6 DAILY HABITS
for better health
During the course of the 30 days, you’ll aim to incorporate these 6 daily habits into your life.
You’ll see that it’s not only about what you eat and drink and how much you exercise, feeling better and healthier is also about managing stress, sleeping well and nurturing yourself.
Ok. I get it. The last three won’t be easy - not in this fast-paced world - and you may not even believe they are important. But we back up our recommendations with solid, indisputable evidence. What we ask is that you give it a shot, and we’ll show you the results. You’ll feel rested, healthy, physically strong, and better able to conquer your life’s experiences.
You’ll keep score to help you keep track. But the real reward is the improvement you’ll feel day by day as the 6 habits begin to work their magic.
Nutrition
No surprise here. Nutrition is the cornerstone of health and wellbeing. Keto. Paleo. Atkins. Raw. So many diets claim to make you slimmer and healthier. They’ll lower your cholesterol, get rid of the meno-pot, give you loads of energy, control appetite, and allow you to leap tall buildings with a single bound ….
BUT! In the end, they are diets and they are temporary. They usually rely on restriction and willpower and can often lead to overeating foods that weren’t on the plan as soon as the challenge ends. We want your success to be sustainable in the long run.
Any woman in perimenopause or menopause will tell you that her body is like no other, and what works for her friend, sister, colleague (or husband!) just doesn’t work the same way for her. And that’s absolutely true, which is why determining a “best” diet is very difficult to do. And in fact, we don’t advocate restrictive dieting at all. Think about it. How many diets have you tried in the past? And how many times have they worked (for longer than a few months, that is!)? If you are like 95% of the dieting population, the answer is not ever!
So our program isn’t about restrictive dieting, we introduce the principles of healthy eating that can help ease symptoms and reduce the risk of many of the health conditions (rising cholesterol, increasing blood pressure, decreasing bone density, etc.).
The Mediterranean Diet is considered by some to the be healthiest in the world. It is loaded with antioxidants and includes an abundance of fresh vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, seeds, lots of flavorful herbs and spices, whole grains with an emphasis on fish, avocado and olive oil as main fat sources. But that’s not all! For all of you cheese and wine lovers, it advocates for moderate amounts of both and includes foods with refined sugar in small amounts as well (So yes, you can have your cake and eat it too!). And the consuming a Mediterranean Diet has been shown to reduce peri/menopausal symptoms as well as reduce and prevent weight gain during this time.
We’ll discuss the benefits of soy and phytoestrogen rich foods to help reduce hot flashes as well as other changes in nutritional needs like increased calcium needs to prevent osteoporosis and reduction in iron needs after menopause.
When we talk about nutrition in the program, we don’t just talk about what we are eating, but also why we are eating. Are we eating because we are bored? Going for the cake or biscuits because we had a broken night’s sleep? Or a tub of ice cream because we had a fight with our partner? We will look at food cravings, hunger and food cues and triggers, as well as how to distinguish physical hunger from emotional hunger. Learning to recognize patterns and to explore our habits around food will be key to finding true freedom from the overly restrictive diets that cause stress and anxiety around meal times. It’s time to reclaim the joys of food and we’re here to help you do it!
Exercise
Yes. You will have to move your body. It’s important! It doesn’t have to be bootcamp. It doesn’t have to be HIIT (high intensity interval training). We give you suggestions, we will post workouts. But it’s up to you to get your heart rate up for a sustained amount of time 4 days of the week. Whether it’s Zumba, Barre, strength training, walking or otherwise, they all work! We have also teamed with several gyms, Pilates studios, bootcamps and other programs to help you check this box!
Sleep
You snooze, you lose! Literally. There are lots of reasons here. But here’s a big one: Sleep deprivation causes changes (and not good ones!) to the hormones that regulate hunger and appetite. It also causes us to reach for quick pick me ups (read: sugar!) and stops us from doing healthier things like going to the gym (too tired!) or making dinner instead of picking up take away (no energy!)
On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night. If you are getting this already, another half hour will not help you lose 5 kilos, but if you are a five-hour sleeper and start to sleep for seven hours a night, you may start dropping weight.
We will talk about strategies to help you get some sleep, sleep hygiene as well as some supplements that may help you get to sleep faster and stay asleep longer.
Hydration
Water, Water Everywhere! There are few things that diet experts agree on - but the importance of hydration is one of them. Firstly, thirst can be misinterpreted as hunger. So when you reach for the danish instead of the water your body wants, you’ve just added several hundred calories you didn’t need! Water also fills you up, makes you feel fuller which can help prevent overeating.
How much do I need? Divide your weight in pounds (your weight in kg multiplied by 2.2) in half. There you go.
wellbeing
This may feel like the hardest. And I know there are some of you going “Nope!! Too much! You lost me.” But give me a sec. This really is an important part. We put a lot of time and effort into thinking about what to eat and how to exercise to get ourselves into better shape. But what many of us don't realize, is that stress is as big of a factor as both of these when it comes to health.
According to the American Psychological Association, chronic stress is linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide. And more than 75 percent of all physician office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints. So yeah. It’s a big deal.
Now I don’t want you to get stressed out over being too stressed! We won’t ask you to do a 60 minute meditation session. But we will ask you to open you mind to a little deep breathing, a 5-minutes stretching routine, or just doing something else that makes you feel relaxed.
recovery
Time off is essential! Exercising everyday may seem like the best way to lose weight or get in shape. But tight muscles and a stressed body don’t get stronger and are more prone to injury if they aren’t allowed to recover. Stretching, yoga, or other mobility exercises are great for keeping muscles flexible, strong and healthy and help maintain range of motion through the joints.
Lower intensity exercises such as walking and swimming can also be used to recover from hard training by increasing blood flow to the muscles and tissues.