15 ways to bring positive health and wellbeing to your life
It’s a different kind of year. A different kind of time. Are you feeling like you need a full review of your health and lifestyle?
Do you have a vision of how you want your life to be like and how you want to feel and don’t feel the reality is hitting the mark?
Are you unsure how to go about bringing more balance to your life? Well I certainly feel like this is a good time to have a review. While writing my post about 2021 Happy new year happy new you it got me reviewing what changes I need. What have I let slip from my routine. What do I know that will bring more energy and vitality to my day. So I thought I would share my simple but top 15 ways to bring more health and wellbeing to your life. They are not in any prioritised order but each one, I would say for me, is as important as the other.
HYDRATE
Ensure you are getting at least 2 litres of water a day. Our bodies are made up of 70% water and we need to keep topping up those levels to ensure good elimination and good distribution of nutrients.
PACK IN
some plants. Seriously up your game on getting some plants into your meals. We should be aiming for about 30 different plants a week. This can include all your fruit and vegetables but also your wholegrains, nuts, seeds, beans, pulses, legumes, herbs etc This gives you an abundance in essential nutrients as well as supporting a diverse microbiome which will improve your gut health and therefore support your overall health. When we connect with our food choices which reflect how much we care for our own needs then that can help us to make the right choices. A treat for the body is a plateful of veg rather than an enormous slab of cake.
REDUCE
sugar - it is fake fuel for the body and can only leave you wanting more. Too much sugar can create inflammation in the body and inflammation leads to disease. Having a sugary snack should not be seen as a treat. And eating healthy is not a punishment. We need to switch up this mindset as it is so much harder for us to keep to healthy eating guidelines if we have this mindset. Always consider what does my body need? What will feel good for my body? How will I feel if I eat that whole packet of biscuits, will it make me feel good? Will it fuel my body? Try and bring more balance to your daily nourishment and you will be rewarded with more energy and better health.
DON’T
rely on processed foods - lacking in nutrients and full of added preservatives, sugar or sweeteners and flavourings that the body just does not need to process. Try bulk cooking and fill up the freezer, so on days when you can’t face cooking, instead of relying on something packaged up in plastic you can pull out a nourishing meal that you know you have enjoyed before. When you are cooking, think how you can use that time efficiently so you can have easier meals on other days. Such as cooking up more rice/quinoa so you can pull together a quick rice salad for lunch. If I’m using the oven I might also throw in a tray of whole red peppers, sweet potatoes or a butternut squash to roast so that the next day I can make up a salad or soup with it. Cooking quick nourishing meals doesn’t have to be complicated and contain a load of different ingredients. A simple vegetable stirfry, salad, soup or vegetable stew, or baked sweet potatoes with miso black beans and a side salad can be quick and easy to make and be rich in nutrients to fuel you perfectly.
EMBRACE
spices and herbs to add delicious flavour and enjoy their healthful benefits. Adding in extra nutritional ingredients to your meals will not only provide added nutrients that you can benefit from but will also add flavour and texture. Try upgrading your meals by sprinkling over some seeds (sesame seeds, hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds work well), or add in nuts ( I love pistachios or cashews), or Engevita flakes, which are rich in B vitamins and dried seaweeds for a good source of omegas, iodine and magnesium. Drink herbal teas - not just the bags but use loose dried leaves to create a drink rich in nutritional benefits.
DRINK
fresh juices and smoothies. Make it more vegetables than fruits to up your nutritional game and give you a boost of nutrients. If you don’t have a juicer but do have a blender and fancy a juice for a change you can use a nut-milk bag or fine sieve to take out the fibre. I love juices but find just making a juice for me with the juicer is a bit of a faff. I love making juices for my family and I am happy to use the juicer at the weekends when I have more time and I will make up more juice and put them in bottles to the next day. But during the week I want something quick and easy so I will blend my ingredients for a juice and then sieve it through my nut-milk bag to create a delicious clear juice quickly.
GET
enough omegas in your diet. We need good healthy fats to not only prevent ageing, but they also keep our cells and organs healthy, prevent cardiovascular disease and help us to store vitamins A, D, E, and K. I often see vitamin D deficiencies in people who have been following a low fat diet and we really need good stores of vitamin D to support our immune health. They also support our hormones and brain health. I find they really support our emotions and can be therapeutically supportive for anxiety, stress and depression.
LOVE
your gut. Take care of your digestion. Show it some love because it works really hard to keep you healthy by absorbing all the fuel and nutrients you need to thrive and eliminating all the rubbish that your body does not need. Make sure you open your bowels regularly. You do not want to have a sluggish bowel and be holding on to toxicity within the gut as this will only lead to health issues. If you are eating a diet rich in plant foods which are a good source of fibre then you will likely be needing to open your bowels 2 or 3 times a day. But you should at least be opening your bowels x 1 a day. If you are opening your bowels too much then this is also a sign of an imbalance and nutrients could be passing through your digestive system too quickly and not enabling you to absorb the nutrients efficiently.
LET
go of your stimulants, those caffeinated drinks that you think you need to get you through the day. You don’t need it. It will only make you feel rubbish and be reaching for more. Also the cigarettes the alcohol, the vaping - have a think, are you using these to distract you from how you are feeling, to numb the mind and fog out the day? Are they stopping you really feeling and connecting and tuning in to life? I do love coffee, the smell of it feels so good to me but I feel so much better for giving it up. Occasionally I will have a decaf cappuccino if I am out but I have swapped to drinking a medicinal blend of mushrooms to support my immune health and I enjoy this with a delicious topping of frothy oat milk and a sprinkling of raw cacao and cinnamon. I also love drinking turmeric chai tea, nettle tea and an immune boosting blend of echinacea, elderberry and cloves.
BALANCE
out the stress - find ways to bring calm to your mind and your body. Be still. You will be far more focussed, efficient, a better decision maker, multi-tasker and organiser if you have some rest time. Stop distracting the mind with every spare moment you have with a scroll through your phone etc. I have recently tried to stop lifting my phone up for easy distraction but having a book on the go to dip into and fulfilling my mind with a thrilling story or interesting information rather than the scroll through entertainment that can lead me to feel my “I’m-not-good-enough” emotions. Find ways to switch off the adrenals, switch on the parasympathetic nervous system with some calming meditation, yoga and one of my new favourites is Breathwork exercises. Root down and ground the body and the mind and enjoy the calm, the space and the quiet.
CHOOSE
joy over stress and worries. Shut down the doom and gloom, let go of the what-ifs the ffs, the what now, the how and the why’s and just do something blissful that brings a little joy to your heart. Laugh with friends, laugh at a good book, a podcast and a good film, what ever tickles your funny bone.
PRIORITISE
good sleep. Try and aim for 8 hours good sleep a day. A good nights sleep is so restorative to the body and allows our body to repair and recalibrate. A good nights sleep helps to support our stress levels, our immune system and helps prevent disease.
MOVE
however you like to move, get some movement in your day whether it’s a run, walk, yoga, HIIT class or grooving around your lounge to some dancing tunes. Get some kind of activity in your day so you don’t spend hours stagnating in your own juices. Get your heart pumping and your lymphatic system moving to improve the release of toxins as well as get nutrients moving around your body.
NOURISH
your heart, be kind to yourself, be gentle, be grateful for the little things, don’t be a stress-junkie bouncing from one stressful drama to the next, to keep that adrenaline pumping through your body so you feel alive. Tone down the pace and enjoy a slower flow. Stop self-sabotaging. Stop comparing and start enjoying and living and being YOU.
CONNECT
reach out to friends and loved ones and share your thoughts, lift the heaviness of isolation and don’t wallow in the feelings of loneliness. I am sure whoever you are reaching out to will be feeling a similar loss and will be grateful for connecting with you.