Sorry for the lack of posts on the blog in the past month! Here is a quick update of the fun things I have been up to: I have joined the Consulting Team for Whole 9 Life. I am so thrilled and honored to join such a talented, bright group! Here is a link to the services I now offer (just scroll down the page): http://whole9life.com/personal-consulting/ and here’s a link to my guest post for the blog: http://whole9life.com/2012/05/ann-wendel/ On a day when I thought things couldn’t get any better, my guest post for Robb Wolf’s blog went live on the same day as my post for Whole 9 Life! http://robbwolf.com/2012/05/18/paleo-autoimmune-illness/ I am still pinching myself to make sure I am awake! In the midst of all that excitement in the virtual world, we had some exciting happenings in the physical world! We moved to a new office space on May 1st, right across the street from our old space. Prana Physical Therapy at Core Wellness and Physical Therapy is now at 2212 Mount Vernon Ave. in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria. We are ecstatic about our new, freestanding office, with storefront space in the heart of a neighborhood with a great deal of walk-by traffic. We had a great opportunity to meet with local residents during May’s First Thursday Health and Wellness Celebration. Stop by and see our beautiful new space, complete with a large, open gym area, Pilates Reformer, plenty of fun rehab equipment (Kettlebells, Pilates mat tools, bands and the dreaded foam rollers), and 2 private treatment rooms. Look for more health and wellness related classes and workshops to come soon! My monthly post for WebPT recently went up as well – the topic was new Tweet Chats for Physical Therapists and Healthcare Providers: http://www.webpt.com/blog/post/solvept-and-socialortho I am […]
Read more →This week is flying by! This morning I was in a rush to get to work, and I made a smoothie as I was running out the door. I put it in my coffee mug, since I no longer enjoy my coffee (geez, thanks Whole 9) 😉 It was the same smoothie as yesterday, and I did have a small cup of black coffee. I liked Whole 9’s Tweet this morning that “If you have to add something to your coffee to make it taste good, you are either drinking poor quality coffee or you really don’t like the taste of coffee.” I have realized this week that I fall into the latter category – I really dislike the taste of coffee. What I really love is the ritual of having something warm and sweet in the morning as I start my day. Before we had a Keurig, Dave made my coffee for me every morning just the way I like it, and it was a special little ritual for us. Even now, if I’m running late, he will still make it. So, I realized that it’s not really the coffee I like, but what it signifies. I think this is a really important realization! So many of our rituals are based around food – we continue them day after day without really thinking about whether they are good for us or not. Doing an intense 30 day focus on eliminating certain foods makes you really look at what you put in your mouth and why you do it. This has been the most valuable lesson yet – to stop and think about what I am doing and whether it supports me in my goal of living a healthy, active lifestyle. I realize that my one cup of coffee in […]
Read more →OK, hold on to your hats. This is earthshattering news: The cat woke me up at 6am and I woke right up, felt fine, and didn’t need to go back to sleep! Anyone who knows me knows that This.Never.Happens. For my entire adult life, I have needed more sleep than anyone else I know (I don’t usually get it; but, I need it to function well). Since being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (5 years ago) this has become even truer. I have not woken up early, ready to function, in forever. When I heard the cat scratching at the door, I thought, “Oh, no! It’s way too early, oh no, oh no.” Then I sat up and realized I felt fine. I let the cat in and stayed in my warm bed for 30 more minutes, eventually getting up because I realized I was ready to start my day! When I came downstairs, Dave looked at me and asked, “Who are you, and what did you do with my wife?!” I tried to explain that I was awake. My eyes were open. My brain was (almost) fully functioning. I was NOT in a horrible mood about being woken up early. What the…..? I did a really hard workout yesterday, so I expected to wake up feeling slightly awful; so this was a pleasant surprise! I realized that I slept better last night than I have since before Thanksgiving. I fell asleep quickly, stayed asleep all night, and woke up happy. Could it be that I haven’t had my usual glass of wine or NorCal Margarita with dinner? The complete absence of any added sugar from my food/drink intake? That I had a great workout and lots of fun meeting a new friend? That I only had one cup of coffee first […]
Read more →Well, today was a bit easier than yesterday. I had a busy day; but, managed to keep my meals compliant (and tasty!) I ate breakfast in a bit of a hurry on the way out to a meeting. No time to cook anything fancy, so I reheated some cauliflower mash and butternut squash from the other night, and ate a handful of macadamia nuts with it. I also drank my coffee with a bit of coconut milk in it…. tennessee payday loans I was in a meeting most of the day, which ended with an awesome workout with Justin at Underground Athlete.http://www.undergroundathlete.com/ By the time I got home at nearly 3pm, I was pretty hungry; but, I didn’t want to eat a huge meal because dinner usually takes place about 7pm. So, I made hard boiled eggs and cut up a bunch of other good stuff. For dinner, Dave made Chicken with Prosciutto and Sage (awesome) and we had beets, the rest of the cauliflower mash, and carrots. I feel really good, and ready to go to sleep at 9pm!
Read more →Today I am starting The Whole 30. It is going to be a challenge. Let me give you a little background on the concept. The Whole 30 is basically like a “reset” button for your health. It’s a way to become really, keenly aware of what you are putting in your body daily, and asking yourself if it is helping you reach your goal of being healthy. It is a 30 day project to help you break away from unhealthy habits and create new, lifelong awareness of how what we eat affects how we feel. Dallas and Melissa Hartwig are the geniuses behind Whole 9 Life and The Whole 30. I love their philosophy: “We have built our entire business around telling you what you NEED, not what you WANT.” active bank and credit I can relate to that statement, because as a physical therapist, I spend my day telling clients what they need, not what they want. I am not being mean when I tell a patient that they need to lose 30 pounds if they want their knee to stop hurting when they go up the stairs. I am stating a fact – try it for yourself, carry a 30 pound weight up and down stairs 20 times, and see how your joints feel. You may not want to hear this; but, you need to if you want a real solution to your problem. When I first heard about The Whole 30, I looked into it and decided that since I was already eating according to a gluten free, grain free, whole foods-based, Paleo eating plan, I didn’t really need to change anything else. (i.e. it looked like too much work when I was already feeling the best I have felt in my entire adult life). See, I’m […]
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