In part one of my wellness journey, I talk about how mom burnout led me here. Using the concept of “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs” as a framework to create a lifestyle change. I decided my first tier needed to be making a lifestyle change in my nutrition, diet and exercise habits in order to get to and maintain my goal weight.  Some people may call it superficial, but knowing myself and having complete confidence in who I am, I know that I feel my best when I look my best. But that’s not the only reason.

Half of the battle with losing weight is mental. We set goals, make commitments, and year after year, we let ourselves down. We deem our first slip up as ruined, and quit altogether. Or, we say things like “I’ll start Monday,” only to create more broken promises, which we then use as evidence for our negative self-talk. This pattern only continues to create a lack of trust within ourselves, which ultimately, fuels the pattern. 

To create a lifestyle change, not only did I need to get to a place where I feel and look my best, I needed to regain that trust within myself. Once I can master both of these, I can move onto my next tier or step towards wellness, rest, and recovery.

Creating a lifestyle change in your sleep habits

Let’s start with sleep. In my opinion, this is just as important as nutrition. Fortunately, sleep has never been an issue for me. If anything, my problem is quite the opposite. Unfortunately, I could sleep way beyond the needed 8 hours. While most people think this is a good problem to have, oversleeping, creates its own set of issues within the body. 

Before my divorce, I was in bed by 10 and up with the sunrise. After my divorce, I went through a huge lifestyle change in most every area of my life. The combination of emotional, mental, and physical stress all played a significant role in disrupting my sleep habits and completely throwing off my internal clock or circadian rhythm.

Our circadian rhythm is our natural, internal clock that regulates our sleep-wake cycle. Being influenced by environmental cues, its susceptible to light and dark cycles within our environment. When we have healthy habits around sleep, our circadian rhythm keeps our hormones balanced by, releasing cortisol in the morning,  and melatonin at night. When this becomes disrupted, it can cause symptoms that range from daytime sleepiness, trouble falling asleep and even depression.

Multiple things can cause our internal clock to get out of sync. While age, genetics, stress, etc., play a role, most of the problems are related to the environment, lifestyle, and technology advancement. Traveling in different time zones, working night shift hours, and inconsistent sleep schedules are all things that disrupt our natural rhythm. Sleeping in on the weekends,  while it sounds good, can be a bad thing when trying to correct an already imbalanced rhythm.

Resetting my circadian rhythm and creating a lifestyle change around sleep, was my number one priority when it comes to sleep. Creating healthy sleep habits

If you’re like me and have a terrible habit of bringing your phone into bed, just know that the blue light released by the screens on our electronics tricks our bodies into thinking it’s daytime, which delays melatonin release. So if you’re not ready to kick the habit of bringing your phone into bed, try setting a night shift timer or getting a pair of blue light glasses. However, ideally, there should be no electronics before bed, especially for kids.

Creating a bedtime routine to help you wind down, destress and get into a relaxed state can have many long-term benefits on the quality of sleep. It could be something like a shower to drop your body temperature—yoga, soothing music, journaling, hot tea, salt lamp, meditation, and or candles.

If you have a hard time falling asleep or feel that groggy morning feels, here are a couple of things to help create healthy sleep habits. All of these are geared towards resetting the internal clock to make this a lifestyle change.

My favorite sleep tracking devices

1.  Oura Ring

The Oura ring is the ultimate sleep tracker, designed to be worn day and night, tracking both your activity and sleep. While you sleep, it tracks your resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate, body temperature, light, deep and REM sleep, nighttime movement, and total hours slept.

Every morning the app gives you a readiness score based on your sleep quality and activity levels from the previous day. From the Oura Ring website it states, 

“Readiness is an overall measure of your recovery. Oura monitors your body’s signals, picks up on daily habits, and informs you of your capacity to perform at your mental, emotional, and physical best.” Oura Ring

2.  Smart Alarm Clock

If you’ve never tried an alarm clock that mimics the natural colors of a sunrise, do yourself a favor and get one now. Because our bodies are built to wake up naturally with the sunrise and get tired as the sunsets. I haven’t tried using it at night yet because, let’s be honest, I go to bed way past sunset with four kids. Waking up with the gradual change in colors mimicking a sunrise has worked wonders!

There are a lot of brands out there with this same concept, but I personally own the Philips Wake-Up Light.  Sunrise Alarm Clock

3.  Sonos surround sound

First, let me say Sonos is on my list of top ten favorite purchases. I have four ‘Sonos Play 5’ speakers connected to each other, with one in my living room, kitchen, bedroom, and playroom. All the speakers sync over wifi to either create a surround sound or play different music, depending on your preferences. Because it connects to Apple Music, Spotify, XM radio, Pandora, and many others, my favorite part is the alarm function. When you set the alarm, you can pick the playlist or song that will play when the alarms goes off. 

Music is one thing that gets me up, moving, motivated, and ready to tackle the day. Combining both the smart sleep alarm clock and the Sonos alarm is my perfect morning recipe. And, of course, coffee. Sonos 

4.  Sleep Cycle App

Have you ever been woken up in the middle of a super intense dream, where the alarm is a faint sound somewhere within the story of your dreams? When your dreaming, it means you’re in the REM cycle of your sleep. When woken up in mid- REM sleep, you can feel all sorts of groggy, confused, and irritable. 

The Sleep Cycle app tracks and analyzes your sleep patterns, waking you up during your lightest sleep phase. It’s incredible how our phones can track our sleep patterns, and I can only imagine what the future holds in technology. Sleep Cycle App

To create a lifestyle change in wellness through the lymphatic system

Sleep, of course, helps you feel rested, but that isn’t the only benefit. Sleep plays a significant role in our ability to recover and affects almost every tissue and organ in our body.

The next part of my wellness journey is all about boosting circulation and activating the lymphatic system. This system is responsible for removing toxins and waste, and when working correctly, it can boost our immunity. Recently there’s been an uptick in services and treatments that promote lymphatic health. The title of an article written in Well and Good, “Lymphatic Health Is the Next Frontier in Wellness,” says;

 

“In 2020, these spa offerings and workout classes will hit the mainstream, and “lymphatic health” will become the wellness buzzword on everyone’s lips.”

When we stimulate our bodies to circulate, we begin to radiate, and well, that’s the goal, right? So how do we stimulate circulation and what does this have to do with our lymphatic system?

Our circulatory system works with the lymphatic system, which is known as the “sewerage system.”  But unlike our circulatory system, it only flows upwards and depends on the movement of our muscles. To put it in perspective, the body has three times more lymph fluid than blood, yet it doesn’t have an organ to pump the fluid as the heart does for the circulatory system.

Things like stress, sedentary lifestyle, dehydration, poor circulation are all things that can block our lymphatic system and create swelling from fluid retention.   So what can we do to keep this system moving?  

Daily Habits for a healthy lymphatic system

Balanced nutrition; I don’t think there is one system or organ that doesn’t benefit from a healthy diet. Eliminating processed foods, adding whole raw foods, healthy fats, and green leafy vegetables all help nourish cells within our body, eliminating our bodies’ need to work harder.

Drinking at least 2 liters of clean water;  Styaing hydrated is another way that every system benefits from. Making sure you are drinking at least half of your body weight in water is key. Adding in a lemon, which is an alkaline fruit,  keeps our PH levels balanced which is important to overall health. Lemons also have anti-inflammatory properties, promote digestion, act as a detoxifying agent and even help with metabolism.

Rebounding;  Jumping on the trampoline is one of the best ways to get our lymphatic system moving, which is why you may have seen a lot of new fitness studios offering a mini trampoline workout. 

Dry brushing; Using a coarse-bristled brush to brush the skin towards the heart

Noninvasive Medical Spa Services

Infrared Sauna

Infrared saunas aren’t like your standard sauna with steam heat. It has both near and far infrared rays that penetrate your body, detoxing your body at the cellular level. The amount of sweat that comes off your body makes you wonder why you didn’t lose 5 pounds from one session! If that was the case, you better believe I would be there every night.

With 30 minutes, you could burn anywhere between 300-600 calories, which is a pretty wide range because it’s based on many factors. I go about 2-3 times a week and do 1-hour sessions, so even if it’s on the lower end, that’s a lot of calories. Afterward, I feel amazing, and my skin feels like it’s glowing. The only downside, you’ll need to wash your hair! Not even the highest ponytail works! Oh, and if you have eyelash extensions, plan to get them refilled every 2 weeks vs. 4 weeks. 

Lymphatic Drainage Massage

This is done by a trained specialist who uses a gentle form of massage that helps move lymphatic fluid in an upward motion, eliminating toxins and waste from the body. There’s a Brazilian lymphatic massage technique that many celebrities and Victorias Secret models use, which looks to have phenomenal results! If you live on the west coast or in south Florida, more people perform this particular method. Living right outside of Washington, D.C, I haven’t had much luck finding anyone.

Body balancer

The ballancer pro is a compression suit with medical technology to mimic a manual lymphatic massage.  Because it releases lactic acid,  its used by a lot in athletes to help with recovery after a long workout. Byride describes it in this article (https://www.byrdie.com/body-ballancer-review) as being “zipped into trousers that looked a little like a ’70s spacesuit,” 

Enderomologie

A beauty-based massage treatment that stimulates and drains the lymphatic system, and also helps to stimulate collagen production. It’s the first cellulite treatment to be approved by the Food & Drug Administration and has become a well known procedure all over the world. 

New to my google search history; Bringing a lifestyle change through negative Ions

The last thing I want to talk about is how air quality can have on our energy levels. Recently, I started noticing myself having less energy during the winter months. Of course, a big part of it has to do with COVID and not being outside, reaping all the benefits we get from both Vitamin D and fresh air. But, I couldn’t understand why I would get an instant burst of energy every time I left the house and instantly have a zap in my energy levels the minute I got home.

So, I began my research. I googled everything from the effects of an HVAC system on our mood and energy levels to the air we breathe outside, which is when I came across negative ions.

I think it’s safe to say that we all feel a certain way being around waterfalls and being on top of the mountain. But, did you know there’s a scientific reason for this? That reason has everything to do with negative ions.

Negative ions are created in nature as air molecules break apart from either sunlight, radiation, moving air, and water. When we breathe these negative ions, they increase oxygen flow to the brain and produce biochemical reactions that increase serotonin levels. This is the reason why being around waterfalls and mountains, or after a thunderstorm, makes you feel “elevated.”

This article (https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes) from Webmd is what stood out for me, specifically this part;

“You may be one of them if you feel sleepy when you are around an air-conditioner, but feel immediately refreshed and invigorated when you step outside or roll down the car window,” Howard tells WebMD. “Air conditioning depletes the atmosphere of negative ions, but an ion generator re-releases the ions that air conditioners remove.”

This was is precisely what I was trying to describe above, which led me to buy, the AirTamer, from Amazon. The cool thing with this one is it’s small enough to wear as a necklace, making it portable. I wanted to test this negative ions theory before buying the larger and more expensive one for my house. If I feel it makes a difference, I will 100% purchase stationary ones for my home.

Here is a couple I found, and of course, they all have a modern vibe.

There’s so much information on pretty much every industry you can think of. The advancement in technology and the number of consumer products being released daily don’t help this information overload.

When we are given too many choices, it becomes overwhelming. A big part of my “google searches” is all about the science behind what we are trying to achieve. Once I can narrow that down, I begin to find products that match the scientific reason. Is it time-consuming? Yes. But, that was the big reason I decided to start this blog.

I rarely buy something without doing my own research. The consumer goods industry comes with a faster pace of innovation, which means there are more and more products to choose from. This creates an overload of information and products to shuffle through. It can be easy to think we need it all, but when you know what you need to get to the top level of your wellness journey, you can start to see all of this information and products that support them as stepping stones.

In the past, I would buy anything and everything I found useful in the wellness industry; the best workout equipment, gym memberships, meal prep containers, foam rollers, balance trainers, etc. The problem was, I didn’t have a consistent routine or starting point for any of these products.

One of those purchases was my Oura ring, which sat in the box for close to two years. Once I figured out what I needed and created my own stepping stones to a healthy lifestyle, I knew when to pull it out. If I knew then what I know now, I would have put that money into something I actually needed vs. being consumed with the million apps, tools, and new gadgets on the market.

I love quotes so much that I have an entire gallery wall full of quotes. Below are the ones that have helped me during this process, the first being my favorite. 

“I’m not dieting; I’m practicing self-control.”
“Tension is who you think you should be; relaxation is who you are.”

Self-control is like a muscle; you have to keep strengthening for it to grow and become stronger. Building self-control also establishes trust within myself, which is my ultimate goal. To build trust, I have to learn how to keep my word to myself. I’m always looking for someone to hold me accountable because I know when it comes to someone else, I will keep my word, and that’s not ok.

First, not many people know what it takes to hold someone accountable, but that only matters if they show up in the first place. Unfortunately, you have to show up for yourself and be your own advocate. I say unfortunately because, as a world, we have forgotten what it means to truly support others. We get lost in our own inner turmoil that we fail to look and realize what we have to offer ourselves to those who need our support.

There’s a song I want to end this post with, by Tatiana Manaois, Like you. It’s a great song, but this particular part speaks volumes;

“You gotta get up and make a move.
‘Cause the world won’t ever see you ’til you do
No, they don’t really care what you’re going through
And you know nobody knows how you feel.
‘Cause everybody’s got their own damn problems
So everybody’s tryna find their way.
And day-by-day is a struggle.
In this world, you know you have to hustle.”

So, my advice for any journey or lifestyle change you want to create, make sure you’re the priority. Learn to value yourself most, learn to trust yourself, and have the confidence to follow your intuition. Do you, for you. Make this a lifestyle change by practicing self-control.  Learn how to be present, and live in the moment, and take your own path, always and forever.

XOXO,

HAUTEmess Mom of Four