Men's Health Week 2015

It's Men's Health Week.

To help the guys in your office reach their full health and wellbeing potential, feel free to share some of our resources.

Choose from:

Men's Health Week: know your numbers

Men's Health Week: get fit fast

Men's Health Week: portion sizes to ensure great energy

Men's Health Week: sleep better

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Sleep More, Get Active, Lose Weight

Here’s a great story from one of our participants who made some resolutions on April 29.  Look how far they’ve come in such a short time. 

Inspiration for us all!

'Great to hear from you. Your email sparked renewed energy to pursue my objectives, now I know someone is watching!

You will be pleased to know that I have done well to keep to my goals and had the support of several of my fellow delegates whom I have shared my transformation and progress with.

I have been able to increase my sleep from 4 hours daily to at least 6 hours of proper sleep. This does leave me lethargic towards the latter part of my day but I’m happy with the overall progress.

I have stuck to my pre-sleep routine of slowing down my mind from 2130, by:

• Stopping any engagement with electronics, work, house chores and reading
• Shutting down the lights in the house and laying down to unwind
• Listening to soft music in a passive state
• At 2200 I allow myself to fall asleep

I do miss a day or two per week but I manage to get back on track.

I have not managed to stop drinking coffee all together but I have reduced my intake to only one cup, first thing in the morning, before work. Furthermore I consume only one additional cup of rooibos tea during the day. So, I’m well on track to be free from caffeine before I see you again.

Finally I have increased my fitness discipline and have lost 3.5kg in four weeks. I have signed up with a personal trainer to strengthen my core and trim my muscles in addition to cycling.  

Thank you for checking in, it’s great encouragement. See you in a few weeks.'

We want to ensure you achieve quick results with your wellbeing objectives.  Follow us on Twitter for regular motivation, inspiration and success stories.

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3 Great Wellbeing Tips from People Just Like You

One of the groups we’re working with at the moment is doing brilliantly with their wellbeing progress.  I wanted to share some of their observations on the secrets of their success so far, so that you can follow their great example.

1. Look for as many opportunities as you can to do the right thing for your wellbeing.  Small actions really add up so the more you do, the better you feel and the more you want to do.

2. Share your wellbeing journey with others.  The more people you have around you who are making positive choices, supporting you, and holding you accountable, the easier it is to stay on track.

3. Record your progress.  Whatever you want to change whether it be fitting in more activity, eating better, improving sleep routines or changing the balance of your life, keeping notes of your actions and the results you experience helps focus your mind and target the behaviour changes that really work.  It also helps you recognise and celebrate your successes.

We want to ensure you achieve quick results with your wellbeing objectives.  Follow us on Twitter for regular motivation, inspiration and success stories.

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Improve Wellbeing and Feel Great Immediately

Most of us know that great wellbeing simply means remembering to prioritise all the things you know are good for you.  

Here are 4 top tips to help you do exactly that right now.

1. Stand up (this moment or as soon as you can within the next 20-minutes) stretch your body, take a few deep breaths and have a drink of water.

2.  Remind yourself why making the right choices with wellbeing really matters to you.  What are your current wellbeing priorities? What would you like to do more of?  What would you like to do less of?  How do your daily choices move you towards achieving your wellbeing priorities?

3. Set yourself a new wellbeing objective and a deadline.  It could be a mini-motivational goal for the next week, or a life changing challenge for the coming months.  Make it something exciting that adds quality, value and fun to your life.

4. Schedule an appointment with yourself to check in and see how progress is going.  Never go more than 7-days without reviewing your wellbeing actions in relation to everything you want to achieve in life.

We want to ensure you achieve quick results with your wellbeing objectives.  Follow us on Twitter for regular motivation, inspiration and success stories.

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Personal Wellbeing Success: A step by step guide

As you'd imagine, we spend a lot of our time helping individuals make sense of the mass of healthy living information in the world.  It's our job to ensure they feel motivated and inspired to make the changes and get the results that work for them and their specific desires and circumstances.

Getting great results with wellbeing is simple when you know how

It boils down to a straightforward 10-step process.  Anyone who follows each of these steps is GUARANTEED positive results with their health, wellbeing and personal performance.

Try it for yourself or pass the strategy to others in the business who you think might find it useful.

1. Be very clear on the wellbeing results you are going to achieve

2. Be specific about when you will achieve these results

3. Identify what you currently know that will help you reach your goals quickly

4. Identify what you currently do that will help you reach your goals quickly

5. Identify any gaps in your wellbeing knowledge that could slow your progress towards your goals.  Find out how you can plug these gaps

6. Sketch out a personal wellbeing plan that includes a selection of key ideas, attitudes, strategies, routines and habits which you think will help you achieve your desired results.  Your plan should be a blue-sky vision of the daily lifestyle choices, activities and decisions that you know deep down are right for you, your objectives and your circumstances

7. Put your plan into action immediately

8. Use your plan to take consistent, daily action towards your goals

9. Review your plan regularly, judging it against your desired time line and results, and make adjustments accordingly. Experiment with new behaviors to speed up progress or amend your deadline to ensure it is realistic.

10. Celebrate success and update your goals regularly. Always have specific targets in mind, even if the target is to maintain your current wellbeing results.  If you have a goal you can measure progress at every stage and every lifestyle choice you make can be judged in relation to your targets.  Without a goal, daily choices become blurry, reactive and ill-defined. 

If you'd like to read more about how to develop effective wellbeing strategies for the individuals in your organisation, download our free guide at the right hand side of this page.

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The Best You've Felt for 20 Years

It's Friday and the sun is out in London.

Better than that we've just had an email that's got everyone smiling here.  A simple message from a guy who works at one of our clients.  

For this client we arranged a wellbeing day in January and we've kept in touch with everyone with a few well-timed motivational emails ever since.  This guy has clearly made the most of the opportunity to make a few changes with his wellbeing.

'Just to say I am still on target.

The emails were a great help as it kept me focused on my goal.

I actually feel the best I have for more than 20 years.

Thank you very much.'

Anyone else fancy feeling 20-years younger?

Here's to a healthy weekend!

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Avoid Sleep Robbers

Check out these health boosting tips - including a few from us - in the latest edition of Women's Running Magazine.

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Eat Your Way to Healthy Blood Pressure

The third part of our 'Essential Guide to Healthy Blood Pressure' looks at how your food routine can play a crucial role in lowering or stabilising blood pressure.

You can read part 1 of the series here

Part 2 is here

Let's start with simple guidelines that anyone can follow and that will really help regulate blood pressure. 

Eat regularly

A calm internal environment will keep your system running smoothly and reduce the likelihood of physical stress which can in turn aggravate mental stress, both of which will increase blood pressure.  Plan to eat a meal or snack every 3-4 hours.

Get your 5-a-day

You’ve heard it many times and here’s just another reason to make it happen.  Fruit and vegetables supply us with vitamins, minerals and nutrients that will improve the strength, immunity and efficiency of the body.  Eating plenty of fresh stuff also leaves less of an appetite for the meals and snacks that rob us of energy, increase stress and aggravate blood pressure.

And forget aiming for 5-a-day as that often means you end up with 2 or 3.  Plan for at least 8 and you’ll make sure you end up with 5 without doubt.  

If this all sounds like a challenge here are some suggestions for how to eat regularly and healthily.

Breakfast

Porridge with bananas, blueberries, chia seeds & strawberries or omelette with tomato and peppers

Morning snack

Orange and walnuts or carrots, cucumber and hummus

Lunch

Wholemeal wrap with turkey, spinach and peppers or fish with rocket, tomatoes, avocado and pineapple

Afternoon snack

Apple and oatcakes or banana and rice cakes

Evening meal

Chicken with noodles, onion,mushrooms, peppers and garlic, or fish with brown rice and steamed broccoli and green beans

How to make it work...

Obviously, each person’s food routine needs to be appropriate for their schedule, tastes, objectives, and ideas have to be practical, but following these guidelines will help keep blood pressure optimum as well as improving the chances of a productive week with high energy and great sleep.  Even the busiest of individuals should be able to try some of these suggestions over the coming days.

Here are a few additional foods that you should aim to include in your routine through the week:

Kale, sweet potato, edamame, beetroot, spinach, sunflower seeds, kidney beans, mango, tuna, wholemeal pasta

We're running this series of blogs to help equip individuals with the knowledge they need to take responsibility for their health and make informed lifestyle choices.  If you find the information useful please share it with your colleagues.

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Make March Matter: 1-month to change your life

Take Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing with daily motivational tips to boost energy, build resilience and feel great forever

The year is off to a flying start and our mission is to help as many people as possible maintain their energy and focus so they can feel great throughout 2015 and beyond by making lifestyle changes that last forever.

To achieve this goal, we're launching a month long programme of daily inspirational lifestyle tips called ‘Make March Matter’. 

We know from experience that positive daily action leads to powerful new habits and dramatic improvements in how people look and feel.  Our tips will ensure that a month of progress springboards into long-lasting results.  The daily tips will cover how to:

·                Maintain health and wellbeing as a priority

·                Plan and execute healthy lifestyle choices that get results

·                Boost daily energy and resilience

·                Increase personal effectiveness

·                Eat well, sleep well and get active

·                Balance life and enjoy everything you do

The March initiative follows on from last year’s ‘Be the Boss of February’ campaign of regular motivational messages, which proved hugely successful according to those who took part:

'I’ve found your emails truly inspiring and helpful. It’s been one of the best things about my mornings in February – starting off with the daily tips.

'The Tonic absolutely made a difference to my February!  This is normally the most difficult time of year for me….for some reason, it’s always the last week of February but this year was different.  With the daily ‘Be The Boss of February’ updates, I felt motivated, hopeful and as we have moved into March, I have started to regain control of life, paying particularly attention to healthy eating and a biggie for me, re-introducing exercise!! Thank you!!'

Make March the beginning of a fantastic wellness routine that will have you feeling great for years to come.  

You can sign up to the daily motivation tips for free by sending an email to info@the-tonic.com and write ‘Make March Matter’ in the subject line.  Encourage as many people from your office as you want to join in - it's a great way to keep everyone motivated and get some great results.

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Sleep Your Way to Healthy Blood Pressure

Welcome to the second instalment of our Essential Guide to Lower Blood Pressure.  You can read part 1 here.

For week 2 of National Heart Month we're focusing on sleep, primarily because the lack of it, interrupted sleep or poor quality sleep, can all contribute towards increased blood pressure in the medium to long-term.

Here are some tips to help you improve your sleep and keep blood pressure healthy.

1) Create a realistic routine
You probably know if you're a morning person or a night owl - we all have our own body clock or internal clock that determines when we're functioning at our best, and when we're at a low ebb.  In reality there are relatively few people who have an internal clock that fits in precisely with society's timetable (work, family, social), so the first thing to do is accept that in order to achieve everything you want in life, you may have to get up a little earlier than would be ideal for you, or you may need to stay awake a little longer than you'd choose if left to your own devices, but, whatever you do, make a conscious effort to create a routine for yourself that allows you to sleep well whilst also providing you with the time to do what you need to do when you're awake. 

Creating a sleep routine - a pre-determined bed time and wake time - will help your mind and body prepare for restful sleep, fall asleep promptly, and experience quality sleep, all of which will equip you to face each day calmly and without the need for extra stress hormones that your body produces to keep you going when you feel tired but which will, over time, have a negative impact on your blood pressure.

2) Stick to your routine
Persistent, irregular sleeping habits can exacerbate the effects of raised blood pressure so follow your chosen sleep routine 7-nights as week.  It may feel great to 'catch up' on missed sleep at the weekends but if this leaves you wide awake on Sunday night there's a risk you won't feel great for the beginning of the working week.  Shifting routine dramatically like this every week will take a toll on your body.  

If you do choose to shift your routine at weekends, or you feel you've 'earned' some extra hours in bed after a tough week, experiment over a number of weekends to discover the optimum change in routine for you.  It's likely that with practice you'll settle on a weekend sleep pattern that helps you feel recovered from the previous week without impacting on the following week.  

3) Think twice about your daily choices
Ideally we'd all like to feel alert and engaged while we're awake, and relaxed and refreshed after a good night's sleep.  The key to both is to think about everything you do during the day in relation to how it could affect your sleep at night. 

For example, caffeine can perk you up but it can also impact your sleep routine hours later.  Sweet snacks can feel like the right thing in the day but can wildly disrupt blood sugar levels which might affect the quality of your sleep at night. 

The same goes for too much stress throughout the day.  It may feel as though a bit of stress is good to get you busy and get things done, and it can be as long as you have ways to balance your stress levels before you unwind and get a restful sleep.  Always be mindful of the level of pressure that helps you perform at your best, and the tipping point beyond which you risk negatively affecting your night-time recovery and your healthy blood pressure reading. 

4) Design your personal pre-sleep routine
Identify the sequence of events that you know will result in you falling asleep quickly and having a quality sleep.  You may need to experiment with a few different approaches but soon you'll have a strategy that tells you when you have your last meal or snack of the day, when you turn off the TV, when you put your phone / laptop / tablet away, and what you do to tell your mind and body that you're fully relaxed.  This could be listening to calming music, meditating or reading.

If you are prone to waking in the night, decide in advance what you'll think and do if this happens.  If you worry that when you wake it'll take ages to get back to sleep, chances are, that's exactly what will happen.  If you plan an approach where you read, practice deep breathing or even write down anything that's on your mind or think about reasons why you might have awoken and what you can do to address these situations tomorrow, you can relax in the knowledge that as you work through this process you'll be preparing yourself to return to sleep very soon.

Above all, remember that you may not be able to follow your perfect sleep routine every night but you can take control to ensure that on balance, and in the medium term, you get sufficient sleep, and in the short term you do what you can to optimise the quality of every hour of sleep you do get.  

Follow these guidelines and you'll sleep well all night, perform well all day and maintain a calm internal environment including healthy blood pressure at all times.

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