Starting a Self Care Morning Routine

Start a Self Care Morning Routine

If you want to pay more attention to yourself and practice self care, it helps to start by working on your morning routine. If you are just hopping out of bed, grabbing breakfast, and running out the door, you are probably already stressed by the time you get into your car. A healthier option is to start a better morning routine with these tips.

Read a Few Pages in a Book

If you can set your alarm for an earlier time, it gives you the chance to catch up on your reading. Find a book that is inspirational and helps motivate you for the day. Read just a few pages or a whole chapter, depending on how much free time you have. This can be while you are having your morning coffee, or when your muffins are in the oven. Take advantage of these quiet moments and become absorbed in your favorite book.

Have Quiet Time with Coffee

Whether you drink coffee, tea, or your lemon water in the morning, you can make this part of yourself care ritual. Try to have your first cup of coffee in the morning all alone and in silence. You can read a paper, write in your journal, or sit at a window and watch the sun come up in the morning. This is another great reason to wake up a little earlier than everyone else in your household. You will be amazed by how much better you feel with just a few minutes to yourself.

Unplug Your Devices

When you are trying to start a new morning routine for self care purposes, you should unplug all devices. Don’t try to enjoy a few minutes to yourself by using your cell phone or checking email. Checking social media too much can also be more stressful. You should turn all electronics off during your self-care time in the morning and not turn it on until you absolutely need it. A good practice to start is to turn your cell phone off after the alarm goes off to wake you up in the morning.

Practice Meditation

The morning is also the ideal time to meditate and use words of affirmation. You can use a favorite scripture or even words of affirmation.  You can also try breathing exercises or play your favorite worship music. If you want to take a walk in the morning, that can also help you to meditate.

If you liked these ideas, you will LOVE my FREE 5 Day Self-Improvement Challenge! You can grab it here!

Simple Everyday Ways to Take Care of Yourself

Simple Everyday Ways to Take Care of Yourself

Self care is vitally important not just for stress relief but also for overall mental health. It can do everything from help after a bad day to improve your self confidence. It also doesn’t take a lot to take proper care of yourself. Here are some different ways to practice self care every day.

Keep a Journal

A really excellent way to start practicing self care every day is to keep a journal. This is something you can easily keep with you no matter where you are, whether you put it in your purse or briefcase, or you have a digital journal on your computer. It is good to have something to write in even when your laptop is out of charge, so a journal and pen is highly recommended. With journaling, you are able to write in it whenever you feel stressed or just to talk about your day. I love journaling especially when I am going through a stressful time, so that I can vomit all the feelings I have on paper without hurting anyone’s feelings!  It can be very cathartic for you.

Have Alone Time Every Day

Make sure you have at least a few minutes each day all to yourself. This can be a 30-minute walk that you go on after dinner, a 20-minute quiet time all alone in your room in the afternoon, or just 5 minutes in the morning before everyone else gets up while you enjoy your cup of coffee. It can seem so simple and minimal, but these little stretches of time where you are alone and just doing something for yourself can make all the difference!

Get More Exercise

Sometimes helping your physical health is also important, so don’t forget about exercise. This will make you feel better about yourself and raise your self confidence, which also helps your mental state. Plus, exercise is really good for helping to relieve your stress and the endorphins you get from it can be tremendous for improving your move. You don’t need to go to the gym for an hour every day either. Something as simple as an afternoon walk or doing weight lifting in the morning before your shower is perfect. You can also take advantage of other activities that also include exercise, like taking your dogs for longer walks or taking the kids hiking over the weekend so everybody is exercising more.  It can also look like joining them for a trampoline session at your local indoor trampoline park! 

In addition to exercise, you should also be focusing on proper diet by drinking more water and eating healthier. This is part of taking better care of yourself.

If you like these ideas for self-care, you are gonna LOVE my FREE 5 Day Self-Improvement Challenge! You can grab it HERE!

Interesting Ways to Flavor Your Kombucha

Kombucha can be very tasty depending on the type of tea you use, but it is easy to get bored with it after while if you are not careful. Exploring way to flavor your kombucha can be fun and lead to all sorts of interesting taste treats.

Green, black or oolong tea?

Your first choice is your tea. Green and black are standard choices. Green is quite mild compared to black tea. The leaves are picked during the first flush of growth.

Oolong is made from tea leaves that have already been fermented, to give your kombucha a powerful kick.

Of the black teas, there are some basic ones like Darjeeling and the full-bodied Assam. Then there are the more flavored ones such as Earl Grey (with a hint of citrus), Russian Caravan (a very full-bodied black tea), and Lapsang Suchong, made with smoked leaves for a unique taste. 

When in doubt, opt for Darjeeling. It will lend itself to a variety of additions.

Flat or fizzy

There will be some degree of fizziness in your kombucha due to the fermentation process, but a second fermentation using various natural flavors can get your kombucha almost to the consistency of soda. 

Adding fruit

Fresh fruit, dried fruit, and fruit juice are all easy ways to add flavor and get a second fermentation going. Use your latest batch of homemade kombucha at the end of 7 days. Remove the bloom for your next batch of plain kombucha.

Use a clean bottle with a lid you can close tightly. Add your newly-made kombucha and fill the container minus three ounces, which will allow you room to add the other ingredients.  Add fresh or dried fruit, or juice.  Close the lid tightly and place the container in your usual fermentation place. Leave for three days. Any longer and the bottle could explode.

What fruits to add

You can add a wide variety of fruits, such as citrus like:

·      Lemon

·      Lime

·      Orange

·      Grapefruit

You can also add fruits that are high in sugar content and are often used fermented:

·      Grapes (red or green)

·      Apples

·      Pears

Fresh berries can also be fun, and colorful. Pulp them before adding to the bottle to make the flavor stronger and increase the fermentation. You can also add more sugar, or some honey, to increase the sweetness and fizziness.

Dried fruits to add include raisins, dried cherries and chopped prunes.

Adding Herbs and Spices

The most common flavor to add to kombucha in the East is ginger, which has a warm taste and goes well with lemon. 

You can add aromatic herbs such as:

·      Mint

·      Basil

·      Cinnamon (ground or sticks)

·      Fennel (for a licorice type of taste)

·      Vanilla bean is also quite pleasant.

You could also make an Indian-style chai with:

·      2 inches of fresh ginger

·      cinnamon

·      black pepper

·      ground cloves

Add all the spices and let sit for 3 days.  When it has had its second fermentation, using a coffee filter, strain the kombucha into a glass. Add whole milk at a ratio of 1 to 1 tea to milk, and add maple syrup to sweeten.

Regardless of whether you add fruit, spices, or both, whenever you are ready to serve, strain the kombucha through a coffee filter, and enjoy!

How to Make Kombucha at Home

If you’ve heard about the health benefits of kombucha and have been looking at bottled kombucha tea in the health food stores or supermarkets, you’ve probably been put off by the high price per bottle. The reason it is so expensive is not the actual ingredients, but the fermentation process that results in a healthful drink rich in useful bacteria known as probiotics.  The good news is that you can make kombucha yourself for a fraction of the cost of buying it already prepared.

So, how do you get started? Here are some simple instructions to make your own kombucha at home.

The Starter

Kombucha requires a bacterial starter in the same way that yogurt does if you are going to make it at home.  It is important to buy from a high-quality brand, because there have recently been illnesses caused by improperly handled or contaminated starters. The Kombucha Growing Kit and The Kombucha Starter Kit both cost less than $50 online and are organic as well.  You might also be able to find a starter at your local health food store.

The starter kits these days are usually a combination of bacteria and yeast. The yeast is necessary for fermentation.  Having the yeast already in it takes the guesswork out of the kombucha-making process.

The Equipment

To make 1 quart, you will need:

·      A large glass jar such as a canning jar

·      An unbleached coffee filter for the mouth of the jar

·      A rubber band or canning ring to hold the coffee filter over the mouth of the jar to avoid any contaminants getting in

·      2 to 3 cups of pure water without chlorine or fluoride (therefore, not tap water)-distilled water will work well

·      1/4 cup sugar

·      1½ teaspoon loose tea leaves, green or black

·      A metal tea ball for placing the leaves in

·      The starter you purchased

·      1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

·      A wooden spoon for stirring

The Recipe

Start with water hot enough to steep the tea. Add it to the jar. Add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Note that the bacteria and yeast will feed on the sugar, so add the full amount—don’t try to be diet-conscious.

Add the tea ball to the hot water. Steep until desired darkness.  The longer the tea sits, the stronger the flavor will be.

Allow the tea to cool to around 68F to 85F. It needs to be warm, but not too hot, in order to start off the fermentation process. Too hot, you will kill off the bacteria and yeast, so beware.

Add the starter according to the package instructions. If you are beginning with a dehydrated starter, follow the instructions for activating it first, then add it to your kombucha recipe. Make sure you have already removed the metal tea ball from the water so it does not come into contact with the starter.

Add the vinegar and stir well. 

Cover the mouth of the jar with the filter and secure it with the rubber band or the ball jar ring.

Store it in a cool, dark place ranging in temperature from 68F to 85F for 7 to 10 days. Note that the longer the tea ferments, the less sweet and more vinegar-like it will taste. It will develop a “bloom” that looks like a mushroom. Use this for your next starter.

The Health Benefits of Kombucha

The fermented tea drink called kombucha has been used for centuries as a health drink. It has recently come to the West via Japan, from which the tea gets its name. Its first recorded use was in China in 221 BC, and it is used regularly in China, Japan, Russia, and Eastern Europe. The name, roughly translated, means, “The Tea of Immortality.”

Why has it earned such a name? Because of its many reported health benefits. Here are just a few:

It Aids Digestion

All fermented foods, such as kombucha, sauerkraut, pickles, yogurt with active cultures, and Korean pickled vegetables (kimchi) are probiotic in nature. This means they can help with the overall balance of healthy bacteria in your digestive tract.

The body contains both helpful and harmful bacteria. The trouble is that if a person takes a course of antibiotics, those pills will usually kill off both, causing serious damage to what is termed the gut flora that enables your digestive system to break down the food you eat into the useful nutrients that keep the body healthy. Studies have shown that a single course of antibiotics for 1 week can still have an impact on the level of healthy gut flora more than 2 years after the pills were taken.

This being the case, many people are now more interested in adding probiotics to their diet to restore the balance of their gut flora and improve digestion and nutrition.

It Can Help with Leaky Gut Syndrome

It has also been shown to be helpful in reference to “leaky gut syndrome.” As the name suggests, some medications, and certain foods, such as gluten in grains like wheat and rye, affect what is known as the permeability of the small intestine.  The small intestine is where 90% of your digestion takes place, with the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients being removed from your food and then transported to all the parts of the body that need those nutrients.

But if the small intestine becomes more permeable, it can leak, meaning small particles of food can get into your abdominal cavity and the nutrients won’t be transported where they need to go. Leaky gut has been linked with a range of autoimmune disorders, in which the body starts to attack itself.  Rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and various thyroid conditions are just a few of the autoimmune disorders that many people suffer from, with no cure at present.

Kombucha has been linked to improved intestinal permeability, and thus less leakage and better health.

It Soothes Stomach Ulcers and GERD

Kombucha is mild and soothing, so it reduces stomach inflammation that can result in ulcers, or Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), in which the stomach acid can churn so much, it can double back on itself and up going into the esophagus.

Help with Arthritis Pain

Because kombucha helps reduce inflammation in the body, it can relieve arthritis pain as part of what it called an anti-inflammatory diet.  Kombucha contains glucosamine, which has been used for centuries to improve bone and joint health, helping with hyaluronic acid production, which keeps your joints lubricated and working smoothly.  It also boosts collagen, which is the building block of tendons and even your skin, keeping it firm, supple and strong.

There are many more health claims in relation to kombucha, but these are the main ones that have been supported by modern research.

What is Kombucha?

By now, almost everyone has heard about kombucha and it’s suggested health benefits. But what is it? And how do you get started using it?  Can you even make it in your own home?

Kombucha Revealed

Kombucha is an ancient Asian drink that has been used for centuries as a health tonic. It is often referred to as “mushroom tea” even though it has no mushrooms in it. Rather, it describes the appearance of the tea as it goes through a fermentation process and “blooms.”

Kombucha is made with three key ingredients:

1.    Some sort of tea, such as black, green or oolong

2.    Yeast

3.    Sugar

As with yogurt, the “starter” kicks off the fermentation process.  The tea is then allowed to ferment in a cool place, and is then filtered and drunk.

Why Drink Kombucha?

Kombucha is a type of probiotic drink, that is, one which contains healthy bacteria.  Many people have become aware of the fact that there are both harmful and healthy bacteria in the body, particularly in the digestive tract.  With the growing concern in the West about the over-prescribing of antibiotics, which kill both harmful and healthy bacteria alike, there has been an increasing interest in fermented foods, including kombucha, to restore balance to the gut.

Should I Buy Commercial Kombucha?

You can buy ready-made kombucha, but it will not have the same active cultures as kombucha that you make at home. It will also be far more expensive than making it yourself with just a few simple ingredients.

How Can I Make Kombucha at Home?

You will need a kombucha starter, the active bacteria. However, you should only buy from a reputable company whose name you recognize, as there have been a great deal of quality-control issues with contaminated starters.

Once you add the starter to your tea mixture, you need to keep the tea in a cool place free from contaminants. 

Making a Proper Cup of Tea for Your Kombucha

The success of your kombucha will depend on making a proper pot of tea and keeping all your containers and utensils very clean. Starting with high-quality ingredients will lead to a high-quality result. 

The flavor will depend on what type of tea you used to start with, green versus black, for example, and how long you let the tea steep before you remove the tea leaves.  Don’t use decaf or tea bags, as they are processed with chemicals. 

Let the tea cool until it’s about 90 to 100 degrees F.  Any hotter than that, and it can kill off the bacteria in the starter, and kill the yeast that are to be used for fermentation.

Don’t skimp on the sugar in your recipe that comes with your starter kit. The sugar is food (so-called pre-biotics) for the yeast and bacteria, and won’t cause you to pack on the pounds. 

Once it is fermented and ready to drink (about 7 to 10 days), you can add flavor to it, such as lemon, and drink it whenever you wish for a quick pick me up.

5 Advanced Biohacking Techniques

5 Advanced Biohacking Techniques

Now that you have mastered the basic steps in biohacking it’s time to amp it up. There are truly endless possibilities when it comes to biohacking. This is because biohacking involves making daily changes that improve your wellbeing by doing whatever needs to be done to get to reach your ideal health and performance goals. The following five biohacking techniques to advance your journey will help get you on track.

Get a Blood Test

Getting blood tests is essential to biohacking. It is the best way to know what is truly going on in your body before your body even has a chance to inform you that there is something wrong. Blood tests help identify the areas you need to improve from getting enough vitamins to managing your cholesterol to improving overall organ function. Each year you should test your blood sugar levels, cholesterol, vitamin levels and get a complete blood count. Notice any areas that are not in the optimal range then improve them by changing your diet and by adding supplements when needed.

Advance Your Nutrition

Advance your nutrition by starting the elimination process. Do not make the mistake of eliminating everything from your diet all at once though. Start with one area and work your way through each day or each week. This way you are sure to accomplish your goals. Plus, it makes it easier in the long run to make slower changes. A good place to start is by eliminating sugary drinks. Once you are feeling really encouraged drop sugar all together. Eventually, you will want to eliminate sugar, processed foods, and unhealthy fats. You can do this by replacing them with healthy fats, two servings of fruit, grass-fed, antibiotic free proteins and vast quantities of vegetables.

Get Outside

Getting outside and embracing Mother Nature is a great way to improve your mood, health, and overall well-being. This is because it forces you to get moving and soak up vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D is essential for optimal bone growth. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to breast cancer, obesity, depression, and cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that vitamin D deficiencies are becoming very common due to people being indoors more. The best way to get Vitamin D is from the sun. Start by getting at least fifteen minutes of sun a day. Use this time to go for a walk and avoid sitting down. According to a study by Harvard Medical School, being too sedentary is linked to early death. May as well get moving while you’re soaking up those rays.

Meditate

Free your mind of stress by starting your day off with meditation. Find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes. The way you choose to meditate is up to you. You can let your thoughts run free or focus on your breathing. The goal of meditation is to find your inner calm and silence your mind from everyday stress and concerns so that you can go about your day in a positive frame of mind. Start with five minutes a day and see how it improves your daily life. Find a balance that you feel is optimal. Meditation hacks your brain and can lead to increased productivity, reduced stress, and even help curb unwanted cravings.

Boost Your Exercise Routine

Now that you have tracked your daily exercise its time to boost it up a bit. Find areas that you feel that you are slacking in and implement new exercises to improve those areas. The best way to biohack your exercise routine is to do high-intensity interval training or HIIT. HIIT improves muscle tone and helps improve brain function at the same time.

HIIT is simply alternating bursts of vigorous exercise with a short active rest period. For example, a high-intensity interval training routine could be one minute of sprinting with thirty seconds of walking or one minute of jumping jacks with a thirty-second walk to rest.

Keep these techniques in mind throughout your journey. These advanced biohacking techniques will lead you to overall greater health with a better attitude and more productivity in your life.

Want to reach optimal health and greater wellbeing? Download your free workbook on Biohacking to learn how!

4 Simple Ways to Get Started with Biohacking

4 Simple Ways to Get Started with Biohacking

Do you have a desire to improve your overall health? Mind, body, and soul? Then biohacking is exactly what you need. Biohacking is making and experimenting with different changes to reach optimal health. The goal with biohacking is to have the increased energy while improving your productivity so that you can be your best self.

Although it may sound complicated, it’s quite easy to get started. Here are four simple ways to get started with biohacking.

Identify Areas That Need Improvement

The very first thing you need to is to identify the areas you feel you need to improve. Do you feel like you get enough sleep every day? Do you need to lose a few pounds? Or maybe you just need better time management skills at work or with your social life. Whatever it may be, take a mental note or write it down. This way you know where to start and it won’t seem so overwhelming. The great thing about biohacking is that it is all about your individual path to overall wellbeing; no one else’s.

Track Your Sleep

Just like most people in the world, more than likely you are not getting enough sleep. Sleep is one of the most important things for optimal health. Poor sleep can wreak havoc on your immune system and cause unneeded stress and anxiety. Not getting enough sleep can also lead to making poor decisions when it comes to diet and exercise. Lack of sleep is also linked to mental fog and underperformance. Studies show that lack of sleep increases your chances of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and depression.

Track your sleep each night and make sure you get at least eight hours every night. Just remember, if you still don’t feel like you are getting enough with eight hours you can increase it until it works for you. Always keep track so you know exactly how much sleep you are getting each night so that you are aware if you need to improve or not. A great way to stay on track is to use a Fitbit.

Track Your Diet

Chances are high that there are areas that you need to improve when it comes to your diet. Before you do anything major, write down in a journal or download an app on your phone, like MyFitnessPal, to track your diet each day. Do this for about a week so you know exactly what areas you need to attack first. While you track your diet take notice of any negative reactions experienced from the foods you are eating. Maybe you have sensitivities to foods you are not aware of. Take note so you can rid these foods from your diet first.

Ultimately, you will need to eliminate from your diet sugars, processed foods, and any foods that are causing sensitivities. A diet high in veggies, healthy fats, and quality protein is your best choice. Dave Asprey, the founder of bulletproof coffee, raves about biohacking and created a great diet plan to follow called the Bulletproof Diet.

Track Your Exercise

Take notice of how much exercise you are currently getting each week. Invest in a Fitbit or tracker so you can track your steps and the overall number of calories you are burning each week. You maybe be surprised that you don’t get enough exercise each day. Exercise is known to increase energy, promote better sleep, increases your confidence and self-esteem. Exercise also contributes to weight control and prolongs your lifespan. Once you have a general idea of what your daily activity is going to be, find areas that you feel will be easy to improve first such as getting 15,000 steps in each day.

Take these four simple steps and to get started with biohacking and improving your quality of life. As you can see, the term may sound overwhelming, but biohacking is actually very simple when you break it down and start slow. Track your sleep, diet, and exercise and use that information to improve your quality of life and your journey to overall wellbeing.

Start the journey to a perfect you with biohacking. Learn how when you download your free workbook!

Not All Calories Are Created Equal!

Not All Calories Are Created Equal!

The theory that weight loss is a simple formula of expending more calories than you are taking in, may make sense. But in order to make this formula work in real life, you need to understand that not all calories are created equal when it comes to filling you up.

Some calories come in the form of nutrient dense and fiber dense foods that will leave you feeling full and satisfied. Other foods come in the form of processed foods that are refined and fiber-stripped that contain very little to no nutrients at all and will leave you feeling hungry and wanting more.

For instance, a chicken nugget is packed with calories but little nutrition - after eating only 2 nuggets you will have eaten around 100 calories, which is the equivalent of a bowl of lentil soup (1 1/4 cups). But would you stop at just 2 nuggets? Probably not, in fact, you’ll probably want to eat at least 10-12 nuggets before you start feeling full, which is around 500-600 calories. Yikes! Compared to the lentil soup at 100 calories per bowl, you may want 1 to 2 bowls to feel full.

So the key to lose weight is to choose foods that give you enough calories without overdoing it and making you feel full so that you won’t overeat. Fiber is king!

Sources: The Whole Foods Diet by John Mackey, Alona Pulde, MD, and Matthew Lederman, MD

Herbal Teas to help Hydrate in Cold Weather

The weather is starting to turn cold again and drinking hot beverages are a wonderful way to stay warm AND hydrated.  But what do you drink if you don’t want to overload your adrenals with caffeine and the high-sugar spiced lattes?   

Herbal teas are the answer!  Drinking herbal teas can help warm you up when it’s chilly, stay hydrated without the affects of caffeine and even offer health benefits!  Here are a few of my favorite herbal teas:

Raspberry Leaf Tea:  Full of vitamin C, calcium and iron.  Tightens and tones tissue, has a particular affinity for the uterus, digestive tract and mouth.  Raspberry Tea can also help counter chronic diarrhea as well as leaky gut, and strengthens the muscles of the uterus.  

Rose Hip Tea:  Contains more vitamin C per ounce than almost any other natural source, has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antihistamine bioflavonoids that work in synergy with vitamin C.  Bioflavonoids improve vitamin C’s ability to strengthen connective tissue, bolster immune health, promote healing, and boost cellular energy.  

Nettle Tea:  Full of calcium.  One cup of this strongly steeped tea has about 500 mg of calcium in a highly bioavailable form. Nettle Tea also provides significant doses of magnesium, potassium, and silica.  It is also rich in chlorophyll and supports the alkalinity of the body.  This tea can also be a gentle kidney cleanser and mild antihistamine.  

Lemon Balm Tea:  Improves digestion, and can improve cognition and mood.  Also calms nerves and helps with nervous indigestion.  Has antioxidant and wound-healing properties.

As always, if you take medication, please check with your Doctor before you take herbals.  The Tea’s I have listed here have very low caution ratings and considerations, but do your diligence.  

Resources: Body Into Balance, Maria Noël Groves