Healthy food routines & writing tips

Hi Nicole, great speaking to you again and I'm thrilled to hear that you're taking steps to both stay on track with your health and launch your business. 

Over the next two weeks continue to avoid gluten as often as possible. Explore the eateries near your workplace that offer gluten free options, read labels carefully, and don't hesitate to state your preference when dining with others. Also, go ahead and finish setting up that new blog! The most important thing there is to get started, so don't get bogged down with the name or design at this point.

Your new recommendations until our next call on January 6th are:

1. Begin meal planning and get more proactive with making your lunches at work.
2. Drink more water.
3. Write at least 1, preferably 2, posts on your new blog and share them.

Here are the details for each:

Welcome & first steps

Hi Nicole, and welcome to your private custom blog! This is the place where all your recommendations and session notes will live.

I'm thrilled that you've decided to take the next step in your personal and professional wellness journey. Over the next few months we'll focus on the following:

1. further balancing your health so that you know which foods make you feel your best and how to prepare them.
2. making sure your Hashimoto's is appropriately managed, which will include both physical body and primary food elements.
3. helping you find a new rhythm with incorporating your healthy habits into your work schedule.
4. creating a strategy to launch your health coaching business and build up your confidence so that you can apply all your knowledge, skills, and talents towards helping others find health and happiness.

So let's get started!

Here are your recommendations for the next week until our call on December 20th at 9pm:

1. Do your best to eliminate gluten completely from your diet.

You've managed avoiding it 80% of the time and that last 20% could either be really tough or a total breeze, so let's see what happens when you apply more concentrated effort and conscientious food choices. Here's an article by Chris Kresser to explain the connection between gluten and hashimotos and why it's beneficial to avoid it completely.

Here are a few tips to help you go all the way:

-when you're having meals with others, tell them you're now gluten-free. Sometimes simply vocalizing your intention helps solidify it in your mind and stay committed to your decision, and it allows friends and family to support you and accommodate your needs.

-read ingredient labels and look for stamps that say foods are gluten-free. It'll take some time to remember to do this all the time so don't worry if you eat gluten without realizing it, just get into the habit of being more aware of what you're consuming.

-aim to eat more foods that aren't grain based at all, like vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, legumes, organic meats, some dairy, and eggs. Or stick to grains that you know are definitely ok, such as quinoa and buckwheat.

It takes a while to transition all the way so don't worry about perfection at this point and don't deprive yourself if you're hungry and options are limited. For now, set your intention and do the best you can. We'll talk about your specific challenges on our next call and I'll help you gradually resolve them so that this transition gets easier over time.

2. Start a wellness blog. 

You said on the phone that you hadn't set up your website yet and that's totally fine. So why not take the first step now? You can use the IIN website or one of the many other blog platforms out there, I recommend Wordpress because they have many templates to choose from and this will allow for an easier transition to a more professional website down the line.

When we spoke I recommended that you focus on the 20 something client rather than the autoimmune element at this stage but after giving it some thought I don't think you even need to choose this just yet. Simply starting a blog and writing about the things that interest you the most will help reveal your true calling in a more authentic way.

Your blog doesn't have to have any bells and whistles and shouldn't take much time to set up. By next week, simply set it up and write at least one post about any wellness topic that interests you at this time. It could be a personal story about your own wellness journey or hashimotos diagnosis, or something geared towards educating others.

We'll build upon this in the weeks and months to come!

Instagram is also a fantastic platform to get yourself out there and start building an audience based on the real you, walking your talk, learning about balancing your own health while inspiring others along the way. Plus, it's a great place to connect with like-minded people and get inspired by them, so have fun exploring it and finding people to follow who interest you (you can follow me @livingbodywellness if you like).

That's all until we speak again!

On our next call we'll dive deeper into your diet so I can provide additional specific recommendations, resources, recipes, etc.

Talk to you soon!