MISFIT WELLNESS

WORKPLACE MENTAL HEALTH: WHY MEDITATION APPS & ON-DEMAND THERAPY WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH

Now more than ever, it is imperative that companies create cultures where employees have the awareness, language and psychological safety to speak up, ask for help and leverage the mental health and well-being resources available to them. Changing the culture and communication around mental health won’t just increase utilization of mental health benefits, wellness programs and preventative measures. It will increase productivity, job satisfaction and sense of community within the organization, while decreasing attrition rates, absenteeism, presenteeism, organizational risk and disruption to teams. Perhaps most importantly, it will also give employees the tools, resources and support they need to survive one of the most challenging years in our country’s history.

A GUIDE TO WORK-FROM-HOME WELL-BEING

Modern workplaces are designed to foster the productivity, focus, collaboration and well-being of employees. Conversely, our homes are typically designed around functions like sleeping, eating and relaxing. They also tend to be filled with distractions that have the opposite effects of thoughtfully designed workplaces - barking dogs, blaring televisions and shouting children. So how can we transform our routines and home environment in a way that eases the stress caused by this dissonance? How can we protect our mental and physical health while working from home?

MY 12 FAVORITE TOOLS FOR ANXIETY, DEPRESSION & STRESS

Over the past 10 years, I have continued to add more tools and build upon the ones I find most helpful. Thanks to individual therapy, couples therapy, workshops, retreats, continuing education courses, books, podcasts and confidants, I’ve built a robust toolkit that helps me both proactively and reactively manage anxiety, depression and stress (because aren’t they all so intertwined?!) Nothing changes overnight, but together, these tools have helped me stack up more daily moments of peace, calm and joy than I ever experienced before they entered my life. They are like beautifully simple little bricks that have helped me build higher levels of consciousness, gratitude and content. I hope they do the same for you.

IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT. IT’S YOUR HORMONES.

Understanding the importance of hormone health, what affects it, and how to protect it allows us to be better advocates for our mental and physical health in an incredibly powerful way. It also allows us to be more patient, compassionate and supportive of ourselves and other women. Below is everything I wish I had known about hormones from the start.

SNEAK PEAK: THE MFW 10-STEP NUTRITION & LIFESTYLE RESET

Over the past few years in my coaching and corporate practices, I’ve noticed that a handful of simple concepts have become the most popular and effective tools across all age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. These little tweaks, these magically simple steps, are the things clients tell me time and time again have had the biggest positive impact on their health and happiness. And so they became the building blocks of the MFW 10-Step Nutrition & Lifestyle Rest, a refreshingly kind approach to improving your mental a physical health.

RESHAPING YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH EXERCISE

Many of us forget too easily that it is a gift to be able to move even in the most basic ways; and in a world where many people don’t have the time, money or ability, it is a privilege to be concerned with exercise at all. Over the past 7 years, I’ve found that the below have helped me make the most of the gift and privilege of regular movement.

MISFIT WELLNESS HEALTHY GROCERY SHOPPING TIPS

Eating more whole, real foods that support the health of your brain and body begins at the grocery store. Filling your cart, your pantry and your fridge with foods that help you harness the power of nutrition gets you one big step closer to improved energy, mental clarity, immunity, digestion, moods, skin and so much more. But what to do when you’re surrounded by highly palatable, convenient packaged and processed foods in every corner of the grocery store? How do you navigate the aisles without unintentionally loading your cart with hard to resist comfort foods, cookies, candies and sugar cereals? Below are my tips to help you create a sustainable, affordable healthy grocery shopping routine that still leaves room for treats and chocolate. Plenty of chocolate.

WHY I SOLD 90% OF MY CLOTHES AND WHAT I LEARNED IN THE PROCESS

To be honest, I am still a little surprised by the resistance I felt every step of the way to accepting myself in whatever shape or form prioritizing health created. Intellectually, I knew it was the right choice, a no brainer. Logically, I knew there was no other choice but to put my health first. But emotionally? That was a whole other story. All of a sudden, I became painfully aware of all the negative associations I, and society, have with bodies that aren’t slim and tight and taught and perfect. It took a lot of therapy, hugs from my husband, reassurance from a few dear friends, reinforcement found in my work as a health coach, journaling and more therapy to free myself from the limitations of those associations.

WHAT NO ONE TELLS YOU ABOUT MAKING PEACE WITH FOOD & YOUR BODY

Although I’m grateful that there is more openness and dialogue around making peace with food and our bodies in the media, often what we see is over simplified, prettied up and packaged (often to sell products or services) in a way that I believe is a bit misleading and does a disservice to people embarking on this journey. If the expectation is that this is a simple, 30-day, sunshine and roses process, people are destined to feel as if they’re doing everything wrong when it’s anything but, and they’re likely to give up. The truth is a lot more complicated and loaded with things I wish I knew from the start. Below is my version of it.

HOW TO DEAL WITH STRESS AT WORK (AND BEYOND)

Unfortunately, stress is so woven into the fabric of our lives these days and it’s often unavoidable. We can’t control many of the variables that contribute to stress, but we can change how our brains and bodies react to it by choosing healthier coping mechanisms that minimize the detrimental effects without causing any harm. That is where the stress management tactics below come into play. You might not be able to fire your boss (or your kids) but you can reduce the stress they cause with these tactics.

THE HEALTHIEST, BEST TASTING SNACK & PROTEIN BARS

I’ve been testing bars for a couple of months now, and here are a few of my favorite healthy snack and protein bars. I feel good about eating these when I’m pressed for time and feel good enough about the ingredients to share them with family, friends and coaching clients.

FUNDAMENTALS OF HEALTHY EATING PART VIII: COOK AT HOME (EVEN A LITTLE)

You don’t have to be a wizard in the kitchen or spend hours every day cooking complicated meals entirely from scratch, but spending a little more time creating balanced meals with whole food ingredients is an investment in your health that you’ll never regret. With just a few hours spent in the kitchen each week, you can reap the benefits of more health promoting nutrients in your diet. Think better digestion, increased energy, more stable moods, clearer skin, improved immunity and so much more!

FUNDAMENTALS OF HEALTHY EATING PART VII: HOW TO CROWD OUT PROCESSED FOOD & DRINK

In my experience, most people are confused about where to start with healthy eating and how to put meals together after years of choosing packaged convenience foods. So, I’ve come up with this handy little guide for integrating whole, real foods into your meals, your routine and your kitchen and crowding out the junk.

18 AFFORDABLE & EFFICIENT WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR HEALTH

I started Misfit Wellness because I want to make a healthier and happier diet and lifestyle more accessible, approachable and sustainable - especially for those of us who have struggled with mental and physical health. Unfortunately the basic fundamentals of living and eating well often get sexed up and overcomplicated to the point where they seem completely inaccessible and unattainable to the average American. I might not be able to change the fact that our healthcare system and food supply in this country are beyond broken, but I can help you take your health into your own hands with simple diet and lifestyle choices made each day.

10 THINGS THAT HELP ME MANAGE DEPRESSION

When I started to open up about disordered eating and body image, I learned that shedding light on the darkest corners of my life can help shed more light on a path to healing for myself and others. In the hopes that opening up about depression will do the same, I’m sharing the below list. These are the things I believe have transformed my experience with depression, or in the very least, have kept me out of bed when I just want to pull the covers over my head.

6 THINGS THAT CHANGED THE WAY I DEAL WITH STRESS

By the time I committed to healthier habits around managing stress, it had already wreaked havoc on my digestion, immune function, sleep, weight and sanity. I no longer had the energy to have or be fun anymore. Don’t let stress make you a Debbie Downer too. Use these simple but transformative tips to help you manage stress before you find yourself perpetually frazzled, bloated, angry, and downright miserable.

FUNDAMENTALS OF HEALTHY EATING PART VI: 35 EASY WAYS TO EAT MORE WHOLE FOODS

Interested in eating more whole foods but don’t know where to start? This post is chock full of ideas for incorporating more vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and other powerful and nourishing foods into your diet in beautifully simple ways. The best part? When you focus on adding delicious and nutritious foods to more meals and snacks, you naturally start to eat less of the processed gunk over time. Now THAT is what I call a realistic, sustainable approach to healthy eating!

SO YOU'VE HEALED YOUR GUT. NOW WHAT?

Once you've done the hard work to get your gut bacteria back in balance, heal those gut walls and quiet inflammation, you start to feel the incredible benefits of eating and living to support gut health. The last thing you want to do is welcome chronic constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, brain fog, acne or mood disorders back into your life. So how do you loosen restrictions without compromising the delicate balance you've worked to achieve? Beyond eating a vegetable forward, nutrient-dense diet rich in whole, real, unprocessed foods and minimizing triggers and irritants like caffeine, sugar and alcohol, I encourage my gut protocol clients to explore these other ways to support gut health.

9 SURPRISING THINGS THAT HELPED ME HEAL MY GUT

The benefits of eating to support gut health (and health in general) are so intangible and incomprehensible to anyone that has never tried to do so that it can be easy to ignore the hype and chalk it all up to "health freak BS". Without experiencing the incredible reality of how much more amazing I feel when I eat/live to support that crazy microbiome within, I’m not sure I would have ever truly committed to healing my gut myself. Now that I've experienced what it is to ignore gut health and conversely, to focus on it (read more here and here), I'm excited to share the below things that have had the biggest impact on my health during my gut healing journey!

8 THINGS THAT HAVE HELPED ME BALANCE MY HORMONES NATURALLY

15 years on The Pill + PCOS + hypothyroidism + chronic stress + 2 decades of disordered eating = a perfect hormonal storm that turned out to be the second biggest factor affecting my health since adolescence. Below is a list of things that have helped me navigate the complicated journey back to some semblance of balance and sanity without synthetic hormones.