Reclaim Your Morning to Reduce Stress
How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Rested? Content? Anxious? Stressed? Overwhelmed? Reclaiming the morning and deciding how you currently feel and how you WANT to feel before anyone else gets to tell you is the best practice I know for reducing stress and coming into the present moment. Check out this short video for tips on how to reclaim your morning to reduce your stress!
Reclaim Your Morning To Reduce Stress
How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Rested? Content? Anxious? Stressed? Overwhelmed?
The morning is our golden opportunity to tune into where we are at in the present moment and consciously decide how we want to feel that day. One of my mentors calls it “deciding which bus to get on” in the morning that’s going to take you down a certain path in your day.
Reclaiming the morning and deciding how you currently feel and how you WANT to feel before anyone else gets to tell you is the best practice I know for reducing stress and coming into the present moment.
Tune in to the short video below for tips on how to reclaim your morning to reduce your stress!
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Click here to listen in iTunes
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If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
3 Questions to Help You Tune Into Your Body
In order to cultivate sustainability in our healing journey, what we really need to do is become experts at listening to what our bodies are telling us. Instead of constantly searching and looking outside of ourselves for the answers, I'll share tips on how to look within to figure out what works best for you and your beautiful body, and three simple but very powerful questions to help you tune into your body.
3 Questions to Help You Tune Into Your Body
Have you ever found yourself following a diet plan or a protocol only to get bored or only last a few weeks before you “fall off the wagon” or revert back to your old way of doing things? Do you feel like you do ok when you’re on a strict guideline but the minute life happens and you travel, go out to eat or have a stressful day you fall back into old habits? Does it feel like you’re really black and white about your health and like you’re either being “good” and adhering to a plan or you’re being “bad” and doing whatever you want?
It can feel like a really frustrating cycle of trying something, falling off, trying something, and falling off. If you’re felt this way you’re certainly not alone!
Many of us do well with protocols where someone tells us what to do and we follow that plan. But this means that when we stop doing the protocol or veer off track, we feel lost.
When the focus is on diet plans or protocols that we must follow, we rely on this external cue to tell us what to eat, how much to eat, what to do, etc. While it can be helpful to have guidelines and a plan when we are trying to accomplish a goal or improve health, solely relying on these external guides can have the unintended effect of disconnecting us from what our body is trying to tell us about what it needs.
If we follow a plan that restricts calories, for example, we rely on that caloric number to tell us how much more we are “allowed” to eat. The signals we get from our bodies like hunger and fullness cues, energy levels, digestion, etc. take second place to this external guideline.
Even in the case of a healing diet or supplement protocol from a doctor, if we get a list of things we need to do on a daily basis without connecting to how those things are actually affecting our body, we continue to rely solely on these external guidelines for how to care for ourselves. When this protocol or plan is over, or if it didn’t have the intended effects we wanted, we don’t have any information about where to go next and we’re left going back to square one.
Sometimes we need specific protocols to support us during different phases of our healing journey, but in order to cultivate sustainability in our healing journey, what we really need to do is become experts at listening to what our bodies are telling us and turning inwards.
“Listen to your body” might be an annoying phrase that you can’t quite wrap your head around. It’s in the same family as, “reduce your stress” or “self-care” or other phrases that sound so nice and simple, but can be hard to pin down when you’re actually trying to achieve them.
Listening to our bodies has become a vague and somewhat challenging task because we've gotten so used to looking outside of ourselves for information and guidance on how to feel better.
Instead of constantly searching and looking outside of ourselves for the answers, I want to talk about how to look within as the only way to really figure out what works best for you and your beautiful body.
Here are 3 questions to start this process of tuning into the body
1. How do I feel?
This question can also be expanded a little more. You might also ask: Where am I holding tension? What are my symptoms? What is my energy level? To feel into the answer to this question, you may need to pause, stop, take inventory and breathe.
2. What do I need?
Based on the answer that you get by asking yourself “How do I feel?” you can then ask yourself what you need based on this? Answers that come up for you when you ask yourself what you need might be things like: rest, something to eat, letting out your emotions, a long walk. When you answer this question of what you need based on how you feel, you’ll get a very different answer than “I should”. Be careful of “shoulds”, and if they do come up when you ask yourself what you need, then come back to these two key questions.
3. Can I give myself that?
This is where the dynamic comes into play where we might feel the “shoulds” or conflicting emotions. When you ask yourself this question, take the responses that you got when you really tuned in and try to really honor your body, what you’re feeling, and your needs. See if you can start developing a practice of saying yes when you ask yourself this question of “Can I give myself that?”.
Other tools that can help you tune in
5-second body scans. Before meals to ask yourself these questions to help you continue the process of strengthening this connection.
Getting quiet. Silence isn’t empty. It's full of answers. Breathing and meditating allows us to clear mental clutter so we can more fully listen to the signs and signals our bodies are trying to give us. I like the apps Calm or Insight for introductory meditation, or I practice my favorite 4-7-8 breathing technique.
Complete a 5-day food/symptom journal. This is a great way to start the process of noticing how what you put in your body makes you feel. You can download it by going to: http://www.christinatidwell.com/blog/symptomjournal
These 3 questions might sound simple, but they are SO powerful. This is a process, and it's like strengthening a muscle, so be patient with yourself! Let me know in the comments where you're at with this process of tuning in. What do you notice right now if you do a 5-second body scan? What comes up? If you complete your 5-day food journal and come up with some interesting insights, let me know!
PREFER TO LISTEN? TUNE INTO THE LIVE WELL PODCAST BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
Tools to Help You Support Your Immune System
If you've been experiencing stress and uncertainty recently around everything that's happening with COVID-19, I don't want you to feel like you have to go through it alone. I've been working with clients and teaching this information for many years, and I feel very called to take the knowledge that I have to guide you and give you the tools to help you feel empowered and supported!
We’re all in this together, and while it might feel like life is really up in the air and very challenging, there are some practical tips to help you navigate through these times and some steps that we can all take to support our bodies, our immune systems, and our mental & emotional health.
Tools to Help You Support Your Immune System
If you've been experiencing stress and uncertainty recently around everything that's happening in the world, I don't want you to feel like you have to go through it alone. We’re all in this together, and while it might feel like life is really up in the air and very challenging there are some practical tips to help you navigate through these times and some steps that we can all take to support our bodies, our immune systems, and our mental & emotional health.
I've been working with clients and teaching this information for many years, and I feel very called to take the knowledge that I have and give you the tools to help you feel empowered and supported! A word that I keep hearing recently is “uncertainty”. I think we’re all feeling that, and we’re all trying to make our way through this uncertain time, but please know that I’m here to guide you and give you the tools to navigate through this.
THE 4 KEY PIECES FOR SUPPORTING YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
When it comes to supporting the immune system, there are four major pieces to think about no matter the novel virus, bacteria or pathogen present. And they're things you've heard before - nutrition, sleep, stress and movement. Although it’s tempting to look for the magic bullet, there is no one single thing that’s going to create a robust and healthy immune system. Instead, try to look at the big picture here and how all of these pieces are working together for you. How is our digestive system functioning? How is our hormone system functioning? How is our immune system functioning and can we optimize the function of our body by using these foundational tools?
1. NUTRITION
As a collective, we are putting so many external precautions into place that are super important right now, but we also want to be sure we’re supporting our internal systems to be resilient against anything we might encounter. Are you looking at the very basics, and really paying attention to what you’re putting in your body? Are you eating good nutrient-dense foods like fruits and veggies, quality proteins and good fats? Are you avoiding sugar and overly processed foods that are going to dampen the immune system? You might be surprised to know that refined sugar actually suppresses the immune function by suppressing the white blood cells. The production of white blood cells and white blood cells actually shrinks in response to the exposure of white sugar which is fascinating! This helps us to understand how what we put in our body really does have a profound effect on our ability to be resilient to disease.
I always recommend getting as many of your nutrients as you can from food sources, but you can also consider supplementing for any deficiencies you may have. Just be sure before taking any supplement that you check in with your practitioner for guidance on the right dosage for you!
A few key vitamins and nutrients that can help support a healthy immune system:
Vitamin A: This can help to protect against infections, increase white blood cell production and support T cell function.
Good sources: Sunlight, liver, grass-fed butter, fatty fish, egg yolks, fermented cod liver oil.
Vitamin D: Adequate Vitamin D helps decrease the severity of autoimmunity and enables monocytes to kill more viruses. It also activates T-cells so vitamin D is critical in overall immune support.
Good sources: Sunlight, liver, grass-fed butter, fatty fish, eggs, fermented cod liver oil.
Vitamin C: This is also great for supporting the immune system and it’s antiviral, antibacterial, a natural antihistamine and boosts antibody production.
Good sources: Camu Camu, goji betters, Incan berries, papaya, red bell peppers, strawberries, and oranges.
Minerals: Both Zinc and Selenium are both really awesome for boosting immunity and play important factors in supporting the immune system.
Good sources: Liver, organ meats, grass-fed beef, oysters, scallops, lamb, oats, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, brazil nuts.
Herbs: Another option is to include herbs and adaptogens to help support healthy immune system function, but again, check with a health practitioner to make sure they’re right for you.
Good sources: Elderberry, garlic, echinacea, turmeric, and even mushrooms like shiitake, reishi, chaga, cordyceps, etc.
2. SLEEP
Sleep is one of the biggest mediators in supporting a healthy immune system! A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine demonstrated that getting less sleep can substantially increase the chances of catching a cold [1]. Sleep might feel really elusive or might come really easy to you, but prioritizing good sleep is not to be overlooked when supporting a healthy immune system and body!
3. STRESS
Stress activates our fight or flight and secretes cortisol which affects our immune function so in times like this when we’re facing challenges and really feeling all the uncertainty it’s useful to have some tools in place that you can use to manage your stress. Being able to move through these times with more grace and ease is not only going to help our mental state, but it's actually going to help our physical body and help our physical immune system to be more resilient.
Meditation: Maybe for you this is a breathing exercise or a guided meditation that helps you relax. It can also be simply putting your hand on your heart and deciding how you want to feel that day.
4-7-8 Breathing is one of my favorite, go-to techniques to drop into the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system. Learn how to do it here >>
Surrender: The idea of surrender is something that really helps us to let go of some of this need for control that we feel when we’re dealing with the unknown. I personally speak out loud what I want to surrender or let go of, or write it down “I surrender…..” in my journal. This is my favorite meditation from Sara Blondin about Surrender.
4. MOVEMENT
Movement has wonderful anti-inflammatory and immune-supportive benefits! We don’t have to run long distances or do intense workout classes, however, to get these benefits. Getting outside for a walk around the block, doing some exercises at home, or heading to an exercise class are wonderful ways to move.
These are the four main pillars of supporting the immune system, and they never change. Check in and see where you're at those pieces right now and know that there is so much that we can do to support ourselves through this! You have the tools, and being able to incorporate them in our lives in a way that feels good and sustainable and having this knowledge is the most important piece for long-term immune support.
If you need more support during this time I’m here to help you! Through 1:1 coaching we go into all of these piece (and more!) step by step and we really figure out how to support your body systems and put things into place so that we create this really thick, resilient baseline for you. The goal is that you know how to take care of yourself, no matter what, through any virus, through any bacteria, through any really stressful period of time. We. Have. The Power. Know that I'm here to support you, and I know that we will move through this together.
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
The 5 Traps Keeping You Stuck on Your Healing Journey
Clients often come to me feeling really overwhelmed about all of the conflicting health advice out there and like they've jumped around from intervention to intervention with only minimal success. They feel confused about what step to take next and feel like nothing has worked for them. Supporting health has come to feel like a full-time job and the pressure of putting the puzzle together all on their own begins to mount.
Over my last 9 years working in healthcare I’ve seen time and again places where we tend to get stuck. There are five “traps” I commonly see people get stuck in (sometimes for years!) keeping them from where they want to go on their healing journey. By shedding light on these five common traps, my hope is that you’ll know what to look out for and avoid getting stuck in them!
The 5 Traps Keeping You Stuck on Your Healing Journey
Clients often come to me feeling really overwhelmed about all of the conflicting health advice out there. They feel frustrated and like they've jumped around from intervention to intervention with only minimal success. They feel confused about what step to take next and feel like nothing has worked for them despite big efforts. Many begin to feel like supporting their health has come to feel like a full-time job and the pressure of putting the puzzle together all on their own begins to mount.
Over the last 9 years working in healthcare I’ve seen time and again places where people tend to get stuck when embarking on any healing journey. There are five “traps” I commonly see people get stuck in (sometimes for years!) keeping them from where they want to go. By shedding light on these five common traps, my hope is that you’ll know what to look out for and avoid getting stuck!
1. Information overload
We have a plethora of information available these days about how we can support our body using things like nutrition and lifestyle shifts. Information is power and it’s amazing to feel like we can take some control ourselves! But the flip side of this readily available information is that there’s so much of it, and a lot of times it can be conflicting depending on what source you’re reading.
When we are constantly receiving and taking in information we can get ourselves into a state of information overload where we feel overwhelmed and confused. I’ve seen a lot of people get stuck in this place and have been there myself early on in my journey with autoimmune disease and it doesn't feel good!
The antidote to information overload (or the information trap) is to make sure that you are not just consuming information all the time but are also taking the right action. And I totally get it - we want to consume information cause we want to learn and do everything we can to feel better. It's wonderful to learn all of these empowering things about our health! In order to get results and figure out what works for our own unique bodies, however, It’s important to make sure that we are also putting things we’re learning into action and assessing how things affect us. If you feel like you are constantly taking in information and don’t have a clear sense of what actually works for your body, a conscious break from consuming information and focusing more inwards on what information, cues, signals and insight your own body is giving you is a great idea!
2. Focusing on food as the sole pillar of health
Food is information. Food is fuel. Food has the undeniable power to support our bodies, but when it comes to healing, food is not everything. What often happens when we start to delve into a healing journey is we start with food as the main pillar of health.
If we continue to only focus on food as the single pillar of health, then when our life and health don’t improve as we want them to, we feel like the only option is to restrict more and more foods.
We may then wind up feeling like we only have five foods that we can eat without having symptoms! Focusing on food as the sole pillar of health can sometimes bring us to a place that feels really frustrating and restrictive and strains our relationship with food and nourishment.
Food is a very important pillar of health, but it is not the only one. Take a quick inventory and see if you feel stuck in that place. If you do, try “zooming out” a little bit and looking at all of the other pieces of nourishment in our lives and things that determine our health such as stress, sleep, our relationships, our mindset and our beliefs about ourselves and our health to name a few.
3. Ignoring digestive health
We’ve all heard the saying that we are what we eat, but really we are what our bodies can do with what we eat. So, really, we are what we digest, assimilate, and absorb.
Like I described earlier, food is typically the first entry point into healing and takes a lot of focus for a good reason. You might be eating a beautiful diet, but finding that digestion is off, you’re not breaking down and absorbing food or you’re still having a lot of other downstream health issues despite eating well for your body.
In addition to what you’re eating, it’s also important to consider how your body breaking down and absorbing that food. That has a lot to do with just the health of the digestive tract and the digestive tract is so important because it's where food meets our physiology.
I talk a lot about digestive health because it’s so key to overall health and any healing journey. I have an online program I created specifically for people getting stuck in this trap because I see it so often. The Love Your Gut Program is a self-paced online program that really helps you move through this and understand not just what you're eating, but how is your body using that fuel and how can you support a healthy digestive system from top to bottom!
If you feel like you’re eating really well but you’re still feeling stuck, make sure you’re also tuning into your digestion and how your body is utilizing that fuel.
4. Skipping over the foundational elements of health
The fourth trap that keeps many of us stuck is not spending enough time in foundational areas of health before moving on. We tend to look towards “higher-level” interventions which might be things like herbs, supplements or protocols to treat a virus or an infection. The trap I see people fall into is trying some of these higher-level interventions without feeling like they've really got a strong foundation or baseline.
Make sure you check in on some of those foundational elements. What's your stress like on a daily basis? Are you going to the bathroom regularly? Are you sleeping regularly? Do you have afternoon energy crashes? And do you feel like the foods you’re consuming work for you on a daily basis? Are they being broken down and absorbed well into your body?
You have probably done so much good work in those areas and learned a lot about yourself, but they’re things that we will have to continue to tend to through our entire life. Sometimes you might spend more energy on one than another, but these foundational pieces of health are never pieces we’re completely done with. Remember to keep asking yourself some of the basic foundational questions and building physiological resilience before skipping over them and considering higher-level interventions.
5. Jumping around between different protocols
The fifth and final trap that I see a lot of people get stuck in is jumping around from different protocol to different protocol. And again, I've done this one myself too! You might try something like a gluten-free diet, and while it helps with your digestion, you still have joint pain. So you think, “Okay, well someone told me about Keto, I'm going to try a Keto diet!” And then that might make you feel a little bit better in your body, but it doesn't feel sustainable. So then you might try an Autoimmune Paleo Diet or GAPS or any other number of protocols looking for the one to resolve all of your issues.
Have you ever felt like this? I find that this is a really frustrating place to be! You’re always switching gears. You feel like nothing's working. It seems like you’re trying everything and you feel like you’re just throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick.
To avoid and move out of this trap it’s helpful to instead ask yourself about any intervention or protocol, “What did this tell me about my specific body? What did I learn in this experiment?” Ask yourself what you’ve learned and how you can use that information to move forward from a more informed and empowered place rather than jumping to another protocol or strict template.
The foundation of everything is tuning in to your body and learning from the information you gather from it along the way. I want to tell you that no matter where you are at and how many times you’ve gotten stuck, it is possible to be healthy, to have energy, to feel good in your body, and be able to do the things you want to do!
I hope this helps you get clarity around what to look out for along the way to avoid these common traps and start putting the pieces together for sustainable and vibrant health!
PREFER TO LISTEN? TUNE INTO THE LIVE WELL PODCAST BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
