Improve your Sleep Quality! Rapid Eye Movement- A Sleep Metric Not to Be Overlooked

/0 Comments

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is a crucial stage of sleep that plays a significant role in exercise, body transformation, and holistic health. During REM sleep, the body undergoes essential repairs and maintenance, releases growth hormones, and boosts the immune system, making it a critical factor in achieving optimal physical health.

In addition to its physical benefits, REM sleep also plays a crucial role in emotional regulation and memory consolidation, which are essential for a holistic approach to health and wellbeing. Studies have shown that REM sleep deprivation can lead to emotional instability, anxiety, and depression, and can also impair learning, memory, and cognitive function.

When it comes to body transformation and exercise, REM sleep is essential for muscle growth and recovery. During REM sleep, the body releases growth hormones that help repair and regenerate tissues, making it an essential factor in achieving optimal physical fitness.

To optimize your REM sleep for a holistic approach to health, it’s crucial to prioritize sleep hygiene practices such as maintaining a regular sleep schedule, reducing caffeine intake, and avoiding electronic devices before bed. Getting adequate REM sleep is also essential for weight loss and reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease.

In conclusion, REM sleep is a critical factor in achieving optimal physical health, body transformation, and holistic health. By prioritizing healthy sleep hygiene practices and ensuring adequate REM sleep, you can optimize your health and wellbeing and achieve your fitness goals.

The Health Cake

/0 Comments

Welcome to the Healthy Bestari Health Cake! A metaphorically delicious analogy to help you maintain optimal wellness throughout your health journey.

Sleep: 

  1. Total time in bed 
    1. From lights out to morning alarm. 
  2. REM vs. Deep vs. Light Sleep
    1. The easiest way to measure your quality of sleep is by using wearables like the Apple Watch.
  3. # of significant waking moments
    1. We all tend to wake up during the night, if you begin counting the amount of times this can happen, you can trace the reason behind it. Maybe you forgo a glass of water before bed! In some instances, such as being a young parent, this is impossible to alter, but there are things you can do to improve your sleep quality, such as proper supplementation. We recommend taking a probiotic and Vitamin D before sleep. You can also alternate with Magnesium and Dormavit – but check with your doctor beforehand. 
  4. % of time with Heart Rate (HR) below Resting Heart Rate (RHR)
    1. Your resting heart rate is the average HR you have when you are resting. It is a good indicator of health as the stronger your heart is, the more blood it pumps per second, hence decreasing the beats per minute. When you are sleeping you are at a state of low metabolic need, meaning a lower need for oxygen. Your body needs less oxygen then even when you are at ‘rest’ (sitting, laying down, not moving) during the day. However, certain things such as when you eat before bed, alcohol, caffeine and other factors that stress out your digestion or adrenals can lead your heart rate to be above your RHR preventing you from achieving proper rest and recovery.

Nutrition:

  1. Timing
    1. Make sure to leave enough fasting time between meals to fully digest your previous meal. It prevents your digestive tract from getting stressed out and keeps your colon happy. We also suggest avoiding meals or snacks a few hours before bed as eating before bed can tamper with your sleep quality. 
  2. Micro and Macro Nutrients
    1. Ensuring you are getting enough vitamins and minerals through your diet by eating as organic as possible.
  3. Total Kcal
    1. Using a calorie counter app on your smartphone can help you count your calorie intake. Try not to get too caught up in counting calories though, it mainly comes down to eating enough and not too much and moving your body.
  4. Pre-Pro-Post Biotics for your Microbiome
    1. Prebiotics are defined by the amount of food that your gut bacteria have at their disposal. Usually non-soluble fiber, which is found in vegetables, fruit, whole grains are what these bacterias feed on. The probiotics are defined by the type and diversity of the species of bacteria that are found in the small but mostly large intestine. You can add probiotic foods to your daily diet such as: sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, raw cheese, nato, umeboshi, etc. Postbiotic is the inter-relation between bacteria that is created by the gases and by-product that one bacteria might produce, which is then used by another bacteria allowing for an even more biodiverse environment. Aim to have a good balance of both pre and probiotics in your daily diet for optimal gut health. 

Exercise:

  1. Frequency, Intensity, Type, Time
    1. Try to switch up your workout routine to have a nice balance between High Intensity Cardio and Strength Training to prevent injury.
  2. Is it stress and fuel matched?
    1. When you are functioning at a high stress level, high intensity exercises can be beneficial for stress release. In order to prevent chronic stress in your body, it is important to wind down after high intensity workouts and to balance your intense workouts with calmer activities such as yoga or strength training. 
    2. Make sure to match your fuel to your workout, carbohydrates help prepare your body for high stress exercise, whereas a protein shake can be beneficial on strengthening days.

Breathwork:

  1. Chest vs. Diaphragm
    1. Shallow vs. Deep breathing: Always take time for long deep breaths throughout your day to lower your cortisol and stress response. Try our favourite breathwork practice here. 
  2. Frequency
    1. How often do you remember to breathe? Most of us don’t realize we are shallow breathing throughout the day, which can stress out our adrenal system over time and limit you on your path to health. This book is a great way to reconnect to your breath.
  3. Nasal vs. Mouth
    1. Nasal breathing will allow you to produce more Nitrous Oxide, which is a chemical which allows you to vasodilate (increase blood flow). However, it is much harder to get a high ventilation frequency as the nasal pathway is smaller than if you were to open your mouth to breathe. If your goal is to challenge your cardiovascular system without going past your anaerobic threshold (defined to be the line where you cross from an endurance type of intensity to a higher intensity type of exercise) then choosing nasal breathing during a workout is key. It is also a better way to access your rest and digest state as you increase the blood flow towards your body, letting it recover. We love using a Neti Pot with Pink Salt once in a while to keep your nasal passages clear, especially during allergy season!

Curbing Cravings around the Holidays

/0 Comments

We know it is almost impossible to stick to a nutrition plan during the holidays, so here is a short cheat sheet that will help you feel less guilty and sluggish after indulging this holiday season and help curb cravings. If you are unsure about supplementing your diet, please speak with your family doctor beforehand.

Glutamine

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in our bodies. It minimises our sugar cravings as it is able to quickly convert to glucose, which stops the cravings signalling from our brain. It also helps maintain seratonin balance, which influences appetite signals, preventing us from overeating. During the holiday season, up your protein intake to ensure you are getting enough glutamine and if you are eating a mainly plant-based diet, we reccomend supplementing appropriately.

Eat High Fat Whole Foods

Eating high fat foods (think avocado, coconut milk, nut butters), satisfies a sweet tooth without causing an insulin release. Now is the time to make that chocolate avocado mousse you’ve seen floating around social media as it will not affect your blood sugar levels the same way too many pieces of holiday fudge will.

Probiotics

Keeping our gut happy is the key to living a healthy life. Taking a daily probiotic (and doubling up on heavy holiday food days) is the perfect way to keep your body and digestion in tact during the holiday season.

Holiday Seasonal Stress got you down?

/0 Comments

Here is a quick and easy way to unwind for your mental health

With the holiday season upon us and fatigue from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and the current situation of the world post-pandemic, our stress levels are running quite high. Here is a short breathwork practice to help prevent burnout and help you manage your stress before we delve into the holidays. Maintaining your wellness practice around this time of year can be difficult but short bursts of movement or moments of calm can help you and your holiday plans run a bit smoother.

Enhance your breathwork practice with a warm drink, such as caffeine free herbal tea or an adaptogenic latte and a face mist to set the mood.

 

3 Easy Ways to Embrace Self Care in your Daily Routine

/0 Comments

Dry Brush 

You may have heard of dry brushing before but if not, it is the practice of brushing your body in small circular motions in the direction of your heart. It is best done before showering as it can bring toxins to the surface of your skin. By dry brushing, you are stimulating your body’s lymphatic system and promoting the drainage of extra fluid or toxins. It helps with bloating, blood circulation, swelling and sluggishness. The process only takes a few minutes and is an easy self care activity to add to your daily routine. We love a dry brush with copper as it has the added benefit of exfoliating the skin and provides a stronger lymphatic reaction than regular bristled dry brushes. 

Hydrate

This health tip sounds so simple but it is truly difficult to remember to continously drink water throughout the day. We reccomend investing in a water bottle you genuinely enjoy using and sourcing the cleanest water possibly. We love a carbon filter attached to the faucet as water filters that use plastic containers tend to contain microplastics.

No Devices Before Bed

It is one of the most difficult tasks, but putting your electronics away an hour before bed has proven to improve your sleep quality. The blue light emitted from our phones interrupts our natural sleep cycle and does not allow our mind and body to prepare for bedtime. Since it is almost wintertime, with less sunlight and shorter days, we suggest using a SAD lamp that alternates with morning and evening lighting cycles to mimic a sunrise and sunset. It makes it easier to wake up in the morning and go to bed, without the harsh light from our electronics. Instead of falling asleep to the social media scroll, check out a few of our favorite reads:

  1. A book on Ayurvedic Self Care
  2. Cooking for a Healthy Life
  3. The Travel Book – perfect for lulling yourself into your dream holiday sleep

Health Tips to Boost Your Morning Coffee

/1 Comment

Boost your morning coffee

Although I recommend avoiding caffeine where possible, I understand that sometimes, even for myself, it is just impossible. So let’s focus on boosting your morning cup of joe to ensure you are filling your body with the right nutrients to stay focused and elevated throughout your morning!

Medicinal Mushrooms and Adaptogens

We love FourSigmatic, a medicinal mushroom company that specializes in caffeinated goodness to keep your body and mind balanced but also awake. You can learn more about the benefits of medical mushrooms here and even try out a more local brand, Pilz-Kaffee. We also love to add adaptogens to our coffee. Adaptogens are herbs that aid our adrenals and support our overall health, they can lessen the unwelcome side effects of caffeine (think: insomnia and anxiety). You can learn more about their benefits and uses here. Scoop your adaptogens in style and enjoy brain supportive adaptogen powders such as this one. 

Milk? Mylk? Alt-Milk?

Choosing the right milk for you can feel intimidating nowadays since there are so many options out there. If you can handle it, we recommend finding a good organic whole milk to use in your cappuccinos. If not, a dairy-free milk with no additives or unnecessary oils (always check the ingredient list) or simply adding a collagen boosting creamer to blend right in with your coffee. We love to blend with this milk frother.

Local Roasters and the Right Tools

We love supporting our local roasters where we can, you can easily type ‘local coffee roaster’ into GoogleMaps to find one in your neighbourhood! In Amsterdam we are lucky to have a plethora of local coffee roasters with a great selection of beans for sale. A lot of roasters pride themselves on fair trade practices and sourcing organic coffee beans, better for you and the planet! 

When it comes to making your morning coffee, we love to have a special coffee corner where we can embrace this morning ritual. We use a Solis espresso machine, you can use an electric bean grinder or try out our favorite morning arm workout, the manual Porlex grinder. Enjoy your enhanced morning cup of coffee at home or on the go!

Flu Season is back: Easy Health Tips to boost your Immunity

/0 Comments

Supplement with Vitamin D3

As the days grow shorter, our body absorbs less Vitamin D3, which is a crucial vitamin for our immune system. During the winter months, it is recommended to supplement with Vitamin D3 to improve our immune response when faced with all the colds and flus of this season, it can also aid in bettering your sleep.  

We recommend a liquid Vitamin D3 taken daily before bed. You can also drink an immune boosting tea during the day instead of reaching for another cup of caffeine. We like the organic selection offered at Ekoplaza in The Netherlands. 

Eat your Vitamins

Add whole foods high in Vitamin C and antibacterial foods to your diet. We recommend: garlic, citrus fruits, bell peppers, strawberries, cruciferous vegetables, cinnamon, turmeric, cranberries, currants. Avoid any processed sugar as it significantly raises blood sugar and causes inflammation in the body and brain, which can lower the strength of your immune response. 

At the onset of cold and flu symptoms, we recommend taking a Protect Plus supplement and oil of oregano to kill any bad bacteria brewing in your body. Make sure to take both with food to avoid any potential nausea.

As the temperature cools down, we love looking at different cookbooks to explore warming recipes to soothe the body and mind during the autumn/winter season. This is the holy grail of soup recipes. In our household, Pho is a family favorite, this book is a great start to learn different ways to make this Vietnamese dish. 

Move your body!

The best way to adjust to the changing seasons is to get outside and embrace fresh air. Going for 2 short walks a day can boost your mood and get in those steps! It is tempting to curl up and Netflix and chill but taking a half an hour every day to stretch out and strengthen your body keeps your lymphatic system moving and your immune response strong. Amsterdam has plenty of parks to enjoy and lots of cute doggies to motivate you to get out there and enjoy the fresh air. 

If the overcast skies are too daunting, here is a quick Posture Reset workout you can try in the comfort of your own living room after a long day of working in front of the computer:  

3 Easy Tips to Help You Achieve Your Health and Fitness Goals

/0 Comments

 

With our busy schedules, it is always hard to find time for self care and motivation to work out. Follow these three easy tips that you can integrate into your daily schedule  to help guide you in your wellness journey.

Wake up and breathe deep

Our first inclination nowadays is to reach for our phones and catch up on anything we might have missed while asleep. Instead, try to take three deep breaths first, then allow yourself to check your phone. You can even slowly build up the amount of time you breathe, start with those first three breaths, then the next day try four or five. Eventually over a few weeks of practice, you might wake up craving these few moments of relaxation before jumpstarting your day and raising your cortisol by checking your phone or computer immediately upon waking. As you build up your morning breathwork routine, you can include items such as a meditation pillow and meditation room spray that create a sense of routine as you start your day. 

Don’t set unrealistic goals

You are more willing to give up without even trying if you set unrealistic fitness or nutrition goals. Like with the morning breathwork practice, build up your weekly workouts over time. If you normally work out once a week – don’t overload your adrenals by suddenly jumping into daily workouts, this can cause injury and unnecessary stressors. Instead, start taking one or two extra classes a week. You can apply this method to any goals you have on your wellness journey. Don’t set an unhealthy weight loss goal that can cause you to spiral and engage in unhealthy habits, work together with your trainer, nutritionist or medical expert to set a healthy tiered weight loss plan that can get you to where you want to be without causing any damage to yourself mentally or physically. Multiple smaller goals will help you get to where you want to be without overwhelming yourself and giving up because where you aim to be seems so unattainable. Try using a journal to track your efforts, we like this journal, or this meal plan journal.

Clean out your kitchen

As we hear a lot nowadays, overall health comes from the gut. A lot of food in supermarkets these days contains unnecessary additives that disrupt our hormones causing weight gain, mood swings and long term health problems. Start by tossing or donating everything in your kitchen with ingredients that are not whole foods (think soy lecithin, and E-additives). Shop as local as you can, find nearby organic farmer’s markets – here in Amsterdam we have many throughout the city on different days of the week – and shop as organic as you can afford to. Fill your fridge with seasonal vegetables and fruit, and integrate probiotics (whether through water kefir, ferments, or a daily probiotic) to keep your gut working optimally. Make your life easier by keeping a Fridge grocery list, and get inspired by flipping through one of our favorites: Pegan Diet: Cookbook, Clean Plate Cookbook, and don’t forget to stock up on probiotics.