Wellness tips that don’t cost the earth

When it comes to keeping healthy, many of us will think about piling our shopping trolleys with fruit and veg, and skipping to the gym after work.

Yet, to both look and feel our best, we need to embrace all aspects of a healthy lifestyle – for true wellness, we need to be looking after ourselves both inside and out.

Want to glow from within and feel happy and healthy? Here are our top ten wellness tips which you can do from home…

Manage Stress

Many of us live frazzled, packed lives and hurtle through our days ticking off the next thing on our checklist. Yet, stress can have a huge impact on the body, affecting our mind, causing weight gain (or loss) and even making us more vulnerable to illness and disease.

One of the best things we can do for our overall wellness is to meditate. Meditation can help to calm frantic minds, improve mood, lower blood pressure and bust anxiety and stress. Just a few minutes of meditating (and this can include trying some slow breath work, or even chanting mantras to yourself) each day can make a whole lot of difference!

If you are feeling overwhelmed, another thing to try is gratitude. This helps us to see the positives in every day life, and may even help to improve our immune system and alertness. We like to spend five minutes writing in a gratitude journal at the end of each day, helping us to wind down before bed with positive thoughts.

Drink More Water

Staying hydrated isn’t just good for the way we look – it’s also good for helping us to feel more alert and focused, getting rid of any brain fog. Our bodies are mostly made up of water, so replenishing throughout the day helps to keep us feeling our best.

Sipping on plenty of water also helps to regulate the body, flush out toxins and keep our liver nice and healthy. It even helps our muscles to work more efficiently! For an extra hydration boost, our award-winning H30 Hydration sachets are packed with electrolytes and help to hydrate the cells from the inside, out.

Discover more about H3O Hydration

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Ditch Added Sugars

Many shop-bought foods are packed with added sugars and nasties, which can lead to inflammation in the body and even trigger mood swings. Left unchecked, eating a diet too high in sugars can also cause disease and even obesity. 

Wherever you can, aim to ditch processed foods (say goodbye to anything white and fluffy!) and enjoy a diet rich in fruit and veg, fibrous whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats (think avocados, coconut oil and nuts). This will help to keep inflammation in check, and will also keep blood sugars balanced and healthy.

Get More Sleep

Unfortunately, many of us no longer prioritise sleep due to our fast-paced lives. Yet, getting plenty of shut eye can improve our emotional wellbeing, as well as our brains and even our heart health. Getting enough sleep can also reduce inflammation in the body, fight stress and give us an all-round beauty boost! If you struggle to zone out, aim to limit screen time a few hours before bed, or you could relax and unwind with gentle yoga or a soothing bath. We also like to use essential oils such as lavender to us relax.

Discover foods that help you to sleep more peacefully.

Get Moving

Many of us struggle to shift ourselves out of bed, hitting snooze on repeat rather than heading for an early gym class. Yet, when we do exercise, we enjoy a surge of feel-good endorphins which help to set us up for the day ahead. 

As well as improving our mental health (and our body confidence), exercise can also help us to shape up, strengthen our muscles, reduce our risk of illness and disease and send our energy levels soaring.

We promise that there’s an exercise for everyone to enjoy – you don’t need to be sporty to benefit! You could try Yoga or Pilates, go for a stroll in the woods or hills with friends, take a dip in the swimming pool, lift weights, or even enjoy a HIIT class.

Prioritise R & R

For us, rest and relaxation isn’t a luxury – it is a necessity. To help you to feel good and de-stressed, it’s important to take time out of every single day for yourself. This could be through enjoying a good book, popping on a face mask, running a hot bath, or going out for a coffee with friends. Whatever you do, make sure that you allow yourself to relax for 20 minutes – every day!

Connect

With many people now living their lives through their phones, tablets and laptops, connecting with family and friends can often become an after-thought. Yet, think about it: how often do you feel on top of the world after a lunch date with your best friend, or after a family dinner? 

It’s important that we invest in and nurture our most treasured relationships, whether that is our friends or our family. This can help to boost our mental health and overall wellbeing, and could be as simple as sitting down for a family meal at the end of a long day, or calling your friend for a catch-up!

Eat Your Greens

Ever since we were little, we’ve been told to eat our greens – and for good reason! Greens are packed with vitamins and minerals, as well as fibre and antioxidants. They are also good for our guts and can help to fight disease and inflammation.

If you struggle to eat your greens, why not toss a few handfuls of spinach into a blender alongside a scoop of our Protein Smoothie? We promise you won’t taste the spinach – and it will keep you feeling full and healthy right through until lunch time!

Look After Your Gut

More and more, scientists and researchers are beginning to understand just how important our gut health is to our overall health. A healthy gut doesn’t just equal a healthy body – we all have a gut / mind connection (our second brain is said to be in our tummies, after all!), which can determine our mood and brain health. 

For overall wellness, look to give your gut a boost! You can do this by eating all kinds of different foods (the more natural foods we eat, the more diverse our gut flora or microbiota will be), as well as enjoying a diet rich in probiotics (think kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, sourdough and natural yoghurt) and prebiotics (these foods – green bananas, Jerusalem artichokes, chicory root and garlic, to name a few!) help to feed our ‘good’ bacteria.

Be Kind

Above all, be kind to yourself! Talk to yourself as you would a friend, and go easy on yourself. Whether you’ve had a bad day, want to lose weight or are feeling burned out by work, try to apply some kindness and love to yourself – after all, you deserve it.