Why have I evolved my practice beyond massage therapy?

JUST LIKE YOU-

I am getting older.

I have been a Massage Therapist supporting my clients in managing healthy aging and chronic stiff achiness and pain for 20 years. In that time, I too have been getting older.

On my journey I have discovered a few changes in my daily choices that currently have me feeling more mobile, energetic, less stressed and over all happier and healthier today -Without Feeling Deprived.

As a Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach I want you to feel your best - Now and at any age. I want to share these approaches with you.

The foundation of this is available through -

Tailored to You 1:1 Health Coaching or Healthy Habits 6week Weight-loss (Last offering before September starts this Monday 4/15)

Both include the opportunity to experience Healthy Choices Educational Grocery Tour and Mindful Movement.

Why do we continue to OVEREAT?

If you consider the body needs essential nutrients; and you are consuming lots of empty calories… your body is still starving for those nutrients.

There is also the opportunity for leptin resistance. If your finger touches a hot stove, you want your fingertip and brain to recognize that it is hot, immediately causing you to pull your finger away.  With Leptin Resistance, it is like your fingertip is stuck on that stove and burning the skin off; you just keep overeating because your body is resistant to Leptin, the hormone that tells you to stop eating because you are full.

Gherlin is the hormone released to tell our bodies we are hungry and need fuel/nutrients.  When you start to eat, your fat cells release Leptin, which then tells your brain our nutrient levels have been met; and we should stop eating.  

What is leptin resistance?

Do I really need to take vitamins?

You may be healthy, active and regularly making all the right food choices yet still fall short. Vitamins can bridge the gap.

The reason one vitamin can promote so much benefit in the body, is because the deficiency of one vitamin can negatively effect so many bodily functions.

Vitamins and minerals are considered essential nutrients—because acting in concert, they perform hundreds of roles in the body. They help strengthen and rebuild our bones, support the bodies recovery from injury, and are a critical component of our immune system. They also play a strategic role in converting our food into energy.

Understanding the Benefits of taking vitamins is based on 3 factors

• Quality of Product

• Consistency of Use

• Your Body's Ability to Absorb

Change is a Choice; Which You Must be Ready for

When it comes to change; It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t.

It’s some people are ready for change and some are not.

Some are able to make changes alone. Some need a little support and guidance.

A productive approach to sustainable change…consider the positive habits you already have concerning a healthy lifestyle and amplify those behaviors.

Change that is motivated by fear, guilt, regret or a desire to fix a perceived weakness often leads to a negative self-defeating cycle in which we try and fail and keep being reminded of what is not working.

Focus and Build on the Positives, leave the negatives behind.

Pace yourself. Small steps. You’ll get there.

Make Healthy a Habit, One Choice at a Time.

Looking for something to believe in?

The sun rises and sets every day. Each day is an opportunity to begin new.

Your ability to influence goodness, starts with your belief in goodness...

Look in the mirror…

Are You Open to Another Perspective - Beyond Your Own?

After years of trying various approaches. Observing all the social influencers swear that theirs is the only approach for you. Where are you? Any further along on your journey to wellness and healthy sustained weight-loss? Or are you exactly where you started… or maybe a little heavier or a bit unhealthier?

There is a reason - quick fixes are simply that a quick fix. Behavioral change is where your behaviors change, and different choices are made.

Health Coaching is becoming increasingly valuable as people begin to realize they haven’t been able to achieve something on their own, and recognize that the perspective of someone who can see beyond the situation they continue to find themselves in.

Poor quick fix lifestyle choices are responsible for continued weight gain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and overall illness.   Health Coaching is a collaborative partnership; with YOU the client being able to tap into YOUR inner strength and external resources to achieve health and wellness you deserve.   

Have you been able to achieve the results you want on your own?

Health is a relationship you have with yourself

Self-Care

Healthy-Self

Heal -Thy -Self

The approach you take when caring for others should be the same approach when caring for yourself. When we are taking care of others- generally it is a result of a relationship we have with them as a friend, a spouse, a parent or a child.

Are you being as supportive of your health’s needs as you could be? Are you protecting your health from harm? Are you nourishing your health? Are you showing your health love and kindness? Are you listening to your health? Are you treating your health with respect?

Does your Health deserve better?

Do you take care of others?

-when it is convenient?

-or when they need it?

Is the same true - for when you take care of you?

Study on Obesity rates with Children

WNY Health Coaches making strides with family’s to create Healthy Habits for life by starting with one Healthy Choice at a time.

What direction should you go?

Mediterranean? Keto? Vegan? Vegetarian? Intermittent fasting? Low-Glycemic?

These are just a few and there are so many more “diet approaches” to choose from! How do you know which to try or is right for you? Before going down one path or another; consider these questions honestly. Changing eating habits is hard enough -Don’t set yourself up for self sabotage and failure by not planning and making a solid decision on which path to take.

• What is you goal or objective? Losing weight? Getting healthy?

• Does it fit into your current lifestyle? Meals made at home? Food ordered in? Dinning out?

• Is it flexible? Or is it ridged and based on extreme restrictions?

• Is it sustainable? Is it for a lifetime of habits? Or a quick fix?

• What is the financial cost involved? Is that sustainable?

• Do you have regular access to the food?

• How much time is necessary for preparation? Are there time saving options?

• What is your motivation for choosing one over another?

• Is it based on counting, measuring or recording consumption?

Your success will be based on the results of an honest assessment of these questions. No matter which approach you decided these items should definitely be part of your path:

• Sustainable

• Balanced food groups

• Flexible - because life happens!

• Based on non-processed food choices

• Mostly real food choices -not made in a Factory

• Proper hydration

• Cost Effective

• Well supplemented to cover the gaps in nutrients

• An approach that is coupled with physical activity and restorative sleep.

Who’s path are you on?

What are your food triggers?

Some are harmless. Some are mild annoyances. Some are a bit overwhelming. Many are habitual. Some are food based. Some are based on certain places or people. Some are rooted in certain activities or situations. Some can be addressed by changing a current choice for a healthier one.

We all have them. Can you identify yours?

Wine with Pasta

Pizza with Wings

Dessert with Coffee

Beer with Pretzels

Chips with Dip

Hello! I'm Rebecca.

What support can I offer you?

I am a Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach- I have studied 100s of different dietary theories, practical lifestyle management techniques, and innovative coaching methods. I recognize and appreciate, one size does not fit all when it comes to making healthy choices. I practice a “whole person” approach to healthy habits by embracing your current preferences and guiding you through change for alternatives.

I am a Licensed Massage Therapist - I am familiar with the aging body and the chronic pain associated with it, I understand the limitations this causes in physical activity.

I am a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher -I don’t teach headstands or other intense yoga poses, I teach moving mindfully and create mobility where stiff achiness generally resides.

I am a Wellness Consultant -I am aware of the impact that too much or not enough of certain things cause imbalance in our bodies and ultimately our health.

I have been a successful participant with losing and managing weight-loss -I have personally experienced the Mind over Matter struggles with changing habits.

I am familiar with depression, anxiety and their associated mood and health effects -I understand that everyone is unique and requires a different type of support.

I am familiar with Diabetes, Dementia, Alzheimer’s and Eldercare -I am intimately aware of the challenges life brings at times, and am able to provide approaches to managing self care.

I am a wife, mom, stepmom, gramme, daughter, caregiver, friend, introvert, excellent listener with the ability to ask thoughtful questions and provide empathy, feedback and make connections between choices, habits and identifying the impacts on one’s health.

I am on this journey as are each of you…life with it twists, turns and …. well all the things.

Support restorative sleep

Restorative sleep is a critical aspect of your physical and mental health. Your body does many amazing things to keep you healthy while you’re asleep. Immunity is bolstered, muscles are repaired, hormones are rebalanced, and new cells through out your body are created- these are just some of workings taking place while you rest.

Everyone occasionally has troubling falling asleep, staying asleep and maybe not feeling rested when you wake up or feel tired during the day.

Here is a listing of items which could assist you during those occasional sleepless times.

• The scent of lavender

• A sound machine with ocean waves, or gentle rain

• An eye mask to block out any unintended light

• Cooler room temperature

• A warm shower or bath

• A weighted blanket, comfortable clean bedding

• Sleeping in a bed, with an appropriate mattress and pillow(s)

• Magnesium and Calcium -both induce calming responses in body chemistry

• Mindful Breath work… focusing on an inhale through the nose, and a longer slower exhale through the mouth, repeat as the heartrate begins to slow

Nothing is more healing than sleep.

If sleeplessness becomes a chronic issue, consulting with your primary care provider is suggested.

Nourish? or Simply Eating?

Understanding how our bodies respond to what we put in them, and even making minor changes can significantly alter our energy levels.

Learn more about your choices and their impact.

Get out of your own way

When you skip self-care and take care of everything and everyone else first… eventually it catches up with you.

You feel it in your mood and your energy. Your ability to rest and enjoy your favorite activities has become compromised. You realize, you are your own worst enemy.

Take care of you. Its not selfish, It is essential to you and those who depend on you.

It’s ok to cancel a commitment, not answer a call or just say no.

It is also ok to change your mind, want to be alone, take a day off and not tell anyone and simply do nothing.

You can chose to take a walk, meditate, read a book, feel the warmth of the sun, gaze at the moon and stars, admire the beauty of nature, place your hand over your heart and feel it beat, close your eyes and appreciate your your ability to breathe.

Healthy is Inside Out

If you get the inside right, the outside will fall in place. Focus on making healthy choices for yourself and you will experience the bonus of feeling and looking healthy as well.

Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A, with one serving providing 184% of your daily value plus:
Vitamin C -Calcium -Iron -Biotin -Vitamin K1 -Potassium -Vitamin B6 -Lutein

You are what you eat… it shows in how you move and look.

Where success begins

Mind over matter. Visualize. Begin with the end in mind.

Not sure how to start?

• Write it down, so you can See it.

• Read it out loud, so you can Hear it.

• Close your eyes, so you can Visualize it.

Train the mind - the body will follow.

You can talk yourself into or out of anything.. why not focus on caring for and investing in yourself. You and those you care about will all benefit.

What actually happens to your body when you start doing yoga?

Many thoughts come to mind when you do yoga for the first time.

As you stand in the back of a class, or unfurl a yoga mat at home, it can all seem like a lot of wobbling on one foot as you struggle to figure out a pose. But even if… Read more

Curious if there is a yoga out there for you? Just a beginner? Have some chronic restricted mobility or pain?

Do I really need to take vitamins?

You may be healthy, active and regularly making all the right food choices yet still fall short. Vitamins can bridge the gap.

The reason one vitamin can promote so much benefit in the body, is because the deficiency of one vitamin can negatively effect so many bodily functions.

Vitamins and minerals are considered essential nutrients—because acting in concert, they perform hundreds of roles in the body. They help strengthen and rebuild our bones, support the bodies recovery from injury, and are a critical component of our immune system. They also play a strategic role in converting our food into energy.

Understanding the Benefits of taking vitamins is based on 3 factors

• Quality of Product

• Consistency of Use

• Your Body's Ability to Absorb

Do you know your chemistry?

Understanding how our bodies respond to what we put into them; making minor changes can significantly alter our energy levels and overall health.

Do you know the impact of what you are consuming through food or drink?

Each of our bodies is like a chemistry beaker, everything we put in causes some sort of a reaction.. some good, some not so good and some really awful.

Doubtful of that? Consider:

• children at a birthday party after the cake and ice cream

• the impact of alcohol after 1, 2, 3 or maybe 4 drinks

• how drinking coffee when you are tired can energize you

Change is a choice

It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t. It’s some people are ready for change and some are not.

Some are able to make changes alone. Some need a little support and guidance.

Don’t fear change, fear not changing.

Pace yourself. Small steps. You’ll get there.