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Expat Unplugged: A City Girl’s Guide to Healthy Living!

Expat Unplugged: A City Girl’s Guide to Healthy Living!

Andrea
Nourishment

If you caught the Pluck, Cook and Eat post earlier this week, you might have noticed the team here at MissMalini are slowly but surely making healthier choices! From banning the term To-Dos in favour of ‘Possibility Lists’ to eating for nourishment, 2013, for me, has been all about small changes that yield big results.

Green Smoothies – Not a morning person? Neither was I until my blender and I became best friends. Each morning it puts in some hard work blending away a combination of spinach, methi, celery, papaya and nimbu. Pep in your step guaranteed.

Drink up

Organic Coconut Oil – Let’s take a test. How many ingredients are there on your lotion bottle? If the answer is over 3, it’s safe to assume you are slathering a nasty layer of chemicals onto your body daily. That thought gives me the heebie jeebies. I’ve replaced most of my chemical laden products with coconut oil that serves as a healthy fat when added to food, weekly hair mask, night time face moisturizer and full body moisturizer.

Honey – As a sweetener, honey is superb, but even more so as a face mask. Try leaving a thin layer on your face for 10 minutes alone or mixed with apple or oatmeal.

Spirulina Powder – I originally started using this dark green powder to combat an iron deficiency as it is an easily absorbable source of iron, but now use it as a beauty product as well. Mixed with an equal part of castor oil, it’s the perfect mask to combat build up from pollution.

Spirulina and Castor Oil Masks
MissMalini and Andrea Brown

DIY – When you can’t find exactly what you are looking for at the store. Do it yourself. Whether it is pizza or extract for baking, it’s safe to assume you can make a healthier version of most things at home.  Sometimes you get really lucky and your experiments even turn out beautiful.

Homemade vanilla extract

Phone Diet – It’s safe to say I am addicted to my phone. The thought of leaving it at home for a day gives me wrinkles. Totally unhealthy, right? My first step in the phone diet was leaving my phone at my desk for lunch. Passed with flying colors. I’ve just begun switching it off when spending one on one time with people. It’s amazing what a small change like that can do in terms of building relationships.

Get Moving – This one is pretty simple. Make time for adventures. Go outside. A little fresh air and sun never hurt anyone (with proper sunscreen application, of course!)

Daily meditation required

Life Hack – Lately I’ve been feeling like there is so much going on around me, I just don’t know where to direct my attention. A sure sign I need to hack away at all the excess noise in my life by identifying the most important things in life and putting them first.

Last, but not least – Express Gratitude.