5 Easy Ways to Stay Lean & Stress-Free this Holiday Season

Hello!

I’m really excited to be launch­ing Epic Beauty Guide today, and with that, I’m post­ing my 5 favorite, easy tips on stay­ing lean and stress-free…especially dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son. It is a fact that stress and weight gain are closely related, so it is impor­tant to pay atten­tion to your stress lev­els as well as what you put in your stom­ach. So enjoy the list and enjoy the hol­i­days! See you back here soon. :)

1. To lower stress and cor­ti­sol (the hor­mone that forces us to gain weight) look to these nat­ural aids:

Shankhpushpi - Ayuverdic herb for stress, anxiety, and fatigue• Shankh­pushpi (pro­nounced shank-a-push-pee). An Ayurvedic herb that comes from a flower. It low­ers cor­ti­sol lev­els, improves energy, and improves con­cen­tra­tion. The rec­om­mended dose is 200–275 mg., twice per day.
• Turmeric. A com­mon yellow-orange root used often as a pow­dered spice. Best absorbed with black pep­per. Low­ers inflam­ma­tion, pro­motes weight loss. Gaia Herbs makes an excel­lent one, and you can also add a pinch of the pow­dered spice to your meals.
• Ash­wa­gandha. My favorite herb for all-around stress reduc­tion and brain improve­ment. Rebuilds den­drites in the brain (the con­nec­tions between neu­rons). Cedar Bear Nat­u­rales makes a great glyc­erin tinc­ture. You can also try an alcohol-based tinc­ture, as it may work bet­ter than glyc­erin for some people.

2. If you want to stay lean, get moving.

All it takes is walk­ing 30 min­utes around the neigh­bor­hood. Of course, it’s even bet­ter if you can run for 15 min­utes, go bike rid­ing, do some at-home yoga or pilates, or do 15–20 min­utes of cir­cuit train­ing. The hard­est part of doing this? Get­ting moti­vated. So just remem­ber that you’ll always feel AWESOME after mov­ing around, and your body will reward you by stay­ing healthy and liv­ing longer (it’s a fact, really!). The longest-lived, health­i­est peo­ple are those that did some sort of phys­i­cal activ­ity every day. Make it a rou­tine and stay lean.

3. Don’t for­get to breathe.

Stress and anx­i­ety cause us to breathe shal­lowly from the tops of our lungs instead of tak­ing nor­mal, deep, calm­ing belly breaths. So try this right now: Breathe in slowly through your nose for 7 sec­onds (count silently in your head). Hold that breath for 5 sec­onds. Breathe out slowly through your mouth for 7 sec­onds. Repeat 6 more times. Do it while dri­ving, work­ing, cook­ing, lis­ten­ing to some­one blab­ber about their hor­ri­ble day, etc. It’s free, it’s easy, and it instantly calms you down and allows your body to reduce its cor­ti­sol lev­els (which also results in not gain­ing stress weight, yay!).

4. Put on some music.

Music alters our moods and stim­u­lates the brain, so why not use it to ease your mind and reduce stress? Just put on some calm­ing, awe­some tunes and enjoy! (It could be Mozart, Bud­dhist monk chant­ing, Enya, what­ever does the job for you.)

5. Take a few min­utes to put up your feet and read THIS book.

Read A Thou­sand Names for Joy by Byron Katie. This is one of the best books for reduc­ing and elim­i­nat­ing your stress through a sim­ple shift in your mind­set and thoughts. Easy to under­stand and an enjoy­able, calm­ing read. You can also read books by Eck­hart Tolle.

Bonus Tip: Eat slower — yeah, I know, eas­ier said than done.

Try first to pray over or give thanks for the food on your plate. A lot of work went into get­ting those raw ingre­di­ents to you, let alone the cook­ing that had to be done to give you the final prod­uct you’re about to enjoy. So say­ing a few words over your food will set the tone for you to appre­ci­ate your food, and thereby go a lit­tle slower in enjoy­ing it. We always want to eat faster the bet­ter it tastes, but the faster you eat, the quicker it’s gone, and the less enjoy­ment you get out of it. Just enjoy each bite! Chew each one slowly. This method has two ben­e­fits: 1. You will get full quicker, which means you’ll eat less and won’t gain “hol­i­day weight” and 2. You will digest much bet­ter and won’t have to unhook your belt after the meal.

………………………….

Acknowl­edg­ments:
Some tips were writ­ten in con­junc­tion with Raw­Matt, a pro­fes­sional ath­lete, cer­ti­fied per­sonal trainer, and ordained min­is­ter.

Be Socia­ble, Share!

Related Posts: