Deb Nelson – Page 8 – Be Well Consulting Group

Keeping the Food Demons at Bay While You’re Traveling

Here we are at the end of January. You’ve made some changes to your diet in the first month of the year, and now…you’re about to hit the road for a week. Here are five tips to help you stay on track with your good nutrition habits while you’re traveling – whether you’re hopping on a plane, train, automobile, or bicycle!

Bring your own food. Grab some of your favorite snacks and pop them in a travel bag. Some of my choices this week were: apples, oranges, homemade hummus, carrot sticks, and a protein shake. When your eyes are focusing in on someone else’s cookies and pretzels, just open up your snack bag and make a healthy choice. An added bonus of bringing your own food with you when you travel: you know what’s in the food you’re eating. You’re having a nutrient-dense snack or meal instead of food that will ensure that you’ll be hungry before you know it.
Eat before you get hangry. Plan the timing of your snacks and meals on travel day. Yes, it sounds like work. Trust me, though, you’ll be glad at 10:30 to have that apple or orange before your stomach starts grumbling to remind you it’s time to refuel. You’ll avoid crankiness AND you won’t be tempted by that bag of potato chips the person sitting next to you just opened.
Do some research before you travel. Go online and look at restaurants in the area where you’ll be staying BEFORE your trip. Find out what your restaurant options are before traveling. Take a look at menus so that you know what kind of choices you’ll have: vegetarian, vegan, gluten free? If you don’t find any meals that suit your diet, give the restaurant a call and find out if they can accommodate your needs.
Stay hydrated, and bring a water bottle with you. Drink water. Here’s an easy way to add some H₂0 to your day: have a glass of water first thing in the morning. Then have a glass of water a half hour before each meal. For an extra treat, add some lemon juice, strawberries, or cucumber slices to your glass.
Get plenty of sleep. Willpower walks out the door when we’re tired. Everything in sight suddenly looks enticing, and it can be difficult to make healthy food choices. Go to bed before you’re exhausted, keep your electronics away from your bed, close the blinds or shades so the room is dark before heading off to dreamland. If you’re setting an alarm clock, put it on the other side of the room so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off.

There you have it – five tips to help keep you on track with making healthy food choices while you’re traveling. These are also great tips to make a part of your daily life at home as well. Healthy living starts now.

Keeping the Food Demons at Bay While You’re Traveling was last modified: January 31st, 2018 by Deb Nelson

From Hope to Action: What Will You Do?

Sunday afternoon, my husband and a friend of ours planned to go to the movies. Luckily for us, there was only one seat left. We were forced to move on to Plan B – and, oh my goodness, Plan B turned into quite an adventure.

We had read that there was an exhibit of Arthur Fink’s photos from his visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau at the Maine Jewish Museum. We hopped into the car and were on our way.

Words cannot convey the power of Arthur’s photos. He selected 21 photos for this exhibit titled Auschwitz: Images of Resilience and Light. The photos reflect Arthur’s (successful) attempt to share images “that suggest hope, possibility, and positive vision.” The photos in the exhibit include:

A barbed wire fence

Tracks leading to Birkenau

Barracks at Birkenau

Children’s shoes

A picture drawn by an adult that included text that when roughly translated means “I love you, children.”

The photo accompanying this post is titled Tree of Life which Arthur believes is “a symbol of vibrant new growth that can arise even in this shadow of the Holocaust . . . a fitting end to an exhibition in a synagogue whose name, ‘Etz Chaim’, means ‘Tree of Life.’

Each of these sobering images meets Arthur’s belief of suggesting hope, possibility, and positive vision. These images – individually and collectively – tell the story of the unimaginable and dare us to do better, be better, and honor those whose lives were turned upside down – both the survivors and those who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

From the moment we set foot in the museum, conversations were brewing. There was a buzz throughout the museum. Jack Montgomery’s work was also a featured exhibit titled Soul Survivors: Legacy of the Holocaust. Jack’s exhibit included portraits of Holocaust survivors who settled in Maine along with excerpts of their oral testimonies. These powerful stories were a perfect complement to Arthur’s images.

As we viewed photos and read the stories of Holocaust survivors, VOICES Boston performed a variety of songs that served to lighten the mood and foster conversation – serving another of Arthur’s goals: “these images and whatever conversations they stimulate, will help viewers explore together how we can create a constructive personal relation with the Holocaust.”

Conversation is powerful; and Arthur encourages people to ask questions, even difficult questions – okay, perhaps especially difficult questions. Conversation connects us; conversation gives us the opportunity to confirm the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of our understanding of a situation. Conversation lets us find common ground and explore our differences.

Arthur and Jack’s exhibits explore a heavy subject and show us that after unspeakable sorrow and tragedy, hope remains. Hope lives in each of us; we just need to decide what action we will take so that hope remains meaningful. The museum’s decision to bring the talented VOICES Boston program to the museum was a wise one. The youthful voices of the members of the chorus radiated warmth and hope throughout the building.

Lessons from taking our Plan B route to the Maine Jewish Museum:

Look at the past.

Let the past guide or influence your future.

Do not let the past dictate your future.

Ask questions.

Ask simple questions.

Ask difficult questions.

Have an uncomfortable discussion.

Keep your discussions civil.

Where there is hope, there is a possibility for a brighter tomorrow.

There is always hope.

Living well takes many forms. Taking the time to explore a museum, listen to music, walk through your town, or explore a new area encourages looking at the world through a new lens.

Thank you, Arthur, for sharing these images and for reminding us of the power of hope.

From Hope to Action: What Will You Do? was last modified: January 17th, 2018 by Deb Nelson

Start at the Very Beginning – and Keep it Simple

Heading into the New Year provides a fab opportunity for each of us to review our lifestyles and identify changes we’d like to make as well as practices we’d like to continue in our day-to-day living.

A bit of unsolicited advice here: Resist. Resist. Resist that tendency to turn your life upside down on January 1. When I think about making changes – whether for myself or a client – I think about where we’re at RIGHT NOW. How can we make changes that will support our goals without overwhelm? And then, I think about Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music. No joke, I really do! Where do we start when making lifestyle changes? At the very beginning, of course, just as the song directs:

Let’s start at the very beginning

A very good place to start

When you read you begin with A-B-C

When you sing you begin with do-re-mi

Making lifestyle changes is equally simple: assess where you are, set goals, execute. BOOM! In this world where immediate gratification is the expectation, of course, our tendency is to go from 0 – 60 in three seconds. Or, to go from visiting the gym once every six months to working out for an hour every day. You get the point.

How about if for 2018 we keep our efforts uncomplicated:

Drink more water
Eat more vegetables
Move more

Put some parameters around what more means to you. Work with the healthcare professionals in your life to make sure the goals you set are appropriate for your current situation. Don’t go it alone: Find an accountability partner who will support you as you make lifestyle changes.

If you’ve ever been a member of a gym, you know the first two weeks of January find most fitness centers filled with people working out to meet their high expectations for the year. February will most likely have a very different look and feel at these fitness centers. Why? Adrenalin is gone; lifestyle changes can be difficult to stick to if you go it alone, particularly if you’re not seeing immediate results.

The solution is to find a cheerleader in an accountability partner who will:

keep you moving forward even when you don’t want to.

remind you of the story of the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady can be more effective than putting the pedal to the metal and burning out.

help you celebrate each and every small victory on the way to achieving big results.

Don’t have someone to fill the accountability partner role? Connect with me to see if we’re a good fit to work together.

Cheers to 2018 and to your health!

Start at the Very Beginning – and Keep it Simple was last modified: January 1st, 2018 by Deb Nelson

Second Chances: Give One. Get One.

When you walk into a room, are people looking at you and thinking about the best thing you’ve ever done or the worst? While most of us might hope it’s the former, anyone who’s served a prison sentence is likely fearing they are known for the worst thing they’ve ever done and nothing else.

How do you change that dynamic? How can you reinvent yourself while feeling as though you’ve got a stamp on your forehead that makes people turn away before you have an opportunity to prove you’re more than your prison sentence? How do you put your life together after serving your time?

Cat Hoke wondered about these, and many more, questions. She took her questions directly to the people who live in our prison system, and has begun to change the lives of people who are released from our prison system after serving their time.

Cat founded Defy Ventures, an organization that “transforms the lives of business leaders and people with criminal histories through their collaboration along the entrepreneurial journey.” Why would this organization be called Defy Ventures? Because, as the website points out, defy means: “to challenge to do something impossible.”

In providing a second change to people convicted of crimes, Defy and its program participants face some tough statistics:

More than 66% of the 650,000 people released from State or Federal prisons each year will be re-arrested within three years.
70% of children whose parents are incarcerated will find themselves incarcerated as well.
The recidivism rate for the 100,000 juveniles released from correctional facilities, State or Federal prisons each year is 55 to 75%.

The results of Defy’s program to date are impressive:

Recidivism rate for those completing the Defy’s program is less than 5%.
165 startups founded, creating 350 jobs.
83% income increase and 95% employment rate within 7 months of enrolling in Defy program.

It’s not been an easy path for Cat, who received a second chance herself. You can watch Cat explain her personal history with second chances, and watch graduates of the Defy program talk about their success after receiving a second from Defy Ventures in this video. Seth Godin’s publishing company, Domino, will be releasing Cat’s book, A Second Chance, in February. After watching the video in the above link, scroll down the page and sign up to stay in the know about the progress of this book.

Do a good turn today, and put an extra spring in your step: give someone in your life a second chance. I’ve yet to meet someone who has never said or done something they’ve regretted. We all need people to look past the worst thing we’ve done. Thanks, Cat, for giving people the tools to spiral upward.

Second Chances: Give One. Get One. was last modified: November 29th, 2017 by Deb Nelson

September: A Welcome Beginning or End?

As we enter September, are you mourning the end of summer or
welcoming the opportunity for new beginnings?

September signals the return to school and the end of summer for many. Does that bring up feelings of melancholy or euphoria for you?

Gretchen Rubin refers to September as “the other January” where we have the opportunity to restart the year with a clean slate. This notion resonates with me, with September serving as a reminder to check in with my goals for the year: Am I on track to meet my business and health goals? If not, what do I need to do to set myself up for success? If I am on track to meet my goals, how will I keep myself moving in the right direction?

Go back to my why.
Confirm that I’ve got measurable goals.
Review goals to ensure that they’re attainable goals.
Re-assess and adjust goals.
Recommit to goals and go all in.
Make lifestyle changes that support my goals.
Find an accountability partner.

While we equate returning to school with the end of summer, the first day of fall isn’t until September 22. September is a great time to reflect on the aspects of my life I’m grateful for, and those things that I need to shake up a bit. I’ll go to the beach early in the morning or late in the afternoon with a notebook (and a blanket) to spend time writing a gratitude list. This helps me appreciate how fortunate I am and reminds me that we live in a world of abundance. It also spurs me on to lend a hand to those in need.

Welcome September and Your Wild New Beginnings!

September: A Welcome Beginning or End? was last modified: September 1st, 2017 by Deb Nelson

Do You Hate Vacation – or Just the Sand?

Families on the beach are a great sources of quotes. This week, they were also an inspiration for this blog post.

A family of four – mom, dad, two boys – arrived at the hotel beach. Everyone looked happy enough to kill some time on the beach since it was too early for them to check into their room. Until. The. Rain.

The smiles remained for three of the four, but the younger boy was in tears as they headed back toward the hotel. This was the exchange between the young boy and his mom.

Toddler: “I hate vacation!”

Mom: “Oh, honey, you don’t hate vacation. It’s the sand that’s bothering you.”

Toddler: “It’s in my shoes.” The crying ramped up to sobbing.

And with that, the boy’s mom talked him through the ordeal of walking with sand-filled shoes another 10 feet to the sand-free area where his dad and older brother were patiently waiting for him.

A couple of hours later, I headed over to the sand-free pool. The family appeared to be having a great time: all four were in the pool. Both boys were laughing and playing. No shoes filled with sand here!

Lessons learned here from a toddler:

The next time you think it’s time to quit your job or fire a client, ask yourself a few questions:

Is it really time to move on from your job or client, or do you just need to get out of the sandbox?
Do you feel the need to sever this relationship only when it’s raining, or is this job / client always a buzz kill?
Why am I spending so much time in a sandbox when I don’t like sand?

Sometimes asking and answering a couple of simple questions can provide new perspective. Give it a try the next time you’re tempted to run for cover when the rain hits while you’re in the sandbox.

Do You Hate Vacation – or Just the Sand? was last modified: April 26th, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Humanizing the World of Sales with Daniel Pink

Bestselling author Daniel Pink was a keynote speaker at the American Council of Engineering Companies Annual Convention. He told us that his talk would follow a format of 2, 3, 4. Two points, then three points, then four points. AND that this information would be applicable to everyone in the room. He fulfilled his promises, leaving each of us with new tools to grow our businesses.

Daniel Pink is a curious guy. So it just makes good sense that he would ask a few questions to satisfy that curiosity. He wanted to find out what people do all day, so he asked them a (seemingly) simple question:

“What percentage of your work involves convincing or persuading people to give up something they value (attention, effort, money, time, etc.) for something you offer?”

What he learned is that, “Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.”

Next up on his list of questions was this: When you think of sales or selling, what’s the first word that comes to mind?

Queue the negative responses – wow. We’ve got a bias against sales. There was a 4 to 1 ratio of negative to positive responses to the question. Since we’re all selling, this is pretty disturbing. Pink pointed out two key features of today’s sales world:

We’re all selling all the time. Each employee serves as a representative of the company. Every impression moves a prospective customer / client closer to or further from purchase.
We’re doing that selling on a re-made landscape: seller beware. Buyer Beware used to be the name of the game back in the day before online information leveled the playing field. Now the buyer enters negotiations with no less information than the sales person. Think about buying a car here – 20 years ago, the car salesperson held all the cards; that’s no longer the case.

This is a really interesting situation we’re in. We all sell. Yet we have all these negative thoughts spinning in our heads about sales and sales people. Pink surveyed some of the top business schools and found that most do not teach sales. What??? Very interesting indeed. Looking at data that’s available through a number of studies, Pink explored qualities of successful sales people and found there are three key elements that make us more effective in our sales efforts:

Attunement – the ability to get out of your own head and into your client’s head. What will this do for you? It will allow you to see the situation from someone else’s perspective and find common ground.
Buoyancy – the ability to stay afloat in the ocean of rejection sales people face every day. A key factor here: self-talk. Check yourself. Is your self-talk encouraging or discouraging your sales efforts?
Clarity – the ability to curate information. In this world of information overload, it’s important to be able to separate what matters from what doesn’t. You want to be the person who can identify the problem to be solved before it surfaces.

Want to take some steps to ensure your sales increase? Of course you do. More data, more suggestions from Pink:

Continuing on with his review of data, Pink investigated whether introverts or extroverts would be more successful at sales. What do you think? Introverts? Extroverts? The advantage here clearly goes to ambiverts: those people whose personalities include a balance of extrovert and introvert features. Think about this when hiring your sales force and avoid the extreme introverts and extroverts. Here are four tips to improve your sales efforts:

Have you ever been told that you should mimic the person you’re talking with so that they’ll feel that you understand them? Good advice or garbage? This would be good advice – mimicry is clearly effective in closing sales. The caveat here: don’t be “an idiot about it.”
Dump the technical jargon. Use your client’s language and don’t make them feel uneducated by correcting their technical language.
Show some social proof if you want to change your client’s behavior (to buy your product). North Americans tend to exaggerate the importance of personality and under value context. Context drives behavior more than we realize, so make it easy for your clients to take action. Pink suggests we ask ourselves: Have I built an off-ramp? An especially apropos question for a roomful of engineers.
Pay attention to others’ posture, gesture, and language. Then reflect those back without being an idiot about it.

Living up to his assertion that we’re all in sales, Pink followed his talk with a book-signing session. And, yes, I hopped in line after buying To Sell is Human. I suspect it will be a valuable sales tool. What are your favorite sales tips and tools? Let me know in the comments below, or connect with me directly.

Humanizing the World of Sales with Daniel Pink was last modified: April 19th, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Challenge On: Expressing Thanks

Thank you: Arguably the two most powerful words in our vocabulary. The challenge to myself: extend a formal thank you
via handwritten note to at least two people a week for a good
turn they’ve done for me or others. Challenge begins today and runs through 2016.

It’s easy enough to say thank you – via text, email, snail mail, phone, in person – at any point in our day. When I worked in the nonprofit arena, I conveyed my thanks every day in a variety of ways for the many generous acts done on behalf of my nonprofits by volunteers and donors. Since those days (which ended five-plus years ago), however, I’ve been a bit remiss in extending thanks for the many good deeds that have benefited me.

A quick on-line search for the definition of thank you includes the following:

a polite expression of one’s gratitude

a polite expression used when acknowledging a gift, service, or compliment, or accepting or refusing an offer.

When used in it’s [sic] true form (not merely out of obligation) it is an expression of respect and appreciation to another soul (and simultaneously to all beings) for the unconditional kindness that has been bestowed upon you

Exclamation used to express appreciation to some for offering or giving you something, for helping you, or for asking how you are feeling

For me, thank you and gratitude are inextricably linked together. I owe a debt of gratitude for many and find that expressing gratitude via thanks provides a variety of benefits for me:

Serves as a reminder of the good deeds done on my behalf
Acts as a natural mood enhancer
Spurs me on to do a good deed on someone else’s behalf
Forces me to slow down and appreciate the moment
Boosts productivity in all areas of my life
Underscores how a seemingly small act can have ripple effects
Reminds me that there is a lot of good happening in the world

Join me in your own way in adopting an attitude of gratitude and thanking those near and far who lend a hand to your success.

Challenge On: Expressing Thanks was last modified: February 23rd, 2016 by Deb Nelson

On World Cancer Day, This Book Title Speaks For All of Us: F*ck Off Cancer

Today, February 4, 2016 is World Cancer Day. “Taking place under the tagline ‘We can. I can.’, World Cancer Day 2016-2018 will explore how everyone – as a collective or as individuals – can do their part to reduce the global burden of cancer.”

Linda Brossi Murphy faced breast cancer with a heaping dose of humor and bravely shares her cancer experience in her book F*CK OFF CANCER: Cancer, shaken, not stirred, on the rocks with a twist! to benefit those who may follow in her footsteps. Those who have previously walked in her footsteps will also gain some degree of comfort, validation, and sisterhood as they read this book. As Linda pointed out: “The good news about this is that I was not alone. The bad news is that everyone’s life is touched by cancer.”

Truer words were never spoken, as every person I know has a relationship with cancer. There are, it seems, many paths to health. Linda chose to follow conventional treatment: surgery (two lumpectomies) followed by chemotherapy and radiation. She also chose to participate in a clinical trial, not knowing whether she was receiving the actual drug or a placebo in addition to the protocol outlined by her oncologist.

We’re all lucky that Linda followed a friend’s advice to write this book. Linda tells it like it is, leaving very little to the imagination (yes, her book includes photos to document her journey) as she graciously told her story of life with cancer. This story will help assess cancer treatment by studying how the treatment affected every facet of Linda’s life. Yes, we can call this anecdotal data and dismiss its value. OR we can give this type of data a little more respect and call it a case study. It is, after all, each individual’s experience that lets us know how our science (treatment protocol) actually plays out. Linda’s observation about chemotherapy illustrates the toll her treatment took on body, mind, and spirit:

Someday, in the future, chemotherapy will be looked at the same way we currently look at electric shock therapy. Barbaric! As we progress in understanding cancer and finding treatments, it will eventually be looked back upon as ludicrous that we sat people down and pumped them full of a broad-spectrum poison.

There simply must be a better way to treat cancer. Linda endured more than a year and a half of treatment, at one point joking: “I am fat, bald, toenail-less, burned from radiation, and scarred. How lovely!” So how the heck did this wild woman get through her treatment with her sense of humor fully in tact? With a little help from her friends, of course! She had a support team that included a vast group of family and friends. Each chemo treatment found a collection of supporters in Linda’s chemo room laughing, joking, and sometimes cajoling the hours away. This party atmosphere did not mean that Linda didn’t appreciate the serious nature of cancer. On the contrary, this was just one way Linda chose to tell cancer to f*ck off.

Linda also focused on her medical team: To show the members of her medical team how much she appreciated their treatment, Linda asked her support team to bake cookies for her medical team rather than to bring meals to her and her family. Not just once and done; she had a calendar and her support team signed up to bake cookies and make sure they got them to Linda ahead to time so she could deliver them prior to her treatment. She also threw an end-of-treatment party to thank everyone – friends, family, medical personnel – who had helped her through her treatment.

This book is a generous gift from a cancer conqueror to anyone who wants to know what it’s like to walk through the world of cancer treatment. There are laughs and tears along the way as you’d expect. Not surprisingly, there are also poignant moments when Linda and her husband faced mortality head on. Little was easy; much was overwhelming. Each day also presented a new adventure, an opportunity to look at the world from a new vantage point. While making her way through a world of overwhelm, Linda chose to find a way to laugh every day as she walked through the halls of cancer treatment.

As we observe World Cancer Day in 2016, we owe it to Linda and everyone else who has faced a cancer diagnosis to:

Acknowledge that after 40 years of fighting a war on cancer, we need to change up our approach.
Stop expecting a different outcome without changing our behavior (treatment / research).
Provide support to cancer patients, rather than the cancer industry.
Focus on prevention. Prevention ≠ screening / detection.
Explore evidence-based complementary care.
Read this book and others like it to understand how cancer treatment affects the patient.

All eyes are on Vice President Biden’s moonshot. I applaud his and President Obama’s enthusiasm. We’ve also got answers right here on Earth that are waiting to be put into practice. What do you say? I say now would be the time.

On World Cancer Day, This Book Title Speaks For All of Us: F*ck Off Cancer was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Subscribe to the Newsletter