Today is the one day of the year most known for excessive candy intake. If you have been following along with my weekly emails, you know that this goes against everything that I teach!! But what to do about it? Here are my healthier Halloween tips! You might not be able to follow all of them, but listening to just a few might keep you from going candy crazy!
- Read the Ingredients! Whenever I am temped by a piece of processed food, I look at the ingredient list. Reading about ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, food coloring, and hydrogenated oils reminds me that it is NOT REAL FOOD after all, and that I really don't want to eat it.
Recently, a colleague told me that they now have changed their mindset about food to the point that reading poor ingredients allows them to view processed food (e.g. a Snickers Bar) more like an object (e.g. their spiral notebook) rather than food. I don't know if I am quite there yet, but I'm working on it.
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This week we are celebrating 2 years of writing weekly blog posts (Minus a few months of maternity leave!)
For those of you who are new here (or just need a reminder!), I wanted to highlight some of my favorite articles that have been published in the past few years!
If you have any friends who you feel would also enjoy following along, please share this post with them and encourage them to subscribe! Our goal is the spread the health as far as we can, and to help as many people as possible live the lives they love!
Weekly Wellness Challenges:
We have published 23 Weekly Wellness Challenges of topics ranging from drinking water, de-stressing, to prioritizing your life! Here are a few of my favorites!
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The Warrenville Firecracker 5k is coming up in just over a month! It is on the morning of July 4th at 8:00 am! I am going to have a booth at this event (after all, it is right across the street from my office!).
One of my goals is to build a community of people who are STRIVING to THRIVE!! People in this community are intentional about eating good nutrient dense foods, moving their bodies, sleeping well, and decreasing their stress. Additionally, one of the MOST IMPORTANT factors in THRIVING is playing an active role and having good relationships in their local community!! This was discussed in detail back in our article called “Want to Live to 100?”
I am building my TRIBE of WELLNESS WARRIORS and I think that the Warrenville Firecracker 5k would be a great first community building event! It incorporates movement (I don’t care if you walk, run, or come out to stand and cheer with me at my booth!), supports the community, and helps all of us build better in- person real relationships with other like-minded people!
What is a Wellness Warrior?
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Happy Earth Day! 
Over the past year, I’ve given you many ideas to improve your wellness in the form of weekly wellness challenges. Today I want to link back to some of those, as well as a few articles from alternate websites that I love that I haven’t written about just yet! You can incorporate these ideas to improve your own health while helping the health of the planet!
- Walk more, drive less Sitting all day at work, and then going home to sit in front of the TV is dangerous for your health. Review Weekly Wellness Challenge #5 to find ways to get more steps in your daily routine.
- Spend time outside. There are benefits of spending time in nature including increased movement and sunshine exposure! As you spend more time out in nature, you will deepen your appreciation for our world and your desire to preserve and improve it! Get more ideas in Weekly Wellness Challenge # 12- Spending More time Outside.
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There are a few events coming up that I want to tell you about! They support local businesses (shop local), and eating real food.
DuPage County CSA Expo
Saturday April 8 is the DuPage County CSA Expo
What is a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The gist is that you pay a set fee up front for crops for the entire summer! It is great for the farmer because they can focus on tending to and harvesting from their fields, rather than finding individuals to sell their crops to each week. It is great for the consumer because you get a variety of locally grown vegetables, eggs, and more depending on the Farm you choose. Different farms run their CSA's in different ways (e.g. different crops, sizes of boxes, and frequency of pickup, cost). Since this event features 20 different local farms, it gives you the opportunity to meet the farmers themselves, learn about them, their farms, and how their CSA works. You can sign up if you are interested!
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How We Grocery Shop Without Breaking the Bank
If you say that eating healthy food is too expensive, I beg to differ! Here I'll show you in detail, with examples, how my family shops each week. I also want to share a testimonial with you. After one month in the program, a participant in Dr. Jamie's Wellness Warriors Nutrition Bootcamp shared the following with me:
"I love this Program, and don't look at it like a diet. It's more of a health plan. In the past month not only are my clothes getting looser but my foot pain is gone! Have I mentioned the savings in our grocery bill from not buying processed foods!? I can't wait to continue on this 'health plan' and see what other positive changes are to come!" L.M.
Earlier this year, Joelle wrote a blog called 5 tips to Eat Real Food on a Budget. Those tips included using local farmer's markets, which is difficult in the winter. Today I'll give you more tips, assuming that we want to to keep the costs down while shopping at a grocery store!
Here is how we eat real, nutritious food on a budget!
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