Tag Archives: self love

How Food Affects Mood: Are These Nutrition Mistakes Ruining Your Day?

Posted on 3 March, 2015 by liivih | Leave a comment

Do you ever feel a little off-kilter, like anything your colleague/partner/kid says might hit you the wrong way? Maybe you feel fragile, like things affect you more than they should and you can’t quite bounce back. Or like you’re on a roller-coaster throughout the day, sometimes in a great mood and then suddenly hit a low?

Depressive disorders are now the leading cause of disability worldwide. (source) Let’s talk about the food-mood connection, and how to fix up some nutritional mistakes you could be making that are causing you to act like a crazy biatch.

These mood patterns could be so ingrained from eating your regular diet for ages that you won’t even know you’re being thrown off. Maybe you even just think it’s “your personality”, or “it must be menopause”, or “life is just too much and I get stressed”.

Try these techniques and you might just find a new balance.

How are nutrition and mood connected?

The human body basically contains 2 brains, one in the head, and one in the gut. These are formed from the same tissue during fetal development. Even when you’re all grown they’re still connected by the vagus nerve which travels up the abdomen. This nerve is how the bacteria in your microbiome communicate with the brain. (source)

A rapidly emerging field of research suggests that the microbiome-gut-brain axis is of substantial relevance to mood and behaviour. Similarly, unhealthy diet has recently emerged as a significant correlate of and risk factor for depression. […] Although in its early stages, the emerging field of research focused on the human microbiome suggests an important role for the gut microbiota in influencing brain development, behaviour and mood in humans. (source)

If your gut is healthy and balanced, the same will go for your brain and your moods. It’s vital to foster a healthy microbiome for many, many reasons, and stable positive mood is one of them. As explained here, “What we eat affects everything from our production of neurotransmitters and hormones to our energy levels and the quality of our synaptic connections – all of which can determine how well we respond to the stresses and demands of daily living.”

First a little good-mood-food inspiration…

Here are a number of testimonials from people who transitioned to real food / paleo nutrition:

I’m a little over 3 months Paleo but I cut the grains and sugar very gradually. I used to get depressed and angry, especially when I was tired or going through a stressful situation. In the last month or so, I’ve noticed that I haven’t gotten angry or depressed even though nothing has changed but my diet and overall health. Maybe it’s being healthier and my husband is also a lot happier (he’s Paleo, too) and healthier that’s made the difference. (source)

I have been eating a Paleo diet for about 6 weeks. Not only is my arthritis pain gone but I’m finding that I sometimes forget to take my meds for anxiety. […] My moods are better in that I’m handling things well without that overwhelming feeling that I can’t cope. […] I plan on keeping tabs on my moods and slowly reducing meds. (source)

I have struggled with depression for most of my life. I have now been eating paleo for about a year: meats, veggies, little fruit, little dairy, lots of fats, no coffee, some chocolate, little sugar. […] I have no real objective measurement, but I do feel that my memory is better, there is less fogginess in thinking and awareness, and I just feel that I’m on an even keel emotionally. Things that may have formerly upset me may still bother me, but bother me less. (source)

I inadvertently fell into a paleo diet while trying to cure my 4+ year long struggle with moderate depression (dysthymia) and the addiction to carbs and sugar that came along with it. In terms of ‘normal mood’ changes that I noticed, I find myself enjoying nature and wanting to be outside to get fresh air, if something stressful/upsetting occurs i’m able to deal with it properly and resume to a level/stable mood and I have motivation to complete goals and actually do things. If I have to cry, its therapeutic and I accept is as being a normal human emotion to release whatever i’m feeling as opposed to the deep/hopeless/painful crying that often accompanies depression. I no longer consider myself to be depressed and it is literally all thanks to the food i’m now feeding my body. (source)

Foods to avoid for better & more stable mood

GLUTEN

Gluten intolerance is linked to autoimmune thyroid conditions (the body begins to attack the thyroid). The thyroid plays a huge role in regulating the metabolism and thereby keeping mood stable. Not only does gluten encourage autoimmune disease but it also damages mood-regulating functions in the gut:

A number of studies indicate that wheat can have a detrimental effect on mood, promoting depression and even more serious mental health problems such as schizophrenia. One mechanism that can help explain the mysterious connection between wheat and mental health problems is the fact that wheat inhibits production of serotonin.

Neurotransmitters like serotonin can be found not just in your brain, but also in your gut. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain! (source)

This indicates that when you eat wheat the serotonin that should be produced in the gut is inhibited, and your mood suffers. Basically, wheat = sad and angry.

SOLUTION: Try entirely eliminating gluten for 2 weeks. If this sounds hard, try Real Plans for ready-made meal plans and shopping lists.

SUGAR

Sugary foods have a toxic effect on your mood and mental health, not only through the direct effect of “sugar high –> sugar low” but also via at least 3 different mechanisms where it damages hormone signaling, neuron health and impairs the immune system. (source) If this is a topic that interests you, the book Sugar Blues comes highly recommended.

This would include obviously any processed sugary foods containing refined sugar, high-fructose corn syrup etc, but also excess amounts of natural sugars (anything beyond, in my opinion, 3 servings per day). Why? It’s a completely unnatural amount of sugar to be consuming on any regular basis. A hunter-gatherer would have probably feasted on fruit a couple of times a year at most when it was in season and they found a good source, but this would definitely not be the norm on a daily basis. Our biochemistry is not designed to deal with this amount of sugar, natural or no.

SOLUTION: Break that sugar addiction! Need help? Go here!

CHEMICAL-LADEN FOODS

I know we’re getting a bit broad here, but I’m talking about anything containing:

pesticides and herbicides – this would be non-organic produce, especially the Dirty Dozen. Pesticides are claimed to not directly harm humans, but they DO harm our gut bacteria, which by now we understand has huge effects on our health and well-being.
artificial colours and sweeteners – Aspartame in particular, since “both depression and panic attacks are known potential side effects of aspartame consumption.” (source)
genetically-modified organisms – these alter the gut bacteria for the worse – avoid foods containing non-organic corn, canola, soy and sugarbeet like the plague.

Foods to eat for better & more stable mood

In general, a traditional, whole-foods diet devoid of processed foods and focusing on healthy animal proteins, organic vegetables, good fats and fermented foods is what we’re aiming for here. (Want meal plans? This is what I recommend!)

This article in Psychology Today sums up how a typical Western Diet faces off against a traditional diet for gut and mood health.

A sicker microbiota (meaning in general less diversity and species and more pathologic species) is associated with a “leaky gut” wherein more inflammatory particles and bacterial cell parts pass through the gut lining, leading to systemic inflammation and problems, fatigue, and depressive behavior (avoidance, lack of energy and motivation).

Traditional diets tend to have more fiber and vegetable matter than the Western diet, which tends to have more highly refined carbohydrates. These fibers feed the microbiota in a healthy way, whereas lots of sugar and/or low carbohydrate Western diets have been associated with more pathogenic species of bacteria in the microbiome.

Nutrients to support good mood

Specifically we can focus on consuming more foods that are rich in fiber, minerals and nutrients such as iodine, selenium, Omega 3s, natural saturated fats, copper and iron. These help support the endocrine system and feed a healthy gut microbiome. Here are some foods to include in your next grocery shop! (source)

Produce

Onions
Artichokes
Pineapple
Mushrooms
Garlic
Dark leafy greens

Proteins

Red meat – grass-fed beef and lamb
Pasture-raised eggs
Shellfish – Oysters, Clams
Flaxseed
Chia seeds
Cashews
Sunflower Seeds
Brazil Nuts

Fats

Fish Oil
Coconut Butter and Coconut Oil

Nutrient-dense add-ons

Organ Meats (hide liver in meat loaf, meatballs, soup)
Kelp and seaweed (capsules or dried, found in the Asian aisle or at the health food store)
B-complex vitamin (this is the one I use)

How does food affect your mood?

Try keeping a journal for a couple of days, especially when you’re feeling particularly happy or notably anxious/sad/negative. I definitely notice a connection with wheat, sugar and coffee. If I have these things in the morning, I’ll be super lethargic in the afternoon, and then a sad sack in the evening (several hours later). If I stick with green tea and a clean eating regime I’m a lot more stable!

Share below or on Facebook, I want to know what helps or hinders your mood!

Get rid of Candida once and for all: foods & natural remedies

Posted on 26 February, 2015 by liivih | 19 comments

[Newsflash: we’ve finally finished compiling all our vast knowledge of natural candida remedies into one ebook, to help you give your Candida overgrowth the boot once and for all. Click here to find out more!]

I’ve recently realized that I was a child of Candida. Literally the moment I entered the world, I was set up for an overgrowth of yeast and all the unfortunate symptoms that come along with that.

What the deuce am I talking about?

The importance of gut bacteria

Well, it turns out a caesarean birth deprives you of all the lovely bacteria your mother’s body has prepared for you, which you’re supposed to be exposed to on your way out. This sets you up for poor gut bacteria, and as a result a poor immune system.

From there, the snowball keeps rolling. A poor immune system from the start, plus a “normal” North American diet of too much processed food, carbs and sugary things (but of course no FAT! who eats FAT! GASP!…. and cue ironic eye roll) adds up to repeated infections.

I grew up with constant strep and tonsilitis, plus various other weird things. Things like dry red rashes in my inner elbows, constant digestive distress, food intolerances, a swelly thing beside my nose for a while, a swelly thing in my earlobe for a while, a swelly thing in my groin for awhile, etc. All sorts of lovely things!

…Which I was inevitably prescribed antibiotics for. As we’re all hearing these days, antibiotics might save your life for now but they sure beat down the immune system even more in the long run.

Contributing factors to Candida overgrowth

Add to that 10 years of taking the pill from my late teens to late 20s, because I never knew any better and of course everyone takes the pill! Doctors literally shell ’em out like candy. Acne? here’s the pill! Painful periods? Take the pill. (here’s how the pill contributes to Candida overgrowth)

Turns out these are some of the classic causes for and symptoms of Candida albicans overgrowth. Who knew!

At some point a few years ago I started frantically researching holistic health and nutrition, because I had discovered the theory behind the paleo diet and I was super stoked to find something that didn’t seem like a fad and was actually based on human evolution. COOL! Along the way I found out about Candida overgrowth, and boy did I tick a lot of the boxes…

My frantic search for Candida albicans remedies

From that point I started a very long, stressful and expensive process of researching, buying and cycling through various candida remedies and protocols. Here are some that I tried:

bentonite clay with calendula
diatomaceous earth
ashwagandha
pau d’arco
turmeric, cayenne and ginger capsules (DIY)
garlic
eating only coconut oil for 3 days (I failed)
not eating basically any carbs except green vegetables (no fruit no starch)
oregano oil (health food store brand)
clove oil (health food store brand)
tea tree oil (health food store brand)
caprylic acid
goldenseal
drinking nasty herbal tinctures and taking heaps of capsules in a kit called Candigone (completed 2 kits, didn’t work)
Difluconazole from the doctor, twice
pharmacy yeast infection kits many times

So yeah, I spent a pile of cash, over a couple of years. I actually ingested health food store brands of essential oils, which I didn’t know at the time can be extremely dangerous and toxic. Dumb-dumb! And the thing is I was stressed and miserable! My symptoms were ok sometimes, but mostly came back every month at the end of my cycle, like clockwork. I was constantly researching and going out to buy the next thing, or ordering online. I was super anxious and literally HATED Candida with all my heart and constantly inwardly swore at it and cursed it.

I’m not saying none of the items in the above list work. Some of the other things I listed can definitely be helpful (which I’ll go into shortly). But in general my protocol was very typical of a Candida Diet, in that it was very violently focused on EAT NO SUGAR, CHOKE OUT THE CANDIDA, KILL IT WITH ANTI-FUNGALS.

I was about to lose my marbles and buy some like hundred-dollar capsule product that claimed it would somehow explode the candida, and was really quite sketchy with no solid evidence or backing, in a last-ditch attempt, after the eating-nothing-but-coconut-oil-for-3-days strategy failed at the end of the first day. Duh, I was starving an already adrenally-exhausted stressed-out immune-compromised body…

The problem with the typical approach to Candida

Thankfully I found this blog post from Lauren at Empowered Sustenance first.

She pokes holes in the typical Candida Diet approach, pointing out that it doesn’t affect the root causes of the Candida overgrowth, which are essentially:

leaky gut
poor digestion
and therefore a compromised immune system and systemic inflammation

Lauren also points out that

A Candida Diet impairs metabolism and hormone function. A sugar free diet will elevate stress hormones, which exhausts the adrenals, reduces thyroid hormones, and taxes the body.

I’ve learned about the effects of too-low-carb eating here as well. Taxing the body this way (especially when you are adrenally exhausted and immune-compromised) just exacerbates the 3 root causes of Candida listed above.

According to this article from the American Society of Microbiology,

When Candida albicans encounters stressful conditions, does it curl up and die? No! This crafty pathogen gets to work on its inventory of genes, slashing away until it finds a winning combination that can get it through the tough times.

This includes developing an armoured shell called chitin, building a bio-film, burrowing deeper and deeper into tissues, or casting out long filaments in search of the fuel it needs to survive. *gag, gag* I know, it’s totally freakish.

It’s important to keep in mind that Candida is supposed to exist in a certain amount in a healthy human, and completely choking it out is (clearly a losing battle and) actually not healthy.

Healthy candida levels are vital for proper nutrient absorption and to protect the intestinal tract from other infections. (source)

It’s just a matter of keeping things in a nice healthy balance. And this is where the mind-shift happened.

A new approach to cure Candida overgrowth naturally

Thanks to Lauren’s article, I decided to shift away from the KILL CHOKE KILL approach, and toward a self-love, health-supporting mode of overcoming Candida overgrowth. The theory here is to support the immune system, metabolism and digestion so that the body can naturally re-balance the microbiome.

Here are the key ways that I’ve done this:

support digestion by drinking lemon juice and/or raw apple cider vinegar a few times a day (juice of 1/2 a fresh lemon, or 1 tsp ACV in a glass of water)
support metabolism with generous doses of pink salt on my food (always be sure to have some in the morning to support the adrenals), plenty of healthy traditional fats (such as grass-fed butter, coconut oil, red palm oil, avocados, oily fish, etc) and moderate amounts of sugars like raw honey, dark chocolate, fruits and starchy veg (max 3 small servings/day)
support the immune system by eating probiotic foods like raw kefir, homemade sauerkraut, homemade kombucha, and using immune-boosting therapeutic-grade essential oils topically, aromatically and internally. I especially used the supportive blend OnGuard a lot at first, and the GX Assist capsules from doTERRA. They are a clean blend of immune-supporting and anti-fungal essential oils, plus caprylic acid. I also use immune-supporting anti-inflammatory oils like frankincense, oregano, rosemary, lemon etc on my feet at night. Here is where I get essential oils good enough (and safe!) to be used medicinally this way.
consuming fresh garlic, turmeric, cayenne, ginger in cooking whenever I can (yum!)
I’ve also found that making capsules of powdered turmeric, ginger and cayenne (TCG) helps (take 1-3 capsules of each, 1-3 times a day) I recommend using your own organic spices rather than buying extract supplements, because you never know what’s actually in those or how good-quality they are.
supporting immunity and healing in general by applying a transdermal magnesium oil supplement quite religiously (1/2 tsp to 1 tsp a day), making/cooking with/drinking bone broth as often as possible, and being sure to sleep enough (check out my post on 3 unexpected highly effective ways to improve sleep HERE)

I’ve linked above to the few products I would recommend on your journey (just these, and save the $hundreds$ on searching!). I still have jars and bottles of random shite I collected over the past couple of years collecting dust in my cupboards…save yourself that!

If committed to kicking Candida, we’ve spent a huge amount of time preparing perhaps the most comprehensive paleo-friendly book available on the net for beating Candida. It provides 76 pages of in-depth information on how you can fight your Candida overgrowth and restore a healthy balance in your body, and keep it that way. This book is unique in that it revolves around the core concept of USING your body to fight the overgrowth by restoring properly-functioning immune and digestive systems, and then incorporating potent natural compounds to supercharge your body’s fight against it. The upside is that your health in general will drastically improve, restoring you to a healthy weight and possibly even giving the boot to any autoimmune diseases afflicting you. The image link below takes you to the order page on PayPal – it’s a very small investment in your health but a huge return!

The Paleo Guide to Beating Candida Naturally is just $12.99. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more extensively-researched, in-depth Candida-fighting protocol anywhere on the net.

Are you going to try this approach to Candida?

What do you think? Has this changed your thinking? Does it make you feel relieved and less desperate to KILL KILL KILL? I definitely felt better and lighter when I decided to adopt this more loving approach. Share your experiences, methods and resources below, let’s all help a friend out!

19 Comments

Posted in Ancestral Nutrition, Essential Oils, Food as Medicine, Safe Natural Remedies

Tagged brain fog, candida, digestion, essential oils, gut bacteria, gut biome, immune system, immunity, leaky gut, metabolism, natural remedy, overgrowth, paleo, primal, real food, self love

The great exercise hoax: How the gym is keeping you exhausted & flabby

Posted on 19 February, 2015 by liivih | Leave a comment

Do you stress out about getting to the gym, obsessively scheduling your days to grab that precious hour or hour and a half so you can go work out?

Do you feel the burn of guilt when you haven’t made it often enough, thinking things like “I’m never going to be fit, I’ll always stay fat and a loser because I just can’t get to the gym”.

Is your gym membership burning a hole in your pocket? Like wow, I pay 60 bucks a month for this thing, and I haven’t been for 3 weeks.

So now we’ve got money guilt AND fat guilt.

And when you finally do haul your lazy butt to the gym, do you exhaust yourself for 45 minutes or more, running yourself ragged on the machines, and getting so freakin sore the next day, that you COULDN’T go back to the gym for a week, even if you wanted to or could find the time?

Well, I want to share an idea with you. Maybe this whole gym, exercise, workout thing is a BIG. FAT. HOAX. Maybe it’s just a sad excuse for health & fitness that’s an unfortunate byproduct of our modern post-industrial lifestyle.

Unfortunately, the popular wisdom of the past 40 years – that we would all be better off doing 45 minutes to an hour a day of intense aerobic activity – has created a generation of overtrained, underfit, [flabby], immune-compromised exerholics. (extraordinarily well put, Mark Sisson!)

It turns out exhaustive occasional exercise won’t help you lose weight or get healthier. And by “exhaustive occasional”, I mean anything that happens in a burst, including even if it’s for 45 minutes every evening after sitting at a desk for 8 hours, or a couple of times a week sprinkled into a mostly sedentary lifestyle. Even a single daily burst isn’t enough to make up for the 95% of the time that we spend with our butts parked in a piece of furniture or a car.

According to Mark Sisson of The Primal Blueprint:

The fact is, our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn’t ramp up their heart rates significantly for over an hour every day, and I don’t think we should either. They walked at a very low level of exertion, burning almost entirely stored fats. Once you get into the zones where less fat is burned [ie typical sustained “cardio” exercise] and where there’s a big dependency on glucose to fuel muscles, your body goes into a less efficient mode of fuel oxidation. […] I don’t recommend pushing this limit or even approaching it. Why bother? This kind of training (and diet) raises cortisol levels, increases oxidative damage, systemic inflammation, depresses the immune system and decreases fat metabolism. (source)

Here’s another tidbit from holistic health expert Chris Kresser, about how the typical way most of us “exercise” these days is actually leading us to poorer health and burnout.

While short, intense workouts can be great for inducing fat loss, increasing aerobic capacity, and reducing risk for cardiovascular disease, excessively intense exercise can cause a variety of health problems, especially for those dealing with other concurrent stressors. […] Another major effect that extreme exercise has on our bodies is an immediate increase in cortisol, the hormone that is released when the body is under stress. […] Chronically high levels of cortisol can increase your risk for a variety of health issues, such as sleep disturbances, digestive issues, depression, weight gain, and memory impairment. Excess cortisol also encourages fat gain, particularly around the abdomen. (source)

Chris goes on to explain that this can be the reason exercise leaves us feeling rundown, we have trouble gaining muscle mass and losing fat, and feel constant exhaustion. These can all be signs of excessive exercise of any type.

I want to share a mind-shift with you. Let’s stop beating ourselves up about getting to the gym. It’s not helping us anyway (as explained above).

I’m proposing a more loving, holistic approach to exercise, that’s less about guilt and prolonged self-torture sessions on the treadmill, and more about smart functional movement for a strong resilient body. (specifics to be discussed in a future post, for now check out great resources at this page or this page)

Why exercise is about way more than weight loss

Let’s explore some of the incredible things movement does for the body, so we can get into that holistic self-love space. Be in awe of how your body is a self-regulating organism that WANTS to be balanced and youthful and healthy. Cultivate awareness of how your body feels and what it needs, so you can move more regularly because you WANT TO, and in ways that support whole health, rather than pushing yourself toward burnout.

Lymph movement

We all know the heart pumps blood around the body, and this is called our circulatory system. Turns out there is a second part to our circulatory system, which is called lymph.

Your lymphatic circulatory system works directly with your cardiovascular circulatory system to keep blood and lymphatic fluid levels in balance and flush toxins out of the body. It also carries immune cells throughout the body to help defend against infections. (source)

I find this SO interesting: The lymph fluid doesn’t actually have an organ like the heart to pump it around. It relies on us moving our bodies to create a flow. That’s why you feel sort of “blech” when you sit around for too long – your lymph is stagnating!

SOLUTION: Get up and move around as often as you can, at least once every half hour. Jump, dance, do squats, wave your arms!

Anti aging

Exercise keeps us youthful not only through the direct effect of being toned, strong and balanced. We also actually age slower on a cellular level thanks to regular movement.

In particular, exercise appears to keep the telomeres from unraveling and becoming damaged. Telomeres are areas on DNA at the end of chromosomes. If these areas become damaged and unravel, DNA does not continue to replicate in the proper fashion and the end result is aging. (source)

Moderate healthy levels of impact during exercise also increases bone density. We actually need to walk to stay healthy. The vibrations from our feet hitting the ground travel up our bones and spur the release of minerals to build healthy bone density.

Explosive movements that use our big muscle groups spur the release of anti-aging and fat-burning hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone. When you do squat jumps, it sends a message that you should stay lean and strong, not fat and shlumpy.

SOLUTION: Try these anti-aging exercises, as recommended by the Huffington Post.

Digestion and detox

Exercise is a great way to improve the major detoxification pathways through the skin and the digestive system. Sweat isn’t nasty and dirty, it’s beautiful and healthy! If you stink when you sweat, it just means you’re not sweating often enough – and when you do, there’s too much nasty junk coming out.

SOLUTION: Get a light sweat going, and heart rate boosted, once a day if you can! Even jogging up a couple flights of stairs will probably do it. Or try doing 30 jumping jacks! Phew! You can even do these in the bathroom at the office, or in an empty meeting room ;)

Exercise also promotes a faster travel time through the gut, meaning you’ll have healthier poops. Movement helps resolve bloating and gas, and moves things along to prevent constipation.

SOLUTION: Try this simple detox yoga flow to help your tummy feel super.

Pelvic floor and organ health

Your organs are suspended in a bouncy, stretchy network of tissue within your abdomen. If you sit still all day, your cortisol rises, your body gets cranky and kicks off an autoimmune response. This network of tissue actually begins to slowly calcify and harden.

Your pelvic floor also suffers when you don’t move enough. Walking and squatting keep the pelvic floor healthy and supporting all of your organs.

SOLUTION: Move as often as you can to relieve tension, and keep your tissues soft and flexible! Practise deep squatting and as much walking as you can.

Stress, anxiety & mood

Have you ever watched a nature show, where the antelope gets chased by the lion, and after it gets away, it sort of “quakes” for a while? This is an instinctual, automatic way that animals actually physically discharge the stress hormones released during a ‘fight or flight’ situation.

We can use the same chemical pattern by purposely moving our body, or even by imitating the antelope and actually SHAKING ourselves. (source)

SOLUTION: Try it right now – just stand there and SHAKE your body for 20-30 seconds. It feels good right? This chemically shuts down your stress response! It’s a great way to relieve anxiety fast.

Exercise also releases endorphins – we all know that right? It feels GREAT. The body feels alive and well, the blood is flowing, the thoughts are clearer. Research shows that it’s as simple as moving those large muscles, like the glutes and quads. Just going for a quick walk helps tension resolve rapidly. (source)

SOLUTION: Again, even just something super quick like popping 10 quick squats or jumping jacks is enough to get that blood and lymph moving, and lift a storm cloud that might be hovering over your head. It’s so quick, there’s no excuse!

Memory and mind connection

Although this seems like a bit of a no-brainer (PUNNY!), exercise also helps protect a healthy memory and ability to learn. Studies show that getting your heart pumping “appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.” (source)

SOLUTION: The study involved just 120 minutes of brisk walking per week. That’s only 17 minutes a day! Get walking!

Has this inspired you to move because you love your body?

I find that when I learn the amazing things my body can do, I appreciate it more, and want to take better care of it! Please share some of your favourite awesome effects of movement and exercise below. Or maybe you have a story about how you quit chronic cardio and started a more self-loving approach to movement. Share in the comments!

How to not get overwhelmed with healthy lifestyle changes

Posted on 29 January, 2015 by liivih | Leave a comment

Thrive Primal - how to avoid getting overwhelmed with healthy lifestyle changes

When you have chronic pain and digestive discomfort and headaches and anxiety and you’re tired and your hectic week just keeps rollin’ on, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the healthy changes you’re trying to make.

You might be spending hours a day researching what to avoid and what to buy and what to eat, and then realise you’ve gotten away from what you’re trying to do in the first place, which is chill out, and love yourself, and let your body heal.

I’ve been there, and I still go there at times. I call it a ‘brain full of butterflies’. You’re trying to catch one, but then another pretty one catches your eye so you go for it, but then you start going after a better one, and they’re all just flying around driving you crazy.

How to get past overwhelm when you’re working on healthy lifestyle changes

Here’s a quick 5-minute pen and paper exercise to get all those butterflies out of your brain, nail them down, and get your shit together so you can take a deep breath and have some peace.

Get out a pen and a piece of paper or a receipt or a napkin and do this RIGHT NOW. Don’t click to another tab and start googling another shiny solution. Do the work. Do it now. This will help you. Take a deep breath.

STEP 1:

Scribble down all the health and wellness goals you want to achieve. I’ve decided to get raw, real and vulnerable here, and share mine.

solve anxiety
doTerra 30 day reset / cleanse
get rid of Candida
lose 10 lbs of fat
clear and improve skin
solve constipation
avoid wheat & sugar, break addiction
sleep better
move more
yoga daily
meditate daily
less caffeine, or none
make & eat fermented foods
heal my gut
get enough magnesium

It would be nice to have all of those things wouldn’t it! But think about all the steps I need to take, OMG. So overwhelming. If I chase all of those butterflies how many will I catch – NONE!

But what’s awesome about the body is that everything is connected and interdependent. So you will find that many of your health goals will be inter-connected, and some big ones might end up being tipping points for a bunch of other ones.

I mapped them out like this all over a sheet of paper. This whole exercise took me maybe 5 minutes. If you still haven’t gotten your pen and paper out, DO IT NOW!

Thrive Primal - how to prevent overwhelm with lifestyle changes

STEP 2:

Start drawing arrows between ones that might cause or naturally lead to another.

For example, I want to improve my skin, and I know if I consume more fermented foods and get more sleep those things will cause me to have better skin. So I draw arrows from those 2 things pointing to better skin.

I know that if I avoid wheat & sugar, that will help heal my gut. I know that if I get rid of Candida, that will solve my anxiety and constipation. I know if I can sleep better that will help me lose fat. etc etc.

Keep doing that until you can’t think of any more.

STEP 3:

Look at all the things and notice which ones don’t have any arrows pointing into them, ie which ones are just plain ACTIONS that you must take.

Mine were:

Get enough magnesium
Make and consume fermented foods
Move more
Do an essential oils cleanse

These are the things you actually need to straight-up do, which will lead to all your other goals eventually rolling out as by-products. I’ll call them Actions.

Go over the other items on your page and just checkmark each, so you know that one of your big Actions is going to help you achieve each of your smaller goals. Check out my work below:

STEP 4:

List out the specific little steps that will lead you to be able to do the Actions you determined in step 3, ie Buy magnesium oil, get a spray bottle, buy the cleanse supplements, buy a cabbage, etc.

List how much time daily or weekly it’s going to take. For example, eating fermented foods is only going to take me let’s say an hour bi-weekly to set up a new batch of sauerkraut and kombucha, and then only a couple of minutes daily to consume a little bit of each.

Once I’ve bought and prepared the items I need for 3 of my 4 Actions (Magnesium, Cleanse and Fermented foods) each of these things will only take a couple of minutes daily (apply magnesium body spray, take my cleanse supplements and have some sauerkraut & kefir with my lunch).

The only thing that actually takes time or scheduling is to move more.

So now I’ve determined really there’s only ONE thing that’s kind of a pain in the butt that I need to figure out. NOT 25 things. 1 butterfly, not 25.

Yes, I still have to find 15-20 minutes a day to crank out some high-intensity intervals or power yoga with a youtube video on my mat in the living room in my undies. But now I know that all my goals are accounted for, and I can just take that 20 minutes and relish it and not stress about whether I’m taking care of everything I should be.

Why this is so powerful

Once you’ve figured out your Actions, don’t question them or think about anything else or let the butterflies start flying again.

Do these 4 things (or whatever number you’ve determined but 3-4 max!!) and do them CONSISTENTLY for at least 2 weeks. You can do them mindlessly and just shut off. You’ve done the mental work and the leg work by buying and preparing your stuff. Now stop over-thinking it and just go, on auto-pilot for 2 weeks.

Doesn’t that feel great? Isn’t it awesome being told what to do sometimes, especially when it’s by your own smart self :)

Flipping back and forth to different solutions and doing partial moves and attacks won’t actually result in any big succesful change. It’s like telling an army to advance, wait no retreat, actually let’s bring in the cavalry, actually wait a second where’s that catapult….you’re never going to win that battle!

You have to make the well-considered decision and then go for it whole-heartedly.

After 2 weeks maybe you want to re-evaluate, and that’s ok. If it’s going great, AWESOME, and maybe your 4 things have become automatic and now you can incorporate a few more actions, if you need to.

Maybe your list of a few things is still too overwhelming and you’re floundering. In that case the trick is to pick ONE thing that takes the least effort but has the most impact.

For example in my case I could reason that consuming fermented foods will end up helping me absorb, digest and eliminate my food better, so I won’t need to do a cleanse or take supplements.

Make that ONE thing happen each day and give yourself a HUGE pat on the back for sticking with it!! It’s a VERY important step in the right direction. Not only the actual action itself, but the fact that you’ve subconsciously affirmed that you care about yourself and love yourself.

How can I help you with this?

Do you have a list of goals but aren’t sure which are the big tipping-point Actions? Are you trying to whittle it down to which is going to take the least effort but have the biggest impact? Let me know below, I’d love to help!

How to love and take better care of yourself (in tiny baby steps!)

Posted on 7 January, 2015 by liivih | 2 comments

We are all so harsh on ourselves. I’ll be the first one to admit I struggle with constant negative mental chatter, directed at myself and others. It’s easy to be critical and dismissive, and stay living in that shadow waiting for your “someday” self.

Recently I heard Dr. Sarah Gottfried and Cynthia Pasquella both refer to this quote from Dr. Jen Landa:

When resentment is high, self-care is low. – Dr. Jen Landa

Think about that. It makes —-SO—-MUCH—-SENSE. You fly through your day resenting everyone you have to talk to, and everything that you have to do, and just hating life and waiting for the day to be over so you can start the hamster wheel all over again tomorrow.

No one is going to step in and stop the madness for you; you have to do it for yourself.

And here’s where SELF-CARE comes in. It’s a simple concept based on small gestures that you make toward yourself. It’s like your right-now self being considerate toward your future-self. Your partner and family and friends can support and take care of you to a certain extent, but there are certain things you can really only do for yourself.

And those things can be pretty fundamental.

Only you are going to make sure you eat enough good nutritious food, drink enough water, get some movement into your day, get to sleep on time. These are things we have to be responsible for as adults, but too often these hugely important priorities get pushed aside by all the other “STUFF” flying around in our day.

Then there are the other “less vital” things that can still have a huge impact on how you feel and behave. Only you are going to go get that haircut that is going to score compliments and put you in a great mood. Only you can decide to take 7 minutes in the evening and take a lovely lavender bath. No one else is going to tell you do these things, or help you make the time for these things.

You have the power to make every day a good day

It’s incredible how showing your future-self a little love with small gestures can completely change whether today is another humdrum-normal-crappy-whirlwind day, or a sparkly-shiny-fun-happy day.

So how to take better care of and show love toward yourself?

I found this lovely, heartfelt graphic created by Lucille Zimmerman on Pinterest. I don’t know much about her practice but I really like what she is sharing.

Print this out and post it somewhere, or keep it on your phone to refer to, or write down the points in your notebook. Make sure you do at least one of these things EVERY DAY. Show yourself a little love, and resentment, stress and negativity will have less and less power over you and your day.

Please share what works for you

How do you show yourself love? How do you ensure you make time for self-care in a busy day? Please leave a comment so that we can all help each other out! I know a lot of people struggle with this…how have you found success?

2 Comments

Posted in Natural Self Care, Stress

Tagged mindfulness, positivity, self care, self love, stress, support