Habits Archives - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Brain Fog Is Often Spiritual

Brain fog is a way to describe the forgetfulness nature that Ayurvedic Vata minds commonly daily express that we accept as part of us.

Our morning habit choices we choose could be adding to brain fog. — Brain fog accumulates in our daily lives.

In this article, you can learn all about brain fog from our daily environment and simple things we can tweak. You’ll also learn how brain fog isn’t always bad like when it’s from spiritual sources.

Brain fog is the general symptom description for not being able to think clearly.

Often this is when you want the mind to work for you.

Brain fog moments often shows up as confusion, lack of focus, or forgetfulness.

So brain fog would make sense as an explanation for simple memory blips.

But there’s more to this from a spiritual lens that I explain further below on how you can see it as a benefit and a blessing at times.

Because usually brain fog only has negative connotations in our practical culture.

And this article provides some healthy lifestyle tips to eliminate those daily negative brain fog aspects, plus presenting the balancing Vata brain fog positives (that’s a common built-in feature in our Vata mind nature).

In either positive or negative case, we don’t often sit around and analyze what’s going on with brain fog when our minds are in the clouded mist.

And what we experience is usually harmless, like forgetting eye glasses on our heads and looking everywhere for them.

While that can be comical, it’s extra minutes of distraction when the answer was sitting on you above your nose.

For daily routines and tasks, Vatas often create forgetfulness habits to set reminders and purposefully not forget.

High Vatas have active minds of worry-anxiety, more so than Pittas and Kaphas that can have other brain fog distractions.

This btw happened to me when I baked a healthy dessert for the morning and next morning. And the next morning, I forgot about all about it in my mind’s distraction.

A simple scenario like that happens to all of us at some point.

…And when I remembered the forgotten cool peach dessert, it was actually when I would appreciate the bite more after lunch so it could be an enjoyment positive experience.

In your daily life, if someone ever asks you why you didn’t do something and you answer I forgot, you often don’t get a lot of out-of-the-ordinary questioning.

Because forgetting is so normal.

Forgetting can also be healthy for us who like to control ideas. You let go of controlling your mind or the device in front of you that you’re tethered to.

This can invite in creativity inside us and help us let go of rigid ways.

But then there are also negatives such as cognitive decline brain fog instances we want to help prevent. It’s the “elephant in the room” but a diagnosis growing in our world, and that’s something we can be aware of and doing something about in our lives today.

Preventative Healthy Living Helps With Brain Fog

Brain fog can grow when we have these elements in our daily lives: high-processed foods, pesticides, phthalates, non-purified air, and mold, to name a few culprits in our modern lifestyles.

They alter our bodies and that affects our mind in the body-mind connection and in our mental health.

Processed foods for example become whole nutrient-stripped in the plant process (as in factory plant 🏭).

Organic plants 🌱 are better options where we don’t find the same trace levels of pesticides that are found in non-organic foods.

If you garden, you know what natural sprays you’ve used or not used in your care. And when you bake like I do, you know what ingredients you’ve added. You know the wholesomeness details.

In grocery stores, we see the ingredients in our carts we’ll be using to cook with or eat. And we can read labels.

But we don’t see the processes in-between, so this makes comparing foods an apples to oranges experience.

Cheese is an example. Rennet that is found in some parts of the world isn’t the pasteurized cheese process found along the shelf rows in our American grocery stores.

The goat and sheep’s cheese that the Sardinians farm and eat isn’t what we find in our guts.

And for daily coffee drinkers, switching to organic is good for preventative health as coffee is naturally high in mold.

Mold is a brain fog offender.

Organic coffee is considerably more expensive and more difficult to source, but it’s out there when you look and put your health first.

You can get resourceful and save money by buying whole roasts and then doing the grind work yourself. You can feel much more grounded like your coffee when you do. 😊

Daily clean air is also going to be healthy preventative help against the brain fog cause. Developing daily hayfever-like allergy symptoms is one common sign.

And building in more wellness habits and healthy intentions to your life is going to help you most in your sleep, health conditions, and mental fatigue. Yoga is one way to bring in more self-awareness intention.

When you calm and relax your mind and self that also brings down your stress and anxiety levels that help Vata brain fog.

Calming and Relaxing the Mind

Good answers and thoughts show up when the mind is calm and relaxed, and not anxious or worried like when running with high Vata brain fog symptoms.

When our minds are under stress, often we can’t think of the answer when put on the spot.

If we’re asked a Family Feud game show question like what is the first thing you do in the morning?, we can usually come up with an answer. And maybe one that lights up on the board.

But when someone asks us the same question in an interview where we know others will put judgment on what we say, we can’t come up with the answer under mind stress.

We could just give a safe answer.

…Or you may surprise yourself by blurting an answer that surprises you.

Those answers that pop up in memory unexpectedly often come from our spirit.

The answer that pops in our mind come from our deeper wisdom inside us.

We didn’t rack our brain for the answer. They just entered out of no where.

Those thoughts can be blessings when you connect-the-dots.

I’ve had a lot of time and spiritual experiences to teach me wisdom lessons learned to show me this.

Over time, the lessons gave me a different perspective to gain the deeper meaning behind those memory moment lapse blessings.

Once you know you can’t go back to not-knowing and wouldn’t want to as cracking the code secrets toward a happier life.

And you can notice when thought lapses land in aligned perfect timing.

That’s when it’s a spiritual miracle and blessing.

An example is we forget what we were going to say from our rational brain from losing our train of thought.

We get other thoughts that enter.

In groups I attended, we called these other thoughts: popcorn thoughts. These answers come from our heart as though we didn’t process the thought first.

If it’s a helpful suggestive thought, it’s often helpful for others to hear who need the suggestion.

If you can get over what others will think or any insecurities you have in those moments, and blurt out what you’re thinking, often it helps someone else.

You don’t necessarily know how it will help, but it does when you dare to stay vulnerable in sharing.

They are spiritual collaboration opportunities that are expressed when you speak them aloud. You can feel good about showing up.

In the same token, sometimes others blurt out something you needed that sticks with you. It’s the same when purposefully listening to a podcast or a message that you need.

So we’re giving back in a way.

We can all contribute and give back in the energy of life in this way and without much effort.

If you want more of these opportunities to show up and are willing to have your day rearranged in some way, ask quietly aloud or in self-talk: what can I do today to be helpful?

Then be prepared to be useful to others. 😊

And in daily life, these prompted thoughts and memories will show up more frequently if you pay attention (that’s an active move).

You could ignore and override those thoughts to stay on your linear agenda.

That’s how I was until I knew better.

As a planner, we don’t prefer going off course. But over the years, I grew to embrace impromptu thoughts entering, seeing this new spiritual perspective.

And maybe that would help you.

Spiritual impromptu thoughts help you align and redirect to a better way, day, and life. They lead to a life of more purpose, happiness, meaning, and fulfillment. 🎉

So you can be curious next time and openly ask yourself: why did I have ____ particular thought? And see if you get anything back as a thought.

Most likely you won’t immediately.

But that makes you consider another way of thinking and living that can be spirit-filled and coming from deeper inside of you that knows deeply what you want.

And you can stay curious and wondering until something clicks like it finally did for me.

So if we wonder about those spiritual impromptu thoughts, that opens the door to our exploring our spiritual wisdom inside us that isn’t brain fog.

This can be our new norm.

And for our daily mattering lives, we can invite in ad hoc thoughts in our mantras, meditation, and centering to help advise us on what to do next.

And as you can tell, I enjoy baking meditation where this dessert was dreamed up and you can enjoy making.✨

Low-Sugar Peach Shortcake Dessert

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup plain flour
2-3 eggs
fresh peaches
sugar and salt (optional)

Instructions

Melt the butter in the milk and water on medium heat on the stove.
Add the flour and stir.
Take the mixture to a mixer and mix in egg yolks.
Pipe into a baking vessel to make a shape or add on a baking pan for a free form.
Bake at 325°F/165°C until warm golden brown.
Use your favorite filling, topping, and add diced peaches as the star ingredient. Peaches have fiber, Vitamin C, and A antioxidants.

Self-Care Wheel for Kapha Imbalances

Self-care wheel with love, spiritual, sleep, and energy at the helm.

Self-care wheel balance is heck-yeah! needed in the colder months when our unleashed Kaphas are in full-force…

Wheels in motion take you to where you want to go. A wheel can go slowly or fast, but no matter what speed its default is to move forward (unless you purposefully choose to reverse). And, this article is about moving you forward and bettering your life this season. 🎡

If you understand the nature of Ayurveda as our natural healthy design, then you’ll be able to use that insight for better self-care and restore natural seasonal imbalances.

Like on the exterior, if you have super dry skin every winter along with a skinny frame, then you’re likely a natural Vata body (and not a Kapha body). If you tend to hold extra body weight and metabolize slowly, then Kapha is your natural way. Both feel the cold extremities as traits.

And as natural as having a Kapha body, some of us are more Kapha minded. Or we get imbalanced with tired Kapha moods.

That’s sometimes how I feel in the mornings (when Delta sleep is more like it!).

We can have a Vata body and a Kapha mind (and vice versa) as a simple example. And, there are 9 organized combinations if we want to keep it simple. Because you may be one born dominant in two body or mind ways (doshas). And mind and body connect in the daily mind-body connection to how you think, act, and feel.

The good news is you can positively impact and gradually change what you don’t like by your lifestyle choices. It’s nature vs. nurture where nurture is what you’re living today.

…You don’t have to settle for what you’re born with as lesser personality and traits you want to change.

Genetics is a tougher one to influence and turn the rudder on, but not impossible… and lifestyle tweaks and choice prevention can completely change a lesser situation or a higher probability likelihood.

And so, this article is meant to help you connect-the-dots and live your best life you can today with better lifestyle choices!

I’m focusing on Kapha here because all of us have a little of Kapha going on and that can be heavy in this seasonal time of year (where we hear more cough-as life). 😷

But here I share what I learned circa 2008 that has stuck with me, and what’s newer that I applied starting in 2023 to support healthy daily living intentions and prevention.

…And we know a healthy body translates to a better happy day where we get to do more and make more choices on our terms!

Letting in self-care influences give us more daily joy and balance. When you add better sleep, energy, spiritual, and love self-care into the equation, those move the needle forward. 🧭

A self-care wheel just like that can be the practical guide toward priorities tipping away from the heavy Kapha mind that makes it hard-to-get-going in the morning… or that makes you feel more depressed during colder seasons.

…Where growing up, we called this the SAD season (seasonal affective disorder). I went through this every February in my teens and early 20 years (when one that age should have had more energy). Lack of supplemental Vitamin D and sunshine affected the happy hormones we didn’t know much about back then. Winters were colder in the mid-Atlantic region where I grew up.

But, today we have more self-care knowledge and winters are warmer, and sometimes 70 degrees in some regions. So you can use the better products and circadian rhythm advice out there to your self-care wheel advantage.

…Plus, my healthy lessons learned (that btw get better with age 😉). Below is the skinny on what could help you get the self-care wheel balance you’re needing today.

✨ And these are some obvious Kapha Signs to look out for 👀that may be affecting you (and your self-care wheel):

Kapha Sign #1 (Sleep/energy):

Sleep and energy together because they are so closely knit together. 🧶

Do you find yourself needing more sleep in the cold weather seasons? Or maybe you’re consistently tired?

And that’s a bummer because less sleep means less time enjoying the day or being productive. Not enough sleep, you also lose free time and can lack energy as downsides.

Number of sleep hours are important, but better quality sleep is the better biohack way. And I share the best biohack routine I know and practice below. ⬇️

But for most days, when you get enough sleep, your body wakes up feeling energized. (Sleep + energy = 🤸🏻‍♂️)

You get better connected, cohesive thoughts. Because your body was able to fully recharge its batteries the night before.

Your daily energy ⚡️ is directly affected by how well you sleep. We all know that… and that’s why alarm clocks and caffeine are so popular in the morning.

…And getting less blue light in our eyes at night is up there too as newer healthy artificial habits.

We can also affect the energy systems inside us with better lifestyle choices, like: healthy food and drink choices, when we consume, and exercise.

Energy is not just physical and movement. Or calories.

…It’s also energy in the mind. Our minds can be slow and lethargic and that can be part of a Kapha imbalanced mind.

But there are other signs too… like, we’re not connecting energetically with others (who are energy).

We can have an invisible positive magnetic or negative repelling energy. That’s something visible in your life to consider that often gets missed in relationships and the community around us.

✅ Tips for daily sleep/energy ⚡️self-care wheel balance:

Give yourself more energy. You can listen to music that puts you in an energetic mood, get blood pumping through your veins doing your exercises, and doing a new activity that stimulates your mind. And give yourself daily healthy mind-body energy food.

Kapha Sign #2 (Spiritual):

When our Kaphas are off balance, there’s a domino effect, affecting: feelings, thoughts, and how much of our lit spiritual selves we let in. And these impact our daily actions.

The actions (or inactions) that accumulate pounds, things, emotions, and piles of things as examples are obvious exterior signs. They’re processed deeper in mind-thoughts that change our feelings and moods.

To change, it’s easier to look at the exterior signs (as mirrors and clues) to our inner going-ons that creates our world, so we can get more grounded and tap into our inner power.

If you find the clue that you’re accumulating in some way, the deeper source could be because you’re wanting to be alone and building up a wall from others. Or you’re just plain tired from picking up toys and piles, and cleaning up.

…The source isn’t as important as knowing that those are classic Kapha awareness imbalanced signs. And since we don’t want to exude growing unhealthy behavior that accumulates, we can change choices…

So, look around… have you accumulated things or have you stopped putting things away as much? Do you have unintentional messy piles, clothes, or toys left out for another day?

“Disorganized” and “clutter” (descriptions that can harshly rub like an abrasive scrubber as the elephant in the room) — usually go hand-in-hand because it’s the same mind feeding the non-serving abrasive message.

…And this can leave feelings of shame that can gradually turn into self-loathing if allowed. That’s sobering, but helpful because then we can be aware and fix what isn’t healthy.

✅ Tips for daily spiritual 🌟 self-care wheel balance:

Practice letting go. Ignore your heavy Kapha thoughts as this derails you from your this season’s purpose. This can sound challenging if you’ve never exercised this right to ignore any of your thoughts, but it’s so liberating!

Rewrite not-so-great thoughts if you never have (and do it over and over again if you have). Nip it in the bud when the thoughts arrive.

You can save time, money, and effort that your brain would otherwise send you to go spend on… like I’d be happier if I had ___ shopping item, ___ life, or ___ relationship.

Feeling content can do wonders for you if you can do that step.

Many years ago, I discovered that I didn’t have to accept my random thoughts that entered my mind. I could decisively ignore and even peacefully disagree. How was that the first time?… very weird.

…But when I practiced that habit, my life changed and I didn’t let the beaten down tracks play over and over again. The better track connect-the-dots and stops fictitious endings from forming.

With those positive step actions, I could walk away and then my better moods came back.

I could change my moody feelings and re-direct my perspectives. And you can too if that’s what you want…

Where and how are you on your mind and thought journey?

Here are the simple steps 👣

Recognize the thought: negative, unproductive thought (alert!)

The action: walk away

The walk away feeling: freedom vs. ego smothering protection and feeling bad about something, people, or myself

Repeat.

Kapha Sign #3 (Love):

Getting back or having healthy self-love is most important in matters of love and relationships. That’s how we also attract healthy relationships.

But, heavy imbalanced Kapha minds can have extremes: acting prickly toward people or relationships. Or acting needy and dependent to those who don’t reciprocate. These do the opposite of attracting (and sometimes wrongly attract opposites).

Smothering (or semi-mothering) can make others feel like a boundary is crossed, and can easily destroy a relationship.

When we expect others to make us happy, we set ourselves up for disappointment. So focusing on loving ourselves first allows us to energetically have an authentic overflow of love that pours out to others.

In self-care, we used to call this Me-Time that has become Me-Too as a form of love and healing.

✅ Tips for daily love ❤️ self-care wheel balance:

Be kind to yourself and your body, and tell your mind: “I am enough.”

Repeat saying to yourself: “I am loved” as a daily mantra.

******************************************

🧡 And FINALLY, from my newer lessons learned on the self-care wheel:

In 2023, I started intermittent fasting in my life for healthy gut reasons. But I found in my self-experiment (that I journaled about)… it also improved daily sleep, energy, and gave lighter mind-thoughts.

On those IF nights, sleep is better because the body doesn’t need to go to extra work to process food ontop of all its miracle daily resetting functions (…and why we need sleep in the first place!). And the liver doesn’t have to work hard to process beverages other than the mostly water clear kind. I like herbal teas.

So building in a weekly routine practice, I experienced not needing as much sleep and improved sleep quality.

👣 If you want to know how to optimize IF and Kapha metabolism for all the daily healthy benefits (and biohacking your body’s health), you can learn and read more about my journey.

5 Dreaming Ways for Your New Year ✨

Make the New Year a year to awaken dreams!

In 2024, dreaming can be our New Year’s resolutions. For you and me, habits may have replaced resolutions and are healthy good, but they too only get us so far in our daily routines.

This article is all about re-awakening your dreams so they can come alive sooner.

Let’s start with the tradition many of us grew up with…

New Year’s Resolutions

It was the conversation starter for the last week of the year. And for traditionalists, still is. I started that way but then stopped cold turkey one year after I caught on like many others… that resolutions are nothing more than a Fun Wish List.

I became aware that it’s self-defeating to come up with a list of arbitrary projects and meeting lofty self-improvement challenges before the end of January when life went back to usual… and to come up with dreaming visions that aren’t ours and don’t work on annual timelines.

That all sets us up for disappointment.

Mid-February is when most of us have stopped our well-intended new year crusades if not sooner.

Often, our ideas are not aligned with what’s actually in our lives, and we don’t know what’s ahead in life’s uncertainty and opportunities.

And that doesn’t just ring true for resolutions, it’s also for our daily planning and future aspirations we have.

I found one of my life’s work one year by accident during a transition. And that’s how it is in most of our lives.

Creating an arbitrary list doesn’t enlist our higher thinking into our plans. Or what the future holds for the world.

What we really want to know is: what’s best for us in this season?

We’re not the ones best to answer that. The Universe knows before we do and can align us if we pay attention to the signs.

We only have a limited view of what we know today and our past experiences. Our job is to connect-the-dots in our lives.

New Year’s Habits

A better way to set us up for success (where we’re better off by year end) is creating better lasting habits as a productive way. It’s less about meeting goals and more about the process and progress we make.

“Progress over perfection” became the mantra circa 2020, that I think is here to stay.

And habits are at the core of making progress even though habit making is not a new concept.

We’ve been making habits since we were kids, getting up, brushing our teeth, and going to school.

And if we were lucky, we had caretakers who helped us make and form good habits. Or we had a chance to start fresh as adults.

This is when we learned habits can turn into manifesting what we want into our lives as labors of love down the road. They’re the keepsake dreams we hold deep down inside us and that are meant for us.

Manifesting Our Dreams

Because manifesting is not something that happens overnight or when you snap your fingers with a calendar date in mind. It doesn’t work like that as much as we want it to. Darn!

…It’s years in the making. But then it turns out better than expected. Because in the slow cook dreaming process, you’ve become the person ready for the dream.

…And in perfect timing like a warm stew with balanced flavors.

When you look at it like that, then you’re less discouraged today. You keep on dreaming! You have a newfound purpose.

Dreams can take seasons and sometimes decades to manifest. And while waiting, we wisely stay productive developing skills, traits, and experiences we will need.

That’s always in our control until the timing is right for the dream again to reappear.

…When I was a kid, we threw birthday parties and I always got great gifts. One happy memory I barely remember was a tea set that I enjoyed with my stuffed animal friends. I dreamed of my sophisticated adult life when I was a toddler. 🧸

And that was part of manifesting today’s life where I still enjoy a fine cup of tea (while interestingly no one else in my immediate family ever got the tea bug!).

But, we do share the travel bug and shared a family vacation to Europe. After that, I no longer saw my neighborhood, town, and school as the only places I could live or be.

And that set the wheels in motion to manifesting travel dreams in my adult life. I saw the possibilities of adventure and excitement of visiting new places from my younger vantage point.

But I had to connect-the-dots from my younger past experiences, because I wasn’t taught to dream.

So here’s some of the things you can do in your new year that will ring out the old resolutions and bring in the new dreams (back again) that haven’t manifested.

1.Create space for dream ideas to come in. Space needs headspace. So if you start today, you can have better answers tomorrow when you sleep on your dreams and gain new ideas throughout the day.

If you never start with new ideas, then you can stay stuck. But if they’re in you, they can come alive. Like the travel bug I developed.

That’s why it’s good to feed the good bugs (gut ones too, but that’s for another healthy article 😉). Give the good ideas energy and let the bad ones pass through.

2.Dream like a kid. When we were kids, we had aspirational dreams from touch points in our lives even if we weren’t taught to dream.

I couldn’t wait to grow up because most my young life wasn’t on my terms. But knowing there was more out there, helped me to get through those years. Because then maybe in possibilities, I would have the resources and way to make potential happen even if I didn’t know what my dreams were.

And if we were taught to dream, we know how to take those ideas further to the moon 🌙 and give them daily life even if they haven’t panned out.

All we need is the belief that there’s a grander life out there for us than the one we’re currently in. Then there’s a good chance to turn our dreams into motion picture reality. 🎥

3. Night dream with intent. I used to think sleeping dreams were useless. But they can be a part of our thought life that can be used to our benefit.

If you look at night dreams as unique to you (just like thoughts), then you can pull out the good ones and come up with new ideas. And some of them are meant to be yours as most have you featured in them as the star. 🌟

Take the good ones and manifest a good morning. Let them inspire you to keep dreaming and believe for your real life dreams.

4.Dream with inspiration. When you see new places and ideas, your thought horizon expands. You get glimpses of how others live and what others have come up with as their dreams.

America’s Got Talent is one show that showcases dreams do come true and can become reality.

And sometimes inspiration from others is our dream play land and fairytale life that we can aspire to and sets our dreaming in motion.

5. Dreaming with your eyes closed. Bring out a scent that reminds you of a happy childhood memory to help bring alive your imagination.

Maybe hot cocoa, a candle, or something nostalgic from your hood. 👧🏻

Think of the details of that memory. Bring out what childhood or younger self dream can be fulfilled from the memory and still ring true in your life today.

Keep dreaming in the New Year! ✨I’m writing a book on the big dreams that were specifically meant for you and can be manifested for you as you develop YOU. If you want to know when the FREE book is available, signup to be on my list.

7 Stress Eating Habits + Easy Fatayer Appetizer Recipe

Stress eating habits are made better by celebrating occasionally, practicing moderation, and developing the habit of eating healthy foods daily.

Jump to Recipe

Party planning is fun, and good to come up with a sweet and savory spread to enjoy in moderation and share the table joy!

Last time I shared some healthy de-stress tips… so it’s fitting to add the healthy relationship we have with food as a way to stay healthy.

I know that sounds like “easier said than done” advice considering all the tempting stuffing and holiday sweets that deck the holidays. 🎄

Plus, winter season is a natural time to bring out our Kapha body and mind tendencies that welcome in accumulating and comfort foods (stored in our comfort pants 😉). That’s what we don’t want or wish for, but happens unless we make alternative healthy, daily plans.

I thought I’d never get to a savory breakfast as sweet was my go-to all my life. But with healthy desires, one breakfast led to another and these days, it’s almost always savory. So don’t sell yourself short. Your tastes will change with your habits. And you never have to go back to old habits.

This article is meant to inspire your delicious healthy, anti-inflammatory eating habits to kick the holiday stress eating habits to the curb and inspire a healthy eating new year.

Ready?

…Here we go!

1.Lean into the seasonal produce foods that interest you. Like squashes, citrus, apples, and winter berries. You can find so many new fruit varieties like jackfruit and dragon fruit on the grocery shelves (and so many others haven’t even made it from our tropical climate lands to our markets).

2.Reinvent sides. The stuffing sides can be what gets some of us in trouble, and if the carbs is what you’re worried about, you can reinvent the starchier side carbs to work for your body.

Stick with veggies carbs that are the opposite and with very few calories, and some have great flavors such as mushrooms, asparagus, and onions that you can turn into a Provencal herby-forward experience with a little tarragon, white pepper, vinegar or sherry.

Carrots (raw and cooked) are so versatile for sweet and savory dishes where you can substitute the fun marshmallows with a divine anti-inflammatory diet pairing like ginger and textures like nuts or seeds. You can also learn to appreciate food textures as a no-calorie add.

3.Make healthy desserts. This is my specialty area and weakness turned into a positive. It’s no baking secret that butter and refined sugar add to weight gain. And ingredients like white flour and white sugar are inflammatory foods. Moderation is still the modern way. Plus incorporating healthy foods.

Keeping a balance between tasty and healthy is the dynamic pairing duo. And the sweet spot is they are usually easy bakes in minutes like a healthy pear or apple pie with cinnamon sweetness.

You can make a pumpkin pie from pumpkin puree that’s loaded with antioxidant Vitamin A and beta carotene. Mix in some plant-based almond milk. And add allspice that’s all anti-inflammatory goodness as the sweet five-spice version! Think creative sweet potato and green veggie dishes.

For holiday stress eating prep dish habits, you can start with those whole food ingredients, a ‘lil milk, and holiday spices… and then zhugh up with the celebrational peppermint sticks and marshmallows… you don’t have to give up the party sides 😉 (I personally wouldn’t want to because I breathed hospitality party planning for years. Some of the sweet celebratory joy sides are worth a few calories).

Still, it’s all about balance and moderation.

Easy Fatayer Appetizer Recipe. — These hot water pastry fatayer appetizers were inspired by my party planning days. 🥟

Easy Fatayer Holiday Appetizers

Course Appetizer

Cuisine lebanese, Mediterranean, middle eastern

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

Knife or pizza roller for classic pyramid empanada shapes
Drinking glass for empanada half moon pie shapes
Rolling Pin

Ingredients

Flour
Olive oil or butter
Water

Instructions

Slice and dice up your fillings. spinach and feta or ground meat is traditional for fatayer. Or use what you have in your freezer likeI brussels sprouts (good bitter ingredient like spinach) and fresh red onions. And soft green beans from a can that worked great for blending textures!
Make your hot water pastry. No planning or prep time! Just add warm-hot water to flour and a ‘lil butter or olive oil to form a soft ball that holds together. Flatten and roll out with a rolling pin. Fold in half moons like empanadas. and for 3-D triangle shapes you’ll want to cut out squares (at least two inch squares so you can hold enough filling).
For classic 3-D pyramid triangles, it’s like origami. You just fold so the corners meet. and then the third side closes it all up into a pyramid-type shape that doesn’t have to look perfect. You don’t need egg water to close like wontons, but you may want to brush with egg for a glossy look.
Bake on 350°F for about 25-35 minutes

…Compared to sugar, cream, and butter that was used for daily Grandma southern cooking that didn’t prioritize healthy or wearing our best sized clothing.

And maybe a few pats of butter instead of a stick will do?

Those less healthy daily cooking styles grow on us Vatas, Pittas, and Kaphas alike.

And, sometimes we’re not the ones in charge of doin’ the cookin’, so the better way would be to be choosy and show some love to the host cook by adding a dollop on your plate to try. That doesn’t have to be your main meal leaving leftover regrets.

4.Get inspired by longevity as a goal. We can all learn a thing or two from the Blue Zones that have the largest pocket of Centenarians in the world. They’ve changed our concepts of health. As an example, instead of growing their waist sizes, they’re lowering Earth waste and preparing fresh meals from their natural land.

They’re daily climbing hills while we’re sitting in front of our devices. They’re gathering naturally grown ingredients while we’re foraging in the weekly store. Even though our modern lifestyles are so different, we can still do our healthy bit…

We can be healthy selective.

We can use a list like this rainbow variety 200 Anti-Inflammatory food list to be our angel side guide into the store. And we use our healthy awareness as our cart checkout guide instead of robotically picking up the boxed processed versions.

We can also select the fresh, healthy ingredients that are usually 2-step dish easy.

Such as, abundant whole potatoes can be our purple imo like in Okinawa Blue Zones where they have a high number of living 100 year olds.

Like them, you can peel and boil simple potatoes. Compare that to a processed spud packet loaded with preservatives and sodium. The open packet instead of peel effort is a minimal difference. The extra minutes in cooking is worth it for your body… don’t ya think?

Sometimes what’s needed most for better stress eating habits is a ‘lil freshened up education between our daily eyes. Then when you have a healthy way or recipe in mind, you beeline to those healthy ingredients in the stores… 🐝

You can usually find the unsexy whole potato bags along the sides of the grocery stores in bins.

5.Eat fiber. When I professionally planned parties, I almost always recommended a starter platter called Crudite which is the fancy French word for a raw veggie platter. When you start with celery or carrots every day, you add fiber roughage that helps move along the heavier foods. It’s a good way to prep and rev up your stomach engines.

6.Eat spicy foods. If you can’t do cayenne pepper or hot peppers because of the spice, try red hot chili pepper flakes that are mild and still have capsaicin that’s anti-inflammatory and known to burn calories (and not tongues).

Fresh wasabi and horseradish are other hot sauces you can use if you can tolerate. They not only help clear out sinuses and toxins, but if you’re eating those foods, then you lose your hankering for the sweet and buttery.

7.Skip the high beverage calories. You can skip the loaded coffee beverages and eggnog calories and go for the plant-based milk latte drink that will be even better with a strong flavor pairing.

If you like licorice, you can lean on anise and fennel spices. And if you like peppermint, go for the mint leaves. And for a brighter drink, zhugh with some citrus zest. These are all calorie saving ideas that are pleasing to the gut, mind, and body.

Add some warming spice with your daily beverage habit when you want something comforting to drink or taste. Now that’s a great stress eating habit you can toast to! And you can make it fun and easy if you keep the spices by your beverage making station. You’ll always have a decked out drink.

Cheers! Cin cin! Salut! ☕️

Holiday peppermint tea is actually good for your aches and the zhughing with candy cane is a sweet way to deck the holidays! ❤️

De-Stress Holiday Habits (Part 1)

De-stress is highly called for come holiday season. Below are 5 good mental habits to keep in mind for a less stressful holiday. Plus a bonus habit to make “dummy proof” white rice or your favorite rice for your holiday (and everyday cooking) like my mom served every weeknight dinner meal when I was growing up. Rice cooking steps below.🍛

total fluffy rice method.

De-stress is a good wellness move year-round and especially during holidays when stress, irritations, and anxiety can creep in around our work, travel, family, and loss situations. Your mind-body is put to the test. And that can send us to needing some body balance therapy and mood restoration.

But,first things first, hiking therapy steps are a good mind-body way to de-stress. 👣

Last-minute changes are never fun. And not to mention, the uncertain feelings of setting yourself up for a new year can bring nervous sensations. You can have looming internal questions like: will it be a good new year?

The answer can always be yes! if we choose. Because what’s happening to us is all relative to our lives. And there’s always something good that comes out if we fix our eyes on our perspectives.

Instead of magnifying and putting energy into what didn’t go right and the hardships we endured, focus on what did go right. And that will change your outlook in your life.

Moments become blurs in your life as you distance yourself over time from specific situations.

Through those times, you grow as a person. And when you’ve had enough time to process, you become stronger and wiser if you focus on the better perspectives and attitudes.

And over time, you can realize avoiding stress isn’t a measure of your life success… it’s how you process your stressful situations and what you learn about yourself in the process. Staying cool, calm, and collected always pays off for your mind-body balance.

Recently in my processes, I was hit with a travel planning situation to face where I had to work with loved ones who did the planning. And then a day later, faced a work situation that needed repair. There, I was put in a position to fix the issues between an employee and boss.

I had to create some stress to get to the bottom of what the messy middle was. I also had to bring up heavy conversations and discuss touchy areas, so I could help temporarily restore what was broken.

Testing the waters, that delivered better results the next day than if I hadn’t stirred up the conversations. Had I decided to sugar coat or dance around topics, both would have led to long and drawn out unease. Being direct, I knew the outcome I needed for everyone’s happy sake.

I thought with the end in mind. I wanted both situations to end well in happy endings.

Fortunately, both stressful situations were fixed by end of week. But, I needed de-stress therapy from the heavy moments.

And I realized those stressful moments were setups for what my mind-body would have to face for another stressful situation closer to the holidays.

So, fresh on my mind, these are some helpful tips you can also use to de-stress in your holiday situations.

How to De-Stress Around Holidays

1.Look for loving happy endings, first.

Consider the alternatives. Usually there is miscommunication in play whenever there are sour grape situations with people involved. And instead of trying to attack through ego walls, it’s better to put the loving hat on. Putting fleshly feelings aside, we think of what will be best for the situation. And sometimes that can be as simple as we just agree to disagree (and leave in peace) or figure out how to fix what’s broken. And then with those attitudes, inadvertently the language of what “we” can do slips out instead of just “me” and my agenda that never wins.

2.Be fearless.

Fear is the opposite of love. Proceed with your plan if you know what to do. Your gut instinct is usually always right for higher, and more loving ways. But if you react in doubt and fear, then you create more negative energy for yourself that adds more stress. When you trust the best outcomes, then you can eliminate fear. The worst that can happen is you’re no longer in those stressful situations because of a loss. And when you have loss, that’s the opportunity for growth and a new door.

3.Look for how to correct a wrong way quickly.

Fix quickly and then get past quicker. Resentment only results in your unhappiness. You don’t want to have sour feelings lingering and then that turns into a stressful season. In both my situations I mentioned, they could have lasted for a month longer and hung around like gray clouds. But with swift and fearless action, all that was mitigated instead of trying to sugar coat or dance around topics that could’ve been easily misunderstood. You can’t always predict what others will do, but you can predict your actions so you can more quickly de-stress.

4.Get rid of baggage and replace with happy ways.

Assume no trauma. Work out your frustrations same day as you experience them. If it’s sadness, then cry. And if it’s anger, then work off your anger at the gym or on your yoga mat.

But don’t act like nothing is wrong. And don’t assume unhappy traditions such as a guilty mourning ritual every time you see a sign that reminds you of a sad situation. Because those are self-imposed obligations to hold onto stress and what doesn’t have to be. It’s an unnecessary burden and for those around you who have to dance around the day or situation. Life is too short to hold onto past sad memories, and not create new happy ones instead. My book Empowered Happiness is all about that.

5.De-stress routine.

To de-stress, get out of the daily routine. Purposefully decide not to engage with those people in your daily stressful situations for a few days so you can gain new perspectives. Start your detox as you’re going through.

In my case, I didn’t lose additional sleep. I planned self-care. And I took healing steamy showers, spritzed lovely bergamot scents, and enjoyed calming tea. I didn’t wait until the dust settled. There’s no need to withhold daily joy from your life.

The goal doesn’t have to be to get through the sufferings, avoid the stress, or only seek happy moments. When you learn how to be content, that’s when life gets easier.

And that can help you get back to present moment awareness faster where the calm is.

In my situations, I sang along with calming music that’s therapy to the soul. And to get out of routine, I listened to a little Aretha Franklin that brought me to a mood that helped bring me back to present moment awareness. I also did 4-7-8 breathing: inhaling in the gratitude and exhaling stressful negative energy.

So even when I felt the weight of my situations, I made sure to re-center myself with yoga and think about what I would be looking forward to later in the week and at nights. I had a focused reminder of what I’m grateful for. We all have something to be appreciative of in any of our situations.

And basically I did all the activities that bring my mindfulness back (that destroys the unhealthy ego from growing). Mindfulness revived me. It’s one of the secrets to mind-body balance.

And I believe we all have this in us so we can de-stress our negative energy away and turn into healthy, growth, productivity, joy, and creativity that lasts through the holidays and into the new year.

Have a Merry Christmas! 🎄

holiday de-stress moments enjoying the views. — Where my young story began growing up near this village center.

My mom never wrote down any recipes or cooking methods, but she also never worked on a computer 🖥️.

She passed down her white rice method in my memory and I added a few healthy ingredient steps. Rice makes a good side, is a good filler, and has many healthy nutrients (vit-mins).

The Perfect Mom Fluffy Rice Method

Cooking rice directly in a cooking pot can leave you with inedible scorched, overcooked rice, or sticky rice if you're not watching closely. This consistent "dummy-proof" Fluffy Rice Method will actually free you up so you do not have to watch your rice every few minutes and worry about if it will come out edible for your meals. This method is inspired by my mom's white rice that always turned out perfect. She never measured amounts or wrote down recipes. 🙂

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American, Chinese

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

microwave/oven-safe soup size mug
cooking pot with lid larger than mug

Ingredients

white rice or rice of choice (brown or wild rice for whole grain healthy)
water
olive oil, drizzle (healthy fat)

Instructions

Add tap water to the pot that goes up half way up the outside of the mug.
After rinsing rice, add rice to the mug. Add up to 2/3 to the top of the mug (leaving 1/3 of the mug unfilled).
Then, add filtered water to the rice-mug leaving about 1/2" from the brim top so it doesn't boil over.
Cook on medium (or medium-low) heat with covered lid for about 30 minutes or until rice is soft, almost cooked done to liking, and water is almost absorbed. Add a little filtered water as needed to the rice to finish off cooking (usually a few additional minutes) and an olive oil drizzle if desired for perfectly moist rice.