Level Up Wellness: 5 ideas to feel great!

2018 had a whirlwind ending for me. Down with bronchitis, asthma, and a huge to-do list for work and family. Including my 11th wedding anniversary and the birth of my sister’s baby! Phew. I felt a little out of control and helpless. Adding to my mindset was not knowing if my breast scare would be okay (it was). My wellness routines were all screwed up and its safe to say I wasn’t feeling my best.

My life’s work is in fitness and helping others feel great so I wondered what am I missing here? Like most of us, I have an aversion towards resolutions but secretly I crave fresh starts, goals, and beginnings. I decided I am focusing on intentions for my health and the rest of the career/family/relationship “resolutions” will follow! Here are some of my new approaches to feeling good and staying healthy. There are so many tools nowadays to take control of your health and really explore how to be your best self.

Meditation

I am not good at this! The closest I get to meditation are my dance classes at MaZi. When I am moving it’s the closest I get to my mind being blank! It’s utopia for me, I’m just there with the music and nothing seems relevant. Unfortunately, I’ve been advised that this isn’t true meditation and that even though my mind is quiet when I’m dancing, my body needs to also be still (D’OH!) to achieve the desired effects. This is one of my favorite articles about the benefits! An app that everyone seems to be using is Headspace. Do you recommend something else? Let me know!

Restoration

Being able to properly restore your mind and body make a difference between longevity and achievement. I have referenced this before on this blog, but that was my #1 takeaway from Tom Brady’s book. He plainly describes that being able to amp yourself down is equally, if not more important than how you are amping yourself up.

About 7 years ago I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue by my local holistic guru, Dr. Pontarelli from Windy City Wellness. After a series of injuries, weight gain and stress, he tested me for it and there it was! Adrenal fatigue affects almost all of us to some degree. Usual culprits are over-connectedness (hello Instagram!), consumption of sugar, over-exercising, not enough sleep, too much caffeine, not enough food and mental stress. Sounds familiar? Sounds like a snowball effect? It is! It’s a very dangerous place to be in because your body isn’t working properly or recovering. Even though I know how to avoid this state, what it feels like to have it, and what to do if I have it, it is SO hard to get yourself out of this state.

You need a proper supplement, like Himalaya StressCare, exercise (but NOT overexercise), cut the sugar and caffeine, eat regularly and ENOUGH food already and take time to be grateful. So it’s not easy, but it can be done. Overcoming it naturally by changing habits for sure beats having to pop a pill every morning of prescribed drugs to counter the symptoms in my mind. I encourage you to check out this site for other wonderful supplements that are high quality and prices extremely competitively.

DNA Secrets

It’s funny some people really don’t want all the information that DNA sequencing entails and there are a lot of options out there. I think information is power, and when it comes to taking actionable steps towards changing your health, I think it’s extremely valuable. I recently discovered Helix, a DNA discovery kit that not only tells you about your ancestry but had specific apps you can use that give you info about what you can do given your unique results. I’m currently awaiting my results and eager to find out what I can tweak in my lifestyle. Stay tuned for what I learn and how to use their apps!

Better Beauty

If you haven’t started to think about this already, I encourage you to think about exploring better beauty brands! If you’re like me, I was super locked into the brands that I liked and grew up with. Unfortunately, a lot of what I was using was highly toxic for me and I didn’t really care that much because I had the mentality of “nothing will happen to me personally”.

When I had my first baby, however, my mama bear antennas immediately perked up and I was like wait. I realized I couldn’t put those toxic products all over my skin and face anymore. I couldn’t ignore the fact that I had a little living human attached to me most of the day breathing and rubbing in all I have on me. It wasn’t a complete 180 for me, but I’m proud to say 80% of my cosmetics and beauty and skincare products are “#cleanbeauty” now.

If you don’t know where to start on your clean beauty journey check this out.  Some of my favorites to start with are: Dew Skin, Mascara, Countermatch Adaptive Moisturizer, and lipstick! What you put on your skin matters more than you think. This year, I’m so excited to have BeautyCounter in my court. For more info on the company, check out an article that came out on the mission of the founder Gregg Renfrew in the New York Times recently! I love that this company is fighting for a change in laws so that EVERYONE can have safer products, not just you and I! There are other great brands out there also for safer beauty, so find what works for you. 🙂

Eating IN

I need to do another blog post about eating and nutrition because there is TOO much to say about this subject! However, one quick thing that I am trying to do is to cook more. It is so hard for me. I have two verifiable businesses, two kids, and I’m a gemini. LOL Ok, if you don’t know the liability of being one, let me just say it adds complexity. 🙂 I do enjoy cooking, and I used to be good at it, so I realized I just need to bear down and grab the pan.

I’m currently looking for a good solution for recipes that I can handle in 30 minutes max! I feel so much better when I don’t order take-out all the time. In December it got really BAD, like maybe 3x a week! I’m excited to try a new service called EveryPlate, have you heard of it? If you want to try it with me get 6 free meals across your first 3 weeks + free shipping with code: DANCINGMAMA30!

Wishing you a very healthy and happy 2019! Please chime on your current wellness trends, I would love to learn! Click here for selfcare tips even when you’re busy and here to learn more about my first wellness podcast. XO, Z

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