News — confidence

 

It’s true, taking care of yourself is the kindest thing you can do. Nurturing your body, mind and soul with self-care activities helps to add a sense of calm to your life, recharges your mental batteries and helps to create joy within yourself.

There are four different types of self-care:

Physical: taking care of your physical body (e.g. physical movement, stretching, healthy food).

Emotional: activities that help you connect, process and reflect on your emotions (e.g. kindness, stress management, journaling).

Social: activities that nurture your relationships with the people you love (e.g. time together, having strong support systems)

Spiritual: activities that revolve around your values (doesn’t have to be religious, can also be activities that nurture your internal thinking or your sense of perspective). For example: time alone, meditation, time in nature).

You may find it easier to look after certain aspects of your self-care than others, but it is important to create a balance by working on them all.

Do you allow yourself “me” time each day? Indulging in just 15 minutes of self-care a day can make a huge difference. We’ve put together a list of different self-care activities you can do – for when you have 5, 15 or 30 minutes of spare time.

Self-care for when you only have 5 minutes:

• Take a few deep "self regulating" breaths...with a longer exhale than inhale..like a long slow sigh
• Self check in - check in with yourself - “how are you feeling?”  - label a feeling. 

• Listen to your favourite song
• Stretch your body
• Sit in the sun
• Smile!
• Compliment someone
• If you need to, have a good cry (and use the expensive tissues!)
• Give a loved one a hug
• Forgive yourself for what you couldn’t do today

 

Self-care for when you only have 15 minutes:

• Sit down, and have a tea, coffee, water and chillax

• Read a chapter of your book
• Organise your desk
• Pat a furry friend

• Pamper yourself (shower/bath with candles, give yourself a mani/pedi, wash and blow dry your hair) 

• Call someone you love
• Watch a funny YouTube clip
• Make your bed – fresh sheets!

 

Self-care for when you have 30 minutes:

• Take a walk outside - or a run or a swim
• Cook a new recipe - find one that can be prepared in a short time

• Take a nap
• Do a guided meditation
• Do a gentle yoga class
• Unplug from technology and do an activity that involves repetition to promote calm (e.g. folding laundry).
• Make something without caring if it’s “good” or not (e.g. knitting, baking, painting)

 

 

Author:
Lisa Cutforth
B.Sc Nutrition with Psychology (Dual Degree)
Consulting Clinical Nutritionist to The Banyans Wellness Retreat
Owner and Managing Director of Wholesomeness

 

Author:
Lisa Cutforth
B.Sc Nutrition with Psychology (Dual Degree)
Consulting Clinical Nutritionist to The Banyans Wellness Retreat
Owner and Managing Director of Wholesomeness

The New Year is officially here, the festive season binging has now come to an end… and it’s time to awaken the inner warrior, be empowered and confident with your lifestyle choices.

Let’s face it; eating healthy is just downright hard to do these days. We have fast food at every glance, conveniently located and we tend to forget just how bad highly processed food is for our bodies. If you want to reach your weight loss goals or just continue on the healthy straight and narrow, these are some great everyday tips to incorporate into your daily routine.

Step 1: Give yourself some motivational encouragement! Set reminders in your phone, write things on your mirror, change your screensaver to something that gets you pumped, maybe even change your morning alarm tone! Don’t underestimate the power of your mind.

 Step 2: Time to do a clean out, get rid of your rubbish food so it isn’t staring at you in the face saying ‘EAT ME… EAT ME NOW’. These are generally your trigger foods after a long hard day and you’ve just lost all interest in cooking or making good decisions.

Step 3: PREP. YOUR. MEALS. If you haven’t been doing this, chances are you are going to get super busy, tired and hangry… leading to again, regretful choices. Make the most of our super healthy, freshly prepared meals.

Step 4: Plan your snacks. Snacks are a killer when it comes to weight management. Check out our 7 healthy snack ideas to help improve mood and productivity!

Step 5: Squeeze in somewhere each day to get your 30 minutes of exercise. Whether it’s a brisk walk after dinner, an intense gym sesh or calming light stretches, just do it! No excuses! This is your time to appreciate yourself. It’s worth every single minute.

                         [image] retrieved from: http://www.theearthdiet.org/uploads/3/4/8/4/3484401/__7818460_orig.jpg

Success tips: 

• Waking up and doing exercise on an empty stomach or a small light snack such a banana or some nuts can improve weight loss. Try high interval training to increase your mitochondria (the bodies energy powerhouse). 
• Drink a glass of lemon water upon waking, this stimulates your digestive organs producing bile, digestive enzymes and getting things moving.
• Try to avoid eating after 7 pm, this should be your time of healing not digesting, a 10 – 12 hour nightly fast is excellent for metabolic processes.
• Don’t starve yourself. Your body actually goes into starvation mode and starts storing your energy into fats as a protective mechanism.
• Drink your 2L of water. A given I know, however, your body can confuse being hungry with being thirsty. Find it hard to drink so much? Why not diffuse it with fruit or make some iced herbal tea – delicious!
• Green tea increases your digestive system functionality, increases detoxification processes and when iced is perfect on a hot summer’s day!
• Don’t eat bland food. Add fresh herbs and spices to your dishes so your taste buds are satisfied! Eating healthy is actually really delicious.
• Set realistic goals. This is really important, as you don’t want to feel like a failure and give up completely; small weekly goals based on changes instead of weight are a great start.
• Invest in a health coach, it can be a great way to really succeed and have consistent support on your health journey.  Talk to our nutrition or naturapath to personalise a program just for you! 
• Remember you may have some setbacks, that’s okay! Get right back up again and figure out what your main triggers are. Take note and put practices in place to avoid that temptation.
• Live your life! Don’t forget to live, don’t drown yourself in saying no to everything… life is just too short to appreciate the good things, just do it in small doses. Sooner than later the positive changes you’ve made become a habit and you’ll find you won’t want it anyway. 

The main thing is to change your perspective and frame of mind when it comes to diet and lifestyle. Believe that you can and you really will. You can achieve results, you can be confident and you can succeed.  Be honest with yourself and accept that changing habits doesn’t happen overnight but it sure doesn’t take as long as you think once you truly commit. It’s one of the toughest, most challenging yet rewarding experiences. You can do it!

 
                                      [image] retrieved from:  http://quotesmag.tumblr.com/page/8 

Want some guidance? Talk to our experienced nutritionists here or why not look at our life changing detox plans.