My amazing friend and fellow health activist, Clara Wisner of revolutionary lifestyle, is currently traveling around the world on an epic adventure. You might know Clara from the Living Rising podcast which I was on a few weeks ago chatting about Ayurveda. If you missed it, you can listen to it here. In addition to being a nutrition therapy practitioner, Clara is also a self-love guide. What does that mean? She specializes in helping women ditch toxic habits and release self-sabotaging beliefs that keep them stuck. As part of her travels, she's exploring self-love practices and spiritual theories all over the world and compiling the incredible knowledge she's garnering into a book about self-love. Soooo basically, she's a legend and I wanted to let y'all know about a super cool online course she's offering all about self-love....
Read MoreHey everyone! Just wanted to give you a heads up that I was on Love Rising podcast this week chatting with Clara from Revolutionary Lifestyle about all things Ayurveda! As you guys may already know, I am a Certified Ayurvedic Lifestyle Counselor and often integrate Ayurvedic wellness practices and diagnostic tools in my holistic nutrition practice. On the podcast, I explain what Ayurveda is (hint: it's India's 5000 year old medical system, translated as the "science of life") and talk about the primary doshas (vata, pitta and kapha) and how to juggle all three to maintain health and balance. A big part of this is having a solid daily routine which I go through in detail, i.e. sleep-wake cycles, meal timing, etc. And finally Clara and I catch up about our respective experiences at Vaidyagrama which is an Ayurvedic detox retreat center in India. I was there about four years ago and my time there was instrumental in my personal healing process. You can read more about my time at Vaidyagrama here and here. So, if Ayurveda is at all interesting to you, head on over to iTunes and have a listen to the new Love Rising podcast! You can click the photo above or here is the link! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to learn more!
Read MoreAncient Ayurvedic wisdom teaches us that living in accordance with the natural rhythms of nature will lead to flow and ease. Living out of sync with these rhythms can cause disruptions in our bodies, such as indigestion, bowel irregularities, hormonal fluctuations and difficulty sleeping. The 24-hour day is broken down into six 4-hour cycles, each with its own optimal activities. The cycle I'm honing in on in today's post is our natural sleep-wake cycle, which is ideally 10pm - 6am. I've explained this in more detail in the post, along with discussing five of the most common sleep issues either I've experienced personally or hear from my clients. I've given you the action steps for how to fix these issues, plus a handful of deep sleep tips, to help you start getting more restorative sleep tonight!
Read MoreReady to make your 'cuppa' work for you? I've put together a list of my favorite medicinal teas that, in addition to tasting comforting and delicious, pack a punch on the nutritional front! Everything from burning fat with matcha to fighting inflammation with golden milk to detoxing your liver with dandelion, I've tried to cover the gamut when it comes to tea for every ailment. Cheers to the power of tea!
Read MoreIt’s likely that you’ve heard about the detrimental effects of the stress hormone cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels and chronic stress can affect every physiological system in your body. It can make you tired, anxious and irritable; lead to weight gain, bone loss, high blood pressure, insomnia and digestive issues; and contribute to diabetes and heart disease risk.
Read MoreThis 1-day cleanse is the perfect "reset button" after a holiday, wedding weekend, or one of those weeks of not-so-healthy eating. I know how tough it can be to commit to a cleanse for any real length of time (7, 14, 28 days), so I came up with this 1-day cleanse plan for when you don't want to fuss around with lots of meal prep or put your summer social activities on hold because you're "on a cleanse." A great day to do this cleanse is Monday or Tuesday after, for example, a big weekend of eating, drinking, etc. You can pick up the essentials from the grocery store on Sunday or Monday and get started right after that. As you can see from the photo, I purchased my green juices and nut milk. You can, of course, make these yourself but the beauty of this cleanse is that you don't have to spend much time in the kitchen!
Read More....So we're in the 'tweaner' time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You're back in the real world after 4+ days of indulging in turkey and marshmellow-covered sweet potatoes. You likely have lots of holiday parties to go to in the next couple weeks. You also probably have a lot of work to get done before you take off for Christmas which doesn't leave much time for home cooking or morning/evening runs or exercise classes. Anddd you might feel like your teetering on the edge of 'I should be really healthy right now so I don't get the holiday pudge' and 'ahhh f*ck it, I'll deal with that in January.' Well, I'm right there with you! I'm writing this post to inspire you to GO WITH THE FORMER, as well as to give you some tips for helping quell those crazy carb and sugar cravings that get out of control this time of year! Below are my top ten ways to beat cravings and strut into Christmas time without feeling forced into wearing only stretchy jeans and baggy sweaters. Unless that's your jam...in which case, rock on :)
Read MoreIn life, we can choose to move with or against the current of nature’s natural rhythms. Our daily rhythms and hormonal fluctuations are tied to the cycles of nature and, when these are all in sync with each other, life seems a lot easier because you'll be 'going with the flow.'
According to Ayurveda, the stress of living against these natural cycles is a fundamental violation of healthy living. Living in sync with nature’s cycles is a powerful lifestyle tool to de-stress the body and mind and feel like you're in the flow of things.
Ayurveda suggests that, in nature, there are two 12-hour cycles that are each divided into three smaller cycles.
Read MoreI came to Vaidyagrama for two primary reasons: 1. I wanted to see and experience the Ayurvedic panchakarma process first hand after studying it this past year, and 2. I wanted to get my menstrual cycle back (after 2 years of no period from being on oral contraceptives for so long) and heal my polycystic ovaries. I started the panchakarma process (diet, medicines, treatments, etc.) on January 5th and my period arrived on January 11th - a day full of gratitude, jumping for joy, and much, much relief! Over the past two years, I had been to more alternative healers than I could count on one hand on my quest to bring my cycle back naturally. As much as I tried to stay positive and keep experimenting with new methods with the hope that “this one has to work,” I always had in the back of my mind the gripping fear that something was seriously wrong and I was never going to be able to have children. I was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries which is a condition that can be no problem for some and cause infertility for others. There is no real “cure” in Western medicine; the focus is more on managing diet and lifestyle so that the hormone imbalance doesn’t worse and cause further complications. Since being diagnosed with this condition, I have talked to many different people and done much of my own reading / research in an effort to learn as much as I can to heal myself. Indirectly, I have become really interested in how women’s hormones and menstrual cycles get so out of whack and how we can naturally bring our system back into balance.
Read MoreI recently attended a seminar by Dr Sherrill Sellman who is a Naturopath and a doctor of Integrative Medicine. She is one of the leading voices in women's holistic health and wellness and travels the world lecturing on topics related to hormonal health. Dr Sellman is the author of Hormone Heresy: What Women MUST Know About Their Hormones and What Women MUST Know to Protect their Daughters from Breast Cancer.
Keen to gobble up any and all information regarding women's hormones, I was thrilled to hear that Dr Sellman was coming to Sydney and eagerly bought a ticket to attend her lecture titled 'Getting Hormones on Track.' She did a fantastically informative two hour talk on which I furiously took notes. (Old habits die hard!) Here is a bit of a recap of what I learned.
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