Nourish to Flourish: Your Guide to Glowing from the Inside Out

Investing in your health and wellness is fast-becoming one of the most powerful personal development practices worldwide. Often, the simple act of nourishing from the inside out can be overlooked, with people splurging on the most expensive face cream to achieve glowing skin or paying for top-quality supplements instead of prioritising a balanced diet. While you have probably heard the phrase ‘you are what you eat’, and although this is primarily true, at The Head Plan we would go as far as saying ‘you are what you consume’... from the music and podcasts you listen to, to the books you read and from the people you engage with to the fuel you put in your body, it all has the power to shape how you feel. When you don’t prioritise nourishment and fueling your body with healthy whole foods it is no surprise you often feel sluggish, low energy and low vibe.  

It’s as simple as this: The things you consume affect the energy you put into the world. Choose things that nourish, inspire, uplift and motivate you and watch as your life begins to reflect this.  

The Science of Nourishment  

While processed and refined foods often leave us feeling sluggish, increase inflammation in the body, and impair brain function, high-quality foods have the power to rewire your neural pathways (yes, really), boost your cognitive function, and allow you to present your most shiny, happy, and confident self to the world. 

Supercharges your productivity:  

In today’s world, supercharging your productivity is the key to success. Adequate nourishment holds the key to optimising your brain power, increasing your energy levels and enhancing your overall wellbeing.  

Did you know...
 

It’s all about how our body processes our food! Highly refined food choices not only cause our glucose levels (which give us our energy) to crash, our body also has a harder time digesting them which leads us to feel groggy, sluggish AND unable to focus on the task at hand!  

Boosts your brainpower:  

Did you know the food you eat can actually make you smarter? No wonder celebrities have private chefs! Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and flaxseeds, enhance cognitive function and improve your memory, while antioxidants from berries and dark chocolate protect your brain from oxidative stress. Ensuring you get all the vitamins you need can also aid depression, improve your problem-solving and decision-making and increase your focus.  

Plan your meals and snacks in The Head Plan Nourish and use this to your advantage! Incorporate a varied diet, including all vitamins your body needs to thrive!  

Instant mood booster:  

Researchers have found that 95% of the brain’s serotonin is produced in the gut!! Read that again... 

What this means is that what we eat has a direct impact on our mood, how we feel and how we respond to situations. We have the power to control our gut health by absorbing high-quality foods; activating neural pathways between the gut and the brain!  

How to Fuel Your Body  

Plan your meals in advance using The Head Plan Nourish, and do an optimal weekly grocery shop using the shopping list tool. This allows you to take the time to sit down and mindfully plan the foods you want to incorporate into your routine for the upcoming week. The Head Plan Nourish is a weekly planning pad that will help you plan and get on top of your nourishment needs as you mindfully plan your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for the week. Without doing this necessary planning, you are almost sure to choose the grab and go option, leaving yourself feeling unsatisfied and heading straight to the vending machine after lunch. 

Meal planning removes one thing off your mind every day! One less thing to think about? Great! Knowing you have pre-thought out your meals and snacks and you have all of the ingredients at home makes it much easier for you to stick to this plan and ensure you are fuelling your body correctly. 

Eating a balanced diet, incorporating all the vitamins and minerals your body needs to thrive can be challenging if you lack nourishment knowledge. Let us simplify this... Fill your meals with plenty of fruit and veg! You don’t have to eat plain, boiled veg to get these nutrients, create fun recipes while always asking yourself ‘what can I add to this to make it even healthier?’... we love blitzing up our fruit in the morning and adding flax seeds, chia seeds, peanut butter for healthy fats and Greek yogurt for added protein and taking it with us on the go! Evaluate your current meals and ask yourself could I scatter some seeds on top of this, add a handful of cherry tomatoes, drizzle some olive-oil on top? Do this consistently and you will begin to feel the difference, we promise! 

Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate! Being dehydrated, even mildly, by just 2% can knock you off your game for the afternoon – with decreased cognitive function, increased irritability and reduced concentration and focus levels. Nearly every system in the human body requires water to function... so it’s no surprise that when you forget to sip away throughout the day you are unable to perform at your best. Fill up your Daily Drench water bottle twice a day and you have completed the recommended water intake for that day!  

How to Fuel Your Mind  

A social media cleanse allows you to ensure you are only following the accounts that leave you feeling inspired, motivated and empowered. Unfollow any accounts that don’t bring any value to your feed! This way you can customise your social media feed to consume the content that will enable you to flourish and feel your best. YOU have the power to curate your feed! How cool is that? While you can’t control your explore page, you can trick the algorithm into showing you the type of content you prefer to consume and the content that will enable you to become the best version of yourself!  

Expand your knowledge by reading books you normally wouldn’t venture into... We recommend reading personal development books which are packed with wisdom and knowledge, allowing this to seep into your brain!  

Set yourself the challenge of reading one personal development book a month... we believe that a book will find you at the right time! Lean into the topics in which you would like to learn more about and expose your mind to this form of content. Ask yourself... what am I trying to improve? This could be to create healthier habits, increase your motivation, improve your finances or discover more about the human mind... either way, there is a book for it!  

Here is a list of personal development books  The Head Plan Team have read and learnt from... consider this your ultimate guide to personal development books and the reading list you NEED!  

Meditation enables you to quiet your mind and take a break away from your never-ending thoughts. Did you know we have over 60,000 thoughts a day? Give yourself just 10 minutes to break-free from this thought-cycle and just be... be present, be grateful and be still. We often find the answers in silence... how often do your best ideas come to you when you aren’t even trying to think? In the shower, before bed, on a holiday? This is the power of quietening down those thoughts, and reconnecting with yourself, becoming aware of your thoughts and improving your creativity and decision-making. Our minds are constantly moving with niggling worries, persistent doubts, and a lengthy list of tasks and to-dos. Together these thoughts can compound feelings of stress and anxiety which can have a knock-on effect on the body. Practicing meditation is the secret tool to calming your mind and enabling your body to flourish.  

Remember: it’s normal for thoughts to pop into your head while you meditate. Your mind will not be completely clear when you begin, this takes practice, and it takes time. Meditation is about acknowledging that these thoughts have popped into your head and choosing to ignore them for the next few minutes... we promise they can wait! Refocus your mind and focus on your breathing.  

You wouldn’t put diesel in a petrol car and expect it to get you from A to B, this works for humans too. YOU have the power to thrive and to feel your best, lean into this and watch as you begin to grow and flourish. You deserve to feel your best. YOU can choose to make this positive change... TODAY.  

Really imagine how you will feel buzzing with energy, ticking off your goals and making it happen. Now go chase that feeling...