Are you in a hurry?
Are you always in a hurry? 🏃 ♂️ Do you constantly live life by the clock?⌚️
Maybe it’s time to slow down? ⛔️
Be Kind, Be Kind, Be Kind
How would you describe the year so far? Would “stressful” be up there with words you’d select? Life is moving very fast and pressures can come at us from all angles (e.g. work, home, family, community, social responsibilities) so it always feels like there’s never enough time in the day… right?
Sit Less, Move More
Are you sitting comfortably? Shall we learn a few facts about the risks of sitting too much (& for long periods)? Have you heard the slogan “sitting is the new smoking” and wondering if that’s really true? Let’s get into it….
Firstly, we should get real. Sitting on a chair is not as detrimental to your health when compared to lighting up a cigarette, your common sense will tell you that. “Sitting is the new Smoking” is a dramatic statement put forward by a prominent medical doctor called James A. Levine, D, Ph.D in 2014 who also made statements such as “Chairs are out to kill us”, “We lose two hours of our life for every hour that we sit” and “Sitting kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death.”
Drink filtered water
Last week’s article was about encouraging you to simply drink more water, but should you also be more thoughtful about the water that you drink? This article’s aim is to make you think a little bit deeper about that…
Firstly, when at home, we usually will go to the kitchen tap to fill up a glass or a water bottle, but is your tap water really the best source of water to drink? Before you read on and be greatly alarmed, be rest assured that British tap water is among the best, and safest, in the world and millions of tests are conducted every year to guarantee the best possible quality.
Drink enough water
What’s perhaps the most important healthy habit of them all? That’s right, it’s to drink plenty of water, every single day.
This is perhaps an unexciting habit to encourage you with today, but it’s one of life’s essentials and water plays such an important role in helping you to maintaining electrolyte balance and blood pressure, lubricate your joints, remove waste, circulate blood, regulate your body temperature, and promote your cell health.
New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year! Wishing you a very healthy, happy 12 months ahead. I hope that you had a really lovely Christmas and you managed to take an opportunity to fully recharge your batteries to go again.
I also hope you managed to keep up your healthy habits and have been taking care of your physical, mental, emotional and social health over the holiday period. If you’ve let things slip, don’t worry as this newsletter comes out every Monday to help keep you focused, motivated and informed about evidence-based #healthyhabits.
Practice Gratitude
Do you stop to give thanks? I’m sure you do, but do you make it a daily ritual? Do you dedicate time towards intentionally giving thanks for all that is good in your life?
Gut Feeling
Do you ever get that sense in your stomach that something bad is about to happen? Or maybe you had butterflies before a job interview or hot date? Well these are just examples of your microbiome-gut-brain (MGB) axis having a good chinwag amongst each other - and it’s quite a conversation as the human body contains more than 40 Trillion Microorganisms, outnumbering our human cells by 10 to 1 and making up to 3% of our body weight!
Listen carefully to your body
How good are your listening skills? We’re pretty good at picking up what others have to say, but are you paying enough attention to some of the most important signals about yourself?
Morning Exercise
Have you ever wondered what’s the best time of day to exercise? Well, exercising at any time of the day should be considered a good thing, as long it’s not too vigorous in the 3 hrs prior to your target bedtime so it doesn’t consequence your sleep, but it turns out that time of day and exercise does seem to have a relationship regarding better health outcomes.
Walk in Nature
You probably already know that the benefits of walking are plentiful and there’s a lot of research demonstrating the healing effects of nature for you, in particular your health and your mood.
However, the power of walking together with a loved one through nature is even more powerful and beneficial. In one study, scientists investigated the effects of a 20 minute walk between a mother and daughter either in a shopping centre or in an area of nature. Researchers found that the nature walk resulted in more positive interactions and closeness between the pair, when compared with their walk in the shopping centre. In addition, the nature walk led to a greater improvement in their attention too.
Slow Down
When someone asks you “How’s everything going?” is your default instinctive answer “Yeah… busy!” but then you might quickly realise that’s not the perfect answer so you qualify it better by saying “Oh but it’s good busy!”. Is this you?
It’s true we’re busy these days as we have an infinite amount of choices to help us occupy our time. There’s no shortage of things to do, people to see or work to be done. But is there a cost to constantly having all our time filled up, even if it is “good busy”?
Vitamin D in Winter
Winter has many lovely perks. Perhaps it is cosy nights in front of the fire, enjoying hot drinks after an outdoor walk, or reading a book with soft lights, blankets and a lovely hot water bottle! Just be aware though that reduced sunlight hours is one of the downsides of the season, and it can affect more than just your mood…
Turn off the telly at night
How do you like to relax in the evening? Chances are you’re like most people and enjoy watching TV before you go to bed to gain a bit of escapism…but is it healthy for your sleep?
By now, many of us should have heard about the consequences of consuming too much artificial light and screen time, especially in the evenings, as it disrupts our circadian rhythms and melatonin levels. But do we also consider the added stimulation from the content which we choose to watch which also keeps our brains more alert and activated?
Distance your Phone
Who do you think knows you best? Your partner? Your parents? Your pals? Or in this world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), could it actually be your smartphone?!
In terms of possessions, my wedding ring comes in contact with me (i.e. my person) the most at 24hrs per day, but after that it’s my smartphone that comes into contact with me the next most often, ahead of clothes, bed, sofa, headphones & computer keyboards. Maybe if I played a musical instrument, it’d be high up there too.
Cut down on Sugar
Oh so sweet and found in treats,tasting very nice to eat,but the truth is they’re full of deceitbecause now they’re even being found in meat!
Sorry if you don’t like rhymes, but the reality behind the silliness is that sugar is now being added to so many foods (known as free sugars)! Even if you don’t think that you eat that much sugar, you may be surprised to find it hiding in lots of different products such as convenience foods, low fat products like yoghurts, cereal bars, breads, sauces, dressings and cooked chicken! We also need to be careful about the natural sugars that occur in honey, syrups (such as maple, agave and golden), nectars (such as blossom), and unsweetened fruit juices, vegetable juices and smoothies. These also count as free sugars.
Top up your Vitamin C
As we enter October and see the piles of leaves all off the trees and feel the air temperature start to drop a bit, you’ve maybe started to pull out the Winter Wardrobe essentials and prepare yourself for the cold season ahead.
The Winter season is also the most stressful season we experience - much due to the reduction in sunlight & increase in darkness which brings about the Winter Blues (SAD) - but it’s also always a busy period in the workplace, with a sprint from here through to Christmas and then there’s the added extra pressures from numerous different angles from family and community too. With elevated stress levels, more time indoors and closer contact with more people, it’s no surprise that winter season is also flu season, so what should we be doing to protect ourselves from going under this winter?
Get enough Daylight
Do you ever come out of an important meeting and struggle to remember where you’ve parked the car? Or perhaps when you need to rush out the door, those pesky house keys of yours are playing hide and seek again?!
If this all sounds a little too familiar, I may be able to shine some light on why that might be the case! According to a 2018 research study, it is suggested that spending too much time in low light conditions could alter the structure of the brain and negatively affect your learning and memory!
Fire your Glutes
When was the last time you did any strength training? Did you know that along with the recommended 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise we should be doing every week, we should also be doing 2 or more strength building sessions?
This doesn’t mean now having to get down to the gym twice a week to pump iron and gain bulging biceps. Strength training isn’t just about bulking up or gaining a rippling six-pack. For good health it’s about maintaining our lean muscle mass and keeping our bones dense, strong and in good health, so to enhance our ability to do everyday activities that require any power or force, which can be as simple as getting up from a chair, or climbing quickly up a flight of stairs.
Be a Good Friend
Are you being a good friend to someone? Are you appreciating the role friendships play in your overall health (and maybe even your life expectancy)!
Enjoying strong friendships brings a wealth of benefits, many of which are obvious. But one gift of close relationships that you may be less familiar with, is the potential power to become a “SuperAger!
A SuperAger is someone who is older than 80, but who is as mentally and physically able as an average middle aged person.