products i love!

Happy Sunny Day in the Pacific Northwest!  

Ohmygosh, it's absolutely gorgeous outside, and yet I'm sitting at my desk because I want to share some goodness with you!  I added a tab for "products i love" on the website, and I think you should check it out!  

Chalene Johnson is at it again with a health and wellness program called One3One Method- a no rules program that guides you through phases of wellness to be the best you.  It is packed with interviews with doctors, nutritionists, chefs, it contains a couple hundred of delicious recipes of clean, good-for-you food that will change your life.  It's one of the reasons I started using the next product I'm loving, the exogenous ketones. I can't tell you how much I've learned from this or the benefits I've experienced.  When we focus on being the best version of ourselves- healthy and WELL, then the weight takes care of itself.  It's a great way to go about life instead of a diet.  I highly encourage you to check it out.  The support of both the staff and your fellow One3One participants is outstanding.  Please let me know if you choose to do it and I will tell you what I've learned along the way.

prüvit is a product I've been using for about 6 months- it's exogenous ketones.  What??!  You may have heard of the ketogenic diet lately- it's actually been around since AT LEAST 1931 when Otto Warburg won a Nobel prize for his research on this way of eating (WOE) when he described cancer as a metabolic disease.  So many wonderful benefits that sneak up on you.  Please do your research on this one!  For me, it's controlled cravings and allowed me to manage my weight effortlessly, increased energy, made me sleep more soundly and wake up rested and without a need for a mid-day nap (unless it's a rainy weekend, then I'm all for snuggling up for a snooze), given me clarity (you know when you walk into a room and forgot what the heck you were doing....that's gone).  It's a ton of benefits that quietly sneak up on you and you realize you are better today than you were yesterday.  Such a good thing.  Please try it.  I've got 5 and 10 day Experience packs for you to see if you can get this sneaky success.  I dare you.

And the wonderful little balls.  Ohmygosh, I can't even tell you how much I love these (and I sort of turn into an 11 year-old boy with jokes about balls....and balls in bags....you've been warned)!!! I have been a very supportive (not a joke about balls...hehe) advocate of foam rollers- I think everyone should have one at home and roll every day.  But these balls take this myofascial release to a whole new level.  Workshops are coming soon, just waiting on a giant shipment of balls. 

That's it!  Go enjoy the sunshine!!  Put your face up to the sunshine and have a nice stretch, pulling your shoulder blades together.  Inhale, and exhale.....cheers to living your better life!

Happy Spring and Supposed-to-be-Surgery Day!

It's the first day of SPRING you guys!!!  I highly recommend wearing your brightest, craziest, colorful pants you own and do something that makes your heart sing!

Wanted to give an update since my last post was all about knees.  Today was the day I was scheduled to get a partial knee replacement on my right knee.  Thankfully (for all details, see previous post) I was able to cancel that surgery since the results of the PRP have been nothing short of all kinds of awesome.  My knees are not perfect, but I can go down stairs like a normal person and am back to sleeping like a baby.  I no longer have pain after doing the things I love and the things I NEED to do.  I cannot recommend enough getting a second opinion after being told you need surgery.  Maybe there are other options, maybe not.  Either way, be good to yourself and do the best thing- believe it in your heart and you'll know the answer.  

Exciting things coming- workshops will be added to the schedule in the coming months.  I attended a phenomenal training this weekend and I'm looking forward to sharing delicious goodness with you.  My body feels better than it has in a long time after what I did.  You'll see!!!!

Have a great FIRST DAY OF SPRING loves!  

PRP or Surgery? You decide.

Happy Friday everyone!

Wanted to post an update after receiving a lot of questions about the treatment I had on my knees, and how effective it's been so far. Here goes....

Right after I had Logan (15 years ago), I blew out a knee trying to lose baby weight (corn dogs and diet root beer....oh my gross looking back...). Had surgery to fix it and all was good. What I didn't know at that time was that surgery leads to arthritis (in most cases). 

Over a year ago, the other knee started hurting in a similar way and I knew right away I had torn part of my medial meniscus. Got a cortisone shot and all was good for almost a year....and then it wasn't. Tried another cortisone shot that worked for 3 days, then nothing. MRI showed a bone spur, torn meniscus and moderate to severe arthritis (and moderate arthritis in the left knee that was repairs 15 years ago). Since the cortisone didn't work, it was suggested to consider a partial knee replacement. Because the pain was so severe, I went ahead and agreed (and the fact that the partial knee replacement would fix ALL my issues...not just some). I hadn't slept in over a month because I could straighten my leg- so if I was on my back in bed, it would wake me up because my leg wanted to straighten. If I was on my stomach, same thing. If I was on my side, inevitably, my other knee would go right to the spot that hurt and I would wake up (what seemed like) a thousand times every night. Our house is all stairs, and I looked like a monster coming down the stairs, swinging my crazy leg out to the side so I didn't have to bend it- none of it was pretty. I was desperate, so I scheduled the partial knee replacement- for THREE MONTHS LATER (the soonest)! I was in tears when I talked to the nurse. I wanted a fix NOW.

A client arrived at the end of my blubbery breakdown and gave me the name of a doctor in Seattle that diagnoses based on ultrasound and specializes in PRP (platelet rich plasma) and stem cell treatments (in my case, they would take stem cells from the pelvis to inject into the knees). Super fascinating! It's using your OWN body to heal by promoting growth factors in the affected area. Her referral got me in sooner than I could have otherwise, and I will be grateful to her forever.

Day of the appointment (a Friday) was a blood draw then hanging out for 15 minutes while the blood was in a centrifuge getting all the platelets and plasma separated. Then a big bad needle in the knee (he did enough for BOTH knees, which has been a complete blessing to me) that contained the goodness and an anesthetic. Not fun, you guys, but just for a moment, then that numbing starts. The second side was worse because I knew it was coming. 

Walked out on my own, feeling like my knees were swollen and walking a little funny but just achy. Stayed on the couch all day with my legs elevated and took it easy all weekend. I had a prescription for pain medication but took only Tylenol until it was time to go to bed. I REALLY wanted to sleep so took a Tramadol. That was the ONLY time I took it, and I wouldn't really say I "needed" it. 

Woke up the next day better than I had been before the procedure and by a week later I was walking down the stairs like a normal person! I was amazed!

The procedure is not covered by insurance, so is entirely out of pocket and is just less than $1000. Money SO well spent, in my opinion. It can take 6 weeks to get the most relief, and I'm about a month in. I have taken most jumps out of workouts and squats and lunges less deep than in the past. There's no real functional benefit for me to be doing all that wacko stuff any more anyway. Spin is the thing that was surprising to me- feels SO GOOD! Whether it's simply the motion or strengthening surrounding muscles- I don't know but since I love that format anyway, I'm all for doing more. 

Get your inflammation under control!!! Holy shit, this is huge people. Being in pain is depressing- and then I ate sugar that made the pain even worse. If you want to experiment with yourself, which I highly recommend, binge eat a shitpile of sugar and see how you feel. Then don't for a week, and compare. Just know that sugar is more addictive than cocaine- crosses the blood/brain barrier and is no joke. It's killing us. 

An interesting thing this doctor also shared is that we should really never take Advil. It's an anti-inflammatory which seems like it should be a good idea, but it sends a message to your brain that "all is good, no need to take any action to heal". Let your body do the healing and support it by a really great, clean diet with good fats (think olive oil, avocados, salmon, etc.).

So that's it. Feel free to message me if you have questions. The phrase this doctor (that I ADORE) told me at my first appointment has stuck with me- "you can cut, but you can't uncut". My lesson learned is that get that second opinion. I didn't feel "right" about the partial knee replacement. This recovery was a day compared to MONTHS. And one day I will likely be signing up for the replacement, but hopefully not any time soon. Procedures are constantly improving and the longer we can put off the serious ones, the better they will get. 

Enjoy the weekend! If you're in the Seattle area, get some groceries, gonna be a blizzard in a few hours!