Happy New Year to you all!

There is never a better time to introduce change into your life than January of a new year. The potency of starting fresh can add gravitas to any resolution you may have reached, big or small. Want to lose weight? Get fit? Change your eating habits? Ditch the negative friend? If you do it on the cusp of a new year you’ll find it far harder to break them than other resolutions simply because if you fail, you’ll have to wait a whole year until you reach another date with such magnitude.

The habits that seem to slip in my own life are regular meditation, exercise, relaxation and self nurturing. It’s very easy to get into bad habits, living your life one hundred miles an hour, burning both ends of the candle and pleasing everyone but yourself.

But the beauty of new beginnings is that you can take the time to take stock, evaluate what works and what doesn’t and put things right no matter how uncomfortable that may be. Don’t let people tell you how to live your life and what to feel. Only you know what makes you happy and that is where you ought to head. Hang out with people that makes you soar, get you and love your company. You know who they are. Life is too short for anything else.

The run up to Christmas is filled with fun but it comes at a prize and now is a good time to reboot by introducing the healthy habits you know and love. Here’s a little reminder of my top ten things to do:

1. Mediate daily – even 10 minutes per day can reduce your stress levels significantly.
2. Drink vegetable juices and smoothies to supercharge your intake of vitamins and minerals – use organic produce whenever possible. Otherwise wash your produce carefully using the veggie wash listed below.
3. East a varied diet filled with colourful vegetables and fruit and reduce your meat intake if possible. If you love your meat then choose high quality meats less often and introduce a veggie diet with a bit of fish thrown in as a great way of giving your body a well-earned break from heavy digestion.
4. Reduce or eliminate sugar as much as possible. If  you need something sweet use natural alternatives such as small amounts of maple syrup, raw honey, palm sugar or dates to sweeten desserts.
5. Up the healthy fats such as nuts n’ seeds, cold pressed organic olive or coconut oil and avocados. Oily fish is another great source.
6. Drink plenty of filtered water and herbal teas – don’t overdo the coffee or black tea as the caffeine triggers cortisol, the stress hormone that is involved in blood sugar regulation, to be produced into your body unnecessarily.
7. Avoid gluten if you can or at least don’t overdo it. Try to find natural alternatives to pasta and bread such as courgette noodles or rice cakes if you need something to put a topping on. Having a bowl of gluten-free oatmeal and a boiled egg is a great way to start the day and just as tasty as a piece of toast. Buckwheat pancakes are another staple in our house.
8. Try to exercise as much as you can. Get back into your gym or get off the bus a few stops earlier than you normally do to increase your daily exercise if you don’t have a membership. Take brisk walks, cycle instead of using your car and walk up the stairs whenever you can. I’ve got a step counter which sends me a little happy message when I’ve done my 10,000 steps each day. Always makes me feel like I’ve achieved something special.
9. Rest and relax daily. Most of us don’t do this enough in our quest to be high achievers, multi taskers and ruthlessly efficient. This malaise in our modern society causes most of us to produce far too much cortisol, gain weight (particularly around the middle) and generally feel bad about our selves unless we are achieving according to others standards. Dance to the beat of your own drum and stay authentically you. The rest will follow.
10. Sleep. A good nights sleep is better than any beauty cure. Don’t eat too late, ditch the booze, stay off sugar and end your day with a relaxation exercise if you have trouble with your shut-eye.

3 Home made Veggie Washes (courtesy of Helmsley + Helmsley)

1. Mix 1 tbsp of lemon juice with 2 tbsp of bicarbonate of soda.
2. Mix 60 ml vinegar with 2 tbsp of sea salt
3. Mix 1 tbsp of lemon juice with 2 tbsp vinegar.

Soak produce in (clean) sink filled with water and one of your chosen washes above for as long as possible then rinse. Most of the pesticides will have been removed.

 

Happy Wednesday people! x