Thankyou 2

Today's task is to show gratitude and say thankyou to someone.

Showing gratitude is not just nice for other people, it's good for you - try saying thank you to everyone you meet tomorrow for any help they give or have given you. I guarantee you'll get a great reaction end the day feeling warm and fuzzy.

But I think it's also very important to show gratitude to ourselves. With a few exceptions most of us are our harshest critics and judge ourselves numerous times every day.

Whilst some insight and self-criticism is healthy to keep our egos and behaviour in check, a lot of us need to show ourselves a bit more love.

So today write down everything you like about yourself, ignore the negatives - you might think you have a muffin top, but you've got great legs! You may think you don't work hard enough at the gym, but you have done a good workout this week. Include positive personality traits, do you have a positive outlook? Who have you cheered up lately?

Limiting yourself to only writing down the positives will give you a much sunnier outlook and you'll find you start to accentuate these good points and exercise more of your good traits than you did before.
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My favourite place in the world

It's not a beautiful beach, it's not some picturesque countryside spot ... it's my bed!

I love to sleep, I wish I could do it more .. and today's task gives me the perfect excuse, as it's to have an early night and wake feeling refreshed the next day.

In an ideal world we'd all go to bed so early that we'd wake up naturally before our alarms went off in the morning. If you ever do this you'll find it's alot easier to get out of bed than when your alarm goes off mid deep in sleep.  Sadly we dont' live in an ideal world so that's not possible for alot of us, but just do it at least one weeknight a week and you'll be amazed how much better you feel.

Sleep is so important for health, it helps you live longer, think smarter, recover quicker, age slower, deal with stress better, stay slimmer, look younger and feel more energetic.  I don't think it needs much of a sell. But it's so easy to neglect, so make it your priority to try and get more sleep, even just an extra half an hour can cumulatively make a big difference.

And on that note I'm off to bed!

Super smoothies

Today's task was to do some endorphin producing exercise and follow it with a hydrating smoothie.

I find that it takes a good half hour of cardio exercise to get the endorphins to kick in, and if you can manage 45-60 mins you'll really get a buzz.

The flipside is that it's very easy to crash afterwards and that's why getting in some carbs 15-20mins after your cool down is key. If you miss this window you're likely to flag in energy 60-120 minutes afterwards and then have a raised appetite for the next 24hours.

So if you find yourself really hungry the day after a big gym session then you're not getting enough carbs post training.

Fruit smoothies make a great post-training fix. Blend up some ice with some tropical fruit for some fast carbs, with some berries for antioxidants, add some flax for efas and a handful of spinach (you won't taste it with the fruit). For protein add a scoop of whey or rice protein powder et voila, you have an antioxidant carb and protein rich smoothie.

Obviously that's easy if you train at home, but if you're out and about there are lots of great places like crrush where you can get something similar. I bought a fresh mango and soya protein shake at my gym this morning having run into work. Go for the dairy free option when you can (whey protein should be ok if you just have lactose intolerance).

As an at desk option pick up a bottled smoothie (innocent, m+s, pret all do good ones), drink a couple of inches out the top and then add a couple of heaped teaspoons of protein powder you can keep in a tupperware in your desk. Put the lid on, give it a good shake and drink! Easy!
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Catch-up

Ok so I've found my hat and gloves plus the daily bites January calendar and it appears I have a bit of catching up to do.

Friday's task was to make a big pot of chicken or veggie broth to drink over the weekend for super immunity. It's actually been proven that as well as being good for the soul chicken soup does help fight off colds and flus - a combination of something filling and warming to help keep your temperature up, and eating something nutritious and easy to digest.

Whilst friday night might not feel like a night for healthy food, if you're in and can cook up a big pot of something healthy you'll have an easy couple of meals for saturday and sunday and be much less likely to go totally off piste with your diet. If you're still trying to shift some holiday weight do a weekend mini detox - make up a big pot of watercress soup (thicken with new potato and flavour with veg stock) and eat only that and fresh fruit and veg from friday night til Sunday night and start the week with a spring in your step and a couple of pounds lighter.

Saturdays tip was to plan your meals out for the week ahead. I'm not great at this as I like to tune into how I feel and eat accordingly, but it is worth having a think of some healthy recipes you might want to cook up during the week to make sure you have the ingredients you need. An empty fridge is a sure path to the biscuit tin.

Sundays tip was to have a natural treat of a date stuffed with sunflower butter (or use a nut butter if you prefer). As you'll know if you've read my blog for a while I'm pretty anti-sugar. If we all stopped eating it we'd be thinner, have better skin, live longer, have less heart disease, get less colds, suffer from less mood swings/anxiety/depression ... the list goes on. So do yourself a massive favour and give up the white stuff!

I'm not going to lie to you - it is hard, but so worthwhile, so to make it easier you need to let yourself indulge in some more natural and less addictive alternatives - dried fruit is naturally super sweet, particularly dates, and tropical fruit is also a super sweet treat. If you're partial to some baked goodies it's time to acquaint yourself with agave syrup and make some non-sugar cookies (see elanaspantry.com for recipes).

Finally today's task is to not just dream it, but to do it! I'm a big believer in 'just do it' mentality, when I find myself procrastinating I remind myself of this and get my skates on. When it comes to healthy there's a few examples:
- umming and aahing about going to the gym - stop thinking and just go, you can think yourself out of anything so don't give your mind the time to talk you out of it

- when you find yourself day dreaming about your goals, whether it's weight loss, fitness, learning to cook, stop staring out the window and take some action immediately - book a cooking class, go for a run, do an ocado order of loads of healthy foods

- if you find your brain debating if you should eat something naughty or healthy recognize that's what you're doing and default to the healthy option to end the debate - once you get in the habit you'll avoid many a trip to the office vending machine
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The big move

I moved house this weekend so I'm sure you'll all forgive me the brief blog. Hallie's January to do list got packed in a box and I've no idea where it is/what's on it!

Moving house, changing job, getting married or divorced, and having a bereavement are the big five in terms of life's stressful events. Sadly we can't avoid them and for some reason I've observed that they tend to come in pairs.

If you've been through any of these in the last twelve months it's important you recognize how stressful this event was, the toll it's taken on you emotionally and physicially and to make some effort to counteract these effects.

My move was relatively unstressful compared to others I've done, but still I've cleared my social schedule for the next few weeks in favour of some well paced unpacking, some yoga, a lot of early nights and the odd relaxing beauty treatment. I'm also upping my intake of b vits and magnesium and will be using my juicer to max out my veg intake.

After a while I'll find myself feeling restless and itching to go out on the town which will be my sign that I'm over the move and can move on!
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Thank you...

Today's task is to write a thank you note or two.  If you haven't done your Christmas thank yous that's an easy one to tick off the list, but writing a brief note to aunty Mable to thank her for the socks isn't really the point.  Expressing gratitude is actually a great way to spread some good feeling and take yourself out of your own worries. You don't have to get the quill out and pen a note, it's actually nicer to thank people in person, but even a thank you text or email is nice to receive and takes two minutes to write.

Expressing appreciation or gratitude to others, not just for presents but for acts of kindness, support you've been shown, fun times you've had, helps us appreciate the importance of relationship with others and get a bit of perspective on our own lives.  Most of us are caught up in our own thoughts and worries and so can neglect our relationships with others and instead over-worry about our own little life bubbles.

Worrying unnecessarily doesn't do you any good, infact it's positively bad for you.  Those negative thought patterns create a physiological stress response, this means elevated blood pressure, insulin production and disregulated blood sugar, suppressed immunity, suppressed digestion ... in the long run worry can create genuine ill health.  So whilst doing nice things for others and showing appreciation might seem an altruistic act, it's actually just a healthy habit.

It's also worth as a separate exercise writing a note of gratitude for yourself.   List everything you're happy with in your life and everything you're grateful for.  We all have alot to be grateful for, the basics of food, a comfortable home, the benefits of good relationships, life's little luxuries - nice clothes, cars, holidays, hobbies we enjoy, having good health - even if it's not perfect it's probably much better than alot of peoples.  Focussing on the positives in your life will help give some context to the aspects that you're not happy with and overall reduce your stress levels.

I for one am grateful for all the people who read my blog, everyone who's recommended me to someone else, everyone who's encouraged and supported me along the way to study and practice nutrition and to spread the word on living a healthy life, so thank you to all of you!

Everyday energizers

I'm not doing very well on this weeks tasks - having failed to make a smoothie yesterday I then today was not able to fit in some endorphin boosting exercise which was today's challenge.

To be fair, not only was I short on time but I also wasn't feeling up to it. Having burnt out along time ago from excessive exercise and too little sleep, I've learnt to pick up the early signs of when I may be overdoing things and backoff rather than pushing myself and ending up exhausted.

So based on this experience I wouldn't recommend everyone exercises everyday. I would however recommend doing something that is restorative/gives you energy 30-60minutes a day. This could be exercise of varying intensity depending on how you feel, but this could also be doing some yoga or one of the following: using your gym's spa facilities, having a relaxing treatment such as accupuncture or massage, relaxing at home (watching tv doesn't count) - having a long bath, reading a book, even having a snooze if you're short on sleep.

Tuning into what your body needs/is capable of, will help you achieve a balance between doing things that are energizing, rather than draining, keeping you feeling full of beans rather than burnt out.
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