Be Happy, It’s Friday!

Hello, hello!  Where do the weeks go?  These 7 little days seem to fly by so much quicker in the summer holidays.

It has been a weird week for me… perhaps the post holiday blues.  I am missing a lot of things… I miss the sun – the minute we got home, the British Summer ended and we have had tropical thunder since.  I miss my hearing – too much fun jumping in the sea lead to an ear infection that was missed and then my ear drum burst.  I miss my office – I have been relegated to the dark north face dining room as James is working from home and taken residence in my beautiful south facing office.  And I have to say it, but I miss my daily routine.  I am trying to go with the flow, but darn it… I am a routine and discipline person!

Talking of control, this week, in the Heal Yourself Happy Hub (my online Health & Happiness coaching community), we were talking of Stress and the impact it has on our gut health and weight in particular.  I shared my top tips on how to turn off cortisol, one of the key hormones we release when stressed which triggers our body to store fat as energy stores so we have enough fuel to ‘fight or run from the prehistoric tiger’.  Clearly, we don’t need to store much fat these days in order to do that, but typical lifestyles can see many people suffering from chronic stress, where cortisol levels don’t reduce and therefore, they can’t seem to lose any additional fat or weight.

One of the top tips was to ‘turn off cortisol’ was to take back control.  When we are in control of a situation, we are less likely to produce cortisol than when we feel manipulated or influenced.  If you are not happy about an up and coming event or situation, ask what you can do to take your power back.  Determine the worst case scenario and highlight what you can do to mitigate any unforeseen risks.  This is really taking your power back.  (In my mind, I have Wonder Woman crossing her arms  in a power pose – don’t you?!)

So, with this tip in mind, I can’t control the weather or the amount of rain, but I can control what we do while it rains.  Rather than play tennis outside, we can use the indoor courts or I can just choose to relax about how much TV and gaming they are doing rather than get all worked up about it.  As for my office, well, I can be generous, it is a beautiful room so it is only fair James gets to use it too and the dining room is pretty lovely anyway – we have little green foxes on the wallpaper that are grinning cheekily at me!

And routine, schmoutine.  I am just going to have to learn to live with being flexible for a few more weeks and find some elements of regularity in each day and allow that to be enough.  There is plenty of time for routine and discipline come September, when I am sure I will miss our lazy mornings.

I can’t do anything about what happened to my ear, but I can make sure I am doing all the right things for it to heal – rest, eat well, listen to my body.  Health is always totally within our own control, which I find is a huge relief.  And this week it has been really fun focussing on my health and the health of others as we do a group accountability exercise with the ‘2 Days to a Happy Belly Plan’.  Everyone is loving my recipes as well as the mindful reflection exercises and I can’t wait to hear all the results tomorrow morning.

And on that note, I am off to drink my afternoon Tummy Tamer juice and get ready for friends arriving shortly…  I was hoping to make some ‘nice cream’ for them, but it is torrential rain, so we will have to improvise!  I have put the recipe below in the vague hope that we have some sun again next week…..

Lots of love
Ali x

Heal Yourself Happy News!

• 2 Day’s to a Happy Belly Plan – Group accountability continues.. This week, a group of clients have been preparing for and doing the 2 Days to a Happy Belly Plan real time and sharing our progress in a private group.  Watch out for further results and testimonials and if these inspire you to want to try it, the private group will remain open and you will find a whole host of lovely ‘Happy Belliers’ there cheering you on!  
• Join the HYH Hub in August and get the 2 Days to Happy Belly Plan for FREE.  As we are drawing to the end of our latest hot topic of Happy Belly:  Gut Health and Weightloss, we are now moving to Happy Body:  The 5 pillars of Health.The Hub is a community with group coaching and accountability where you get all the guidance, top tips and support I give my private clients for only £32 a month (you can join and leave at any time).  You can get all the details by using the button below.
• Summer drop in’s. Over the summer holidays, when you want a sanity check or even just some ideas to help you stay healthy with all the kids food around- book in a 121 call with me and let’s get you straight. Watch out for availability on the Heal Yourself Happy Facebook page at the beginning of each week

To learn more about the 2 days to a Happy Belly : https://mailchi.mp/0ee1d00f56fb/happybellyplan

To learn more about the Heal Yousrelf Happy Hub and the online coaching community: https://heal-yourself-happy.com/online-group-membership-2/