If you’ve ever experienced times of high anxiety, you know how much it can affect not only your mental health, but your physical health too. Finding ways to keep yourself calm and relaxed in the day-to-day can help keep stress from taking over your life.
Gabrielle Newman is the Nutritionist and Recipe Developer for The Fast 800. She shares her expertise on the food and lifestyle changes that will put you in a good mood and give you the best chance at beating stress.
Eat Mediterranean
When you’re stressed or upset, it’s easy to reach for comfort food. The foods that make you feel safe and secure like mashed potato swimming in butter and salt, or Nana’s self-saucing chocolate pudding. Sugar-laden and processed treats should be avoided if you want to remove mood-altering foods from your diet.
A diet rich in fresh, colourful fruit and vegetables, fish, seafood, nuts, legumes, whole grains are foods that are commonly eaten on the Mediterranean diet that provide your body with lots of antioxidants and phytonutrients. This high fibre diet will help to feed your gut bacteria and keep your digestive system functioning well. Studies have estimated that up to 90% of your happy hormone (serotonin) comes from the gut, so the happier the gut; the more emotionally equipped you are to handle life’s stressors.
Olive oil, an important staple of the Mediterranean diet, can help reduce inflammation. Studies revealed that those who stick to a Mediterranean-style diet are 33% less likely to develop depression. Add more extra virgin olive oil to your diet by using extra virgin olive oil as a base for salad dressings or to sauté a selection of rainbow vegetables.
Exercise
For real impact on your health, exercise goes hand-in-hand with eating healthy. Exercise can also improve your overall mood; helping to fight anxiety and depression by releasing the feel-good endorphins. The Fast 800 online programme offers exercise plans, from low impact and beginner through to advanced levels, to help you build strength and muscle and improve cardiovascular fitness.
On the programme, qualified Health Coaches offer support with ideas to safely add exercise to your lifestyle for long-term health.
Be Mindful
It’s common to think a healthy lifestyle is just about diet and exercise, but we often forget to prioritise our mental wellbeing as part of healthy living. Practising mindfulness can improve your overall health long-term and is a key pillar of The Fast 800 philosophy.
Here are a few ways you can add mindfulness to your daily routine:
- Wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual to give yourself time to sit down and enjoy a morning cup of herbal tea or coffee. Sit in quiet calmness, take a deep breath and enjoy every sip.
- Go for a walk with no distractions. Take in what you can see, hear and smell on your journey. It doesn’t need to be a long one – even around the block will give you benefits.
- Follow one of The Fast 800 guided meditations – they take less than 15 minutes out of your day yet add so much calm.
Find your Community
Social interaction is a very big part of being human. Forming connections with others, whether it’s family or friends, can help you combat the stressors that creep up on you daily. Stretching outside of your normal social circle and getting involved with external communities can also help boost your mood.
The Fast 800 programme members have access to an exclusive online Community to talk to each other, plus expert Health Coaches, without judgement, just admiration and support. The forums are a safe place for members to seek motivation, share stories and show kindness.