Alternate Health

A Healthy Lifestyle Protects Against COVID-19

Wildly Alive coach Nichole Wurth shares how having a, healthy lifestyle, could help you fight, coronavirus COVID 19, and become BFF's with your body.

Journey to a healthy lifestyle.

I was raised on Hamburger Helper and mac and cheese. I didn’t know the basics of nourishing your body or a healthy lifestyle. That was not something that was taught to me, so I got out of high school and I gained some weight. I did what most women do. I started dieting. I wouldn't say that I had a big-time body image issues or self-esteem issues going into that whole experience; but after every diet I started to realize it took out a chunk of my self-esteem.

So after years of dieting if you would have looked at my body you would have thought damn she's got it going on she's so fit she's so healthy. I want her body, I want her, healthy lifestyle. But in all reality even though I looked like I was living a, healthy lifestyle, I was an absolute mess inside.

I had disordered eating and disordered exercising and I was so lost in trying to have a, healthy lifestyle, I didn’t even see it I was I was obsessed with what I was going to eat and what I couldn't eat. I was strategizing with every bite. It was strategy all the time. I was still deeply unhappy because before living this, healthy lifestyle, I blamed all my unhappiness and the reason why I don't have a boyfriend, the reason why I don't have a fulfilling job, or the reason why I don't have …fill in the blank, was because of my body.

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A Healthy Lifestyle begins with Diet

It's very common for women to blame everything on their body, so now that I had lost the weight and I look fit and healthy and living a, healthy lifestyle, I no longer had anything to blame for my unhappiness. So again even though you would look at me and you think wow she's an inspiration, honestly I was lost from disordered eating and disordered exercising. Most people they don't even see it, and they're broken. That's how diet culture works. Diet culture intentionally breaks you, breaks your trust with yourself, so then you need a diet all the time.

That's how I was for years. I didn't trust myself without the guidelines, without the rules and other restrictions. I went through that whole journey. I lost the weight and I was worse than I was before I started that journey.

I start moving into like exploring okay how can I find happiness and freedom and a, healthy lifestyle, at the same time because dieting does not get you happiness and freedom. It feels very caged. That's the philosophy of the wildly alive coaching program. I started coming up with this idea that your body is a living, breathing, feeling thing just like a plant. So if I went into my office every day and looked at my plants and said to them, you're ugly and you're not good enough and you need to try harder. I would have sent negative energy to them right they would rebel and not thrive.

The Ketogenic Diet is good for a healthy lifestyle

I think that's where most women are. They look at their body as just this thing that's hanging on them, that's never right and will never be right, and they're constantly abusing it. If you want to call it abuse or not, it really is, because you probably would never talk to your best friend that way or even your enemy. That is when I started really looking into instead of creating change from a place of shame, which diet culture teaches, if you just hate your body enough then you can change it shifting that to respect base change. learning how to respect our body as we are changing and reshaping it. The Ketogenic Diet is the new popular diet plan.

Food plays a very important part in our body image and women in particular, maybe even men. Men drink, women eat! I'm not sure, but a lot of times if you have emotional problems it shows up in what you eat. And yeah when you go to the gym, and you have a really nice body, that's on the outside. You could still feel shame inside.

A lot of women could identify with, you’re overweight and you buckled down and lost the weight, they are now living a, healthy lifestyle, they go to the gym every day, they eat right and embrace, healthy living, so where is the reward. Where is the boyfriend or husband?

When did your, Healthy Lifestyle, start?

I gained all kinds of weight at the end of high school because I was in the industry and I was eating a lot of jalapeno, mayonnaise and French fries. It was like my favorite combination with Big Mac. The whole the whole world globally, we're looking at the, coronavirus, and at, COVID-19, and everybody including all the health experts are now on talking about a, healthy lifestyle, because what we're all now acutely aware that if you have a healthy immune system then you can probably get over this, coronavirus, illness. My, healthy lifestyle, programs started before people became conscious of, healthy living. A, healthy lifestyle, is being wildly alive!

I wanted to create something like a like a bridge between the, covid-19, pandemic and, healthy living. I'm telling my clients right now is first and foremost and this is the basis of wildly alive coaching, is your mind is the most powerful muscle in your body and so just like with dieting.

And the constant feeling of stress, you have to change from the inside.

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When I was dieting, I was constantly stressed, I was afraid of butter. I was afraid of red meat and so on and so on. Even though according to my little calorie counting notebook, I was eating

all of the right things; because I was so stressed over the food, that I was unhealthy. Stressing about everything you put into your mouth is not a, healthy lifestyle.

What is the Feminine approach to a Healthy Lifestyle

This is a respect based approach to, healthy living. If I can help show you how awesome your body is, and how it's doing so many things right now, in this moment, then what will start to happen is, you'll start to recognize that your body is always talking to you. She's always speaking to you. She can guide you on the best things to eat and the best ways to move and how to thrive in this whole self-care thing. You don't need a plan, you don't need somebody telling you what to eat and how to exercise and what to do to feel happy, your body can tell you all of that.

We live in this Western society that just cuts you off at the head and makes you think that all your body is or something you manipulate, that's all it is it's just this mass, that has no voice or no wisdom. So when you start opening up the lines of communication with your body, you start to listen to it. You start to feel really good. It is just like when you get a cut you don't have to look at the cut and be like okay white blood cells come do your thing. No the white blood cells are on it. They start forming a scab around the cut and the processes of healing begins.

Our bodies are so smart that we can't even conceptualize and wrap our mind around all the brilliance of our body. So if I can teach you some of that, and I can show you how awesome your body is and how she is here to guide you. She's here to guide yourself care and, healthy lifestyle, and she's also here to guide you on your life choices.

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The 28 day moon cycle

The feminine approach is really is a woman’s 28-day cycle if you're menstruating. As women we have a 28-day cycle and that 28-day cycle mirrors the moon. There's four phases within our 28-day cycle and also within the moon cycle. Those four phases also mirror the four seasons of the planet. A, healthy lifestyle, includes following your cycle.

For example just to make this really simplified, when you're bleeding it is the New Moon phase.

When we're having our period we tend to be more hibernating, we're not as extroverted. This is our introverted time. This is the time when we reflect and restore. This is our winter time so if you're ever confused you just look at the season the new moon. So when you're bleeding doing a high intense workout it's probably not the best thing for your body. If you're on hormonal birth control or you're not having your period, just start tracking the moon and your body will start syncing up with it.

Vice versa the full moon is your ovulation or summer phase. You are hyper energized. There's lots of growth, there's lots of expansion, there's lots of extroverted energy and so this is a really good time in terms of movement. Now is the time for that high intensity workout or doing that new salsa high intensity class.

Wildly Alive self-care and, Healthy lifestyle, coaching program

Shame -based change is by telling yourself you can't have those things and you're a bad person if you eat those things, so just to flip this on the head a little bit and think about it from a respect based change. I always tell my clients I would never tell them they can't eat things ever unless they have an allergy to something, that's a whole different conversation. Telling yourself you can't eat bread because this study says that bread is bad for you. I don't think that's enough to really shift into respect based change. I'm a huge believer in moderation. I think a little bit of everything is okay. So have the bread or have the beer, really sit and enjoy it. If your body starts to say to you, I feel bloated every time I drink a beer, then make some changes. Drink half a beer or try a different beer.

Here are the mechanics for a, healthy lifestyle, during covid-19

trying keeping the energy light in our house
limit media, limit the news because it is mostly negative
have a lot of sunlight.
getting outside and connecting with nature. Being in nature boosts your immune system. I also love to bring nature into my house. I have lots of my salt lamps.
Do some sort of movement on a regular basis. It could be going out for a walk, it could be yoga, it could be bike riding. Exercise calms your nerves.
drink a lot of water
increasing your vitamin C intake. I've been making this lemon ginger juice.
stay open to the lessons of the, covid-19, pandemic
be grateful for what you have and for your family

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I read somewhere that you were disappointed in Oprah. Please share why that is.

I would to preface this statement with I do love Oprah. I love her in so many different ways as a woman, as a woman of color. She is breaking the mold and I love her for so many reasons; but a few weeks ago, I was watching an interview with her in Lady Gaga and she's on stage and they were talking about mental health and I loved it. I was like yes I love this conversation they're about mental health, this is such an important part of health right now. But then I started seeing WW everywhere and I was like what is WW? It was Weight Watchers and I was so devastated in that moment because Weight Watchers is diet culture. It's the epitome of diet culture. They were having this beautiful conversation about mental health and calorie counting. Weight Watchers has been proven to be mentally unhealthy. It was so sad.

I still love Oprah, I know she's human. I know she's flawed. I forgive her.

Do you have any special programs or coaching programs that promote a, Healthy Lifestyle

You can find all coaching programs at www.wildlyalive.com

I do have a new free challenge called the embrace and reach your body challenge, that will start in a few weeks. You could go to wildlyalive.com flash challenge.