LATEST NUTRITION

Living your healthiest life can be a lot of work. There is a good amount of planning and effort that goes into the classic healthy living advice: hours of exercise, meal planning, going to yoga, cooking, meditating. It’s a lifestyle! One that many of us choose because health is important to us, but it’s not effortless. Here are three health hacks to add to your routine that you can sit (or nap!) through to reap the benefits with almost no effort.

1. Lie down for a power nap. Not getting enough sleep can have a negative trickle down effect on the rest of your day. Taking a quick power nap can work magic on your energy levels. Ten minutes of shut eye or even just focusing on yoga breathing for a few minutes will leave you rejuvenated. (Of course getting enough sleep at night is the best way to achieve optimal rest.)
2. Take a probiotic. You simply take a pill and those billions of good bacteria do all the heavy lifting for you in your gut to support your healthiest digestive tract and immune system.
3. Laugh. Laughter is the best medicine! Laughing helps you destress, triggers the release of endorphins, and can even helps you live longer. Mazen and I giggle all day long – especially when we play “see how long you can stand it” before bed!

Let’s zoom in a bit on probiotics. You have heard me talk about them before because I am a big fan. Probiotics are the “good” bacteria that live in your GI tract and create the ideal conditions for digestion, helping to absorb nutrients. There are literally trillions of good bacteria that are living inside of you right now! Your GI tract also acts as a defense barrier between the outside world (aka germs) and your bloodstream. The more good bacteria it has, the harder it is for germs to get inside. If your microbiome is off kilter, you might have symptoms ranging from minor gas and bloating to more chronic stress and mood swings. Your microbiome can even affect your skin and dental health! 

Good bacteria are naturally found in fermented foods like yogurt with active cultures, kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi. Ideally, you’d eat these every day and have a flourishing GI gut. Yogurt is the most popular of the probiotic foods, but many of us don’t eat the rest of them enough. Therefore, taking a probiotic supplement is a simple and convenient way to help your GI tract thrive, just like a multivitamin can fill the gaps in your diet.

We take probiotic supplements and (knock on wood) no one got sick this winter with more than a sniffle. When you add an optimized gut to the other pillars of good health (sleep, nutrition, exercise, stress relief) then you’re using every defense you can against getting sick. This is even more important if you’re going through a stressful time like a move or a job change or if you’re traveling somewhere that might have different bacteria in the food than you’re used to. When one pillar of health is compromised, the rest must pick up the slack, so keep them all as strong as you can when you’re well!

I need to laugh today – tell me your best joke!!

This is Mazen’s favorite joke:

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange ya glad I didn’t say banana?!?!?!

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