by Lucy | Feb 10, 2017 | Friday Favorites
Local charity: Activate Good
Activate Good is located in Raleigh and offers volunteer opportunities around the Triangle. That are affiliated with hundreds of local nonprofit organizations to provide volunteers for the local charity events and programs.
Mark your calendar for April 23-29, which is national volunteer week!
Favorite TED talk: You are what you think
I love TED talks! This one spoke to me because of the touching story and the wonderful message explaining how our spoken and unspoken words lead to actions that lead to our destiny. Powerful stuff.
Daily Mindfulness blog: Daily Om
“All too often our lives can be spread too thin and it becomes important to gather our thoughts and center ourselves to become whole again.” -Madison Taylor
Sign up to receive these free inspiring emails: https://secure.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/userinfo/settings.cgi?subscribe=1
Recipe of the week: Roasted Beets ‘n Sweets 
If you don’t think you like beets, I am guessing you have not tried them roasted. This is a simple, delicious, and nutritious side dish (or dessert if you’re weird like me!).
by Lucy | Feb 6, 2017 | Motivational Mondays
We can shift the world through love, but we must have love in our own hearts first. -Daily Om
Recently, Kristen and I read Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, which is about understanding shame, embracing vulnerability, and ‘enoughness.’
At Well-Balanced Nutrition, we see folks, mostly women, at all different parts of their wellness journey. Last week, I saw a young woman who had lost nearly 50 lbs three years ago and maintained her weight loss until recently. She put on 5 lbs after starting a new relationship and “getting more liberal,” in her eating habits. She came to see me about losing the weight after spending all of January following her healthy diet (with no change on the scale… frustrating!).
Shortly thereafter, a good friend explained her own dissatisfaction with “those last 3 pounds she couldn’t lose,” and proceeded to berate herself for eating a handful of M&Ms.
While reading Daring Greatly, I kept thinking of all my loved ones and how much I wanted them to read this book too. It’s so easy to get swept up in feeling inadequate, shameful, or unwanted. Our basic human desires are to belong and all too often that is tied to our body weight, shape or pants size. The story we tell ourselves is if those numbers don’t match the societal or our personal expectations then we’re not good enough. As Kristen put it, “We all fight the voices that tell us, if only I had ____, I would be _____. You can fill in the blanks.”
Food for thought:
A couple weeks ago Kristen wrote about Getting rid of perfection and embracing enough. Did you notice the inner voice she mentioned?
What would you tell your daughter, sister, or bestie who is shaming herself about the handful of M&Ms?
It’s time we start to love ourselves for who we are. Remember, we must first show love to ourselves in order to share love with those around us.
Here’s the one thing we really want you to know: You are beautiful, just the way you are!
by Lucy | Feb 3, 2017 | Friday Favorites
Wow. It’s February! How did that happen? I don’t know about you but it really snuck up on me. Seems like it was just New Years Day. Well, here we are in February and today is #WearRedDay for heart health awareness. Yay! Which brings me to my first of today’s favorites.
Favorite Heart Health Awareness Video: Sometimes women, myself included, care for everyone else while ignoring their own needs. If we aren’t putting our mask on first – our efforts to help others can be completely sabotaged. It’s not until we can love and care for ourselves, that we can truly do the same for others.
Favorite Heart Healthy Dessert: Sometimes fruit just doesn’t cut it and we need a little chocolate in our lives. I love that Trish at Mom on Time Out made these brownies without oil or butter so they are low in saturated fat. I would take it a step further and try this with almond flour or whole wheat pastry flour and opt for dark chocolate chips to increase the fiber, protein and antioxidant level.
http://www.momontimeout.com/2014/06/chocolate-banana-applesauce-cake/
Favorite quote this week: If you follow along you know that we don’t encourage regular calorie counting at Well Balanced Nutrition. When you embrace more natural foods and adopt a healthy mindset around eating it’s just not necessary. So when I came across this, I was nodding my head in complete agreement.
I hope you all have a fun and healthy weekend doing what you love with people you love.
by Lucy | Jan 29, 2017 | Motivational Mondays
Monday, January 30, 2017
Written by: Cathy Paessun “Motivational Mama”
So after making through the holidays without gaining a pound (!) the next 2 weeks proved to be more challenging. I gained a couple pounds – which Lucy told me was actually very normal. But here’s the great part – I knew which of my choices were problematic and I knew I was probably going to keep stress-eating for another few days. As often as possible, I made the right decision – clean eating, proper portion size, and more exercise. Sure enough, after another week I was back down to my pre-holiday weight and feeling much less stressed out.
Despite having eaten poorly for a couple weeks, one week back on track and my weight was back down and actually a smidge lower. I realized that all these months of eating properly had set me up to go right back to my new weight. Because I didn’t continue stress-eating, my weight didn’t continue going up. Like Lucy says “don’t make it up, make it back”. Rather than over-react to my slight weight gain, I just went back to what I know are the right choices for me and by golly, it worked!
Lucy has been saying for years if you want to lose weight, track what you eat. So last May I finally decided to get serious about dealing my pants size creeping up. She suggested Weight Watchers and I gave it a try.
Tracking my food was a pain but worth it. I learned so much about what I thought was healthy vs. what really is healthy for my body. It was not fun at first giving up things I love like bread, French fries and double-stuffed Golden Oreos but the results were worth it. I lost 15 pounds in 6 months but more importantly learned how to maintain the results.
Food for thought:
There’s no such thing as dieting. Every day you wake up and engage in your daily diet. Food choices are a lifestyle. Are you making the choices that will give you the lifestyle you know you’re capable of?
by Lucy | Jan 27, 2017 | Friday Favorites
Friday, January 27, 2017
Favorite hiking trail in the triangle: Company Mill Loop at Umstead Park 
If you’ve been following, you already know I’m addicted to walking, hiking, and playing in the woods! It’s probably my favorite pastime and often where I get inspired to write these lovely blog posts. About 7 years ago I was introduced to Umstead State Park and quickly adopted the Company Mill Loop as my “training hike” for backpacking excursions. This trail is moderate in difficulty with some beautiful views along the water. The entire loop is 5.8 miles, so be sure to bring plenty of water and maybe a well-balanced snack.
New Favorite app: Happy Scale
I have to admit something, I’m not really an app person; however, this one is worth sharing! A wonderful client of mine brought it to my attention and here’s why does what they say about their free product:
“Happy Scale will use fancy math behind the scenes to give you insights into how quickly you’re losing weight and when you’ll achieve your goals!
Also, you know that feeling of disappointment when you step on the scale and discover that in spite of how hard you worked, your weight barely changed? Well, Happy Scale will help you change your relationship with the scale because you’ll see your trend line moving down, slowly but surely, even when your scale won’t budge.”
We already know one of the easiest things you can do for weight loss is to step on the scale daily. Now you can add Happy Scale to your toolbox!
Favorite whole grain: quinoa!
Quinoa is my favorite no-plan-nutritious-meal base. I make a quinoa bowl by heating the pre-made whole grain and topping it with whatever leftover or steamer veggies are in the freezer. Then comes the protein! That may be a piece of fish, 2 fried eggs, chicken, or cheese.
Favorite quinoa recipe: A Delicious Kale-Quinoa Bowl in 20-minutes
This vegetable-lover dish can be enjoyed by the meat eaters in your family as a nutrient-packed side dish to accompany any baked, grilled, or slow-cooked creation.
Photo credit: Izy Hossack of Top with Cinnamon
