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November 9 - November 17, 2022
Given that antioxidants are well documented as necessary for recycling and reducing free radicals, one sure way to beat oxidative stress and inflammation from causing you harm is to include more antioxidants in your diet.
Here’s one quick way to increase your intake: add two more servings (1 cup raw or 1⁄2 cup cooked) of an antioxidant-rich fruit and antioxidant-rich vegetable into your diet today.
Focusing on balancing the sleep-wake cycle, the circadian rhythm, by supporting daytime wakefulness, nighttime restorative sleep, and a better response to stress throughout the day will help you heal the adrenals and promote more energy, better sleep, and better long-term health.
Fortunately, regular physical activity and mindfulness-based practices are two of the most effective ways to reduce stress, lower cortisol, and protect your brain as it ages. Remember, your brain has a plasticity to it, which means that there is still time. You can change your behaviors and activity to promote a better gray-to-white-matter ratio and to move your body out of constant fight-or-flight readiness. Mindset and behavior are adaptable traits. When you have the right information to change your habits, you can improve your wellness on a daily basis.
Your brain is super sensitive to the effects of cortisol. When stimulating your brain in the short term, cortisol will help with memory and focus. However, chronic or exaggerated stimulation of the brain by cortisol causes issues with long-term memory, focus, and attention to detail. Be sure to take regular breaks when working on projects. A good rule is 45 minutes of work to a 10-minute break. During that 10 minutes do a physical activity that does not require thought: walking, dishes, vacuuming, raking, etc. This will give your brain the much-needed break it requires to relax from cortisol
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Your adrenal glands will only heal when you give them all the right conditions and environment to do so. This means your treatment plan should address the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of who you are. You will also need to make sure your diet and lifestyle, as well as the natural supplements you use, are all specific to your stage of adrenal fatigue. The natural therapies do wonders, but they are nothing without the foundation of your diet and lifestyle habits.
This is the most crucial piece of advice for healing the adrenal glands and keeping them healthy. The way you manage your stress—e.g., by internalizing it and allowing it to affect your body—is a major reason why you may have adrenal fatigue.
Rather than thinking about how to get rid of stress, you should begin to think about how you can react differently to a stressful situation next time. For instance, rather than dreading whatever brings you the most stress in the day, you can learn to make peace with it.
Therapy point
What exactly are toxic things? This could be people, relationships, activities, skin care and cleaning products, your dietary choices, and so much more.
You already know that your adrenal glands respond to your physiology and biochemistry. When you are under attack emotionally, whether directly by being put down or indirectly by lowering your vibration and being part of gossip or lies, your body is under stress. And the longer you take the assaults, the longer the stress response remains elevated. Next time, politely excuse yourself or let this person know you have needs and feelings too.
Adrenal deposits include: drinking adequate amounts of water, eating a balanced meal, removing sugar from your diet, spending time outdoors in the fresh air, exercising, getting 8 hours of sleep, and so on. You want to try to avoid unnecessary withdrawals, so there will be plenty of deposits still available when stressors come along and start making withdrawals. Withdrawals include: caffeine, soda, a sedentary lifestyle, processed foods, sugar, living on autopilot, feeling rushed or late all the time, and so forth.
You get the nutrition that runs all your biochemical pathways from living food.
Never thought about it like this!
Your body needs food to run—whole foods, which provide you with all the healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, proteins, and phytochemicals (hundreds of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals). Your body does not do well on food-like substances.
The Grocery Store Rule If you were to walk into a grocery store and remain only in the perimeter of the store, plus the bulk aisle, you would find all the whole foods your body needs to stay nourished. You start in produce, and then move to the fish and meat, dairy, deli, and so on. You take a stroll down the aisle where you can get healthy oils, whole beans and grains, raw nuts and seeds, and maybe a few odds and ends such as coconut oil or tamari. For the most part, your diet should only consist of those foods listed or ones located in the areas mentioned.
Second time hearing about this!!
Foods that are fermented or cultured contain a lot of living (and dead) micro-organisms that you would not be alive without. You absolutely need to be giving your body and digestive system foods such as yogurt, kimchee, sauerkraut, kombucha, and kefir on a daily basis.
If you juice yourself, it is best to consume fresh-pressed juices within 30 minute of making it. If you are interested in juicing, a masticating juicer is a better way to go, as it leaves much of the fiber in there, making for a more “whole” juice.
Every year, they release their organic shopper's guide, which has the Dirty Dozen Plus and Clean Fifteen lists. These are the fruits and vegetables you either must buy organic (Dirty Dozen Plus) or can get away with buying nonorganic (Clean Fifteen). Everything else sort of falls in the middle, and will depend on your budget.
Non-GMO (genetically modified organism) is an organism that has not been altered by man and then bred to prevent disease or promote crop production.
Vegetables are crucial for overall health. The majority of your vitamins and minerals come from these wonderful foods and should be a staple with nearly every meal. Some of the healthiest vegetables are the cruciferous veggies including kale, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower; green leafy veggies including arugula, mustard, and chard; allium veggies which include onion, garlic, scallions, and leeks; avocados; mushrooms; and the “rainbow” of vegetables including beets, sweet potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, blue potatoes, and eggplant to name a few.
Grains and beans are definitely one of those in-again, out-again foods. If you are going to eat them, soak your grains and beans so that the outer shell is cracked open and chemicals such as phytic acid are neutralized. Grains and beans (and nuts and seeds) contain phytic acid so that animals will leave them alone in the wild.
Nuts and seeds should either be consumed raw or soaked/fermented to improve digestibility and micronutrient values.
Gluten-free grains have really made a lot of headway recently. If you are someone who is affected by wheat or gluten, you are probably glad that there are a lot of alternatives lining the shelves these days. Beware, though! Many of these products are just as processed and refined as the refined white (wheat) flour. Sure, it is great to be able to eat a gluten-free pizza sometimes, but remember that to be truly healthy, the grain must be in whole form and properly cooked. This is why going grain-free can be really healing. However, there is some value to grains and beans, especially as you
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A great tip is to always consume fat with sugar/carbohydrates, as in don’t get wrapped up in the no-fat diet, as you will stabilize your blood sugar better if you ingest both fats and carbohydrate sugars together.
Healthy fats include olive oil, coconut oil, butter or ghee (clarified butter), fish oil and cod liver oil, unrefined palm oil, sesame oil, avocado, raw nuts and seeds, and healthy sources of lard. These fats are healthy saturated fats and monounsaturated fats. Unhealthy fats include much of the vegetable oils sold as “healthy” in the conventional healthcare model and nutrition associations. These include canola, corn, soybean, hydrogenated oil, and partially hydrogenated oil. These fats contain more polyunsaturated fatty acid chains, which become rancid more easily and oxidize in your body,
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So if you’ve tried meditating and you’ve given up because your mind just simply isn’t quiet, recognize that the goal is to acknowledge your thoughts and let them go rather than to simply not have them. Practice is all it takes. Start by sitting for 5 minutes a day and just give yourself the space to let go of thoughts when they arise.
Your daily habits can always be improved upon. Rather than looking at changing your lifestyle to help you heal as “one more thing on your to-do list,” you can begin to look at what you are currently doing in your life that may have room for improvement. For instance, if you always have chips or candy for snack time, instead start to bring hummus and cut-up veggie sticks; if you skip exercise for TV, try getting yourself a workout DVD for home and committing to 2 days a week. Once you have some good habits established, you will naturally be inclined to add more of them as you see the benefits.
Connecting to your purpose will allow those stressful moments to roll right off of you.
When you want to have control over every aspect of your life, and you don’t, this often brings up feelings of anxiety. You may feel anxiety differently than someone else. For instance, you may feel tightness in your chest, or have difficulty breathing including shallow breathing or hyperventilating; you may feel jumpy, experience a scattered mind, have to pace, or feel irritable. Any of these feelings may arise because you are “not in control.” If reading this creates strong reaction (positive or negative), then this is something you will want to address. Committing to some of the practices
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If you experience stage 2 or 3 adrenal fatigue, one of the best activities you can do to re-regulate your HPA axis is to go outside for 30 minutes right after you wake up. This may require some bundling up depending on the time of year, but even in the winter, this therapy does a lot for normalizing the sleep-wake cycle.
Earthing is a grounding practice that involves you walking on the earth barefoot.
Deep-breathing exercises often amount to 5–6 deep breaths per minute. Sit down with a stopwatch and do 5 minutes of deep breathing, with 6 breaths per minute. As you practice, you won’t need to watch each minute, as you will become familiar with your rate of breathing. As you go, just set yourself a 10–15-minute alarm and sit down to do some deep breathing. This is the perfect activity to bring into other parts of your life: at a meeting, sitting in traffic, during a heated discussion.
The results were significant and demonstrated that Reiki had a calming effect on the parasympathetic nervous system, by improving ECG readings, as well as increasing body temperature.
A healthy lifestyle is the best way you can accelerate healing on a daily basis—not only of your adrenal glands, but of your whole body. Start with one new practice a month. The goal is to make it stick as part of your routine. If you have never tried some of the recommendations here, go search them out in your community or through the resources section. Be flexible in your mind and allow yourself the opportunity to try new things. If you fail, get up and try again. The goal with your lifestyle changes is to make regular deposits to the adrenal bank account, so that when you do undergo
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California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is great if you really feel your stress response in your body and you have a lot of restlessness and pain. It can also help promote a deeper state of sleep. Cooling.
