How to Make Small Nutritious Shifts Towards Better Health

Sometimes, a giant leap towards a healthier, happier life is necessary. Other times, small shifts can get you to the same place with a lower risk of failure. To celebrate National Nutrition Month, we’re focusing on helping you make those small changes. Call them Nutritious Shifts. They’re tweaks to your diet, exercise, and sleep habits that are easy to act on right now—that will have a major impact on your overall health. We’re rolling out two each week during March to coincide with the eight pillars of a Nutritious Life (so keep checking back for additions!). Join us in making each (easy!) shift throughout the month. Share your progress on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtags #nutritiousshifts and #livinganutritiouslife. At the end of March, we’ll feature our favorite posts on the Nutritious Life blog (so you’ve got a shot at wellness fame, too!). Nutritious Shift 1: Eat Vegetables for Breakfast Getting veggies in at every meal is a great way to Eat Empowered, but breakfast can be tough if you’re a yogurt or oatmeal kind of gal. Get creative and try including a veggie in the first meal of the day this week. Throw greens like kale or spinach into a smoothie, add peppers and onions to your scrambled eggs, or add tomato to your avocado toast. You can even make a salad and throw an egg on top. Try These Recipes: Antioxidant Smoothie There’s spinach mixed into all of the sweetness. Leftovers Frittata You can throw any leftover roasted or sauteed veggies in here, or use up the last of a bag of greens. Morning Glory Muffins Yummy grain-free muffins made with carrot and pumpkin. Nutritious Shift 2: Go Local We’re not suggesting you give up all of your grocery plans and start foraging for mushrooms in the local park. Just choose one tiny thing you can do this week to support the local food economy that you might otherwise have skipped. Here are a few easy ideas: Replace one grocery store trip with a quick stop at a farmer’s market, local farm stand, small bakery, or neighborhood butcher shop. Sign up for a local CSA (farm share) for the upcoming spring/summer seasons. At your grocery store, look for a fruit or veggie grown in your state and throw it in your basket even if it wasn’t what you’d normally buy. If you live in New York, click the “Local” tab on FreshDirect and get some local produce delivered right to your door. Now, how easy is that?! Nutritious Shift 3: Make a Workout Date One foolproof way to make sure you Sweat Often? Find a workout BFF. Exercising with a partner has a few benefits: you’re less likely to bail if someone expects you to show up, and you may push yourself harder to impress a friend. Most importantly, it’s more fun—and a fitness routine is only sustainable if you enjoy it. You may have heard of all of this before, but we want you to commit to trying one of these specific #NutritiousShifts to make your fitness routine social this month: Instead of meeting a friend or coworker for happy hour, schedule a yoga or spin class. Tap a fitness-loving friend to be your new workout buddy and make a schedule for the next month that details when you’re going to meet up to hit the gym. If you’re in a relationship, go for a run with your partner on Sunday instead of (or better yet…before!) going to brunch. Try out a run club or social fitness group like Electric Flight Crew or the November Project (both of which have chapters in multiple cities). Nutritious Shift 4: Drink More Water It sounds simple, but many people are walking around dehydrated, which can sap energy, slow metabolism, and lead to overeating. Drinking 64 ounces per day is a good goal. Here are some #NutritiousShifts that will get you to Drink Up, now: Commit to taking a water bottle with you everywhere you go for a week. If you have it with you, you’ll reach for it more often. Before each meal and snack, fill a tall glass of water and make sure you finish it along with your food. Upgrade your water (making it irresistible!) by adding fruit or spices. Nutritious Shift 5: Practice a Random Act of Kindness Expressing love has many health benefits—and we’re not just talking about in bed (although sex is sooo good for you, FYI).  Research has shown hugging may lower blood pressure and boost levels of relaxation-related hormone oxytocin, that expressing altruism and spending money on others can make you happier, and that regularly supporting others is linked to higher self-esteem and less depression. (Oh, not to mention it’s just the right thing to do!) Ready to Love More? Choose one of these #NutritiousShifts (or your own!) to practice a random act of kindness this week: If you’re in a relationship, leave a love note on your partner’s pillow for no reason. Buy coffee for the stranger behind you in line at Starbucks. Buy a treat for a coworker and have it waiting on his or her desk. Mail a simple “Thinking of you!” postcard to a friend who’s far away. Call or text a family member you haven’t talked to in a long time just to say hello. Nutritious Shift 6: Nurture Your Skin Your skin is a really, really big organ that is often ignored in terms of how it relates to your overall wellness. The truth is it needs just as much care as your heart needs cardio. Add a few minutes to your normal skincare routine to do a little nurturing this week. Choose one of these #NutritiousShifts (or ask it what it wants, babe): Take a long bubble bath instead of a shower. Do an at-home mask or body scrub to slough off dead skin and impurities. Treat yourself to a facial or a face massage. Toss one beauty product made with one of these two

Why You Should Think About New Year’s Resolutions in a Totally New Way

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The Fastest Way to Lose Weight This Week

You’re searching high and low for the fastest way to lose weight this week. You’re stressing. You’re kicking yourself for eating pizza over the weekend and missing your Sunday morning hot yoga class because you were hungover. Whether it’s for a date with the hot new guy at the office (our lips are sealed), that tropical vacation you’ve been waiting on for months, or as a jumpstart to your weight loss plan, you need to drop a few pounds stat. We’ve all been there. If you want to look amazing in your LBD but the zipper is way tight and you can’t quite sit down in your favorite jeans at the moment, read on for the fastest way to lose weight in a jiffy. And no, starving yourself is not the answer. The Fastest Way to Lose Weight This Week 1. Eat Empowered Eat real food. Often.  Stop worrying about what extreme diet you need to start. Stop counting calories and start thinking about the real food you’re going to eat. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner—and at least one snack a day (no skipping meals!)—consisting of whole, real foods. I’m talking loads of veggies, lean protein such as grass-fed steak, chicken, fish and eggs, and healthy fats as in cashews, pecans, olives, avocado and coconut. Ditch the packaged and processed foods—especially anything that includes added sugar. If you need an exact plan, I’ve got you covered here. Begin your day with breakfast and eat every few hours or when you feel slightly hungry and stop when you feel slightly satisfied. Not sure what that feels like? Check out this hack . Eating real food combined with listening to your body is your new winning combo. Fact: Eating real food makes you feel better and that alone can make you look better. If you’re skimping on nutrients or need a way to boost your protein, check out our Nutritious Life-developed Life’s Abundance Greens Blend and Life’s Abundance Vanilla Plant Protein. It’s the fastest way to up your nutrition game. RELATED: Sugar Cravings: 4 Reasons They Happen and How to Stop Them 2. Sweat Often Get 45 minutes of movement in—every day this week. I’m a fan of mixing up exercise. This might mean getting in HIIT workouts one day, long bouts of cardio or a hike on another, and pilates and yoga on other days. But, most of all, I’m a fan of being consistent with exercising and moving, in whatever way, shape or form makes you feel your best. The fastest way to lose weight means sticking with whatever movement makes you feel good. When you feel good, you’re more likely to be consistent. Also, when you feel you good, you eat well and you sleep well which, guess what … helps you eat well again. This intertwined cycle is what a Nutritious Life is all about. This week, I want you to focus on being consistent with your exercise and doing it daily. You don’t even need to hit a gym to get it in. Here’s a quickie workout I do just about anywhere. Five-mile run sound good? Do it. Spin class right up your alley? Get that in. Hike in the hills all you want to do? Go for it. Fact: Yes, you’ll shed pounds by burning calories when you exercise, but exercising also increases blood flow. This helps with circulation and gives your skin a healthy glow. Exercise can also help reduce stress, which will help you sleep better. Both exercise and sleep are needed to calm your nerves. RELATED: Quick 5-Minute Full-Body Workout You Can Do Anywhere 3. Sleep Deep Aim for 8 hours of sleep a night, settle for no less than 7.  For some reason, sleep is still one of those things that we give up in order to fit everything else into our busy schedules. Many of us still feel like we should get a gold star when we triumphantly go without sleep to log more hours at a bar chatting it up with friends or burning the midnight oil at our desk. Unfortunately, no medals awarded here. Sleep should be a top priority. It’s right up there with what we put into our bodies, especially when we want to be looking and feeling our best. This week, practice good sleep hygiene by picking a bedtime and sticking to it. Allow yourself 15 minutes of winding down time before your head hits the pillow. Fact: They don’t call it “beauty sleep” for nothing. While we sleep, our body’s natural antioxidant and sleep hormone, melatonin, fights off free radical invaders. If you’re not getting enough sleep at night, you’re reducing the amount of time that melatonin gets to fight off wrinkles, and those bags under your eyes will only get worse. By getting enough sleep at night, you not only look and feel well-rested, but your immune system will be strengthened. RELATED: Sleep Procrastination: What It Is and How to Stop Doing It, Pronto! 4. Drink Up Drink eight glasses of water and two cups of green tea a day. For two days before your special occasion, drink one cup of dandelion root tea as well. Trust me, this one is important. Being properly hydrated is linked to metabolism, energy and skin health. Fact: It might sound counterintuitive, but drinking water throughout the day, helps you to reduce bloating, flush out toxins, hydrate your skin to achieve a healthy glow, and keep your digestive organs in good working order. On top of that, green tea has been shown to boost metabolism and dandelion tea will help flush you out, further reducing toxins and any bloating. RELATED: Do I Really Need to Be Drinking Water to Lose Weight? 5. Nurture Yourself No time or money to book that expensive facial? Have no fear, your DIY cleansers are here. Give these easy homemade facial cleanser and mask a try. You’ll almost be able to feel the antioxidants and nutrients seep into your skin making it soft, smooth