As a marketing professional whose career was skyrocketing in her mid-twenties, Busy Happy Healthy’s founder, Amina AlTai, seemingly had it all: The titles, the accomplishments, the “success.” But underneath her high-achieving professional persona existed someone who was utterly struggling, health-wise. Not only were her chronic health issues debilitating, they were infringing on her all-important happiness. So after years of (taxing) success, Amina decided to take a step back and embark on the most important to-do of her entire life: Wellness. 

Busy Happy Health is the manifestation of Amina’s belief that busy, ambitious people of all stripes do not need to sacrifice their health and, consequently, their happiness in the pursuit of “success.” Ahead, we conduct a much-overdo interview to talk to Amina about her wellness journey and health philosophy, her favorite snacks, and her surprising spirit animal. Read on. 

MEET BUSY HAPPY HEALTHY

Hey! Who are you? 

Serious but silly middle child. Type A minus.  Lover of all things natural and healthy. Peacekeeper and perfection-hater.  Super curious, well accessorized and a good time.  

How does the mission of BHH pertain to your own life story? 

I once believed that what I did was who I was.  I believed it so strongly that I almost worked myself into the ground.  I started my first company at 22, wrote my first book at 25 and became a director that same year. On paper, I was very successful, but I felt terrible. I developed two autoimmune diseases and was having memory troubles by the age of 26.   I was so deprived of proper nutrition that I nearly went bald (no joke).  That was enough for me. We often put ourselves and our needs last in service of others; thinking that taking care of ourselves is somehow selfish. But something about that is counterintuitive; because if we want to live our best, most inspired lives we need to feel our best. Right?
 
As it turns out, our greatest challenges are our greatest gifts. My struggles with weight and disease were my body telling me something about my lifestyle and who I was meant to be. I searched high and low to find the right help. After visiting seven different doctors who looked at me like I was crazy, I finally found one who was willing to partner with me.  After a long recovery, I realized there was a major knowledge gap.  No one was teaching us how to take care of the most important assets we’ll ever possess: Our bodies.  So, I went in search of certifications and schools that could help me use my story for the highest good.   

I knew right away that I could be of service to corporate America. Everyone is working so hard and there’s no time or proper information to support our well-being.  And changes have to start at the top.  A healthy work culture is pervasive and it needs be a c-level decision to invest in people and working well.  

How did you discover / uncover your passion for wellness? 

There are several reasons. To begin, both of my parents are in allopathic medicine.  They wanted me to be a doctor but I didn’t like the hospital environment. It always felt so sterile and absent of real healing vibes.  But I’d always been interested in wellness and preventative medicine.  I used to read their medical books (and freak out over any weird skin ailments!), along with Shape and Fitness magazines starting at the age of ten.

From there, I’d say nutrition was my lead-in. I struggled with weight during my adolescence and woke up one day and decided the baggage was too much to bear.  So, I taught myself how to eat healthy and exercise (thanks, Shape! Seriously!) and I lost 60 pounds in one year. Now I’ve been the same weight most of my adult life; family members would always come to me for meal plans. So while most girls were going on their first dates I was reading about Gary Null and Dr. Andrew Weil.  #MegaNerd

Eventually, I started reading more about the mind-body connection. The Dalai Lama piqued my interest in meditation when I read his books at seventeen. But, like most of us, I lost myself a bit in my early twenties and had to go really far wrong in order to come back to my wellness roots.  

What is training with you like? 

It depends, as every dynamic is different depending on whom I’m coaching and what we’re working on. (But if you come to my spin class you’ll likely get a fun but no mercy – or bitching! – work out.)   

With that said, if you’re engaging me for nutrition coaching there’s lots of “hand holding,” but I’m no pushover.  If you want to change your body and your mind, you’ve got to work for it.  On the other hand, I am known for mailing my clients surprise healthy snack packages and cards. I always try to think what I’d want out of a coach—someone who is going to get me results and leave me better than they found me and have a bit of fun along the way. I look forward to working with my clients and I want them to feel the same way.

WELLNESS AND YOU

In your opinion "wellness" means...

I believe everything is balance.  It’s healthy relationships, managed stress, good eats, sound sleep, workouts, a job you love, play time etc.  If just one area of your life is off, it can wreak havoc on everything else.  

Your favorite wellness foods are... 

Kombucha, seeds (they’re so great for women!), all the berries #CantGetEnough, wild fish, and what lady doesn’t love dark chocolate? 

Your favorite workout is...

I love spinning and biking.  I’ve had a bike since I could speak. Seriously.  At the age of three I dragged my mom into a store and told her I’d be her “best friend” (#manipulative) if she got me a red, shiny bike.  Needless to say, she caved and I’ve loved riding ever since.  Indoors or outdoors, I get the same sense of freedom.  I love it so much. It doesn’t always feel like a full body workout so I’ll do my own spin boot camps at home where I’m hopping on and off the bike to do abs, arms, etc.  

Your go-to snack is... 

Blackberries.  I try hard to rotate my snacks but berries are so great!  I put them in a little Tupperware and tote them around with me wherever I go.  Also, I recently wrote a post on my fave travel snacks you can see here. And, finally, I’m very into Santosha chocolate right now, not necessarily as a snack. A square or two for dessert is heaven. 

Your favorite self-care activity is... 

I LOVE working out. Nothing helps my stress or my brain more.  But one of my 2017 goals is to “do less and be more” so nowadays if I have an extra fifteen minutes I don’t bang out another blog post or do some squats, instead I just straight up sprawl out on the ground. Nothing feels more grounding than laying face down on the floor. (I hope my chiropractor doesn’t read this, he’ll kill me.)

Your favorite healthy restaurant is...

Ahhh, so many!! I love Dirt Candy for a special occasion, Candle 79 because it’s where I had one of my first dates with my hubs, Peacefood for being so convenient and consistently good, Jivamukti for an awesome Buddha bowl, Bliss Café for killer veggie bowls and Modern Love for awesome vegan comfort food.  Can we also chat about desserts? Because Erin McKenna’s Bakery is EVERYTHING! I also used to love One Lucky Duck. RIP. 

Your not-so-healthy but still-kinda-healthy treat is... 

I had to put myself in a nut butter time out. And I see this with a lot of healthy ladies… it’s good fats, right, so what’s the big deal? But when we eat it by the bucket load (I’m looking at YOU!) it becomes a tad unhealthy. At the height of my love for it, I was making nut buttercups and they’re actually too good to put in words. You can see the recipe here.

LET'S GET RANDOM

Zodiac sign? The best sign of all, Scorpio!  

Favorite place on earth? Wales. I’m half Welsh and nothing feeds my soul more than the Welsh countryside. Sheep for days.

Desert island movie, book, and song? Movie: Wizard of Oz, Book: Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl because I’ll likely need a good laugh. Songs are so hard. If you know me, you know that I sing at least a dozen different songs to myself at any given time. So I guess I’d be my own iPod.

Spirit animal? Betty White.

So many of my clients live life on the go. They’re big shot entrepreneurs, brilliant consultants and next-gen thinkers that are globe-trotting and running to all four corners of the world on the regular. 

One of the biggest challenges I hear about their lifestyle is eating well while logging so much travel. They know all too well how vital a healthy diet and routine is -- especially when they’re working and thinking at such a high level -- but as they’re eating out more and leaving more of their meals to chance, macronutrient intake might get thrown off. This usually means more sugar and carbs and less quality greens and protein. So how can you prepare? Protein bars are usually full of sugar, trail mixes are loaded with gluten and preservatives and even salads are doused in dressings made from who-knows-what. So, for those times when you can’t control your schedule or where your meals are coming from, I came up with this protein bar. 

It’s low glycemic, high protein, and absurdly delicious.  All you need is:

• 1 cup of almond meal
• ½ a cup of coconut flour
• ½ a cup of cashew butter
• 1/3 a cup of dried blueberries (unsweetened)
• ½ a tbs of coconut oil
• ½ a cup of vegan protein powder (I used Sunwarrior Tribe)
• A dash of salt

Mix all of the dry ingredients together with the cashew butter.  Add in the coconut oil and mix until all ingredients are well blended.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and roll out the dough so that it is roughly half an inch thick.  Freeze for 15 minutes. 

Once the mixture is solid, cut into 10 servings.  You can store in an air-tight container in the fridge or individually wrap each one and store in the fridge until you’re ready to take with you. 

If making your own protein bars is too much work for your tight schedule, you can always check out my favorite travel snacks, too! 

Recently, someone asked me to name my favorite hobby. I considered for a moment and then responded, “Sleeping!” You might laugh, but totally I’m serious: My love for sleep is REAL. I’m a huge, unapologetic sleeper and I thoroughly rely on a good nine hours (yes, really) each night in order to feel and be my best. In fact, I would say my ability to get qualitysleep is the single determiner of how healthy, happy, productive, and focused I feel.

Through time, however, I’ve learned that getting great sleep isn’t simply about making the time to sleep; it’s about working to create the right conditions for quality sleep. Ahead, I’m sharing my tips and tricks – most of which are backed up with research. Read on.

Exercise daily

While exercise can stimulate and energize you during the day, research has found that it can help facilitate sound sleep at night. This doesn’t mean exhausting yourself with rigorous, punishing workouts, either. Additional research shows that even engaging in low-impact activities like tai chi  and yoga helped improve participants’ sleep patterns. I prefer to exercise in the first half of my day, for about 45 – 60 minutes. Do anything you can – even power-walking works!

Get cold(er)

Did you know that when we sleep our temperature naturally drops? It happens, in part, because when we enter REM sleep(the gold standard for awesome zzz’s) our body loses some capacity for thermoregulation. Further, this drop in temperature – up to two full degrees! – is a natural way for our body to reserve all-important energy for the coming day.

This is why I’ve found that a slightly cooler room is a great way to prep for a good night’s sleep. Other "chill to sleep" tactics I’ve employed include sticking my feet outside of the covers – an utterly game-changing trick I learned from New York Magazine – and taking a hot bath before bed. You might be scratching your head at the bath thing, but by raising your temperature before bed, you’re setting the stage for it to then drop. I know: Mind. Blown.

Meditate

If meditation seems like a catch-all recommendation for wellness, it's because it is -- it can positively impact nearly every aspect of our lives, including how well we sleep. A recent study showed that participants who in engaged in mindfulness activities over a six week span slept better, had less insomnia, and showed less signs of depression than their control counterparts who didn't participate in similar activities. If you're a total meditation newbie, try checking out our recent poston how to get started. Then get snoozin'.

Ditch stimulants and depressants close to bedtime

Yes, that glass of wine can make you sleepy. But it can also disrupt your ability to enter into REM -- meaning you’re getting low-quality, surface-level sleep. (The expression “passing out” from drinking exists for a reason.) Processing alcohol can also make your temperature go up – which, as you’ve just learned, can inhibit quality sleep.

Along those same lines, a stimulant like caffeine can totally derail your sleep efforts if you’re not careful. I’m serious: it’s not just about saying no to that post-dinner espresso; one piece of research highlighted that even drinking coffee six hours before bedtime can result in a lost hour of sleep. My advice? Stick to coffee in the morning and ditch caffeine altogether no later than 2pm.

Eat tryptophan-rich foods

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that helps do things like regulate our hormones. As such, it's involved with the production of both serotonin (our "happy" hormone) and melotonin, which is the hormone that regulates our sleepcycles. Some research suggests eating more tryptophan-rich foods (such as cage-free eggs, wild-caught salmon, and spirulina) can be helpful in naturally treating insomnia. With that noted, be sure you're not eating too close to bedtime... 

Eat dinner earlier

Several years ago, I wrote an article for FirstWeFeast on the science of dreaming and food. Through this fascinating subject I learned that big meals close to bedtime not only disrupt your sleep, they can also be a precursor for nightmarish dreams. This is for two reasons: One, your body’s temperature rises when it is trying to digest food – and we now know that being hot (and bothered) while sleeping is a no-no. Two, certain foods – such as spices – have psychoactive properties, which can influence your brain's functioning. If you’ve ever had a restless night of crazy dreams after a spicy, exotic meal, you know what I’m talking about. Eat as early as possible, allowing your body plenty of time to digest prior to hitting the hay.

Less screens, more books

I’m not the first person who has told you this, but you really should put your phone away before bed. I don’t mean two minutes before bed, either – I’m talking at least a half an hour prior to snoozin'. This is because the blue light emitted by your iPhone, tablet, or even your television disrupts the production of melatonin, the hormone involved with getting you asleep. In lieu of Instagram scrolling, I prefer reading a good-old fashioned book: It’s a meditative, calming activity and it sets the stage for winding your brain down. (Unless, of course, you’re reading some sort of crazy thriller. Maybe pick something else?)

Don’t stress about not sleeping

Perhaps the best piece of advice about sleeping better is to stop focusing on the actual act of sleeping. This is because when you focus on sleep, you only amplify or aggravate existing anxiety, putting undue pressure on yourself. Instead of obsessing over the witching hour that is bedtime, attempt to make the lifestyle changes I’ve detailed out: exercising, early dinners, a better diet, and calming nighttime rituals. I think you’ll find that by focusing on them (most of which happen during the day) you won’t need to think about sleep at night. And, when all else fails, don’t forget to stick your feet outside of the covers!