Grounded Wellness, *, Vienna, WV (2026)

10/14/2026

For me, that’s how I have to think about running to make it enjoyable.
The actual act of running? I really don’t enjoy it much at all. The feeling afterward? Amazing.

I’ve tried a lot of different exercises over the years, and while running is probably one of my least favorites, I haven’t found anything that makes me feel the way I do when I’m done.

Over the years, I’ve changed the way I approach running, too. I no longer run against a timer, and I don’t feel badly when I walk for a bit. I’m not chasing a personal best or trying to improve my speed. I just want to keep running in some capacity and get that feeling at the end.

My shift in mindset hasn’t made me love running. It’s made running something I’m willing to keep doing because what I get out of it is worth the effort.
I know this sounds a little backward. We’re often advised to embrace the journey, and sometimes, that fits.

But trying to make myself love running wasn’t working. So I made peace with the fact that I don’t love running. I do, however, love how I feel afterward enough to keep coming back.

Maybe we don't have to love every part of the process to find value in it. Sometimes, we just need to find an approach that makes it worth continuing.

10/07/2026

Be curious, not judgemental. ~ Ted Lasso
With others and with ourselves.

If you’ve seen the viral clip of Erika at the Giants baseball game with her husband and young daughter, you may have gotten sucked into the judgement. I know I did, for a beat. If you did, I hope you also read what Erika had to say about it.

It was such a beautiful reminder of one of my favorite Ted Lasso credos: Be curious, not judgemental.

Recognizing judgement when it comes up is something I’ve worked really hard on, so I have to admit, it stung a little when I realized I had gotten caught up in it too.

Not judging is hard. We’re human. Judgment can happen incredibly fast. We see something, have an emotional reaction, and our brain fills in the blanks before we’ve stopped to ask whether we actually know the whole story.
And I started thinking about how often we do this to ourselves.

We miss a workout and decide we’re being lazy or falling off track.
We stay up too late and scold ourselves the next morning for being irresponsible.
We eat the cookies when we’re stressed and tell ourselves we have no willpower.

But what if, instead of immediately judging the action, we got curious and started asking questions?

Maybe the work meeting ran into lunch and the last meeting of the day ran over.
Maybe the kid’s game ran late, bedtime got pushed back, and you still wanted a little downtime for yourself.
Maybe the entire week had been in the red zone and those cookies provided a little comfort when we needed it.

Let me be clear, the point isn’t to make excuses. Quite the opposite, really; accountability remains.

It’s to look at the whole story and learn.
Not just, “Why did I do that?”
But, “What can I learn from this so I can handle it better next time?”

Maybe we just need to shift our mindset to handle it differently.
Maybe it isn’t figuring out how to get our planned workout in. Maybe it’s shifting to a 10-minute walk or allowing ourselves a rest day.

The lesson isn’t always how to do what we had planned. It’s how to adapt physically and mentally when life goes off script.

09/30/2026

Rules tell us what to do. Principles help us decide what to do.

Rules: “I need to eat X at Y time.”
Principle: “I want to eat healthy foods that nourish my body and support my health goals, and I can decide how that looks based on the day I'm having.”

Rules offer certainty which can be appealing, especially when we’re exhausted from trying all the plans that only offer short-term success. I understand wanting someone to tell you exactly what to do. And lasting wellness requires you to develop the ability to make decisions for yourself.

Life happens. The last minute schedule change. Dinner plans change. Birthday parties. Holidays. Vacation. Illness. Didn’t make it to the grocery store. This is when rigid rules can work against us versus for us.

Principles allow for flexibility. Principles allow us to move beyond rigid rules and lean on our critical thinking to figure out what serves us best in the situation we’re in, while keeping our overall goal in mind.

You don't need a perfect rulebook for every situation. You need principles you understand well enough to apply when life changes.

09/24/2026

Life has been lifing.

The stress has been building. I could feel it. It wasn’t one thing, it was several things coming from different directions. I could feel the pressure building and a sense of no control.

My patience grows thin. I become hyper-focused on making sure everything is done, and small misses start to feel like monumental failures, feeding into the pressure.

Even though stress management is something I coach, I’m human. Sometimes I find myself sucked into the vacuum of stress even though I’m keeping my sleep schedule, exercising regularly, eating pretty well for the most part, but hey, nothing soothes stress like carbs. 😬

The stress is winning, but I notice the signs much earlier now.

My intervention is simple: I take control of my breathing.

It never ceases to amaze me the effect of taking five intentional breaths can have on me. An intentional inhale that expands my belly, followed by a long, slow exhale, puts the world right side up again.

My body relaxes and my mind can find perspective. I’m able to let go of the small things and focus on where I actually have control with the big things.

No, breathing doesn’t solve all of my problems.

It puts me in the right mindset to address them, though. And that makes all the difference.

There are, of course, more structured breathing exercises. But honestly, sometimes adding more structure to the exercise stresses me out more. As my dad used to say, keep it simple, sunshine.

Sometimes the first step toward managing stress isn’t solving the problem.It’s creating enough space to see the problem clearly.

What’s your go-to when stress is clouding your vision?

09/17/2026

I’m doing some research, and I’d love your perspective.

If you’re a small business owner, oversee employee benefits, or work for a small business, I’d love to hear from you:
What are you looking for in an employee wellness program?
What feels meaningful?
What would actually be useful?
What’s missing?

I’m exploring the possibility of partnering with a handful of small businesses next year to better connect what businesses want to provide with what employees actually want and need.

I’ve seen both employers and employees become frustrated when wellness resources don’t quite hit the mark. Sometimes the resources simply aren’t there to explore what would work better.

That’s the gap I’m curious about.
I’m not collecting emails for marketing. I genuinely want to listen and learn.

If you’re willing to share your perspective, send me a DM or leave a comment. I’d really appreciate the conversation.

09/14/2026

For those that have reached the maintenance phase with their weight, or have been there before and now find themselves trying to reach it again, this will probably resonate immediately. While I would argue neither is easy, we often discount the difficulty of maintenance because so much of the focus is on getting there.

Since childhood, many of us have been taught to “work hard to achieve your goals”. When it comes to losing weight, it is hard work, and no one really talks about what comes next.

Quite frankly no one wants to say, and do this for the rest of your life. Or that what you’re currently doing may no longer produce the same results it once did. Or that this may not be a realistic approach for where your life is right now. Or here’s a big one, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate what maintenance actually looks like for you.

When maintenance becomes the goal, the feedback loop changes.

The number on the scale isn’t supposed to keep going down. Your clothes don’t need to keep getting smaller. You aren’t chasing the next big milestone.

What feels like stagnation may actually be success.

Weight regain is common. You’re not alone if you’ve lost and gained the same 20 lbs. Our environment changes. Our lives change. The strategies that helped us lose weight may not be a good fit to maintain it long-term.

Maintenance isn’t necessarily about trying harder. It’s critically thinking about what got you here, what still fits in your life, and how to adapt it for where you are now?

09/08/2026

The “why” is important, whether it’s exercise, sleep routine, eating well or reducing stress, understanding the why provides purpose. It can be what gets our story started; it just isn’t sufficient to keep it going.

How am I going to do this?
Who do I need to support me with this?
Where is the friction?
What am I going to do when things go awry?
When does it make sense to re-assess?

Life rarely sticks to the script. While planning can without a doubt be incredibly helpful, these questions matter because we must be able to adapt when life goes off script.

Maybe the friction is that your partner is always bringing home pizza or some sort of “treat” because they think it is supporting you.

Maybe bedtime is constantly pushed back because the evening is the only time of the day you feel you have for yourself.

Maybe the strategy you thought would work beautifully in your life, doesn’t really work at all.

We have a stressful week. We miss multiple workouts. We eat differently than intended. Instead of asking, “How do I adapt?”, we ask “Why can’t I stick with this?”

There will be misses. Accepting them without resigning ourselves to them gives us the opportunity to adapt and determine what comes next.

Pausing to check in with yourself isn't just about measuring progress. It's also asking: Does what I'm doing still make sense? This re-assessment helps us discern if our efforts are practical or misguided stubbornness.

Your story may start with your why, but the who, what, when, where and how shape how your story unfolds.

When you move beyond the “why”, what do your discover?

08/30/2026

It’s not sexy, but it’s been essential to so much I’ve learned in life.

We crawl before we walk. We learn letters before words, words before reading, and numbers before equations.

When I first learned volleyball, I was blessed with an outstanding coach who drilled the basics. There would be no fancy plays until we learned to pass and serve. And those skills were continually practiced, even with the simple drill in the video of passing to yourself. If you couldn’t control the pass, you wouldn’t get to the flashier parts of the game.

I remember being distracted by the allure of the advanced skills. The quicks, shoots and slides. I wanted to do the “cool stuff”.

But my volleyball coach's lesson stuck with me:
No matter how the rules change, if you can’t pass and serve, you won’t win the game.

After playing for over 30 years, I’ve seen a lot of rule changes. And at the end of the day, it still comes back to passing and serving.

Health and wellness, I believe, are no different. Life changes. The basics provide the foundation.

Eating mostly (not only) minimally processed foods. Moving our bodies regularly. Getting adequate sleep. Managing stress. Finding meaningful connection with others.

The basics aren’t sexy or flashy. And without a solid foundation, everything else is built on shaky ground. But we live in a world where boring doesn’t always make the cut. Social media shines a light on the advanced plays, the supplements, hacks, protocols and optimization strategies that grab our attention.

And some of those things may have value. Look at the evidence and put on your critical thinking hat to determine whether they’re worth adding to your routine.

If your health routines are starting to feel overly complicated, consider this permission to take a step back.

You don't have to do more.

You might just need to come back to the basics and focus on mastering them.

08/25/2026

We often approach our well-being by focusing on all the things.
Eating well. Exercising regularly. Getting enough sleep. Managing stress. Making time to connect with others.

All of these things matter.

But trying to focus on all of them at once can leave us feeling like we're spinning our wheels, putting in a lot of effort without feeling like we're making much progress.

Sometimes, we just need to find our first domino.

The one thing that, when we do it, makes some of the other things a little easier.
For me, that's sleep. When I don't get adequate sleep, everything else tends to suffer. So getting to bed on time is a priority. And when I don't? I'm prepared to adapt in the other areas rather than expect myself to perform at 100% anyway.

When it comes to eating well, my first domino is meal planning. And for me, meal planning isn't an elaborate process. It's simply writing down what's for dinner each night that week in my planner (yes, I still use an old fashioned planned for some things). From there, I make my grocery list and place the pickup order.

Exercise? Planning again. I subscribe to CrossFit Linchpin (no endorsement, I've been using for a couple of years and love it) and I look at the week's workouts and adapt them as needed based on what else is happening in my life.

You get the idea.

Your first domino might be the same as mine. Or it might be completely different and that's okay.

Your first domino isn't necessarily the most “important” thing. It's the catalyst that helps set the others in motion.

And knowing that gives you something to work with when life inevitably disrupts the plan.

What's your first domino?

08/17/2026

Health routines aren't binary, and treating them as binary can undermine consistency.

We’ve been taught to think about health in binaries.
You eat healthy or you don’t.
You exercise or you don’t.
You have a sleep routine or you don’t.

But health doesn't work that way. There is a lot of space between doing everything “right” and doing nothing at all. And that space in between is where most of real life happens.

There will always be another product, protocol, hack, or recommendation telling us what we should be doing to optimize our health. But a practice doesn't have to be optimal to be beneficial. And beneficial doesn't mean we have to do it perfectly.

Instead of asking, “Am I doing this right?”
Maybe we should be asking:
What evidence supports this?
Does it make sense for my life?
How can I adapt it?
Is the potential benefit worth the cost, effort, or risk?

Critical thinking gives us permission to stop chasing every “should” and start making thoughtful decisions about what actually works for us.

Happy thinking.

Grounded Wellness

10/14/2026

10/07/2026

09/30/2026

09/24/2026

09/17/2026

09/14/2026

09/08/2026

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08/17/2026

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