Treat Yourself: Healthy New Year Gifts That Santa Forgot

We made it to the new year! If you’re anything like me, you’re probably still adjusting back into real life while dusting off a trail of cookie crumbs, Christmas tree needles, and wrapping paper behind you.

If Santa ignored all those holiday gift guides you sent him, and your healthy wishlist remains unfulfilled, I have some ideas for some self-care gifts to treat yourself, and to help you transition into a healthy new year.

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If drinking more water and not taking yourself too seriously are your New Year’s Resolutions, you can kill two birds with one stone.

What gets measured gets managed. Yes, we all have the apps, but there is something refreshing about recording your progress with a pen and paper. Achieve all those New Year’s fit resolutions with a health-focused planner.

What you eat is as important as how you train. If you want to eat healthier and fuel your runs properly in the new year, this Runner’s World cookbook has got you covered.

If you need a boost of daily motivation to kick off the new year, try this run calendar to inspire you all year long.

If your new year’s resolution is to read more books, Atomic Habits will help you build sustainable, healthy habits in the new year. I’m reading this now and loving it! Kick those bad habits and build new habits to achieve all your goals in life.

If you are striving for moderation in the new year, this wine glass will help you balance running and wine.

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BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!
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Holiday Health Without The Hustle

We often hear about the need for a "holiday survival kit," but just using the word survival suggests the season is something difficult we must simply endure. The truth is, the holidays provide a wonderful chance to build connection and lean into celebration.

This season, avoid the all-or-nothing trap of thinking you must "start over in January." The most lasting success is built by practicing flexibility now. Learn to use the Dial Mindset Method to adjust your effort based on life's reality and the Nutrition Continuum to make small, incremental upgrades to your eating. Your goal is not perfection, but consistency, which leads to confidence and long-term health success beyond the holidays.

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A Different Perspective on Workplace Wellness: Moving Beyond Willpower

Workplace wellness programs that rely on employee motivation or willpower, may be well-intentioned, but they are setting people up to fail. Learn how we lean on behavior change science for sustainable results for the employee and the employer.

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Unlocking Your Daily Energy Budget For High Performance

Energy is not endless, but you do have some control over it when you apply strategic recovery. I teach you how to recover like an athlete by mastering the 90-Minute Rule. This approach transforms the cumulative stress of work, training, and parenting into lasting focus, higher productivity, and resilience across all parts of your life.

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Simplifying Your Half-Marathon Fueling Plan: A Nutrition Experiment of One

A lot of nutrition guides for half marathon training are overly complicated and aimed at elite athletes, which can be intimidating for the average runner. This blog post is about taking the pressure off by treating your fueling as a personal, no-math-required experiment throughout your 12-to-16-week training cycle. As a health coach and personal trainer, my goal is to give you simple, straightforward guidelines so you can figure out what works best for your body, ensuring you have the energy needed to train well, recover fully, and cross the finish line feeling strong.

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Rethinking "Clean Eating" Why Your Food Language Is Keeping You Stuck

In this blog post, I explain why terms like "eat clean" and "cheat meal" can actually undermine your long-term health efforts. As a health coach, I see how this kind of rigid, judgmental language creates frustration and keeps good people feeling stuck. Since no one can even agree on what "clean" means, it turns enjoying food into a confusing moral struggle. I share how letting go of this black-and-white thinking is the key to making sustainable progress. Your health journey should feel supportive and fit your real life, not an impossible ideal.

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How the End of Daylight Saving Can Help You Rebuild a Morning Workout Routine

When we “fall back” at the end of Daylight Saving Time, most people think about gaining an extra hour of sleep. Years ago, I wrote about using that hour to restart morning workouts. Now, I see this moment even more clearly. The time change is more than a bonus hour. It creates a natural opening to reset habits, experiment with morning movement, and rethink the stories we tell ourselves like “I’m not a morning person.” Whether you use the extra hour to move your body or catch up on sleep, this season is a chance to rebuild your morning routine in a way that fits your life.

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Manage Stress and Energy Like an Athlete with the RPE Scale at Work

Runners and athletes use the RPE (Rate of Perceived Effort) scale to gauge how hard their body is working, even when the numbers on a watch don’t tell the full story. It’s a simple check-in tool that builds awareness, prevents burnout, and helps them pace themselves for better performance. In this post, I’ll show you how to take that same concept and apply it to your workday so you can recognize rising stress, manage your energy more intentionally, and find a steady rhythm that supports both productivity and well-being.

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Why You Know What to Do But Still Don’t Do It: The Missing Piece in Behavior Change

Even when we know what to do, sometimes getting started can feel harder than the workout itself. This post explores why resistance shows up, why willpower alone doesn’t work, and how developing skill power, small, repeatable habits that fit real life, builds lasting consistency.

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Digital Wellness in the Fourth Quarter: How to Reclaim Clarity and Focus

This post explores simple ways to practice digital wellness, from mindful eating without distractions to small phone rituals that bring calm into the day. By reducing digital clutter and creating intentional pauses, you can reclaim focus and enjoy more presence in everyday life. Will you join me in my quest to be more intentional about social media?

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Gift and Opportunity: What Struggle Taught Me About Growth

Consistency alone doesn’t always create progress. I learned that firsthand when I recorded a video every day for four months and got better at showing up, but not necessarily better at speaking. Real growth came when I found a framework, feedback, and support through Toastmasters. That same lesson applies to health, work, and life: struggles, big or small, often carry the gift and opportunity to grow stronger if we’re willing to see them that way.