Liz Earle's Top Tips for Self-Care and Wellbeing

Eat the right food

I truly believe that health and wellbeing go hand-in hand with eating well – how we fuel ourselves impacts on our wellbeing as-a-whole and it’s important to recognise this. I’m a great believer in feel-good food so I always try to embrace seasonal, local, organic produce wherever possible as the mainstay of my meals. Make it your resolution this year to try not to eat too many things that come out of  a packet, always aim for lots of fresh veg and avoid anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognise! 

Get a daily dose of probiotics

Good gut health has the power to totally transform the way we look and feel and  by making one step in the right direction, through a daily dose of probiotics, you can make a real difference to your overall health and wellbeing. Start by making one small change to your diet and adding in some probiotics in the form of plain live yoghurt or fermented foods such as kefir. I start my day with a glass of kefir, a live super-yoghurt drink packed with powerfully beneficial probiotics, and I find this gives me a real boost in the morning and has made a big difference to my overall health and wellbeing. 

Build outdoor exercise into your daily routine

Regular exercise, particularly in the fresh air, can lift our moods, ease anxiety and wake up a sluggish mind. I’m  a recent convert to running and enjoy early-morning (quick!) runs around my West Country farm – or a park if I’m in London. Running or walking are such easy ways to build exercise into our daily routines and can make a huge difference to how we feel. 

Do more of what you love 

Give yourself something  to look forward to at the end of the working day by spending time on your return home of doing more of what makes you happy and seeing more of the people you love. Focus on simple pleasures! I live on a farm in the glorious West Country so I really enjoy the chance to make the most of family time outdoors. I love picnics, farm walks, foraging in the hedgerows – simple, yet special times that improve our mood and quickly de-stress at the end of a long day. 

Take time to breathe

Make time during your day to breathe properly. Drop your shoulders and breathe from deeper in the diaphragm – the deeper the breath, the more air – and oxygen – we take in to nourish and revitalise our body. Stick a post-it note on your screen if you work at a computer that says BREATHE! It really does make a mood-lifting difference. When I’m at my desk I like to set a reminder on  my phone to stand up, stretch and breathe. It really does make a difference! 

Get the right work-life balance

Work-life balance is  so important and it’s worth assessing your priorities to make sure you get the right balance for you. Family life comes first for me, so I get the really important dates such as school plays, parents evenings and holidays into the diary at the beginning of the year and then schedule work and social events around them. 

It’s all about balance

We all have guilty pleasures and it’s good to embrace them from time to time! My guilty pleasure is probably a lie-in with the weekend papers – as  well as the odd piece of dark chocolate for wellbeing balance!