My Wellness Routine

After last year's SoCal Wellness Retreat I spent time working with a functional medicine specialist and learning more about what was going on in my body which my general practitioner would not "diagnose" as a problem but certainly were signs of inflammation and stress. I took a ton of tests that really looked deeper at what I was deficient in and sensitive to. I isolated a lot of issues related to my allergies which I had largely ignored and how things in my environment were triggering certain reactions in my body. I also started to work on my stress levels and how to find balance even though my work schedule is at best hectic and generally borders on crazy.    

I got many recommendations for supplements, IV treatments, diet modifications, lifestyle changes etc.  I evaluated those recommendations based on what I know about myself.  I am not going to make radical changes to my work life, I don’t have time to cook all home made meals, go to doctors constantly or follow a super strict diets nor do I honestly want to. There are things I am very clearly not giving up – among them are coffee, wine and cheese! However, I do believe that food is medicine and certain reasonable life style modifications and changes in your home can make an impact. 

So here’s what I decided to do:

It was clear that my body needed a detox and my liver was a good place to start.  I was getting skin reactions regularly for example waking up in the morning with my eyes swollen almost shut.  I started making celery juice and drinking about 8-10 ounces every morning before I drink or eat anything else.   That has made probably the biggest impact of anything I’ve done and its something relatively simple and cost effective I can stick to.  When I’m really busy I simply buy celery juice from Pressed Juicery or a local store. I’ve also found that its available almost every where these days so I can be relatively consistent when traveling too.

I follow the celery juice with coffee and then lemon water until about 11am. I generally follow an intermittent fasting program so I don’t eat after about 8pm and wait to eat again until about 11am and then eat lunch.  My go to is a cobb or chopped salad. I switch from coffee to green tea in the afternoon unless I really need more on a given day. 

I added key supplements to my diet. I was already taking a multi-vitamin but I was deficient in Omegas and Vitamin D. I also take a liver supplement and added Ashwaganda to my supplements to help control cortisol levels from stress especially later in the day.

We got rid of as much plastic as we could in our house, added more air purifiers and natural products to our house for cleaning, food preparation, rooms we sleep in etc.

We also word hard to stock up on organic fruits and veggies each week and do less animal proteins in general.

The final change I made was to my sleep schedule. Instead of staying up late every night working, I switched to going to bed ideally by 9:30am and getting up fresh so I can focus on work in the morning hours which is my most productive time.  By 3:30pm every day I find it so much harder to get key things done. Now I’m at my desk by 7:45am just after my son leaves for school and am ready to focus on core tasks until late afternoon. At that point I do pick ups, sports drop offs and try to work out.

I’ve always been pretty good at working out and my job is filled with heavy lifting so that wasn’t a big issue for me but I definitely have re-incorporated new workouts that I enjoy and can be consistent with including hiking, tennis and pilates.

I’ve seen a remarkable difference in less than a year. The allergic reactions I was having constantly are completely gone and these changes have felt great as well as been very sustainable for me. If you are looking for recommendations of places to start and/or experts to work with in the functional medicine space please reach out to me!