Since starting my own Crossfit journey in May of 2017, nutrition has been a major focus as part of my training regimen. For the longest time, I wanted to believe that, as long as I exercised I could eat whatever I wanted. To an extent, I still believe that to be true. However, portion control has been a struggle of mine for as long as...
If you are anything like me, the transition around New Years brings up a lot of issues around food shame and guilt. Diet culture teaches us that each new year we should resolve to be smaller, take up less space and finally meet our goal of being skinny. It's so frustrating to constantly be in and out of the cycle of dieting. A few years...
Have you been on the edge of your seat waiting to hear what's been happening with Shannon in her Essential You 101 experience?! Sorry to keep you waiting. Both Shannon and I lost track of time and here we are three weeks later. Here is a recap from Week's 3 and 4 complete with important reminders and powerful realizations: Week 3: Stress Stress Baby Another super informative...
Those Sugar Cravings Tho This week in Essential You the topics were Body Awareness and Blood Sugar Regulation. Unfortunately, I missed our group session. I over did it over the weekend and was feeling rather poorly by the time class came around. Chronic illness is such a pain, literally and figuratively! But, Emma was kind enough to share the materials and I worked through them on...
Hello Solcana Community & Solcana Enthusiasts! It is my pleasure to bring to you Shannon's words and wisdom as she embarks on her second round of the Essential You 101! This time with me, Emma, as the facilitator. If you haven't yet read Shannon's story, I encourage you to pause, read it, and come back. It's powerful and moving and one that I revisit when I'm...
My dear community! Hello! Emma (and Puff) checking in today to let you know about some updates I’ve made to the Essential You programming. The pre-existing programming is phenomenal and spoke to Lucia’s incredible knowledge and experience. I’m taking the magic she already had in place and expanding it a bit to include a more whole person approach! We are going to be looking at how social,...
What sensation is strongest in your body right now? What sensation is the most subtle? What’s happening in your toes your now? When was the last time you thought about your toes? These are some of the questions I ask myself throughout the day in order to strengthen my awareness of my physical body. Why? Because the sensations in my body often lead me to insights...
Emma here with some full disclosure: I don't care about the specifics of how or what you eat. You may be thinking to yourself, 'Gee, Emma, that seems strange since you are going to be facilitating the Essential You course moving forward, which is focused on NUTRITION! If you don’t care about what or exactly how I’m eating, what’s the point of signing up for...
Solcana Homies and community at large, Emma Vasseur here, checking in to share updates on what's next with Essential You and my role here within our incredible community. At the start of the year, I took over as facilitator of the Essential You 101 course! Lucia Hawley, NTP extraordinaire, created this program and left the content with us when she moved on to the next chapter of...
If you read my most recent post, you know that my experience with food and dieting has been up and down for a long time. Recently I went through a 6-month long elimination and reintroduction process to finally figure out which foods make me feel awesome, and which don't. Once I finished that process, I knew I wanted to invest in some time in using...
I've been a coach for 8 years, and in that time I have tried A LOT of different ways of eating; vegetarian, strict paleo, keto, zone, high-carb, low-carb... just to name a few. The problem I always found with these strict and restrictive diet plans was always the same: I could commit to something for maybe 3-6 months, and then I would rebound, HARD. I...
Hey ya’ll! Betty here, checking in one last time. I am writing to you from the finish line of a very tough race, and you know what’s here at the finish line? Pumpkin spice lattes! Pumpkin spice lattes and what turns out to be another leg of the race. Re-introduction of the forbidden foods is the home stretch! In recap: for the past 21 days I...
Wowza! What a week. Turns out this challenge is indeed challenging! A few hurdles snuck up on me this week and I may have metaphorically tripped on those hurdles and face-planted smack into the ground. Hurdle 1: I may have underestimated how difficult it can be to say no to the bakery and the brewery, especially when your friends are asking you to be there. I...
Hello everyone and welcome to my first ever blog post! I’m Erin, loud and proud member of Solcana for six wonderful months and loving every moment of it, even on heavy wall ball days. My most recent endeavor at the gym is the Essential You 101 class and the built-in 21 day nutrition challenge. For the past couple of years I’ve been battling some pretty severe and inconsistent pain in...
Well, friends, I’m proudly wrapping up Essential You 201--just in time to enjoy all of the excellent Memorial Day weekend food! For those of you who didn’t read my last blog post, you can find it here. If you are feeling too lazy to click the link, here’s a quick background: Essential You 201 is a six week class with a four week dietary challenge....
Hello. My name is Josh. I’m an improv theatre artist, drummer, and proud Solcanaut. For those of you that don’t know me, I’m otherwise known as Hannah Wydeven’s husband and Petey’s dad. I’m also currently enrolled in the Essential You 201 with Lucia Hawley, NTP over in our Solcana Wellness Center. It’s been a roller coaster so far, and I’d love to share some of...
The Essential You Program is a 5 week group nutrition series, with a built-in 3 week dietary challenge. Each week of the program Lucia teaches participants about different foundations of health, such as optimal digestion, how blood sugar regulation works and more! We focus on food and lifestyle choices that are essential to YOU–leaving the extra, stressful stuff behind for a few weeks. If you‘ve...
SEDUCED BY THE EX By: Lauren Anderson If any of you are like me, you have some exes in your past. People that you once loved, or thought you loved...or maybe it didn't even get that far. (And face it, that's probably why it had to end.) My point is, we all got history right? And whether I am the breaker-upper, or the break-up-eee, I know that these...
Hey folks, Lucia here! Monday, January 30th from 4:30 to 6:30 PM Body Knowledge will be here at Solcana Fitness with InBody body composition testing. We'll be hosting InBody every 6 months to provide this service in the hopes that those who enjoy seeking out body composition testing will be able to obtain: Consistent testing methods Enough time between sessions to track changes In my opinion, there are...
THE HOLE IN THE MARBLE By: Lauren Anderson Last summer one of my very dear friends Heather went to Florence. On her epic adventure she got to see one of the most famous pieces of art in the history of our world. The statue of David, by Michelangelo. The statue is renowned for being this symbol of strength, defiance, and pride. His body is beautiful. His face, divine....
HO HO-- OH NO By: Lauren Anderson When I was about 11, my loving grandparents gave me an exercise video for Christmas. I remember opening the present (one of many... they always spoiled us rotten) and my face falling, and quickly trying to fix my mortification by feigning surprise and delight. It was a Denise Austin movie, and it was by all turns—hilarious. But at the time, I...
Sometimes I feel like a broken record when it comes to health tips and tricks, but hey, if the tip still helps, then... why not? Incorporating lactofermented vegetables into our diets on the regular is a great way to get in those micronutrients, fiber, and very importantly, probiotics. For general health and wellness, probiotic foods are a heavy hitter. About 70% of our immune system is...
For those embarking on the Winter Destress Quest, or anyone that's holding off on refined sugars, you may be noticing by now... cravings. Specifically, sugar cravings. If you're in this boat, guess what! You are the captain, and you have the chance to steer this experience in any direction. Aw, yeah! Here are my top tips for leaving sugar cravings in the dust: Keep Blood Sugar...
I'D RATHER ADD THAN SUBTRACT By: Lauren Anderson I was always pretty good at math... until I hit calculus in 8th grade and everything went to hell. But in my younger years math made a lot of sense. Specifically addition. I think I really liked the notion of adding more. The more the merrier. With numbers, with friends, with everything. And this idea of “more is more” has...
THE DEFEAT RETREAT By: Lauren Anderson I don't know how else to to say it, but last week was rough. I felt defeated. In every sense of the word. I felt lost, scared, numb, dejected, and I could feel certain oppression mounting in relation to my hope vanishing. Damn. Which if you've never experienced, is an absolutely terrible feeling. I do not recommend it. I know some of...
The reason we host these gym-wide challenges is to embark on taking care of ourselves individually, together. Which I think in this day and age could almost be considered a radical act. I want to remind you: The Winter Destress Quest is completely doable! Sign up and give it a try. You won't be alone because everyone gets paired with a partner! There's no need...
The Winter Destress Quest is to here help everyone (yes, anyone can do this!) find a groovier balance in tuning into their bodies and taking the reins when it comes to managing stress. Especially during this time of the year when we find ourselves smack dab in between festivities, with the holiday music churning and parties running HOT. Add a little counter balance back in...
HALLOWEEN HUBRIS By: Lauren Anderson Hubris... What a word. It doesn't get used very often anymore outside of New Yorker articles and history lessons about the downfall of Rome. But after the week I've had, I thought it was only fitting. Also, 'hubris' made for a delicious alliteration with America's greatest holiday--Halloween. Full disclosure, I looked it up to make sure I was using it right. To refresh everyone's...
I thought I'd talk a bit about the migraine today. Shudder. As a person who has had a history of getting migraines in the past, let me just say: Migraines are NO joke! Not only can they bring your day and the plans you had for it to an abrupt halt, but they can last for more than one full day, and the after effects can lessen...
This year, the FDA announced that all packaged foods will, within the next 3 years depending on the size of the food company, need to comply with new rules and updates for labeling nutrition facts. Here's what to look for in the coming years: Nutrition label updates: the servings per container will be in a larger, bolder typeface and serving size will be updated to...
