Category: Health Coaching

Autoimmune Disease, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health, Health Coaching, self-care, stress

Your emotional wellbeing is just as important to your healing as Kale!

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Three ways to protect your emotional health during covid-19

We are in a situation once again when the world seems to have gone all topsy turvy. Things are so strange that we can’t even agree on what name we are using for this virus that has done so much damage. Is it COVID-19, Coronavirus, or SARS 2? There is a lot of uncertainty out there and for those of us with Autoimmunity or other health issues, there is a lot of fear. I’m not going to go into all the ways that you can take care of yourself right now because I think we all got the message- wash your hands, stay inside, and eat your veggies. What I do want to do is to give you some tips on tending to our mental and emotional wellbeing.

First, stop getting your medical information from your aunt on Facebook (unless your aunt works for the CDC) and go to reputable sources. My functional medicine doctor put out this amazing COVID19 Action Plan and I think it’s a great and comprehensive source of information.

Secondly, manage your energy! I like to think of my energy the same way I look at my money. When I tend to it and invest it wisely it grows and I have more of it to do the things I love but if I don’t, I fall into a cycle of struggle. Struggling to sleep turns into struggling to work in an effective manner which then turns into limited time to be with the people I love or do the things I love. Right now, during COVID 19, managing our energy is also another way to protect our mental and emotional health which is important to our overall health and well being.

Here is how I manage my energy

  1. Get adequate sleep, ideally between 10pm and 6am since research shows that those times are when our body is doing its job to repair our body and brain.
  2. Limit and put boundaries around what information is coming in. This looks like checking the news only once or at the most twice a day. You aren’t going to change anything by holding vigilance on twitter. Also, only tune in or read sources from media that has your best interest (not your spending dollars) at heart.
  3. Stop scrolling and start connecting. Social media is a really amazing tool but since it’s built using the same algorithms as slot machines we have a tendency to scroll for ages. The problem with this (other than its a massive time suck) is that you have no control over what is coming. Maybe its more cute kittens but it also might be a horrible and scary story that causes your body to react like its being chanced by a bear. Instead, get on Skype, FaceTime, Google messenger or whatever you have and check on your people. Tell them you love them, ask them how they are feeling, trade your best stories, or just have them on the line so you can work together.
  4. Go outside as often as you can. Go for a walk between meeting, do some yoga in the park, go pull those weeds in the garden, or just slip off your shoes and feel the earth under your feet.
  5. Have a mindfulness/spiritual practice. You don’t have to be religious or be a master meditator to have a practice that gets you grounded, calms your body, and helps you to put things into perspective. Find something that you do every day that grounds you. This could look like prayer or mediation, or it could be journalling, gratitude practice, a mindful walk in nature. There are hundreds of spiritual practices so try some on and see what works for you.
  6. Take action. So much of our stress comes from a sense of helplessness. You aren’t helpless. Yes, you probably aren’t the person who is going to cure this disease and you can’t save everyone but you can do things. You can take care of yourself, you can remove yourself from the general population so there is less people for the virus to hold on to, and you can tend to your emotional wellbeing. You can also reach out to your friends, donate to the food bank, give your neighbor a roll of T.P. or anything else you feel called to do. Don’t surrender all your power just because you don’t have all the power.

Finally, honor your emotions but don’t get stuck. Its 100% normal to feel fear, frustration, anger, sadness, or any other of the 100s of emotions we can feel as humans. We tend to think we need to push these feelings away but that doesn’t work. They just get louder. You can take a deep breath and say I’m feeling this way and that’s okay. And then, you do the work to say how can I tend to this. I’m feeling anxious, what do I need to do to remind myself and my body I’m safe? Who do I need to reach out to or what thoughts do I need to think?

So what are you doing to protect your emotional health? And/or what song are you using to make sure you get your 20 seconds of scrubbing? Let me know!

Health Coaching, reviews

Autoimmune disease does not have to rule your life!

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I love what I do because 1) I get to work with the most amazing people and  2) I get to see those people heal and have the health they want. I got into this business because my own health coach led me through a health transformation that has changed my life profoundly.  But I know the proof is in the dairy-free pudding so here is one of my amazing clients sharing her story with you.

Thank you, Debbie, for allowing me to come along for this beautiful health transformation. You are a rock start!

Has Debbie’s message resonated with you? Contact me today and set up a free health consultation. We can work together to transform your health!

Health Coaching

What’s a health coach?

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mountain-of-poop

“Hello, my name is Carrie, and I help men and women transform their health after years of disappointment.”

This is how all the business training events I attend want me to introduce myself. It’s good, I think, though probably not as slick as it could be. But I still have a problem doing it. It’s not that the statement is wrong — I certainly do help people transform their health — it’s just that it doesn’t get to the heart of the matter or impress on people the importance of the work I do.

All of us have “where we are”and “where we want to be” points in our lives. In between these two points is a mountain of crap keeping us from reaching the where we want to be. It can be about the food we should or shouldn’t be eating or the exercise we should be getting, but in my experience, that is very little of what holds us back from getting where we want to be. The mountain is built of bad habits, negative thoughts, misconceptions about your failures or situations, stress management or lack thereof, and loads of other manure blocking your path.

This mountain of crap is what I help clients break down so that they can actually move along the path from where they are to where they want to be. I do this by listening, asking questions people don’t think to ask themselves, making suggestions, and, yes, giving homework that helps break down that mountain. It’s not that you can’t change your diet or exercise by yourself, but we all have blind spots that sabotage us. At the end of the day, I bring those things to light, help you deal with them, and create a crack in that mountain. And then you can continue your journey to where you want to be on a smoother, clearer road.

If you want help identifying and removing the mountain of crap in your path, contact me today to book an appointment.

Health Coaching

Hurry it up! Time is running out!

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'I started a serious workout program yesterday. So far I missed only one session.'

Ninety-eight percent of people who made New Year’s resolutions aren’t going to see them out. 98 percent!!! Don’t be part of that crowd. Join me this Friday for my FREE four week series on setting goals and sticking to them. All you have to do is sign up here and every Friday this month you will get a short little video and a worksheet to help you create a clear goal and a strategy to meet those goals. It’s going to be a life changer!

Health Coaching

Get ready to reach your goals!

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Sign up today!

Transcription: What’s the number one thing you have to do if you really want to transform your health and have this amazing experience that allows you to break through all those things that have been holding you back? The answer is, you got to set a goal! And I don’t mean I’m going to waking up super early to go on a run four times a week. I mean, something that is really clearly defined that is the end game. So for you it might be something like, I’m going to have the energy I need to pursue my passions; or I’m going to have the energy I need to be really present with my kids, or I’m going to lose the weight to get down those scary lab results. Whatever it is for you, setting a goal is a powerful tool to change your health. I believe that so deeply that that is exactly where I start with all of my clients and I want to do the same for you. This February I’m going to have a video series, the first one is going to be about goal setting and the following ones will be about the steps you need to take to meet that goal. There will be four newsletters they will come out on Fridays and they will have short little videos with accompanying worksheets.  All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter–if you haven’t already– and you will be on your way to transforming your health. Sign up here http://eepurl.com/ccZkz1

Health Coaching

Avoid the holiday bloat!

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http://www.vintag.es/
From the fabulous blog Vintage Everyday

The holidays have become synonymous with gluttony. It’s as if we don’t know how to celebrate without feeling like bloated slugs when its all over. But you don’t have to “celebrate” like that!

Before you close this page because I sound like some crazy killjoy, I want you to know that I love holiday food — seriously, love it! Grandma’s stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and pecan pie are all delicious and bring back so many happy memories. If we are lucky, our holiday tables are a part of beautiful traditions that we get to share and pass on. But they can also be scenes of heinous crimes we commit on our digestive system. Often, we see that table and eat too much, too quickly and end up really wasting a beautiful meal.

So how can you have both? How can we enjoy participating in that beautiful tradition without going overboard and putting stress on our digestive system? Here are some tips!

  1. Have a plan. Before you step foot near that table, have a plan. Know what and how much you are going to eat and drink because it’s way harder to make good decisions when surrounded by not so great ones. Which leads me to tip 2
  2. Load up on taste vegetables. At least half of your plate should be non-starchy vegetables that are not coated in sugar. So if greens aren’t something normally served at your table, adjust the menu. Check out this technique for simple and easy to cook greens like chard, kale, or collard greens.
  3. Eat even more taste vegetables. Instead of the traditional sweet potato casserole that should probably be setting next to the rest of the desserts, roast some sweet potatoes along with some red onion and an apple. Or chop up your favorite vegetables into bite sized pieces and roast them until they are soft. My favorite combinations are broccoli and carrots or Brussell sprouts, butternut squash, and red onion. Most vegetables taste great roasted, and all you really need is a bit of coconut oil or ghee, some salt and pepper, and an oven set to 400. The great thing about eating a whole foods diet is that the food already tastes good so the cooking doesn’t have to be hard.
  4. Don’t let yourself get too hungry. Eat normally before the meal or party because the last thing you need is for blood sugar to go on a roller coaster ride. We make our best choices when our blood sugar is stable, so make sure to eat normally up until the big meal.
  5. Enjoy your food! The funny thing about these feasting days is that we load up our plates to the breaking point and then shovel it all down like at any minute it’s just going to disappear — which means that we are very rarely even tasting our food. So stop. The food isn’t going anywhere and there is probably wayyyy more than you need. Take a few deep breaths and chew slowly and  thoroughly so you can actually enjoy what you are putting into your body.

I hope this holiday season is wonderful for you and that you find lots of ways to take pleasure in and enjoy all the beauty that is around us.

If you’d like to make lasting changes for a healthier life, I offer a variety of health coaching programs. I’m booking people now for January, so go ahead and sign up for your free health consultation and let’s kick off the new year right!

Health Coaching

Shush, your body is trying to tell you something.

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amazing-bodtHi there.

I’ve been thinking about how our bodies are just amazing, so well designed. Now you may be thinking, “I feel like poop, I can’t lose weight, and I have three diagnoses from three different doctors telling me that my body is  definitely not amazing, in fact, my body is broken.”  I get that. I’ve felt broken for a lot of my life, but the truth is that the things that lead me to believe that —  my inability to lose weight, the never having energy, and always feeling like my brain was just in a haze — were actually just my body doing its job really well.

What?!?

Let’s back up. Our bodies are designed to protect us. When we cut our finger our white blood cells rush to the wound to protect us from the bad stuff that can come in. When we are chased by a dog, our brain sets the stress response in motion so we can either fight or fly…um…er…run away. These things ensure that we don’t die from a paper cut or just give up and let the dog eat us. BUT…

BUT…

But when these systems are called on repeatedly they start to damage our body. For example, when we let things into our body that shouldn’t be there, like highly processed food, sugar, cigarette smoke, and other toxins, our bodies creates inflammation to deal with it. And it deals with it and deals with it until our inflammation response gets stuck on attack. Then it starts to attack us…our healthy tissue.  Likewise, when we are chronically stressed, our brain is under the impression that we are being chased by that dog all the time, which means the stress response is suppressing our normal processes, like absorbing and metabolizing our food or burning fat for fuel.

The good news is that our body will usually give us some signs that things are going wrong, but we are horrible at listening to those things. Unfortunately, it often takes us so long to pay attention that we listen only when something scary happens. So listen to your body and take those signs seriously.

In fact, before we getting into the busy time of year, I would encourage you all to stop and take stock of what your body is trying to tell you. Is it overwhelmed with stressed? Is it showing signs of inflammation, like swollen joints, bowel problems, brain fog, etc? For resources on stress management, check this out.  For real food recipes to reduce inflammation you can go here. And if you are interested to see if I can help you listen to your body and get it back in balance contact me here for a free health consultation.

Health Coaching

You don’t need (more) information!

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action-1

I just want to put something out there and it might be odd coming from a lady with a blog: You don’t need information. Seriously, you don’t need more information. You have a lot of it. Maybe you read blogs like mine to learn about what you should and shouldn’t be doing to be healthy (thank you for that), but you have been stuck in the same place for years. This is because information doesn’t bring transformation, action does.

My clients are men and women who are sick of feeling like crap and ready to take back control of their health by taking action. I love these people. They give me so much hope and energy because I get a front row seat to their amazing transformations. I have the best job on the planet.

So if this is you;

  •  you are sick of feeling like crap;
  •  you are sick of feel like a failure;
  • you are sick of feeling held back by your body; and
  • you are ready to take action…

Contact me today for a free consultation and let’s get things moving. You can be in control of your health.

Health Coaching

Stepping away from my device

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It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything so I thought I would drop in and let you all know that I am hard at work creating all sorts of good things for my clients and future clients. If you would like to learn more about what I do and what I can do for you contact me here for a free session.

vacation

Also, I’m starting a two-week mental health break from social media and the news. This is a challenge because NPR is one of my very best friends and because I run a business that is almost completely marketed online. So why would I do something so daring/stupid/potentially damaging to my business? I’m doing this because my health is my priority. Without my health, I can’t be the mother, partner, or health coach I want to be. And while social media and the news is a great way to stay informed and to engage with one another, it can also because a source of stress. So I’m stepping away from my devices and giving my head a little time to clear. See you on the flip side!

Health Coaching

Free Health Consultations for everybody!

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Oprah

Summer is the best time to focus on your health and create nourishing habits. Summer has some of  the best seasonal vegetables, a more lax work or school schedule, and the best part is that the holiday season is months away.  Throughout June, I am offering free health consultations and, for those that sign up for the six-month program, a free health coaching session. Contact me today to get this ball rolling!

 

Health, Health Coaching

Welcome to the new year!

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Image courtesy of Karen Watson at thegraphicsfairy.com
Image courtesy of Karen Watson at thegraphicsfairy.com

It’s that time of the year to get  caught up in the “self improvement through resolutions” fever.  Unfortunately, statistics show us that most of these best laid plans fizzle out by the time February comes around. If or when that happens, we tend to feel like failures and wait until next year to do it all again. Well, I have some thoughts that might help you avoid the plan-big/fail-hard trap.

1. Don’t get carried away. It’s so great to feel motivated to make positive changes, but 365 days are a lot of days. If you resolve on January 1st to wake up at 5 am and work out for an hour every day, you’re probably going to have a hard time making that happen all the way to December 31st.  First, your body probably isn’t fit enough to keep that schedule because it’s going to need some extra rest. Secondly, where is the joy in waking up early to try to beat your body into submission?

When setting resolutions (i.e. goals) think big. What physical activities do you want to do when you are 60? Figure out the actions you need to take to get there, looking at little actions that build on themselves. Before you start a new activity, figure out what your motivation is and ask yourself some questions, like does this activity help achieve my long-term goal. Which leads me to my next point.

2.  Reevaluate!  I encourage you to set a date with yourself, maybe once a month or once every week, and look at your actions over that time. See if the changes you are making really work with your life and if they are really moving you toward your goal. For example, if you want to cook at home every night, are you preparing the menu you need ahead of time and does that menu reflect the actual time and energy you have each evening to cook? If not, how can you make it easier on yourself to meet your goal?  Maybe plan for an easy three ingredient stir fry instead of a three course meal on those hectic nights.

3. Be nice! No matter how motivated you are to feel better and meet your goals, you are probably going to have some setbacks. Don’t let this topple you. You are human, and you will make mistakes. Its not a big deal. If you fall off that horse by going a week without doing those actions you planned, show yourself some love and resolve to get back on that horse the next day. Your health is determined by what you prioritize and what you do most of the time; it’s not determined by the slip ups.

4. Tell everybody. Accountability is one of the most important components of making changes, so tell a friend, or a few friends, what you are up to. And if this is your year to make those big, life-altering changes, then shoot me an email and we can set up a free initial health consultation.

Its been a few days since we celebrated the earth making its trip around the sun, but  I can already tell I’m going to have a good year. And I know it’s going to be a good year for you, if you let it.

P.S. I’m currently working on posts to help you meet your health goals without breaking the bank. So tell me in the comments what you would like to read about.

 

Health Coaching

Food: It’s a personal thing.

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Have you ever noticed there are roughly a billion different diets out there, all vying for your attention? Is paleo the way to go or raw vegan? No grains? Some grains but only gluten-free ones? Should you juice once a day, three times a day, everyday, exclusively, for x number of days?

Any research you do on any diet will pay dividends. You will find several people who have been transformed by the diet and others that had the opposite experience and believe it’s a scam. So what’s the deal? What’s a person to do? I believe that every individual is unique, and, because of this, their dietary needs are unique too. This means it’s fine to learn about dietary theories and try things out that resonate with you. However, at the end of the day, the diet that is right for you is most likely the one you cobble together by listening to your body.

My one exception to this rule is that no one, NO ONE thrives on chemicals and sugar. The diet that works for you will consist of real food. So ignore that voice that says, “Carrie, you are so right! I totally thrive on pizza and cookies.” Instead, think about how you felt after eating different kinds of real food. Maybe you felt great after eating meat, or maybe you felt sluggish. Your body will help you create the optimal diet for you.

Our bodies want to be healthy, and they tell us what we need all the time. But many of us have grown deaf to that voice, listening instead to what’s been marketed to us. I would love to help you figure out what works best for you. Contact me today for a complementary consultation.

Health Coaching

Welcome

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Welcome to my inaugural blog post! My name is Carrie Holley-Hurt and I’m a holistic health coach. I’ve spent most of my life being overweight and exhausted. In my early twenties I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and by the time I reached my mid-thirties, I had three autoimmune diagnoses, no energy, and a feeling of despair. I managed to take care of my family, work 40 plus hours a week, and have some sort of social life, but I was drowning. That’s when I decided that enough was enough, and I found a health coach who helped me transform my health. And now, I want to help you do the same. I feel that I have been released from prison and I don’t want to leave anyone behind. No one should feel trapped by lack of energy or illness. We should not be “living too short and dying too long” as Dr. Wentz puts it.