Rest: The importance of slowing down…

Recharge your life with rest.

It seems we live in a society where we are expected to just go go go. Rest is considered indulgent and most people I meet these days feel guilty at the thought of taking a minute just to do nothing.  True?

Now obviously we live in a world where we cannot just put our legs up and hope that some one else will do the work for us.  Work and school are non-negotiable and if you are a mother, I am very well aware that there is very little time. Rest becomes this foreign concept, far out of the realms of the possible.  Already you are probably raising your eyebrow to this topic and wondering how I am expecting you to rest.  I can almost hear you all shouting across the Internet from your computer, “ I have babies to feed! Bills to pay! A new job I need to perform in! A nagging child at my knee! A million things to do! How do you expect me to rest, Jess?” My best friend who is a full time equity sales trader just texted me sarcastically after I suggested she have some rest, “haha rest is nice hay- no time for rest”. And it is true; she has very little time to rest. 

Read on and find out how you can incorporate rest into even the most crazy lifestyle.

What I’m saying is that taking a moment in your life to rest and recuperate could do wonders for your day-to-day life. It will recharge your ability to deal with your commitments, your relationships and your overall health and wellbeing with MORE vigour and energy. It’s a worthwhile investment of time, because the efficiency of a well-rested mind will make every area of your life more productive and joyful. 

When you just go go go, without taking a minute you are actually mentally and physically exhausting yourself. Remember your mind and body are intrinsically connected. 

A rested body is a healthy body!

More than that, studies show that sleep and rest are essential building blocks of the body and mind: you learn better if you take a nap after studying, and retain more information long term. You become stronger and leaner more quickly if you periodise your training (taking rest days, and easy weeks), and you avoid the dreaded corporate ‘skinny-fat’ figure that is driven by cortisol and relentless effort. You are exhausting yourself!

Pushing your body into overdrive will manifest physically through tight neck and shoulders and usually digestive malfunctions such as, gas, bloating, acid reflux and all the symptoms attendant on an imbalance of good and bad gut flora. A stressed body cannot digest food properly!

We all are dominated by our sympathetic nervous systems (fight and flight) and we hardly activate our parasympathetic nervous system (rest and repair).

We breathe shallowly from our chests rather than from our diaphragms., signalling to our nervous system that stress is coming. Oh oh!

Because of this you can say hello to hormonal havoc in your body as cortisol and adrenalin are being pumped through your blood without you even knowing it; the boost of these hormones long term causing your body adrenal exhaustion and an overall hormonal imbalance that can lead to some nasty complications such as depression, weight gain, estrogen dominance, insulin resistance (stress has a direct impact on your blood sugar levels), chronic fatigue and fertility issues. And of course this will accelerate the ageing process!! Hello wrinkles!

What’s worse that this? People nowadays are adding extra stress to their already stressed out life. “I need to run for an hour today after work!”; “I need to see this friend and that friend!”; “I have a to-do-list that is never ending!”; “Weekend is here- I have so much to do!”. You should be resting on your weekends!

Mentally you are internalizing a lot of negativity and losing touch with your own body, which will result in emotional turmoil. You’ll end up with the worst version of your own self – stressed, tired, mentally slow and physically vulnerable. Well what do you expect, you are never taking time to be present in the present moment. You are out of touch with your own life!

Celebrity Nutritionist Kimberly Snyder says it right “ Our society puts too much emphasis on constant “doing”, without recognizing that in the recharging space you can come back to work, duties and relationships in a more productive, enhanced way. Whether you are a mom, a college kid or trying to make your way in the corporate, art, (fill in the blank) world, you may come to a time when you just push and push and push and then leave yourself stressed out and incapable of being the best you can be.”

Any of this sounding a little like your own life?

Well then!

Please, try to take a moment, a few minutes out in your day – even a few minutes a week if daily practice is impossible. If even a minute a week is impossible, just take a moment in the month to REST, to BREATHE. Put it in your calendar! Add it to that overflowing to-do list. Treat it like work or family commitments, because it is ESSENTIAL to life. Your body works so hard for you all day everyday, treat it like your temple and give it some time to replenish. You wouldn’t leave your car to run without a service! You even let your computer sleep! Treat yourself with even that level of respect.

When you take the time to sit and rest even for a few minutes a day (this is why meditation is so powerful) you are allowing for your body on a cellular level to recharge itself. Having a simple bath or shower with a few diaphragmatic breaths can be enough to just re-infuse your inner light.

Because when you do you will actually find that you are more present and have more energy for your children, partner and greater clarity of mind to perform at work and to get through the day without being angry at the world.

You need rest to rejuvenate your mind, body and soul.

What I do to incorporate rest into my life:

• Daily meditation practice
• Daily breathing exercises- 20 diaphragms breathes every night before bed time/ as you awake in the morning.
• Yin exercises rather than yang- yoga, tai chi, body balance class at your gym rather than a spin class! Restorative exercises- simply lying in Savasana yoga pose 2x/day Learn how here
• A daily bath with lavender oil
• Herbal tea and ½ hour of reading a magazine
• 15 mins/½ hour brisk walk
• Tea with a friend
• Massage – get your blood flowing!
• Ayurveda treatment- hello healing!
• 8 hours of sleep- You know this by now!
• Acupuncture to restore energy flow
• 1 hour of baking/cooking a treat
• 1 hour of my favorite TV show – TV is relaxing, who cares!
• I say ‘NO’ to social arrangements when I am feeling overwhelmed and instead I choose the time to lay low, read, walk or go for a massage. Your friends will be there for you – if you can’t go to that party then arrange to meet for a walk or some tea! Go to yoga together! 

A note on physical activity: My clients know my thoughts on this.

Science is telling us to exercise less, but smarter!

Give the excessive exercise a break- it is making you age!

We are not designed to push our bodies to the limit, day after day. Yes, we must keep active, but general movement, play and 2 or 3 half hour sessions of interval training a week is enough for our bodies to burn energy, keep hearts healthy and keep our metabolism at optimal level.  I am repeating myself I know, but if we overdo the gym we exhaust our adrenals, which are a central part of our endocrine system hormones. Overtraining in this way depletes us, and leaves us hormonally unbalanced, releasing the toxic stress hormone cortisol, which enhances belly fat storage and leaves you suffering from fatigue, insomnia and musculoskeletal breakdown.

Rather than churning and grinding on a cardio machine for hours each day, try lower impact activities with a mental health aspect to enhance your joy and body-awareness.

I am a big fan of yoga, pilates or body balance to get you back in touch with your real self.

It is ok if you wake up some days and think ‘today is a day I need to give my body a rest.’ When you are in balance your body will tell you what it needs! It is ok to listen – your body is smart!

Now, can you all go away and incorporate some rest into your life? Please.

Affirmation of the week: I have balance in my life. 

Jess’s steps to optimal health and wellness

How I manage to stay healthy...

What works!

Eat well

I eat clean, unprocessed foods as close to their natural state as possible.

This is the absolute benchmark for good health, but beyond the basics, there are a few tricks to optimise your nutrition.

Alkaline foods

The body has a natural pH level that makes it easy to sustain good health. According to many alternative health theories and natural medicine practitioners, an acidic environment can lead to problems and discomfort in the body over time. This is why we want to eat to create an alkaline body – a pH of around 7.365 to 7.4. The lower the pH number, the more acidic you are. An acidic body does not absorb vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, is starved of oxygen and bears a reduced ability to repair cells. Diseases and ill health thrive in an acidic environment. However, if you have an alkaline body it will heal readily, be more oxygenated and help you reverse and prevent disease. Many naturopaths argue that by eating 'alkaline producing' foods, we can modify the body's prevailing pH levels and boost wellbeing. Some common examples of acidic and alkaline foods are:

Acidic

Meat, dairy, salt, sugar, fried and processed foods, alcohol and coffee.

Alkaline

Greens, veggies, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, sprouts, apple cider vinegar.

If you want to create this alkaline environment in your body, or just generally boost your metabolism and clear out your pipes, we need to say bye bye to these sickening six:

1)   Sugar

2)  Artificial Sweetener (soda, gum, "sugar-free" anything)

3)  Fructose

4)  Refined carbs (cereals and processed breads)

5)  Soy milk

6)  Caffeine

I admit, I do give in to caffeine occasionally but it's addictive and habit forming: it promotes adrenaline and stress hormones that can unbalance your natural equilibrium.  There's some evidence that coffee can be good for you in small doses, but (and here's the kicker) coffee is not good for you, especially when you're stressed!

Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple puts it this way:

"The reason why is cortisol, the stress hormone. Coffee elevates it, so when you’re stressed out, which already increases your cortisol, and you start pounding the coffee, you’re going to compound the problem. Some studies have found that only hypertensive and borderline hypertensive people have increased cortisol responses to coffee at rest, but everyone appears to get the coffee/cortisol effect when under psychosocial stress... Drink it 'when you don’t need it. Drink it when you’re not stressed."

Read more  here

Protein Push

So, in recent times, there has been a bit of controversy about macronutrient ratios: carbs, fat and protein. A general agreement that excessive processed carbohydrates lead to ill health and weight gain was followed by a big anti-carb movement. Then, studies came out questioning the safety of increased protein intake for kidney health.

Now. I most certainly do not eat or advocate a low carb and high protein diet BUT study after study has proven that a moderate and sustained increase in protein intake will prolong satiety, stabilize blood sugar and regulate your hormone balance, as well as assisting in workout recovery, muscle optimisation and immune resilience.

So we need to add protein to each meal and eat THE RIGHT kinds of carbs, fruits and wholegrains. (see my blog entry on this). 

Superfoods

It is hard to maintain the right balance nowadays, even when you're trying to eat healthily, as our bodies are being constantly bombarded with unnatural stimuli: chemicals, food additives, radiation and electromagnetic frequencies that we are not evolved or equipped to deal with. While in a pure environment, our bodies could be relied on to deal with toxic input through our normal waste management functions, in the modern world we need to pay deliberate attention to detoxifying our cells and internal organs, through exercise, water intake and proper nutrition. Most of us have an accumulation of toxic build up in our bodies without even knowing it. Toxic build up will stop our bodies from achieving a state of optimal health.

Certain superfoods have been discovered to help us find that balance and bring to our lives the energy, vibrancy and motivation that we so need and deserve. Superfoods are very high in antioxidants which help our bodies fight infection, recover from exercise, maintain health and even slow down the ageing process! (see my blog entry for my favourite superfoods). 

Brain Power/ Spirit Level

With the wealth of scientific data available to those seeking health, we often underestimate the power of the mind. The strength of our bodies, and our sense of wellness are so profoundly tied in with mental health. Depression, stress and fatigue can lead to a sense of despair that spirals into ill health and early death.

Feeling anxiety spikes hormones in your body that strain your organs, compounding bad habits and knock-on effects that can make health almost impossible. We've all seen the gaunt, grey faced, sleep deprived corporate worker, determined to stay 'healthy' with aggressive exercise and diet regimes, and we've all seen the heart attack statistics for this demographic too.

There are a number of things we can do to create a strong wholesome mind, the foundation of lifelong wellbeing as well as physical and mental resilience.

Mindful Eating & Intuitive Eating

Respect your hunger + fullness

Relax with food - Make food choices that honor your health and foods that make you feel well. Food should make you feel good, even AFTER you've finished eating it. The instant gratification of a grease/sugar/salt bomb will be followed by queasy regret and poor energy and health outcomes.

On the other hand, be kind to yourself. Remember that you don’t have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy all day, everyday. You will not suddenly endure a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one indulgent meal. What we're interested in is building positive habits of mind, a sense of strong self-satisfaction and joy. We can support this journey with our dietary and lifestyle choices and in the end, it’s those habits that count. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters. Your body is there for you- supporting you as much as possible.

Make Peace with Food

When you teach yourself to PAY ATTENTION to you, you can give yourself permission to eat. You can TRUST YOURSELF. If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, you're treating yourself like a rebellious child - pretending that you don't have control over your own body and its desires. This kind of split-personality thinking, where you 'forbid' yourself treats can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, binging. I used to obsess about each and every food that passed my lips and it only ever did more harm than good. I believe that negative feelings associated with eating are worse for your health than the actual ‘bad food’ itself. Let’s work towards building a good relationship with our bodies.

Get off the ….. Diets

Say goodbye to fad diets…. They clearly don’t work!  Or we would have all be on it and stayed on it right? Reject the Diet Mentality. Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. They are all manipulative lies. They are the reason why we have a complicated relationship with food. It makes me angry!

Detoxed Body

I start my day with lemon water or apple cider vinegar to cleanse the liver and de-acidify my body.

Once your body is free of all the sludge that is weighing it down, it will be able to perform at its optimum. You will think better, feel better, look better, burn fat better and you will be able to listen to the real needs and wants of your body.

I've given up on spray tan and perfume; you're just misting toxins into your body.

I use natural skin products (I love Evohe) or if you are on a budget and cannot afford the more perishable and therefore more expensive natural products, you can use organic coconut, olive or jojoba oil on your face as moisturiser and cleanser.

You can also create a cleansing mask with powdered green tea and coconut oil, or a sugar scrub to exfoliate naturally.

Active life

Key word: active that does not mean compulsively exercising 2x a day to 'burn away' your 'diet sins'! This is a seductive and prevailing psychology and one that is dangerous to genuine wellbeing. Science is telling us to exercise less, but smarter!

I’ve noticed people have listed to the importance of exercise. Good! But dont take it the extreme. We are not designed to push our bodies to the limit, day after day. Yes, we must keep active but general movement, play and 2/3x of 30 minutes of interval training a week is enough for our bodies to burn energy, keep hearts healthy and keep our metabolism at optimal level.  If we overdo the gym we exhaust our adrenals, which are a central part of our endocrine system-hormones. Overtraining in this way depletes us, and leaves us hormonally unbalanced, releasing stress hormone cortisol, which enhances belly fat storage and suffering from fatigue, insomnia and musculoskeletal breakdown.

Rather than churning and grinding on a cardio machine for hours each day, try lower impact activities with a mental health aspect to enhance your joy and body-awareness.

I am a big fan of yoga, pilates or body balance to get you back in touch with your real self, and get you out of the habit of clockwatching through cardio staring at the TV, or blasting out your music while trying to forget your body and black out the pain of your body telling you what it really needs.

I exercise for 30 minutes 3-4x a week. My favourite is HIIT – high intensity interval training - run and sprint for 20 minutes and the rest core work and weight training. I work hard, and then I give myself the next day off to recover. Recovery means a happy body and a healthy mind!

An intense workout when you’re highly stressed can temporarily feel good, but then powerwash you with aches and fatigue. Distress causes the body to go into crisis response: it cannibalizes muscle, stores fat, induces fatigue, introduces nerve pains, allows muscle strains, enables injures, exhibits anxiety and depression, impairs cognitive function, creativity and problem-solving, manifests flu-like illnesses and eventually fosters disease. Why? Because your body is smarter than you are. It’s doing everything possible to make you tone it down, slow it down and recover. And the longer you ignore its requests, the louder the demands will become.  

Sleep

I say it over and over and over. 8 HOURS SLEEP. Let your body and mind repair themselves and detox yourself into health by sleeping more! See my blog entry on this point, but I cannot stress it enough. Sleep "knits up the ravelled sleeve of care" - don't let yourself get pulled to pieces.

Supplements

There is constant debate on this topic but I believe in supplementation and here is why….

Depleted Soils! Even if you eat a healthy, predominantly plant-based diet with lots of fruit and vegetables, chances are (unless you’re consuming everything organic) the food comes from soils that have insufficient mineral content. When foods are grown over and over again in the same soils, the mineral content of that soil becomes depleted over time.

Processed foods/additives: Most foods these days are loaded with sweeteners, salt and preservatives etc. These additives can all lead to toxic build up in our bodies that can cause an imbalance in our hormones and other bodily functions. 

Supplements can help detoxify our bodies from these additives.  

Here is the research to back me up...

According to Dr Gert Schuitemaker, Ph.D:  "In the Netherlands, a report of the Dutch Health Council states that less than 2% of the population is eating according to official dietary guidelines. Moreover, the authorities state that, even if a person is eating according to the dietary guidelines, he is not getting enough vitamin A, D, folic acid, iron, selenium and zinc. Research in a Dutch hospital showed that 40% of patients at the time of admission were malnourished. So, dietary supplements are necessary."

My daily supplements:

Fish oil

Magnesium

Probiotic

B complex

When stressed: Siberian ginseng

Less stress

I've mentioned cortisol a few times in this article. I take its dangers and impact on my body very seriously. I am committed to putting as little stress on my body as possible.

When you have too much stress in too many different aspects of your life, and that stress turns chronic chemicals released in your body start to devour itself and fragment your nervous system. Continuing with patterns of excessive stress can turn your endocrine system into a cannibal and lead to disease, weight gain and unhappiness!!!!

How I control my stress…

This is a mental as well as a physical game. Stress can be environmentally induced, and exacerbated by lifestyle choices and bad 'habits of mind'.

Don't let yourself become pessimistic!

Figure out what works for you, and do it!

Meditation can be immensely helpful in keeping stress under control as well as yoga and keeping a system where your prioritise your own health. Think about food journals, gratitude journals and more practically, to-do lists! Don't let the world get on top of you: remember you can't control the world, but your choice is in how you react. Try Deepak Chopra’s 21 day meditation challenge.

Downtime

Is vital! SLOW DOWN AND BREATHE!

We are expected to go go go and not break. And when we do have a break we feel guilty. WHAT IS THIS?? We need to SLOW down, breathe, take it all in and stop rushing. Recent studies show that solitude is immensely important; spending as little as 1/2 an hour of your time alone per day can increase wellbeing exponentially.

When was the last time you took 30 minutes to be alone, without a radio, television, computer, phone or companion. Think about it. I don't like to think about it, with my busy lifestyle but it makes an incredible difference. Try to get those 30 minutes in.

What I do to relax:

•       Hot bath every evening-with lavender/Epsom salts (only 3x/week with Epsom allowed)

•       Tea time with a friend or favourite podcast

•       Read

•       Walk

•       Lie in the sun

Gratitude

Want to bring more happiness to your life? Well then be THANKFUL for what you do have, and you will attract more good things!

I wake up every morning and write down 5 things I am grateful for----can you do the same?

Also see my blog entry on the power of vision boards, which are a great way to manifest your dreams into reality. By making your wishes concrete, putting them out of your mind and in front of your eyes, you begin to see and build the path towards them.

Respect your body

Give it love and praise. Like many young women, it took me a long time to achieve this. But the good news, with some self-work and self love you can do it. The second I did, my body worked in my favour; it healed itself. I nourished it with love and care. I filled it with foods from the earth and healthy flora and it has rewarded me with a feeling of health, happiness and an incredible sense of my own grounded self and my own agency in the world. I feel like I can do anything, and part of what I want to do... is share this feeling with you!

Affirmation of the week: I love and care for my body and it cares for me.

SLEEP = REPAIR AND DETOXIFICATION

The first thing I ask my friends, family and clients is…'how many hours of sleep do you get at night?'

If you know me, you will know I have a non-negotiable commitment to an 8-hour sleep every night. I owe my health, energy, weight and motivation to my dedication to good nights sleep.

While it may be obvious sleep is important, people don't realise just how important. 

The benefits of sleep will enhance your health significantly! We need to take it more seriously.

Here are the benefits…

Repairs 

Your body produces extra protein molecules while you're sleeping. These molecules build new cells and repair the damaged ones, in turn strengthening your bodies’ ability to fight infection. 

Reduces stress

A good night's sleep will lower your blood pressure and elevate the levels of stress hormone (cortisol) in your body. High levels of cortisol and blood pressure can lead to serious complications in our bodies. We won't even go there now...!

Help you control your weight

Ever felt like your are so much hungrier during jetlag or after a night out?

Sleep helps regulate the hormones that affect and control your appetite. When we don't get enough sleep, normal hormone balances are interrupted. Our bodies release the nasty hormone 'Ghrelin' that stimulates hunger quite significantly. According to The Sleep Diet by Pan Macmillan, "chronic lack of sleep can also slow down the metabolism...". 

Mood enhancer

We all know how true this one is!

Lack of sleep leaves us feeling irritable, moody and angry!!

Be careful because when limited sleep becomes a long-term situation, studies have shown it can lead to long-term mood disorders such as depression or anxiety.

Beauty Benefits

There is nothing worse than some one telling you that you look tired? Not to mention that it’s so rude! Never understood that one.

Well, your 8-hour sleep will most definitely keep you radiating beauty and will diminish those puffy eyes and dark circles.  It will also keep your skin flawless and glowing as your skin cells have had the time to repair over night and your hormones have had a chance to rebalance.

If you are finding it difficult to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, here are some tips:

Jess's 10 sleep commandments: 

1. Drink a cup of chamomile tea/chai tea with warm milk and cinnamon sprinkled.

2. Take a long hot bath. I usually add a few drops of lavender oil or Epsom salts (relaxer and detoxifier). 

3. Set the mood-make sure your room is dark and clutter fee and at a good temperature.          (Ideal sleep temp is 18 degrees). 

4. Electricity can suppress melatonin production (sleep hormone). Switch all electronic devices off at least 1 hour before bedtime. This is a must.

5. Listen to some relaxation music/classical music.

6.  Meditation practice.

7. Eat dinner at least 2 hours before intended bedtime. Digestion slows down at night and the discomfort of a meal trying to digest can disrupt sleep. 

8. NO SUGAR BEFORE BED-this will cause hypoglycemia and wake you up at 4am.

9. You have heard it before, and you will hear it again-AVOID caffeine close to bedtime. It takes up to 5 hours for the caffeine in your blood to reside. 

10. Don’t exercise too close to bedtime. Leave a 3 hour gap between your workout and lights out as exercise releases cortisol levels, a stress hormone that will keep you too alert for rest!

Remember: The best time to be asleep is between 11pm-4am. This is when the magic of repairing takes place.

Now my friends please have your 8-hour beauty sleep tonight! I promise it will be worth it.

Note: Email me for supplements that can enhance your sleep.

Love & Health, always!

Affirmation of the week: My body is important to me and I am committed to taking care of it.