Interview of Maia Lagerstedt
Maia J. Lagerstedt Title: Holistic Health Coach Maia J. Lagerstedt is a Holistic Health Coach, certified by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and Columbia University Teachers’ College in New York. As a health coach, Maia works with women who are committed to achieving optimum health and balance in their lives. Working with clients one-on-one or in groups, she addresses your individual health goals and nutritional needs and gives you tools you need to live a life of passion and purpose. Website or Blog www.humbleneighborhood.com Below are some of the questions we asked Maia and her answers. 1. What are your five most important accomplishments in life? Great question. I often ask clients to reflect on their accomplishments—interesting to be on the other end of it! 1) One thing I’m really proud of is my career as a writer. From the time I was little, being a writer was the only thing I ever wanted to do (except for a brief interlude when I thought I wanted to be a girl detective because of my obsession with Nancy Drew). I worked for a number of years as a columnist and features writer for an alternative news and entertainment weekly and then beginning in 2001 I left to pursue a freelance career. In addition to my blog and my newsletter, I am currently, working on a cookbook that features recipes that are simple, healthy and—if I may say so—delicious. 2) In college, I became really interested in radio and pursued that interest, in part to try and overcome my natural shyness. As a result, I hosted a weekly radio program on WPKN 89.5 fm in Bridgeport, CT for 17 years. It was a lot of fun and I loved it. 3) Making the decision to go back to school to study holistic health and nutrition was a big deal for me. I had been so focused on my writing career and up until that point, I had never considered anything else. I wasn’t sure about trading in one career for another. As it turns out, I’m doing both—I work with clients to set goals and make positive, health changes with regard to diet and lifestyle and I’m writing my blog and my book. 4) To be honest, I quit smoking about five years ago. I mention this, because I know there are a lot of smokers out there who want to quit and feel like they can’t. I’m here to tell you: you absolutely can—and it’s SO important that you do. Today I am so much healthier and so happy to have beaten that addiction. As a result of my experience, I’ve developed a program smokers stop smoking. I used to keep my former smoker status to myself until I realized that having gone through being a smoker and subsequently successfully quitting makes me uniquely qualified to help others who find themselves in that situation. 5) In my work as a health counselor, there have been so many rewarding moments. I don’t know that I would classify this as an accomplishment so much, but I get a feeling of indescribable joy when a client tells me what a difference working with me has made. Helping people to really find their way to good health and positive changes is infinitely rewarding. 2. When did you get interested in holistic health? I really kind of grew up that way. When I was growing up my parents had gardens in the summer, raised a few animals and lived pretty close to the land. Also, my great aunt had a wonderful herb garden that always fascinated me. She shared with me a lot of what I guess you would call “folk wisdom” that really resonated with me and heavily influenced my philosophies about food, herbs and good health. A few years ago, I felt like I wanted to explore holistic health a little more officially, and in 2007 I graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York. 3. Tell us a little bit about how we can fight cancer with vegetables. Vegetables are so important in our diets and most of us do not eat enough of them. Green vegetables, for example, are the foods most lacking in the modern American diet. Nutritionally speaking, green vegetables are high in calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, and zinc as well as Vitamins A, C, E and K. Greens are also important for their fibre content, micronutrients and phytochemicals. Your mother wasn’t kidding when she told you to eat your vegetables. Studies have shown that cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, etc) may provide protection against certain cancers (breast, colon, and bladder). These vegetables are high in fibre, vitamins and minerals. Broccoli, for instance, contains the valuable antioxidant sulphoraphane which helps detoxify carcinogens—and broccoli sprouts contain 20 to 50 times the amount of sulphoraphane in mature broccoli. Without going into too much science, here’s a list of vegetables we should include in our diets. In other words, eat some of these every day: arugula; beet greens; bok choy; broccoli; Brussels sprouts; cabbage; cauliflower; Chinese cabbage; collard greens; daikon radish; horseradish; kale; kohlrabi; mustard greens; radishes; rutabaga; Swiss chard; turnips; watercress. Also, it’s very important to have as clean a diet as possible, free from chemicals, pesticides, etc. I always recommend organically grown food, as fresh and as local as possible. 4. Any products or services you would like to share? Please talk about them. I’m happy to! To begin with, I am a Holistic Health Counselor, certified through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and Columbia University Teachers College. I work with clients who want to be healthier, to determine what food and lifestyle choices are the healthiest for them, individually. What food choices work for one person may not be the best choices for another and so we work together to make those determinations in order to achieve optimum health. I work with clients either in person or over the phone, so I’m available to clients from all over. I am also a Reiki practitioner and am happy to offer this form of gentle energy healing as well. Reiki can be used to address a wide variety of issues and again, can be done either in person or over distance. I would love to invite people to sign up for my monthly newsletter. There’s a sign-up form on my blog site http://www.humbleneighborhood.com Each month features a couple of health and wellness-related articles, recipes and it’s a great way to stay informed about upcoming events and other interesting stuff. As a thank-you, you’ll receive my free one-sheet on choosing healthy olive oil. For any questions or to make an appointment for a free consultation, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at maia@humbleneighborhood.com or by telephone at (203) 417-4581. 5. Name five activities one can do at home to better their lifestyle? 1) The first thing I recommend to everyone is to begin each day with a glass of water—before eating or drinking anything else. This is a great way to start flushing your system and to stay hydrated. Experiment to find what works best for you. For example, in the winter especially, I like a cup of hot water with a wedge of lemon squeezed in. Some people like their water room temperature; others are more drawn to cool water. Try adding lemon or cucumber slices for variety. 2) Go for walks. Walking is one of the healthiest activities and virtually anyone can do it. Start at a pace and distance that’s comfortable for you and work up from there. There’s a park near my house with a great track for walking. One day I saw a quite elderly man walking with a nurse and a walker at a very slow pace. I was so moved that he was out there walking—it was a great reminder about not accepting excuses. 3) Stretching is another very healthy (and important) exercise we can do for our bodies, keeping muscles supple and flexible. I highly recommend Bob Anderson’s book, “Stretching.” This is a great guide on how to stretch correctly and it features stretching routines for everyday fitness as well as to prepare for specific activities like tennis, running, soccer, etc. 4) Meditation is a wonderful way to clear your mind and diffuse stress. Don’t let the idea of meditation be intimidating—it’s the journey not the destination that’s important. The most simple way to begin meditating is to set aside some quiet, uninterrupted time for yourself, sit comfortably and simply breathe in and out naturally, focusing on your breath. When your mind starts to wander, just bring your attention back to your breath. Start by practicing for five minutes and work up from there. 5) Start a gratitude journal. Everyday, write down five things for which you’re grateful. This can be as simple as being grateful for having a clean pair of socks to wear or a warm bed to sleep in. This is a simple action that you’ll find will make a significant difference in your life as you become aware of all your blessings, great and small. 6. In one of your articles you talked about the power to control what kind of day you’re going to have, can you elaborate a bit? I truly believe that happiness is a choice. In any given situation, we can choose how we’re going to deal with it. That’s not to say that we’re never going to get angry or sad or overwhelmed, but we always have the choice of how we’re going to deal with the situation. As I mentioned before, one way is to practice gratitude. For example, perhaps you have a co-worker who drives you crazy. Something my father said to me has always stayed with me: good or bad, there’s something you can learn from everyone. I believe that once you find the lesson, that’s something for which you can be grateful. Choosing gratitude over annoyance is a great step toward turning the situation around. Another bit of wisdom I return to often is from Don Miguel Ruiz’ book, The Four Agreements. Agreement number two is Don’t take anything personally. Ruiz says, “Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” It’s about learning to make little shifts. If someone cuts you off in traffic, instead of cursing him or her out and getting angry, take a deep breath and wish them a safe journey. After all, you don’t know what circumstances in their lives led to what happened. If you open the breadbox and all you find are stale bread ends, set your annoyance aside and make bread pudding. Holding on to negative feelings accomplishes nothing other than to hurt you. One of my favorite quotes (and I wish I could remember where I heard it) is this: Withholding forgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. In the end, I believe the choice is always our own. 7. Why did you choose the name humbleneighborhood.com? Ah. Thanks for asking! The Humble Neighborhood comes from a line in one of my favorite Joe Strummer songs (on a great album Global a Go Go by Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros) called “Bhindi Bhagi.” In it, he kind of raps about a lot of ethnic peasant foods and in the chorus says, “Welcome, stranger, to the humble neighborhoods.” It’s a nice metaphor for people connecting over food—one thing we all have in common is the need for nourishment. I also love the idea of celebrating the common ground by exploring and embracing different food cultures. I believe it’s important to feel love and gratitude for what nourishes us. On another level, the idea of “community” is important to me—friends, family, clients, other practitioners—and I wanted the name to reflect a sense of community and welcoming. 8. How long has your website been online? The site has been online for about three years now, although I transitioned to its current incarnation as a blog site about seven or eight months ago.
Return from Interview of Maia Lagerstedt to natural way to lose weight fast
|
