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Part 2: Stress and Your Diet – Foods to Avoid and Foods to Embrace

Avoid foods that are linked to stress and anxiety.

  1. Caffeine: Caffeine in the form of coffee and soft drinks can cause nervousness, irritation and palpitation
  2. High salt and processed food: High salt consumption increases the risk of heart
  3. Smoking: Causes tension, irritability and sleeplessness and is also linked with cancer.
  4. Alcohol: It depletes the vitamin B which are essential for reducing stress.
  5. Refined sugar: Refined sugar in candies, pastries, soft drinks, ice cream, and biscuits can give a quick energy boost, but it’s often followed by a sugar “crash.” This effect is due to how sugar impacts blood sugar levels. Instead of reaching for sugary treats, try a fruit salad, a homemade fruit-and-nut yogurt, or even a few squares of dark chocolate.

Certain foods are known to help relieve stress and anxiety and should be included regularly in your diet.

  1. Plant-Based Foods: Vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains are packed with essential vitamins and minerals. Maintaining a plant-based diet, especially during stressful times, ensures your body functions optimally.
  2. Herbal Teas: Herbal teas like chamomile, lavender, and passionflower have calming properties that help you relax, reduce stress, and promote better sleep.
  3. Yogurt: Yogurt can help alleviate anxiety by supporting gut health. The brain and gut are connected, so stress can affect digestion. Probiotic yogurt consumed twice a day reduces brain activity in emotional areas, aiding in stress relief and anxiety management.
  4. Dark Chocolate: Cocoa in dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants that buffer stress. Opt for a chocolate bar with over 70% cocoa to enjoy its stress-relieving benefits.
  5. Avocado: Avocados are rich in Vitamin B6, which aids the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences mood. They also contain other B vitamins and healthy fats, which support the nervous system and reduce anxiety.
  6. Blueberries: Blueberries are high in Vitamin C and antioxidants, helping to repair and protect cells under stress. They also act as a healthier alternative to sugary snacks, boosting immunity and maintaining gut health to reduce anxiety.
  7. Almonds: Almonds are a great source of magnesium, a mineral known to alleviate anxiety-related symptoms. Including them in your diet can effectively support stress management.

In conclusion, the one important to remember is that making mindful dietary choices can significantly affect your stress levels. By avoiding certain foods and incorporating others, you can help manage your stress more effectively. Adjust your diet gradually, and over time, you may notice a positive change in how you feel both mentally and physically.

If you found this article helpful, let us know in the comments below! For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is for general awareness and educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personalised medical guidance or concerns related to your health.

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Calming Your Mind: Breathing Techniques for ADHD

breathing exercises to relieve anxietyMany individuals with ADHD also contend with anxiety, which can profoundly impact their everyday activities. Anxiety symptoms often include an elevated heart rate, rapid breathing, and increased muscle tension. However, there are straightforward and effective methods to mitigate these effects, such as breathing exercises, which can be particularly beneficial for those with ADHD.

Breathing exercises are simple techniques that involve focusing on your breath to slow your heart rate, lower blood pressure, and relax muscle tension. Here, I’ll outline some easy breathing exercises designed to help manage anxiety effectively.

  1. Diaphragmatic Breathing

This is also called belly breathing, this technique involves deep breathing into the abdomen to slow down your breathing and promote relaxation.

How to Do It:

  • Find a Comfortable Position: Lie on your back or sit on a chair with your feet flat on the floor.
  • Place Your Hands: Put one hand on your chest and the other on your belly.
  • Inhale Deeply: Breathe in slowly through your nose, feeling your belly rise.
  • Exhale Slowly: Breathe out through your mouth, feeling your belly fall.
  • Repeat: Do this for a few minutes, focusing on your breath and how your body moves.

This exercise helps to calm your mind and reduce anxiety by promoting deeper, slower breathing.

  1. Box Breathing

Box breathing, or square breathing, uses a rhythmic pattern to help regulate breathing and calm the mind.

How to Do It:

  • Get Comfortable: Sit with your back straight and feet on the ground.
  • Inhale for 4 Counts: Breathe in through your nose for a count of four.
  • Hold for 4 Counts: Hold your breath for another four counts.
  • Exhale for 4 Counts: Breathe out through your mouth for four counts.
  • Hold for 4 Counts: Pause and hold your breath for four counts before starting again.
  • Repeat: Continue this pattern for a few minutes.

Box breathing helps slow down your breathing and can be particularly effective for reducing anxiety and improving focus.

  1. Coherent Breathing

Coherent breathing aims to slow your breathing to a calm and steady rhythm, helping you feel more relaxed.

How to Do It:

  • Sit Comfortably: Sit with your back straight and shoulders relaxed.
  • Inhale for 5 Counts: Breathe in through your nose for five seconds.
  • Exhale for 6 Counts: Without pausing, exhale for six seconds.
  • Repeat: Continue this pattern for at least five minutes.

Start with shorter counts if five seconds feels too long, and gradually build up. This exercise helps lower your heart rate and reduces anxiety.

  1. Alternate Nostril Breathing

Alternate nostril breathing balances the flow of energy and helps quiet the mind.

How to Do It:

  • Sit Upright: Find a comfortable position with your spine straight.
  • Use Your Right Hand: Place your index and middle fingers between your eyebrows.
  • Close Your Right Nostril: Use your thumb to close your right nostril.
  • Inhale Through Left Nostril: Breathe in slowly for four counts through your left nostril.
  • Switch and Exhale: Close your left nostril with your ring finger and exhale through your right nostril for four counts.
  • Repeat: Continue for at least five cycles.

This technique helps calm the mind and can be a useful tool for managing anxiety and improving focus.

  1. Victory Breath (Ujjayi Breath)

Victory breath, also known as ocean breath, creates a soothing sound and helps calm the mind.

How to Do It:

  • Find a Comfortable Position: Sit with your spine straight and hands in your lap.
  • Close Your Mouth: Inhale through your nose for four counts, slightly constricting your throat to create a soft sound.
  • Pause: Hold the breath for a second at the top of the inhale.
  • Exhale Slowly: Exhale through your nose for six counts, maintaining the gentle constriction in your throat.
  • Repeat: Perform this for 5-10 repetitions.

The ocean-like sound can be very soothing, helping to reduce anxiety and promote a sense of calm.

Breathing exercises offer a simple yet powerful way to manage anxiety, particularly for those with ADHD. By focusing on your breath and practicing these techniques regularly, you can cultivate a calm mind and enjoy greater relaxation and well-being. Set aside a few minutes each day to practice these exercises and experience the many benefits they offer.

If you found these breathing techniques for managing ADHD helpful, let us know in the comments below!

#BeTheForce

Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is for general awareness and educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personalised medical guidance or concerns related to your health.

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Self Love can help achieve Health Goals

How many of us can take compliments gracefully? A compliment certainly makes one’s day and I am sure it is true for most of us. It feels so great when someone just tells you how beautiful/handsome or how good you look. Any kind of compliment rejoices one.

The strongest desire and a positive thought do replace the need for such complements, I strongly believe is SELF LOVE. It is that magical key ingredient that makes you reach your health goals easily. It can be weight loss, staying fit, gain muscle mass or sleep better.

What is SELF LOVE?

Self-love is about loving each quality within you, be it good or bad. You may be fat or thin, dark or fair; who cares, just live your dream. Self-approval is something that we all require. Remove the negativity and bring in positive thoughts about yourself. And above all, you should feel good about yourself.

How SELF-LOVE helps us achieve the health goals?

With this special ingredient called self-love health goals can be achieved easily. Yes, you heard me right. Health goals and self-love complement each other.

We all know the power of law of attraction when it comes to money, home or children. This law of attraction also works for achieving your health goals like weight loss, running a marathon, exercising daily or just drinking enough water.

Just bring in positive thoughts.

Negative thoughts camouflage your belief system thinking it to be true and manifest itself into reality. Insecurity, irresponsibility, fear, stress, anxiety, desperation to lose weight fast and inferiority complex cause obesity unknowingly.

Negative thoughts and comments from others also lead to decrease in confidence level and broken self-esteem. How much ever we diet or workout, we do not get the desired result unless the importance of law of attraction is understood and practiced.

Self-Analysis – Ask these questions to yourself

  • Does your belief work on what people say?
  • Do you need others to praise you?
  • Do you get upset when you don’t find the right size of clothes for yourself
  • Do you lack will power to start your most desired goals?
  • Do you face difficulty in chasing your dreams?
  • Do you feel bad when you can’t eat that sweet lying in your refrigerator?
  • Do you wish to run a marathon but hold on due to lack of stamina or an underlying heart problem?

If your answer is YES to most of the questions above, then we surely lack SELF LOVE.

Steps to follow and conquer the world.

Law of attraction steps to reach the goals: SELF LOVE

  1. Be patient and optimistic. This is the key towards great health.
  2. Eliminate negativity around you.
  3. Consistently eat healthy and exercise.
  4. Don’t feel guilty if you reveal to everyone that you are eating less and avoiding sweets. Simply say, I am trying to make healthy changes.
  5. Don’t read too many weight loss stories or ask anyone their story of weight loss. This will just make you desperate and negative.
  6. Dress/Suit up and don’t forget to praise yourself. When you say, ‘My tummy is too big or I have double chin’ you are insulting your body·
  7. Be confident when you socialise. You confidence can overcome all the flaws.
  8. Take out at least 30-45 mins every day for yourself in doing some recreational activity like exercising, reading, shopping etc.
  9. Meditation eliminates negative thoughts from mind. Try and indulge in it for 5-10 minutes.
  10. Always visualise yourself beautiful/ handsome, leaner, toned and very happy.
  11. Jot down your goals in Present Tense like: I am 65 kgs and look gorgeous with this weight, I am running every day to become thin (Not lose weight, lose is a negative word)

It is very important for us to understand that true happiness lies in self-love and self-approval, all the desired goals become easy to achieve then. You love yourself; the world will love you back. It is important to love yourself to achieve the desired health goals…..do not wait for other’s approval

 

 

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All that a women needs to know about – MENOPAUSE!

Menopause simply means marking the end of a female’s reproductive period. This is something women experience as they age. It does not occur overnight! It is a gradual process.

This gradual process is usually known as Perimenopausal phase which is a completely different transition for every woman. It is a very challenging phase for every woman, a woman might get irritated, and mood swings are the most common thing! Emotional breakdowns also occur. Earlier, the ideal age for menopause was around 45-50 years but, if a woman has attained early puberty, menopause occurs early too!

  • Menopause comes with many complications and the most common complication is osteoporosis and heart disease.
  • The bone mineral density gradually goes down during menopausal transition which may result in osteoporosis however, these symptoms vary in different women.
  • Hot flashes occur very frequently.
  • The entire menopause is divided into 3 phases which are Perimenopause, Menopause and Post Menopause.
  • Out of these 3 phases, Perimenopause phase which can also be called as “time around menopause” lasts for the maximum time which involves all symptoms.
  • Menopause and post menopause phase lasts for a shorter period.
  • Apart from hot flashes and mood swings, women in menopausal stage also face excess stress, tiredness, fatigue and sometimes vaginal itchiness and drying.
  • The main sign of menopause is irregular vaginal bleeding.
  • Menopause is a part of every woman’s life and it is not a disease which can be treated. However, menopause can be managed and tackled if handled properly.
  • Nutrition and physical exercise plays a key role in managing the menopausal symptoms

FOODS which help managing Menopausal Symptoms:-

(1) Include more fruits and vegetables in your diet

(2) Eat more beans

(3) Eat more of good fats and Omega 3 rich foods such as avocado, fish-Salmon, walnuts flaxseeds etc rather than saturated fatty acids.

(4) Consume good beverages; avoid consuming carbonated beverages and caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic which puts load on kidneys to remove more amount of water than required which results in dehydration. Focus more on herbal teas which helps in relieving hot flashes.

(5) Balance your meals: – heavy breakfast, moderate lunch and light dinner should always

(6) Consume more of calcium containing foods as this mineral is very important for women after the age of 30. Adequate amount of calcium in diet decreases the risk of osteoporosis. Some of the natural foods high in Calcium are dairy products, ragi, sesame seeds etc

(7) Say no to high fat and high sugar foods!

(8) Add functional foods to your diet such as flaxseeds which is a super food! Raw Flaxseed should be ground and 1 tsp should be had and drink a glass of water over it.

(9) Exercise! It is a key to life a healthy life! 30 minutes of walk also acts as a stress buster!

Ladies out there at this stage of your life take care of yourself.

As you navigate through the various phases of menopause, may this article serve as a valuable guide to support your well-being. For more insightful articles on Women’s Health, explore here. If you seek further information or personalised guidance, don’t hesitate to reach out to our certified experts. Subscribe to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

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