Denice Murray Health Coaching

I usually write posts for ALL busy moms because I know no matter what phase of motherhood we’re going through, there is a universal acknowledgement that we are all working on our own health and wellness while also dealing with everyday life struggles. But today’s post is specifically about dealing with the difficulties of perimenopause while also trying to handle everyday life. I have never been this out of control with my emotions or my body in my life! I’ve gone over the list of symptoms, and I swear, it’s the weirdest collection of nonsense ever. EVERYTHING is a symptom! Fatigue, brain fog, muscle aches, joint pain, heart palpitations, night sweats, headaches, insomnia, mood swings ( SEVERE! ), inconsistent menstrual cycles, cramps, weight gain, water retention, itchy ears! Like, what?! No lie, I am in some kind of pain every single day. There is no such thing as a good night’s sleep anymore. My emotions are fluctuating all over the place and I’m bouncing from anxiety to ...

This is a completely common scenario. You only have so much time to get dinner together before you have to be out the door again, everyone is “starving”, etc. Or, in my son's case, you're a young, broke recent graduate learning to cook more because (shocked Pikachu-face) mom was RIGHT , and it IS cheaper to cook meals at home. (also forgot to get a picture while we were cooking dinner, so added this one instead!) But I digress.... You’re torn. YOU’RE trying to eat healthy, the kids need something at least semi-healthy , and your spouse may or may not care either way. What do you do? There are so many meal kits, pre-packaged meals, frozen dinners, etc., that you can heat and eat, or throw together in a minute. And when you’re also trying to save money or cooking on a budget, these meals are USUALLY still cheaper, per person, than eating out. However, when your budget is super tight, even those convenience foods can be too expensive. You may not have the time to coo...

 My sons graduated college on Saturday. I'm still trying to process how I feel about that. On the one hand, I'm incredibly proud of them! Their major is Statistics (both of them), and it was not an easy degree to complete.  On the other hand, my "little" boys are grown up and about to face the world as adults. Everyone jokes about how time flies and don't blink or you'll miss them growing up. I never really cared for those sayings, as during that time I was eyeball deep in activities, work, and stress. I needed them to mature, as I felt I was going insane from the pressure. Now that they are grown, I realize how truly blessed I am. For many parents, this day never comes. They would give anything to see their child graduate from college. I'm beyond fortunate to have that opportunity. And I'm sad, too. I knew I was MOSTLY guaranteed school breaks with them, or at least large chunks of those breaks. That is no longer true. Their jobs and lives will be hea...

Yes, it is. But there are two sacrifices to budget cooking: Planning and Time . They can be interchangeable at times. Planning involves things like knowing your family’s schedules, following sales flyers, tracking what your family does and doesn’t like, knowing what you have or don’t have on hand, etc. Time involves not only cooking the food, the Planning time, cooking more from scratch (which can take longer), the prep time and cleanup, etc. And a third thing I’ll add that is basically my opinion, is that you REALLY need to know what your family likes, dislikes, and what they will “tolerate”. Because, honestly, if you’re going through all the trouble to make a meal and your family hates most of the ingredients, it’s not going to work out very well. Example, if your family doesn’t like ANY kind of beans, then you’re not going to be doing much good making dishes that are bean-centered. It’s not super helpful when I make recipes that use ground meat when my sons don’t like th...

Health coaches. Nutritionists. Dieticians. Fitness Trainers. Even doctors and nurses. Everyone can give you advice. They can tell you the basic principles of health and wellness. They can even tell you very specific things you need to be doing – or NOT doing – in order to improve your health. But at the end of the day, it comes down to your personal choices. I posted last week on Substack a little bit about the Social Determinants of Health. Things like Social and Cultural influences; Education; Financial Stability; Health Care Access; and Environmental factors. Those must all be taken into account when you’re talking about health and wellness. A doctor can tell you that to improve your blood pressure, or boost your energy levels, it would be good for you to exercise more. Awesome. But what if you’re a mom with a full-time job, three kids, a spouse, aging parents, money is tight, you don’t live or work near a gym, and you don’t really have access to a safe walking space. Your...

To stay on track. To meet your health, wellness, nutrition, or weight loss goals. To keep going. I had my entire day planned out. Just like many of you do, as well. Whether it’s a loose idea of things you wanted to get done, or a detailed, meticulous plan of each thing you wanted to check off your list. You had your day planned. Then comes the monkey-wrench getting thrown into the program. Maybe it’s a forgotten appointment. Or a work-project deadline that got bumped up without any warning. Maybe a child got sick at school, and you had to go pick them up and take them to the doctor, or just home for some medicine and rest. For me, it was my daughter being out of school for the day, which I had completely forgotten about, and her having a long list of things SHE needed to get done as well – and some that required my help. Plus, a banquet that I had ALSO forgotten about (and I KNEW it was coming, I just forgot to put it on my calendar), so that meant the projects I intended to fin...

My post will be brief this week. I have one specific thing on my mind and that is my knee. It's killing me.  An old issue I've had for years that flairs once in a while. Lots of pain and swelling, then the inflammation reduces, swelling goes down, pain goes away. This week it is flairing with wild abandon and has wrecked my walking goals. We've had pretty nice weather so I've been pushing my steps each day. But now I've had to back off. However, I'm not letting it derail my focus on moving more. There are aerobics moves I've been trying (hello, YouTube videos).  Chair yoga.  Anyone remember Tae Bo? Yeah, been doing some punching and half-kicks (while holding a chair for balance!). It doesn't have to look a certain way for movement (or eating, or hydrating, or stress management) to be effective.  This week has been a true test of my experimental fortitude. How willing am I to try something different because what I WANT to do isn't really a...