Friday 18 July 2014

Reduce your stress: three handy hints


If your just having one of those weeks where you seem to be dragging your left foot behind you wherever you go, or if your system is on overdrive, or if stress has a death hold on you, just stop. Yup even stop reading this post and just sit in your chair for a few minutes and take a few deep breathes. Sometimes, more often than I should, I have these weeks but I've found that doing simple little things, the tiniest minuscule things help you get through the week a little less scathed.

Tip 1: Rather that opting for your daily egg and bread combination, or your bowl of cereal or oats, try something different at least once and start of your day with a fruit salad! Eating fruit in the morning is the perfect way to debloat and detoxify your body because it's so easy on the digestive system. Fruit, unlike carbohydrates, digests a whole lot faster, leaving you lighter, and more energetic than ever. Most people really need that extra boost of energy, but the nutrients in the fruit salad will sustain you until about mid morning. waddya know? I suggest slicing up a variety of fruits and placing them in a bowl and sprinkling them with cinnamon, lemon and coconut flakes. Those of you out there who are enjoying the blessed summer, exotic fruits have bucket loads of nutrients and are better absorbed by your body in the morning especially in an empty stomach. Maybe a mono meal of cantaloupe? Maybe watermelon? Bananas? So quick, so easy!

Tip 2: Meditate for a few minutes a day. Even 5 minutes is enough to do the trick. Sit yourself down somewhere quiet. Place your hand on your stomach and feel yourself breathe as your stomach moves up and down. Just focus on your breathing, the sounds around you and your head space. If your mind wanders, don't worry because it's perfectly normal. Simply use your steady breathing as an anchor to bring you back to the present. Here is a great site that I use to aid my meditation for a Smiling Mind

Tip 3: This week I created a great face mask for glowing skin. I've only tried it on my skin colour which is medium brown. I used avocados because they are filled with vitamin A, good for purifying the skin of dead cells, turmeric, (also a great anti-inflammatory for those who are prone to acne or the occasional break out) and oats or buckwheat to leave your skin soft and supple and to relieve irritation and redness. The turmeric will tint your skin, however if your dark, it adds a glowing tint. For lighter skin, I suggest using it at night time and possibly a little less of it or add more oats to balance out the colour.

ingredients
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 tbs of oats
half an avocado
salt


Method
1. add warm water until it just covers the 2 tbs of oats in a bowl and wait until it's soft.
2. In a blender add all the ingredients and blend until smooth
3. apply to face and wait for 15 minutes before washing of with water or a hot wet towel.

I really hope that was useful :)
Enjoy your week everyone

Monday 7 July 2014

Markets: A lost world

Its 9 am. Saturday, mid mornings have a foggy, welcoming lazyness to them. The sun is out in midwinter Melbourne.

It's a good day and I can tell you that it's not a subjective opinion. It is a fact that today is a brilliant day because the sun has managed to finally get up out of it's bed of grey sheets and peep in to say hello. About time really because due to the last few blustery days, my rabbit has not been able to go for her daily walk-abouts in our back yard and was sitting like a cranky old lady, thumping all through her waking hours, which is unfortunately also when I sleep.

I grab my cloth market bags, chuck on my favourite pair of jeans and head to the local farmers market.


Markets always have a certain "it factor". One is always affected by the electrical buzz of excitement that touches your skin as soon as you enter market grounds. It's raw. It's real. You can feel it in the air, smell it in the air around snack stalls, wafting up into your nose and tickling your appetite with exotic cultural cuisine; stalls of sugar coated roasted nuts from Switzerland, various sticky sweet pastries from Denmark, Crepes and Galettes from France, fried rice, dumplings, caramel popcorn. It goes on. You can hear it in the conversations around you, a mixture of excitable childish squeals and soft intrigued murmurs and simple happy human interaction buzzing along to a steady communal rhythm.


The veggies are always shinier and tastier, the people more interesting. The things you find never cease to amaze you. Did I mention free taste samples galore!? I'm Sri Lankan, what can I say, we just love free food. It can be something like free pea protein and I'd still sneak in for a double taste test. Might I add that pea protein tastes surprisingly good.



I encourage all of you to find our where your local farmers market is located and head over there this weekend and just enjoy the carefree nature of a Saturday morning out. Eat, drink, shop, smell, feel, hear see. Indulge in every sensation and I'll doubt that you won't find more. :)