Jasmine June Wellness

Afternoon energy crash?

Do you reach 3 or 4pm and suddenly feel that you have nothing left to give?

If you have school age kids it’s also the time when they get home and need some attention and snacks!

I recommend my clients have a good quality (protein) snack themselves at this time. The gap between lunch and dinner is a long one and you want to keep your blood sugar levels stable.

Here are some suggestions to avoid a pm energy crash..

It all starts in the morning! ☀️

💥Eat within two hours of waking

💥Ensure it’s minimum 30g protein

💥Eat sufficient protein at lunch

💥Hydrate yourself

💥Have your morning coffee 90 - 120mins after waking (when cortisol naturally declines) and avoid caffeine after midday

💥Supplement with B complex in the am (ideally methylated form for better absorption)

💥Get daylight in your eyes as close to waking as possible! Ditch those sunnies 😎

A recent study that included 785 women in menopause found that cold water swimming/ immersion helped to significantly reduce their anxiety while others reported reduction in mood swings, low mood and hot flushes.

63% said they specifically swam to reduce menopausal symptoms.

Although anecdotal, these findings are quite profound!

Cold water is accessible for everyone…you don’t have to have a cold plunge, if you have access to beaches or rivers that’s great, if not just end your morning shower on cold - note it’s tempting to go back to hot but try not to and allow your body to warm up in its own time.

Start with 20-30secs cold shower and as your body cold adapts with time, build up to 2mins.

So if you are looking for a simple solution to some common menopausal symptoms, get in the cold!

Cold water exposure will also:

💧Boost your metabolism
💧Increase production of brown fat - (the good stuff that burns calories and stores energy!)
💧Increase Motivation
💧Doing hard things builds inner resilience
💧Improve blood flow
💧Increase concentration and focus

I tend to avoid cold water during me**es as intuitively I feel that the vasoconstriction caused by the cold water is not great at this time..however, everyone is different so experiment for yourself. 🦋

Reaching your health goals is as much about mindset as it is about taking consistent actionable steps 🚶🏻‍♀️

Instead of imposing rules and restrictions, create standards for yourself. It’s less about scarcity and more about integrity .. standards are gentle, they bring you back in alignment with your values and desires.

Establish a personal ‘standard’ to help control actions that lead to poor time management, poor food choices, excess screen time, poor quality sleep, stressful situations.

This could look like the following:

A standard of:
👉 Not looking at your phone in the first hour of waking
👉 Not looking at your phone for 30mins before bed..(can build up from there)
👉Avoiding eating carbohydrates on their own
👉Avoiding TV past 10pm during the week
👉Making your bed in the morning
👉Not drinking alcohol on weekdays
👉Exercising in the am
👉No food past 8pm

Standards connect you with your higher self, if you can’t meet your standard for whatever reason, don’t beat yourself up about it, but come back to it again and again and soon it will become second nature.

Eventually you will do it without thinking because increasingly you are becoming the person who does that ‘thing’.

The cumulative benefit of meeting your daily standards will ripple out into all areas of your life 🦋

There is one recommendation that I ALWAYS suggest to my female clients… increase your protein intake..

Here’s why👇

Studies suggest that muscle mass decreases by around 3 to 8 percent per decade after age 30 and at higher rates after age 60. This has a direct impact on longevity.

Consuming sufficient quantities of good quality protein is one of 2 key things you can do to ensure you maintain and build skeletal muscle as you age. (The other one is exercise - especially strength and or resistance training)

Building muscle becomes more difficult as we age so to counteract this we need to be increasingly aware of our protein intake and consistent with muscle strengthening exercise.

This is especially important during perimenopause because muscle helps to:

👉Stabilise blood sugar levels (declines in oestrogen leave us less sensitive to insulin)
👉Increase energy - we all need this!
👉Mental clarity - yes please
👉Decrease body fat plus improve body composition
👉Reduce cravings because you’re more satiated
👉Strengthen bones - there is a clear correlation between lean body mass (muscle) and bone density

I aim for approx 30g of protein at each meal. Do you feel that you’re getting enough protein in your diet?

It’s a New Year but there will be more of the same habits!

I mean good habits, in some cases boring habits… and my latest one is getting up early - something I have always struggled to do but I’ve learnt to love it - thanks to the feeling of getting a head start on the day and getting some exercise early on.

Don’t forget that even though a New Year feels like a clean slate and a great starting point, we can invite that newness and ‘starting again’ feeling whenever we like…a new month, a new moon, even a new day!

Here is an invitation to implement or continue to repeat those simple (free) habits that will support and nourish you in 2024, and beyond.

👉Got to bed early / get up early
👉Get morning light
👉No caffeine past midday
👉Prioritise quality protein - esp at the start of the day
👉Lift weights 3 - 4x week
👉Get in cold water

Here’s to a joyful and healthful 2024! 🌟

*Tips for managing stressful feelings*

It’s that time of year when stress levels can be high for a variety of reasons.

Don’t get me wrong, stress isn’t all bad…cortisol and adrenaline (our stress hormones), help to get us up in the morning, they motivate us, alert us to danger, provide anti-inflammatory benefits, regulating metabolism and blood sugar, boosting strength and physical performance, activating pain dulling receptors to help respond to an injury, boosting circulation and oxygenation. Basically they are essential for our survival!

Our stress hormones should kick in when we need them and then reduce to baseline when we don’t.

Problems arise when our stress hormones are flooding our body consistently, in the case of chronic (ongoing stress).. fight or flight mode is our body’s PRIORITY at this time, NOT sleep, NOT immunity and definitely NOT s*x hormone production.

Here are some simple tips for regulating those stress hormones so you don’t reach burnout!

🌻 Magnesium - natures’ tranquilliser -(300 - 400mg of elemental magnesium)

🌻 Ashwaganda - Ayurvedic herb, regulates stress response - 500mg once or twice a day

🌻 Wait 60 - 90mins after waking before you have a coffee - your cortisol is naturally high on waking, adding coffee during this time with compound stressful feelings.

🌻 Don’t have coffee on an empty stomach - having food will act as a buffer

🌻 Also note that if you are very stressed, coffee is not going to help! Try swapping it out with a medicinal mushroom blend - so many are on the market now…I often recommend Black Gold Elixir (no affiliation)

🌻 Scale back on those cardio workouts - too many will negatively impact your stress levels. swap some with strength training or yoga.

🌻 Grounding - standing barefoot on the earth has a positive calming effect on your nervous system.

🌻 Cold water immersion - so many researched benefits for stress and mood

🌻 Breathing - check out the explanation of the physiological sigh on YouTube (Huberman) SO simple and so effective

What’s your favourite stress reducing activity?

Are you experiencing cravings + low energy? Take a look at my recent newsletter which includes tips for balancing blood sugar, along with a delicious smoothie recipe that includes the perfect combination of nutrients 🥰

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Let’s talk Intermittent Fasting..

There are many researched benefits to narrowing your ‘eating’ window. It’s a simple and effective tool that has been shown to:

👉 Reduce total % body fat
👉 Reduce visceral fat
👉 Reduce waist circumference
👉 Lower BP
👉 Decrease LDL

We have evolved to switch between feast or famine and this flexibility offers SO many benefits.

When we cultivate this metabolic flexibility by having a period of time where we are not eating (and raising our blood glucose levels), our body is forced to fuel itself using ketones (fat meatabolites).

When you are in this fat burning state you will find that your:

💥Energy increases
💥Improved focus and mental clarity
💥Improved insulin resistance
💥Cellular repair and removal of toxins
💥Release of GABA - calming neurotransmitter

IF isn’t for everyone and as a women - the real magic happens when you synch fasting with your cycle, if of course you still have one.

Have you given intermittent fasting a try?

But don’t worry!

There is SO much you can do to help redress the balance…

The brain is going through a huge recalibration during PeriMenopause and losing progesterone is one of the FIRST hormonal shifts that happen..

Now is the time when you need to start implementing simple strategies to support your hormones, or small disturbances will become bigger ones!

👉Focus on your Nervous system - calming activities, yoga, mindfulness, breathing exercises, walks in nature

👉Reduce or quit alcohol - a hard one for some but quite simply, it’s neurotoxic and just taking this simple action can resolve many perimenopause symptoms!

👉Build muscle - we lose muscle as we age, muscle = bone health and metabolic health + it’s good for our brain

👉Look at possible insulin resistance and reverse it. Dietary changes and increasing protein (ideally animal sourced), can have a really positive influence

👉Take a Magnesium supplement - we have an increased need for this mineral and it is vitally important for supporting the brain and body. Magnesium glycinate is my favourite and if it has added Taurine even better! ❤️

An increase in headaches and/or migraines is a common symptom during perimenopause.

If you have experienced migraines in the past you could find that they become more intense or frenquent during this phase. If you’ve never had a problem with them, now could be the time when they make an appearance!

There are 2 factors that are likely contributing:

⚖️ fluctuating oestrogen - in particular, when it drops to low levels.
⚖️ loss of progesterone and the anti-inflammatory/calming properties that are the hallmarks of this hormone.

Another consideration is iron deficiency linked with heavy periods - in which case you will find they occur just after your period ends.

The good news is - this is a temporary phase! Once you reach Menopause, you are in a much more stable state in terms of your hormones.

Some things to consider:
👉Get sufficient sleep (7-9 hours)
👉Reduce/eliminate alcohol
👉Consider a low-histamine diet (foods high in histamine include aged cheese, fermented foods/drinks, avocado, dried fruit, smoked meats)
👉Magnesium - one of the best supplements for migraine prevention, calming and stabilising. Minimum dose = 300g magnesium glycinate.
👉Vitamin B2 - clinically trialled and shown to reduce frequency by 50%. 200mg 2x daily.
👉Iron - check with your GP for iron deficiency first (serum ferritin test for stored iron) if deficient, use iron bisglycinate 15-50mg. Food rich in iron include red meat, eggs, lentils and leafy greens

❤️

Grateful to our feathered friends for their gifts each day..🐓✨

Animal sourced Protein is the most nutrient dense, bioavailable protein source on the planet…we aren’t ‘just’ eating for the Protein, we are eating for the benefits of the amino acid profile - animal sourced protein is known as a ‘complete’ protein because it contains 9 essential amino acids that our body needs to thrive. Leucine and Taurine cannot be easily obtained from Plant Protein so vegetarians/vegans should supplement.

I often find with my nutrition clients that they are simply not eating enough Protein - we need a lot more than the recommended amount (also known as the bare minimum)…a good guide is 1.6g of Protein for every kg of bodyweight. For me that roughly works out at 90g which I split across 3 meals/snacks.

One egg contain 6grams of Protein so it’s a good idea to include a couple alongside another protein source and perhaps topped up by a protein smoothie or greek yoghurt with nuts/seeds. I love adding a raw egg to my smoothie - you can’t even taste it, promise.

Good to know:

👉Get sufficient Protein early on in the day - ideally before 12pm. This helps to provide energy for the day and because you feel satiated you are far less likely to snack - trust me on this one, I don’t even crave chocolate like I used to.

👉Our need for Protein increases as we age - if we want to maintain and even build muscle into our later years, not to mention overall bone health, we absolutely must consume sufficient protein.

👉Protein is important for hormone production and if you do high-intensity exercise or have insulin resistance you will need additional protein - you need the amino acids for muscle repair and to support protein loss from insulin resistance.

With every meal and snack my motto is ‘where is the protein?’

❤️❤️❤️

Let’s talk movement!

We all know that regular movement is important for the health of our body and our mind.

When we move our body and our heart rate increases, chemical reactions take place which include the release of ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters such as endorphins and dopamine.

In addition to this, our body’s stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline), reduce… although if you are already experiencing chronic stress, exercising late in the day or doing consistent high intensity training - you could be increasing already elevated cortisol.

After the age of 30, we all experience age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia), in addition to bone loss…which for women is of concern, particularly in menopause when oestrogen production significantly reduces.

We can help prevent muscle and bone loss through regular movement…bone responds by getting stronger, as does muscle and the amazing thing about strengthening our muscles and increasing muscle mass is that we can improve our metabolism - so even when we are at rest our muscles are burning calories!

At 44 I feel stronger and fitter than I ever have, I don’t have an end point or a ‘goal’ and the sort of movement I do is constantly evolving according to what’s going on in my life and my cyclical energy.

Right now it includes strength training, yoga, running and walking in nature and it feels like just the right balance.

What about you?

Jasmine June Wellness updated their phone number.

Do you suffer with poor quality sleep? 😴

I am looking for some volunteers to take part in a programme I'm running on 16th August for 7 days to explore which essential oils are most effective for supporting restful sleep.

There are so many ways we can support ourselves naturally, using therapeutic grade essential oils.

Join my “Essential Oil Sleep Study Program” to experience the effects of essential oils to promote restful sleep.

As part of this programme, you will use 100% pure essential oil samples (dōTERRA), for a 7 day period. Starting: 16th August

Please message me for further details ⭐️

Why is it a good idea to undertake a cleanse a few times a year? Surely our detoxification organs to a good job on their own??
🍋🍊🥑🥦🍒🥕🥝🥗

I often come across this question when the word cleanse or detox is suggested/mentioned...

A cleanse helps to optimise the function of our organs - we take our car in for regular servicing so why wouldn't we service our body and enjoy better health as result?

Here are just some of the benefits....

✅Clears out waste in your digestive tract - improves digestion as a result
✅ Reduces pain - a cleanse can reduce the amount of lactic acid that builds up in your muscles
✅Reduces inflammation which is the underlying cause of most if not all disease
✅Boosts your immune system 💪
✅Supports the lymphatic system
✅Slows Ageing - slowing the rate of cellular decay
✅Improves skin and hair - get that GLOW
✅Clears heavy metals such as mercury and lead
✅Clears environmental and metabolic toxins
✅Helps you lose weight
✅Increased energy
✅Improved sleep
✅Clears brain fog
✅Helps to develop some healthy habits moving forwards and re-focus your attention on bringing in more vegetables and fruit into your diet - really we should be aiming for at least 7-9 portions a day!

SO many reasons...

Join my RENEW 7 day cleanse and receive a handpicked selection of dōTERRA essential oil samples that will be woven into every area to help support the process!

DM me with any questions, booking link with further info in comments below ❤️

Who is feeling the need to RENEW? 🍊🍋🥗🥑🥦🍓🥕
Spring/Autumn are the best time of year for letting go of accumulated toxins, there is a significant shift in energy occurring in nature and we can harness this energy when we undertake a cleanse.

I'm so excited to be offering this 7 day simple guided cleanse with my good friend, Personal Trainer and Health Coach Kate Cheer, starting 22nd March.

The focus will be on gently supporting the body back to a state of balance, eliminating toxins, creating healthy habits, improving mood and healthy digestion, daily movement, self-care practices plus tips and inspiration for healthy nourishing recipes....dōTERRA Essential oils will be woven into every area and 8x samples are included in the cost!

For more info and to book 👇👇
https://bit.ly/renew7daycleanse

RENEW - 7 Day Cleanse Join me, Jasmine Fletcher (Nutritional Therapist) and Kate Cheer, (Personal Trainer & Health Coach) on this 7 day, gentle guided cleanse.