Archive for Coaching

Coach’s Seasonal Cleanse Prep Suggestions

March 27, 2013 / Coach / No comments
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Although I lead a cleanse every season, Spring is The Big Poppa of them all. You can join my Spring Fling ’13 here. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Spring is the season associated with the liver, one of our most heroic organs. The liver is the filter of the body, sifting all the toxins out and shuttling them to a swift trip out of our bodies.

Like any irrigation system, things build up, and the system can tire under strain. Ours is no different. This is the absolute best time to give your liver a standing ovation, a shout out, and a heartfelt thank-you note in the form of trying a cleanse. It works 24/7 to keep us as poison free as it can, no matter what manner of horrors we ask from it.
There are a billion different cleanses out there, from whole foods cleanses to elimination cleanses, to Master Cleanses, to juice regimens. Take some time to consider which cleanse offers you the best chance of serving your body well.
You may pick a cleanse in which all the meals are made and you don’t have to cook at all because the kids are home on Spring Break. Or maybe you got a new juicer and you want to try taking it for a serious spin with a 7-day juice detox. Or perhaps you’d like to build your cooking skills and overhaul your kitchen into a temple of health so a group with an online support element might be the best for you.
No matter what you choose, detoxing is no joke. Often the first days of a cleanse arrive with headaches, mood swings, fatigue, and fitful sleeps. As the body detoxes, some of those poisons get freed up from being trapped along our digestive tracts and they can be re-absorbed causing us to feel like we have a mild flu or a major bad mood. It will pass. I swear.
But before you even get to the first week, there are steps your can take to support your cleansing experience and help you ease into your Spring Cleanse with a sense of adventure and clarity.
1. Let people know your plan. 
Pick a few people around you who will be supportive of your plan for a Spring detox. Tell them know what your particular regimen entails, and how long the process will take. Let them know you’d appreciate their support as the first few days might not be so cute for you. For the ultimate in support, see if a friend would like to do the cleanse with you.
2. Clear out your schedule.
You’ve got your whole life to get freaky and party on down. Use this as an intentional time to prioritize your health. Block out the cleanse time on your calendar and keep your social plans as easy and laid back as possible. Go for walks with friends. Weekend matinees are great. Gentle exercise and museum meetings are perfect.
3. Prepare your kitchen. 
Look over your protocol and as the cleanse approaches, make your way through your everyday food so what remains in your kitchen are foods that make you feel strong and clean. Remind yourself that the foods you feel attached to are not going anywhere and when this cleanse comes to a close, you still have the choice to go and get them again. Although, magically, you may not want to.
4. Practice. 
If you’re doing a juice cleanse, start looking up juices on the internet and getting familiar with them. Get a feel for how much produce makes how much juice. See which herbs you like in your tonics and so on. If your cleanse is more on the whole foods tip, start dabbling is clean eating blogs and do some research on what kinds of cleanse foods might appeal to you. Begin practicing before the cleanse arrives so you have some established comfort with your new materials. It’s like Spring Training for baseball.
5. Ween off the heavy hitters.
If you are a coffee drinker, a sugar eater, a gluten eater, and/or a whiskey appreciator, you may want to begin to week yourself off these common ingredients that most cleanses abstain from. Going off coffee, sugar, gluten and booze is a lot for some people all overnight. Start drinking decaf or downgrade to green tea. Begin cooking with whole grains instead of serving dinner with bread. Just ease off things as your start date approaches.
Here I offer you one of my favorite cleanse tools. I like to prepare this broth and offer my body not just hydration in the days leading up to my cleanse, but also the rich potassium broth is a great source for electrolytes and building the blood up. I just tote it around in a quart sized mason jar and drink it like a tea.
The Cleansing Potassium Elixir

Ingredients
  • 3 T olive oil
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 1 bunch dark leafy greens (chard, kale, collards)
  • 4 stalks celery, diced
  • 1 beet sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, sliced
  • one knuckle ginger, sliced
  • 1 turnip, cubed
  • 1 onion, diced
  • ¼ stick of kombu
  • 6 cups filtered water
  • a tiny dash of sea salt
  • 1/4t black ground black pepper
Preparation
Heat your olive oil in a heavy pot. Put in your onions, garlic, carrots and celery. Heat these for about 5 minutes. Cover with water and bring to a rolling boil. Add in your beet, turnip, kombu, greens, and ginger. Boil for about 3 minutes and then turn down to simmer for 1.5 hours. Strain out all the vegetables and set aside. Pour your broth into mason jars and add your tiny amount of salt and pepper to taste. You can puree the vegetables for a side dish or compost.
This article originally appeared on MindBodyGreen.
Category: Coaching, Recipes, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized, Workshop / Tags: , ,

Everyone Deserves Healthcare

March 12, 2013 / Coach / No comments

This month I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with so many new people. Part of the reason for this is that I reserve a certain amount of slots in my schedule to work on a sliding scale. Through doing some free Discovery Sessions with clients, I’ve been able to make some discoveries myself about my business. I wanted to post here about one of my sacred kind of beliefs I incorporate into my practice so that maybe I may be able to reach some people who thought I wasn’t available to them. Though there has been a short wait list in the past, right now I have some slots open that work this way:

* I believe EVERYONE deserves healthcare. Because health insurance often doesn’t cover coaching AND because so many of us do not have coverage, I have taken steps since my practice opened to make sure this is a place everyone can come. Individual and couples coaching options retain schedule slots for sliding scale and bartering options for twice a month meetings. This will always be the case, so please write to me if you’d like to work together.

I do not have a traditional sliding scale. I do not make assumptions about people’s finances. I ask the client to take a bit of time to go over their finances and to really see how much money they have available for Health Coaching without adding undue stress onto their financial plate. Often finances can cause such stress that it begins to affect our health, making it a wonderful time to begin coaching and working toward financial fitness and peace as well. When the client has decided what figure works for them from $1- full price, I agree to this.
I always assume that respect for each others’ time and work has been figured into this important relationship. As the client’s financial situation changes, which it often does, check-ins can reflect a change in payment. Bartering is also a wonderful option for coaching.
If you’d like to work with me, do not let finances stand in the way of making progress toward a healthier and happier life.
Warmly,
Sara
Category: Coaching, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , ,

Quit Sugar with Me! Super fun.

March 3, 2013 / Coach / No comments

I’ll be like Julie McCoy, your Cruise Director

It took me so many tries to quit. And there’s no magic to it. But there are tools that make the possibility of success a little bit closer and a lot more fun that just a white knuckle sandwich.

I can’t know the story that brought you here. Maybe it’s all the news you hear about how terrible refined sugar is for your body. Maybe it’s the way Type II Diabetes keeps cropping up all over your family tree, and beside you with friends and co-workers. Or maybe it’s the annoyance of being such a slave to sugar, unable to say no even when you truly want to. Whatever the reason you come to this series, you’ll find the information you need to make changes, you’ll get support, use your inherent creativity, have fun, and build community.

This four-week course will happen on your own time with a group that meets online all day, every day, for the duration of our studies. You can literally come to the group at any time to write what you need or share a discovery with the group. This frees all of us up to have our own schedules and make these meanigful changes in our lives as they happen. You’ll also have a coaching call with me every other week, one on one, to support you through this work. In this way, support can also be customized to your needs.

Each week we’ll tackle a different topic or angle about the Great White Beast. You’ll get handouts and documents to keep for continued support long after the class is over. Together we will do exercises, make recipes, deconstruct cravings, keep journals, and get our bodies moving as we look at our attachment to sugar.

If giving up sugar has been a longtime goal of yours, this course is just the thing to help you.

Join me by signing up right here.

Category: Coaching, Tips and Tricks, Workshop / Tags: , , , , ,

My Article on Quitting Sugar from MindBodyGreen

March 3, 2013 / Coach / No comments

Quitting Sugar is a tough fight, but it’s worth it.

Sugar is taking a public beating this week, as the internet is crammed with articles on why to avoid it, including Michael Moss’s fascinating NYT Magazine piece on processed foods as well as yesterday’s NYT column column by beloved chef Mark Bittman.

Bittman’s article explores findings from a study that links sugar consumption, not obesity, to diabetes. According to the piece, “researchers found that increased sugar in a population’s food supply was linked to higher diabetes rates independent of rates of obesity. In other words, according to this study, obesity doesn’t cause diabetes: sugar does.”

Going beyond the link, Mr. Bittman finally says from the center of chefdom what health coaches and researchers like Dr. Robert Lustig have been saying for years:

Sugar is toxic.

Which is the best reason to quit sugar.

One of the forty million times I quit eating refined sugar (and hopefully the last), I had the magnificent idea to start a journal and track not just my food, but my THOUGHTS about food. How much of my intellectual life was being held hostage by food obsession? And how much of that chokehold was related to sugar? And finally, what might be available to me mentally if all that room was suddenly liberated for me to use in a less exhausting manner than the vicious mistress of obsessive thinking?

I also decided to do a little research about my sweet tooth and see why I felt so helpless in the glitter of its outstretched fingernails. I found this lecture that Dr. Lustig gave a lecture called Sugar: The Bitter Truth in which he shows us that sugar actually stimulates the exact same region of the brain that cocaine goes to work on. I like to call it the Euphoria Lounge. Who doesn’t want to be transported from feelings of suffering, boredom, fear, or betrayal simply by adding a substance to our systems? It is so much easier than talking it out, going for a run, being present in pain or accepting responsibility for things that are causing us harm. NO WONDER I LOVE SUGAR!!

But my journal revealed that the effects of sugar didn’t end simply with the stimulation. Without indulging in the initial impulse, I was able to keep my brain off the endless hamster wheel of desire and denial. “I want this but that’s bad so I can’t.” and then on an even worse day, “I want this so I WILL and now I AM BAD.” Then the sugar appears and the blood sugar Olympics begin their relentless training: the high, the crash, the craving, and mental gymnastics to deny the desire and so forth. And the whole time the mind is engaged in this cycle actively, countless hours are robbed from our waking lives.

So how do we get off the ride? Here are some basic tools for support in quitting sugar, serving the health of your body, and freeing your mind from obsession so you can go about the fantastic business of living.

1. SOUR: Just like on a color wheel where hues opposite from each other cancel each other out, so too is the landscape of our tongues. Having a sugar craving? Grab a pickle. The sour taste will physiologically kill the impulse long enough for you to make a different choice for yourself and mindfully return to the life you are in the middle of living.

2. SUPPORT: Grab a friend or a posse and do it together. The first few days and even two weeks can be so intense when we try and let go of a crutch that no longer serves our health. It’s ok to ask for help and having a friend engaged in a common goal serves to strengthen the entire team. I see this over and over in my group cleanses, how the power of community creates a momentum for everyone.

3. CHANGE OF SCENERY: When the impulse feels at full banshee-monster-head-banging massive, make a physical move. Walk around the block. Take yourself up and down the stairs at the office. Go swimming. Take the dog out. Move from one room of the house to another. Call up your sugar-free pal and talk it out. Remember the craving will pass. Everything does.

4. ADD MORE PLEASURE: Congratulate yourself each day by furnishing yourself with a pleasure. Giving up sugar is not about living in denial, it is about a new perspective of pleasure. Run yourself a gorgeous bath with essential oils and bath salts for added detoxification, aromatherapy, and muscular relaxation. Bring yourself flowers. Treat yourself to a mani/pedi or give one to yourself. Masturbate. Let’s face it, no one is ever mad about an orgasm.

When I was finally able to let go of sugar, I realized through my journal how much of my mental space had been taken up not just by the sugar craving and acrobatics around that, but by just food obsession in general. My mind is now so much freer to be creative, to be curious and alive. My focus is more clear and my relationships with people are deeper, more authentic and loving. I don’t sit with my friend over tea and wonder how long until I get to eat. I sit with my friend over tea and I think about how nice it is to have time to catch up with such a hilarious woman, and how lucky I am to know her.

Category: Coaching, Interviews and Press, Nutrition, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized / Tags: , , ,

Moving Out of the Sugar Shack: An Online Group Coaching Series

January 24, 2013 / Coach / No comments

Time to Move Out

Maybe it’s all the news you hear about how terrbile refined sugar is for your body. Maybe it’s the way Type II Diabetes keeps cropping up all over your family tree, and beside you with friends and co-workers. Or maybe it’s the annoyance of being such a slave to sugar, unable to say no even when you truly want to. Whatever the reason you come to this series, you’ll find the information you need to make changes, you’ll get support, use your inherent creativity, have fun, and build community.

This course will happen on your own time with a group that meets online all day, every day, for the duration of our studies. You can literally come to the group at any time to write what you need or share a discovery with the group. This frees all of us up to have our own schedules and make these meanigful changes in our lives as they happen. You’ll also have a coaching call with me every other week, one on one, to support you through this work. In this way, support can also be customized to your needs.

Each week we’ll tackle a different topic or angle about the Great White Beast. You’ll get handouts, recipes, and documents to keep for continued support long after the class is over. Together we will do exercises, make recipes, deconstruct cravings, keep journals, and get our bodies moving as we look at our attachment to sugar.

If giving up sugar has been a longtime goal of yours, this course is just the thing to help you.

You can register here and join me on this delightful cruise into the next chapter of your life.

Category: Coaching, Nutrition, Workshop / Tags: , , , ,

*Inflammation Station Part 2: The Sweet 16 of Stress Reduction

August 30, 2012 / Coach / No comments

You probably began reading this article because you feel, not just stressed out, but also TRAPPED in that stress. Your life is so packed up, there is no time to edit anything out, change any commitment, or find any space at all to make it to a goddamn yoga class with a mat strapped to your back on a crowded city bus. Or maybe you have too much to do to make the kids are getting their needs met. Or things at work are over the top tight now. You’ll find a way to tae care of yourself as soon as it slows down. But here are some ways to take care of yourself and your stress levels TODAY. NOW. Just pick one from the list and start there. Then  maybe two. Mix it up. Let yourself be healthy.
1.    Breathing – Have you ever found yourself in the middle of an important meeting, when it occurs to you that you’re actually not breathing? If you look further, you might also notice that your heart rate is above normal and your temperature has risen. Taking deep breaths lowers your blood pressure, delivers oxygen to the far reaches of your body, and relaxes your alarm system into peace.
2.    Exercise – You do not have to be bench pressing Toyotas or climbing Mt. Shasta to reap the incredible rewards of exercise in terms of stress management. Exercise of any kind releases endorphins, your body’s own personal Dr. Feelgood chemicals. It also elevates your mood and self-confidence, while improving your sleep and increasing your overall daily energy reserves. Start slow. But start now.
3.    Creativity - When we engage in an act of creation, we can achieve a kind of focus similar to the concentration achieved through a meditation practice. Allowing yourself the time and space to focus on knitting a scarf, spinning a ceramic ewer or crafting a hilarious blog helps you to be present with yourself without tripping out on the future or the past. The act itself slows the pace of things and your body responds by relaxing, counteracting the effects of toxic stress.
4.    Schedule time for Yourself – Your calendar has a ton of things in it. Sally’s birthday dinner, a presentation for the marketing department, a training HR is sending you to attend for a whole weekend,. What it probably doesn’t say is “Wednesday from 2-3:30. Take self for a walk along the water. Read new detective novel on my favorite bench in the park. Go to the fencing class you’ve always wanted to go to.” Prioritize time for yourself at least once a week. Making this commitment actually strengthens your commitments to others, diminishing your overall stress levels of feeling, ironically, overcommitted.
5.    Interspecies Pals – Hang out with your dog Gus. Or your cat Parsnip. Or your fish Thelonius. Being with animals not only provides us comfort, but often it highlights simplicity and strips down the stress we labor under. Food. Shelter. Love. And a nice swim, except maybe for Parsnip.
6.    Sleep – Getting a good night’s sleep can improve our concentration, our effectiveness and our energy levels. Try to lay off the liquids 2-3 hours before bed so as not to interrupt your slumber with an insistent bladder. Cut off the caffeine about 7 hours before you turn in. And try to get in bed the same time every night. Keeping yourself consistent with your pillow will begin to ratchet down your stress levels.
7.    Hilarity – Go ahead and laugh your ass off. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the release of endorphins. Laughter also stimulates circulation and aids muscle relaxation, both of which help reduce the physical symptoms of stress.
8.    Stretch – Yoga is great for stress. But look, I’m just going to go ahead and say it. It’s ok to hate yoga. Really. You don’t have to tote a little mat around town or invest in Lululemon wardrobes to reap the benefits of stretching. Just go ahead and start your day by doing five minutes of stretching and see how things go. You will be in more alignment, more embodied, and begin your whole day grounded. Literally.
9.    Dance and Sing –You can go out with friends and get lost in the thrill of a great sound system or stay home and get wild with whatever blows your dress up. Abandon and fun in a totally physical sense decrease your stress levels and free you from the tangle of daily irritation
10. Eat a Healthy Diet – Start your day with breakfast. Always. Starting your day with complex carbs, slow digesting fuel, will keep you full and energized for your morning. Keep your diet balanced, your consumption of refined sugars limited, and pile your plate with colorful produce. A balanced diet of whole foods and produce keeps your stress levels down and your blood sugar stable. This results in a more consistent energy and mood throughout the day.
11. Get loud about it – According to a recent study in Great Britain, work-related stress can be relieved by up to one quarter by letting out a good scream. Get primal. Just let it rip.
12. Call a Friend – You don’t have to do it alone. Call someone you trust and air out your stress. Let people go through it with you. The bonds of your relationships will strengthen, you can get it out of your head, and ultimately, you will take solace in human connection, an experience proven to reduce stress.
13. Gratitude – Studies show that cultivating gratitude can be one of the greatest weapons against stress out there. Keep a gratitude list by your bed and each night or morning (whichever suits you best) write down three things you’re grateful for. Everything from your new socks to a stable of wonderful friends. Begin cataloging all the things about life that rule, three at a time each day.
14. Get your Financial House in Order - If looking at finances gives you sharp emotional vertigo, schedule five minutes a day to begin assessing where you are. Just 5. And at the end of five minutes, move on with your life. Engaging yourself slowly and daily will build confidence, shake you quite gently out of denial, and put you on the road to making choices based in reality. Soon five minutes will turn to ten and then fifteen and healthy choices on that front will lead to peace and recovery in other venues.
15. Delegate – Do you hate spending so much time at the laundromat? Drop it off. Does looking for parking make you nuts? Take public transportation or treat yourself to a walk. Does paying bills drive you crazy? Set up automatic payments. I am not saying these are the right answers for you, I am just saying there ARE answers for you and you can take action to strip stressful things from your life.
16. 1979 Time – This is my favorite. Turn off your phone for an hour a day. Walk away from your computer. Close Facebook. Turn off the television. Just one hour a day. Read a poem. Go look at a tree or the sky. They get more and more fascinating if you let them. People really can wait an hour to hear from you or get an email response.

Think of all these things like a Venn diagram with overlapping circles or a fascinating chain reaction of good stuff. If you get a good night’s sleep, you wake with more energy and feel inspired to make yourself some steel cut oats for breakfast. Once that happens your morning is fully fueled and your cravings for sugar and caffeine diminish. Highs and valleys even out and your blood sugar stays healthy throughout your day. You take yourself away from your desk at lunch and sit outside in the sun reading a battered copy of Moby Dick you always meant to get to. That lights your creative spark and you plan a quick picnic dinner for your sweetheart and the two of you enjoy a pleasant evening together with no texting or TV reminding you why you are lucky to have companionship in your life. That leads you to remember other ways your life has delivered gifts like how your dentist told you your teeth look great.

The Domino effect works in both directions. Set yourself up for some serenity today. The world will do its part to offer you stress, so don’t keep helping it out. It’s doing just fine and it completely supports your new plan to give yourself abundance. And so do I.

*The original version of this first appeared in the WONDERFUL blog, MindBodyGreen

Category: Coaching, Fitness, Tips and Tricks / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Interview for Original Plumbing with Thomas McBee

May 31, 2012 / Coach / No comments

This is an interview I got to do with the brilliant writer, Thomas McBee on the Original Plumbing website for Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos‘ print magazine dedicated to the sexuality and culture of FTM Trans guys. It was Halloween of last year, but health is timeless.

 Holistic Tips with Coach Seinberg

by THOMAS MCBEE on OCTOBER 31, 2011

I’m a little woo. That’s become clearer since I returned to the East Coast after spending my formative mid-to-late 20s in NorCal. I regularly use my Android to find out the moon signs of near-strangers, and if I could be reborn anything, straight up–I’d want to be a mystic. So, when I began taking T in June, I got interested in holistic care for some of the more common side effects. I bought tea tree shampoo to deal with my oily scalp, ate tons of bananas to increase potassium for my cramps, and listened to my body when it told me I need like like 10 gallons of water in order to function. I focused on meditating to work with hormonal rebalancing and I increased lean protein to help deal with my sudden desire to eat like I’d never see food again.

My instinct to do this got me thinking: a lot of us feel deeply connected to our bodies for the first time in our lives, and it follows that now would be a good time to develop habits of self-care that are empowered and healthy. I’ve been working hard around to do so, but not everybody has been immersed in the world of slow food, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and acupuncture, so I thought I’d do a little practical alternative medicine/nutrition information gathering and bring the woo to you.

For help, I spoke to my friend, the brilliant Sara Seinberg, Holistic Health Coach. Here’s her explanation of her work:
“I help clients discover and live the lives they have always known they could have: healthy, energized, honest, authentic and joyful. Using nutrition as a starting point, I work with clients to employ new ways of eating that support making these amazing changes and provide sane and sustainable modes of self care for each person.”

Sounds good! So, what should transitioning folks keep in mind? “Cooking at home might be the single most heroic action of self care a transman can take,” Sara says.

“Cooking at home guarantees that your food is prepared with care and with as many organic ingredients as possible. In the big picture, it’s also of note that cooking at home cuts costs, even organically, as compared to eating out. You can choose healthy oils to cook with (cold-pressed and organic), whole grains, and eat as much in-season, fresh produce as you can. When buying produce, choose food that has traveled the least, and looks the most interesting to you.

“Chew more. Your body will adjust to the food entering it and respond at a respectable rate, cutting down on overeating and intestinal distress. And try to always eat sitting down, but in your car doesn’t count. Eating is the thing that fuels your ENTIRE LIFE. If we respect it, our lives will reflect it.

“Put as many colors on your plate as possible: dark greens, yellows, and reds. More colors equals more nutrients. And of special note to all transmen, especially vegetarians: avoid soy. It is one of the most genetically modified crops in our country, and it is often over processed. It also contains phytoestrogen (plant-based estrogen). Try almond milk or hemp or hazelnut, switch out your tofu to quinoa, a superhero, as a perfect protein.”

Raise your hand if this is news to you. I am shocked. Soy! Fattening, and full of estrogen and modified crops. Boo.

“And while we’re talking about it, guess what else has estrogen in it? Beer, people. According to the phenomenal herbalist Dori Midnight, ’3.5 oz of hops contains 30, 000- 300,000 IU of estrogen, including estradiol, which lowers T and binds to free T in bloodstream, making it unavailable.’

What should trans guys in particular focus on in our diets?  ”Most Americans in generally amble through the world in a state of dehydration to some degree. With the introduction of T into the system along with the stress of a massive change in life, flushing out toxins is imperative. Try to slowly add water consumption into life. Tote a stainless steel or glass water bottle with you. Its presence and weight serve as a reminder to drink it. You don’t have to push yourself from one glass a day to eight. Work slowly in a way that you can maintain. Go from one glass to two. Do that for four or five days. Then try three. And so on.

“Also, in the world of H2O, when cooking your whole grains at home, make sure to rinse them first. Phytic acid is contained in the hulls of nuts, grains, and seeds and is indigestible in our systems. And even more, it is a bully of an acid that renders the body incapable of absorbing Iron and Zinc, which are important for our health, especially for bodies in transition.

“For extra intense hippie cred: sprout that shiz. Sprouted grains retain their natural plant enzymes which are beneficial for helping digestion. In addition, sprouted grains support the growth of good bacteria, help to keep the colon clean, and are high in protective antioxidants, which bind to free radicals in the system, man.”

What else does Coach Seinberg prescribe for a body in transition? Duh.

“Exercise, exercise, exercise! Stretching is of terrific importance, with muscle mass increasing and shifting locations as well. Keeping your  body stretched out will ease the pain of growth spurts and provide some good time for sustained and even breathing, bringing your mind into a more serene place to have multi-dimensional perspective on all the changes you are shouldering.  Aerobic work for raising the heart rate can be a productive place to put temper management skills into place and creates a better sleep environment.

“While you’re at it, the pesky second round of acne you may be suffering through will find a valiant opponent in sweat. This salty work partner cleans out pores and tightens skin. In addition, physical endurance work can translate well into the bedroom for newly brightened libidos. Just saying’

“If you have always been a person who liked exercise, try to switch up your routine some. Add in strength work or tack on ten minutes to your cardio routine. If you are new to moving your body, give yourself room to grow. If you have the opportunity to work with a trainer, do that. If that’s not possible, find a support group online or add an affirmation app to your phone for support.

“Start with realistic goals you can stick to. Maybe decide to do ten modified push ups a day with a friend and text each other each day when you finish. Get off the train one stop early and walk further. Take the stairs. Work your way up. You’ll be surprised to find out just how much your body can do, how great it feels, and to realize how much impact exercise has on your life not just during it, but for the other 23 hours a day as well. Star right where you are. Start today.”

Right now I want to run home and work out, which means Sara’s work here is done. But what about supplements?

“There are great medical and supplemental resources out there for transmen. Intended for other doctors, Dr. R. Nick Gorton and Dean Spade Esq. penned Medical Therapy and Health Maintenance for Transgender Men: A Guide for Healthcare Providers which is also helpful for transmen who, like so many, have had less than ideal experiences with the world of healthcare. It is available for free online.

“Another book I love is The Family Herbal, a classic by Rosemary Gladstar which can guide people to herbal remedies and support for a stressed system. Finally, The Male Herbal by James Green gives men recipes for tinctures and tea and a comprehensive plant based cornucopia of information for herbal health.”
Thanks, Coach Seinberg! If you’d like to talk to her more about your personal healthcare goals, consider becoming a client!  And dudes–be well! The world needs you.
Category: Coaching, Interviews and Press, Nutrition, Tips and Tricks / Tags: , , , , ,

On the Road Again

May 30, 2012 / Coach / No comments

It’s Memorial Day. Or as my client’s partner refers to it, “Old Memmy”. I spent part of this morning pausing to think about all the casualties of war. Not just those of American soldiers, but also the soldiers and civilians in all countries, and what it costs us to witness this recurring and painful phenomenon. There are the deaths of the soldiers, the townspeople, and also the pieces of all the survivors left to the haunting of it. The collateral damage spreads to all of us to shoulder. And so for all of us this day, I wish for peace.

And after my pause: I went to the ballpark to see my first San Francisco Giants game of the season. I’ve been trying to keep up with them this season and I don’t have a TV in my house. So I just signed up for MLB.TV, and it’s like being in grad school for baseball. I love it. So do our local seagulls. 

It’s is also the kind of unofficial start to summer. Picnic baskets come up from the basement, charcoal vanishes from shelves at the market by the palletful, and we begin checking to make sure all the tent stakes are in the bag for camping trips. Piling our dogs, partners, kids and weekend flings into the car, we hit the road. We also hit the road snacks and after 500 miles of mystery meat burgers, deep fried “chicken”, and electric blue Slurpees, maybe we feel like hell by the time we make the campsite or spread our towels on the beach. Now, I am seduced by the glamor of the blue tongue as much as the next guy, but I thought just in case you might be in the market for some road trip choices that could sit a little easier on the ole gut, I put together a few suggestions for your summer enjoyment. 

Here you go: as Chet Baker would say, Let’s Get Lost in the best possible way.

1. Magic Phone Most of us travel now with a lot of power in the palms of our hands. Our food choices are not limited to whatever we see on the exit signs or from the long highway. We can put technology to use! It’s worth it to look for local co-ops and grocery stores along the way as you roll through towns and collect some real food. Salad bars, deli counters and healthier choices in grab and go form can be yours for usually less than a mile of your time.

2. Farm Stands Pull right the hell over for these beauties. The symbiosis of commerce really sings here. The American farmer needs you, and your body craves the nutrients of fresh produce. Stands sometimes even have picnic tables for you to relax at. Stretch your legs, chew your fresh food, and breathe in the air of your newfound vacation days as the yellow lines of the pavement make their way to a horizon line. We really live in a gorgeous burg, the America place, and slowing down to look at it for 20 minutes is a real treat.

3. Bring it! Bring the farm stand with you! Pack a blanket in the car and pull over onto a generous shoulder with a view or find an exit with a park. Unpack your little cooler of healthy snacks from home and take in a driving break. You’ll save money, see a new place, and have some say in your own nutrition. 

But what’s a good snack? What if it’s all gas stations and mini-marts? What do you bring in the car that’s not a huge undertaking or some kind of gourmet pain in the ass? How about these:

1. Carrots and hummus: This is my number one go to healthy easy snack. It’s tasty, crunchy, packed with nutrients. Hits the sweet craving and the salty. You got protein, vitamins, and lots of chewing.

2. Melon Melange : Cut up a watermelon. Dice up some basil. Crumble a tiny bit of goat feta on it and mix it up. Chill overnight and put in a container for the trip. Divine.

3. Greek Yogurt: Packed with protein, this is the perfect snack to get up and go with. I like to add some Chia seeds to mine. I also crush up 3 walnut halves, a fat strawberry, and drizzle a tiny bit of raw honey on top. Maple syrup works just as nicely for the vegan friends in the house. You get protein, some healthy complex carbs, fiber, and essential fatty acids with this combo, PLUS the yogurt comes in its own bowl you can recycle at the road stop when you stretch.

4. Cucumber Lemon Water: It’s just better and fancier than regular water. Lemon slices and cucumber slices brighten up your drink. Put the whole thing in the freezer and as it melts throughout the trip, you’re summer refresher keeps on giving. Hydration station.

5. Chilled Rice Bowl: Brown rice, steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, shiitakes, edamame, acorn squash, sea vegetables, beets, whatever) in a miso sauce. Blend 1/4 c. chickpea miso with 3T olive oil, some peeled fresh ginger, 2 cloves peeled garlic, 2t rice vinegar, and the juice of one lemon. You’re golden.

Now, Drive Safe. Bring good music. Have a blast.

 

Category: Coaching, Cooking, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , ,

My Interview About Imperfection as Muse

May 26, 2012 / Coach / No comments

I was honored to be featured on the Blog of my recent alma mater, The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I’m excited to have such a forum to talk about why I love my job and how I swear a lot.

The Road to Wellness: Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway

by Bridget Shannon

Sara Seinberg, who recently graduated from theHealth Coach Training Program in May, was stuck. She was working a good job, and doing some freelance writing and photography, but her health was a different story. For her 40thbirthday she made a big move and signed up for a marathon. Recognizing a powerful inner strength upon completing the race, she made the decision to get her health back on track, and the rest is history.

Sara is one of the most creative and authentic Health Coaches I’ve encountered, and she has a real knack for relating her own story to how she now helps others. She coaches people, out of her San Francisco practice, Seinberg Holistic Health Coaching, around nutrition, but also emotional eating and self-awareness. I got a chance to catch up with her recently, and her method of developing the inner critic into a useful tool, and her ability to attract the right clients are fascinating. This interview highlights her successful journey and what she’s up to now.

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?

At 39 I realized I’d been living in my body rent-free for years. After a hunk of drug use, decades of emotional eating, and a nice side order of self-loathing, I decided to do something epic in honor of 40: the San Francisco Marathon. In July 2010, I finished it. The process wasn’t cute or heroic. I didn’t do well and I didn’t shine. What I did do was become a woman who could face her fears and blow her own mind.

Once I made that decision, I found the school in no time, and got right into it. I knew I could get healthy and hold space that would help others make their way to health too. If I could make my way to thriving from the places I had known, anyone could do it, and the beauty is that they could do it their way.

Which parts of the program had an impact on your success?

Debbie Ford! Also, Deepak Chopra, and Geneen Roth were very impactful.

I loved the coaching focused things and the spiritual topics. I know the root of any eating problems for myself and many of my clients has to do with shame or emotional landscape. I also love working with food allergies and helping people to navigate their way to healthier and happier lives.

How did your life change after enrolling?

I got back into the kitchen and began to really use my creative force for health. I focused on school while I worked and I had faith that the challenges I faced, like being a businesswoman, could be handled and I didn’t have to do it perfectly. I could stumble and blow it and get right back up. No. Big. Deal. It’s my actual job as a human to be imperfect, and I definitely had experience in that arena. I had more fun. I laughed more. I felt less stressed out and my skin glowed. I began to put my punkrock version of perfectionism down and practice being who I actually was.

Do you have any tips or guidelines for accepting and embracing imperfection?

In my newfound life of using imperfection as my greatest muse, the world is a thing of great expanse and beauty. In the world of perfection, the options, as you can imagine, are severely limited. The very fiber of the definition of humanity is the necessity of learning from mistakes. And so if I must make mistakes, my goal then is to make new ones. Make interesting ones. It begs me to try new things, go to a hula class and look hapless and not care. Am I trying to get a date? No. I am trying to move my body and appreciate it as it is today. Was I born to be an Olympic long distance runner? No. I wasn’t even born to be very good at all. But I was born into this body and to have the experiences of creativity, love, family, art, travel, connection and taste, I need to be living in this body. It is my home.

And so it is my job to upkeep the property of my life experience. I support people in coaching to find what makes meaning for them. Together we identify these things and then use experimentation and vast opportunities we have for imperfection to build the truth that it will not kill us. No matter how many times we fall out of a yoga pose, burn the brown rice or wear the wrong outfit to work, we continue on and we have room to thrive. And we may even discover a new outfit along the way.

What’s the connection between creativity and food? Does this concept play into your work inspiring people who have trouble letting go of inner criticism?

Yes! I coach people not to pummel their inner critics or banish them. Our inner critics have been with us through thick and thin. They know us very well and have an enormous amount of information if we pay attention to them in a way that is supportive. Instead of trying to dethrone inner critics, I coach my clients to install a seat beside them and offer the critic companionship. Together we develop their inner advocate who then banters with the critic. Once the client develops a relationship with this advocate, let’s call her Blanche, then there can be an exchange that slowly moves the balance of power within motivation. Because each client is inherently creative, not just artists, the creative process of bringing Blanche to life and giving her voice, style and swagger gives the client a jumping off point of using creativity as a major lynchpin to healthy living.

What makes you and your practice unique?

Well, I’m pretty funny. I approach coaching from a place of abundance, with an artist’s sensibility. I bring a lot of creative work into the practice, a lot of work around acceptance and using our inner critics as guides to shaping our inner advocates.

Then we make colorful, off the hook meals that we look forward to and love. There is no more kitchen dread.

How does your own journey to wellness inspire your clients and others around you?

Everyone has a story. In fact, it’s one of the only things no one can take from us. It is solely and always ours. I have my own journey to wellness out there on my site and to some extent in a blog I wrote but when my clients arrive, it’s always about their story. Our time is about them and their stories. Through asking a lot of questions, I cull strengths from aspects of their lives to use as support in their wellness journeys. For example, a talented manager uses incisive skills to encourage collaboration for a team at the office. I can use this skill to help them build a collaborative project outside work that will support their wellness, like a cooking swap co-op or a grab bag exercise group where each week a different member picks and plans an exercise for the group. I may use my story to relate to the client, but never at the expense of my story being THE story. I feel deeply committed to the narrative of the client being the most important ingredient to successfully establishing healthy, sustainable, fun patterns.

How do you help your clients be successful? Is there a standout session or relationship you can recall?

I am leading my first cleanse right now and my clients are all reporting huge amounts of focus. Spring allergies are vanishing and stress is falling away for people. The executives are sleeping better and the struggling artists are freer in their processes, unfettered by the expectations of the galleries and the critics.

My first 6-month graduate came to see me with recurring stomach problems, a desire to feel stronger, and to have more energy. She is an overworked teacher with a crammed schedule and a fierce dedication to her students. We used her sense loyalty to her students as a tool for her own health. She ran her first 5k the Saturday before our last session and her stomach problems have been gone for three months.

What do you love about your work?

I love that the exact right clients find me. I enjoy the sense I have of making a difference and also the idea that I can get out of the way and facilitate people making the changes that are best for them. I am not steering the ship. I am a humbled hand on deck and a witness to intense and gorgeous transformation. It’s incredible.

Is there anything you can recommend to other coaches who may be struggling with targeting a specific market or finding the right clients?

I’ve been a working artist and writer for about 20 years. My community was pretty well established when I came to this coaching work. Attracting the right clients to me had everything to do with being myself no matter how much I felt like no one would take me seriously or pay me to help them. I knew my journey was true and that I could help people make theirs true as well. Through my writing and photography, I built a website utilizing my own creative work to support my health coaching. I write articles frequently augmented by tons of photographs and I write the way I talk. I’m a very casual gal, I often swear like a sailor, and I have more tattoos on my hands alone than most people have on their whole bodies. It won’t work for me to try and pretend to be a buttoned up career professional girl straight out of Wall Street.

I find the right clients because I have a practice of coming up against my fear and shame and saying, “Oh, Hello. It’s you again. Here to tell me how I am not really enough. It’s been nice to see you, and I’m sure I’ll see you again very soon, but if you could excuse me now, I’ve got some work to do with people who can really honestly relate to me and change their stories about health to live the lives they dream they can.” I believe that it’s often shame or the struggle to be a certain way we think people want is what keeps us from really just showing up to do the work. School gave us everything we needed to begin, our tenacity and passion for change will keep us studying nutrition, fitness, and spiritual options for our clients, and through any kind of grace at all, it’ll keep us honest along the way.

Category: Coaching, Interviews and Press, Uncategorized / Tags: , , ,

Spring Fling Cleanse!!!

March 20, 2012 / Coach / No comments

Friday, April 6, 2012 at 6:00 AM - Friday, April 27, 2012 at 6:00 PM

 

Are you ready to clean up for Spring? Fling the toxins from your life and re-boot? Take some time for yourself and refocus on what you truly hunger for and where your path is headed.

Seinberg Holistic Health Coaching is leading a 3 week cleanse program that draws from a variety of traditions: Ayurvedic, Macrobiotic, Vegan, and several other gems. Through experience and research I’ve culled a gentle program to support detoxing and rebooting without starving and suffering. This cleanse is not about what you can’t have, but what you GET TO have. Each morning will be greeted with a filling delicious smoothie and a warm beverage. Lunch will bring you a feast of clean eating, a fantastic meal packed with flavor, pleasure, nutrients and satisfaction. Evening will bring you a hearty soup or another smoothie if you like. Fresh juices can also be incorporated into the cleanse for those of you with juicers. Maybe this is just the thing that you need to get your juicing on, but to be clear, you can do this cleanse without the investment in a costly, if not AWESOME, juicer. We will also be keeping a log or a journal, looking at our skin as a major detox route, and incorporating quiet periods into our days, flinging the white noise and chatter out for this gorgeous seasonal opportunity to get CLARITY.

Together we will meet on the web and be in touch through email as a group. The sharing of experiences, recipes, ideas, struggles, and common crossroads will add to the whole experience of prioritizing your health for the new season of the sun. You do not have to purchase fancy equipment or hundreds of dollars worth of supplements. A blender will be needed. I got mine at an estate sale for like 12 bucks. The program incorporates a holistic approach to cleansing that is not just about whole food, but also about rest, time, sweat, creativity, joy, and quiet.

If you are currently under the care of a physician, please talk to your doctor about doing any cleansing first, even a gentle cleanse like the Spring Fling.

Join this maiden voyage at an explorer rate of only $100 each for a three week support system and experience. Registration ends March 30, one week before the clease begins so we can prepare our minds and bodies for this amazing experience. Join from anyplace at all!

Ready. Willing. Able. PERIOD.

Register now at http://seinberghealthspringfling.eventbrite.com/

Who doesn't want this for their cleanse?!?

Category: Coaching, Workshop / Tags: , ,
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