First up, friendly reminder to schedule that acupuncture appointment. It will definitely bring back your period and work in accordance with your new diet and self-care routine to support healing.
This week, we also talked about taking on meal planning as a regular way to maintain a healthy diet, working up to getting 7.5 hours of sleep as the norm, and self-care practices to help relieve stress. So here are your recommendations for the next couple of weeks...
1. Plan your meals in advance. Now I realize that this can be a time-consuming task but if you invest in about 30 minutes weekly to create a meal plan for the week, and do a little bit of daily, or every-other-daily prep in the evenings or mornings, you'll be much more likely to have satisfying and nutritious meals with minimal inconvenience when it's actually time to eat.
- Think about the best time for you to do your weekly meal planning so that you can go shopping for the necessary ingredients right away or the following day. I do this on Sunday evenings and my hubby shops on Mondays.
- When ready to plan, have a quiet moment where you ask yourself what your body is craving. Is it a specific food, a particular texture or flavor? Have that in mind and let that guide what you'll eat that week.
- Gather cookbooks, have a few blogs ready, and consider recipes you've made before that you like (tip: be sure to save your favorite recipes on an ongoing basis to make future meal planning easier. I mark my favorite pages in cookbooks, and print out recipes I like online to keep in a special folder).
- Make 2 lists: 1-a simple list to indicate your breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks for that week, along with their appropriate recipe location if there is one, and 2-your shopping list for the things you need to buy that week.
- Whenever possible, plan to make the most of every meal. So if you make a pot of beans for dinner one night with brown rice, make some extra so that you can add the leftover beans to a salad for lunch the next morning or put them into a wrap with avocado, or blend it into a bean dip to have with carrot sticks as a snack later. This gives you the most bang for your buck, reduces food waste, and helps reduce time cooking from scratch.
- Once you have your list, and your ingredients, the whole week will basically depend upon you acting on your plan, so that's where commitment comes in. Even when you're used to eating relatively healthy, this sort of dedication may seem like a chore at first, but if you simply shift your mindset to seeing this meal preparation time spent as an investment in your health then you'll find yourself developing an almost meditative appreciation for the process of self-nourishment. Plus if you do this for a week or two, you'll realize that it really does make healthy eating much easier in the long run.
I mentioned I'd provide a few suggestions for online recipe sources, so here they are below. By the way if you're on Instagram find me @livingbodywellness because I post food ideas with instructions there all the time.
You can also always try typing something into google like "healthy lentil soup" and see what comes up!
You asked for ideas for easy portable breakfasts, so here are a few:
- Hard boiled eggs with a sprout salad (do you eat sprouts? The farmer's market at Union Square has many different kinds, they're super yummy and loaded with enzymes and other nutrients that support healthy digestion and energy).
- Oatmeal made from gluten-free rolled oats, with coconut oil, nut butter, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and a few berries (takes 10 minutes to make at home, should still be warm by the time you get to work).
- A salad with some pumpkin seeds or leftovers (who says you can't eat that for breakfast?).
- Fresh avocado piled high over gluten-free toast (1x a week because bread is starchy and you're limiting right now, assuming you have a toaster at work).
- Chia pudding with some berries, per the recipe I gave you earlier, or one you experiment with or find online.
- Quinoa porridge - reheat leftover white quinoa with extra water and then make it savory with some quick sauteed spinach and mushrooms or dress it up on the sweet side like you would with oatmeal.
- Healthy cereal with homemade hemp milk, one that is gluten-free and sugar-free is a-ok on occasion.
- Light smoothie. Since a hearty smoothie won't suit you before leaving for work, try making lighter ones that are pretty much like juice, but can be made in a blender. Cucumber makes the perfect base because it is mostly water and not pulpy, plus it is light, refreshing, and alkalizes your internal pH. You can just mix that with lemon, or throw in some cilantro, or a bit of frozen banana or mango. Eating fruit in the morning on an empty stomach won't contribute much to candida because you'll digest it quickly and it won't get a chance to ferment. You can blend this up and drink it on your way to work in a travel jug!
Of course things like veggies, leftovers, kefir or yogurt will also do the trick breakfast-wise. The key is in preparation, either that morning or the night before.
The additional recipe I mentioned was for homemade bone broth (when prepared right, it contains an incredible amount of minerals and nutrients which help heal the thyroid and create overall hormonal balance). It may sound weird but people have been drinking this for thousands of years, and it tastes really great, your body will thank you :)
Ok moving on sleepy time and self-care.
2. Get more sleep and create a sleep routine. You already know to unplug from technology before bedtime, but let's take that a step further and make pre bedtime a time to really love yourself up and invoke a deep and restful sleep that will leave you clear-headed and energized during the day.
Make 7.5 hours the norm. And continue aiming for 8 as much as possible. This is really important for health, so be sure to prioritize it! Plan (yeah, there's that word again, the theme for this post) what time you need to wake up the next morning, and count back from there, allowing for 30 minutes of self-care before your head lays on the pillow. Sometimes that means getting ready for 10pm and there's nothing uncool about that, just see how awesome you'll feel in the morning.
Self-care options for those precious 30-minutes of pre-sleep "me time":
- self massage. Get yourself a nontoxic body oil like natural jojoba oil or my homemade body butter (double the coconut oil instead of using vitamin E oil in this recipe, as that is sometimes derived from soy, and the essential oils are totally optional, it'll smell delicious even without them), and start with your feet. Rub one foot all over, with loving intention, thanking your foot for taking you where you need to go and giving yourself the gift of loving touch, then the other foot, and so on massaging each body part that wants to be massaged. Pay special attention to your lower back, where your adrenal glands are, and rub that area with extra care, thanking your adrenals for producing energy and staying calm each day, releasing just the right amount of cortisol and never more than necessary. Imagine them smiling back at you (like in the image above) and saying "you're welcome, now go to sleep" (if I was an adrenal gland, that's what I would say!).
- Meditation Oasis is the wonderful meditation app I mentioned which would be great to listen to before bed, or anytime. A couple other favorites are Relax Melodies, for fun varieties of relaxing sounds, and Omvana is another good one for guided meditations.
- Journaling about whatever you like, or other ideas for positive journaling include writing what you're grateful about, writing love letters to friends and family you care about, and writing about the amazing future you see for yourself.
- Reading inspiring literature (visit the self-help section at a bookstore for an inspiring read or ask me if you want recommendations, I've got plenty! (read only positive things before bed as these things subtly enter your subconscious mind when you read them right before bed).
- Simple and slow stretching to release any tension from your neck or lower back, use yoga poses and do this as you repeat your affirmation, other favorite mantras, or even just a single powerful and positive word as you also breathe in rest and breathe out the day, words like "one," "love," or "peace" are great to use here.
Finally, here's the fish oil I recommended which is not the fermented kind, but still a good brand. This is the liquid kind which is better absorbed by your body without unnecessary capsules, but it really doesn't taste bad and you can just have some with your dinner at home so it goes down easy. If you hate it then switch to capsules!
Ok I think that's everything we covered, have a great couple of weeks
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