Soulful Sunday - Nutrition Tips, Tricks & Hacks | EVENT RECAP
Our panelists took a deeper dive to explore a much more complicated element of nutrition and wellness: the importance of developing and maintaining a healthy mindset around food.
On September 29th we held our third and final Soulful Sunday event of 2019. The Soulful Sunday series was created by YEG Boss Babes, The Wellness Warrior and Momentum Walk-in Counselling with the intention of empowering women through wellness conversations; and what an empowering conversation it was! For our final event of the year, we gathered a panel of industry experts to lead the conversation around nutrition and the role it plays in our wellness.
Our panelists touched on the importance of fueling our bodies with good, wholesome, healthy foods, as this can help to regulate our stress, emotions and energy when we have a lot on the go. One of the most important recommendations we heard was about being prepared. This could be as simple as grabbing an apple and a handful of nuts for the road, preparing a smoothie at the start of the day, or having protein snacks/bars in your car. The preparation doesn’t have to be fancy, the point is to ensure that you have easy, nutritious grab-and-go snacks nearby, so you are able to feed your body with something nutritious when you feel hungry.
This was a valuable point because as business owners, side hustlers and corporate leaders, we all know how hectic life can get on a daily basis, and being able to sustain our energy and focus throughout the day with good nutrition is crucial for our well-being.
But the conversation didn’t end there.
Our panelists took a deeper dive to explore a much more complicated element of nutrition and wellness: the importance of developing and maintaining a healthy mindset around food.
With the overwhelming number of “clean” eating trends that fill our social media feeds, the pressures of comparison, and the responsibility to take care of those around us, it’s no wonder that our relationship with food can often take a stressful turn. One of the most common ways we see this play out is by attaching emotions to what we eat and beating ourselves up for our food choices. We’ve all been there; shaming ourselves for having ‘fallen off track’ after eating that donut, or over-exercising the next day to make up for those added calories we consumed. Often times, we don’t even pay attention to the fact that we have these habitual reactions, and if we’re not choosing to be more self-aware around our reactions to food, these habits can lead to more serious issues such as disordered eating.
Many of our panelists shared their own story of disordered eating and how food may have played a part in coping with anxiety and/or depression at some point in their own lives. So we leaned on their experience and expertise and asked them to provide some key takeaways on how we can practice adopting a healthy mindset with food on a daily basis. Here’s what we heard:
Practice self-awareness or mindfulness. Evaluate how you think and feel and what your behaviour is around food. Pay attention to when you are feeling negative about food and get curious about it. What are the emotions or the beliefs that are associated with that thought, and can you reframe the thought to not take on such a negative meaning?
Set yourself up for success. Give yourself the tools that you need to understand how food supports your body. Try to look at food objectively, rather than tying an emotional response to it, and put plans in place that will support healthy eating habits.
Educate yourself on diet culture and what this means for women. There are so many opinions floating around on what we should and should not be eating and often these opinions can create more harm than good. Empower yourself in your food choices by educating yourself!
Listen to your body. Ask yourself: what do you need right now? And honour that without judgment. Learn to trust yourself with food and know that you have the answers to take good care of yourself.
If you are struggling with any form of disordered eating and you feel that you need help, seek that help out. There are resources available, and YOU are worth it!
@GlowJuicery is offering a offer a special discount code for 20% off purchases from Glow Juicery's website.
website: www.glowjuicery.ca
Code: GLOW20
Breakfast Snacks provided by @kb&Co, Coffee provided by @bravefoxcoffee, Mimosa Bar courtesy of @rivieraliquor, Venue @worknicer
BODY POSITIVITY & NUTRITION INFLUENCERS
TO FLOOD YOUR FEED WITH:
Our Panelists have come up with a list of instagram accounts that are positive influencers within the world of Nutrition and Body Positivity. Happy following!
@drtaliand
@Bodyposipanda
@bodyimagewithbri
@lizzobeeating
@thebirdspapaya
@bodyimage_therapist
@hgoodrichrd
@Marielle.elizabeth
@DRMARKHYMAN
@Drjoshuawolrich
@ELIZABETHLOUISENUTRITION
@Jennifer_Rollin
Follow our panelists on instagram:
Kalin herbach, dietitian at Pine health - @kalinhrd
Marnie Ashcroft, Founder of glow juicery - @glowjuicery
Sophie grey, founder of dive thru - @sophiegrey
Brandi Gruninger, Founder & Owner of Evolution Psychology - Facebook
TIPSY TUESDAY | Commercial Real Estate – Where to start?
I want to empower you with a few tips and tricks to help you when you are starting out. Now, this may not apply to everyone. If you have leased space before, especially via Kijiji (or equivalent), it may have gone smoothly and with no complex documents to go through.
My name is Ellie Scott and I specialize in Retail Sales & Leasing at Avison Young in Edmonton. I’ve been in this industry since 2010 and I know the whole process of leasing space can be fairly intimidating…or at least a bit daunting. Its quite a process that requires handling legal documents, following timelines/processes, coordinating people, deposits…the list goes on and on. I want to empower you with a few tips and tricks to help you when you are starting out. Now, this may not apply to everyone. If you have leased space before, especially via Kijiji (or equivalent), it may have gone smoothly and with no complex documents to go through. That’s fair! Sometimes you land a bit of a unicorn. But the majority of properties will have/require some component of the below, and you’ll be happy you knew about them early on.
Alright, lets get into it. At this point maybe you have done some googling of “commercial space Edmonton” and google comes up with some random spacelist website or another 3rd party website…
Where to look: its honestly best to talk to a broker first, but I know sometimes you just want to take a look at what’s out there, and I understand that! So, if you don’t want to engage a broker just yet, the best place to start your search is on the websites of the different brokerage firms. There is no centralized website (ex: MLS for residential) for commercial real estate (CRE). There is a commercial section on realtor.ca, but only those brokers who are a Realtor® are able to put listings on that map. Typically, commercial brokers aren’t realtors (fun fact!). This means you literally have to search each company’s respective website. Those brokerage firms include (but not limited to): Avison Young, CB Richard Ellis, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield, NAI Commercial, Omada Commercial, ReMax Commercial, Royal Park Realty, and more. If you see information on a sign, take down the company name and search it, or call the number on the sign. Its important to note the property address or at least its cross streets (or closest to). Spacelist is an ok search tool, but they are a 3rd party who takes information from the brokers websites and uploads it to theirs. A lot of times the information is outdated so its not usually the most accurate.
Talk to a Commercial Real Estate broker (aka advisor, associate, agent) who is has a ‘commercial’ licence from RECA (Real Estate Council of Alberta – our governing body) and are licenced to trade in real estate (if they aren’t licenced, their title will say ‘unlicensed’). More specifically, talk to someone who specializes in the type of CRE you are looking for. There are 5 asset classes in CRE – Retail, Office, Industrial, Investment, and Multi-family. Basically:
Retail = shopping/strip/power centre
Office = office buildings/walk ups/downtown towers
Industrial = manufacturing/warehouse/garage
Investment/Multi-family = buying/selling properties
Most importantly. A broker will look out for your best interest. Their job is to represent you. Find someone you connect and jive with. Someone you feel you can trust. You will work very closely with this person and communicate a lot, so you should feel like you are getting taken care of and have no hesitation towards reaching out with questions. Side note: tenants don’t pay the fee, the landlord does. So it typically has no upfront cost to you to use someone.
Some residential agents will also be licensed and able to transact in CRE, but that doesn’t mean they specialize in it. At the end of the day, find someone who can look out for your best interest, be informed on the market, and understand the asset class and the intricacies involved. As long as they know those things, you should be good to go!
Get your business plan prepared. With new businesses, both a landlord and a financial lender will want to see this. Financial terms are very important here as they want to know you’ve thought of all the costs involved in running a business. Staff, utilities, rent, all the goods! If it’s a franchise, it’s a bit different because there is a plan and proven track record behind the name. Chances are you’ll still need one to get financing. When you go talk to the bank, see what their requirements are for items they need included in the business plan.
Talk to your municipality. There are so many different requirements for each type of business. Different rules and bylaws that need to be followed, different parking requirements, fire code, all sorts of things. If you talk to someone here early on, it can help you plan out all these different aspects that you will need to include in your space. How many washrooms you need to build, if you need an emergency exit, the list goes on. There are also numerous resources online, so check your respective municipality website as well.
Budget, Location, & Timing. The trifecta of finding that perfect space. They also make up a sliding scale. Think about your budget and consider how the location might affect it. For example, in retail you might want to go into a funky shopping district, but those usually cost more money so do you think you will sell more/enough to make it work in a location like that? Or are you more destination? Will people happily drive to you to get your product/service? Will taking a less desirable location be more beneficial because you won’t need those other traffic drivers to get people in the door? What about timing, do you need a space yesterday? Its challenging to find something within a budget, in the perfect location, at exactly the right time. See the sliding scale? Think about these 3 items as they form the basis of finding your space.
Communication. Keep lines of communication with your broker open. The more open and communicative, not only will everyone be well informed, but they will also be able to adapt to any changes that arise. Legally, a broker has to keep certain information confidential, so there shouldn’t be a worry they are going to give out your personal information. That is, until a deal gets to a certain point, then specific personal information needs to be shared to the Landlord, but that’s later in the process and is still kept confidential between the respective parties
Overall timing. Leasing space can take anywhere from a couple months to years to complete. There are different variables, situations, permit issues, and all sorts of things that come up. I think for the majority of the YEG Boss Babes, it’s likely best to plan for at least 3-6 months from the day you start looking to getting the keys and taking possession.
Ask questions because if you don’t ask it, they can’t answer it. Plain and simple!
Alright YEG Boss Babes, those are some simple and yet very important tips to think of when leasing space. If you want more information, I’ve got all sorts of information I can provide to you or I can put you in touch with the appropriate person to help you out.
Thank you so much for reading – I look forward to connecting!
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Here’s the thing — delegation isn’t about “less work.” It’s about better work. It’s about creating space for the parts of your business (and life) that actually matter.