Total Wellbeing

Naturopathy in Sunshine Victoria

Naturopathy

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.

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.

Raw Zucchini Salad Breakfast

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Getting more vegies in your day, sometimes has to start early. Thinking about what to have for breakfast today I was confronted by a glut of homegrown zucchinis and a craving for something fresh! Not a bad problem as it turned out. Combining a few cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, lemon juice, a little pink Himalayan salt and some lightly toasted seeds I'm loving this super quick, easy, tangy, fresh start to my day 🙂

Our friend Tracy had mentioned she was doing Veganuary – Vegan for January, so feeling inspired took out my regular old vegie peeler (no special zucchini spiraliser in our house, so a little improvisation was in order), and made short work of a medium-sized zucchini. The result is like a wide, flat noodle and looks really pretty with the dark green skin along the edges.

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
  • Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
  • Fresh basil leaves, torn

Method

Googling for recipes this morning, I didn't find one that exactly fit the ingredients in my pantry so I drew from the inspiration of Jaime Oliver who loves a

few sprigs of fresh basil,

and the genius Lisa Featherby of Gourmet Traveller, who suggested I take my zucchini noodles and

season with sea salt flakes and stand until zucchini softens (2 minutes).

Tossing everything together for this really clean, January breakfast, I'm feeling ready to take on the world. Serves 1-2, depends if you're willing to share 😉 If you do, your friend will be really impressed, I know mine was!

Summer is often a time for reassessing your diet, making a few changes to bring up your energy and getting set for a great start to the year. If you've done this before or need a reminder, a naturopathy consult could be what you need to help talk through some practical changes in line with your goals, mix you up a herbal potion to complement your needs and plant the seeds for good habits in 2018. Book online or give me a call to set it up today.

Your Recipe for Making Healthy Babies

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 Why is pre-conception care important?

Amazingly, it takes just two cells to build a baby and what most of us don’t realise is that these two cells contain all the energy and nutrition needed for your growing baby for the first 4 weeks of its life. It’s at this point that the foetus, which has been nourished by the egg sack during those first 4 weeks, begins to be fed directly from the blood supply of its mother. So making sure you have the healthiest, most nutrition-packed eggs and sperm makes a lot of sense when you think about this crucial developmental period.

To give you an idea of what happens in these first 4 weeks, take a look at a few of the milestones the foetus hits it this short period:

  • At day 7 the embryo attaches to the uterus.
  • During the next week, the basic placenta develops.
  • By the end of the 3rd week, the rudimentary digestive system has developed.
  • At 22-23 days, the heart begins to beat.
  • By the end of the 4th week, the neural tube has closed. It is an abnormality here which leads to spina bifida and related conditions. Fortunately, adequate nutrition in the pre-conception period has been found to reduce the occurrence of this condition.

So, how long should we allow for a pre-conception program?

This question may be influenced by factors related to your unique situation, but in most situations, we would allow 3-6 months for preparing your body for conception. Why so long? Well, sperm need at least 86 days to mature and eggs mature over a period of 90 days before ovulation. Thus, this is the length of time we have to influence the quality of your genetic blueprint and see the difference in terms of healthy lifestyles on the sperm and egg. Sometimes, a program for improving your diet, lifestyle, and supporting egg and sperm quality will happen alongside actively trying to conceive, but in the ideal scenario, this would happen some months earlier.

It’s not just all about the ladies…

It makes total sense that healthy men pass on the best genetic material to their babies. Having a nutritionally replete diet means better stats in terms of conceiving, placenta development and having a healthy baby. There are even studies that show a link to reduced risk of cancer and diabetes genes with proper pre-conception care! The basics are the same for both partners – lots of fruit and vegies, limiting saturated fats, topping up on fish, exercising, sleeping well, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding toxins (such as chemicals, drugs, and alcohol) and taking a good quality pre-conception multivitamin designed especially for men. In addition, because sperm is sensitive to heat, wearing loose clothing and avoiding saunas and hot tubs in the pre-conception period is a good idea. Small studies suggest carrying a mobile phone in your pants pockets can influence sperm health too. For this reason, we suggest storing your phone away from your body as much as possible.

Maximum nutrition for making babies

It makes sense to eat foods with the highest nutritional benefit, as these foods give you the most bang for your calorie. Weight maintenance is important in preparation for conception and eating high-quality foods is a great way to ensure you are maintaining a healthy diet.

What are the best foods to eat for fertility?

  1. Fish is an excellent source of clean protein and 3-5 serves a week gives you a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids. Eat larger fish such as tuna, swordfish and shark only occasionally (maximum of once every 2-3 weeks) to avoid potential mercury contamination. For convenience tinned sardines can be a good choice and also provides you with a source of calcium. Wild salmon is also an excellent choice. Check out my blog on the humble sardine here, for some ideas on including them in meals.
  2. Fresh seasonal bio-dynamic/ organic fruits & vegies where accessible and affordable, increase your access to essential vitamins and minerals and reduce the toxic load on your body.
  3. Lean organic meats, organic eggs and organic dairy. Animal products are more likely to have pesticide residues stored in fats, so it is particularly important to choose organic where possible. The lean products also help you minimise saturated fats and support your fertility.
  4. Good fats and oil such as those found in seeds and nuts, flaxseed oil and avocados provide vegetarian sources of omega 3 oils.

The basics of nutrition for making healthy babies is the same as being healthy yourself. In fact, couples embarking on a pre-conception program often find they feel the best they have ever felt, full of energy and vitality, well rested and exercised with their eye on providing the best start they possibly can for themselves and their baby.

What does one eat on a detox diet?

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If I'm correct, you probably generally know what not to eat, and while occasionally in denial, know what goes in a healthy diet. And a detox diet is really just that, healthy food. The aim is to minimise any of the nasties in your diet to give your body a moment to clean house – after all, that's what detoxification is. I'm not saying this isn't something your body isn't doing already every day, it's just the difference between a quick vac around your furniture once a week and taking the time to do a proper spring clean. Enough with the cleaning metaphors! You get the idea.

Why detox?

But why are you detoxing? Think about what it is that you are trying to achieve. Are you feeling a little sluggish, tired, feeling the need for a clean start? Perhaps the stressors and pleasures of a modern lifestyle are catching up with you? Burning the candle at both ends, even if it's to fit more fun things in, will eventually cause you to feel a bit under par.

Get enough sleep

Sleep time is the healing time your body needs every day. If you are ‘dreaming' of the luxury of an early night – book it in! Nothing says detox like getting enough sleep and this is the number one lifestyle prescription for a successful mini detox. Detoxification involves the large and small intestines, the lungs, skin, liver and kidneys all processing the things we put into our body to make sure there isn't any backlog. Mostly, this is done while we sleep!

Do I have to cut out everything?

Reducing the processing load on your organs means cutting out caffeine, alcohol, fried foods, sugars and foods that people are commonly sensitive to, like gluten grains and dairy. So what's left? Plenty! Focussing on vegies, fruit, vegetable proteins from nuts, seeds, beans and lentils, gluten-free whole grains like quinoa, buckwheat, brown or white rice along with fish and eggs you'll find you have lots to choose from. It can, however, feel like almost everything in your pantry is off-limits if you haven't done a little preparation.

Step 1: Extra nutrition is the first part of a successful detox diet

I like to start with adding the extras. Extra vegies, legumes, beans, regular serves of berries, clever herbal teas and exciting salads. Expanding the good things you regularly eat, it won't seem so difficult to gently ease out the other more processed items in your pantry. Putting some extra greens in your smoothies can be another spot to start adding some extra nutrients. You are aiming for at least 5 serves of vegies and 2 serves of fruit each day. These are all excellent sources of fibre which is essential to assist detoxification and help bind and eliminate the chemicals and hormones your clever liver processes.

If you eat fish (which is a great idea!), focus on the smaller varieties. As they do not take as long to mature, these fish have less time to accumulate heavy metals and are cleaner in terms of mercury and other toxins. Try mackerel, anchovies, sardines, salmon and herring or just remember MASSH which is a handy abbreviation to keep these fish in mind when you make your shopping list.

Step 2: Detox your mind

Detoxing your mind goes hand in hand with a lifestyle detox. Taking a few minutes for mindful meditation will enhance the process. A great place to start is with this fantastic free course by Headspace. Full of cute animations and meditations that you can take 3, 5 or ten minutes to complete, and the benefits speak for themselves.

Findings suggest that meditating for just four days is enough to improve novice meditators’ working memory, executive functions and their ability to process visual information.

Amazing! So not only is your memory better, the executive functions of the brain improve which means you are better able to:

  • Pay attention.
  • Organise, plan and put things in priority.
  • Start and complete tasks.
  • Put yourself in another person's shoes.
  • Regulate your emotions.
  • Keep track of what you're doing.

Once you've completed the easy 10-day course, you might like to sign up for a membership or check out other apps. Buddhify might suit you, or maybe Smiling Mind app. Smiling Mind is a free, Australian mindfulness app but you may find the style of other apps suit you best and opt to purchase an annual membership.

Alternately, some people find more active meditations like a walking mindfulness exercise more their style. This type of meditation has you observe the sensations of walking, the sounds, the feel of the air on your skin, the colours and shapes surrounding you. A guided meditation with an experienced Forest Therapist might also be something to try on a detox. Shinrin-Yoku 森林浴 Forest Therapy Australia which is a local Victorian based business may be able to help you establish a regular walking practice if sitting still is not something you can relate to currently.

Step 3: Hydrate

Water assists detoxification processes and flushes out the by-products. Make sure you are getting your full quota each day. For more tips on how to remember to drink water, check out this article here.

Step 4: Cut back on irritants

Caffeine can be a bit tricky to give up in one day, so try cutting down every second coffee to gradually wean off. In a similar way, sugar withdrawal can be a little challenging. Make sure you are having a protein with every meal and snack to help stabilise your blood sugar levels. You can take several days to wean off sugar in this way too. So once you have all the extra salads, fish, healthy meals and vegies added in ease out the caffeine, alcohol, fried foods, sugars and foods that people are commonly sensitive to, like gluten grains and dairy. This will give your body a wonderful rest from having to process additional irritants, so it can concentrate on cleaning house for a week or two.

Be gentle with yourself, take some time out and come chat if you need some tips to get your detox started.

Tips to help you drink more water

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How many times have you been encouraged to drink more water? Some find it easy, while others just don't enjoy it. Is that really it, you don't enjoy water? It is a little hard for me to understand, being a water guzzler and loving the taste, texture and everything about water!

Do I really need 8 glasses of water a day?

There has been a lot of research put into determining the optimal intake of water for health at the NHMRC, so don't think it's all a load of baloney – we really do need 8-10 glasses of water every day! And that's not including the water we get from foods and the 250 mL that our body recycles from our internal filtration systems.

Solid foods contribute approximately 20% of total water intake or about 700-800 mL. The remainder of the dietary intake comes from free water and/or other fluids. An additional 250 mL or so of water is also made available to the body from metabolism (water of oxidation). Excluding perspiration, the normal turnover of water is approximately 4% of total body weight in adults. In a 70 kg adult, this is equivalent to 2,500-3,000 mL/day.

Curated from Water | Nutrient Reference Values

Dehydration has scary consequences

Typically, the consequences of dehydration that I think of include constipation, poor concentration, headaches and urinary tract infections. However, chronic mild dehydration (drinking about half of your daily recommended water intake) may cause other hidden problems.

Dehydration of as little as 2% loss of body weight results in impaired physiological responses and performance. The reported health effects of chronic mild dehydration and poor fluid intake include increased risk of kidney stones, urinary tract cancers, colon cancer and mitral valve prolapse as well as diminished physical and mental performance.

Curated from Water | Nutrient Reference Values

Hang on a sec, I'm just going to grab my water bottle… So, it's pretty clear why, for good health, our bodies require water. Now how do we remember to do it?

4 quick tips for taking in more water

1. Always have water available

Carry a reusable water bottle with you where ever you go, and keep it filled. On your way out the door, grab your bottle. If you're sitting down to work at your desk or to watch some tv, grab your bottle. Maybe to make it a mental habit, you could repeat the mantra “keys, wallet, water!”.

2. Water in water out…

If you're on the way back from the bathroom, grab a glass of water as part of the routine. Stopping off in the lunch room or kitchen while you're already on your feet, makes sense to me! Keeping hydrated is not something you can do once a day, it's a system and requires topping up frequently.

3. Choose water in restaurants

Ask for a jug of water for your table and make it your business to fill your glass and start sipping. It's also terribly thoughtful if you top up your companions glasses also, water drinkers are in good company!

4. Manage your excuses

What's your favourite excuse? Too warm, too cold, tastes boring, I'm not thirsty? Add some fruit or a little flavouring, a mint leaf, chill it, warm it up and count your glasses of water. If you haven't had a glass of water in the last 1.5 hours, you're behind on your quota – you might not feel it, but your cells are thirsty already!

Water is a  requirement for digestion, absorption, dissolving nutrients, elimination of waste products and keeping our body temperature stable. It's one of the easiest improvements you can make to how your body functions and one I'm grateful to have readily available to all of us living in countries like Australia with clean drinking water. It's our privilege to be hydrated. Make the most of it.

Tips for Surviving a Cold or Flu

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You know all those common sense tips that are on tip of your tongue when someone else is sick? Sometimes it all leaves you when you are under the weather yourself. With that in mind, I thought I'd add these little gems here, in case you (or I!) run into a nasty cold or flu.

Usually, a cold or flu can be weathered with good rest, nutritional and herbal support, however, if you have more serious symptoms, it is essential to seek medical help. These include if,

  1. You have trouble breathing or chest pain.
  2. Your fever doesn't get better.
  3. You are at risk of dehydration because you can't keep anything down.

My top 3 tips to help you recover well are:

Steam Inhalations

Steam inhalations can be very soothing and help ease congestion and soothe inflamed airways. Try a few drops of eucalyptus in the bottom of your shower or lean your face over a sink of warm water and drape a towel over your head (the old fashioned way!) to gently inhale the steam. Even without the addition of essential oils, a warm shower or bath can help ease congestion before bed and make sleeping easier.

Lots of Fluids – Try this Savoury Broth

Drink lots of warm fluids, keep warm and eat easy to digest foods. Soups are great at this time and drinks like lemon and Manuka honey are particularly helpful for sore throats. You can make an easy savoury broth by boiling together in water some common kitchen herbs, especially sage, thyme, a bay leaf, rosemary, ginger and sliced fresh garlic. This makes a tasty broth that is very nourishing between meals. Garlic and ginger help break down mucous, and sage and thyme are soothing respiratory antiseptics and are great for sore throats.

Soups for Recovering from your Cold or Flu

Soups are also a great, easily digested food for when you are unwell. Lots of red, orange and green vegies help to supply you with lots of Vitamin A and C to help repair your airways and support your immune system. A couple of easy recipes include my favourite pink Sweet beetroot, pumpkin and red lentil soup and this fantastic sweet potato, cauliflower curry. It's very easy to make, although if you can ask your friends, partner or family to make it, even better:

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sweet potato to pan; sauté 3 minutes. Decrease heat to medium. Add cauliflower, onion, and curry powder; cook 1 minute, stirring mixture constantly. Add broth and next 3 ingredients (through tomatoes); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Both of these recipes can easily take some baby spinach or whatever greens you have on hand to boost up the healing power.

Rest

Remember to rest! This is the most important tip. Going to bed early and having naps throughout the day is essential to your recovery. Keep this in mind after you recover too – completing a period of post-illness follow-up strengthens your resilience, which reduces the chance of relapse. Make it your mission to get to bed earlier than usual for the next two weeks also. For some tips on staying well in the winter, check out this article here.

Remember, I offer existing clients ten minute, over the phone consults for acute conditions like colds and flu. Herbs and nutritional supplements can help you recover well. Book online here or call me on 0402 097 028 if you need an appointment today.

Hopefully, you won't need this advice for some time, but if you do, it's always here for you to look back on!

Diet tips for happy hormones

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Hormones are wonderful things, and with everything running smoothly they keep your skin plump and healthy, your sex drive humming along and a pep in your step. That said, excessive hormonal influence can make you think your body is taking you on a wild ride of emotional instability, uncomfortable periods and a myriad of other nasty symptoms. The simplest method of modifying the way your body processes hormones is through diet. What's the trick to keeping your hormones on side?

Hormones should be one use only

Hormones, like estrogen are broken down in the liver and eliminated via the bowel. This is the ideal situation, as once they have had an effect on your hormonally sensitive tissues, we are done with them. However, if the path out of the bowel is a little slow, we can end up with these hormones being reabsorbed, essentially ‘recycled' and having a more intense impact on the body. This is where fibre and good bowel habits come in. Making sure you have a bowel motion at least once a day is the best way to ensure hormones only have the effect they were intended to have.

Where do you find fibre?

Fibre is best found in fruits and vegies, whole grain cereals, beans and nuts and seeds. Seeds like ground flaxseeds and chia seeds are easily added to meals, smoothies and desserts if you feel like your fibre is lacking despite your best efforts. Flaxmeal can even be added to burger recipes to increase the fibre of your dishes while taking advantage of its use as a binder, keeping everything together. Another way to use it is as a topper for fruit and yoghurt – the crunch of flaxmeal and the nutty flavour works really well in my opinion. Try it out and see if it works to your taste.

Phytoestrogens actually reduce the impact of your hormones

Phytoestrogens are found in plants, like lentils, beans, soy and  flaxmeal that have a very mildly estrogenic quality. These bind with the hormone receptors in the body and in effect block the action of the stronger hormones circulating in the blood. The positive effect here is that your hormonal response is soothed and there is less negative impact of over-active hormones in the body. So, eating more beans, lentils, a little tofu or tempe along with plenty of green vegies can lead to smoother menstrual cycles and emotions.

Try out these recipes:

Sweet beetroot, pumpkin and red lentil soup

Mushroom miso soup

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There are lots of things to love about soup! It definitely warms you up from the inside and is a great way to keep all the nutrition of your ingredients in one delicious pot. This easy soup is one of my favourites, takes about 10 minutes to prepare and has a noodle-y texture without the gluten (or carbs) if that's something you're looking out for.

Ingredients

500g button mushrooms, sliced

125g of enoki mushrooms, tails chopped off and separated

1 brown onion, finely diced

2-3 generous Tbsp of miso paste, to taste (I like the red one, but the white is good too)

1 Tbsp of freshly grated ginger

1 bunch of choy sum, roughly chopped (or other favourite leafy green)

200g of silken tofu, cut into small cubes

Spring onions, sliced finely for garnish

Olive oil for sauteing

2L of water

Method

Saute onion and button mushrooms in olive oil until starting to brown. Add ginger and stir until warm and fragrant. Add water and bring to the boil. Add silken tofu and enoki mushrooms (these are the noodles in the soup!). Once heated through add leafy greens and heat until just cooked. Dilute miso paste in a cup of warm, boiled water. Turn soup off the heat and add miso liquid. Stir through, garnish with sliced spring onions (these give a lovely fresh flavour to the soup) and serve!

Miso

This is a salty, fermented soy paste used to flavour Japanese dishes. It is also a live probiotic food, hence it is generally not heated at high temperatures for long periods. This preserves the health-giving properties of the miso. You can find it in most major supermarkets these days, usually alongside the noodles and other specialty foods for Asian dishes.

Tofu

Tofu is one of those foods that can be difficult to bring into your diet at first. With a neutral taste, it generally takes up the flavours of the dish it is prepared in. As a phytoestrogen, tofu can have beneficial effects on hormones, balancing the effect of estrogen whether you have an over or under supply of the hormone.

Ginger

This is a wonderful anti-inflammatory spice, helpful for stimulating a sluggish circulation, soothing a nauseous tummy and warming your digestive fire. I try to have a little ginger in my meals every day. I even grated a little over my breakfast creation of yoghurt, chia seeds, walnuts, pepitas, a sliced navel orange and rolled oats this morning 🙂 How do you use ginger?

Enoki Mushrooms

These are the stringy looking mushrooms that are starting to be available in more greengrocers these days. However, if your local doesn't have them, you can be assured that your local Asian market will, along with the other ingredients mentioned above! Enjoy!