(upbeat music) - Hey Health Nuts, I'm Nikole, and welcome back to my channel. I am very excited about today's video because I am doing not only another what I eat in a day video but I'm gonna focus today's video, and all the things that I'm eating on what I like to eat for my anxiety. You guys may know that I have struggled and dealt with anxiety for years. Mainly the good portion of my mid 20s was the really struggling
part and time of my life, and I read so many books
and I tried so many things to see if food would
really affect how I felt. And I felt like I just
found what worked for me. And I just wanna say, by
no means am I a doctor, you obviously should go
see a health professional. I'm just gonna share with you guys foods that make me feel really good and kinda help reduce my stress levels and manage my anxiety just a little bit because I do think that
there is a correlation with food and your mental health. They say your gut is your second brain, so I do believe that food affects how you feel and
your mood and all of that. It's just like if you were
to go eat fast food everyday, you're obviously not gonna feel as great as if you ate a nice big
salad every day for lunch. So in today's video, I'm so excited to be
working with Caf-Lib again. They are sponsoring and
collaborating with me on today's video. You guys know I have been talking about Caf-Lib herbal coffee for years, I've been drinking them for years. It's one of the things that
has helped with my anxiety. Taking out caffeine entirely
from my diet and lifestyle has been a game changer. I personally just feel
like if you have anxiety or you're just a really
stressed out person, removing something that's
very stimulating like caffeine can maybe really help lower
your stress and anxiety levels. It's definitely worth a try. It has really helped for me. And having something like
Caf-Lib herbal coffee has been really great
'cause I can still enjoy a nice cup of coffee
without the negative effects that I personally did not jive well with. It also tastes like the real thing. It's made with all natural ingredients like roasted barley and chicory, things that you can feel good
about putting into your body. And I'm going to be showing
you guys a fun little recipe that I like to make with it. It's actually in the cookbook. That's how much I love herbal
coffee, it's in my cookbook. All right, without further ado, let's hop right into the video, and I'm going to show you guys
what I like to eat in a day to support my anxiety and mental health. So I've said this before
but green smoothies are one of the things
that have just made me feel so much better in the
mornings and throughout the day. I love to get a bunch of greens, fiber, healthy fats and protein into
my day right off the bat. So one of my smoothie rules
that I like to stick by is to always make sure that there's more vegetables
than fruit in my smoothies, that way the sugar content is lower. And then I also just make sure that it's a well balanced meal just like any other meal that I eat. Just because this one is
an easy drinkable one, I still wanna make sure that
it has all of the nutrients that I want for my breakfast. If you are completely new
to the green smoothie world, I actually have a free how to make the perfect green smoothie downloadable, which I will have linked
down below for you. To me, I treat my smoothies
like a multivitamin in a glass. And in my opinion, it's one
of the best ways to squeeze or in this case blend as
many nutrient dense foods as you can and it makes it
really easy to drink them down because it's all in one easy glass. A good blender is key. I will link the one I'm using down below as well as a very budget friendly option that I used for years and
would highly recommend as well. So just finished making my green smoothie, which I put it in a to-go cup because I'm gonna take it with me while I take miss Cashew
for her walk who is whining. (dog whining) I don't know if you can hear her. But we're gonna go for a little walk. It's gorgeous, super sunny outside. And this is really light,
so even when I'm done, I feel like it's not this heavy container I have to carry with me. So okay, she's whining,
I'm gonna go drink this, take her for a walk and I
will see you guys back here for my next meal or drink. All right, so it is late morning, and I'm feeling like a little drink. Sometimes I make my herbal
coffee first thing in the morning but this morning I was really hungry, and I wanted to take Cashew
for a walk so I was like, it's okay, I'm gonna make
my coffee when I get back. Otherwise I make it and
I just drink half of it, and it gets cold. But today, actually it
wouldn't even matter 'cause I am making my Iced
Dirty chai, what is it called? Iced Dirty Chai Coffee on the Rocks. I cannot remember every
single recipe in my book, there's a lot. This one here is made
with a chai cashew milk that takes minutes to
make in your blender. And then you're gonna
pour it on top of ice with some Caf-Lib herbal coffee. It is so good and I'm just craving that. How good does that look? If you guys have not tried
this recipe, it's delicious. So I'm just feeling
like a nice iced drink. Spring is around the corner. I feel like it's that time of year where I don't want anything hot. I just want nice cool refreshing drinks. I'm just trying to bring
in the warmer weather a little sooner, if you get my drift. So I'm gonna make that. It's really easy and
then the nice thing is when you make the chai cashew milk, it'll be enough for your drink
that you're making right now but you can also store it in the fridge, and then have it throughout the week. You can put it in your smoothies, you can put it in your oatmeal. It is very multipurpose and
I love whipping up a batch, so I'm gonna do that now. Let's do this. I'm starting off by
making a chai cashew milk. This is the easiest
homemade milk you can make. It is just made with some chai
spices, dates to sweeten it. I really look for natural sweeteners when I'm sweetening anything
that I make in the kitchen. It also has blended up whole raw cashews, which are so good for you,
filled with lots of nutrients, and anything that has healthy fats. And I like that this milk is sweet yet has a nice balance of fiber and healthy fats from the cashews. Now this would be delicious as is, but I'm gonna make it super fancy, and I'm gonna make it with
my Caf-Lib herbal coffee. Now this is their organic blend. They have a regular
blend, a dark roast blend. Now the key to making a
good cup of herbal coffee is to go heavy on the grounds. So it's not like regular coffee
where we just do a teaspoon, I usually do a good
heaping two tablespoons of the instant herbal
coffee when I'm making it. And one the things I love about Caf-Lib, and is probably the reason why I've been drinking them for so long is not only is the taste amazing, and it really reminds me of the real deal without any of the unwanted side effects like jitters and not being
able to sleep at night, but it's also just so accessible. I can find this at pretty
much any grocery store, and it's really affordable. I love that it's just easy to stock up on. (upbeat music) (ice clinking) Just listen to that. (ice clinking) Ah, it smells so good. Honestly, because I can't go to just like a Starbucks drive through and order a fancy drink, making things like this
at home makes me so happy. And you got the healthy fats and protein from the cashew milk, the
spices that are so warming, and just delicious. And it's just naturally
sweetened, you just use dates. And that's a big thing for my anxiety is using natural sweeteners
like maple syrup, honey, dates and coconut sugar, that don't spike my blood sugar as much. And I just find that you end
up craving them even more than the artificial processed stuff. And I've just been incorporating them into my recipes and baked
goods for years now. I just crave them and
I really do enjoy them, and I think they taste better
than the artificial stuff. So this is amazing. I'm gonna enjoy this while I do some work, and I will see you guys
back here for lunch. Oh my God. And the nice thing is is I
have all this extra cashew milk that I'm just gonna pop the lid on, and pop it into the fridge. Now I needed to get some ingredients, so I decided to head out
to my local Bulk Barn. Now you guys know one of my goals for 2020 is to produce less waste and
reduce single use plastic. So I actually love reusing my jars, and just upcycling them like
this empty Caf-Lib coffee jar, and using it when I go
to bulk food stores. Because what you end up
doing is you fill things up in one of their plastic
bags and then you go home and you transfer it to a jar anyways, so just bring the jars with you. Just make sure that
they are clean and dry. And then all you have to do is
weigh them with the cashier. They will mark the
weight on top of the lid, and they will subtract that
when you are checking out. It's actually really easy, so if you think it's
complicated, just try it out. Maybe go at a time where
it's not that busy, and I promise it's really easy. I've done this at a few
different stores now. And I feel like the employees
actually get excited when you do this method. Next, I'm gonna show you a nourish bowl. I love making nourish
bowls because you can prep all of the ingredients on a Sunday and make a large batch of them and then just put everything together when you wanna make your meal. I'm first just slicing
some organic sweet potatoes into some round medallions. I really like doing it this way because they roast up really quick. I'm saving the ends for
my pup, miss Cashew, because she loves sweet
potato almost as much as I do. I'm dressing it with some olive oil, sea salt and back pepper
and some garlic powder. I like to keep it really simple. And then I'm just gonna
give them a quick massage to make sure everything is well coated, and then just throw this
into the oven to roast. Like I said, making this nourish bowl is not something I make on the fly Monday through Friday
when I'm busy working. It's something that I like
to make a big batch of and then you can easily make
these for lunch or dinner. And the great thing is too
is that they are well rounded in all of your key nutrients. And you can swap up the
different ingredients. You could do cauliflower
instead of broccoli. And having a meal like this
that has lots of vegetables, healthy fats and fiber just really helps balance my blood sugars and
just keeps my anxiety at bay because I don't feel like
I'm spiking anything, and it just keeps me nice
and full and satisfied. I'm also preparing some kale. So for this, I just like to
remove the leaves from the stem. (gentle music) Give it a good wash. And then I'm just gonna dry
it using my salad spinner. This is one of those gadgets
that you think you don't need and then when you have one, it just makes preparing greens
or salads so much easier. And especially for a salad, the dressing actually sticks to the leaves when they're not soaking wet. Transferring that into a bowl. And then one little hack that I love to do is just taking a pair of kitchen scissors and then just going right
in and chopping it up. I just need this really roughly chopped, so this is just a really
quick way to do it. To finish preparing this,
I'm just gonna massage it with some olive oil and a
squeeze of fresh lemon juice. I like to massage my greens 'cause it just makes it easier to digest, and it just also tastes better, I find. It takes out any bitterness. And once it's massaged, it will last in your
fridge for the entire week. You can add it to salads, stir fry, soups. Even when it's massaged,
you can still cook it. It just makes it easier
to eat it raw like this. For my protein of choice, I'm
having some rainbow trout. I love to have oily fish
like trout or salmon. I think they are so good for you, they have all of those healthy omega-3s. I personally believe that
for my individual body and mental health that I really benefit from some animal protein or fish. And it's just something that I feel like is good for me to include
into my day, into my week. I don't need to have it
with every single meal, but it's definitely something that I feel better when I include it in. And then of course, we're gonna
add some nice healthy fat. Avocado is so good for you. So I'm just gonna slice up some
fresh avocado right on top. And then if you don't have
one of these avocado huggers, I actually sell this on
my online wellness shop. They are amazing, your
avocados will stay fresh for like three to four days in the fridge. So if you don't use a full
avocado like me in one sitting, you can store the rest for later, and know it's still gonna survive. And there you have it. This is such a nourishing
satisfying nourish bowl that is gonna make you feel really good. And it has like I said, all of the really key components
to a well balanced meal. I love a good sweet treat
just like the next person. But when it comes to
dessert and baked goods, I really like to make them at home because I can control the sugar, use natural sweeteners that
don't spike my blood sugar, and they're just way less processed, and I don't feel as
jittery after I eat them. So this recipe here is my
Fudgey Peanut Butter Cookies, also from my cookbook. They're so good. There's something so
satisfying about peanut butter. I could eat these every
day, they're so good. And they honestly take like
five minutes to whip up. You just mix it all in a bowl. I have peanut butter, eggs, vanilla, maple syrup for sweetness. For flours, I like to
use less processed ones, and ones that are more from
whole grains or ancient grains. So this one here is just oat flour. And you can even make
it at home or buy it, but it's just one ingredient, and I just love using it in
recipes like these cookies. Once the batter is well combined, pop it into the freezer to chill. And then once it's chilled, and the dough is a little
bit easier to handle, you can just scoop it and
roll it up into balls. (upbeat music) And then of course, the
classic fork dentation to make them look like
classic peanut butter cookies is the key crucial last
step before they bake up. Here they are out of the oven, so good. Now we all know refined
sugars and processed foods is not good for our mental health. So just making more of that stuff at home where you can make it
a little bit healthier is so important and I think
it just really supports a healthy mindset and lifestyle. I'm also enjoying it with
a mug of chamomile tea. I love chamomile tea, it's very relaxing, and I like to have it in the afternoon just to have a warm drink with my cookies. All right, so for dinner,
we are getting super cozy. I'm making one of mine
and Matt's favorite soup, and it's so easy. Like it's crazy how easy it is. It's a potato and leek soup. And you guessed it, you need
potatoes and you need leeks. And they are just such simple ingredients, but when combined, they
make the best soup ever. I don't know about you
but anytime a recipe calls for like two cloves of garlic, I pretty much triple that. So all of my soup recipes
usually have a lot of garlic. I like to even add more than what I recommend in my own recipes. I'm also chopping up some onion. And then for the potatoes,
I'm just leaving the skins on. These are organic potatoes. I like to buy organic and
just keep things really easy and leave the skin on, plus
it's added fiber and nutrients. There's actually a lot
of nutrients in the skin, so feel free to leave that on. (upbeat music) I always have my compost nearby just to throw in any veggie scraps into. All right, so a large pot, heat olive oil, add leeks, onion, garlic and saute it. Just sauteing everything
up in some olive oil just to get everything really fragrant. (upbeat music) It smells so good already. Adding in a dried bay leaf from my (speaks foreign
language) farm in Portugal, sea salt and black pepper and
then just a bouillon cube. I always like to have these on hand. I always get the no added salt because otherwise they get really salty. And then just filling
it up with some water. So while that's coming
up to a boil and cooking, I'm gonna prepare a little
bruschetta or brushetta I don't know, that's how I say it. So for this recipe, I have
lots of garlic once again. I got some nice vine ripe tomatoes that I'm just gonna chop up. I also have some fresh basil. I think people don't
use fresh herbs enough. I always like to have fresh thyme, basil, oregano or cilantro or
parsley in the fridge. And I'll just think of reasons to add it into my dishes
before they go bad. It's like a game I play. And they are just so good for you. They have so many amazing
nutrients in them, and I think that they add a lot of flavor without adding excess oil
and salt into your foods. (upbeat music) I'm adding in a good squeeze
of lemon juice, sans the seeds. Finishing it off with some olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. As you can tell, I am not
afraid of some good quality olive oil in my cooking and in my diet. I'm just gonna set that
aside in the fridge while the soup finishes up. Just removing the dried bay leaf. And then I'm just ladling
it into my blender to blend up and get nice and creamy. So to prepare the bruschetta,
I have some sourdough bread that I got from a local farmers market. And then I'm just gonna spread
on some soft goat cheese. I love soft goat cheese, it's so good. It's really good on pizza or in salads. But in this case, it was
such a good combination with the tomato and garlic topping. I'm going a little fancy and
I'm adding on some lemon zest. You don't have to go this far, but it was a really nice pop of flavor. I'm gonna spoon on that mixture with the tomatoes and
the basil and the garlic. Matt doesn't even like
tomatoes and he loved this. He was asking for seconds the next day 'cause this mixture was good for two days, and he said he really liked it, so thank you, Matt, for the compliment. And dinner is ready. I'm just spooning that delicious
creamy leek and potato soup into some bowls with the
bruschetta on the side that I just toasted up in the oven. This is such a cozy delicious meal. And when it comes to just supporting my mood and my mental health,
I just look for things that make me feel good when I eat them, and this was definitely
one of those meals. (upbeat music) I'm drizzling on some truffle
oil because I had some on hand and it just makes everything delicious. Like I said, I am not afraid
of oils and healthy fats. And this was so good. I highly recommend making this combo, you will not regret it. All right Health Nuts, there we have it. That is my what I eat in a day for anxiety and just supporting my mental health. As I mentioned, everyone is different. I am not a doctor, so always consult with
a health professional, especially if you're dealing
with something serious. Get help, seek a professional. I cannot stress that enough. It really does help to
have someone to talk to. Keeping it all in is like the
worst thing that you can do. So I hope this video just helped give you some little
guidance and fun little tips, maybe foods that you can try
in your own personal life to support your health goals, whether that be mental
health or just feeling good, and energized throughout
the day without coffee. I think these recipes are really
fun, delicious and healthy. I'm gonna have all of the
recipes linked down below in my info box as well as
the herbal coffee drink that I made is actually in my cookbook, which will be linked down below. It's filled with so many
delicious recipes, super easy. A lot of them are under 30 minutes. And so many of you guys
have already told me you've gotten a copy which is so cool to always see your recipe recreations on Instagram stories so keep them coming, I see every single one. I like to reshare them and like them, and it just means the world
when you guys remake my recipes. Also, just another huge thanks to Caf-Lib for sponsoring this video. It is a dream come true to be able to work with such an amazing Canadian company, and one that I have used in
my every day life for years. And it has honestly made
the biggest difference into helping reduce my anxiety
and just making me feel like I'm not left out
in the coffee culture. So thanks again and if you guys aren't already subscribed to my channel, you can click that red
subscribe button down below. It's completely free and I
post here every single week. I will see you guys in my next video. Have a fabulous day and I'll
talk to you soon, bye guys. (upbeat music)
