Here we are in August, enjoying the summer, trying to stay positive and react mindfully to the “craziness of everyday life”, right? 😊

Please find yourself some downtime, besides vacations and other summer activities and explorations.

In these three articles below, you will find good suggestions to

support you in having a Mindful Summer!

Enjoy!

6 Nighttime Routines for Total Relaxation

By Erin Easterly

Would you like to elevate your health, productivity, and mood? It is not as difficult as you might think. In fact, this task could be as simple as incorporating a few specific habits into your nighttime routine. The way in which you spend your evening hours can significantly influence the quality—and quantity—of your night’s sleep, which in turn has the potential to affect nearly every area of your life.

Ayurveda offers lifestyle tools that prepare the body for deep and revitalizing rest. The following simple practices are powerful methods of aligning your body and mind with the natural flow of intelligent energy within and around you. By regularly integrating these steps into your evening routine, you will unwind, relax, and become receptive to the deeply restorative energy of your resting hours.

1. Stop Eating 2–3 Hours Prior to Bed

According to Ayurveda, the Kapha energies of earth and water become increasingly prominent between the hours of 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. These dense energies will naturally slow the digestive process. Eating a large meal within two to three hours of bedtime can keep the body engaged in its “daytime” work of breaking down, assimilating, and disseminating nutrients. When the digestive process is still active, the production of sleep-inducing hormones (such as melatonin and somatotropin) may be delayed or diminished. By completing your evening meal two to three hours prior to bedtime, the body has time to shift from alert mode to rest mode, thus maximizing the repair-and-rejuvenation window.

If the urge to snack strikes between dinner and bedtime, opt for a cup of herbal tea instead. Unlike evening snacking, a cup of herbal tea can facilitate the release of sleep-inducing hormones without activating the digestive fire (or agni). Chamomile, passionflower, and lemon balm teas have all been shown to promote relaxation and restorative rest.

2. Prepare for the Next Day

A peaceful morning begins the night before. It is hard to unwind and rest once it’s time to sleep if your mind is brooding over the following morning’s to-do list. With a little preparation, you can allay concerns for tomorrow and set yourself up for a productive, peaceful day. Before turning in for the night, spend a few minutes in preparation for tomorrow.

• Set out your clothes.
• Fill up your water bottle.
• Prepare breakfast and lunch.
• Organize your personal space(s).
• Pack up your purse, backpack, or briefcase.

You may be surprised at how much better you rest by simply shifting a few morning tasks to the night before.

To set yourself up for maximum productivity the following day, you might try the 100-year-old Ivy Lee method.

• Each night, write down the six most important tasks that you need to accomplish the following day. Limit yourself to no more than six.
• Then prioritize those tasks in order of importance.
• When tomorrow arrives, start at the top of your list and get to work completing one task at a time.

As simple as this method sounds, it has a remarkable capacity to eliminate decision fatigue and invoke clarity. The Ivy Lee method will allow you to experience a restful sleep knowing that you are prepared to enter the next day with purpose and intention.

3. Shut Down Electronics and Turn Down the Lights an Hour Before Bed

Until the advent of artificial lighting, the sun was the major source of light. People spent their evenings in relative darkness. The body’s circadian rhythm evolved to respond to nature’s cyclical patterns of light and darkness. The sleep-signaling hormone melatonin, for example, is suppressed in the presence of light.

While light of any kind can hinder the secretion of melatonin, blue light from electronic devices does so more powerfully. Harvard researchers compared the effects of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to exposure to green light of comparable brightness. The blue light suppressed melatonin for about twice as long as the green light and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much (3 hours vs. 1.5 hours). To synchronize your body with nature’s infinite intelligence, get plenty of sunshine during the day, then turn down the lights and power down devices an hour before bedtime. Use that pre-bedtime hour to read, reflect, meditate, and spend time with loved ones. Taking the time to incorporate relaxing activities before bedtime will help you to de-compress before you fall asleep.

 

4. Enjoy a Bath or Foot Soak with Essential Oils

Ancient healing traditions have long used water as a means of cleansing the consciousness. From a Hindu’s dip in the holy waters of the Ganges River to a Christian’s baptismal immersion, water is a universal symbol of purification. In Ayurveda, water is one of the five Ayurvedic elements, known to soothe, calm, and settle both body and mind. To take advantage of water’s healing properties, take a warm bath and let it wash away any stress from the day. If there isn’t time in your evening routine for a bath, simply soak your feet in warm water for five to ten minutes.

To enhance the soothing properties of water, try adding essential oils. The essential oil lavender, for example, is known to rapidly penetrate into the bloodstream where it delivers its powerful packages of cellular information. Essential oils such as lavender, rose, and sandalwood have been used traditionally in Ayurveda for their relaxation properties.

5. Review Your Day

Whether you realize it or not, you are creating the narrative of your life. Each day provides content for your story. The lens through which you view that content will color your life story in either positive or negative hues. By spending less time reviewing the challenges, problems, and uncertainties of your day and more time reflecting on the beauty, blessings, and serendipities, you will craft an inspiring and uplifting story.

Take time to inventory your day, pausing to relive your positive moments. Give thanks for the good, letting your heart be permeated with gratitude. On the flip side, acknowledge challenges or conflicts, asking yourself what can be learned from them. Visualize your challenges, including the individuals in them, surrounded in white light. Then let your mind ruminate on the good that can come from the situation.

6. Repeat a Positive Affirmation

What you think about before you fall asleep influences your subconscious mind. In sleep, the conscious mind becomes secondary and the subconscious mind becomes primary. This is how unexpressed fears, hopes, and fantasies make their way into your dreams. While the subconscious mind can seem a bit elusive, it is actually quite easy to access. The period just before drifting off to sleep and again upon awakening, when the conscious mind is quiet, offers an open door to the subconscious mind. During this time you can change the programing of your subconscious mind by repeating affirmations. Use an affirmation like a mantra, repeating it gently over and over. Allow the gentle repetition to continue as you drift off to sleep. Below are a few affirmations to get you started:

• “Nothing can disturb the calm peace of my soul.” –Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher
• “I release resistance to what is. I am light and free.”
• “I am full of love, grace, and forgiveness.”
• “I radiate love, kindness, and compassion to all those who cross my path.”
• “I accept with calm impartiality whatever comes my way. Free in my heart, I am not conditioned by any outward circumstance.” –Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian yogi

These steps are simple and easy ways to transform your night time routine into a relaxation ritual. Other ideas and habits to practice for evening relaxation may include a bedtime yoga routine or meditation practice. Don’t be deceived by the ease of these ideas. As author Leo Tolstoy once said, “There is no greatness where there is not simplicity.”

The In’s and Out’s of Intermittent Fasting

By Nicole Leatherman

Intermittent fasting (IF) continues to have its moment. Click around the internet and you’ll find that it lands in nearly every top diet trends round-up. Albeit popular, it isn’t new.

Fasting is one of the oldest dietary interventions and healing traditions known to us. It’s been part of human culture and religion for thousands of years.

Today, intermittent fasting has arguably helped people lose weight, gain muscle, improve heart health, combat brain fog, and feel healthier overall. Before you try it out, get to know the intermittent fasting basics. Find out what exactly it is, how the various methods differ, if the benefits of intermittent fasting are backed by research, and, most importantly, if it’s right for you.

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Put simply, IF is strategic occasional starvation. Intermittent fasting calls for cycling through periods of regular eating and fasting. During fasting periods, you either drastically restrict your calorie intake or don’t eat at all.

What Are the Various Types of Intermittent Fasting?

People approach IF in a variety of ways. Think of the following as your intermittent fasting guide.

1. The 16/8 Method

This method is also known as the Leangains method, which was popularized by fitness expert Martin Berkhan—and actor Hugh Jackman reportedly used this method to get in shape for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men films.

Essentially, the 16/8 method involves time-restricted eating: fasting every day for 14 to 16 hours and limiting your daily eating window to 8 to 10 hours. Some people do this by not eating anything after dinner and then skipping breakfast. However, some will still drink water, coffee, and other low-caloric beverages during the fast to stay hydrated and to help mitigate hunger. Some find this method to be the simplest to adopt, especially those who aren’t naturally hungry in the morning and prefer to skip breakfast.

2. The 5:2 Method

British journalist and doctor Michael Mosley is known for using the 5:2 method, aka Fast Diet, which calls for eating normally five days of the week and restricting calories to 500 (for women) and 600 (for men) two days a week. For example, a woman might eat her regular diet every day except Tuesdays and Fridays, when she eats two, small 250-calorie meals.

3. The 24-Hour Method

Fitness expert Brad Pilon developed this method, which is sometimes called Eat-Stop-Eat. It involves a 24-hour fast, either once or twice a week. Whether it’s done from breakfast to breakfast, lunch to lunch, or dinner to dinner, the end game is the same: you don’t eat for a total of 24 hours. Water, coffee, and other non-alcoholic, low-caloric beverages are allowed during the fast. Solid food is not.

4. The Alternate-Day Method

Just as the name implies, alternate-day fasting means alternating fast days and feed days. Some versions allow 500 calories on fasting days; others don’t. Experts warn that this one isn’t for first-time fasters because some find it difficult to stick to the extremes—one day you’re eating either nothing or next to nothing and the next day you’re eating more than normal amounts.

5. The Warrior Method

Fitness expert and author Ori Hofmekler popularized the Warrior Diet. Essentially, during the day fast, you can eat small amounts of raw fruits and vegetables. At night during a four-hour period, you feast on one large meal that consists of whole, unprocessed foods—similar to those eaten on a paleo diet.

5 Intermittent Fasting Benefits

1. Weight Loss

Because calories are restricted during IF periods, fewer calories are consumed overall, which can cause you to lose weight. Intermittent fasting benefits may include lowering insulin levels, which may propel weight loss. Insulin is a hormone that allows cells to take in glucose. The body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, which cells either use for energy right away or convert to body fat and store for future use. When you don’t eat, insulin levels drop and that causes cells to release their glucose stores as energy. Regular repetition of this process may result in weight loss.

One clinical trial compared intermittent fasting and a traditional calorie-restriction diet, and the effects both had on weight loss over one year. The result? It was a tie. Researchers determined that both fasting methods were similarly effective in helping participants shed pounds. There also weren’t tremendous differences in other health markers, such as blood pressure and heart rate.

 

2. Reduced Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

More than 30 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, and 90 percent to 95 percent of them have type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Being overweight or obese is a primary risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. People with type 2 diabetes experience insulin resistance. In other words, their bodies still produce insulin, but they’re unable to use it effectively.

One study examined whether intermittent fasting can lower insulin levels and blood glucose levels. The researchers found that the evidence was inconclusive and that further research is needed.

Another study looked at three men between the ages of 40 and 67 with type 2 diabetes who tried IF for approximately 10 months. Two of the men fasted every second day for 24 hours. The other fasted for three days a week. On days when the men fasted, they were allowed to drink water and low-calorie drinks such as tea, coffee, and broth. They could also eat a low-calorie meal at night.

All of the men were able to stop insulin treatment within a month. One was able to stop insulin treatment after five days. Dr. Jason Fung, the author of the study and director of the Intensive Dietary Management Program, acknowledged that his study was small and that more research would be needed.

3. Brain Health

Some animal studies show that intermittent fasting improves brain health. One study found that memory and learning were improved in mice that were on brief intermittent fasting diets vs. those that were given unlimited access to food. Other animal studies showed that IF can suppress brain inflammation, which has links to neurological conditions.

Dr. Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and his colleagues found that IF may help the brain ward off neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s while also improving memory and mood. How? After glycogen is used up, your body burns fat, which is converted to ketones that are used by neurons as energy. Ketones promote positive changes in the structure of synapses—or connecting points—that affect learning, memory, and overall brain health. However, if you eat three meals a day with snacks between, your body never gets the chance to deplete the glycogen stores and, therefore, ketones aren’t produced. Exercise also influences your body to lower its glycogen levels and has been shown to have the same positive effects on the brain as fasting.

4. Reduced Cancer Risk

A JAMA Oncology study examined the relationship between 2,413 women who were diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer and nightly fasting. Researchers found that women who fasted for fewer than 13 hours a night had a greater risk of breast cancer reoccurring. The researchers acknowledged that fasting for more than 13 hours has benefits because of a correlation between caloric intake and tumor growth. Lower blood sugar levels and reduced inflammation are associated with slowing the growth of some types of tumors.

Because studies have also found a link between obesity and a higher risk for different types of cancers, weight loss that can be associated with IF could help to reduce this risk.

5. Heart Health

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for men and women in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The four major risk factors in heart disease are high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and weight. Fasting can lower blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, and triglycerides, which are a kind of fat in the blood that is linked to heart disease.

However, health care practitioners caution that fasting can also lead to an electrolyte imbalance, which can make the heart unstable and prone to arrhythmias, also known as an irregular heartbeat.

Is Intermittent Fasting Healthy for You?

A lot more research needs to be done to determine if intermittent fasting is any healthier than other eating and health practices.

When it comes to weight loss, some people find intermittent fasting easier than other forms of calorie restriction, while others don’t. However, because IF typically focuses on when and how much rather than what to eat, some nutrition experts aren’t on board. After all, not all calories are created equal, and what you eat can also have a significant impact on overall health.

The bottom line: One health regimen does not fit all. If you’re curious about trying IF, ask your health care practitioner to help you design an individualized intermittent fasting plan for you that adds the right foods to both your fasting and non-fasting days to ensure you stay in good health.

6 Holistic Ways to Fight Sugar Cravings

By Amy Pamensky

How many times have you told yourself that you are not going to eat any more sugar and then found yourself digging into the next cupcake or candy bar in sight? If you experience cravings for sugar (like many people) you might feel like you have no “willpower” when it comes to sweets, and may even feel like you’re addicted to sugar. You might even feel pretty guilty after you eat something sweet. Well, you’re not alone.

While it’s common knowledge that increased sugar consumption has a negative impact on your health, including increased risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, it can still be difficult to stay away from sweet flavors. As research suggests, the sweet tooth is universal in cultures around the world and has even played a vital role in human evolution. The problem with sugar arises with overconsumption.

Now that sugar is so readily available at gas stations, work, and social events, it makes it harder to just say “no” every time. The good news is that with holistic strategies, you can still have your cake and eat it too. Gone are the days where you need to strictly control and restrict your sugar intake. Instead, focus on these six tools to help reduce your intense sugar cravings and find healthier alternatives to give you that sweet and sugary fix you are looking for.

1. Balance Your Blood Sugar Levels

If your blood sugar is swinging from high to low throughout the day, it’s likely that you are going to crave sugar. When your blood sugar is low, it’s common to experience low energy levels along with carbohydrate or sugar cravings to help get your blood sugar back up.

A few strategies to prevent blood sugar spikes and drops include:

• Eat your breakfast within one hour of waking up. When you wake up in the morning, your blood sugar is lower because you have been fasting all night. If you eat within one hour of waking up, it helps to stabilize your blood sugar and insulin levels.
• Include protein and healthy fats (i.e., avocado, nuts and seeds, olive oil, wild salmon) with each meal to help stabilize your blood sugar
• Avoid skipping meals. Your blood sugar will start dropping, which can lead to overeating or sugar cravings

2. Find Healthy Upgrades

Make sure to have healthy sugar alternatives on hand wherever you go. Again, getting rid of sugar cravings doesn’t mean that you have to cut out the sweet flavors all together. When everyone is passing around brownies and cookies at your office, you can go to your own secret stash and grab a healthy upgrade. This could be a homemade treat that is made with natural sweeteners or it could be some dark chocolate.

Here are some healthy recipes that you can try at home to get you started.

3. Incorporate Sweet Vegetables into Your Diet

Adding sweet vegetables into your diet will help give your taste buds some satisfaction by incorporating sweet flavors throughout the day. Some vegetables to try include:

• Roasted sweet potatoes
• Beets
• Carrots
• Butternut squash

 

4. Notice Your Emotions

It’s no surprise that there is a link between your emotions and eating high-fat, high-sugar foods. If you get stressed or sad and go straight for the tub of ice cream, you might be an emotional sugar eater. There are ways to combat this.

Start by bringing awareness to what emotions you are experiencing when you have your cravings. Then, write a list down of tools that can help you to address the emotion that you are experiencing. For example:

• Feeling stressed:try adding some breathing or meditation into your life
• Feeling bored:read an article or watch a funny YouTube video on your phone
• Feeling lonely:call a friend or family member, write in your journal, or read a book

In these cases, sugar is a temporary relief to soothe unwanted feelings, but it doesn’t actually fix the problem. If you really want to change your relationship with sugar and reduce cravings, you will have to dig a little deeper to support your emotions.

5. Get Enough Sleep

A 2016 study showed that participants who got five hours of sleep or less at night showed a 21-percent increase in sugared beverage consumption. Another study showed that the appetite-regulating hormone ghrelin increased when the participants got less sleep, and this elevated ghrelin was associated with a higher intake of carbohydrates and sweets.

If you have unhealthy sleep habits such as going to bed too late or watching TV before bed (which can stimulate your mind instead of calming it), it’s time for a change. Experiment with one or two weeks of getting more sleep and notice the difference in your sugar cravings.

6. Identify the Root Cause

If you have tried steps 1 to 5 and haven’t noticed a significant reduction in your sugar cravings, there might be something else contributing to your sugar cravings. One common gut imbalance that contributes to increased sugar cravings is a Candida Albicans, also known as a yeast overgrowth. Consult with your doctor or with an alternative medicine practitioner to see if Candida overgrowth is contributing to your sugar cravings.

As you can see, there are many holistic steps that you can take to address and curb your sugar cravings. Once you implement these changes, you will see that sugar cravings are not all about willpower. By addressing your blood sugar stability and emotional state and giving yourself healthy alternatives, you will find that sugar cravings are no longer your enemy.