Bringing Yourself Back To Balance

Friends, let’s talk about seasonal habits and how to get back to balance for fall. Habits—and especially micro habits—are the small things you do each day, that, over time and if done consistently, will determine how well your body and mind function.
For example, if you like to go for a walk every night after dinner, that habit will eventually lead to more calories burned, less evening stress, and a better sleep. In contrast, if you develop a habit of eating dessert after dinner each night, that will lead to an accumulation of extra calories, more digestive stress in the evening, and a sugar spike prior to going to sleep.
During the summer, we tend to develop some new habits and let other more established ones slide. We go to bed later because the sun is out longer resulting in less sleep. We eat more ice cream than we do during the rest of the year. We travel a little more, which leads to less cooking and more eating out.
When summer wraps up, we’re left with a few newer habits to drop, and a plethora we want to pick back up.
Here’s how to embark on your back to balance journey:

Rediscover

Your favourite foods, that is.
Healthy foods don’t have to be boring or repetitive; you just need to focus on the foods that make you feel good and eat more of those. For most people, these include fruit, vegetables, plant-based proteins, nuts, and seeds. These foods are packed with nutrients that offer a vast array of health benefits, and our bodies recognize and can use them to their fullest potential.
It’s also important to swap conventional breads and baking with products that will make you feel better. All the Carbonaut products are high in fibre, low in sugar, and low net carb. (Win, win, win!)

Gut Health

Consciously adding foods to your weekly meal plan that are naturally high in digestive enzymes like prebiotics and probiotics will increase the functionality of your digestive system¹. Foods such as Greek yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, and kombucha are all high in these.
Try our new Smashed Avocado and Kimchi Bagel for a meal teeming in natural probiotics!
Fibre is another huge player in the gut health game. Since your average Carbonaut bagel has 33 grams of it, this is definitely a food you should be reaching for.

Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Being aware of foods that inflame the body is another key to better balance. When we are inflamed, our bodies don’t work to their best potential. We can feel bloated, sluggish, tired, in pain, and it can be difficult to sleep and/or lose weight. Inflammation can affect our skin, organs, and just about every part of your body.
This is about as appealing as a Black Hole.
Naturally anti-inflammatory foods to add to your fall meal repertoire include berries, leafy green and cruciferous vegetables, unsalted nuts and seeds, and plant-based protein sources.
You’ll want to stay away from processed meats, hydrogenated oils, sugar, and dairy products².

Intermittent Fasting

While intermittent fasting (IF) is often viewed as a trendy way to lose weight, the practice has some stellar research that points to many health benefits if done correctly, including transforming the metabolism of fatty acids to ketones. It can also lead to improvements in dyslipidemia and blood pressure³ , as well as extended longevity and counteracting disease⁴.
There are many different intermittent fasting methods, such as the 5:2 diet (two fast days per week), the16/8 method (16 hours of fasting, 8 hours of eating), and the alternate-day fasting.
We recommend consulting a healthcare provider prior to employing one of these IF methods to ensure you choose a method that is right for you.
Once you figure it out, you’ll be over the moon.

Rehydrate

Having fun in the sun all summer typically results in various degrees of dehydration. Slowly increase your water intake throughout the fall to clear your skin, improve your vision, and unfog your brain. Water also removes waste more efficiently, carries nutrients throughout the body, and acts as a lubricant and shock absorber⁵.
Drinking more water (especially filtered) can also improve athletic ability, performance, and overall basic function⁶.
Other beverages known for their ability to rehydrate you quickly include:

• coconut water
• non sweetened soda water
• fresh pressed green juice
• iced herbal teas

renew

As in, your gym membership.
Over the sunny summer months, our commitment to fitness usually wanes. We get distracted by other activities that take up our time and create a rift in our normal workout routines.
And that’s okay—but now’s the time to relaunch your commitment to moving your body.
Simply walking for 20 minutes each day can lead to massive health benefits, including improvement in muscular strength, cardiorespiratory fitness, and body composition⁷. Start small and simply move more.
By adding an additional 5 then 10 then 20 minutes a day of physical exercise, you’ll start to feel like you’ve entered a whole new universe of wellness.

Restore

Intentional physical and mental restoration is imperative to determining how well we function on the daily. Aside from getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep each night⁸ , how can you help your body to restore throughout the day?

Physical exercise is helpful. It gives energy, promotes waste removal, and offers mental clarity. 5 to 10-minute guided meditations are also a good idea if you want to give your brain a break and focus on mindfulness.
Another way to aid your body and mind in regular restoration is to practice gratefulness. Studies show that regularly practicing gratefulness regulates threat response and can reduce inflammatory disease⁹.

Remember, back to balance is not about perfection—it’s about bringing back healthy habits that cultivate a beneficial fall routine you can moon over.

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1. Al-Habsi, N., Al-Khalili, M., Haque, S. A., Elias, M., Olqi, N. A., & Al Uraimi, T. (2024). Health Benefits of Prebiotics, Probiotics, Synbiotics, and Postbiotics. Nutrients, 16(22), 3955. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16223955 ↩︎
2. Yu, X., Pu, H., & Voss, M. (2024). Overview of anti-inflammatory diets and their promising effects on non-communicable diseases. The British journal of nutrition, 132(7), 898–918. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114524001405 ↩︎
3. Vasim, I., Majeed, C. N., & DeBoer, M. D. (2022). Intermittent Fasting and Metabolic Health. Nutrients, 14(3), 631. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030631 ↩︎
4. Reddy, B. L., Reddy, V. S., & Saier, M. H., Jr (2024). Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting. Microbial physiology, 34(1), 142–152. https://doi.org/10.1159/000540068 ↩︎
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7. Bai, X., Soh, K. G., Omar Dev, R. D., Talib, O., Xiao, W., & Cai, H. (2022). Effect of Brisk Walking on Health-Related Physical Fitness Balance and Life Satisfaction Among the Elderly: A Systematic Review. Frontiers in public health, 9, 829367. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.829367 ↩︎
8. Hirshkowitz, M., Whiton, K., Albert, S. M., Alessi, C., Bruni, O., DonCarlos, L., Hazen, N., Herman, J., Katz, E. S., Kheirandish-Gozal, L., Neubauer, D. N., O’Donnell, A. E., Ohayon, M., Peever, J., Rawding, R., Sachdeva, R. C., Setters, B., Vitiello, M. V., Ware, J. C., & Adams Hillard, P. J. (2015). National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary. Sleep health, 1(1), 40–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2014.12.010 ↩︎
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