Quick Way to Reset Your Mind - Stop. Breathe. Be calm - #LifestyleFriday

Do you happen to feel that sensation like the walls are comming towards you, threatening to squish and nail you to the ground, feeling helpless? Do you feel that anxiety that slowly crawls in on you and makes you feel jumpy and irritable? Do you feel that on a daily basis and have lots of thoughts and things around you all the time? Things that seem to need your immediate attention and energy? Stop. Breathe. Be calm.

When you stop and breathe in order to become calm, the world around you doesn’t colapse like you think it will. In fact, the world doesn’t rely on you for anything. It doesn’t even care about you at all. You invest to much energy and thought into something that goes on existing just fine, with or without you. It has been doing that before you were born and it will continue doing that after you are no longer here. Stop. Breathe. Be calm.

If you are like me, you are so used to being efficient and afraid of letting time pass by without actually doing something in the hours that come and go. So used to be held accountable by someone for doing the right things, at the right time and in the right way, that you become that someone who is constantly pushing yourself to more and more effort, detail and strain.

This is not the kind of push that gets you further in life. It’s the kind that leaves you exhausted after a day’s work and realizing that you hadn’t had so much done after all. It leaves you with three quarters off your to do list untouched and feeling guilty about not being able to do it all. It tears down your self-esteem, your focus and your happines. Stop. Breathe. Be calm.

But there is another way to do things. There is a way that helps you rise your head out of the clutter.  A way that allows you to purge all that tension away and work at giving your best with the least amount of energy drainage possible. That method is simply alowing yourself to let go. Once you catch yourself being tense, stressed and anxious about the next deadline, task or about the new doctor’s appointment, allow yourself to pause and just be.

It might sound like woo-woo stuff, but is has been proven that psychologically and biologically, the mind and body need to unwind in order to function at their maximum capacity. You cannot have a relaxed mind if you clutter it with all kind of thoughts. You cannot have a relaxed body if you get tense in the neck or in your abdominal area. So, allow yourself to let go. Do it right now.

Sit back on wherever you’re sitting right now. Allow your legs to sit comfortably on the ground. Put your hands in your lap and close the eyes. Notice how you feel. Breathe in fully through your nose and breathe out also through the nose. Notice how that makes you feel. With your eyes still closed, let thoughts float around your head, but don’t create any plans around any of them. Just let them float. Breathe in. Breathe out. Feel your body beginning to relax and letting go of tension. Rotate your nose and form circles one way and then the other. Sit up tall, rotate your shoulders 2-3 times, take a deep breath through your nose and a deep exhale through your mouth (if you are at work, breathe slowly, you don’t wanna scare anyone! :)) ). 

Open your eyes. How do you feel? Let me know in the comments below. Repeat for as long as it takes to make you feel comfortable (and as time alows it).  

This was all for this week’s #LifestyleFriday! Thanks for being here and I'll see you next week!

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Love, 
Alexandra

Detox Your Fridge, Detox Your Body, Detox Your Life - #HealthyThursday

Today on #HealthyThursday I talk to you about cleaning up your eating habits so that you can live a healthy lifestyle. It all starts with taking care of your gut. It all starts with the choices you make.

Yesterday’s article was all about how processed foods are deliciously toxic and make an addict out of you through heavy consumption. Today I help brake the chains and free your gut from all the bad stuff it had to digest so far. Let’s get to it!

DETOX YOUR FRIDGE

Go and open the door to your refrigerator. What do you see? What foods do you have in it that are closer to their natural state? Not so many, do you? How many cartboard and packaged foods you have? A lot? Get them all out now. Sort out anything that has ingredients you can’t even pronounce, let alone understand what they are. Get rid of anything that your grandma wouldn’t think of it as food. Not so much left there, is it?

Now go buy real food. The kind that spoils fast and that has organic written all over it. Nature has so many alternatives for us to choose from and we stroll a supermarket, buying frozen meals and artificial sweeteners. Buy a rainbow of foods, ranging from yellow to dark violet. Buy all natural produce. Visit your local farmer’s market or farm. If they are far away, make a grocery list and go there when you can.

The trick to keeping up with healthy eating is to meal prep in advance and always have healthy snacks around the house, in case you get terribly hungry and didn’t had time to cook. It will take a while to get adjusted, but I promise you, the advantages are worth it. It isn’t an overnight change, but keep doing it and you’ll soon see and feel the results in your body and health. Every day, make the choice to be healthy.

DETOX YOUR BODY

Food Matters TV is the best place you can go to find out how today’s food industry is in fact killing us rather than feeding us. Their documentaries inspired me into writing this week’s posts and being even more careful with the diet and lifestyle choices I make.

One of your biggest enemies is monosodium glutamate or MSG. It is far harming than nicotine and excess caffeine combined. Mostly found as an additive to chinese food, it’s a staple ingredient for most processed products. You can find it in canned soups, crackers, meats, salad dressings, frozen dinners and even in baby food. It enhances the flavour, making the frozen meat look, smell and taste fresher. But don’t be tricked, MSG is an excitotoxin. It overexcites your neurons, causing brain damage to varying degrees,  and potentially even triggering or worsening learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease and other conditions.

Another substance that can harm your brain is aspartame. This artificial sweetener is used in all kinds of sodas and in most sugar-free or diet products. It’s a substance that promotes inflammation in the body and that kills your neurons by overexciting them.

Fat-free products are full of sugar and artificial sweeteners. They rise your insulin levels, making you fat and sick. The body gets a sugar rush, forcing the liver secrete more insulin, just to keep you alive from all the glucose in your body.

The favourite place where toxins gather is fatty tissue, especially the visceral fat, lining your abdomen and thus your internal organs. It’s dangerous just to lose fat without cleaning your diet and doing a detox. All those toxins will be let loose in your body, causing even more problems.

Eat gel like foods (chia seeds, aloe, algae) to absorb toxins and clean your body. Parsley and cilantro both bind to heavy metals and thus clean the bloodstream. Foods like celery, cucumbers, kale, collards and all dark green vegetables, apples, pineapples, limes do the trick and make you healthy.

It all starts in the gut. In order to fight inflammation, you have to heal your body from the inside out. What you choose to eat has amazing impact on how you look and feel.

The inner lining of your intestines gets dammaged from all the processed products you eat. Give it a well-deserved rest and choose fermented foods like sauerkraut in order to favor the spread of good bateria, that heals you from the inside out.

By choosing a whole, fresh foods diet, you'll avoid this toxins and regain your health.

DETOX YOUR LIFE

In time, your body cleans itself of the harming, addictive substances. There are people that have a hard time letting go and although they try, there seems to be no result. If you give it all your best and you still can’t let go of processed foods or sugars, find specialized help like a nutritionist, a trainer / instructor or even a psychologist to help you deal with your issues and hold you accountable of your food choices.

Start moving more. We live in a world that has an abundance of online, offline and DVD options for training your body into heath and shape. You can even go outside if that suits you. The trick is to train everyday, every single day. Train in the morning so you can avoid being too tired and giving up in the evening. Get up a half an hour early and do some crunches, some squats and stretches and then go in the shower to start your day. You have the power to choose whatever fits you and your lifestyle best.

Sleep plays a major role in decreasing your body’s inflammatory response. A minimum of eight hours a night will help you wake up being rested and energized, ready to face the new day ahead. Don’t tell me you haven’t got time for sleep!

If you have a Facebook account and access to the internet, you have time. If you watch movies on Netflix, you have time. It’s all about making it a priority and even treating it as medicine. A well-rested body helps you get a whole lot more done than you think. 

In business and in life, it’s not about the quantity, but the quality of the work done. By the way, make sure those 8 hours are quality sleep. Quiet environement, warm room and no distractions. More about that in a future article.

Choose the healthy things to do, transform them into habits and see your life change and fortunately brake addiction. Find motivation in family, career, etc.

End addiction and unhealthy habits.

This was all for this week’s #HealthyThursday! Thanks for being here!

What are your favorite detox methods? Tell me all about them in a comment in the box below. I would love to hear your story and help you in any way. Let me know you want to read more of what I write.

Subscribe in the upper right hand corner.

With love,
Alexandra

Deliciously Toxic! Why You Become Addicted & Sick from Today's Food - #SMartWednesday

This week on #SMartWednesday we do a short analisys of addiction and how you can better cope with it in today’s fast pacing world. Make the smart choice and read all about it in the article below.

WHAT IS ADDICTION & HOW DOES IT WORK?

The compulsive use of a substance or activity that provides pleasure, interfering with your day to day activities such as work, relatioships or health. There are mainly two types of addiction:

1. behavioral - compulsive use of natural rewards such as food, exercise or sex;
2. drug-related - compulsive use of chemicals that influence your brain connections.

It works by increasing the concentration of synaptic dopamine (happiness hormone and neurotransmitter) in the brain, thus giving you a rush everytime you use the behavior or substance. Your brain gets a reward each time and that feeling is highly addictive.

Sometimes, you are not aware that you have an addiction to something until someone points that out to you. This is one of those cases.

If I started by telling you cocaine and heroin cause addiction, that would be totally redundant and a waste of time. Telling you that most food you eat today makes you addicted and sick, will most likely catch your attention.

WHY DO YOU GET ADDICTED TO FOOD & WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?

Modern society is proudly displaying the advances of technology and the way we are now able to make more food and have supermarkets full of ready-to-eat products, perfect for our fast-forward lifestyle and Earth’s growing population.

These products are highly processed foods with loads of added fat and refined carbs known to influence addictive behavior when they are consumed in high ammounts. Fat is a taste and flavour enhancer, thus making you unable to resist the taste and goodness of food. Refined carbs, once ingested, quickly metabolize into sugars (glucose) that spike your insulin levels only to drop them even faster, and make you crave more of that product.

You eat those products because they help release stress and make you feel good instead. The reward (feeling better) is greater than the negative outcome (you get fat). Conditioning the brain to release dopamine and make you happy after eating certain foods, makes you addicted. The brain identifies them as a pleasure-generating stimuli and you’re hooked!

Sugar and fat rarely occur in the same food naturally. Think grapes. They contain sugar (fructose) but zero fats. Nuts are full of fats, but have no sugar whatsoever. Processed foods have been genetically engineered to have high amounts of both (ex: pizza, chocolate, cake). The taste is amazing and so rewarding. You get addicted without even knowing it.

In drug addictions, a concentrated dose of a substance increases its abuse. It’s absorbed faster into the bloodstream, thus the rush is much quicker. The same with highly processed foods. It’s packed with chemically produced sugar, carbs and fat, that are many times more concentrated than the ones you find in nature (raw, organic foods).

The link between high glucose levels and addiction areas in the brain makes you crave food just for pleasure. The nutritional value is gone, and you feed yourself only chemicals that pose as delicious food. Deliciously toxic, that is. And addictive.

Any foreign substance that enters the body is facing an attack from the immune system. It fights to protect the body from anything alien. Any attack results in inflammation. Any inflammation could be the result of a chronic illness or acute discomfort. Are you willing to take that risk just for that yummy pizza?

Here’s what to do.

MAKE SMART CHOICES, IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH

I know it’s very hard to make healthy choices when you are bombarded with food-porn images and videos all over the internet, on social media, advertising and cooking shows. It’s hard. Damn hard.

But you know what’s even harder? Living with a chronic disease generated by chemical food and a chaotic lifestyle. It’s all about the choices you make.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified the highest addictive foods, the majority of which are highly processed. The top 10 items are also the most pleasurable ones for many people living today.

  1. Pizza (gluten, dairy, sugar in tomato paste)
  2. Chocolate (fat, sugar, dairy)
  3. Chips (fat, sugar from the amidon found in the potatoes)
  4. Cookie (gluten, sugar, dairy)
  5. Ice cream (dairy, sugar)
  6. French fries (fat, sugar from the amidon found in the potatoes)
  7. Cheeseburger (gluten, sugar, dairy)
  8. Soda (not diet) (sugar from corn syrup)
  9. Cake (gluten, sugar, dairy)
  10. Cheese (dairy - lactose and casein)

I’ve said it and I’ll repeat it untill it sticks: quit sugar, gluten and dairy alltogether. In today’s world, if you are not sure where your food is comming from, you should practice caution and not eat it.

The chemical formulas of these three foods are very similar to those of cocaine or heroin. You wouldn’t want to be on the road of no return with one of these two drugs, would you? Then why do it with sugar, gluten and dairy? Only because they taste good and are heavily marketed in our consummerist society? Think about it!

All food that comes from a cartboard or foil packaging is not good for you. I don’t care how pretty it is, I don’t care how tasty it is, I don’t care how much you like it! I have been there for most of my life and what does that helped me with? Only with enhancing the probable predisposition I had for developing multiple sclerosis.

OK, agree! It is only a probability. But are you willing to live with the doubt all your life? Feeling sluggish, cranky and getting fat? With a hammer dangling above your head, posibly favoring chronic illness? I thought you wouldn’t! Neither have I. As much as I loved (not liked, LOVED!) soda, pizza, cheese, chocolate and icecream, they made me sick.

How do I know that? I spent days without any sugar, gluten or dairy. I began feeling better. Then I did test meals. Surprise, surprise! Guess who got bloated, cranky and sluggish? Guess who had more symptoms and malaise? That’s right! ME!

Think about it. We have been used to eat this way since we were little. For the past 20 years, the food industry has boomed with loads of products that only mimic real food. Our taste buds have grown accustomed to them. But are they feeding us the nutrients we need to live in a healthy body and enjoy a long life? No.

That’s why it's all about choices! You have the power to decide which food goes into your mouth and which stays on the shelf.

Join me tomorrow on #HealthyThursday to find out what are the best choices and hacks for healthy eating (with or without a chronic illness like multiple sclerosis).

This was all for this week’s #SMartWednesday! Thanks for being here!

What’s your story? Tell me all about it by writing a comment in the box below. I would love to hear what you have to say and help if I can.

Don't forget to subscribe in the upper right hand corner. 

Lots of love,

Alexandra

How I Plan To Start a Business While Having Multiple Sclerosis - #LifestyleFriday

This #LifestyleFriday we deal with the impact multiple sclerosis has on young individuals careers and how I dealt with the situation. Keep on reading.

Work is an important part of my life. It gives me something to do, something to contribute to society, it supports me financially. It even defines my identity and self-worth. That’s why, when I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I entered mourning. I grieved not only my long lost health, but the future of my job and/or career. What will it happen now?

I basically grabbed the bull by its horns and took the matter into my own hands. After receiving the diagnosis, I simply told my employer what my situation was like and that was that. If he cared, he cared, if he didn’t … he didn’t. For me it was the second option so I left.

I decided to get that out of the way as soon as possible so that I could focus on my health and future. Why struggle with hiding an incurable, chronic and potentially debilitating illness? The stress of nondisclosure was not worth it in the long run.

STOP AND ANALYZE OPTIONS

If the employer is a person that values skill and mastery, he would probably understand that helping you work in good conditions is advantageous both for him and for you. It’s a win-win situation. If he doesn’t understand anything than profit, understand him in return, and leave. It’s the best choice you can make.

OK, you may want to keep your job because you like it and it earns you a good pay. That’s it? Money over health? Because you can take your passion and start something on your own.

Why live in constant stress and tension just for a paycheck? I personally don’t understand that. It’s only a material thing and as all of its kind, it’s volatile. OK, I understand that you have bills to pay and a life to maintain. The thing that you really fear losing is your independence and self-worth. We live in a world where self-achievement and careers are top of the game and we easily identify with work-related successes.

But to what end? You lose your time, your relationships and eventually your health doing what? Working to fulfill some other person’s dream and fortune? And above that you also live with multiple sclerosis? Stop doing that right now! Just stop it!

Are you a puppet that acts only when being directed by the pupeteer, or are you a talented human being that can put its talents to good use and live a life working on and with its passion? You’ve got this far by mastering your skills and being recognized for that at your workplace.

What makes you talented? What do you enjoy and are good at doing?

Think how can you monetize your talent, gather a team and start your own dream. If you are passionate working in a certain area, why not work for yourself? It will be hard at first, but the rewards are far higher. You are the master of your own schedule, are using your skills to the fullest, have the opportunity to make your own choices and set prices. And most of all you are at peace with your situation. 

Being calm is one of the most important things when you manage life with multiple sclerosis. Let me get things clear: having your own business is not a peaceful and serene environment, it involves responsibility, stress and dealing with challenging situations. But it is worth it, as you have the freedom in working by your own rules and terms.

WHAT ARE MY PLANS?

That was my own approach in choosing to work with multiple sclerosis. I am passionate about designing projects, I constantly have new ideas and enjoy my daily schedule. As of a year now, I have been staying at home, taking a break to sort out my mind around the new path I must follow for my life from now on. It was  a breath of fresh air, as I came to terms with many of my issues and have grown in so many areas. Details about those in articles to come.

But that year was over at the end of this summer and I am now officially bored. Not selfishly bored, but in the sense that I want to be of use to people, to be able to provide value and use my skills and knowledge to make a change for the better in people’s lives.

SMart Choice Lifestyle started as a platform where I can be open about my multiple sclerosis journey and where I can help you make the right choices in living a healthy lifestyle, choices that through becoming habits will surely change your life for the better.

This platform is a result of my internal struggles and self-analysis throughout the last 12 months. I got aware of many things, I understand things a little better than I did before I started and I made peace with my diagnosis.

I am ready to ride this rollercoaster and to make the best of my life as best as I can.

So I plan to start my own business and to put to good use all the things that I learned about myself and the world in this past year. It is a work in progress, and I will let you know about it as things unfold. I do not like telling before doing, so you’ll know when it’s ready (Because I’ll write about it and you will probably hear me yelling “I DID IT!” from wherever you may be. Kidding! Or not.).

The message I want to convey is that you can do anything that you set your mind to do. It’s only a matter of releasing the fear of failure. And that’s one big problem, I know.

For me personally, regret of not trying it is bigger than any fear. The regret of wasting my life away, living and working in fear, waiting for the next paycheck as I spend 12 hours with an Excel sheet and email in front of my eyes. And on top of that living with multiple sclerosis.

This was all for this week’s #LifestyleFriday! Thanks for being here!

What is your opinion on the topic? Tell me all about it in a comment in the box below. I would love to hear your story and help you in any way.

Let me know you want to read more of what I write. 

Subscribe in the right hand corner.

With love,
Alexandra

How to Avoid Colds with 8 Natural Antiviral Remedies - #HealthyThursday

In this week’s #HealthyThursday, we talk about what natural antiviral remedies you can use for getting through common-cold season untouched or with less damage. Keep on reading!

AUTOIMMUNITY & VIRAL INFECTIONS

With winter comming knocking at your door, you need to prepare. There are things you can do or choose to eat or have on a weekly or even daily basis. I personally go first to the natural ingredients and then reinforce them with supplement form, if needed or just for an extra safe boost.

Multiple sclerosis happens because of a compromised immunity, meaning your natural defense mechanism overreacts, generating an autoimmune response. The irony is that you can’t over reinforce it, because in case of a white cell attack, the damage to the nervous system could be bigger. You can’t let it go to weak, because you expose yourself to getting a cold or other inflammatory “winter present” and that also could cause an immune response, attacking your brain.

So, balance is key. You have to take care of your health in a moderate way, fine-tunning your immune system in such a way that it keeps you away from illness and doesn’t overreact.

The classical way is through one of the disease modifiying drugs (DMDs) together with some antivirals and / or nesteroidian antiinflammatories such as Ibuprofen. But there are also cases when you don’t have access to DMDs, your immunity is already weakened by them, or you don’t want to upset your stommach with so many cold pills. What do you do?

Here’s nature at your service!

WHY NATURAL REMEDIES ARE GOOD FOR YOU

For many decades or even centuries, natural remedies have been used to help keep disease away. In the case of the common colds or other winter viral or baterial infections, people used mostly foods or herbs to maintain their health. Without having the information we have today, they had the knowledge to make themselves better through the foods they ate.

Drifting away from superstitions and unproven woo-woo stuff, here are the 8 natural antiviral and antioxidant remedies and the dietary sources so you know where to find each one.

  1. Selenium - helps dampen down any viral infection and makes it less dangerous to the body. Dietary sources: tuna, shrimp, sardines, salmon, turkey, cod, chicken.
  2. Probiotics - live bacteria and yeasts that are good for your health, especially your digestive system. They are known to increase the number of the natural killer cells, thus dealing with infections pretty quickly. Basically comming from dairy, you can also get them from sauerkraut (fermented cabbage), kombucha, kimchi and sour pickles if you choose the no dairy diet.
  3. Chicken soup - your grandmother was right when she gave you chicken soup when you were little. A powerful antiviral and cold-reducing remedy, it is as nutritious as it is tasty. Made out of chicken bones broth plus a few vegetables and water, it can do wonders for your health.
  4. Green tea - it contains flavonoids that block the virus from spreading throughout the cells of the body. Also known for its antiinflammatory and antioxidant properties, this beverage can do wonders for your health in winter time.
  5. Garlic - for 5000 years it has been cultivated for its  amazing properties and help with influenza and the common cold. Alicin, the compound that produces the specific garlicky smell, is thought to kill the virus thus preventing it from getting you ill.
  6. Vitamin A - a powerful antioxidant, it helps the body get stronger and fight off infections. Dietary sources: sweet potato, carrots, spinach, kale, winter squash.
  7. Vitamin C - another antioxidant that keeps viruses away. Dietary sources: citrus fruits (lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines), kiwis, bell peppers, caulliflower are good examples.
  8. Vitamin E - protective against free radicals and antioxidant, it strenghtens the inner lining of the cells, making them more resistant to external damage, such as a virus. Dietary sources: sunflower seeds, almonds, spinach, avocado, peanuts.

On top of what food you eat, what supplements you take or what treatment you’re on or not on, also remember to dress according to the weather outside, wash your hands after each time that you touch a surface that has been touched by lots of people before. Use hand sanitizer and keep the heat in your home to medium. If it’s to hot, you’ll be more sensitive to the cold outside and prone to catching a cold.

But if you do get a cold, make sure you talk to your doctor and see what choices you have, medicine wise, to get you on your feet with the least damage as possible and within the shortest time frame. Aknowledge it, treat it and get on with life.

Pretty soon you'll hang around the Christmas tree (only six weeks left!) with a hot cup of green tea between your hands, eating some tasty oranges that fill the room with their fresh aroma and having some chicken soup next to some steamed vegetables and fish for lunch. 

Keep yourself healthy. Keep making smart choices!

This was all for this week’s #HealthyThursday! Thanks for being here!

What are your favorite winter cold remedies? Tell me all about them in a comment in the box below. I would love to hear your story and help you in any way. Let me know you want to read more of what I write.

Subscribe in the upper right hand corner.

With love,
Alexandra