Posts from.

You're looking for 'health'...

In January I’ve Loved…

January 31st  •  Posted in Favourites

In January I've Loved: my January favourites 2017

In January I've Loved...

OK so I’m not sure where the time’s gone already, and it’s only the beginning of the year, but January it’s already over when the year seems to be just started to me! Anyone else?

This last month I’ve been all about staying cosy, being healthier and grab inspiration everywhere, and this is perfectly reflected in my January favourites selection! So here are a few things I’ve loved this last month…

January Favourites: Neal's Yard Rose Facial Wash

Rose Facial Wash – Neal’s Yard

BEAUTY

This month my beauty regimen has been extremely basic, even more than the usual, but one thing I was excited to try was this 100% organic Neal’s Yard Rose Facial Wash I’ve been meaning to buy for quite a while now. This cleanser is making me excited to get out of bed every morning (even though I swear I can’t feel my feet everytime they pop out of the duvet) just for its amazing and calming rose scent!

It’s a pleasure to use: so nicely gentle, refreshing and easy to apply, it makes for the perfect morning and evening cleansing routine. Apparently it’s one of Neal’s Yard best sellers and I can easily see why!

January Favourites: Pukka relaxing tea and NothingFishy Omega 3 tablets
January Favourites: Omega 3 algae-based tablets by NothingFishy

Organic Relax Vata Tea – Pukka ; Algae Omega 3 ℅ NothingFishy

FOOD + HEALTH

You know I love my nighttime teas, and I just needed the perfect excuse to incorporate the same flavours and scents in my everyday tea. So this Pukka option, featuring organic chamomile, fennel and marshmallow root, totally felt very appropriate this January. Everytime I curl up with a cup of this sweet tea, I can’t help but enter a cosy and calm mood that’s doing a lot of good to concentration and with helping to switch off!

Over the course of the last few years, I’ve been very interested into implementing Omega 3 into my diet but have always struggled to find tablets that didn’t taste fishy or contained any fish oil at all. I was so excited to be introduced to NothingFishy!

They make Omega 3 tablets from algae only, because the actual primary source of Omega 3, and also where fishes are getting them in a first place, are algae (of course, why didn’t I discover that earlier?!). This also means you’re not getting all the nasties and pollution that fishes absorb from the sea, because their algae are grown in a controlled environment. Aside from the fact that the packaging is extremely nice, I’m really loving these tablets a lot this month: being vegetarian, I’m excited to have found an Omega 3 alternative that’s healthy and environment-friendly and completely vegan. Do check them out!

January favourites: cosy and soft wool from Drops and De Rerum Natura
January favourites: How To Style Your Brand book

Knitting wool: Drops Alpaca Silk & De Rerum Natura Ulysse ; Book: How To Style Your Brand

LIFESTYLE

You might remember when my knitting obsession started last November: well, it’s still going strong! I’m in the process of making my very first sweater right now, but I’m constantly after new patterns and wool to try and have fun with. If you follow my Instagram profile you’ll know all about this topic and my preferences by now, but I’m 100% obsessed with the softest warmest wool by Drops, which is one of the wools I’ve picked for my sweater project (more on that soon!). But I’ve also just discovered French De Rerum Natura, that produces and sells beautiful ecological wool made in France – I can’t wait to cast on some new projects this February!

Lastly, this month I’ve read Fiona Humberstone’s How To Style Your Brand book and found it extremely inspiring. This book is full of tips and hints to make your own brand great, and although I’m already familiar with branding and design with running a design business myself, it felt so nice and refreshing to read about a different process than my own, which helped me a lot with realizing new things about my business I have never thought about before! If you want to hear more of my thoughts, you can find a mini review here.

***

That’s all really! Let me know what’s on your January favourites list as well! x

Tagged:  , , , , , 
Comments
0
Share!
 Share to Twitter Share to Pinterest Share to Facebook Share to Google+

January Detox ft. Indigo Herbs { + Giveaway }

January 11th  •  Posted in Health

January Detox ft. Indigo Herbs

With January and all the New Year’s resolutions being a real deal at the moment, and especially after all the festive eating, it was about time for me to start a bit of a January detox. Let’s face it, the beginning of a new year’s always the time when we’re all the most motivated to approach a healthier lifestyle, and although it’s not great to lose the habit during the course of the year, this is surely the perfect time to embrace it at its fullest and try and build a good habit and purpose to bring with you during the rest of the year.

It was then with perfect timing that I was introduced to Indigo Herbs, offering plenty of natural health solutions, guides and recipes, but in particular selling a huge selection of 100% organic natural supplements, superfood blends and all kind of natural healthy ingredients I’d like my kitchen pantry to constantly be jam-packed with.

My January detox smoothie with Indigo Herbs Kick Ass Vegan Smoothie Mix
Vegan green smoothie for my January detox with Indigo Herbs
How I make a green smoothie rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants for my January detox

As I mentioned before, to me healthy eating is more of a habit than anything else. Last year I loved reading Jolene Hart’s Eat Pretty and discovering each season new seasonal healthy foods and why they are good for my body, and this year I’m planning to keep working on it while introducing new discoveries in my diet.

I’ve been wanting to introduce the habit of having a green smoothie almost everyday in the morning or in the afternoon for ages, but truth is I’m not the biggest fan of raw green veggies at all. This is exactly why I loved the idea of the Indigo Herbs Kick Ass Vegan Smoothie Mix*, which, including a mix of amazingly healthy superfoods, makes putting together a “green” smoothie such a quick and easy task without involving any raw green veggie (which I rarely have in my fridge) but still providing a huge amount of health benefits to your body.

At the very moment, I’m proud to say I’ve been having a “green” smoothie every day in the middle of the morning and it’s actually a step in my routine I’m always looking forward to! My smoothies are pretty basic, usually including banana, apple, honey, orange and anything fresh I have lingering around, plus a tablespoon of said Kick Ass Vegan Smoothie Mix that makes everything green and a source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

January Detox ft. Indigo Herbs
Healthy eating ideas and tips for your January detox
Starting my January detox with Eat Pretty boox and Indigo Herbs superfood powders
My January detox green smoothie
Win this selection of organic superfood powders by Indigo Herbs on my Instagram, perfect for your January detox

Win this same selection of organic superfood sachets here!

A couple more superfood I’m planning to implement into my diet are: Barley Grass, which apparently is rich in antioxidant and B vitamins, Spirulina, great for brain health and promoting natural body’s cleansing and detox (which I’ve heard is great sprinkled on top of salads and in baked treats) and Matcha Tea, that detoxifies the body and support the immune system between the rest of its health benefits. I’ll make sure to keep you posted on how it’ll go!

In the meanwhile, if you too are planning a January detox and to implement more organic superfoods in your lifestyle, make sure you pop over my Instagram (here) for a chance to win the previous selection of Indigo Herbs goods!

***

How is your January detox going so far? x

Tagged:  , 
Comments
0
Share!
 Share to Twitter Share to Pinterest Share to Facebook Share to Google+

Keep Track – Jawbone Up Move Review

November 14th  •  Posted in Health

How I use my Jawbone Up Move fitness tracker to keep track of my sleep and steps

You might remember a few months back I said I was trying to up my fitness game and especially walk a lot more during my days, by implementing the Jawbone Up Move Fitness Tracker into my daily life to keep track of my steps and sleep. Well, as of today, I’m already three months in and, yes, although I was very sceptical, I’m still keeping it going, so I figured it was about time for an update and to share the love on here!

But first, let’s delineate a little background: I, as you might know, am a freelance web designer and in particular I work from home every single day. Let’s say there’s not a lifestyle that is more sedimentary than mine really! I guess when that’s your routine, you can’t even realize how much you’re *not* moving throughout the whole day.

I was sceptical of any fitness trackers in general when thinking about implementing one in my lifestyle, because I knew it was going to be shocking once I realized how little I dedicated myself to my own health. But on the other hand I believe that is exactly what pushed me to get one, because I wanted a change, and when you have a busy life and you feel like you should be working all the time, you need someone (or something) telling you to get out of that office and do things!

Jawbone Up Move to keep track of my steps during the day and how to implement a fitness tracker in a sedimentary lifestyle
Extremely easy to keep track of my steps and reach a daily goal!

The Up Move is basically the answer to all my fitness dilemmas. I am never very consistent when it comes to sports in general, I like a very small amount of activities, but still I would commit to one for a month or a little more and then favor my desk all day long day in day out until dinnertime. I got it in summertime, and that was the perfect time to get started and get me in the right mood to make a change into my lifestyle that would have stuck.

It allows you set your own fitness and health goals and keep track of them daily, steps and hours of sleep especially, being these two pretty linked together according to my Up app and the base of a healthy lifestyle in general. I remember thinking I wasn’t ever going to reach the goal daily when I firstly entered my 7000 steps per day goal! It might seem such a small goal, but for someone who stays at her desk all day, even half of it can sound a lot.

I was as shocked as I thought I would be when I discovered that I was basically doing a max of 2k steps per day, in the WHOLE day. I guess the fact that I don’t have an office to head to, lots of stairs to take or any recurrent errand that needed me to walk somewhere daily, didn’t really help either! But I must say I have took my goal very seriously ever since I got my Up Move and have been able to change it to 7.5k and then 8k steps in less than a month, without ever losing one single day!

Jawbone Up Move bracelet to keep track of my steps and sleep

I have come to a point now, where my daily 1h walks are my favourite part of my routine! I switch my tech off and just enjoy walking: preferring calm and peaceful paths, it really can be such a treat for the soul too! I feel a tiny bit gutted now that it’s cold outside, but that means I am finding lots of new ways to implement walking in my lifestyle that I feel are going to stick with me.

Beside the whole take-the-stairs and walk-instead-of-the-bus (which is great but not really my everyday thing being at home all the time), I loved the little suggestions in my Up app, saying to walk while talking to the phone, brushing your teeth, or stand up and take a break every now and then if you’re working from a desk.

How fitness helped me with sleeping better and how I keep track of my sleep
The Jawbone Up Move fitness tracker is amazing to keep track of your hours of sleep and understand if you're sleeping enough

I never really thought too much about it, although I do have had some periods when sleep was a bit difficult, but I wasn’t having some good resting at all. As soon as I started to keep track of it I realized I was waking up several times through the night and most of the times I wasn’t able to fulfill my goal of 8h of sleep per night even though, calculating the hours I’ve been in bed, it definitely looked like so!

It took a lot of time actually, to get into a routine where I feel well-rested and I can actually say I’ve slept enough, but right now I realize it makes all the difference during the day. I am more aware and my mind works better, I can get a lot more things done in less time as well, and I’m starting to believe it really is linked to the fact I’ve been walking a lot too. And beside the weight loss (that was well welcomed but not my main goal), this is the best result I have seen in my body so far!

***

I also loved to keep track of the food I was eating and the calories I was consuming in the beginning, but at some point I have stopped doing that once I got an idea of what works and what doesn’t, as I never feel like I want to be too constricted in my lifestyle by counting calories at all. However it’s nice to know I can still do that if I feel like!

At the end of the day I’ve learnt a fitness tracker shouldn’t be something for the sport-lover only at all! I would totally suggest implementing one in a sedimentary routine especially, as it helps so much in seeing how much you’re not moving and how you can change that so easily!

Have you ever considered implementing a fitness tracker in your routine? x

Tagged:  , 
Comments
0
Share!
 Share to Twitter Share to Pinterest Share to Facebook Share to Google+
‹ Older posts
Newer posts ›
Newer posts ›
Blog Design by Miel Café Design.
© Miel Café unless otherwise stated.