Newsletter Sneak Peek for Mind Body Soul
Connecting the dots between food & nutrition, physical health, psychology & mindfulness, and so much more
Hello!
Welcome to a sneak peek of a weekly email full of helpful hints from ZigZag Nutrition! I’m so happy to have you along this journey and I can’t wait for you to take steps into action and improvements for your health and happiness.
As you’ll see over the next several weeks of ongoing newsletter support, I take a more holistic approach with respect to health and happiness. I tend to blend in a mixture of lifestyle medicine alongside functional medicine and integrative nutrition.
I understand the power that mindfulness and meditation can have on the human spirit and the human biology as well as hospice of foods can have specifically different interactions for different people. It is infinitely complex and absolutely amazing to connect the nuances our health that are inexplicably tied together.
Allow me to help draw the constellations together to help us understand how all areas of our health and happiness connect back to our overall human experience on this planet :)
Enough discussion for now, let’s dive into this week’s highlights!
Mind
Are you able to heal from mental health concerns like depression, PTSD, OCD, ADHD and the like? This is a topic near and dear to my heart and I care so much about it that I would love to talk to you for days and days about the nutritional considerations with respect and mental health but this week I just want to send you another quick snippet from a fascinating colleague of mine in the world and nutrition named Dr. Uma Naidoo who has been spreading the good news about good nutrition for a good brain and good psychology.
I love Dr. Uma Naidoo’s approach and path from culinary nutrition to mental health and psychology and all the way to pharmacotherapy. This interwoven approach to health is the future I believe in. We cannot separate the body into specific compartments when they are endlessly connected and communicating back and forth throughout the body. Our brain, body, organs, and tissues are all in a constant state of listening, learning, communicating with the world and adapting to its needs for survival. This is such an exciting area to dive into as a holistic practitioner.
Your brain needs a safe and secure environment just as much as your physical body. Both your body and brain require specific nutrients for optimal health and happiness - and I’m not just saying this! Did you know that a lot of your happy hormones like serotonin and others are produced in the gut and have a direct influence from your nutrition, digestion, and healthy metabolism? I’ll discuss this a bit more below with some highlights on particular nutrients.
You can listen to the podcast here – link (46min) – and even consider purchasing her book: “This Is Your Brain On Food” - link
Lastly, if you’d like to have a 1-1 conversation about the connections between food, mood, gut health, mental health, and more… let me know and we can set a time to meet.
Body
To go along with the mental health considerations and nutrition I also want to share a quick take on the role the vitamin D plays within your diet and your brain health with a podcast highlight from Dr. Mark Hyman, who was one of my first inspirations into the world of nutrition and functional medicine.
One thing I want you to take away from this session is that the impact of stress in our lives has the power to deplete our nutrients and with more stress and anxiety we require more satiating nutrients, more calming therapies.
You can listen to this full episode here (17min).
If someone comes to me seeking help with nutrition and they feel challenged with mental health, stress, anxiety, irritability, and trouble sleeping then I will often suggest
Vitamin D + Magnesium + Mindfulness and Meditation. (VD-M3 is the shorthand protocol I discuss with clients alongside training and maintenance for mindful eating, meditation and breathwork).
If you can’t sleep, your health will forever be challenged; sometimes the best thing you can do is simply get your body back to sleeping well to help it heal itself.
Side note: if you’re still skeptical about the impact of a single vitamin for the health of your brain and immune system, feel free to read a recent report detailing the related research of Vitamin D status and risk of infection of Covid-19.
Soul
From my perspective, if you are struggling with your health in any way shape or form from one layer to the next… Then you were being chained down from what I believe that you can experience for a more natural, thriving human existence.
I’m not trying to get all crazy here, but I am in the field of granting people greater health, happiness, strength, stability, and longevity.
I’m in the business of opening people up to what a reimagined healthy life can look like and what potential improvements they can make in their own journey.
My absolute passion is to help people on this planet enjoy their lives more – to experience health and happiness to the fullest extent.
This is a calling for a more fulfilling life. Health is so important: financial health, mental health, emotional support, biochemistry of nutrition and the brain and so much more. I love what I do!
This week I just want to share with you a foundational reminder for me that I use to help me navigate this crazy world.
This reminder comes from the Bible, and regardless of your faith background I think there are some incredible perspectives shared by the authors throughout the text. For instance,
2 Corinthians 3:17
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
I really love this verse because I live my life to grant people a glimpse of greater freedom in this life. No matter where we come from, no matter where we’re going it seems we all desire a taste of freedom.
Ready to Join
If you’re ready and willing to take a little time each week to learn, listen, connect a few dots and improve your health along the way, I would love for you to join.
Go ahead and click the subscribe now button below to sign up to receive similar newsletters from me each week to help encourage and empower you to live your healthiest, happiest life possible.
Just like the one you’re currently reading, each newsletter gives you tangible insights and opportunities to deepen your own personal learning and take advantage of pursuing your own freedom of health and happiness.
Freedom Next Steps
So, where do you find yours…? Running outdoors in nature, playing a video game with your friends online, sitting and listening to music or reading a good book?
Let me know in the comments below or share anything else you would like to; you are free to do so ;)