If you want to know more about Human Design blueprint, this discovery call is your chance to ask me specific questions.

Human Design shows us how we are all unique individuals. It gives you clear guidance on how to operate in alignment both as an individual and with other people, and how to make big and small decisions in life.

Learning about your Human Design is extremely validating and can put you on a path toward self-discovery and stepping into your highest potential. It's within you! It has always been within you -- human design just puts words behind it, like a guidebook that pinpoints your superpowers.

I am a mother of two boys, ages 9 and 10, and learning about each of their unique designs has changed my life, and theirs! They are extremely different in how they process emotions, their energy output, their strengths and gifts, and even how they communicate! Their charts told me all this, and I see it playing out every single day, and now I have words for it. The awareness is so empowering.

I am trained as a Human Design reader through DayLuna Human Design.

Talk soon,
Kelly xo

Health and Human Design

Research shows when you feel good mentally and emotionally, this impacts your physical health too! Most of us don't need science to tell us this because we can feel it.
I am a Registered Dietitian and use a functional nutrition approach to get the root of issues. In addition, I use Human Design as a tool to help bring my clients more ease, awareness, fulfillment, and happiness into their lives. Why? This always trickles into your food choices, energy levels, eating habits, and often times any weight loss effort you want.

Here's where to start to determine what lights you up in your daily activities and life:

Do More of What You Love, When You Want

In Human Design, I am a Manifesting Generator. A Manifesting Generator is multi-passionate, impactful, magnetic, and is meant to follow the passions you feel energized by at that moment, even if it seems like you're bouncing around from thing to thing. I am meant to lean into play and happiness, and doing this creates more energy to continue. Doing what excites me makes me magnetic and this actually attracts things to me and gives me things to respond to.

When I found out I was a Manifesting Generator, I knew I had to shift my day to do more of the things I love. I did and immediately felt a change for the better in my energy. It helped create more success, ease, and satisfaction in my life. What did I do to create that shift? I made two lists and from there made a conscious effort to start changing my day based on my findings.

I believe all the Human Design Types will benefit from this activity of determining what lights you up.

Make a List of What Lights You Up

The first thing I did was take inventory and asked myself, “What Are the Things in Everyday Life That Excite Me?” Write down your list.

Ask yourself these questions to help make your list:

• What situations, people, activities make me respond, “Heck yes!” I will feel like an energy boost, or the body feels expansive about the thing.

• What makes me genuinely happy?

• Who do I love spending time with? Who makes me feel alive and happy?

• What do I spend hours googling or wanting to learn more about?

• What situations make me feel like time flies because I’m so into it? What could I spend hours doing?

• What do people come to me for?

Luckily, my list was long! It included things like dancing, hiking with friends and family, doing yoga, cats/kittens, drinking bulletproof coffee, making matcha lattes, researching topics I’m interested in, new traveling adventures, the beach, being in nature, listening to music, talking about nutrition, being with my friends, reaching out to friends and family when I think about them, learning about human design, journaling, and the list goes on.

Get really micro with your list to truly find what energizes you. For example, WHY do I like talking about nutrition? I like to help solve people's problems and dilemmas around food. WHY? I want them to feel empowered in their nutrition decisions and take away the confusion. WHY? I love empowering people - that's what lights me up. Call it ironic, but Empowerment is a huge theme in my Human Design chart :)

Make a List of What Sucks the Energy Out of You

The other list I made was: “What Are the Things in Everyday Life that Suck the Energy out of me?”

Ask yourself these questions to make your list:

• What are the things you do either daily or weekly that make you feel bored, drained, exhausted, or “turned off?"

• Think about things you have a difficult time finding the energy for. What is it about that thing that drains you?

For me, this included things like stressing about unprepared dinner plans, too much TV time at night, doing the dishes, house cleaning, watching a movie, sitting too long, packing school lunches, making afterschool snacks.

Next Step..

From here, make a point to remove just one thing daily from the “energy-sucking” list.

For me, the first to go was TV time at night. I found friends to walk with, things to read, podcasts to listen to, things to study, and other activities I loved. It made a HUGE difference in my satisfaction.

This list brought awareness to the things I was putting energy toward that drained me, and how often I was doing that. As a Manifesting Generator, when I’m sucked into things that drain me, I quickly start feeling frustrate, bitter, and have zero energy to put toward the thing I don’t want to do. It’s not a good feeling.

Take-home Message

Doing more of the things I truly love is like the magic wand that makes my life so much more in flow and more magnetic. Doing less of the things that drain me or always serving other people will create space for transitions in life and real “YES’s!” to come my way.

Are you curious what your Human Design Type is? A Human Design reading is an excellent first step for learning your unique design and all the intricacies. I offer Human Design readings on Core Spirit. Check out my services :)

Much Love,
Kelly
xo

When the body is stressed (physically, mentally, emotionally, environmentally), it releases cortisol produced by the adrenal glands. High cortisol levels have many negative side effects on your health, including an increased craving for sweets and fats.
The goal is to move out of fight-or-flight mode and into rest-and-digest mode. In science terms, you’re moving your body out of sympathetic mode and into parasympathetic mode, which is a calmer, healthier state for the body to be in.

1. Remove Yourself from the Triggering Environment

You’re trying to reduce the stress, but cope in a way that doesn't mean you turn to food.

• Go outside or go to another room.
• Take a short walk.
• Get away from the environment and listen to music you love.
• Get away from the environment and take 3-5+ really deep breaths through your mouth (not your nose) to open your lungs and expand your diaphragm.
• Close your eyes and use calming imagery. Focusing on all the details in your mental image will shift your mind to something less stressful and more grounding.

2. Get Outside

• A dose of nature, even just 20 minutes a day, really helps lower cortisol levels, especially if there are trees involved.
• If you exercise inside, also make a point to also get outside time in your day.

3. Stabilize Your Blood Sugar

• Are you hungry? A drop in blood sugar stresses the body and can cause a cortisol release.
• Instead of processed, sugar-rich foods, try reaching for foods high in fiber or omega-3s, which will help keep your cortisol levels steady.

4. Swap Intense Workouts for Lower Intensity Exercise

• The length and intensity of your workouts can have a big impact on your cortisol levels. High intensity exercise, around 80 percent of your maximal oxygen uptake, even when done for just 30 minutes significantly elevates cortisol levels.
• Do you notice an increase in sweets cravings an hour or two after you’ve exercised? This is likely why.
• Try walking or yoga. Meditation is also wonderful for getting into parasympathetic mode.

5. Magnesium for Stress Support

• Levels can be easily thrown off by stress and alcohol use, and many people are deficient.
• Magnesium is responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions in the body,
• You can take a supplement or use Natural Vitality Calm magnesium powder.
• You know your body has reached its magnesium threshold if you experience loose stools.

6. Try Adaptogens

• Adaptogens are a group of plants, roots, and mushrooms that help the body better adapt to stress and manage the body’s stress response.
• Adaptogens that specifically target stress: Ashwagandha, Rhodiola, Eleuthero, Holy Basil, Reishi mushroom, Schisandra Berry

7. Do More Things in Your Day That Make You Happy

• Choose more “yes’s” in your day rather than filling your day with to-do’s that don’t light you up. What lights you up??
• Shifting your focus to something that makes YOU happy, even for just 2 minutes, can make a difference on your mental state, which impacts cortisol levels.
• Connect with friends and family.
• Plan in time to work on your hobby that day.
• Spending time doing what makes you genuinely happy can reduce stress and lower cortisol levels.

8. Hydrate with Herbal, Non-Caffeinated Teas

• Stress, habit, and routine can all trigger sweets cravings.
• Instead of reaching for the afternoon or evening sweets, pour yourself a calming hot tea.
• Lemon Balm, Licorice Root, Chamomile, hot lemon water, Mint tea, Rose tea, Lavender Tea
• Tip: buy organic (many herbs are sprayed with pesticides) and use loose leaf tea in a stainless-steel tea infuser. The satin tea bags are made from plastic and will add microplastic to your drink.

Akkermansia muciniphila was first identified in 2004 and is a species of bacteria that helps to maintain our gut lining and possesses many health benefits. You may not have heard of it, but that certainly doesn't mean it isn't important! I hope you find this article helpful while you're making your next shopping list. As I was writing this article, I was picturing a big salad with sliced jicama, walnuts, grapes and chickpeas with a delicious dressing of some type :)

I also thought of a snack "Bento box" with slices of kiwi, apple slices, raspberries, pistachio nuts, almonds, and a piece of dark chocolate. The entire thing would be one big polyphenol your gut would LOVE!

Akkermansia Health Benefits

• Increases the thickness of the gut’s mucus lining, thereby improving its barrier function and reducing your risk of leaky gut. This is important because it keeps harmful bacteria out of the bloodstream.
• This barrier is crucial for immune support.
• An abundance of Akkermansia reduces your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic (blood sugar) dysfunction.
• A lack of Akkermansia is correlated to several disease states.

Ways to Increase Akkermansia

It is not available in a probiotic supplement yet, but it’s found in breast milk, and you can obtain and multiply it by eating certain foods.

Eat Foods high in Polyphenols

• Polyphenols boosts your Akkermansia abundance.
• Cranberries, Pomegranate, Red grapes, Bilberry, Blueberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Rhubarb, Cloves, Cocoa Powder, Very Dark Chocolate, Hazelnuts

Eat Foods high in Ellagic acid (an antioxidant)

• Ellagic acid boosts your Akkermansia abundance.
• Pomegranate, Cranberries, Apples, Strawberries, Raspberries, Grapes, Walnuts, Pecans, Pistachios

Eat Foods high in Fructooligosaccharides, a Prebiotic

• Increases Akkermansia growth up to 1000-fold.
• Raw green bananas, onions, chicory root, garlic, raw asparagus, jicama, Jerusalem artichoke, leeks, dandelion root

Eat more Navy beans, Black beans, White Beans

• Increases Akkermansia abundance and enhances mucus and epithelial barrier integrity.

Eat foods high in the Citrus Flavonoid Hesperidin

• Protection of mucus layer, maintenance of intestinal permeability, desirable interaction with intestinal bacteria.
• Citrus fruit: oranges, tangerines, lemon, lime, grapefruit (but not too much grapefruit as it can block liver detoxification)
• Citrus peel contains a high amount of hesperidin. Consider adding orange zest or lemon zest to tea or making citrus peel tea.

Eat foods to promote Butyrate-producing bacteria

• Almonds, apples, barley, chickpea, garlic, kiwi, oats

Lifestyle Interventions

Stress-Reduction

Both depression and stress can provoke heightened inflammation and gut leakiness.

A Caloric Break

A 12 hour “break” from eating may help decrease zonulin levels, which is a chemical associated with leaky gut.