Health Tips after a health crisis

Lesson's learned from my husband's health crisis.

Posted by Jill Rossini on

In early 2019 my husband had a serious traumatic brain injury and it put our lives on hold. He's not only my husband but is also the Co-founder of FIXY Makeup. Even though I’m the one most focused on the day-to-day work of the business, he's been involved in helping make sure we are pushing forward every day and overcoming obstacles. After the hardest months, we started researching how he could help his own recovery. Since one of the symptoms from the injury was severe vision issues he was limited to listening to podcasts. Here is some of the incredible knowledge that my husband has consolidated using voice typing with google docs. These tips will help you live a healthier lifestyle long-term and during any recovery periods.

Tip: Pick one area of improvement from below and try to nail it before moving on to the next.

A Few Essentials to Living a Healthier Life

If you like leaving yourself reminders, try focusing on these healthy reminders. They seem simple but are critical to your health. The most important thing is sleep. If you make one major change in your life it should be to make sure that you're getting the right amount of sleep with as little interruptions as possible and switch to dim light a couple of hours before bedtime. It's also recommended to get natural sunlight first thing in the morning (without any glasses on). Next, always remember to drink lots of water. It's simple as that. Lastly, Omega-3 fish oil and vitamins are critical to brain function and overall health. You can get your daily dose by taking a highly recommended brand of fish oil such as Nordic Naturals and you can also take a reputable multivitamin such as the one from Pure Encapsulations. If you need brain health support out of your multivitamin, Dr. Gordon from www.tbihelpnow.org has developed Brain Rescue 3, sold at the Millennium Health Store. If you have suffered a TBI, definitely look into the practitioners trained by Dr. Gordon, as they can run blood panels that will identify hormone deficiencies that are common with TBIs and prescribe hormone therapy that will absolutely help with your recovery.

The Foods That are Best for Your Health

You want to make sure your diet includes a large amount of plant-based food and when deciding which to eat, choose those that have the same color pigment all the way through when cutting into them. The darker the pigment, the better. It's actually recommended to have 6 cups of vegetables every day. Another huge factor known by many is that it's best to do whatever you can to avoid processed foods and especially those that have a lot of sugar and other additives. Nobody needs to eliminate sugar, but do your part in reducing your sugar intake. Fruits are obviously good for you, but you don't want to eat too much because of the amount of sugar in them. The best fruits to eat are berries because they are an antioxidant. You can also get great health benefits from avocado, tofu, nuts, and healthy oils like coconut oil. Get your protein and healthy fats from beef and pork. Oh, and don't forget your wild salmon and fish in general. There's nothing wrong with having healthy grains so look for good multigrain. Lastly, if you're on the bulletproof trend consider adding clarified butter and MTC Oil to your coffee or tea in the morning. The most important thing though is to find a combination of these things that work best for you.

Don’t Eliminate All Sugar, Make Dark Chocolate Your Friend

Yes, the topic of sugar again. It’s in so many things and it’s so awful for us. We all know the worst sugar. It's fructose. If you see it, just run from it. Those of you that normally eat some fruit each day, it's recommended to only have one to two pieces of fruit, which of course has sugar in it too. As noted before the best fruit to have though is berries because they are antioxidants. They aren't the only antioxidant that has sugar though. I'm talking about dark chocolate. If you're going to indulge in some sugar at least make it dark chocolate so it's healthier for you. Plus, you don't have to feel as bad knowing the health benefits related to dark chocolate. Dark chocolate can even reduce insulin resistance, which is a common risk factor for many diseases like heart disease and diabetes. So look out for dark chocolate that has 70% to 85% cocoa. It's even a good source of magnesium, zinc and iron. 

Why Intermittent Fasting is Good For You

Everybody talks about intermittent fasting and many of us are doing it. The overall idea is to wait longer between meals. Thus, when you first wake up in the morning you shouldn't eat right away unless you're hungry. Many people will eat dinner and stop eating a few hours before bed and then not eat again until late morning or even lunchtime. One of the best times to start is the weekend. Don't try to implement intermittent fasting every single day right from the get-go. Once you start the process, your body will start ramping up growth hormone. It also triggers autophagy. This is basically your body taking out the cellular trash. It's like a cellular detox for yourself, which helps you reduce the likelihood of contracting certain diseases and provides benefits of prolonging your lifespan. You can’t beat that!

The Keys to De-Aging (because anti-aging just doesn’t sound right)

What is one of the most important ways to slow down the aging process? It's to reduce your stress. I know this is not an easy thing to do. We all deal with different stresses in our lives. Unfortunately, stress raises cortisol, which can have a big impact on the amount of sleep you get. As we noted above, sleep is one of the most important factors in living a healthy life. But if we're stressed all the time, we're not going to sleep well. One sleep strategies includes not staying in bed if you're having trouble falling asleep. Get out of bed and do something simple like cleaning your kitchen, which will also make you happy when you wake up. It's also important to think about what factors help you reduce stress and thus sleep better. If you're already focused on eating well, then make sure you're getting exercise. If you don't like yoga, don't do yoga. If you prefer jogging on your own, then do that. Do you like group classes at your gym (that are probably offered online now)? If you can, consider resistance training as it helps you keep your muscles as you age. It also helps keep your metabolism up. My biggest recommendation is movement therapy for overall exercise and flexibility and AgeDEFY has the best classes with Dawnelle! No matter what, figure out what works best for you. Many have also found that meditation can be incredibly beneficial when dealing with stress. If things are really bad, reach out for mental health support. There's nothing wrong with saying I need help. It even helps to start by telling friends. 

You Need to Exercise and You Need to Sweat

When researching ways to recover from my husband's traumatic brain injury, he listened to podcast that's spanned topics from individuals that made incredible improvements when battling multiple sclerosis, others fighting traumatic brain injuries, and all other sorts of illnesses. He kept hearing over and over about the importance and benefits of getting exercise, but whenever possible making sure that you sweat. We love that sweating can promote healthier, cleaner skin. It also provides healthier circulation and removes toxins. Sweating can occur from either spending time in a sauna or doing any type of exercise that you're capable of doing and will cause you to sweat. In one podcast they talked about a simple solution to the challenges of being able to afford something like a sauna. They discussed how you could actually sit in your car with the windows up on a really hot day and get the same effect, but stressed the importance of making sure that you're regulating the temperature so that it doesn't get too excessive and be sure to have somebody looking after you while you are out there. So get out there and sweat! Another important facet when it comes to exercise is stretching and utilizing muscles that you don't always use every day. whether it's basic stretches or yoga, everyone can see improvements when they are more flexible. Again, AgeDEFY was the best option we found.  Along with stretching, you should really be thinking about your posture and even leave yourself little reminders so you can focus on it more. 

Yes, we are proud that we created the first all-in-one FIXY Makeup Repair & Creation Kit to fix all of your broken powder makeup, but we couldn’t have done it without focusing on our health first. It's been a challenging time, but it's the support of friends and family that help you get through traumatic situations no matter what it is. I appreciate everyone that has been supporting me in this journey with FIXY Makeup.
 
Good luck with your journey to a healthier you! 

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