We don’t have to stress about inviting in lots of different ways to be mindful… we just have to do the one thing we’re doing, mindfully.
It can start first thing in the morning, with the simplest of actions; making that first cup of tea or coffee, or your breakfast smoothie, for example. Make that your five-minute ritual. If that’s a five-minute ritual that you can have in peace – focusing on the flavour, the aroma, the heat or cold in your mouth, or even the silence of having the kitchen to yourself – savour that moment. It’s a super-simple way to feel fully present with no dramas.
We assume that keeping our glucose levels steady is an issue solely for diabetics, but it is vital for all of us to make sure we are educated on the importance of glucose tracking for optimal health.
Glucose spikes can lead to issues such as prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, weight gain and lack of energy, among other issues.
Recommendations to keep blood sugar levels steady include eating your meal in a certain order – veggies, then protein, then carbs – drinking apple cider vinegar before eating (which may reduce a glucose spike by up to 30%) and combining food well by making sure you’re eating carbs and proteins together. For example, instead of eating an apple on its own, slice it and use the slices to scoop up some protein-rich peanut butter.
The answer is not as simple as you may think. You can plank daily, but the length of time you should hold a plank for can vary from 10 seconds to a minute. Here’s why: Your form matters most. Keeping perfect form is the goal – only do it as long as you can keep this.
As a general guideline, you should strive to do three sets of up to 60 seconds. But of course it’s okay to start with a shorter time and work up to a whole minute.
Shorter planks can still give you a solid workout. Try holding a plank for 10 seconds, relaxing for five to 10 seconds, then re-engaging for 10 seconds, and repeating for three to six sets. You receive very similar strengthening benefits because you are engaging your muscles for the same amount of total time as if you just held the plank for 30 to 60 seconds without stopping.
That being said, a minute tends to be an ideal time frame for getting the most from a plank. Longer time under tension is more of a challenge. But, if you can easily plank for a minute, you increase the difficulty by contracting your abs more, and squeezing your glutes and quads more.
Again, don’t push yourself to hold a plank for even longer if you’re not ready. Forcing yourself to hold a plank for an excessive amount of time can put a lot of strain on your lower back. As fatigue sets in, the lower back may start to arch. This is where you put yourself at risk for injury.
So in summary, plank when you can and do it as long as you can holding good form, for up to a minute. Follow this advice and you should see great results!
Bloating happens to the best of us, and it’s usually nothing to worry about. But it can make you feel super uncomfortable, and chances are you want to get rid of that feeling ASAP. While you can reach for an over-the-counter aid for relief, you’ll likely want to try foods that help with bloating first.
Pinpointing the types of food you should and shouldn’t eat can help you better predict the possibility you’ll be dealing with gas bloat after a big meal. Dairy, beans, cruciferous veggies like broccoli or cauliflower, or greasy foods can increase those odds for many people.
Another type of bloat, water bloat, often flares up due to hormonal changes during your menstrual cycle, dehydration, or excess sodium intake. Many people over-consume salt but under-consume potassium, which is a mineral found in fruits and veggies that helps counterbalance sodium.
Eating a lot of packaged sauces and meals, salty snacks, take-away meals or fast food typically leads to consuming too much sodium. Make sure you’re staying hydrated and consuming these key minerals (electrolytes) that also serve to counterbalance the effects of sodium in your body.
Water is pretty important for de-bloating, especially when your diet is full of high-fibre foods. When you eat fiber, you need to drink enough water to digest and move it efficiently through your GI tract.
Just note that in the short term, water can make you feel more bloated. Also, it’s smart to steer clear of fizzy water or seltzer, which can introduce extra gas into your digestive tract (not ideal).
Bloating typically goes away on its own, but you can speed up the process by snacking on these 10 foods that reduce bloat, according to nutritionists and backed by research.
1. Yogurt Yogurt is packed with probiotics – good bacteria that populate your GI tract to support a healthy digestive process and calm inflammation.
2. Ginger One of the oldest herbal medicines around, ginger’s anti-inflammatory properties work wonders on bloat and gas.
3. Fennel Fennel is a natural diuretic that can also help banish intestinal gas (a.k.a. it works on both types of bloating).
4. Bananas Potassium is the main reason this low-maintenance food helps with bloat.
5. Lemons Lemon juice is very similar in acidity to the stomach’s digestive juices, so it can help relieve bloating and other symptoms of indigestion.
6. Avocados Avocados are an excellent source of bloat-reducing potassium and antioxidants. Research also suggests that avocados can improve your gut health and combat bloat by breaking down fibre and reducing bile acids (digestive fluids produced by the liver).
7. Cucumber Cucumber contains lots of water to help keep you hydrated, which is great for helping to clear out excess water from your cells and gas from your GI tract.
8. Asparagus The amino acid asparagine in asparagus is another known diuretic that helps reduce water retention.
9. Kiwi These powerful little fruits contain another enzyme, actinidin, that helps speed up digestion. Studies show they can induce normal bowel movements to minimise bloating and stomach pain caused by constipation.
10. White beans While other beans can lead to mega-bloat, white beans (a.k.a. navy beans) are high in potassium, which helps balance out sodium levels in our body. Research shows white beans contain lots of fibre, which improves digestion and promotes regular bowel movements to limit bloat due to constipation.
Are you thinking about getting a Personal Trainer, but you’re not sure if it’s for you? Do you feel confused as to what they can offer, or are you worried about making sure you find someone who is qualified?
The following article from the National Register of Personal Trainers will hopefully help to answer some of your questions. Plus their website can help you to find a qualified trainer in your area.
The Benefits of Hiring a Personal Trainer:
You may have seen personal trainers operating in your gym or seen adverts for them and wondered if there was any benefit. Here we explore how hiring a personal trainer could make all the difference.
Helping You Achieve Your Goals One of the first benefits of hiring a personal trainer is to help you define what you are trying to achieve. This can be really helpful if you aren’t sure what you are doing and why you are doing it. The personal trainer will then design a programme to help you achieve that goal. It may be your goal is too ambitious and you need to build up to it with smaller goals along the way.
Goal setting is really crucial because it dictates your fitness programme but also your motivation. Your personal trainer will want to get this first stage right. Examples of common fitness goals include losing weight, building muscle or getting fit for a specific sport.
Fitness Programme Design From your goals a personal trainer will then design your fitness programme. The real advantage of this is that your personal trainer will know of exercises that you may not but will also understand new techniques and also enough about the human body to be able to advise you if you have any injuries or illnesses.
The personal trainer will also be able to take into account the time you have available to train. This fact that your programme is bespoke means it is more likely to yield results.
Inspiring You One of the main reasons people drop out of fitness is boredom and not achieving goals. Your personal trainer will motivate and encourage you to do the training session, give you feedback and praise but also keep that programme full of variety so that you won’t get bored.
Working out with someone next to you is completely different to working out alone after a long day of work.
Learning How To Exercise Properly Apart from some instruction when you first join a gym it may have been years since someone commented on how your push-ups are or whether your sit up was done correctly. Poorly performed exercises can lead to injury but can also be ineffective.
Your personal trainer will ensure that you know how to perform each move and that you do it properly. This ensures that if you are then working out at home you know exactly what you are doing.
Holding You To Account This is similar to motivation but is really about ensuring that you keep to your side of the bargain. This is really important if you are someone who really lacks commitment to your training and is easily led astray. Your personal trainer will ask why you missed a training session and will charge you for a session you cancelled without notice. This alone can provide the motivation you may need to get fit.
Combatting Boredom A personal trainer will ensure that your programme is varied enough to keep you motivated. They will use equipment, free weights, balls and other equipment to ensure that you are constantly being challenged.
An example is abdominal workouts. A personal trainer will know that having to do the same sit ups each session can get boring so why not perform your sit ups on a ball which really challenges your core? Or what about some stability exercises that also get the core going?
Time Management Many people often complain that they don’t have time to work out. If your time is really stretched then a personal trainer can really come into their own. They will ensure that your programme can be performed in the time you have and that it cuts to the chase.
Specialist Work Many personal trainers have qualifications in nutrition so can also advise you on not just the exercise you do but also what you should be eating and what portions are correct. In addition many personal trainers are qualified to work with people who are obese or who suffer from illnesses where fitness is important but care does need to be taken.
For this reason working with a well-qualified personal trainer is essential.
Aim to spend a few hours each week in a green space, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells.
It’s great to just stop, look around, breathe in the smell of the trees and appreciate the pattern of light passing through the leaves.
Pausing to notice your environment in this way shifts your focus outwards, makes you more engaged in the world around you and less in your own thoughts.
There are plenty of studies showing that just being in green spaces can help reduce stress and anxiety.
Surprisingly, it can help boost your immune system too. So go to a park or a patch of woodland whenever you get the chance.
Spending a few minutes each day practising slow, controlled breathing is a perfect example of something that is simple, quick, and completely life-changing; it can transform your mood and your health, and bring a quiet joy to your day.
That’s because just by changing how quickly and deeply you breathe, you can achieve amazing things: you can slow your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, reduce stress levels and combat anxiety.
There is also evidence that changing the way you breathe can reduce pain.
Try these breathing techniques:
4:6 breathe in for a count of four and out for a count of six
4–2–4 breathe in for a count of four, hold for two, then breathe out for a count of four
3–4–5 breathe in for a count of three, hold for four, then breathe out for a count of five.
Extending your overnight fast is known as time-restricted eating (TRE) and is based on research showing the multiple health benefits from having a slightly later breakfast and an earlier evening meal (and of course, no late night snack!).
TRE is a very popular form of intermittent fasting and sometimes also known as 16:8 or 14:10.
16:8 is the more challenging version, involving fasting for 16 hours and only eating within an eight-hour window. But don’t worry if you can’t last for this amount of time. Anyone who manages an overnight fast of more than 12 hours is doing really well.
There have been numerous studies showing that extending your overnight fast and eating within a shortened daytime window can lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, help you lose weight, improve your sleep, cut your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, and may even slow the rate at which the brain declines as we age.
Being more muscly not only makes you look good, it improves your posture and reduces the risk of developing back pain. Muscles burn calories, even when you are asleep, and they are also essential for keeping you active.
One of the best ways to build up your muscles is to do resistance training. Body-weight exercises, such as squats and press ups, are some of the best for your heart and brain.
Research says that squats can have a more powerful brain-boosting affect than walking or jogging. So try even just a couple of minutes a day to feel the benefits!
One in 20 people reading this will have a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease 15-fold. This gene, called AP0E4, doubles someone’s risk. And having two copies of this gene, as some people do, increases the risk significantly.
However, experts say most carriers are able to ‘out-exercise’ their genetics, meaning that if they look after themselves, exercise and eat well, then their risks are reduced to a similar level to those without the gene.
Around 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week is needed: this includes cycling, swimming, power-walking or strenuous gardening.
It goes to show how we are so much more than our genes, and how environmental factors – such as how healthy a lifestyle we choose to live – influence our health in such an important way.
