"Sometimes the cure for restlessness is rest."

The quote of the title is something I've been obeying this weekend. I'm a pretty restless person, always scheduling in my head and worrying of not being effective enough. I'm making an effort to obsess less and instead live in the moment. Life is now, not in the past or future. A good mantra to keep in mind :)

<3

It is incredible how much the weather can affect in your mood and energy level. I have enjoyed the endless sunbath that Southern Finland has offered us this weekend by power walking, skiing and lazily sitting on the terrace, both in Helsinki and Espoo.

Raclette Wednesday - luxury!

Feeling grateful of my neighborhoods...

Incredible skiing "track" today at the ice

Friday night salad (+ wine and chocolate) dinner with lovely girls <3

Wishing everyone a great week <3

Fall of opportunities

Personally, I don't have anything against Fall arriving. I love the crisp air, layers in clothing and cozy nights spent at home in candle light with a cup of hot chocolate or with friends along with dinner, movies and red wine:) My fall is made of:

Cozy decoration and fireplace

Long walks in crisp air and the colors of fall

Warm clothes and a lot of my favorite candles

Layers in clothing

Cozy white bed and slow mornings

Huge cafe lattes enjoyed on coffee dates with friends and on slow mornings:

Hot yoga classes

Dinner with friends and a lot of food and red wine

 A lot of (cozy:) studying

Weekend trip to Copenhagen

Let the chilly weather and new opportunities that studying, exercising, working and meeting new people can bring, arrive :) Are you excited about fall or reluctant to give up summer?

 

 pictures: pinterest

Fruit overdoze?

Lately, I've been eating loads of fruits every day. I'm not kidding, I can easily eat up to 20 fruits per day :-) Pears, apples, plums, nectarines, bananas, avokados, pineapple, kiwi fruits, apricots and the list goes on. I am extremely lazy to prepare food, especially in the summer, when I don't spend much time home. I still try to eat healthy,therefore fruits are a easy snack.

I have read about several rules for eating fruits but had hard time obeying them so I wanted to do some more research. My fruit salads are huuuuge including about 7 different fruits:) So I wanted to know if it can be harmful to consume too much fruit:)

I found a great article on how to eat fruit by Frederic Patenaude, author of best selling book "The Raw Secrets". Here are the main points for the questions I was wondering, in conclusion:

Fruit eating offers many benefits:

•  Best source of the natural sugar needed for energy.
•  Packed with vitamins, and still represents the best source of vitamins in any food.
•  Packed with anti-oxidants.
•  Easier to digest than grains. Fruit is basically pre-digested. Digesting ripe fruit hardly requires any digestive enzymes, and is thus less taxing to the body.
•  Alkaline forming (whereas meat, fish, grains and legumes are acid-forming).
•  Contains an abundance of pure water.
•  Easy to eat. It doesn’t require much preparation.
•  Fruit is beautiful. All of our senses are nourished by fruit, not just our taste buds.
•  People who eat lots of fruit live longer.
•  Contains lots of fiber, which is necessary for optimum digestion.

 

Eating fruit before meals and other food combining rules

Fruit does not combine well with other foods. The reason is that fruit contains simple sugars that require no digestion. Thus, they will not stay for a long time in the stomach. Other foods, such as foods rich in fat, protein and starch, will stay in the stomach for a longer period of time because they require more digestion. So if you eat fruit after a meal, the fruit sugar will stay for too long in the stomach and ferment.

Since fruit digests so fast, it is possible to eat fruit before any other food. You can, when you are hungry, eat as much fruit as you care for. One type of fruit only would be ideal. Then wait a little bit, like 5-10 minutes, and have any other food you desire. This can be a salad, a little avocado with tomatoes, some nuts, or anything. It can be cooked food too.

The same goes with mixing other fruits together. You can eat all the melon you want, and then, if you are still hungry, eat another type of fruit to satisfy your appetite. It is not necessary to eat melons alone if they are eaten before another foods. You can even have melon and then have an avocado after. The only thing that is important to remember is to have the fruit first - not after, and ideally only have one variety at a time.

Fruit & Physical Exercise

Fruit is the ideal food for exercise. The best post workout snack or meal is not muffins, yogurt, or protein shakes, but fresh fruit. 

 

Fruit & Minerals

We should seek out the best-quality fruit we can find. Fruit is still essential in the diet as it provides natural sugars for energy and is still the best source of vitamins.

Is fruit too hybridized?

By eating a large variety of foods, we can still ensure a complete nutritional balance on the foods that we find in the stores.

And the fact that these fruits contain a lot of sugar is certainly not a problem, unless one decides to eat only fruit, which I do not recommend. Fruit sugar is utilized perfectly by the body and is the most natural source of energy we can consume. As long as we eat whole fresh fruit with all of its natural water and fiber, that fruit sugar is not going to be a problem.

With the knowledge that the primary source of fuel for the human body is natural sugar, the concept of fruit having “too much” sugar becomes illogical. The only way you can consume too much sugar in the form of fruit would be to overeat, which is difficult to achieve when eating high-water content fruit.

Fruit and your Teeth.

Acids in fruits can have a negative impact on the teeth and contribute to enamel erosion and decay. That goes especially for the citrus fruits and unripe fruits. For that reason, and also the fact that many of us are prone to tooth decay, I highly recommend rinsing your mouth with water after eating fruit.

 

Eating More Fruit

A great way to eat more fruit is to make fresh fruit smoothies. Smoothies need not to be complicated to be tasty.

Frozen bananas go pretty well in all sorts of fruit smoothies. Try, for example, blending a few frozen bananas with a little water and some fresh berries. You’ll be amazed by the taste.

I hope that this article will encourage you to incorporate more fresh fruit into your diet. In conclusion, remember the following formulas:

Fresh fruit + more exercise + less grains and refined foods = better health and energy

Less fat + more fruit + more green vegetables = even better health and energy

A good diet + a balanced mind + fun - extremism = unexpected benefits

Overall, the rules of eating fruit make me slightly confused but I'm still relieved to know that you really can't eat too much fruit. Besides, I don't want to take the rules too seriously; I mean really, how much harm can eating fresh food cause? :) But you never can do too much reasearch!


pictures: pinterest

9 Life Lessons

I found a great article from one of my favorite websites, Mind Body Green.

It is written by Brigitte Meinders, described as following:
Brigitte Meinders is a New York City born yogi, writer, traveler and animal lover. She is a Wellness Program Manager at a health club in New Jersey who loves to inspire people to become their best selves possible. She enjoys spending time with her husband and two dogs, friends and family, and living, loving and laughing in the sunshine as much as possible!

Brigitte's 9 lessons she learned in her twenties:

1. Get to know YOU. Oscar Wilde said: “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” I find that so many people, including myself, have been guilty of trying to fit someone else’s mold and losing their sense of self in the process. Get to know and accept your quirks, faults, uniqueness and beauty. It is all there and is uniquely YOURS, and that is pretty special.

2. Spend as much time as possible with the people you love. Cherish your relationships with family and friends. Make time speak to your loved ones and go out of your way to spend time with them. You will NEVER regret spending too much time with someone you love.

 

3. Don’t waste time on people who bring you down. If someone is a negative cloud in your life, get rid of them. It may sound harsh, but if your gut is telling you something about a person, it is probably correct. Even though you may doubt your decision at first, cutting off a toxic friendship will save you weeks, months, or years or stress and anger.

4. Your body is the most important thing you have. “Keep your body light and clean for your soul to reside in.” The key to health for both your mind and body is how you treat it, what you eat, drink, and the surroundings you keep. Don’t smoke, don’t drink in excess, and eat healthy, whole, nutritious foods.

5. Don’t waste time on doubt and negativity. Don’t second guess yourself, and be confident in your decisions. Self-doubt can be extremely detrimental to the way your outlook on life, so have faith in your choices and go confidently in that direction. Always make a point to focus on the positive in any situation, and don’t fall into a dark hole of negative thoughts. It will not serve you and will only cut into your quality of life. Be a ray of sunshine for yourself and those around you. Never forget about the law of attraction: positivity attracts more positivity, while negativity attracts negativity.

6. Be as physically active as possible. Do yoga, run, bike, ski, swim, skip, jump rope, do cartwheels, back flips… whatever you do, keep your precious bodies moving. I don’t know about you, but one of my goals is to be featured on MindBodyGreen  in 2072 as one of those inspirational 90-year old yogis! I’ll never get there if I don’t constantly push my edge, physically, now while I am young. It is never too early and never too late to start exercising, and no matter what your current physical abilities are, find the right place to start and build up from there. I have experienced myself that it is possible to do anything you would like to do when you are persistent, confident, and aren’t afraid to try new things and push the envelope.

7. Time flies, so make it count. Forget about the “grind” and working for the weekend. You are living your life right now, and no one knows what the future will bring. Ideally, find a job that brings you joy and fulfillment so that it doesn’t feel like work. If that isn’t possible at this time, make sure to do something you love every day. Visit a park or the beach during your lunch break, and schedule fun activities to do every evening. Finally, make your weekends like mini-vacations. You should aim to start every Monday with the warm glow of a weekend well spent.

8. Know what you love to do, and do it.  Make an effort to find your hobbies and make time to work with them. I love yoga, the ocean, my dogs, travelling, writing, spending time with my husband, friends, and family, and educating people about health and wellness. Only when you figure out what you like to do can you begin finding out your strengths and true happiness. Be true to yourself, and learn to recognize what you truly love, as opposed to what you think is the right thing for you to love.

9. Never stop having fun. I love it when I see elderly people laughing and having a good time. I don’t care if they are dirt poor and don’t seem to have much… if they have a smile on their face and a twinkle in their eye, they have it all. Laughter and joy is the best medicine, and you should seek it out whenever possible. Keep a smile on your face and see the lighter side of things to make sure you create plenty of lasting memories for years to come.

You can find the entire article here.

In my opinion each of the parts are so true and extremely important to cherish. The most important thing is to know yourself and learn to accept faults and be proud of own uniqueness. I still have a lot to do with this part:). Second, you can never spend too much time with the ones you love. This often feels hard as everyone have their own lives and daily responsibilities. I have done my best to eliminate these during the summer, for example by taking brake from exercising and spending the time with friends, as I think it is really important for your mental wellness ;)

My lack of exercise is a bit conflict with the part of taking best possible care of my body but I try to compensate it by eating healthy and nutritious food. Nevertheless, I'm really looking forward to fall to arrive and I get to start doing yoga again:) and I'm going to do my best to get my friends to attend the classes with me, be aware;-) 

Some of the best girls :)

I also often succumb on wasting time on negativity. It is important to learn to make decisions, and afterwards not to question these choices, but confidently pursue them and make them work the best possible way. Positivity and faith often leads to new, exciting paths and opportunities.

Living in the moment; another thing I have to work on J I often notice myself thinking ”When this and that, I will be more satisfied..”. It is important to make everyday happy and do things you love in your everyday life, not to constantly wait for something better to happen. Happiness comes by doing things you love to do. I love spending time with friends, lazy evenings at home, traveling, exercising…. Also, my ultimate wish is to some day truly enjoy the subjects I study and create a work for myself that I truly enjoy doing.

One of the best girls <3

I feel I still have so much to learn about myself but I'm good way working towards it :) Also, I have so many dreams I want to pursue. It makes me so happy to know that the entire world is open for me and I still have loads of time. I am so proud of all my friends and family, who have taken a risk and step out of their comfort zone to pursue their dreams. That is exactly what I am going to do as well :)

Oh god, how much text, I doubt anyone had the energy to read it this far ;) Anyway, I wish everyone good night <3 <3

pictures: pinterest