Monthly Archives: December 2015

Why you should take a new approach to your New Years resolutions

December 29, 2015 By in Boost your happiness Tags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Here’s an exercise well worth doing:

Think about your life at a specific time in the future. Imagine everything has gone as well as it possibly could.

You have worked hard, used your strengths and succeeded at accomplishing each of your life goals at that point in time.

This moment is the realisation of your life dreams.

Now, for 15-20 minutes, on 4 separate occasions, write continuously about what you imagined.

When we take the time to write about ourself accomplishing our long-term goals, we benefit. These benefits are substantial and numerous, and include:

  • improved mood and well-being,
  • more optimistic thinking,
  • greater clarity about our motivations, priorities and long-term goals,
  • improved confidence,
  • integration of our emotions and life experiences in a more meaningful way,
  • enhanced physical health, and
  • a lower chance of getting ill.

When done right, the process of writing our New Years resolutions can not only benefit us one day in the future.

It can also benefit us today.

8 grain swaps that help support optimal health

December 24, 2015 By in Nutrition that works Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment
  1. Swap brown rice for barley
  2. Swap pasta for wholemeal pasta
  3. Swap basmati rice for quinoa 
  4. Swap wholemeal bread for mixed grain bread
  5. Swap sourdough bread for rye bread
  6. Swap instant porridge for rolled oats
  7. Swap wholegrain cereal for muesli
  8. Swap wheat biscuits for bran cereal.

Yes, the first options are excellent choices when compared to refined cereals like most white breads, white rices, low-fibre cereals, rice crackers and noodles.

But you can still go one better if you choose.

Research suggests that slowly digested, fibrous grains are the healthiest of them all.

Eating foods that tick each of these 2 criteria will likely help to:

  • feed your gut bacteria and make you feel fuller, within hours,
  • improve markers of your heart and metabolic health, within weeks, and
  • substantially lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, bowel cancer and weight gain, over the coming months and years.

When deciding which grain to eat, it is important to remember that both slowly digested grains and higher fibre grains provide health benefits that are unique and equally important.

An optimal diet, therefore, is one that consistently contains both.

What to do when change is hard

December 14, 2015 By in Change your behaviour Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments

Why is changing a behaviour or emotional response so difficult?

Research shows that it’s often because we value the very part of us that causes it.

Some examples.

Those who struggle to change:

  • impulsive behaviour, value being spontaneous.
  • being perfectionist, value having drive and ambition.
  • feeling depressed, value self-reflection.
  • worrying or anxiety, value showing responsibility.
  • looking for faults, value being serious.
  • being dependant on others, value being caring.

2 thoughts on this research.

First, when change is hard, start by looking inside yourself. Changing a behaviour or emotional response requires both:

  1. An understanding of your current way of thinking. What thoughts are causing this resistance to change?
  2. The development of an alternative worldview. One that supports the change you seek.

Second, also well worth asking: should I change here?

If it is actually my strengths that are causing my unhappiness, what’s stopping me from choosing to wholeheartedly accept myself, exactly as I am?

Remember, change starts from within.

And sometimes, the change required isn’t about avoiding or fixing. It’s about accepting, and embracing, all of you.

4 natural ways to lower your cholesterol

December 8, 2015 By in Nutrition that works Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

High cholesterol increases your chances of developing heart disease, the leading cause of death in Australia.

Whilst new research finds 1 in every 3 Australian adults has high cholesterol, it can be reduced significantly with simple dietary changes:

1. Eating more viscous fibre, by:

  • Taking a psyllium supplement (with water) daily,
  • Switching to oats at breakfast,
  • Learning to use barley instead of rice, and
  • Ensuring you eat plenty of legumes, fruits or vegetables by incorporating more of them into every meal. Okra and eggplant are particularly rich sources.

2. Increasing your intake of soy protein, by:

  • Having soy milk or soy yoghurt instead of cows milk or cows yoghurt,
  • Switching from regular bread to soy & linseed bread,
  • Incorporating 1/2 cup soy beans into main meals a few times each week, and
  • Using tofu instead of meat a few times each week.

3. Incorporating plant-sterols into your diet, by:

  • Switching from butter to a plant-sterol enriched margarine, and
  • Enjoying plant-based oils and green leafy vegetables daily, such as spinach, kale and cabbage.

4. Eating nuts daily, by:

  • Replacing one of your current snacks with a handful of unsalted nuts (particularly almonds), and
  • Adding nuts to your main meals, such as salads and stir-fries.

The interesting thing is that standard dietary advice, such as reducing saturated fats or cholesterol from the diet, has little impact on heart disease risk alone.

Yet these 4 dietary changes reduce cholesterol by up to 30% within weeks, and lower heart disease risk significantly. This is an effect comparable to taking cholesterol-lowering medication.

And if you have high cholesterol and all of these changes are overwhelming you, don’t despair.

Start instead by asking the question: which of these changes can I do?

Cultivating authentic gratitude

December 4, 2015 By in Boost your happiness Tags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Scientific research says that one of the key ingredients to your well-being is your ability to cultivate gratitude.

Being thankful for the experiences and people that give your life value and meaning is associated with an abundance of benefits, which include:

  1. positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm and love,
  2. increased optimism,
  3. increased acts of helpfulness, generosity and co-operation,
  4. a reduced risk of depression and anxiety,
  5. the healing of old hurts and emotional suffering,
  6. improved immune function and recovery from illness,
  7. lower blood pressure and better physical health,
  8. resilience and an enhanced ability to cope with stress,
  9. protection from destructive impulses such as envy, resentment and greed, and
  10. greatly enhanced life satisfaction.

But here’s the irony of this post. If you decide to practice gratitude simply for self-improvements sake, or the act of practising gratitude feels like it’s a chore, then the effects will most likely not be as strong.

The real benefits come when our appreciation of the world we live in, and the people that we share it with, is genuine, deep and authentic.

If you want to cultivate authentic gratitude, I suggest you start with thinking, writing about or expressing with another, your admiration for:

  • the small, everyday things in life that bring us richness, love or joy,
  • the miraculous universe we live in,
  • the deep connectedness that we share with others and have with all living things,
  • the kindness, thoughtfulness and warmth experienced from someone around us, or
  • the inspiration we receive from others to share and spread this kindness.

At its core, I think that cultivating authentic gratitude within our lives comes down to a choice.

A choice that has nothing to do with your actual life circumstances, and everything to do with how you choose to interpret both the world, and the people that you share it with.

How to create a healthy habit

December 1, 2015 By in Change your behaviour Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

Step 1: Decide on a health goal that you would like to achieve.

Step 2: Choose 1 small and simple behaviour that will get you towards your goal. Make sure it is something that you are confident you can do on a daily basis.

Step 3: Plan when and where you will do this action. Be specific and choose both a time and a place that you will come across every day of the week.

Step 4: Each day you encounter that time and place, do the action. If it helps, keep a daily record you can mark off whilst you are forming the new habit.

Step 5: Continue until you are doing this new behaviour without even having to think about it. Research suggests that for most us of, it will be no more than 10 weeks.

The important thing to note is that getting healthier doesn’t require huge amounts of time, attention or motivation.

But it does require a desire to change, and a plan to actually make it happen.

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