How To Relax And Take It Easy Even With A Busy Day - #LifestyleFriday

Take a moment to analyze your body. As you’re reading this, do your shoulders feel tight? Do you clench your jaw waiting for the next thing to do after you finish it? Is your MS giving you a hard time when you are stressed? Are you getting intrigued where am I going with this? Read on. It’s worth it. I promise!

How you begin your morning sets up the tone for the entire day. If you wake up late and are in a constant rush as not to be late for work or to a certain appointment, you are going to continue feeling tense and stressed as you go along with your schedule.
Imagine easing into your day by having a relaxing, slow start. Imagine taking time to have breakfast and coffee while you check your to-do list and plan for the day ahead. There’s no reason to rush, as things happen with or without you being present.
Don’t stress about getting a certain task done ASP (even if you have a tight dealine). Just focus on one task at a time, and on doing it right. Find your breath and relax all those tight spots on your body. They bring even more stress along.
Do what your body and day allow you to do, as long as you align your actions with your written schedule. After a while, it will become second nature. It is true what they say, worrying never solved a problem, but worrying too much gave birth to headache, palpitations and anxiety.
Get up 30 minutes or an hour earlier. Take time in doing your morning routine. If you are on MS treatment, relax into it and breathe. Drink your coffee or tea. Dress up and plan your day ahead. Focus on the tasks at hand and prioritize.
You have it in you to make this day the best day yet. Let go of what other people might say or think about you. I know it’s hard. We constantly rely on other people’s opinions to have feedback for our actions. But we all live a different life and define our own reality.
What might seem worthless, stupid or a mistake for you, for others it may seem normal and even worthy of appreciation. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You are what you are and cannot change that in a split second or in 24 hours. It takes time, effort and actions taken to achieve a goal.
So, relax, take it easy!
Question of the day: What stress management choices do you usually make on a daily basis? Tell me all about it in the comments below.

This was all for this week’s #LifestyleFriday! Thanks for being here! Subscribe in the upper right hand corner so you don't miss any articles.

Love,
Alexandra

How to Choose Home-Cooked Meals Daily - #HealthyThursday

How many take-out or processed meals have you had in the last 24 hours? Or in the last month? Or for the past year? How many of these were already cooked and you just heated them? How many had ingredients that you could not read correctly? All these are choices you’ve made with food and feeding yourself. Think for a second: would you rather eat a chemistry lab or real food? Read on and see what you can do to start eating healthier.


GO BACK TO YOUR CHILDHOOD

Remember the smell of a home-cooked meal that you couldn’t wait to digg into? Those mouth-watering oven roasted and baked foods that your mum or grandma used to do? You can get back to those times, you know! It’s all about the choices you make.

Even in these rushed times we live in, you can have a healthy diet. Even if you have no time for cooking every day, you can eat good. And that without going to a restaurant or ordering a fast meal. With a little prep and organization, you can achieve that and still have time to post on Instagram. Here’s how:

  1. Surf the web and make a Pinterest board of the healthy foods you’d eat if you had the time to cook (Pinterest is such a good tool for that, as it’s mouthwatering, hehe!)
  2. Tweak the list and only keep the ones that are the quickest to prepare. You need to end up with 21 recipes (7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 7 dinners)
  3. List down all the ingredients you need and go grocery shopping. Buy some caseroles also. You’ll need them to store your prepped food in.
  4. Choose to cook in batches twice a week, for the next three days (ex: Wednesdays and Sundays)
  5. Pop the caseroles in the oven or get a raw meal if you have a microwave at work and enjoy!

GO-TO PANTRY LIST

Wondering what ingredients to choose? Take a look at my list for inspiration:
  • seafood (I usually go for shrimp)
  • free range chicken (breast and/or thighs)
  • free range turkey (breast and/or thigs)
  • smoked salmon
  • freerange beef
  • duck breast
  • freerange eggs
  • mushrooms
  • mixed greens
  • spinach
  • oranges
  • tangerines
  • lemons
  • organic ginger
  • almond / coconut milk
  • quinoa
  • brown / wild rice
  • Dijon mustard
  • Tabasco sauce
  • raw honey
  • apple cider vinegar
  • extravirgin olive oil
  • balsamic vinegar
  • chia seeds
  • almonds
  • sweet potatoes
  • cherry tomatoes (they rippen faster)
  • garlic
  • sauerkraut (I usually make my own)
  • apples
  • mangoes
  • broccoli
  • cauliflower
  • zucchini
  • eggplants
  • coconut oil
  • berries (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries)

I only touched the tip of the iceberg today. Food is an important topic when choosing a healthy lifestyle. There will be more articles and recipes where this came from. I promise!

Question of the day: What meal choices do you usually make on a daily basis? Tell me all about it in the comments below.


This was all for this week’s #HealthyThursday! Thanks for being here! Subscribe in the upper right hand corner so you don't miss any articles.

Love,
Alexandra

How to Make Smart Choices? - #SMartWednesday

We all heard about SMART goals. They have to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Been there, done that. But how does a choice look like under the same lens and how does it influence your life? Find out below.


WHAT IS A CHOICE?

A choice is the action of mentally making a decision. The moment when you are faced with options and need to assume just one. There are good choices, there are bad choices. But all you do in your life is choose. You  are your parents’ choice of having children. Think about that.

All that you’ve chosen until now has shaped you in one form or the other. All your daily habits are the consequence of choosing. Success, health and even your dream lifestyle begin with what you choose to do daily. In your morning rituals, in your to do list, in managing your priorities.

CHOOSE YOUR DREAM LIFESTYLE

Think about what you want in life. Mentally draw your ideal lifestyle. Be specific. Give details. Sketch it out on paper. What goals do you have? What do you aim for? List ready? Next, think about what choices you need to make daily in order to get you closer to fulfilling them.

Once you got those noted down, do the work! As Tim Ferriss says, “dreamline” your ideal lifestyle. Meaning that you need to put all of your choices on a timeline, in a time frame that allows you to work consistently and productively to achieve your goals.

Make sure to work in little, attainable steps. This helps you not to get discouraged on the long run. Set tight deadlines and measure your progress as you get to each target. See what choices have worked, what choices need to be done from now on, see what choices weren’t so smart after all.

The most important tip I can give you is to mind your emotions. Be aware of the state of mind you are in when making a choice. In general, positive mindsets generate good ideas, and negative mindsets generate bad ones. Think about moments when you are angry and say something that you later regret. That was a bad choice.

The trick is to do all the things needed to attain a positive state of mind, to be happy and calm in order to be able to focus on choosing well, on choosing smart. That’s what SMart Choice Lifestyle is all about! I’m here to guide your way into making the right choices for you. The choices that are in allignment with who you are as a person, and with what you want to do with your life.

In order to gain a positive mindset you have to change the way you see the world. Transform the way you think of yourself and your life. All change is triggered by something that happened, is happening or will happen in your life.

The catch is to learn how to accept, adapt and finally overcome whatever negative things you have in your life right now. Be it stress, anxiety, disability, fear, anger, being overweight, depressed, etc. The biggest change comes from within and goes from the inside-out.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

There are three layers we need to peal in order to start acting our choices: body, mind and emotion. Join me tomorrow as we start working on how to declutter and simplify our bodies from the inside out.

Question of the day: How did choices influenced your life so far? Tell me all about it in the comments below.


This was all for this week’s #SMartWednesday! Thanks for being here! Subscribe in the upper right hand corner so you don't miss any articles.

Love,

Alexandra

NOVEMBER 2015 Favorites & Inspirational Findings - #LifestyleFriday

At the beginning of each month, I count the blessings and misfortunes of the previous one. Welcome to #LifestyleFriday November Favorites & Inspirational Findings  Edition!


MONTHLY FAVORITES

Salmon is still my favourite food! Especially when I find new ways to cook and enjoy it. This month I made it into medium sized fishballs, and served it next to vegetable rice. Delicious!

Since I began my yoga practice, inversions have been one of my favourite poses. Prasarita Padottanasana, or Wide Legged Forward Fold, is a mild inversion, that calms the nervous system, calms anxiety and stretches the back legs among many other benefits.

It has helped me unwind and let go of steam whenever I felt like I needed to cool off. You might think that is not a big deal to fold forward like this, but you’ll be surprised at how much your feet and legs have to work to execute it correctly (and safely!).

Here’s how Yoga Journal teaches it, and this is how Adriene taught me. Choose your favourite. They are equally useful, but my money’s been on Mrs. Mishler for more than a year now! Hehe!

Relaxation has been the best so far this month. I have been meditating twice a day for 10 minutes each, since May this year and let me tell you: VISUALISATION RULES! If you are a visual person like me, you’ll totally resonate with putting your mind at ease in your very own zen garden.

Focus on the breath and immerse yourself into plush white clouds, green meadows with calm lakes, big trees with lots of shade and scream on top of a mountain! Let the mind be calm. Let the mind unwind! You need it!

INSPIRATIONAL FINDINGS

This November, Mr. Dale Carnegie caught my attention with his world-renowned “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. A classic for self-development and everybody who wants to be liked and respected by people. Nevermind that it’s been written in 1936! It’s teachings are still of value. It has taught me to respect, listen to and give back to people in order to even have the nerve to expect admiration and love. How you are with them draws the image they associate with you in their minds. Please use warm and cheerful colors! The world has enough shades of gray (pun intended!)

Once again, Chase Jarvis makes his way onto my list of inspirational people! Beginning with CreativeLive and arriving at his new YouTube series called #cjRAW, this man’s creative journey has caught my attention for years now. Photography, chasing your own dream, the climb to finding your passion in life, constant learning and the importance of education are the points in which I find similarities. Is that enough? Hehe!

Adriene Mishler is a daily presence when I’m on the yoga mat. Her fun classes and insightful tips and tricks makes you feel and accept that your body can do more than the mind can think of doing. Once you understand that and focus on the breath and sensations in the body, Mrs Mishler’s mission is fullfilled. Find what feels good and you’ll find yourself.

The Ikonnians, like someone named them, have done it again! After being outrunned by Gary Vee, Tim Ferris and Chase last month, Mimi and Alex Ikonn were back in my daily playlist on YouTube this November! Business made easy, inspiration to pursue your ideas and dreams and to build a sustainable lifestyle while you enjoy every second of it.

Food Matters TV did a free broadcast of four of their most compelling movies about food, health and emotions. These are usually available to purchase on their website, but they decided to share incredible information with their followers, at no cost, but only benefits. “Origins”, “Hungry for Change” and “e-Motion” paint a thriller-ish picture of today’s food industry and food choices available in our supermarkets, plus hidden dangers in our homes and the trapped negative emotions in our bodies and minds. Wholeheartedly, the most insightful documentaries I have seen in a while now.

THANK YOU!

I am so grateful for all of you! For reading the blog, for retweeting, for liking on Facebook and on Instagram. For simply being there to listen. It is so important for me to stay in touch with you guys and make my message be heard. 2016 will be full of surprises! Stick around!

This was all for this week’s #LifestyleFriday! Thanks for being here!
You can Subscribe in the upper right hand corner.

Love,
Alexis

NOVEMBER 2015 Health Review, Tips & Quick Recipe - #HealthyThursday

At the beginning of each month, I count the blessings and misfortunes of the previous one. Welcome to #HealthyThursday November Health Review, Tips & Quick Recipe Edition! Keep reading to find out more.


MS STATUS UPDATE

Since last month, I’ve seen my MS act up a little bit more than usual. Meaning I got faced with new symptoms that went on and off and thus not being able to be considered as relapses. You relapse when you experience a new symptom or an older one acts up differently, the whole issue last longer than 24 hours, and you are at least 30 days apart from your last episode.

There were mostly sensory and visual issues, but concentrated around my premenstrual period, when the body gets inflammed and hot (totally not the type of hotness you would want in a relationship!) from the inside out. Top that with days where my lifestyle schedule got upside down due to urgent stuff, social occasions and cravings and you get multiple sclerosis and emotional mayhem.

I noticed “menthol” sensations down my right front shin. The type of sensation you get when you put a menthol based cream on your body, or that when your body recovers from being numb. It went on and off, but nothing stable. The second thing was some stinging in my left eye. The type of pain that you have when an eyelash falls inside your eye. But trust me, I know how to tell those two apart by now! This also was short-lived, so I got over it.

HEALTH TIPS

The body is a well-oiled machine, that you can fine tune to be the best shape and version of you possible. Have the same sleeping patterns, the same healthy diet and the same amount of exercise daily. Once you get used to that lifestyle, you’ll feel a lot better, trust me. But there is a downside to that also. The brain has to learn new patterns, skills and habits. If you screw that up, not having a constant behavior, it’s going to be confused and act up. It’s important to have a schedule and stick to it.

Daily exercise and stopping to be present in the moment are equally important techniques to master. Moving your body constantly and progressively makes you stronger and more flexible. Staying present in the moment and breathing deeply while you focus on your breath gets you closer to your self and calms your mind. If the body doesn’t move, the mind is racing.

So, this month’s health tip is eat moderately, move more and relax the mind through breathing.

Not stuffing your face makes you feel lighter and boosts up your self confidence. Exercising trims and tones that body to fit into your favorite clothes and being mindful and relaxing with breathing helps you to see things more clearly and have a calmer outlook on your life.

QUICK RECIPE

I know you want it! I know you crave it! It’s your favorite guilty pleasure! Chocolate!
Here’s the gluten, dairy and refined sugar-free recipe that you’ll just fall in love with!

COCONUT HONEY CHOCOLATE
(serves 2; difficulty: easy; time needed: aprox. 5 minutes)



INGREDIENTS:
Basic recipe:
  • 6 tablespoons of coconut oil (melted)
  • 4 tablespoons of raw honey
  • 6 tablespoons of raw cocoa

Add your own twist:
  • essence of your liking (rum, vanilla, etc)
  • chopped peanuts, goji berries, almonds, etc

HOW IT'S DONE:
  • melt the coconut oil over low heat, until it gets liquid (put aside to cool off)



  • in a bowl mix together the cocoa, honey, essences and add the oil (use a mixer to get a creamier texture and to speed things up a bit; you could also do this with a spoon)





  • after all the ingredients are evenly blended, add the twist of your liking (I didn't today)
  • eat it right away if you like, or put it in the freezer for 1-2 hours to harden, take it out and serve with the fruit or topping of your linking (same or other than the ones you used in the mix).


Moderation is advised, as it’s still a sweet treat.

So now you know what to do when those cravings hit home! Hehe!

This was all for this week’s #HealthyThursday! Thanks for being here!
You can Subscribe in the upper right hand corner.

Love,
Alexis