Healthy lifestyle 57 | The Health Sessions

A Holiday Reading Guide: The Best Articles on Healthy Living, Psychology and Making Your Resolutions Stick

These dark December days are the perfect time to curl up on the couch with a big mug of tea and catch up on some reading. I hope you enjoy the interesting articles below with useful tips for a healthy and happy 2015!

On Healthy Living

Did you hear about the amazing medical breakthroughs that occurred this year? Check out the most exciting health stories of 2014.
10 Wellness Trends to Watch in 2015. I’m secretly hoping #3 will make its way to my hometown!
If you’re thinking about starting the new year with a super strict diet or crazy fitness plan to improve your health, give these 15 small steps to living well and whole a try first.
Need even more inspiration? Here are 101 revolutionary ways to be healthy. How many of these are you already doing?
Great advice: Stop working out and DWYLT instead – it will change your life.
Hunching over your keyboard all day creates tension in your neck, shoulders and lower back. A Cup of Jo shows us six simple stretches for people who sit behind a desk.
Leo Babauta from Zen Habits rounds up all his best tips for getting in shape in one handy post.
Going for a walk is one of the simplest yet effective activities to boost your physical and mental health. But if strolling around is a bit too dull for your liking, have a look at these 7 powerful ways to make walking more exciting.

Pudding Perfection: 10 Indulgent Desserts for Healthy Holidays

This might come as a surprise to you, given the headline, but I’ll be the last person to convince you to “eat clean” during the holidays.

Ok, embracing every opportunity to satisfy your cravings throughout November and December is not a good idea for your health. But stuffing yourself with turkey or eating one too many ‘oliebollen‘ (Dutch doughnuts) on New Year’s Eve? That’s not such a big deal! Eating isn’t just about nutrients, calories and feeding your body. It’s also about feeding your soul, by sharing a delicious meal and laughs with your loved ones.

And please, if you choose to let go of your food philosophy for those two or three days of the year, don’t feel guilty about it. Make sure you enjoy every bite! You can make healthier choices the next day.

But maybe you have diabetes or irritable bowel syndrome or another health condition, and having sugar-laden desserts with enormous amounts of butter, cream and white flour is not an option. Maybe you simply prefer (the taste of) whole food ingredients like bitter chocolate, raw honey, dates and fragrant spices in your pudding. Whatever the reason, when you like to keep up your healthy food habits during the holidays and still satisfy your sweet tooth, check out these 10 indulgent desserts from my favourite food bloggers.

Healthy Snacking On The Go: 10 Savoury and Sweet Bites

Always a nutritious bite at hand? Learn how to meal plan like a pro with the recipes, grocery lists, pantry plans and meal solutions in the Healthy Meal Planning Bundle.

When the afternoon rolls around and you feel yourself slipping into a slump, it’s all too tempting to grab a red velvet cupcake to go with your latte macchiato or hit the vending machine at work. But as yummy as these treats can be, there are more nutritious ways to keep your energy up throughout the day – and satisfy your taste buds too.

Here are 10 healthy homemade snacks that you can bring to the office or eat on the go.

Easter Brunch: 10 Healthy Takes on Your Favourite Festive Dishes

Sunday mornings are perfect for lingering in bed and staying in your pajamas as long as you feel like it, before lazily finding your way into the kitchen to feast on banana pancakes.

So this Easter weekend, treat yourself to these healthy takes on your favourite sweet or savoury brunch dishes! You might want to work up your appetite with an egg hunt first…

Sunset Tanzania | Unconventional Sleeping Tips

6 Unconventional Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

Dark circles under your eyes. Extra pounds around your waist from craving high-calorie foods. The struggle to focus on your work and just get through the day without emotional outbursts.

You know the alarming picture of what sleep loss will do to you all too well.

It’s not like you haven’t tried all the usual advice for getting a good night’s sleep. You stopped drinking caffeine after lunchtime and you wake up and go to bed at the same time each night. Heck, you even bought the most comfortable mattress and pillow you could find.

And still you find yourself tossing and turning, staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night, debating whether you should quietly get up for a while or stubbornly keep your eyes closed in the hope of finally falling asleep.

Unfortunately, following standard sleeping tips is no guarantee for getting plenty of shut-eye when you have a medical condition, when your baby keeps you up all night or when your internal body clock is disrupted from working the night shift.

For people with chronic illness, insomnia is an all-too-common problem. Many health issues, such as diabetes, heart disease, depression and an overactive thyroid, can disturb your natural sleep – wake cycle. Having trouble falling asleep can also be the result of the pills you’re taking or of simply not being able to lie down comfortably due to seriously aching joints and muscles.

If the basic go-to-sleep ideas have failed to get you a good night’s rest, experiment with these 6 unconventional tips to beat insomnia naturally.