructive way.  

How Visualization Can Change Your Life (and Weight)

By Patricia Moreno For a long time, I felt so much fear that I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my dreams and struggled with weight fluctuations, depression, drug use, and feelings of anxiety about my life. Then, I learned to harness the power of my mind, exercise my brain, and strengthen the power of my relationship to my word. After more than 15 years of using various techniques on myself, my family, and my community of students, the amazing results people experienced piled up. My students lost pounds, overcame life-threatening health issues, healed their hearts, and quit unfulfilling jobs to pursue purposeful careers. I wanted to make this available to people worldwide, so I created The Practice, a personal transformation training that helps you develop the mental, physical, and spiritual muscle needed to create sustainable change. When you exercise your power to choose what you think, say, and do on a daily basis, you can elevate your mind, body, and life—one day at a time. The Power of Visualization Visualization is a great place to start. It’s one of the seven strategies I use in The Practice, and it’s something we’re doing all of the time. I’m just teaching you to control it. It can work for any daily challenge, including weight loss. RELATED: Can Food Journaling Really Help You Lose Weight? Whenever you’re about to make a change, there’s always going to be a challenge. Otherwise, you would have already made the change. The biggest obstacle is the future you’re projecting in your mind. If you think something’s going to be hard, you’re already rehearsing it as hard in your  mind. Starting a diet, for instance, you imagine yourself feeling deprived and sad and missing out on all of these things you’ll never, ever, ever be able to have. This starts to weaken your willpower, and we do need to apply some willpower to make changes. RELATED: Why Self-Discipline is a Muscle You Should Start Flexing What you need to do is visualize each challenge and rehearse yourself succeeding at it, just like an elite athlete before a game, including the outcome. Say you’re following a certain meal plan and you’re going to a family party. You know it’s going to be challenging because you love your mom’s cooking, but it doesn’t fit into your current plan. Close your eyes and literally walk through the event. See yourself going through the challenge as your best self, feeling empowered and positive. I’d imagine myself saying “Thank you, mom, for doing this. Everything looks so amazing. I’m going to pass this time because right now I’m really developing a new level of self-discipline, but I can’t wait for next time.” And then rehearse your mom’s response. Instead of her being upset or hurt that you’re not eating, rehearse your mom saying, “I’m so proud of you. I’m going to support you in this. If this is really what you want, I’ve got your back.” Whether that actually happens or not, what you’re doing is saying, “This is my intention. This is the way I’m going to see it. Instead of putting rocks in my backpack before I set out, I’m going to lighten my load and be on my own team.” Yes, your brain might protest and say, “My mom would never say that!” But that’s the voice of someone who is using an excuse not to put in the effort. We give up our power by blaming other people, the circumstances, the event—all of these other things. If you’re giving someone else or something the power, you don’t have the power to change. Visualize your own power. About Patricia: Patricia Moreno—a Guest Expert for The Nutrition School—is all about helping people awaken their inner bad-ass by combining practices that exercise mental, physical, and spiritual muscle so they can live a life of Thinner Peace. She is the creator of the intenSati method, and her secret recipe is the integration of mind, body, and spirit and the deliberate development of self-love and self-mastery. Sign up for her new 12-month transformation training program, The Practice, here.

How to Make Small Nutritious Shifts Towards Better Health

Sometimes, a giant leap towards a healthier, happier life is necessary. Other times, small shifts can get you to the same place with a lower risk of failure. To celebrate National Nutrition Month, we’re focusing on helping you make those small changes. Call them Nutritious Shifts. They’re tweaks to your diet, exercise, and sleep habits that are easy to act on right now—that will have a major impact on your overall health. We’re rolling out two each week during March to coincide with the eight pillars of a Nutritious Life (so keep checking back for additions!). Join us in making each (easy!) shift throughout the month. Share your progress on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtags #nutritiousshifts and #livinganutritiouslife. At the end of March, we’ll feature our favorite posts on the Nutritious Life blog (so you’ve got a shot at wellness fame, too!). Nutritious Shift 1: Eat Vegetables for Breakfast Getting veggies in at every meal is a great way to Eat Empowered, but breakfast can be tough if you’re a yogurt or oatmeal kind of gal. Get creative and try including a veggie in the first meal of the day this week. Throw greens like kale or spinach into a smoothie, add peppers and onions to your scrambled eggs, or add tomato to your avocado toast. You can even make a salad and throw an egg on top. Try These Recipes: Antioxidant Smoothie There’s spinach mixed into all of the sweetness. Leftovers Frittata You can throw any leftover roasted or sauteed veggies in here, or use up the last of a bag of greens. Morning Glory Muffins Yummy grain-free muffins made with carrot and pumpkin. Nutritious Shift 2: Go Local We’re not suggesting you give up all of your grocery plans and start foraging for mushrooms in the local park. Just choose one tiny thing you can do this week to support the local food economy that you might otherwise have skipped. Here are a few easy ideas: Replace one grocery store trip with a quick stop at a farmer’s market, local farm stand, small bakery, or neighborhood butcher shop. Sign up for a local CSA (farm share) for the upcoming spring/summer seasons. At your grocery store, look for a fruit or veggie grown in your state and throw it in your basket even if it wasn’t what you’d normally buy. If you live in New York, click the “Local” tab on FreshDirect and get some local produce delivered right to your door. Now, how easy is that?! Nutritious Shift 3: Make a Workout Date One foolproof way to make sure you Sweat Often? Find a workout BFF. Exercising with a partner has a few benefits: you’re less likely to bail if someone expects you to show up, and you may push yourself harder to impress a friend. Most importantly, it’s more fun—and a fitness routine is only sustainable if you enjoy it. You may have heard of all of this before, but we want you to commit to trying one of these specific #NutritiousShifts to make your fitness routine social this month: Instead of meeting a friend or coworker for happy hour, schedule a yoga or spin class. Tap a fitness-loving friend to be your new workout buddy and make a schedule for the next month that details when you’re going to meet up to hit the gym. If you’re in a relationship, go for a run with your partner on Sunday instead of (or better yet…before!) going to brunch. Try out a run club or social fitness group like Electric Flight Crew or the November Project (both of which have chapters in multiple cities). Nutritious Shift 4: Drink More Water It sounds simple, but many people are walking around dehydrated, which can sap energy, slow metabolism, and lead to overeating. Drinking 64 ounces per day is a good goal. Here are some #NutritiousShifts that will get you to Drink Up, now: Commit to taking a water bottle with you everywhere you go for a week. If you have it with you, you’ll reach for it more often. Before each meal and snack, fill a tall glass of water and make sure you finish it along with your food. Upgrade your water (making it irresistible!) by adding fruit or spices. Nutritious Shift 5: Practice a Random Act of Kindness Expressing love has many health benefits—and we’re not just talking about in bed (although sex is sooo good for you, FYI).  Research has shown hugging may lower blood pressure and boost levels of relaxation-related hormone oxytocin, that expressing altruism and spending money on others can make you happier, and that regularly supporting others is linked to higher self-esteem and less depression. (Oh, not to mention it’s just the right thing to do!) Ready to Love More? Choose one of these #NutritiousShifts (or your own!) to practice a random act of kindness this week: If you’re in a relationship, leave a love note on your partner’s pillow for no reason. Buy coffee for the stranger behind you in line at Starbucks. Buy a treat for a coworker and have it waiting on his or her desk. Mail a simple “Thinking of you!” postcard to a friend who’s far away. Call or text a family member you haven’t talked to in a long time just to say hello. Nutritious Shift 6: Nurture Your Skin Your skin is a really, really big organ that is often ignored in terms of how it relates to your overall wellness. The truth is it needs just as much care as your heart needs cardio. Add a few minutes to your normal skincare routine to do a little nurturing this week. Choose one of these #NutritiousShifts (or ask it what it wants, babe): Take a long bubble bath instead of a shower. Do an at-home mask or body scrub to slough off dead skin and impurities. Treat yourself to a facial or a face massage. Toss one beauty product made with one of these two

3 Goal-Setting Tips To Conquer Your Year

How to turn your shoot-for-the-moon desires into manageable goals you can actually meet, whether you’re just starting out as a personal trainer or health coach or are simply trying to develop a few healthier habits.