Physical Health and Body Archives - Page 14 of 24

Flow Yoga Poses In 10-Minute Baking ⏲

Flow yoga is something you can add to your practice 10 minutes while you’re waiting and working on baking.

5 yoga flow stretches while waiting for your bakes.

For the next few weeks, I’m focusing on a new flow yoga mini-series to help you go from one pose to the next easily. Yoga means “union” and is the mind-body-spirit connection that we all can use.

And If yoga is intimidating (or it’s better) to you, you can call it modified stretching or something similar so you can remove the mental blocks (…and yoga blocks if you choose 😉).

Stretching is needed to reset our tight and daily working bodies. So I hope this will help you through the rest of the year whether you’re traveling or staying put where you are.

…And a flow yoga routine is something easy you can practice and do year-round and anywhere, so I’ll give you a flow yoga sequence below for someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen (myself included).

This time I’ll focus on yoga for those who do regular cooking or baking. If you know anyone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen, you could share this with them.

Body Balance Quiz

Even if you don’t think you’re good at yoga, the benefits to your body outweigh the few minutes spent… and some benefits can’t be achieved with other exercises, as you’ll not reach those hidden body muscles and crevices.

We tend to use the same few muscles for everyday use like our biceps and legs, when in fact we have about 600 muscles.

And whether you’re in the kitchen, traveling, or in an office, it’s good to plan to have a yoga mat or towel nearby, so you can stretch every day.

A mat can be a good reminder, as we take for granted that our bodies work for us every day without missing a beat. 🫀

We can all use a stretch once in a while where we let our hair down and take off our shoes and socks.

So grab your mat and here we go!…

If you’re working in the kitchen often, you’re looking down most of the day at the kitchen counter or the baked items you’re preparing. This puts a strain on your neck and all the nearby muscles running down your shoulders and back.

This mini-series of poses, or flow yoga, would be great to help you unwind and restore as you wait for your timed baked goods to bake in your oven.

You gotta love the oven for that reason!…

And last time I mentioned how great your freezer is for storage (another great piece of equipment to be grateful for). And this week it’s all about optimizing your waiting on your oven.

With an oven, you can set and forget your food cooking for a few minutes. So you can get to your other tasks… and a few resetting yoga poses while your food is baking evenly.

What flow yoga will help you do:

🧡 Undo the tension and strain you put on your body from preparing your food and bakes, even if you don’t feel it in the moment.

🧡 You may realize you need more stretching which is exactly what your body wants. Note: you can’t do too much yoga, but you can overwork parts in yoga. And if you ever do, you realize how delicate and resilient your body is.

🧡 And the best part of yoga (I think) is you will feel like a million bucks when you get back to the rest of your day.

Most poses you can do while you’re watching television, but after you already know the correct posture and alignment. That’s why it’s good to get proper instruction from a studio. But if that’s not possible, then use this general rule:

1) If it feels like a good stretch to your body in the moment, then you need more of it. It should never hurt (where you bite your lip in wincing pain).

Yoga is individualistic. Everyone has different bodies and nuance tolerances, so you have to use how YOU specifically feel as a guide and not what others tell you they feel when they’re in the pose even from one Vata to another (or from Pitta to Pitta, or Kapha to Kapha)…if you get my drift?

2) If you’re in a pose carrying any body weight, then do not move the body part that is carrying the weight if it’s a weak area.

For example, in Plow pose laying down where your legs go behind your head, your neck carries the weight of your legs and parts of your torso, so you wouldn’t want to move your neck when you get in the pose (and it’s easiest to stare at one distant spot or a light in the ceiling above).

Yoga is totally a personal journey where you get to know your body after you get the basics down.

Yoga has good body benefits even if you don’t get into your zen (and that’s a good mind benefit).

Determine Your Weak and Strong Areas

For each of us, we’re physically stronger in some areas and weaker in others, and that can be specific to specific poses.

For example, my strength is flexibility and balance. And the more I do yoga, the stronger the muscles become to support my weight (like in a Plank). It can be the same for you or you could be strong and want to work on balance, like in a Tree Pose. Or flexibility and balance in bird yoga poses. It’s all just practice.

And in yoga, endurance of how long you can stay in a pose is mostly determined by your patience and the strength of specific muscles.

If you’re newer to yoga, find out what your strong areas are. And what the weak ones are. We all have them and sometimes we don’t know what they are until we make a small mistake in yoga that shows up as a ‘lil pain a day or two later.

…That teaches us for the next time and also lets us know we’re alive!

Baking Flow Yoga Poses

So to start, practice some Cat-Cows to loosen up.

Then you can rest in a Child’s pose (or Hare pose if you want to really tuck in). There’s no hurry in yoga (except when your buzzer goes off for your bakes! ⏲)

…And so when you’re ready, then lie on your front like you would on a beach towel laying face down or reading a book.

Then reach back and grab your ankles if you can, or just alternate one ankle with the same side arm at a time, if that’s too much of a stretch initially.

You’d be surprised that you can change pretty quick in flexibility after a few minutes or sessions! The longer you hold the pose, the easier and better it is and becomes.

…Remember when you tried the splits and you could stretch even more the longer you stayed in the pose? …And don’t raise the bar too much, like a gymnast who’s built for that!

So then after grabbing your ankles, look up and peel your shoulders and thighs off the floor if you can. Lift off. Look upward. This is really good for your back and neck. And this pose is called Bow pose. Stay there for as long as you can and let go and then try again a few more times.

And from there you can move into Pigeon pose, where your forearms are perpendicular (straight up from the mat), and then hinge one leg forward, and the other leg straight back behind you.

You’ll feel a nice stretch in your thigh, back, and legs that withstand so much weight when you’re standing. In your pigeon, look up slightly. And whenever you have the opportunity.

Pigeon pose is a really good stretch for your neck, back, butt, and legs. One side tends to be tighter than the other. And you’ll feel it as you alternate sides.

You can then get into a neutral Downward Dog as a flow yoga step for transitioning.

Then flip or turn over to your back on the mat (so you’re facing up).

It’s tempting to take a nap. And if you have time, go for it! But don’t forget about your oven if it’s on!

And then lift your bottom up off the mat into Bridge pose. You can feel relief in your back. This is a good one to use a yoga block.

You can insert the elevating block where your back ends and meets your tail bone. And then just comfortably rest on the block without doing anything. How nice!

The block isn’t preventing you from reaping yoga physical benefits as it helps you get stretched further in height. So it helps you and isn’t a crutch in case it feels that way!

You go higher (literally) than you would normally. Yoga is all about making your life easy… gotta love that! 🧡

And finally, when you come back down, get into your Happy Baby pose where you grab your big toes with your forefingers and thumbs (something monkeys can’t do!).

Happy Baby can leave you feeling relaxed without a care in the world for a few minutes and is a great way to end your yoga session. And you may just want to come back for more!

…And your bake should be about ready now or ready for you to check on. 😉

For more inspiration, take a look at these 100 yoga poses.

If you want to get more awareness about what your body is telling you, or would like to learn more about the Ayurvedic perspectives in the mind-body connection, you can take the body balance quiz.

Healthy Grocery Food Shopping and Save Money Tips

Healthy grocery food shopping 🛒is a weekly top of mind chore for many of us. It’s one I actually enjoy coming from a foodie work background planning parties and catered events.

…And you can find your happy and healthy reasons or get inspired in other ways. 🎉

On that mission, doing your own shopping, meal prep, and cooking/baking can be just what you need for your busy lifestyle and can save you $$ in your wallet and waistline.

…And btw, if you want a weight loss healthy tip and make healthy lifestyle moves that also saves you money, you should check out this easy way in this free guide.

You can use “make your life easy” mantra, and that’s why we we love our easy cooking tools and food prep hacks. Amen?

Like this one: I’m using my ice trays for scrambled egg cubes…

(Along with a little homemade ice cream sandwich love to cool things off the hot seasons we’ve been experiencing! ❤️)

Little things like these help to make up for this past week in food, where I couldn’t find common healthy grocery food list staples like bananas and milk. I shopped online on different days, but I can only imagine how empty the produce section must’ve looked.

…In other weeks, it was eggs, oranges, or meat shortages. And I’m sure you’ve seen similar, so it’s good to stay flexible these days!

It’s practical to stock up on some goods when possible, and especially if you want to save money and time from food shopping. Also be open to what’s abundant and on sale.

And if you want to make it quick out of a store, shop around the store perimeter where you also find the fresh healthy grocery food items. The aisles is where you can get lost a little.

Growing up, for healthy grocery food we had “gourmet foods.” I remember a test Gourmet Giant store near us. They had these great big barrel bulk bins lined up with every gourmet food you could think of. I was in food heaven as a young, picky food eater that’s pretty normal today for us in our modern 🌈 variety.

Back then, the idea of “organic” wasn’t popular yet, but gourmet variety foods like strawberry brie could be found (and probably worked on me as I went into catering planning years later when I had tasted the food possibilities early on 😋).

Food changes are a ‘lil fun (even though it’s a wee bit frustrating looking for specific items that you fell in love with that are discontinued).

But in the positives, you focus on other foods. Last year, I saw an abundance of Cara Cara oranges. And where you’re at, there could be other types or a new breed of organic strawberries as an example. That’s something to get excited about. 🤸‍♀️

Healthy Grocery Food Storage

But one thing that hasn’t changed is the freezer. A refrigerator is irreplaceable as there’s nothing else like it. When you’re young, it’s where you store happy ice cream and popsicles that sit in front of the frozen uncooked foods.

And freezers not only keep your food from spoiling but also preserve food so you can actually plan meals further out than one week. You can buy in bulk and not waste money.

And frozen veggies are a great way to always have low-calorie, nutrient-dense green foods around. You can always find occasions to use a frozen bag of kale or peas.

The fridge top shelf is your next coolest ally. That’s where the cool strawberries belong in peak season.

Morning strawberry quinoa cereal and light angel food cake are two ways I’ve been optimizing strawberry dishes…

That’s one fruit you don’t want to freeze if you want to keep them fresh and plump. 🍓

But for just about everything else 😉, optimizing your freezer for preserved food hacks is still one of the best grocery money-saving tips. Freeze bread, meats, smoothie fruits, and so many other healthy grocery food items.

You can freeze those extra tubs of yogurt and have frozen yogurt. Now that’s smart…and takes no prep work!

If you have ripe bananas, you can freeze them, so you don’t have to grocery backtrack (and that’s what I did in the banana shortage).

They’ll look frozen and scary brown or black in appearance, but they are good and taste as good in a smoothie, and even better in a baked banana bread recipe.

Just remember to prep the food before you freeze it. Like cut the bread loaf into slices, scramble the eggs, and remove the fruit peels.

7 Healthy Grocery Food Money Savings

✅Stay flexible with fresh and frozen produce. Sometimes the same items are abundant or about to expire and cost less than frozen items. And sometimes frozen items are less.

✅Stock up on some cans. Sometimes canned items are less expensive than other times. But I don’t sub fresh/frozen vs canned as they don’t usually translate the same. Such as, frozen or fresh peas are great, but canned, not so much. And canned beans are great, but frozen beans, well… we can move on…

It’s also hard to predict what will run out on the shelves, so you can keep some cans available that stack nicely, and free up your freezer space that’s in high demand.

You can also always find some happy mediums. Like applesauce works for many baking recipes instead of storing refrigerated apples.

And to save money, you can do an apples-to-apples comparison online where grocery is usually priced per ounce, lb, or count.

Shopping online makes this easy to do as you’re not distracted. And also so you don’t have to drive all over creation to compare costs between stores…

These days, that’s super smart as sizes have gotten smaller, so using basic quick math tools help.

Sometimes healthy grocery food store chains have found a way to be the lowest cost store for a specific food item you’re looking for.

One like Whole Foods you would think is more pricey is often less costly than other chain grocery stores on certain items. When there’s abundance, the goal of the store is to sell the abundance of produce as fast as possible to maintain top freshness, and competitive pricing is the best strategy.

✅Wherever you shop: one smart item to keep on hand is a shelf-stable milk substitute. Such as milk powder packages, nut milk cartons, and/or evaporated milk cupboard cans. They can come in handy for a recipe or shortage, and they last a long time.

✅Look for your holiday baking items after the holidays. If you look for pumpkin puree or chocolate chips online around the holidays, good luck. You may find them at an astronomical price.

You’ve probably already experienced that before (and today is a good time to start looking 👀).

✅Another option for fresh alternatives and self-sufficiency is growing your own garden greens, herbs, fruits, and veggies.

That’s what many of the American Blue Zoners do (in Loma Linda, CA) that we can learn from. These are the Adventist Health community-goers. They’re the largest group of oldest Americans that have celebrated 100 with flying colors.

But if you don’t plan to have a garden in the city or have a brown thumb, then you can still support those who do. You can get fresh “in season” from a local farmer’s market stand where you shop.

✅Save at ethnic food stores that have cropped up everywhere metropolitan. And when you get curious about exotic foods, then you open your palate and become to variety that’s good for your gut. Ethnic grocery stores often carry more healthy ingredients. In America and other western world grocery stores, we tend to have an abundance processed foods staring us in the face and in the check out lines.

✅And finally, when you find one good item from a brand, search the brand itself as they rarely just stop at producing one item that you love.

They learn to leverage economies of scale, so they add more products to their portfolio. And then you can be a customer for life (or as long as their shelf life).

One that comes to mind, is a money-saving club like King Arthur flours for those who do a lot of baking. Then there are the local cost-saving clubs we all know that are packed any given weekend. I avoid those bulk places for many reasons. They’re warehouse-size for a reason.

And instead of jumbo stocking up on and eating the same items, you can switch it up. That pleases this Vata (…and maybe you too?)

You can find balancing healthy recipes here.

Glycemic Index, Vitamins, and Minerals (Vs. Diets)

Glycemic index is an anti-inflammatory measurement good to find a variety of healthy foods.

low glycemic index chocolate cake — You can make these low-glycemic index gooey center chocolate cakes. Recipe below ⬇️

The first time I learned of the concept of a food’s glycemic index, I was intrigued by the idea of lowering blood sugar spikes as a healthy good food consumer, and a sugar lover at the time.

…And learning that dark chocolate (like that used in my baked dessert photo above) has a lower GI score than milk chocolate, puts a smile on my face. 😊

The opposite of… feeling hangry and light-headed energy with low blood sugar, that I’ve felt before too. And make GI talk relevant for so many.

Glycemic Index (GI) measures how food carbs affect blood sugar as a nutrition score indicator. It has been around for decades, but still isn’t a common household food tool used today.

But I DO think it will be a well-known future nutrition trend for 3 big reasons:

-Diabetes rates around the world are on the rise, and most cases we know are preventable through lifestyle changes (where food can have the biggest impact).

-Glycemic Index brings awareness to the order of foods you eat based on blood glucose spikes and glycemic response. And also how foods can impact inflammation.

-The growing mention of gut health in our modern news, and as we approach newfound scientific discoveries on gut-brain health. Progress being fueled by more data and scores.

There’s no shortage of healthy research progress that keeps us on our toes.

And yet, today the Glycemic Index is not even on the daily radar for most of us that consider ourselves health-conscious.

We’ll read the Nutrition Facts label and how many carbs are on a food package. Many of us pay attention to macros and calories. But we don’t consider the Glycemic Index score mostly because it’s not on the label, but is now on your map if it wasn’t before.📍

The tricky part is, GI scoring with accuracy is complicated.

Here are a few examples why…

If you eat unripened green bananas compared to the ripe, mushy ones that are preferred in a smoothie or banana bread recipe, the GI score improves.

Ah… and a banana has no Nutrition Facts label. A banana is a banana, and best to keep it simple.

Or if you eat a salad before the higher Glycemic Index ranked food item like a potato, then you can create a nice fibrous buffer cushion that your body likes. Then, if you eat the potato skin (cushion cover), even more so.

…But like with a bed pillow, people have different responses, so the scoring is different per individual. Each body keeps different scores.

But Glycemic Index info. (that let’s be clear is not available on a food package item today) would help us, consumers, to put relevance to the order in which we eat foods and what we choose to eat.

And bring awareness to us about what’s overall churning good in our gut from our internal healthy body’s perspective.

We’d make some better healthy food choices besides what our minds tell our taste buds we want.

And well… we would be better informed.

And that’s how progress works, as we’ve come a long way…

For me and those in my U.S. generation, the 4 basic food groups literally changed overnight to the Food Pyramid of 23 servings per day by the time we were young adults.

Without the internet, I learned this in school with many others. There was always some undesignated student who casually made big news announcements around the lockers during class breaks.

That was our modern social media news medium (post styrofoam cups with a string era). 😁

And that specific news was a massive dietary recommendation disruptor. The shock was the stark contrast, from basic eating to grazing on food all day like a cow chewing grass.

Adding convenience foods could be a solution just to fit in a serving about every 1.4 hours you were awake. You could eat 23 almonds as one serving… then you would have 22 servings left to go in other food categories. But then the other snag was, back then, nuts and all fats were put in the “eat sparingly” category. That was a ‘lil nuts. 🤪

So with all that stacked up against meeting new dietary goals, the health-conscious supplemented with vitamins. Organic foods weren’t popular yet, so food quality wasn’t as important as type of calories that are still important.

And diets existed back then, and they meant eating less and less fat to lose weight, that’s more or less like today.

And there were new (but different) diet fads coming out similar as today. Here today, gone tomorrow.

The Atkin’s Diet comes to mind as every year there’s a ridiculous hot dog eating contest, that’s anything but healthy.

Many diets in general for losing weight out there are health dangerous long term. They cut off calories and starve the body from essential vitamins needed to function.

And while they’ve changed, they haven’t solved the problem.

And makes you wonder…

Why haven’t diet plans gotten smarter?

The Diet Problem: Modern Diets Are Missed Opportunities

The word “diet” has two meanings regarding meal references in the English language. Going on most diets (eating less to lose weight) is often a missed opportunity for nutrients and healthy food calories. Elimination diets are ways to scale back that are meant for a season or a few weeks.

While eating a healthy diet is a positive way of looking at (enjoying) meals and energizing the body for life. So in one “diet” meaning, it subtracts (e.g. most food is bad); and in the other, it satisfies and sustains life.

The Solution: You can find a happy medium in eating less with a healthy diet and making healthy eating habits.

Because from our decade’s past diet lessons, we know yo-yo diets backfire as we eventually want the foods we tell ourselves we can’t have.

So, choosing one that isn’t long-term restrictive that works for your body and tastes is going to do you best. Like no-rules vitamin-rich antioxidant foods and meals that can be dressed up with anti-inflammatory flavors and spices.

Because even healthy restrictive diets don’t always translate or work well.

Like a Paleo diet today doesn’t suit many of us like it did our ancestor’s generations. We can love a grandmother’s recipe, but their ingredients were processed differently than the same written ones today.

And earlier cavemen’s processes of cooking fresh quality meat over a fire from free-range sources is not the common feedlot mass production we have today.

Despite these lesser quality food process changes, food today is helping our generation’s lifespans because overall the nutrient-dense food options available to us help offset what our ancestors couldn’t get into their bodies.

They lacked sufficient vitamins that come from foods. And one good way to get daily needed vitamins is in complex carbs available comparatively abundantly to us these days.

So, cutting out minimally processed whole grains that come in a bag or box and that carry the most natural vitamins of grain options, is a healthy miss.

The point is, that many of the lose-weight diets today are trying to cut out most carbs.

Kinda like how nuts I mentioned above were once deemed as bad because they’re fat (and there was no healthy fat category), and now starchy carbs are marked as the bad calories.

When actually complex carbs give us energy and essential B vitamins we need for daily life and I think essentially undermentioned in today’s healthy conversations, along with the Glycemic Index ones that I started with.

Keeping foods like sprouted bread, quinoa, barley, tri-color pasta, and rice in the diet are good ideas. And some fit nicely in a pantry.

Plus, they’re good sources of fiber that’s helpful for any diet.

And provide often forgotten about minerals that work with vitamins to make you and I tick.

Vitamins and Minerals Smart Knowledge

If we only read the vitamin and minerals food label section on packages, we miss the opportunity to apply and reap food vitamin-mineral synergies that optimally keep the cylinder wheels turning in the body when they’re purposefully taken together.

If you’re curious about vitamins, minerals, and Glycemic Index and getting quick knowledge in those areas, they’re part of the Anti-Inflammatory Food Guide Lists (that I know you’ll love… and your body will too 🧡)… The researched lists (that you can get your hands on today) come in handy and save you hours when figuring out what to eat or grocery shop buy without having to use too much brain power.

Who doesn’t or wouldn’t love that!?

And speaking of love, a sustainable, life-giving diet is a healthy approach to life (and to keep a consistent, year-round healthy weight if that’s another goal).

The best part is you get to choose from so many diverse and delicious healthy foods… AND they have anti-inflammatory protection benefits.

…So your relationship with food can’t be much better! I’m gonna pop some polyphenol-popcorn over that🍿

Plus, some common healthy foods are anti-inflammatory “super” foods that go beyond antioxidants and polyphenols.

They also have high protein, fiber, vitamins, and/or minerals that help the body function better in more than ways than just one.

To me and you (…maybe?) who is passionate about healthy eating, it’s a no-brainer choice to make anti-inflammatory meals.

And over the past couple of years, as I’ve been contributing to writing food articles for health and wellness publications, I can dig into new research and appreciate healthy food innovations on the horizon, which gives us more to look forward to in our future new world.

Look out for more super at 100 (Centenarian) secrets and evidence in our daily news.

Super Centenarians are living proof and our hope that it’s possible to live optimally in old age and not miss a beat with tasty-nutritional meals, so we can enjoy the moment.

They teach us how to spruce up their anti-inflammatory meals so they’re deliciously prepared and flavored with spices. They do more from their natural lands, with less.

All that’s inspiring food talk for me.

So… for next time, I’ll share some good tips on how to save grocery money with healthy eating, especially with all the grocery food prices and availability changes (yikes!) impacting us all.

I leave you this gooey-center chocolate cake recipe that are inspired by the ones we served at special occasion events in my decadent decade of event planning. You can make this easy version at home in minutes and enjoy for much longer! 😋

Healthy Fall Chocolate Cake - Gluten-Free

This cake is all about timing. You don't want to bake too long so that you preserve the gooey goodness!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

muffin tin

Ingredients

2 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa for antioxidant-rich), melted
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1/8 cup monk fruit sugar (low glycemic index optional) or sugar
pinch of salt
1 tbsp almond flour
2 tbsp butter

Instructions

Combine all ingredients together except gently fold in flour last. No leavening agents needed.
Bake at 350°F for about 12 minutes. Don't overbake for a gooey chocolate center!

This site is all about happy and healthy living and eating ways and inspiration. If this is your first time here, I encourage you to find out more about me and this healthy lifestyle blog.

Ayurveda to Unleash Creativity + Cherry Sherbet

Ayurveda is today’s topic. It’s part 2 of 2.

ayurveda - your mind body calm recipe to unleash creativity

This week, I’m breaking down the secrets of Ayurveda and how it can free you from feeling stuck. And how it restores calm, improves mind-body health, and allows for daily creativity which leads to your best life new opportunities, and passions.

…Plus, I’ll clear up the common confusion about Ayurveda if you’re wanting to learn more… and how you can apply simple, but completely effective Ayurveda ways to your lifestyle where you’re at… and with a special invitation offer below.

cherry sherbet ice cream. — Today is a good to celebrate with joyful cherry Sherbet. Recipe below. 🍒

Last time, in Part 1 of Ayurveda, I talked about why you want to care about the mind-body connection. If you missed that blog post or aren’t sure, you can go back and read that one too as it could make a game-changing difference in getting your best life today…

I also shared how change and permanence are part of the natural order in this life. They keep us going and growing.

You get to choose whether you want to do this life holding onto anxiety, fears, or worry, or letting them go daily for your emotional freedom and better moods.

…You can restore daily calm even with life chaos happening around you. That’s a healthy choice.

You can change how anxiety, overwhelm, irritations, and triggered situations stick to you when they don’t have to …but, interruptedly rear their ugly head into your system and you just want them to go away!

As humans, we experience these negative emotions to varying degrees. And everyone grows weary and tired at some point.

And, that’s when we want to be vigilant to snap out of those emotions after we purge, process, and know what’s behind them so we can take necessary action, and so that we don’t stay stuck in those places any longer than necessary.

…How?

You step out and sidestep into your daily calm and productivity with the strategy of partnering with your mind-body to soothe and get the most out of the situation and your life… with small effort and adding healthy enhancements.

At some point, you probably figure(d) out that Life is about being in the process. And filled with trying lessons.

Sometimes it can take several similar, but different scenarios to play out to catch onto the lesson and make changes for a better today, tomorrow, and life.

But, when you see your part and role in what happens next, your eyes are open and you can apply wisdom. That takes awareness in the moment or in reflection.

And if you have knowledge or know what to do, you can save yourself from unnecessary pain… and sometimes your life. Like if caught in a rip current wave, you survive by not panicking, calling for help that’s nearby, and swimming parallel to the shore if you can.

You also can survive your daily life situations and undesired moods weighing you down if you know what to do.

Getting through your non-life threatening situations can be challenging for a day or two, as moods can stick like mud, but don’t have to play out and grow into a season!…

And you don’t want them to, because health and stress are on the line, and your moods can worsen and influence you to make poor decisions and miss out on great opportunities.

[In physical health terms, moods are like inflammations… you want them out or on the way out within a few days, or else it could spread like poison ivy inside and become a bigger problem.]

But the really good news here is… you can nip-in-the-bud those less-than moods weighing you down as easily as they entered.

How?…

Co-create the right and comfortable environment that your mind-body wants, and therefore is what you also want!

Remember, you are not your mind-body. Your mind-body runs 24×7 and never shuts off when you’re asleep. Keeping your mind-body in mind (no pun intended), for your optimal life you want to do what will turn things around fastest for you.

That doesn’t mean you need to move or uproot your lifestyle, that just means a few healthy tweaks that your daily mind-body wants.

Ayurveda (the science of life) helps to restore and bring natural balance and order back into our lives despite constantly changing situations… and naturally, the way it’s intended.

In our work-life balance modern world there seems to be a gadget for everything to solve our daily problems and make life easier and help us live longer. But we don’t always use (and sometimes ignore) the most effective tool that’s already built inside us!

In Western world, our health is often seen through the lens of food, fitness, wellness, and self-care. In our healthy efforts, we don’t always get to the root cause and directly restore or heal what our mind-body needs. And that can lead to a long (sometimes painful) season.

…BUT be encouraged, it’s restorable and not your fault!

As you have free will to choose. You do what you feel like doing or think will help based on the (limited) knowledge you have at the time.

And also because…

Our Western Society… The Good and Bad

Conditioning that you and I have received since we were children, that goes like this… Oh, the doctor will fix that…

And as an adult, if you were sent home with a prescription for resting or exercising more, you’d be dissatisfied as most of us know that’s helpful but not what we want from our doctor. We expect a procedure, prescription, or two.

The problem is your body doesn’t want medicines if it can handle the foreign body disruptor on its own. But we don’t know what exactly our body needs because we can’t talk to our body or get inside for those knowing answers.

So, our common Western way is curing with medicines, “just in case,” and because we’re conditioned to expect those protocols.

But, too many antibiotics in the system damage gut health, and surrounding systems that alter your body. Good probiotics can only help so much to reverse effects.

So that’s the bad, but there’s a lot of good in medicine…

Like when used for a disease outbreak where massive chaos in the body has already erupted and medical intervention is needed. Your body needs help.

We can learn from Steve Jobs’ story in more than his genius Apple tech abilities. He passed away too young from cancer. Wisdom leaves clues.

Western medicine doesn’t usually prescribe natural herbs to cure cancer or other diseases.

Anything supernatural can happen in our favor at any time, but that’s not the common or wise protocol. God created doctors and gave us our brains to make good decisions to see doctors when needed.

…So then where does Ayurveda (science of life) fit in?

Ayurveda’s sweet spot is in health prevention, and helping change unwanted common everyday moods and annoying flare-ups.

It’s risky for most conditions that require medical attention. …and I wanted to clear up in case that wasn’t clear and obvious. So good, now you know what Ayurveda is good for…

Ayurveda works for what it’s meant for. But as a practice, not mentioned much in our society partly because prevention can’t be measured. And that’s not where medicine focuses attention.

So, it can get brushed aside or seen as a health fad.

…Even though Ayurveda has been around working as an Ancient healing system for thousands of years.

People smartly use it as part of their daily healthy lifestyle.

They can be part of the routines and habits we stack and track in our day.

When you have a healthy lifestyle and know how to use Ayurveda in your daily life, then you’re better off leaning into your balanced natural essence. There are no downsides to report.

And a decade later… in my opinion, it’s still the “best-kept secret.” And why I’m unpacking it here.

Your mind-body is a direct source that knows what it needs… and Ayurveda cracks that code.

Enter Eastern-Western Ayurveda Awareness

American society tends to lump natural, holistic, alternative medicines, and Ayurveda as mystical and woo-woo, when really what Ayurveda needs is rebranding.

Ayurveda is not just what you see as available products on the market.

Two things that could make people iffy in the beginning about Ayurveda (I know I was!) are:

1.. Messy oils, strange elixirs, and take-time-out routines. They don’t always mesh well in a Western modern society that’s go-go-go where schedules are filled to the brim and even fitting in eating can be trying.

2. Silent practices when you don’t have a door that stays closed or that can shut out the world around you. And without a list of to-do’s or worries for the day running in your head.

Those daily practices are more Eastern (slower-pace life) than Western techniques.

And what works in Ayurveda for Western-style living and restoring mind-body techniques, can be woven into your busy day with very little effort or inconvenience.

You can skip the Eastern-style practices and you won’t be missing a mood-improvement beat… I promise!

And some universal practices you may already be doing sometimes or regularly… like, yoga is a today-popular Western Ayurvedic general practice. Sometimes you have time to fit in, and sometimes you don’t, but it’s not the end-all-be-all to making moment-to-moment restoring changes because yoga reset to feel-good feelings lasts for a 90-minute class, a cup of tea, and maybe a relaxing spa visit, but then you’re back to your life, triggers and interruptions in your mind, and your work.

Even though I love yoga!… maybe you too?

In 2008, there were few studios when I had to search around so I’m glad it has taken root.

Another popular example is eating plant-based anti-inflammatory foods. Yup, that’s part of a healthy Ayurvedic lifestyle. Wherever you are, you have access to markets, online stores, farms, and gardens (…or you can start your own).

…So you may already have a ‘lil Ayurveda in you! 😉

…So, is an Ayurveda lifestyle right for you?

These are questions you can ask yourself and things to think about:

Are you interested in preventative health?

Are you interested in unleashing more daily creativity?

Are you a lifelong learner who is open to the deeper self?

And do you want to live sustainably healthier and longer?

…Like Blue Zone Centenarians who live healthy lifestyles that are part of their culture. They don’t live like most Americans (and not even the Adventist Health Blue Zone community in California).

Some live more simply, slower lives, eating from the land, and need less mood restoring without all the complicated high tech. 😉

And so many countries rank higher in longevity than the States, that’s ranked closer to the bottom. That’s a hard pill to swallow considering all the conveniences we have.

…Even though I can’t imagine my identity with any other culture.

So I added Ayurveda into my lifestyle to make up for the deficit.

And you can too. The thing is… you’re probably already habitually doing Ayurveda to some degree in your healthy every day routine. You’ve been using all your senses since you were born.

…But probably not for balancing moods consistently as you didn’t know what really works with your specific mind-body, type, and imbalance combinations you’re experiencing. That’s really what it boils down to.

And when you do change your moods and imbalances, then you can get to your inner creative self more easily and consistently.

Creativity Inside Us

Sometimes there’s a creative block. And we don’t know what we don’t know could be, or are missing out on our greatest passions that give us joy.

I was creatively mind-blocked in my corporate management work life.

I couldn’t be fully creative beyond short spurts of free time where I delved into hobbies for creative outlets.

In those few moments, I experienced calm, joy, and felt weight off my shoulders. I could get into a creative flow where I lost track of time and those were usually well into the weekend or on a Sunday.

…Have you been there or can relate?

Unleashing the creativity inside feels free-ing. And when I got longer stretches of time away from work, I realized I had creative hidden talents I didn’t even know I had, that were waiting inside me for the right-ready time.

…And you do too. Plus, ones that you haven’t uncovered because you have gotten there yet to take action.

After you remove the anxious, stressful, and overwhelming layers and feelings, you can get a direct path to your creative juices and energy.

That’s your ticket to your happiest and best life. When you feel lighter and good, you feel on top of the world.

You feel empowered at the very least, and maybe even superpowers to take on activities you didn’t know you could perform (like sing or dance… you get the point).

And that’s a time when you get the most out of your life and push the pedal forward and make breakthroughs.

It’s the opposite of these types of common feelings (that keep you uninspired and stagnant):

–Tired: where you don’t want to do much let alone work on a creative pursuit. You lack energy but with a good night’s rest you can be renewed and passion-filled again if you’re re-energized, aren’t triggered, feeling burnout, or are depressed.

–Anxious: where you’re trying to manage your anxiety symptoms to stay afloat… trying to stay relaxed while your body-mind takes over. That’s a bad time to make good decisions, let alone try and be creative.

–Irritated: where you’re trying to get over negative feelings and a critical-judgmental mind that permeate your system when energizing the wrong thoughts. Good creativity doesn’t emerge in non-loving attitudes.

But, you can change the channel or get your relaxed self back as quickly as you got in your tense state. Like in the shower, the ideas can come. Or in a joyful activity where you lose track of time.

And, if you’re feeling balanced and calm throughout the day as the normal way, that changes everything. You can switch to your creative self when you want without losing valuable time.

And those steps take you to your next move in life, passions, and pursuits.

And if that’s where you are ready to go and be your very best today, but maybe feeling off or not quite there yet, start with the body balance quiz that shows symptoms on the body as part of the mind-body connection.

And in creativity, I made this swirly dessert (nostalgic of Cherry Garcia and the tie die T-shirt era…). 🍥

Cherry Sherbet Ice Cream

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

maraschino cherries, chopped
natural food coloring (creatively select your favorites such as beet or cherry juice, Pandan, and matcha)
egg yolks
milk of choice (you can also add plain Greek yogurt if you want a thicker sherbet)
monk fruit sugar (optional)

Instructions

Whisk your egg yolks. And add sugar if you will be using.
Add milk, cherries, natural food coloring of choice.
Mix by hand or use an ice cream maker to set.
Freeze and enjoy!

Biohacking Your Sweet Craving With Baking Substitute Tips

While you don’t need sweets to survive and would be better off without sugar, biohacking your sweet craving works if you work it.

And it works well when you bake your own goods and proof your own dough (like in the sweet veggie umami pizza that you can read about below).

I’m living proof it’s doable 🤗

…I’ve had a super sweet tooth since I was a child… candy, cookies, ice cream, you name it. Going to the dentist became so familiar, that now as an adult, I don’t have any dental office chair anxiety. That’s the good news.

…And I think that’s one of the places early on where I realized that no news is good news.

The happy sugar on the tongue and mind keeps dentists and doctors in business. Most (not all) people have a daily sweet hankering that’s hard to shake off (well, maybe with a milkshake or a rich smoothie!).

Especially us Vatas who love sweets. And if you get in the habit of eating sweets because those around you (or you) bring it in the house, then below are some biohacking your sweet craving tips that I use.

Plus, ingredients you could consider adding or substituting (and my personal faves!).

…Especially over the past few years, people have been more cooped up indoors snacking, and sugar is everywhere and part of irregular stress eating patterns, that lead to increased weight and growing health issues.

Health is what got me to change my sweet ways. But I feel like I haven’t missed a beat in sweet enjoyment making a few adjustments. You can change your tastes because of healthy desires.

Chocolate cake, for example, wasn’t one of my fave flavors and now is. It’s one of the healthier cakes that I call Cocoa Cake.

Because it’s mostly made with cocoa. It’s healthy without the rich buttery decadence we’re used to associating with chocolate cakes.

I bake with unsweetened cocoa and a flour blend that includes gluten-free flour and probiotic Greek yogurt, almond milk, unsweetened applesauce, and eggs.

Some of those ingredients are healthy, especially without full-on fat and sugar. A ‘lil dab of the bad will do you… or better yet, you could substitute with healthy fat and fruits that have fructose sugar…

Your sweet spot is “in moderation” relative to your body’s tolerances for healthy goodness. If you have a Kapha body imbalance you want to reduce sugar, and if you’re daily “getting addicted” to sugar. It’s common sense + building good habits.

You can use nuts, higher in fiber and protein. And you can use coconut oil or light EVOO that I use as baking oil to give a batter moistness, and also make consuming daily fat-soluble vitamins more bioavailable to the body.

And my personal favorite is fruit zests and spices to add sweetness. It’s not cheating… it’s being smart with your health and calories.

And here’s a savory example that most of us have a weakness for: french fries. Without frying oil, potatoes are healthy sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

So when roasting or cooking our potatoes, they’re then healthy. And even better if we add spices like turmeric, oregano, and pepper. Or my personal fave: tarragon.

And if you add proteins and veg to your plate, then you’re off to the races.

…Speaking of races, I’m still getting goosebump chills over the Kentucky Derby win over the weekend… the least likely to win (80-1 odds) horse, won. Maybe he got his winning oomph from the healthy grass diet too.

…Which btw, we too could graze on more plant-based foods for our human sustainable energy. And for world sustainability.

That’s what I did with this untraditional plant-based pizza. Or a pie, that we called it when I was a teenager working in a pizza-pie shop. 🍕

…And where I learned pizza-making techniques for 4 years. Most of the pies had tomato sauce, but occasionally, customers would order no sauce, light, or extra sauce. This pie has no tomato sauce.

It’s loaded with eating-from-the-rainbow goodness and flavors. It has beets, sweet potatoes, white cannellini beans, ricotta (goat or buffalo cheese also would be good too!), cilantro, garlic, and truffle oil baked into a whole wheat crust.

Then it was drizzled with balsamic vinegar for a sweet-umami flavor that “hit the spot” for lunch. I didn’t need a side dessert or sugar.

So this brings me to the first tip I have for biohacking your sweet craving:

When you eat less sugar, you crave less of it; and when you crave less, you eat less. So, you can use the cycle to your advantage.

And then your body resets to a “new normal” for the better, which helps you, your health goals, and prevents glucose spikes.

And you can more easily achieve this by baking and cooking that help change the way you look at the foods you eat. Because then you decide what ingredients to add and how much.

You get more choosy about what you put in your body and that can help you make healthier choices.

You end up making the extra effort and time when you know the health and tasty benefits. That’s what this girl did.

Besides the sweet-savory veggie truffle pie, I baked a pan pizza with spinach, tomato, and ricotta that was just as easy to make. Oh, Vata me… I forgot to take a photo. Next time.

There’s also a time for other options for all of us like selecting pre-made convenience, eating out, or ordering out.

The big healthy difference is many packaged goods have more than 30 ingredients (some you’ve never heard of and are hard to pronounce).

And you really only need 2-4 ingredients to make a healthy meal or bake a whole cake. (That’s another category of whole food.)

With fewer healthy ingredients, then you change your taste buds one bake and bite at a time.

Today, if someone handed me a sweet something, it’d have to be pretty darn good for me to eat an entire serving because of the changes I made and how I see food in general.

For sweets, a smaller bite is all that’s needed to be sweet and happy if ya know what I mean.

That’s true for most. At a grocery store or during any food shortages, you’ll never hear, there needs to be more sweet options.

Overall if we bought less processed foods, then the big companies would make more of the good-earthbound healthy-happy packaged goods.

I wouldn’t mind some healthy strawberry licorice …anyone else? 😉

And biohacking your sweet craving with baking substitutes is another good way to change your sweet tooth.

For baking, these are some ingredients I use just about every week. These are a mix of healthy ingredients and iffy in-between ones I use in moderation.

Applesauce

*Berry Jams

Cardamom

Cherries, Maraschino

Cinnamon

Cocoa, unsweetened

Coconut, shredded

Coffee/espresso

Dark chocolate morsels

Ginger

Greek yogurt

Fruit zests

Fruits, Dried (currants, dates, apricots, raisins)

Fruits, Whole

Honey, Raw (instead of maple syrup)

Orange pulp and peel

*Pineapple chunks

*use sparingly

Switching up your ingredients does your body good (encouraging a diverse healthy gut microbiome that is also a gateway to our brain health).

Our gut wants to be happy and healthy like we do.

If a recipe calls for refined sugar, say ¾ cup, and it’s great for emulsifying like in ice cream, I only use about ¼ cup or substitute with monk fruit sugar.

You can always zhugh it up later or to individual tastes.

You can also make your own sweet sauce, dips, glazes and frosting. These are a few other ideas:

Balsamic-chocolate sauce: mixing balsamic vinegar and melted to liquid chocolate is quick and easy.

Coconut cream frosting: Long gone for me are days of grocery shelf frosting and powdered sugar icing. You too can make your own frosting with coconut cream.

When you buy a can, the thick part can also be used for ice creams, and keep the liquid parts for your soups. After you open it, you can freeze what you aren’t planning to use within a few days.

Extracts: I used to add vanilla extract to everything sweet, but I usually skip the step unless it’s the dominant or only flavor, like in vanilla ice cream. Zests and spice flavors come through best, and mixing them together, and changing them up is even better.

The fun part of experimenting with less sugar and healthy bakes is creating your own faves.

Variety is the spice and zest in life. 🧡

And if you want to take it up a level from biohacking your sweet craving to biohacking sweet breakfasts, healthy eating, and fasting, then stay tuned to future blog posts.

Once upon a time, I couldn’t do without a non-sugary breakfast growing up on fortified cereals, and these days that’s all changed… and that was one-step at a time easy and something you can do! 🥣

This site is all about happy and healthy living and eating ways and inspiration. If this is your first time here, I encourage you to find out more about me and this healthy lifestyle blog.