Hello friends! Welcome to my first ever Weekend Edition for Your Favorite Chapter! 

One thing I love to do is explore great thoughts and ideas of people that are fascinating and offer us new perspectives and great tips for making our lives even better!

I wanted to give them their own spot apart from my other weekly posts because they are so special and unique in nature, so I thought “why not do a Weekend Edition for those gold nuggets I find along the way?”

So here we are, and for this first week in December, I want to share some great tips from a very wise and dear friend. I attended a workshop she put on called “Surviving the Holidays,” and thought it was such useful information, I asked if she would be willing to share her great ideas with me for the blog!

Christmastime can be an absolutely wonderful experience for people, something they look forward to all year long, and they treasure every moment of it. But for some, what use to be your favorite time of year is now one that turns you into a tailspin of stress and anxiety. The picture does not always look like a Currier and Ives Christmas Card.  How can we experience the holidays with all of the joy it offers but come out feeling stronger and better? Today we are getting a few life-giving tips from Kelly Stott, a certified health coach who owns and operates “Thrived Living” in Plymouth, MI. Kelly shares how we can move from “Surviving” the holidays to actually “Thriving” during the holidays! And as a bonus, she is including a few delicious and healthy treats to enhance our holiday menu!

I am honored and proud to introduce you to Kelly Stott.

“I want to put self care first so I can succeed in life. So I can be stronger, love more energetically, live more generously, and serve others more wholeheartedly.” ~Kelly Stott

Kelly and her beautiful family

Kelly, can you start by telling us a little about how you chose to become a health and wellness coach?

So my health journey started a long time ago when my Dad died.  I was 8. All of my sisters and myself went into the healthcare field of some kind.  I wanted to empower myself to be accountable for my own health.  Once I had kiddos I saw first hand how we are just numbers.  My youngest son had a lot of health issues early in his life.  This sparked my interest to dig further.  I did not want to be ruled by insurance so I just started researching preventive holistic ways to keep my family healthy. I discovered essential oils and many other modalities that got my wheels turning.  God gave us plants and things on this earth to help ourselves so I wanted to research further.  My research landed my desires to become a health coach.  I enrolled into HCI Health Coach Institute and became a certified Health Coach about a year and a half ago.  My passion is to empower others to do for themselves.  We are all equipped  with what we need, we just have to tune ourselves in. My goal is to help people tune into their own innate wisdom that is God given. 

I asked Kelly to share her tips for surviving and thriving this season.

Tips for Thriving during the Holidays

• Clear your Calendar Clutter When we overbook and overcommit we then get stressed out. My suggestion is to make a list of scheduled activities that support your top priorities. An example: Faith, Family, Fun, Tradition.   Then make a list of the scheduled activities that do NOT support your top priorities. Now circle one that does not support your priorities and within the next 24 hours eliminate this from your schedule. Freedom is such a wonderful feeling. It’s up to us to free ourselves from the things that do not serve us or our families. Over scheduling is one of the biggest causes of stress during the Holidays.                                   
• Allowing Self Care If we are running ragged and don’t stop to care for ourselves, no one else will. Take a yoga class, sit in a warm bath, get a massage or get your nails done. These things are essential for us to stay energized. Taking a Sunday afternoon nap guilt free can be just the thing to give you the energy to get the rest of your tasks done.
• Assess the Overindulging Too many parties and too much food can leave us exhausted and gain the unwanted pounds that it took us so long to lose. Keeping these things in check will ensure a healthy holiday. Your health and vibrancy are worth more than your minute of indulgence. Ask yourself before reaching for that next piece of pie or drink, “Does this serve my body and health goals?” We often allow self sabotage during this time because we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. The first time you say no to Aunt Sally’s pie might seem awkward but trust me it will so feel so empowering when you are in control of your own health.
• Empower Yourself by Inviting an Accountability Partner Make a time and date to work out with someone else who will be waiting for you to show up. Enlist a friend to chat with on a regular basis and check in to see how you are holding your goals up. This is not about guilt but accountability, which can seem scary at first. Doing this with a good friend or family member helps you both. Maybe you install an app to help keep track of your calories or maybe it’s one that tracks movement. It can be fun if done with someone else. Go for a brisk walk in the morning.
• Do Something that Brings You Joy Read a good book, go to the library, rent a movie that makes you have a belly laugh. Create something nourishing in the kitchen. What is it that brings you joy? Is it painting, crafting, sewing, outdoor sports, crocheting? If you are not sure, start writing a list of things that used to bring you joy. Have you used a hula hoop in a while? Recently I was in a challenge and one of the things was to hula hoop in a store. I bought a hula hoop and got a few friends together and we made a video of us hula hooping. Crazy stupid but we all laughed like we were kids. Studies say when we were kids we laughed over 100 times a day. As adults we only laugh 1-2 times a day and sometimes not at all.

The Goal is to Enjoy this Magical Time of Year and Stay Healthy Doing It.

Kelly provides all kinds of great materials and services! To find out more, visit Thrived Living.

Also, she is beginning a Winter 5 day Detox For Beginners

Its a 5 day whole foods detox to help you feel better, have more energy and feel lighter without giving up real food! This begins January 15. Sounds like something I should check out!

Kelly is so sweet and kind, and she really truly cares about people! She’s put together a few simple recipes to help with us all stay healthy this holiday season. Enjoy!

• 8 medjool dates
• 1/4 cup peanut butter or almond butter
• 150g of dark chocolate
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• Sea Salt

1. Remove pits from dates and place in freezer safe dish
2. Stuff inside of date with nut butter (freeze until solid about 3 hours or overnight)
3. Lay down parchment
4. Melt chocolate and coconut oil in microwave safe dish or double boiler- If using microwave, melt 30 seconds at a time being careful not to over cook.
5. Using a toothpick, dip in chocolate or roll in chocolate to coat.
6. Lay on parchment and sprinkle with sea salt
7. Leave to harden
8. Recipe adapted from Wholeheartedly Healthy