Author Archives: Paula Widish

How Nutritious Is Your Food?

With March being National Nutrition Month and all, it seems wise to examine the things we take for granted on the topic. Part of being a self-healther is to find answers to those questions that pop into your head from time to time. This month let that question be, “How nutritious is my food?” Many […]

Time to Upgrade Your Heart Health Knowledge

It’s that time of year again, my friends—American Heart Month. If you’re interested in keeping your heart healthy all year long, this is a good reminder in case you’ve slacked off since last February. After all, a whole lot happened in the world in 2020 that may have thrown you off your self-health game. Let’s […]

The Power of One Word in 2021

The new year has begun, and whether you’re a resolution maker or not, you likely have some idea of what you’d like to see happen over the next 12 months. I’m trying something a little different this year. I’ve chosen one word to be my guide for making decisions, and it feels quite powerful. I […]

Build Your Cooking Confidence with This Seasonal Favorite

Whenever someone tells me that they’re not much of a cook, but they want to learn, I always steer them in the same direction—one dish with endless variations that’s so forgiving that you can’t go wrong. This seasonal favorite will build your cooking confidence every time you make it. What is it, you ask? Exactly […]

The Quickest Way to a Family Connection

A lot of families are spending more time together during these days of COVID, but being in the same space doesn’t necessarily guarantee a deeper connection with each another. After all, our time is still being divided between work (video meetings and phone calls) and/or school (video classes and self-directed assignments). There’s no gimme that […]

Finding Comfort in
Simple Steps to Everyday Self-Health

Even the most avid self-healther can lose their way every once in a while. It begins innocently enough. Something comes along to throw you off your daily routine, and all of a sudden it’s been a month since you’ve made a weekly meal plan or found the motivation to exercise. But then one day you […]

A Closer Look at Your Eyelashes

When it comes to my eyelashes, I don’t have anything to brag about. I swear I used to have them—I wore mascara and everything. Now these wispy, nearly invisible lashes have got me wondering if they even really matter. I mean, other than supporting the cosmetics industry, what purpose do they serve? Of course, I’ve […]

When Is Exercise Bad for You?

All self-healthers know that consistent exercise is crucial to optimal health. But it’s equally important to understand when exercise is bad for you. Of course, there are obvious times you shouldn’t exercise, like when you’ve been injured. Your body needs time to heal after an injury, and aggravating it in the name of fitness can […]

How Much Farting Is Too Much?

During a casual conversation the other day, a friend of mine proclaimed that she doesn’t fart. “What do you mean, you don’t fart?” I responded without even thinking about it. Then she clarified her point: she does, in fact, fart, but not very often. Like any decent human, this got me thinking about my own […]

Your Brain Wants You to Brush Your Teeth
with Your Nondominant Hand

Most of us perform nearly all of our daily tasks with one particular hand, whether it’s eating, turning a doorknob, or brushing our teeth. This is called hand dominance, and it’s established when we’re quite young. As toddlers (2½–3 years old), we start showing a preference for what will become our dominant hand. By focusing […]

The One Yoga Pose I Do Every Night

Confession time. I’m not much of a yogi. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve participated in a few yoga classes and felt great afterwards. I just haven’t made it a priority in my life. I’m more inclined to head outside for a walk or throw some punches at our kickboxing bag. However, there is one yoga pose […]

Adaptability—The Key to Optimal Health

Let’s not sugarcoat things here, folks. The last three-plus months have put many of us on edge. The lockdown. Unemployment. Living in fear of a dry cough, fever, or shortness of breath. While little pieces of our routines are coming back into play, COVID-19 has changed the way we function on a daily basis. With […]

Lifelong Learners Live Better

When something comes up in my world, I rarely think, Okay, so this is happening now. Let’s see what happens next. Nope, I want to know more. I want to have an idea of what to expect and try to outsmart it, if only a little bit. Of course, many things in life cannot be […]

How Do You Know If You Have Good Digestion?

“How’s your digestion?” Without fail, this is a question I get asked whenever I see a healthcare provider who takes a more holistic approach to things. My automatic response is always, “It’s good.” And then we move on. However, because I also work at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, I hear this question asked of […]

Revisiting Our Definition of Nutrition

Every once in a while, I like to browse through the SRP Historical Archives looking for a random article to read. It’s inevitable that I’ll find some little gem of information that makes me go, “Now that’s interesting!” And that’s exactly what happened the other day. These articles date back more than 80 years, but […]

Fight Indoor Air Pollution with Nutrition

Whether we like it or not, most of us have been spending more time indoors lately. So it seems like the perfect occasion to consider the air inside your home—is it healthy, or could it use a little help? Indoor air quality can be impacted by a variety of dangers. Some of these we bring […]

The Impact of Social Distancing on Your Mental Health

The other day a good friend reached out to say she wished we could spend some time together. She said that she’d been feeling down, which at first took me by surprise (she’d never expressed feelings of sadness to me before). But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. She’s a […]

Finding Opportunity in Challenging Times

Stating that these are challenging times isn’t exactly a news flash, right? Because of COVID-19, so many people are worried about every aspect of their daily lives—jobs, finances, their own health and the health of the people they love. While it would be foolish to tell you there’s nothing to worry about, posing the right […]