“I’m on a diet”, “I can’t eat this and that because I’m on a diet”, “How many calories are there in this small bar of chocolate”…
New posts in your inbox
The diet culture has long affected people’s lives and it has gone into a whole different state where it became a lot more toxic than it should’ve been.
The diet culture is the unhealthy obsession with labeling “good’ and ‘bad’ foods, the constant struggle to lose weight fast, to be skinny like a model, and convincing yourself that this is normal.
Paranoia, anxiety, stress, anorexia, body dysphoria, and other eating disorders are all part of the toxic traits of the diet culture. People get so wrapped up in these ideas and thoughts that they stop everything they do to focus on how to execute their “genius” plan of losing weight.
The diet culture changed categories from a health issue/ healthy lifestyles to a pure business industry that “health” products are profiting of off.
Don’t get me wrong people sometimes need diet pan to stick to it and lose weight; whether for a health issue, or simply maintaining their body image. But in today’s world people stopped searching for ways to become healthy, they search for seasonal changes in their body because of what others might say if I went to the beach.
So for that and for many reasons, we will be tackling the diet culture in all its aspects and how to avoid it at all cost.
Instead of going cold turkey from the beginning, start by changing the proportion of plant and animal-based foods on your plate. This will give your mind and body time to accommodate to the new diet. Make simple changes like adding a large portion of salad or a fresh fruit bowl to your daily meals.
Once you’ve tested the waters, you can take the next step by committing to eat at least one plant-based meal every day. A wholesome, vegetarian breakfast is a good place to start.
Take time to explore vegetarian and fresh produce aisles at your local supermarket. Stock up your kitchen with nutritious, plant-based foods and keep healthy snack options in easily accessible places like your bag, desk drawer, kitchen counter and fridge.
Focus on foods you like and ones that are easily accessible to you. Then learn new ways to make those simple recipes more fun and flavorful. Try out new recipes every now and then!
Lastly, keep in mind that any transition takes time. So try, make mistakes and test the waters to see hwta works for you and helps you keep your body in harmony.
We’ve all constantly heard that:”All it takes is a positive mindset”. But the struggle becomes too real when you try to do it. Adopting or changing an old mindset can be tricky so we’r here to help.
But the important thing here, is to be patient with yourself and forgiving because it is no an easy process.
So here’s a guide on how to change your mindset and adopt a more positive one:
As an affiliate marketer i get a commission from your amazon orders with my code.
Taking care of your mental health is becoming more and more a necessity and more common nowadays. A lot of us don’t know how to properly take care of our mental health
New posts in your inbox
So here’s a guide on how to do so in the most beneficial way possible.
Practice gratitude: Keep a journal with you so you can write down something you’re grateful for every day.
Connect with friends and family. Make time for the people you care about.
Go outside. Try to get at least 30 minutes of sunlight each day to improve your mood and increase energy.
Meditate. Set aside a few minutes each day to center yourself.
Get a good night’s sleep. Try fixating your sleep schedule, to get more sleep.
Improve your physical wellness. Try to exercise at least a few times per week and eat healthier.
Try out different ways of coping with stress. Find something that works for you, such as going for a walk, yoga, deep breathing, listening to music, etc.
Do something kind. Making someone else happy will make you feel happy, too.
Make time for yourself. Set aside time each day to be alone and recharge.
Do something you enjoy. Practice a hobby, watch a TV show you like, read a book, etc.
We all hit rock bottom at some point of our lives. Burnouts are more and more common, progressive depression and chrocnic fatigue are sadly became a normal routine.
But it’s never too late to take a break. Here’s 10 signs your body is telling you it needs a break.
New posts in your inbox
1- You get sick more often
Due to high levels of stress, lack of sleep, and lack of energy your immune system gets weakened. That way your chances of getting sick will increase too.
2- Stressing about the past more than the future or the present
Your past is “haunting” you more than normal, a past trauma, a broken friendship, self-doubt and past action reflection.
Some books that might help you from amazon!
3- Neglecting yourself
Due to this whole roller-coaster of emotions you start feeling that self-care takes a lot of energy and that you just let yourself go. You feel like “saving” energy on everyday tasks.
4-Always sad
With everything you’re going through, your emotions are tuning in more, your sadness is much more intense, and you might be feeling sadness all the time.
Some books that might help you from amazon!
5- Tired but can’t sleep
You’re emotionally and physically drained but it’s impossible for you to sleep.
6- Restless
You feel the need to constantly move, being unable to calm your mind, or a combination of the two
7- No motivation
You have absolutely no motivation to even get by the day. You don’t find motivation to do pursuit your passions even.
8- No concentration
You find yourself zoning out, or distracted by anything.
Some books that might help you from amazon!
9- You’re withdrawn
You cancel, avoid, and cut yourself from the outside world, because you’re tired or not in the mood
10- Drained energy
You want to sleep 16 hours a day and not do a thing, you just wanna rest.
It’s true that life gets by pretty quickly, but if you have 5 or more of these signs, your body is in desperate need of a break. Take a day off, take care and pamper yourself. You deserve it!
All our lives, we’re wired to wait for big things to be happy about, a big announcement, big achievement are worth celebrating. But the process leading us to get that big announcement or achieve that big goal is important and there’s a rollercoaster of small successes that are worth celebrating that we ignore. (cute gifs are included)
Speaking of which, most of the time we get attached to big events happen that we get so sad while waiting to accomplish our goals, which delays our goal from happening.
So here’s how you can celebrate small successes and adopt a more celebratory approach to life.
1- Treat yourself
Go on that fancy dinner with your friends or alone too, buy something delicious or even a gift to congratulate yourself.
2- Take a day off
Spend a well-deserved, earned me day, celebrating and taking care of yourself.
3- Write your feelings
Writing your feelings about a happy event will help rewire your brain when things get bad one day.
4- Blast some celebrating music and have a dance party
Music is the body’s harmony, dance to the rhythm and forget the world around you, just celebrate yourself and your current reason for extreme happiness and joy.
5- Dress up for no reason
Dress up, for you alone at home, maybe cook a delicious dinner or go out have a fancy dinner with yourself
6- Go to dinner with your friends
Celebrating with your friends is a good way to share your happiness with.
7- Journal your small successful steps.
This way when you accomplish your goal, you’d have written proof of every little step you’ve gone through that lead you to your big accomplishment.
Working from home created a new chaotic household disaster. Moving your office, files, laptop, and your work stuff to your home has become a tricky business.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
But no problem has no solution at Ja’s Lifestyle! We had the honor of re-interviewing Jessica Abou Jaoude and get some ideas and a simple focus-list to turn your home into a more suitable office, that ensures your well-being, and helps you get your work done.
Stability
Stability comes first in this list as to its big importance in this process. Having a constant “Stable” place in your house that you can use all the time as your office, helps you get your work done faster, more efficiently, and so much easier.
Stay away from dining tables, the bedroom, and a very busy living room. Any place that can trigger unwanted distractions even falling asleep, should be avoided as much as possible. A closed balcony can do the work. It is spacious, bright, and isolated.
Location
After deciding on the area of your new home office, it’s important to filter your choices based on 2 important things: A window in front of the desk, and behind us a wall and not another room.
Having a window right in front of your desk will help get the sunlight directly into the room, which will increase the room’s brightness to protect your eye vision. If there’s no window, choose a room with a painting in front of your desk. It is important to have a painting or a view in front of you, so you can look away and shift your focus to something natural other than your screen.
Ambiance
Choose an ambiance for your new home office that suits your style, but is comforting and professional at the same time. Who said you can’t be comfortable in your office while being focus and dedicated to finishes these files.
A coloring range can vary between white, light grey. oak. Some color that is light and sight comforting. Light colors make you feel in a wider space too, which can boost your motivation.
Decoration
For decoration, you need to keep it simple as an office, but fuller as a house. You can add some plants, flowers, a piece of art hanging, or for example, dispose of a collection that you own of your interest. It is highly recommended to add a cactus next to your laptop, it can absorb the toxic radiations. The plants should be limited to oxygen providers ones.
Organize
Because it is your current everyday office, you need to keep everything organized and unmovable from the desk. For example, those files, these pens, papers, anything that you work constantly with, should always and never leave the desk. Plus you should buy yourself an office/desk chair it will help keep your posture straight.
Light
Light is important, the more light there is in a room, the more energy it will provide you. The room where your new office is located should always have access to an abundant source of light. Natural and artificial. During the day, the sun will do its work of lighting the room, but working at night requires lots and lots of light to keep the work environment healthy.
You’ll need general lighting, and task lighting. General light will do the sun’s work during the day, (ceiling lamp), and task light is the focused light you put on your desk for details and no shadow over your paper. And go for cool lights and not warm light. Cool light will keep your brain awake while working at night, while warm light have the tendency to make you sleepy.
Sleeping 7-8 hours a day is essential to lead a healthy and active life. Sleeping enough hours is suggested for your body, brain, and mental health. Thus, many people struggle with insomnia and don’t sleep through the night.
What’s “Insomnia”?
Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which you have trouble falling and or staying asleep. The condition can be short-term (acute) or can last a long time (chronic). It may also come and go. Acute insomnia lasts from 1 night to a few weeks. Insomnia is chronic when it happens at least three nights a week for three months or more.
And here are some home remedies that can help you deal with insomnia
Meditate:
Meditating will help you relax and feel less stressed and maybe a little more sleepy. So before bedtime, follow this guide: click here.
Drink some tea
The warmth of the tea will make you feel relaxed and sleepy again. So drinking a cup of warm tea, preferably chamomile will help you sleep well.
Take magnesium
It plays an essential role in your nervous system, helping to activate mechanisms that quiet and calm you. It may also help relieve anxiety and depression, which can interfere with sleep.
Essential oils
Put on some lavender oil or chamomile essential oil in a diffuser and relax.
Reset your sleep schedule
Set your alarm every day to wake up at 6-7 am, and another one to sleep at night, 11-12 pm. That way you’ll be making your sleeping on time.
Yoga
Doing some yoga exercises before bed will help you relax and release some tension and boost your body’s melatonin.
Limit your activities
Limiting your activities in bed will help your brain fixate the idea of bed = sleep and sex.
Valerian roots
This herb has been used since ancient times to promote tranquility and improve sleep.
Avoid caffeine at night.
The most known effect of caffeine is that it will make it hard for you to fall asleep. One study also found that caffeine can delay the timing of your body clock. These effects will reduce your total sleep time. Caffeine also can reduce the amount of deep sleep that you enjoy.
A lot of us are single this Valentine which can trigger some unwanted emotional baggage. So here’s a guide to all my beautifull single souls out there, to spend a lovely, drama free lovingly night by yourself or if you could with some friends too.
If you decided to celebrate your single life alone:
1. PAMPER YOURSELF of course!
A nice hot bath, bubbles, music, candles and some wine are highly recommended becasue you deserve it. and let’s be honest nobody can love you more than you can.
2. Order some delicious food
Maybe try some new restaurants, and delicious meals for your special night alone.
3. Puzzle it up!
Order some puzzles to keep you company and enjoy your time alone even more! boardgames.andmore is one good store for you!
4. Give yourself a cute makeover
Makeovers never get old, it’s time for you to shine again!
5. Start a new show.
No it doesn’t have to be a romantic one, so you don’t trigger more emotions. 🙂
6. Start a book.
Starting a book can open a new chapter and help get your mind out of thinking.
7. GET YOURSELF SOME VALENTINE GOODIES.
Yes because you deserve them. Some delicious cakes or butter/sugar coated cookies for your tummy. ss_events_lb ❤
8. Bake yourself a cake!
There’s really nothing to say here, but Tasty is here for to help you 😉
9. Make yourself a drink.
Well what better night to toast your beautiful, independent single life? Tasty will also help you with that 🙂
10. Practice some self-love
I mean it’s the celebration of love after all. Love yourself always and celebrate it too!
If you decided to celebrate your singleness with a group of friend:
1. Cook a delicious meal with your friends.
Inviting your friends over for dinner is fun and all, but have you ever cooked a meal all together?
Yes it would be fun to do a valentines version of secret santa with your friends on your Singles Valentines night. Mdgiftsss is the perfect store for that.
4. MOVIE MARATHON.
The night is just getting started, so binge watch some movies while snacking and drinking.
5. Blast some music and hit the dance floor.
It’s been a while since you’ve went out clubbing and shaking those hips, so this is your time to shine cutie-pie!
6. Give each other makeovers!
This is super fun and you can have a blast from it.
7. Have a heart to heart conversation
We all have thoughts and emotions that are triggered during this “lonely” time, it’s good to let them all out.
8. Shake up the night with some delicious cocktails.
Tasty can help too, some anti-valentines group drinks.
Home decor is an important factor in boosting your well-being. It’s a fun activity and a necessity at the same time. So, to bring more information about the impact of good home furniture and items organization on our mental health, I allowed myself to ask my friend, Jessica Abou Jaoude, to answer some of the most popular questions related to our topic today.
Jessica Abou Jaoude is an Alba graduate with an amazing eight years of experience in architecture-landscape-interior design-furniture consultant, who also adopt a healthy lifestyle,
So first, How can interior design affect our mental health?
<<Interior is very important because wherever we go we might be affected by an interior ambiance. Our house – hospital – restaurants – malls. Due to quarantine lately, we might notice the importance of our interior and how it’s affecting our mental health.
To start with, it is important to know what we like and feel comfy around.
A simple exercise can answer this question to the people who don’t know what color they like. “Open your closet and search for the color you wear the most, It may help figure out the color we will need the most because it will be the color you feel comfortable in.
If you like black or neutral colors, you are more into minimalism.
This step can help you identify the style you like and feel comfortable with within your house.
To understand the importance of applying each color in the specific area,
Close your eyes and imagine redecorating your room with red ceramic tiles, red wall painting, Red lights, curtains, and bed. Then tell me how many seconds would you resist in such a Red space. Red is a yang energy color that is too active and will disturb the occupant.
Here comes the feng shui to explain and help us turn our interior into a comfy one.
It helps us by allowing us to listen to our five senses and turning the interior to be as perfect as our mother nature.
Fast food restaurant colors are yang therefore, you eat quickly and leave.
Spa and hospitals are more into blue and green relaxing colors.
Now, how can we fix our houses and bedrooms decors and make them greener:
<< First of all, we need to pick a style we like. It’s important to reduce the quantity of furniture and stuff in our room or living area fix colors to our interior (the right color to the right place) and add some greeneries.
Materials are so important and, they affect our mood and mental health as per the furniture selection and colors:
Mirrors in small places to make it bigger. Painting can help but, it depends on the drawing and where to hock it.
Lightings are so important either from the sunlight (we must have a window in each bedroom) or warm bulbs color can help stay calm and relaxed (bedroom). Cool lights can be used in spaces we need to stay focused and awake (kitchen sometimes in a living room)
Daylight can be used as task lights (in our kitchen above the island or countertop / on any desk we have or working office or space).
And finally, do green plants affect our mental health?
<<Greenery helps a lot with reducing stress and staying calm plus having a special mood, a view on our garden from either our room or reception area is always a plus And in case we don’t have this luxury we can bring the outside into the inside (feng shui style)
Adding some plants inside our house can help a lot (we must be careful about the kind of plants we pick a few plants are specific for the interior and can provide oxygen to have a healthy interior)>>
So to sum up, the interior can affect positively or negatively. It’s our job to take it seriously and make our living areas more comfortable and relaxing.
Thank you so much Jessica Abou Jaoude, for these important pieces of information you provided us with!
Ja's Lifestyle 