Newsletter: December, 2021

Prioritizing Self-Care

Self-care is a general term that describes everything you do deliberately for your mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

As simple as it sounds, many of us may ignore self-care.

Self-care means taking care of yourself so that you can be healthy, live well, help and care for others, and do all the things you want to accomplish in a day. You cannot give to others what you don’t have yourself.

While some may label self-care as “selfish,” it’s far from that. When you pay adequate attention to your well-being, you’re not considering your needs alone, but instead you are becoming the best version of yourself for the people around you. Everyone around you benefits when you take care of yourself.

Self-care is individualized. What motivates you and inspires you is different than others. Look for the things that make you feel alive!

How do I prioritize self-care?

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision into a reality.

The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you must concentrate your efforts.
You can set your goals on several levels:

• First, you create your “big picture” of what you want to do with your life and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working to achieve these goals.

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use SMART goals. While there are plenty of variant’s SMART usually stands for:

• S– Specific (or Significant).
• M– Measurable (or Meaningful).
• A– Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
• R– Relevant (or Rewarding).
• T– Time-bound (or Trackable).

One common example may be the statement, “I will create a work life balance and prioritize self-care.” By utilizing SMART goals, you can create your self-care vision. That statement will turn into “I will not check emails in bed after 9:00pm and will instead read a book to ensure a good night’s sleep Monday-Friday.”

Slow-Cooker Kale, Chicken & White Bean Stew

Ingredients

1-pound dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight and drained

6 cups unsalted chicken broth

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1 cup sliced carrots

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 (4 ounce) Parmesan cheese rind plus 2/3 cup grated Parmesan, divided

2 bone-in chicken breasts (1 pound each)

4 cups chopped kale

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves

Directions

1. Combine beans, broth, onion, carrots, rosemary, and Parmesan rind in a 6-quart slow cooker. Top with chicken. Cover and cook on Low until the beans and vegetables are tender, 7 to 8 hours.
2. Transfer the chicken to a clean cutting board; let stand until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Shred the chicken, discarding bones.
3. Return the chicken to the slow cooker and stir in kale. Cover and cook on High until the kale is tender, 20 to 30 minutes.
4. Stir in lemon juice, salt and pepper; discard the Parmesan rind. Serve the stew drizzled with oil and sprinkled with Parmesan and parsley.

Tips

Tip: To save time, you can substitute 4 (15 ounce) cans no-salt-added cannellini beans (rinsed) for the soaked dried beans.

Equipment: 6-qt. slow cooker

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 1/4 Cups Per Serving: 493 calories; protein 44.2g; carbohydrates 53.8g; dietary fiber 27.4g; sugars 4.5g; fat 10.9g; saturated fat 3g; cholesterol 67.8mg; vitamin a iu 4792.5IU; vitamin c 20.3mg; folate 31.8mcg; calcium 198.7mg; iron 7.1mg; magnesium 148.9mg; potassium 1556.6mg; sodium 518.4mg. Exchanges: 4 1/2 Lean Protein, 2 Starch, 1 Fat, 1 Vegetable, 1/2 High-Fat Protein

Source: EatingWell