As someone with a highly sensitive body, daily self care isn’t a luxury…it’s a must. If I fall off of my habits, I’ll get sick. So today I want to share some self care tips that you can start incorporating into your days to help you stay healthy and centered too.
Self Care Tips
Eating Well
My body does best on a low carb diet. If I’m not sticking to low carb, I’ll have mood swings and shakes and basically just become the poster child for “hangry”. I also have to keep my protein low too. Protein seems to spike insulin for me too. I focus on getting at least 4 cups of vegetables a day (usually a salad at lunch) and lots of healthy fats (although not too many because I don’t have a gallbladder). If you’re interested in learning about eating Low Carb/Keto, you can get my one page Keto Food List here.
Getting Enough Sleep
This is probably the habit I work the hardest at. I really struggle with sleep. I have worked to establish a routine so that my body can expect sleep to come at about the same time each day. I have a quiet room with a fan that keeps me cool and provides the white noise I need to not be alerted to all the sounds in the house. I am for being in bed about 8 hours a night. I know people say they can do less, but in reality it’s rare. Lack of sleep contributes to many health issues so this has to be a priority. I have experimented with supplements and even sleep medications. I’ll do another post to talk about all I’ve tried.
Exercise
This is the habit that usually falls off first for me, but I’ve found just as little as 20 minutes of walking a day can make me feel (and sleep) so much better. I tend to avoid any of those crazy hard core exercises. My body doesn’t respond to stress well and even though exercise is a good kind of stress, it can quickly become too much for me. I typically choose walking or yoga as my preferred forms of exercise.
Detox
We are exposed to so many chemicals on a daily basis. I have multiple skin and environmental allergies so avoiding chemicals has always been a way of life for me. I make sure to keep the products in the house (soaps, shampoos, detergents, cleaning products) as clean as possible, but I also practice daily detoxification. I don’t do all of these every day, but usually at least one if not more: oil pulling, dry brushing, Hawaiian spirulina, milk thistle, lemon water.
Stress Management
This is a major one for me too. I find I tend to live in fight or flight mode and have to really work to get in to relax and digest (which makes no sense I know). Yoga really helps me with this, but so does deep breathing, meditation, gratitude and just trying to be present. I also practice grounding and energy management which just means I focus on feeling centered and protecting my energy.
Supplements
There are so many supplements that it’s hard to know which to take. I tend to tell people to take the basics: multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D and a probiotic. After that I use genetic testing to target supplementation. I know that I have multiple methylation issues so I make sure that I take methylated B vitamins. I also know that I have chronic activated EBV so I take immune support supplements that are antiviral (l-lysine, vitamin C, echinacea, elderberry). I use an Ancestry DNA kit and download the raw data to figure out genetic mutations and help target supplementation for my clients. You can learn more about my genetic interpretation service here.
Some days I still have to really force myself to focus on self care, but if life gets too busy, my body will let me know by knocking me down.
What are some of your best self care tips?
