helping you take control of your health
Who doesn’t love a meatball? On top of spaghetti (sing along with me now…), in a crusty hoagie roll (yes, there are gluten free ones in the grocery store now), on the ends of little toothpicks with a yummy sauce at your party. Meatballs are …
So many years ago, 22 to be exact, my husband took me to Florida and proposed. He also took me to eat at one of the restaurants owned and operated by Emeril Lagasse. That restaurant is long gone, but the memory of that meal lives …
Welcome to 2023! And welcome to Total Wellness Health Coaching. I’m glad you’re here!
Perhaps you’re reading this because you’ve been researching Functional Medicine, various healthy diets, or natural remedies for autoimmune disease. These are all topics you’ll find covered here on this site.
In case you’re new here, allow me to introduce myself. You can always read the about me page if you want more details. My name is Elizabeth and I am a busy homeschooling mom who works as a functional medicine certified health coach in the spaces in between my mom and teaching life. I’m also a Christian and my faith in God is what directs my steps – at least that’s my goal. I have a 16 year old and an 18 year old and yes, we’ve homeschooled from the beginning. It was not my plan, but has been one of the absolute biggest blessings of my life. If you want to talk homeschooling sometime, I’d love to!
I never thought I’d be a stay-at-home mom, let alone a homeschooling mom. It’s been a great 18 years, but I’m nearing the end of that phase of my life and I’m earnestly praying about what God has next for me. Do I go back to work someplace full time (health coaching will likely never be full time for me)? I’m considering nursing school too. Should a 49 year old go back to college? Wowzers! That sounds crazy as I write it.
Fifteen years ago, I went to the hospital with extreme abdominal pain and woke up the next day, recovering from emergency surgery and being informed that I had Crohn’s disease. About 10 years ago, I decided to follow the paleo diet and functional medicine principals and get this disease under control naturally. I’ve been living in remission for a long time. That’s a very long story short, but it’s a big part of who I am and why I do what I do.
That’s a little about me. I’d love to hear about you too! You can email me directly or leave a comment below.
What I aim to do with this space is provide resources for those of you who, like me, are trying to manage a chronic health condition with functional medicine, or diet and lifestyle. This is where you can contact me if you want to work as a private client, but it’s also where you’ll find lots of recipes. They’re all family friendly, all gluten free and many are paleo or able to be adapted to paleo. I also post tips on aspects of functional medicine not related to food, things like sleep health and stress reduction tips.
So if you’re seeking a way out from under the burden of autoimmune disease or simply looking for new recipes for your busy family, you’ve come to the right place.
My goal is to have a new post up for you every Monday. Sometimes I’m a little late or I miss a week altogether, but every Monday is my goal. I’d love to be one of those people who post something everyday, but I just can’t fit that in with the rest of my life right now.
You can always leave a comment on a post or contact me at elizabeth@totalwellnesshealthcoaching.com if you have a specific question.
Since this is the first post of a new year, I thought some sort of paleo/diet reset would be appropriate. I know that paleo is not “in” like it was 8 years ago when I started my old blog, Our Paleo Family, but it’s still a great eating strategy for people dealing with chronic disease. We can call this anti-inflammatory eating, metabolic eating, primal or a host of other names, but in essence, it’s still paleo, so that’s the term I’m going to use for simplicity. In a nutshell, paleo is grain free (gluten free, but free of other grains as well), dairy free, legume free, free of inflammatory oils (like canola and sunflower) and refined sugar free.
My top 10 tips for starting the year off paleo:
1. Ditch the Dairy – If the holidays brought you lots of cheesy dips, dairy laden coffee drinks and creamy fudgey desserts, now would be the perfect time to tame that diary beast. I speak from experience here. Dairy doesn’t cause real noticeable issues for me, as long as I keep my intake to a moderate level and almost entirely from grass-fed cows. However, when I completely cut dairy out of my diet, I do notice a positive difference. I feel better, my skin looks better, I usually drop a few pounds, and I quit craving all that dairy. Most all the recipes on my site are dairy free or can be modified as such.
2. Read a Paleo Book – A well written, comprehensive guide to the Paleo Diet is always a great place to start. Even if you’ve read them before. We all need a refresher from time to time.
3. Head over to Pinterest and look at all the pretty pictures of Paleo Recipes and get inspired. You can find my Pinterest board here.
4. Make a realistic meal plan. Sure, planning a chicken pot pie on Monday, jambalaya on Tuesday, meatloaf on Wednesday, jalapeño popper pork loin on Thursday and chicken stroganoff on Friday is a great plan. But let’s be realistic. Are you going to prepare that many labor intensive meals each week? Not likely. Remember that scrambled eggs and a fruit/veggie smoothie make a perfectly acceptable dinner! Have goals, make a plan, cook more at home, but seriously look at your family’s calendar and plan realistically. I mean this very humbly…I am very good at meal planning, so if this is something you struggle with, please ask!
5. Buy some bacon. Lots of bacon! If you’re trying to get your family on board with this paleo thing (and you should), you need to start with bacon. Everybody loves it. If you make two meals a week that include bacon, you will have them hooked! One of our favorites: paleo pumpkin pancakes (I need to post this recipe for you), a side of bacon and a few slices of orange or grapefruit. And if by chance someone in your house doesn’t absolutely love bacon, sausage is a good choice too!
6. Consider Intermittent Fasting I was looking back over another New Years article I wrote for my old blog and saw that I recommended Bulletproof Coffee in combination with “fasting.” What I know now is that fasting means fasting, not having a big cup of coffee full of collagen, butter and/or MCT oil. I noted that I was starving after having that coffee and couldn’t fast. Well, no wonder! Now, I’m a big fan of real fasting. I have nothing but water, black coffee or black tea until I’m ready to break my fast, anywhere between 2 and 5 pm. I have been fasting this way for three years now and I will never go back. I love this lifestyle. You can read more about fasting here (a getting started article) and here (more tips and details).
7. Clean out your cupboards. If you think you can resist the chocolates and cookies that are hiding in the back corners, think again. They’re not good for your family either so just get them outta there!
8. Drink enough water. The experts can’t agree on exactly how much water we all need each day, but a good rule of thumb is about 2 liters per day. I think everyone can visualize those 2 liter bottles of soda. Yeah, you need that much. If it’s hot or you’re a competitive athlete, you likely need more. My trick to make sure I drink enough is to keep my favorite water bottle out and visible. I know that I need four of those bottles per day, so I keep it handy and keep drinking.
9. Pay attention to your protein intake. The health experts have a hard time agreeing on just about everything these days! But another good rule of thumb, for protein intake this time, is one ounce of protein for every pound of goal weight. So if you want to weight 130 pounds, you should aim for 130 ounces of protein per day. Warning: it can be hard to get that much. Just pay attention for a few days and see if you are hitting the mark or falling way under or way over then make adjustments as necessary. One of my favorite ways to get in more protein without any effort is a collagen supplement. I use Great Lakes Grass Fed Beef Collagen. There are 11 grams of protein in two tablespoons of this brand. I take it for gut and joint health and it has made a tremendous difference in the arthritis pain in my feet. Bonus: it has the added benefit of contributing to my protein intake. I have a hard time getting in the recommended amount otherwise. By the time I add collage to my coffee in the afternoon and in my tea in the evening, I’ve taken in an additional 22 grams of protein, roughly the same amount as in a 4 ounce serving of meat!
10. Try one new vegetable each week. Last but not least, expand your vegetable palate. I know there are people out there who can honestly say they just LOVE vegetables, but I don’t know many of them. My advice is just to pick something that looks good or at least interesting to you and give it a try. And try it more than once. They say (those experts again) that you have to try something ten times before you know whether you really like it or not. If you’re following a carnivore diet, then maybe try a different organ meat each week. The point is to figure out how to get more of the healthiest stuff in your body and not get bored.
There you have it, my top 10 tips for a Paleo New Year. If you have any questions you’d like me to address or recipes you’d like for me to transform into a paleo friendly recipe, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.
I hope this year is full of many blessings for you and your family.
