Beyond Nutrition: How connection and a Coach can help nourish your soul & put and end to emotional eating

            Thrive Nutrition Practice loves the work of Brene Brown

This week, we close LOVE month with another interview to feature the holistic part of nutrition.  Sometimes we turn to food to feed our soul, when what we really need is connection. So this post is dedicated to all the women out there – post-natal or otherwise – who are emotional eaters and struggle with unhealthy cravings.

For many women, having children is a shock to the system.  Many of the post-natal mamas I talk to struggle with a whole host of emotions like feeling beautiful, mentally switched on, energetic and even relevant.   And whether the woman chooses to stay at home with the baby or return to work, their reality has forever changed.  The post-baby era demands a new version of us as a woman, a mother, a wife, a professional, a friend, a family member.  And this transition & redefinition is hard and leads to behaviours like emotional eating, stress-related illnesses and unhealthy cravings.

If you’re sorting out an emotional issue, striving to redefine yourself and your value, making a bold leap into a new career, struggling to adapt to a new home country or engaged in any change that exposes your vulnerabilities, it’s pretty common for that to have an effect on your food choices & your health. In these cases, it’s really useful to have a professional help through these transitions.

I myself turned to a coach – two in fact: Su Chern Teo from Intrinsic Consulting who helped me find my voice and give birth to Thrive.  And Rebecca Hopkins who is helping me be brave and dare greatly every day.  

So to end LOVE month, I am interviewing Rebecca Hopkins, an Accredited Life Coach and creator of Live Brave Workshops, which runs in-person self-development workshops for mums here in Hong Kong.  

She is going to give us her top tips on how we can let go of our fears and crutches and feel fierce & empowered.   

And why is that important within the context of nutrition?  Because mind and body are intimately connected.  The stronger we are in body, the stronger we feel and vice versa.  

Q: Rebecca, before we kick off, can you tell us a little bit about you and what lead you to coaching?

A: In my corporate career back in 2009 I was lucky enough to be given a Coach to work with. The impact on me was profound. I was more engaged at work, motivated in my life outside of work and it started me off on an internal journey of finding out what made me feel alive and how I could get more of that every day.

Q: You’re coaching me through Brené Brown’s “The Daring Way” programme, which I has been such a game-changer for me in the way I approach my business and my role as a parent.  I feel like I have so much more clarity of purpose now that I did before.  And one of the first exercises you had me do was to figure out my core values.  Can you explain why that’s such an important first step in your coaching process?

A: I describe core values as our own individual personal beliefs that show what we care about more than anything else in the world. Mine are connection, curiosity and authenticity and they are my key to knowing who I am. They help me move away from being hung up on what people think and towards living a life where I can just be me. Most of us have a vague awareness of what we value, but getting really clear on my top 3 core values made the world make sense in a way that it never had before. For example: why I loved some jobs I did and hated others, why I connected deeply with some people, and not others. I believe that a clear articulation and integration of our core values into the choices we make every day is absolutely essential to building a strong sense of self-worth.

Q:  So true.  When we become mothers, I feel like we stop asking for what we need and a result, we lose our ability to verbalize it & communicate it.  We know we need help & support but we don’t know the form it should take or who to turn to for it.  As a result, it’s easy to get caught up in a vicious cycle of frustration.  How do you help your clients break that cycle and get clarity?

A: For me this wasn’t when I became a mother. I don’t think I ever knew how to ask for what I needed. It wasn’t how I was raised. I was raised (as I’m sure my own mother was) to “be nice” which for me translated into me putting my own needs last. It was actually when I became a mother that I had no choice but to put my own needs on the table because if I wasn’t okay, no one was okay. So the first thing I do with my client is talk about, “What are your specific needs that aren’t being met?”  And then the next question is, “What needs to happen for you to be ready to have a brave conversation about asking for what you need?”

Q: So one of my big takeaways from The Daring Way programme is the practice of self-compassion.  I’m not really good at self-compassion – as you know – because I’m constantly searching for my weaknesses and critiquing my work.  But I am not alone. You see that common thread in many of the women you work with and once I started to look out for it, I began to see it in many of my clients. Can you talk to us about why in your opinion self-compassion is so important and perhaps share with us your favourite way of practising this skill.

A: One of the key findings from Dr. Kristin Neff’s work (who is one of the world’s leading experts on self-compassion) is that we think self-compassion is weak, which is why we resist it. But the research shows that self-compassion is one of the biggest sources of strength and resilience that we have available to us.

The first lesson I ever learned on self-compassion was: talk to yourself like you talk to someone you love. When I was at the depths of my grief with our struggle with infertility I would speak to myself in a way that I would never speak to someone I love. “Pull yourself together moron. So you can’t have a baby? Suck it up, people are dying of cancer for f*cks sake.” “What are you crying for? It isn’t even a real baby. Get over it.” “You’re a failure.” I spoke to myself in a way I would never speak to anyone else. It was brutal and damaging and it didn’t need to be that way. I’ve since then learnt a beautiful way of using my internal voice. I speak to myself like I would speak to someone I love. I’m much kinder to myself and much more resilient because of it.

Q:  I want to talk a little about shame because this is such a big issue with post-natal mamas.   I myself lived in so much shame about my inability to have a vaginal birth, to breastfeed Sofia successfully, to lose weight, to go back to work, to even want to have sex again.  And that’s the short list! These shame stressors lead me down the path of emotional eating, which then fuelled my sugar beast and contributed to a decline in my health.  How do you help women tackle shame and when you are able to tackle it, how does it transform the person?

A: Yes. Shame is a beast of an emotion. The definition in my work is that shame is the fear of disconnection because we feel we are somehow flawed and not worthy of love, acceptance and belonging. Shame resilience is the ability to recognise shame when we are in it and are able to move through it in a constructive way that allows you to stay true to yourself and grow from the experience. My post natal shame was around how I felt about my body after having twins. Carrying twins was really hard and my body (and my pelvic floor!) didn’t bounce back like it did after my first child. I had an eating disorder from when I was 12 until I was 23 so body love is an area I am super passionate about. Body and appearance in Brené’s research is the biggest shame trigger for women (and now that also is showing up in the data for men too). I run two-day workshops for mums to start a journey to loving their post baby bodies as this learning to love our post baby bodies is really about critically assessing the shame messages we feel and building our critical awareness and resilience to it. Self-compassion is a big part of this!

Q: So, I’m going to say something which might be slightly controversial.  I have this feeling that the reason women tend to isolate themselves post-natally and not reach out to discuss their shame & vulnerability issues is because we don’t feel safe doing so.  And the reason we don’t feel safe is because we lack empathetic ears.  Do you think there’s some truth in that?

A: I definitely agree that we don’t feel safe sharing our shame. That is the power of it. It thrives in an environment of secrecy, silence and judgment. But when we are brave enough to share our shame and it is met with empathy, we feel seen, heard and connected. Empathy is the antidote to shame. There is nothing more beautiful than sharing shame and hearing a “me too, I hear you.” at the other end. I worked with the amazing Sofie Jacobs from Urban Hatch on my post-birth emotional decisions.  She supported me in making decisions that were right for me and my family.  And I don’t think we lack empathetic ears intentionally, I just don’t think most of us know how to practice empathy. Empathy is a skill that we can and should learn.

Q: Can you please describe empathy and give us some tools to practice it so that we can become better listeners to our children, spouse, friends, family and even colleagues or clients?

A: Empathy is feeling with someone, rather than feeling for them and in my work, it has four components: 1. Staying out of judgement 2. Taking the other person’s perspective 3. Recognising emotion 4. Communicating that emotion to the other person. I think most of us think our job is to fix the other person, when really, more often than not, we just want someone to listen without judgement. There was never more judgement on me as a mother with my decision to not breastfeed our twins. Here is what empathy doesn’t sound like… “Wow, you aren’t even going to try? I breastfed my twins for a year. You really should have given it a go. It is the best thing for your baby.” Empathy might have sounded like “That must have been a tough decision for you. How are you feeling about it now?”

Q: What is your top piece of advice to the moms out there who’ve just had a baby and are trying to redefine or re-invent themselves?

A: Be kind to yourself. Depending on how old your baby is, you could still have a shed load bunch of crazy hormones in your system so take it easy and be kind to yourself. And work out what you need to stay connected. Having a baby can be isolating, it was for me. So a good question to ponder is who are the 1 or 2 people you can really trust to share what’s going on for you. Sharing our stories with the people who have earned the right to hear them, who will respond with an empathetic ear is crucial. We all need a good bestie who isn’t going to judge us for not having our stuff together as mums. Oh and always keep a cold bottle of wine in the fridge (it’s fruit right Cristina, totally nutritious ;)

****

Thanks so much for your time Rebecca and for generously sharing your experience with us.  I love the time we spend together and gain so much inspiration and strength from it.  

And to all you mamas reading – here’s a recipe for connecting with your fierce feminine identity and putting you squarely in control of your eating decisions.  This dish is based on the Ayuverdic principle that meals should contain all six tastes to help nourish us completely, thereby banishing cravings and emotional eating.   These six tastes are: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent.  

SALMON MISO SOUP WITH BROWN RICE & CHOI SUM

Ingredients

• 2 cups of water
• 6-8 pieces of choi sum (depends on how big and hungry you are)
• Small palm size portion of salmon (cut into thin slices)

For the goma miso balls:

• 1 tspn sesame seeds
• ¼ tspn ginger powder
• 1 tbsp FOODCRAFT goma miso paste

For the soup base:

• 1 small clove of garlic chopped
• ¼ piece onion chopped
• ½ tomato peeled and chopped

Scallions, fresh coriander & a small dollop of kimchi to garnish

Serve with a cup of green tea.

Method

Make the brown rice separately by cooking 1 part rice to 2 parts stock or water.  Cooking it in stock add nutrients and flavour to the rice.  And if you soak the rice overnight, you make the rice easier to digest.  You can also use leftover brown rice.

Slice your salmon into thin slices and set aside.

Make a ball with the miso paste, sesame seeds and ginger powder.

In a deep sauce pan, sautee the chopped onion, garlic & tomato until it’s nice and soft and has made a bit of a paste.  Add the water and heat until it’s nice and steamy (BUT NOT BOILING). Reduce heat. Add your FOODCRAFT goma miso ball.  It’s really important not to put it in boiling water because miso paste is full of enzymes which will die in the boiling water. At this point, I like to breakup the miso ball and then mix the soup base with a hand blender just to get it a bit thicker.  

Add the salmon to the steamy pot and turn off the heat.  Cover for a few minutes until salmon is cooked through.  

I like to sautee the choi sum in garlic & coconut oil to add a bit more flavour to the veggies I’m using.

Put your serving of brown rice at the bottom of your bowl.  (I usually go with 2 tbspn).  Add the choi sum.  Pour the salmon soup over the rice and choi sum.  Top with fresh chopped scallions and coriander.

This kind of meal tells your body that you commit to caring for her so that in turn, she can support your mind and heart in its every challenge.  

Sometimes, making healthy choices is so much more than the food we eat.  

It’s about connection.  

It’s about self compassion, empathy, vulnerability and whole lotta LOVE.  

To find out more about Rebecca’s work and upcoming workshops, please click here.

If you have never heard of Brené  Brown or seen her TED Talks, please discover them asap. They are life changing.

Cristina Tahoces is a holistic nutritionist and owner of Thrive Nutrition Practice.  Please join her Facebook group "Thrive Nutrition Practice" for daily articles, recipes, promotions on professional grade supplements and upcoming workshops.

Copyright © 2016 THRIVE NUTRITION PRACTICE LTD.

A Meal Plan = Affirmative Action in the Politics of Nutrition

              Thrive Nutrition Practice: Meal Planning Tool

Let me explain…

The Meal Plan is the fastest way for you to make positive changes to your diet in a sustainable way because it addresses the single biggest challenge for healthy eating:

BEING TIME POOR.  

I don’t have time to pack my lunch.  I don’t have time to make dinner from scratch because I get home late.  I don’t have time to have breakfast at home.

These are the battle cries of the nutritionally disenfranchised.   It’s hard to push back on the “lack of time” argument because we can all relate.

However, just like little girls have to see women leaders to believe they can be one, so do aspiring healthy eaters have to see their healthy food choices in order to make them a reality.  So really – a meal plan is like affirmative action for nutrition.

Before I started to meal plan, I would:

• go to the supermarket 2-4x per week because I never had the ingredients I wanted in the fridge;
• spend WAY TOO MUCH MONEY at the supermarket because I’d shop hungry or didn’t plan ahead so that I could buy online more cheaply;
• skip breakfast because I could never figure out in time what I FELT LIKE eating;
• have a kind of disgusting combination of my kids’ leftover plus whatever else I could scramble in 10min for dinner;
• feel bummed and bored with food because I felt like had the same foods ALL THE TIME. 

If this sounds like you, you need get jiggy with a meal plan.  One 10-minute session a week can help you eat better, promote variety in your diet, save you money and get you excited about food again!  Plus – all the time you get back from countless trips to the supermarket, you can re-invest in making some of your meals from scratch.

Here are my top two app-based meal planners, which help you keep recipes, meal plan and build a shopping list from the plan:  www.plantoeat.com and www.pepperplate.com.  Pepperplate is free and Plantoeat is just under US$5 a month.

If you can spend the time to populate these apps with healthy recipes and are super organized, these can work really well for you because they help generate a shopping list for you too, which is super useful.

However, there is no meal planning app that I know of that helps you create nutritionally-rich meal plans.  I mean –  you can have the best meal plan template but if populate it with CocoPuffs, peanut butter & jam sandwiches and mac&cheese — you’re not exactly affirming positive action in the nutrition department.

So, I’ve created a template for building nutritionally-rich meals, which I’d like to share with you today.

THE THRIVE MEAL PLAN TEMPLATE:

• is founded on maximising the inclusion of Thrive’s SLEEPLOVEPOOP foods:  high quality protein, fresh fruits&veggies, healthy fats & fibre-rich foods;
• works to help you build healthy meals and make healthy food choices if you’re going out;
• helps you commit to achievable weekly goals so that you feel really good about what you’ve eaten by the end of the week.  This is really important because the biggest enemy of nutrition is perfection.

It is also FREE  but you will have to email me for it.  I’ve already filled out a week for you, so you can see how to use it.  I’ve also included healthy lunch ideas for children. 

My little gift for you during LOVE month because healthy eating is not rocket science.

It’s just about having a plan.

Cristina Tahoces is a holistic nutritionist and owner of Thrive Nutrition Practice.  Please join her Facebook group “Thrive Nutrition Practice” for daily articles, recipes, promotions on professional grade supplements and upcoming workshops.

Copyright © 2016 THRIVE NUTRITION PRACTICE LTD.

LOVE: I Dream of Avocado Mash & Carrot Sticks

                         Thrive Nutrition Practice: LOVE Healthy Fats & Raw Vegetables

We have put the SLEEP pillar of Thrive’s nutrition trifecta to bed (as it were) and we are now moving on to LOVE.  By “LOVE” what I mean is:

Are we showing our body the love and respect it deserves? Are we feeding it with food that fills us with the sun’s energy and makes our master detoxifying organ (i.e. the liver) happy?  OR are we scorning our miraculous body and making it difficult for our liver to detoxify?

My favourite I LOVE ME foods are:

RAW FRUITS & VEGETABLES & HEALTHY FATS

Delve with me now into the science-behind-nutrition explanation as to why these are my top LOVE-generating foods.

1. RAW FRUITS & VEGETABLES

Live, raw fruits & vegetables give us a healthy dose of ANTIOXIDANTS, FIBRE, RAW ENZYMES, BIOFLAVONOIDS & MANY MORE NUTRIENTS every day.  

Vitamin C is one of the most famous antioxidant nutrients ever.  And rightly so.  It’s role in immunity is crucial.  But what a lot of people don’t know, is that Vitamin C has the added benefit of nourishing our adrenal glands which help our body cope with stress.

Vitamin C is utilized by the adrenal glands in the production of all of the adrenal hormones, most notably cortisol – our stress hormone. When you are faced with a stressful situation, your vitamin C is rapidly used up in the production of cortisol and related stress-response hormones.  If you are suffering from adrenal fatigue & you don’t have enough vitamin C – what happens is that your adrenal glands “panic”. This increases the likelihood of you experiencing anxiety; and this state of adrenal fatigue in turn, wreaks havoc on your blood sugar, blood pressure, and contributes to the dreaded accumulation of belly fat.

Research and clinical trials have shown that people who have high levels of vitamin C do not show the expected mental and physical signs of stress when subjected to difficult challenges. What’s more, they bounce back from stressful situations faster than people with low levels of vitamin C in their blood.

However, vitamin C is destroyed by heat, so if you want bang for your buck – you must source it from raw ingredients.  Foods with the highest vitC content including citrus fruits, bell peppers, tomatoes, kiwis, blueberries and leafy greens, like spinach.

2. HEALTHY FATS

Examples of healthy fats are those found in whole foods like fish, nuts, seeds & avocados.  Examples of unhealthy fats are those found in spreadable butter, margarine & highly refined oils such as: corn oil, soyabean, peanut, canola, sunflower oil.

A diet-rich in healthy fats is extremely important for healthy digestion, energy production & brain function.   Dr. Perlmutter – author of The Grain Brain and one of the leading medical researchers in the study of the Mind-Gut connection, explains why:

The part of the cells that make energy are called the mitochondria.  When you power the mitochondria with calories from carbohydrates, you dramatically increase the production of chemicals called free radicals in your body.  These free radicals have the potential to damage your arteries and even your DNA.  These free radicals must also be detoxified from your body by your liver, which already has enough work to do detoxifying other free radicals from sources like alcohol, pollution and excess sugar.  So your metabolism becomes sluggish and heavy.  You become tired and unproductive.

However, if you power the mitochondria with the calories from fat – far less free radicals are created and this creates a flourishing environment for brain activity.  And amazingly, it allows your brain to create new brain cells in a process called neurogenesis.  New brain cells!  We can actually stimulate neurogenesis by decreasing our carb intake and increasing our healthy fat intake.

So – including foods like avocado, raw nuts & seeds, salmon and coconut in your foods will give you cleaner fuel so that your body can charge through the day feeling like a Ferrari instead of a beat-up Ford Fiesta.

***

Knowing all this now — close your eyes and imagine your teenage daughter came home crying because the boy she liked just rejected her and instead of reaching for a twinkie, she made herself some avocado mash & carrot sticks.

AND – she did this mindfully because she knew, that the best way to feel mentally & physically strong again was to fuel her body with raw vegetables & healthy fats.

The era of nutritional enlightenment is upon us.  And we – as women – and the keepers of our family’s nutritional wisdom are leading and shaping this era.  We have the power to shape the eating habits & behaviours of our children for the better.

But it’s all got to start with us. 

Cristina Tahoces is a holistic nutritionist and owner of Thrive Nutrition Practice.  Please join her Facebook group “Thrive Nutrition Practice” for daily articles, recipes, promotions on professional grade supplements and upcoming workshops.

Copyright © 2016 THRIVE NUTRITION PRACTICE LTD.

SLEEP: Using Meditation To Supplement Nutrition

        Thrive Nutrition Practice: Using                Nutrition to Help You Sleep

This week has been really hard for me. There’s been a lot going on. 

And let me tell you, the irony of me writing about SLEEP has crossed my mind. It’s been really hard to take my own advice. I’ve been going to bed much later than my usual bedtime and my husband is travelling so I’ve been waking up earlier than usual to get everyone ready for school.

Of course, I’m having protein with my meals to help me make melatonin.  I’m  exercising and focusing on eating plenty of dark, leafy greens & rainbow veggies to power me with the sun’s energy & keep me pooping. And needless to say, I am also avoiding coffee like the plague.  But sometimes – nutrition isn’t enough.  

Sometimes – even when you’re eating the best you can, the stress levels climb and you get into bed feeling like you just can’t stop your mind from racing, worrying & doing.

And before you know it, it’s past midnight and you’re still tossing and turning – and getting increasingly worried about how tired you’re going to be when the alarm goes off.

What do you do then? 

What do you do when you’ve had less than six hours of sleep and you need to be productive and on the ball for your job, your family and for yourself? 

Most people turn to coffee but if you’ve reading my blog for a while, you may have read that coffee is probably one of the worst drinks for your adrenals – which are your master stress glands.  Other people turn to supplements & superfoods for this purpose:  B-complex, spirulina, energy bars, matcha powder, ginseng….the list goes on and on.

But I have to say — NOTHING works better than a 15 minute meditation.

Now – I know some of you might be thinking: “Meditation sounds good in the theory but it’s not for me.  I’ve tried to meditate but I can’t do it consistently so what’s the point?” 

I hear you.  I spent decades being sceptical.  Trying it a few times out of desperation but just ending up frustrated because I couldn’t shut my mind off. But, I have found two forms of meditation that really help to re-energise me and connect to that place inside me that is confident, lucid and strong.

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION (www.tm.org)

“Transcendental meditation is an effortless technique for recharging your mind and body — and creating a brighter, more positive state of mind.”

That’s taken straight from their website and frankly, I couldn’t have said it better myself. That is exactly what it is and what it does.  You practice it sitting down with your eyes closed, which I find really convenient as it’s something I can even do even in the car between consults or meetings.

TM was founded by Mararishi Mahesh Yogi and the organisation has teaching centres around the world.  I did my course here in Hong Kong.  The idea is that you get a personal one-word mantra which is unique to you and assists you in opening the door to a meditative state.

Sounds far out?  The US Military doesn’t think so.  They use this technique with their soldiers, marines and veterans to help them cope with post-traumatic stress.  TM is hard core and it’s backed by science.

There are hundreds of published research studies on the TM technique, which document its effectiveness in:

• activating the parasympathetic nervous system and therefore increasing digestion power;
• balancing the nervous system & hormonal levels;
• increasing work efficiency across measures such as leadership abilities, job satisfaction & professional relationships;
• improving school performance in children, increased ability to focus on school work & a reduction in aggressive behaviour;
• lowering blood pressure & the risk of heart disease;
• improving our mind and body’s ability to cope with stress and anxiety;
• improving brain function, cardiovascular health, and more.

I’m not sure it’s made me smarter.  But I can tell you what it has done:

• The other day, I didn’t get my 8hrs and I had two consults with an hour break in between, followed by another meeting.  After my first consult, I felt drained. But a quick, 15-minute meditation centred me & connected me to a place of calm and peace.  I felt totally re-energised and on-the-ball for the rest of the day.
• It has made me more confident in following my instincts – and we all know how important listening to our gut is;
• It’s considerably strengthened my ability to cope with stressful situations because I can connect to that place inside me that is lucid and strong.

I love TM and can definitely say hand on heart that it has brought me joy and the invaluable gift of just “being” in the moment & in the stillness.

YOGA NIDRA

Yoga nidra literally means “sleep with full awareness”.  Your body goes to sleep whilst your mind is fully aware .  It has its origin in an ancient meditation tantric practice called nyasa. You don’t have to take a yoga class to do it, nor do you have to be in a particular yoga pose to practice this form of meditation.

Yoga nidra is a guided meditation and it is done lying down, palms facing up and eyes closed.  Practitioners claim that it:

• improves the quality of sleep & helps with insomnia;
• alleviates stress, depressions & anxiety;
• increases mental sharpness & improves concentration & memory;
• helps to manage migraine, ulcers, digestive disorders, and even asthma.

I personally find Yoga Nidra works amazingly to quiet the mental noise that sometimes can be very overwhelming at the end of the day.

This is my absolute favourite Yoga Nidra Guided Meditation.  I really connect with the woman’s voice.  It’s sensuous and steady and it lulls me into a peaceful state.

Sometimes, nutrition isn’t enough.  Sometimes, we need to connect with our inner voice and say to the noise, “hey! I hear you and I won’t forget about you but I’m just going to take a bit of time so that I can listen to you more clearly later.”  

Meditation is an incredibly effective tool for helping you achieve mental strength & clarity on those days when you don’t get your eight hours.  And in my experience, it’s much better time spent than waiting in line at the Starbucks.

Cristina Tahoces is a holistic nutritionist and owner of Thrive Nutrition Practice.  Please join her Facebook group “Thrive Nutrition Practice” for daily articles, recipes, promotions on professional grade supplements and upcoming workshops.

Copyright © 2016 THRIVE NUTRITION PRACTICE LTD.

SLEEP: The Supplementation Low-Down

                                    Thrive Nutrition Practice: Supplements for Sleep

Before I dive in, I’d like to preface this post with two comments:

• Supplementation NEVER replaces good, wholesome nutrition.  If your diet is sub-optimal, if you don’t take action to mitigate the stress or other lifestyle factors in your life which are aggravating your anxiety and pushing you into making poor dietary choices — there is no supplement on the planet that will save you.  So don’t waste your time and money.  Focus on your diet first.

• This post is for information purposes only and it is not meant to be read as your personal prescription.  I genuinely believe that each one of us unique and we each have our own dietary and nutritional requirements.  What might be good for you, may not be good for your neighbour.  I certainly have no way of knowing if any of the supplements I talk about are exactly what you need.  So please, talk to your doctor, your naturopath or your nutritionist to see how these supplements may be right for you.  We take a lot of factors into account when recommending supplementation, including what medication you are on already, what nutrient deficiencies you may have, how efficient you are at detoxifying, whether you are pregnant (!!), digestive health….many factors!  

Having said that now, I do believe that a post on supplementation is valuable because for any of you out there who have ever used sleeping pills — they suck!  The mental fog that ensues is simply scary and has a massive impact on productivity.  This is because prescription sleeping pills like Ambien and benzodiazepines interfere with your body’s ability to actually enter into the deepest stages of sleep.  

As a result, many people want to turn to natural supplementation.  The problem is that the supplementation business can be a racket.  Even when you’re buying high quality supplements, it’s difficult to make informed decisions as to whether the supplement you are choosing is actually going to bring you the benefits you want.  And let’s face it – even medical professionals sometimes don’t do their homework.  How many of us have been prescribed Materna as our pregnancy multivitamin – a pretty little pill with synthetic fillers, dyed using pink food colouring?  

So, in this post, I’d like to de-mistify some of the natural supplementation options for sleep out there.

1. TRYPTOPHAN

For those of you who have been reading my sleep posts, I’ve talked about the amino acid (tryptophan) that our body uses to create the precursor (serotonin) for the hormone (melatonin) that actually controls our sleep cycle.  Tryptophan is readily available from protein sources like chicken, beef, lentils, beans & eggs.  You can also find tryptophan available in capsule form from a variety of high quality supplementation brands.

There is some research indicating that l-Tryptophan can support emotional well-being and restful sleep.  So, does that mean you should invest in a tryptophan capsule to help get to sleep?

Well…

• tryptophan competes with other amino acids to get to the brain.  You’ve got to take tryptophan with carbohydrates in order to get more tryptophan to the brain.  So, if you are currently taking tryptophan suplementation, this point is worth keeping in mind;
• you also need some co-factors to help convert tryptophan into serotonin.  These co-factors include: Iron, Magnesium, Vitamin B6 & Vitamin C.  So if your supplement doesn’t include these co-factors, it’s doubtful you’ll actually be getting the benefit you need from the tryptophan unless you’re quite careful about taking the supplement with food that includes these co-factors;
• Tryptophan is degraded in the body by something called cytokines – which are pro-inflammatory proteins which get released when we are sick or when we eat foods that are really high in transfats.   So, again – this speak directly to the point I made above regarding diet.  If you’re knocking back the Jaffa Cakes and chips, please do not bother trying to supplement with tryptophan.

2. THEANINE

L-Theanine is an amino acid found in green tea.  It is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier and reducing symptoms of anxiety.  L-theanine increases activity in the brain’s alpha waves which indicates that it relaxes the mind. It’s natural, has little to no side effects, and does not build addictions.

If you have anxiety issues that are keeping you from quieting your mind at the end of the day, then perhaps L-Theanine would be a good option for you.  However, just be aware of a few things:

• L-theanine does not induce sleep or help to keep you in deep, regenerative sleep, i.e. put you in theta or delta waves.  It just helps to relax the mind.
• Suntheanine is a registered trademarked type of Theanine and the only one used in clinical trials.  As a result, it’s a bit misleading to say that all L-theanine supplements can help you reduce anxiety.  Not all are created equal.  So, if you’re a stickler for supplements backed by data – then you might want to only use L-theanine supplements made with the Suntheanine extract.

3. MELATONIN

This is probably the most widely used natural supplement for sleep.  Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland and it regulates our body’s wake and sleep cycle.  Melatonin is activated in our body by darkness and depressed by light.

A few bits to keep in mind when considering melatonin:

• Many medications are contraindicated with melatonin.  For example, (and this is not an exhaustive list):  anti-depressants, medication to suppress the immune system, blood thinners or blood pressure meds.  Please speak to your doctor as melatonin may be dangerous for you to take.

• Coffee also screws up our body’s natural ability to produce melatonin because of its effect on our cortisol levels.  As a result, if you insist on drinking coffee throughout the day, popping a melatonin tablet may not bring you the benefits you seek.  I tried taking 3mg of melatonin once when I was extremely anxious and my cortisol levels were pretty high and it did nothing for me.

So – again – melatonin may be great for jetlag for example, when you are trying to get your body to adjust to a new night/day rhythm.  But if your sleep issues are related to anxiety, high levels of chronic stress — melatonin may not be the panacea you seek.

Having said that – melatonin coupled with glycine, a naturally-occurring non-essential amino acid could be a good option for people whose sleep issues have to do more with waking up in the middle of the night.  Glycine seems to reduce core body temperature, which reduces fragmentation of sleep and promotes longer periods spent in that beautiful, deep delta wave sleep.

4. MAGNESIUM

Many people swear by the calming effects of magnesium and it is true.  Magnesium is nature’s relaxant.  Magnesium is especially important for pregnant women as deficiencies can cause leg cramps, restless leg syndrome and eye twitching which can keep you from getting a restful night’s sleep.  A few bits to bare in mind:

• Magnesium also absorbs well through the skin – and if you’re someone who has compromised digestion, you might want to consider supplementing your magnesium via Epsom salt baths (magnesium sulphate) and magnesium lotions, gels or oils (usually magnesium chloride).

• There are many forms of magnesium supplementation on the market.  Read the label and if you can, choose magnesium glycinate as it is the form which is most readily absorbed.  Magnesium citrate is a good second choice and usually more readily available at the health food stores.

• Calcium competes with magnesium for absorption, so best not to pop your magnesium tablet with a cup of hot milk or after a  cheese sandwich.  (Ever wonder why they say that eating cheese at night gives you a bad night’s sleep? ) If you are taking a chelated form of magnesium or magnesium glycinate, you can take it on an empty stomach.

Hope this helps give you some insight as to how supplementation can be used to support you in your sleep goals.  Supplementation is not a one-size-fits all approach and the best one for you will depend on the root cause of your sleep problem, as well as your diet and lifestyle.  Do speak to your doctor and ask questions about the brands they recommend:

• do they have fillers?
• are they allergen and GMO free?
• are they dyed?
• which form of the vitamin or mineral they are suggesting is best absorbed by the body?
• what helps absorption and what sabotages it?

Research and due diligence is important.  

Because no one cares more about you than you.

Cristina Tahoces is a holistic nutritionist and owner of Thrive Nutrition Practice.  Please join her Facebook group “Thrive Nutrition Practice” for daily articles, recipes, promotions on professional grade supplements and upcoming workshops.

Copyright © 2016 THRIVE NUTRITION PRACTICE LTD.

SLEEP: How Essential Oils Can Help

                                 Thrive Nutrition Practice: Essential Oils for Sleep           

Between my first and second child I suffered a miscarriage.  And shortly after my miscarriage, I developed allergies to dust and dust mites.  In retrospect, I would say that both of these events in my timeline were symptoms of total and utter depletion.

Over the course of the next three years, my allergies became completely debilitating.  My eyes would constantly feel like they had sand in them.  They would look red and puffy and I hated going out first thing in the morning in case people thought I spent the whole night crying. My nights were horrible.  I would cough and splutter and wheeze. I’d end up sleeping on the couch so as not wake up my husband or keep him from sleeping.

I couldn’t really function without anti-histamine and in my desperation to actually get a good night’s sleep, I got totally hooked on these powerful anti-histamine/sleeping pills that the doctor gave me to help knock me out.

After a month of taking those pills, I realized that my baby brain was ridiculous. Mornings, in particular, were a haze.  I couldn’t remember conversations I would have with people.  My anxiety was off the charts. So, I went to the toilet and flushed the magic sleeping pills away.

Then I cried.

Voila the low point in my life:  me sobbing and kneeling in front of the porcelain god wondering how on earth I was going to get to sleep from now on; how on earth I was going to get off the couch and back into my bed.

Enter nutrition and my wonderful father who like an angel from heaven introduced me to the life-saving world of essential oils.  (Papi – you’re the best!)

If you can’t sleep at night because you are wheezing, coughing or suffering from allergies — the combination of a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods together with essential oils can be your saving grace, as it was mine.

Here is what I would do come bedtime and I’m really excited about sharing it with you today in case it can help you too.

THRIVE’S ALLERGY-BLAST ESSENTIAL OILS MIX

Cup your palm and drop in the following essential oils.

• a few drops of jojoba oil (or coconut oil)
• 3-4 drops eucalyptus oil
• 3-4 drops peppermint oil
• 3 drops lavender oil
• 2 drops thieves oil
• 2 drops lemon oil

ADULTS: Vigorously rub your chest with the mix using both hands.  And then cup your hands over your nose and mouth and inhale deeply a few times.

This little oil mix basically stopped my wheezing in the bud and opened up my sinus passages so that I was able to breathe and get a sound night’s sleep.

WHY THESE OILS?

• Jojoba is a good base because it has no scent and is well absorbed by the skin.
• Eucalyptus is great for expelling phlegm and has immune boosting properties.
• Peppermint is – in my experience – the most powerful at cutting through mucous blockages and opening the sinus passages.
• Lavender oil is soothing, reduces anxiety and helps with sleep.
• Thieves from the Young Living line of essential oils is a blend of 5 therapeutic grade essential oils. It supports healthy lung and sinus function.
• Lemon oil is great for soothing coughs and helps with lymphatic drainage.

N.B. As a rule, you should always try to buy essential oils that are 100% pure so that you can be sure they haven’t been diluted with any nasty ingredients.  I have used Young Living and Aromis in the past with great results.  But in case you are thinking of ever ingesting essential oils, I believe the only ones that been FDA approved for this purpose belong to the Young Living line.

It took time – a few years actually.  But today I can say hand-on-heart that I  haven’t used anti-histamines for over two years.  My allergies are just gone.  I don’t even need to use this essential oil mix at nighttime any more, which frankly, was kind of getting in the way of other bedtime activity! That mix is so potent it makes your eyes water!

But essential oils are a wonderful, natural way to help with allergy symptom relief.  They can also help you live clean is so many other ways and I will definitely be organising a workshop so that we can all learn how to maximise their use.   This little remedy is but one of so many.

So if nighttime coughing and wheezing are getting in the way of your sleep, consider using essential oils.  Together with a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods, they could help raise your immunity so that you can enjoy a beautiful night’s sleep.

Cristina Tahoces is a holistic nutritionist and owner of Thrive Nutrition Practice.  Please join her Facebook group “Thrive Nutrition Practice” for daily articles, recipes, promotions on professional grade supplements and upcoming workshops.

Copyright © 2016 THRIVE NUTRITION PRACTICE LTD.

SLEEP: Coffee Does Not Wake You Up

                      Thrive Nutrition Practice: Ditch the Coffee

Imagine your child woke up in the morning and dryly grumbled:

“Can’t function until I’ve had my coffee, mom.”

Would you:

a) send your child to bed earlier the next evening thinking that perhaps the solution is more sleep?

OR

b) say, “Absolutely honey. Here’s your cup.”  

I can’t think of a single mother who would encourage a coffee habit with her child because we know in our gut that coffee is not the answer.

Dr Michael Breus is a psychologist and insomnia expert who has conducted a load of research on sleep.  His research reveals:

Drinking coffee first thing in the morning does not wake you up, make you alert or give you an energy boost. All it does, according to science, is raise your tolerance for caffeine so that you need to drink more and more of it to feel any effects at all.

In fact, he says that the worst time to have a cup of coffee is within two hours of waking OR within six hours of bedtime, especially if you have sleep problems.

So what DOES coffee actually do?

• Coffee suppresses natural melatonin production by interfering with your natural circadian rhythms which govern your sleep cycle.

• Coffee puts our body in “fight or flight” mode.  It gives us that morning boost by pumping up our stress hormone cortisol.  The problem with waking up with a cortisol injection is that we are forcing a spike in blood sugar, which needs to be mitigated by an insulin response.  This is bad news for post-natal mamas who have stopped breastfeeding and are trying to shift their baby weight, especially if their morning breakfast is plain oatmeal, cereal or toast with no accompanying protein.  These grain-based breakfasts break down in your body into simple sugars, exacerbating that blood sugar spike created by your coffee.  Whatever sugar your body doesn’t need is packaged into fat by your liver.

•  A body in “fight or flight” is also not focused on resting and digesting.  As a result, digestion is compromised and all those beautiful nutrients you are hopefully taking in with breakfast will not be optimally digested and absorbed, resulting in nutritional deficiencies, which affect everything from your mood to immunity levels.

•  Coffee is a diuretic and that is a problem first thing in the morning for TWO major reasons:
  • FIRST:  We lose about a litre of water over the course of the night through perspiration and exhalation.  So, by the time we wake up we are dehydrated. Diuretics like coffee and black tea are thus the polar opposite of what our body requires to actually kickstart all of its daily functions. Mamas who wake up and feel nauseous, please have a look at how much water you are drinking throughout the day and how you are using coffee.
  • SECOND: As a diuretic, coffee is also encouraging your body to pee out all of your water soluble vitamins, like your B-vitamins and Vitamin C.  Those of you who’ve been reading my posts for a while know that these are exactly the vitamins our adrenal glands need to cope with stress.  So you’ve reduced your body’s ability to cope with stress even before you get to work.

• Coffee also affects iron absorption in your stomach and particularly your kidneys ability to retain calcium, zinc, magnesium and other important minerals.    All bad news for post-natal mamas who have to be extra cautious about iron levels to replenish blood lost and maintain energy levels.  Also bad news for mamas with constipation and sleep problems as magnesium is a crucial mineral needed to maintain regularity and ensure restful sleep.

In short – not only does coffee sabotage your natural melatonin production – it also dehydrates you, depletes you of much needed vitamins and minerals and impairs your body’s ability to cope with stress.

But if not coffee — then what?  

And herein lies the difficulty.  If you’ve read this and gone, “There is no way on earth I’m going to be physically capable of surviving the day without coffee” — then you are most likely so sleep deprived that coffee is your saviour.  And so, you are caught in a vicious cycle – too tired to give up coffee.  Too wired in the evening to fall asleep before 10.30pm and get those golden 8 hours of sleep. 

(And by the way — if you are sleeping 8 hours daily and still wake up feeling like you need a coffee, that is not normal and you might want to consider getting a blood panel to check iron levels, thyroid & adrenal function).

Here are a few ideas to help you break the sleep-caffeine cycle:

• Dr Breus recommends drinking a big glass of water in front of a window first thing upon rising to hydrate your body and stop the production of melatonin so that you stop feeling sleepy.  He also suggests you follow with a tepid shower to help your feel invigorated.
• Have a protein-fueled breakfast in the morning, like my Adrenal Friendly Breakfast.  This helps give your body energy, healthy fats & fibre to help you combat stress effectively, regulate your hormones, boost immunity and keep you regular.
• Try having a cup of maca instead of coffee to boost your energy levels.

 MACA ROCKET FUEL DRINK

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or milk of your choice)
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 tspn maca powder
• 1 tspn raw cacao powder
• 1 tspn coconut oil
• 1/2 tspn vanilla extract
• pinch of cinnamon

Put all the ingredients in a small pot and whiz with your hand-held blender.  Then heat until hot and put it in your thermos to go.  So energizing and warming!  And for half the price of a Starbucks (I’ve done the math).

And did you know that maca….

• is rich in vitamin B, C, and E — all of which help you combat stress;
• has plenty of calcium, zinc, iron & magnesium to boost immunity & help with sleep;
• reduces anxiety;
• improves thyroid function;

AND HELPS MEN AND WOMEN INCREASE THEIR LIBIDO!

Sleep, sex & stress management – all in a drink that won’t give you a hangover.

Mamas – it is totally within your reach to break the cycle of fatigue.  Nutrition can help you bust that rut.  And who knows what else you might have energy for before bedtime!

Cristina Tahoces is a holistic nutritionist and owner of Thrive Nutrition Practice.  Please join her Facebook group “Thrive Nutrition Practice” for daily articles, recipes, promotions on professional grade supplements and upcoming workshops.

Copyright © 2016 THRIVE NUTRITION PRACTICE LTD.