Welcome to The Cherry On Top.
Continuing right along with ways to improve your mental and physical health. Actually, now that I think of it, I never mentioned diet. These darn brain farts are getting pretty epic. Hehehe...I'll make sure I address that after doing a little more research because it is rather scientific. I know a lot of seed oils are disastrous for health and processed foods can contain "ingredients" that affect hormones which can mess with mood as well as our biological bodies. Start cutting out seed oils and processed food. START! It takes a lot of time to ditch them entirely, but you can do it! Nearly every packaged item and restaurant food contains some form of seed oil and often a synthetic sweetener of some kind.
I have friends (I know, right?!) that have lost 30 pounds just by stopping drinking soft drinks. Isn't that crazy? Start off by choosing one thing. Then, take something else away. If you eat frozen pizzas every week. Eat one every other week and then once a month. Take baby steps. Soon you'll find yourself not craving the junk. Promise! You can have a little bit of processed food here and there. Just don't let them take over your entire menu.
I'm one of those people that are standing in the aisle, probably blocking something you want, scanning over the ingredients. I buy at least 80% fresh food (maybe more) in the form of raw milk products from our local farmer, organic fruit and veg also from local farmers and all our meat come from neighborhood butchers. If you can control yourself, don't buy junk and if you or the kids just have to have junk, try not to eat it everyday. That's the key. Give your body some time to detox, right? Go one day and eat whole food only and work your way up to everyday, but get to the point where you consume as little "fake" processed foods, and seed oils as possible. Limit those darn sugars and sweets, too. If it's in a package (especially plastic) it probably isn't whole, nutritious food.
Take your time. Read recipes. Do things so you enjoy the cooking and the planning process. I've already blogged all about this. You can read about menu planning, here. Following my year long, Weekly Menu Planners would be a great start.
I digress! Back to the continuation of curing yourself of depression and anxiety. Many of these suggestions would be great for anyone. Any age. I started the series, here. The second is here. I give tips for people living with people with anxiety. The last installation is here where I talk a lot about mindfulness. If you're not familiar with it, you have to go back and read and learn. Your life will change for the better, immediately. I can even promise that. wink wink
I've been doing yoga for just over 2 years. I didn't want to in the beginning. I was a body builder. I had mega crazy energy and I'm kind of a spazzoid. Meditation and yoga does not come easy for me, at all. I'm like a little kid in class! I fidget, giggle, laugh and find it very difficult to chill. I do yoga with the seniors in the village and it's not very challenging, to say the least, but I think that's amazing for people starting from nowhere. People with no athletic or sport agendas or history.
There is high impact, insanely challenging yoga out there! If you're only wanting to get started now, I'd choose a kind of yoga that fits you. This way you won't be put off like I was. Eventually, a friend set me up with some challenging yoga and I started really enjoying it. That's what I want to do to help you, today. I'll share links with FREE yoga lessons according to difficulty and style.
One of my favorite parts about yoga is you don't need to buy anything. Finally! I often don't even use a mat. If you are going to use a mat, buy an all natural one. I mean, the point of yoga is grounding and getting in touch with yourself, your inner self. Sitting on a piece of polyester is not ideal. Get a cork mat with a natural, rubber bottom or just do it on the rug, like I do most of the time.
I'm going to get a little cheeky, here with some of my suggestions. I'm always working on self improvement and one of my things is being judgmental. Sorry! I'll keep working. For instance how the hell can I tell if that dress is going to look good on me when the model is thin as a rail? I can't watch videos with really fat hands, hairy hands, fake long nails or those food videos where the person wears those black gloves. Yuck! I want to do yoga with someone a little bit like myself or how I think I am, anyway.
Currently, my favorite yoga channel is Breathe and Flow. They are a couple and have a sweet variety of yoga for different levels. I really like Flo's lessons the best. Peruse the list and see if it's for you. I'd go for this one if you're not starting from scratch. Even if you are, you could take a look.
Videos from Adrienne are pretty awesome. She's got hundreds of free ones, for all kinds of levels and according to what you feel like at that moment. I love that!
Here's a channel with an older woman and her cat that has an awesome variety. I watched a few minutes of one video and thought the sound quality wasn't great, but overall, I think it looks pretty good. If you're an older person, you might like doing lessons with another older person. Kim Yan Yoga has lessons of all kinds which is great because sometimes you wanna do it before bed or when you're bloated or stressed out and she has videos dedicated to that. A lot of channels do.
Do your research and find the perfect match, just as long as you do. Why not consider taking a walk either long or short in between your yoga days? Even 15 minutes is a nice amount of time to go walking. Just get up and move, often. Even if you start off doing it for just a few minutes. There are a lot of really short yoga sessions. No excuses, right? Instead of doom scrolling for 15 minutes, do 10 minutes of yoga? Or go for a quick walk around the block.
I used to hate walking and now I walk nearly every single day! Start off with short, doable walk and work your way up. That's what I did. I didn't particularly think about nature and how essential it really is for us, but it is. The further we remove ourselves from nature and real food the worse things are. It really is that simple. Do you often feel like we're being pushed one way and pulled another? I sure do! Go with our gut and your heart and remember, the magic starts happening when you think with your heart and feel with your head.
Don'cha love that all of this stuff is free? You don't have to pay a penny to be all the awesome you can be. I may come back and add stuff as I think about it. If you've got some great, healthy and helpful tips for getting over your mental garbage, feel free to share them with us.
I wish the you the very best with your journey to your awesome you. I already know you are awesome, but do you?
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