A 5 day nutrition and yoga programme to help you refresh and reboot after the Summer!

After a busy summer of sun, fun and slightly too much rosé (!), I like to keep my September calm and uncluttered.  This precious time helps me to recharge and set my goals for the rest of the year.

Nutrition is one of the 4 pillars of health along with sleep, stress management and physical activity.  A yoga practice helps to improve our flexibility and physical strength.  There’s also evidence to show that yoga can help to reduce stress through the reduction of cortisol levels.  There are further studies demonstrating that a regular yoga practice can help to improve the quality of our sleep.  The combination of a nutrition and yoga is indeed a powerful one for supporting our health! 

So, with a drum roll, I’ve put together a 5 day nutrition and yoga programme which I thought you might enjoy with the aim of helping you to reboot and refresh ready for Autumn.  It contains Mediterranean style recipes together with suggestions for short morning and evening yoga classes, lasting about 10-15 minutes and which are suitable for all levels.  These yoga classes have been selected from yoga videos available on YouTube.

A huge and obvious caveat is that I am a nutritionist and certainly not a yoga teacher.  I’ve been doing yoga for a long time and it is one of my passions (together with nutrition!) which I am happy to share.  I’ve selected yoga videos which I feel tick all the boxes for expertise, safety and quality as they are produced by yoga professionals.  If you are interested in further videos,  my favourite YouTube yogis include the following:  Yoga with Adriene, Yoga with Tim, Fightmaster Yoga and Yoga with Kassandra.  As always though if you have any health concerns or flexibility issues, please do discuss this with your doctor first.  

The nutrition part is where I like to feel I am an expert!  The plan is based around 3 balanced meals and a small afternoon snack.   These menus have been designed by yours truly to be delicious and colourful as well as fairly quick and easy to prepare.  I’ve suggested aiming to avoid/reduce your alcohol intake over these 5 days (your liver will thank you for it!) as well as aiming to be tucked up in bed by about 11 pm.  The nutrition and yoga programme does not contain much added sugar, and if you do feel the need for additional sweetness, you can simply eat more fresh fruit or add in a few squares of dark chocolate.

This pdf can be downloaded here .  I hope you enjoy the nutrition and yoga programme and please let me know how you get on!