Physical Health and Body Archives - Page 4 of 24

Healthy Meal Prep Points to Enjoy

Healthy meal prep is rewarding like pizzas you can make and bake at home. This recipe is below. 🍴

healthy meal prep with homemade wood-fired pizza with mushrooms recipe.

Like this wood fired -inspired pizza you can make and bake in your apartment oven or home.

It’s no secret that healthy meal prep is the way to eat healthier meals and save time. But doing any type of meal planning enjoyably can be work and a challenge.

…And I remember the 10 years I breathed in event meal planning day and night as a professional career with the tasty outcomes it produced… and smiles on faces.

The happy event memories produced were lasting. And in home meal planning talk that’s like healthy foods to body cell memories.

I share tips below on how to gain the joy in the process of healthy meal prep.

I share from the lens of baking that can be applied to savory meals. Baking isn’t just for sweet tooths 😉

And you can tweak to your cooking methods whether it’s stovetop or grilling (too).

So here we go!

The first point for healthy meal prep is get your self-serving mindset on.

If the idea of meal prep or healthy meal prep sounds daunting to you, instead of looking at cooking and healthy meal prep as a chore, you can reframe to these enjoyable perspectives:

Use meal prep and cooking as a way to relax. 🍽️ The finished meal is the cherry on top. 🍒

Baking or cooking is a great way to detox from work or a stressful day. You can let ideas percolate as you listen to music or a show in the background. You don’t have to stare at your food cooking. You can use your low-key energy.

Listening to audio is a great use of 20-40 minutes. It’s my fave way to listen to music, podcasts, and have even recorded my own weekly. 🎧

While you’re waiting for your cooking to be ready, you can do your clean up exercise, so after dinner you’re smiling with your Houdini magic clean up job (…where poof! it’s gone). ✨

And you can do stretches, side bends, and exercise.

That’s how baking can be superior (because you don’t have to watch the stove or grill). The timer does the watching in the oven so you can take up other light activities.

Healthy meal prep and cooking is made easier.

Healthy generally means cleaner and simpler, less frou-frou embellished ingredients and sauces. The more whole ingredients and fewer processed ingredients, the better.

With healthy foods and fewer ingredients, meal prep time and cooking minutes are shorter because there are less steps.

And they’re easier steps. Adding a spice or two can be the anti-inflammatory flare needed, that’s less time than creating a roux or using multi-step French recipes. Save those for days where you have more relaxed time.

For most days, you can think of healthy meal prep as a new hobby. Didn’t consider it like that, did you? 🤔

Adding to the hobby idea… one great way to rid of racing thoughts is by getting distracted with a new hobby, creative pursuit, project, or passion that baking and cooking can be.

Healthy meal prep can be a part that inspires your new hobby.

Like most hobbies, you get to try new techniques and the result is your finished product version (aka meal). There’s no right or wrong. Just reward. 😋

Whatever you like and prefer will always be popular with you. And always trending on your food board, so it’s a win all around. And if you take up cooking as one of your regular hobbies, then you not only get a life skill that can serve you well and daily… you’ll also have one that others can enjoy in taste and photos if you document and share. 💖

Cooking is entertaining.

That’s what I know planning catered events working with the chefs in upscale hotel and foodie restaurant kitchens. And letting those vibes transcend into my own working kitchen.

What I like most about baking is the entertainment factor in the entire process. You get to watch the bake from scratch, in production and then placement on the plate and table.

That brings me back to my roots. But you can find your own version and maybe you enjoy food shows like I do. Who doesn’t love Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives?

Thank you, Great British Bake Off and weekend cooking shows for showing me that I’m not crazy!

When you watch inspirational and aspiring food shows like those, they can make the meal prep look easy on the set. They fast forward to the main steps. And that’s how it can be for you…

You can skip the multi-layer processes, waiting, cooling, and decorating steps and get to the main steps in healthy meal planning with less hassles.

Slip meal prep into your day.

And instead of doing everything all at once, you can take 10-minute breaks before your meal prep to pull out room temp ingredients, clean tools off, and mince foods. Or, do it early in the day or late at night when your mood fancies.

This will linger in your back burner as a sub-priority and prime you for happy meal prep mood.

As a creative at heart, I don’t believe you should be robotic in the kitchen and dicing perfectly if you don’t have to.

Finding what works for you, works.

As a Vata, I like to go off script and outta routine.

To balance, I put my planner hat back on and get back to a routine.

It’s like playing ball against a wall where you toss and catch. And the balance is that is that the ball is still in the air and you’re still enjoying yourself!

Then after doing other work or activities, you’re prepped to come back to preparing your meal.

Snack while you’re preparing.

Enjoyment doesn’t have to be at the end either. Try a few items while you’re prepping. The benefit of being in the kitchen is being around all the goodies.

Develop your bonding relationship with food loves and new variety foods, as healthy. You’ll love your dishes even more when they’re ready.

Standing points.

When you’re meal prepping or cooking, you’re standing. If you sit most the day, you win points that you may be tracking. If a standing desk doesn’t work for you, then cooking is one activity that allows you to stand without feeling awkward.

Being relaxed and standing has its benefits.

And in between you can do a few more baking yoga stretches like yoga squats to win move and exercise points. Baking allows you to get into your bending yoga squat if you want to be at the level of your oven food.

Cooking and baking are also great ways to unwind from a stressful day where you’re not quite ready to sit down or retire for the night.

And finally, I saved the best for last…

Meal prep can be your meditation.

That’s how I see it as I let thoughts enter. And with eyes open, allow my mind to show me new areas that I haven’t thought about… places to have gratitude that come from my day… and how to relax while aromatic cooking is in the process. That’s food meditation🧘🏼‍♀️

Then to keep the balance and flow, I fast on certain days and hours where I intentionally stay away from the kitchen. That’s my second form of meditation that helps me set my work week and healthy meal prep week.

If you want to learn how you can get free healthy meal plan recipes to align with your healthy weight intentions, check out the free intermittent fasting guide.

Print Recipe

homemade wood-fired pizza with mushrooms recipe.

Mushroom Neapolitan-Style Wood-Fired-Inspired Pizza For An Apartment Oven

You can make this delicious umami mozzarella pie in your home!

Course lunch, Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

bread flour (or 00 flour)
salt
water
instant yeast
toppings (mushroom, buffalo mozzarella cheese, and sauce).
extra virgin olive oil
semolina for bench flour

Instructions

Mix ingredients and knead until a cohesive pizza dough ball can be formed. If with a bread dough hook, about 5 minutes and double time by hand.
Add some olive oil to a container with a lid or can be covered.
Place dough in container and let proof for at least 2 hours. Can be left overnight.
Then add some bench flour (semolina flour is classic for Neapolitan pizza).
Flatten into shape except for the airy crust you'll make. Try to not smush down the crust at all with your hands.
When you're happy with your pizza shape, then place in oven and bake for about 20 minutes on 350°F oven. Then add toppings such as sauce, cheese and mushrooms.
Then add to top shelf at least 8 inches away from the oven heat coming from the top of the oven. Bake on broil (caliente hot!) setting for 2-5 minutes until crust is slightly charred giving the wood-burned fire "effect." Watch the broiling effect the entire time, so you don't set off the apartment alarm and to be safe.

Crow Pose Yoga For Stability

Crow Pose is one yoga pose that can help you feel strong along with the messages you feed yourself. Learn about how in this article.

Do good and Be kind are heart action messages worth taking into the day!

Maybe when you start your balance pose initially, you’re not able to hold the Crow Pose without your feet or toes touching the mat or floor.

…But as you practice regularly, you’ll be able to! 🐦‍⬛

Crow Pose could be a goal this week that gets your mojo back to blood flowing activity and to keep moving and growing. 🥅

Building Strength Stability

If you want to become stronger, gaining arm strength is one impactful way. Strength represents resilience that’s needed to get through tough times… and build stability and progress.

One starter exercise way is to be in your push up pose. Alternating legs, pull one knee at a time closer up to your shoulders one side at a time.

Then like a push up, push straight up and down. Your hiked up leg is extra body weight to use as muscle weights for your arm. 😉

Then switch leg sides. After a weekly habit of doing arm strength building exercises, your muscle memory will remember (fostering stable reinforcements) and that’ll help you in your Crow Pose…

If only you could see how cool you look!

This exercise I just described (that I’m not sure if it has a name) helps you get to used to vertical arm strength that Crow Pose needs. Chataranga pose is another.

In good form, vertical arms will support your body along with your strong ab muscles. And speaking of the gut, I share below some strong food ways that complement your pose.

…But let’s not got ahead of ourselves. For starters, you may want to see where you’re at with your Crow Pose today. So give it a try today (or now) and fail forward or beam in your Crow!

Keep reading 👇 for tips…

Crow Pose For Beginners (Or Starting Again)

As a beginner, you can have a yoga block in front of you for strength and moral support. Set the soft-place-to-fall security block on the floor on the lowest setting side where your forehead would fall on… don’t worry, as this likely won’t happen.

The placebo effect is a confidence booster. 🤸🏻

…And that way you can enter the pose confidently without fear of injury that can stall your progress or hold you back unintentionally.

Especially when you want Crow Pose to build your confidence (and not build a fine line wall divide that keeps you stuck).

And when you move into your first Crow Pose moments, you can feel like you can handle the world in all its cruel ways that can sometimes make any of us feel like we’re broken down. Stay at peace. ✌️

When you look up and out with a grin on your face knowing you’re able to support yourself, the weight of the world crumbles into the mat.

Plus, you’re building up arms that are becoming more chiseled. 😊

And after you’ve mastered Crow Pose, you can advance to a taller Crane Pose or take a slight bend (detour break) into Side Crow.

There’s always a next or side step. Before you know it, you’ll be flying! 🕊️

Side Crow Pose and Crane Pose

In Side Crow Pose, you crouch down and tip your body to the side where the back of your upper arms catch your legs and side buttock. So you get a different muscle workout and perspective.

And if you want to lengthen taller and gain more stability in your moves, you can try a more advanced pose: Crane Pose.

Cranes are the tallest flying birds. They’re powerful so the pose matches the yoga pose name.

What I like about these two other poses is what they’ll tell you more about your core and arm muscle state.

Many women think they’ll build Popeye arms with regular 10 lb weights, but that’s not the case.

We underestimate ourselves and what we can lift. If you can lift your travel carry-on luggage up to the compact overhead bin, then daily 10 pound weights should be no problem.

If you look more compact, then you could have more muscle that’s lean mass which means it will become denser or smaller.

Think of a compact ball of yarn versus a loose skein that yarn is usually sold in. On the shelves, it’s soft. But if you take it home and unravel the yarn and make a tight ball 🧶, then it becomes hard like a rubber ball.

We want our muscles to have shape, tone, and hard compactness that a rubber ball represents. In between, it can be like a squishy stress ball.

Our arm muscles are easy to scope out, but the hidden body muscles that give us the most trouble and least strength are the ones we don’t use or stretch often. And in yoga, you can discover those small areas in poses.

Balancing Food Macros to Support Crow Pose Moves

If you’re like many trying to lose weight, be sure to amp up your protein so your body stays full longer. Proteins burn more calories.

Taking a step further, the body burns fat for energy after it runs out of glucose. And that’s why I’m so gung-ho on intermittent fasting for metabolic flexibility. On and off switching teaches the body who’s boss. 😊

As we age, we lose muscle. Our protein macros help make up the deficit, for especially women. We can include large doses of protein foods with specific amino acids to help us restore what’s lost.

Protein food sources also keep us feeling full that saves us time from taking time to eat so we can spend more time doing other activities we want to get to.

If you’re like me, after graduating from baby milk as nutrients, I started out life with sugary bowls of cereal and milk as a breakfast meal. That was what I woke up to, growing up. Protein wasn’t a priority.

With cereal, it’s not the sugary sides that’s the biggest problem… it was the starting with cereal as a meal. Cereal wasn’t and isn’t filling enough and also begs us wanting more sugar in our veins.

But as a snack treat to fulfill sweet cravings, low-sugar cereals are better and I prefer them over sweet alternatives like cookies (my love 💕). Many cereals are fortified with macros and minerals while cookies are mostly empty calories (unless you bake them with healthy goodness like I do these days).

Gluten-free coconut flour, cocoa, shredded coconut, cinnamon, coconut oil, and water make this cookie batter.

But in my earlier years, I was in double trouble working in catering food management at the Doubletree Hotel known for their large paper weight-dense cookies. 🍪

And that’s how I started my breakfast morning at 8 am…

But decades later with better intentions and experiencing a season of excess sugar bothering my skin with eczema, I changed my ways. I didn’t think I could ever switch to starting mornings with a savory meal.

…I mean, forget protein like lean meats. But I let health motivate me and after many bites, savory foods grew on me.

…So I started adding proteins from leftover meals. Because eggs, tofu, and chicken aren’t necessarily the favorite first thing meal when your gut isn’t even awake yet…

And if that’s you…don’t give up on yourself! The a-ha change I made also made me realize that I could ignore my cravings (like unproductive thoughts) if I wanted to and focus on building healthy habits.

Protein substantial foods are also a better stomach cushion for coffee (that’s acidic).

…And you too can start the habit if you want!

Trust your feelings will follow. 💖

That’s how you can change tastes effectively for your health and build in more protein ma-crows in your life, so you can support your Crow Pose and other bird pose yoga areas calling you!

Yoga moves calling for strength can be the canary in the coal mine indicator to add more daily muscle and protein to your body and diet. 🌱

And doing a daily Crow Pose could just be the starting reminder.

Kapha Body Type Obvious Signs

Kapha body type is found in those with hearts… yes, that’s all of us, but not all of us are natural Kapha bodies. Gaining Kapha obvious signs and awareness-knowledge helps us in our daily lives.

Raspberries are good for heart health and even mimic heart shapes 🫀These whole wheat raspberry pop tarts celebrate heart health month. 💗

Whether you’re a natural Kapha body type or or another ayurvedic body type (that you’ll learn more about in this article), you can have a Kapha imbalance as all of us have some Kapha in us.

Kapha dosha is the earth and water 🌎 in us (that sometimes carries mud and creates sluggish seasons in our lives!). The other elements are wind, fire, and air to complete the five elements.

Pittas are fire and water and Vatas are wind and air (or space). So as you can see with the water commonality, Pittas have more in common with the Kapha constitution than a Vata dosha body.

One area that’s a common distinction is that to naturally balance Kapha, this usually involves weight loss while Vata balancing is on the other end of the spectrum.

It doesn’t take a lot to find someone close to you that you can determine is a natural Kapha. You may have friends and relationships with many Kaphas who in-balance make great friends, but outta balance can rub off in not-so-great ways you’ll learn more about below.

…But for the most part, Kaphas are loving people at heart so we can lean toward those positive traits. 💕

Backing up just a ‘lil, you may not be so familiar with the Kapha body type description because it’s part of our newer age and Ayurveda today is a common approach among eastern way cultures where it started.

Thousands of miles away in America where I grew up and live, it’s catching on, but not everyone is aware. There, we learned about pear and apple body shapes as descriptors.

And endomorphs (Kapha) 🍐, mesomorphs (Pitta) 🍏, and ectomorphs (Vata) ⏳ body types… sound familiar? Body types were often illustrated with doodle images in magazines.

Today, a sturdy planted elm or a full fruit blossomed tree can be another Kapha body type description if you want to take it outside for nature descriptors or into your Ayurveda Tree yoga pose that has caught on like wildfire in the Western hemisphere.

And, of the three dosha ayurvedic body types (Kapha, Pitta, and Vata), Kaphas can usually withstand and endure tougher conditions like palm trees, that you can mimic in Swaying Palm Tree pose.

A Kapha body type is more like a palm tree that can endure and thrive in an ecosystem where they're planted.

Kaphas are like palms 🌴 that are enduring in nature.

Or, you can show off your Kapha body soul with firmly planted feet in a majestic Mountain Pose if balance poses a challenge in your Ayurvedic moves. ⛰️

Other obvious Kapha body type characteristics:

Kapha body type can be described as solid and larger frame (compared to the Pitta and Vata body types).

But there are other natural characteristics, like: dewey skin (moist) and a colder internal body thermostat. They share cooler body temps in common with Vatas.

That’s why it’s good to have a thick, comfy hoodie or warm blanket close by that comforts especially on wintery nights, wet days, and dreary weather outside.

Often, Kapha lazy sides rule. Hibernation during the colder months warm the soul, along with deep sleeping.

A Kapha body type can carry a daily sinus life and a regular cough-as Kapha. Sleeping with breathing difficulties is also common, along with waking up with sinus or chest to head congestion since the body was laying flat.

And these are other noticeable common signs (tell-tale even amongst strangers):

A Kapha body type gains weight easily. Kaphas tend to have larger frames. And most noticeable on the outside to a Kapha body, is the tendency to add weight and fit in larger clothing. They also tend to digest slowly and store more fat easily as another sign.

Kaphas tend to walk slowly. Others (Pittas and Vatas) walk faster ahead. It’s easy to chalk this up to longer legs, but the Kapha slower pace is not just body-part related. It’s also Kapha mind connected to the way each likes to do lifein their Kapha body type if Kapha dominant overall, and taking life in stride. Think of the relaxed coastal lifestyle vs. fast city dweller life.

Which btw, a natural Vata mind and Kapha body is more anxious and a Pitta mind in a Kapha body takes life faster.

How these traits complement good Kapha body type sides:

As already mentioned, Kaphas prefer to embrace a relaxed, slower paced life that’s healthy and less stress to the body. So that can lead to a longer life if other health and wellness areas are self-care maintained.

…And this leads to a Kapha body type who lives more calm ☺️ than anxious Vata types 😦 or competitive Pitta Type-A’s. 😠

Mind you, none of the body types are better than the other per se, but being overall healthy is the best of all dosha worlds.

Kaphas also have a higher tendency to forgive other people as being sympathetic. And they have good memories (…a memory like an elephant 🐘), so they can make good reminders. Other types like Vatas, not so much as more forgetful.

And these help to support the idea that Kaphas often make great friends because they’re nice at heart, supportive, loving, and likable.

Kaphas are common among us and are often our funny, light-hearted entertaining friends we like to have fun and laugh with.

We love our balanced Kapha friends because in those moments they let things roll off their back and not bother them. They don’t take life too seriously like score-counting Pitta counterparts or worry wart Vatas.

Other body types wish they could be like the Kapha body type. They can get their superpower things done in ease. They don’t sweat the small things.

Now, these are the downsides that an imbalanced Kapha body type can exude:

Kapha people can be clingy in relationships where too much of a good thing can be cloying and smothering.

And as mentioned they tend to metabolize slowly, and accumulate pounds easily (“look at food and gain weight”).

Accumulation can also carry into their lives as hoarding, clutter, or disorganization. When someone has too much Kapha (or imbalanced Kapha), these are typical signs.

A Kapha body type can also tend to hold in feelings and not express sad or other hurtful feelings that eat on the inside. This can stay as trauma to the body and mind in the mind-body connection. They can be more sensitive to criticism than Vatas and Pittas.

But the great news is an imbalanced Kapha from an accumulated seasonal situation (and not a health triggered one) can be restored with specific lifestyle tweaks using the 5-senses.

Our human bodies are intuitive and have built-in natural preferences. To optimize our lives, we can learn the internal body language and uncover what those are to restore ourselves and our lives. You can do this better when you know whether you have a Kapha (Pitta or Vata) body imbalance or a combination, and know what to do when imbalanced for each for starters.

You can also complement Ayurvedic lifestyle tweaks with hormonal or aging health imbalances. Solutions (such as healthy foods) are both headed in the healthy direction, so there are overlaps in natural prescriptions.

Taking small action in those healthy guided directions help turn the tide sooner to get back to the happy-go-lucky and calm temperament that is natural to a Kapha body type and the sides everyone around you loves…

And by taking care and nipping-in-the-bud accumulating imbalances that accrue easily in our busy Western and comparing cultures, you can avoid unnecessary potential depression, infections, and obesity. ❣

Awareness, daily restoration, and prevention can change the trajectory toward better healthy outcomes, daily life enjoyment, and longevity.

Since the body communicates with us through feeling-good and healthy vs uncomfortable (or body symptoms), we can use those clues to gather more information from our bodies.

Here are some habit examples that can restore the 3 most common Kapha imbalances:

Clear sinus problems, nasal congestion, or excess phlegm. Mucus is actually a way for your body to protect you from foreign body invaders like allergens (and sometimes over protect with daily allergies).

One natural symptom remedy is: you can breathe in ACV steam like our older and grandmother generations taught. If you feel the sting in your passages, then it’s working.

Shower steam is also good. You can also use and sniff essential oils like peppermint and eucalyptus that will help open up the passages.

A neti pot is also a good way habit that cleans out your passages naturally. You may want to do this regularly during heavy pollen season or year-round weekly (or bi-weekly). Use warm water and sea salt for best cleansing effect. You can prevent nasty sinus infections from this one cleansing move if you keep up with it!

Prevent weight gain and maintain a consistent healthy weight. When it’s colder, warm comfort foods are desired. Use healthy ingredients and consider making your own homemade soups and stews. Balance with plant-based foods such as beans, alliums, and indole veggies. And start the day with fiber like asparagus, bananas, oats, and whole grains.

You can have cook prepared veggies and salads ready-to-go on the side. You can also decide to have something “green” at every major meal.

And still focus on healthy proteins as the star of your meal that’ll keep you feeling full longer so you don’t feel the need to snack all day.

🌱 If healthy intermittent fasting is something you would like to learn more about, get the free comprehensive guide to start and sustain your IF or fasting lifestyle that works for all body types in bio-individuality.

Beating tiredness. Start your day with water. Get caffeinated and enough sleep. Intake enough Vitamin D and sunshine especially during colder months that doesn’t do Kaphas any favors.

Lessen blue light at night from devices and wear blue light blocking glasses that our grandmother’s ages didn’t have. Listen to uplifting and get-you-moving music ring tones that can also be your wake-up alarm.

And if you want to optimize sleep and lose weight, intermittent fasting is one biohacking trick that helps in those areas and many other health longevity areas especially if you’re living and adjusting to your beyond 40s new normal body.

Fasting would’ve been frowned upon in our grandmothers’ eras where that would’ve been seen as starvation. But we’ve wised up to know our cultures are abundant in food and we’ve grown beyond the “exercise more and eat less” mantras.

Print Recipe

Here is a Whole Wheat Raspberry Pop Tart recipe to brighten up any tart days and sweet cravings. 💕

Easy Whole Wheat Raspberry Pop Tarts

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

Raspberries
Whole wheat flour
1 tbsp or 1-2 pats of butter
Warm water (enough to make pastry workable enough to shape a disc that can be rolled out about 1/4" thick)
Homemade raspberry Jam or your favorite jam

Instructions

You decide how much you make.
Make the pastry dough and roll out to about 1/4" thick.
Cut out rectangles.
Add jam or fruit filling to bottom and cover with top rectangle like a sandwich.
Use a fork to crimp the edges together.
Bake on 325°F. For wheat flour, it's best to take a listen or tap to see if baked done as color stays consistent throughout baking process.
For jam: crush raspberry with bowl and spoon or mortar and pestle and add a small amount of water.

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.

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🧡 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.

Intermittent Fasting Guide (And My Journey)

Today, I wanted to let you in on my intermittent fasting journey (and provide an Intermittent Fasting Guide) as that may help yours if you’ve begun, or maybe you’re curious what it’s ALL ABOUT.

If either sounds like YOU, I created a FREE Intermittent Fasting Guide with you in mind that you can download. It’s called The Start and Sustain Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle Guide… and it also comes in handy when you start IF and then take a short break.

That’s exactly what I did in 2023 during the holiday season, and then realized what I was missing from the benefits I saw on and in my body earlier in the year. I took a quick selfie for comparison…

…Um, that’s a bit of skin showing there! 👙 Oh and believe me, I’m not someone who bares all skin in case you’re wondering why this photo doesn’t fit along with my food and other healthy lifestyle inspo ones.

But the photo really does hone in on my gut ab area (as deep as I can show) and is the healthy reason why I started intermittent fasting in the first place.

I was feeling discomfort in my gut in the upper stomach area where the esophagus meets the stomach (aka the lower esophageal sphincter).

Despite doing all the healthy tips regularly like sourdough, veggie fiber, and ACV, I could feel a dull feeling in the stomach gut area when the optimal feeling is no nagging ache (or even better, feel nothing in those areas). An uneventful inside body feeling day is a good day.

You’ve probably felt similar if you ever experienced heartburn, GERD or acid reflux. Last summer’s heat didn’t help either (hottest recorded in history). That kicks up the Pitta. And, not the kind of fire-in-the-belly you want! 🔥

Even though my stomach case was mild, it’s probably what most people feel who experience heartburn in daily busy and stressful work lives. 🙋🏻‍♀️

And as someone who once-upon-a-time lived a stressful corporate work life (and works on feeling good and better all the time), I don’t believe you should suffer more than a minute necessary. So, I had to figure it out!… I couldn’t just let it slide. And maybe that’s how you are too in your health areas…

But, lemme backup just a minute so you have some background info…

I started cooking and baking virtually all my meals after the pandemic. So, I knew which ingredients were put into each healthy dish or snack (that I ate 90% of the time). I often show some of the celebrational weekly meal tables, healthy bakes, and dishes weekly here in my blog articles.

…That comes from the side of me that worked a decade in catering party planning, where food is love.

And soft serve ice cream is love.

soft serve ice cream chocolate recipe. — You can make chocolate soft serve as self-serve at home. Recipe below. 🍫

But most my eating ways were healthy (…with a lot less sugar for this former refined sugar addict!). And I was intentionally feeding healthy foods to help a happy gut as that’s where most of the happy hormones (serotonin) are produced.

But I could still feel the gut discomforts even though everything else was running smoothly. And after researching, listening to health interviews, and putting it all together… I came to the conclusion that it’s not the type of food that’s the problem, it’s the food itself.

Every food ingredient on the planet seems to be in question in some way these days. The only purer ones are the whole ones. And where there are edible food skin nutrients, that’s where the invisible poisons are too.

Even with good intentions to eat more healthy, our daily healthy foods are tainted.

The year prior, I was writing articles for wellness national publications on health and the Blue Zones, the oldest groups of people alive on the planet to date. So I was researching daily and comparing their food and healthy lifestyle ways with my own.

And I realized their B.Z. cheese is not our cheese process, and their bread is not our bread. Starting at the flour.

What we source and bring back home from grocery stores is processed, stripping out the gut valuable nutrients.

…So even with healthy and anti-inflammatory eating intentions, disappointingly we’re still off-setting so much food damage that’s out of our control.

From garden to grocery store, the good nutrients contain some harmful pesticide sprays and/or preservatives to make food shelf life last longer.

…And that means all of us have imperfect guts. And then we add plastic packaged food products, antibiotics, and daily stress into our lives… and that all compounds to the gut issues…

Or in some cases, leaky guts, bloating, IBS, etc. The list is long. And the gut stretches taller than you and me both. With over 15 feet, there’s all kinds of growing bug opportunities where we want to tip the scales to the good ones daily. Doing this impacts so much of our health and daily energy.

And long story short, all this is to say that’s why I started intermittent fasting regularly in 2023 for healthy preventative gut reasons and to help let the body naturally repair the gut.

It’s a great way to lose bad habits like snacking, sugar, overeating, drinking too late, drinking too much, etc. And a great opportunity to let your body detox reset, sleep more efficiently, and lose weight. If you want to discover more about the benefits and strategies, get the free guide.

Chocolate Soft Serve Ice Cream (Egg Yolk Method)

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

6 egg yolks
3 cups milk
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup fine sugar (monk fruit sugar alternative)

Instructions

Add milk and cocoa powder to a pot, and heat until you see a light boil (a few small boil bubbles). Then turn the heat off.
Take the pot off the heat and let cool for a few minutes.
Add your egg yolks to a separate mixing bowl and beat with sugar to emulsify until pale or lighter yellow color.
Add slightly cooled mixture to egg yolks and constantly stir with quick motions (prevent curdling).
When combined, set in refrigerator to cool down for about 15 minutes or longer.
Prepare ice cream maker machine and bowl if you will be using one to set the soft serve ice cream. Take bowl out of freezer for about 30 minutes if it has been in the back of the freezer. Freezer temps vary but you want the bowl cold enough but e.g. not with frozen icicles on the sides but not water condensation. Tip: for the balance, have the bowl a little less cold because you can always freeze the ice cream back up in the freezer. And soft serve is more creamy, watery, and soft than ice cream.
Alternatively, if you are not using an ice cream maker/bowl, be sure to stir the ice cream every half hour or so to remove any forming icicles.