I love this video…about what the good life means to you.
For me its a life where you want to be present. Not counting down to the end of the day, not dreaming of the next time you can get away, not waiting for the next pay check, not waking up dreading your day. But instead being happy where you are and looking forward to you days. To me thats the good life.
How about you?
So, we all know nutrition is super important and how you eat not only affects your appearance but also your general health and well being.
Through a process of elimination and the assistance of a food diary I learn that wheat and I just don’t get along. When I eat it not only does my digestive system play up but I feel lethargic and find it more difficult to concentrate. This means my work takes longer, I’m much less likely to work out and generally feel a bit crappy. NO GOOD!
So this year I have completely cut wheat out and I do feel better however I believe there is still room for improvement! So, for the month of February I have decided to try and go paleo! I’ve already been a advocate of the Just Eat Real Food (JERF) movement fronted by Sean Croxton and thought this may be the next step.
I don’t believe that one way of eating is perfect for everyone and definitely think individualisation is important when looking at nutrition however I personally know quite a few people who have benefitted from eating this way and this week I’ve also been checking out PaleoCon and its given me a lot more insight.
What is Paleo? Nom Nom Paleo say …
that for optimal health, modern humans should go back to eating real, whole unprocessed foods that are more healthful than harmful to our bodies.
The Paleo tent is big enough to fit a host of different approaches, but the core tenets of ancestral eating remain the same:
- Eat whole, unprocessed, nutrient-dense, nourishing foods.Prioritize grass fed and pastured meats and eggs, wild-caught seafood, and vegetables. Enjoy fruit, nuts, and seeds in moderation.
- Avoid foods that will harm us by causing systemic inflammation, wrecking our guts, or derailing our natural metabolic processes. Abstain from toxic, pro-inflammatory foods like gluten-containing grains, legumes, sugar, and the laboratory-concocted Frankenfoods found in the middle aisles of your neighborhood supermarket.
So here goes nothing! I’m going to be blogging about how I get along! If any of you follow a paleo regime PLEASE leave a comment or tweet or post or email any advice, websites, companies etc that you this have been super useful on your journey!
I thought this video from Jonathan Fields over at the Good Life Project is just as applicable to health, fitness and wellbeing goals. How to deal with people who don’t support you…give it a watch/listen!
So Monday 20th January is “Blue Monday”. The third Monday in January is supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Well I am defiant in the face of being told how I should feel! Tell me I’m miserable, I’ll go out of my way to be happy haha!
If you are feeling a little low today, try and get some exercise in to give you a bit of an endorphin rush and try and avoid the junk food! If your blood sugar levels are going up and down all day, it will not make you feel good!
Why not come to my indoor cycling class today at 1pm? 😀
I also have to commend the efforts of the Fitness First Red Monday Event! Today they are offering classes to member and non-members alike all day to help you get rid of those blues!
Central London
Morning: 7am, 7:30am, 8am,
Lunchtime: 12pm, 12:30pm, 1pm, 1:30pm
Evening: 5:30pm, 6pm, 6:30pm,
All other Clubs
Morning: 7am, 7:30am, 8am, 9:30am, 10am, 10:30am, 11am
Evening: 5:30pm, 6pm, 6:30pm , 7pm
If you are female and you do any form of exercise you REALLY need to be wearing a sports bra!
When you exercise, your breasts will move up and down. In high energy high impact workouts your breasts can move up and down by a whole 10cm. This cause the Cooper ligaments, the primary support for your breasts, to PERMANENTLY stretch which in turn will lead to premature sagging. Not something any of us want. Not wearing a sports bra can also lead to pain in the upper back and shoulders – get it sorted!
Its also super important you wear the right kind of sports bra depending on how active you intend to be. Sports bras come with varying support depending on the impact level you are partaking in such as low impact yoga to high impact running so make sure you choose the appropriate type.
To get the best support its also important to make sure you are wearing the correct sports bra size. Note this can also be different to the size you wear in a regular bra. I personally think its worth getting a fitting to make sure you are wearing the correct size especially if you have never been measured or if its been a while. I have found the tape measure approach isn’t that accurate and actually found the best fit when I went to Bravissimo for a fitting. The size I had ben measured for by a tape measure was completely wrong and the bra size they recommended fitting and supported me amazingly – much better than my current bras! Thanks to Tiffany at the Oxford Street branch!
My favourite sports bras have always been Shock Absorber bras however everyone is different and its best to try on as many different ones as you can until you see what is right for you. I just got this one which I think is great because its sportive enough for all levels of activity and it comes in pretty much all sizes! I’d definitely recommend it as its given me great support and is really comfortable.
So many of us make a decision to get more active and run headfirst into a great workout programme without remembering that the correct rest and recovery is just as important.
An important part for me, something I think everyone can benefit from is a sports massage!
Sports massage differs from regular massage as it works deeper into the soft tissue to help treat/prevent injury, reduce tension in the muscles and reduce any pain/discomfort before, during and after activity. Many different techniques can be used and the amount of pressure used is controlled by you.
Without getting too technical, it helps to pump blood and lymphatic fluids around the body as well as increasing tissue permeability which enables the muscles to uptake more oxygen and nutrients and release lactic acid. This can help relieve any built up pain. Massage also helps to break down scar tissue and release tension from the fascia which will increase flexibility. Overall it should help your body relax and may reduce fatigue.
If you are following a regular exercise routine I would really recommend seeing a sports massage therapist to make sure your body is in the best condition possible to get the most from your workouts. Your massage therapist should be able to advise you on how regularly you should receive treatment.
I recently visited Kinga Bornemisza for a sports massage and it was one of the best I have ever had. I immediately felt the release of tension I had been carrying – I actually felt lighter! I felt like I had increased ability during my next workout and my muscles recovered a lot more quickly. If you are in London, I definitely recommend you check her out at her website or on Twitter! I’m planning to see her once a month!
One year I decided my new years resolution was simply going to be to try and be happier and allow myself to be happy. I put it on the internet and a bunch of my friends laughed and said that it wasn’t a real resolution. Foolishly I let that thinking get to me and decided it was stupid and went about making a list of generic resolutions instead.
Obviously this was absolutely ridiculous. Research proves you are more productive and more successful when you are happy. I spent a whole semester at university studying positive psychology so not only does common sense tell me that being happy makes your life better – I’ve studied the empirical evidence!
Now of course you can’t just say “I’m going to be happier!” and expect the whole world to become sunshine and roses. Becoming happier within yourself is something you have to work on every day just like getting stronger or leaner or healthier and there are actions you need to take to help yourself. I could write a whole book about it, other people already have…
Today I want to take about a project I found on the internet which you may have seen on your social media feeds called 100 Happy Days. The main principle of this project is that you can take a picture of something that has made you happy for 100 days in a row. Thats it. And these don’t have to be life changing moments, just something that made you smile even if it was just for a second. The idea behind this is that was a repeated behaviour, over time you will become more optimistic and because you are forced to, naturally you will begin to notice the good things in life no matter how small.
You can make it as public or as private as you want, it costs you nothing and worse cause scenario – you have a bunch of pictures of things that made you smile. I’m doing it and I can’t wait to look back and see all the moments collect along the way!
So the Food Matters detox…it started off like this…
And what it became was 3 days worth of food.
The detox went like this:
Upon waking a lemon ginger drink followed by a green juice for breakfast. I found the lemon ginger drink really refreshing and will probably continue to have it to start my day. Surprisingly the green juice was also rather delicious an refreshing. I thought it would be pretty gross and I would have to force myself to drink it but actually I have some left over veggies and I think I’ll make it again!
And then before lunch another green juice. Lunch time was all about a big salad! I’m not a huge cucumber fan and it was the required main veggies in this salad so I was definitely grateful for the lemon/vinegar/oil dressing as otherwise I couldn’t have stomached it. That being said, I still wasn’t able to eat the whole thing on any sitting.
Then a spot of herbal tea and for dinner a potassium balance soup I kindly renamed swamp soup. I found it needed a little more than the suggested seasoning but once that was in it wasn’t half bad. I won’t be adding it to my favourites list but it wasn’t horrible. Again however I was never able to finish a bowl as it was pretty filling.
Now that all the pictures are out of the way…how do I feel? Pretty good! It was quite tired as obviously I am quite active for my job and I also tried to do some wrestling training which I wouldn’t recommend on such a low intake. I only got a headache once but otherwise all good. I slept really well at night, feel less bloated, less sluggish and motivated to keep eating clean. I won’t say I enjoyed the experience but I know it did my body good. Is it worth paying for the guide? Hard to tell as there are plenty of detox resources available on the internet but the free sample they gave to us certainly produced positive results!
Anyone else do a new year detox or planning to? Let me know how you get on!
The word detox gets thrown around a lot. Dictionary.com says that to detoxify is to “to rid of poison or the effect of poison”. In this case all the nasty chemicals that have become present in our everyday food.
Our bodies are very clever and they naturally neutralize or remove toxins from our body through the intestines, liver, kidneys, lungs and skin. However, our modern lifestyle means sometimes we give our bodies more than they can handle and we get a build up of toxins in our system. Chemicals from processed food, caffeine, alcohol, the bad fats…
This can lead to us feeling sluggish and tired and putting extra pressure on our organs that they really don’t need. Sometimes a good detox is what you need.
Last year I did my first 3 day detox. It was a challenging three days, I certainly craved things but I was never really hungry. Headaches can be common as part of the detoxification process and I had a pretty bad one on the first evening. Day two it was gone however I did find myself pretty tired. There may have been naps involved. I still got a great nights sleep. Day three I still had lower energy levels but actually felt a lot better. I slept really well once again and when I woke up on the fourth day I was actually springing out of bed. I felt really energized and my brain felt a lot clearer. I was surprised just three days food intake could make such a difference but it really did.
Everyones experience is different but I found it something really positive and once again I’m jumping on the bandwagon! Food Matters are trying to get the world involved over the next three days but you can do it anytime! I’ll be posting on Monday with how I got on!
So I’m off on my last trip of the year today and I know that over the next few weeks a lot of us will be travelling!
People always seem to get derailed by this change in routine and both healthy eating and exercise seems to go out the window for a lot of us!
But it doesn’t need to!!!
I always take a few snacks with me for the journey (10.5 hour flight today!) such as fruit and nuts, jerky and a 9 Bar!. These things keep well and tide you over from buying something irresponsible at the airport or service stop.
Also a big bottle of water is vital. Travelling dehydrates you and can leave you feeling super sluggish. Staying hydrated will make you feel much better!
And as for a workout? Check out local gyms and local branches of chains for free trial passes or a cheap day/week pass. In the UK I love finding places to work out on Pay As You Gym which provides lots of cheap short term access options!
And if that’s not an option, work out at home! You can always go for a run or if it’s not your thing, I love this quick little bodyweight workout:
5 rounds:
10 squats
10 push-ups
30 seconds jumping jacks
30 seconds plank
Rest 1 min
5 rounds:
10 lunges
10 dips
20 mountain climbers
10 reverse crunch
STRETCH!
You only need to lose focus on your goals if you choose to – it is possible to travel and stay on track. Pack your trainers and pack some healthy snacks and you will already be ahead of the game!
See you when I get back!
Rhia D PT - Blog Edition! 