7/22/15 ~~
Many people ask me for my best anti-aging tips and are often surprised when I tell them that Gratitude is one of my top tips. When we are grateful and focus on the good things in our life we are generally happier and less stressed out.
We all know by now that chronic stress is harmful to our bodies and skin and can make us look much older. So with gratefulness comes happiness, less stress, less free radical damage and therefore younger looking skin.
For many years I have performed a 30-minute morning ritual that goes like this:
10 minute Short Burst workout
10 Minute prayer and reflection of what I’m grateful for
10 Minute goal setting for the day
This has helped me stay happy, healthy, and motivated even through some very difficult times in my life. I know how helpful this can be – so when I saw a story on the TODAY show last week that talked about a very similar routine, I knew I had to share it with you.
Doctors out of the University of Wisconsin for Investigating Healthy Minds came up with a great way to practice gratefulness by remembering the numbers 5, 3, and 1.
5 – Stands for practicing 5 minutes of prayer or meditation per day
3- Stands for writing down three things you are grateful for each day
1- Stands for performing one act of Random Kindness per day.
Their study found a much greater sense of happiness for individuals that performed these acts each day. They found that it helps people focus on the positive things in there life rather than the negative, reduces stress, improves well being and mood – and therefore is a wonderful anti-aging strategy too!
I really like the idea of writing down what I’m grateful for each day. In the past I simply only “thought about” what I was grateful for. Somehow writing it down really enhances the whole experience and it is also nice to look back on as time goes by.
To help even further I would add the #10.
10 stands for at least 10 minutes of short burst exercise each day. 🙂
As we all know by now, short burst exercise increases HGH which is a youth boosting, mood elevating, and fat burning hormone.
So my revised #’s to remember are 10-5-3-1 for your best health and happiness with the added bonus of beautiful skin.
To Learn more – check out my YouTube video here.
Products I Love
I recieve a lot of questions regarding my protein powder of choice for my smoothies. My absolute favorite is Primal Fuel. It has all good for you ingredients and keeps me satisfied for hours. They have Chocolate and Vanilla flavors and both are delicious!
Recipe Corner
Another Delicious recipe from my Friend Flav’s cookbook, Enjoy!!
Chocolate Almond Cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon cacao or cocoa powder
- 100g cocoa butter, melted
- 1⁄4 cup honey, melted
- 1⁄3 cup whole almonds or more
Instructions
- Using a double boiler, melt honey and cocoa over the lowest heat possible. Add approximately 1⁄4 pot of water.
- Place cupcake liners inside of a cupcake tray to use as molds for the chocolate.
- Place the cacao or cocoa powder in a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Once the honey and cocoa powder have melted and are combined well, add the mixture to the cocoa powder and mix well.
- Add the whole almonds and combine well.
- Add 1 tablespoon drops into prepared cupcake liners (use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop for ease).
- Place the tray in the fridge to speed up hardening.
