NUTRITION DONE RIGHT

YOU ARE ENOUGH. STRESS EATING DONE RIGHT

BY NICOLE HEROUX WILLIAMS I PHOTOS BY NSP STUDIO BY AMY DOYLE MS, CNS BOARD CERTIFIED NUTRITION SPECIALIST

One of my favorite things to do as a little girl was to go to a fair or fun park. Since I was plagued with motion sickness even on rides as benign as the merry-go-round, I would often gravitate to the games. With tickets clenched in one hand and cotton candy in the other, I’d stand there wide-eyed, eagerly scanning all the lights, bells, and whistles to find one of my all-time favorites: Whack-A-Mole.

This Whack-A-Mole game of futility sat at waist height and had several holes patterned across the top; each filled with a plastic mole. Armed with a hefty rubber mallet, the mission was to quickly whack each mole on the head as they randomly popped up, before they popped back into their hole. The more moles you bopped on the head, the more points you got. The more points you got, the faster the moles popped up and down. You missed a mole, no points. I loved the fun, frenzied nature of the game.

Life can be a lot like WhackA-Mole, can’t it? As a business owner and mom, most days I feel, even with careful planning, that I’m spinning in circles and bouncing left to right, reacting to every.urgent.thing.

Except there’s no rubber mallet and it’s not fun. Most of the women I see in my practice describe life in a similar manner. When I ask them what they do for themselves or for fun, I usually get one of two responses: Either a huff of, “Who has time?”, or eyes that well up with tears and a sigh of, “Not enough.”

This running-on-empty, no-time-forself-care way of life is the very definition of stress. We know this. We also know the answer is to slow down, exercise, get more sleep, eat better and do all the things.

If we know these things, how is it that

as women many of us have become convinced that self-care and taking time for ourselves are too self-indulgent? Too selfish? Just one more thing to add to our To-Do list?

I’d like to propose that self-care is not about doing more, it’s about doing different. But first, let’s dig a little deeper on stress. You’ve probably heard that food can affect your mood (dark chocolate anyone?). Equally important though, is that food also affects your body’s ability to be more resilient to stress and recover from it. Minimizing stress is important, and so is resilience and recovery.

Our body responds to stress through what’s called the HPA axis. This stands for Hypothalamus-PituitaryAdrenal axis. The HPA axis perceives a threat (aka stress) and responds by releasing hormones like adrenaline (also called epinephrine) and cortisol. These hormones equip your body to adapt to a stress by raising your blood sugar, heart rate and blood pressure along with other physiological changes. Once the threat has passed, all these physiological responses and hormones should return to normal.

The problem occurs when stress is ongoing, and the release and effects of these hormones never shut off. Over time, the HPA axis can become dysregulated, and we can lose the ability to adequately respond to and recover from stress.

This can look like excessive mental or physical fatigue that doesn’t improve with sleep. It could be an inability to stop worrying. Maybe for you it shows up as poor sleep, anxiety, depression, decreased immunity, impaired reproductive function, or disease.

“What can you do differently to combat the harmful effects of stress and improve your resiliency and ability to recover?”

The main culprit here is something called oxidative stress. Much like the energy required for your car to run produces exhaust as a byproduct, the energy required by your body to live and breathe every day produces its own by-product, known as free radicals. Likewise, just as the exhaust from your car can damage the environment, free radicals can damage your body.

Under normal circumstances the body can neutralize free radicals to render them harmless, however certain conditions like poor diet or chronic stress can cause excessive production of free radicals. When this happens, the body can’t make enough antioxidants to neutralize the large number of free radicals being produced. This leads to oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress damages multiple things in the body, including your cells and DNA. The effects of oxidative stress can contribute to inflammation, accelerated aging, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and other chronic conditions. So back to doing differently. What can you do differently to combat the harmful effects of stress and improve your resiliency and ability to recover? Since we all must eat, eat differently. I mean color. Lots and lots of it.

Colorful fruits and vegetables contain both antioxidants and phytonutrients-substances that in addition to acting like antioxidants, provide multiple health benefits that prevent and counteract the effects of stress. There are certain phytonutrients, called polyphenols, that also give fruits and vegetables their color.

The red, blue-and purple-colored fruits like blackberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries and red grapes contain a wide variety of phytonutrients. One of them is quercetin, an antioxidant which supports cardiovascular and immune health—and is especially supportive if you are prone to seasonal allergies. Resveratrol, another antioxidant that rose to fame when it was also discovered in red wine, can protect against aging, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Also found in the red, blue-and-purple-colored fruits is anthocyanin, which has significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. If you’re a fan of elderberry syrup during cold and flu season, you’ll be happy to know that it can contain some of the highest amounts of anthocyanins over any other fruit. The darker the color, the higher the anthocyanin content.

The orange and yellow fruits and vegetables contain carotene, a phytonutrient that supports the immune system and can also help stimulate repair of damaged DNA. Carotene is also considered to be a form of vitamin A known as provitamin A, meaning the body can use it and convert it to usable Vitamin A, a natural antioxidant.

The sulfur containing, stinky, green and white vegetables like broccoli and broccoli sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, turnip and collard greens contain vital phytonutrients called glucosinates. These are antioxidants that support blood sugar control and cardiovascular health, help with DNA repair and are needed by your liver to make another of the body’s primary, highly prized antioxidants: glutathione.

Another family of phytonutrients known as flavonoids can be found in fruits and vegetables of all colors. Flavonoids support the immune system, are anti-inflammatory and can inhibit oxidative stress.

Vitamin C is an other antioxidant ubiquitous in the fruit and vegetable world. We often think of oranges and other citrus fruits as a source for Vitamin C, but it is also found in a variety of red, blue, purple, and green foods. Remember the HPA axis I mentioned earlier? The tiny, walnut-sized adrenal glands in the HPA axis use more vitamin C per weight than any other organ in the body--making Vitamin C a must-have nutrient for stress support.

With April being Stress Awareness Month, I encourage you to simply choose differently. Instead of packaged, highly processed, and low nutrient foods, choose to add a variety of colorful, whole foods to your shopping cart and to your plate.

This is one nutrition strategy to help your body cope with stress; adequate protein, specific vitamins, minerals, and adaptogenic herbs are also significant. While nutritional needs should be individualized for each person, one thing can apply to

“With April being Stress Awareness Month, I encourage you to simply choose differently.”

just about everyone: If you look on your plate and see a rainbow, you’re off to a great start.

Amy Doyle is a Board Certified Nutrition Specialist and is the owner of White Stone Wellness, a private practice in Fayetteville, NY. She received her Master’s degree in Applied Clinical Nutrition from the Northeastern School of Health Sciences in 2014. In addition to her practice, Amy also works in various capacities as an educator and content writer for the nutrition and integrative medicine world. Amy believes in empowering individuals toward their best health by addressing them as a whole person, with a patient-centered, personalized approach.

{ WHAT MOVES YOU? } YOU ARE ENOUGH. LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT MOVES YOU.

BY NICOLE HEROUX WILLIAMS I PHOTOS BY NSP STUDIO BY MARION RODRIQUEZ

Tell us a little bit about yourself, and your background.

My mom taught me to be kind. I am a thought leader who delivers. I challenge people to pay attention to what matters most. I bring all of myself to everything I do. I am an honest and realistic forward thinker. I love people and believe that the special talent that each person brings to this life is an invaluable gift to others.

What makes you “hustle”?

I have always been a hustler. I have had many fulfilling careers that pay the bills, but the hustle is what really matters in life. What gets me up in the morning is wanting to do something to help someone else.

What is the mission behind What Moves You and how did you start the business to help support formerly incarcerated women?

?MUVSU? What Moves You? was created during the COVID-19 pandemic to combat my depression caused by isolation. My talent enables me to create something beautiful, unique and purposeful. The idea of gifting a handmade bag to a formerly incarcerated women is extremely important because when women are incarcerated, they are stripped of their possessions; every woman carries a bag, every woman has baggage. ’The bag’ also represents money, material wealth, larger goals in life, and keeping the focus. Every bag that is gifted contains a handwritten note from me and the customer with words of encouragement. It is an empty bag for a reason and represents a fresh start.

Who inspired you to start the business, and become a female entrepreneur?

My daughter encouraged me to go into business and invite people to support my cause and buy my bags because they are meaningful and beautiful. ?MUVSU? is philanthropic social justice art.

What is your why? Why do you do what you do?

?MUVSU? strengthens my activism for currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families. Incarceration is a result of a lack of investment in our community and the people who live there. I want to continue to creatively change the minds, hearts and lives of justice-impacted people and help them realize their personal power. I have been very fortunate to have participated in different advocacy and organizing trainings that have helped me to create a healthy, trauma-informed pathway to success. Opportunities like these are viable alternatives to the negative lifestyles that lead people to incarceration in the first place, and they reduce recidivism.

Philanthropy is an acknowledgement of privilege and utilizing it to better the world. Through philanthropy we have a unique opportunity to change mindsets and to champion new solutions. ?MUVSU? is philanthropic social justice and social impact art. ?MUVSU? enables people who are not directly affected to be purposeful givers to those who are. ?MUVSU? also empowers people who are more well off to use their resources to help others who are not as well off.

According to you, what are the skills that are necessary for becoming successful after being incarcerated? How can the public help more?

After incarceration being connected through doing service is a key to staying out. Volunteering with advocacy and organizing groups led by directly affected people and formerly incarcerated people is a first step to build relationships and get information about employment, housing, etc. Some grassroots organizations in Syracuse that I have supported are OG’s Against Gun Violence, The Women’s Opportunity Center, Writing Our Lives (Believe in Syracuse) and Mercy Works @ The Vision Center.

The public can help by learning about the Prison Industrial Complex from people with lived experience. Join us at The Freedom Agenda https://fa.urbanjustice.org/ or the Beyond Rosies’ Campaign with WCJA (Womens Community Justice Association) https://www.womenscja. org/.

What do you feel are some of your greatest strengths?

I am an altruistic giver. I engage people from all backgrounds. My follow-up skills are impeccable.

Who are some of the people that empower you and why?

People in my life who tell me the truth empower me. My daughter and her children empower me to be a positive role model. I exist to inspire them to live meaningful lives by showing

“?MUVSU? strengthens my activism for currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families.”

them how to live with integrity, optimism, hope, determination, and compassion. It is an honor that I hold in the highest regard that my daughter trusts me enough to allow me to have such an essential role in her children’s development.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, would

you do anything differently? No, not at all. Every single decision I have made has had an immense impact in creating who I am in this very moment.

Name one special moment in your life that has stood out to you and why.

My family is my rock and my foundation. I am so fortunate because of how individually amazing they all are. They have never NOT loved me. There are too many moments that stand out for me to mention just one special moment.

What’s the biggest factor that has helped you expand your idea into creating this business to help others?

Acknowledging that nothing can be done alone. Yes, one person can make a difference but, it takes a team of like-minded people to invoke long lasting change to systemic issues that oppress.

I am always learning. I created the MUVSUment to heal trauma and it’s been so good! I feel good creating the bag and arranging the gifting. The buyer feels good: carrying a 1-of-a-kind handmade bag, gifting a woman returning home from incarceration a bag (and writing a personalized notecard with words of encouragement), and telling the story behind the bag she carries. The woman gifted feels good: receiving a 1-of-a-kind bag, made especially for her, that is gifted to her from a circle of people who support her reintegration into the community.

What has been your best form of promotion for you and why?

My website was created by a 16-year old student that I met at a local vending event called the Ubuntu Market in Dallas. Zackyia approached me and admired my work. We got to talking and she asked if I had a social media presence. I said I did not. She said she could help. I asked her to send me a proposal and we exchanged information. When I got home that evening there was an email with a proposal from her. Needless to say -- she was hired! I had a lot of questions and since I am from NY I may seem a little bossy, but Zackyia was knowledgeable, professional, courteous and most of all, she was patient with me. After several in person meetings and facetime calls www.muvsu.net was up and open for business. Zackyia also created my IG and Twitter pages. I am forever indebted to this powerhouse young woman.

What’s the most important discovery you’ve made about yourself and the services that you can provide?

The most important discovery I have made about myself is that people support the Person they believe in. Every time I explain MUVSU’s vision I am humbled by the extent of appreciation and praise that I receive. Since 2020 MUVSU has gifted and sold over 400 bags to women. Here are quotes from a few organizations that were gifted: @ProvidenceNY posted: “There’s nothing quite as exciting as getting a package from @ whatmovesyou_ Like the recipients of these bags, each is bold and beautiful and no two designs ae alike. These items will be gifted to the residents in our Women’s Justice Program! Thank you to ?MUVSU? and all who have purchased bags and shirts to make this gift possible.”

Pivot Purposefully wrote: “When I say that my heart is overwhelmed with joy! Marion made these beautiful handmade bags for each of her classmates. Unfortunately, when being released from prison many people are sent home with a garbage bag to carry out their belongings. Imagine the difference knowing that there is a beautiful bag to place your belongings in”

College and Community Fellowship, Women Influencing Systems and History wrote: “I wanted to extend my gratitude for your generosity and support. Marion is one dedicated, fierce and powerful advocate and her talent is a testament of the myriad of gifts she brings to the community. ‘What Moves you?’ … this moves me. Thank you for believing.”

I resided in Texas in 2021 and am proud to announce that ?MUVSU? Bags can be purchased in these three stores in Dallas, Texas:

Well Grounded Coffee Co. https:// wellgrounded.coffee/

“?MUVSU? What Moves You? was created during the COVID-19 pandemic to combat my depression caused by isolation.”

The Pan African Connection Bookstore https://www.panafricanconnection. com/ The Alkaline Hour Herbal Store https://thaalkalinehour.com/

What is the bigger picture for you behind What Moves You?

5 year plan – I will hire exclusively formerly incarcerated or criminal justice impacted people to frame and further the mission of ?MUVSU?. One vision we will accomplish is to drive around the U.S. and gift bags to organizations that support formerly incarcerated women. We will also pull up on jails and correctional facilities that house women so that when she walks out of that door and into her new beginning – she will be gifted a ?MUVSU? bag.

Where did you come up with the name for the business?

?MUVSU? acronym is Motivate Uplift and Vigorously Support Uniqueness. The concept came about 5 years ago when I completed the WISE (Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship) program in Syracuse NY through a collaboration with Vera House/ Project Phoenix and Syracuse University’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp at The Whitman School of Business. I did not have a solid business plan at that time but I kept the business name ?MUVSU? What Moves You?

I learned that successful communication is best started by asking a question. ?MUVSU? is a question, an invitation, and a call to action. What moves me is working together with people to uplift and support women. An intimate conversation is guaranteed to happen with every Bag that is purchased and/or gifted. People are engaged and feel comfortable sharing. We may talk about my fabric choices, or

my artwork on the Bag and what it represents to them. Then I will ask them to pose for a picture carrying the MUVSU bag for my website; and finally, I invite them to handwrite a notecard with a personalized message of support for the woman returning home who will be gifted a Bag. Those moments truly take my breath away, they are so beautiful. Besides the therapeutic value I receive from creating, selling and gifting the Bags, these are the moments that really move me and keep me inspired to keep doing this work.

Any advise you have for someone strating a business like this, that is to help serve others?

Be genuine, honest and integral. Ask questions. Listen to learn. Follow through.

Where will we see you next? Any big plans?

?MUVSU? is a regular vendor at the Witness to Mass Incarceration Annual Suitcase Sunday Event in New York City https://www. witnesstomassincarceration. org/ Last year New York State Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer came out to support us.

It is my hope that YOU will be a part of the big plans in the future by collaborating with ?MUVSU? What Moves You? and inviting us into spaces that are helping to support women. https://www.muvsu. net/about. Thank you so much for this opportunity and exposure!