Tag Archives: Mental health

Have you ever tried to do exercise and then gave up due to procrastination? When we made an exercise plan and started to do it, many factors would disturb it. Procrastination could be a big hinder. We all know that regular exercising is an excellent way to keep fit and become more healthy, but most of us could not hold on straight to the end.

In general, procrastination is a behaviour that put the things which be done today to tomorrow. It always interrupts our training plan. We might think that we can delay for 15 minutes to browse Tiktoks or somethings else before exercising. Then, after day and day, the whole plan just collapses. How enthusiastic before we were making the plan, how guilty after we were giving it up.

There are some good methods that might help you conquer procrastination to pursue your dream of a good figure.

Motivate yourself

If you want to keep a good stature, like strong muscle or a beautiful curve, and you are difficult to start your first step. You need motivation, or you have to give yourself motivation.

All of the advantages of exercising could be your motivation, such as attracting isomerism, keeping healthy, and improving stamina. Also, exercising could be a good option for time killing. When you have a reason for doing something, you are more willing to do that than resist it.

Mostly, at the first stage of training, you might feel pain both in the body and mind. And then create a sense of fear before training. The best to conquer it is that remind the reasons for training again and again so that you could overcome your procrastination.

Moreover, listening to good music before and during the training could be a good method to improve your mood. You can also use other ways to relax, such as warming up.

Keep energy

Exercising is not mental but physical, which means you must have a good energy state before it. If you are exhausted before exercising, like after busy work overtime or stay up late, forced exercise is inadvisable.

However, this situation does interrupt your training plan. If you give up one day of training, it opens a bad precedent. Psychologically, you indulge your procrastination once. Thus, the best way is that as far as possible to avoid this situation. You have to make sure that you are vigorous at every predetermined training time. You have to keep a regular diet and timetable. If you decide to watch movies or play games all night, you have to make sure these will not affect your training.

Once you decide to give up one time of training, you must have a firm reason because procrastination is a mental barrier.

Good plan

Doing exercise needs a good plan. If you do not have a good training plan, you might take a weak result on your body. For procrastination, a good plan could form your daily behaviours as a habit.

Besides, the plan must be specific and achievable. Most people only have targets but none of the actions and plans. For example, you cannot say that I have to lose 10KG this year. It is not specific.

Your training plan must contain “how to do it”, “when to do it”, “how long to do it”, and “what is the target”. There is a good model of plan-making named “SMART goals”, and it might help you.

Additionally, how to carry out your plan persistently is also a big problem. In my advice, you could write the plan in your diary that you can easily see and remind yourself. Hiring a trainer to supervise your processes could be a good way. Also, you could let your friend overlook you. Having a training companion could also improve both of your insistence.

Share achievement

The human being is a social animal. We cannot survive without society. Sharing your achievement on social media, and let your friends know what are you doing now. For example, share a daily moment or sent a Twitter. So you can have a great number of public supervisors and take excellent feedback on your effort. Once you want to be lazy, the pressure from your social circle would remind you and push you to stick to the training.

However, what is most important is that you are training for yourself rather than your Internet expression. Sharing your achievement on social media aims to cure your procrastination, not pursue fame, following or something else. These could be a bonus but not your main target.

As we know, procrastination is a mental barrier. If you set fame or the number of following as your target, you might be persistent in your training. But actually, the problem of procrastination is not solved. It just is hidden. And you might be exhausted by social media, taking a worse influence on your life than procrastination.

Analyse your situation

Just like we told above, procrastination is not always negative. When you try to delay something, it might be an interruption from your subconscious.

When you start to make a training plan, you have to analyse your situation first. For example, if the city you live in is always raining and you do not have any plan for purchasing a treadmill or a gym membership, running could not be a good choice. If you do not have enough time in the day, you might have to move your exercise time to the evening.

Before you make your plan, you have to choose the best time and type of exercise according to your self-condition. So you could have the best experience of it, rather than resist and delay it.

Procrastination is a hot potato not only in exercise but also in our daily life. I hope my advice could help you go further on your fitness journey. But remember, exercising aims to improve our life quality, so do not be excessive.

Exercises, Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation

The secret to get rid of your phone and keep motivated during the exercise

8th March 2021 ohaialLeave a comment

Do you suffer from phone addiction during your sport exercise? Do you check your phone a lot with curiosity, afterwards you lose your motivation to continue? You answer a call from your friend or text messages and you don’t become ready to take more pressure when you return to exercise? Is that what’s worrying you?

Already Realizing that you have a phone addiction problem is the first step to getting rid of it. Here are 5 tips for you to get a great workout:

Spend your time with other useful things while you rest:

The dependent person usually suffers from a lot of emptiness and boredom when resting during exercise, so prolonged use of the smartphone negatively affects mental health and increases feelings of frustration and hopelessness, causing the nervous system to have periods of rest that exceed the required duration. The ideal is to keep busy with things that do not exceed the rest period, such as a small discussion with the coach or a colleague to fill the void and pass the time.

2.Use a phone armband during your exercise:

If you want to change a habit you first have to create obstacles that will block you, for example you have to block access to using the phone with simple things like a training armband to get rid of unnecessary uses that make you want to have more, such as social networking sites. Indeed, putting the phone back in the armband after each use is a tiring thing, so you will be lazy to do it and it is an ideal way to get rid of phone addiction. In addition, the cuff is the ideal choice for holding the phone when you exercise with freedom of movement, you need to find a flexible and very comfortable model. The most practical thing is to opt for a armband that does not squeeze too tightly in order to carry out the exercises correctly. It should not be an annoying accessory for you and should also have a sweat-absorbing capacity.

3.The gloves provide complete finger protection:

If you are wondering how to stop this addiction to the phone during your exercise, you must continue to create obstacles to break this bad habit, because getting rid of it starts in the mind before the body, so that you create obstacles, your brain will persuade the body to stop repeating the mistakes. In addition to empowerment, the gloves will also give you a reduction in tiredness, support and help you fight the sweat resulting from your exercise. Moreover, with gloves, it is practically impossible to operate your phone, it is very unpleasant to have to take off your gloves to pick up the phone or consult social networks for nothing. We recommend gloves with full finger protection
4.Keep the selfies until the end of the exercise:

If your addiction to the phone during your exercise is because of the selfies, because you take a lot of pictures and at the end you are not motivated, you shouldn’t blame and judge yourself because all these things seem normal and repeated in our daily life, in order to document happy moments and share them with those we love, to become a group of beautiful memories, but we just recommend that you learn how to take pictures at the end of the exercise and at the end of each exercise, try to give yourself the opportunity to feel the feeling of relaxation, leave everything, relax on the floor and feel the effect of the exercise on your body, and make sure that you only return to this exercise in order to feel this feeling again before you even think about taking a selfie.

5.Desactivate notifications

Application notifications on the smartphone are one of the most important reasons that make you look at your phone’s screen continuously and repeatedly throughout the exercise, which can be classified as addictive phone use, so to get rid of this problem, you need to set or disable all application notifications on your phone. Indeed, if your phone does not ring repeatedly for notifications and updates, it will be easy to ignore it. You can only set an alert for important notifications, such as text messages from your family. The ideal is to distract yourself with anything when playing sports, and in this case meditation exercises are very ideal, whatever sport you do, always try to distract your attention from the pain the exercise causes you, and kill two birds with one stone.

Addiction to the smartphone will not be eliminated between a session or two, but rather requires a bit of patience and will gradually reduce usage, so remember that you need to live your life outside the screen of your smartphone and enjoy the moment of sport, enjoy meeting people with you at the gym, make new friends and accomplish the tasks of the session to the fullest. We recommend that you bring a friend who trains with you, this will ensure that you never give up exercising, it will motivate you and push you to keep going, so we always advise you to choose the right friend, a friend who is a sports fan, to join you and exercise with you, and when we say it’s appropriate, anyone who is full of energy and vitality and loves to spend time with him or her, and in this way you will love to exercise and avoid using the phone at all times out of respect and to spend time with your chosen friend.

Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Time Saving

Work-Life Balance: How to use Meditation and Mindfulness as the Bridge.

8th March 2021 rgowdaLeave a comment

To make a mark at work, to have a buzzing social life, learn something new, spend quality time with friends and family and the list goes on- we want it all sometimes but can never quite master the perfect work-life balance. The key to this is to slow down by practicing meditation and mindfulness.

What do Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith and Bill gates all have in common? Well, aside from success and wealth, they all swear by meditation and have come forward by explaining how meditating daily has done wonders for their mental well-being. Whether it is to manage stress or simply boost some energy, there is no denying that meditation has become the new go-to wellness ritual.

Along with meditation, practicing mindfulness also helps with our overall mental as well as physical health. This is when your mind is paying attention to your present-moment flow of experience without commentary, analysis or judgement. Being mindful makes it easier to savor the simple pleasures in life and helps you become fully engaged in whatever you do.

Here are few tips to help you maintain a healthy mental state of mind:

One-minute meditation

You do not require a certain time of your day to implement a mediation session, you can start by taking one-minute breaks between work by focusing on a calming picture or listening to relaxing music with your eyes closed for a minute while deeply breathing, this will help you reduce your stress levels and help you re-focus on your work.

Set boundaries between work and leisure.

Don’t forget to stop working. One of the hardest parts of work-life balance is defining the boundary between the two. The best way to do this especially when working from home, is to start by creating a designated space for work. Giving a gap between starting and ending work will help you effectively transition from life to work. Adapting these rountines in the long run will help your brain to be wired for presence in every context.

Reduce multi-tasking:

Believe it or not, one of the most difficult mind exercises to do is to focus on one thought at a time. Research shows only 2% of p eople who can effectively muti-task. Practice doing one thing at a time as often as you can throughout the day. When you are not working or studying, remain mentally present for other interactions and activities. Mindfulness saves time and helps you focus on what matters in the present.

Too many list of tasks to do — Source: Unsplash, captured by Luis Villasmil

For instance, if you’ve decided to take an evening off for yourself, be sure to switch off and relax – don’t half-heartedly skim through a book while watching Netflix just to make yourself feel like you are reading.

Schedule tech- free time

Practicing a daily digital detox will allow you to disconnect from work and enhance your ability to pay attention. Have a go at the 30-Day Digital Detox Challenge by Forbes to help you begin! Be mindful of the time you spend on social media and maybe pick one activity or time every day when you can put your devices away for 15-75 minutes.

Remember to immerse yourself in whatever you do whether it is taking your dog on a walk, playing with your kids, painting, or eating dinner with family or friends. Consider designating a room or zone in your house where electronics are not allowed to facilitate this daily digital detox.

Social media — Source: Unsplash, captured by Nathan Dumlao

It’s essential that you take time away from your screen each day. Try giving a break mid-way through the day and in the evening to shut down and transition from ‘work mode’ to ‘home mode’. Remember, if you were previously working from a workplace, you would have a bit of down time on the journey in and home and over lunch, so make sure you schedule that time for you if you are currently studying/ working from home.

Take out time to reflect.

Journaling can help get all your thoughts out and on paper. Bullet Journalling is a great way to stay organised. It’s worth taking some time to reflect on yourself. Especially since the past year has been so different for all of us, it’s good to pen down how you felt at the start of lockdown, how you’ve dealt with lockdown and how you feel about the next phase. This will help to ground you, will help to remind you that you are in control of your thoughts and choices, that you can deal with a new and uncertain situation and that you are resilient. To do this, why not arrange a new comfortable place to sit by a window to soak up that sunlight?

Start and end your day for you.

Reading a book — Source: Unsplash, captured by Callum Shaw

Morning and evening routines are a great way to prioritise your health and wellbeing and give you a greater sense of work-life balance. Save some time for self-care- use the first 15-60 minutes of your day mindfully: exercise, drink water or tea, meditate, stretch, read a book, anything you enjoy doing but just remember to be fully present in the moment. British author, Jay Shetty has some really useful insights on his morning routine video, why incorporating meditation, mindfulness and gratitude is really beneficial.

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The vital part is staying disconnected from work and screens so you not only get a great night’s sleep but you will also wake up feeling restored. The next time you feel yourself stressing out whilst studying or at work, try a few of these mindfulness techniques to keep your mental wellbeing on check. Get the most important tasks done first, focus with greater clarity, and ultimately, become more productive at work. Striking a positive work-life balance is possible, you just need to take the first step.

Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Nutrition, Time Saving, Weight loss

Healthy Plate, Healthy Weight

8th March 2021 bgarmstonLeave a comment

Changing your lifestyle and workout routine is always the main focus when trying to become a healthier version of yourself. How about looking at what’s on your plate, if you want a healthy weight you need to change your plate.

When, What, Why

When to eat and Why

Timing your meals is as important as what you are eating, you need to make sure you start the day off with a healthy breakfast to get your digestive system working. This will help to speed up your metabolism, which will result in you burning your maximum amount of calories without doing exercise. Do you eat late at night? Maybe this is why you struggle to fall straight to sleep and you aren’t giving your body the time to break down the nutrients. This will mean the body doesn’t use the nutrients and end up storing them as fats, remember whatever you eat is fuel for the body and it needs to have time to use this fuel or store in correctly.

Timing your meal around a busy life can be hard but you need to make sure you do this, your body can’t run on nothing and you need to make sure you give your body what it needs to function as normal, this is not just food but water as well. If you simply don’t have time to make a healthy meal then snacks can be used keep the body functioning, keep your strong with some great ideas here or for some healthy snacks take a look at this and make these in 5 minutes.

What to eat and Why

Start the day off with a colourful plate, or even maybe a smoothie. This is all about giving your body vitamins it needs to allow your brain to function at its highest level, this will make you feel energised and refreshed. For some breakfast ideas following the link here.

12pm hits you need to top up your fuel supply, it is a good idea to continue with the light meal theme as this will ensure that you don’t feel like you have over eaten and resulting in you feeling unmotivated for the rest of the working day. Look here for foods that you can use to keep you energised for the hard afternoon ahead.

its the end of the working day you have been working hard all day and enjoying some light healthy food to get you through the day, now its time to reward yourself with one of your favourite meals. This meal should be a nice balanced out plate, you want to use all the nutritional groups. find out more about how to balance out your diet with the NHS Eat Well guide.

What’s the Difference

It is easy to eat foods that you might think are healthy for you without knowing what you are putting into your body, follow these links to understand how you can effect you diet, understand carbohydrates, understand fats and understand nutrients.

Exercising with chronic conditions, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Yoga and Stretching

3 steps to manage exercise as a young person with a chronic illness

8th March 2021 Georgina NaylorLeave a comment

As broad a range that chronic illnesses can be, and with long term conditions such asthma and diabetes as the highest rates amongst young people it can be difficult to find any motivation to exercise.

Despite young people dealing with these long term conditions and navigating poor mental health because of them, and while we know a chronic illness might never go away, we can definitely try to offset some of the symptoms.

Here’s 3 things you can try:

1. Any movement is better than nothing

We all know it can be difficult to wanna stop watching Netflix and actually go and exercise but navigating this fitness lifestyle with a chronic illness is hard. But even just getting up after one episode, putting on a good song and dancing wildly for those 3 minutes is better than a binge on Netflix. Trust me.

Check our post on making an exercise playlist to dance to!

Even if your chronic illness keeps you from dancing energetically for those minutes, you can try walking up and down stairs a few times at a quicker pace than you usually do. It might seem simple, but getting your heart pumping, blood circulating and your body moving really does make a simple difference.

2. Stretching is surprisingly helpful

Stretching, yoga, pilates… call it what you want but stretching and flexing your body is crucial. Maybe you can’t touch your toes and that’s okay!

But if you make it your goal for the next 30 days, start by placing your hands on top of your knees. Then, try a little further and place your hands just under your knees, then halfway down your shins… see where I’m going? Even if it is the slightest movement each day and just a tiny bit further than the last it’s going to help blood flow around your body, loosen up your muscles and joints and allow your body to adjust.

If stretching is good enough for cats, you can do it too!

3. Fresh air is your friend

While it might seem trivial that breathing can help anything, it really can wake you up to your surroundings, internally and externally. It could be standing on your garden, closing your eyes and breathing in until your chest puffs up or even just opening a window. The action of letting your space be freed up from the stuffy feeling of being unwell or trapped in a room can momentarily stop you in your tracks.

A few breathing exercises you can try with this fresh air is holding for 4 seconds, inhale for 8, hold for 4 and exhaling for 8. It can take a minute to get used to but doing this for five minutes regulates your breathing intake and the deeper your breaths, the better your blood flow. So, next time you take your dog for a walk, or open the window to let the sun in, or even when you’re struggling with pain from your illness just try focussing on your breathing for five minutes and see how you feel.

Exercises, Workouts

The importance of exercise as a parent:

8th March 2021 falnameshLeave a comment

picture taken by: John-Mark Smith on unsplash

As every parent knows, when becoming a parent finding the time and energy to do any form of exercise can be hard. Your own priorities are shifted to suit your childs needs and you are hit with lack of sleep and energy, however, this is completely normal. Especially as new parents, you’ll find yourself exercising less due to the new routine.

Exercising does not necessarily mean trying to lose weight, it helps to keep you physically healthy and strong. Regular exercise is essential for everyone’s well-being, including parents. Being a parent is not always a walk in the park, therefore it is vital to take extra care of your mental health.

Going to the gym is not for everyone, therefore, many prefer to workout in the comfort of their own home and space. Which can be made simple and fun for even your children to enjoy or watch if too young.

Picture taken by: Alberto Casetta from unsplash

Don’t underestimate walking. Walking has many hidden health benefits that we do not often realise. Not only does walking improve blood circulation but also strengthens the heart. It helps improve adults and children’s sleep (which is a plus for parents), strengthens muscles, lightens your mood and boosts your energy.

Leaving the house as a parent can sometimes be difficult as not everything goes to plan. Walking can be done anywhere whether it’s near your house or in a park, it’ll help parents to relieve their stress, get out of the house and enjoy the fresh air and this goes for kids of any age too.

Here are some ideas to make exercising easier and fun:

-let your child join in with home workout moves:

Online workout videos are the best to follow when working out at home, it guides you to do the correct moves that will strengthen your body and there are so many videos to choose from.

When allowing your child to join in with you, it can be a time to bond and enjoy an activity together and both benefit from.

Switch the video on a big screen for your child to see and let them join in (of course only the easy workouts) if your child is still too young let them watch they will most probably find it funny.

-Yoga:

Picture taken by: Dane Wetton from unsplash

Yoga is beneficial for both parents and children, it focuses on the mind and the body reducing stress and anxiety, and can really help children with their emotions.

It is great to do as a family activity all you need is a yoga video and a yoga mat and your all set to go.

– Invest in home gym equipment:

Picture taken by: Elena Kloppenburg from unsplash

Although most homework outs don’t require gym equipment, it is always good to have a few in your household in order to develop your exercise and strength.

There are a variety of equipment to choose from in different sizes to fit your needs.

Picture taken by: Bruno Nascimento on unsplash

Keeping both you and your children active during the day can help children to settle quicker when sleeping and helps parents to feel more relaxed. Remember even simple short exercises are good for your mental health.

Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Workouts

Workout together, when we can only be apart

7th March 2021 cproudloveLeave a comment

Are you missing your workout friends and personal trainers? Working out with friends is fundamental for our exercise motivation, mental wellbeing and physical progress. With the current lockdowns, we understand that keeping motivated for exercise is hard. I mean, how many times can we run the same route or watch P.E with Joe Wicks?

Studies, such as this article by Adidas, find that working out with friends is beneficial for your physical and mental health. It is proven to reduce anxiety, increase motivation and boost your mood, that’s why, at exercise.co.uk we believe that when the world stops, that doesn’t mean you have to.

We have collated some of our favourite ways to work out together, when all we can be is apart, to help you find the motivation to workout, keep connected with your friends and improve your mental and physical wellbeing.

Compete!

Wearable technology, like the Apple Watch or Fitbit, allows you to compete with your friends through weekly competitions. These functions were created to motivate you to hit goals, whether that’s a calories burnt, standing goals or amount of steps each day. You can track your own progress and peek at your friends progress too.

Free fitness applications, such as Strava, are also great for workout motivation. Set up missions with your friends, such as to work together to complete a 20 km distance in the week, or perhaps you want to see who can run the fastest 5k? Set yourselves the competition, and go!

Keep connected

Zoom has been one of the biggest buzzwords of the year, with zoom quizzes, zoom conferences and zoom parties, why not have zoom workouts? Connect with your personal trainer or coach your friends into being the most proactive you there is… from the comfort of your living room.

Mentalhealth.org recommends many different ways to remain in contact with your friends and family throughout the lockdown period and exercise.co.uk have some great articles to help you feel motivated and find ways to ease stress and anxiety through exercise. Check out our blogs on physical & mental wellbeing during lockdown and the benefits of exercise for mental health.

Online classes

With the world quite literally at our fingertips these days, there are a breadth of online exercise classes that you can tune into. The NHS have published online workouts, YouTube hosts a whole selection of online classes whether you’re looking for yoga or want to try out a new Zumba class, these are all accessible online for free!

Our experts have written articles showing the top tips for working out at home, why not try these out with your friends and encourage each other to push harder to achieve your goals!

“Tuning in to an online workout with my friends in the morning helps me feel more productive, motivated, and reduces the anxiety I felt during the lockdown periods,” says our writer.

Do you have any ways that help you cope with stress, anxiety, and methods to make you feel motivated to work out and keep connected with your friends? Let us know in the comments section and you could help someone else combat these feelings too.

Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Uncategorized

There are thousands of reasons for gaining weight, but this one is really unexpected!

7th March 2021 zweiLeave a comment

Not getting enough sleep can lead to gaining weight!

Extensive research shows:

People who sleep 6 hours a day gain more weight than those who sleep 7 hours a day, and those who sleep only 5 hours a day gain more weight than those who sleep 6 hours a day.
As long as the lack of sleep for 2 consecutive days, and the sleep time is less than two hours than usual, it can affect the weight.

You might say that after someone stays up all night in a row, they look haggard and disheveled. How can you explain this?

Not getting enough sleep will make you lose muscle

In fact, the weight lost by staying up all night is actually the precious muscles of the body, and it has not lost fat, and it will make it harder to lose weight in the future. If you want to gain more muscle, you might as well take a look here.

And after people stay up late, the secretion of appetite-related hormones will be affected, and they will become more craving high-calorie foods.

The usual saying that snooze and laziness will lead to weight gain means that too much sleep time takes up exercise time, and less activity will lead to weight gain.

However, if you sleep more, you can eat less, and you won’t necessarily get fat, but if you sleep less, you may overeating the next day and make you fat!

More unfortunately…

You can’t make up for lack of sleep

It's okay, just make up the next day's sleep.

too young, too simple, sometimes naive.

Sleeping less than 7 hours a day can still be energetic. This is really just the talent of a few people.

If you stay up all night occasionally, it’s good to make up for your sleep, but if you stay up often, you can’t make up for your sleep.

Especially for many young people nowadays, for them, time is money, and many people even deliberately train themselves to be “sleepless elites,” thinking about drinking a few large cups of super-strong coffee during the day. （IS CAFFEINE GOOD OR BAD FOR YOU?）

This unhealthy routine of work and rest has caused them:

getting fatter

Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep. No matter how you practice, lack of sleep means lack of sleep. Don’t deceive yourself.

Some people will ask,

Actually I want to sleep, but I can't sleep, what should I do?

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

Staying up late for a long time leads to irregular sleep, unable to control your own late sleep, etc. These conditions are classified as ” Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS)” in sleep medicine, which is a kind of sleep cycle disorder, rather than “staying up late”, it is more appropriate to say “irregular sleep”

Common irregular sleep injuries include:

Short-term memory loss
The decline in learning ability
Endocrine system disorders
Decreased immune system
Increased risk of heart disease
There is also research that irregular sleep can increase the risk of cancer

Let’s go back to the question just now. What if someone has insomnia and wants to sleep but can’t sleep?

Here are a few scientific methods to change the bad factors that affect sleep. But before, I want to make it clear: If the symptoms of insomnia seriously affect your life, you have to find a professional doctor.

Pay attention to sleep hygiene habits

The bedroom environment should be quiet and reduce the light.

Put down your mobile phone before going to bed.

Don’t let too many electronic light sources stimulate your vision.

Please abandon your late-night supper before going to bed.

One hour before going to bed, be sure not to consume high-fat, high-calorie foods. Otherwise, after you fall asleep, your stomach is still overworked. Don’t blame it for “protesting” and wake you up in the middle of the night!

Give coffee and strong tea a limit of “don’t drink after lunch”.

Drinking such beverages as coffee and strong tea after noon can easily lead to overactive brain nerves at night. Next time before you can’t help but want to drink, please remember the late night when everyone sleeps and you wake up alone.

Maintain regular schedule

Leave your bed temporarily

If you can’t sleep in bed for 20-30 minutes, get up decisively and leave your bed and bedroom.

Go to the living room or study room to listen to some soothing music (the sound should be low), read a light book, and quietly say that it is a good choice to prepare a book that “is sleepy as soon as you open it.”

Note that you must leave the bed and wait until you are a little sleepy before going to bed. If you still cannot sleep, repeat the above steps after 20-30 minutes.

Don’t think this method is silly, stick to it for more than 4 weeks, there will be surprises!

In addition, yoga can also help you fall asleep better. How yoga can help you to sleep better? Click here and learn more.

Tonight, let’s go to bed early, wish you have a good dream, nighty night~

Exercises, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Workouts

Now is the time to take care of your mental health

7th March 2021 aletowskaLeave a comment

Since the UK has been placed in the first lock-down over a year ago, a lot of individuals have been struggling with their mental health…

Most of us are aware and know that physical activity has a huge impact on our health. It helps us all feel better sleep better, protecting and improving mental health which has been confirmed by the Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee.

There is strong evidence that regular physical activity helps reduce the risk of onset for common mental health problems. It’s very important in treatment and management of various mental health conditions.

Becoming physically more active can help build mental resilience, it also can help to manage everyday anxieties and stress. Evidence suggests that less active individuals are almost twice as likely to have depression that those who are active for just one or 2 hours a week.

By exercising regularly you can enhance your well-being- boosting mental alertness. It additionally enhances brain function, especially in later life.

Positives of being active include…

A lot of individuals suffer with having a lack of sleep, long-term fatigue and musculoskeletal aches as well as pains in addition to their mood, anxiety or any other symptoms… Physical activity not only can help you with your mental health, it also can also improve the quality and duration of your sleep.

The relationship between poor sleep and mental health and well being is known to link, regular activity has been found to increase total sleep time. What physical activity does is it increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor and that has antidepressant qualities improving your mental health and well being.

You may think to yourself ‘when should I exercise?’

The answer to that is

…any time is a good time, exercise whenever suits your schedule (morning, afternoon or evening) and any exercise is beneficial!

For a lot of people it is difficult to start, as they do not know where to begin or how to form new habits

In order to motivate yourself you should think about:

If you require any further help, One You is there to help individuals get healthier and better with free tips, tools and support.

You can complete an online quiz which will point you in the right direction

Once you complete the quiz and answer all questions, you will be sent information via e-mail which you can have a look at in order to start thinking about making changes and improving your health and well being. As this is only to point you in the right direction, if you are concerned about your health you can also always consult your GP, speak to your local pharmacy or any other healthcare professional with any concerns. They will be able to advise you on what to try, what to do and support you with any issues you may have.

Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Nutrition, Uncategorized

How to manage your weight in a healthy way

6th March 2021 mbusakharLeave a comment

Whether it is losing weight or gaining weight, managing ones weight is a hot topic in society today. And with the advent of the world wide web, the people in the society are more confused than ever before.

But why has managing ones body weight become such an important topic? NHS, WHO, CDC and almost all of the leading health organisations of the world are unanimously saying one thing, “Obesity is on the rise and more common now than ever”.

The majority of adults were overweight or obese; 67% of men and 60% of women – NHS UK

These never seen levels of obesity bring a whole host of health issues with them ranging from increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes to even cancer. The issues are not limited to the physical level, the mental wellbeing is also at risk. With teenagers having unrestricted access to social media, which has plenty of “fitness influencers” flaunting their perfect bodies, body image issues are becoming prevalent.

Content-

But how did it get so bad?
So, what can we do to manage our weight?
So, let us start by dispelling some common myths
- There is no “best” diet
- There are no “bad or good” foods
- You can not “out-workout” a bad diet
Conclusion

But how did it get so bad?

The fundamental cause of obesity is an energy imbalance. There is disparity between the calories consumed and the calories expended. This can not be pinpointed to one single thing that we are doing different, rather this is a result of multiple things happening. With globalisation, there is an increase in the intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars, also there is a decrease in the physical activity of people due to the increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

So, what can we do to manage our weight?

It is really hard to navigate through the internet while trying to the diet or workout plan that will work for you. The internet really is full of advice from a range of individuals that you most probably have never met before. You will go through many blogs, much like this one, in the quest of finding the right diet or workout.

So, let us start by dispelling some common myths-

There is no “best” diet

This might come as a surprise after so many people claim that so and so diet was life changing for them. And the options really are limitless whether it is keto or carnivore or vegan or intermittent fasting. As we have mentioned before, the only thing we need to remember is the concept of energy balance. To successfully lose weight, we need to consume less calories than what we expend. You can do that with some extreme measure like cutting the carbs out of your diet (Keto), or just living on meat (carnivore) or you can have all the foods you like in limitation and just making sure the total calories are less than what you expend.

I know it sounds a bit too easy but it really is. It would be a bit of trial and error to find the calories you need to consume but once you start figuring things out, it becomes effortless.

There are no “bad or good” foods

Again, this might sound very controversial with the whole internet worshipping avocados and chia seeds. Can you still be healthy if you eat a meal from McDonald’s once a weak? Absolutely. Can you still be unhealthy if you eat avocadoes or those other “super foods” religiously? Absolutely. So, sugars and fats are not evil? Absolutely.

We should try and look at food and meals as pieces of a large puzzle (calorie that we need to consume). We should see what foods would fit our puzzle nicely, according to our dietary preferences, what we enjoy eating etc. We should definitely try and consume raw foods or cook them ourselves and eat less of the processed foods. But that it is not to say that processed foods are off limits even once in a while.

You can not “out-workout” a bad diet

The other way to lose weight can be by looking at the other side of the equation, the calories expended. Theoretically, if we can increase our calories expended and get them higher than our calories consumed then we should lose weight. That is where exercise comes in. Whether it is running, jogging, cycling, or swimming, it is some form of cardio (cardiovascular exercise) that comes to mind when we first think of weight loss. “I am going to start running as I have put some pounds on”, we have heard this very often.

But what we fail to realise is that workout or exercise can be a tool that can be used in tandem with caloric restriction to achieve superior results. But on its own, without any control over what we are eating, cardio will not be that effective. The calories people normally burn while working out will usually only account for about 5 % of the total calories expended in the whole day.

This is not to portray exercise as something negative. It is definitely encouraged, and a workout plan should be followed which will allow you to achieve your goals whether they are weight loss, muscle gain or anything else.

If you want to learn more then check out the blog post linked below

How to make a successful workout plan

Fitness Myths: Cardio will make you lose weight

Conclusion

I am hoping this would have cleared some of the common misconceptions with regards to approaching weight management or fitness goals.

Overall, our goal should be to eat or consume calories according to our goals. If we want to lose weight, then we need to consume less than what we expend or vice versa if we want to gain weight. No foods should be off limits unless you are allergic to them or if you do not like them!

Exercise can be a great supplement when used with a controlled diet. In fact, people should be encouraged to move more. Whether that is by going to the gym and working out for an hour or just making more movement conscious decisions during the day (taking the stairs rather than the escalator) etc.

Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, consult your physician, doctor or other professional. This is especially important for individuals over the age of 35 or persons with pre-existing health problems. Exercise.co.uk assumes no responsibility for personal injury or property damage sustained using our advice.

If you experience dizziness, nausea, chest pain, or any other abnormal symptoms, stop the workout at once and consult a physician or doctor immediately.