A holiday season classic with a healthy twist. And, of course, not too complicated. We here at MCLV HQ can’t stand a difficult recipe with hard-to-find ingredients.
Welcome back to the MCLV Weddings series! You can check out post one here – Advice for the Newly Engaged. In conjunction with the MCLV Weddings series I’ll be sharing some of my event looks as well.
With a large family spread out all over the country, we opted to have a two small family-oriented events ahead of the wedding. It was a great way to get to meet people who may not make it to the wedding due to the distance.
There’s a lot of pressure for the bride to wear white to wedding-related events, but in my mind it’s up to the bride.
I for one am not comfortable in white. I was actually hesitant to choose a white weddings dress, concerned about photos and feeling comfortable and spilling…
So, when it came time to choose a party look, I opted for green. I felt strong and confident, important when you’re not always comfortable being the center of attention.
While it may be a little TMI, we all know how quickly an upset stomach or digestive issues can ruin a trip.
Real quick.
And since I have a finicky system to begin with, I take a lot of care when I’m traveling. I also have a few tried and true healthy hacks that I start before I leave for a trip, that I thought I’d share. Any and all of these tips can be started a few days before a trip and continued through the trip if you’d like.
Water:
Drink ALL the water. Travel is dehydrating. Flying is dehydrating. Hot locations are dehydrating. It will help your skin, your digestion, and your jetlag. So drink up. And sadly, that doesn’t mean coffee or champagne. Water is where it’s at. Can’t make yourself drink water? Try adding fruit for a spa water treat or a sugar-free electrolyte mix.
Liquids:
Another way to get and stay hydrated is enjoying smoothies and/or low-sugar juices. I tend to favor smoothies since you’ll get all the great fiber from the fruits & veggies, but to each their own!
Nothing soothes an unhappy tummy quite like ginger tea – And bonus points for a lemon ginger mix. I frequently have a tea at night so before I trip I just swap whichever herbal tea is on rotation for lemon ginger.
I’m a huge Natural Calm fan and it’s especially helpful for travel. Magnesium is calming and helps your body prepare for bed, which is extra helpful if you get thrown into a new time zone. I take it every night and bring packets with me when I travel and even on the plane. You can also try magnesium-rich foods in the evenings – Nuts, dark chocolate, spinach, tofu, avocados, and legumes are good sources.
You can see more about how I stay healthy while I travel here:
Hi! If You’re new to MCLV, here’s a few facts you should know about me:
My name is Caity
I’m a Type A control freak
Whenever I feel overwhelmed I stop sleeping
So… Guess what happens when I start planning a wedding?
Even though I had tons of support and help, and a partner who was there every step of the way, I still went into complete overdrive. At one point I had a nightmare where I was being chased by placecards, so clearly there was some stress at work. My subconscious always wants to finalize all the details of an event immediately. This is the adult version of doing the group project alone on the first day it’s assigned. Yes, I was that kid.
So how did I cope?
Well, first I wallowed and whined. What? It’s cathartic.
Then I got serious. I realized that I had over a year of stress ahead of me and I wanted to enjoy that year of my life, so that meant problem solving and finding ways to cope.
Enter – The MCLV Guide to Coping with Stress:
Meditation: Guided meditation, even for just 5 minutes a day, is a great way to quiet the mind. If you don’t have an app that you like, YouTube is a great way to explore different meditation types.
Breathwork: There are some easy and quick tricks that can help you calm down and de-stress before bed. I’ll practice this before a stressful meeting or public speaking as well. Immediate relief.
Yoga: Like meditation and breathwork, the huge benefit of yoga is getting you outside of your head. My focusing on your body and breathing, you let go of the rest of the noise.
Journaling: Right before bed I write out a little to do list to get things off my mind before I lay down. I also love the Happiness Project’s One Sentence Journal to jot something down.
Affirmations & Gratitude: I’m a huge fan of writing affirmations and expressing gratitude. I keep a gratitude journal and start each day by writing down at least one line about what I’m grateful for.
Do YOU have any tips for dealing with stress? Share below!
You’ve set yourself some goals and started making better daily choices – So what’s next in your journey to get fit? Making sure that you get enough sleep.
Good health and good sleep are inextricably linked. Not only does a good night sleep improve your memory, productivity, and mood, it can also improve fitness performance, and reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. When it comes down to it, sleep is as important as food and exercise when it comes to creating a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.
So, without further ado, here are my top sleep tips, learned from books, years of experience, and many conversations with doctors.
Food – Try to avoid eating too close to bedtime. It can keep you awake or cause tossing and turning. You also want to avoid super spicy or highly acidic foods in your final meal of the day. If you can finish eating an hour or two before bedtime, that’s ideal.
Caffeine & Sugar – Everyone has different sensitivities to caffeine and sugar, but even if you don’t think they impact your sleeping patterns, they can hurt your quality of sleep.
Fitness – Getting your sweat on during the day is a great way to ensure that your body is fatigued, which will aid the falling asleep process. If you have a busy day or you’re traveling and can’t make it to the gym, a quick walk outside or a stretching session on your bedroom floor can help.
Lights – Our bodies are programmed to equate darkness with bedtime, so you want to start reducing your exposure to light as you wind down for bed. That means dimming overhead lights and turning off TVs, phones, and laptops. If you use your phone or a tablet to read in the evenings, download a red light app. These will give your screen a darkened, reddish hue and eliminate the blue light that stimulates your body and can keep you awake.
Routine – Our bodies crave routine when it comes to sleep so you should try to go to sleep at the same time each night. If you go to sleep at 9pm one night, 1am the next, and then 11pm the following night, your body doesn’t know when it’s supposed to sleep. Try to develop a consistent sleep routine. One thing that can help with that is creating an evening wind down routine to help you destress and prepare for bed – Calming Night Routine.
