Most of us know that it would be beneficial to reduce stress levels in order to improve our quality of life. What does this mean in practice though, do we even still know what our bodies feel like to be stress-free? What happens to our bodies through extensive experience of stress? And, have you ever asked yourself if your capability of handling stress is affected by the things you eat?

Let’s start with the basic, but important details to understand what happens in our bodies when we are exposed to stressful circumstances.

What healthy habit do you want to (re)introduce after the summer holidays ?⁠

Mine is routine exercise. But why do I want to get back into routine exercise if I move regularly? I feel out of balance when I am not regularly exercising, and for me it plays such an important role to nourish me on a physical and mental level.

But I know too well how hard it can be to get back on track.

Here are 5 of my hacks to get back into routine. ⁠

I want to share a little more about me – what led me to become an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and the health and wellness challenges I’ve personally had to overcome.

When I sat down to jot down some points, I realised there’s quite a lot to cover. So here’s part one of my story – the part about what led me to become a coach – and then in posts to follow I’d love to share my experience with migraines and my journey with infertility. Both seemed to warrant their own space and if what I share helps just one person, then I consider my story worthwhile.

Regardless of country or culture, we are bombarded daily with information on the ‘latest’ health trends, ‘leading’ wellness advice and the ‘must do / have’ diet, treatment, gadget or gizmo. It’s exhausting!

But luckily some sense is starting to prevail and we’re seeing a promising focus on the world of wellness coaching … and specifically Integrative Nutrition Health Coaching.

Let’s consider what this actually means…

In our last post, we talked about what burnout is, why it’s important to avoid it and what the common signs are. But what if you’re already there? What if you’re already running on that trail, heading towards burnout and you need to slow down and head in a different direction?

Today, we’re sharing tried and tested tools and techniques to help manage those stress levels, beat the immense feelings of overwhelm and avoid the burnout.

Our hectic schedules, long working hours, incessant multi-tasking, lack of self-care and often negligible downtime all lead to one rock-bottom consequence; burnout. Add to this the demands of our digital age and the general wear and tear that comes from living through a global pandemic… and perhaps it’s no surprise that this subject seems so relevant to so many.

Burnout can so easily go unnoticed. It doesn’t just happen overnight. Rather, stress levels creep up and up, becoming chronic by nature and eventually lead to burnout… so the difference between stress and burnout is simply a matter of degree. It goes without saying then that the earlier you can recognise the signs, the more likely you will be able to avoid burnout.

Living with migraines has played an integral role in my interest in health and wellness and the knowledge and insight I have developed in my studying and working as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach has been fundamental in managing them and ultimately curing them.

In 2009, aged 34, I started getting severe headaches. At the time, I was living a fast-paced life in Dubai, with great responsibility. I worked hard and my career was thriving but behind the scenes, my life was one of high stress and my lifestyle involved too much alcohol, too many late nights and too little sleep.

Before relocating to Germany start of 2019, I had spent 14 years living and working in the Middle East. Dubai was my home and I embraced the rich cultural tapestry of UAE life as much as I could.

Detoxing. The very word can conjure up controversy, with some swearing by the benefits of a detox progamme and others, believing they’re all hype. I’m sure many readers aren’t even quite sure what a detox actually entails exactly so let’s go back to basics and digest what the very word means. 

I believe when we all stop and check in to see how our body is holding up, we can all relate to how a loss of sleep can take its toll on our energy, mood, decision-making and ability to handle stress

This week last year was the British Nutriton Foundation Health Eating Week.  This year however this great initiative has been scheduled for end of September which we can only assume is a result of COVID-19.    However, why wait we ask?  Why not introduce some changes now?