Top 5 Ways to Get Your Health Back on Track for Summer
We get it. After all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and winter months, suddenly it’s summer and your health isn’t where you want it to be. Here are 5 of our top strategies to get you back on track, and one smoothie recipe for bright, glowing skin:
Add rather than subtract
Instead of trying to eliminate some of your favorite “naughty” foods from your diet, focus on adding to it. Set the goal each day to eat one green and one orange vegetable daily, or to have one smoothie.
Eat mindfully
Say goodbye to the rushed, distracted meals at your desk while you’re simultaneously checking Facebook and finishing another task. When you eat, make it count. Sit down, BREATHE, and focus on what the food tastes like.
Protein with every meal
While we all know pasta and garlic bread is delicious, this will have you ravenous within 2-3 hours. Adding protein to each meal will increase satiety and reduce mindless snacking a few hours later. Add in some protein like hard-boiled eggs, high quality protein powder, chicken, turkey, wild salmon, wild cod, fermented tempeh, or lentils.
“A little bit better”
Eliminate the “all or nothing” mentality, replacing it with “a little bit better.” Let go of perfectionism…you’re not a robot! If you create too strict of a food regime, even temporarily, you could be setting yourself up for failure. Set weekly goals for yourself, and if you couldn’t reach them, scale back and try again.
Move Daily
Don’t overthink this one! If you don’t have time to get to the gym or your favorite workout class, do 10 minutes of movement at home. This could be a quick circuit of push-ups, squats, lunges, and tricep dips, or light yoga. Get moving!
Bright Skin Smoothie:
1 scoop vanilla grass-fed collagen hydrolysate
½ cucumber, peeled
2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
½ frozen banana
Optional: 1 scoop vanilla protein powder of choice
Add all of the ingredients to your blender and blend. If texture is too thick, add filtered water until it reaches desired consistency.
–contributed by Michelle Moen & Dr. Manisha Sharma ND
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Michelle Moen is a holistic nutrition coach at the Edmonton Clinic of Naturopathic Medicine. She has collaborated with Manisha on this blog post and is committed to changing up her exercise routine from running to appointments, to actual running, with the shoes and everything… Let’s shake off the winter blues together and create a life full of movement, mindful food choices, and the occasional glass of wine!
Manisha Sharma is one of the naturopathic doctors at the Edmonton Clinic of Naturopathic Medicine. She, self-admittedly, fell off of the healthy diet wagon over the past few months and can personally relate to anyone struggling with getting back into the swing of things. Collaborating on this blog post with Michelle has inspired her to go back to the basics by adding in a daily green smoothie and preparing the majority of her meals at home. She’s hoping some of you reading this will join us in getting out of our collective Winter funk…and is even considering cutting back on her favourite coconut milk ice cream!