S E P T E M B E R 2 02 0

6 TIPS F O O D P R E P TO

S TR E A M L I N E YO U R W E E K

I D E A S F O R

C LE A N S I N G

YOUR MIND & HOME

F I N D J OY I N

EXERCISE

Get Organizedfor Fall

¼ cup olive oil

1 avocado, pitted and peeled

1/2 cup walnuts

½ lemon, juiced

4 leaves fresh kale

6 leaves fresh basil

2 fresh garlic cloves

½ cup parmesan, grated

14 oz dry pasta (try using a pasta made from lentils or chickpeas)

freshly ground black pepper

kosher salt

DIRECTIONS:

Remove stem from the kale leaves and roughly chop to approximately ½ inch pieces. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water comes to a boil, make the pesto. Place the walnuts, olive oil, avocado and lemon juice in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides occasionally with a spatula. Add in chopped kale, basil, garlic cloves, and Parmesan then blend until smooth. If the pesto looks dry or you are having a difficult time blending, add a tablespoon or two of water to the food processor. Season the pesto with kosher salt and black pepper. Transfer pesto to a large bowl and set aside. Cook pasta, stirring occasionally until al dente or according to package directions. Add cooked pasta to the pesto bowl and use tongs to toss the pasta until the sauce evenly coats the pasta. Divide and top with a few basil leaves and a bit of freshly grated Parmesan.

SERVINGS: 2 meal-size servings(serves up to 4 as a side dish)

NUTRITION INFO: Assumes the use of high-protein pasta (such as lentil or chickpea)

Calories 635, Fat 24g, Carbs 77g, Protein 36g, Saturated Fat 2g

Kale and avocado bring a fresh take on one of our favorite pasta sauces.

Creamy avocado coats the pasta giving it a silky smooth texture with all the

tasty, earthiness of kale. Pairs perfectly with any shape or size of pasta, but try

one of the many high-protein options made from lentils, chickpeas, or other

grain-alternatives to ramp-up the nutrition and protein!

Kale & AvocadoPesto Pasta

AvocadoHere’s the skinny on creamy, delicious

avocados. Even though they are high in fat, the type of fat they contain is one of the “good” fats that actually helps lower bad cholesterol. Plus, they have about

20 different vitamins and minerals your body needs like potassium,

folate, and vitamins B, C, and E.

E AT W E L L

From the Kitchen of ALEXANDER JAMES SWANDA // Alexander is a restaurant and development chef who studied culinary arts and food sustainability at the New England Culinary Institute. After pioneering menus at fine dining restaurants across the country, Alexander now lives in Omaha, Nebraska where he works as a development chef for a large consumer packaged goods company. He believes that food should bring people joy and is passionate about making delicious food that promotes both human and environmental sustainability.

From the Kitchen of CADRY NELSON // Cadry is the writer, photographer, and recipe creator at Cadry’s Kitchen, a vegan food & lifestyle blog. She shares plant-based comfort food classics that are ready in about 30 minutes. Cadry has been featured on Today, Reader’s Digest, Shape, and Huffington Post.

E AT W E L L

For many of us, September is the time for returning to routines. With more obligations on the calendar, now is when we’re looking for shortcuts and ways to simplify.

Doing food prep on Sundays makes the rest of the week a whole lot less hectic. Plus, we’re more apt to choose healthy foods when they’re convenient and quick.

Check out these simple meal prep ideas before the mad dash of Monday begins. Then set yourself up for streamlined lunches and dinners throughout the rest of the week.

1 | While unpacking groceries, wash & chop vegetables

Instead of putting all of your produce into bins to be dealt with later, wash and chop sturdy vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and celery right away.

Having them ready to go means you’re more likely to use them later in stir-fries, salads, and snacks.

2 | Cook batches of brown rice, quinoa, and/or lentils

Take 30 minutes and make a big batch of grains or lentils on the stove. They keep well in the refrigerator or freezer.

Then throughout the week, add them to bowls of fried rice or marinated lentil salads.

Tip: Cooked brown lentils are also a terrific heart-healthy addition to spaghetti sauce instead of ground beef. Serve over your favorite pasta.

3 | Make some staples that can easily be repurposed

If leftovers get a little mundane, make dishes that can be reused in a variety of ways.

Chili or spicy black beans can go into burritos, rice bowls, tacos, taco pizza, or taco salads.

4 | Turn on the oven and bake several potatoes

A baked potato bar is an easy way to create a delicious meal in its own right. Dice the remaining cooked potatoes for breakfast burritos, or a quick hash with peppers and onions.

5 | Reimagine salad for lunch

When it comes to green salads and meal prep, kale is king. This hearty green doesn’t wilt like lighter greens when chopped ahead of time. You can even dress it!

If you prefer softer greens like spinach or romaine, skip chopping those ahead of time. Instead, focus on the other salad elements. Chop whatever vegetables you like for salads. Then simply add handfuls of baby spinach when you’re ready to eat.

It’s not just about greens! Make batches of picnic-style salads like potato salad, peanut butter noodles, and pasta salad.

6 | Roast seasonal vegetables

Look at what vegetables are in season. Then throw them on a parchment paper covered baking sheet with a drizzle of oil and roast at 400 degrees until tender. It’s a good idea to stop once halfway through to flip.

Vegetables that are good roasted include: sweet potatoes, winter squash, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.

6 Tips:FOOD PREP TO STREAMLINE YOUR WEEKby CADRY NELSON

Ways to Cleanse Your Mind

Mental and emotional toxins often go unnoticed during stressful times, but it’s so important to take time to find ways to reduce these toxins in our lives. Mind clutter can lead to issues such as indecision, unhappiness, and fatigue. So how do you avoid falling into this trap? Here are three reliable options.

1 | Establish technology time restrictions

Hopping on social media or turning on the news are usually great ways to take a break, but now people are more

stressed and overwhelmed as a result of COVID-19. It’s important to establish use restrictions (i.e. time of day you’re engaging and length of engagement), so you can reduce stressful triggers.

2 | Enjoy time outdoors

It’s well known that physical and mental health go hand-in-hand. Now, many of us are spending significantly more time at home, so an easy stress-reliever is to enjoy the outside. Schedule a calendar event or set reminders to get outside for 10-15 minutes. If time is limited, step outside to take 10 deep breaths with a 3-second inhale and 3-second exhale. Not only is spending time in nature a good stress - reliever, it also has been shown to improve mood, boost the immune system, and improve focus.

B E W E L L

by JOANNA ECKMAN

YOUR MIND& HOME

T I P S F O R C L E A N S I N G

For optimum holistic health, it is important to routinely cleanse your life of trash and toxins from your inner and outer environments. When your entire being is free to function better, maintaining a feeling of well-being can be maintained long-term. As a result, you will have more vitality for pursuing what is important to you. Now, more than ever, the ability to manage mental and physical health is being tested. Daily self-care routines are no longer simple and require more effort. Here are six cleansing tips to lighten up your mind and home to create an intentional, freeing environment.

For an extra cleanse, pick a day or two every week where you fully

disconnect from technology.

3 | Spend time journaling

Journaling helps improve mood by prioritizing thoughts, reflecting on the day, and writing down positive self-talk. Choose from a variety of options from formatted journals like the Passion Planner to bullet journals. Then, start to cleanse your mind of clutter or negative thoughts. You’ll soon find yourself thinking more positively and focused on specific goals.

Ways to Cleanse Your Home

With Fall approaching, most of us get the decluttering bug thanks to spending more time indoors. We start to clean out our closets, steam clean floors, and throw away the hundreds of sticky notes that no longer have meaning. Deciding what to get rid of and exactly how to organize can be a challenge and sometimes even stressful. Along with physically cleaning, have you thought of clearing out stagnant energy in your home by adding another form of cleansing to the mix? Here are three simple ways to cleanse your home from top to bottom.

1 | Deep clean

Autumn is upon us and it’s the perfect time to deep clean your home from top to bottom. Give everything from area rugs to furniture a good scrubbing. Don’t forget to wipe down walls and baseboards around the house. Be sure to throw on some good tunes or a podcast and try making your own cleaning solutions with some essential oils. This is a great time to decide what truly deserves space in your home.

2 | Invest in a diffuser

Homes are full of smells. In fact, sometimes you don’t even realize the aromas that others may experience when entering your home. One simple way to cleanse your home is by investing in a diffuser. They are safer than candles and this one-time investment will save money down the line. A few drops of your favorite essential oils will keep your home smelling fresh for hours. As an added bonus, diffused oil can have several relaxation and health benefits including safe scent-

About JOANNA ECKMAN // Joanna Eckman is a professional organizer and project manager who is an expert at creating efficiency and helping people declutter mental and physical spaces. She is the owner of Joanna Eckman

Professional Organizing, https://joannaorganize.com and can be found on Instagram at joanna_organize.

Ask the Expert...I want to exercise or journal in the morning, but it’s so hard for me to get up. What do I do?

It starts with your mindset. You need to shift your thinking from “I am not a morning person” to “I am a morning person.” Once you change your mindset, start adapting your internal clock by getting up 30 minutes earlier than you’re used to. As you make the switch, stay consistent at that time for a week and then adjust until you’re waking up at your desired time. You’ll notice that waking early gets easier, and I’d encourage you to journal how you feel. You’ll most likely feel more energized and accomplished which will motivate you to continue the habit.

WELL BALANCEDTM has an impeccable reputation for providing trust-worthy information to improve your well-being and create healthier work cultures. Our network of physicians, dietitians, wellness professionals, and more are here to answer your crucial health questions.

Have a question? Ask our experts by going to welcoa.org/expert. If your question is selected we will contact you directly with your answer and it will be featured in an upcoming issue*. *All questions are handled in confidence and will not, without prior consent, be disclosed or used by WELL BALANCEDTM or its contributors.

dispersion, mosquito and mold defense, alleviate symptoms of stress and even work as a decongestant.

3 | Purify the air

Adding fresh flowers and greenery can transform the aesthetics of a room and as a bonus, some plants are natural air purifiers! Swing by your local greenhouse and grab a pothos plant or a beautiful rubber plant. Your space will feel brighter and the air you’re breathing will be cleaner.

B E W E L L

Let’s play a quick mind game. Set a timer for one minute. Then close your eyes and follow your breath in and out. The only rule: you can’t think of anything else except your breath.

If you play along, you’ll notice a strange peculiarity of the mind: just when you try to focus your attention on one thing, your mind wanders away. In fact, on average, our minds wander 47% of the time, when we try to focus on one thing.1

This is the mind’s default mode, and its activity is modulated by a brain attention network named after it. Activity here is important for planning and imagination, but we get into trouble if we stay in the default network mode for too long. We start ruminating, lose focus, are easily distracted, and unable to concentrate on the task at hand. Research shows that the more our minds wander, the less happy we are, and more prone to anxiety and depression. In this state we are also unable to tap into our best creative ideas and insights.

Did you know . ... The connections between emotion regulation and attention circuits in the brain are strong and interdependent. This means that cultivating better attention—through practices like mindfulness—create quicker recovery to baseline after emotional upset. In other words, navigate difficult emotions like fear, anxiety, or anger in more skillful ways.

Luckily, a different attention network available is active when we are fully present. Think of the times you were so engrossed in a passionate work project or you were fully attentive in conversation. Studies show the more time spent engaging this network, the happier and more creative you are.

How might we do this as we struggle to keep up with the torrent of information coming at us from our technology, media, work, and social lives?

About PARNEET PAL, MBBS

Chief Science Officer, Wisdom Labs

Parneet Pal is the Chief Science Officer at Wisdom Labs, a San Francisco-based company solving for stress, burnout and loneliness in the workplace. A Harvard-trained physician, she focuses on the intersection of lifestyle medicine, behavior change and technology and building wiser workplaces using the science of mindfulness, resilience and compassion. An international speaker and teacher, she is also a podcast interviewer at Wise@Work podcast; a TEDMED scholar; writes for various publications including Harvard Business Review and was featured on the cover of Mindful magazine.

A few best practices for decluttering the mind include:

• Go on an information diet. You wouldn’t eat any old food off the floor or garbage bin —yet, we freely take in all manner of junk information throughout the day. This is fuel for the mind’s clutter and rumination. Be ruthless and discriminatory with your information intake.

• Make mental hygiene a priority. Start your day with dedicated quiet time: meditating, journaling, exercise or out in nature. Quiet time is restorative for attention networks, which will show up as greater focus, productivity and emotional equilibrium throughout your day.

• Organize your workspace. Physical environments directly influence the quality of our thinking. For example, why not choose a desk layout that fits your natural flow.

• Go on regular technology fasts. Experiment with unplugging throughout the week and make the last hour of your day tech-free.

Consistent mindfulness practice (using meditation techniques of focusing attention on one point and/or open awareness) has

been shown to subdue activity of the default mode network in the brain,

helping create greater calm and focus.

REFERENCES

1. Matthew A. Killingsworth, Daniel T. Gilbert. A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind. Science. 12 Nov 2010.

by PARNEET PAL, MBBS

L I V E W E L L

Declutter Your Mind

The challenges brought on in 2020 have made it harder to find time to exercise. However, the new reality includes settling into a new normal that could use a more balanced work schedule. At this point, whether you’ve been living in yoga pants or running sprints around your home over the last several months, it’s important to introduce more mindful movement into your daily routine. Moving your body and giving it exercise is important, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating.

Here is a 3 step process to help you rediscover a more balanced workweek and find joy in exercise.

STEP 1: Find something that sparks joy. Listen to your inner Marie Kondo and choose an activity that excites you. It can be anything that moves your body, allows your mind to rest, and releases endorphins. Search online or social media for a variety of options such as Ryan Heffington’s Instagram dance classes, @ryan.heffington, or Heather Roberton’s strength training videos on YouTube. If you miss group-fitness classes, join

About SARAH RYE RYAN

Rye is a writer, cross country coach, and an avid long-distance runner.

In her free time, she volunteers with Girls On The Run, a national organization that helps young girls build healthy habits and runs trails with her female-led Oiselle Volée team. In 2020 she participated in her first ultramarathon, the Chuckanut 50k. Rye has spent over ten years writing and teaching on sports nutrition and mindful exercise practices. You can read more of her work at https://www.sarahryeryan.com.

a friend to set-up weekly workouts via video conference. Whatever activity you decide to try, be sure to ask yourself: What movement brings me joy? When we connect with a movement because we enjoy it, that can make us feel energized, strong and confident.

STEP 2: Pick a time that works for you. At this point, weekdays can blur into weekends, building routine into your schedule will give you a sense of rhythm and normalcy. Once you’ve picked your activity, decide how many times a week you can commit, for what duration, and what time of day works best. You may find that scheduling a 20-minute yoga session after a Thursday budget meeting, is a helpful way to release added stress.

STEP 3: Make the commitment. After you pick and schedule a new activity, make a commitment to try it out for eight to 12 weeks. This amount of time is enough to build a habit and see changes in your overall wellness. If the activity doesn’t spark joy, don’t give up! Simply move on and try something else.

Most importantly, once you’ve completed the 3 step process, take a week off to rest and bask in your accomplishment. Then repeat the process. The goal of rediscovering a more balanced routine is to build more joy into your day. Positive experiences can release endorphins that trigger positive associations; the more you enjoy the activity, the more likely you are to continue doing it. Remember to take a moment to recognize and appreciate your hard work!

It doesn’t matter what activity you choose, as long the exercise feels more like

fun than work.

by SARAH RYE RYAN

M O V E W E L L

ExerciseHOW TO FIND JOY IN

102M ILLION

Number of American adults with high cholesterol.

20The number of vitamins and minerals found in avocados.

MONTHLY HEALTH OBSERVANCE • September

47%Average amount of time the human mind wanders when

focusing on one thing.

8-12 W E E K S

Amount of time it takes to build a habit.

Cholesterol Education MonthMore than 102 million Americans starting at age 20 years and older have total cholesterol levels at or above 200 mg/dL, which is above healthy levels. September is National Cholesterol Education Month and a time to inform the public about the dangers of high cholesterol and its connection with heart disease. High cholesterol is one of the most common yet misunderstood health risks in America. It can be caused by an unhealthy diet and exacerbated by smoking and a lack of exercise. Since it is symptomless, it can be hard to diagnose correctly.

LEARN MORE

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 800.232.4636 www.cdc.gov/cholesterol/cholesterol_education_month.htm

PLANTSOne way to naturally purify the

air in your home.

10-15 M IN UTE S

Aim to spend this amount of time each day outside to help

decrease tech time.

©2020 Wellness Council of America, 17002 Marcy Street, Suite 140, Omaha, NE 68118; phone 402.827.3590; fax 402.827.3594; visit our website at www.welcoa.org. All rights reserved. ISSN 1549-9367. The content in WELL BALANCEDTM is created for informational purposes only. The content is not to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment and should not be used as such. Please refer to a licensed medical professional with any questions regarding medical conditions. Information may not be reproduced, copied, cited, or circulated in any printed or electronic form without written permission from the publisher.