I have finally found a book that I can recommend for baking gluten free bread. So far I have made three breads and they have all been fantastic.
Top 5 Books to Read During Pregnancy
These are the top 5 books I recommend women and their partners read while they are pregnant. These are a combination of books to prepare for a natural birth as well as what to do with the baby after it’s born and breastfeeding.
I want women to know that they have the capability to have safe and natural births. The media and movies make it look like a scary, impossible thing. However, our bodies know what to do and so do our babies. Trust in nature.
Enjoy reading and planning for your baby and life thereafter!
1. Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
2. The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin
3. Bountiful, Beautiful, Blissful by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
4. The Baby Book by The Sears family
5. The Womanly art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International
Dr. Whitney Young, ND and Jillian age 7 weeks
Coming back stronger
I got a kindle for Christmas 🙂
I love it because it can hold so many books at the same time. You see, I am always reading a book about eating or weight loss, an autobiography or biography, and something else. Variety is important to me as my mood dictates what I want to read. I love that I don’t have to cart around three books anymore.
Coming Back Stronger by Drew Brees was a fantastic book.
He is a star NFL quarterback that has faced many challenges. In his book, he shares these challenges with such humility. Here are a few of my favorite clippings:
- You have to see the truth about your situation and accept it in order to heal right and then return stronger.
This hit home for me as my competitive nature tends to have me go out like gangbusters with the best of intentions, only to get hurt and sabotage my efforts.
- You can’t always determine your circumstances, but you can always determine your attitude.
Drew is certainly not the first one to write this and every time that I read it or hear it I’m glad that I did. It’s so easy to blame my mood or attitude on the circumstances or people in my life. This is a good reminder that it is always my choice how I choose to face my life.
- The most important game of the season is always the next game.
Today is the most important day of my life. The current moment is the most important moment of my life. It’s so easy to get lost in goal setting and dreaming of the future. While this is important, nay crucial, to achieving success in any aspect (finances, weight, fitness) it is equally crucial to not stay dreaming of then. We live in this moment, and this is the moment that needs our full attention. Once the planning is done, then the work to get there is done now.
These are just a few of the quotes that I took out of this book. I highly recommend it.
Happy reading
Kerri
The Path to Permanent Weight Loss
I loved teaching the Learn How to Eat, Not How to Diet program. Every week I was giving the wonderful gift of being with people who so openly shared their struggles and successes with eating and body image.
The program is on hiatus until I figure out how to share my thoughts and ideas about what leads to permanent weight loss. I am on a personal quest of finding out what works.
I have shared about Geneen Roth in the past – a brilliant author that shares openly about her struggles to stop dieting and be a healthy weight.
Now I want to share about another program that I have experienced by Tony Robbins. It is called The Path To Permanent Weight Loss. What had me purchase the program was that it is not a diet program. It is a ‘head’ program.
I listen to the CD’s at least a couple of times a week as I still learn something new each time that I listen. He presents women who have come to seminars wanting to lose weight. He takes them through a process (just talking) to understand what is driving them to the behaviour of over-eating. I learned something about myself from each of the women presented.
The last CD has a process of action to move towards a more authentic way of being. I did the process a few weeks ago. The very next day, each person that I saw told me how beautiful that I looked. Not one of them knew that I had done this program.
As with anything, participation in the process is key. If you are ready to really be honest and look at what you believe to be true that is leading you to overeat, this is the program for you. It was worth every penny and more.
Kerri
Achieving Sucess
My sister-in-law handed me a book a while back. She’s so good at finding books that I enjoy. I tend to like real-life adventures of triumph or failure. There is something about the real account of striving for success that is truely inspiring to me.
The Kid Who Climed Everest is proving to be just that kind of book. His candid account of his fears and feelings throughout his journey is both touching and inspiring.
I have never been a trekker or a climber so I had no idea what they went through attempting such things. Just getting to base camp is a super human feat!
His story is reminding of me of something very important. Working towards a goal is not all romantic glory. It gets uncomfortable. The ones who succeed are willing to endure some discomfort to get to where they want to go. Those who continue to believe in themselves and remember that they don’t really get to control the situation, are the ones who make it.
Whether the goal is an athletic goal or a financial goal or a business goal – it doesn’t matter. The biggest obstacle is our minds and our desire to be comfortable. We need to be able to tap into some grit and move through it when everything in us says we should stop.
If we are trying to manage our money better, we need to watch our daily habits and make the harder choice. When you’re looking at that new top and it’s a great deal…but is it a need? If no, then no.
If we are trying to build a business or reach the end of a project, how are we spending our day? Are we forwarding jokes and updating facebook or are we producing work that takes us closer?
If we are trying to lose weight, are we unconciously eating while watching TV or are we planning our meals and going for that walk?
It’s these not-always-so-comfortable daily choices that make some people make it, and others not.
Here is to being uncomfortable! Cheers
Yours in Health,
Kerri Fullerton ND
Stress, nutrition, and adrenals
It’s been years since I’ve read a book with the word ‘diet’ in its title. However, the Thrive Diet by Brandon Brazier was mentioned repeatedly to me by people that I respect. So, I’ve bought the book.
Chapter one, the only one that I’ve read yet, is all about stress. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book! Very well worded to help anyone understand how much stress we are under all the time. I find this especially difficult to get across to men (sorry guys, but stress seems to be a bad word to you).
Stress has become a word that is tossed around regularly. It is used as a feeling now – “how are you Beth?”, “Oh, I’m pretty stressed today”. Most people mean that they are overwhelmed, tired, and/or having an otherwise rough day. While this is a fairly accurate description of stress, it’s only part of the picture.
In my initial interview with new patients, I always ask them to define the word stress for me. Top answer is always being overwhelmed. It is said in varying ways such as “too many people with too many demands”; “my boss expects more to be done in a day than I can accomplish”; “juggling kids schedules with work”; and so on and so forth. For many, they don’t have a clue as to how they may begin to diminish their stress levels.
We all know that stress causes problems for people’s health. It has been linked to all sorts of chronic disorders not to mention the more acute problems like anxiety and heart palpitations. But how many of you know how to reduce your stress levels? You want me to start doing yoga too? Add more to my plate? Go to meditation class? Are you crazy? Who has time for that?
Men especially say that they don’t experience stress. Like admitting that there is stress in their life is admitting that they aren’t coping well. That’s not the case.
Stress is in the air we breathe via pollutants; stress is in the water we drink via pollutants and additives; stress is in the emotions we carry via worry, anger, and excitement; stress is in the foods we consume via highly-refined-nutrient-depleted-calorie-dense ‘foods’; stress is in the stimulants we use via sugar, alcohol, caffeine. Stress is imposed via exercise (varying intensities results in varying stress for varying fitness levels). Read his book. Written much better. The long and short of it is that stress is everywhere and it’s not all bad. We just need to learn how to optimize the stressors that we are exposed to.
I’ll keep you posted on what I think of the rest of the book. So far though, it’s a winner.
Yours in Health,
Kerri Fullerton ND
