Health – Thriving with Deanna

How to Approach “Starting Over” With Your Goals

23.10.2019

“Why can’t I just stick with my plan and ‘stay on track’?” “Why does everyone else seem to be able to do this, but I can’t?” I’m guessing you’ve asked these questions or some version of them AT LEAST once and likely way more! In my experience as a health coach over the past 9 years, I’ve frequently worked with people who have serious concerns and fears about constantly feeling they’re “off track,” they’ve “fallen off the wagon,” or they’re “back at square one” and starting over. I could write extensively about this, but want to hit some general points today. If you’re interested in going deeper into the details that follow, leave me a comment below and let me know. One of the very first things I want to say is… IT’S A JOURNEY! ...

13 Ways to Get Out of Your Head & Rejuvenate Your Energy

25.9.2019

chronic illness, Health, Lifestyle

When I was sick, I often found myself stuck deep inside my head and body. Sure, I would often go within for necessary introspection or appropriate checking in. However, much of the time I was lost in thought about how to fix or solve what was going on with me. It was also frequently a defense mechanism because my energy was so low, that handling external stimuli was quite overwhelming at times. Healing requires a lot of energy and it is important to know our boundaries and be able to protect our energy, but I found that being stuck inside myself too much was a drain on my energy as well. I discovered that there were ways I could get outside my head and rejuvenate...

anxiety chronic illness depression energy rejuvenate

7 Ways to Tap into Loving Energy

17.9.2019

Health, Mindset, self-love

Earlier this week on Instagram I posted how I often get asked , “How can I love myself, believe I am whole and I’m enough AS I AM…RIGHT NOW, but still desire to change, grow, and become?” I shared that… It‘s really a fine line and only you will know when you’re actually doing both. In answer, though...

chronic illness depression energy healing healing energy loving energy mindset recovery self-love

The Day I Cried Over Potatoes: A Story about Eating Disorder Recovery and Surrendering

04.9.2019

Health, Mindset, self-love

I collapsed on my parent’s bed because the potatoes weren’t done. I remember that moment so clearly. It was Christmas day 2002. I think someone had forgotten to turn the oven on, or it had accidentally been shut off. Or maybe it was mashed potatoes that were getting made and the burner hadn’t been turned on to boil the potatoes. It doesn’t really matter. I certainly wasn’t going to be eating the potatoes anyway. What mattered was that the potatoes were still freaking hard. I couldn’t imagine myself having to wait an extra 30-60 minutes to eat because the POTATOES weren’t done for Christmas dinner at my grandparents. I was starving, and exhausted from starving, and couldn’t hold it together any longer. I laid on my parent’s bed...

eating disorder recovery mindset

Food Sensitivities? 13 Tips for Coping & Recovering

28.8.2019

Health

During my journey healing from Lyme Disease, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), and multiple food sensitivities, I tried sooo many healing diets, and often tried combining multiple healing diets at once. Some of these included: GAPS, low FODMAP, Paleo AIP, Paleo, low mold diet, low carb diet, ketogenic diet, low histamine diet, low salicylates, low oxalates, low lectin, etc. After trying all of these diets and numerous healing protocols, you can imagine why we (my multiple practitioners and I) were wondering how it could be I wasn’t progressing the way we would have expected! If you’re in this place, I’m certain you know the struggle. There were a few times along the way where there were about only 3-5 foods I tolerated. Now, I eat a wide variety of foods I both enjoy and...

chronic illness food sensitivities healing mindset recovery self-love

Those may be COMMON symptoms, but they’re not NORMAL

07.3.2018

Health

You know what I see happening a lot? We accept things that are common as “NORMAL”. We hear our friends and family talking about things they experience similar to us or someone else we know and begin to think these COMMON things are “NORMAL”. In fact, I can’t tell you the number of times I have been asked on my health journey about some of the symptoms I have experienced and when I mention brain fog, I hear, “Oh I have that all the time too!” My response is, “THAT’S NOT NORMAL!” Here is a list of COMMON health complaints I often see accepted as NORMAL: Bloating Not having a daily bowel movement Having frequent loose bowel movements Heartburn/acid reflux Brain fog Fatigue Amenorrhea Headaches Acne Eczema Feeling shaky,...

What I’m digging this week: Warming Curry Bowl!

21.2.2018

Health

Okay - I know I've told you I'm not a recipe creator, but every once in a while, something I experiment with is just too simple and delicious not to share. I posted one of my totally amateur food photos on Instagram and Facebook the other day because I like to provide food inspiration sometimes. People like to know what I eat as a health coach, but as I've shared before, we eat rather simply, so it's not always super exciting. Occasionally, however, I create something that I think may be worth sharing my super simple recipe for. And this warming bowl of curry is one of them! The way I make eating real food sustainable and easy is to create a freezer stash of proteins...

To Everything There is a Time and Season

14.2.2018

Health

Over the last several weeks, I've been thinking a lot about this topic: To everything there is a time and season. You know, it seems that we often feel like once we achieve something, that should be it, right? Done! Checked off the list! Moving on, never to deal with this again! Sound about right??! Yet, here's what things usually look like on the journey: And then, we may feel we have reached our goal, only to have to go through similar (but different) journeys with the same types of goals again (and perhaps again and again). Some feel like this is failure, which is often coupled with a sense of shame. We can't figure out what's wrong with us because we are comparing ourselves with the curated scenes we see...

Tips for Finding YOUR Food Freedom

08.2.2018

Health

Food Freedom: This is such a big topic and one that really hits close to home for me, especially having a history of an eating disorder. It’s one where I have so much to say that the thoughts and ideas I have start swirling so fast and furious in my mind that sometimes it’s hard for me to speak coherently on the topic. I’m going to try to provide you with some key information, though, that has been incredibly helpful to my clients and to myself in our journeys to food freedom. First, what does food freedom even mean? Well, it is likely to LOOK & FEEL different for each one of us, but it’s the same basic premise for most. I like to think of it as having...

Why Safer Self Care Products Matter

01.2.2018

Health

I hope I'm doing a good job communicating to you all here on the blog that lots and lots of things can contribute to, or detract from, our health and happiness. Food and exercise, which are often at the forefront of the conversations around health, are only just a fraction of what we want to take into consideration. Of course, I think both food and exercise are incredibly important for our health as well. In fact, food is often a great place to start with our health journey. Why? Because a huge part of our health, and even our happiness, is related to our gut microbiome, and the foods we eat have a significant impact on that. BUT so do many other things, which is...