A little of what you fancy – the French way of eating

When did you last eat with enjoyment, for pure pleasure? When last did you eat something without obsessing about every calorie and micro-nutrient going into your body? There’s so much nutritional information in circulation, and often such a judgmental culture around what everyone’s eating, that most people struggle to eat without some element of guilt or anxiety.

Most people struggle to eat without some element of guilt or anxiety. But eating for pleasure is entirely possible.

And then there’s the phenomenon of comfort eating – which, as Nigella Lawson has pointed out in one of her cookbooks, is really discomfort eating. We use food as a form of self-medication, to swallow our feelings, often binging on foods that we mindlessly gulp down without pausing to check whether we’re really enjoying them.

Food is fuel, of course, but it’s also one of life’s greatest pleasures!

Can you even...

When life is uncertain, and we’re stressed and anxious, often we drive ourselves crazy with ‘what if’ scenarios. This proves us living in the past with worry and possible regret or in the future causing more concern. There’s another way to question our situations that is positive, and which can help us to find solutions instead of fueling our anxiety even further.

How? Through staying calm, and asking questions from a point of curiosity. It’s about asking the right questions, and controlling the controllables.

Control the controllables

To begin this process, we need to adopt a stance of what psychologists call radical self-acceptance. It works like this: we have never been through what we’re going through at the moment, so there is no right and wrong, there’s no roadmap. That’s good news, because it means that actually, you can’t get this wrong. 

Do what you can with where you are and what you have.

Next, tapping into the...

Correlation between gut health and mental health

Our everyday language has been telling us for decades that our brains and stomachs are connected – we digest difficult news, or talk about butterflies in our stomachs when we’re nervous. We go with our gut when making a decision.

But now scientists know that there’s a strong biological tie between gut and brain – so much so that they’re now calling the gut the ‘second brain’. And it’s not just your stress that has an impact on your digestive system – your digestive system can also affect your mental state.

It all comes down to the microbiome each of us carries around with us – a system of millions of bacteria, some good and some bad, that live in our digestive systems. And it’s all about keeping those in balance.

Gut problems and mental health

When things get too out of balance for too long, then you have a problem – with links to a plethora of conditions...

Well-being isn’t just about physical health. Eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep are vital, of course, but it’s also about managing our emotions. Your emotional diet, so to speak.  And in these times of great upheaval, where we’re suddenly confronted with a host of new demands, many people are struggling with their emotional well-being.

There are simple ways to make living and working less remote ‒ and more remarkable ‒ which I’d like to share. I use them in my work with a range of business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders, and they are tried and tested.

It’s important to remember that there’s a very strong mind-body link, so your emotional health can have an impact on your physical health, and vice versa. For instance, generally, when we’re feeling stressed, we can spend a lot of time in our heads and get quite anxious. That sets off a chain reaction in your body and brain: your blood pressure...

Want to feel fab, not constantly tired?

Chronic Fatigue

Are you feeling down in the dumps? Are you battling to bounce out of bed in the morning? Don’t have the get-up-and-go to get to the office, the gym or, worst of all, a new client meeting? What you may need is a quick boost, something that can raise your energy and help adjust your motivation in an instant.

Mood booster: Breathing Boost

Time till mood boost: Immediate to several minutes

Feeling down? Take a breath. A deep one! Deep breathing is one of the fastest tension busters around, lowering levels of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Try the 4-7-8 technique. Inhale deeply through your nose for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven, and exhale through your mouth for a count of eight. Repeat five times.

Mood booster: Eat a Balanced Breakfast

Time till mood boost: 15 minutes.

Starting your day with a balanced breakfast will not only boost your energy, it will most definitely lift your mood too,...