Lifestyle

Sage advice for boosting your vitality: our 6 tips

Your vitality encompasses all of you – body, mind and spirit. Here are our nutrition and lifestyle tips to support you on your journey towards feeling more invigorated. Every day….

Your vitality encompasses all of you – body, mind and spirit.

Here are our nutrition and lifestyle tips to support you on your journey towards feeling more invigorated. Every day.

1. Eat the rainbow

And give your body and mind a new-found vigour. The more plant-powered colour on your plate, the greater the variety of health-promoting nutrients and health benefits you’ll receive – from energising and calming vitamins and minerals like B vitamins and magnesium, to cell-protective antioxidants and health-promoting phytochemicals (plant compounds).

On top of this, a diet rich in fresh produce will provide you with a good mix of soluble and insoluble fibre to support long and short-term digestive health, leaving you feeling lighter.

Aim for at least five different colours with each meal and not just from fruit and vegetables. Take advantage of fresh and dried herbs and spices, like antioxidant-rich turmeric, ginger and cayenne pepper and unique wholegrains like red and purple rice.

2. Supercharge your sleep

Sleep is incredibly restorative, but it’s not just getting eight hours a night that matters. ‘Sleep hygiene’, or practises that improve the quality of your sleep are ultimately what will help you to wake feeling refreshed. These might include:

Setting an alarm for bedtime – a reminder to yourself that it’s time to stop whatever you’re doing and to start winding down.

Dimming the lights an hour before bed to promote your body’s natural production of melatonin, ‘the sleep hormone’.

Putting all stimulating smart devices away at least an hour before bed…a non-negotiable!

Doing something that you know helps you to wind down – perhaps taking a bath, doing a breathing exercises podcast or some gentle stretching.

3. Move your body

With today’s typically sedentary lifestyle – from sitting on the bus to get to work, to sitting at your desk all day and then collapsing on the couch at night – we could all do with more movement. We all know that exercise gets your blood flowing, loosens tight muscles and increases endorphins – but the challenge is being disciplined enough to do that workout.

Finding an exercise you love is key, because it’s the only way you’re going to stick to it. Whether that’s yoga, pilates, jogging or swimming, you do you.

4. Remember to hydrate

If you don’t give your body enough water, your energy levels can significantly drop – along with your mood and concentration. Water also helps to carry and deliver the nutrients from the food you eat to different cells in the body, enabling them to do their job.

Then there’s the fact that water helps things move along the digestive tract, adding bulk to the stool and alleviating constipation, along with the bloating and sluggishness that comes with it.

Most fruit and vegetables also have a high water content, and herbal tea counts as water, so drink up! Black tea and coffee on the other hand are dehydrating, so be conscious of how much you’re consuming.

5. Seek positive relationships

Toxic relationships are draining. Nurturing relationships increase your happiness and support good health. Surround yourself with people who make you laugh, who listen to what you have to say and who make you feel good about yourself.

6. Do something for you every day

Whether it’s twenty minutes of meditation, a walk out in the fresh air on your lunch break or curling up with a book at the end of a day, self-love makes up a significant piece of the vitality puzzle. We’re all different, so whatever makes you feel recharged, do that.

Join our community and be inspired! Sign up to our newsletter for weekly advice, fun facts and info to support your plant-powered journey. We’ll share special offers and our new dishes with you too.

Published: 22/02/19

Comments are closed.