Get Ahead with Your Healthy Living New Year Resolutions

Given that many people set themselves New Year resolutions relating to their health and wellbeing, we thought we'd help everyone get one step ahead by thinking about some simple steps to take for the next couple of weeks to help get you through the festive season feeling great and set you up for a healthy 2015.

Here's a short report from a recent workshop participant that might motivate you to focus on the little things you can do, starting today, that will lead to dramatic wellness benefits...

‘The good news is…I am much more aware of hydration and have cut down on the amount of sugary cordials and squash I have in my water.  I carry water with me whenever I am out.

I am eating breakfast from your list every day and have migrated my snacks and dinners to be off the list 80% of the time too.

I’m doing the sleep calculation and finding that 7.5 hours is indeed better than 8 hours. Well, actually for me it is about 7 hrs 40 mins so I just set my alarm for 7 hrs and 45 mins time and wake up before it most days. Hooray.

I’m also incorporating HIITS (through circuits, hills or sprint intervals) into my workouts 2-3 times per week.

The sum total impact of these changes is that my energy in general, and especially for running, is massively improved and I have had fewer headaches.  

I have definitely reaped rewards from some small changes.  Thanks for your input and help, it has helped a whole lot.’

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Seasonal Wellbeing Survival Guide

I wrote this guide for the Institute of Leadership & Management. Check out their website for a host of great learning resources.

Seasonal Wellbeing Survival Guide
Christmas is coming (you may have noticed) and this year it feels as though stores, suppliers and advertisers have gone bigger than ever, with the result that seasonal fatigue is already setting in for many of us.  

With activities ramping up at work and at home, there’s an art to making it through Christmas and New Year in one piece and without it taking a toll on your health and wellbeing. Let’s face it; the last thing anyone wants is to blast on through the combination of office deadlines, socials and seasonal commitments only to end up shattered or, even worse, unwell when we’re supposed to be enjoying the festivities.

To help you look after yourself and balance your efforts and your energy, here’s an 8-step Christmas wellbeing survival guide.

Plan your approach

There’s a high probability that if you accept all the invites you receive to work parties, client events, family gatherings and social catch ups you’ll barely be at home for any evenings in December. Whilst it’s great to be popular, you should also be discerning about what you say yes to. You probably already know the optimum number of nights out per week that you can cope with before incurring collateral damage such as daily fatigue, loss of quality sleep and compromised mood management, so aim to stick to this schedule or you’ll end up attending lots but enjoying little.

Don’t leave good sleep to chance

At The Tonic, we usually advocate sticking to a regular sleep routine but at this time of year there’s value in grabbing a little extra recovery where you can, so check your diary every week for a few nights when you can catch up on much needed sleep. Whether you book a couple of early nights or reserve yourself some extra time in bed in the morning, a few additional hours here and there could make all the difference.

Allow yourself some quality wind-down time

You need to plan your time off work to allow some space for slowing down and recharging your batteries. Hurtling from a busy schedule in the office to a chaotic family Christmas will leave you returning to work ready for a break rather than feeling rested and ready for action in 2015.

Keep active

Set yourself some guidelines around an acceptable level of exercise for you to maintain through December that will keep your mind sharp and your body in shape. If you manage something even just once or twice a week this will still see you through the month in better shape than parking your fitness routine completely until the new year and then regretting it when your January resolutions come around to haunt you as they inevitably do. If you keep things ticking over in December you can springboard off this routine and achieve your desired results in January far more easily than if it feels as though you’re making a whole new set of workout plans for the new year. Again.

Get plenty of fresh air

When the days are short there’s a temptation to seek shelter wherever you can but too much time indoors will leave you feeling sluggish so aim to get outside for a total of at least an hour every single day, ideally when there’s still plenty of daylight, no matter how cold it might be.

Set some boundaries for alcohol

It's great to have a few drinks at Christmas but it's also easy to disrupt the balance from an acceptable level of drinking that’s part and parcel of your enjoyment of events, and tip over into the territory where the amount of alcohol you're consuming is adding unnecessary calories, leaving you dehydrated and irritable, and reducing the quality of your sleep.

A little bit of everything does you good

It's fine to deviate from your usual food routine in the run up to Christmas and through the festive period, but aim to maintain the quantity of food and the portion sizes that suit you and your weight management objectives, and that help you ensure you have consistent energy levels. Keep your food routine varied and eat little, often and regularly. Make sure you’re well hydrated at all times.  

Take control of Christmas

You’ll have noticed a theme here. Despite the fact that Christmas happens every year, too often we leave our festive wellbeing to chance, pack the diary full and hope that everything will be OK. Don’t make the same mistake this year. You still have time to make Christmas work for you so grab a few minutes today to give some thought to the lifestyle changes you can action right now that would have the greatest positive impact on your health, energy and performance, and your festive season will be as enjoyable as you deserve it to be.

Happy Christmas!

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One easy way to boost your wellbeing ROI in 2015

There's only one way to ensure maximum value for money with your future wellbeing initiatives and that's to deliver a programme of events that staff get excited about and that they make use of regularly.  
 
An effective way to highlight what will deliver the biggest impact moving forwards is to arrange a wellbeing day packed with taster sessions, vital information and key resources.  These events are always fun and memorable.  
 
Here are two great reasons to organise a wellbeing event:
 
1) Staff will immediately benefit from some great initiatives such as:

• Fitness assessments
• Healthy eating consultations
• Sleep clinic
• Wellbeing workshops
• Back care clinic
• Massage
• Podiatry consultations
• Exercise advice
• Injury clinic
• Personal resilience consultations

2) At the same time, each event provides the ideal opportunity for us, and you, to gather information on wellbeing trends, concerns, issues and desires throughout the organisation.  This information is crucial to planning your wellbeing programme, schedule, budget and all important future Return On Investment.

Email us or call us today on 020 8995 1302 to book a wellbeing event for your organisation.

If you need any further persuasion, here's some feedback from previous events:

‘One Word - BRILLIANT. 
Everything ran smoothly, I had a lot of great feedback from staff and would like to do this again next year.’

'We had an amazing day thank you, please pass on our thanks to the whole team.'
 
‘Thanks to you and your team for the great wellbeing day yesterday! Feedback has been great, and take up was high too.' 

Email us or call us today on 020 8995 1302 to book a wellbeing event for your organisation.

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Great Leadership & Great Wellbeing

Great leadership and great wellbeing go hand in hand so, if you're currently planning your training and development schedule for 2015, remember to include content that helps everyone perform at their best every day.

We design and deliver wellbeing modules to fit leadership programmes of all durations.  Take a look at our recent blog demonstrating how effective it can be to position wellness as a component of great leadership - with the right initiatives, dramatic results can be achieved in weeks, consolidated over months and will last for years. 

Click the link to read more: How long does it take to change healthy living habits?

As far as impacting individuals is concerned, here's just one example of the great results that are possible.  Imagine your whole business full of people like this...
 
'Since the programme, I am pleased and proud to report that I have lost 22lb in weight.  I ran my first half marathon in June and have registered for another in 8 weeks time.  I bought a bike and have fallen in love with cycling and now even enjoy the time I spend in the gym which was previously my idea of hell!
 
I have transformed my diet and I have never felt so alive and healthy.  I stay hydrated and sleep at least 8 hours every night, more if I can.  Long may this new lifestyle continue, thank you.'

You can read further examples of great wellbeing results here: Feel healthier, sleep better, balance life, feel great

So if you'd like some dramatic results for your colleagues and your business in 2015, contact us today to find out how you can best incorporate wellness initiatives on your leadership, training and development programmes.

In the meantime, we've compiled The Top Ten Quickest and Most Effective Healthy Lifestyle Changes.  Email info@the-tonic.com today to request your copy of this fact sheet.

For regular wellbeing updates and motivation follow The Tonic on Twitter.

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