 Hi everyone, and welcome. I'm Pat Parazzini, Director of Alumni Engagement Regional Chapter Development for Fairfield University, and I am so excited for tonight. In my role here at the university, I have the pleasure of working with alumni from across the country, coordinating with chapter leaders, and volunteers to host events that keep alumni and parents connected to and engage with Fairfield. We have nine regional chapters from Boston to Washington, D.C. alphabetically, and from Boston to San Francisco geographically. All the alumni you will meet tonight had a hand in the genesis of this event, from our president and co-presidents of the co-sponsoring Boston and Chicago chapters to our two presenters. It was a real team effort. Before we begin, just a reminder to please turn off your audio capabilities, and if you have questions during the presentation, do use the chat function. There will be Q&A at the end, and I will monitor the chat and relay your questions to our presenters. I'd like to first introduce our presidents from both chapters, Maggie Smith, Class of 2012 in Boston, and Chris Young and Colby Stabelle, both Class of 2016, and both classmates of the two stars of the evening, and they are in Chicago. I'm passing the baton to them to make the introductions. Maggie, as always, you're up first. Thanks Pat. It's my privilege to introduce one of our stars tonight, Allie Tisoli. Allie received her degree in marketing and studio art from Fairfield University in 2016. She is a health coach graduating this June from the Institute for Integrated Nutrition. She runs the Instagram account, sprinkled by Al, which she shares tips on how to become the healthiest and happiest version of yourself free from restriction, stress, and guilt. Follow her now. You won't regret it. I learned something new from her every day. Allie is an active member of the Boston Alumni Leadership Team, serving both our social and business development pillars, as well as a Fairfield view legacy. Her parents and siblings also attended Fairfield. While at Fairfield, Allie was involved in the Student Alumni Association. Allie originally hails from Connecticut and now resides in Hulltown, Massachusetts. Now I'll pass it off to Colby to introduce Kristen. Hey, everybody. Colby Stabelle, Chicago chapter co-president with Chris Young, originally from Marion, Massachusetts. See a lot of familiar faces on here tonight. So shout out to class of 2016 for those of you that are that are on and whoop whoop. Yeah. And then I'll now pass it over to Chris to formally introduce himself as well as Kristen. Hi, everyone. Like Pat and Colby Bo said, my name is Chris Young. For those of you who don't know me, class of 2016, I am a co-president with Colby for the Chicago chapter. I've been in Chicago four years as of yesterday and originally from Maple New Jersey, but yeah, enjoying the windy city, starting warm up, which is nice. But first of all, I'd like to introduce Kristen Ryan, who received her degree in accounting from Fairfield in 2016 and her graduate degree in accounting from Notre Dame in 2017. She earned the title Certified Health Coach in 2020 from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. And she's also a personal trainer and hosts a podcast called the holistic happy hour. And she also runs an Instagram page and blog called thrive with 10 where she talks about all things attainable and health and wellness. So Kristen also has family ties to Fairfield and her sister will actually be a member of the class of 2025. So Kristen is originally from New York, but she's currently residing in Illinois. But we just heard that she is moving back to New York. So yeah, for you New Yorkers, you can welcome her with open arms. So I will now pass it off to Kristen to take it away. Thanks, Chris. So I'm going to share my screen. Hopefully that will work for everybody. Let's see. Is everybody seeing that? Yeah. Awesome. All right, Allie, take it away. Cool. So thank you guys so much for joining us. We are so excited to talk to you guys tonight. I'll just run through if you just want to switch the slide. So this is our agenda for tonight. Kristen and I will introduce ourselves again, a lot of introductions, but we'll just tell you a little bit more about our health journey and why we decided to become health coaches. And then we'll go into what a health coach is and some key concepts that we focus on in nutrition school and in our practice and then talk about some tips for becoming healthier, both on the plate and off the plate, which we will go into a little bit more. And then we'll open it up for Q&A. But as Pat said, you can ask questions throughout, just throw them in the chat and then we can answer those at the end. So introduction, I will start just by telling you guys a little bit more about me and my health journey. So my health journey basically began, I would say, my freshman year at Fairfield up until that I played sports my whole life, but I was a super picky eater. I was rarely eating vegetables. I was just eating whatever I wanted and didn't give much thought to being healthy. But when I got to Fairfield, I became super passionate about health and wellness. I started to eat healthier and work out a lot more. And that kind of slowly became an obsession for me over the years. It really ebbed and flowed throughout school. But I became super strict with my workout team and was very into eating very clean and making sure I was always eating the right amount of something and making sure I was being as healthy as I possibly could. And this went on for a few years after school as well. And at the time, I thought that I was doing all of these things in the name of health. But it turns out I definitely did not have the healthiest relationship with food and exercise. So fast forward a few years. I really worked through all of that and healed my relationship with food. And so I decided I wanted to become a health coach because I wanted to help other people do the same and really just learn everything I could about holistic health and all of the different elements that go into making us healthy that have nothing to do with food. So that brought me to enroll in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I reached out to Kristin and I knew she had just graduated at the time. And so I signed up and I am now graduating in June. I have my halfway certification, which allows me to start seeing clients, which has been awesome. And I specifically work with people on healing their relationship with food in their bodies and everything that goes along with that. Awesome. Take it away, Kristin. Thanks, Ali. So I'm Kristin. I would say my health and wellness journey kind of all this started from a very young age. I struggled with an eating disorder probably since the fourth grade. That's the first time I remember getting in trouble for saying that I was going to go on a diet. And it was a very pervasive thing throughout when I said I don't think until high school and early on in college. I really admitted to myself and recognized that I needed to do something about it. And while I absolutely loved my Fairfield experience and I'm so grateful for it, I look back and I recognize that during that time and postgrad, which is when this all kind of came to a head, I really was so disconnected for myself. And it took, you know, just feeling pretty crappy all the time, both mentally and physically for me to kind of have this wake up call. Like I needed to change something in my life. I couldn't keep going on the path that I was going on. So sort of a culmination postgrad of sort of the stars aligning, I discovered the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which Ali discussed, and I signed up for that. I honestly thought it was too good to be true when I learn what a health coach is and does, which Ali will talk about that a little bit more. But it's, it is truly my passion. It's been so so cool to find this and find something that I really truly love and to be able to see in the clients that I work with, that I'm really helping them change their lives. And I'm helping them undergo the transformation that I underwent myself. And that's not to say that that's, it's a destination, it's definitely a journey. But we're really excited tonight to kind of give you guys some background of who we are, what it is that we do, and just some sort of tangible takeaways, regardless of kind of where you're at in your own journey or what phase of, of life that you're in. Thanks, Kristen. Oh, I feel like I'm changing. Sorry, Ali. Okay. That's okay. You're good. So what is a health coach? Essentially, we like to say a guide on the side, but we are supportive mentors and accountability coaches. Oh, gosh, oh, gosh, sorry. It's okay. Are we good? Are we staying here? Okay. So we are supportive mentors and accountability coaches. We take a holistic approach to health and wellness, which we'll be talking to you guys more about. So that means not only figuring out what your individual nutritional needs are, but also reflecting on all different aspects of your life. So we're not dietitians. We don't take the place of a doctor or any other practitioners. A lot of times health coaches that do, of course, work alongside these other practitioners, but we do not prescribe meal plans or diets or short-term fixes. Instead, we educate and give you, give you the tools that you need to really become the expert on yourself so that you can learn how to live your healthiest life in whatever specific area you are looking for support. So we're all about focusing on long term health and long term mind shifts, which means helping you to incorporate healthy habits that are going to be sustainable for the rest of your life. Going into, so this is one of the key concepts that we focus on at nutrition school and that Kristen and I work on with our clients, but it's this idea of bioindividuality, which is essentially that everybody has different needs, which sounds obvious, but so often times we're focused on what other people are doing, what our friends or families are doing that works. But just as we're all unique in our minds and our bodies and our personalities, we're unique in what we're going to need to make us to be our healthiest and happiest self. So we are here to remind you that nobody knows your body better than you. So it's so important that you're listening to what your body is telling you. And just reinforcing the idea that there is no one size fits all when it comes to health. And like I said, what works for somebody else may not work for you at all. So just really learning to get to know yourself and focus on yourself. Of course, health is complex and multi dimensional. There is so much more that goes into it than just maintaining a healthy diet and exercise routine. It is all about finding, you know, the environment and routine foods and workouts that are going to help you thrive, help you specifically thrive at this point in your life. So as Ali mentioned, it's so much more than just diet and exercise, right? So as health coaches, talking more to that holistic perspective, we don't look just at what's on your plate, which is obviously an integral component. But we place a great deal of emphasis on things that are off of your plate and what we're taught in nutrition pool to refer to these as is primary food, but you can just think of it as what is off your plate, right? So I think a lot of people underestimate these extraneous factors in their lives and the role that they approach themselves and what's actually on your plate. So it's really, what is nourishing you off the plate? What is helping you thrive outside of what you're physically eating and consuming every day? And again, just going back to that greater awareness that this isn't just about what you're eating and exercising. I love this example. And I always cite this to clients is that at nutrition school, they said, so you can eat all the kale in the world and you can run X amount of miles every day. But if you are unhappy and who you are, it doesn't necessarily equate to being the healthiest person. And just recognizing the connection between those things, happiness, joy, and how that shows up in your health and how you fuel your body. This is just okay, there we go. So examples of primary foods, you can think of it as career, education, spirituality, one of the really important things that I think the pandemic has highlighted is social life and social activity, joy, relationships, all of these things play a huge role in how we show up again for ourselves and what we choose to consume and have on a daily basis. So getting more into the nitty gritty, the secondary foods are what is actually on your plate. It's the nourishment that we choose to provide our bodies with. One important thing to note that Alan and I discussed is that how we approach the plate again, it's coming from those primary food factors, your joy, your creativity, spirituality, but it also can be largely influenced by things like society and culture, your lifestyle, maybe your religious beliefs. So I will get a little bit more into that as well. So on a tangible level, balancing your plate, balancing that secondary food. I, if you guys follow me, if you've listened to my podcast, I, one of the big things that I take such issue with is what I refer to as noise. I think there is so much noise out there when it comes to diet, exercise, all of these things that it ends up and this is very much where I was at in college, I had no idea, even if I had wanted to be quote unquote, healthy, I had no idea how to actually do it because there's so much information and bad things out there that I think most people end up feeling like, what the heck should I be eating? So I like to bring it back to very much basics and fundamentals. So one thing I usually ask myself when I say grocery shopping, is did this come from a plan? Did this actually come from the earth? Is this something in a recognizable form that I know what it is and where it came from? Or did it come from a plan? I wasn't manufactured in a factory. The next question, which is probably been the biggest game changer for me and is the framework that I continue to approach my relationship with food with is does this food provide me the energy that I want to show up in my life in the way that I want to show up, right? So is this giving me the energy to show up to be positive to be happy to have energy for the relationships in my life for my career? I think that has been a huge way of how I've shifted my perceptions around what is actually on my plate. The second component of that, which I really strive to do this with my clients is creating neutrality around how we speak about food. So what I mean by that is, I think a lot of us again, getting back to that noise, whether it's the kinds of society or pressure that we put on ourselves, we associate foods with being good or bad. So for example, for the longest time, I love Italian food, I love pasta. I would very much limit when I would have pasta because I thought it was a quote unquote bad food. And there's nothing wrong with that. I want to preface this by saying, I think creating neutrality starts with objectivity and being able to forgive yourself. So viewing just being aware of how we speak about food and how we think about food. It's very empowering just to merely observe that those thought patterns are there. Again, getting back to fundamentals, eating the rainbow, having variety, the more colors on your plate, the more micronutrients you're getting just a very simple, easy thing to remember. This was a point that Ally made, and I think it's an awesome one, especially again, as I mentioned to you guys coming, approaching all this in the way that I do is thinking about what we can add to our plate versus what we're taking away. Again, shifting from that restriction mindset, and I think on a more practical level, just figuring out, I always talk to my clients about, you know, adding little hacks whenever we can and just elevating things nutritionally, instead of kind of recreating the wheel every time we're going to create a meal or trying to implement these changes. And then the last component of that is satisfaction. I like to tell my clients, there's a place for both of these things. I think of food in terms of, is this fueling my body or is this fueling my soul? And you know what, some days, you've had a bad day and you just need to eat the bowl of ice cream, and that's okay. And recognizing that both of those things serve a role and are integral in our physical health and mental health. Again, tangible tips and tricks, reading ingredients, this was probably one of the first things that I learned in my own health and wellness journey. And it was, it still is a tool that I constantly rely on. In an ideal world, you would have five to seven ingredients or less. And of course, this is referring to package products, those things that come from a plant. Fewer ingredients, the better I know a lot of people can relate to this, you pick up, you know, a box of something seemingly simple. And there's like 85 different ingredients on it, which brings me to my next point. A question that I always ask myself. And if you're dialing in, I'll elaborate on this. I always say it doesn't make sense up here, my head, because if it doesn't make sense up here, it's probably not going to make sense down here, my stomach. So can I pronounce it? Again, is this something that, you know, as an easy example, high fructose corn syrup? I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure there's no plant that is growing out in the garden that is called high fructose corn syrup, right? So just thinking, like, is this something I know? And can I pronounce it? Because if I can't, my body probably isn't going to know what to do with that. Another like big pain point of mine is food marketing. It makes me really mad. But I think it's really important to play food detectives, stay skeptical, do not fall for those buzzwords that noise those fat things. You know, there are things that have a million ingredients and tons of sugar and what have you. But on the outside, it says, you know, gluten free or low fat or what have you. And a lot of people fall into that trap of thinking like, Oh, this must be good for me because it's gluten free. That does not equate to health. I always tell my clients if it comes from a health food store, it does not mean that it's necessarily healthy. So just remember that I laugh now, probably like junior year when we had cars on campus, I would go drive over to Whole Foods and buy all my groceries from there. And like, now I'm kicking myself because I spent so much money on things there that I thought were going to make me healthy. And in reality, I might have just I should have just been buying the conventional brand because they were no different. It was just labeled as organic or what have you. So again, not getting bogged down in the like an actual nutrition label itself. The one thing that I do look out at there is sugar. I don't know where the narrative started that fat is the problem. I am a firm believer in that sugar is the root of most evils in the body. So I do that is the one thing on a nutritional label that I do look at is the sugar content. So just as an easy rule of thumb, and I have healthy in quotes here. So a lot of the daily recommendations and like health average health levels that we refer to in the US, you know, in a doctor's office and what have you, the quotes essentially apply that like most of our population is unhealthy. So what is right for an average American doesn't necessarily equate to health and and a like appropriate measure if that makes sense. But your daily recommendation for sugar should not exceed 22 grams. And again, that's not to say like you should eat up to 22 grams. That's just saying that's like kind of the upper threshold. If you look at like any drink from target or target from Starbucks, you're going to go over this super quickly. So just being aware of things like that. grocery shopping, I think is one of the biggest things that I struggled with first out of college. And I think it's something that most adults struggle right out of school. Again, just bringing back to basics, reading ingredients, being skeptical, playing food detective, same principles apply of did it come from a plant or is it a plan? I always remind myself to sort of take inventory when I am grocery shopping to like look down and check my cart and to see is most of it fresh real foods versus those packaged goods. At a practical level, just for ease of you doing it, I would say each week I have my staple grocery items. They are the what I refer to as like non negotiables. They're the things that I know bananas, avocado, spinach, almond milk, nut butters, those are things that every single week are going to get used in some way or iteration. So just having those, you know, 10 basic things you're going to buy every week and knowing them or having them written down will kind of save you time on the back end when figuring out what you need to get that day. One of the questions that we saw come through and we can talk a little bit more about this after but I would say familiarize yourself with the clean 15 and dirty dozen. If you haven't heard of those, they change every year, which is why we didn't include them in here. But they basically tell for that year, which crops, plants, fruits and vegetables, you should splurge on to buy organic and the ones that it's okay to buy conventional. A lot of times is the general rule of thumb. Things like avocados, bananas, fruits and vegetables that have thick skins. Those are usually more protected from things like pesticides and herbicides. So usually it's a safer bet to buy those things conventional if you're trying to budget and you don't want to go all in unbinding organic. Shop the perimeter of the store. If anyone, everyone's been in a grocery store, you know that most of the packaged frozen goods are in those center aisles. So shopping around the edge, that's where you're going to get your fresh fruits, vegetables, protein sources, what have you. Again, this is to Ali's credit, she always tells her clients that including fun food. So making sure that when you are taking inventory of the cart, that there's things in there that are going to feed your soul that are going to be fun that you're not just being so stringent on on yourself. And I'll pass it off to Ali. Okay, thank you. So I am going to transition us into talking about off the plate. So everything else in your life that nourishes you that has nothing to do with the food that you're eating. So starting out with self care. I always say that this doesn't have to mean a fancy bubble bath and a face mask. I feel like for so long, at least for me when I heard of self care, I thought it was like this whole lavish thing. But really, it's just any activity that nurtures and refuels you on a deeper level. So this could be anything from taking 10 minutes to yourself in the morning to do absolutely nothing. It could be lying on the couch after a hard day and ordering take out in your pajamas. It could be getting outside to go for a walk, calling your friend, doing your laundry, if that makes you feel better, it's really anything. And it's going to look different for everyone. And it will look different for you every single day depending on what is going on in your life. And there's no, there's no right way to do self care. And I wanted to touch on productivity, because I feel like our society and culture is obsessed with being productive all the time. And I know that I am guilty of this trying to fit in every minute of every day, have something productive to do. And so oftentimes, I talk to people and they're like, Oh, I don't have time for self care, or I just kind of like push through, or they feel guilty taking the time to do that, or feel like they should be using their time in another way. But self care is actually one of the most productive things that you can do for yourself. Because realistically, if you're not taking care of yourself and showing up for yourself, you can't expect yourself to take care of others and show up for other people show up for your job, if you're not filling up your own cup. And if you have no idea where to start with self care, if you're not somebody who in self care, I say to just take a step back and evaluate what areas of your life need more attention, and then do one thing. Ideally, every day, or every week in that area of your life. So is it your body that needs more attention? Do you need to add in some stretching every day or get in some more movement? Is it your mental health? Do you want to add in some journaling? Or maybe you are looking into seeing a therapist? Could be your spirituality, your relationship with others. So FaceTiming a friend, or your relationship with yourself. So again, that could look like spending time alone, or journaling and just taking some quiet time. Or maybe it's work related. I'm sure a lot of us can relate to needing self care in this department right now. And we'll talk about that later. But you know, maybe you actually take that full 30 minute lunch break, or you take a day off in the near future just to kind of relax and unwind. Okay, stress management. Cleaning up your space is so important. I don't know about you guys, but if my space is cluttered, I can't focus on anything that is going on. I can't focus on work. And I'm just stressed out. So ideally, you know, your whole apartment or your whole house would be clean. Obviously, that's not super realistic. So I would just say to start with cleaning off your space that you spend the most time. So for me, that is the corner that I'm sitting in right now. This is technically my bedroom and my office and everything else. So just making sure that my desk is always cleaned off. Beds made things like that because I really do believe that a clean space is a clean mind and it really helps to bring down your stress levels. And meditation or deep breathing, of course, it's really all about activating your parasympathetic nervous system. So essentially, your body has two main central nervous systems, your sympathetic nervous system, which is your fight or flight response, and your parasympathetic nervous system, which is your rest and digest response. And when you are stressed out, and your fight or flight is activated, your body has no idea whether or not you are being chased by a wild animal or if you're just stressed out about work. So, you know, you're going to start sweating. Your digestion is going to get put on the back burner and you're not going to feel great. Your heart rate is going to go up. And obviously, that is not good for you. So the only way to turn off that fight or flight is by actively turning on your rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system. So there's a lot of ways to do that. But the most efficient way to reset your system is just by simply taking a deep breath. If you start paying attention to tomorrow, if you aren't already in tune with how you're breathing throughout the day, but if I'm not consciously taking time to slow down and take deep breaths from my diaphragm, I am just like breathing from up here all day long during work. So just taking time to pay attention to your breath. And my favorite breathing exercise is the 478 method. That's just breathing in for four seconds, holding it for seven and then breathing out for eight. And of course, meditation is extremely helpful. I personally use Headspace. I know there's Insight Timer, Peloton has been doing a lot of meditation classes. There's the com app, you could always go on YouTube. And if meditation is seems overwhelming to you, which it definitely did for me at first, I'm somebody who is constantly thinking about a thousand things. And so to get me to sit down for five minutes and not think is just like not going to happen. So if you're like me choosing a guided meditation is super important. And just starting out with like one minute a day, you think that that's not going to make a difference. So maybe you're just blowing it off, but one minute can really help to just ground you and bring down your stress. And if that evolves into five minutes in a few months, that's fine. But you don't have to have this expectation for yourself that you need to be full on meditating for like 20 minutes a day. Stepping outside during the day is of course super important, especially right now. I know a lot of us are working from home and doing everything from home. And typically, at least of the commute to work, you get outside for a few minutes a day, I used to walk to and from the bus or tune from work. And so that was a guaranteed half hour outside a day, which we don't get now. So just being more aware of that and stepping outside for at least 10 minutes. Fresh air works wonders and so does going for a walk, it can be super cathartic and really help improve your mental health. And even if you only have three minutes, it's just get outside, you can just stand there, take in the sun or the rain, whatever it is, just like take in some fresh air. Exercising for reasons other than aesthetics. So I say other than aesthetics because exercising is super helpful in relieving stress. But if you are focusing on exercising just to look a certain way, or to burn a certain amount of calories, you're just adding more stress to your body. So instead, shifting your mindset and your focus to working out to to get more energy to get your endorphins flowing to sleep better at night, less brain fog during the day at work, it improves your digestion and it can boost your creativity. And it doesn't have to be walking is exercise and walking is a great form of exercise. So this doesn't have to be anything extreme. And connecting with others. Kristen touched on this that the power of socialization on our health and our mental well being, it's so important, and especially now in the middle of the pandemic, when we used to be surrounded by people all the time. And now for me, I you see like one person every day, are you staying in your bubble and not seeing many people? So just making sure that for your mental health, and your physical health that you're spending time with friends or family, maybe that's on FaceTime, or a socially distance walk, whatever is safe for you, but just making sure that as we get to one year of being in this pandemic and kind of being quarantined that you're continuing to socialize with people. Journaling is another great tool. This just allows you to get all of your thoughts out on paper and process them. I know for me, I'll typically if I'm feeling stressed out, I'll just I don't like to write page after page of journaling notes, but I'll just throw down like, three things that are going on that are stressing me out and putting it on paper and having it be tangible and looking at it. You're just able to see, okay, maybe this was it was built up more in my head than it actually is, or you can figure out ways to help yourself get rid of that stress. And therapy is great, too. Kristen added this one, I think, but I there is zero shame in asking for help. I am a huge advocate of that. And I know for me personally, without a therapist the last year in the pandemic would have been extremely difficult. So you do not need to have some huge issue or traumatic experience to reach out and get help. It's it's so important. Okay, boundaries. So again, just going off of what Ali was talking about. On a personal level, boundaries is something I've really been looking at in the pandemic. I think a lot of people can relate to this. Our homes have become where we work, where we sleep, where we socialize. Basically, we're in the same environment every single day. And for a long time, I was finding myself still on my computer working at nine or 10 at night, like not because I had to just because there was no distinction between when the day started and when the day ended. So again, it's easier said than done. But I think creating some structure, carving out time in your day, again, for those self care routines to catch up with a friend, I always tell my clients, I think one of the easiest things people cite for not doing things for themselves in their health is a lack of time. And I just think that is not an excuse whatsoever. I think every single person, regardless of how busy your day is, if they make it a priority, you can find 10 minutes in your day to do something for yourself. So I emphasize my clients find joyful activity, and that is going to look different for every single person. One thing that I'm doing the pandemic that I've consistently been doing since it started is like reading before bed every night. I just love doing it. I love looking forward to it. And it just is something that I do for me and it's sort of a non negotiable. I think carving out time in the morning is also really important. I think a lot of our morning routines have changed in the pandemic. It does not have to it can look different every day. It does not have to be some rigid structure thing. It might just be waking up and making your coffee and sitting on the couch for 10 minutes and enjoying that before kind of the chaos of your day gets into play. Boundaries with work, friends and family is something that I don't know about for most of you. It is very hard. But I always tell myself that my clients, it's all about exercising that no muscle. One thing that they taught us in nutrition school, which I have almost all my clients do, I've done it myself. It's called the be bad exercise. So essentially, you take something that you associate with being bad and you think would be perceived wrong. And you do it anyway. And for example, in a no such in a situation where you have to say no, if you're really tired on Friday night, and you said you might, you know, meet up with friends, it's okay to say no. And I think you'll find that if you sort of push yourself into these be bad situations, you'll find that your friends and everyone else is very accommodating and they understand. And I think the more and more we work through those uncomfortable situations, the easier it becomes to set boundaries with people that we love. I'm setting boundaries with social media. I think Ali will agree to this because of a lot of our work is online. But I think all of us today, social media is a huge part of our lives. It's really important to create boundaries around social media. So for probably the last year plus, I at eight o'clock every single night, I put my phone on the charger and I do not look at it then until I'm going to bed and making sure that my alarm is set. And it just, you know, aside from minimizing your exposure to blue light and stuff like that, I think it just gets you in a much better headspace than if you were to spend that time on social media. I know a lot of people spend the last few waking minutes of their day in their bed scrolling Instagram. And I think especially what we're all dealing with in the pandemic and just the gravity of what our society is facing, it can't be great for anyone really to be absorbing all that information as they're going off to sleep. Something that I've been trying to do recently is setting boundaries on social media in the morning, which is new. I noticed that like, I would go and shut off my alarm and I wouldn't even realize but then Instagram would be open on my phone and I'd be like, how the heck did I even end up here? So I tell myself now I am not allowed to check social media before 730. And I think it's really helpful, you know, not to be again, absorbing that information and even if it's good information, just creating some space for yourself to just set your head straight before the day goes on. And again, we touched upon this, turning your phone off or putting it up at least 30 minutes to an hour before bed I think is really, really helpful. Allie. Okay, so I'm going to talk a little bit about relationship with food. I mentioned before this is really what I focus on with my clients. If you follow me, if you know me personally, I can talk about this forever. But essentially, if you've learned anything from this presentation, it's that your health is not just about what you eat. There's so much else that goes into it, but it's also about how you think about the food that you're eating. So these are some signs that maybe your relationship with food might need a little bit of love. And I always preface this by saying I'm not sharing these to make you feel shameful and everybody is different. But for me, I don't feel like this is or was talked about enough. And so I was like participating in a lot of these habits, thinking that I was being extremely healthy. So it's just bringing attention to that. So some signs that you your relationship with food might need a little attention. You label certain foods as good and bad. Kristen talked about this earlier. You know, of course, certain foods are more nutrient dense than others, but that doesn't make foods that aren't bad and labeling them as that can be super detrimental. You might feel guilty for eating certain foods, especially if there's there are those bad foods, you might not trust yourself around certain foods. And this is why I had Kristen add into the slide incorporating fun foods, because I don't think that we should have to ban foods from our house. You might have food rules for yourself, which we talked about, you know, maybe that looks like you don't eat pasta during the week, or you don't eat past 8pm at night, or you cut out certain food groups, even though you don't have any intolerances, but just because you feel like you should, like a lot of people over the past few years, it was trendy to go like gluten free because it's healthy, which Kristen said obviously isn't always the case. But so you're very rigid about the foods that you eat and what time and how much you might be ignoring your body's natural hunger cues. So I'm not saying that you're starving yourself and you're not eating, but maybe you're noticing that you're hungry. And instead of reaching for food, you're going to have an extra cup of coffee or getting more water or seltzer or something like that before you move on to food. And you might find yourself restricting certain foods only to have a lot of them later on. So maybe that looks like during the week, you are like, Oh, I don't eat sweets, I can't eat sweets. And then on the weekend, you're eating every sweet that's inside. So again, everybody is different. But these are just some examples of what a healthy relationship with food might look like, and what it can look like. So you allow yourself to eat foods that you enjoy, you listen to your body's hunger cues, and you actually eat when you feel hungry, you tend to eat like I said, when you're hungry, and you usually stop around when you're feeling full. But if you don't, you don't feel guilty after it. You don't label certain foods as off limits. Unless of course, you don't feel good after eating a certain food, I always say that you want to eat food that's going to make you feel your best. So of course, if food does not agree with you, or it makes you feel sluggish and things like that, of course, you can kind of crowd those out from your diet. But you make food choices based off of feeling better, but not focusing on the calories in your food that you're eating. So some steps that you can take to improve your food relationship, I would start by taking note of the rules that you have created for yourself, and try to figure out where they came from. This goes with what Kristen was saying about the noise, a lot of this stuff, this information and these rules that we have around food, just come from society or our friends or family, if you've ever been on a diet or a program, a lot of times you carry that food rule with you and you don't even realize it. But just writing that down so you can acknowledge what the food rules are and then one at a time challenging yourself to break these food rules. So if you're somebody who says you can only have pasta on the weekends, try to have pasta on a Wednesday night if that's what you're craving. And once you start to do that, it can be difficult to do things like that for some people, but you'll notice that nothing is going to happen to you. And this rule was made up elsewhere. And again, eating when you're hungry is super important. And practicing mindful eating is great for promoting a healthy relationship with food. If you don't know what mindful eating is, it's essentially slowing down and really taking in all aspects of the food that you're eating. So sitting down when you eat, taking a deep breath to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, putting your fork down in between every few bites and checking in with yourself. Halfway through a meal, like, are you still hungry? Are you approaching hunger? Are you eating to fill other emotional things that you're not dealing with? But this and then afterwards, talking about or thinking about how did that food make you feel? Is there anything that you would do differently? And mindful eating just really helps you to build trust with your body and to help you realize and get comfortable recognizing how food makes you feel and, you know, when you're approaching fullness or when you're feeling hungry. And then keep your eyes on your own plate is number one, you could be sitting at a table with people and I know that I used to do this all the time, I would compare my my food to everybody's around me, but just keep in mind that this goes back to vile individuality, what works for somebody else may not work for you. Not only that, but you have no idea what the person next to you, what they ate that day. If they didn't eat anything, if they ate a lot, what their relationship with food is like, if they're restricting or if they're on a diet, so it's just a waste of time to compare yourself to other people's plates. So really just focusing on the food that makes you feel your best. So in conclusion, to tie this up and sort of bring in fairer field to this, we were all taught the Jesuit values, right? And one of them was cure personalis, which if you don't remember, means caring for the whole person. And I think, if you get anything from what Ellie and I talked about tonight, like, your health is no exception to that. As we mentioned, and in all the things that we've discussed, your health is multifaceted, and it's influenced by so many different things other than what's just on your plate. So I would say just, you know, remain curious, be open to change. And always the biggest thing that I've learned to do for myself and in helping others is learning to give yourself grace. And again, being open, and forgiving yourself when as you're trying and you're going on this journey, it's going to be hard and you're going to quote unquote mess up. But being able to forgive yourself and realize that it's that's all part of it, is really important. So I think we're going to open it up to questions. Yep. Ladies, and I do have some questions that folks during the registration process, they asked. So the first one, I'd like to ask you both came from a student. How can I manage a healthy academic work life balance during my time at Fairfield? Allie, do you want to start her tonight? It doesn't matter to me. Um, well, I will say that I had zero balance whatsoever. I mean, I guess that's all part of the learning experience. I was notorious for what my mom referred to as burning the candle at both ends. I just, it was work hard, play hard mentality very much. So if I could go back and do things different, I think setting boundaries is a huge one. And as Ali said, shifting the mindset of self care as something that is unattainable or expensive or not accessible to you. I think as I mentioned, you know, there's time in every single day, I think every day carving out even just 10 minutes of yourself to do something that nurtures your mind, your body or soul, whatever it may be on that particular day. And making that a priority. I think what it comes down to is prioritizing yourself and emphasizing how important your own physical health is, but also mental health, which I think is a component that's largely overlooked. Yeah, I would have to agree with that. I too, definitely had no work life balance. I was always doing something. But I would say if I was to go back, I would learn what self care was and really just try to, like you said, set aside some time for yourself. Give yourself boundaries and limits on the times that you're going to work, the times that you're going to socialize and the time that you're going to take for yourself. And while socializing is important. And I mean, I'm not sure what it looks like right now at university in a pandemic, but also recognizing when you might just need some alone time. I know colleges like everybody's in your face all the time and you're always together. You I don't remember being alone at all. So just recognizing when you might need some time for yourself and just making sure that you do that. Okay, thank you. For someone looking to get started on their own health and wellness journey. Where might they start? I could start with this one. I would say meet yourself where you're at. So if you're somebody who has hardly ever touched the vegetable, it doesn't have a self care routine and doesn't work out, bringing it back to what can you add to your plate and to your life? What are small things that you can add every day that are going to add up over time? So maybe just trying to add a vegetable into your meals, adding 10 minutes of self care and maybe starting out with just getting in some movement every day, even that if that's a five or 10 minute walk. And like we said, just having grace with yourself through the process and just being conscious of making choices to make yourself feel better in the end and just have that as your end goal. So you don't kind of get distracted by all of the noise that can come with starting your health journey. Yeah, I think exactly what Ali said, just building off of that. I one of my biggest issues I think that I even face in my own life was creating something that's sustainable and attainable. So when I talked to my clients or even for myself, I really believe it's all about those little steps each and every day that add up if you're someone who has never ran a day in your life, waking up on Monday and saying, Oh, I'm going to start running 10 miles. That's just not realistic or practical. So as Ali said, meeting yourself where you are small steps along the way, those all really add up and get you to where you want to go. All right, thank you. So what would you say is the most important thing you've done for your own health? Do you want to go Ali or should I? Sure, I would say finally listening to myself and my own body and starting to drown out the noise of what other people say is healthy and just tuning in with myself and figuring out what do I need to do to feel my best? Yeah, I would say two things, getting honest with myself, recognizing where I'm at and that, especially when this all started that I needed to change and that was okay. And just prioritizing myself, I think for so long, I put goals and career and just all these other things ahead of what really should count first in all of our lives. I had a client actually bring this quote to me a few months back and it really stuck with me. She heard it in the yoga class and essentially the yoga instructor said like the longest person that you have to live with is yourself. So essentially making sure that that's your top priority and that you're taking care of yourself and prioritizing that person because you have to be happy with that person at the end of the day. And I think in order to show up in your life in the way that you want to, you have to get yourself right first. I love that quote, Kristen. That's great. So what's a good way to lower stress during the work day? I lost track of like you. I think I went first last time. So I would say I am someone who hates the cold. I don't I still it confuses me why I chose to live in the Midwest. But it's something that especially this winter in the pandemic I forced myself to get over because just being cooped up all day long. We're also living in the suburbs right now, which has been great in some ways, but also super isolating. I just make sure I suck it up and every chance I get go outside get fresh air. It's incredible. Like what a reset that is even like when I'm hitting that three o'clock slump and I'm like, Oh my God, I don't know how I'm going to make it through the rest of this day. Sticking my head outside or going on a walk around the block totally kind of revitalizes me and just gives me a little bit more energy to tackle the rest of the day. Yeah, I'm the same. I have definitely been making my walks a priority and also just blocking off some time for yourself during the day. I'll block off at least lunch on my calendar to make sure that I'm stepping away from my screen and whether that's the time that I walk or make something for lunch, just having time for yourself away from work. And I would also say I am someone who is very easily stressed out during the workday and I recognize that. So constantly just checking in with myself and making sure that I am taking deep breaths. And so sometimes that means like throwing on a one minute meditation before the day starts or before a meeting just to kind of ground myself again and bring down my stress levels. All right. I know you both referenced this time during the pandemic. But the question is how are you finding the work life balance during the pandemic? Yeah, it's not great. It's hard. Yeah, I would it's it's definitely hard. But I think just implementing the things like we're saying you can so easily work from eight in the morning till 10 at night just because it's right there. But just having some boundaries for yourself to make sure that you have you do have some time for yourself with your family with your partner doing something that you enjoy. That's not work. Yeah, and I think like creating things to look forward to. I think a lot of people, especially at the beginning, which again, there's nothing wrong with this, but sort of like punctuated their day with happy hour and drinking and what have you which obviously there's always a time and space for that. But I've just been trying to give myself like whether it's a show at night or a book to read or zoom with some of my roommates, my Fairfield roommates who are on this, like just something to look forward to and something to break up the day to create some semblance of normal. Right. And boundary, right. So what are some of your go to snacks during the work day? That's a good one. Do you want to go? I'm just laughing at your dad. Oh, God, I can't even see him. He's trying to pop out and say hi. Sure, I'll take it. I'm actually not a huge snack person, but one thing just like I always tell people like make it quick, make it easy. Just like baby carrots with hummus. I love that, especially like baby carrots. You can buy in a bag. They're already pre washed, pre cut, super zero preparation on your end. I like making homemade popcorn. I think there's also a lot of great snack brands out there are less or evil. They have like kind of like puff snacks, which are really good. Just go puffs. Yeah, they're so good. Just like quick fruits, things like that, just quick things that are easy to grab throughout the day that aren't taking a lot of time away. Yeah, I would say the same thing. It's definitely a huge snack person. So for me, I always try to have some sort of fat or protein in my snacks. So sometimes that's Greek yogurt with granola, chia seeds or an apple with nut butters. Nut butters really tied me over because really my goal is to just like get me through my afternoon of meetings when I'm eating my snacks. So just trying to include a fat or protein or fiber to help keep you full longer. OK, OK. And if I have one more question unless anyone has another one, but I'm going to throw this one out to both of you. What advice would you give someone who eats well during the week and then finds themselves struggling during the weekend? OK, so this was my like biggest pain point in my health journey. I would eat while during the week and then the week like Friday night would come and it was just like train off the tracks for the rest of the weekend. It was just like this petrol cycle of doing that. I think for me, one of the big things moving away from that was shifting my restriction mindset. So as Ali mentioned earlier, like if you're someone who tells yourself like I can't drink during the week or I can't like I can't enjoy a glass of wine, I can't enjoy a bowl of pasta, like throw those rules away because I think if you're satisfied throughout the week, there's a lot less pressure and I think another big part and I think for a lot of young grads on here or people in our age group, I think alcohol plays a big role in that. So for me, it's just been like exploring my relationship with alcohol because I found that when I was drinking several glass of wine on a Friday night or going out, what have you, it would set sort of the wrong precedent for the weekend. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. But just exploring the role that those things play in your behaviors during the weekend. Yeah, I would pretty much second that that was definitely a huge issue for me in college and a few years after I was putting so much pressure on myself every week to have the most perfect week. Like every I was very much like, OK, this week I'm going to be perfect starting on Monday. And I wouldn't let myself have any of the things that I liked. I was really just trying to eat as healthy as I could. And same thing, Friday comes around and I was like, oh, I get to have dessert tonight. And then the weekend, I get to eat what I want. And it's just a vicious cycle. So just throwing out those rules and just allowing yourself to eat what you want to eat when you want to eat it. So incorporating some of those foods that you don't usually allow yourself to eat until the weekend and just adding those into your week to balance them out more, you'll find that you're not going to them as much on the weekends. Right. Thank you. And Kristen has shared websites and Instagrams for both Ali and Kristen and I'm recording this too. So I can and I will be sending you all an email tomorrow so I can put that in as well. Ladies, this was outstanding. So I always I always ask that if anyone could unmute themselves and give both Ali and Kristen a huge round of applause. This was outstanding. So it was informative. It was inspiring. I love that you both highlighted making things fun and creating joy. And I do want to echo Maggie sentiment. I've learned something today and I look forward to following you both and learning more. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everyone. Thank you guys so much. This is just outstanding. Before we leave, I just want to point you all to the Fairfield University calendar of events. www.fairfield.edu forward to us alumni events where you're going to see that there's a lot going on at the university. But tomorrow I'm going to send you an email with all these great valuable university resource links. I've recorded this event. It's going out on our university YouTube channel. So look for that as well. I hope to see you all soon, soon, soon and an in-person event. But until then, be well, stay safe and everybody give us a go Staggs. Come on. Ali and Kristen, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Thank you guys so much for coming. And Pat, I was going to say we can give you our emails too. If anyone has any more questions for us. Perfect. That's perfect. I will send that out as well in the in the email tomorrow. This is great. Good to see everyone. Thanks, guys. Have a good night. Well, everybody's good.