Wellness & Personal Performance Made Easy: Part 2

I wrote this article for HR Zone...

We continue our journey towards great personal energy, efficiency, productivity and enjoyment of both our personal and professional lives, by examining more simple lifestyle changes that are tried and tested and proven to result in people feeling great and performing to the best of their abilities.

Prepare yourself for a good night’s sleep every evening

Let your mind and body know that a restful night is approaching with rituals and routines that calm you and prepare you for good recovery. For most people, this means a period of winding down, leading carefully towards falling asleep. Listening to relaxing music and reading are popular strategies. Deep breathing or meditation is becoming very popular. Whatever you choose, make sure you set aside sufficient time for sleep preparation.

Close off the day

Unfinished business is something that keeps many people awake – things can pop into your head to prevent you from dropping off or, if you’re unlucky enough to wake up in the night, these thoughts can come flooding into your head and prevent you from falling asleep again. Each evening, put your concerns to bed before you put yourself to bed. Take a few moments to note down anything that’s on your mind and either write a practical action to resolve it, or schedule a time to tackle it the next day. Ideally, do this in the early part of the evening so you can spend the latter part of the evening on things that you enjoy and that you find relaxing.

Give personal meaning to healthy eating by setting clear objectives

Much time is wasted by people deliberating over every choice they’re faced with throughout the day. Things like, ‘should I have another coffee?’ or 'will I have chips with my lunch today?’  Whether you eat for health, energy, mood or weight management, this decision-making is made far easier if you stay focused on your overall healthy eating objectives at all times. Then, simply ask yourself if what you are about to choose will get you closer to your objectives quickly, or will it get in the way of you achieving your goals sooner rather than later.

Create habits that work for you

Be very clear when it comes to the quantity and timing of your meals, snacks and drinks. If you decide to have two coffees per day, choose the time at which you’ll have them. If you’re planning to moderate your alcohol intake, select specific days off and decide how much you’ll be drinking on your ‘on’ days. Pick optimum times for your AM and PM snacks and use them to ensure good fuel and great energy for the morning and the afternoon.

Watch the clock

Remember that you should never let four hours pass without eating or drinking something to boost your energy. Past this point you feel physically sluggish and mentally you might have trouble focusing. This is why being prepared with snacks is so important.

The secret to exercise success

If you’re not clear on why you really want exercise to be in your life, you’ll come up with some great ways to fill your days to the point where there’s no time left for getting active. On the other hand, those who make exercise work for them identify specific, personal and compelling exercise goals. These goals may relate to completing particular events, fundraising initiatives for charity, team commitments, weight management targets, social interaction, increasing energy levels and maximising enjoyment of life.

By giving some careful thought to the purpose of exercise within your routine, you’ll be able to plan and execute your ideal solution, boost energy, increase effectiveness and save time. Welcome to the world of wanting to exercise rather than feeling as though you ought to.

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Wellness & Personal Performance Made Easy: Part 1

I wrote this series of articles for HR Zone.

During the last 15 years of delivering wellness solutions to businesses, two things have become very clear. 

1. The improvements that people would like to make to their wellbeing are usually very simple; the most popular including the desire to get fitter, increase energy levels, lose weight, sleep better and experience an improved sense of balance in life. 
2. There’s an endless array of challenges, issues and reasons why people struggle to achieve these seemingly simple wellness objectives.

So to help individuals navigate their way around daily challenges to peak wellbeing and reach a healthy, happy lifestyle quickly and effectively, this three-part series will highlight fast and easy success strategies relating to personal fitness, excellent energy levels, healthy eating and great sleep.

By the end of the sequence of articles, you’ll be able to fast-track any wellbeing changes you’re considering personally and you’ll also be in a position to share the information with colleagues, family and friends. 

So, here's the first installment of targeted tips for quality sleep, fantastic fitness and creating a food routine that works for you, all directed towards optimum personal performance and a calming sense of balance and control in life.

Good sleep enhances the quality and enjoyment of everything you do

It’s tempting to steal time from sleep in order to pack more into the day, but one should always be mindful of the quality of what you do as well as the quantity of things on your list.  At some point, skipping sleep can create a situation where although we do more, we might end up achieving less. The ideal situation is to establish a sleep routine that leaves you rested, recharged and refreshed ready for a day of being effective and productive. You’re far more likely to enjoy a busy routine of work, family, friends and hobbies if you’re well rested. Plus, if you enjoy life more, you’ll sleep better and so the virtuous circle continues.

Routine is key: choose a bedtime and a wake time

You probably have a rough idea of how much sleep leaves you feeling refreshed so set yourself a time by which you’d like to be asleep in the evening, and a time to wake up in the morning based on leaving yourself the right number of sleep hours between the two times. Experiment over a few nights until you establish the optimum times for you.

Establish what’s going on with your food routine

In the midst of a busy life, making progressive improvements to your current approach to healthy eating is likely to be easier than attempting to change everything about your food routine all in one go. For best results, target your efforts carefully. Begin by keeping a food diary for at least three days. Simple notes will be fine – the content, timing and quantity of what you eat and drink – and this will help you identify and make the most effective changes right away.

Decide what to stop, start or continue

Clearly identify what meals, snacks or food products you will be removing from your current routine, what you’ll be adding to your routine that’s not currently there, and what you’ll continue with. For the latter group, be specific about which of these things you’ll be having more of, what you’ll have less of, and what will continue at their current level of consumption. For example, you may identify that you’d like to drink more water, drink less coffee, eat more fruit or vegetables and decrease your portion sizes. Some elements of your food routine will be fine for content and quantity so you can continue with these, although you may wish to experiment with the timing of various meals or snacks and see what routine provides you with the most consistent energy and focus.

Be very clear on how much time you need for exercise

Time is precious so decide how much of it you'd like to spend on exercise each week. You might be pleasantly surprised by how little time staying fit will require. Most people need just two to four hours a week but many are put off exercise completely by the idea that they need much more. Don’t stress about carving out loads of time for exercise that you might not actually need.

Think quality, not quantity, and refine your approach based on results

Remember the most important thing is to maintain regularity with activity and make the best use of the exercise time you do have available. The easiest way to establish how much time you’ll need is by being clear on your objectives and identifying how long you’d like to take to realise them. Based on this information, devise a plan of what exercise you’ll do each week and schedule specific days and times for your activities. Roll out your plan and then review the time you require based on your weekly progress. If you’re looking for faster results, modify your plan slightly, changing either the number of workouts per week, the duration of your workouts or the intensity of your activity. 

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Men's Health Week - Sleep Better

As part of Men's Health Week, we're looking at the issue of sleep. 

Not getting enough quality sleep is tough and it only gets harder to cope with rather than easier. How does this effect men particularly?

Many men tend to view sleep as a bonus rather than an essential part of their healthy living plan.  But sleep is when the body regenerates and recharges and if we don't get enough we could be under-performing in every single area of life.

The problem is that men sometimes see missing sleep as a bit of a toughness test and think nothing of scraping by on a very few hours and then relying on a steady stream of caffeine and sugary snacks to pep them up through the day. The limitation of this approach is that it causes the body to run on adrenalin from the moment you leap into action, leading to lack of focus and only serving to delay the inevitable crash. It also compounds the problem of getting a good night's sleep following each day like this and a vicious circle of poor sleep quickly establishes itself.

The solution?

1. Plan for quality sleep from the moment you step out of bed. Everything you eat, drink and do during the day will positively or negatively affect your sleep later.  Make choices that promote health and energy.

2. Eat regularly throughout the day so that your body runs off good fuel rather than adrenalin. You'll find your energy levels are much more consistent this way.

3. Get active during the day to dissipate any adrenalin that your body produces. This will help you stay calm and focused and will help you sleep at night.

4. It's an obvious question but do you know how much sleep you need? When you've worked it out, pick your bed time and your wake time and stick to a routine no matter what.

Sleep works in cycles. If your alarm goes off when you are in a deep sleep you'll find it difficult to wake up. By sticking to the appropriate routine you can ensure you benefit from 4 or 5 complete sleep cycles and time it right so that your alarm goes off when you are sleeping lightly so you wake up refreshed and raring to go.

The Tonic offers comprehensive wellness solutions for men and women in business.  We've been delivering wellbeing programmes for almost 15 years now so if you think your office would benefit from greater engagement with health and wellbeing topics, contact us today. Email us at: info@the-tonic.com

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Men's Health Week - Portion Sizes to Ensure Great Energy

Continuing our series of posts to celebrate Men's Health Week, we're looking at portion sizes today - one of the biggest issues that many men fall foul of when it comes to healthy and balanced eating. 

So how much is too much?

Surprisingly, most people don't know how much they should have on their plate and as a result, they carry on eating after they are full and have lost touch with they need and eat what they want instead.

As a rule of thumb, each meal should be the size of 2 cupped hands and each snack should fill the palm of 1 hand. That's actually a good amount of food, particularly if you space your meals and snacks out throughout the day, but is it smaller than what is normally on your plate? If it is then there's no better time than today to pay a bit more attention to what goes onto your plate and into your stomach.

The fast results you'll get achieve by following this simple guideline?

1. Improved energy levels throughout the day
2. Effective weight management with all food being used for energy and nothing stored as excess fat


So what are you waiting for. Observing the appropriate portion sizes for you and your objectives is a great new habit and an easy one to get into.

The Tonic offers comprehensive wellness solutions for men and women in business.  We've been delivering wellbeing programmes for almost 15 years now so if you think your office would benefit from greater engagement with health and wellbeing topics, contact us today. Email us at: info@the-tonic.com

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Get Ready for Men's Health Week

June 9th 2014 will see the beginning of National Men's Health Week in the UK.

Men's Health Week exists to help men stop for a moment to think about their current lifestyle choices and the effects - positive and negative - that their daily choices have on their health and happiness.

It's also an opportunity to encourage men to seek advice, expert opinion, support and assistance where necessary.  Traditionally men have been excellent at toughing things out or avoiding medical issues wherever possible. Men's Health Week helps raise awareness that this might not always be the best strategy. 

So what can be done to help men engage more with their health? 

1. Throughout next week, we'll publish a series of blogs highlighting healthy living issues that can be challenging for men, and we'll offer solutions for making the right choices and decisions in these areas.  The issues we'll be looking at are all common themes that arise when we deliver workshops and presentations within businesses.

2. We've put together a fact sheet entitled Men's Health, Performance and a Competitive Edge. You can request a copy of the fact sheet by emailing info@the-tonic.com

The Tonic offers comprehensive wellness solutions for men and women in business.  We've been delivering wellbeing programmes for almost 15 years now so if you think your office would benefit from greater engagement with health and wellbeing topics, contact us today. Email us at: info@the-tonic.com

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Men's Health Week - Get Fit Fast

In the last in our series specifically aimed at men to mark Men's Health Week we're looking at fitness and good health.

Specifically, how to find that quick programme that works for you and gets fast results so there's never any need to blame lack of time for not getting stuck in.

Becoming fit and staying fit not only helps your heart and keeps your waist line slimmer, it focuses the mind and encourages other good habits like better eating, effective stress management and good balance in your routine. It's a great way to raise your performance in all aspects of life.

The key to fitness programmes succeeding is all about speed and appeal. What we call Male Pattern Fitness.

We've all tried new fitness programmes that fail after 2-3 sessions and that's because they either didn't suit us or they required too much time which we weren't willing to give. Here are 3 excellent ways to get the most fitness out of half an hour - so no room for "I haven't got time".

1. Interval Training

Focus on quick bursts of high intensity activity mixed with recovering on the go for twice the results in half the time

2. Circuits

Put together a selection of key exercises and run through them in quick succession to combine cardio and strength training in a short space of time

3. Team sports - real or virtual
This is about using technology to push you further.  Make your exercise and activity social with some team sports or group cycling, running, hiking or anything else you enjoy.  You can also get online to boost your engagement by using Garmin, Strava, Nike+ or a whole host of gadgets and Apps to spur you on the greater wellness results.  The more motivation you surround yourself with, the better use you'll make of all your exercise time and the greater the chance you will reach your goals quickly.

We hope something you've read over the course of Men's Health Week has resonated with you and will be helpful for your staff and your business.  Always remember, thinking about wellbeing is a great start, putting new strategies and actions into practice is what really makes the difference.  Call us on 020 8995 1302 if you'd like advice on motivating and inspiring your colleagues towards great wellness results.

The Tonic offers comprehensive wellness solutions for men and women in business.  We've been delivering wellbeing programmes for almost 15 years now so if you think your office would benefit from greater engagement with health and wellbeing topics, contact us today. Email us at: info@the-tonic.com

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Men's Health Week - Know Your Numbers

When it comes to business facts and figures, men tend to know their numbers inside out. But what about other numbers that really matter?  Now there's a challenge. We're talking about Blood Pressure, Resting Heart Rate, Blood Sugar and Cholesterol.

The numbers that really make a difference to life. But why are they so crucial and what's the best way to monitor and manage them?

Taking vital measurements such as blood pressure can be the difference between spotting a health problem early on and fixing it easily, or someone facing a major health crisis somewhere down the line. Stress in offices can be a major contributor to high numbers that need addressing but if a man doesn't visit his GP or work doesn't offer a screening programme, chances are that this will go unchecked until it's too late. We've screened clients who haven't had their numbers checked in 20 years!

3 reasons to get your numbers checked sooner rather than later:

1. You can't tell from the outside what the state of your health is

2. Any problems that are spotted can be addressed quickly and changes can be made to your lifestyle to remedy them

3. Age doesn't count when it comes to this aspect of your life. A 21 year old could have seriously high blood pressure - not just a 50 year old

We'd advise getting checks done every 6 months and if needed, you'll be asked to come back in between.

The Tonic offers comprehensive wellness solutions for men and women in business.  We've been delivering wellbeing programmes for almost 15 years now so if you think your office would benefit from greater engagement with health and wellbeing topics, contact us today. Email us at: info@the-tonic.com

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Time-Saving Healthy Eating Tips for Busy Professionals

Our latest fact sheet includes a step-by-step plan to help you develop a healthy eating strategy that's quick to organise, helps you feel great all day and requires very little time or effort to maintain.

You can request a copy of the fact sheet by emailing info@the-tonic.com

If you already have the fact sheet, to help with your planning, here's a blank template for a weekly food routine, as detailed in the fact sheet:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast
AM Snack
Lunch
PM Snack
Evening
Alcohol
Supper

And, in case you're looking for inspiration, here's an example of what a week of healthy eating could look like:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast	Porridge with banana, blueberries & chia seeds	Porridge with banana, blueberries & chia seeds	Porridge with banana, blueberries & chia seeds	Porridge with banana, blueberries & chia seeds	Porridge with banana, blueberries & chia seeds	Fruit	Fruit
AM Snack	Toast Nut butter Apple Coffee	Toast Nut butter Apple Coffee	Toast Nut butter Apple Coffee	Toast Nut butter Apple Coffee	Toast Nut butter Apple Coffee	Bacon roll	Scrambled Eggs & toast
Lunch	Sandwich	Scrambled Egg Tomato	Sandwich	Scrambled Egg Tomato	Sandwich	Lunch Out	Sunday Roast
PM Snack	Rice crackers Fruit Walnuts Redbush tea	Spinach salad Walnuts Redbush tea	Rice crackers Fruit Walnuts Redbush tea	Spinach salad Walnuts Redbush tea	Rice crackers Fruit Walnuts Redbush tea	Fruit & nuts	Fruit & nuts
Evening	Chile, rice, salad	Spaghetti Bolognese Salad with rocket	Chicken Fajitas Salad with watercress	Sweet potato Chicken Salad with rocket	Curry	Free choice	Sunday Roast leftovers
Alcohol					Red wine	Red wine
Supper	Oat cakes Cream cheese Tea	Toast Cream cheese Tea	Oat cakes Avocado Tea	Oat cakes Cream cheese Tea	Toast Cream cheese Tea	Oat cakes Avocado Tea	Clipper Tea (unbleached tea bags)

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