Another draft I found from Nearly two years ago.
You may remember that around a year ago I went to a gwinganna event which focussed on nutrition. I found the event very informative and won a recipe book which I have used extensively. A email popped into my inbox about a follow up event which focussed on sugar, sleep and stress. As you are aware, probably, from reading this blog all of these are areas in which I have been trying to improve myself.
The talk was so informative and really cemented and contextualised a lot of things I had been learning about myself. I won’t go into everything which was said but I will summarise some of my take home points for you and ways in which I plan to implement them.
They say it takes 6 weeks to break a habit and 12 weeks to build new ones. I have 13 weeks until my wedding which is a lovely milestone to use ( as are birthdays and New Years) so I will continue along my path with renewed enthusiasm and some more ideas.
Take home ideas
Coffee….
Delicious, necessary in mornings at work but floods your body with unnatural hormones and stresses. To much of the old joe can really affect your sleep, which is nasty as without sleep you want more of the good stuff. For me one cup, which I really enjoy, in the morning ( but after a hot lemon and eating) is fine. Any more and my sleep suffers.
On the drinks front I am also going to drink more hot lemon, herbal teas and green teas and it is time to say goodbye to my friend diet coke.
In terms of eating the basic rules are if it flew, walked or swam eat on. If it looks as it did in the ground or grew on a plant eat up! Try to eat a mountain of veggies for each protein and ensure that it is as well sourced as possible. Good fats are your friend, but do limit the amount you eat as they are calorific. Each meal should have a balance of carbs ( unrefined), protein and fats. This will keep your body firing on all cylinders.
Sugar, which incidentally includes refined carbs, cause blood sugar crashes and plenty of nasty symptoms. Personally I have noticed post detox a dessert ( double whammy of sugar and refined carb sugar) causes me dizziness on awaking and a racing heart. Yuk.
On the upside your traditional meat and 3 veg is a perfect meal. As is a salad and tuna etc for lunch just add protein ( palm sized) and some fat ( oil and vegetarian dressing). For breakfast eggs on toast ( sprouted spelt) seemed fine as is my new fave greek yogurt, banana and LSA sprinkled on top.
They also discussed stress, chronic stress plus stress which we all have. Due to technology and the huge resources available to us on a day to day basis our brains have to deal with more information than our ancestors would have dealt with in a year. I am guilty of resting with the TV on and ipad ready plus tweeting on my phone. I am going to try to unplug. I will set aside time, in the day during my weeks off, for my blog ( note: life has changed what weeks off??). I will not have my phone or ipad in my bedroom whilst I sleep and I will choose a few program’s I actually want to watch rather than ending up watching them. I am also going to only use 1 piece of technology at once and stop using interactive technology by 7pm.
Another subject touched on was work and life balance and how with technology being available work has encroached into our personal lives. I am lucky that my work really priorities work life balance but I should definitely stick to switching off on break.
I have also realised that too many lovely occasions leads to stress for me as I need time by myself, in which to just do my thing,… Whether this is pottering round the kitchen, folding my clothes, blogging,having a lovely bath or just reading with a scented candle lit. This is now priority. ( again how life has changed!!)
Also a lot of stress is generated by our brains which vary from primal thoughts to higher level thoughts. The brain is luck a muscle and I need to work on exercising my higher thoughts and ensuring they are positive and weakening my primal brain. Eventually the muscles will be balanced so the primal muscle is not the primary.
To detox my body should be a focus as my liver seems to be the cause of my waking at night. I am going to prioritise dry body brushing, eating well and continuing some detox antics moving forward. One of the best ways to detox is to sweat so once again exercise needs to be done daily even if it is just a walk. Our bodies were meant to exercise and not to be still.
I am pretty excited by all of this and really looking forward to the changes. The gwinganna folk offer advice which is very usable and easy to implement in the modern world. I like that as we can’t all dedicate our whole lives to well living.
Other flagged items was the Importance of natural cleaning products and skin and body care. This has given me more wish to continue down this path.
Although this weekend I have been poorly which is not the time to movement all of this I am feel g much better today and ready for action…watch this space
have you been to gwinganna? How do you balance wellness with life?
ohmygodisthatfromtiffany 