#361: Real Rest vs. Artificial Rest
Made For Living Well
Rest is essential. Although you know that, especially now, as we’ve shifted into what some call the “rest era.” Our internal thermostat works tirelessly to maintain balance, or homeostasis, making rest a natural response to work. But now that we’ve moved beyond hustle culture, the question becomes: Are you resting too much, or are you relying on the wrong kinds of rest? The truth is, excessive rest can lead to problems. Just like overworking, over-resting—especially the wrong type of rest—can leave you feeling stuck, unmotivated, or even more tired. Health is a delicate...
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#360: Is Your Body Bored?
Made For Living Well
We’re living in what many are calling a “rest era.” After decades of hustle culture and the relentless push to “be a boss,” it’s no surprise that we’ve swung in the opposite direction. Rest became a necessary cure for burnout. But as with all things, the pendulum can swing too far, leaving me to question: is your body bored? The law of balance proves the pendulum will always swing in the opposite direction to the same degree you pulled it out of balance. Naturally, we’re going to see a big pull towards rest, considering how hard we pushed. Unfortunately,...
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#359: Easy DIY Lymphatic Drainage Massage with Leah Levitan
Made For Living Well
The lymphatic system is a powerful part of your immune system—think of it as your body’s built-in drainage and defense network. It helps regulate fluid balance, supports your immune response, and even plays a role in absorbing fats and fat-soluble vitamins from your digestive system. Like many systems in the body, the lymphatic system thrives on movement. But unlike the circulatory system, it doesn’t have a central pump like the heart. Instead, it relies on muscle contractions, deep breathing, and physical activity to keep lymph fluid moving. Without regular movement, lymph can become...
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#358: The Power Of Posture On Your Health
Made For Living Well
Growing up, I often heard my mom say, “Stand up straight!” At the time, it was little more than an annoyance. But now, as an adult working to repattern years of poor posture, I understand the wisdom in her words. So, Mom, you were right. Posture, or more specifically, your postural patterns, influences much more than just how you look. It has profound biological impacts. Like any sense, your posture constantly sends signals to your brain about your environment—or at least your perception of it. Body language experts have long observed how posture reflects emotions like confidence,...
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#357: Water Isn’t All Created Equal
Made For Living Well
Water isn’t all created equal. While water generally looks the same, it’s far more complex than we previously understood. Not all water behaves the same way, and its behavior can change how it acts inside your body. I say it often, but let me repeat it here: Health is not what you do to your body but how your body responds to what you do! Health is ultimately up to your body, which means we must stop assuming that what you do has a positive or negative response based on what it’s believed to do. There are too many variables for any person or study to prove this conclusively....
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#356: Micro-Resourcing For A Healthier Mind
Made For Living Well
A healthier mind doesn’t start with healthier thoughts. It happens through nourishing your body – your body builds your thoughts. Learn how to use micro-resourcing to change your thoughts. The last thing you want to hear when you’re struggling mentally is to “do more” or “try harder.” At least, that’s how I used to feel. When your mind is already gasping for air, being told to add more to your plate can feel like the final blow. Yet at the same time, you want to feel better, creating a frustrating paradox—too overwhelmed to take action but desperate for relief. I know that...
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#355: 10 Transformative Lessons from a Decade of Healing
Made For Living Well
Ten years ago, my life as I knew it fell apart setting the stage for what has now become my healing journey. What started as an extreme second case of mono spiraled into gaining 30 pounds in less than two months, a stage one kidney failure diagnosis, and days where getting out of bed felt impossible. But this triggered some lessons that I have learned in my health journey. This came after years of following all the “right” health rules—eating well (although never enough) and moving my body multiple times a day. I followed the script, yet I ended up sicker than I could have imagined. ...
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#354: The Easy Solution to Gut Health That No One Is Talking About
Made For Living Well
I was the child who, as my family said, "had a weak stomach." For most of my childhood and part of my adult life, I struggled through numerous gut-health issues. Nothing was severe, but it was always persistent. It ranged from vomiting to excessive bloating and GI-induced headaches. I also seemed to react to a random array of foods consistently. These issues are, at least partially, responsible for why I got into the health space. I've worked in the health space for the last fifteen years, and gut health problems and remedies have skyrocketed. I've seen clients who are sensitive to...
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#353: The Key to Sustainable Weight Loss: Building Healthier Structure
Made For Living Well
One thing most overlook in working towards sustainable weight loss is the process of building healthier structure. Weight loss isn’t always about loss, but rather expansion. Let me teach you how. Growing up, I saw many people attempt weight loss. Some succeeded, at least temporarily, but few paid attention to where the weight came from. Health was reduced to the number glaring back at them from the scale. In those days, health was about weight loss, and weight loss was about all forms of “less.” While both statements have some truth, they’re not the whole truth. This is why health can...
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#352: One Thing That Will Change Your Metabolism
Made For Living Well
The topic of metabolism tends to focus on only one small piece of a very broad system, your weight or how metabolism can change your structure. And while metabolism can influence how you look—positively or negatively—it’s much more than that. A true understanding of metabolism starts by looking at the bigger picture. Metabolism is the sum of all life-sustaining biochemical processes in your body. It governs how you create and conserve energy, which directly affects how you heal, rejuvenate, remove waste, build, and preserve. It’s not energy itself but determines how your body...
info_outlineThere is a lot of bad diet advice out there, and while it's easy to blame diets, at the root, bad diet advice is not the problem. The problem is our need for diets. A problem stemming from generational beliefs about health that have created the idea that your body is the problem.
I'm certainly not attempting to put everyone in the same box. But regardless of where you fall, understanding generational beliefs, challenges, or trauma is worth talking about. We all have them, regardless of our environment.
While parents and grandparents are the main culprits of these beliefs, the culture and environment of our childhoods also play a defining role. For many of us, there was no escaping the health storyline the media portrayed. Historically, these health beliefs have spanned everything from magazines to TV and magazine ads (even for kids).
The confusing and mixed messages of the dieting era:
Growing up in the 80's and 90's, I was exposed to an entirely different set of beliefs than culture portrays now. The same would be true of our grandparents generation. There was always a belief about health, but that belief has shifted throughout the generations, bringing a world of confusion.
Currently, we exist in a tangled mess of two very large extremes—the beliefs created at the peak of diet culture in the '70s, '80s, and '90s that skinny was in and how you looked determined your worth to the 2000s when health shifted to body awareness, and strong was the new skinny.
I'm not saying what message is true or if any are, but rather proving that regardless, we've all been shaped by these cultural ideas. There is no escaping them. If you fail to change them, they will become your beliefs.
In this podcast, I discuss generational beliefs about health and the trauma they have caused. I also show you how to let go of these unhealthy beliefs and establish new (and true) beliefs that will change your health and your health legacy.
Listen to today's episode to learn more: https://thelivingwell.com/342.
Listen To The Rest Of The Health School Episodes: https://thelivingwell.com/health-school
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