Tuesday, October 21, 6:00-7:00 pm

Wendy discusses simple strategies to outwit holiday overeating by beginning with the end in mind.

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Eating for a Healthy Heart: Women and Heart Disease

Do you know that heart disease is the number one killer of women?It’s a startling fact that half of women will die from heart disease, yet there are simple steps you can take to help prevent it. In this session, you’ll learn:

• about the unique ways in which heart disease affects women
• which foods help to prevent and reverse it
• what simple, proactive lifestyle changes you can make to lower your risk of heart problems

Join Wendy for this interactive and informative class at North Haven Adult Education. Cost: $15

To register, call 203-239-1641 ext 1913

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HAP Wise Woman Seminar - Novi, Michigan

Wendy presents her workshop “Overcoming Obstacles to Overcommitment, Overwhelm and Optimal Health” to 300 women.

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Sick of throwing money away on food gone bad and In this 4-week class, you’ll learn Wendy’s simple and repeatable system to plan, shop for and prepare healthy, quick and delicious meals.

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Friday, September 5 from 12:00-1:15 pm

Wendy shares information and strategies for how to shop, prep are prepare healthy meals with your bottom line in mind.

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Have you ever opened your pantry to be greeted by something crawling on your shelves or flying around? That sure has happened to me before and it ain’t pretty! I absolutely hate bugs and what’s worse then finding them in or around your food? But that’s what can happen when we ignore our pantry for months on end. We tend to buy more of the same items because we don’t know what’s in there and it can compromise our health when things go bad. Not good!

Take a listen to this week’s audio tip about how you can avoid the “bugs in the pantry” fate and what you can do to stay on top of it…regularly.  

Bottom line: a clean pantry paves the way for healthier eating and more money in your wallet.

What about you? Do you have old stuff in your pantry and refrigerator? What’s getting in the way of cleaning it out?

PS You can learn more about how I stay on top on my pantry and how it helps me with my weekly meal planning when you enroll in my Money Saving Meal Planning class that starts in September.

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A dear friend of mine, Karen Batchelor, has a totally cool job. She helps women navigate midlife.

That may sound a little funny but midlife, as I’m beginning to discover, can be fraught with all kinds of issues I never imagined in my 30’s - aging parents, looming retirement, your body changing and resettling (oh dear!), deciding what you really want to do when you grow up - and other stuff that makes you marvel (and perhaps helps you get your head out of the clouds).

I like to think I’m on the periphery of midlife, approaching it at 43, but not solidly there yet. Part of it, I think, is that midlife is a state of mind, just like any part of aging. And we can go kicking and screaming or we can embrace all its possibilities and have a great time. I’m definitely of the mind that the latter sounds like a lot more fun.

Karen helps women like me navigate that sometimes bumpy, unpredictable road. What I love is that she’s fun, funny and authentic and being in midlife herself -  having changed careers, dealing with a sick parent and on her own journey - she totally gets it.

Check out Karen’s website and blog, Midlife’s A Trip,  and see what cool things she’s up to. Plus you can get her Interactive Wheel of Midlife.

And let me know how your own midlife is going. What are your biggest challenges and what do you love most about midlife?

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I believe one of the simplest and most compelling actions we can take to improve our health is to invest in a pedometer, commit to wear it everyday and monitor our steps. Pedometers are inexpensive (you can buy them as cheaply as $5 and on up), easy to use and a great way to get into action.

In fact, research shows that walking is one the simplest and best methods of exercise - it’s easy on your joints, it doesn’t cost much, and almost anyone can do it.  And you can start at a pace that’s right for you and work up. Even if you start with 5 or 10 minutes, you can increase from there, in a moderate fashion. When it comes to weight loss, walking is the way to go and it without having an expensive gym membership. Not to mention the other health benefits you receive - more energy, it suppresses your appetite, you get to be outside in nature, and walking is totally meditative, just to name a few.

I use my pedometer everyday. And I don’t have one of those top of the line, fancy schmancy pedometers. I think I paid about $14 for it several months ago and has some pretty basic features.  But I love it because it’s a serious wake up call for me and reminds me of when I need to get more into action.

Case in point, yesterday I walked about 1000 steps all day. 1000…that is both ridiculous and pathetic! You probably know that we should walk about 10,000 steps each day, or roughly 5 miles. While that may seem like a lot, if you live in a city or do lots of walking for you job, it’s not at all out of the realm of possibility. But yesterday, I barely moved. Just so happened that all my appointments were on the phone and I worked from home. And because I happen to live in a relatively small place there’s just not a lot of space for walking (although that is so not a good excuse when I can step outside and walk!). And I had planned to go to the gym yesterday, but truth be told, I didn’t make it enough of a priority and I let my work get in the way.

But today is a whole other story. Wearing the pedometer and seeing how few steps I walked yesterday has motivated me to go to the gym today and get in sufficient amounts of cardio. In fact, I’m going at lunch time so there’s no temptation to not go. Will I make up for yesterday’s missed steps? Definitely not, but it’s all I needed to get my butt in gear and to stay active the rest of the week. As an aside, I will say that I feel a little better because last Saturday I walked to and from the farmer’s market with my husband Bruce and it was a good 5 miles. And I’m planning to do it again this Saturday too.

So the question I have for you is do you own a pedometer? If so, do you wear it regularly and how does it help you? If you don’t have one, what are you waiting for? And what will inspire you to get one? To give you some easy ideas, check out the website where I bought mine, there are tons to choose from and it’s really just a matter of choosing what features you’re looking for or go to your local sporting goods store and pick one up. But don’t go crazy, start simple, get walking and get in the mode of better health.

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I’ve been subscribing to O Magazine almost since its inception, several years ago. The articles and features really resonate with me although in recent years, as I’ve become increasingly busy, I don’t have time for cover to cover reading. These days, I’m lucky if I sneak in a few pages here and there - some months I read a lot of it, but some months I hardly touch it.

So I was excited when I got the September issue recently.  I was thumbing through and came across the article, “Got 10 Minutes?” The article focuses on those things we can do to improve our health that don’t have to take a lot of time, be it exercise, relaxing or some other means of getting and staying healthy, yet they can be incredibly impactful. So instead of feeling like everything has to be done in 30 minute or more increments, the idea is to get a little bit in, in small doses.

I love that idea because I think that even in short time periods, we can work toward our larger health goals and results. And because I’m so busy, I do try to take advantage of those small windows of precious time.

Here are just a few of the ways I like to take advantage of short time frames to support my health:

• Chop up veggies for the next night’s meal
• Make a fruit salad
• Make a fresh juice in the juicer (celery, cucumber, carrots, Swiss chard, and an apple - yum!)
• Do a few minutes of stretching
• Make my short list of items to pick up from the store during the week
• Get a short walk in around the block a few times to up my steps for the day.
• Use my resistance bands to build and tone my muscles (perfect example: the power went out in the gym yesterday in the middle of my workout! Can you believe it? We all had to evacuate and I don’t have time to go today so the bands are perfect)
• Watch 10 minutes of my favorite yoga video
• Make delicious and healthy popsicles (see Friday’s post for the recipe)

To me, getting healthy is less about volume, more about consistency. One of the biggest obstacles many people face is how to keep up with their routines and not fall off the wagon. I think small increments is the way to go.

What about you? Do you like the 10 minute increment strategy? What can you do in 10 minutes to support your health? 

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Growing up, watermelon was one of my least favorite fruits. I hated all those big black seeds you had to spit out and frankly, it just didn’t taste that good to me. But back then, I didn’t know what I know now: watermelon is bursting with disease-fighting nutrients and it’s so good for us. Think cancer prevention and supporting our heart health among other things.

Take a listen to this week’s audio tip on the merits of eating watermelon and exactly how it can help you stay healthy. And when you’re done, check out this delicious sounding recipe for a light and cool summer drink from Simply Recipes that sounds just divine.

What are your favorite things to do with watermelon. Share your thoughts and check out the recipe below!

Strawberry Watermelon Agua Fresca

Ingredients
1 pound diced seedless or seeded watermelon (without rind), about 3-4 cups
8 ounces strawberries, stems removed (about a pint)
1 Tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 Tbsp sugar (or agave nectar, a natural sweetener, that’s what I plan to use)
1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water

Method

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. If you want, you can strain the purée through a mesh sieve, to strain out any pulpy pieces that didn’t get broken up in the blender. Adjust the ingredients to taste.

Makes 4 cups.

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