As we go into the winter, many people feel the need for a little self-care. However, this can be difficult with so much to get done during the holiday season. It’s important to find little things that you look forward to each day rather than waiting for an opportunity to do something big.
Making a special drink can be a quick way to take care of yourself in these busy times. Now I’m not suggesting you make a cocktail or put vodka in your water bottle; there are plenty of fun healthy alternatives that you can enjoy without guilt.
In addition to lifting your spirits, these drinks provide hydration and health benefits. It doesn’t take much to grab these drinks during a busy day if you do a little preparation ahead of time.
Let’s take a look at some drinks you may enjoy.
Kombucha
Kombucha is a fermented drink. It is made when you combine tea, sugar, and a SCOBY. That funny word is an acronym for a “symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.” As the bacteria eats the sugar it produces probiotics which are good for your gut and help keep the bad bacteria in check.
There are many flavors on the market today. Some brands have high levels of sugar, so be sure to read the label before buying a jar. Kombucha is also relatively easy to make at home which allows you to control the ingredients even more. Check out this article about the benefits of kombucha and how to make it.
If you are ready to make your own kombucha, you can get the Urban Kitchen organic starter SCOBY. Otherwise, you may enjoy premade kombucha from these brands…
Water Kefir
Traditional kefir is a fermented drink made from milk with a variety of bacteria and yeast. As you would probably guess, water kefir is made following the same process using water as the base.
It is difficult to find premade water kefir, but it is really easy to make. Simply get the grains, put them in sugar water, and let them ferment. It will be ready to drink after the first fermentation which takes a few days. Some people enjoy adding flavor and fermenting it for another couple of days to enhance the taste and make it a little bubbly.
If you would like to learn more or are interested in making your own, check out this article. You can find the Florida Sun Live Kefir Grains on Amazon. They will multiply over time, so you shouldn’t have to buy more and will eventually be able to share them with friends.
Coconut Water
Coconut water is naturally sweet making it taste great. It is a good source of nutrients such as magnesium, calcium, phosphorous, and potassium. In fact, it has more potassium than a banana.
Some studies suggest that coconut water may provide antioxidants, lower blood sugar in those with diabetes, decrease the risk of kidney stones, and support heart health. However, more research is needed to support these claims. For more information on the health benefits, check out this article from Healthline.
It is important to look at the ingredient list when purchasing coconut water. Some companies add sugar, preservatives, or additives. Paloehacks has done your research for you in “Six Healthiest Coconut Water Brands.” Here are some of the top brands.
Mineral Water
Mineral water with a splash of juice is a lovely treat; you can choose any juice you like. It will give you the flavor without the higher sugar levels of straight juice.
You can also put a couple of tablespoons of balsamic in your sparkling water. Yes, it sounds gross, but don’t knock it until you try it. Start with a fruity flavor such as mango, blueberry, strawberry, peach, or lemon. For a tried and true recipe check out the Sparkling Balsamic Refresher from the Vintage Olive.
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Are you getting ready to greet ghosts and goblins? Little people look forward to this night all year. It is filled with imagination, a bit of spookiness, and candy. While you may enjoy walking the neighborhood or handing out candy, take a moment to consider how you can take care of your body by limiting sugar and still have fun.
Sugar contains no nutrients and often replaces nutrient-dense food leaving your body lacking in nutrients. It stresses your hormonal system which can lead to adrenal fatigue, thyroid conditions, and other hormonal disruptions. It causes an inflammatory response and upsets your gut bacteria which suppresses your immune system leaving you vulnerable to infection.
Here are some tips that can help you be intentional about your sugar intake while still enjoying Halloween. Once you try out these tips, you may find them to be valuable during other holidays as well.
Rethink Handing out Candy
I don’t want you to be known as the Grinch House that passes out toothbrushes, but there are other fun things that you could give besides candy. If you get creative, you could even become one of the coolest houses on the block.
As a child, my favorite house had a jar of foreign coins. The top of the jar was small, but you were allowed to take anything you could grab. This meant that small hands could grab even more than big hands. It was fun to see the foreign currency and figure out what country it was from.
Get candy that doesn't tempt you.
It’s tempting to buy your favorite candy to pass out on Halloween. You want to give out the good stuff, but we forget that everyone has different tastes. We don’t have to buy our favorite candy to give a good treat.
Reese's peanut butter cups are my all-time favorite candy. I’ll definitely eat more than I should while passing them out. So, I hand out candy that isn’t as hard for me to resist and it is probably someone else's favorite.
Read Ingredients
Look at the ingredients of the treats you plan to buy. If the list is long or contains a lot of words you don’t understand, you may want to think twice. Reading ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, food coloring, and hydrogenated oils should give you pause.
A colleague said that when she reads the lists of ingredients on most candy, she views it more like an object (i.e. their spiral notebook) than food. I am not saying that you should never enjoy a sweet treat, but this mindset may make it less appealing.
I've heard good things about Yum Earth candy which is organic, non-GMO, as well as free from artificial dyes and high fructose corn syrup. It is great for kids with allergies because it doesn't contain peanuts, tree nuts, milk, fish, shellfish, egg, soy, wheat, or sesame. (Check out the Halloween mix at my affiliate link here.)
Solid Meals
Eat a good healthy lunch and dinner that will leave you feeling full and satisfied! Don’t “save your calories” for the festivities. Passing out candy or trick-or-treating on an empty stomach is the worst thing you can do on Halloween!
You will likely end up eating way more candy than you would if you nourish your body throughout the day. It is also important to eat healthy meals because you need protein to balance out the candy and help regulate your blood sugar.
Set a Limit Ahead of Time
Think about how many pieces of candy you want to eat ahead of time. I won't tell you how many, you know your goals and can decide for yourself. Set this amount aside to prevent yourself from mindlessly grabbing it from the bowl.
When you are walking around, it is easy to have a piece or two out of the kids' bag - that is unless you have older children who will resist sharing their candy! Do your best to be aware of your intake and make sure each piece is really worth it.
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Many people believe that it is the beginning of the dreaded flu season! It is true that there are more cases of the flu diagnosed this time of year, but germs for the flu are around all year.
So, if these germs are always around, why do we see an increase in the number of flu cases during the fall and winter months? Could it be that the sugar and stress of the holidays impact our immune systems and leave us vulnerable to these illnesses?
Perhaps we should start calling it the “sugar and stress season!” As enjoyable as they are, the holidays lend themselves to both sugar and stress. Think about the Halloween candy, Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, and the sugar cookies on Christmas. Then add the stress of preparing for the holidays. No wonder our bodies are worn down.
Let’s take a look at this theory and explore ways to combat it this year.
The Condition of Your Soil
Dr. Angie Elliot uses a great analogy in her article, “There’s No Such Thing As ‘Flu Season’.” She talks about putting a seed in the ground without covering it in soil or giving it water, sun, and air. Would it survive? No way!
Elliot explains that “the soil (is) not ideal for the seed to take root and for the plant to flourish.” She encourages you to “consider your body equivalent to soil and a virus or bacteria as the seed. If you planted that seed in your body right now, could it grow?"
Many people get sick with colds or the flu this time of year because the condition of their body is primed for pathogens to thrive and grow.” When you look at it this way, it is easy to see things that impact your body's immune system and create an environment where germs can thrive.
What Impacts Your “Soil”
Some things that cause us stress in our bodies are obvious, while other things are more subtle. Often we are so used to these things that we don’t even realize that they are causing trouble.
This is the one day a year we are literally surrounded by candy. It is really hard to limit ourselves when we are handing it out all night and watching our children sort through their treasure. We will look at some tips for handling this in next week’s blog.
It's hard enough to get adequate sleep without the added responsibilities that come with making the holidays special. Planning events and buying gifts are enough to make us hate Pintrest and resent Martha Steward. Keep posted for some tips on buying gifts and planning menus as we get closer to the holidays.
Life can get overwhelming if we accept every invitation. Take time to consider your values. Use them as a guide to determine how to spend your time. Do you really want to go to three cookie exchanges? Can you go from one Thanksgiving dinner to the next without getting worn out? Now, more than ever, you will need boundaries.
Chicago gets pretty overcast this time of year, and the amount of time we spend outside may decrease quite a bit. These factors can affect our mood and vitamin D levels. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to discuss supplementation.
Holidays tend to be filled with sugary treats. You can often find them at the office and the holiday events you attend. It is hard to be social without the constant presence of sweets. Use some of the tricks we will talk about in our Halloween blog to handle other holidays.
In the busyness of the season, our workouts can be forgotten. Since we aren’t outdoors as much, we tend to be less active. And if you suffer from seasonal affective disorder, it can be really hard to be active.
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We don’t often talk about poop, so you may not know what is normal. If not, you might be missing important signs that your body is telling you about your digestion. Once you know the ideal, you can start to listen to your body.
As we will discuss, the frequency and consistency of your poop are great indicators of your digestive health. It's important to understand these messages because your digestive and gut health has a tremendous impact on your overall health.
Obvious symptoms of digestive trouble include stomach upset, gas, constipation, or diarrhea. However, even without those signs, you may be suffering from poor digestion and gut trouble without even knowing it.
Let’s shake the awkwardness of the conversation so that we can listen to the messages our body is sending us.
The Basics
When we talk about poop, we will be looking at the form, frequency, color, and smell. Each of these aspects can give us insight into our digestive health.
When we consider the form of our poop, the Bristol Stool Chart is a helpful tool. This chart was developed by Stephen Lewis and Ken Heaton at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. It is a diagnostic tool that classifies human feces into seven forms.
Take a moment to look at the chart and consider what you tend to experience!
Cabot Health, Bristol Stool Chart / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
An Ideal Poop
Ideally, we will have smooth soft poop that doesn’t fall apart when the toilet is flushed (a four on the Bristol Chart). The poop should be a chocolatey brown color like that of a Hershey bar. Bowel movements should not have a very strong odor or be difficult to wipe.
Since bowel movements are one of the body’s ways of eliminating toxins, it is important to have one to three bowel movements consistently each day. It should not hurt to poop, and you shouldn’t have to strain.
Trouble Signs
There are many things to look for if you are not experiencing an ideal poop. Once you identify the issue, you can start working on a solution.
- Form - Having poop that is too soft could mean that you are not eating enough fiber, while poop that is too hard may indicate that you need to drink more water.
- Color - Poop that is very dark could indicate bleeding in the GI tract, while poop that is too light may indicate malabsorption.
- Frequency - Less than one bowel movement a day is a sign of constipation, while more than three bowel movements a day is considered diarrhea. These are important indicators of gut health and should be discussed with your doctor.
- Smell - Poop doesn’t smell lovely, but it shouldn’t smell terrible either and could be a sign of a heavy toxin burden.
It may be important to work with your doctor if you are experiencing any of these trouble signs to identify the root cause. There are many other things that it could indicate as well (bacteria, parasites, thyroid trouble, etc.).
A Modern Solution
Many people say that squatting is the most natural way to poop, putting the body in the right position to strain less while eliminating waste more thoroughly. Squatting relaxes the muscles providing a straighter pathway that allows things to flow better.
The Squatty Potty is a modern toilet stool that allows you to get in a squat position while sitting on the toilet. It was created by a family who was trying to help a loved one dealing with constipation.
In addition to having a great product design, they are known for their hysterical (but educational) commercials…
(The Squatty Potty’s educational, funny, and slightly inappropriate commercial!)
It’s not every day that we talk openly about poop or mystic unicorns! But since our digestion greatly impacts our overall health, maybe we should start talking about it more. Please know that I am comfortable talking about all these awkward health topics. Feel free to bring them up with me; anything that concerns your health is fair game!
Dr. Jamie
In a large nationwide study, U.S. adults were found to be more sedentary than previously observed. A sedentary lifestyle is defined as being somewhat inactive and characterized by much sitting.
In this study, self-reports showed a mean of over nine hours of inactive behavior on a given day. When you add that to the time you sleep at night, that's a staggering number.
Overall, the “largest single source of sedentary time of the population was potentially modifiable leisure-time sitting, and more than 80% of this time was attributed to the consumption of electronic media.”
Let’s explore your habits and look at the benefits of movement.
Look at Your Day
Take a minute to list what you do on a typical day. Start when you wake up, get ready in the morning, go to work, and come home. Is there movement built into your day, or do you have to make an effort to include it?
As a culture, we have forgotten the value of moving throughout the day. We tend to think we live an active lifestyle if we go to the gym regularly. Going to the gym is great; however, if we are sitting the rest of the day we are still living a sedentary life which will be detrimental to our health.
According to Dr. James Levine, the director of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative, “Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV, and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death.”
Are You Living in Captivity Too?
In the wild, it is natural for orca whales to swim up to 100 miles a day while foraging for food. In captivity, this natural unrestricted movement is not possible. Instead of swimming through the ocean in an unrestricted manner, the captive orca spends its days swimming in circles. This lack of natural movement may result in the orca’s fin collapsing.
As humans, when we restrict our movement due to work, busyness, or other lifestyle choices, we are like the captive orca swimming in circles. It’s like we have put ourselves into “captivity” without even realizing it!
Ways We Put Ourselves in Captivity
Our culture, in an attempt to make life smoother, sets us up for a lack of natural movement.
- Modern society has us sitting in straight-backed chairs for hours and then resting on the couch in the evening. Passive lounging does not use the muscles our ancestors used when they sat on the ground.
- Sidewalks allow us to walk on flat ground, often in shoes that bind our feet restricting our movement. It changes our gait and prevents the muscles from developing naturally. High heels are even worse, putting us in positions we were never intended to be.
- Even when we exercise, we often use machines that force our bodies into precise, yet unnatural movements. Our bodies were not designed to do these movements over and over. There is much more benefit to moving the body as a whole.
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