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Five Tips for Healthy Stress Relief

December 5, 2017 Lydia Buschenfeldt Leave a Comment

Despite the chilly tem­per­a­tures and increase in dark skies, the Decem­ber hol­i­day sea­son is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the smells and the music and the dec­o­ra­tions. I love time with my fam­i­ly and send­ing cards and tak­ing part in the tra­di­tions that have been ingrained in me through­out my life. I love the excite­ment and won­der of it all!

All sounds pret­ty mag­i­cal, does­n’t it? And it is, but that’s not the whole sto­ry. The images you see in mag­a­zines and on tele­vi­sion of “per­fect” hol­i­day scenes — of snow­balls and hot cocoa and match­ing sweaters — also don’t tell the whole story.

Erase stress!

While the hol­i­days are in fact, one of my favorite times of the year, they can also be a wee bit stress­ful. Plan­ning trips, find­ing the per­fect gift, the end­less hol­i­day par­ties and oblig­a­tions that all require extra bak­ing or cook­ing… it often adds up to less sleep, less nour­ish­ing food, and more (often MANY more) items on the to-do list.

So can you have your cake and eat it too? Can you enjoy the mag­ic of the sea­son, tack­le your to-do list AND keep your san­i­ty? I can’t promise mir­a­cles (I’m not San­ta Claus!) but these 5 tips can start you in the right direction.

  1. Set a dai­ly pri­or­i­ty. Whether it’s the night before, or as you fin­ish your morn­ing tea, decide what the one (or maybe two) things are that are non-nego­tiables and plan your day around check­ing them off the list. That way, no mat­ter how many items remain on the list, you can feel the sweet accom­plish­ment of check­ing the box off as completed.
  2. Move your body! Yes, I know get­ting in an hour-long spin class isn’t always fea­si­ble with extra oblig­a­tions on the cal­en­dar, but find­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for authen­tic move­ment is ALWAYS do-able. Before shop­ping, do two laps around the mall to scope out the stores and get in some steps. Park far away and take the stairs. And noth­ing gets the blood flow­ing quite like a dance par­ty in the kitchen while you bake your 9 mil­lionth tray of cookies!
  3. Nour­ish your body when you can. Hol­i­day par­ties aren’t often high­light­ed by kale and flax seed, but chances are you aren’t par­ty­ing from dawn until dusk every day. Nev­er leave home with­out a snack and brown-bag your  lunch when you can. Fill your plate with veg­gies, pro­tein, and healthy fats, and then when you find your­self face-to-face with the choco­late fon­due foun­tain, enjoy it stress-free know­ing you are doing your best to nour­ish your body the major­i­ty of the time.
  4. Sched­ule some me-time at least once a week. While it would be love­ly to start and end every day at the spa, that’s just not prac­ti­cal. What is prac­ti­cal is plan­ning an hour of time just for you once a week, and putting it on the cal­en­dar as non-nego­tiable. Reserve the guest room at a friend’s house to take a nap, enjoy a man­i­cure between errands, or take your­self out for a meal, just on your own.
  5. Keep it real. When things feel like they are just too much to han­dle, it can be help­ful to pause, take a deep breath, and put it all in per­spec­tive. Is the world REALLY going to end if your rib­bon isn’t curled? What about if the icing isn’t per­fect on the cook­ies? It will not. Take a breath, look around to soak in the mag­ic that is already in your life, and move on.

Cheers to a hol­i­day sea­son of health, hap­pi­ness, and healthy stress relief!

Health and Wellness exercise, healthy dietary fats, healthy snacks, managing stress and anxiety

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Based in Fairfax, Virginia, Hatch Health and Happiness offers full-service face-to-face health coaching in Northern Virginia and virtually around the globe!
lydia@hatchhealthhappiness.com
610-220-7036

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Healthy Living — Great Recipes and Ideas!

Trail Mix

Bulk Bin Trail Mix

September 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Sure, it’s tempt­ing­ly easy to grab a bag of pre-made trail mix –col­or­ful, effort­less, and with such fun names to boot! But have you ever stopped to glance at the nutri­tion facts of that bag of seem­ing­ly healthy options? More specif­i­cal­ly, check out the sug­ar con­tent. Some com­mer­cial brands of trail mix have as much sug­ar as a 16 oz bot­tle of soda! The main cul­prit is sweet­ened dried fruit, and some brands add can­dy as well. If that deli­cious mouth­ful of sweet and salty is your taste­buds’ desire, don’t despair. There are plen­ty of ways to make a deli­cious AND nutri­tious trail mix, all with ingre­di­ents from your gro­cery store bulk bin! [Read More…]

Product Reviews — NEW!

Purely Elizabeth Superfood Oat Cups with Granola Topping — Cranberry Pumpkin Seed

More Great Recipes and Ideas!

Meal Planning

Meal Planning

July 31, 2018 Leave a Comment

One of the trick­i­est parts of most people’s healthy rou­tines is the meal plan­ning com­po­nent. Luck­i­ly for you, we have that cov­ered with the lat­est install­ment in our Hatch Video series! More…

Bloat Buster Smoothie

Bloat Buster Smoothie

June 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Now that we are head­ing into the warmer months of the year, you may find your­self want­i­ng to spend less time in front of the hot stove top or oven. For­tu­nate­ly, smooth­ies are a great way to pack a lot of nutri­tion in one place. Check out the video below for one of my favorite smooth­ies — the bloat buster!

Pan roasted plantains

Pan-Roasted Plantains

May 1, 2018 Leave a Comment

Pan roasted plantains with mashed avocadoDespite the fact that plan­tains close­ly resem­ble a banana, they have a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent fla­vor and are def­i­nite­ly not to be con­sumed raw (you’ll only make that mis­take once!). Plan­tains are actu­al­ly a veg­etable, chock full of fiber, cal­ci­um and vit­a­min C. Pan-roast­ing the plan­tains allows them to caramelize, keep­ing the out­side a lit­tle bit crispy and the inside nice and soft. Cin­na­mon, gin­ger and turmer­ic add a tri­fec­ta of anti-inflam­ma­to­ry good­ness and a lit­tle sprin­kle of sea salt makes these plan­tains absolute­ly irre­sistible. Enjoy as is, or my favorite way –- with mashed avo­ca­do! More…

Energy bites

Energy Balls

April 2, 2018 Leave a Comment

Gluten, Grain, Dairy, Soy-Free and Vegan

Seeds need ener­gy in order to grow, and cul­ti­vat­ing your own healthy habits can take a lot of ener­gy too! Ener­gy bars and ener­gy balls are every­where we look these days. They are super easy to whip up your­self, but many peo­ple are intim­i­dat­ed by the thought. More…

More Great Recipes!

About Lydia and Hatch Health

Lydia Buschenfeldt

I was a happy, healthy, newlywed 4th grade teacher when a random virus paralyzed my GI system, along with parts of my … More...

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Client Testimonials

Rainbow

See what Lydia’s clients have to say…

I’d say Lydia Buschen­feldt has changed my life, but that would­n’t be exact­ly true. What she does is even more pow­er­ful. Any­one can tell some­one else what changes they ‘need’ to make to live a health­i­er life. It takes some­one spe­cial to enable and empow­er you to change your own life. Lydia is that some­one spe­cial. Dur­ing every ses­sion, at every twist and turn and bump in the road, Lydia meets me where I am with an incred­i­ble amount of knowl­edge and patience, and helps me iden­ti­fy one or two steps for­ward to accom­plish the goals I have for myself. She knows that each jour­ney is dif­fer­ent, and cus­tomizes our ses­sions so our dis­cus­sions are tai­lored toward what I need in that moment to help me build the health, future and hap­pi­ness that I deserve.
— L.S.
Man­as­sas, VA More…

healthy choices

quoteWe do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing. — Anonymous

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Contact Lydia

Based in Fair­fax, Vir­ginia, Hatch Health and Hap­pi­ness offers full-ser­vice face-to-face health coach­ing in North­ern Vir­ginia and vir­tu­al­ly around the globe!
lydia@hatchhealthhappiness.com
610−220−7036

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