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Nourish Daily Blog
Our habits shape who we are: learn how to nourish your body, mind and spirit, every day.
Whole foods plant based recipes & bite-size info on topics supportive of health
The problem with perfection
We are surrounded by perfection. Be it on poster-boards, TV shows, TV adverts and of course all over social media. We see the perfect house, lifestyle, diet, body, fashion, skin, hair …. everything, and it is only natural to notice the difference between all that we see and ourselves.
In this post I am mainly thinking about our bombardment with perfection on social media as this is the most pervasive. I look at why seeking perfection is harmful, and what you can do to cultivate a healthier outlook.
Spending time in nature has measurable health benefits…
If you think of nourishment in terms not only of your body, but also your mind and spirit, then it becomes immediately clear that there is much, much more to nourishment than the food you eat.
A great example of nourishment is spending time in nature, which has been shown to benefit both mental and physical health. How often do you get out in nature? For most of us, the answer is probably not as much as we’d like. But now that research has now found measurable health benefits of spending time in nature, it may be time we re-prioritise our time outdoors.
Making smarter choices buying organic
Organic food is expensive! Making the switch from a zero-organic shopping cart to 100% organic can put a serious dent in your bank balance. Also, organic foods are not as widely available as non-organic foods, so you may not have much variety of organic fruit and veg where you shop.
If you want to ‘go organic’ but find the financial commitment too high, or your choices are limited, you can be smarter with your choices by focusing on the ‘clean 15’ and ‘dirty dozen’. These are fruit and veg that have been rated in terms of their pesticide load, with the ‘clean 15’ containing the fewest pesticide residues, and the ‘dirty dozen’ the most.
Tips for better sleep: infographic
A few weeks ago I shared some tips on how to improve the quality of your sleep. I realise I gave quite a lot of tips and so I have pulled them together in an overview infographic. I hope this will help you scan over the various strategies you can try to improve your sleep, and select one or two to give a go. (Of course, nothing stopping you trying them all!)
Sleep is such a cornerstone to health, and so well worth spending some time on! I often joke that sleeping is a hobby of mine, I like it so much! And who doesn’t enjoy a good nights sleep? I hope this infographic will help give you the tools you need for a better nights sleep.
Strategies for getting more and better sleep
Where sleep is concerned, for many people there is room for improvement! As we all will have experienced, poor sleep can leave you feeling fuzzy headed, easy to annoy and low in energy. Beyond this extended periods of poor sleep can feed in to poor health such as through promoting weight gain, insulin resistance, reduced immunity and increased inflammation.
But the good news is there are many strategies you can try to improve your sleep. Some of these suggestions may also sound obvious - don’t dismiss these ones, sometimes the simplest changes can have the greatest results.
Why sleep is important for your health
In my last post I discussed how what you eat can effect the quality of your sleep, and how the quality of your sleep can influence what you eat! Quite a circular topic, I know!
In this post I want motivate you to take good care of your sleep. We all know how we feel after a bad nights sleep. Irritable, fatigued, mentally slower… sound familiar? But your sleep, and the quality of the sleep you get over a prolonged period of days, weeks, months and years can have a profound impact on your health.
The links between diet and sleep, and sleep and diet
When people visit a nutritional therapist, they expect the conversation to just focus on what they are eating, what they are not eating, and what they should be eating! So when the discussion turns to sleeping patterns and quality of sleep this can come as a surprise.
Actually sleep, and getting good sleep, is more connected to your diet and than you might think…
If you keep doing what you are doing….
I came across this quote a while back: “If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting”.
I like this quote because I find it very empowering. It suggests that what we do on a daily basis has a significant impact on what life appears to dish up for us. Of course we cannot be in control of everything, but we are probably in control of more than we think.