Healthy Habits for batter life

  Healthy Habits

 It's a little cold and gloomy outside today, so I thought it was the perfect time to make a cup of warm tea and chat about some healthy habits. One of the things I love about starting a new year is that we tend to be more introspective, so it's a perfect time to evaluate our habits and assess if they are still serving us positively or not. As many of you know, almost eight years ago now, I was diagnosed with celiac disease along with a handful of other autoimmune conditions just for good measure. And ever since then, I've been on a wellness journey, figuring out what works best for me and my body. So today, I thought I'd share some of my favorite tips with you, those healthy habits that I think are pretty darn important and will help to boost your immune system, your overall wellness, and help you feel better for the long term. So let's dive right in.

you can control the exact nourishment going in your body as well as the quality of ingredients. I get that eating out is fast and easy, and I'm all for eating out at a nice restaurant or grabbing takeout every once in a while. But when takeout comprises 80%of what you eat regularly, it's time to re-evaluate. 

Restaurant meals typically contain higher amounts of sodium and saturated fat, and they just have more calories than home-cooked meals. And let's be honest, they're usually not starting with high-quality ingredients. That's why studies have shown that people who cook for themselves more often than they eat out tend to be healthier overall. I've traveled quite extensively, and I've noticed this interesting thing, mainly in western culture. And it's that we have these notions of what breakfast, lunch, and dinner should look like, mainly because of how we've been marketed to. Breakfast is a bowl of cereal or toast with some jam or pancakes with syrup. Lunch could be a sandwich or a salad or even a slice of pizza, and dinner could be chicken, beef, or fish with maybe a side of rice or potatoes and veggies. But in other parts of the world, food is simply food, and it can be eaten any time of day.

 On Instagram,  you'll often see me eating leftover salmon and sweet potato for breakfast, or a couple of soft-boiled eggs and salad greens for dinner. The fact that you can eat any food any time of day is such a simple mindset shift, and yet it's so important to remember. Building on that last point, you'll do your body a world of good if you simply eat more vegetables at breakfast. Breakfast is often one of our most beige meals because of those previously mentioned foods like cereal, bread, pancakes, pastries, or even oatmeal.

 So I challenge you to get creative with your breakfast and opt for a heck of a lot more color. Sneak spinach and other vegetables into a breakfast scramble. Top your bread with sauteed veggies or a healthy protein and healthy fat instead of butter or jam. Or even better, swap your bread entirely for sweet potato toast. Often, you'll hear wellness folks saying that when you wake up in the morning, the first thing that you need to do is drink a glass of water with lemon or apple cider vinegar. And if you have lemon or apple cider vinegar, that's great, but I wanna simplify it even further and say just drink a glass of water, and drink it not only in the morning but several times throughout the day. Water is essential to life, and your body needs it to function properly. But in the morning, water will increase your mental clarity and level of alertness, and it will jump-start your metabolism.

 So before you grab a coffee or a tea, drink a large glass of water first, and then make sure to stay hydrated throughout the day. I tend to get the munchies between meals, especially as I work from home. So I've found that it's super important for me to keep healthy snacks front and center. If I open the pantry and I see chocolate right in front of me, I'll admit that it would challenge even my willpower not to grab it. So instead, I keep chocolate slow and out of sight in my pantry and keep healthy snacks like nuts front and center. The same goes for my countertop and fridge where the fruit is always visible, and veggies are meal-prepped and ready to be eaten because at the end of the day, it's about helping yourself to make healthy choices. It should come as no surprise that I'm a huge fan of meal prepping, as those are some of the most popular videos on my channel. But I do meal prepping for two main reasons. First, it helps to save time in the kitchen throughout the week, and second, it also ensures that healthy food can be made fast and easy. When I contemplate what I'm gonna meal prep, 

I'm doing mental meal planning as well, thinking about what I'd like to eat later in the week. And I found that planning is 90% of the work when it comes to staying on that healthy path and making healthy choices. For many of us, myself included, we sit at a desk for the majority of the day, and that is doing our bodies no favors. Movement is critical for maintaining bone density, flexibility, and muscles, but let's not forget that it also helps to boost our immune system and reduce stress hormones. So focus on moving at multiple times throughout the day, which could be standing and stretching at your desk, going for a walk around the block, doing yoga, going on a hike, or riding bikes with your kids.

 The more you can move and keep the blood flowing throughout the day, the better, and there are apps and timers like Time Out or Pomodoro to remind you to take breaks and provide a little gentle nudge if you need it. There's this amazing healing and rejuvenating that happens to our bodies when we surround ourselves with green trees, lush grass, and blue oceans. For me, the impact on my stress levels is pretty immediate, and I can just feel any stress or anxiety that I might have simmer right back down. That's why you often see me on nature hikes through the hills in Orange County, or you might see me rollerblading along the beach, just smelling and breathing in that fresh ocean air. When we get out into Mother Nature, not only do our brains get some much-needed downtime, but our bodies will get some vitamin D, and our immune system will get a refresh. And you'll notice afterward that it's virtually impossible not to feel more calm and centered.

 So I always aim to get at least two hours of one-on-one time with Mother Nature every week. We're all incredibly connected today with laptops and mobile devices, and it can be so hard to turn off. But that's exactly why we need to turn it off and make it a priority. Looking down at our phones not only causes horrible posture and spine alignment, which then throws off the delicate balance of other things in the body, but I think we've all read enough studies to know that it's not good for our mental health, either. So set boundaries with your screen time. Turn off pop-up notifications, and when you're at home, try to completely unplug. Instagram and YouTube will still be there tomorrow, but you might find that you now have time to take that walk, read a book, or meal prep a few veggies for the week. Out of all the tips I'm sharing with you today, the one I'm constantly working on and I probably always will is managing stress.

 I always say that there's a reason that I called my business Downshiftology, and it's because sometimes we teach what we most need to learn. The simple fact is that we will never live in a completely stress-free world, but we can learn to manage our stress better with practice. Meditation, yoga, and acupuncture are great ways to reduce stress and calm both the body and the mind. And I'm a huge proponent of all three. But even just five minutes of closing our eyes and taking several deep breaths works wonders, as well.I always say that sleep and stress are just as important as food in terms of the impact they have on the body, so if you feel your anxiety or your tension level is rising, take that as a signal that you need a quick timeout, and maybe sit down and take a few deep breaths. So speaking of sleep, it truly is one of the most important yet often overlooked factors of staying healthy.

 When we sleep, our brain is repairing and renewing cells, the body is regenerating and producing critical hormones, and our immune system is fighting infections. A whole lot is going on in the body when we're getting shuteye, and that's why sleep deprivation is tied to so many different health issues. For optimal long-term health, sleep needs to be a top priority, and we need to remember that it's essential to our emotional and physical well-being. I think it's so important that I've already made a separate video with some sleep tips, so if you haven't yet watched that, make sure to check it out. If there was one health tip I could scream from the mountaintops, it's this, and that is that there is no one size fits all when it comes to diet, health, and wellness. A certain diet or supplement may have been beneficial for your coworker, your mom, or your sister, and it may not have the same effect on you. And that's because you have vastly different genetics, a different microbiome, different stress levels, different ancestry, and different, well, pretty much everything.

 The best thing that you can do for your health is to figure out, and I mean figure out what makes you feel your absolute best. And then remember that what made you feel good last year is not the same thing that makes you feel good next year. Our bodies are not static. They are always changing, and so we must be open to change, as well. Now, I'm sure I could go on with more habits and tips, but I think those 12 are the ones that have been most impactful in my life and changed my wellness trajectory more than I could have ever imagined. And I think the takeaway here is that none of these are necessarily earth-shattering. Many of them, you were probably already aware of, but it's doing them that's key. And when it comes to all of these healthy habits, it's a cumulative effect of a lot of little things that add up over time.