(gentle piano music)
- All right, so one of the
things that I like to do
when I am feeling the sads
or more depressive,
like winter depression,
one of my tips is to drink lots of water,
but sometimes it just feels nice
to make it special for yourself.
So I always say like treat yourself
like you would treat your
daughter or your best friend.
So if I was going to have
people over for dinner,
like I'd want to make a
nice infused spa water.
So why won't I, like why
don't we do that for ourselves
to make ourselves feel taken care of
and make ourselves feel special?
So I like to do this
first thing in the morning
before I do anything,
stick it into the fridge,
and then let it infuse,
and then I can drink it
throughout the day, and because
there's so much cucumber,
lemon, and lime in it, you can
just refill that with water
and keep reusing them,
like reusing the same craft
throughout the day, and
it will keep infusing.
It's just a really nice
way to make water drinking
a little bit more special.
Sometimes it can seem
like a task, or it just,
I don't know, for me it
just makes me feel pampered,
and really you can shove anything in here.
I've done this with raspberries.
I've done this with herbs, like
mint is really nice in here,
basil, that sort of thing.
So really like get creative with it.
Mix and match some fun fruits,
veggies, herbs, spices.
While my water is
infusing, I'm just going to
whip together a quick breakfast.
Lately I've been obsessed
with this tahini toast
that I learned how to make.
I like to prep my veggies
where I'm going to talk
a bit about this and how I do this,
but on every like Sunday or Monday night,
I like to just chop up
a bunch of vegetables
and have them in my fridge
so that they're easy to use.
I can easily throw meals together.
I like to keep my bread in the freezer.
I don't go through a loaf
of bread before it goes bad
so I just stick it in the freezer
and then take out a piece as I need it.
But what I'm going to do is
I'm going to toss the vegetables.
I'm gonna cut up some tomatoes as well.
I always have cherry tomatoes on hand.
I'm gonna cut up some of these.
I'm going to toss it with
lemon and a little bit of salt.
I put it on toast with
a easy tahini dressing.
Now depending on how
many toasts you're making
will determine how many
vegetables you need to use
and how much lemon and salt
you're going to need as well.
So this is enough for
a one piled high toast.
I like to add just a
little bit of lemon juice.
I like to put it through a strainer
just so that you don't get
any seeds or any of the pulp.
Have a weird thing with
pulp so I like to do that.
Don't judge me.
Salt.
Okay, to make our tahini dressing,
this is enough for like three mornings.
I wouldn't keep it in the
fridge for longer than that,
and it's just me, but if you
have like a family of four
or there's two of you, you
can make even double this.
I just take half a cup of water.
Then all you need is half a cup of tahini.
Now I have whole sesame
so that's the whole sesame
seed with the shell,
and then the just regular
like shelled stuff
that you can buy, but I like to mix both.
Oh also, fun tip that I learned in Israel.
If you just pop a hole, you
get a little squeeze bottle.
This is everything, it's so good.
So depending on if you like
a lot of lemon juice or not,
I like to just start with one tablespoon.
Give it a good whisk.
Now it's going to look
like it's separating.
Just keep going, you just
keep going until it's soft.
Now when you put this
in the fridge overnight,
it will harden up so your
first day of using it,
it's gonna be a little bit liquidy,
but then by tomorrow,
it's going to be more like
a almost like a hummus-y consistency.
It's like an avocado toast but with tahini
and a salad on top.
It's so good.
And then I just like to
garnish it with some parsley.
You can also use cilantro
if you're into that.
We have these delicious toasts.
I'm going to eat my breakfast
before I take a shower,
but one of the things that I
find that goes out the window,
first of all, when you're
sad or depressed is like
your personal hygiene and
taking care of yourself.
For me anyway, if I'm in
a really depressed place,
that's the thing that goes out the window.
So I tried really hard in the winter.
I took care for myself,
took care of my new hair.
'Cause I paid for this,
and I want it to look nice.
And that's why I love the brand
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All right, so I had my
shower, put on my lipstick,
washed my hair.
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You can just wash and wear
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Now typically I don't
wear makeup every day,
but if I am having a particularly sad day,
it's gloomy outside, I just
want to feel good about myself,
I do put makeup on for me.
So I find that when I
have to put makeup on,
I really don't like doing
it, I'd see it as a chore,
but if I do it for me and I
can experiment a little better,
just like not even do much,
just like add some lipstick,
it definitely helps with my mood,
but I wanted to kind
of share with you guys
some tips and tricks
for how I kind of fight
that seasonal affective
disorder, seasonal depression.
So I've been doing a couple
emails here and there,
but as you can see I'm sitting on my sofa.
So one of my first tips
for kind of combating
the winter sads is to try
and do as much of your work
or try to organize your
life as much as you can
around the sun.
So I move out of my tired dark office,
and I like to do my emails
or any of my writing here
on my sofa because I'm
right next to a window.
I would suggest trying to get
30 minutes of outdoor time
even when it's really cold.
Try and do something like walk
your dog a little bit longer
or walk to the store and get some things
instead ordering Uber Eats.
Like try to get as much of
that sunshine as possible,
or if it's really cold like it is Canada,
just try to do things near a window.
The other thing I like to
do is take about 15 minutes
of my day to cleaning and tidying.
So clutter, especially visual clutter,
it kind of subconsciously
brings up your stress hormones.
So it creates a distraction in your brain
which raises your cortisol levels
and it makes you really
distracted very easily.
So it's harder for you to focus.
It's harder for you to keep on task.
So I like to just make
sure that I'm taking
at least 15 minutes of
my day just to tidy up
some of the clutter, take
out the garbage, make my bed.
Okay, so I did a little bit of work.
So I have this crock-pot.
It's a pressure cooker and a slow cooker.
I like to just prepare
soup that's going to be
cooking in the background
and so that tonight
when I'm hungry, I have
something ready to go.
So if you're skipping meals
because you're depressed,
which I often do, you
actually make your brain
more irritable and you get tired
because you have no energy.
So I like to make sure that I
plan my meals on like a Sunday
or a Monday for the entire week,
and I like to chop those vegetables
so that I have everything ready to go.
So I have like chopped
carrot for my dinner.
which I'm going to make now
so that it's ready in like
four hours, is a lasagna soup.
So it's all the comfort of a lasagna
just with the ease of a soup.
So I'm just heating up oil
and adding garlic, onions,
carrots that I already had chopped,
celery that I already had
chopped, and mushrooms,
and this is great.
So planning ahead, meal
prepping your meals,
just makes it really easy.
So this will not only
be my dinner tonight,
but it's going to be my
dinner over the next few days,
and also if I get sick of it
or I just want it two days in a row,
I can freeze the rest and
then have it next week.
And you just wanna cook
this the same way you would
in a pot for a normal soup
just you're doing it this pot.
Ooh, and onions.
So again cut a bunch of
onions, keep it in the fridge,
and then you can just
use these ingredients
to make different meals.
I will probably use a lot
of the same ingredients
to make my lunch, but the
ingredients will be similar,
but the flavor profile's going
to be completely different.
For the tomato base, I'm going
to use tomato, just one can.
So one 28-ounce can is fine,
and then for me personally,
when I make lasagna
I like to use peseta,
but if you don't have access
to that in your local grocer,
which you should in either
like the pasta section
or if you have like an
international section,
sometimes it's in the
more Italian food side,
and all it is is strained
tomatoes that are not cooked.
So it just gives a fresher
more vibrant flavor to them,
but I like to add one of each.
Okay, so now for the lasagna part of it,
again, like warm comforting
meals, is there anything warmer
and more comforting than pasta?
No.
And just break them up and toss them in.
Okay, so we've got our noodles in there.
Gonna add the spinach,
and then I'm going to
pressure-cook this guy,
and it'll be ready for dinner.
All right, so welcome to winter in Canada
where it is bleak, dark,
gray, dreary, cold,
and you're in the dark at all times
which is why we're making
this video (laughs).
I have prepped my dinner.
So that's cooking behind the
scenes, but I'm hungry now.
So I need to make some lunch.
So I just grabbed a bunch of stuff
that I have in the fridge.
So as I said before, I like to meal prep
a lot of different things.
Not even meal prep, just
like prep vegetables.
(microwave beeps)
Cooked beans.
Cooked quinoa in advance, vegetables,
and use a lot of things
that are just left over.
So I have some like refried beans
that I've just heated up the microwave.
I have just some beans that
I cook with onion and garlic.
So what I'm thinking for lunch is like
just a bowl situation, like a green bowl.
So I like to make the base kind
of half greens, half grains.
I am going to add some quinoa.
Going to add some of these beans.
So I like to keep them
in the cooking liquid
'cause if I want them for like a soup,
then I have a nice liquid
nutritious broth here,
but for this, I'm just gonna drain them,
toss them with the quinoa.
Actually I'll just use.
And then it's almost like
a rice and pea situation,
but you're using like a
Jamaican rice and peas
kind of vibes, but you're
using quinoa and black beans.
It makes my OCD really happy,
just style things this way,
and it just makes my lunch a lot prettier.
I don't need that.
So then I feel like, I
don't know, it's like a,
it's a little self-care treat.
I mean, if you're going to make
food pretty when you cook it
for somebody else, why don't you do it
when you cook for yourself?
I like to have some raw elements
and some cooked elements
so there's lots of different textures,
some heat, some raw, so
you get a nice balance.
So I've got some tomatoes.
I had some guac leftover.
Now I'm going to, right next
to the guac, add some salsa.
And then you have just
like a right balanced,
some super easy to throw together.
Because you thought ahead,
and you chopped all yourself before,
and you can eat however you want.
You can do like a little scoop of this,
a little scoop of that,
and it changes every day
just depending on what you
have, what you feel like.
I'm gonna have a little bit of guac
and a little bit of salsa.
Mm, I also find that when
I eat these types of foods
as opposed to eating
traditional comfort foods
when I'm feeling poopie, something
that's bright and vibrant
and again kind of reminds
me of like spring and summer
and warmer times will
definitely help my mood as well.
All right, guys, I did some work.
I hit up a yoga class, staying active
as much as you possibly
can during this month's
is so important because
definitely elevates your mood.
All right, so this is the soup
that we made earlier in the day.
It is so warm and
comforting and wonderful.
I have a spoon and a fork
to eat this soup (laughs)
because some of the
noodles are quite large.
You can also add some cheese
on top, like some vegan cheese.
I just like threw on a couple
of different remainders
of different types that I had
so it makes it nice and
creamy and delicious.
One of my favorite soups for the winter.
Mm.
There's nothing more
comforting than a lazy lasagna.
I am going to eat my dinner.
I'm gonna just chill.
I'm gonna watch some Netflix,
and I just wanted to say
a quick thank you again
to Function of Beauty for
sponsoring today's video.
Do make sure that you check out the link
in the description box below
so you can get 20% off your first order,
and I will see you next time, bye!
