School holidays are challenging at the best of times but add chocolate and extra family and they can quickly become a nightmare! My wonderful and thoughtful partner actually gave me the idea for this article, reminding me of the importance of staying home, not to finish all the household jobs, but to do nothing!
There is such a huge temptation to go, go, go when we have a few days off but sometimes the best of times are sitting around playing games, snoozing in front of a movie, reading a book or sharing a takeaway meal where the dishes go in the recycling. None of these necessitate even leaving the house. Plan a holiday at home for sanity maintenance! Here’s a few thoughts. Instead of spending every waking moment catching up on household chores doing that extra ‘thing’ on your list try these: Family movie…or 2! Put the phones down, no double screening allowed. Lie on the couch, fire up Netflix, if the movie sucks let yourself drift off to sleep. A bad movie is not an excuse to get up and do something. Plan a few super simple meals like grilled meat and salad or a roast chook with oven chips and salad, homemade burgers that everyone constructs for themselves are easy too. Freezer meals if you are a batch cook. Utilise what you have in the freezer for low fuss meals. Break out the board or card games! Who doesn’t love UNO? Monopoly not your speed? Mine either! Find other games you can play! Eat dinner at the table and talk. If you don’t do this regularly this can be a real treat. No phones, no pressure just talk. Maybe some music! Dance night! Let it all hang out by just putting on your favourite tunes and dance! Too energetic? Just listen to the music. Above all, connect. Connect with your loved ones, friends, your dogs…put the phone down, stop the busy busy mentality. Doing nothing is just as important. Enjoy your break, have a holiday at home and preserve your sanity for another day.
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 Yes! Like a weed! Hear me out because weeds are awesome! Thriving like a weed should be our goal because they grow in some very difficult terrain where other plants fear to tread. They are incredibly resilient. I mean you can spray those things all you like but they are hard to stop! One year of seed, seven years of weed!
Weeds are often nutritious and useful like dandelion, nettle and sorrel to name a few. A weed they may be but they are definitely well fed. Don't forget the term weed is relative. Maybe a weed in some places but in others a valuable plant. A weed is really just a plant in the wrong spot. Go find your spot! And finally, what about the fact they are often really pretty and even bloom! They don't care if you are looking or not they just shine and bloom. No pretence, they are just loving their lives and thriving in the most unusual spaces. So go be a weed. Thrive in the difficult places, be well fed and most of all shine just because you can💖💖  How’s your grocery bill looking these days? Mine has jumped up! But before you go all rogue and extreme on me with ideas of becoming Breatharian let's throw a few ideas around. I’m going to address protein as this is often first crossed off the list when budgets get tight. And refined carbs (think pasta, bread and rice) take its place as they are filling, affordable and easy. It’s like the perfect trifactor only it isn’t! They are a poor nutritional substitute for protein.
First up, why is protein important? It gets broken down to amino acids that are necessary for building and repairing muscle, neurotransmitters, hormones, immune function, blood sugar regulation, energy, absorption of other minerals…shall I go on? No wonder they are referred to as the building blocks of life! So we’ve established their necessity in your diet. Next, what constitutes protein? This is pretty broad although many only associate it as being meat. Protein is contained to varying degrees in most foods but there are some with a good, quality bang for your buck and these are what we need to be eating to get enough. Meat is protein in all it’s forms, also eggs, cow’s, sheep and goat’s milk and related products. We can also look to nuts and seeds. And pulses or legumes. These are so versatile and super budget friendly. Lastly, so what do I do with the more budget friendly options? Super question. Glad you asked. If you are a meat eater then look for cheaper cuts you can stew and stretch. By stretch I mean add pulses to get the meaty flavour but more plant based protein which means fibre. Awesome option. Also look at offal. I hear the collective ‘yuck’ from here but they are undeniably an excellent source of protein PLUS a whole host of other nutrients. Heart, yes heart, is the least offally offal as it’s a muscle. Lean, tender, you can even stuff with nuts and roast. It honestly tastes like regular meat. No kidding. Try it and let me know what you think! Eggs! Eggs have the perfect amino acid profile. It has them all in natures wrapping in equal amounts. Omelettes, scrambled eggs, poached or fried, shakshuka, eggs Florentine, frittata, quiche and I haven’t even got to desserts. Go get some eggs! I love pulses and legumes because they are full of fibre as well as protein. Think lentils, yellow split peas, chickpeas, navy or borlotti beans, cannellini etc. They soak up flavour and deliver a filling and homely meal without a big budget. If they make you farty then try soaking overnight to reduce the gas. Blend to make dips or patties, add to soups and stews, make baked beans (skip the sugary tins), chilli sans carne (no meat), nachos with the chilli, dahl, curries….its wild what you can do with the humble lentil or chickpea. Bottom line folks, your health is invaluable. You need protein for your physical and mental health so don’t cut it from the list. Budgets are tight but you can make sure your meals are balanced without sacrificing your health. Got some more ideas? Comment below!  We’ve all been there. Stressful day equals no sleep that night, maybe for 2 nights but what if it’s ongoing? What if you are so tired it starts to impact on your life or even your safety. You know how they say not to drive under the influence? Well yeah, driving tired has exactly the same effect and research backs it up!
Our lives are inherently stressful. We can’t get rid of all the stress in our lives. Sometimes it’s beyond our control. The focus needs to shift from reducing stress to stress resilience. We need to be able to weather the storm. But first let’s understand how stress and lack of sleep actually drive each other then we can look at how to break the cycle. One stressful day at work becomes a stressful week, month, year. Family get sick, there’s another lockdown, money is beyond tight, groceries and fuel now take up most of your pay and before you know it you are having one after another sleepless night. That’s our scenario. Most of us can relate! Adrenaline and cortisol are key factors here keeping us in a state of permanent fight or flight. Adrenaline is there when we are doing a presentation, explaining to the boss why you need yet more time off or having a near miss accident on the highway. It’s useful then for sharpening our senses, diverting blood flow to our limbs for a quick get away and making sure we survive but it’s short lived. Cortisol, it’s work horse brother, gets us out of bed in the morning. It gives us that get up and go without so much heart racing activity BUT it still keeps us wired. The idea is it’s high in the morning and drops by evening to let us get a good night’s sleep. That’s the theory. When you are chronically stressed the body releases more cortisol to keep you going. This releases glucose from the liver so the brain can stay well fed and ensures that any function that threatens your survival is shut down like digestion or say, SLEEP. As time goes by cortisol levels become dysregulated and they are the same at 7am as they are at 7pm. Not ideal just as you are heading to bed. They may even be lower in the morning. Enter wired and tired who needs coffee to wake up wine to go to sleep. That lack of sleep can actually cause a level of distress that also raises cortisol, so we end up with one driving the other. And, cause that’s not distressing enough, it starts to affect our absorption of nutrients, so imbalances also start to drive stress and sleep further into the ditch. And so it goes, on and on, unless the stress stops. Haha! It’s 2022! Not bloody likely! So, lets talk about how to break the cycle and improve our stress resilience by getting some good sleep.
Sleep is essential for life. You literally can’t do without it. And bear in mind there are other reasons like hormones, thyroid issues, mineral imbalances (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis can easily answer that one), anxiety, depression, other mental illness and so on. And just like sleep and cortisol drive each other they can also drive any number of other conditions. They are TERRIBLE drivers! Seriously, the worst. Sleep tight!  !t’s hard not to get excited about these tests! Ok ok it’s hard for ME not to get excited🤩. I love to get my nerd on when these arrive in my inbox. It’s not just me I promise! Clients love this test! It’s the one I do most of in the clinic. The world of testing is huge so I get asked why this one over others all the time. The answer is pretty simple really, although it’s still multi faceted.
The first is the sheer amount of information it gives me. I can see heavy metal involvement, nutrient levels in the tissues and nutrient ratios. All of those give me in depth personal info on the person in front of me. I can see a tendency to blood sugar dysregulation, why they might be feeling anxious or depressed, why they may have a tendency to allergies or thyroid issues and I can see where they are at regarding stress. Possible ADHD behaviour, digestive issues, potential osteoporosis and hormone imbalance often show up as well. That’s really just scratching the surface! More importantly, I can see why someone is feeling the way they are AND see what we need to do to correct it. It’s like having a crystal ball! The future looks bright. We can chelate the heavy metals, balance the nutrients and address the core of the issue. HTMA leads to specific, targeted treatment plan which means my clients get great results. WIN WIN! Sometimes it leads to further testing because it’s not a diagnostic tool but an indicator. Often, I use it in conjunction with blood tests as they both show different things. Pathology is still very important. Blood is what is circulating right now but HTMA shows what’s being stored in the tissues. The body will sequester things like heavy metals away in the tissue to protect the body. In the case of iron, we can see an iron deficit before it turns up in the blood or for heavy metals we can see what’s stored as the first thing the body seeks to do is to pull them out of circulation to the tissues. Fascinating stuff! Cost factors into my choosing it as well. Especially right now with the cost of living sky rocketing. I want to get my clients the most and best information I can without needing a second mortgage. HTMA is incredibly cost effective. In fact, given the huge amount of information that’s in there it’s actually cheap. And non invasive- just a little trim at the back of your head. Lastly, but often the biggest reason I use it, is mental health issues. Where mental health is concerned it is the absolute bomb! So many mental health issues can be addressed through rebalancing nutrients. It’s crazy (pun intended) that it isn’t used more often. Nutritional psychiatry is a relatively new concept but this is where it’s at! Even something as simple as imbalance copper to zinc ratio can look like or exacerbate ADHD, depression and anxiety. If we can get the nutrients right then the rest becomes so much easier. It may not fix everything as mental health is incredibly complex but why make it harder than it has to be? If getting the mineral balance right means being able to do the other things you need to do to feel fully well again…why wouldn’t you? I see incredible results using it to target the reasons someone can’t sleep, is incredibly anxious, depressed or can’t settle even on the ADHD meds. If you are wanting to get this done then let me know when you book. We can order the test in advance and speed up the process by having it in front of us for your initial appointment. Because of their complexity and the need for interpretation I only offer them if you book a consult. It’s well worth the investment in yourself. I've added a brochure below if you'd like more specific information on HTMA.  Let’s face it. It’s hard right now. We’re bombarded daily with all the doom and gloom in the world, we can’t see our family and friends and we definitely can’t hug them! We’re faced with the possibility of illness, financial stress and isolation…fun times heh? It’s no surprise that anxiety rates are rising as we scramble to get a grip on the continually changing rules of lockdown.
These are my 4 foundation blocks to build anxiety resilience. They are not the only things so please reach out for more help if you need it! Sleep- We need a good 7-8 hours of good quality sleep a night. Without this our stress hormones run rampant. We crave stimulants in the form of coffee, carbs and sugar. And all contribute to energy peaks and troughs that set off our anxiety. Good sleep hygiene includes a dark room, skip the coffee after midday and limit screens an hour before bed. Switch to an old-fashioned bath, book and then bed routine. Waking in the middle of the night? Look after your liver with lots of fresh greens, dandelion tea and plenty of water to flush the toxins out. Gut health- our gut is the cornerstone of our mental health. Without good gut health our happy hormones just don’t thrive. We need fresh fruit and veg with lots of fibre to keep belly bugs happy and our mental health on track. I know you stocked up on pasta but in the interest of your mental health skip it and have a pile of fresh veg instead! Naturally fermented foods like sauerkraut help too. Vitamin D- I was a bit sneaky here because while Vit D is uber important for mental health you need to be outside to get it. Breathe the fresh air, listen to the birds and get your body moving! You can just lie in the sun but outdoor activity like walking means you are getting the sunshine vitamin and also exercise which is also awesome for anxiety suffers. Double whammy! Alcohol- Alcohol has a lesser known, but huge and real, side effect called anxiety. It also interferes with your sleep and the way you metabolise food. Don’t fall into this trap. Here are some figures. A standard drink is 100ml of red wine or 375ml of a commercial mid-strength beer- roughly. Australian recommendations are 4 standard drinks a day but less than 10 per week in total. How do you stack up? By building these strong foundations we can keep anxiety at bay and make our time in lockdown a far more pleasant space to be!  How do you show yourself some love? Do you curl up in front of the TV with some of your favourite chocolate or chips? Do you head to the shops for a takeaway meal? Splurge on your fav choc bickies ‘cause they were on sale- 2 for 1, how could you not!
“Is this real ‘love’, Is this just fantasy?” (Sorry, Queen lovers). Honestly? You know the answer. We’re totally loving up our taste buds but our poor old gut is the one who is there for us 24/7 doing the hard yards, showing us love through acts of service while our taste buds reap the benefits. The sugar is lighting up the pleasure section of our brains just like cocaine and we keep coming back for more of the same self-destructive love! We’re totally addicted to a really bad lover! How can doing something so bad feel so good? Love is more than making someone feel good for a moment. It’s a feeling that lights us up from the inside and leaves us feeling satisfied long into the future. Love provides safety and security no matter what. It doesn’t leave us feeling guilty and craving the next packet…let’s explore this! Foods that love you as much as you love them. These are not unicorns. They exist here amongst us in the everyday. Fruit: seasonal fruit! The tablelands are absolutely loaded with the most delicious fruits all through the year. We get mangoes, lychees, pawpaw, pineapple, sapote as well as apples (yes, we do) and berries of all sorts. That’s the short list! Fruit provides us with fibre, essential vitamins and some fantastic anti-oxidants that make our skin glow and our gut flip flop for joy. Garlic, onion and tumeric: Garlic is natures gift to our gut. It’s antibacterial, antiparasitic and, also a prebiotic (Prebiotics feed the good bacteria in our gut). Onion is also antibacterial and a great prebiotic. Tumeric is already a well-known anti-inflammatory. The perfect antidote to your last bad lover. So, tuck in and feel the love. Fermented foods: These are the absolute love bomb for your gut as you get a whopping hit of pro and prebiotics. These taste great too and make an awesome accompaniment to all kinds of dishes. If you don’t want to make your own, you can now find this delicious stuff in many health food stores. There are a few FNQ manufacturers too so ask around! Good fats: give your insides a great big oily massage with extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds and oily fish. Use a little coconut oil and your gut will swoon with this show of love. These babies are anti-inflammatory and have been shown to have a positive effect on the gut microbiome as well as being awesome for your skin. Essential for the body to function as a well-oiled machine. Colourful veg: These are excellent lovers! Lots of fibre, anti-oxidants, pre-biotics, vitamins, minerals and awesome to support the liver as it deals with the fall out of previous bad lovers. Need I say more? So, get on out there and find these amazing lovers! I promise they won’t dessert you at the last bite. References Henry Osieki, The Nutrient Bible, 9th edition https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235907/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5751248/  What a fabulous green growing season it’s been! The kale, lettuce rocket and spinach have been pumping. And the stores are gratefully bulging with fresh broccoli and cabbage (our cruciferous friends) because I can’t seem to get those happening up here! The green thumbs are truly glowing with the extra time we’ve been gifted at home. A huge theme right now for the clinic seems to be ‘eat more greens’ for a billion reasons so I thought I’d share just a few here! Are you ready? Here we go!
Antioxidants- greens of all sorts are busting with natural antioxidants. Food is the single best way to get them into you on a daily basis. Antioxidants are like a mop up crew in the body for things that could potentially damage our cells. Antioxidants also prevent premature aging. Who doesn’t want a bit of that? Liver support- the liver is filtering 2L of blood a minute so give it some love. It’s busy detoxing and metabolising environmental and ingested toxins, hormones and toxic fumes. It’s creating bile and cholesterol as well as dealing with caffeine, alcohol and sugar. It even stores energy bless its lobes! I’ve really glossed over its roles but it’s a ridiculously important organ! Greens contain lots of the nutrients the liver needs to function at its best. Eat a huge variety including the cruciferous family of broccoli, cabbage and Brussel sprouts to truly treat your liver. High in fibre- those toxins gotta leave the body somehow! Keeping regular bowel movements keeps the toxins moving out! It also feeds all those little goody two shoes bacteria to keep us healthy and well both physically and mentally. Rich in iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium- just to name a few. We need as many varied sources of nutrients as we can get to ensure good absorption. Greens contain lots of micronutrients the body depends on to sustain life. These nutrients aren’t limited to single food groups. Eating a broad variety of foods gives you the best chance of getting all the nutrients you need. Folate rich- so important in pregnancy to prevent neural tube defect e.g. spina bifida but did you know it’s also needed to synthesise some neurotransmitters? Serotonin and dopamine both need it and so does adrenaline. Mental health is a topic close to my heart both personally and professionally. Yes, eating more greens is a part of the puzzle but often it has 1000 pieces so seek out help if you are feeling down, overwhelmed or anxious. I promise you are not alone! While you enjoy a spinach pie with a side of garden greens tonight think of all the lovely ways you are nurturing your strong and resilient body! Go the green thumbs!  And we’re here again…lunch box time! For some it’s same old, same old but for many this is new territory! What do you pack? Will my child miss me? Will I miss them? What if….? One of the big things I see every year is the wee ones struggling to leave mum’s side. It’s overwhelming and tough for everyone! There are a few things you can do food wise to help and it starts with breakfast. Breakfast: start the day with porridge or muesli. Oats contain tryptophan which is the precursor to serotonin- our feel-good hormone. They are also going to release energy more slowly than a sugary breakfast keeping your child’s energy, and emotions, more stable. Another option is eggs with wholemeal toast or avocado as it’s a protein rich meal, that again, will stabilise blood sugar levels helping your child remain calm. Also rich in tryptophan! Win win! The lunchbox: things can come unstuck here so if time is an issue pack it the night before. Basically, include fruit, a protein snack, a protein rich lunch with good fats and maybe a homemade healthy sweet treat. Steer clear of bought treats like muesli bars as they are loaded with sugar which create unstable blood sugar triggering big emotions!
The information given here is general in nature and not intended as a diagnosis nor should it be taken as such. It is in no way intended to take the place of advice from your chosen healthcare professional or specialist. If symptoms persist, or you have further concerns please see your chosen health care provider.
 This one is massive so forgive me for just skimming the surface. When we think of mental health and all the many and varied diagnosis it encompasses nutrition rarely gets a mention beyond ‘eat well’ yet it is an integral part of mental health. There is not one solution to mental health. I firmly believe it takes a village to support mental health. Pulling together a team of trusted health care providers to support you including GP’s, psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, natural health care practitioners and body workers creates an unparalleled support network. Whatever brings you even a small amount of help needs to be added in. Like I said, it takes a team. When we talk about nutrition, I am so grateful that the gut-brain axis is being recognised in conventional circles as well as recognising that genetics play a part in mental health and this includes our ability to convert nutrients to usable forms. There’s so much more research being done! I am loving that nutrition is finally being acknowledged as part of the bigger picture in mental health. Gut health I’m the boring person at parties these days with my preoccupation with the gut-brain axis but more and more studies are being done looking at the connection. It’s an incredibly exciting area of mental health. For starters 90% of our serotonin lives in here. This is one of our feel-good hormones. Histamine, as well as causing allergic reactions, is an excitatory neurotransmitter that is broken down in the gut. B12 is synthesised in the gut which, at low levels, can be an issue for energy levels and depression as well as being needed for the creation of other neurotransmitters. Mineral imbalance Did you know that zinc to copper ratios need to be just right for good mental health? If they are not, we can see a range of mental health concerns ranging from mild anxiety to risky, impulsive behaviour. Often children will present as having low attention spans, unable to sit still and have angry outbursts. Low zinc can impact our ability to think. ‘No zinc, no think’ is a nice little saying but low copper can create similar issues so be cautious with supplementation. Zinc and copper can most definitely be tested in a blood test. Before you all run out to get blood test be aware that these are not the only things that could be an issue. Low vitamin D can be an issue in depression as can low B12. Too much histamine stimulates our nervous system also. Honestly, the list goes on and on. This is just a very quick overview. There are many, many reasons why you may be feeling the way you do which is why creating a team to thoroughly cover everything is so important. Methylation issues Here’s a fun one that seems incredibly topical right now. Variations in the MTHFR gene can inhibit our body’s ability to change folic acid to folate (the useable form). There are lots and lots of fall outs from this including recurrent miscarriage to, you guessed it, mental health issues. It sounds simple enough, but over-methylating and under-methylating give 2 different responses. A huge range of children’s behaviours can be exacerbated by a variation in the MTHFR gene including lack of attention, impulsivity, anxiety, obsessive behaviour or thoughts and self-harm in more extreme cases. Obviously, these can be attributed to adult concerns as well. The specific MTHFR gene is not the only one in the body that has variations aka mutations aka SNPS but it’s a common example. It is all about epigenetics and whether these genes are active or not. All kinds of things get them going including stress, diet, environment, exposure to toxins and so on. It is absolutely possible to test for these things although symptoms need to be taken into account as well. We are individuals after all! I’m not suggesting that anything I’m outlining here is THE answer to all mental health issues, but they are definitely a piece of the puzzle worth exploring. If you are concerned, chat with your GP but also with your natural health practitioners. Get your team together! There are many pieces to the mental health puzzle. It is worth exploring them all! The information given here is general in nature and not intended as a diagnosis nor should it be taken as such. It is in no way intended to take the place of advice from your chosen healthcare professional or specialist. If symptoms persist, or you have further concerns please see your chosen health care provider. References
Martin, C., Osadchiy, V., Kalani, A., & Mayer, E. (2018). The Brain-Gut-Microbiome Axis. Cellular And Molecular Gastroenterology And Hepatology, 6(2), 133-148. doi: 10.1016/j.jcmgh.2018.04.003 Russo, A. (2011). Decreased Zinc and Increased Copper in Individuals with Anxiety. Nutrition And Metabolic Insights, 4, NMI.S6349. doi: 10.4137/nmi.s6349 The role of genetics and genomics in clinical psychiatry. (2018). Controversies In Psychiatry, 20(3), 169-177. doi: 10.31887/dcns.2018.20.3/mhoehe Wan, L., Li, Y., Zhang, Z., Sun, Z., He, Y., & Li, R. (2018). Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase and psychiatric diseases. Translational Psychiatry, 8(1). doi: 10.1038/s41398-018-0276-6 |
AuthorHello, hello! Welcome to my blog. I'm Sarah the creator of Simply Healing. Archives
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