I woke up this morning feeling the results of totally neglecting myself. Part sheer exhaustion from overdoing just about everything since Thanksgiving, part overindulgence and part neglecting the habits that are normally part of my daily routine have left me feeling tired and unmotivated. I could barely crawl out of bed this morning so when I finally managed to get up and get moving I vowed to get back on track today. Not tomorrow, not on January 1st. TODAY.
When I attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition I learned that adding in healthy habits and healthy foods makes it much easier to crowd out the bad habits and before you know it you’re on the road to feeling good and making even more healthy choices.
The easiest way to get yourself on track after overindulging is to focus on adding these 3 things into your day (I do these every day but had been neglecting them for the past few weeks and was feeling the resulting sluggishness):
1. Drink a glass of fresh squeezed lemon water (organic lemons are best) as soon as you wake up. Before your coffee, tea or breakfast. Cold or warm. If you need to sweeten it use a few drops of liquid organic stevia only.
2. Take a walk. Without your iPod. Before your first meal of the day. Use your walk time to meditate and plan your (healthy) day. If the weather isn’t cooperating, or walking outside isn’t safe or just isn’t your thing, use a treadmill, elliptical machine or any other activity that allows you to increase your heart rate but also allows you time to think and plan out your day.
3. Have a green smoothie along with basic high quality supplements. There are many green smoothie recipes online, use one of those recipes or make up your own recipe. Just be sure it’s made mostly of veggies and minimal fruit. Although fruits contains some vitamins, minerals and antioxidants they also contain sugar. It’s best to stick with berries or a green apple for your healthy smoothie.Click here for my favorite green smoothie recipe.
Supplements are important too. At a minimum, a basic multi-vitamin and mineral supplement is essential to counter the effects of overindulging, too many sugary sweets and poor quality processed “foods”. It’s also a good idea to add vitamin D3+K and Omega 3 supplements. Most people are deficient in both of these.
Hopefully you’ll agree that these are three easy actions to implement now and get yourself on track today. I did all three things this morning and I’m already feeling better. Part of that feeling comes from breaking the unhealthy routine I had fallen into and part of it comes from feeling like I’m back in control. Whatever the reason, the most important thing is that I am in control and empowered to keep making healthy decisions, especially since we still have another week of celebrating to do!
