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Naturopathy in Sunshine Victoria

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New to meditation? Try a meditation app!

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 Why meditate?

A quiet mind is getting a good rap these days, with everyone talking about the benefits from Oprah and Katy Perry to Clint Eastwood. It seems our very powerful brain is much more cooperative and responsive when we give it some time out. In fact, training the mind for just 5 minutes a day according to meditation specialists, Headspace with a mindfulness app can have profound benefits for your sense of relaxation and control. Mindfulness and meditation practices help to positively rewire the brains of people that have been effected by trauma. Very powerful medicine indeed.

Being busy means we often put things that are good for us to the side, however, I must say a short meditation is worth its time many times over in the benefits we gain, not just for ourselves but also for those around us, our relationships and our work. Author of Happiness from the Inside Out: The Art and Science of Fulfillment, Rob Mack suggests that simply taking time for a single breath to be completely in the moment is a mini-meditation we can benefit from. Taking a breath? Once a day? I challenge you, you can find time for that in your schedule!

If you prefer the ease of guided meditation, and they are fabulous training for minds new to meditation, these are some of the best meditation apps around:

Try these meditation apps

  1. Headspace has a free 10-day intro course, which is only 3-5 minutes a day, it is a nice easy intro to mindfulness meditation, with some cute animations. https://www.headspace.com. If you get really into it, you can subscribe and access hundreds of different guided meditations from their library.
  2. Smiling Mind is a free Australian version to go on with after the Headspace course if you choose not to subscribe https://smilingmind.com.au. Aim for doing one quick meditation each day, perhaps before bed is a good time for you? Or maybe take a 5-minute break at work to do one at your desk?
  3. Calm has beautiful guided meditations for relaxation and sleep. The word from my colleagues in the industry is that Calm does like to mix up their narrators and have just added a sleep story narrated by Matthew McConaughey. Perhaps that's just the motivation you needed to pick try meditation? If not there is sure to be another voice that soothes you here: https://www.calm.com/ 

Relaxation prescription

We regularly hear about the negative effects of stress – from triggering skin conditions to heart issues, it is enough to give you a panic attack. In reality, modern life is busy and we have plenty of distractions to keep our minds constantly working, most of the time without us even registering that our thoughts haven't stopped to take a breath, so to speak, all day. So, when you feel your mind whirring away, take note, take a pause, breathe, be in the moment, even just for that moment and you might just get some valuable insight on what it's like to relax and nurture your mind.

Did someone say “salad”? 4 summer favourites to try

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As the days warm up I've been slowly coming around to it being salad season – it takes a bit to transition from the warming foods of winter to finally feeling sun warmed enough to proceed on to salads here in Melbourne in my experience. And with a beautiful day of sunshine, perfect for basking in, scheduled ahead, it has now become urgent to dig out my favourite salad recipes!

We know that the average Australian family aims for 5 serves of vegies each day, however, it's only a slim few of us who actually get there. With a healthy salad in the fridge, you can easily add an extra serve or two to meals throughout the day. If you happen to recall, a cup of fresh salad greens or vegies is generally considered 1 serve, while 1/2 cup of cooked vegies will also satisfy for a serve.

The following are some of the best salads on my summer rotation, packed with lots of yummy flavours, textures, colours, and crunch, take your pick with something simple, like the Kale Salad or move up to something fancy like the Beetroot, Seeds and Spinach number by COOKIE+kate.

1. Simple Kale Salad

Having well-deserved superfood status, kale is also at the top of the list for pesticide residue, unfortunately. Never fear, if you have a small space in the sun, Kale is also very easy to grow. Can't do better than homegrown produce, and look at you go, reducing your food miles, greenhouse emissions and combating climate change, just by eating your greens! However, don't worry if you can't access organics at your local green-grocer or afford the extra dollar or two, wash them well to minimise pesticides – after all, conventionally grown greens is much better than no greens at all.

Dressing Ingredients:

  • Juice of 1 orange
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 tsp of ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp of turmeric or paprika
  • 2 tablespoons flaxseed oil
  • Himalayan salt to taste
  • Black pepper to taste

Finely chop your freshly washed Kale, toast some seeds or nuts and drizzle with a tasty dressing and voila, your salad awaits! What could be easier? You will find the full recipe here.

2. Raw Zucchini, Cherry Tomato, and Toasted Almond Salad

Once the summer produce gets going, it seems there are zucchinis everywhere. Being new to homegrown delights, the pleasant over-supply of zucchini did present an opportunity for creative zucchini use. This is one of my favourite ways to sneak extra vegies into your day from last summer, even going so far as eating them with breakfast on hot summer mornings. You really don't need a fancy vegie spiraller, the humble potato peeler did work just as well 🙂

Ingredients

  • 1 zucchini, spiraled or sliced thinly with a vegie peeler
  • 1-2 tablespoons of mixed seeds and nuts – I used pepitas, sunflower, flaked almonds and pine nuts, lightly toasted in a pan
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
  • Fresh basil leaves, torn

For the full recipe, see my earlier post – Raw Zucchini Salad Breakfast.

3.Brussels sprouts as a salad ingredient? Why not!

Raw Brussels sprouts are just really tiny cabbages and coupled with a tangy dressing, a delicate cheese and some red onions, there is really nothing that can be said in opposition to this recipe. You'll probably surprise your guests with the revelation that in fact, they have just enjoyed a Brussels sprout! For other ways to eat Brussels sprouts check out my earlier post here.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 small red onion
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 tsp whole grain mustard
  • 1 pinch salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3 cups Brussels sprouts (use larger sprouts if possible)
  • 1/2 cup finely grated pecorino romano

I found the original delicious version of this recipe here.

4. Beetroot, edamame and avocado anyone?

This is the type of salad that I like to take to Christmas events, it has so much red and green is the mix, it just feels festive! However, I'm not saving it until then – there will be one of these whipped up this week, you can count on it 😉

Ingredients

Salad

  • ½ cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
  • 1 cup frozen organic edamame (find it in the frozen section – edamame are soy beans, either in a pod or shelled, mine were in a pod and I shelled them after cooking)
  • ⅓ cup slivered almonds or pepitas (green pumpkin seeds) (I used both!)
  • 1 medium raw beetroot, peeled
  • 1 medium-to-large carrot, peeled
  • 2 cups packed baby spinach or arugula roughly chopped (arugula = rocket, this is what I used, I didn’t chop it though),
  • 1 avocado, cubed

Vinaigrette

  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or cilantro (cilantro – coriander, I opted for 1 of each)
  • 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup or agave nectar (I used 1 tsp of coconut sugar, you could use any sweetener)
  • ½ to 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Check out the full recipe from the fabulous COOKIE+kate here.

There are a few other salads I've yet to share, so look out for a few more to come. Oh, and if you have any gems to share, I'd love to be introduced to your faves for sure 🙂

To cake or not to cake? Healthy zucchini gluten-free chocolate cake recipe, anyone?

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zucchine chocolate chip cake and fresh zucchinis

Enter, the nutritionally dense vegie cake! Earlier this year we had a glut of zucchini's as my partner tried his hand at gardening for the first time (very successfully!) and unleashed his inner farmer.

The thing with making your deserts nutritionally dense is that they contain a lot of fibre, they are naturally sweetened with fruit and don't give you the same quickly absorbed blood sugar high that plummets as soon as you've consumed it. Think kids having a meltdown after a birthday party.

Adding in some superfoods, good fats or protein sources also keeps the release of sugars into the bloodstream at a reasonable level and most importantly satisfies the principles of cake. Celebration and reward, love and sharing! This is the recipe I based the chocolate zucchini cake on. Have a play with variations yourself – this is what I ended up with 🙂

As the original recipe says:

It turned out like actual, edible zucchini bread. It doesn’t fall apart, it’s not too dry, and not too soggy.

Dark Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1-1/2 cup blanched almond flour
  • 1 cup  of chickpea flour (also called besan flour, this has quite a strong flavour but you can't taste it over the dark chocolate flavour of the cacao – you could also use buckwheat or any gluten free/nut flour)
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla protein powder
  • 4 tablespoons raw cacao (or cocoa powder – the raw stuff does have more antioxidants, however)
  • 2 tablespoons cacao nibs
  • 2 tablespoons pepitas (the green kernels from pumpkin seeds are high in zinc!)
  • 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
  • 2 tablespoons shredded coconut
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 4 tablespoons stewed apples (you could also use a ripe banana, I just happened to have stewed apples!)
  • 12 dates, chopped
  • 1 large zucchini, grated (unpeeled)

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
  2. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
  3. Mix wet ingredients in with the zucchini and pour in dry ingredients, a little at a time. Stir through until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
  4. Line your loaf tin with baking paper and pour the mixture in, smoothing over with a spoon. You could possibly also use the mixture to make cupcakes/muffins.
  5. Bake for 60 minutes until the middle is set and a fine skewer comes out clean.

Remember that raw cacao, like chocolate and coffee, contains plant chemicals that are stimulating for sensitive people. This is great if you want a mood enhancing pick me up during the day but like all stimulants, they are best avoided in the late afternoon and especially if you are being extra careful with your sleep routine.

This gem is great served with a cuppa at afternoon tea time and is gluten-free to boot! Enjoy 🙂

So, why do we need a refined sugar-free, gluten-free, chocolate zucchini cake?

Sugar and white flour are two ingredients that are generally considered some of the not so healthy imaginings of modern living and also two of the essential ingredients in cake. Cake, as a word is layered with associations – celebration, reward, sharing, milestones, comfort, hospitality, as mentioned above. It could mean a catch up with some special friends, your nephew's fourth birthday, dessert for a special guest, some time to grieve or soothe your tensions away in a world that sometimes offers very little real comfort. It is a word accompanied by love.

Natural medicine or what we call naturopathy in many ways works its magic by manipulating the ways we eat, how we move, the times we choose to sleep and how we think about our lives, to make a difference to our health and happiness. Taking the supplements, the herbs, the vitamins in little bottles, these are also part of a naturopath's dispensary and do make a difference to help us get on track, but it's the things that we can do for free – choosing to eat vegies every day, going for a walk, sleeping more and hanging out with people who love and inspire us, they are the long-term cures to most of our modern ailments. And we know this. We've tried it out, read the studies on vegan diets, listened to our mothers but somehow, with all the knowledge, it seems harder than it looks on paper.

Good nutritiously dense food, needs to edge out the processed foods – but it's one step at a time, and we need something to replace it with!

We all know that health is not handed to us on a platter (or maybe it is – depending what's on the platter!) and for the vast majority of us, we'd have to admit, our current habits require revision. It does take some work to look after this wonderful organism we walk around in, and it is worth it. Even the six-fingered man from the 80's spoof classic, ‘The Princess Bride' was advised,

Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, then you haven't got anything.

I couldn't agree more. Still, wrestling with a chocolate, mint-slice, gummi bear addiction can mean that cake is now one of the bad guys. But what about all the things that make cake meaningful? Does this mean no more celebrations, no more comfort, no more love? I really don't think it can. Cake is a part of the colour of life and if you're not celebrating life, then we might need to prescribe some cake to get you back on track. Oh my, a naturopath just prescribed cake!

In my opinion, there are two types of cake eaters. Those who can do moderation and those who eat the whole cake. Personally, I have to confess, I'm on the ‘eat the whole cake' end of the spectrum. Following which I'd be wrestling with cravings tempting me to further fuel my delicious sugar bender every day for the whole next week… If only it were a health food, *sigh*.

So, if you can do moderation, have your cake, eat it even 😉 Maybe this looks like ordering a half slice, sharing it with your friends, eating a couple of bites and (gasp!) leaving the rest. All good options for the moderate cake consumer. Order the dessert, share it, celebrate it, savour it. You know already it's not a major food group.

If you can't do moderation, the alternative can seem like an eternity of misery, particularly when you're in the throes of a sugar addiction denial. However, when you've come to terms with said sugar addiction, misery is going back to being riddled with anxiety, itching all over, and foregoing sleep to drive to the shops at midnight because you can't stop thinking about cake. I remember the feeling and truly, this is what keeps me looking for alternatives to the seductive temptations concocted of white sugar and flour. That's why we definitely need zucchini chocolate chip yumminess!

Spiced apricot and almond bliss balls

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Cococut covered almond and apricot bliss balls with orange zest

In the interest of finding healthy snacks, accompaniments for afternoon tea and options for nutrient-dense desserts I have been experimenting again with bliss balls. Trawling the internet I found a treasure chest of delicious concoctions and have melded a few together to create this little gem. With the addition of festive spices, I might even tag this one for Christmas as an alternative to the condensed milk and Marie biscuits which are the traditional ingredients for Christmas Rum Balls in my family. Look out Santa!

You might notice I've snuck in a carrot, which has delicious sweetness and helps to lift our vegie quota for the day to boot! There is also plenty of fibre to feed our good bacteria and make these treats nice and satisfying. The orange rind has a prominent flavour overall but the spices are not overpowering. If you do like spices you could easily double the spice ingredients (ginger and cinnamon powder) or add nutmeg and ground cloves for a stronger (and oh so festive) flavour. Maybe Christmas in July could feature some of these too 🙂

Ingredients

  • ½ cup almond meal
  • 1 medium carrot, grated
  • 2 Tbsp vanilla protein powder
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 Tbsp flax meal
  • 2 Tbsp chia seeds
  • 2 Tbsp sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup desiccated coconut for rolling
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1 cup dried apricots
  • Zest and juice of 1 orange (lemon also works really well if you prefer lemon flavours!)
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp ginger powder

Method

  1. Heat the dried apricots with 1 cup of water in a small saucepan stirring continuously until the water has absorbed and the apricots are nice and plump. Stir in the tablespoon of coconut oil and Set aside.
  2. Place the dry ingredients, except the desiccated coconut into your food processor and mix well.
  3. Add in the rehydrated apricots and oil mixture along with the orange juice and blend until it forms a soft dough.
  4. Shape the mixture into a tablespoon or teaspoon-sized balls (depending on what size you like and the requirements of your consumer, if you're making them for kids you might like to make them smaller) and roll in the desiccated coconut until covered. Shredded coconut can also be used if you don't mind the look of the longer strands.
  5. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

To serve, take out of the fridge and bring to room temperature for full flavour. Enjoy!

7 Essential foods to add to your diet

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If you are concerned you don't get enough of the good stuff in your diet, slip this lot into your daily routine and you can give yourself a hearty pat on the back. These gems are part of the plan for reducing inflammation, healing just about anything through increasing circulation and warming up chilly toes and fingers through the magic of warming herbs and spices. Researched by herbal scientist Dr. Kerry Bone, case studies show improvements for micro-circulation issues in kidneys, eyes, healing chronic back issues, lymphatic stagnation, and diabetes.

Natural medicine views our circulation as the deliverer of healing and herbalists are always on the lookout for ways to increase circulation to areas that need healing, whether it's for addressing fertility issues, period pain, warming toes or supporting good digestion. In any case, adding good things in is the easiest way to supercharge a diet without a huge fuss, feeling deprived or put off because you are cutting things out. Keep it all, just add in more! The clever thing is, the more good stuff you add in, the more the sometimes foods fade toward the background. All without even trying!

The Essential Foods List

  1. Leafy greens

    – Silverbeet, bok choi, spinach, kale, choy sum, broccoli, parsley whatever takes your fancy. Buy them (or better still, grow them) and then eat them every day!
    – Ideas include making a pesto and throwing in anything green that happens to be on your list, add raw cashews, some Himalayan salt, garlic, fresh pepper and a little parmesan into your food processor. Hey, presto, it's pesto. Sooo easy! Use lavish amounts of greens and dollop generously on vegies, salads, baked fish or whatever you are having.
    – Stir-fry and have as a side (combine with grated beetroot, ginger, turmeric and garlic below for bonus points on the Essentials List).
    – It is so easy to sneak finely chopped greens into your existing recipes. Greens can easily find a home in your spaghetti bolognaise, your favourite rissotto, lasagne or soups.

  2. Beetroot

    – Use grated in stir-fries, baked with other vegies, added into soups, risottos and dahls, or use as dipping sticks with hummus or your other favourite dips. The colour it adds to dishes is a vibrant deep red, the colour often used to stimulate appetite. Can't help but feel happy with some beetroot on your plate.

  3. Garlic

    – ½ to 1 clove/day crushed and stirred through whatever savoury meal you’re having has a number of benefits for your health. Raw is best, crushed to liberate the benefits, so start slow and soon you'll be loving the tangy bite. It's also an immune booster so a great way to increase your resistance to colds too.
    – Use smeared on a grainy piece of toast and top with chili, a twist of salt and your favourite sardines (or maybe avocado or fetta if you're not into these wonderful little packets of goodness!)
    – If you're feeling indulgent, fetta makes a yummy dip for filled celery sticks (or try beetroot sticks!) mixed with fresh crushed garlic, olive oil and black pepper

  4. Ginger

    – Buy powdered and fresh. Powdered is great in cereals or smoothies and fresh is great in cooked dishes or teas.
    – Cook fresh ginger into your stir fired greens with some tamari or soy sauce and garlic tossed through.
    – Add to porridges or cereals for some spicy warmth.
    – Have a ginger tea. Grate your fresh ginger into a pot and pour over hot water.
    – Try it as a marinade with olive oil, salt and pepper over fish and bake in the oven.

  5. Dark chocolate

    – Good quality, 85% Chocolate, 20g per day is recommended. I like Pana chocolate but you will find your fave, I'm sure 😉 Who can argue with a diet prescription that includes chocolate?

  6. Berries

    – Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, frozen or fresh.
    – I love to stew a cup full of berries in a little water and eat them with Greek yoghurt, flaxmeal and mixed seeds or over a protein pancake.
    – Berries are also great wizzed up with some milk of your choice (or water) as a smoothie.
    – Cook them into a porridge (they turn out like sweet pockets of jam), or fresh!

  7. Warming herbs and spices

    – Such as green tea, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg etc.
    – Have these on hand and add turmeric to stir fries (such as your greens and beets), add cinnamon to stewed berries, cereals, porridge or protein pancakes.
    – And drink 3-4 small cups of green tea a day for antioxidant, circulation-boosting refreshment. Before 2pm of course – green tea does contain caffeine and we want to have a fab night's sleep too!
    – Also check out this easy Sweet Pumpkin, Beetroot and Red Lentil Soup recipe for inspiration on how to spice up your day.

Very Banana Bliss Balls

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Healthy banana bliss ball snacks coated in coconut
Photo by Taylor Kiser on Unsplash

This week I was experimenting with bliss balls. These are the tasty little snacks filled with power foods, that many people are making instead of cookies (also called biscuits or bikkies if you grew up in Australia as I did) these days.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of pitted Medjool dates
  • 3 very ripe bananas
  • 1 cup of organic coconut flour
  • 1 Tbsp of coconut oil
  • 2 Tbsp sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 tsp of sea salt
  • 2 Tbsp vanilla protein powder (I used Nutra Organics Thriving Protein Exotic Vanilla in this recipe but you can use whichever one you have handy)
  • 2 Tbsp flax meal
  • 1/3 cup shredded coconut (to roll them in at the end)

Note: if you don't have Medjool dates, just put a cup of dried, pitted dates in a small saucepan with a cup of water. Stir until most of the water is absorbed and the dates are a soft paste. Add to recipe as follows.

Variations to try: Add 1 tbsp of chia seeds, it's also a good way to include a plain non-acidic vitamin C powder (such as Melrose Calcium Ascorbate), spirulina, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon or blueberry powder. 

Method

  1. In your food processor put all the dry ingredients (except the coconut for rolling) and mix well. Add the dates, banana and oil until it is a soft, smooth paste. It might even feel a little too soft, but remember coconut flour absorbs moisture quickly and it needs to be a good consistency to roll into balls. They will become firmer once they are in the fridge.
  2. Roll about a tablespoon of mixture into balls and roll them in the coconut. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or they can be frozen and brought out when needed, to thaw. I challenge you to make them last more than a few days, everyone is going to want one!

Makes about 25-30 delicious bliss balls. Share with your friends and family. A lovely addition to a cup of tea mid-way through the day 🙂

The secrets to getting a good night’s sleep

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Getting a good night’s sleep is a gift for your future physical, mental and emotional health. If you have insomnia you tend to have a hyperactive response to stress, which is considered a risk for illness. Thus calming the nervous system and restoring sleep is considered by many to be the number one thing to support in terms of maintaining your health and recovering from illness.

What can sleep do for me?

  1. The activity of the day needs to be balanced by regeneration and rest of body tissues. You could call this maintenance or repair time. The elimination of toxins occurs primarily during this time. This means, if you have not been sleeping enough, your body has a backlog of detoxifying to do and your immune system is overburdened. Thus, glowing skin and vitality really is part of getting enough ‘beauty sleep’.
  2. Have you ever heard people say they like to ‘sleep on' an issue or problem? Well as it turns out, this suggestion has some actual value when it comes to solving problems. Problem solving is improved in some instances due to the processing power of a rested brain but also because the mind completes some thought processes at rest. Bonus! Your mind is nutting out problems while you are getting your beauty sleep. When there doesn't seem to ever be enough time in the day to work things out, it is helpful to remember that some of the load can be completed overnight.
  3. Similarly, some types of emotional development and handling past events happen during sleep. Getting enough ‘down time’ is maintenance for your emotional health as well as your physical health.
  4. In ancient spiritual texts, sleep is considered the place where our spirits are perfectly happy and perfectly at peace. You are spiritually recharged during sleep. This is thought to be important for the development of wisdom and knowledge, the cornerstone of spiritual development.

Getting a good night's sleep takes training

There are theories of development that tell us sleep skills need to be learned. This is great news for those with insomnia as learning to follow these steps can greatly improve sleep.

  1. Get as much of your sleep as possible before midnight. The rhythm of solar light and dark means sleep quality along with your melatonin production (this is the hormone that kicks off and maintains sleep) is at its highest at this time. Sleeping earlier can be a real bonus.
  2. Plan your bedtime. Aim to be in bed 9 hours before your wake up time. Thus, if your alarm goes off at 7 am, plan your bedtime for 10 pm and make your preparations for sleep in the hour from 9-10pm. This gives you a wind-down period and should be viewed as an essential part of your sleep program.
  3. Avoid all caffeinated beverages, chocolate, and refined sugar in the 8 hours before bedtime. Also, aim to exercise in the earlier part of the day and eat your last meal around 12 hours before you are due to wake. Eg 6 – 7 pm dinner for a 7 am wake up.
  4. Reduce mental activity in the evening. Avoid calling, texting or emailing after 8-8.30pm. Do light reading only and avoid violent or dramatic tv shows. Use relaxing music, sedating essential oils like lavender or marjoram and dim the lighting.
  5. Make your sleeping area as relaxing as possible, avoid work, screens, and study in your bedroom. The décor should be pleasing and make sure it is very dark, not too hot and quiet.
  6. Enlist a simple relaxation technique to quiet the mind, mentally filing away the activity of the day, preparing for blissful, restful sleep.

A word on stimulants and getting quality sleep

Anything that activates the nervous system can be considered a stimulant. This may include coffee, tea, chocolate and strong emotions. Refueling flagging energy with stimulants depletes your body of the energy it requires to rest, setting up a cycle of false energy and continued inability to rest. Stimulants put great pressure on your adrenal system (where you make your get up and go hormones, like adrenaline) and can eventually lead to illness and dysfunction. Real rest is the only cure for fatigue.

Simple breathing exercises to try before bed

Meditation doesn’t need to be hard. Deep, slow breathing calms anxiety and is the simplest form of meditation around. If you are feeling keyed-up, restless, worried, fearful or nervous before bed, or experiencing the common physical symptoms of anxiety, like shallow breathing and a racing heart, these can be relieved with this simplest meditation. Try lying quietly, with your eyes closed and one hand over your stomach. Count slowly to three as you breathe in 1,2,3…and as you breathe out extend the length of your out breath, 1,2,3,4,5,6… feeling your stomach gently rise and fall. The extended out breath ensures your breathing is not too fast and unlikely to lead to hyperventilation (the type of breathing that leads to the physical sensations of a panic attack – the opposite to the desired effect here!) Experiment with this technique for 2-10 minutes and check in with how you feel before and after. You will be surprised how quickly this technique works!

If you prefer guided exercises, these two apps are free and wonderful to help retrain your mind:

  1. Download the meditation app, Headspace – this has a free 10-day intro course, which is only 3-5 minutes a day, and is a nice easy intro to mindfulness meditation, with some cute animations. https://www.headspace.com.
  2. Also, download Smiling Mind – this is a free Australian version to go on with after the Headspace course https://smilingmind.com.au. The research is that 5 minutes a day makes a big difference in how you feel. Aim for doing one quick meditation each day, perhaps before bed is a good time for you. Or maybe take a 5-minute break during the day?

If anxiety is an issue for you it can be more difficult to get to sleep. Grounding yourself with good nutrition and exploring herbal anxiety remedies can help you here. Talk to your naturopath or book an appointment today to workshop strategies to reduce both your anxiety and your insomnia. Having a regular massage is also a great short-cut to relaxing a busy mind and has cumulative benefits for stress management and your wellbeing.

Exercise to improve your sleep

While over exercise has an impact on fatigue, under-exercise is a much more common cause of energy depletion. Exercise, like having enough water and fibre is needed to ensure the body gets rid of wastes properly. Sedentary lifestyles are linked to lethargy, sluggishness and generally feeling ‘blah’. Exercise assists detoxification and improves health and energy. Like meditation, exercise is viewed in traditional texts as a ‘chi’ builder. Chi is another word for energy. Your sleep will also improve after about 4 months of starting an exercise program.

Change of Season Natural Health Insurance

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Warming foods for cooler nights

As the nights start to get cooler and our lovely autumn days move towards winter, it's time to think about warming foods in your diet. This keeps balance in our bodies by warming from within, while our outer environment cools down. Keeping warm also encourages good circulation and keeps your immune defences patrolling.

Great tips for this time of year include eating cooked foods, including warming soups, roasted #vegetables, porridges, stewed fruits and using more spices like ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and turmeric. Drinking chai-flavoured teas and spicy herbal blends is another nice way to add these spices to your day.

Soups are perfect – make one up and you have go to meals for up to a week

This week I have started the soup trail and have been enjoying the warm delights of pumpkin, cannellini beans, cumin, garlic and rainbow silverbeet (chard) in my lunch. Using beans instead of lentils this recipe is really easy to make.

Simmer until the vegetables are soft, take off the heat and let cool. Using an immersion blender gently blend the soup, make sure it is not over-processed and there is still some texture.

Curated from Pumpkin and Lentil Curry Soup recipe – All recipes Australia NZ

Soups are easy to freeze, so if you make a new variety each week, eat it fresh and also freeze portion sizes, these can easily be thawed out to add variety to the next weeks batch or help you get through busy days when it has not been as easy to cook. Exactly the time you want nutritious food on hand!

Vegetables high in Vitamins A and C for immunity

Red, orange and green vegetables give us a good dose of vitamins A and C which are important this time of year to help support our immune systems. Including garlic and ginger which help break down mucous and adds some anti-bacterial, gut supporting garlic goodness to your meals, is also a great idea.

A great vegetable to add to your shopping list s beetroot. It is so beautiful and packed with phytonutrients. Beetroot can be grated into risotto, soups, added to dahls, baked, or used in a warm salad such as this one using red and yellow beetroot. Although I've not seen yellow beetroot yet in my local shops, so my version is probably going to be red and red beetroot 😉

To assemble, layer the beets in small stacks alternating colors. Pour the dressing (blood orange juice, olive oil, salt and pepper) over the stack and finish with a sprinkle of feta cheese, fresh parsley and a crack of pepper.

Do you get cold hands and feet?

Keeping warm fortifies your body and immune system. If your feet are little ice-blocks in winter, chances are your circulation could do with a little help. Supporting blood and blood vessel health with herbs and foods, getting some aerobic exercise and taking warm foot baths before bed is all part of a program to help keep your feet toasty warm this winter and your immune system healthy. As Dr. Kerry Bone, the master of circulatory health reminds us, blood vessel health and circulation are supported by increasing these foods in particular:

  • Boost green leafy vegetables, and beets as juice or a supplement, raw or roasted (not boiled) to increase dietary nitrates.
  • Increase cocoa intake: 85% chocolate, 20 g/day or 2/3 oz. Now that's a prescription many people can get behind!
  • Increase berry anthocyanin intake: 60-90g or 2 to 3 oz/day of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Or while scarce in the winter you can try a supplement or a Bilberry tablet. Or stew up some frozen ones and serve warm over your porridge or with a dollop of yoghurt and some toasted nuts and seeds – yum!
  • Raw crushed Garlic: ½ to 1 clove/day. As I mentioned above, this also has benefits for the immune system. Add to your meals just before serving.
  • Increase herbs and spices: especially Green Tea (3 to 4 of those tiny sized teacups you see in restaurants serving green tea/day), turmeric and ginger.

Sleep for staying healthy

Take a leaf out of the hibernating animals book – cooler nights are great for sleeping. It is also a good opportunity to help your body prepare for the additional stresses of cold weather and the inevitable cold and flu season. Going to bed a little earlier helps remain in good spirits and helps reduce stress, which we know is something that reduces immunity. Burning the candle at both ends isn't the best prescription and as we move further into the working year it is a good idea to reassess how much rest you are regularly getting and make some adjustments if needed.

Look after your good bacteria for immune protection

Include as many whole foods as possible, which means eating as close to nature as you can. Try to avoid gut irritants like refined sugar, processed foods and alcohol. This is to ensure your digestive system is extracting the best from your foods and not causing unnecessary stress on your immune system. Probiotics as supplements and fermented foods like sauerkraut, miso, yoghurts, kefir and vegies for fibre all help to keep your digestive immune responses healthy.

Is it possible to avoid germs in winter?

Viruses are hard to avoid completely during winter, but infection can be minimised by good hygiene, washing hands with mild, gentle soaps and encouraging friends, family, and colleagues to take time out to get better before coming back to work or attending gatherings. Perhaps drop them off some of your stores of soup at home – they'll be very grateful and you'll avoid exposure to their nasty lurgy! Of course, if it's your kids who are always bringing home coughs and colds, hand washing, avoiding finishing their meals and building up your and their immunity is the best defence plan around.

Stock up on your favourite herbs and vitamins

If you are prone to colds and flu as the weather turns colder, chat to your naturopath about a personalised check up and defence plan. Supporting your resilience before cold and flus hit is a good way to ensure you recover well and improve your chances of a clear run through winter.

Three things massage can help you with right now

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We know #massage will make us move better and feel happier, but many of us still don't have a regular massage on our calendar (not me, I know when I'm having my next massage!). Luckily massage is great preventive care and it can have some instantly-gratifying results. Check out these 3 things massage can help you with right now.

Relieving Headaches with Massage

Headaches can be really debilitating, cause you to feel like you need to check out of practically all activity or send you running for the panadol. Massage is a great stress reliever and can have you feeling more like participating in the world again once those tense muscles are ironed out. Tension headache symptoms include

dull pain, tightness, or pressure around your forehead or the back of your head and neck. Some people say it feels like a clamp squeezing the skull. Often called stress headaches, they’re the most common type for adults.

Curated from Tension Headaches

Pain or pressure in your forehead or on the top or sides of your head?

Could be a tension headache. It's especially likely if you've been hunching over a desk or a project that requires detailed attention, driven for hours in traffic, or if your posture is hunched up for other reasons such as working in cold conditions.

Massage can help get rid of that headache and regular massage may indeed keep it from coming back. First aid for a headache can include some basic self-massage, a tennis ball gently used as a tool to apply pressure to the back of the head or an obliging friend who is good with their hands. 

Under the back of the skull must be the single most pleasing and popular target for massage in the human body. No other patch of muscle gets such rave reviews. It has everything: deeply relaxing and satisfying sensations, and a dramatic therapeutic relevance to one of the most common of all human pains, the common tension headache.

Easing Low Back Pain

Back pain can have a big impact on your life. Chronic pain fatigue gnaws away at your patience and resilience and keeps you from being active in many ways you would most like to be, whether that's stopping you from playing with your kids, walking the dog, taking a dance class or even doing the vacuuming. I also recently heard someone describe their experience of pain as something that fogs the brain, making it harder to make even small decisions, a stress none of us needs in our days. A major research study published in 2011 showed that weekly massage therapy was better than drugs and usual care for general lower back pain.  

After 10 weeks, participants in both massage groups reported greater average improvements in pain and functioning compared to those in the usual care group.

People assigned to the usual care group were tracked by researchers, but they dealt with their back problems on their own. The approach could include, for instance, taking pain medications or muscle relaxants, seeing doctors or chiropractors, physical therapy, or simply not doing anything.

Curated from Study: Massage Helps Treat Low Back Pain

Just about everyone will experience low back pain at some point in their life. If it happens to you, don't suffer book in a massage and make the most of your life.

Improving Mood

Have you ever been so cranky and irritable you got on your own nerves? Emotional sensitivity can be the result of many things but being wound extra tight puts a lot of stress on you. When you feel yourself biting everyone’s head off, you might have given as much as you can for now, and it's time to book yourself in for some self-care.

Massage is great for stress relief. There is an associated release of euphoric endorphins from bodywork, which includes massage and acupressure. The deep relaxation achieved reduces #anxiety, allows you to centre, and suddenly all the things that aggravate you to the point of eye twitches become much smaller, more insignificant. Relaxing music, a warm room, therapeutic touch. A fabulous prescription for feeling more like yourself.

Some proponents claim acupressure treats the mind, emotions, and spirit. Some attribute these results to factors such as reduced muscle tension, improved circulation, or stimulation of endorphins, which are natural pain relievers.

Wherever the benefits come from, this has a dual purpose. You'll feel better and all those nearest and dearest to you will agree that massage, perhaps in a similar way to the Maharishi effect from meditation, causes their quality of life indicators to suddenly all improve too.

So, if you know anyone who would appreciate a life with fewer headaches, more time for dancing and an increase in peace, send them over for a massage today.

Why is it hard to stick to a diet?

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What are the main pains for weight loss? If you're not doing it right, you're likely to be experiencing hunger, energy dips and cravings. Sounds like an uphill battle relying on way too much willpower to sustain for most people. No wonder it's a challenge to stick to a diet! However, hunger and cravings don't need to be the enemy. I've recently heard some clever people reframing these challenges as part of being “your own metabolic detective”, and I think that's a great idea.

So, these diet ‘pains' are actually the clues to reading your own metabolism, that will lead to long-term weight loss and a good relationship with food.

So, What Does Hunger Tell Us?

Hunger is essentially a measure of how satiated (content might be another word) you are with what you have in your belly. How your mix of protein, fibre, carbohydrates, water and fats on your plate sustains you through the day. Some of these are more satisfying than others. Fibre and protein are good at signaling to your body that you have had enough to eat, and generally sustain this feeling for longer.

What About Cravings?

Cravings, however, are related to how satisfied we are with our meals, how tasty they are, how much pleasure is derived from eating them. In this case, it's the fat and carbohydrate component that have the most bearing here. The idea is to mix in just enough of these to make your meals taste great. Your cravings are telling you that you need to think of some ways to add some healthy oils or good low-GI carbohydrates to your meals. Willpower is a limited commodity, so adding in a little bit of what you love, can help keep cravings at bay and make weight loss more enjoyable.

Weight Loss Energy Dips

If you cut back your energy intake too suddenly or you are eating less and exercising more, you may end up feeling tired. The key is to keep your metabolism happy and not put it into starvation mode. This can cause a general slowing down of your body's processes as your body prepares to endure what may seem like some global crisis of food shortage. Another thing to look out for on an exercise more, eat less approach to weight loss is getting enough nutrients. It goes to reason that you need highly nutritious foods to keep up your daily requirement of B vitamins, Magnesium and everything else that keeps your body running smoothly if you are eating less in general. Another alternative is to take a good quality supplement to make sure you are covering all the bases for energy production.

Tips To Stick To Your Diet

Changing it up is a good way to respond to a craving, hunger and energy clue your body is sending you. This may mean eating more some days, exercising more some days, changing what you eat for breakfast to make sure you're sustaining your energy better and generally listening to what your body is telling you. Sounds like a great start to me!

Sticking to your diet and weight loss can be supported by a good detoxification program, metabolic or hormonal treatments and stress reduction. If you are looking at your health and deciding a weight loss program is the priority for you, come have a chat to me about putting these types of supports in place. Book online or call 0402 097 028 to get started today.