How I manage to stay healthy...
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."
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.
