Anti-Inflammatory Recipes Archives - Page 10 of 15

Experience Your Deeper Joy Instincts

Instincts help you out. You’ve probably heard of the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO).

During the global lockdown, we went with our better instincts to make decisions, as no one knew for sure immediately what next steps to take.

Deeper joy is unleashed here in my Sunday brunch experience. Onion pizza recipe below 👇

watermelon mint salad.

Some healthy outcomes during that time were that a lot of people grew, became more resilient, and today are still reaping the benefit of becoming better versions of themselves. That’s something to celebrate! 🎂

Even though “missing out” wasn’t something we chose, that’s what most of us did to stay safe and healthy in the world.

But tell that same story logic to a child or a teenager (…or the child still in us 🧸), and missing out on events can be devastating. But it doesn’t have to be!… and below I share two ways that “missing out” can be the biggest blessing for you and us all.

If our happiness is based on external situations, and not on ourselves, we can suffer sadness and disappointment.

Instead, inside us, we have the peaceful joy instincts built-in that today we may or may not have developed fully yet like we would in learning a skill.

…Wherever you are on your journey now is great. You are exactly where you’re meant to be, and you have a choice to replace what doesn’t work best.

And from what I’ve experienced, I know those deeper instincts are there to help us if we’re ready. They give us more peace and steer us to our best life. And I wish I tapped into my inner joy instincts sooner in life.

Feeling inner joy gives us better control over our lives and our feelings in situations we can’t always control dealing with specific people, places, and things we encounter.

And with practice, we can bring out our inner joy and turn it into a daily healthy habit we apply (replacing our original “happy” lens that doesn’t always help us).

I know this all too well from my younger days when I got excited about going to parties that sometimes got out-of-hand… a little too many Animal House-type parties that I wish I could take back now (…and go figure I became a professional party food event planner as my first career to round it all out).

During those immature pre-school graduation days, I wasn’t in control of my life on the inside. I lived for the outward happiness feelings that put me on an emotional roller coaster when situations didn’t go as planned.

And as I grew up… and as you and I are growing now, we naturally grow out of what we already experienced that wasn’t good for us whatever that looked like… and maybe even a bit relieved that we’re past those years and times… grateful we’ve “been there, done that” and not going backward.

For me today and maybe you too… happy fun is re-defined from a new lens of daily joy.

Inner joy is more freeing than external happiness that’s fleeting.

It doesn’t mean giving up on fun because that would be no fun! But coming up with new ways… that’s what I do anyway to please my Enneagram 7. We tend to get our enthusiasm from fun. That’s one thing I hope to never change.

…And that motivated me to set out a fun day (Sunday) anti-inflammatory donut table while Nadal showed his sustainable match win, and the Queen her Jubilee and longevity.

You don’t usually see donuts on an anti-inflammatory menu, but these ACV cinnamon honey ones are without added sugars.

…While creating a menu and daily food joy like this is nice, it doesn’t make or break the day. That’s an example of finding joy in the moment and then movin’ on.

And that keeps the inner peace, and naturally feeling good in daily calm living. Good grows. And I don’t mess with good growth! 🌱

And if you’re into growing, want new experiences, and are ready to tap more into your deeper sides and joy instincts if you’re not already… or still wondering why that matters or how it’s different than what you could be doing…

Here are a few more differences…

By developing your joy instinct by filling up your moments with your peaceful and calmer desires, you feel less disappointed moment-to-moment (or not disappointed at all) when events don’t happen and situations don’t pan out.

And ultimately, you’re in deeper control of yourself, thoughts, and feelings… and that’s super powerful to your life. Finding deeper instincts feels like a superpower when you discover it later in life.

Finding that life-giving abundant space inside is a gift. I think so, anyway.

And experiencing that chosen path opens you to a whole bunch of other great things you pick up along the way.

…Like, I rid of the worry habit. Worry is helpful until it isn’t. It helps when it gets you to think, and those thoughts help you to initiate solutions or a new way to look at a solution.

But staying in the habit of worry is not helpful or healthy. So one day in the bookstore (…remember those?), I picked up The Power of Positive Thinking written by the late-Norman Vincent Peale, and read the “Worry” chapter in the self-help book.

It starts like this… “Worry is just a very bad mental habit. And I can change any habit with God’s help.”

I read that chapter over and over again and practiced the 10-point steps that literally transformed my life of worry in less than a decade. That sounds like a long time, but most great things take time.

And at the time, I loved it so much that I went out and bought a few additional book copies and gave them to my co-workers around me. And I’m passing it on to you here. Hopefully, you can read it…

How to Stop Worrying Chapter (Steps 1-6)

The Power of Positive Thinking Book — How to Stop Worrying Chapter Continued (Steps 7-10)

So then I carried less unhealthy worry turmoil, and I worried less about my workers as they knew what to do. 😉

So leaning into joy has perks and side benefits.

…I hear myself talking about joy like it needs to be sold as a natural drug, haha. And sometimes it does feel that way in a good way!

Two cool perks about stepping into your inner joy are:

Feeling contentment – and not getting emotional when things pan out or don’t. Being free of this feels relaxing, stress-free, and breathes in more joy. Back in the day, when we didn’t know any better, we would describe this as, “you’re so mellow.”

With contentment, you feel more peace and get more done without the thought-feeling drama.

Your creativity – is the gateway to your highest purpose, second or next act, and clarity with what you want to do with your life if you’re not feeling fulfilled with the one you’re in. You can unleash greater imagination, gifts, and buried talents. There’s a treasure trove in you. And it costs nothing to discover what’s inside. Not only can it bring new ideas and save you from spending money, but also save you from losing time and unnecessary headaches.

The two C’s can be a ticket to your best life today. They can make the difference or be your launching pads to a “new life” in a world of uncertainty and give you a peaceful escape from your job, especially if you’re not happy there.

If you’re looking for more joy in your life, be encouraged that the way you started out and the path you’re on doesn’t have to be the one you stay on.

And choosing to trust and lean into your healthy natural instincts is easy, light, and aligned when you pick the channels meant for you.

Whole Wheat Onion Pizza

Course lunch

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

whole wheat flour
red onions
white or light cheese (optional)

Instructions

Make the pizza crust.
Bake the onions beside the crust about half way through.
Add the cheese to pizza crust and add onions on top.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Bar (No-Bake)

Chocolate chip coconut bar is a delicious snack flavor pairing. We can all think of a girl cookie and happy candy bar that has the flavoring We can all think of a girl cookie and happy candy bar that has the flavoring combo. But they aren’t healthy ones that you would eat for breakfast.

This chocolate chip coconut bar is no-bake, easy to make, and low-sugar.

Below is the recipe for healthy bars you can take anywhere to tie you over. Think field trips, hikes, and sweet tooth substitutes.

The best part is there is NO Baking involved. And even for a home baker like me, that puts a smile on my face as as EASY healthy snack.

And even better, they are low-sugar (no refined white sugar). So you’ll feel good about eating them. And most importantly, they taste great.

The chocolate chip coconut bar can also be a great breakfast morning snack because they’re loaded with oats.

And another healthy dish idea is porridge made of oats, that’s an underrated breakfast for any age.

It’s not just for Smurf characters or Goldilocks (characters I grew up to).

It’s a great meal idea year round. You can pair with a little sweetness… like these healthy chocolate coconut bars.

A chocolate coconut bar morning. — Healthy chocolate chip coconut bar recipe below. 🥥

The easy, no-bake chewy chocolate chip coconut bar recipe is made without any refined sugar.

You can also decide if you want to make a soft or crunchy version too. 🍪

But let’s get back to porridge before we go for the sweets…

If you’re a cereal lover and want to find alternates, porridge could be that nourishing sub.

When I was a kid, we ate cereal for breakfast before we left for school. It was fortified vitamin and mineral goodness drenched in Vitamin D milk that young, fast-growing bones and bodies need.

It’s also loaded with the sweet stuff that puts a smile on a kid’s face.

But, most cereals aren’t a good daily breakfast option.

The problem isn’t all the added sugar (even though they’re often loaded with 12 added grams per cup or more)… or knowing about the disturbing traces of Roundup that have been found in certain cereals (that’s a good enough reason!)…

And the real daily problem is…

Cereals are never filling enough for the most important meal of the day (or at least one of them).

It doesn’t do the fulfillment job for kids or adults… and it didn’t do it for me as a growing child that felt the stomach gurgles by mid-morning.

This is the reality for most school kids that just plow through their hunger discomforts.

So I remember bringing a snack to school.

But then I forgot about it or was too busy to eat it. My mind was somewhere else as it wasn’t lunchtime when everyone else around me was eating.

We’re easily influenced by our peers.

Decades later, these conditions haven’t changed.

Cereal is still the popular go-to convenient breakfast.

Cereal grocery shelves are filled or empty.

Plus, we still forget and get too busy.

Also when I was growing up, enriched white Wonder Bread was the magical bread that kids felt proud of bringing to school and parents felt good about for lunch sandwiches.

Enriched bread today has a different context. It can be enriched with dairy, eggs, or sourdough. And “fortified” cereal is also different in its wonders.

But travel around the world, and wholesome porridge is what you find in many less modern-convenient cultures. And where people live longer.

These cultures and places go straight to filling stomachs with nourishment.

They’re masters at adding nutritious flavors, often living with less.

And we can learn a healthy lesson from them. And we could start slow like choosing oats or whole grains as breakfast alternatives.

And then switch to a porridge meal with protein and good carbs that can carry through the busy morning. And does your body healthy goodness.

It doesn’t have to be boring… it can be more like this mushroom porridge (with btw, the same oats source that you would make your chocolate chip coconut bars or a mouth pleasing chocolate chip oatmeal cookie). 🍪

I thought this letter to you “from your gut” would be a cute way to highlight and get the point across for healthy encouragement. 😉

Dear Person I Live In,

Please don’t make me work extra hard today. And give me what I want: more rest, but also enough nourishing energy, so I don’t have to hunt around for help from the surrounding systems.

Thank you for a glass of water that signals to me that you’re up. Then for starters, a prebiotic and probiotic breakfast would be great!, like oatmeal with berries and bananas, a healthy chocolate chip coconut bar, or a healthy smoothie format is fine. This gets me going, before you really feed me…

You can mix it up or eat the same thing daily, but I do like some healthy variety. It keeps me from getting bored and helps me run best. I love healthy savory foods.

And yes I do rumble and signal to you when to go to the rest-room, so I can rest.

Please remember (…write yourself a note maybe? 😁) …fill me with small nutrient-dense meals every 4-5 hours so I have the time to churn the last meal and can consistently count on being fed. Then please give me energy again… plant-based carbs would be good… oh and btw, I’m not as color blind as you think I am ‘cause I do recognize when you eat from the rainbow (haha!). 🌈

And don’t wait too long to fill me with some healthy proteins that I love. Then, I don’t have to work so hard. You know how those old-timer people from the Blue Zones eat beans to add 4 years to their lives. And they only break out the celebratory meat once in a while.

Please consider my needs. And finally, I would love if you would provide more fiber and roughage, sprinkling in healthy fat, Omega-3 sources, and good fiber as daily garnishes. I also love nuts and seeds as snacks. Now I’ll be quiet because you know the food language that keeps me happy.

We’re in this together.

Love,

Gutty

P.S. A ‘lil sea salt helps me balance, as does fruit and spices.

So, here’s the recipe I promised…

This chocolate chip coconut bar is no-bake, easy to make, and low-sugar.

Print Recipe

Chocolate Chip Coconut Bar (No-Bake) - Low Sugar

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup almonds
3-4 pitted Medjool dates, finely chopped
1 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp applesauce, unsweetened
1 tbsp raw honey

Instructions

Combine ingredients together and shape into bars. Tip: for dates, use a serated knife to cut.

Alternatively, you can make this chocolate coconut bar recipe with a food chopper. Simply leave out combining the applesauce and honey until the very end after the other ingredients are chopped and blended.

Either way, here’s another tip: it’s easier if you tear up the dates into smaller pieces or cut with a small serrated knife (with jaw edges) before you add to the processor or chopper.

Then, when you have your final mixture ready:

Put on a plate or in a small container and shape your mixture. This is the no-bake version.

Cut the bars or cookie shapes you want to make using a pizza roller or sharper knife (so there’s no crumbly bits falling off that you can’t put back together).

Then drizzle your chocolate coconut bar or cookies you make with a pre-made chocolate sauce.

Or you can make your own: add chocolate and coconut oil to a bain-marie (double cooker) to heat and melt the chocolate.

Adding the oil will give you a better liquid consistency and more chocolate sauce using less chocolate (especially if you’re low).

Afterwards, you can put your bars or cookies in the fridge or freezer to eat in a few minutes or save for later.

They’re better served chilled from the fridge.

The ones in the photo above just came out of the freezer.

If you want to make them crunchy, use an egg instead of the applesauce, and then bake on a low temperature until you get the right baked crunch.

Now that’s super calm baking.. oh, how easy!

And if you don’t want to bake, you can make these easy cocoa balls with coconut oil. 🍫

Anti-Inflammatory Drinks That Help You and Zero-Waste)

Anti-Inflammatory drinks are common and very good for preventing inflammation that can lead to some chronic diseases.

Like this special blue matcha ocean one that reminds us that we are small in calm chaos with climate change. This recipe is below.

To get in our calm we can make an ocean layered drink (recipe below)

And yes, your dry skin eczema and other symptoms could be related. Check out the anti-inflammatory blue matcha tea drink below you can make to have a cool and inflammation-free day. 🧋

an heirloom orange loaded with Vitamin C is anti-inflammatory and antioxidant goodness. — Look for heirloom, organic, or local farmers market produce as in-season (free of pesticides, good for us and the environment)

As we’re approaching warmer months, we like our soothing and cooling anti-inflammatory drinks. But that can depend on what helps balance our healthy Ayurveda body (and restore imbalances for our season).

Natural fruit-infused waters are usually a great option to flavor water, where you can simply add parts of whole fruits and veggies. Like orange, lemon, or lime peels for natural sweet-tartness. And are on a list of 200 anti-inflammatory foods you can checkout. 🛒

If you don’t have a home organic composting system (most people don’t), saving food scraps helps to cut down on waste before discarding in the garbage or the disposal. Plus, this eco-move prevents attracting unwanted house critters in warmer months.

For the little extra effort it takes, saving is so easy to do!

Take an orange. You can zest the peel of an orange that can substitute the “sugar” for your baking. Then use the skin and pith for your flavored orange water. It usually gets discarded even though it has higher vitamin amounts.

And of course, saving the best for last… enjoy the juicy orange slices for a snack, which is the only part that almost never gets tossed.

Now that’s a systemized orange habit 👏 where nothing gets tossed out, and you would reap all the healthy and other benefits.

These are some other Zero Waste-inspired anti-inflammatory drinks you can brew in a mason jar or recycled container jugs.

Kapha “Fire Up Cider” Anti-Inflammatory Drinks

Ideal Storage: Cool, dark cupboard or pantry

An off-balance Kapha body often has a need to intake fewer calories, especially if feeling heavy or sluggish after meals is a common natural symptom.

And when lacking energy, I love healthy fire cider drinks made with acidic ACV and lemon juice from a lemon. You can save the lemon zest and lemon pith and skin for lemonade. Or you can use pre-bought lemon juice.

Horseradish is the pungent ingredient I add in this fiery elixir, but that’s for you to decide if you can stomach it, and then top off with a kick of heat that can come from cayenne pepper. You can also sub the horseradish with garlic or onions.

And if jalapeno peppers are more your pack-a-punch vibe, that’s a good sub ingredient. You can also tone down the spicy twist with turmeric or a balanced hint of ginger.

This drink is good for Vatas too, but if you’re experiencing any slight Pitta imbalances, you’ll wanna turn down the heat!

Vata “Spice Digestion Elixir” Ayurveda Drink

Idea Storage: Refrigerator door or lower shelf in the fridge

An off-balance Vata can feel a sensitive or butterfly nervous stomach, and this drink can help.

Add Ginger, Cinnamon, Orange Peels, Allspice, plus your favorite spices and filtered water to a jar. Then shake up your mixture. Because of the peels, store this elixir in the fridge like juice if you plan on keeping it for longer than a week. These ingredients are anti-inflammatory.

I like to keep this in a repurposed plastic jar/container that was going to be sent to recycling (with a 9% chance of making its final destination… just sayin’ ♻️).

Pitta-Vata “Fermented Mother” Ayurveda Drinks

Ideal Storage: Cool cupboard or pantry (but not the fridge)

A Pitta or imbalanced Pitta can feel heartburn or upper GI tract symptoms. The ingredients in this drink all-in-all is a great elixir for high Pittas and Vatas.

Plus, this elixir is sweet and lasts in your cool cupboard with no expiration date!

Add organic ACV with “the mother enzyme” that looks like residue sitting at the bottom of the jar and mix with a few TBSPs of raw honey.

ACV improves digestion (increasing stomach acid production that tends to decrease as you age). Our internal body changes over time– a good message to share to younger friends and siblings who think they’ll stay the same forever! 😉

You can take a few spoonfuls of this before a meal and this helps glucose levels and prevents blood sugar spikes. The ACV smells can be off-putting to some, but the raw honey will smooth out the unfavorable ACV scent.

Honey is everything sweet in my opinion. So much so, here are some good storage tips:

Honey is best stored in a cooler, dark cupboard or sitting with a closed top in a pantry. By itself, raw honey never goes bad. It’s best not refrigerated or in changing (cooling) temperatures in a fridge that can speed up crystallization. And if you find the right honey and brand, it won’t crystallize at all in the right room temperatures.

Anti-inflammatory raw honey doesn’t have a hard rule expiration date that needs to be followed, as it has very low moisture content. I’ve never seen it go bad. But be sure to close the top or lid completely to eliminate moisture (and bacteria) in the air from entering over periods of time.

One popular honey dessert I remember was served up to many during my event planning days, is a dessert called Awamat, or Lebanese donuts, that is finished off with none other than honey and saffron as a glaze.

Because they looked more like donut holes they could be beautifully displayed as a croquembouche-style evergreen tree table display with a ‘lil engineering ingenuity and creativity… I’m sure recent GBBO contestants, Giuseppe or Juergen, could figure it out!

And besides food, “honey is medicine” as it’s an antioxidant and has antibacterial and antifungal (microbial) benefits. Our ancestors (the ancient Egyptians) and our modern Ayurveda practices have been using honey to prevent infections and help lower inflammation for ages.

It’s also a natural humectant, so whether you have dry skin or a dry throat when applied, it will also help with relieving symptoms. I can’t say enough about raw honey’s sticky goodness. 🍯

And you can add your honey to this calming anti-inflammatory butterfly tea 🦋🍵 drink that’ll sweeten your day.

Print Recipe

Anti-Inflammatory Blue Matcha Tea Ocean Drink

Course beverage

Cuisine American, Japanese

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

blue matcha tea (Butterfly pea flower tea)
coffee or black tea like English Breakfast or Early Grey
raw honey, optional
blueberries, optional

Instructions

Brew your blue matcha tea leaves for about 5 minutes in a mug. Be sure to use cooler than boiling water to not burn the leaves. Cool in the refrigerator.
Pour about 1/3 high tea to your drinking glass or rock glass for your "ocean." Add honey (optional).
Freeze.
Add a "sand" layer with coffee or black tea.
Freeze again.
Add milk or cappuccino froth for "cloud." layer. Zhugh with blueberries if desired.

Cinnamon Biscuits – No Sugar

Cinnamon biscuits are a healthy way to welcome in May that’s Mental Health Month and remembered year round.

cinnamon biscuits

One way to do that is to add cinnamon to your diet to replace refined sugar (aka table or white sugar).

Cinnamon is good for calming anxiety. It’s a good sweet substitute instead of refined sugar. And it may not be the first sweet you ever knew or came to love… I know it wasn’t for me.

But over the years, the cinnamon sticks and cinnamon ways intertwined with me like in these bakes and makes. It was bound to catch up with me as I’m a Vata and maybe you are too?

Cinnamon is also good for our memory boost and because of the anti-inflammatory properties, helps our cognitive abilities to learn.

That’s the basis for healthy growth and how we can protect our minds from drifting away from good mental health or moving toward depression.

It’s worth a reminder to daily renew your mind and celebrate everything you have to be grateful for.

Changing perspectives and thoughts changes your day.

And if you’re like me who loves sweets and controls the sugar with low-sugar recipes, cinnamon biscuits are good for a May occasion, brunch, or afternoon tea. 🫖

Even if you don’t have your own… there are plenty going on globally. In America where I live, there are annual events like the Kentucky Derby 🌹, Mother’s Day 💐, Met Gala 🤩, Memorial Day 🇺🇸, or just celebrating life 🎉

The healthy type you can consume regularly is Ceylon cinnamon that you can add to your hot beverages.

It’s okay to use the traditional Cassia cinnamon (more reddish brown and powdery than Ceylon) common in stores, but not regularly.

Because it has a flavoring substance called courmarin that can damage liver in large quantities.

And we don’t want to hurt our physical health while we keep our mental health and mind-body balanced.

If you limit to using Cassia cinnamon to baking, you’ll be fine and also enjoy how it tastes divine with apples and pear pairings.

Easy No Sugar Cinnamon Biscuits

This recipe is for two sandwich size biscuits so multiply the ingredients for the number of biscuits you want to make.

Course brunch

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 cup combined flour (whole wheat and almond flour are recommended
1 tbsp cinnamon (or adjust to taste liking)
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1-2 tbsp cold butter, small pieces
buttermilk (or milk and apple cider vinegar)

Instructions

Combine ingredients until they are combined and dough is cohesive and not too moist. You should be able to easily make a ball without much effort.
Tip for liquid: start with 1/4 cup of milk and look at the dough. If it's too dry, add a little more milk. If it's a little too wet (milk is coming out of the dough after mixing), then add a little more flour. Do this until you have the right consistency dough (not too moist).
Use oil to coat a pan and then bake in oven on 350°F/180°C for about 25 minutes. About 10 minutes before finish, check the bottom. If toasted, you can flip so the bottom is on the top so it gets baked evenly through.
Fill your sandwiches with seasonal fruit and ricotta or Greek yogurt.

Mindful Break Healthy List Ideas

Mindful thinking can break you out of your stuck shell areas. And taking a mindful break can provide a simple solution to some of your life’s biggest challenges.

mindful yogurt sundae not just on sundays — Delicious healthy parfait sundae 🍨 recipe below 😋 (and maybe you’ll change your mind from a high calorie sundae).

You can take a break with this banana-Greek yogurt bowl with cherry and berries. It’s not only a happy sweet, but a healthy snack loaded with prebiotic-probiotics.

The sundae puts a sun to my day ☀️ And the healthy to my happy joy.

Can you make a list of ordinary mindful 5-minute micro-moments that bring you happy and healthy joy daily? I’m sure you can!

In the past, I would have dismissed the smaller items on my list below as I only saw the bigger happenings worth noting, but that was missing the point of mindful micro-moments.

Our brains are wired to sometimes focus on what we don’t have which only makes for souring the day. So when I focused on little life joys, I noticed the outcome and outlook of the day changed for the better.

And when you adopt good lessons you’ve learned from your life experiences, focusing on what you DO HAVE, then you too appreciate simple and ordinary day things. And, appreciation for small things makes a big difference.

How?…

For one, you’re less disappointed about expectations that didn’t happen. You get off the life roller coaster you can’t always control, and where you’re relying on your situations to bring happiness.

Secondly, you find internal happiness and peace with yourself. You silence the unhelpful noise and have the opportunity to learn to drown out and replace negative mind chatter.

Then you experience more meaning about what this life can grow into for you that’s different than what you started out thinking it would be.

That can happen by changing and developing more loving attitudes that affect your feelings and moods… and make bigger waves in you, than in the situations you experience.

So on that note, this is a page from my daily inspired healthy, and joyfully mindful minutes:

Daily, I check on my avo-plants that came from delicious avocados.

They’re daily living organisms that don’t need any type of green thumb. They remind me of living more eco-friendly and #earthday every day.

These plants have food names based on the flavor of the Oui glass they started their roots from. That’s too cute (or nerdy), right?

…That was the only way I could keep their starting growth dates straight as I had multiple seeds growing at the same time. “Lemon” was the first one I started in 2020.

The naming exercise helped me keep track of dates as 2020 was an off-year for all of us (but not the avocados). The seeds grew despite the major world happenings.

Plus, it didn’t need any kid-glove attention. So, I grew out of the date recordkeeping stage and just started enjoying their presence.

And that’s a good lesson on how our lives could be: more mindful focusing on the enjoyment of the moment, and less on detailed minutiae facts that won’t matter in years to come or even tomorrow.

Most of our memories fade and what you do on most days, you forget. And that’s why the only time that really matters is now. You appreciate and let the present moment pass through you.

And if you don’t want a memory to fade, you could take photos, or make journal entries and share posts– as great memory reminders.

So, now I’ll remember these plants for years to come. 🥑

…And then sitting next to the indoor plants are a table humidifier that’s another mindful break.

Filling room humidifiers with clean water is another way to appreciate the moment.

When I pour fresh water from a reusable water bottle, I stay mindful that clean water gives our bodies and our planet, LIFE.

Water is a source for regeneration: if we had more water to support healthy soil and plants, then we’d help keep new carbon in the ground.

Moisture from the plants and trees would allow more humidity into our air and help lower our climate temperature. Just like the small room humidifier does, but on a much grander scale.

And since I’m on the sustainability topic and #stopfoodwasteday is tomorrow, consuming and buying organic foods from farms that don’t use harmful pesticides helps our health and the planet. Or better yet, grow your own.

Thankfully we’re starting to take this seriously. And as consumers, we have a say and can live out our part.

Another mindful ritual is taking daily supplements.

Like the yogurt photo above, which has healthy fats (almond butter and nuts), I combine the meal with Vit D and A vitamins so they’re better absorbed. There’s an order that matters.

And I make sure I have filling lunch food in my belly before having a multi-vitamin as a general rule, but mostly just to keep a daily routine reminder (i.e. habit stacking).

daily vitamins taken in mindful moments — Clockwise: Mushroom complex, Vit D-3, Vit C, Cod liver oil/Vit A, Magnesium-Calcium-Zinc, and a multi-vitamin.

Then later I take my magnesium (which has an optimized ratio of calcium and zinc) with my mid-day “red wine.”

…It’s actually a pure cranberry-tart cherry blend, water, or water spritzer blend. But, I had you there for a second in case you were mindfully drifting off! 😉

And, I know there’s so much controversy today about vitamins. For them to work they have to be absorbed by the body or else they become expensive pee.

I see and use them as a backup plan and a supplement to prevention. They don’t hurt in approved low doses, but they can help. So they’re worth time and money.

A good multi-vitamin to take is a prenatal vitamin with extra B-vitamins (we all need a lot of B-vitamins to run properly).

And adaptogens that are the rage these days, like a ‘shroom complex to support wellness, immunity, and to help fight off environmental stressors to our bodies.

So now I’m done describing these quick healthy rituals, and moving on to daily writing…

Writing, of course. …Oh yes, duh, that’s a no-brainer on the list. And there’s nothing quick about writing. It’s not a 5-minute ritual. It’s also a labor of love that takes energy and passion. And why a robot can’t replace me (at least not today). 🤖

Robots also don’t have moods, so they wouldn’t want to sing along with me to music tunes like Sam Smith’s version of “Time After Time,” which is a 5-minute break.

You probably have a different jam or song you hum to.

Finding a personal way to express yourself by singing or in another outlet you enjoy, breaks up the day.

Even if this is spending 5 minutes looking out the window. Those few minutes get remembered more than the hour you spent doing any unrewarding jobs you don’t look forward to.

And maybe you have a deeper side passion you spend more time with like dancing, exercising, yoga, playing an instrument or sport, cooking, drawing, or painting, to name a few ideas. The list of possibilities is endless.

These are all good mindful breaks you can build into your balanced and reshuffled day.

Doing your preferred activity helps you bypass the negative emotions, thoughts, or worries at any moment, and can break you out of any ego-mind drama that definitely doesn’t serve you.

What does serve you is feeling better as one of your daily goals.

I can pull together ingredients for a lazy recipe in 5-minutes and that pulls me away from a lazy Kapha mood.

Baking and coming up with baking ideas is one of my fun weekly leisure activities, plus keeping up with a community that does also. You could probably guess my favorite flavor is healthy bakes. And that leads me to the last mindful activity on my list…

Feeding my sourdough. Are you part of the sourdough cult (I mean culture) that came out in 2020?

I can’t exactly say that I am. And I’m glad that it only takes less than 5 minutes to make a starter from scratch.

I kinda have a love-hate relationship with sourdough (even though I don’t like the word hate for anything).

I love the healthy baked dough that benefits the gut (and have even researched/written in well-known healthy pubs about the health benefits).

The problem is I don’t prefer the sour “gone bad” aroma that lingers in the air. It’s strong and irks the Pitta body out of balance.

Pitta is the fire dosha in us. If you learned about Ayurveda or have read other posts I’ve written about using balance to improve life, then you know that you and I can shift in and out of Vata, Pitta, and/or Kapha imbalances at any time.

But back to the homemade sourdough starter… it’s a healthy reminder of bacteria living among us as a breathing organism that’s omnipresent in the air (and plus our bodies are mostly made of bacteria).

So, the “newish” sourdough bread idea can take a bit of adjustment, especially growing up in an ideal germ-free society.

The sourdough plan is to adjust and make enriched doughs like in a sourdough brioche.

And to continue to make my weekly sourdough on demand and not grow a starter pet in the fridge. No reminders are needed.

Healthy Mindful Sundae

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

Greek yogurt (reduced fat and low sugar)
Natural almond butter
Green Banana
Acerola cherry
Organic Blueberries
Favorite seeds or nuts (optional)
Raw honey drizzle

Instructions

Add yogurt to a bowl and pile on the healthy toppings.