A Happy and Healthy Future!
The holidays can be a season of joy and reconnecting as friends or family to celebrate. The holidays can also play a major impact on your health with the increase in travel, less sleep, eating unhealthy food, and overindulging in sweets and alcohol. To recover for this new year, take a few steps to help you now and into the future. Here are some tips to stay on track to be your healthy and happy self!
1. Stay hydrated. Drinking plenty of water is just as important during the winter as it is in the summer. Taking in at least the recommended amount of water every day has many benefits during these colder months. Water can boost your immune system, preventing you from getting sick while traveling. Water will also help you feel fuller longer, helping you stave off on that second plate of turkey and stuffing.
You don’t have to gulp down cup after cup of ice-cold water, a chore that may seem unappealing when the temperature outside is just as cold. To help you meet your daily water intake, consider eating your water. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, which are naturally high in water. Juices and smoothies count too!
2. Take Multivitamin Supplements. To make sure you have sufficient levels of nutrients, taking a daily multivitamin supplement is a good idea, especially when you do not have a variety of vegetables and fruits at home. Many micronutrients are vital to your immune system, including vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, and E, as well as zinc, iron, copper, selenium, and magnesium. However, there’s currently NO available evidence that adding any supplements or “miracle mineral supplements” to your diet will help protect you from the virus or increase recovery. In some cases, high doses of vitamins can be bad for your health.
3. Get your sleep. With the excitement and added tasks of the new year, it’s easy to lose sleep. Staying up later with travel can lower your energy and your immune system, making you that much more susceptible to getting sick.
Try to stick to your sleep routine as much as possible. Ask for help, prioritize tasks, and delegate items on your to-do list so you can maintain enough sleep.
4. Stay active. It’s easy to spend extended amounts of time sitting. Get outside! Start a game of ultimate frisbee, throw the football around, or go for a jog. Turn on some music and start a dance competition with your family and friends. No matter what you choose, find a way to keep moving and stay active. You will not only feel better and more awake, it will help you digest your food.
5. Stay connected. Life is busy. Between jobs and families, there is often little time for anything else. But I’ve learned over the years that if you want something to happen, you need to make it happen. One of the areas in my life that always seems to fall to the wayside is spending time with friends. To have unstructured time with friends, you need to make a concerted effort to make it happen.
6. Up your veggie intake by adding a handful of microgreens (such as micro kale), sprouts (such as broccoli sprouts), or fresh herbs (such as basil) to one meal a day. Microgreens, sprouts, and herbs are some of the most nutrient-dense foods you can find, go with pretty much anything, and don’t require any chopping or cooking. And many are grown hydroponically or aeroponically, meaning you don’t even need to wash them!
7. Snack healthy. With a little planning, you can snack healthy. Carry fruit with you so you have a quick and easy snack to satisfy your cravings in between meals. Grab fresh fruit and a juice or smoothie to go!
Take a few extra steps and stay healthy all season long. Shop at local health food stores and stock up on fresh whole food snacks like fruit, kombucha (best pro-biotic drink), paleo approved power bars. At these kind of stores you can find grass-fed or wild caught beef sticks and protein snacks.
6. Cut out the noise by performing a social media audit. People spend hours of our lives on social media, which has been linked to depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. However, you have the power to curate your virtual spaces so they bring you joy. There are a few ways to do this, one of them being to unfollow any accounts that make you feel upset, anxious, or bad about yourself with the content they post.
8. Re-center yourself with a one-minute breathing exercise when you return to work after a break. With feet flat on the floor and eyes closed, breathe in for seven seconds, hold for seven seconds, and breathe out for seven seconds; repeat three times. Simple mindfulness practices like this one can help reduce stress, improve your focus, and relieve anxiety.
9. Protect your peace and quiet by setting your phone to “do not disturb” during working and resting hours. Most phones can be set to automatically do this during specified hours, so you don’t have to remember every day. You won’t miss the constant pinging, but you will almost definitely increase your productivity and focus. Just do it.
10. Connect to yourself. A spiritual practice is simply the things that you do to help you deepen your inner world in meaningful and impactful ways. If you are the kind of person who likes to work with spirit guides or other spiritual beings, that’s great.
But if you prefer to focus on the here and now, that’s also fine. Having a true wellness practice includes taking time out to nourish your soul, whatever that looks like for you. Maybe that meditation, or enjoying nature, or having downtime reading books. Engaging in your favorite hobby is a form of spiritual practice too.
Thanks for reading and enjoy a healthy 2024!
Adrienne
xo