The Worst Picture Of Me. Ever.

My hubby said "Katie, I think you need more fiber".  

Did the title catch your attention? I decided to publicize my worst picture ever because of the story that goes with this picture. Why do I look like this? I completed several rounds of deadlifts, rope climbs, bear crawls, and running with sandbags on my back. Evidently this is my "deadlift" face. Completing this workout with the best partner I could imagine (my hubby) and for such a wonderful cause makes this one of my favorite pictures of all time.

This picture was taken at my Crossfit gym's Operation Justice Fundraiser. In this partner workout, we had to do many different movements. It was the first time I've participated in an athletic event since high school (unless Sunday co-ed softball counts). It was the first time I've ever run with sandbags on my back. It was the first time I've been in a setting where people were watching me workout. It's the first time I've had tons of people cheering me on. The best thing about this day was the man it was honoring. For a great hero story, check out this article from WHO TV13. 

Dr. Lance says, "When you can no longer breathe, just shrug your shoulders." Oh no!

The moral of the story: If you aren't good at something, still go for it. Push through your toughest moments to accomplish something you never thought you could do. And love the heroes in our country. They understand the importance of life and making the most of it. 

My Sunday Mantra

My mantra for eating healthy is "If you fail to plan, plan to fail". It is completely worth my time to prepare breakfasts and vegetables on Sunday afternoons instead of trying to find something healthy to eat before we all leave the house in the morning. 

Here are some suggestions for planning your weekly meals. 

First, find a planner for your dinners. I like this one that I've shared before in another blog post. Plan all of your meals around vegetables and proteins, and then throw in some fresh fruit and/or grains if that is part of your wellness plan. 

• I always plan for at least one slow-cooker meal each week. Usually it's a whole chicken with whatever veggies we have in the house like carrots, sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, etc. 
• We have Mexican a lot, so one meal is usually spiced up. It's a great way to use leftover meat too. Meat + Salsa = Easy & Yummy dinner!
• I try to find a new recipe each week. I am currently working my way through Everyday Paleo. Each time I try a recipe, I put a quick post-it note in there with tips for the next time I make it. 

Second, plan your breakfasts. Here's what I prepare on Sunday afternoons:

• Sweet potatoes with grilled chicken or sausage or bacon for post-workout breakfasts. I put 1/3 of a sweet potato in each container and top it with sliced chicken, a few slices of bacon, or a small sausage patty. 
• Scrambled Eggs--one dozen eggs usually gets us through about two mornings of breakfast. I heat up some coconut oil in a skillet, crack the eggs directly into the pan, and then scramble with a fork. Yum! 
• Extra meat--I try to fix 1-2lbs of bacon and/or sausage to have for the week. 

Third (and the biggest struggle for me) are lunches. Usually I send leftovers with Dr. Wes and Ben, but that still leaves lunch for Will and me. 

• Prepare veggies and fruit on Sundays. I like to have "quick" and mess-free fruit for lunches for Ben. Often it's grapes, strawberries, or blueberries. Sometimes I have to thaw out a bag of organic fruit to send, but our household much prefers fresh fruit. And bananas. Oh my goodness--we eat a ton of bananas in this house. 
• We don't eat a lot of raw veggies (except in salad) and it's worth my time to steam broccoli  carrots, and green beans on Sundays. 

Find a day or night that works for you, and see if spending a few hours in the kitchen can save you time during the week. I bet you'll find that you are preparing healthier meals and eating out less. It saves us time, money, and makes a big difference in our family's health! 

I'd love to hear your tips too! 

--Katie

Social Media Wellness

I love technology. I was the ultimate computer geek in high school and earned the computer department award my senior year. I got teased about my computer skills but then begged to solve everyone's computer problems. Now I spend most of my time online in social media forums. 

What I like most about being online is the wealth of information that is available in an instant. It's important to know which sources are reliable and which ones are garbage, but for the most part I've found some pretty awesome sites for health and wellness information. 

Here are some social media wellness tips:

Facebook

Follow the sites that fit your lifestyle, or a lifestyle you desire. For example, I follow a Paleo diet so I "Like" paleo sites and products. I also follow businesses that promote exercise (Crossfit) and overall wellness. And of course, I follow countless awesome chiropractors because they know how to balance it all together. I avoid following businesses that sell cupcakes and candy. That would be dangerous.

Pinterest

I love Pinterest. I am one of those people who pins hundreds of things and actually accomplishes most of them. Here's my favorite tip: Create two separate boards for food related pins. One of mine is called "Fun Food" which I pin anything that sounds yummy but not Paleo/Primal, and one board called "Paleo/Primal" for healthy foods. I love having these food separated because when I am meal-planning for the week, I only look at the Primal/Paleo board for ideas and avoid being tempted by foods with grains/dairy. Most of the "Fun Food" ones are still healthy but I save these for attending pot lucks and holiday meals. I also have a board for Fitness & Health where I pin quick, at-home workouts. The workouts have all been great so far!

Check out my personal Pinterest page for ideas!

When you are searching for ideas or recipes, try searching for boards instead of just pins. For example, if I am looking for a new workout, I search for "Crossfit workout" boards and can usually find lots of great boards to start following too. 

Blogs

There are lots of great blogs out there. Like Facebook, I search for keywords that suit my lifestyle. I google "Gluten Free Recipes Blog" and can find lots of great blogs by people who have put a lot of effort into creating a great, free resource for others. 

Want a good place to start? Try these!

Waukee Wellness Facebook

Waukee Wellness Pinterest

Waukee Wellness Website

Meal Planning Sheet and the Nyberg Meal Plan

Want to eat healthy this week? Plan Ahead or Plan to Fail. 

Before the school year started, I found this lovely weekly meal planner via Pinterest. I really like the format because I plan four meals for the week but it doesn't matter which night we eat them. It also includes a place for the ingredients we need to buy from the store which I love. I actually take this entire page with me when I go grocery shopping. The Nyberg's typically eat out at least twice a week with our favorite being Panchero's.  

(Find PDF Dowload Here)

What's on the Nyberg's Meal Planning Sheet this week:

1. Beef Stew with Squash from Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso (we subbed carnival squash for acorn squash, and added carrots.)

2. Pork Chops with Apples: I simply brown pork chops (in skillet) on each side in coconut oil, transfer to a 9x13 pan, add sliced apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Smells awesome and tastes even better!

3. Chili: tomato sauce (without high fructose corn syrup!), chili powder, sausage/hamburger/onion, and chili beans for the men in my house. I like to add more veggies to my chili in place of the beans. Wes and my boys think all chili needs to have beans, but it doesn't fit with my paleo meals. 

4. Ben's Chicken: See my previous post for this recipe. We love it!! 

Besides the beans in the chili, we have prepared a paleo meal plan where everything is fresh, fairly local, delicious and healthy. AND FAST!!! 

And for fun, all of the groceries to make these meals (except the spices which I already had in the pantry) was well under $100. I would imagine it was closer to $50 because I also bought a lot of items for lunch & breakfast (eggs, meats, sweet potatoes, etc.) 

I'd love to know what you are eating this week or if you tried any of these recipes!

Enjoy!

--Katie

Why Your Medical Doctor Doesn't Talk About Nutrition

Have you ever wondered why your routine medical visits don't include information about what you should be eating? It isn't because your doctor doesn't think nutrition is important, it is likely because they don't know what to be advising you on. 

For years, doctors told my father was told that he should lose weight to combat cholesterol problems and to prevent heart attacks. He tried lots of "fad" diets, and had some success, but the weight always came back. (Until he completed 8 Weeks to Wellness--that's another post!) Anyway, I remember he would try walking and eating "better", but without long term success. 

Those doctors never told him how to eat. His doctors never mentioned balancing nutrition, exercise, stress, and nervous system health like chiropractors tell their patients. They never taught him how to balance protein, carbohydrates (the good kind!), and fats (the healthy ones!) 

So what makes chiropractors qualified to help patients with their eating habits? Check out this chart below. The data is from Michael Gerber's book, The E-Myth Nutirtionist. 

So why do chiropractors take the time to teach their patients about nutrition? Because they care. They know that nutrition, along with chiropractic care and functional movements (exercise), will lead to a better quality of life for their patients. 

Living the best quality of life is the most important thing anyone can do. And your chiropractor wants to help you. 

--Katie

If you’re not working towards health, you’re regressing…

I am always inspired at church but this past week, Pastor Mike Householder, said something that really resonated with me spiritually, but also professionally as well. He mentioned that you cannot stay still with your faith, you’re either growing towards or you’re regressing. You can’t stay in the middle. The same can be said for your health. If you are not doing things to help your health, then unfortunately you’re moving towards sickness and disease.  We’ve all heard and used the excuses;  I don’t have time, eating healthy is too expensive, I have kids, I don’t know what to do, etc. I’ve used those too in the past but after being on both sides of the fence, being on the healthy side is so much better.

Our country is bombarded with ads and social pressures to worry about your symptoms. Here is the harsh reality, waiting till you “feel” something and expecting someone or something to make it better is wrong. You control your health, you are the one who does the healing and another harsh reality is that it takes time. Pain or symptoms are the last to show up, the first to go.

A great analogy I heard is symptoms are like FIRE, it’s in your face and all over and it’s all you focus on and you’ll do everything you can to get rid of it. You’ll eat well, get adjusted, stretch, and take care of yourself. But, after the pain is gone people typically stop doing all the healthy things that got them there, why? After the fire/symptoms are gone, then you need to REBUILD the home/body. This has nothing to do with symptoms. You need to make small and healthy changes on a continued basis to repair and improve your health.

Like Pastor Mike said, you need to grow daily with your spirituality, you need to grow daily with your health as well. Here are a few tips that are easy and effective; get adjusted- Your brain and spinal cord control EVERYTHING in your body, eat clean/whole food, exercise, work on your mental stress- read, pray, meditate, get massages, stay away from drugs.  In the next few articles, I’ll dive deeper into the specifics of things YOU can do to be healthy. If you need help, ask us. Our goal and purpose is to help you become healthy.

Waiting Rooms & Sick Kids

I came across a Pinterest post the other day about waiting room games. I thought it was a fantastic post and it got me thinking about waiting rooms in general. I've posted before about what we do for our kids when they're sick, so today I'd like to post what it's like to take our kids to a chiropractor. 

First off, the waiting room at chiropractors' offices are generally full of healthy people with really good immune systems, so bring your child in to get adjusted when they aren't feeling well (and when they feel great too!). We always chuckle when people cancel their appointment because they are sick. Really?!?! The average wait time in our office is just a few minutes, so don't feel like you need to bring a list of activities to keep your kids busy while you're here. 

Second, feel free to share your child's symptoms with their doctor, but realize that they would be getting the same adjustment if you said nothing because the doctor will gently adjust the subluxation (where the nerve interference is). This will allow your child's body to heal itself. 

Third, you will not be given a prescription for drugs. Drugs cover the symptoms and actually hinder the body from healing itself. You might be given some instructions on how to help your child heal faster or feel more comfortable like allowing them to sleep after their adjustment, trying Vitamin C tablets to boost immunity, or warm broth for a sore throat. You will certainly be reminded that fevers are GOOD and allow the body to burn off the infection. (Be sure to monitor the fever.) 

Finally, the doctor will want to see your child again. New research is proving what we've known all along--regular chiropractic care will keep your child's body working at optimal levels and boost immunity!! (That research post is coming soon!) 

A typical visit to a chiropractor only lasts a few minutes from wait time to check out time. You will be equipped with practical information about natural healing for your child. And most importantly, your child will likely feel better faster, have a stronger immune system to prevent this illness again, and not be given drugs with harmful side effects. 

--Katie