by Annette @ Wellness WA | Dec 2, 2019 | Food, Products, Wellness Tips
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Welcome back to one of my favourite segments to write – Beauty & Wellbeing Crushes! While I absolutely love doing a deeper review of a fitness class, spa experience or wellness retreat, there’s something super satisfying and fun about sharing the little bits and pieces that are making my dady to day life just that little bit more wellness-y.
Let’s get started!
♥ All the Facial Oils
Do you ever find that sometimes you fall off the wagon with a health or beauty tip that you promised yourself never to skip? Same here. For quite some time I just “totally forgot” that my skin thrives when I’m applying 100% natural oils to it on-the-reg. Pressing some jojoba oil into my skin in the morning before my facial sunscreen gives an all day glow that I wouldn’t otherwise be lucky enough to have, and after cleansing the days makeup & dirt off at night, 4 drops of rosehip oil massaged into my face followed up with a face cream also does WONDERS. I can’t believe I let myself lapse on this for so long, but I’m very happy to back on my oily regime!
Currently I’m using 100% organic jojoba oil from The Jojoba Company in the morning & Trilogy Rosehip Oil Antioxidant+ in the evenings. I also highly recommend Two Drops by Herbs + Heart which is a blend of incredibly lush oils for evening use, I’ll be moving onto this one when the rosehip is done!
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♥ Chlorella Supplements
I’ve just jumped back on board with these bright green little beauties. Chlorella, a freshwater algae, is said to be one of nature’s perfect superfoods – it’s high in protein, iron, antioxidants, magnesium and many more vitamins and minerals. It’s also meant to be fantastic for drawing out heavy metals & chemicals from your tissues and helping the body dispose of it. Thanks, chlorella!
Personally I just like the idea of taking a green supplement each day in the hopes that it’s doing something positive – I’ll report back on my findings soon! My favourite brand is Sun Chlorella which you can purchase from iHerb (use this discount code – MZB674 – for 10% off your first order, woo!)
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♥ Cheezels vs. Mary’s Gone Crackers
Having low blood pressure (or the blood pressure of a 5 year old child, as a doctor once told me – I’m 35) comes with a few challenges. One of which is an almost constant craving for salty foods. I most definitely have a ‘salt tooth’ rather than a sweet tooth. Because of this I am almost always reaching for something crunchy + salty, and often that takes the form of something less than wellness… cue, Cheezels, Pizza Shapes, or the probably-not-even-that-healthy Honey Dijon Soy Crisps. At a couple of bucks a piece it can be an easy choice to make on a 10 minute rest break at work, but the resulting energy slump and feeling crappy hasn’t been doing me any favours lately.
In my quest to change things up I’ve started purchasing the herb flavoured Mary’s Gone Crackers snacky biscuits and pairing them with Caramelised Onion Hommus and OH LAWD is it goooood! This salty, crunchy, snack with a hint of sweetness really hits the spot, and leaves me feeling fantastic afterwards as well. The only downside is the cost. A packet of MGC will set you back around $8, and the hommus anywhere from $3-4. So it’s the $2 snacks versus the $12 snacks, but the wellness & energy benefits of the latter are well worth it in my opinion. I’d love to hear your favourite healthy, salty snacks in the comments so leave one below!
Be well,
Annette
xoxo
by Annette @ Wellness WA | Jun 4, 2018 | Other
Hello! Can you believe Winter is here already?! These consistent cold mornings are making it difficult to get out of bed, but I’m enjoying lighting some incense, queuing up a guided meditation (I’m currently using Insight Timer – which is life changing), making a hot cuppa lemon water and then stretching it out for 15-20 minutes with a mini yoga practice. I have to say that that this little routine is really setting me up for some great days, and I hope to continue doing it throughout Winter, although I will probably be popping the heater on too!!
This week we have a few crushes to share with you – something you can sip & something challenging- lets get to it!
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♥ Yarra Valley Green Tea
As an avid tea drinker, there’s nothing like the pleasure of trying a new variety of tea and adding it into the rotation. Having a cuppa tea allows my mind to be calm – pressing pause for a sweet, hot moment.
My two new favourite special teas that I will be sharing with you are green, but with a slight difference.
First up there’s Uncle Vic Sencha is the first certified organic green sencha tea grown in Australia! The flavour is robust – leave the tea bag in and enjoy re-filling your mug for the rest of the day. It is a perfect wake-up call alongside your daily yoga/meditation/mantra/self-love morning routine.
Secondly, Aunt Myrtle is a beautiful treat in the afternoon. As you sip the tea, the scent of lemon myrtle perfumes the air and balances out the bitterness of the green tea leaves. Lemon myrtle is well renowned bushfood and certainly makes this tea memorable. Give in to this perfect opportunity to snuggle in bed and fill your body with antioxidants at the same time.
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♥ Twice Weekly PT Sessions
Once upon a time, approximately 3-4 years ago, I was the fittest & healthiest I’d ever been. It’s funny how it works for me, often times I don’t actually realise that I’m aceing health and wellness until I somehow veer off course over time and then look back and go – WOAH, what happened?! So back then I was doing 2 x sessions weekly with my personal trainer, Moira from The Healthy Kind, and had never felt or looked better. Moira is the kind of trainer that is so lovely, friendly and cute that you can’t even get angry at her when she says you need to do another round of medicine ball overhead presses followed by maximum exertion sprints to the end of the oval. There’s also a lot of dogs where we train, so that helps too.
Unfortunately back around that time I was also going through a really tough time with the business that I owned, and working in my other job where the expectation was to take part in an additional 2-3 fitness classes a week, so I had a mini-burnout/breakdown and quit PT altogether as I just didn’t have the mental or physical capacity to handle it.
Fast forward to a few months ago where a change in career (hello desk job!), penchant for chocolate-dipped soft pretzels, and generally sedentary lifestyle meant that over the past 12 months I’d put on around 8 kilos and barely any of my clothes fit anymore – I knew something had to be done. My old PT group had still been running for all the years I was away, so I anxiously rejoined (complete with plenty of negative thoughts… “Everyone is going to be crazy fitter than I am!”, “I wont even be able to run 100 metres!”) and to my pleasant surprise found that I was actually a lot better than I expected. Baby steps, but I was doing it.
After a month or two, and seeing some small fitness improvements, but not enough to fit back into my jeans, a few of us decided that in order to take things to the next level we’d setup another weekly PT session with Moira. This has been one of the best things I’ve done! Every single session I’m seeing small improvements in both my fitness level and feeling better and better about myself đ
If you’re looking for some inspiration and really want to make changes in your life – I highly recommend adding at least one personal training session a week to your routine. You can thank me later!
Be well,
xoxo
by Annette @ Wellness WA | May 6, 2018 | Other
♥ @leesupercharged
Whether youâre a vegetarian, vegan or anything in between, looking after your gut doesnât need to be difficult. While bone broths may not be on the menu, there are plenty of ways to show your gut and the planet some veggie love. Check out my top 5 recommendations below…!
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1.Probiotics
Probiotics are currently experiencing their time in the limelight, but theyâve actually been utilised for centuries for their health-boosting properties. Probiotics are our âfriendlyâ gut bacteria. Theyâre living organisms that provide a boatload (or should I say, gut-load) of health benefits. Theyâve been used to manage and treat a variety of conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome/disease, metabolic syndrome, diarrhoea and more.
Probiotics can also reduce the likelihood of developing type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, obesity and lactose intolerance by altering gut flora, regulating insulin levels and lowering cholesterol! Some sensitive tummies can experience gas and bloating when incorporating probiotic-rich food, so always start off slow and build up your tolerance.
If you want to try out some probiotic-rich foods but donât know where to begin, you may want to give sauerkraut a go. This fermented cabbage is filled with goodness that can improve digestive health, boost circulation and protect your heart. Full-fat yoghurt for my vegetarians or coconut yoghurt for my vegans can also be amazing for gut-health as itâs full of lactic-acid producing bacteria which helps produce more of our good gut bacteria.
If youâve never given tempeh a whirl, I couldnât recommend it enough. For all of you tempeh newbies, tempehâs basically tofuâs cooler older sibling. Tempeh is made up of fermented soybeans that are thriving in good bacteria. It can be stir-fried in a pan, cooked on the BBQ, or broken up into small pieces and used as a Bolognese replacement.Â
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2. Prebiotics
Another key thing to remember in any good veggie diet is variety! Not only does filling our plate with vibrantly-coloured vegetables nourish our body, it also gives us a great source of prebiotics. Prebiotics help nourish the probiotics within the digestive system. Without prebiotics, probiotics would have a poor chance of survival. Some prebiotic-rich foods to include in your diet include:
♥Â Dandelion greens
♥ Avocados
♥ Bananas
♥ Leeks
♥ Sweet potatoes
♥ Onions
I encourage you to incorporate both prebiotic and probiotic-rich foods into your diet so you can maintain a healthy gut for life.
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3. Fibre
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When it comes to getting things moving internally, fibre should be one of your first ports of call. Unfortunately, many of us donât consume enough dietary fibre which seriously compromises our gut health. Eating both soluble and insoluble fibre has many health benefits, not just for our gut health! Adding more fibre-rich vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds will help keep our good gut bacteria thriving and our digestion moving.
4. Plant-Based Wholefoods
While some vegetarians and vegans go full-steam ahead on the refined carbohydrates train to fill them up, these foods tend to inflame the gut. Refined carbohydrates such as breads and pastas, processed products laden with sugar and even some faux meats on the market can inflame the gut and make our guts blow up like a balloon. Itâs so important to emphasise real plant-based foods rather than ones you buy in the aisles. Aim to base your diet on fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and some grains rather than processed foods to reduce gut inflammation.
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5. Sleep
Lack of sleep has become such a common issue that itâs one weâve kind of let slip away from us. However, sleep has a huge impact on the state of our digestive system. When weâre asleep, the digestive organs are replenished and restored for the next day. Theyâre put to detoxing mood and help get rid of wastes from the day. If you donât get enough sleep, your gut health can become compromised and you may experience a series of symptoms such as bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, fatigue and more. Sleep, or a lack of it, controls our hunger hormones too, which may make us absolutely ravenous and craving sweet foods the next day! Try getting at least 7 hours of sleep at night and go to bed between 9-10pm to reach optimum sleep and rest.
Hopefully you’ve found these tips helpful! If you have any questions for Lee, please pop them below, and make sure you check out her new book Supercharge Your Gut!
Be well,
xoxo
by Annette @ Wellness WA | Apr 2, 2018 | Other
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Bonjour! I hope you’re reading this while having a brilliant hair day, feeling super-nourished, and with a cup of tea (or wine) in hand.
I really love sharing my current favourite products, exercise classes & wellness treats with you – so let’s get cracking!
♥ To Save Face SPF 50+ Sunscreen
This facial sunscreen is my go-to every single day of the year – rain, hail or shine. When I was younger I didn’t wear facial sunscreen and as a result I have a little spot of sun damage on my left cheek. Once it started appearing I quickly sprung into action and as such now make sure to pop some of this on under my makeup each day. It doubles as a primer and I love the way my makeup looks with this as a base so much, that I often use it in the evenings as well!
10/10!
♥ Reformer Pilates in Subiaco
♥ kX Pilates Subiaco
I’ve been having a little bit of a love affair with ClassPass lately and have slowly been discovering my favourite places to stretch & sweat, creating ever-changing weekly routines that work for me. I love it!
One of my faves is kX Pilates in Subiaco. This is a reformer studio that offers 50 minute classes and goes the extra mile by incorporating weights, yoga stretches, ball-work and more to create seriously shaking muscles and a toned butt & core. I’ve been to around 4-5 classes so far, and all of the teachers are friendly, helpful if you have any new or ongoing injuries, and will work you to your personal maximum ensuring you leave each class feeling like you’ve had a fantastic workout, but not been pushed past your limit. Which is my favourite way to work out!
Do yourself a favour and check out kX Pilates in Subiaco if you’re looking to tone up in 2018 (and beyond).
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♥ Adalase
This one is really new to me – during a delicious gnocchi & wine catch up with my naturopath Marnie Downer (see her, she’s the best!), I mentioned that despite making a number of changes to my diet and supplements, I was still struggling with dairy & sugar based skin breakouts. While I generally try to avoid both of these with varying degrees of success, sometimes there’s cheese and crackers at work or a party and I just can’t help myself… and then instantly regret it when an acne cyst starts popping up within 2 hours.
Cue: Adalase. This is a chewable vegan Vitamin A supplement, somewhat of a miracle, and tastes slightly like liquorice. At first I wasn’t into the taste but grew to really like it! There are 60 tablets in a bottle and for me Marnie recommended I super-dose and take 6 per day (!) and then go down to 1 per day. This proved difficult and I ended up having 2-3 a day, I just broke them in half (they are about the size of a 10 cent piece) and nibbled on them throughout the day. I then went down to 1-2 a day.
Since I have started taking this supplement, around 1-2 months, I can hand on heart say that I have not had ONE new pimple – and I’ve indulged in cheese, icecream, sugar and alcohol. Along with plenty of good things of course đ But generally regardless of how much goodness I put in my body, if I stray from the 100% healthy eating path it soon shows up in my skin, and I haven’t gone more than a few weeks without a zit since I was about 13 years old – so that’s 20 years!
I would love, love, love if anyone else with hormonal/cystic/general acne or pimples wanted to try this and let me know how they go with it – it’s been a confidence saver for me.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the above, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below so we can have a chat!
Be well,
xoxo
by Annette @ Wellness WA | Mar 10, 2018 | Other
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What if I told you that there was a way to get your skin in tip-top, glowy shape that only required 1 facial a month for 3 months, and then every 2-3 months after that.
Sound good?
That’s what the signature Hydrafacial offering at Perth’s newest beauty clinic, Youth Lab by Dr Kate, promises – and after just one treatment I’m convinced they can deliver.
To start with, this is no ordinary beauty clinic. Dr Kate is one of Perth’s most highly regarded medical aestheticians and she has the raving, dedicated following to prove it. Kate specialises in dermal fillers & cosmetic injectables, non-surgical beauty treatments and other advanced dermal therapies. Most of these aren’t on my radar as I personally align with a more natural approach to beauty (green smoothies, yoga and saunas come at me!), however I’ve seen her work and if you’re looking for this type of service then she is second to none in Perth.
As I mentioned, I generally stick to yoga, green drinks, sweating it out, green tea, vitamin supplements and trying to get to bed early as my “beauty routine”, however after a busy couple of months and more soft pretzels with chocolate dipping sauce than I care to share with the internet, it was time for some serious measures to get my skin back on track and the opening of Youth Lab came at just the right time.
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Located on a relaxed, leafy-green West Perth street, the clinic is set in a spacious building with multiple rooms and a chic but welcoming well-lit interior. There’s free parking out the front and it’s very easy to access via public transport – win win. Upon arrival there’s pomegranate tea, comfy lounges and stacks of books to flick through while you wait.
My therapist Alison has the clearest, most glowing skin I’ve ever seen (actually, everyone who works there does!), and is incredibly knowledgable and welcoming. We have a chat and then get down to serious business – it’s Hydrafacial time!
Key Points
♥ The Hydrafacial deeply cleanses, exfoliates, extracts blackheads/clogged pores, AND intensely hydrates the skin within just one treatment
♥ The machine used has an abrasive tip and vacuum to simultaneously suck up the dead cells and dirt, whilst infusing your skin with antioxidants & hyaluronic acid for gleaming skin!
♥ Glycolic & salicylic acid are used for the pore extractions. These two work together to gently dislodge
♥ You get to check out the dirt/gunk that is removed from your skin afterwards… if you’re brave enough!
♥ This facial is perfect for improving skin congestion, and would particularly suit those with breakouts and blackheads
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After my facial, I’m taken into another room to lay under the Healite, which is an LED light (simliar to Omnilux) that promises to help promote skin rejuvenation, as well as targeting acne bacteria. Win win. Laying underneath the Healite is like basking in the sunshine on a warm day, bliss.
Post-treatments I’m feeling a little self-conscious with my totally bare skin on display, but I can see the instant improvement in texture, glow & clarity.
The team at Youth Lab recommend 3 treatments to start with, once a month for three months for the best results. If you really want to ramp up the results & acne and sun damage are your primary concerns, a course of 6 monthly treatments is recommended. Following the initial treatment course you can get away with a facial every 2-3 months – which is music to my ears!
The Nitty Gritty
Cost: $149 for the Hydrafacial, Healite additional $50
Location: Youth Lab by Dr Kate, 1 Richardson Street West Perth WA 6005
Special Offer: If you’re keen to make a booking and check out this facial, just mention Wellness WA for 20% off your first Hydrafacial before the end of March 2018!
Have you had a Hydrafacial before? Would you try one? Let’s chat in the comments!
Be well,
xoxo
