ahealthydetermination

Lemon and Cayenne Water

Well, it’s a new year and time to refresh things from a health and wellness perspective! I’ve recently been starting my mornings with a drink of lemon and cayenne water. It sounded not particularly tasty at first but it’s actually great!

Apparently this mixture is excellent for detoxifying the body and assisting the digestive system. The lemon is packed with vitamin C which combats toxins. Lemons are also filled with antioxidants and electrolytes. Not only that, but lemons help neutralize the body’s pH. Because digestion is so important, this drink is a great way to set the stage for your day.

Cayenne pepper is also known to stimulate the circulatory system by opening the capillaries, aids digestion, and helps regulate blood sugar. It also boosts the temperature of your body and kick-starts your metabolism.

So, how does it work? As soon as you wake up, warm up a half litre of water (but not too hot), add the juice from a full lemon, and sprinkle a bit of cayenne pepper. Be sure to buy non-irradiated cayenne pepper, since irradiation reduces the nutritional profile and natural medicinal properties of herbs and spices. Once that’s done, mix everything together and drink it! I also like to rinse my mouth out with about a half glass of water when I’m done. Waiting about 30 minutes before eating breakfast for best results!

Perfect Healthy Holiday Salad

This beautiful, delicious, and healthy salad is sure to be a hit around the table this holiday season!

This vibrant salad is packed with colorful fruits and spinach and has a lovely light and creamy dressing which is composed of buttermilk and infused with fresh rosemary, orange zest, shallots, and a hint of Dijon mustard. It’s delicious and so nice to look at! Credit due to Brooklyn Supper for the inspiration!

Ingredients (Makes Four Servings)

Dressing

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 teaspoon minced shallot
1/2 teaspoon minced rosemary
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Botanicals

1 bunch of spinach
3 oranges
1 pomegranate
1/2 shallot sliced very thin
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Instructions

To make the dressing, start by whisking the orange zest, orange juice, vinegar, mustard, and buttermilk into the olive oil, one at a time. Then add the shallots, rosemary, and sea salt.

Once that is done, cut off the very top and bottom of the oranges. Then, carefully slice off the orange peels and remove the white pith. Cut the oranges into 1/2-inch thick slices.

Pour most of the dressing over the spinach.

Then, spread the spinach on a large plate or platter and place the oranges throughout the salad. Place the pomegranate arils and shallots on top. Finish your salad with a drizzle of dressing, rosemary leaves, sea salt, and fresh pepper.

Ayurveda and Alkaline Water

Have you heard about the latest health and wellness trend? According to Ayurvedic medicine, drinking from a copper water vessel can have incredible health benefits. Water stored in a copper vessel is known as “tamra jal” and can help balance the body’s doshas (vata, kapha, and pitta), make your water naturally alkaline, and support good health and wellness in a ton of other ways!

A few months ago, I bought a handmade copper water bottle from Copper H2O. My bottle is a piece of art and I am borderline obsessed with it! Something about the amazing shine of the copper and its aesthetic appeal makes me so eager to drink out of it often throughout the day, which is great for keeping me hydrated!

I have since learned that copper has a ton of great properties which make it great for water bottles. Studies have shown that copper is anti-bacterial and anti-oxidizing, and it’s also great for the immune system and keeping the brain stimulated!

It also feels so good to be avoiding the use of plastic bottles. Did you know that studies have shown that on average only 1 in 5 plastic bottles are recycled, and plastic bottles take between 400 and 1000 years to decompose? It also takes three times as much water to produce a plastic bottle as it does to fill it!

Try using a copper water bottle – you’ll love it!

Strengthening Willpower and Self-Control

I’ve been thinking recently about willpower and its role in health. Research has shown that willpower and self-control are vital to a happy, healthy, and successful life. Interestingly, research also suggests that willpower is not some innate quality that we either have or not. Rather, willpower is like a muscle – and, like a muscle, the longer we use it, the stronger it becomes. However, like a muscle, your willpower should not be overworked!

We can strengthen our will power by ensuring that we are not kept in a constant state of willpower depletion. Exercising self-control is a great way to build willpower, but never giving yourself a break is a good way to lessen your resolve. In addition, you can use your imagination to keep unwanted thoughts at bay and thereby increase our willpower.

As you might expect, stress also greatly affects our willpower. When we are stressed, we tend to fall back on our bad habits like crutches. Bad habits also include unhealthy eating. We can reduce this tendency by training ourselves to respond to stressors with healthier choices, such as listening to calming music, visualizing or viewing calming scenes, or moderate exercise. The more often you do these things, the more likely that these healthy stress-relievers will save you when a major stressor comes along!

Health professionals suggest using mindfulness tools to reflect on eating choices and other health decisions. For example, if you reach for the ice cream at the end of the night, you might try questioning your objective. Is the ice cream acting as a substitute for something, like friendship, or to fill a dull moment? If that is the case, you can call a friend or do something fun to fill the void.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out this great article by the American Psychological Association. Stay tuned for more articles about how to maintain your determination and willpower!