Grabbing something to eat, running through the drive-thru and throwing something together. All phrases that certainly reflect our lifestyles and all too often, our approach to food. While doing any of these every now and then is fine and can even be done in a healthy way, letting these phrases describe our overall attitude toward food means that we could be missing out on some of the huge benefits of what the food we eat can really do for us.

Transformational and Energy Medicine Specialist Jean Atman works with people on aligning their energy in every facet of their lives, including through the food they eat. In this Q&A, she explains how eating with intention can change your entire relationship with food and how its energy can fuel you.

Peppermint Tea & Me: What does eating with intention mean?

Jean Atman:I think it’s a mindfulness practice, you know. To really think about what foods you’re putting in your body and how they affect you as you’re consuming them. Basically, we get kind of caught up in the busyness of things, and so we don’t take time to even think about what we eat. We just sort of go to our defaults. I think eating with intention is increasing the mindfulness practice of thinking about “What do I feel like I want, what do I feel like I need, and then how do I feel after eating this?”

PTM: Why is it important that we eat with intention?

JA: We’re all made of energy. So, what we’re eating is either going to increase or decrease how we feel, how our body functions, and how our life works. If we’re congesting our energy field with a lot of processed foods, we’re going to feel more stagnant in our lives, and we’re going to be less able to proceed forward in achieving our goals and desires and dreams. We don’t have that free flow of movement and momentum that we can build as easily. So, it’s really vital to consider what we’re putting in our bodies and how we’re feeling based on it. If we’re eating something that makes us feel bad, we’re not going to be as inspired to do anything else in our lives. It really does start with what we’re putting in our bodies.

PTM: What is the role of energy overall in our bodies and in our lives?

JA: We’re all just millions of particles of energy that put together creates this form. We feel solid, we look solid, but in reality, we’re really not, we’re just a lot of moving parts. That’s why it’s really vital to focus on what we’re creating within our energy. If we’re eating something processed without a lot of life force energy, we’re putting that in our bodies and that becomes part of us. So, it’s not a real efficient product that we’re creating.

It’s everything that we put into our body, all the experiences that we have, how we respond to those experiences, and then we kind of have a set vibration based on all those moving parts. Whatever vibration we’re at, we’re going to automatically attract other things of that vibration. If our vibration is of a lower scale, you know we’re going to attract experiences that reflect that. Lower vibrational experiences mean more struggle, more hardships and more hard work to accomplish anything. Kind of trudging through mud knee deep to get to where you’re going, as opposed to skirting on top of it.

PTM: What do you mean when you talk about our vibrational scale?

JA: To test people’s energy, we use the Hawkins Scale of Consciousness. Based on that, anything under 500, you’re dealing with jealousy, hate, envy and other lower vibrations. So, if you’re eating foods of a lower vibrational scale, they’re vibrating within that same frequency.

PTM: Where does processed food fall on the scale, and how does that make us feel?

JA: Foods that have a life force of their own, like fruits and vegetables, grow from the earth, they’re nursed from the earth, and they’re nourished from the sun and water that’s created within the earth. It’s all this beautiful synergistic creation which is grown from life force, and that gives us life force. Lower vibrational foods, like processed foods, are stripped. Anything that’s put in these processed foods is stripped down so far that it has no life force of its own.

While these foods might fill us, you know, physically, they’re not nourishing our energy, our bodies, our spirits, our minds. We’re not gaining any energy to uplift our vibration from eating those foods. They really can cause depression. When people are depressed, it is actually just energy that is depressing the field, so they carry a lot of heaviness within their energy which makes them feel heavy mentally, physically and emotionally. When you start to recognize that “When I’m eating this food, I feel a little bit lighter and a little bit better,” you actually clear through some of that depression energy by eating something that’s more nourishing, that’s more life giving, that increases the feeling of being lighter.

So those things are really, really important to choose wisely, especially if you suffer from something that just feels chronic that you can’t seem to break free from, and you’re wanting some relief. A lot of times when people are sad or depressed, they’ll reach for the comfort foods: the donuts, the ice creams, the cakes and the cookies. But again, with the law of attraction, like attracts like. If you’re already feeling that way, you’re going to be more drawn to those types of things, because they vibrate there. But if you know that, and you can make a conscious decision and say, “I’m feeling kind of low today. I want to uplift my energy and I’m having a little bit of a struggle doing it emotionally right now, so I’m going to reach for something that’ll help support that movement. I’m going to eat a salad. I’m going to eat an apple.” Things like that. It can help.

PTM: Which foods give us the most energy?

JA: Anything that’s made from the earth, that’s nourished from the earth’s elements will give us a lot more energy. Even if you’re going to eat an orange versus orange juice, even things like that. Foods in their most complete form are made specifically to nourish us in the best possible ways. So even by keeping an orange fully intact and eating it that way can offer more energy than an orange juice could. That’s not to say that you can’t eat cooked whole foods. You can because your body knows what to do with that and how to break it down.

PTM: How do we gauge what types of foods we need or energy we need from our food?

JA: They say that if you’re craving something sweet, that you’re actually craving more sweetness in your life. And if you’re craving something salty, you’re searching for something more grounded. You’re wanting to be more grounded within your life. So, our cravings will give us a lot of information about what we’re actually needing energetically and emotionally. It’s learning to translate what the body is saying into giving us a direction of where we can go with it.

 PTM: If someone is just starting to connect with the energy of their food, what are some ways that they can do that?

JA: What works for one person is not going to work for the next person. It really is coming back to the mindfulness practice of how foods make you feel. There are a couple of ways that you can do that including approaching it from a beginner’s mind and taking a week to eat clean and cut out dairy, gluten and processed foods and see how you feel. Then add things back one at a time and make a note of how you feel then. You can also journal each day, or if you really want to learn about yourself, journal each meal. Think about “What did I eat? How did I feel after this? How was my energy after that meal?” Really tune in to how you feel. Also, if you’re trying to lose weight, ask yourself before you reach for anything, “Is this really serving my highest good?” Think about the kind of energy that you want to have and whether that particular food would serve as fuel for that energy.

Additional Resource

Jean is happy to offer you a copy of her free e-book called How to Energize Your Life. Through it, she shares information, insights, and “Mindfulness Practices” to better assist you in creating not only what you want in life, but to release what that you don’t.

The post Eating with Intention appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

Please Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through some of the links included in this post. You can read my disclosure policy here.

Healthy Eating Isn’t a Diet, It’s a Lifestyle

When I completely changed how I was eating, my mom kept asking me, “What do you call your diet?” My answer to her was always “It’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle.” I just woke up one day, decided I didn’t like the way I had been feeling and that I wanted to do something about it. Up until then, I was fully addicted to caffeine, loved sugar and carbs and could easily down an entire bag of pita chips in one sitting if I was stressed.

Having a child with multiple food allergies, I considered what I ate to be moderately healthy. I had learned to keep it fairly basic, cook most of our meals at home and do most of our shopping at the farmers market. It wasn’t until I realized how dependent I was on the sugar and simple carbs in my diet and how little of anything green I was actually eating that I decided I was going to try to do better for myself. I went cold turkey off caffeine, started drinking green smoothies in the morning, learned what kale actually looked like and came to love quinoa. By focusing primarily on what I ate, I started feeling better and, as a bonus, dropped 35 pounds without counting a calorie.

Not Perfect, Just Real

While I’m the first to admit that my diet isn’t perfect, and I’m always eager to learn about new foods and the science behind what we eat, one thing has become clear to me. Food is key to our overall wellness. What we eat can make us feel good, it can make us feel “icky” or it can even contribute to many of the diseases and health issues that many of us assume just happen.

In his book, Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?, Dr. Mark Hyman says, “Food exists specifically to energize, heal, repair and uplift us. Every bite you take is a powerful opportunity to create health or promote disease.” The quality of what we eat is everything, and yet, we’ve relegated eating to one of the most automatic and thoughtless things we do. We “throw something together” or “squeeze it in” on the way from one activity to another. While thinking about and preparing our food doesn’t need to be all-consuming, it should be one of the most intentional things we do so that we can be proactive and take charge of our health and wellness. As Dr. Hyman says, “Food is not just calories; it’s medicine.”

Eating Healthy Focuses on Whole Foods

According to nutritionist Megan Spencer from SL/M Nutrition Coaching, “Healthy depends on each person. But it’s important to focus on balance, flexibility, being kind to yourself if it doesn’t work out perfectly and also focusing on whole foods.” Whole foods are real food. Except for meat, poultry and seafood, they’re pretty much recognizable from what they would look like in nature. In fact, at its core, healthy eating is actually fairly simple. Focus on what you would find in nature, not on the inside aisles of the grocery store. While some whole foods are better for us than others, if you start there, you’re going to be on the right path.

Which Whole Foods Should We Focus On for Healthy Eating?

Even when it comes to whole foods, there are a number of different theories out there about what exactly we should be eating. To keep it simple, here are some of the top takeaways from Dr. Hyman. 

1. Grass-fed Meat, Organic Poultry and Wild Caught Seafood are “Nutritionally Superior”

This is compared to their factory-farmed counterparts. Grass-fed meat, organic poultry and wild caught seafood are eating what their bodies were designed to eat and therefore contain higher levels of nutrients and healthy fats than animals eating a diet that is foreign to them. According to Dr. Hyman, “Studies show that today’s chickens have fewer anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, more inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids, and substantially fewer vitamins and minerals.” Your local farmers market is always going to be your best bet for knowing how your meat and poultry are raised and where your seafood comes from. But, if you don’t have one nearby and don’t have a grocery store that you can rely on for this, Dr. Hyman provides a list of possible resources in his book. You can also check out Root and Revel’s list of online resources for organic, sustainable and grass-fed meat delivery options.

2. Vegetables Should Be Eaten at Every Meal

Dr. Hyman advises that “Non-starchy vegetables like spinach, asparagus, broccoli and kale should make up 50 to 75 percent of your plate with a small portion of animal protein as ‘condi-meat.” To make sure that you’re avoiding pesticides and other chemicals when eating your vegetables, try to buy organic as much as possible. If that’s not possible financially, check out the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen List that tells you which vegetables and fruit are the worst offenders when it comes to pesticide residue.

3. We Don’t Need Added Sugar in Our Food

When it comes to sugar, Dr. Hyman reminds us that, “Sweet things in nature are always safe to eat and they are a quick source of energy that helps us store fat for times of scarcity.” But, “Sugar has become such a pervasive part of our food landscape that we’re chronically overdosing on it.” The bottom line is that we do not need added sugar in our food, and it’s causing a lot of damage in the form of diseases and ailments that we could all live without. If you are going to eat added sugar, Dr. Hyman advises no more than 5 teaspoons a day (or 21 grams). Compare that to the 22 teaspoons a day he says most adults consume and the 35 teaspoons a day that most kids consume, and you can see why we have so many sugar-related problems.

Getting Back in the Kitchen

If we’re going to be eating healthy, there’s no way around it, we’ve got to get back in the kitchen. To paraphrase one of my favorite lines from a recorded talk given by wellness guru Kris Carr, it doesn’t matter whether it’s men or women, but somebody’s got to get back into the (expletive) kitchen! Exactly! Our kitchens are where the magic happens and where good health is cultivated. As nutritionist Megan Spencer reminds us, “The best thing about cooking at home is that you have full control of the ingredients you’re using. Knowledge is power, and you have control over the decisions you make.”

Tips for Healthy Eating

Megan offers these tips for making healthy eating part of your lifestyle.

• Start with the basics. There’s no need to think you have to cook the fanciest and most difficult recipes you can find. Be realistic and master the basics first.
• Take advantage of short cuts at the grocery store. There are a lot of pre-chopped vegetables and salad mixes with all of the ingredients already included. These definitely cost more than the do-it-yourself versions, but even if you can’t sustain this for the long-term, it’s a good way to help ease yourself back into the kitchen.
• Focus on progress, not perfection. That might mean starting with dinner as a family, cooked from scratch once or twice a week and then build on that.
• Increase the good stuff before you take anything away. This means increasing things like vegetables, whole grains and lean meats. The idea is that you’re not depriving yourself of anything (far from it!) because when you eat more healthy food, then there’s simply less room for junky foods.
• If alcohol and sweets are a must have for you, cut back from what you were having before and put something healthy in their place. For example, if you’re used to having a glass of wine every night to help you relax, cut back to two or three times a week and maybe drink herbal tea the other nights.
• Planning is very important. Even if you can’t plan for a whole week, just having the right supplies in the fridge and in the pantry will set you up for success.

What We Eat Fuels Our Body

If we put junk and artificial food in, then we’re not giving it much to run on. If we put goodness in, then we’re more apt to get strength, vitality, and good health out. Healthy eating doesn’t demand perfection, but it does require being in touch with ourselves enough to understand what our body is saying it needs. Start listening, and the results may truly surprise you.

Additional Resources

If you need additional healthy lifestyle support and resources geared specifically for women over 40, I offer my Reclaim Your Energy and Revitalize Your Life workshop, membership in the Empowered Health and Wellness for Women Over 40 Facebook group, and personalized one-on-one health and nutrition coaching. If you need more information on any of these, feel free to reach out to info@peppermint-tea.com.

The post How to Make Healthy Eating Part of Your Lifestyle appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

We’ve all gotten sidetracked at one time or another when it comes to healthy eating and exercise. Life happens, we get bored or we might lose sight of why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place. It’s not the end of the world. The most important thing is recognizing what’s going on and getting back on track. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but it’s probably easier than you might think – especially if you use these 10 steps for restoring your health and wellness to guide you along the way.

1. Acknowledge that you’ve gotten off track. As with anything, this is the critical first step – acknowledging that we’re not happy with the way things are going or that we want them to improve. It’s hard to make any changes if we don’t do this first. This isn’t meant to judge or to be hard on ourselves. It’s just looking at the situation in a very matter-of-fact way and recognizing that we want something to be different.
2. Track macros and other nutrients if possible. I am not a proponent of this on a regular basis because it’s too easy to get obsessed with it, but it is a beneficial exercise to do for a week or so if we feel like we’ve gotten off track from where we want to be. Unless weight loss is your goal, that’s not how this is meant to be used. This is primarily to let us see how many carbs and how much sugar we’re really taking in every day. That’s not to say that either of these are necessarily bad, but if they are the wrong types of each, they could be among the culprits for us not feeling our best. Complex carbs and natural sugar from whole fruits and vegetables are usually okay. But if we’ve gotten off track, it may be that we’re eating too many processed foods which tend to be loaded with simple carbs and added sugar. While eating those types of food every now and then is okay, we have to be careful that “every now and then” doesn’t become every day. Tracking what we’re eating and figuring out what that really meant for our numbers that day is an eye-opening way to recognize where we may be getting off track. Keeping up with other nutrients is all the better. If we can make a connection between something we might have been low in for the day or for a few days in a row and how we were feeling those days, it can be very helpful in recognizing where corrections need to be made.
3. Accept responsibility. When we get off track, it’s very easy to blame outside circumstances and to convince ourselves that we really didn’t have control over the situation. Life does happen, but we need to recognize that’s it’s still our choice as to how we handle different situations. Again, this doesn’t mean that we should be beating ourselves up, but it does mean that we should recognize where we’ve made our choices and what the consequences of those choices were. It’s truly an empowering truth. We are the only ones responsible for our health and wellbeing. While our life circumstances may change from month to month or even day to day, and we do have to be flexible, it’s still our choice as to whether we find a way to do the things that keep us healthy or not.
4. Think about how you’re currently feeling and how you felt when you were feeling good or at least better. This exercise is most effective if the responses can be written down. That way we can easily compare the two and recognize how we want to be feeling and whether that’s different than how we’re currently feeling.
5. List your current challenges to eating healthy or exercising. The more specific we can get with this, the better. Don’t just say, “I don’t have enough time right now.” If we had time at one point, we can find it again. If it’s that “The kids are out of school for the summer, and our schedule is very unpredictable,” then say that. Or, if it’s that you’re planning certain meals at the beginning of the week and then don’t find them very appealing when it comes time to make them, admit that. Or, “I’m in a food rut, and it’s all just boring right now.” Say that. Be honest. No one is judging us on our answers, but the more specific we can be on what our current roadblocks are, the more specific the solutions can be.
6. Set new goals – short-term and long-term. We have to start where we are with this, not where we were previously. If it’s that cooking meals at home has become more difficult, we can’t rely on the fact that we were cooking at home every night at one point. If that’s no longer happening for whatever reason, it’s no longer happening. While it’s critical that we set short-term goals to get us where we want to be, it’s also important to set long-term ones as well. Sometimes we get off track because we lose sight of the big picture of what we want for ourselves in the first place, and sometimes this happens because the long-term goals we once set no longer fit. That’s fine. Re-evaluate and set new ones.
7. Get specific with possible solutions. Once we know what our current challenges and new goals are, we can list possible specific solutions. The more specific we can be with this, the better. If cooking meals at home again is a goal, then get back to a reasonable starting point of saying that three to four meals for the first week is what we’re shooting for. Once we’re back in the habit, it will become more natural again. If getting exercise in has become difficult, aim for two to three days for the first week.
8. Recruit a partner or partners to help you. This is huge because accountability and support can make the difference between whether we’re able to get back on track or not. The most important thing is that it’s someone we feel okay being completely honest with and who won’t judge us because we were doing great and have now gotten sidetracked. This can be one person or many people – whatever works best. If putting it all out there on social media and asking for help and support that way feels comfortable, then by all means, go for it. The main thing is that a support network is in place.
9. Adopt a positive attitude about health and wellness goals. If it’s not something that excites us or makes us feel good, it’s not going to work – again. Drudgery is not what we’re going for here, and if that’s how we’re feeling about it, then that’s probably why we got sidetracked in the first place. Really recognizing why we’re doing what we’re doing and the impact it’s going to have on our overall wellbeing can help get us back in the right frame of mind.
10. Give yourself some grace. This is probably one of the most important steps we can take when getting back on track. We are not perfect. No one is. But that doesn’t mean we don’t keep trying. Beating ourselves up because we didn’t get exercise in one day or that we had two days of eating foods that we knew weren’t good for us isn’t going to help anything. We have to simply accept it, think about it enough to figure out why we made the choices we did and work to make choices we do feel good about the next day.

Getting sidetracked doesn’t mean we’re failing, and it doesn’t mean we can’t still accomplish our health goals. Sometimes getting sidetracked shows us where tweaks need to be made in what we’re working for in the first place, and sometimes getting off course just happens. It’s all okay. The most important thing is that we learn from it and move on toward our best life possible.

Lean on Your Community

If you need help or support in getting back on track, leave a comment below, head over to the Peppermint Tea & Me Facebook page or to keep it more private, feel free to email me at Robyn@robynmooring.com.

The post Getting back on Track with Your Health appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

(updated June 5, 2019)

When we go on vacation, we want it to be relaxing and fun. In most cases, the last thing we want to think about is whether we’re being healthy or not. After all, this is our time to take it easy on ourselves. While that’s definitely true, if we do everything differently than we do at home, we may end up feeling run down, tired, having digestive problems because we’re eating differently and just not ourselves before the vacation is even over.

Integrated living is an important concept all of the time and not one that you can really take time off from. But that’s the whole idea. Recognizing how everything is connected shouldn’t be a burden, a hardship or create a lifestyle that isn’t enjoyable. It isn’t something that you should need a break from and is a mindset that you should want to take with you wherever you go. Yes, when you are in a different place or have a different schedule, you do have to be flexible. But you don’t have to compromise on everything and your health certainly shouldn’t suffer. That’s why we’re going to take a look at a few ways you can keep it relaxing, fun and healthy all at the same time.

Vacation Pitfalls

If you’re spending the entire week at one place – like a grandparent’s or the beach – it’s fairly easy to have at least some control over your routine and what you’re eating. It’s when you’re on a vacation where you’re staying in a hotel the whole time or moving from place to place frequently that things can get a little more challenging.

In my family, we usually put our vacations into two categories – “do nothing” and “see stuff.” The “do nothing” ones are where, you guessed it, we go to do as little as possible and to just relax (hello beach!). The biggest pitfall I run into on these types of vacations, especially now that our kids are older, is that before I know it, I haven’t truly moved in several days, and I start to feel it. Sitting for long periods of time without getting up and stretching or moving is just as unhealthy on vacation as it is when I’m working.

The “see stuff” vacations are where we do a lot of sightseeing or other types of activities. If I’m not careful, I tend to get a little crazy with these. I simply want to pack as much into the time as possible – to the point of wearing everyone out. Eating even halfway healthy is also a challenge on these types of vacations – although it is possible.

Healthy Vacation Eating

When you think about it, how you fuel your body is just as important when you’re on vacation as it is at any other time. What you eat is part of what gives you energy and makes you feel good. That doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself to local specialties – by all means, take advantage of getting to taste different foods than you might not get to have otherwise. But remember, if it’s something that would make you feel bad at home, it will probably make you feel worse on vacation.

Here are some tips for keeping it somewhat healthy while you’re away.

Take your own snacks for the airport and plane ride. Yes, you can take many food items through security, just remember that all food must undergo x-ray screening. This will keep you from relying only on the packaged cookies that are offered by the airlines and will prevent you from being ravenous once you reach your destination when you still have to get your luggage and possibly a rental car. According to the TSA website, “Solid food items (not liquids or gels) can be transported in either your carry-on or checked bags. Liquid or gel food items larger than 3.4 oz. are not allowed in carry-on bags and should be placed in your checked bags if possible.” For a list of what is and is not allowed, visit the TSA website.

Suggestions include:

• Fresh whole fruit
• Carrots and celery (in a baggie or container)
• Natural nuts (this is one place where you do have control over whether you can avoid refined oils) ** If you’re sitting next to someone you don’t know, be sure and check with them first about any nut allergies
• Chunks of real cheese **out of consideration for other passengers, avoid strong-smelling cheeses.

If you’re traveling with someone with food allergies, Million Mile Secrets has a helpful guide on How to Fly Safely With Food Allergies. You’ll definitely want to check it out because it will help you know what to expect and how to prepare, which, as anyone with food allergies knows, can make all the difference in whether a vacation is stressful or truly relaxing.

Pack snacks and healthy breakfast and/or lunch items for long car rides. This is an easy one when it comes to staying healthy (and on a budget) on vacation.

Suggestions include:

• Natural nuts
• Whole fruit
• Pack a cooler and load with hummus, cut up veggies, cut fruit, pre-made (at home) salads, chunks of real cheese
• Waters
• Whole wheat bread, peanut butter and jelly
• Whole wheat or other healthy-ish crackers

Stock your hotel mini-fridge (and cooler if you have a car). Once you arrive to your destination, make one of your first stops the grocery store. My family recently took a trip to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and surrounding areas. I packed a big cooler bag in my suitcase, and once we got there, we stopped at a grocery store and loaded up on food for breakfast and lunch for the week. This enabled us to meet everyone’s different dietary needs* and to have plenty of food along as we hiked and did different activities. Simply pack lunch before you head out for the day and put it in backpacks to take with you.

Suggestions include:

• Pre-peeled boiled eggs
• Natural nuts
• Whole fruit
• Hummus
• Cut up veggies
• Cut fruit
• Pre-made salads
• Chunks of real cheese
• Waters
• Whole wheat bread, peanut butter and jelly
• Whole wheat or other healthy-ish crackers
• Oatmeal (plain because everything else is loaded with sugar)
• Healthy-ish cereals (If you don’t regularly eat cereal, vacation is not necessarily the time to start because it can cause serious bloating and digestive issues if that’s not something you’re used to. I speak from experience on this!)

*Full disclosure – this type of eating was not necessarily the best for my teenage protein-fueled/several thousand calorie-a-day weightlifter son. He was “starving” (according to him) and felt pretty bad by the end of the trip.  I’m still trying to figure out the best way to travel with him when we’re not just staying in one place the entire time. I’ll let you know what I figure out.

Down time

Scheduling in some down time each day is a must for a successful vacation. If you’re doing a “see stuff”- type trip, it can be very tempting to want to pack every minute. But then everyone starts to get very tired and grouchy and that’s not good for anyone. Making sure that there’s an hour or two every day for each person to just relax and do their own thing can make all the difference in the world. We know to do this when we have babies, but it’s just as important for older kids, teens and adults too.

Be sure and agree on the maximum amount of time that’s going to be set aside so that everyone is on the same page. If everyone is ready to get at it again before then, that’s fine.

Suggestions for how to spend down time include:

• Nap
• Read
• Meditate (or just go off and be quiet by yourself)
• Exercise

Sleep

This one is really fairly straightforward. Make sure to get enough sleep while on vacation. Getting a regular seven to eight hours is important for everyone and can make the difference between a miserable day or one that’s so good you’ll never forget it. If there’s a snorer in the bunch, try to get him (or her) to sleep on their side. Just in case that doesn’t work though, everyone else may want to have ear buds or ear muffs at the ready.

These are just a few of the ways you can make sure that you’re staying as healthy as possible while on vacation. We’re not talking about weight gain here. Those pounds will come off. The main thing is that you feel good so that you don’t miss a minute of making memories. If you can do that, you’ve had a successful vacation.

The post Maintaining Your Health While on Vacation appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

Many people who are interested in learning more about meditation often don’t because they get caught up in the idea that their setting has to be perfect or that they need hours every day to learn how to do it “right.” While it’s fabulous if you do have an ideal setting or plenty of time to go on a retreat, it’s not necessary. Meditation for beginners doesn’t depend on the setting, and to some extent, it doesn’t depend on the length of time you do it. In fact, it’s probably not as hard as you may think. The most important thing is that it’s about what happens inside you.

What is Meditation?

The point of most meditation techniques is not to be some esoteric practice that takes you out of or keeps you distant from what’s going on in the world. Just the opposite. The goal is to give you a more manageable way to be part of what’s going on inside of and around you. That’s what meditation for beginners is all about.

Laura Irwin is a meditation coach and wellness writer at Inspired Meditations. She acknowledges that meditation works differently for everyone. “If I have someone who is religious, they may relate it to prayer.” But, she adds, if someone doesn’t want to think of it in spiritual terms, that’s perfectly fine. It can be a form of personal growth through “taking time for yourself, mindfulness in the present moment, self-reflection or deep relaxation.”

Ways Meditation Can Help in Real Life

There are a number of ways meditation can help in everyday life. Laura says the overarching theme that she’s experienced herself and that her clients have expressed is the ability to “see things from a bigger perspective.” In other words, being able to take a step back or pause before reacting. This pause lets you take a broader view of what’s going on and what you want your response to be. It doesn’t keep you insulated or distanced from the situation, but it helps to keep you from becoming swept under by the hectic, seemingly out-of-control current that is often our daily lives. It offers a calmness in the middle of the crazy that lets you prioritize and put things in perspective.

Because of this enhanced calmness and clarity, meditation can also help with insomnia, anxiety and depression. Laura says that it allows people to recognize that, “I’m sad right now, but this isn’t going to last forever. Or, I’m anxious right now, but this is only going to be for a half hour or maybe a couple of days.”

Primary Types of Meditation

Depending on who you talk to, the number of various meditation techniques can be numerous or boiled down to a few similar concepts. Since it can be fairly overwhelming (see the stack of books I am now reading on the subject), Laura helped to break meditation for beginners down to some of the basic techniques.

Guided meditation

In this type of meditation, either a recording or teacher guides you into a state of deep relaxation through positive suggestions and affirmations. The primary benefit is that you don’t have to listen to your mind because you’re more focused on what someone else is saying. They can be done in person with a teacher or many are available as digital downloads or on apps. Laura offers numerous free guided meditations at Inspired Meditations and says this form of meditation is “the best way to achieve optimal relaxation, relieve stress naturally and eliminate bad habits while creating new, positive behaviors and mindsets.”

Mindfulness meditation

This technique focuses on your breath and following it as it goes in and out. As your mind wanders, you gently return it back to your breath. This helps to bring focus to the present moment, but it also allows you to monitor your thoughts and experience and just simply let things pass by without judgment.

Movement meditation

Some examples of this include certain types of yoga (such as Kundalini), Tai Chi, Qi Gong, walking, gratitude stretching, dancing and self-massage. Laura says the movements should be slow and involve the whole body. There should be no gadgets or fitness goals involved. Click here for more on what Laura has to say about movement meditation.

Loving Kindness Meditation

This type of meditation offers care and consideration for yourself and for others. Some of the general phrases that are used include, “May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be patient” and so on. Then you turn it around to others, whether you like them or not. “May you be happy, may you be healthy and may you be patient.” Laura says Loving Kindness Meditation has been described as friendliness toward yourself and others.

Transcendental Meditation

This technique uses a mantra to help you get focused and to ultimately transcend “the noise” of your thoughts and what’s going on around you. Note: this type of meditation requires a teacher and can be fairly expensive to learn. Obviously, that cost could be offset when you compare it to the cost of potential medical issues that may arise that could be prevented with the help of meditation, but it’s definitely something to be aware of. Click here to find out more about Transcendental Meditation.

Mantra meditation

This type of meditation uses the vibrations of mantras and sounds to connect the mind and the body. One phrase that Laura learned was, “Every day in every way, I’m getting better and better.” And of course, we’re all familiar with the Sanskrit om. The purpose of using a mantra meditation is to focus fully on the sound or phrase as you’re saying it, which will ultimately take you to a different level of awareness. Click here for a great article on mantra meditation.

Meditation for Beginners: Getting Started

What’s the best way to get started with meditation? Laura has these suggestions.

• Choose a time that works for you. Many people find that meditating in the morning is a good way to get their mind ready for the day, but for others, mornings are simply too busy. If that’s the case, consider meditating at night or during the middle of the day if you have the opportunity.
• Have a goal. Whether it’s to wean yourself off anxiety medication or to improve your performance at work, having a goal helps to keep you focused on the outcomes you want.
• Go to a class. While you don’t have to have a teacher to meditate, it can be helpful and a quick way to see results to have someone else guiding you through the process. It also offers a level of accountability and someone else to ask reflective questions that help you track your progress.
• Alternate days. Laura encourages alternating the days that you meditate so that you can do it one day and reflect on your experience and any changes that are happening the next.
• Guided meditations. Laura says these tend to have the most noticeable effect and are the biggest bang for your meditating buck right away. If you want to see results fast, you should definitely consider guided meditations.
• Invest your time in it. While Laura doesn’t believe that meditation should have to take hours, she is an advocate for putting into it what we want to get out. She says that 20 minutes for each main session is a good amount of time to reap the benefits. If you want to add in 5-minute sessions at other times during the day, you’ll get that much more out of it.
• Keep a meditation journal. After each month, write down what’s happened or hasn’t happened. Notice things like whether your relationships are changing, if you’re being more productive at work and if your mind is calming down. Be patient with the process, but if you don’t start to notice changes after a few months, you may want to evaluate whether you should meditate more or differently.

My Experience with Meditation

While I can’t say that I formally meditate every day, I do try to begin the day by quietening my overactive mind in one way or another. By doing this, I’ve noticed a big difference in my overall mindset and to some degree in the way I’m able to handle stressful situations. I’ve still got a long way to go though and would like to have a more regular practice that I could rely on to help quiet my brain more and to help me sleep through the night. That’s why I’m starting my own meditation experiment and will be sharing what I learn with you along the way. Real health is recognizing that our nutrition, health and wellness are all connected, and from what I’ve seen so far, I believe that meditation is a key component of that. I hope what I find benefits us all.

Lean on Your Community

Do you have a regular meditation practice? If so, please share what it is and how it benefits you in the comments section below or over on the Peppermint Tea Holistic Health & Wellness Facebook page.

The post Meditation for Beginners: 7 Tips for Getting Started appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

I’ve had quite a few people say to me that they want to adopt a healthier lifestyle, but they just don’t have time right now to figure out how to do it or what exactly that looks like for them. I completely get it, but if you think about it, when we’re at our busiest, craziest and stretched to the limit, that’s when we need to be our healthiest and sanest or something’s going to give. We’re simply going to fall apart. So, I get not having time, but on the flip side, can you really afford not to spend the time getting started on a healthier lifestyle?

Getting Started on a Healthier Lifestyle

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Even baby steps toward getting started on a healthier lifestyle can make all the difference in the world and put you well on your way to feeling better, having more energy and simply being able to cope with life a little easier than might be happening now. That’s why I wanted to share the things I consider to be the easiest steps you can take that will make the most difference. I dig deeper into why these things help so much in other posts, but here, we’re just keeping it simple. Feel free to click on the links to the more in-depth posts once you have more time.

1. Begin to change how you eat.

I did this very gradually as I was getting started on a healthier lifestyle, and then, once I noticed how good I was feeling, I wanted to do more. I started by adding more dark green leafy vegetables and other brightly colored vegetables, which simply didn’t leave as much room for unhealthy stuff. While prepping vegetables does take a little more time than opening a box or can of something, if you set aside a few minutes on the weekend or while you’re waiting for something else to cook at night, you can have what you need ready so that it’s as easy as the processed and packaged alternatives.

I also started taking out simple carbs – again, replacing them with more vegetables. What made the most difference was reducing the amount of white bread and pasta I was eating. In doing that, I realized that I was addressing part of what was making me feel so bad in the first place. I fairly quickly stopped feeling so heavy and weighted down even before the pounds started coming off, and it definitely helped to regulate my blood sugar.

My morning green smoothie. I wanted to share the recipe for the basic green smoothie that was one of the first things I used to replace other not as healthy breakfast foods and that’s still one of my favorites. This is a powerhouse of nutrition as your day is just getting started. By the way, I also use the cheapest blender possible, so while it’s great if you have a really nice one, it’s not necessary. The recipe I use as my standby is a combination of other recipes I’ve picked up along the way. You can easily add other ingredients as you like. It makes 1 serving.

½ to ¾ cups almond milk

½ to ¾ cups kale

4 slices cucumber

½ banana

2-3 tablespoons frozen blueberries

2 tablespoons hemp seeds

½ cup of ice cubes (to add some thickness)

2 tablespoons of almond butter (natural – no sugar or oils added) **If I’m going to exercise afterward. If not, I don’t add the almond butter.

2. Get your mind ready for the day.

Instead of checking your phone the second you wake up, wake up 20 minutes early and let yourself lay there for a minute and just be. Then do 15-20 min of meditation, a gratitude exercise or whatever else helps you to set your brain for the day ahead. I’ve always jumped out of bed immediately when the alarm clock rang – sometimes in a “I can’t wait to start the day” way, but more often in an “I need to do this and this and this” way. My mind naturally starts racing the second I become even somewhat aware that it’s time to get up – even before I fully open my eyes. That’s why this has been a day changer for me. I let myself just be, reel my thoughts back in and take several deep breaths. Then, ideally, I’ll get up and do 15-20 minutes of meditation, list three to five things I’m grateful for or just sit and be quiet. The main thing is that I don’t let my scattered thoughts or “to do” list take over.

I fully admit this is a little difficult for me because I am usually awake some during the night. By the time I get back to sleep, it’s hard to then wake up 20 minutes earlier than I absolutely have to. But, this made such a difference when I was getting started on a healthier lifestyle that it’s well worth being a little groggier at first than I might be otherwise.

3. Move.

Even if you’re having trouble adding regular exercise into your daily routine, find a way to add in some movement. Dr. Heidi Hanna reminds us in her book Relax Your Fat Off that “As human beings, we were built to move.” But many of us now sit behind a computer at a desk for much of the day, and we’re simply not moving nearly as much as we could or should be. While getting in a good workout of some type every day is ideal, even general activity boosts your metabolism. Dr. Hanna suggests setting a timer to alert you every hour and then get up and move for three to five minutes. Here are some of her recommended ways for doing that:

• Just walk around – down the block and back or simply to another part of the building.
• Do a few squats next to your chair
• Climb the stairs
• Use a standing desk for a while and do some calf raises
• Make a few calls using a headset and walk while talking

You don’t have to make a choice between turning your life upside down in getting started on a healthy lifestyle or doing nothing. That’s what real health is all about. Anything you do is connected to everything else. There are steps that you can take no matter how busy you are that will have a dramatic effect on how you feel and toward your overall outlook on life.

Lean on Your Community

What are three seemingly little healthy steps that you can take this week that maybe you’ve been putting off because you didn’t think you had enough time or energy to put into them? Let us know in the comments below or over on Facebook. We’re here to support each other!

The post 3 Tips to Getting Started on a Healthier Lifestyle appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

Do you want to be healthy? I mean down to your core healthy? If so, I’m here to let you in on a not-so-little secret. Your key to success for a healthy lifestyle doesn’t necessarily start with how many miles you run or walk, how much salad you eat for lunch every day or how many minutes you meditate in the morning. These and many more components all play important roles in a healthy lifestyle, but there’s one thing needed to bring it all together so that you can live your most vibrant and healthy life. Planning.

That’s right, planning. It may not sound very sexy, but it’s where we all have to start and the place we sometimes have to come back to. That can be true even if you have a regular exercise routine in place but still aren’t feeling your best; you eat the healthiest of diets but still don’t have enough energy or you’re a master at mindfulness but can’t quite manage to get movement into your schedule. If any of this is true for you, these tips for achieving a healthy lifestyle will help you come up with a blueprint for the healthiest you possible – and it all starts with planning.

Jessica Martin-Brassington from over at Unprocessed Jess is a health and wellness blogger, health coach and busy mom. She also speaks from experience after having lost herself in trying to be all things to everyone. Fortunately for us, she reclaimed her health, found herself and her voice and is now helping other women find the healthiest versions of themselves.

She says, “whole health is way more than the food on your plate and looking great naked (even though it helps). It’s so much more than that. It’s addressing all the areas of our life – physical, our relationships, our work life purpose and our spirituality – because they’re all connected, and they affect the other in a negative or positive way.” I call this Integrated Living, she calls it Whole Health. Either way, we’re talking about the same thing and all of these factors are what a healthy lifestyle is all about. But planning is key.

“Health should be something that doesn’t wax or wane with the seasons of life. It should be something that’s integrated into your life regardless.” – Jessica Martin-Brassington

Prioritize Your Healthy Lifestyle

So where do you start? You have to prioritize. You have to put yourself first. This isn’t selfish or self-centered. It’s what’s going to take you beyond just surviving and skyrocket you to thriving. As Jessica cautions, “if you’re not okay, you can’t be the best version of yourself for your relationships or the roles that you serve.”  I’ll admit, this is a tough one for me too, and I am completely a work in progress. But the minute you make the commitment to putting as much thought into how you’re going to make some time to exercise as you do into getting little Jimmy to soccer practice, you’re on your way.

Jessica recommends asking yourself why you’re doing the things that you’re doing that are taking away from yourself. Make a list of everything you’re doing in a day, from getting the kids up and out the door, to driving to and from work, to sitting and waiting for someone to finish an activity. This “where am I spending my time list” will help you see where your time is going and where you can or cannot add things in.

Big Picture – What’s Important to You?

You have to know where you are before you can know where you’re going. To help figure this out, Jessica, who received her health coach certification from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) has her clients do an exercise where they rate how satisfied they are in different areas of their life. This Circle of Life exercise was developed by IIN and covers a wide range of areas including spirituality, career, health, physical activity, home cooking and relationships.

I encourage you to finish reading this, do the exercise, then come back and go through the steps. There are no wrong or right answers, it’s simply a matter of trying to get you to start where you are.

This gives you a visual depiction of areas you most need to work on or that are out of alignment. Are you skipping meals then going through the drive-thru because you’re too hungry and cooking will take too long? Are you not getting enough sleep? Are you sitting all day and not moving? These are the questions you need to ask yourself.

See which areas you’re doing okay in and which areas are lacking. The areas that are lacking are the ones that you need to focus on adding more room for in your day. These should be included in a big picture priority list.

Time to be Realistic for a Healthy Lifestyle

The next step in planning for your healthy lifestyle is to make a list of all the things that have to be done each day. You can do this by going back to the list of how you’re spending your time and highlighting the things that absolutely have to be done. This probably includes but is not limited to kids, eating, work, errands, homework, etc.

These shouldn’t be the things that you have to do because you signed up or volunteered for something. These are the things that you have no choice in. Jessica says this list should only include the things that are already “have tos” in your day, not what you think should be added. If you already consider exercising or cooking at home or other things like that as non-negotiable items, those should be highlighted on your list. The items you highlighted are going to be considered your “have tos.”

Scheduling Time for a Healthy Lifestyle – Crowding Out the Undesirable

Next, you’re going to look at everything that’s not highlighted on the list of how you’re spending your time. Are there things on there that you don’t really enjoy, that you find yourself complaining about, and that are taking away from your time to be healthy and that you truly don’t have to do?

Instead of serving on four PTA committees, can you cut back and serve on one? Instead of always being the first to take on extra projects at work, can you cut back and take on one every now and then? Jessica says one of the main things she has learned about being able to get healthy and stay healthy is how to say no.

She learned this the hard way but now puts herself and her health first. She talks about her daughter writing a paper for school where she described her mom as happy. Jessica says that certainly wouldn’t have been the case three or four years earlier. Would your children or spouse describe you as happy? Which is the better choice – to be an involved parent and role model for good health or to be someone who signs up for everything but is then miserable and complaining every step of the way?

Keep your answer in mind as you begin Jessica’s process of figuring out how you’re going to start crowding out the undesirable stuff with the components of a healthy lifestyle. This isn’t about being perfect, this is about starting where you are with realistic expectations.

Begin with a planner or blank online calendar. Then decide whether you’re going to start with two or three days or an entire week. Fill the items from your “have to” list into the planner or calendar. Then, figure out where you freed up some minutes from your list of how you’re currently spending your time, and look at your big picture list of items you want to be doing to feel good and healthy. Focus on the first one or two priorities at the top of your list. Whatever is most realistic for you. If your goal is to exercise five days a week, but you’re currently not doing anything, then figure out when you can exercise one to three times a week to begin with. If exercising for an hour seems unrealistic, start with 20 or 30 minutes. Once that becomes part of your routine, you’ll probably be able to find where you can fit in another one or two days or more time each day.

It’s the same with meditating or any kind of spiritual practice. If your goal is to work in something like that with your morning routine, start by waking up 15 minutes earlier. Or instead of spending 15 minutes on your phone first thing, use that time to get yourself ready for the day mentally.

Put these kinds of things into your calendar at the beginning of the week (many people find that Sunday is best for this) and plan for and around them. As you’re able to start fitting in one or two things each week, you’ll see how they are possible. You can then either build on them the following week or continue down your big picture list of priorities and keep adding in.

Once you’ve seen how this could actually work for a couple of days, Jessica recommends using Google Calendar to keep track of everything. This is a useful tool because it can be kept for just one person or shared with your spouse or entire family.

Whatever tool you use, this is how you’re going to crowd out the undesirable stuff and add in the things that are going to make you healthier, more engaged, more focused and better able to show up for the things that really matter. When it comes to your health, a little planning can go a long way – in fact, it can change your life.

Lean on Your Community

What are your health goals, and what two steps can you take to achieve them? You can reply in the comments section below or head over to the Peppermint Tea and Me Facebook page and leave your answers there. We’re all here to support each other, so let us help you. Also, let us know how you’ve identified ways that you can free up time for yourself so others can get ideas too.

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