Gayle Sembroff

24/12/2021

Here’s your annual Christmas Eve PSA. DO NOT put these down your garbage disposal. Don’t ask me how I know. 😂🥔😹🍠🤭🚰

05/12/2021

04/12/2021

🎄🎅🏽🤶🏼This is the year. All the ornaments are going on the tree. All the boxes are getting recycled and I’ve already ordered organizing boxes to store the ornaments in off season. How do I have so many ornaments left when Aaron took a bunch to his house last year??

16/11/2021

Who is thinking about their Thanksgiving menu?????

I grew up with family Thanksgivings that were huge. Big family dinners with 15-20 people were the norm. After my parents died all that was gone. It was just the 3 of us for a few years in there.

Then we started to build. We began to host friends that have become our family and our table grew once again. It was truly wonderful.

When we moved to Florida a few years ago our table was much smaller. Again.
So we shift our focus. We make our meal special in a different way. Honestly it’s a whole lot less work than those multiple giant 13x9 dishes of cream soup covered goop that I made for years.

This is a recipe we have made part of our new tradition. It’s so easy. We make it ahead and refrigerate. Easy to reheat on the stove- or in the microwave.

We start our meal with this soup course. Then we have a beautiful salad- I like a beautiful combination of lettuces (love the box of 4 varieties that Aldi sells), and some homemade cranberry vinaigrette. Last year I added pomegranate arils and little goat cheese balls rolled in toasted walnuts. So delicious.

I’m a Health Coach. I’m well aware of how that old menu heavy with starches and fat made me feel and what it did to my body.

This year it’s even more important to me to get my non-starchy vegetables in. Treating my Thanksgiving table like a restaurant with a soup and salad starter helps us to not overdo that main plate. And adding extra WW Personal Points™️ to my dailies makes it easier to enjoy a piece of our beloved pecan pie that was my Mom’s favorite. It’s now our son’s favorite too and he makes it now.

What traditions are you going to enjoy this year? How about creating some new ones? You can’t go wrong with this soup.

Enjoy a tasty and delicious meal with your loved ones. Learn how to make Butternut Squash Soup & see the Smartpoints value of this great recipe.

07/06/2021

I am recommitting to eating cleaner and for me that means having more meals that are meat free. I need some inspiration! Hit me with your favorite meatless menus please!!

02/04/2021

Easter weekend always signifies shifts and changes in my life- especially when Holy Week intersects with Passover on the calendar.

The most wonderful shift was 26 years ago when we found out we were expecting🤰🏼our son on the Saturday of Easter weekend as we were preparing to host our first Seder at our home in Liberty a few months after Mike and I were married. I took a pregnancy test just to be on the “safe side” because I was a few days late and I was planning on drinking wine at the Seder. I ended up drinking grape juice. 😂

My Mom was so intuitive that she had figured it out by Sunday afternoon. We had gone to church with my folks on Easter morning and then out to brunch after. I ordered decaffeinated coffee. ☕️ My Mom noticed. She noticed everything- always so thoughtful- always so supportive- to everyone in her life. I was so blessed that she was always looking out for me.

Later this month it will be ten years since my Mom died. We buried her on Good Friday. Losing my Mom so suddenly at only 73 years old changed the way I move through the world profoundly.

Now no matter when Easter weekend falls on the calendar it’s always bittersweet for me personally. Happy and sad. Birth and death. Beginnings and endings.

This last year has been difficult for many of us. I’ve struggled with depression and isolation for as long as I can remember. I feel better when I’m active and involved and giving and caring for people just like my Mom did. I haven’t been able to do much of that this past year and I’m really struggling. I tend to distance myself and retreat when I’m feeling this way. I know it’s okay to feel this way for a while but I never start to feel better until I start shifting what I’m doing.

So I’m shifting and changing. I’m sharing how I am feeling in the hopes that someone else will read this and know they aren’t alone if they are struggling too.

I’m embracing the bitter with the sweet. I’m using the tools I have and doing the work that needs to be done. I’m letting go of the things I cannot change and looking forward to all the new beginnings that are ahead of me. Just like my Mom would have.

I love you Mom. 🦋🌷

30/03/2021

I don’t love change. I’m the type of gal that doesn’t look for reasons to rock the boat. This last year feels like my boat nearly capsized several times. Many things were simply out of our control and that doesn’t feel good, does it?

This change makes my heart sad. On Sunday I coached the very last WW workshop in our Palm Harbor location. My schedule has gone from “full time” in the beginning of 2020 to only working six hours a week for WW today.

I have met and worked with so many WONDERFUL people in this studio at Boot Ranch. This was the location that finally felt like I had found a work HOME after I moved to Florida.

I said “yes” to those two workshops that were offered to me here thinking “I can do these for now” because it was a long drive for me to this location. I never left because I fell in love with the people I met in that meeting room.

My two remaining workshops are moving to a new location this week at the Clearwater studio. So it’s time to pivot and embrace a new space.

A home is not the four walls that surround you. Your home is where you gather with the people you choose to call family. The address where we meet is changing but the opportunity to learn and grow in our wellness journey remains the same.

I will be coaching Wednesday mornings at 10:30 a.m. (new start time— one hour later than previously) and on Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. (same time as always) just 3 miles down the street at the Clearwater studio.

Here’s to new beginnings! 🥂🏘

29/12/2020

Made this easy and delicious soup yesterday with veg from the crisper drawer that was about to go south. I found the recipe in my WW app but didn’t have all the ingredients I needed. That’s what I love about soup- it’s sort of impossible to screw up.

06/10/2020

I ditched the chemical cleaners in my home last year after a BAD reaction to a product I thought was *green* and *safe* for me. DM me and I’ll get you an invite into this Zoom I’m hosting tonight so you can see how I did it.