Denice Murray Health Coaching

The short answer is YES. The long answer is It’s Complicated. How’s that for being cryptic? There are a LOT of healthy foods (whole, unprocessed) that are available very cheaply. Beans, rice and other whole grains, vegetables, fruits, eggs, certain meats, yogurt, spices. Some of them can be more expensive than others, and COST must be considered. For example, a bag of certified organic brown rice is going to be more expensive than a regular bag of brown rice. Both are still healthy. One has extra steps to make CERTAIN there have been no chemicals, pesticides, etc., while it was growing. The other does not have that guarantee, but there are still laws and regulations in place to make that food as safe as possible. Same thing with any other healthy food you might choose – you are going to be paying more for name brands, certified organic, grass-fed/free-range, etc. The next thing you will pay more for is CONVENIENCE . Example: a package of pre-sliced chicken breast at my local...

The Set Point Weight Theory What It Is, and How to Overcome It . There is a theory Obesity and Set-Point Theory - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov) that when it comes to weight loss and weight maintenance, every individual has a genetic predisposition to be a certain weight. This theory provides an explanation for why it is so difficult for people to lose weight in the first place, and then maintain their weight loss over time. Set Point Theory explains the forces within the body that fight to maintain the status quo, or to keep you within a certain weight range once that “Set Point” has been established . Now, does this mean that once you have reached a certain weight and hovered around this particular weight for many months/years, that it is impossible to lose weight? No. But it does mean that your body will fight harder to keep you at this weight because your brain thinks that losing weight means something is terribly WRONG , and it wants to get you back to where it...

I’m going back to the BASICS. So, that brings the question: What are the “Basics”? And this is where the answer gets a little tricky because the basics are different for everyone. What I consider MY basics are not what someone else would consider basic. I call the BASICS anything you can do on a regular basis with the minimal amount of effort, OR whatever YOU consider the most important first steps on a health and wellness journey. For example: Do you drink alcohol? Do you smoke? From a health and wellness standpoint the answers “should” be NO on smoking, and IN MODERATION or NO on drinking. If that’s not the case for you, those are two areas of focus to start your health journey. How much water do you drink per day? Do you drink sugary beverages (soda, juice, sweet tea, etc.)? These are also basics where you should be drinking a MINIMUM of 64 oz of water per day and VERY LIMITED or NO sugary beverages. Then there is a whole plethora of areas to get into concerning NUTRI...

Okay, this has me a little ticked off so I’m going to try to write an elegant post without resorting to name-calling and curse-words.  Kidding....sort of. I follow a lot of health/nutrition/fitness professionals on social media. I like to support other professionals and I like to share ideas and information. However. A particular male fitness trainer made what I would consider an INCREDIBLY insensitive post about how people need to step up and do better if they want to claim they are working on their health/nutrition/fitness. I grew up in a family and in a community where “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get to work” is basically the family/town motto. So, there is a part of me that understands this philosophy. There is also the part of me that understands REALITY . I have stated it a thousand times and I will state it again – If changing your health/nutrition/fitness were easy, EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT!!! There are SO many factors for why people aren’t as ...

This is the most common theme every new year – jumping into a “new” health and fitness routine, making resolutions to improve different aspects of your life, one of the primary areas being health and wellness. It’s not about the desire to change. It’s not about wanting to look or feel better. There are actually 3 important questions you should be asking yourself before you commit your time, energy, and hard-earned cash to ANOTHER diet or fitness program. Question 1 – What Has to Change In Your Life In Order to Meet Your Health Goals? It seems like the obvious question here would be “What Are Your Health Goals?”, but that’s not actually an important question. An Outcome Goal is an arbitrary thing: I want to lose 20 pounds; I want to eat healthier; I want to exercise more; I want to be less stressed. There is nothing wrong with having an outcome in mind.  But the harsh truth is, if you knew how to meet this outcome goal already, you probably would have done it by now. That’s ...

There is a movement going on in the nutrition world that is battling to conquer the harmful effects of “Diet Culture”. Where you are expected to look a certain way, be a certain size, be a certain weight, and follow restrictive and sometimes harmful diets. This culture can lead to eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, etc.), disordered eating (being preoccupied with foods, weight, and body image to the point where it affects your quality of life), and mental health issues. But on the less severe side of that is the effect of not feeling good about yourself because you’re not eating according to certain “rules”. Whether it’s cutting out carbs, cutting out fats, only eating vegan food, etc., there are a lot of “rules” that we place around food. Some of these restrictions are medically necessary (ex. Cutting out sugar because of diabetes, cutting out gluten because of allergies, etc.); some restrictions are for personal or moral reasons (ex. Eating vegetarian or vegan to avoid animal p...

I wrote an article about this a while back, but I think with the holidays in full swing (at the time of this post) it’s important to revisit this topic. When it comes to your health and wellness goals, consistency is the KEY to success. By establishing habits and routines you are far more likely to achieve your goals than by starting a new diet/weight loss program/fitness routine every few weeks or months. But there are other benefits to consistency with your healthy habits and routines during the holiday season. It will Help with Stress and Overwhelm .  This is the time of year for our family that activities go into overdrive. This week alone Hubs and I are working our jobs, we have basketball games for Mini-Me 4 nights this week, we have Christmas celebrations, and one of my sons is coming for a quick visit from college before heading back for finals. With all the back and forth we are doing, it’s extremely helpful to know that we have our meals planned out and prepped fo...