health notes
a living library of notes on having more energy
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Why: It can be easy to only move your body in the ways you’ve been taught growing up or in classes. Free yourself to experiment with moving in different ways!
For example, if you’re stretching or dancing or doing a yoga flow at home, experiment with moving in ways that feel good to your body, without worrying if it’s a “real” move.
Because the mind and body are connected, I find that physically moving in new ways encourages new ideas and thought patterns. If you’re feeling stuck or want to get creative, try it out.
Why: We can do a lot on our own, but healing has a ceiling when we stay isolated.
The real work is stepping back into where it started: relationships.
Through active listening, curiosity, and empathy, we rewrite old patterns together.
Find the people who help you feel safe and supported again — without them, it’s easy to shut down and call it self-protection.
Set boundaries with those who can’t meet you there yet. If they’re still not friends with their own pain, they won’t know how to be friendly with yours either.
Finding your people takes trial and error. Keep going!
If you’re not sure what the next step is, try things.
For example, if you regularly overeat/eat when you’re not hungry, check in with how you’re feeling and if you might be using food to avoid something.
If you are, write down 10 healthier things you could experiment with doing instead.
Don’t put pressure on yourself to find the right one right away, just commit to experimenting. :)
Why: Food can heal, and it can also be the root of health and mood issues.
Regularly eating highly-processed foods that cause stress and inflammation in your body can lead to disease over time.
I’ve worked with clients who have overcome rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, acne, bloating/gut inflammation, clinical depression, and daily panic attacks — simply by changing what they eat.
Limiting processed foods and understanding your food sensitivities can not heal many health issues, but it can also change the way you look (e.g. I became drastically less puffy by identifying my food sensitivities!).
…you have so much within your control before reaching those limitations.
Epigenetic expression is how your choices — environment, habits, stress, nutrition, sleep, etc. — flip certain genes “on” or “off.”
Blaming genetics can be tempting as the easy way out — owning the rest means taking responsibility and doing something about it.
1) be uncomfortable staying the same, or
2) be uncomfortable leveling up
Staying the same can feel like the easy way out — it’s familiar, and our brains associate familiar with safe. We can also excuse our lack of change by blaming something else, thereby avoiding taking responsibility or action.
But staying the same eventually feels hard too, so we might as well change and make it rewarding!
Why: It sounds annoying, but we can train ourselves to look at obstacles as opportunities.
Each one teaches us something we can learn from in order to move forward.
What’s a frustration you could look at with more curiosity?
Examples:
Ugh my weight is up again! → Hmm, why is my weight up again?
I’m totally off track again today, what’s wrong with me?! → What’s not working and how can I plan for tomorrow?
I have so far to go, I’m never going to reach my goal. → How can I put one foot in front of the other today?
Why: Somatic healing helps us feel safe by healing trauma-related stress responses through the body and nervous system regulation (not just big T trauma but the traumas we all have as part of the human experience).
When we don’t know how to do this for ourselves, we turn to coping mechanisms instead—seeking validation, controlling behaviors, people-pleasing, seeking attention, over-giving, over-performing, over-eating, alcohol, drugs, sex, video games, etc.
Creating safety within gets to the root of many struggles—including, for some clients I work with, lifelong eating patterns that aren’t resolved with 1) more nutritional info, 2) custom macro targets, or 3) mindset work.
The best part is that this practice doesn’t ask you to change your thoughts or behaviors, because as you feel safer, your thoughts and behaviors naturally align with your intentions.
Get good at listening
Why: Your body’s sensations — hunger, fatigue, tension — are the data that helps you make choices for your health.
Awareness improves how you move, eat, rest, look, and feel.
Why: Consistent, high-quality sleep keeps your emotions balanced and is one of the biggest ways to support your energy, focus, and motivation levels.
Sleep balances cortisol, insulin, and other key hormones that control stress, appetite, and metabolism.
Not getting enough can negatively impact your skin, posture, and outlook — take your emotions after a night of rough sleep with a grain of salt!
How much: Aim for 7–9 hours per night, depending on your current stress and activity levels.
Why: When you’re hydrated, you feel more awake and energized, recover faster after movement, and think more clearly. Water also moves nutrients through your body, helps with digestion, and keeps circulation steady.
How much: Aim for about half your body weight in ounces per day — more if you’re active or sweating.
Why: Magnesium is involved in over 300 bodily processes, including energy production, muscle contraction, nerve signaling, blood sugar regulation, and protein synthesis. It’s essential for balance, performance, and recovery.
Modern diets don’t provide enough, so supplementation can be helpful.
Types:
Glycinate — best for sleep, calm, and recovery.
Malate — good for energy production and muscle function.
Threonate — crosses the blood–brain barrier; good for focus and mood.
Citrate — helpful for digestion.
Why: I think of exercising on low energy as going into “energy debt.” It can raise cortisol, increase inflammation, and slow recovery to feeling balanced again.
Because high cortisol can cause the body store fat around its organs, resting is actually more beneficial than the workout for your physique too.
Rest gives your energy levels a chance to recover, your body a chance to repair, and your nervous system to settle, allowing you to perform better and benefit more from your next workout.
Why: Think of your bloodstream like a river — regular movement keeps it flowing rather than being a stagnant pond.
Healthy bloodflow delivers oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and organs, helping you feel energized. It supports recovery processes and digestion, and keeps your skin looking fresh.
It also supports mental clarity and mood, which is why walks can be so valuable for mental health too.
Why:
Sugar can reduce sensitivity to signals that tell you you’re full, making you eat more overall
The liver processes excess sugar into fat, which can contribute to fatty liver over time
Spikes and dips in blood sugar can affect energy levels, focus, mental clarity, and mood
Frequently eating sugar can trigger reward pathways in the brain, making it habit-forming
If you’re trying to reduce your sugar intake, start by replacing highly processed options with minimally processed versions like fruit, dark chocolate, yogurt – without limiting portion sizes at first, so you don’t try to change too much at once. These foods can satisfy cravings with fewer calories and less inflammation.
Why: When you under-eat for too long, your body responds by conserving energy — slowing metabolism, increasing fatigue, and holding onto fat stores for safety.
Eating enough signals that it’s safe to use energy, rather than storing it as fat.
Many of the people I’ve worked with who struggle with fat loss are actually eating too little / not consistently getting enough to eat.
Why: Low electrolytes can show up as extreme fatigue, poor concentration, headaches, cravings, and that “wired but tired” feeling.
Helpful sources are high-quality salts (sea salt, Himalayan), mineral-rich foods (leafy greens, beans, nuts), and low-sugar electrolyte drinks.
Why: Vitamin D is a hormone precursor, meaning your body needs it to make hormones that regulate energy, mood, immunity, and metabolism.
Being low can leave you tired, moody, more prone to illness, and make fat loss harder.
Ways to get it: Regular sunlight exposure, eating vitamin-D–rich foods (like eggs, salmon, and mushrooms), or taking a supplement.
Why: Eating sugar and high-glycemic carbs alone can cause a spike-and-crash and mood dips.
Protein and fats are more slowly digested than carbs, so eating them as part of a balanced meal keeps you full longer and your blood sugar steadier.
Why: Eating a palm-sizing serving of protein at each meal is a great way to help with fat loss, body composition, and overall health.
It helps you full longer, stabilizes blood sugar and mood, and supports muscle repair.
It’s also essential for maintaining healthy hormone production—especially for women, who often under-eat it relative to what their metabolism and hormones need.
When protein is consistently low, it can show up as irregular hunger, low energy, hair shedding, dull skin, mood swings, weaker workouts, slower recovery, and stubborn body-composition changes that don’t match the effort you’re putting in.
Why: Your body naturally releases cortisol in the morning — a built-in “wake up” hormone. If you have caffeine before that system does its job, you train your body to rely on coffee instead of its own chemistry.
Why: Protein and healthy fats are digested more slowly, helping you feel full for longer.
Sugar and high-glycemic carbs are more quickly digested, so you might feel hungry again more quickly. They’re also what we tend to overeat more than protein or healthy fats.
Why: Sleep deprivation makes it more likely for your body to reach for fast energy foods (i.e. carbs) to compensate for low energy.
Lack of sleep also causes your body to create more ghrelin (hunger hormone) and less leptin (fullness), affecting your hunger cues.
Why: Movement helps your muscles use up some of that sugar for energy so it’s not floating around your bloodstream. It helps keep your blood sugar more stable and make it easier for your body to respond to insulin.
Go for a walk, dance, or do some squats!
If you eat more carbs than you need for your current activities, your body turns them into fat to store for later, an intelligent survival mechanism.
Why: Crash diets don’t work because you can’t eat that way for the rest of your life. The goal is “the middle way”, where your favorite foods are still part of your routine.
Freedom is being able to make healthy choices out of awareness of energy balance and what works best for you – not by blindly following restrictive rules.
When you understand how different foods affect your body and support your needs, you can make intentional choices that move you toward health and joy.
Why: Pesticides often stay on or just under the skin, even after washing.
Why: When you hand responsibility to (a.k.a. blame) other people or circumstances for the challenges you face, you give away your power—including your power to change what’s going on.
Whether it’s self-care habits or conflicts with others, giving others the steering wheel prevents you from getting where you want.
Sometimes blame feels better because our ego hates being wrong. But it actually feels better to drop the fight, be honest, and get back in the driver’s seat.
Blaming or complaining can also subconsciously signal to others weakness, a lack of integrity, or being out of control. This is why taking responsibility is an especially important trait of a strong leader. A good book to learn more about this concept is Extreme Ownership by former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink.
Of course, there are legitimately challenging people or circumstances you might be dealing with, and it can be tricky to know how much responsibility to take.
In relationships, this is where empathy comes in. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and earnestly look at the situation from their point of view—how would you feel?
With habits, this is where the power of choice comes in. Where can you make a different choice? What do you have control over, even if inconvenient or challenging?
Examples of how we give our power/responsibility away:
“It’s just my age / genetics” → avoiding changes in nutrition, movement, sleep, or stress because improvement feels inconvenient or uncertain
“They made me react that way” → avoiding looking at boundaries, communication, or patterns you keep participating in
“I don’t have time / money / energy” → not taking charge of how your time, money, or energy are actually being spent
“This is just how I am” → protecting an identity instead of evolving
“Once things calm down, I’ll focus on my health” → outsourcing your well-being to a future that never arrives
Remember, you are SO much more powerful than you think. And sometimes holding that much power can be uncomfortable! But the more you own it, the more you access. 💗