Where ever you go…

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Natalie

…your health follows. Be it optimal or ‘average joe’ (which by the way, is not good), it’s ever present, and bad or good, there is no escaping it.

Workout, job, relationship, digestion, mood, energy, sleep, motivation, perception, awareness, success, focus, fertility, heart, body composition, libido, hormones, charisma, and your medical bill, all to a certain extent depend on this nebulous concept of, health.

The Dalai Lama was once asked what he is most surprised about in the world, and below is his response.

“Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.”

Reread that again.

Even if just for a  split second, it should make you reevaluate something. I mean, come on, if you are reading this blog, and you’re keeping up with what I am saying, there should be some inkling of true understanding.

We work. We measure our worth on it. I know I fall prey to this toxic value system.

We don’t have time, so health takes a back seat, and we assume all the while that this demise is going to be put on hold while we find some(time). But oh silly rabbit, au contraire, that sort of thinking is for kids, and lets face it, we are adults. We all know what happens to things that get pushed to the back of the refrigerator and get forgotten about; they rot.

All the little simple things we think are too much to handle, or maybe even too expensive now, do not even measure to the grandeur of health gone bad.

Reread that quote again.

Seriously.

Get it yet?

You are not getting any younger, but that doesn’t mean you have to get sicker.

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A Realists’s Manifesto

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Natalie

I will:

Get off the ‘good enough’ train and start walking on my own two feet.

Feed that positive dog who starves at my bedside. Starve the negative, who steals treats from me at night.

Make haste any and all effort toward brilliance. My worth will no longer be measured by mediocre standards, and half-assed living.

Stop boring everyone with my excuses. They make you sleepy and my butt look big.

Practice patience. I cannot outsmart the glory of the process. The sheer satisfaction of hard work that pays off. And it will be hard work. I will suffer for my passion but in that strife grow a deep appreciation for my accomplishment and an ever growing awareness if its vulnerability.

Accept that I am no exception to the rule. How dare I think it is me who has outsmarted success; that it just isn’t ‘in the cards’. Leave that burden to a lesser man.

Recognize that Everyday there are opportunities to shine, and everyday the choice can be made, by only me,  not to.

 

So take back the blame you have showered on everyone/thing else, regain that responsibility only you were given to take care of yourself.

Divorce your delusion of bad genetics and a metabolism that won’t budge.- Any perceived inability to invoke change likely resides less in your DNA, and more in your lack of creativity in strategy to ‘get there.’

Keep your chin up. Shoulders back.

Make choices, not excuses.

Tell yourself more often than never, how amazing this life is. There are incredible feats to be had on your own two feet.

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The Best Tasting, Most Improper Looking Burger In Town…

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Natalie

I like spicy-mayo. The kind you can get at most sushi joints. It’s mayonnaise, and Sriracha (spicy chili sauce) mixed together. As far as I know, it is the only non-paleo food item I have consumed in several months. Until this last weekend I thought my love would have to burn out for this creamy sauce, as it is a guaranteed stomach ache- in-fact just walking into my favorite sushi restaurant causes bloating, in anticipation of all the crap put into modern-day mayo. But just like all great ‘loves’ this one endured, just not in the way I thought.

I have made hollandaise sauce before, using just egg yokes and left over bacon grease. I figured mayonnaise couldn’t be much more. I was right, and so I set out to make the best burger (couldn’t bring myself to make my own sushi yet) ever.

I cooked up a whole package of bacon, took that left over grease, and poured it into a glass bowl. I then proceeded to pretty much use an entire carton of egg yokes(I saved the whites for b-fast), how many? I do not know, but enough to make the grease thicker. After I ran out of yokes I put in a little bit of coconut flour to thicken it up. It still tasted like Bearnaise sauce. So instead of going to the world wide web for an exact recipe, I just decided to look at the ingredients of the mayo my mom had (I must have missed it when I was helping her‘clean’ ) After getting past the soybean oil, and modified starch(whatever that is, but surely a culprit in my tummy aches), one ingredient stood out, vinegar.

That there is an antique blender...

So I got out some apple cider vinegar and added in a couple of tablespoons. Success!! I then stirred in some Sriracha and gave myself a big pat on the back. This was certainly the best version of Spicy mayo I had ever had.

 

I had my sauce, now time to make a burger. I bought some grass-fed ground beef from New Seasons, and mixed an egg into it- except it became like an egg soup, too little beef… So we had to contain it in some tin foil.

It looked wrong, but tasted amazing

I put that on top of some home grown arugula, and topped it with spicy brown mustard, my new mayo, dill relish, red onion, tomato, avocado and bacon.

 

It was amazing.

 

I ate all of it.

 

 

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Spit It Out.

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Natalie

You show up to a session with me chewing something other than whole food, I will politely take you over to the garbage can and wait for you to discard this foreign object,  causing you to smack your mouth up and down, and my irritant meter to rise. There are few things that I consider nails on a chalk board in this beautiful life: speaking in the third person (Natalie is feeling glad today etc-oh Faceboook), curling in the squat rack, condescension, unhealthy people teaching health, and on top of that list, smacking, particularly the sort which results from a stick of bubble gum.

Not only is it unsafe on the workout floor- choking anyone?- it reminds me of the play mobiles we give children to distract from whatever ails them. And it is exactly this sort of coddling by advertisements which encourage this oral fixation. “Feeling hungry but you want to stick to your ‘diet’? Well just pop in a stick of chewing gum, flavored like key lime pie, and those cravings will disappear.” What this billboard should really say is, “Just ignore that your body is unhealthy, and you continue to deprive it of nutrients, which is causing it to feel imbalanced and hungry, by sticking this rectangle neon colored piece of chewy rubber in your mouth which we have injected with various dyes, and synthetic flavorings to give you the illusion of eating your favorite dessert.” There is a reason I got into coaching and not advertising. Imagine if we lived in a land where lying had not been invented yet(see Invention of Lying), what would we really be hearing and saying? -a fun game to play.   But back to the mind games we play with ourselves.

We haven’t always been able to rely on tropical trees to provide us with momentary distraction. If you were hungry in the olden days, you were probably starving, and who knew when your next meal was. These individuals would think a person crazy to choose paper-thin flavored sealant over the never-ending options of real food. But this brings up the big difference between the relationship that person had with food, versus the love-hate entanglement we have gotten ourselves in to present day. The latter is based on need(though circumstance did play a huge role in what was available), and the former, current is bathed in fear. I will not get into that subject just yet, because we’re talking bubble gum here!

Here are Five reasons you might consider real food over any imitators(gum, diet anything, artificial sugars etc):

1: Real food(the kind that starving ancestor would have had access to) releases hormones like Leptin which tells brain you are full and Peptide YY ‘PYY’another hormone trying to tell your brain you are full.(Paleo Solution) Those impostors release insulin, which is a storage/aging hormone, and though it has nothing to store from real food, higher levels of insulin in the blood is linked to metabolic syndrome.

2: One of the major components of aspartame is aspartate, which is a neurotoxin. But I suppose the brain is not that important when you are distracted.

3: There are over 90 accounted side-effects from ingesting aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. Let’s look at a few: ‘increased appetite, weigh gain, and excessive stimulation of brain cells, causing them to die.”(Power of Four) Depression, headaches, gastrointestinal issues, emotional disorders, hypertension are just a few more.

4: “Splenda disrupts the central nervous system creating a feeling of comfort from eating sweet foods, which leads to addiction.”(PO4) Know anyone who always has a piece of gum in their mouth, diet product in hand?

5: Let’s not forget the ill fate of one young Violet Beauregarde. An avid gum chewer who just couldn’t stop. It was this obsession which drove her to chew a 3 course gum stick, and consequently turn into a blimp. Bloating is another side-effect. Possibly turning purple too

 

So what do you do with this knowledge? Something… maybe nothing. But now you know, which makes you responsible, and if you show up to train with me with gum in  your mouth, just be prepared to go spit it out.

 

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Maccroons, Turned Sugar Cookies, Turned Coconut Cookie Dough Ice Cream, Turned Peach Crisp

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Natalie

I began this weekend with a mission. My goal was to create a cookie I could eat without any resulting tummy pain-unless I happened to eat all of them :) – which meant coconut oil instead of shortening, or butter, coconut flour instead of white or other wheat flour, coconut milk instead of dairy milk, and coconut sugar, in place of regular white or brown cane sugar. I asked my mom to get out her Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

A timeless classic...

(circa 1976) and went straight to the cookie section. I realize in retrospect that a simple Google search probably would have given me an exact recipe utilizing the coconut-a relatively new cooking ingredient- but where is the innovation in that?!? It takes talent not only combining two different recipes, substituting all the ingredients for others, but venture back to the 70s and I am dealing with baking inflation- 375 degrees is now about 410 degrees, and 6-8 minutes is now 12-15 minutes,- and I have to translate words such as tassies and dainties.

As you can tell by the long winded title of this post, these little ‘bitties’ turned out to be more versatile than I ever imagined- actually I think I forced versatility on them so as to satisfy my sweets cravings :)   Either way, all that resulted was absolutely incredible, and incredibly easy to make.

The first thing I created was the Macaroon/sugar cookies. For recipe click here. As you will discover- probably quicker than I did- I did not account for the fact that whatever coconut flakes I would add, it should have counted as the flour- so I pretty much added double flour. Which is why by the time they hit the oven, I really could not tell you what went into them. When I was left with a sand like mixture after vigorous stirring, I just started adding more things to make it stick together- so more coconut milk, more eggs, I even got some pasture butter in there. They turned out good- if you had a bib and napkin over your lap, because as soon as you took a bite they pretty much fell apart!

Just get a spoon if you make them the way I did :)

When I finished the cookies, I took some of the left over dough and started rolling- but not before taking out the coconut ice cream to thaw. Once I had made enough so that every bite contained a cookie-dough ball, I put those in the freezer for a few minutes to harden, took them out, mixed them in with the ice cream- gently- and then put all of that back into the freezer.

Don't be fooled there's no Captain Crunch in this ice cream... but there is some fiber...

So this was all last night- no I did not eat all of it- just because I used ‘natural’ ingredients doesn’t mean you should go eating all of it, or every day. Today I was really pondering the cookie infrastructure, and wondering why it did not turn out more stable(less crumbly) and it was on my way to the gym that I realized-as mentioned above- that I didn’t count the coconut as flour when I was measuring. I felt really proud of myself. While the dough was perfect-like really perfect- for the ice cream, it wasn’t so much for regular life. So I set out for my second mission. Make them again without so much flour and more coconut flakes- you may be thinking “Duh” but I am not a cook so…

Returned home and started mixing(this time more exact). I had peaches to use up, and left over cookie dough from the night before. I lined a glass pie bowl with the crumbly cookie dough and sliced peaches on top of that, made the coconut macaroon mixture(round 2), put that on top- and some just as cookies on a extra sheet- baked it up and am now writing to you in a serotonin rich, sugar high bliss, which you just have to try out yourself to truly understand. :)

 

Perfect ingredient combination.

This all was decadent, sure, but had the caveman/woman had all these ingredients in the same place at the same time they would’ve figured it out too.

 

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The Domestic Cavewoman

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Natalie

After another weekend of eating out at a local sushi joint and yet again contracting an awful stomach ache- probably from the spicy sauce- I made a decision to really go ‘clean’ the following weekend. Having found my newest cookbook, catering to the paleolithic within, I scoured through it for a couple of days and narrowed down the choices so that I could create the most wonderful evening filled with dressings, meat volcanoes, and sweets galore.

This evening took some planning, and by planning I mean trips, to several grocery stores. Sure I probably could have gotten everything I needed at Whole Foods, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around spending what I would in a week, for just one night- albeit for 4 hungry cavemen. So I accompanied my mom to Costco, for the fruit and veggies, eggs, and walnuts(2lb worth!); Trader Joes, for almond meal, wine(organic Spanish), and veggies not found at Costco; Whole Foods for the ground grass-fed beef and ground chicken sausage, coconut flour, coconut flakes, and a Kombucha(I was thirsty); and finally Albertsons as a last minute trip to get some ripe avocados. This did not all happen in one day.

I have been muy triste lately because of all the crap chips are cooked in- and because of the rancid oil(see Veggie Oil>Gasoline) I have just foregone the chips and salsa that I so dearly love, and replaced that with better health- and less bloating.

Yes, I paired these 'chips' with salsa and guacamole

So picture my happy face when one of the recipes had “chips” in the title. Plantain Chips, fried in coconut oil!  I reccomend using a wok, and DO NOT spill any water in the hot oil. They don’t take long and make sure you slice them thin so they are more crispy than mushy. The combo of sweet with tangy salsa and guacamole was just what I had been craving. The perfect appetizer.

Sundried Tomatoes, Lemon, Capers, Olive Oil, Rosemary, and a Vita Mix

I fixed a simple spinach salad with some hard-boiled eggs sprinkled on top. The dressing was a Sun-Dried Tomato sauce. Which quoted me a time of 5 minutes prep- it actually took about that.

Finished product=delish

 

 

 

 

For the main course I picked a dish that everyone would love, Mushroom meat volcanoes- or as the books calls it, “Giant Stuffed Portobellos.”

Expected prep time? 20-30 minutes

This one required a bit more prep. Thankfully I had someone else close by that I could call out orders to- highly recommend this necessary asset.

 

The Finished product was as good as it looked.

Some people put cheese on theirs...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for the good stuff.

My first dessert was ‘Nutty Cookies.’ These were so yummy, uncooked I think I will make them again next weekend and make my own cookie-dough coconut icecream. The ingredients were simple and the process was quick. One change I would make would be dipping the cookie dough balls in honey, then cooking them, to add a little more sweetness.

Lots of coconut

 

One taste of these and you won’t miss those old nasty cookies. My mom took a bite and proclaimed, “These would make a great breakfast.” While I wouldn’t give up that high protein/fat breakfastjust yet, they do resemble a cinnamony biscuit.

Cookies with sweet banana chips cooked in coconut oil!

 

Try some with a scoop of coconut ice-cream on top!!

 

 

 

And finally!!!  -no we are not done yet.  I made a fresh blackberry and peach crisp. Definitely my favorite of the evening! This was another quick and easy make. In fact we have made another one since- so the berries wouldn’t go to waste of course :)

Wild honey, almond meal, coconut and more coconut...

The crust as it is described in the book, was a bit bland, so to sweeten things up a bit I added more honey and coconut flakes on top.

 

 

 

Pre-oven

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post Oven

 

This evening was one to remember. Very little conversation, save the occasional “Oh my god, this is so amazing!” and “Pass me more.”

There is something so satisfying about knowing exactly what you are putting in your body, and the feeling of creating something to bring loved ones together. Then the realization that while the oven and vita mix came a few years after the caveman, the produce still remains as satisfying as ever.

Eating in the great wide open

 

 

 

 

 

Mouth watering yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best. Icecream. Ever.

I swear I wasn't the only one eating!

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The Smartest Caveman Around…

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Natalie

Inflammation has been linked to practically every disease on this earth.

If you knew what foods caused inflammation in your body, would you still consume them?

Upon receiving the results of my own inflammation markers through blood tests(MRT) it became clear to me that though I feed my body nutrient dense foods, some of those foods were causing adverse reactions within my system. It was actually several days after I received the report, that I actually looked it over and made mental, and physical notes on what would be in my best interest to avoid. I knew that once I was aware of the reactive foods, additives etc, I wouldn’t think twice about taking them out. Which probably meant no more trips to self-serve yogurt.

Many of the items which showed up as highly reactive were things I already had taken out of my diet: wheat, corn, cow’s milk, tomatoes, potatoes, artificial sweeteners, tapioca, hops, to name a few. There were however several items I was consuming on a semi regular basis: lemon, garlic, vanilla, goats milk, dill, grapefruit, sweet potatoes, lettuce, yellow squash, egg plant, to name a few more.  3 weeks ago, I eliminated all these foods- to the best of my knowledge- and instead of experiencing daily, continuous, discomfort in my stomach and abdomen, it has been infrequent, and usually following a ‘refeeding’ on a lot of fruit. My expectations for results from this were far exceeded, as I never expected to take out these simple items and feel the relief that I have, on all levels.

It was this knowledge which prompted me to do a bit of exploring, as you better believe I was not about to go the rest of my life without some key items- namely chips, and various sorts of desserts. So you can imagine my excitement when I came across the book

Two Words: Berry Cobbler

“Everyday Paleo,” written by Sarah Fragoso, went straight for the sweets section, and found cookies, pancakes, and cobblers! I went through each section and set out to create an evening for my family to include all things a caveman would have had access to.

All in all, a super success, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say this would be an ‘everyday’ thing, the modern marvels in the cooking world have far surpassed the basic flour and milk ingredients, to allow a ‘sensitive’ such as myself the luxury of crispy ‘breaded’ chicken, ‘chips,’ pancakes, and of course, cookies too.

 

 

Oh you want to know what I fixed?

Check back tomorrow. :)

 

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Bad Weather, Bad Attitude, and I’m Human…

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Natalie

All these little pictures I’m looking remind me more of  first grade finger paintings, with plenty of outside the lines mishaps than the weather report for this next week, rain clouds with rain. It’s the middle of July, did I miss something? Is this what we have in store for forever more? Is this the future for those who reside in this vortex of bipolar weather patterns, with 90% chance of anything that isn’t sun? Possibly. But if you ask anyone who was born and raised here, they will reply, “What do you expect? This is Oregon.”  At one time I really enjoyed never being in the sun, but that was when I was a teenager/college student and didn’t enjoy anything really- yea I was one of those kids. That couldn’t be farther from the ‘me’ I am now, and there is little I enjoy more than being in the sun- for no more than 30 minutes at a time, without sunscreen, so I can soak up some Vit D and avoid a burn. But here is the thing, I do live in Oregon. Which means dealing with the inverse of Southern California weather. I don’t plan on moving anytime too soon, so I’ve got to deal, and not be too hard on myself if things don’t go ‘perfectly.’

Case and point: This past week I deviated from the ‘goal.’ I did not read as much, I ate way too many carbs, I wasn’t as social with my family and friends, and even though I was quick to think of things I was thankful for when I was being a bit negative, it came with a cynical epilogue. All these things left me feeling like a big time lameo. I felt like everyone knew I wasn’t being my best, and that I was retaining water.  Here is where surrounding yourself with amazing people comes in handy. If they are as amazing as you think they are, they will see the great inside of you, remind you of it, let you know when you need to get your s**t together, and point you back in the right direction. Short of actually doing all the things you must do to get to your goals, these sorts of people are more valuable than gold. And so it was a person like this who reminded me that eating more fruit is OK, taking alone time after a long day at work-where being social is not only imperative, but it’s absence would be awkward- to watch Glee doesn’t make you a bad person, and it really could be a lot worse- my brother, for instance is is Iraq right now-where summertime weather ranges from 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit- without a working air conditioner, in full uniform. That’s worse than a little rain.

When ever I experience moods out of the ordinary I have to ask myself what is lacking in my body that could cause this imbalance- because lets be honest, life is pretty great. Here’s what I came up with: I hadn’t taken ANY of my Omega’s in over a week and a half, and my fat intake dropped considerably- due to a mini experiment I did involving calorie counting(more on this later). Both of these things play a huge role in satiation, as well as regulating hormones, and blood sugar- we all get crazy when our blood sugar is low. Maybe it’s psychosomatic but I have been taking 6g of Omega3′s since Friday and I feel like a different person- still a bit of the lameo residual, but less crazy.

This next week: Bad Weather, Good Attitude, and still human…

Stay tuned for situations and attitudes which will inevitably arise and possible reasons as to why…

 

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Better Today Than Yesterday…

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Natalie

In my relentless pursuit for more knowledge- and not just any knowledge, the kind I can immediately use- I have allowed a few things to settle on the back burner. While I would normally feel that guilt only a good Catholic knows about, I am taking a different approach this time. No guilt, and more importantly, no excuses. One of the most pertinent things I have learned as a trainer (learned the hard way, I might add), is this,  you cannot be the best at everything-And if you try, you often wind up being the best at nothing- and becoming sick, and burning out, and projecting at the people who love you, and breaking up with your boyfriend- oh and eating a lot of sugar- just as an example :) .

This was a difficult lesson for me- type A, over-achiever, first born, Catholic raised, by New Yorkers- to learn- see previous entry re:Bulldozing- and it took a person whom I hold very dear to look me in the eyes and say, “You are spreading yourself too thin right now, and it’s showing.” Which is a nicer way of saying, “You’re not doing so hot right now.-and I think you should lay off the sweets”

So back to the drawing board. What is the goal? Well simply, the goal, is to get to the goal. Period. But to be more specific, in terms of what we are here for, the goal  for me is to be the best possible trainer I can be, and attract to myself the kinds of people who want to make themselves better as well.  So how does one become this? Figure out what you are passionate about and find the resources that bring that to life. For me right now it comes in the form of paper, bound together with printed words on each piece- books.

So what have I been up to these last two weeks?

Studying, arts and crafts- in the form of a vision board, exercising, training absolutely amazing clients, more studying, cooking, and learning a whole lot about myself…

So I figured, you read this and may want to know a bit of what I have discovered, learned, or observed. And so here goes:

10 Things I Have Taken Away From 2 Weeks of Excuse-less, Guilt Free ‘Indulgence’

1: Vision’s aren’t just for the religious. Creating a poster-board of what my vision for my future is, may be one of the more important things I have done in my life- and it reminded me of how much I enjoy gluing things to paper.

2: Cortisol is a real bitch. This fight or flight hormone is wreaking havoc on our systems and is causing my belly fat to go in an upward trend.

3: I need not be a victim to this. In fact the second I finished reading this sentence, “..where you place your attention is primarily a habit,”(The Passion Test) something clicked in my cerebral cortex. I can relate to this habit forming/breaking- I try to break people of them all the time and all the while instill new ones. Why do my thoughts of anxiety, judgment, and other negatives need to be treated any differently? The result: 20 days (so far) of replacing any and ALL negative thoughts in my head with 5 things that make me happy or that I am thankful for. Yes it works. No it’s not easy. They say it takes 21 days to form or break a habit.

4: Getting blood work done falls into that ‘more important things’ file. I got mine done and here are some results:                                                                                                                         Triglycerides- 37  – one of the best predictors of heart disease- Mayo Clinic considers under 150 good…                                                                                                                                  Vitamin D- 79 ng/mL   Pretty great considering 200 is toxicity level and the average Dr will tell you 30 is acceptable                                                                                                                Food Intolerance’s include (MRT by LEAP- blood tested food reactivity):  wheat, corn, cow’s milk, goat’s milk, yogurt, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, lemon, hops, garlic, cranberries, and many more

5: Baked Chicken Breast is really yummy- with the right spices. Don’t know why I have been avoiding it!

6: The expectations you can’t let go of, will always bring disappointment.  ‘Beware the tendency to think there is only one way your dreams can be fulfilled.”(PT)

7: The most important logistic in your workout planning, is the number of repetitions you do. The weight you choose needs to match the reps you set out to perform. 12 reps doesn’t mean choosing a weight you can do for 15.  It’s 12RM, 10RM (repetitions maximum)(PICP Level 1)

8: The amount of time you rest within a workout determines the hormonal effect it will have on your body. Fat loss is a hormonal response to the body creating an environment where that fat can be released for energy.(PICP Level 1)

9: Long term use of stimulants (fat burn, etc) for fat loss, create insulin resistance and the shutting down of fat metabolism.(Cortisol Connection)

10: As long as you realize and fully understand that the goal is to get to the goal,(what you choose as your goal)  the decisions you make in day to day life should all reflect, and complement that pursuit. A goal you don’t believe you will achieve, is just a fantasy.

 

What have you learned lately?

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The Game Of Telephone

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Natalie

Everyone has played it. You sit around in a circle, one person starts by whispering a phrase in his neighbor’s ear and then the neighbor turns and whispers it into the next and so on. This should get around the circle, so that the phrase of “Old McDonald had a farm,” is now, “You smell like a cow.” Or something like that…

I was recently caught up in this very same game, of Freudian tongue slips, except here there were just two players. My mom and myself.

She said, over the telephone, in fact, “Natalie, there are some old cereals in the pantry. Will you go through them and just get rid of it before we return from our trip?” Through the phone, (from across the US in New York) over all those miles, I heard her say, ” Natalie, will you please clean out our pantry of all the things which will slow us down and aren’t nutritious for us? And while you’re at it, will you go through the refrigerator as well?”

To which my reply was, ‘ Of course.”

And there you have it, the birth of mis-communication.

I see this a lot in my profession. Something is said, or read, and all of a sudden, fish oil turns you into a sea-dwelling creature, and fat makes you fat. Neither is true, but let me give you a better example of why you should never assume, well, anything; and always be clear with your intentions, this includes your goals.

A client who detests vegetables, and loves carbs. I mean really loves them, 35% body fat loves them. I could suggest this person lower their starchy carb intake. During our discussion on the in’s and out’s of “low carb living” I focus my attention primarily on the 4 White Devils as the culprit, and emphasize the importance of phytochemicals in the diet.  This person  goes out and buys a bag of iceberg lettuce, french-ranch dressing(it’s orange) and some whole wheat croutons(brown). Without giving the details of what “more vegetables” looks like, he heard the literals of our conversation(probably knowing full well that I did not mean “you need little bread cubes in your diet”), and did as I asked(literally), “add more salads.” and take out white sugar, milk, salt and flour.  This sort of ‘misunderstanding’ could result in major disappointment and a stagnation in fat loss, if left unaddressed.

Another example? A person has a bad day. They are told they are doing their task incorrectly. They hear, “You are fat, and do everything wrong.”  This happens! It’s Telephone in the real world!

“When you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only to the extent that you are clear.”  -The Passion Test

Anyway, here is my point, sometimes people want you to read between the lines, sometimes you want people to read between your lines, the best way, however, to get what you want, is to just come out and say it. Cover your bases, and make certain you are clear with your intentions. More veggies does not mean a side salad, with croutons and ranch dressing.

And sure, my mom didn’t necessarily say, “Clean out the fridge,” but I know deep down, across the US, she was thinking it. :)

 

 

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