Wellness may have once been seen as a passing fad none of us really had the time for, but the past two years, and the impact of the global pandemic, have shone a spotlight on the importance of self care. Looking after ourselves from a spiritual and emotional standpoint as well as giving our physical health the attention it deserves is no longer considered a luxury, but essential – and with a growing body of research supporting the links between all three, we’re increasingly taking a more holistic approach to nourishing ourselves and our needs.
With every new year comes a new set of health and wellness trends, but these often evolve with the seasons – and while the first quarter of the year has been all about getting ourselves back on track after a period of uncertainty and upheaval, the summer months are all about making more space for joy in our lives. From taking up new and fun activities to finally getting a handle on stress and anxiety, this season we’ll be doing what we need to not just to get by, but to really feel good – and to start enjoying all of life’s little pleasures once more.
CBD products are getting a mouth-watering makeover
Our appetite for natural alternatives to help us manage mood disorders and mental health conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression seemingly knows no bounds, and CBD products continued to fly off the shelves as we weathered the storm of the global pandemic. But our tastes, it seems, are getting more sophisticated, and the earthy flavour of many CBD products will no longer cut it. And why should it, when your daily dose could instead taste like a refreshing slice of watermelon or a tropical pina colada, instantly transporting your mind to a sunny tropical paradise?
Just like many health and wellness trends, this one has made its way over to us from across the pond. According to True Blue, a company selling terpenes in LA, terpenes are the key ingredient responsible for making our favourite CBD products tastier than ever, and American-based companies in the field are reporting a boom in sales from CBD product manufacturers. Naturally-flavoured, food-grade terpenes are an easy way for them to up-level the customer experience and make taking CBD oils and tinctures more palatable for the masses, and by enhancing these cannabis-derived products in a way that makes them more attractive to a wider audience, we can expect to see the CBD market continue to flourish this year in the tastiest of ways.
Wearable Tech 2.0 is making its mark
With a fifth of us now relying on wearable tech like Fitbits and other smart watches to track our steps and fitness sessions and measure our daily calorie burn, wearable tech has continued to flourish so far this year – and as we head towards the summer months, just as we do every year, we’ll be ramping up our efforts to get fit. Thanks to our growing understanding of the mind-body connection and the benefits of moving more and getting outdoors to our mental health, we’ll no doubt be taking full advantage of the warmer weather to increase our activity levels – but as we become ever more discerning, we’re looking for more detailed and accurate ways to measure our daily health metrics and get a clearer picture of how we’re actually doing.
Thankfully, the latest smartwatches are already a step ahead of us, with features like the tracking of our sleep cycles and the subtleties of our heart rate while we slumber, and recording specific types of activities and sports, now coming as standard. Then, there’s the innovative Fitbit Sense, which goes one better, offering everything from stress management through electrodermal activity monitoring, skin temperature and oxygen saturation tracking, and soon, even an FDA-approved ECG app. Our approach to health monitoring is becoming ever more holistic, and we’ll be upgrading our devices to reflect this over the months ahead.
We’re moving towards more mindful, plant-based eating
Embracing plant-based eating doesn’t have to mean going completely vegan, and campaigns like ‘Meat Free Mondays’ have helped rally the masses into making small changes to cut down their meat consumption and thus, their environmental impact over recent years. Flexitarianism and reducitarianism – in other words, being a flexible vegetarian or committing to eating less meat, dairy and eggs – are already becoming buzz words for 2022 as we finally begin to let go of our long-held ‘all or nothing’ approach to eating.
But whichever way you slice it, one thing is for certain; as a society, we’re eating less meat than we did ten years ago. As a result, the plant-based market is continuing to boom, with new animal product alternatives launching into supermarkets and health food shops seemingly by the day. Even so, we’re starting to get over the novelty of processed products adding more variety to a plant-based diet and are instead, returning to our roots, focusing on fresh, whole foods and organic, locally sourced produce to nourish our bodies from the inside, as well as reducing our carbon footprints while we do so.
