What a year. What a year.
Read moreChirping and belly laughs
The culprit on a hill of discards.
Y’all I have a funny, true story. So Sunday we heard the dreaded chirp from our smoke detector in our bedroom. My husband Ed proceeded to get the ladder and replacement battery. He climbed up on the ladder and viola just like that...the chirping continued. We researched why it could possibly still be chirping and ended up determining that we needed a replacement smoke detector so off to Home Depot he went. After going to dinner at my daughters house, he changed it out turned the electricity back on and....the chirping continued. After reading more google articles and watching YouTube videos, we learned we really needed to change out ALL the batteries from ALL 7 of the hardwired smoke alarms so we did, retested the offensive chirping detector and....the chirping continued. It’s late by this time and we decide to just sleep in the guest room and tackle it again in the morning. So first world problems y’all a while back, we upgraded to a king bed from a queen and sleeping in the guest room with us and a 25 lb Jack Russell was very uncomfortable after sleeping in a king so in the middle of the night Ed transferred himself and the dog to the couch right next to the room with the offending chirping. Needless to say none of us got a good nights sleep.
So morning comes we are all dragging I go out to the garage to work out and notice the discarded smoke detector’s factory date is 10/23/2006 well Mr. Google said you should switch them out every 10 years. We’ve been in this house for 5 so these are the originals. So we figure this is the issue. So off to Home Depot Ed goes to buy 6 more replacement smoke detectors. He comes back, electricity is shut off and the replacement begins. One by one they are changed thinking surly one of these replacements with stop the chirping because Mr. Google said they were interconnected and are only as good as it’s weakest link. Well none of them stop the chirping. We are beyond perplexed. There is discussion of getting an electrician in to check the wiring that only a day ago was fine. Y’all we are sleep deprived, chirp shocked and now we are thinking we need to replay the night before so Ed decides to just cut the power, remove all the detectors and we will get someone to look at them tomorrow. It’s close to 4 o’clock. So back up the ladder, thinking again one of these that are removed will be the culprit and we will identify the chirp offender but with ALL of them removed and the electricity off, the 🤬chirping did not stop.
When I tell you this sent my husband in a tailspin it was bad. He went to muttering under his breath and his brilliant engineering mind could not figure out what was happening. We went back to Mr. Google and read about maybe the smoke detectors were on different parts of the breaker even though ours was labeled “smokies” we decided to cut the power to the bedroom where the offensive chirping was coming from. Around this time Ed got a phone call and mentioned his day long activities and the caller mentioned checking the carbon monoxide detector. One thing I failed to mention is when we would stand in the room listening for the chirping it sounded like it was a traveling sound. I at one time stood away from it by our dresser under a vent and swore I heard it over there. Finally Ed ask where the carbon monoxide detector? At this point we will try anything. Back story we bought a replacement carbon monoxide detector a year ago but never installed it so it was sitting on the dresser. He goes over picks it up off the dresser and walks under the smoke detector and we hear chirping. Surly it can’t be. So he walks into the laundry room far from the bedroom and there is chirping. We both look at each other and are in disbelief. Ed changed the battery in the carbon monoxide detector and just like that chirping gone. We immediately break into this uncontrollable laughing. This chirping, this traveling sound, this sleep depriver, this maddening sound was the result of a unused co detector that needed a new battery. Sitting on a dresser needing to be screwed into the wall. As we ate dinner in silence, a giggle would escape one of us and the belly laughing would start all over again.
There is a lesson in here somewhere. If nothing else Ed’s Fitbit showed he did 17 flights of stairs and we as a couple have not laughed that hard together in years. And best of all we have all new smoke detectors for another 10 years.
A memo to my white friends who want to know how to support .
This is normally a life and wellness blog. I normally talk about healthy eating, exercise and how to be the best you can be but today, I am going to do something for my own mental health. I am going to express what I am feeling in this time of heightened racism awareness.
I was first made aware that I was different from the other kids in my second-grade class at St. Gerard Elementary School in San Antonio while standing in the milk line when a blond-haired girl told me my skin was dirty and I needed to go home and wash it. I remember asking my mom if I was dirty and her having to explain skin color and the fact that I am a Negro and not white and in fact different. This was in the 60’s and the school had been integrated a couple years before. I lived in a mixed neighborhood on the east side of San Antonio mostly black and Mexican with a few whites.
I remember when I was about 6 my grandfather drove from New Orleans to San Antonio to pick up me, my two siblings and my mom to drive us back to New Orleans to visit for a while and how we could not stop to go to the bathroom (the trip was more than 8 hours ya’ll) We had to stop on the side of the road in the bushes and go because no gas station along the way would allow us to use the bathroom. That was just the way it was back in the civil rights era. You rolled with it, no other choice.
I remember as a pre-teen marching to free Angela Davis through the streets of San Antonio. I remember having protesters in our home going over strategy for the marches and protest to come. I did not totally get what we were protesting about but I had my little brown fist up never the less because I knew it was important to our community.
Because I was of a lighter complexion with green eyes, I was more palatable then a darker black person. I realized early I was an easier black friend to have not to say there was any privilege I was just more acceptable. I have heard countless times that I was “ not like the rest of THEM”, or I was “different from THEM”. On several occasions I had to remind them that I was a THEM. I was easier to accept and thought to be OK with a slight racial joke or slur because I was not one of “THEM”. But the knife cut deep never the less.
I have been called the N-word several times before and you never are quite ready for that sort of hate. It shakes me every time.
I remember one time at work in the early 2000’s, a manager called me into his office. When I went in, there was another man sitting there. He did not introduce me to this person but the manager asked me to look down, and I did and he was tapping his foot, I looked confused and he said with all the privilege he could muster up, “They need shining” and started laughing. I looked at the guy in the room and was embarrassed and shocked and just left. I told a co-worker who advised me to go to HR but I did not because there were essentially no witnesses just his word against mine. I could not count on the guy who was there to back me up so I just stayed clear of him until he went elsewhere. The sad thing is the next day he was sticking his head into my office saying good morning.
I give you all these examples to say, this has been going on for as long as I have been alive because of the color of my skin.
So, on to the reason I felt compelled to write this, I am being asked by some of my white friends the same questions and I would like to answer them in the best way I can without sounding like an angry black woman:
1. Are you OK?
o Not even close. I am sad, angry, weepy, scared for my community, bewildered, and TIRED! Same conversation, different hashtag.
o What is going on in America is not new to me. This is my life every time I step outside my door.
2. What can I/we do to understand racism or what can we do to help you? Is there a book you can suggest, something to watch etc…
o First of all, this is not a frigging book report that you are going to get graded on. You are asking me to give you tips and tricks on how to be a better white person and how to recognize your subtle racism and I cannot do that for you. You need to search your heart.
o You can pay attention to what and how you say things. Start by never calling a grown ass black man “boy” or a grown black woman “gal”, offensive (you can look THAT up to see why). Small things, but big impact. See us as human and people not as the color of our skin.
o Check your friends when they tell racist jokes. Check yourself when you laugh at them. This goes way beyond using the N-word. That is not all there is to racism.
o Teach your children to accept all people as people. Do not teach them your prejudices as fact.
o One last thing is to VOTE to make this a better world. If you know your candidate cannot do that, vote them out. We have to start somewhere.
3. Do I want to join a forum to talk about what I have been going through?
o See answer #1
4. Not a question but the apologies I get for what have been going on for 400 years.
o I am not asking for you to make amends for all of your ancestors, I just need you to start with you. Be better, do better.
I read a friend’s post on Face Book where she posted a heartfelt picture of unity and one of her followers said he reached out to his “black friends” and no one will talk to him because he is white so he was done trying. That is exactly what has been happening forever, giving up when things get hard. Not sticking with it to truly understand because the conversation was tough. Yes, we are tired of talking about this every time there is a new hashtag with a dead black person’s name attached but if you truly want to understand, you do not have to wait for your black friend to talk to you. You have other resources, use them, we are not going to do the leg work on your understanding of racism, we are living it, you cannot fully understand the shoes I stand in.
Another thing, the protesters are protesting the looters are looting, they are not the same group of people. Don’t get them twisted or forget why the protesters are protesting.
I am going to end this on a positive note, I love all my friends, if you know me I am very selective and keep my circle small so if you are in it, I love you like kin and if you need to understand where I am standing right now, I so want you to search your heart. Understand how you can be a better human to all humans.
The fastest way to glowing skin
Ever wondered which foods will give your skin that amazing glow, like you’ve spent a week detoxing on a tropical island?
Sulfur-residue foods!
but first, why am I talking about eating sulfur for glowing skin?
Great question! Sulfur is not just the mush of yolk found in deviled eggs at your annual office Christmas party that you avoid like the plague.
Sulfur is actually the secret beauty mineral for glowing skin!
Why else would people flock to mineral hot springs to soak in hot water that smells like rotten eggs?
Sulfur helps your body to digest fats, controls the metabolism of carbohydrates and rids the body of waste that clogs skin pores causing a lackluster complexion.
So what is the fastest way to glowing skin?
Unless you can make it to your local mineral hot springs or spa weekly, your surest way to get glowing skin is to get in the habit of including foods that are rich in sulfur in your daily diet.
You may be surprised to hear that sulfur-rich foods are often the ones you avoid because they tend to give gas and smell like rotten eggs when you cook them.
But try your best to embrace these amazingly nutritious cruciferous veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, bok choy, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts!
Here is a healthy and delicious recipe to help you include sulfur in your diet to get the glow:
Get “The Glow” Salad:
1 bunch arugula, chopped
1 bunch watercress, chopped
3 leaves kale, shredded
4 radishes, sliced in half moons
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1/2 cup purple cabbage
1 avocado, diced
Hemp seeds or pumpkin seeds to taste
Get “The Glow” Salad Dressing:
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp stone ground mustard
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 bunch fresh Italian parsley, chopped fine
4 basil leaves, chopped fine
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
How will I know if it’s time for me to eat more sulfur-residue foods?
Glad you asked!
It’s time for you to include sulfur-residue foods in your diet if you answer “YES” to any of these questions:
• Your skin is prone to acne
• You have brittle hair and nails
• You have a pale, pasty complexion
And even if you don’t have any of these symptoms, sulfur is still your go-to for glowing skin!
What do I do now?
In my health coaching practice, I help clients shortlist sulfur-residue foods that will best suit their diets so they can get glowing skin daily.
If you answered “YES” to any of the symptoms above, schedule a time to talk with me about how including more sulfur-rich recipes in your diet can help your skin glow.
To your health!
Alyssa Downey
How to tell the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger
How do you tell the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger?
Why am I talking about emotional hunger vs physical hunger and what’s the difference?
Emotional hunger means you turn to food either to avoid uncomfortable emotions or to heighten pleasurable ones. It means you eat based on how you feel instead of what your body needs.
Examples of emotional hunger (FEELINGS):
• Eating for comfort or out of loneliness or sadness
• Eating from boredom
• Eating to try to soothe anxious or depressed feelings
• Eating to fill an aching heart
Whereas physical hunger means you eat when your body signals to you that you are in fact, hungry. And it means that you stop eating when you are satisfied and before you are uncomfortably full.
Examples of physical hunger (SENSATIONS):
• Stomach growls and gets that hollow hungry sensation
• Body feels weak and energy goes down
• Blood sugar gets low and you feel shaky
• You feel lightheaded or faint
If you think you may be emotionally eating and you don’t know how to change it, then click the link below now to schedule a time to talk with me today:
Book Appointment
So what will learning to listen to my body do for me?
It will free you from being a slave to food!
What that means for you is that you’ll feel more in control of your eating and less dependent on food to “help” your moods and emotions.
By listening to your physical hunger signals, you can determine how hungry or full you really are. With practice, you’ll be able to pinpoint where your body is at any given moment.
By doing so, you will train yourself to stop eating BEFORE you are too full and to not turn to food when you are not actually hungry but are in fact bored, upset, anxious or depressed.
Because everyone knows that’s a vicious cycle….so let me show you how to end that cycle and have some fun while doing it! Enter… the Hunger Game!
How do I play the Hunger Game?
Let me first clarify that I’m not talking about undergoing top secret weapons training to learn to “kill” off your colleagues or friends… I’m talking about a simple, helpful game that you can play all by yourself even in a busy restaurant!
Here’s how you play the Hunger Game:
• See if you can be the slowest eater at the table — no one has to know you’re playing or that you’re trying to win the Hunger Game
• Periodically check in with yourself throughout your meal and honor when you’re energized and satiated by completing the meal
• Use an end-of-meal ritual, like putting your napkin over your plate or ordering hot tea and fresh fruit to symbolize completion of the meal
What do I do now?
In my health coaching practice, I help my clients learn to tell the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger. Together, we come up with a plan to help you keep identifying the difference so you can lose weight naturally and double your energy.
If you think you may be emotionally eating and you don’t know how to change it, then click the link below now to schedule a time to talk with me today:
Book Appointment
To your health!
Alyssa Downey
Want to know 5 reasons (most) diets fail?
Did you know that research shows that regular dieting is a waste of time and energy? Don’t believe me? Read on to find out why…
Why am I dissing on dieting?
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, functional medicine doctor, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and New York Times bestselling author of “Ultrametabolism” and “Ultrawellness” most diets predictably fail because of 5 reasons…
You try to exercise your willpower to control your appetite instead of understanding there is a science behind hunger
Your focus is too much on counting calories
Your diet consists of all low-fat foods
Your weight is actually affected by hidden reasons that require medical attention
You lack a solid health and weight loss plan to guide you on your journey
Dr. Hyman also says that when the average dieter loses weight, they lose muscle AND fat.
But once they regain the weight, they gain back only the fat….which will ultimately slow down your metabolism.
Boooo! That’s not what we want!
How can I succeed with my health without dieting?
Here are 5 success tips that will keep you in peak health without dieting:
Eat enough whole fresh food to satisfy your appetite (your body will be less hungry because it’s fully nourished)
Eat protein for breakfast to boost your energy for the day
Eat your last meal three hours before bedtime to give your system time to digest before sleep
Make low-glycemic foods your diet staple such as nuts, seeds, chicken and fish so your blood sugar stays level
Eat good fats at every meal such as avocado, nuts, seeds and olive oil (healthy fats are your friend, not your enemy)
What do I do now?
In my health coaching practice, I help my clients learn how to lose weight, gain energy and feel better than ever…..without dieting. That’s huge!
If you want to take control of your health the right way and make a commitment to being the healthiest and happiest version of yourself, then click the link below now to schedule a time to talk with me today!
Book Appointment
To your health!
Alyssa Downey
5 ways to nourish yourself inside….
Here are some out-of-the-box ways to think about nourishing your body, mind and spirit.
But wait, why am I even using the word “nourishment” if I’m not talking about food?
That’s a great question!
The reason I am using the word nourishment outside of its regular foodie context is because we often find ourselves so over-focused on food that we forget about all the other simple and wonderful ways to nourish ourselves.
What does it mean to nourish myself without food?
We forget that taking a walk in a forest with our dog is calming and rejuvenating.
That lying on your bed listening to your favorite song while feeling the breeze kissing your face is soothing and relaxing.
That feeling the grass tickle your feet as you watch the clouds drift by is as good as meditation!
We actually “eat” all day with our senses….we “consume” our environment through touch, feel, taste, sound and sight.
If you are tired of feeling like your life is lacking excitement and meaning and you want to find a way to feel nourished in all areas of your life, schedule a time to talk to me today!
Here are 5 ways to nourish your senses, starting today…..
• Relationships: Seek out and nurture relationships with friends and lovers that make you feel good about yourself and say goodbye to the ones that drain your energy.
• Environment: Remember that your environment affects your mood and energy. So if you are stuck in an office all day staring at a wall, it’s time to kick off your shoes and run wild through a park so you can feel sunshine on your back and breeze on your skin.
• Connections: We spend so much of our time alone at our computers or behind high walls and yet it’s so important for our spirits to make connections with others. So join a club or an online meetup and make new connections!
• Sleep: There is no way around it—there is just nothing quite like sleep to rejuvenate your body and restore your entire system to better functioning.
• Movement: Movement sparks your endorphins, which make you feel energized and excited and keeps the oxygen circulating through your system, so you can feel refreshed and alive.
What do I do now?
In my health coaching practice, I help my clients realize that there is more to life than food! I call the most important parts of our lives “THE BIG 5”—these need as much love and attention as eating!
If you are tired of feeling like your life is lacking excitement and meaning and you want to find a way to feel nourished in all areas of your life, then click the link below now to schedule a time to talk with me today so I can help you feel more energized and alive than ever before!
Book Appointment
To your health!
Alyssa Downey
Mindful Eating
In the modern world we eat for convenience rather than for nutrition. We eat for instant gratification rather than long-term health benefits.
Can you imagine learning a new way of slow eating in which you actually get to experience the tastes and textures of your food rather than wolfing it down in a hurry or snacking on the go?
I can help you to learn to slow down and eat mindfully! I can help you to see the food you eat as medicine that not only nourishes your whole system, but also tastes delicious!
So what is mindful eating?
Mindful eating means taking the time to honor your food by choosing high quality, organic food, preparing it with care and eating it slowly and mindfully using your five senses to really enjoy it.
It means allocating quiet time to prepare and enjoy eating your meal without rushing or multitasking at the same time.
Mindful eating is a way of saying to yourself: “I respect my body enough to be mindful of what I put into it and of the way I eat.”
Think of this type of eating as a meditation. It means choosing to be present with your food and the way you eat it.
My clients find that eating mindfully helps to:
• Sense intuitively when you are full
• Gain way more satisfaction from eating
• Develop a healthy relationship with food
• See food as medicine
• Discover new tastes and textures
• Improve digestion (less gas and bloating)
• Regulate bowel movement
• Discover food sensitivities
• Create healthy habits that enliven you
How will I know if it’s time for me to learn to eat mindfully?
Glad you asked!
It’s time for you to practice mindful eating if you answer “YES” to any of these questions:
• You get bloated after eating
• You scoff down your food like there is no tomorrow
• You eat just to feel full not to enjoy the tastes
• You eat to numb out
• You want to learn to enjoy healthy food
• You feel bloated easily
• You gain weight easily
• You crave sugar or starchy foods
• You have difficulty focusing or foggy brain
• You feel lethargic after eating
• You have allergies or hay fever
• You feel addicted to eating foods that aren’t healthy for you but you can’t stop
• You tend to gain weight easily, especially in your belly
• You have extra pounds that won’t come off with diet and exercise
What do I do now?
In my health coaching practice, I help clients discover what triggers them to overeat or binge eat. Then I lead them through a step-by-step process to learn how to eat mindfully and to learn what to eat for their unique body type.
If you answered “YES” to any of the symptoms above, then click the link below to schedule a time to talk with me about how you can learn to eat mindfully:
Book Appointment
I’ll help you understand what’s blocking you from eating mindfully and I’ll show you how to get started.
To your health.
Alyssa Downey