Pura Vida Health

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

'I CAN'T HAVE THAT.' It's a myth. A lie. One of the many false narratives our former self tells us in an attempt to keep us solidly rooted in our own ways. It's safe there. Perhaps unhealthy, perhaps a place where we don't feel good physically, or about ourselves, but at least it's known, and familiar.

The reality is, there's never been 'I can't have that.' The power of choice never left us. It was always there - hiding in plain sight. Recognizing it, believing in it, and designing our nutrition and movement around that power of choice is how we achieve the health and the weight loss outcomes we want. That power of choice feeds the idea of strategic selection, the concept of: I want to say yes to this, ergo, I'm choosing to say no to that.'

We always had it. It never left us. And it will always be there.

Are you with me? ❤️🌿

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Did you know that you already follow a diet whether you’re ‘on’ one, or not?

A diet is something we have. It’s a noun. It is not a verb, despite what Diet Culture has conditioned us to believe, nor is it some temporary torment we put ourselves through because Spring Break is around the corner.

If you eat, you have a diet.

Having a successful diet is being in charge of it. Being in control of it. Our diet should be a deliberately and intentionally designed relationship with food that supports our health goals. It should help us arrive at the weight we want, the body we want, and the blood sugar levels we want. It should help us feel happy, safe, comforted, and peaceful. It should make us feel productive, strong, energetic, and proud. It should fit into our budgets and feel simple to manage. It should be something we run in the background, without it taking center-stage, or being in our faces all the time.

How well is your diet working for you? Is it checking off all your boxes? Is it helping you achieve your health and weight goals? Is it making you feel happy and productive? It should be. It absolutely should be. ❤️🌿

Are you ready to have a conversation about how to make your diet work better for you? It’s time to make your diet work smarter, not harder. DM me and let me know your thoughts. Let’s chat.

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

It's been a hot minute since I've been on the 'gram; I've been up to no good! 😜

Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Pamela Keim of Grand Tap Media, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We explored all things weight loss, HEALTH GAIN, and nutrition for women.

Take a peek at the interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfWSOCwwfRE&t=63s ...
..and learn more about how you can silence all the conflicting nutrition noise out there, and get clear and focused on your health and weight goals!

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Big food companies are getting desperate. Their new product development pipelines are running dry as consumers get smarter about their diets and re-direct their dollars to ‘healthier’ alternatives. Problem is, ‘healthy’ means about a million things to a million different people, which continues the widespread confusion in the marketplace about what truly healthy food is. The response to all of this has been the launch of new, niche food companies and new food brands that claim to deliver those ‘healthier’ alternatives, but the truth is, THEY DON’T.

There is no lab, in a large OR small food company, that can formulate and manufacture a food better than nature can. This is a universal truth. And this universal truth is often the key differentiator between a woman’s ability to successfully and permanently lose excess body fat, and her burden of struggling with excess weight forever. Food education is key. Informing ourselves is the #1 best thing we can do to protect our health and our weight. If you want healthy, sustainable weight loss, here’s what to do:

1. Grocery-shop with a list.
2. Buy only what’s on your list.
3. Make sure that 80% of the things on your list grew, walked, or swam.
4. Make sure the other 20% are as minimally-processed as possible.
5. When you see something that wasn’t on your list, read the list of ingredients, know the ingredients, be critical of them, and use the food product to challenge yourself to identify a nature-based alternative to buy instead. ❤️🌿

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Weight loss is hard, and becoming the future version of ourselves is hard. But there are many things we can do to set ourselves up for success with both. Cultivating a constructive and supportive mindset that encourages us to follow our healthy habits every day is one of those things. Here are 4 things that can help you cultivate this mindset:

1️⃣ Choose Progress over Perfection. You are not setting a bar of perfection. Perfection is a fallacy. It does not exist. You'll end up spending all day, every day, trying to make food and movement decisions in support of an end-state that you'll never reach. All that truly matters in a health journey is advancement. Work toward progress. Celebrate progress. Your job isn't to attain 'perfection.' Your job is to do things in support of your health and your weight that are a little bit better than the day before. 1% more everyday is all you need.

2️⃣ Choose Persistence over Patience. The difference between these is monumental and not talked about enough. Persistence is active. Patience is passive. Persistence is working your plan. Patience is waiting - and hoping - for your plan to produce outcomes. You are not waiting. You are not hoping. You are working your plan. You are making change. You are persistent. You are actively creating change.

3️⃣ Choose Consistently over Constantly. Your body is both resilient and forgiving. Making decisions in support of your health and weight goals to the tune of 100%/0% is both unrealistic and unnecessary. Pick a different ratio - 60/40, 70/30, 80/20, 90/10, whatever FEELS best to you mentally, socially, emotionally, and physically, and then stick to it over the long-term. Like, for months.

4️⃣ Choose Purpose over Pleasure. This one is a bit of a misnomer. Pleasure is critically important in our food and movement choices - we need to eat what we love, and move our bodies in ways we love. But we need to be purposeful about our choices, FIRST. Be BOTH purposeful AND love how you eat and move, and you'll be on your way to finding your weight happiness solution forever. ❤️🌿

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Here's your weight-happy Lunch of the Week: 🌿 PRAWN, AVOCADO AND GRAPEFRUIT SALAD (Salade des Îles) 🌿

When I lived in Paris, there was a little corner bistro directly across from my office that had this salad on their menu. I ate it nearly every day for lunch for over a year. There's something magical about the combination of the tart grapefruit and the creamy avocado together. And large shrimp - steamed, broiled, baked, grilled, chilled, whatever - is just the icing on the cake. I use baby spinach for my greens, but anything works. Go simple: buy already cooked shrimp, make your dressing in a batch, divide everything out into separate containers so that lunch is an easy grab-and-go. And if there's anything here you don't like it, sub it! Use lobster, crab, or rotisserie chicken for the meat, or oranges instead of grapefruit.

Here's my recipe for the Champagne Vinaigrette: emulsify 1 tsp of Dijon mustard with 2 Tbsp of Champagne Vinegar with an immersion blender in a pint-sized Mason jar. Slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup EVOO while your immersion blender is running. You need about 10 seconds for the dressing to go 'thick,' then stop or the emulsification may break. Add 1 tsp Coconut Aminos, or low-sodium Tamari, 1/8 tsp Salt, and a pinch of freshly-ground Black Pepper. Garnish with fresh chives.

Weight loss is supposed to taste good, feel good, and look good, friends. All the time. This one should be on your lunch plan this week! ❤️🌿

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

🌿 RULES 🌿

I know, I know, we are paralyzed by this word. But hear me out...

RULES are not actually this punishing, restrictive, prohibitive thing that we think they are. RULES are nothing more than guidelines we use to make decisions. They provide structure. Governance. Oversight.

If our food rules have been designed in a way that support our health and weight goals, they will never feel punishing, restrictive, prohibitive, or cruel. They may feel challenging, but that's because we designed them to create CHANGE.

Poorly designed food rules feel restrictive, depriving, and result in shame, guilt, and remorse when 'broken.' Properly-designed food rules create freedom. They create room for all of our favorite foods, and the space for us to meet our weight goals at the same time. Well-built food rules are empowering, enabling, and supportive of our weight journeys. ❤️🌿

How are your food rules working for you? If you're slaying your goals and feeling awesome about how you're doing it, then you've hit the nail on the head. But if you feel trapped, deprived, or are yo-yo-ing, your food rules may need tweaking. DM me. Let's chat.

In the meantime, which word for 'rules' feels and sounds the most neutral to you?

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

It took me a looooong time to get comfortable going on vacation without the stress of worrying about how much damage control I was going to have to do when I got back. That thinking used to wreck my entire trip, and I hated that I couldn’t get rid of it. It was like a fog hung over me, and it robbed me of vacation-joy. Weight loss seems to go with you everywhere.

Part of healing is learning how to trust our self again, and that trust radically changes how we approach ideas like ’taking a break’ and ‘indulgence.' When we’re wrecked with worry over how we’re going to manage ourselves around vacation food, and how we’re going to recover when we get back, what’s really happening is we’re saying, ‘SELF, I DON’T TRUST YOU TO TAKE CARE OF ME, AND I DON’T TRUST YOU TO MAKE PURPOSEFUL AND INTENTIONAL DECISIONS FOR ME WHILE YOU’RE ON VACATION.’

But when the trust is restored, and we have confidence in our ability to take care of ourselves, no matter where we are or what the occasion is, vacations feel like any other day. Food choices come and go, movement decisions come and go, sleep decisions come and go, and you just do the things.

Old-Me used to treat vacations as occasions not just to splurge, but to let go entirely, binging at every meal and God-knows-what-in-between. New-Me enjoys the indulgence 1000%, but the balance I use today is closer to 70/30 than 100/0. I practice my Personal Health System 70% of the time, and the other 30% of the time involves exceptions.

I’ve put together a mini-guide that I hope you find helpful if you’re traveling next week. Perhaps the biggest reminder is this: TRUST yourself, to make purposeful and meaningful decisions most of the time, and GIVE YOURSELF permission to experience a few of your favorite pleasures here and there. ❤️🌿

So, where's everyone going this year?

Save this post for reference when you need some reminders next week!

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

I have heard you loud and clear, friends: 'lunches are such a struggle for me. Give me ideas, Ang!'

I've got a gooooood one for you next week. My Cucumber, Tomato & Avocado Salad with Whipped Cottage Cheese is lunch-perfection for early spring. It's crunchy, sweet, sour, tangy, herby, creamy, and salty. It's no-cook, and takes just minutes to assemble. With rockstar nutrition and epic flavor - you won't get tired of this one even if you eat it everyday next week.

Weight loss should be simple, hit your nutrition goals, and taste good. The end. 🌿❤️

Save this post for prep this weekend, and tag a friend who's looking for a good lunch idea!

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

I TRY to be a good patient, but seriously, the medical establishment is so hard to navigate from a preventative health standpoint.

So many doctors I've been to ask the wrong questions, use the wrong metrics to assess health and wellness (like BMI) and have done very little to promote and encourage wellness, such as proper nutrition, movement, and rest.

There are so many GOOD doctors out there, too - who ARE asking the right questions, and wait to write scripts for symptoms until after lifestyle factors have been thoroughly evaluated.

Self-care is knowing what questions to ask, and knowing what your medical care team should be asking YOU. Be the hard patient. Ask the hard questions. Hold your team accountable for your health and wellness.

P.S. Did you know you can refuse the weigh-in at wellness appointments? THIS IS NOT REQUIRED.

She didn't fire me. But she might, eventually. 😆❤️🌿

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

This post might be a snooze-fest, but today we're talking about the one thing that is so deeply critical to weight health, and that no one ever talks about: SLEEP.

Why is restorative sleep so critical to weight loss?

1. It's paramount to general health, and unhealthy bodies have a harder time letting go of excess fat. Poor sleep can result in poor memory and focus, headaches, weakened immunity, increased appetite, hormonal imbalances, weight gain, and mood changes. Ick.

2. It stabilizes our appetite. A more stable appetite results in fewer blood sugar spikes, fewer sugar cravings, and an overall consumption of fewer calories - all necessary things for weight loss.

3. It makes adherence to our new food habits and practices easier. Good sleep keeps our hunger hormones balanced; poor sleep disrupts them. Disrupted hunger hormones means we feel hungry when we don't actually need food, and we're unable to adequately gauge fullness (so we keep eating).

4. It supports our Movement Plan. When we're well-rested, we work out. When we're not, we don't. Oops.

5. It protects our metabolism and prevents insulin resistance - two things required for the body to let go of excess fat.

6. It protects muscle mass, a necessary component of weight loss. When we're in weight loss mode, we lose it all: fat, muscle, and water. The fat is great. The muscle, not so much. We need the muscle mass to burn the excess fat. Protect. That. Muscle mass. 💤❤️🌿

Save this post and start creating your Sleep Plan.

Know what’s lucky about my 🍀 LUCKY SPINACH, BANANA, AND CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS? 🍀 They’re grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free, sweetener-free, nut-free, Paleo-friendly, packed full of fruits and veggies, and cost about $3 to make. And they TASTE good. Can't tell the spinach is in there, and the banana and no-sugar-added chocolate chips do all the heavy-lifting on flavor. If that’s not lucky, I don’t know what is.

INGREDIENTS
🍀 Coconut Flour
🍀 Eggs
🍀 Bananas
🍀 Frozen Spinach
🍀 Coconut Oil
🍀 H**p Seed Milk
🍀 Dairy-free, stevia Chocolate Chips
🍀 Leprechauns (just kidding)

I made a huge batch of these for breakfasts this week. Want my recipe? Double tap this post, if you do, and head over to The Pura Vida Clubhouse to see all the deets. Link is in bio. ❤️🌿

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

To all of the well-intentioned weight loss experts out there claiming all we need to do to lose weight is create a calorie deficit: THANK YOU for your efforts to motivate us toward good health, but seriously, STOP. We KNOW we need to change the way we eat. We KNOW we’ve become overweight because we’ve been eating too much of the wrong stuff. We KNOW that what goes up must come down; we’re all familiar with kindergarten-grade laws of physics. Finally, we KNOW a caloric deficit is the mechanism behind reducing excess fat.

What’s really going on behind the scenes of excess weight is something deeper. It’s internal, it’s foundational, it’s emotional, it's psychological, it lives in our core, and it’s ever-present. And over time, it becomes part of who we are, which then just reinforces everything we’re doing, and which keeps us locked and trapped in a chronic state of overweight.

It’s a vicious cycle brought on by a variety of factors that rarely have anything to do with food. Permanent, sustainable weight loss requires deep dives into the core of who we are, who we want to become, where we’re going, and what really matters to us. It necessitates exploration, investigation, and evaluation. For weight loss to be truly healthy - in mind, heart, and body - we must uncover the truth of what got us to where we are, and we must work to bring to life the vision of where we’re headed. When we confront the things that drive us to soothe with food, and examine them with honesty, self-compassion, and grace, we open up an entire world of possibilities for self-care and nourishment that we never saw before. So, what is it then, that causes permanent weight loss?

Self-compassion.
Permission.
Grace.
Self-respect.
Spiritual, emotional, and physical nourishment.

Weight loss was never about the calorie deficit. ❤️🌿

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. We are carrying a lot, friends. Remember that it is your mindfulness practice that will quiet the noise in the back of the mind. It will silence those old tapes. It will extinguish those false narratives. It will quell the fear of failure. Pursue the peace, chase the stillness, and become laser-focused on your future self. You're getting there. 🌿❤️

What are some of the other humdingers you've gotten throughout your health and weight loss journey? Tell me in the comments.

*Names have been altered to protect client privacy.

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

1/1/18. She woke up, and had had enough. Enough of the heaviness, the guilt, shame, and regret, the sitting on the sidelines, the sore everything, the sugar addiction, feeling victimized by food, feeling, thinking, behaving, and acting out of control. Enough of the excuses. The only two things she knew: she deserved more than what she had, and she was the only person who could give it to herself.

3/1/18. Day one of her first Whole30. Scared AF because she knew this was it. If one month of devoting herself to a whole foods diet didn’t teach her what she needed to learn to save herself, then the jig was up. There was no way out. Fate would be sealed, forever.

3/7/18. Brain fog gone. Energy rebounding. Sleep improving. Bloat gone.

3/14/18. Energy through the roof. Sleep, like a baby. Joint soreness gone. Agility increasing. Feeling light. Capable. Young.

3/23/18. Felt 10 years younger. In control. Hadn’t been so happy in a decade. Discovered the PhD she apparently had in creative problem-solving. Felt wickedly empowered. Pledged never to end the way she was taking care of herself. Designed an ‘Angie-approved’ diet she would transition to when Whole30 was done.

4/1/18. Transitioned to her new diet. She fell in love with it. She fell in love with nourishing herself. She fell in love with taking care of herself. That love for self and for self-care became the new cycle. That new cycle was self-fueling and regenerative, driven by a daily promise to commit & repeat, commit & repeat, commit & repeat.

12/31/18. Down 80 pounds. Commit & repeat.

6/28/19. Down 100 pounds. Commit & repeat.

3/1/24. Today. Still down 100 pounds. Commit & repeat.

3/1/25: _____. (I’ll tell you now what happens on this date next year.)

When you want something bad enough, you will do anything to get it. Get clear, get support, get moving. We have but one life to live. ❤️🌿

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Man, were these serious lessons to learn. Lots of reflection, lots of tough-love conversations with myself, lots of looking in the mirror and challenging everything I had always believed about food, health, and weight loss. AND MYSELF.

I should add a 21st one: pizza is STILL PIZZA even when it's on a cauliflower crust.

Friends, you will be able to make so much forward movement if you're willing to challenge the paradigms and the beliefs that have landed you where you're at. Shockingly, so many of them aren't true. And breaking through them - calling them out - refusing to play old games - is your ticket to the future you want.

Up your standards.
Raise your bar.
Question the beliefs you've always carried.
Challenge what the outside world has convinced you of.

THINK DIFFERENTLY.
ACT DIFFERENTLY.
HEALTH DIFFERENTLY.
WEIGH DIFFERENTLY.
LIVE DIFFERENTLY. 🌿❤️

Save this post to reflect on it, and tag a friend who needs to hear this.

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Unbelieving. Unlearning. Reframing. Three major tools in my permanent weight loss toolbox.

Some of us are slow learners - it took me 25 years to figure out these eight gems. Is yours slow-going, too? That is 100% A-OK. A friendly reminder that you are not on a deadline, your health project is not on a deadline, and your weight loss journey isn't either.

Be open to new learning, question what you've told yourself for the last 15 years, and pledge to TRY IT AGAIN. You are worth it, and you are entitled to your best life. 🌿❤️

Which of these beliefs have been getting in your way?

Amy was a sorority sister. The sweetest one. She was adored by everyone.

This week, Amy succumbed to end-stage liver disease due to alcoholism.
She was 45.

My heart is broken.

What bothers me so deeply - more than the 17-year old son she left behind, more than the mother who will never hold her again - and who just buried her own mother - is that any woman could hurt so deeply, and be so entrapped, afflicted, and unable to find relief from the demons that haunt her. And to live in this state, every day, week after week, month after month, year after year, with no relief, no coming up for air, no break from the hell that is slowly and relentlessly swallowing her whole.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I used to respond to situations like these. Stress-eating and relief-drinking used to be my go-to practices. But this is how we yo-yo. Job loss, divorce, death, car accidents, whatever it is. These things are going to happen, and learning how to navigate the emotions provoked by these circumstances is one of the most critical weight loss skills to master. Our health and life depend on it.

Death is uncomfortable. Can you sit with it?
Grief is suffocating. Can you sit with it?
Pain grips like the jaws of life and won’t let go. Can you sit with it?

I thought about drowning myself in sugar and bourbon today. But I didn’t. I went to the gym and pushed plates instead. It’s always okay to think about it. It’s always better to make better decisions.

Rest in Paradise, girl. Love you.

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Two days ago, I made a conscious and intentional decision to eat refined sugar on Valentine's Day.

Why? Because I declared today a Food Freedom Day. (Yes, you can do that; you are in charge, after all.)

This post is the 6-point checklist I go through in my head when I'm making a decision to take a Food Freedom day. I thought through this process yesterday as I reflected on what sugar I wanted. 🤪

The purpose of this exercise is to think through HOW you're going to execute your Food Freedom decision. Setting an intention, 'I'm going to eat cake,' is the WHAT. You're only 1/4 of the way there with the WHAT. The rest of the equation is the HOW. Taking a moment to map out the HOW is the real game-changer. Because when we take the time to reflect on HOW we want an experience to look and feel, we are...

💗 ACTING THOUGHTFULLY, with purpose and intention
💗 MAKING DECISIONS MINDFULLY, through advanced planning
💗 CREATING STRATEGIC SPACE for the foods we truly love
💗 ELIMINATING STRESS & WORRY that our indulgence will derail us

The next time you want to create space for a planned indulgence, go through your checklist:

1. What am I going to indulge in?
2. How much?
3. When?
4. With whom?
5. For what purpose? / Why?
6. What are my conditions?

Designing the HOW allows us to relax into the moment, be fully present with the people we love, completely enjoy our treats, and feel 100% confident that we're right on-track. ❤️🌿

Now, isn't that a sweet place for your weight loss to land on Valentine's Day??

Save this post and tag a friend who needs to hear this!

FREE GUIDE: MY TOP 10 SECRETS TO WEIGHT HAPPINESS (link in bio)

Manicures, massages, and soaks are great, don't get me wrong. But the real measures of true self-love are the SKILLS we build, not appointments we make.

Establishing solid self-care skills take a dedicated investment of time, energy, effort, and attention, and mastering them requires playing the long-game (why we love health coaching!).

True self-love is about:

💗 Parenting ourselves
💗 Tough love
💗 Honoring boundaries
💗 Creating balance in saying 'yes' to some things, and 'no' to others
💗 Building trust in ourselves
💗 Faith in the healing process
💗 And keeping promises to ourselves - to live our best lives, and to invest in our best health.

Remember that weight loss is a self-love project. It doesn't exist to kill us or make us miserable. It exists to help us edge our way back to optimal health so that we can show up for ourselves fully, and continue to give the people we love the very best of us.

Wishing much Valentine's Day love to my IG family this week. ❤️🌿

Save this post, and tag a friend who needs to hear this!

Fortune says… your favorite team will win the Super Bowl if you serve these 🌿 MEXICAN CHICKEN-STUFFED MINI PEPPERS WITH SPICY VEGAN QUESO BLANCO 🌿. Okay maybe not, but you’ll be the most popular Super Bowl host on the block.

This recipe is such a crowd-pleaser! It’s super simple to make, the flavors are off the charts, and it's weight loss, Whole30, and Paleo-friendly.

🌶️ Mix a bunch of shredded rotisserie chicken with chopped fresh or frozen spinach (if frozen, make sure it’s thawed and drained REALLY well) and some jarred salsa.
🌶️ Stuff inside mini peppers (remove seeds and ribs, first).
🌶️ Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 F.
🌶️ Top with Vegan Spicy Queso Blanco, minced red onion, and chopped cilantro.

Laces up, Einhorn!! ❤️🌿
----------------------------
Like, Save, or Share this post to let Instagram know to place this content in your feed 😃