BEING WELL

The global wellness industry has grown rapidly in the last two years and is now a £3tn industry. This trend is now a major influence in other sectors such as the food and fashion. I will be writing more on that next week but here I want to look at how to sort the wheat from the chaff – how to discern clever marketing from valuable advice?

Ex-BBC/ITV producer and Nutritional Therapist/Naturopath Karen Chambers, put her career in the media on hold while she trained as a nutritionist. Here she gives us her top tips to achieve wellness during the time of Covid.

GET OUTSIDE and walk, move or sit in a local park every day, or the bottom of the garden rain or shine. We need exposure to sunlight during the day to aid the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone later that evening.

SLEEP – Aim to get to sleep before 11pm. Sounds boring right? But an early night on a regular basis with lots of sleep has a positive impact on hormones.

VITAMIN CHECK – Maintain your optimum vitamin D levels. This is beneficial to our immune systems and for regulating mood during the winter months. Get your levels checked (the NHS sells testing kits online) first to know how much vitamin D you need or seek the advice of a nutritional therapist, never take vitamin D without testing your levels first.

NOURISHMENT – Eat more foods that are in season and fermented to promote positive bacteria to maintain gut health. Diversify your diet. Don’t eat the same foods all the time, don’t have the same options in the online shopping basket. The body likes a variety of foods and eating the same foods all the time has a connection with food intolerances.

SCREENTIME – Take screen breaks when possible, so many of us are glued to screens more than ever right now, avoid screens before bed as the blue light from devices really does affect the quality of your sleep.

Karen of Fierce Wellbeing is a nutritional therapist and naturopath specializing in gut and hormonal health. Karen transforms the health and wellbeing of clients through 1-2-1 gut and hormonal reset packages using nutrition, genetic testing and holistic practices runs regular group online coaching.

Living in London, Karen enjoys discovering pockets of nature and great walks within the bustle of the city.