For a long time, Olivia Bowser relied on exercise to manage her mental health.

Throughout college, and after moving to Los Angeles for her first job managing digital and e-commerce for a consumer packaged goods start-up, Bowser, 27, wrestled with anxiety, stress and feelings of loneliness. She tried to find a sense of calm and happiness by going to Pilates, Barry’s Bootcamp and SoulCycle six days a week.

It didn’t work.

“It wasn’t giving me what I really needed to be able to feel stronger mentally,” Bowser said. “I needed to focus on my mental well-being, versus mental well-being being a positive side effect of physical fitness.”

Looking for answers, Bowser started attending yoga classes at night, using a meditation app and Googling journal prompts. As she began to find relief through these practices, she had an idea. What if she could take what she loved about her fitness classes and focus on strengthening the mind?

“How could I create just as energizing and dynamic and interactive an experience that we get when we go into a SoulCycle studio and 40 people high-five us on their bikes? How could we take that and create an empowering experience around mental well-being?” she wondered.

Have we been doing self-care all wrong?

Seeing a need for a studio that focused on mental fitness, Bowser launched Liberate online in May 2020, offering classes led by herself, a certified meditation and mindfulness teacher and yoga instructor, and a team of four other certified instructors. The sessions combine mindful movement — usually about 10 minutes of yoga — with journaling, conversation and meditation. The cost of Liberate is structured like a gym membership: For $19 a month, members have access to live classes, held on Zoom twice a week, as well as an extensive on-demand library of prerecorded classes.

Melanie Prior, 29, started attending Liberate classes in May 2020. She’d moved back in with her parents at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and was working long hours at a public relations company.

“I was struggling with anxiety and just getting a handle on my mental health, while the world was falling apart and all the things got worse over that year,” Prior said. She began attending the live classes once a week; she liked knowing the class started at a specific time and that somebody was waiting for her to join.

“I also liked it because it was a format to find a good level of connection with other people, but it wasn’t like you were sitting in on someone’s therapy session or you had to really open your heart up. Everybody can share as much as they want,” Prior said. And the members often benefit from one another’s insights.

Now living in her own apartment in Boston with a new job, Prior thinks back to the dark, early days of the pandemic and how Liberate helped her move through the stress and anxiety.

“I found that, with Liberate, it was a way for me to do something that helped me build a community and a routine that still felt fun and not intimidating and very approachable. And I always got something out of it every week,” Prior said.

The story of Coa

Around the same time Bowser was launching Liberate, Emily Anhalt, 34, a clinical psychologist, and Alexa Meyer, 31, a product and marketing executive, teamed up to create Coa, a mental health gym that takes a therapist-led approach to everyday mental health.

The seeds for Coa were planted when Anhalt realized that most people don’t work on their mental and emotional health until things start falling apart. “And to me,” Anhalt said, “that’s a little like waiting until you have early signs of heart disease to start doing cardio.” She wanted to reframe the idea of focusing on mental health as “a more proactive thing that we do to maintain wellness.”

In 2016, Anhalt began doing research, interviewing 100 psychologists and 100 entrepreneurs to come up with the seven things emotionally healthy people are working on all the time, which she called the seven traits of emotional fitness: self-awareness, empathy, curiosity, mindfulness, playfulness, resilience and communication. She created a curriculum around these traits with the goal of giving people a way to strengthen their minds, just like they’d lift weights to strengthen their bodies.

Democracy Dies in Darknessnullhttps://5fdde2f737e3546da22cb80a2394981a.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.htmlWellness

What is an ‘emotional push-up’? Exploring the concept of mental health gyms.

By Hilary AchauerOctober 19, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. EDT

For a long time, Olivia Bowser relied on exercise to manage her mental health.

Throughout college, and after moving to Los Angeles for her first job managing digital and e-commerce for a consumer packaged goods start-up, Bowser, 27, wrestled with anxiety, stress and feelings of loneliness. She tried to find a sense of calm and happiness by going to Pilates, Barry’s Bootcamp and SoulCycle six days a week.

Tips for starting and getting the most out of therapy

It didn’t work.

“It wasn’t giving me what I really needed to be able to feel stronger mentally,” Bowser said. “I needed to focus on my mental well-being, versus mental well-being being a positive side effect of physical fitness.”

Looking for answers, Bowser started attending yoga classes at night, using a meditation app and Googling journal prompts. As she began to find relief through these practices, she had an idea. What if she could take what she loved about her fitness classes and focus on strengthening the mind?

“How could I create just as energizing and dynamic and interactive an experience that we get when we go into a SoulCycle studio and 40 people high-five us on their bikes? How could we take that and create an empowering experience around mental well-being?” she wondered.

Have we been doing self-care all wrong?

Seeing a need for a studio that focused on mental fitness, Bowser launched Liberate online in May 2020, offering classes led by herself, a certified meditation and mindfulness teacher and yoga instructor, and a team of four other certified instructors. The sessions combine mindful movement — usually about 10 minutes of yoga — with journaling, conversation and meditation. The cost of Liberate is structured like a gym membership: For $19 a month, members have access to live classes, held on Zoom twice a week, as well as an extensive on-demand library of prerecorded classes.

The Liberate

Melanie Prior, 29, started attending Liberate classes in May 2020. She’d moved back in with her parents at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and was working long hours at a public relations company.

“I was struggling with anxiety and just getting a handle on my mental health, while the world was falling apart and all the things got worse over that year,” Prior said. She began attending the live classes once a week; she liked knowing the class started at a specific time and that somebody was waiting for her to join.

“I also liked it because it was a format to find a good level of connection with other people, but it wasn’t like you were sitting in on someone’s therapy session or you had to really open your heart up. Everybody can share as much as they want,” Prior said. And the members often benefit from one another’s insights.

You don’t like violence but want to watch ‘Squid Game.’ These tips can help.

Now living in her own apartment in Boston with a new job, Prior thinks back to the dark, early days of the pandemic and how Liberate helped her move through the stress and anxiety.

“I found that, with Liberate, it was a way for me to do something that helped me build a community and a routine that still felt fun and not intimidating and very approachable. And I always got something out of it every week,” Prior said.

The story of Coa

Around the same time Bowser was launching Liberate, Emily Anhalt, 34, a clinical psychologist, and Alexa Meyer, 31, a product and marketing executive, teamed up to create Coa, a mental health gym that takes a therapist-led approach to everyday mental health.

The seeds for Coa were planted when Anhalt realized that most people don’t work on their mental and emotional health until things start falling apart. “And to me,” Anhalt said, “that’s a little like waiting until you have early signs of heart disease to start doing cardio.” She wanted to reframe the idea of focusing on mental health as “a more proactive thing that we do to maintain wellness.”

In 2016, Anhalt began doing research, interviewing 100 psychologists and 100 entrepreneurs to come up with the seven things emotionally healthy people are working on all the time, which she called the seven traits of emotional fitness: self-awareness, empathy, curiosity, mindfulness, playfulness, resilience and communication. She created a curriculum around these traits with the goal of giving people a way to strengthen their minds, just like they’d lift weights to strengthen their bodies.

Around 2018, Anhalt met Meyer, her co-founder, who’d had a frustrating therapy experience and was troubled by the stigma still attached to the process. Meyer began thinking about creating a better therapy experience because like Bowser, she saw so many different ways for people to work on their physical health, but no equivalent for mental health.

The two created in-person mental health popups around the United States and Canada, where people were matched with an experienced therapist for one-on-one sessions, and then took a class with Anhalt about emotional fitness.

They set up a space where people could hang out after the class and noticed that the attendees would linger for hours after their session was over. When asked why, the class members said it was because they knew everyone was there for the same reason, and it felt like a safe space to build community.

Positive affirmations don’t work (here are three things that do)

Positive affirmations can be an incredibly powerful tool to retrain the brain, but they can also majorly backfire. Looking in the mirror and saying, “I am strong, I am powerful” on a morning when I feel anything but strong or powerful makes my brain smirk and call bullsh*t. Because affirmations speak to the conscious mind, if your subconscious holds a different set of beliefs, it can set off an internal war—and when that happens, my brain can get mean: “Keep telling yourself that, Melissa, but we both know it’s not true.”

The good news is that I’ve discovered three alternatives to positive affirmations that work with the brain, not against, and provide a gentler and far more effective way to shift your subconscious thought patterns.

Interrogative Self-Talk

Declarative self-talk is what we typically think of when someone says “affirmation.” Think, “I am going to ace this interview” or “today I will be happy.” But if your subconscious brain is worried about the interview or doesn’t feel particularly happy, those declarations won’t hold much weight.

Interrogative self-talk is a fancy term for “make it a question.” Similar to Byron Katie’s practice called The Work, turning the declaration into a question helps prime the brain to question your own stories and look for evidence to support the positive outcome you want to see.

Using this technique, you’d ask yourself, “Can I be good at interviews? When have I been good in an interview?” Now, your brain is thinking about all of the ways you’ve been great at interviews, from arriving early to researching the company ahead of time to asking great follow-up questions. And even if there is just one piece of evidence to support you can be good,  that completely debunks the stressful thought, “I’m terrible at interviews.” Is that true? Can you absolutely know that it’s true? Not if you can think of even one exception.

For the second one, you might ask, “How have I been happy in the past? What kinds of things have brought me joy?” Now you’re thinking, “Oh, using the fresh Sharpie, actually sitting down for lunch, and making time to read before bed makes me happy, let’s build some of those things in.”  Or maybe you ask, “How could I be happy today?” Even if it’s a hard day, your brain is now primed to look for one sliver of light, and creating that can be a powerful and momentous experience.

Women Fitness Magazine The Fad that Fits: Find the Right Nutrition Plan for Your Body : Diet culture. This cringe-worthy term invades our social feeds, usually as a negative for its reputation of assigning value to body size. Assuming “skinnier” is “healthier” undermines the beautiful whole of our amazing human figures—not to mention the many important…

The Fad that Fits: Find the Right Nutrition Plan for Your Body

An easy to cook recipe for delicious winter comfort food, Easy gluten free Shepherds Pie, can easily be paleo or Whole 30 too.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Total Carbs: 32 g Protein: 20 g Servings: 6 g

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ground lamb, or beef , 450g
• 1 tbsp oil
• 3 large carrots , medium dice
• 1 large onion , chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp Gluten Free Worcestershire sauce , omit for paleo/W30
• 2 cups gluten free beef stock , 500ml
• 4 medium potatoes , peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 tbsp butter , or vegan margarine for dairy-free, it’s not paleo)
• 2 tbsp arrowroot powder , or cornstarch if not paleo
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese – , optional
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Scroll up to watch the recipe video!
2. For Whole30 – omit the butter in the potatoes and do not add cheese, no Worcestershire sauce either. For Paleo omit the Worcestershire sauce and add butter and cheese if that works for you.
3. Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion and carrots and saute for a 3 – 4 minutes.
4. Add the ground lamb or ground beef and brown over a medium heat, stirring all the time, spoon off excess fat if necessary.
5. Add the tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce then cook for a few more minutes. Add the beef stock, bring to a simmer, then cover pan and cook for about 20 minutes.

FROM UNBOUNDWELLNESS.COM

30 DAY AUTOIMMUNE PROTOCOL 

 diet plan & guide

What’s Inside…

• 30 Days of AIP Meal Plans & Lifestyle GuidesTake the guess work out of meal planning for 30 days, and follow along with daily lifestyle guides.
• 30 days of Shopping Lists & Meal Prep GuidesSave time with prepared shopping lists and meal prep guides that help you save hours in the kitchen!
• Full Guide to Autoimmunity & the AIP dietLearn the foundations of autoimmunity, a full guide to the AIP diet, reintroductions, and more.
• Unbound Wellness RecipesTried and true reader favorites plus exclusive, never before seen recipes for easy one pan meals, breakfasts, treats, and more!

GET THE GUIDE NOW

This is perfect for you if…

• You want to embrace an AIP diet & lifestyle, but it’s so overwhelming!This guide breaks it all down to make it easy to follow and stick to.
• You’ve been dabbling in healing foods, but need a serious reset and some new ideas.You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. Stop spinning your wheels, and get straight answers.
• You’re busy and want a done for you solution to help make it easy. This guide does all of the hard work for you! From making a meal plan, to writing a shopping list, this guide has you covered for six whole weeks!
• You struggle with autoimmunity, bloating, inflammation, and more. You’re ready to see real results and start feeling amazing!Here are just a few people who have seen those results…

What People Are Saying…

I have tried many AIP plans for years and bought books but have found them overly complicated -and with the often crippling fatigue that comes with my lupus and Hashimoto’s I would often find myself overwhelmed and already tired from just looking at the recipes! [This Guide] was super easy to follow and didn’t feel intimidating to me at all. I was able to make some great meals for me and my (non AIP) hubby throughout the month following this reset. Favorite meal was the taco bowls and plantain chips!… One pan salmon close second! 

Caroline B.

I was put on AIP by my functional practitioner almost 2 years ago and I remember being completely overwhelmed. All of the information was in a 2 inch thick booklet and I felt like I always had questions for her. After Autoimmune Makeover, I am blown away by how concise and easy to follow it is! On top of that, the recipes and grocery lists are absolute game-changers. Anyone could (and should) follow this program if they’re needing a reset and an introduction to AIP. I’m so thankful for you, and all your dedication to this community!

Katie B.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! Not only is this a recipe book, it’s an entire how to guide for complete wellness! While following the autoimmune protocol sounds intimidating, Michelle breaks everything down and makes it so easy to follow. The best part is that making these changes WORKS. I never had any external signs of food intolerance, but I had lots of issues with indigestion, low energy, and worst of all BRAIN FOG. I am happy to report that I have seen huge improvements in all of these areas by following Michelle’s guidelines. My focus and energy are so much better I don’t even miss coffee! Thank you! 

Rebecca P.

A word from the author…

I’m Michelle Hoover! I’m a nutritional therapy practitioner, blogger, recipe developer and author, and I get what it’s like to have an autoimmune disease. I get what it’s like to feel sick, exhausted, confused, and hopeless. But I also get what it takes to makeover your life and feel amazing!

This e-book is exactly what I needed when I was that overwhelmed 17 year old girl who just got a Hashimoto’s diagnosis. It walks you through the steps you need to take to makeover your diet and lifestyle, and start to feel like yourself again.

Stop feeling confused, stop feeling stuck, stop feeling overwhelmed, and get finally clarity with the 30 Day Autoimmune Protocol Guide!

 Digital Bonuses

Bonus 2 Week Meal Plan

5 Bonus AIP Breakfasts

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30 Day Autoimmune Protocol

Diet Plan & Guide

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Is this e-book all I need in my AIP journey?

No. You need one on one support from a doctor. I am not a doctor. This e-book discusses my own personal tips on finding a doctor to help you take the next steps!

Are you a doctor or an RD?

Is this a print book?

Michelle of Unbound Wellness LLC is not a doctor, and reading this content does not form a doctor/patient relationship. The materials  in this product are for general information only and not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This guide does not diagnose or treat disease. Always consult a healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for your own situation and for any questions.

Before beginning any nutrition and/or exercise program, one must consult with their doctors or other licensed physicians and receive full clearance. The author, Unbound Wellness LLC claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application or interpretation of the content on this website.In no event will Unbound Wellness LLC be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this product.

Due to recent changes in law from the FTC, it is required that all companies identify what a “typical” result is. The results and opinions depicted on this website are actual results of real participants who followed the principles described in this e-book. If you don’t do anything, you can expect no results. If you want results, you should try following this e-book as described.CookiesWe use cookies to improve our service, track analytics, remember preferences, etc. By using our site, you consent to these cookies.Privacy policyCookie policyAccept all cookiesOnly essential cookiesSAVE

WHAT IS BUTCHERBOX?

Better Meat for a Better You

• ConvenienceGet our meat delivered, for free, right to your door. Each box perfectly packed and portioned for your needs. 🐽
• QualityWe’re committed to premium meat: 100% grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, pork raised crate-free, and wild-caught seafood. 🐽
• ValueOur goal is to make high-quality meat accessible to as many people as possible. We’re able to deliver you the best products for less than $6 per meal. And shipping is free! 🐽

Please add headquarters@whole30.com to your safe sender list!

Get ahead of your holiday do-do list. Try a ButcherBox membership, and get a 10-14 lb turkey FREE in your first box. Yep, that’s a free-range, all-natural turkey raised in the United States without antibiotics or added  hormones for FREE in your first box. Already a member? Just head to Member Deals to purchase a turkey with your next box.

ButcherBox has been a long time favorite Whole30 partner, and for good reason. They’re a meat subscription service that delivers 100% grass-fed and finished beef, free range organic chicken, pork rasied crate-free, wild-caught seafood, and Whole30 compatible convenience items like breakfast sausage and bacon to your door.

Right now, they’re offering you a FREE 10-14 lb turkey, just in time for the holidays. I make a ButcherBox turkey for my Thanksgiving guests every year, and it’s a beautiful and delicious centerpiece for the holiday meal.

I’ve relied on my ButcherBox subscription for years now to keep my freezer and fridge stocked with high-quality meat, and here’s why:

It saves me time. My grocery store runs are more efficient because every month ButcherBox delivers the exact cuts of meat I want, plus sometimes tough-to-find extras like Whole30 Approved bacon and compatible breakfast sausage.

It’s completely customizable to my needs and schedule. With their easy-to-use customer dashboard (it’s super mobile-friendly!) I can fill my box with the exact items my family needs for the month. Plus, I can easily shift my delivery date so my box arrives when it’s convenient for me or put my subscription on pause for a month if I need to.

It’s a force for good. Not only do they provide delicious, high quality products, they’re also working as a force for good in the food industry. ButcherBox became a certified B Corp earlier this year. This keeps everyone at ButcherBox accountable to the mission the company was founded on—improving the standards for raising animals, the livelihoods of farmers, the quality of food you serve your family and the wellbeing of our planet.

Save yourself a trip to the store and start your ButcherBox membereship today to get your free Thanksgiving turkey. It will be the star of your holiday gathering, and you’ll feel good serving it to your family alongside the other favorite holiday dishes you look forward to all year.

XO, Melissa
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