Is “Overwhelm” Your Middle Name?

If you answered “yes” to the question above, then this article is definitely for you!  As women, we know how easy it is to become overwhelmed.  With all of the responsibilities and roles we face each day, it’s no wonder that many women feel like juggling performers at a circus.  How do we get from feeling “in control” and excited about our lives to feeling overwhelmed, and close to burning out?  Most importantly, what can we do to shift ourselves back into a feeling of calm, predictability and purpose in our lives?

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy when everything is flowing well, even when you’re busy with lots to do.  There’s a nice rhythm that many of us feel, when things are getting done on time, and you feel like you’re “on top of everything”.  It’s a great feeling to look at the to-do list at the end of the day and feel a sense of accomplishment and pride at all that you’ve done.  Then (this is where the Jaws theme song starts playing), there’s that whole other side of the coin when things are insanely out of control, nothing is going well, there’s WAY too much to do, and you’re this close to calling in the army for support for the crazy battlefield that’s called your “Life”.  Okay, maybe that’s a little far-fetched, but you get the point, right?

So, how does overwhelm affect us mentally, emotionally and physically?  Let’s take a look:

Mentally-When we’re overwhelmed, it becomes increasingly difficult to concentrate, stay focused and make good decisions. We feel distracted by the many things we have to do, our thinking becomes muddled and scattered.

Emotionally-Feelings of overwhelm can quickly lead to feelings of frustration, disappointment and anger.  We may become short-tempered with others and experience a general feeling of anxiety and pressure.

Physically-Our bodies treat overwhelm as a form of stress.  Our breathing may become more shallow, our hearts may beat faster.  Some people lose their appetites, while others binge on unhealthy foods when they’re feeling overwhelmed.  Digestion may slow down, and our energy can begin to drop as well.

How does overwhelm affect you? 

Thankfully, there are many different ways that we can deal with periods of overwhelm in our lives.  We can start by recognizing the areas of our lives that seem to bring on overwhelm the most, and really pay attention to how these feelings affect our levels of energy and productivity.

If you would like to go deeper with this topic of overwhelm, you’re in for a special treat!  I would love for you to sign up for a FREE teleseminar on Tuesday, April  3^rd, ”The 3 Biggest Mistakes That Busy Moms Make That Keeps Them in Overwhelm”.  For more details, please visit:  http://3biggestmistakes.eventbrite.com.  You’ll receive a special link for the teleseminar closer to the date.  Busy moms, this teleseminar is for YOU, so don’t miss it!

Milissa Harding is a Certified Holistic Health Coach at www.healthystartcoaching.ca.  She works with busy moms who struggle with tiredness and energy, and who would like to experience a greater level of energy to be successful at raising a family and working.  Milissa provides unique coaching opportunities to support busy moms in reaching their health goals.  To schedule a complimentary Health Consultation, please visit www.healthystartcoaching.ca or contact Milissa by email at milissaharding@gmail.com. 

Sugar Blues

Do you have the Sugar Blues?

Written by:  Milissa Harding, Certified Holistic Health Coach and a monthly guest blogger for the Entrepreneurial Moms of Toronto.

Are you the type of person who has cravings for sweets?  Do you have low energy in the middle of the day?  If so, you are not alone.  Did you know that the average person consumes, on average, 100 pounds of sugar and sweeteners per year?  Did you also know that, as human beings, we are naturally wired to love the taste of sweet things?  What we need to know, however, is how to have a healthy relationship to sweet foods (yes, that’s possible!) and how to be in control when your sweet tooth begs for more sugar.  It’s not about deprivation; it’s about freedom-the freedom to enjoy the foods you love and have sweetness in your life without the side effects or the guilt.

The Truth About Sugar

·         Sugar is highly addictive

·         Sugar causes fatigue, depression and nervous tension

·         Sugar can weaken the immune system

·         Eating too much sugar can lead to Type 2 diabetes and obesity

Getting Control  Over Sugar Cravings

·         Make sure you’re well-hydrated

·         Enjoy a variety of sweet fruits and veggies, like apples, pears and sweet potatoes

·         Keep your stress levels under control; stress and sugar cravings don’t mix!

It’s important to know that your sugar cravings are not the enemy.  Having sugar cravings, believe it or not, is your body’s way of getting your attention in order to communicating important messages.  As a Health Coach, I support people just like you to dig deeper to understand the root causes of their sugar cravings and help them to permanently change their relationship with sugar.  If you think you would like more support to handle sugar cravings, I invite you to contact me for a free 1-hour health consultation.  Please visit my website at:  www.healthystartcoaching.ca, or drop me an email at:  milissaharding@gmail.com for more information.  Let’s see how I can support you!

Milissa Harding is a Certified Holistic Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.  She works with busy moms to provide health and wellness support in areas such as:  improving nutrition, increasing energy, decreasing stress, managing sugar cravings and weight loss.  She shares a mini-weekly newsletter filled with healthy tips and recipes, and she conducts free health consultations to help you identify your nutrition and energy patterns, and create a personalized Action Plan to help you get started on reaching your health goals. www.healthystartcoaching.ca

Family Day Traditions

According to Wikipedia, Family Day is celebrated in some provinces of Canada one of them being Ontario. This day is a statutory holiday taking place on each third Monday in February.

Did you know that Family day is not recognized as a federal holiday therefore federal employees in all provinces are required to work? Feels good to be an entrepreneur doesn’t it?

Ever since the inception of this day in Ontario in 2007, and officially celebrated on February 18 of 2008, it created a total of 9 public holidays per year n Ontario.

What’s there to do on this day?

Since it is a day in celebration of families, many people plan to do family friendly activities on this day particularly going to museums, art galleries, outdoor skating, watching movies, board games and arts andcrafts with the kids. There are many other activities in which Ontarian families, Torontonian families in this case, take part on this day and one of the famous one will be paying a visit to family members who we do not get to see often. Some people are not so blessed to having family close by to visit but that does not mean that friends cannot be considered family on this day. Also, just because we plan activities on a budget it does not mean that we cannot have a fun and engaging day.

Entrepreneurial Moms of Toronto Family

We cannot stress it enough on how happy and fortunate we feel to have such wonderful members for whom we consider as family. We are looking forward to seeing each and every one of you every second Tuesday of each month where we all get an opportunity to engage, empower and network. We would like to leave you with some ideas on what we, Entrepreneurial Moms of Toronto leaders do on this day:

Doina:

In my family, during this weekend, we make finger food sometimes from scratch such as personal pizzas. We use individual slices of bread, add some tomato paste and cheese on top and, if we choose to, we can add on our own favorite ingredients and while they bake in the oven we set up a picnic scenario on the living room floor.  After we eat and clean up we are making some hot chocolate and popcorn while we get ready to watch a family movie. My kids love this idea as it is fun and they are engaged in the planning, setting up, cleaning up and picking their favorite flick. It never fails. We use this idea even when we have something planned for outdoor during the weekends but the weather does not permit us to follow through.

Tereza:

Although there is not much planned this year, my 7 years old is looking forward to a game of Monopoly followed by a family movie. Personally I am happy we are all going to be together in a day off.

Bonnie:

My family spends a lot of time together in general therefore this family day is not going to be anything special, we are going out for sushi as a family.

We hope your family day is fun and engaging. Please let us know in the comments bellow your Family day tradition. #EntMomsTo

The week of Love

We here at Entrepreneurial Moms of Toronto take Valentine's Day seriously, so much so that we have moved our Masterminds event to next week, Tuesday February 21 st.
We would like to thank you all for your support so far. Our members and our visitors have shown us so much love that we feel blessed because of it.
We hope you will enjoy today with your loved ones...and remeber that love comes in many shapes and sizes.
Firstly, love for self is what's more important. Secondly, love for the ones around us. And one big important factor, if you're single don't forget the love that your friends have for you and you have for them.
Women to women, we feel blessed to have a great leadership team and to have you beside us to share all that you've got to support each other.
Much love to you all from us here at Entrepreneurial Moms if Toronto.
#EntMomsTo Team.

We hope you will join us on February 21, 2012 to find out your money type with money expert Trish Petersen. For more details and to register go here.

What is Balance, Really?

Milissa Harding is a Certified Holistic Health Coach. She works with busy moms who require support to prioritize their self-care through improving nutrition, reducing stress, increasing energy and managing sugar cravings. Milissa coaches women individually to help them achieve their health goals. She is also a member of Entrepreneurial Moms of Toronto and she will be our monthly guest blogger on the topic of healthy living for busy moms. 

When you think of “balance”, what generally comes to mind? If you’re like most people, balance conjures thoughts of giving equal attention to every aspect of your life, like the pieces of a pie. This way of thinking leads people (especially busy moms!) to feel quite pressured, as they struggle to give everything a “little bit” of their time. It can be difficult to feel successful when we’re being pulled in so many different directions at once.

As a Health Coach, I teach my clients to view the concept of balance differently. I ask my clients to think about their level of satisfaction in various areas of their lives. When they think about this, they quickly realize that their idea of balance is different than another person’s, and that this is completely okay. What satisfies us as busy moms will look different than what satisfies another person, and we must look inside ourselves to discover a personal balance.

Of course, it’s important to look closely at different aspects of our entire lives and be honest about which of these areas need (and deserve) more of our attention. It’s not necessary to give
equal attention to everything in order to feel balanced. Sometimes, different areas of our lives intertwine (ex-quality time with our children, recreation and creativity), so then it becomes easier to address more than one area at the same time.

So, what’s the first step in identifying which areas you need to focus more on as a mom? I would suggest asking yourself some great questions, such as:

-What do I often struggle with?
-How would I like to feel?
-What might an ideal day in my life look like?

Taking the time to reflect on these questions would be a great place to begin assessing your satisfaction with your life, and begin to identify some areas that immediately stand out as needing more attention.

Our lives as moms aren’t supposed to be perfect, but we do deserve to feel a sense of purpose, meaning and energy in our lives, so giving ourselves the gift of time to reflect on our personal level of satisfaction and balance will reap great results.

If you would like to go a little deeper with this topic and take yourself through a more detailed process to help you experience a more joyful, balanced life as a mom, I would love for you to request my FREE E-book: Feeding the Busy Mom: Nourishing Yourself from the Inside Out. Visit my website at: www.healthystartcoaching.ca for more information.

Milissa Harding is a Member of the Entrepreneurial Moms of Toronto. From time to time Milissa will be running special programs to help you reach your health goals. Please check out her website www.healthystartcoaching.ca for the upcoming Group Coaching Program beginning in March of 2012 which consists of  sugar and coffee cravings, exercise, eating for energy and easy meal planning strategies to name a few. Contact Milissa to schedule your FREE Nutrition Breakthrough Session. 

Women On Top

 In order to prepare for our next Masterminds Event at Entrepreneurial Moms of Toronto, which will take place on January 17, 2011, we decided that it will be good to give you a preview of what our next guest is all about. As one of our members herself, we feel privileged to have her on our team. We sat down with Odette A. Laurie, the founder of Women On Top an agency that empowers women in business with coaching for business. Here is what she had to say:

1. How did you get to become a business coach for women?

I have entrepreneurship in my blood. I have this burning desire to work for myself and create something unique and wonderful, something that being an employee cannot fulfill for me. My first business was hugely successful, reaching multiple six figures in a relatively short amount of time. I was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in my first year of business and that business is still thriving almost 19 years later. I sold my shares to my partner after about 10 years to explore other options. I went back to school as a single mom of 2 very young girls and tried to be an employee but it's like putting a square peg into a round hole. I had a degree and a diploma in the social services and the money is just not there for what I brought to the table. I thought I would try opening up my own practice in counselling but after meeting with a coach to hammer out what it was that I wanted to do with my life and career, counselling was not it! We worked through what my ultimate goal was in life, where I saw myself in my future. From there I discovered that the total sum of all my business experience and success and my life challenges and rewards, all added up to me having to share my story, share my knowledge and work with women to become, to have and to be all that they were meant to be, in life and in business. I know how hard it is to start a business, to create something extraordinary and I had help every step of the way, therefore other women would need the same guidance. Let's face it, I have the tenacity, the determination and persistence to create amazing things in my life and it's hard! It's really hard to stay the course. I want to help women who aren't quite as audacious as I am to get what they want out of life. I have to be a coach, a voice of strength for them. I have the skills and the mindset to lend to them, so they can achieve the same success I have.

2. Women On Top? Where did the name come from?

I was enrolled in a Landmark Education course (which, I strongly believe, everyone should take, it's that valuable) called the Self Expression and Leadership Course. I was working on a project that eventually became Women on Top, but the business didn't exist yet. I was asking the group for a name for the project (a seminar on business start up for women) and no one shouted out anything I liked. Until I sat down at my seat. A lady leaned over and whispered in my ear; “Women On Top”. I said; “pardon?”. She repeated herself and added this; “Women On Top, that should be the name of your business. You are a woman who gets what she wants, stops at nothing to get it, and is determined, motivated and audacious as hell”. I thought to myself; “Wow, she really thinks that about me? That's pretty cool”. I can tell you, it instantly set the tone for my business, for my life.

3. What was the Best/Worst business advice you ever received?

The best advice I have ever received was this; “Take it one step at a time, but take the step, NOW! If all you got is 10 minutes in your day, take the 10 minutes. By the end of the year think where you will be.” And that's what I did. Small, consistent steps got me to where I am today, and I haven't even tapped into my greatness or reached my pinnacle. That is both scary and exhilarating! I have never received bad advice. Why? Because there is always, I repeat, always, a valuable lesson in everything presented to you. It may not mean anything to you at that moment. You just need to look at the source and where they are in their lives and know that they are doing their best with what life has presented to them.

 4. What your advice to busy moms is in regards to managing personal and business life?

You just do what you gotta do to survive sometimes. We make choices based on where we are at that moment and know that it will not last forever. As a woman, mom and coach I would say that we are all 100% responsible for where we are in our lives and that we have the power to choose. Good or bad. Chocolate or vanilla. In or out. Right or wrong. You have the power.

      5. What are Entrepreneurial Moms looking forward to learn from you at our next event?

I'd like this to be an opportunity where we all learn from each other. I wrote “How Big is Your But?” because we women really do spend more time and energy looking back at our reflection in the mirror checking out  our butt, our rear end, than we do looking past our imperfections, to the person we truly are.  Hey I wrote it, and I do it too! In other words, we focus on the negative, our “But”, aka, our excuses, justifications and foolish reasoning for not becoming, doing or having what we really want in life. And we hoard these excuses and justifications until they become our reality. I want to bust this wide open! I also wrote: “Business for Barbies: The Smart Doll's Guide to Attracting Real Clients and Making Real Money”. This is the technical know-how to starting a business or revamping your business by exploring Your Why. Your Why is your driving force behind your ambition and without a crystal clear answer, knowing Who your ideal client is, Where they hang out and How to get to them so you can make money, will be impossible to answer. So, I bring to the table the mindset and the skill set and mush them together to create one big beautiful YOU. 

To find out more about Women On Top and what Odette can do for you, please visit her website at http://businesswomenontop.com because Women On Top is about uncovering possibilities; about realizing your potential and reclaiming your life. Smarter. Faster. Women On Top lives and loves what they do. Do you? 

To hear Odette speak at our event you can register here -->> EntMomsTo

Mix and Mingle Holiday Edition

It is not to our surprise that we have had yet another successful event. Our members are simply amazing!

During our December event we were fortunate to have as our caterer our own Natalia who prepared yummy treats for us. We were also fortunate to be sponsored by Danielle from Rabbat Photography. Thank you for your amazing support! 


We started our evening by mixing and mingling  holiday style. Music playing, everyone enjoying themselves and business cards were being exchanged. The atmosphere was simply contagious that by the time guests settled in, everyone had a smile on their face, especially while enjoying drinks and food. 


We officially started our evening with one of our chapter leaders telling her story of courage and how she escaped violence with her two children just over two years ago. She explained how essential shelters for abusive women are and why it is important not to give up on our dreams. To commemorate December 6, the Official Day of Action and Commemoration against Violence against Women, our leader chose to speak up about her story to introduce our first speaker, one of the directors from Ernestine's Women's Shelter, Jill Cunningham. Jill spoke about the experience of working with women and their children which have escaped abuse. This unique line of work has shown Jill the exceptional strengths women inherit with the right support especially after escaping abuse. She also explained how a non profit agency works and what it takes to make such endeavor successful. To lighten up the evening and to show us courage Jill had brought with her an exceptional woman whom had used Ernestine's facilities for one year. After escaping abuse and seeking shelter with Ernestine, Maria had decided to open her own business. She started an import/export type of business bringing art from South America. When she went ahead to start her business Maria had only $500 to invest. One year later, she had moved on to her own place and she continued with her business to bring it to a very successful level. Today Maria is ready to invest $10,000 towards her business and that is remarkable. If you think you have it rough, remember the women coming from unfortunate situations and their success. If they can do it so can you! 


Moira Sutton of Success Breakthrough followed discussing the Law of Attraction series. Everyone was uplifted by her energy. She engaged everyone in the secrets behind the attraction showing us how attracting the positive energy can benefit us in more ways than one. She also suggested that believing in yourself is very important and by not listening to other's opinion is what will make us live a happier life. Concentrating on what we want is an important factor on how our goals are achieved successfully. Moira donated 15% of the sales of her Law of Attraction CD's on this evening to Ernestine's Women's Shelter. Thank you! 


Everyone went home with a goodie bag provided by Milissa Harding, a Health and Lifestyle Coach where yummy treats and gift certificates were included. Some of our lucky moms went home with door prizes offered by Created to Excel, Moira Sutton, and Healthy Start Health Coaching 


We ended our evening with a sneak peak of our speaker for our upcoming meeting, Odette Peek Laurie from Business Women on Top. Moms in the room were getting excited about next meeting which will take place on January 10, 2012. We would love for you to join us! 


For this Holiday season we encourage you to make healthy goals for the new year. We wish you Happy and Safe Holidays form our family to yours. We are looking forward to seeing you on January 10, 2012.

Will you be there?

Our Sponsor 

   

If you would like to make a donation to Ernestine's Women's Shelter you can safely do so here. You can also check out their website to find out more about what they do or how you can get involved  here .