Meet Candace
Nurse practitioner. Mom of four. Your partner in getting — and staying — well.
'I'm Candace Nicoleau, AGNP-C — the founder of Be Totally Well. I treat every patient as a whole person, not a checklist of symptoms, because that's the kind of care I searched for long before I ever became the one providing it.
I believes that small simple shifts can have an enormous impact on health.
Her Mantra is “Small Change =Big impact.”
Wellness didn't come easy for me. Long before I was writing treatment plans for other people, I was the patient — trying to make sense of my own diagnosis, my own fear, and what it actually takes to heal.
That experience changed how I practice medicine. It's the reason I don't rush appointments, don't hand out generic advice, and don't treat "wellness" as a buzzword. I know firsthand what it feels like to need someone to actually listen — so that's who I became for my patients.
I’m Candace – an energetic mom, wife, nurse practitioner, health coach and cancer fighter.
I mean that
and the life you want,
I believe you can have the body you want
but it wasn't always so easy...
Everything I’ve done and what was done to me all sums up to this moment. People always tell me, you’re glowing or you’re so strong but it wasn’t always easy and some days are good and others not so good but what I have learnt and still learning to do is to find the skills needed to function in a healthy way that has a positive impact on my mind, body and spirit.
This by far isn’t an easy process, trust me I know.
It's not always easy to prioritize your health and wellness- especially in a busy and demanding world! But if we don't make time for our health, who will?
Yes there are age related changes that occurs to our bodies that we cannot avoid. But I’m talking about he things that occurred that I thought I had some control of.
I was tempted to say "age", but age has nothing to do with it.
I use to be an avid sport player and ran track for most of my life until, well, life got in the way.
READY TO DIVE IN? This is a good place to start
What I didn’t realize was that the way I handled stress in my failed marriage, my childhood traumas and adult choices all affected me to the point where I made myself sick. I come from a culture that doesn't talk about therapy, and mental well being. You learn from an early age to tough it out. Well toughening it out leads to stress on our bodies and mind and eventually brings about disease. Many of which could have been avoided.
I want to share what I have learned over the years and in my training to help you achieve that too. Health and wellness is the biggest self care act you can do for yourself. It will not only will it benefit you, but it would benefit others around you and in your families and loved. You can only give of yourself truly if you’re functioning at 100%. Anything less is an injustice to you and your loved ones.
Health and wellness isn't about restrictions or rules- wellness is about freedom, peace of mind and joy.
No two people are alike, as unique as the sands of the sea or the stars in the sky, we are all different.
Our minds, the way we respond with our emotions, our bodies and the way we’re shaped, are all different and that’s the beauty of us.
However, there are things we can do as no matter how different we are that we can all can relate to.
Here's what I believe
We have to start speaking positively to and about ourselves, leave no room for negativity and doubt about who we are and what we can accomplish.
Speaking positive affirmations everyday can help us to overcome our attitude of self sabotage and negative thoughts. Be kind to ourselves, we have been through a lot.
Attitude is everything
What we put in to our bodies is what we will get out of it. We have often heard the analogy; when we buy a car we put the best gas and oil in it, we do regular maintenance because we realize the value and know that if we take care of our cars that it will reward us, less likely fro breakdown, however if we don’t there’s a good chance we can always trade in or replace a car that is damaged.
Yet with our bodies we tend to neglect good care. And in our case, we only have one. We need to treat food as medicine and medicine as food.
Food is fuel
Do something active that you like. You don’t necessarily need to join a gm or have a personal trainer to have fun exercising.
If you love to dance, then let dance be your cardio, if you love to swim, then get in the pool, if you love to walk, then make it family bonding event. If you love to hike, then get your boots on. If you love to cycle, then get spinning or ride the bike that catching dust in your garage. The attitude of fitness is based highly on you view point.
