Eat your way to a great night's sleep: part 2

Following on from Part 1 of Eating Your Way To A Great Nights Sleep, we’re now going to look at how to handle the second half of your day. Even if you just try a couple of the tips, I'm sure you'll start feeling the benefits of improved sleep very soon. 

Peckish at 4pm?
Your afternoon snack should be fruit that’s high in vitamin C as this helps to reduce stress. Choose your snack carefully as not all fruits are created equally – this chart will help you size up your options.  Top Tip - Eating a couple of oat cakes at the same time will slow the release of the fruit sugars into your system. 

Dinner
Choose an evening meal that contains a small amount of brown rice which is a good source of B-Vitamins to keep your system running calmly and smoothly. Combine this with grilled salmon or tuna steak and some green vegetables. Oily fish will give you another burst of tryptophan and the green vegetables contain magnesium to help calm you through the evening. A lack of magnesium can leave you feeling jumpy so top-up on your greens. 


A Glass of Wine with Dinner?
If you like to have an alcoholic drink in the evening, have it with your meal as this will limit any drastic impact on your blood sugar levels that could cause disrupted sleep later on. And stick to one or two drinks maximum. The same rule applies here as with the caffeinated drinks earlier in the day – enjoy the first and then ask yourself do you really want any more or would you rather have a good night’s sleep? Ideally, avoid caffeine after midday and allow your body to rid its effects from your body in time for bed.


A little treat
If you’ve got a sweet tooth and like chocolate then the end of the day is the best time to indulge yourself. Choose a couple of squares of dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids for a burst of feel-good chemicals followed a slight drop in blood sugar to ease you off to sleep. Stop after a couple of squares though and don't feel obliged to finish it all in one go! 


Nightcap
A good quality hot chocolate can be an even better option as the calcium in the milk helps to calm your mind while the drink will cause your body temperature to be raised slightly and then it will cool. This temperature cooling simulates what happens when you sleep and can help you to drop off more quickly. 


Sweet Dreams! 

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Eat your way to a great night's sleep: part 1

Sleep is crucial to fitness, health, stress management, good mood and a positive outlook on life.

So how do you make sure you sleep well and for the right length of time every night?  You are only as good and as effective as the quality of your sleep. In essence, You are what you snooze. 

Making sure you get a good night's sleep begins from the moment you wake up in the morning. Everything you eat and drink each day will have an effect on your sleep patterns later on so managing your energy and keeping your system calm is crucial. 

Here are some great healthy eating tips to help you gear up for a quality sleep.

• Wake up at a regular time and start the day with a glass of water or a cup of warm water with lemon. This is the beginning of a well-hydrated day. Proper hydration prevents irritability and leads to eating well so this is an easy way to get your day off to a great start. Think about this every day - the first thing you consume each day sets the tone for the rest of the day so start as you mean to go on.

• Breakfast on porridge / oatmeal, muesli or fruit and yoghurt with seeds. Oats in porridge or muesli release energy slowly which keeps you calm throughout the morning. Fruit can release sugars into the bloodstream quickly but combining them with a protein such as yoghurt and seeds slows down the digestion of your breakfast. Avoid sugary cereals which cause a quick rise in blood sugar followed by a quick drop which leaves you craving more sugar as this pattern will then repeat itself throughout the day. Climbing aboard this sugar rollercoaster leaves you feeling moody, running on adrenalin and makes it tough to wind down at the end of the day. 

• Drinking caffeine is like taking a quick injection of stress hormones. Tea, coffee and fizzy drinks should be kept to a minimum and for most people, cutting back here isn’t too much of a problem. Usually, you enjoy one or two.  The third and fourth might not feel quite so satisfying and any more than that don't leave you feeling great.  Focus on quality rather than the quantity with your caffeine intake and you won’t feel deprived. Then, when you’ve had your fix, switch to herbal, green or Rooibos (Redbush) tea. These usually have no caffeine, taste great and leave you feeling calm and focused. 

• Your morning snack can be pineapple, kiwi or banana with sesame seeds, peanuts, walnuts or pecan nuts. These are all high in serotonin which helps to regulate frustration, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep and appetite. Sesame seeds are a particularly good source of zinc which is an essential component of an effective immune system which is vital for dealing well with stressful situations. Keep a small bag of these on your desk at work so you remember to have a handful a day.

• Lunch should be salad-based as the leaves help to calm the nerves. Adding fish or turkey provides you with a helping of Tryptophan – an essential amino acid that increases brain levels of serotonin to keep you calm. 

At this stage, you’re well into your day feeling calm, focused, effective and energised. You've grazed well throughout the morning and restricted your caffeine intake - so far, everything is on track for a calm day and great sleep at the end. 

Now onto the second half of the day...

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Leadership, Strategy And A Race Round The Park

This week one of our wellness programmes featured a 5KM challenge.

It's part of a leadership programme that we work on regularly and the 5K challenge has become a major feature. It doesn't matter how fit you are, taking part is what counts.

The event is a lot of fun for everyone and there are always some keen runners in every group so the competition to be the winner can be quite interesting, but more of that below in our list of three reasons why this type of wellness initiative is a valuable asset to any leadership event:

1) Targeted shared experiences enhance team dynamics and performance
75% of the group took part which is a fantastic turn out for an optional physical activity.  Some ran or walked 5km for the first time, some set a personal record for running the distance, some were out to get some fresh air in the middle of a day of study, some made the most of the social element.  Whatever their individual aims were in taking part, everyone finished the event with a sense of achievement and a great shared experience.  The post-event review and analysis continued throughout the day.

2) Small challenge can create big results
To develop people we need to help them challenge themselves and this can be achieved by creating a variety of environments where they can sign up to initiatives that don't appear to include a huge risk but provide the opportunity for people to walk away from them with a huge sense of satisfaction and achievement.

Prior to the event, most of the group were playing down their expectations of how they would perform.  Aside from a handful of regular runners, the majority of those who took part were just hoping to make it round the course or were planning a mixture of running and walking or a steady stroll around the entire distance.  As it turned out, everyone did better than they expected.  Spurred on by their colleagues and supported by fellow group members they all ran further or faster than anticipated and were pleasantly surprised that a little bit of a push helped them achieve a lot more than they had expected.

3) Bridge the gap between strategy and reality
The keen runners in the group had many conversations ahead of the event about how they would pace the race, what speed they'd start at and what order they expected to finish in.  When the starting gun went, all plans went out of the window.  A couple started faster than everyone expected, others had to decide to go with them or start slower and try to catch up later on.  The tactics were fascinating to watch.  At the finish line everyone was happy with the race they had run even if it hadn't quite gone as they had expected.

For this group the race was a great metaphor for business.  Planning and strategy are all very well but you can only find out what you're capable of and how you can deliver under pressure when you put yourself into a live, dynamic and evolving situation.

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