Nourishing Insights Functional Medicine and Nutritional Therapy | Scotland | UK
  • Home
  • Clinic Services
    • Nutritional Therapy
    • Testing
    • UTI Support
    • Group Programmes
    • Children's Nutritional Therapy
    • Fertility and Nutritional Therapy
    • Infant Reflux
    • Mentorship
    • Testimonials
    • Corporate
    • Podcast
    • Living Matrix
  • Meet the Team
    • Cancellation Policy
    • Ethics >
      • Privacy Notice
      • Cookie Policy
  • Courses & Workshops
    • Workshop
    • Membership Community
  • Blog & Podcast
    • Recipes
    • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Blog

Learning to rest like a lion

19/1/2019

0 Comments

 
Lion resting

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight..."

Even the lion, the king of the jungle needs rest time. Interestingly the lion sleeps between 10-20 hours a day. Isn’t it quite astonishing that animals know instinctively how to project manage, how to conserve energy and how to make the best use of their own personal resources. We, on the other hand are inclined to forget to bring the concept of rest into our lives and in our modern day 24/7 culture, real rest has become elusive. We may think we are resting when we are sitting on our bottoms. However, with the television in the corner of the room, a laptop on our knee, a phone in our hand and a mug full of our chosen caffeine or other stimulant, are we really resting in the true sense? Is it any wonder therefore that we can’t even sleep properly these days? Most of us will have experienced difficulties with sleep onset and also getting good quality continual sleep. Sleep problems are becoming a bit of an epidemic across the western world. You can read some of our top tips for a good night's sleep here. 


Working under the functional medicine umbrella, we recognise sleep as one of the fundamental functional pillars when it comes to health. Sleep is when our bodies heal, repair and are restored. During the day, our cortisol levels should change with sunrise and sunset. Ideally, they should be higher in the morning and gradually come down across the day with lower levels in the evening to prepare our bodies for sleep. However, imagine a body which is out of balance and which is producing too much cortisol in the middle of the day and/or in the evening. This is becoming all too common a problem these days as we are overstimulated, not just from our exposure to electronics and the internet but being part of a culture that puts pressure on us to work in the evenings , checking emails etc. So we feel we have to keep going when our natural rhythms need to prepare the body for sleep.


Imagine what would happen if lions lived their lives the way many of us do, without adequate time of rest. There would probably be a lot of hungry and angry lions wandering about and let's face it we don't want to come face to face with a 'hangry'l ion!! Lions spend the majority of the day resting which in terms of their survival makes perfect sense. They expend a lot of energy when they hunt so if they were to move around during the day when they don’t need to they would waste a lot of their energy and end up creating more work for themselves by having to hunt more regularly. Lions rest because they know they need to. So what can we learn from lions?

​
Lions teach us that periods of rest can help us to be productive when we need to be. A lack of rest and adequate sleep impacts our work lives, relationships, mood, hormone balancing, blood sugar, libido, adrenal and thyroid function, immune system and so the list goes on..... in other words every aspect of our health. It is as necessary for our own survival as it is for lions. So how do we find rest in the modern world?


Our top tips 

  • Start the day with a wake up light that increases the light slowly, waking you up gently so you don’t get a sudden big cortisol spike. Wake up lights can help restore the sleep/wake cycle and are good prevention for SAD. 
  • Limit caffeine to early part of the day, going for herbal and fruit teas in the afternoon
  • Build rest into the day by eating slowly and mindfully, celebrating each meal and each valuable nutrient
  • Limit time on social media and set limits on Facebook and Instagram.  This will prevent addictive scrolling and overstimulation from screen time. Also, imagine how more productive we'd be if we replaced our scroll time with some mindfulness or a short walk etc?  
  • Spend time in the outdoors. If you can’t leave the office because of time constraints or weather, simply close your eyes and listen to the sounds of nature. There are many apps including the calm app which offer a much needed escape and a time of rest in the middle of a busy working day. If we did ten minutes 2 or 3 times a day over a lunch break or after work this would give us a time of rest.
  • I recommend all of my clients to use relaxation music. In an office situation, you could use ear phones. So if you are stressing over a mountain of emails give yourself the gift of rest by listening to some relaxation music and you will find you will be able to tackle one email at a time without stressing over the other 50 emails waiting underneath— they can wait.
  • Breathing techniques. Taking some deep breaths and simply focussing on the breath for a few minutes can take us out of the fight or flight state and get us into rest and digest. I often recommend this to clients prior to having lunch, especially if they are people who are inclined to eat quickly and are prone to indigestion. A body that is in a sympathetic dominant state, ready to run from a tiger (or his boss!) is not a body that’s ready to sit down and properly digest his food. 
  • Take up yoga or pilates. Join a class or start doing it in your own home. There are many online videos on youtube. Boho beautiful is one of the yoga channels we really enjoy. 
  • Take a power nap during the day. Research suggests napping during the day can improve memory and creativity. 
  • Book a massage, reflexology or other therapy for relaxation. 

Finally, do whatever you need to, to incorporate patterns of rest into your day.  What you find restful might be completely different to another person.  Whether you find rest in a hobby like knitting or singing, do something that helps you relax. Your body will thank you for it.

And breathe...... 















0 Comments

10 things to do more of in 2020!

2/1/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is the time of year for us all to panic and feel overwhelmed as we make new year's resolutions which are often re-scheduled to the following year before Burn's night! This is largely because we make a plan to deprive ourselves of all the things we like and not only that but we actually make the mistake of assuming that we need to  deprive ourselves of the very things our body needs e.g. fat! 
Living well is not about deprivation. It's about recognising what's good for us and having more of it! When we seize with both hands all that is good for mind body and soul, we look better, we feel better, we think better, we love better. 
The wonderful thing is that to enjoy all of these simple but proven health tips we don't have to spend lots of money joining expensive clubs. Nor do we have to count anything, unless it's your blessings or the number of colourful veg on your plate!
Life is for living. Give it your best shot and choose habits that bring nourishment to both body and soul. A body that is deprived of neccesary nutrients will find itself hungry for anything it can get its hands on. This is nature! My clients are always delighted when I ask them to eat more in order to find their way to a body weight which is ideal for them. We can't boost our metabolism by eating foods low in calorific value, we boost metabolism by eating Nutrient dense foods which nourish us! The bottom line is, if we support our natural physiology by enjoying all the good things nature provides, it will support us! If we try to go against nature, our body will let us down.
So, go easy on yourself this year. Love your body, love your mind and replace deprivation with indulgence of all that is good. The rest will take care of itself!

​

1. Drink more water (for every caffeine drink have a glass of water) and remember non caffeine herb/fruit teas count towards hydration. 



​2. Sleep more. Go to bed an hour earlier. Wake up fresher. There's an old saying that an hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after! More tips here 
​


3. Alkalize more. Start your day with half a lemon in hot water. This will boost your immune system and protect you year round. You can of course alkalize by green juicing or green smoothie making. You choose which works for you. 

​
4. Rest your liver more. Enjoy a glass of resveratrol packed red wine on the weekend but avoid on a school night as your liver needs to rest to work properly. (based on guidance from British liver trust) Or... just don't bother drinking at all. Give yourself a month or two and see how you feel. 

5. Move your body more. Choose a space in your day  to walk outside whether to and from work or during the working day. Set your timer to beep every hour to remind you to move around. Remember as far as risk factors for ill health are concerned, sitting has been dubbed the new smoking. 

6. Eat more colour.  More colour means more veg! Create a plate of colour at every meal as each different colour provides different health benefits all of which we need. Don't miss out!


​
7. Eat more fats! Support your physiology with the good fats it requires to function. These are olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, grass fed butter, oily fish, organic eggs and chicken, grass fed meat and nuts and seeds. 

8.  Eat more protein. This basically means including a protein source at each meal and snack which will sustain you and maintain blood glucose levels. Try a handful of nuts in place of your morning biccy or make your own protein balls to take to work. You will find that maintaing body weight is difficult without this important habit!

9. Be more thankful. Counting our blessings has proven health benefits. Either write them down or count them at the end of each day. Some people like to create a blessings jar so they can remind themselves of all the good in their lives. 

10. Meditate more. No this doesn't mean being able to shut down completely, but it does mean learning how to use the dimmer switch on all that chatter going on in our brains. The wealth of research on the benefits of meditation and calming the mind  is not to be ignored. One of the most important stragegies for maintaining health at every level is to learn how to do this even for a few minutes per day. Check out headspace to give it a try.

Beverley x
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

    Categories

    All
    Baby
    Cancer
    Children
    Christmas
    Defiant Beauty
    Dinner
    Echinacea
    Eczema
    Fairtrade
    Fertility
    Food
    Food Intolerance
    Gut Health
    Harriette
    Hay Fever
    Herbal Medicine
    Herbs
    Holiday
    Immune System
    Medicinal Mushrooms
    Multivitamin And Mineral
    Musculo Skeletal
    Nutritional Therapy
    Nutritional-therapy
    Organic
    Pets
    Pregnancy
    Probiotic
    Rest
    Sleep
    Stress
    Tea

    Amazon Associates Disclosure

    Nourishing Insights is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.

    Archives

    August 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    August 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING

“I did Nutritional Therapy with Beverley and it was life changing. I highly recommend it!”  Allison Blakely (Glasgow)
Picture
Picture

Contact Us

Email: info@nourishinginsights.com
Want to speak to us by phone? Book a call back here.



Nutritional Therapist, Functional Medicine, Infant reflux specialist, aberdeen

Photos used under Creative Commons from tnilsson.london, The Garden Smallholder
  • Home
  • Clinic Services
    • Nutritional Therapy
    • Testing
    • UTI Support
    • Group Programmes
    • Children's Nutritional Therapy
    • Fertility and Nutritional Therapy
    • Infant Reflux
    • Mentorship
    • Testimonials
    • Corporate
    • Podcast
    • Living Matrix
  • Meet the Team
    • Cancellation Policy
    • Ethics >
      • Privacy Notice
      • Cookie Policy
  • Courses & Workshops
    • Workshop
    • Membership Community
  • Blog & Podcast
    • Recipes
    • Podcast
  • Contact Us