A beauty influencer has won a legion of fans after sharing wellness and lifestyle tips that ‘changed her life’.
Anna Annora from the US, who boasts over 162,000 followers on TikTok using her handle @anna_annora, recently revealed secrets that allowed her life to do a ‘complete 180’.
She told viewers: ‘These are some wellness and lifestyle tips that will completely transform your life. I’m speaking from experience because in the last five months my life has done a while 180.
‘I even lost seven pounds very sustainably and I know that I can keep it off.’
Try habit stacking
The first tip the beauty influencer talked about is a process she called ‘habit stacking’.
She explained: ‘This is when you combine something that you’re already doing with something that you haven’t been doing as an incentive to incorporate a new routine into your life.
‘If you’ve been wanting to start something like oil pulling but the act of just standing there and swishing oil in your mouth for ten minutes sounds really boring, this is something I have stacked when I shower.
‘Since my showers already last about 10 to 15 minutes, I just swish the oil the entire time I’m in the shower.’
She added: ”Once I’m in the shower as well, I’ll use my gua sha. So now that oil pulling and Gua Sha [a skin care routine] has become a part of my shower routine, it’s easily repeatable because I already shower every day.
‘This next one is definitely my favourite though and it centers around hair oiling.
‘If you wanna get into scalp oiling to improve hair growth, I have found that if I habit stack my scalp oiling with my workout routine, I never miss a scalp oiling day.
‘For me, my primary workout is yoga, so I apply and massage in my rosemary scalp oil before I go to yoga class, while I’m getting ready.
‘Since class is typically an hour long and the room is heated, the oil’s on my scalp for the perfect amount of time and since I’m already sweaty when coming back from yoga, I’m going to be washing my hair anyway.’
Swap the gym for yoga
Moving onto her second piece of advice, Anna continued: ‘This is also the perfect segway to talk about how yoga completely changed the way that I view workouts.
‘I used to belong to a gym and I would go and run and weightlift and do different exercises like that but I never really saw improvements in my body.
She revealed that she ‘never really felt fully aligned or happy to be there’ and one day her friend recommended that she start taking yoga classes and it ‘completely changed’ her life.
Anna said: ‘That is like a mental practice as much as it is a physical practice – a lot of people underestimate how great of a workout that yoga really is.
‘In this day and age of technology and high stress, it feels the only time that I can completely unplug and reconnect with my mental – it’s been incredibly emotionally freeing and my posture has never been better in my life.
‘That also connects back to the weight loss thing, I always though that I just had the body type that really carries more fat on my stomach but I’m looking leaner and more toned than I ever have.
She urged her followers: ‘It’s a no brainer for me, if you can afford to get a yoga pass to a studio please go’.
Try psyllium husk if you struggle with digestive issues
Next, she goes on to recommend: ‘If you struggle with any digestive issues, like me I have IBS, incorporate a special kind of bulking fiber called psyllium husk.’
Psyllium husk is a naturally occurring, plant-derived source of fibre. It’s best known for its potential to improve constipation.
In the UK, you can get your hands on it in stores such as Holland and Barrett and Wholefoods.
Anna explained: ‘Maybe you’ve heard of Metamucil, that’s a common brand name that a lot of people know about but it does have additives so I just use pure psyllium husk.
‘Mix one teaspoon into eight ounces of water in the morning and at night. You just chug it and then make sure that you’re staying hydrated throughout the day.
‘This type of fiber forms a gel inside your gut and it just basically scrapes the insides of all your intestines. It’s the type of fiber that we’re least likely to find in the western diet because we’ve removed it from all of our food.’
She claims: ‘This fiber will make people with even the worst IBS symptoms completely regular. I will tell you that because I am completely regular now.
‘It also prevents insulin spikes, so if you drink psyllium right before you eat, it keeps your blood sugar levels closer to the baseline target area instead of spiking your insulin which is really bad for you.’
Dr Hana Patel, an NHS GP, advises: ‘psyllium husk (also known as ispaghula husk )is used and prescribed by doctors to help relieve constipation if you cannot increase the amount of bran in your diet, or if this is insufficient.
‘Psyllium husk, a laxative, works by increasing the bulk of your stools, which encourages your bowels to move the stools through your digestive system, which in turn relieves constipation’.
‘Products containing psyllium husk are available on prescription, and can also be bought without a prescription at pharmacies and other retail outlets’.
Drink apple cider vinegar before you eat
The beauty influencer’s fourth piece of advice is to drink apple cider vinegar before you eat.
She revealed: ‘How I balance this with the psyllium husk is I do the psyllium husk before breakfast, before lunch I do the apple cider vinegar and then before dinner I do the psyllium husk because for me it’s more important to get the fiber in the morning and at night.
‘Then just eat a larger more fibrinous lunch combined with the apple cider vinegar.’
Dr Patel adds: ‘Vinegars contain bioactive compounds, the extra-nutritional constituents found in fruits and vegetables.
All of these compounds instill vinegar with health benefits even when ingested in small amounts, such as acetic acid from vinegar as 0.3% of total food intake or 15-30 mL (1-2 tablespoons) of cider vinegar.
‘There have been research and studies carried out that show that these health benefits include reducing cholesterol and lipid levels, antioxidant properties, enzyme inhibitors, inhibitors of gene expression, antidiabetic effects, reduced blood pressure, prevention of heart disease, and antimicrobial properties’.
Drink a ‘night time cocktail’ and journal
Moving on to her evening rituals, she says: ‘Additionally, after I eat dinner and everything, I like to make myself a night time cocktail.
‘I did jump on the magnesium tart cherry night time cocktail trend that started here on TikTok’.
The trend from last year saw more and more users are praising tart cherry juice for its powers that they claim helped cure their insomnia.
In the past, medicinal experts confirmed the fruit juice’s sleep boosting powers and credited to the tryptophan in it, which boosts melatonin production.
Anna raved: ‘It honestly has made such a big difference in how I can stay asleep at night. It’s also just a great habit stacking ritual, coming back to that.
‘I’ll sip on my little drink, edit content or journal. Journaling is something that has really improved my life because I can get all of my thoughts that are like living up here down onto paper, write down my manifestations and track my goals and stuff, keep myself accountable.
‘Most of all, it’s a time of reflection that a lot us don’t get anymore because it’s such a hustle and bustle culture, especially in America.’
However, this may be a a placebo affect as the NHS GP explained: ‘There was a study that was carried out investigating the use of tart cherry supplements, which are high in antioxidants and may contain melatonin, on parameters of health such as sleep, body composition, cellular health, and blood pressure (BP).
‘In this study, despite the potential benefits of antioxidants and melatonin, researchers did not find improvements in sleep time or quality, cellular health or BP in those taking the cherry supplement’.
Try apoptogenic mushrooms and cut out caffeine
Finally, the health and wellness fanatic talked about apoptogenic mushrooms and how they have helped her.
She told viewers: ‘Of course I can’t forget apoptogenic mushrooms. I take a complex mushroom blend every single day.
‘This blend improves cognition, it prevents cancer, I honestly attribute it to curing my depression.
‘Mushrooms are magic I fully believe that. Since I’m a person that’s prone to anxiety I also say that it’s good to mitigate your caffeine intake or cut it out all together.’
Adding: ‘I didn’t drink caffeine for about three years and just this year before I’ve been able to control my anxiety levels, I’ve reintroduced a morning matcha.
‘I love matcha it’s one of my favourite flavours, but also it’s just a really good antioxidant. I prefer the way that the caffeine hits for matcha as opposed to the way it hits from coffee.
‘I’d recommend switching to tea if possible to avoid any caffeine crashes.’
Talking about the mushroom blend, Dr Patel said: ‘Researchers need to carry out more studies to fully understand the effects of apoptogenic mushrooms on stress response.
‘On animal studies and single cell experiments, the mushrooms have been shown in some studies to reduce levels of inflammation in the body, support mood-boosting neurotransmitters and reduce heightened levels of cortisol’.
Finishing off the video, Anna concluded: ‘There’s probably more but that’s all I’m going to mention today because those are the things that I can remember off the top of my head.
‘But I will leave you with this – I never thought I would get to the point in my life where I was completely happy in my skin and I felt my best until I made a lot of these lifestyle changes.
‘I think it sounds like a lot at first but one day you wake up and it’s just your life now and that’s just how you approach it. I really really hope this helped’.
Viewers were quick to praise the advice, with one writing: ‘Yep [sic]. Totally agree with yoga. I started practicing recently and I’ve been so much more present overall it is so good for me mentally’.
Another penned: ‘Habit stacking has really changed my year too. Listening to a finance podcast while following a new running program keeps me eager and consistent.’
A third wrote: ‘as someone with IBS, anxiety, and trying to lose weight in my stomach, thank you this video hit all the points hahaha’.
Meanwhile, others chimed in with: ‘Brb [sic] doing at home yoga everyday’ and ‘I ran to Amazon to get some psyllium husk. Thank you for the recommendation.’
