Today we are talking about seasonal allergies. I got to tell you, they are here to stay. It's like when they get here, they don't go anywhere. So I'm going to talk about some of the things that you can do to avoid seasonal allergies, prevent seasonal allergies. 

When you talk about allergies, most people that we deal with naturally think of food allergies. So I used to think that all the time. I was like, ‘Why do people always say seasonal allergy, isn't just allergies?’ Because I don't really have food allergies, but I know a lot of people do. So then you think about what different kinds of allergies they are. Like seasonal allergies.

So when it comes to allergies, I think it's worth noting that there are things that you can do to avoid medication. Basically, you guys know that we're a holistic people business, and I think it's easy for people just to go to grab Claritin or an antihistamine. Obviously I don't really know a ton about that stuff because we try not to use them in most cases. When you do use that kind of stuff, there are side effects and often there's long term risk. So that's something that we try to avoid. 

So these tips here, are going to give you some ideas on some of the things that you can do to deal with seasonal allergies, without having to shorten your time outside. 

Today we are going to talk about how our brains are conditioned. I think sometimes we don't realize that we are conditioned one way or the other, so that's going to be a good topic. So when it comes to conditioning your mind, I think a lot of times we don't realize that your brain is actually conditioned for different things, and so the easiest one is conditioned for success or failure. 

Many times our brains are conditioned for happiness or sadness. You walk around upset, angry, depressed. That's a mindset. And I think it's a really difficult subject for people to understand and wrap their head around and maybe even cause some anger, like, ‘it's not my fault. I'm angry.’ All right, but that's a mindset. The mindset is where you are in how you're situated. 

Because we all know what it's like. We understand, like it's what we focus on in most cases. So when we focus on things that aren't so happy, it makes our difference, our energy down, it makes our mood down. So if we focus on things that change our mood, it changes our state of mind.

Tony Robbins talks about your state, your mental state, your overall state of being. And then he uses triggers to help change the state that you're in. And it's quite impressive. He was one of the first self-help guys I started learning from. 

Getting a restful night sleep (or lack there of) is a huge issue with many of us today. So much so, that many people don’t actually know what it feels like to feel refreshed and alive when waking up in the morning.

I’m not sure too many people put the connection together that toxins that cause stress on our bodies is preventing us from getting a restful night sleep.

The first thing we want to do is stop putting so many toxins in our body. We need to start paying attention every ingredient we’re consuming and be careful whatever it is, isn’t filling our body with toxins and putting stress on our body.

The next thing we want to do is pay attention to our environment late in the evening. If we’re watching action movies, loud music or other things that stimulate our brain (like working) we’ll have a difficult time putting ourselves in a restful state shortly after to sleep better.

And finally, speaking of stimulants, we need to pay attention to stimulants we are consuming late in the evening. Stimulants regarding highly processed sugary processed food, alcohol, tobacco and more only put more stress on our body. As much as we feel these stimulants are relaxing they really aren’t. These stimulants are waking us up internally and preventing us from putting our body in a relaxed state.

Today we're talking about meal planning. When you create meal plans, you reduce a whole lot of stress in your life and it's like anything that you find in your life. So usually we have schedules. I put up a post on the True Form page and I asked if you're a paper planner or an electronic planner. And most people said that paper is way easier. So I'm always trying to get ahead of the times and trying to go electronic. It's so challenging. I do like the reminders, but I think there's a lot to actually writing. And I think just for me personally, just organizes better in my brain when it's on paper and you can physically write something. We plan our work schedules, we plan the projects that we need to get done at home, and then we plan our weekends for sports, we plan our own type of getaways.

And so I think when it comes to planning in general, if we can understand how much stress reduction there will be in our lives around actually sitting down to plan, it'll make your whole life that much easier. It's such a crucial step to your success in living a healthy lifestyle. And it will just give you so much more benefits because like I said, the stress that is lifted off of you is amazing. So I think where the difficulty comes from, is actually setting that time aside to do it. So it's like we always tell our members, it's like setting an appointment with yourself, to sit down and meal plan. But having a meal plan just on itself, whether you created it or somebody else has created it for you, it just reduces that stress. Once you have the plan, you just put the plan into action.

It’s just making that time for yourself and understanding that that is your time. It's your time to prepare and set up your whole week for success. So when we talk to clients and we say, why didn't you? Why didn’t this week go so well? And then they say, Well, I didn't plan. And 98% of the time when it comes to nutrition, that's exactly what it comes down to, is that you didn't plan ahead and you really need to sit down and set that schedule up for yourself. And then you have your whole week set up for success and you don’t have to worry about things like ‘I think the kids are stressful’ when kids are like ‘mom or dad, what's for dinner?’ And like, ‘I don't know.’

And you know, you have like this window of time before hunger turns into meltdown. And then you can't go back. There's no turning back. It's happening right now. Right? So we want to avoid that stress for you because it's so stressful. You've had a full day of work. Usually you come home and people are counting on you for a meal to feed them and that’s stressful. And then you're like, I don't know what's for dinner. I didn't go to the grocery store. I don't know what the grocery list is and everyone is just rushing around like you're always behind. So we want to release that stress. It's nice to not ask or be asked what's for dinner because you have a plan. So if you're making a meal plan yourself, there's a few steps that will make it a lot easier for you because there's a lot of tasks that can be a little daunting. So here are some of the tips that will help you create your own meal plans!

Writer and advocate for fair and equal education, Clayvon C. Harris earned a BA in English literature from Swarthmore College where students are taught they have the ability to change the world and an MFA in Cinema-TV/Screenwriting from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. 

During her time in Los Angeles, Clayvon wrote for a number of TV shows, including Living Single, Soul Food: The Series and Star Trek Voyager. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America.

Harris currently lives and writes in the Philadelphia area where she specializes in messaging strategy, digital content creation and script development. Her first book is the award-winning collection of essays, Year of Trial, Year of Grace—A Catholic’s Search for Faith. For more information, please see: www.angelwalk.biz

Artist and photographer Nicole Asherah focuses on the gritty and conflicting emotional process involved with healing in her powerful, moving debut poetry book, A Life Cycle: A Guide to Healing and Rediscovering Yourself (March 14, 2022).

While many would consider Nicole young at only 22 years old, she carries the wisdom of many lifetimes lived. Based on Nicole’s journal from three years ago when she was 19, A Life Cycle takes us through a full year of transformation in her life after being sexually assaulted, revealing hope for a new generation.

Normalizing emotional processing, Nicole expertly knows how and when to dive into heavy topics and emotions. Her insight and perception come through clearly in the instances of hope and joy she interweaves throughout the narrative, a reminder that life is never just one thing. A Life Cycle strikingly champions the idea that life always holds the propensity for change.

I wanted to talk about listening to your body, as most of you probably know or have guessed, that we often talk about things that we're going through in life. So that's why a lot of times when we're doing something with the Fitness Family, if we get a lot of questions about something in particular, that means a lot of people are going through whatever issue it is. So I thought, why not talk about listening to your body? It's an important subject and I feel like more of us can listen to our body. So that's what we're going to talk about today. 

It's kind of crazy. And, you know, I was actually just reading this article about how, like many of us know that depression rates are up and anxiety, mental health is a major issue right now. And I feel like it's not just because of the economic situation right now, but also what I was reading was because of, you know, like when we get excited about something, we have different chemical reactions, we have endorphins flowing through our body. So, you know, like people are actually addicted to likes and we check for likes and like, well, I wonder how many people like my post or comment or share. It's definitely very apparent in the business world for sure, because we post and we're like, Oh, the more we post our we should have more of an outreach and then the more of an outreach, maybe we can get more sales.

And then if we have more sales, we can feed ourselves. So it's relevant. I'm not saying anyone is at fault for this and I think it's not just business. When we post we want to see reactions, but we actually get obsessive over the feedback. When you put something up, people actually check like, Oh, I wonder how many comments, and I've actually witnessed this, I wonder how many. But those are like a chemical reaction in our body. It's our brain. It's actually giving us. It gives us a sense of belonging, almost like when we put something out to our community and people like and respond. I suppose more than anything it gives us a feeling of belonging and of acceptance. So the article I was reading was saying that. It's not just the economic situation that's going on everywhere in the world. It's also how we're responding and how we're reacting to different things in the world. So we want instant gratification. We want gratification. We want instant support. And don't get me wrong, I can understand each one of these. And we have the same feelings in some regards or the same reactions.

But what I'm trying to express here is that our senses of appreciation have been dulled. And it was like I said, it was this article I was reading. It was very profound or extraordinary. It was very interesting to me, like, It's never enough. And we know that as a society, we don't have a big enough house, we don't have a nice enough car, we don't have enough money in the bank. And whatever it is, these are all materialistic types of things. But when, the more you achieve, I suppose, or the more you gain, the less that excites you.

For example, when you crave sugar you could have something with a natural sugar like an apple or orange, have some healthy baking (granola bar, muffins, cookies etc.) make tea with honey in it or take your mind off the situation completely and go for a walk or get out of the house. Chances are when you come back you won’t think about it anymore.

Remember that cravings are normal. You aren’t doing anything wrong. I still get cravings. Usually when I’ve missed something in my diet that day. Maybe not enough carbs or fats for example.

Address your cravings in a healthy way and they will subside. Also, it is very important to have an evening snack to keep your metabolism going. I believe that the old trick don’t eat after supper comes from the idea that evening snacking is unhealthy food. In this meal plan our snacks are healthy so you don’t have to worry about the food being stored as fat.

Our snacks are very nutrient dense so your body is going to recognize and utilize the nutrients from the food. It won’t be stored. It’s a hard concept to wrap your head around but eating more food (6 small healthy meals a day) will help you lose weight. It keeps your metabolism running at a higher rate and burning off fat.

You don’t want to cut off your metabolism too early in the evening because then it will slow down and stop burning fat. Plus it will be harder to jump start in the morning.

Our top 3 Tips on How to Fight Cravings

#1. Consume Smaller Meals Throughout the Day

#2. Always have a meal/snack meal prepared in the fridge

#3. Don’t buy low quality food (so it’s not tempting you sitting in the house)

#4. (Bonus) Find Healthy substitutes

Ran D. Anbar, MD, FAAP, is board certified in both pediatric pulmonology and general pediatrics, offering hypnosis and counseling services at Center Point Medicine in La Jolla, California, and Syracuse, New York. Dr. Anbar is also a past president, fellow and approved consultant of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. 

Dr. Anbar is a leader in clinical hypnosis, and his 25 years of experience have allowed him to successfully treat over 7,000 children. He also served as a professor of pediatrics and medicine and the director of pediatric pulmonology at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, for 21 years. Dr. Anbar also worked as a guest editor and advisory editor for the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. His experience has offered him the opportunity to direct and co-direct more than 20 clinical workshops on the subject of pediatric hypnosis. Additionally, he has trained more than a thousand healthcare providers and lectured all over the world. 

In addition to his teaching and lecturing experiences, Dr. Anbar has been the principal investigator in 10 published case studies of pediatric hypnosis and involved in research trials of children with cystic fibrosis and other pulmonary disorders. He is a published author of more than 50 articles, abstracts, and book chapters on pediatric functional disorders and pediatric hypnosis. 

Graduating from the University of California-San Diego with undergraduate degrees in biology and psychology, Dr. Anbar earned his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his pediatric residency and pediatric pulmonary fellowship training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Dr. Anbar received training in hypnosis from the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. 

What to eat? A good thing to have in your pantry is a snack basket or a snack bin. And you can have granola bars in there, trail mix in there, all ready to grab and go. And have your fruit in the fridge already washed. So you just grab it and go. You can have mixed veggies already chopped up and even in little containers if you can. And then again you just grab and go. I think it all comes back to: If we're not prepared, then it's probably not going to happen.

It's very difficult to live a healthy lifestyle without being properly prepared. So if you could, I suppose, wrap your head around understanding that we need to be prepared on a regular basis, then we're proactive instead of always rushing behind and trying to catch up, especially when it comes to snacking.

Sometimes we're not always sure that we should be snacking all the time and we should be snacking throughout the day. So we can touch on that a little bit about the importance of why we need to be snacking between our regular meals.

So when it comes to the importance of snacking, it's important to understand that we need to snack throughout the day to increase our metabolism. So a lot of times people don't have energy throughout the day. And I think that has a lot to do with lack of food or lack of nutrients. And when we don't have energy, we can't perform well. We all know what it's like to not have proper performance or not feel well, not feel well or energized. So if we can understand that we can increase our metabolism by small meals throughout the day, then we can burn body fat, we can gain energy, we can drop some inches that we're looking for and we can just feel better throughout the day.

I used to believe this or think that the less that you eat throughout the day, you know, for those of you who might be looking to drop a few pounds or lose a bit of weight, I always thought when I was trying to lose weight, the less that you ate, the better. But it wasn't until I started eating more frequently throughout the day and boosting my metabolism that it really started to shed the weight. So it's so interesting because we have that mindset that less food means less weight.

Which is backwards. So when it comes to snacking, you need something like Complete Truth Protein in your smoothies. This is a protein supplement that we designed and it's really based around those nutrients that we don't get throughout the day. So we need whole food in our bodies, we need to continue to put high quality nutrients in our body. complete truth. Complete Truth Protein is made with whole foods. So we have quinoa and we have hemp hearts or hemp seeds. So by putting these good quality nutrients into our body on a regular basis, we can fight cravings. For example, we can gain energy. And one of the first things people say when they start using Complete Truth Protein is that they can't believe how much energy they have. And that's what happens when we put good quality nutrients into our body. 

When our body doesn't recognize, utilize or absorb the foods we put in our body, it's because they're hard to digest or they don't really recognize, or you need to use it in your baking. We have awesome protein balls, for example, it's a great way to increase your metabolism, give you a boost of energy and put proper nutrients into your body throughout the day so you can live healthy all the time.