12 Holiday Party Hacks

The season is about fun and being with people.  Don’t sabotage your health and weight goals.  Pick 3-5 hacks that work for you.  Results are about taking action.iphone4s 1685

  1. Eat before you go. Don’t go hungry.
  2. Tell your party mate what your plan is for the night.
  3. Be well hydrated before going to the party and continue drinking water throughout the night.
  4. Decide how many drinks you’re going to have. Be honest with yourself.  If you’re going to have 3 say it.  It’s better to say the truth than to feel bad because you said 1 and had more.
  5. Plan your breakfast and lunch and your breakfast for the next day. Have a plan! Fail to plan, plan to fail.
  6. Exercise before you go. Endorphin’s do wonderful things for our choices in life.
  7. Survey the buffet before you put food on your plate.
  8. Use a small plate and break the buffet down into courses; salad, entrée & dessert.
  9. If it ain’t good don’t eat it.
  10. Eat off a plate as much as possible.
  11. If you have many parties these next 2 weeks. Pick and choose which ones you will eat and drink more at.  Not all parties or crowds are the same.
  12. Go late and or leave early

I’ve included a link to a Forbes article that supports my hacks and list some others. One great suggestion is staying away from the fried foods.  This is a tough season, so have an intention and be kind to yourself regardless of your choices.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2015/12/14/avoiding-and-preventing-winter-holiday-weight-gain/#4935165966ef

 

I love to Run

sneakersWhy do I love to running? All I need is a good pair of sneakers and off I can go regardless of where I am. The sport makes me feel alive.

When one does something she/he loves it makes them feel empowered. When we feel empowered we can overcome obstacles. When I am training for a race be it a 10K, ½ marathon or marathon, I have to respect the training. By respecting the training, I’ve learned how to create other disciplines in my life that weren’t there before an example is keeping a food journal. How often would I start and stop keeping a food journal, 100 times… As a runner there is no stopping. The question becomes when am I going out for my next run. Even if I haven’t run for a while the next run is always on my mind and before l know it I have my sneakers on.

endorphins and that helps us manage stress. More importantly, when life felt as if it was spinning out of control running was something I could control. I didn’t have time for an hour long run, but 20 minutes, 15 minutes, and even a 10 minute run gave me a positive sense of control in my life. It cleared my thoughts. The length of the run wasn’t important it was the act of running, lifting 1 leg and then the other, one step at a time. The shortest runs provided amazing benefits. I could cry or be angry on a run. It created space for my feelings that I had repressed. As a runner it provided the emotional release I so desperately needed in order to function as a care taker, a wife, a sister, a friend and still have a piece of Shari (me).

I love to run because I can. What is it you love to do? Do it!

5 Tricks to a Happy Halloween

Think about it, Halloween kicks off 8 months of holidays that are celebrated by candy.  “The candy man makes everything he bakes satisfying and delicious,” brilliantly written by Anthony Newley & Leslie Briscusse. It is and sometimes to delicious.  If you’re anything like me, I can over indulge on the rich, dark, chocolate, either with or without a crunchy gooey filling.  Many Halloweens, I’ve bought candy in advance since the stores are well stocked, with the best of intentions of not opening up a bag of bite size scumptiousness.  I tell myself that I want to have the best treats for the trick or treaters.  You know what happens? I eat it! Every time!  I have to go out and purchase more.  It’s a bit humbling that I like candy that much that it sabotages my healthy life style choices.

These are my 5 tricks for being prepared to get through Halloween

  • Buy your candy on the last day or the night before.  The stores always have something left.  It avoids a binge.  And binges sometimes don’t end because the Halloween is over.  1 never knows when it will stop.
  • Don’t buy candy that you like. It’s not for you anyway.  It’s for the trick or treaters.
  • You can also give out coins, stickers, pens or crayons. The kids are going to have so much candy give them something that’s fun & different.
  • If you want to have some, plan on it and the amount. Remember on Seinfeld, when George ate his candy bar on a plate with a knife and fork.  Eating mindfully leads to being more satisfied.
  • Pass on the candy. Plan something else that you like to eat.  I slice up a banana and mix a 3 TBS., of cocoa powder with some milk and make a thin paste.  I dip the banana slices in and freeze them. Yum.

There are many ways to celebrate Halloween without it sabotaging your focus on living a healthy lifestyle. It’s a time to make my life sweet by being creative and of service to the trick or treaters.  It makes me feel satisfied and happy much longer than a candy bar ever did.  I decorate my apartment and my apartment door. This year I’m going for a Frankenstein look.

 

Think Big

 

I’ve been thinking about stress management and what are the ways I lower my stress. Here’s my list of the top 7 important ones. The list will change. Everything changes and being open and accepting it makes it easy to adapt when need be and it lowers stress.

Here’s my Top 7 Priorities:

1. Eat healthy! Because it makes me feel better and have more energy. Moderation is important as well as not being deprived. When I eat well, I live well and feel well. For me it starts with eating healthy. I don’t have aches and pains because of the food I eat either physically or mentally. This allows me to have the capacity for more love for myself and others.

2: Stress management! I take time to journal everyday in the morning and at night.  In the morning I write 5 gratitude, 5 affirmations, a letter to my future self and a letter from my future self to me.  I allow about 1/2 hour to do this.  At night, I journal again anything that bothered me during the day and what I accomplished. The evening writing takes about 15 minutes.  With the mental chatter on paper and out of my head, I can fall asleep much easier and stay asleep.  Insomnia comes in 2 forms, falling a sleep and staying a sleep.  Journaling helps with both of these.  It’s important to quiet the monkey mind.  The brain switches gears and does the job of sleeping, dreaming healing the body. Also, the negative voices become positive voices and I am able to see another solution to the problem.

3: Working out / Moving More! It doesn’t matter so much what I do as long as I do it. I’ve also learned that it takes about 15 minutes for the body to get warmed up and added blood circulation makes me feel better I want to be happy. The release of endorphins makes me happy. For me that’s the name of the game. Plus a lot of what I do in the form of exercise feels like playing. I have a playful spirit. I always want to go out and play. If you want to make a play date to go for a walk, ride a bike, go for a run, go out dancing, play running bases, I’m your girl.

4: Family! I love mine and enjoy spending time with them. My parents taught us to go out of your way for family and friends and to have a generous spirit.

5: Seeing More Possibilities (SMP)! Because I take good care of myself, I am able to be fully present for my business, family and friends.  It takes a lot of work, energy, faith and networking to start a new business. But it’s been my dream to work for myself as a life coach. I believe in living our dreams and I am excited to share this one with you. 

6: Friends! It was hard not include friends with family since most of my friends are like family. I separated it out because I’ve had to learn that SMP comes before socializing with my friends. It’s been fun working part time and having the freedom to play during the day, but my focus has shifted.

7: Chores! It has always been last on my list. There’s always time to do the laundry, clean the bathroom, go grocery shopping.

Think Big By: Jim Rennert
Think Big
By: Jim Rennert

The beauty of knowing where I stand with my priorities is that it keeps my life in balance. It helps me to practice self-love and kindness. Those 2 attributes help me to be happy, grounded and available for my family, friends, clients.  I also get to Think Big.

I challenge you to write out a list of your top priorities and why. I wonder what you’ll learn about yourself.  Please feel free to share them with me in the comments section.

 

Best Day Ever!

My how the years come and go so quickly!?  Have you had the feeling after an outing with family, friends or yourself that this was the Best Day Ever (BDE)!? As one day turns into a week, a week into a month and a month into a year, these days become memories.  They hide out in the deep recesses of your mind.  You know it was a good day, but… After having one of these kinds of days it occurred to me to keep a BDE list so they wouldn’t get lost in recesses of my mind.  I want to be able to recall on them when I need inspiration or a new focal point. One’s life is a piece of fabric and our experiences are the embroidery.  There are no 2 pieces.  Each year you get a new piece of fabric.

Kibbutz Sde Boker Nature Reserve
Kibbutz Sde Boker Nature Reserve

Life is broken down into threads and stitches.  You have your favorite colors & stitches.  You might have 1, 2, 3, 4 or more threads or stitches.  There are no rules.  The 1st thread is used for the compilation of days that are unique to each and every one of us.  Those are the days that make you You. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, vacations, milestone, anything that is an important event’s in one’s life.  These form the major images in your embroidery of life.  Then there are the global ones that we all share with each other, religious, national and hallmark holiday.  Now, just because these are special days in our year, it doesn’t make it a BDE.  We’ve all had disappointments on these days that too becomes part of the embroidery.  Then there are the Best Days Ever.  These can be the unique days, the global days, or days that surprise you when your joy is emanating off your skin like steam rising from hot spring.

I keep a gratitude / affirmation / prayer journal and write 5 of each every day.  In a few moments, I reset my mood, get a boost of positive energy & am focused for the day.  After my morning writing on Saturday, Sept 2, 2017, I woke up, thinking of the day before, my unique day that I share with millions of people, my birthday.  It was a BDE experience.  I was with my husband, Joel Perlman, & dear friends, Lisa Fane and Maggie Lally.  We went to Coney Island.  It wasn’t the one thing that we did as much as the joy and laughter that we did it with.  As I am in the latter half of my life, I am thrilled to access untainted childlike joy from simple pleasures.  We laughed! We rode rides that made us scream.  We ate yummy Mexican street food from Dona Zita.  We got to the boardwalk as the fireworks started.  Coney Island puts on a goooood fireworks show.  It dawned on me that during the year I lose the details of a BDE.

So what made this night a BDE experience?  It isn’t the what, but the how.  It’s the excitement, joy and love that I felt during and after the night.  There isn’t a recipe for BDEs. They are an organic event.  My father, Bill Krivit, was a wise man.  He would say you’re lucky if you can count your good friends on 1 hand.  I’m going to reframe that and say you’re lucky if you can count on 1 hand your BDEs each year.  My year started on my birthday Sept. 1st.  When will yours start?  Keep a list of your Best Days Ever.  When you need some inspiration take it out and meditate on the experience.

New Cookbook ~ Giada’s Feel Good Food

Giada smallAs I was doing my morning journaling yesterday, I realized that I’ve been stepping up to the plate with some big challenges and it was time to reward myself. Rewards used to be small things like manicures, but I’ve been enjoying giving myself manicures that include nail art. It has become a new hobby. And I’ve enjoyed the creativity that comes from doing it.

Barnes and Noble mailed me 20% discount cards, since I am a member. It’s great when they come in the mail. I love getting mail that isn’t a bill or a solicitation. There’s always a book on my wish list and who doesn’t like to save money. I’ve been looking at Giada’s Feel Good Food cookbook by Giada de Laurentiis, for some time and kept putting off purchasing it. Today is the day.

When I got home, I spent time with the cookbook. It lays out a month of recipes. Giada shares some tips and tricks that she does to keep herself looking and feeling great. One tip/trick is that she does during her morning routine is dip her face in ice water to help reduce swelling from sleeping at night. It supposed to help make your eyes bright and reduce the bags that formed during sleep.

There are some recipes that I was attracted to right away like Orange-Scented Almond and Olive Oil Muffins. I love muffins and always enjoy baking them and having different recipes to choose from keeps me from being bored. There are some dishes that are out of my comfort zone like Quinoa, Roasted Eggplant. Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables, but I have never cooked it and have been leery of it. I remember my dad making eggplant parmesan and it was an ALL day process from slicing the eggplant, salting it and pressing it between 2 plates with the iron on it. This was supposed to draw out the bitterness. It’s crazy to be afraid to try something new in kitchen, right?! The worst thing that can happen is it comes out bad and I throw it away. But our fears are real. I do plan on making it and will blog about it. Plus I make quinoa all the time. Love it. It’s time to challenge myself more in the kitchen. The cookbook has a lot of gluten free recipes and some I will have to adapt since I’m gluten free. It won’t be a challenge to swap out one flour for another or gluten free pasta, grain, or bread. I’m grateful that my supermarkets carry a large selection of gluten free products.

When I bake, I often substitute sugar for other options that are on the low glycemic level like agave, honey and maple syrup. These golden liquid sweeteners don’t spike my blood sugar like refined sugars do. The more even one’s blood sugar is the less food cravings one has. The first receipe that I’m planning on baking the chocolate blueberry brownies. Yum!

 

 

 

A Combination for Success

“Some peruse happiness ~ others create it.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I haven’t been running. It’s hard to believe since I love it so. What’s stopping me? Well, I have had several dental surgeries that have prevented me from running.  The impact is painful and the jaw bone needs to heal. Since the mojo hasn’t been flowing in the direction of running, I’ve been swimming instead. Its low impact and is giving my body a chance to heal from surgeries and use my muscles in a new way.

The water has always been a favorite place for me since I was a little girl. When I was a child, we always went to the beach or the town pool. We would play in the water for hours. Do you remember Marco Polo? It was so much fun. We also used to go water skiing. I grew up across the street from the water canals, of the Jones Beach inlet, in Bellmore, LI. My brother’s friends had boats and somehow or another my dad and I tagged along and went water skiing. Afterwards, we would go clamming in the flats and come home and have clams on the half shell. Wow, I hadn’t thought about that in years. Happy times!!

Anyway, I started taking swimming lessons, this spring, to learn the proper swim stroke techniques and how to breathe correctly. It’s been fabulous getting in the pool. The thing that I find so wonderful about swimming is that it has the component of play to it and it’s a whole body workout. You need to use your legs & gluts for kicking, makes the butt nice and round. From using my arms and shoulders, my upper body feels more open and expansive when I finish. It feels like I have more room to breathe. Let’s not forget that the core is also being used. Anyway I can get a core workout without doing sit ups is right up my alley.

I’m a little concerned about the chlorine changing my hair color since I get highlights. In order to protect my hair, I make a blend of olive and coconut oil. I put it on my hair before I put on my bathing cap. It’s a little barrier against the chlorine. My theory is that oil and water don’t mix and both oils are good for your hair.

My favorite time and place to swim is after a run when we go to the beach. My body cools down and the salt soothes my muscles. Summer is coming and we’ll be heading to the Jersey Shore. I’m also hoping to visit family in Florida as well. The swimming is much better in blue waters of the Southern Atlantic Ocean. The temperature is just right for running into the ocean. The Northern Atlantic Ocean, takes a bit of getting used to before I can take the plunge.

At the end of my weekly swim, I feel stronger and happier. Those feelings are a combination for a success.

Sunrise Over Melbourne Beach, Fl
Sunrise Over Melbourne Beach, Fl

 

 

I remember Rozy

Mom with cake Today, April 30, 2017, is my mother, Rosalind Krivit’s yahrzeit. She passed away in 2010. I am still getting used to her not being here and not being able to share my life with her.

Death is hard for those that are left behind. I’m sad and I miss her so much that my heart aches. There are tears behind my big blue eyes. It feels as if they are running down my insides. I am managing these overwhelming feelings by having an inner dialogue with my inner self. It’s important to create space to hear that part of me that misses her mommy. I long to go over to her apartment and cook together, play cards or go down to the lower east side of Manhattan to Economy Candy, so Rosalind can stock up on hard sucking candies. She would purchase 6 months worth of candy at a time. There are a 101 things I long to do with my mother. The more I allow myself to feel my feelings I can cope with the loss. It’s when I deny my truth that I feel depressed. At the same time I need to remember the gifts she gave both me and my brother, Ira. There were so many.

There is one story I want to share with you. It’s about her open heart open house philosophy. In February, 1953, my mother was having a couple over to her apartment for a Saturday night dinner. Her friend ( I wish I remembered her name – oh well), called a few hours before she was to arrive with her boyfriend and asked if she could bring a friend to dinner, his name was Bill Krivit. My mother, like her mother Ida Sribnick said “of course there’s always room for 1 more at the table.”

The 4 of them ate, drank and laughed the night away. When Bill left with the other couple he exclaimed, “I’m going to marry that girl.” They were married on June 23, 1953, 5 months after they met.

My parents always loved to be with family and friends. The more the merrier. People stopped by the house all the time. Family would come for a visit and it turned into weekend guests. It didn’t matter if they lived several towns away or several states away. We always had sleep overs. Ira had a trundle bed and the children would sleep head to toe. It was a fun happy home to grow up in.

The family is much smaller and there aren’t as many simhkes (parties) as there used to be. It’s ok. I have to accept life on life’s terms. Tonight I’ll honor my mother by being happy and spending time with my brother & husband, Joel.

“Healing comes from letting there be room for all of “this” to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

~ Pema Chodron

 

Shape Diva Dash 2014

Diva Dash Girls
Diva Dash Girls

OMG, rain on the morning of the Diva Dash! For those that don’t know me my standard comment about rain and running is Not. Some people love running in the rain, I’d rather roll over and go back to sleep. I can always run later or at the gym. Do YOU want to get up and go out in the rain and cold and get soaked… Sure, in 90 degree weather it’s refreshing. On a chilly fall morning ~ not this Diva. Since I was part of a group, I had to show up. This is one of the times that having running buddies to race with motivated me to show up and keep my commitment. I wouldn’t disappointment them or myself.

Rainy Running Outfit: It’s important to remember that most runners body temperature goes up about 20 degrees, once the body has warmed up. There is an element of trial and error for one’s individual needs. I don’t like getting wet and sometimes I run with my glasses instead of contacts. On this morning I was wearing my glasses.

Special Clothes for this race:

Cap to protect my glasses from the rain drops and keep my head warm. Long sleeve wicking shirt under my T-shirt for warmth and a dry wicking layer against my body. Waterproof jacket to protect against wind and rain. I can always tie it around my waist when I get warm. Some folks don’t like things around their waist when they run. I don’t mind. It’s a personal choice.

By the time we got to Tuxedo Park, the rain was down to a mist. To say I was happy about this was an understatement. We never got soaking wet.

Tuxedo FoliageThis is the 2nd year that I am participating in the race. It’s so much fun. The course was a little harder, but remember we are strong divas. Each obstacle had 2 choices, advance and beginner level. One obstacle that I saw my balance and fear improve was walking over the seesaw. The athlete needs to walk over a plank like the seesaws we played on as a child. One side is up and the other is down. I have a fear of falling from being a teenage. Long story short, is that I slipped and fell doing a cartwheel and broke my front teeth. The fear show’s up every so often, but I push myself through it. This year on the seesaw, I didn’t use a spotter to help me on the decline. There were a few different kind of rope obstacle you have to climb over or across. One was an angled rope ladder up and a fire poll slide down. It was a challenge to be in the in-between-space of the rope and poll. I had to trust I wouldn’t fall.

The fall foliage was beautiful. The trees were almost peeking. The mist added a sense of softness to the colors. I’m so grateful that I didn’t roll over and go back to sleep. I would have missed all the fun, the feeling of accomplishment and physical strength.