If you're having a hard time focusing on your health with the current news cycle, you are not alone.
My clients are feeling it.
My friends are feeling it.
And I am certainly feeling it.
I am countering stress by doubling down on my health and taking advantage of what I call one of my Stephanie sabbaticals.
Could you engineer a Fill-In-Your-Name sabbatical?
There are various definitions of sabbatical, the most traditional being an extended leave from a teaching position to study and travel.
But the word gets tossed around more broadly too, including:
A leave usually taken every seventh year.
I define a leave not necessarily as physically leaving, but more of a turning inward and getting very quiet and introspective. But perhaps also physically moving as well.
I've learned that I take my leave usually around the 10-year mark, and it has nothing to do with a university faculty position.
Apparently I've got a decade-long rhythm that starts with a giant burst of realizations and growth, much of which I kind of don't want to know, but eventually am forced to explore, and then kablam, I need time and space on my own to think and create and implement.
The time in between the turned-inward-alone part is quite social and busy. Sometimes I get married (kidding, hahaha, mostly; I've been married twice for the record). My pendulum swings from intensely private reflection, over to running around all over the place, and back again. That's just who I am and how my creative process works.
My first sabbatical was when I got kicked out of college for a semester. I went from sorority-rush-chair-bartender to office-working-study-nerd pretty much overnight. I completely abandoned my university's social life, did a deep reckoning with myself, took 20+ credits per semester, made the Deans List, graduated, and stepped into true adulthood.
My fourth and most recent sabbatical arrived three years after my divorce. I was finding the groove of living alone - for the first time in my whole life - completely exhilarating. Who knew that living alone is so GREAT? Hahaha. I was truly giddy.
My biggest struggle was horribly missing active parenting (my son was fully launched), but I had hired a business coach and was making real strides toward taking that thought and energy and pointing it toward creating a meaningful career for myself. I was very free, I had big ideas to implement...
...but after a couple of years I recognized that I was sliding toward stuck again.
Even with very cool things happening in my professional life, I was falling into some old Stephanie traps. I was making myself too socially busy and tired and it was taking a toll on my health. I had fallen into a dud relationship and I was being lazy about getting out of it.
Well I'm off to Colorado With urgency I go Seeking the answers to questions untold Oh Lord guide me surely And fill my heart with song Baby up there in the mountains I will find home - Chappy, from the song Colorado
And so...sabbatical time! On very short notice, I packed up my car and drove to Colorado. Ha! It was almost a decade ago but it absolutely planted the seed for my recent move to Denver. I fell in love with Colorado. Back then, I stayed in Boulder, hiked every day, wrote my brains out, cooked insanely healthy food, drank zero alcohol, visited my brother and sister on the weekends, and cleared my brain. It was incredible.
And super scary, because thanks to my coach, and turning away a lot of noise, and listening to my own wisdom/experience without running around like a crazy person...
...I got a a real good look at how many fears I had been avoiding and was needing to face if I wanted my life and work to truly keep growing.
Here's what I jotted down back then:
Fear of a boatload of unprocessed grief.
Fear of not still not having clarity about my work.
Fear of growing old alone.
Fear that I wasn't actually capable of standing on my own two feet.
Fear of what being single/un-partnered meant in our culture.
Fun! Not fun. Those are a lot of existential fears and I've wrestled hard with every single one of them since that trip. (Still am, of course.)
I exited the dud relationship and got a lot smarter about dating. (And a lot smarter about appreciating being single and not taking my freedom and peace for granted.)
I walked with my mom through the end of her life and that was for sure the most terrifying thing I have ever done.
I made myself more visible on social media and in my business. If you have a public persona on social media, you know how scary that can be.
I realized that I had squeezed everything I could out of Minneapolis and it was time to make a change toward my bigger goals.
And so here I am in Denver and welcome to my fifth Stephanie sabbatical!
I'm in a pretty quiet pendulum swing right now. I'm writing and working my brains out, I'm super leaned into creating my cozy living space, I'm cooking simple and healthy food, I'm going for long walks, and I'm studying and thinking and planning.
I'll emerge socially at some point, probably this summer. We'll see. I'm in zero rush.
What stage are you in? Could you use a lil sabbatical of your own?
This is a culturally stressful time. Staying informed is imperative, but doom-scrolling takes a huge toll (ask me how I know).
And so one of my sabbatical goals is gentle dopamine. I don't want big thrills, I'm not really drinking, I'm trying to be very present and very intentional.
I manage stress by carving out time for creativity (I started a new IG account called @softautumnglow just for fun), taking online courses, grieving (I'm really missing my mom lately), getting extra sleep, journaling (a lot), and extra-connecting with loved ones (phone calls > texting).
Since I write recipes for you, below is a recipe for a mini-sabbatical to experiment with. I shared it on Instagram as a Reel entitled How to Stay Strong & Sane When the News is Bad in 6 Powerful Steps, but it's really just a plug-and-play sabbatical format.
Create a note in your phone and add these categories:
✅ Dreaded tasks: name them and tackle them first. Big dopamine burst.
✅ Nourishment: plan at least one deeply nutritious meal for the day - bonus points if it’s breakfast because it changes food choices the rest of the day.
✅ Movement: walk, stand, fidget, workout, do air squats, take the stairs, swing a kettlebell, dance, yoga, stretch. The more the better.
✅ Connection: Preferably use your actual speaking voice to catch up with a loved one that you don’t live or work with.
✅ Gifts to self: Journal, bath, candles, tidy up, pray, meditate, breath work, tea, sunshine, get a massage, arrange flowers, listen to music, make a gratitude list, set up coffee the night before.
✅ Create: writing, photography, cooking, knitting, design new website, teach, create music, decorate, garden, take a course, imagine some new moves.
Fill in yours and have it at the ready for when you find yourself doom-scrolling, or super stressed out, or feeling really down.
And if you're in a place in your life where you're starting over and pondering a bigger version of a sabbatical, send me a note. I'm happy to chat. If you'd like it to include working on your health and nutrition, work with me by signing up here (use PayPal if you'd like to pay in installments, works like a charm).
OK. Let's talk about the wellness grift, which is in full and wild swing right now.
The information I share with my clients and readers is based on nutrition science and studies. I share this information on Instagram and in my coaching sessions with clients.
I could be making a lot more money and have a much bigger following if I was willing to say outrageous things and pretend like I was letting you in on a secret that Big Pharma or Western Medicine was holding back from you. That type of "being let in on a secret" marketing is very, very effective.
Once you recognize it, you'll see it everywhere.
It really grabs people because Big Pharma and Western Medicine are far from perfect. Our healthcare - and insurance - system is a nightmare a lot of the time. I'm a huge proponent of universal healthcare, mostly because I worked for almost 15 years in a large healthcare system and many of my brilliant friends that still work in healthcare leadership have concluded that it's the lesser of all the evils. We have the most expensive, most complex, but not even close to the best, healthcare system in the world. But that's an aside (not to mention we're heading in the exact opposite direction and yeah, a conversation for a different day).
Because our healthcare system is stressful and expensive to access, it creates a giant opening for wellness influencers. That's not all bad. There are so many great influencers talking about nutrition, cooking healthy food, teaching kids to love real food, creating meal plans for busy people, and teaching people how eat for optimum health and healthy weight.
I myself endeavor to be one of those influencers.
But there is a dark and dangerous side to the wellness industry. It's obviously not healthy to skip vaccines, or eat tons of saturated fat, or eat raw meat, or not eat vegetables, or to drink raw milk, or to not take antibiotics. Influencers with HUGE followings propose some or all of those things claiming that the rest of us are being misled by science.
It gets really tricky to know who to listen to when an influencer or author starts with a great idea - like Mark Hyman, MD, who in his early days wrote terrific books about nutrition - and slides right around to liar and grifter. He says bonkers things these days to sell his supplements. BONKERS.
And so, here are a few things to look out for as you're bombarded with health information:
Using terms like Big Pharma and Western Medicine. Major dog whistles. Their solution instead is always buying their expensive, not-covered-by-insurance, never-been-studied supplements or food sensitivity testing kits or thousands of dollars in lab work. Some supplements are helpful, of course, but if someone is recommending that their supplements prevent disease or are better than antibiotics, run.
Saying fruits or vegetables are loaded with toxins, spike your blood glucose, poison your thyroid, raise your estrogen, cause obesity, or trash your adrenals. In fact, all of those phrases are also dog whistles for balooooney. Bye.
Claiming that vaccines cause cancer, autism, heart disease, or the disease they're protecting you from. Enough said. I find the vaccine debate stupid and tiring and sad and mostly don't weigh into it. God bless those who do.
Promoting the health effects of raw dairy. Why are we here? Sigh. Countless studies have shown that raw dairy and pasteurized dairy have the same nutrition profile. For people who want the probiotic effect (aka bacteria) of raw dairy, it can be achieved eating yogurt and kefir made from pasteurized milk...with safe bacteria that aren't going to cause food poisoning.
Saying that carbohydrates and glucose spikes lead to fat gain. This one was actually a cool theory and area of study 20 years ago. However, after years of excellent studies, it can be said that the insulin theory of weight gain has been debunked. (If you want to deep dive into it, this article is great.) Can eating too many carbs be super delicious and create cravings that lead to eating too many calories? For many people, yes. This is why I work with clients to find carb sources that are filling, are excellent sources of fiber, provide plenty of energy for workouts, and that reduce cravings without being overly caloric. It is completely unnecessary and counter-productive to never eat carbs.
Saying that SSRIs or other depression meds are toxic or cause mass violence or cancer. These ones are problematic for all sorts of other reasons too - this is a popular rave right now with the bro-casters and this idea is often spread alongside other health conspiracy theories and misinformation. Are SSRIs for everyone? Obviously not, but their safety and efficacy is widely studied and I mention it in particular because SSRIs save lives. I'm not offering this as evidence, just anecdote, but I myself took Prozac for a year after having two miscarriages and it changed my life.
Using the term functional medicine. I say this with caveats. If you can find a doctor who is trained in western medicine but who is open-minded and knowledgable about nutrition, mental health, gut health, and managing stress, then GREAT. Oftentimes these are doctors in private practice which is expensive AF. Minneapolis is so lucky to have the Penny George Institute at Abbott Northwestern where you can find exactly these practitioners and many insurance plans cover their care. If you live in the Twin Cities, there is a Facebook group called the Minneapolis/St Paul Autoimmune Paleo group, where more than 1000 members share the names of excellent practitioners who bridge into functional-type medicine without being quacks who charge thousands of dollars for testing and giant stacks of supplements.
If you're on Instagram and struggling with whom to trust, here's a list of my favorite no BS health influencers and docs:
If you don't already follow me, I'm stephanie.a.meyer. I spend a lot more time sharing health-conspiracy debunking than I ever, ever imagined I would but that's how it is right now. Stay informed, learn the pattern of the grift, and feel free to DM questions when someone looks iffy.
My current kitchen, small but mighty, open and sunny, and really fun to cook in.
This last rave, and party idea, is a shoutout to small, efficient kitchens. Do you have a small kitchen? I have cooked in teeny tiny kitchens, huge kitchens, and everything in between, and my favorite for cooking is a small cooking area, with at least some counter space, natural light and task lighting, and an island of some sort for people to gather around and chat while cooking and snacking.
That's not an impossible or even expensive standard.
My smallest ever kitchen, from 2013-2021. I made so much food here and hosted so many parties! Did I smack my head on that ceiling? Yes, all the time. Loved it anyhow.
It is so annoying to traipse back-and-forth across a large kitchen to get from the sink to the fridge to the prep area to the stove. When all of those things are within arm's reach, wow can you get efficient. It makes cooking so much more fun.
My last Minneapolis kitchen. I love that it had room for that stainless table. I hated that it was a closed-off room with only one tiny north-facing window.
Having zero counter space is a bummer, no question. I've handled that by adding rolling carts and stand-alone furniture with heat-resistant tops (like the stainless table above) so as things come out of the oven, I have somewhere to set them down.
Having an island where people can gather is imperative (unless of course you love cooking as a solitary endeavor, totally legit). I've learned that a huge island is not necessary, at all. That little cart in each of these pics has been a fantastic gathering space over the years, super cozy and fun. Many, many snacks, sips of wine, and deep conversations have taken place around that cart.
Here's a menu for an island cocktail party deep chat for 3-4 people:
Or, you could keep it super simple the way my friend Alison I did in the aftermath of my mom dying and her parents getting sick:
Frozen pizza (I suggest an Against the Grain Pesto Pizza tarted up with pepperoni, green olives, and jalapeno, but go with your fave). A simple arugula salad with lemon and black pepper. Several candles. A box of kleenex. A book of poetry. And wine.
I always encourage my clients to fall in love with cooking as much as they can. Flowers, music (or podcasts or Audible), candles, open windows (when possible LOL), sharp knives, good pans, inviting a friend over, pretending you live in France, eating lots of color, having fragrant clean-up supplies, using pretty dishes...
These things all matter so much to help bring joy to cooking.
Romanticize the hell out of your simple, healthy cooking and batch cooking, make even a tiny kitchen work for you, and make being a cook part of your identity.
xoxo Stephanie
PS To work with me, click here. I offer limited spaces to work 1:1 in 4 sessions on Zoom. We cover topics ranging from weight loss, managing chronic conditions, appetite and cravings, Ozempic, cooking for kids, simple & healthy cooking, batch cooking, nutrient density, gut health, building muscle, energy, and more. I include recipes, meal plans, quick meal ideas, snack ideas, and a formula for putting together satisfying meals wherever you are.
When life gets stressful, it is imperative to double-down on your health.
Want help knowing how to eat to beat cravings, easily prepare healthy and delicious meals, stop wasting food, and boost your energy so you feel and look...dare I say...vibrant?
