It’s recommended that we should all get at least seven to nine hours of sleep a night, although some may need a little more or less. The impact for those who regularly get fewer than six hours of sleep are at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke.
A lack of restful sleep also makes it more likely that a person will gain weight and have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. It's also been recently discovered that sleep is essential for avoiding or reducing risk of cognitive decline.
Whilst you're asleep, a waste clearance system runs what is essentially a rinse cycle in the brain, using cerebrospinal fluid (the clear fluid found in the brain and spine) Experts believe that this fluid flows more freely through the brain when it is at rest during the night washing away a harmful protein known as beta amyloid. Researchers have found that deposits of beta-amyloid start to appear in the brain at least 10 years before symptoms Alzheimer's begin. It is no surprise then that sleep is your body’s most crucial natural supplement, aiding mental and athletic performance.
Here are our top five easy tips to an effortless sleep routine.
SLEEP DIARY
Adopting a regular sleep schedule and recording the time and quality of your sleep can help pinpoint weaknesses in your sleep routine. The more regular your schedule, the easier it is for your body to fall into a restful rhythm. It’s also a cathartic process to help rid your busy mind of stress and worries.
CUT THE CAFFEINE
With caffeine present in many performance and diet supplements give yourself the best opportunity to sleep by cutting the caffeine at least five hours before you want to sleep. Drinking a cup of coffee in the evening hours can interfere with a sound night’s sleep and recovery.
GET YOUR FENG SHUI ON
Create a restful environment. People tend to sleep better in rooms that are cool, dark, and quiet. Setting the stage in a tidy and uncluttered bedroom for a restful night's sleep can help you sleep more soundly.
SWITCH OFF BEFORE YOU SWITCH OFF
Working late into the night and late intense workouts can stimulant your brain and may keep you from falling asleep and is known to interfere with sleep quality; it can cause you to wake up in the middle of the night and impact on your mental and physical fatigue.
SHUT OUT THE LIGHTS
Electronics that emit blue light, such as televisions, computers, and smartphones, can also lessen sleep quality. Try to avoid them for at least an hour before bedtime.
Sweet Dreams!
]]>Learning basic relaxation techniques is so easy and it doesn’t need to take hours of monk like meditation. These techniques are often free, pose little risk, and can be done nearly anywhere.
Allowing yourself time to find your inner balance is worth every second. Your mind, your body, your decision making and all those around you will thank you for it. Finding your state of relaxation can be a really exciting journey and finding new and stimulating techniques has never been easier but relaxation techniques are skills. As with any skill, your ability to relax improves with practice and patience.
With so many different techniques we are going to focus on our 3 favourites:
In this relaxation technique, you form mental images to take a visual journey to a peaceful, calming place or situation. The best part of visualisation is there is no limit to what where your mind can take you.
To relax using visualisation, you imagine a place where you can totally relax, for example on a beach by the ocean with the sound of crashing waves and the warmth of the sun on your body.
You may want to close your eyes, sit in a quiet spot, loosen any tight clothing, and concentrate on your breathing. Aim to focus on the present and think positive thoughts that help transport you to your place of tranquility.
Visualisation can also be incredibly powerful in realising your potential, goal setting, and confidence boosting. Many athletes and successful people repeatedly visualise achieving goals and imagine becoming the best version of themselves.
In this technique, you repeat words or suggestions in your mind that may help you relax and reduce stress and muscle tension. These repeated affirmations help to rebuild the positive links and focus on a subconscious level.
Writing down your affirmations and repeating your words and phrases at least 5 times really helps. These can be general or more specific if you have identified an area you wish to focus on. For example repeating a set of words or phrases:
Or you may imagine a peaceful setting and then focus on controlled, relaxing breathing, slowing your heart rate, or feeling different physical sensations, such as relaxing each arm or leg one by one.
Daily affirmations can have a really positive impact on an emotional level and can really help build self esteem.
In this relaxation technique, you focus on systematically slowly tensing and then relaxing each muscle group. This can help you focus on the difference between muscle tension and relaxation. You can become more aware of physical sensations and help to release built up stress and tension.
The simple way is to start by tensing and relaxing the muscles in your toes and progressively working your way up to your neck and head.
Tense your muscles for about five seconds and then relax for 30 seconds, as you breathe out allow the tension to leave your body and repeat until your body feels totally relaxed.
I love to include this into our stretching routine when we work out. Its amazing in a post workout cool down or sauna.
Are you ready for the Bonus Prize? Here are just some of the additional benefits why you should allow yourself at least 5 minutes relaxation a day:
Some studies even indicate that relaxation and positive reinforcement can have a healing effect on a cellular level!
1. Turn off your mobile, devices and all notifications for a few minutes.
2. Make sure your in a safe environment where you can totally relax.
3. If at first you find it strange or difficult keep at it, your mind will need time to adjust to something new.
I find the best part of relaxation is the clarity and focus relaxation brings. As the racing thoughts in my mind subside the stillness leads to fresh creative thoughts, solutions to problems and renewed desire to achieve the goals that just minutes before seemed lost.
Whether you choose to do one of these or all of these on a daily basis the benefits will be incredible. With so much to gain and nothing to loose we recommend you allow yourself at least 5 quality minutes a day and let the relaxation begin.
Good Luck!
Chris @dishonorlondon
This is our quick introduction to a healthy lifestyle and feeling good but a healthy lifestyle starts with a healthy mindset and a plan.
Everything starts for a reason and a healthy lifestyle is no exception. The good news is that most of the obstacles are often mental which means you can actually put a plan of action in place that will remove all the everything standing between you and your perfect lifestyle.
EASY DOES IT
For us a healthy life should be a natural day to day way of living and not about bouncing from one diet to another. The first step for most is to get your mindset around how you can change your habits, and then how you feel and look will change on their own.
Being honest with yourself, starting with little steps and making small changes in your diet and exercise habits are so important. If one day your diet is high sugar and high fat and mainly fast food and the next you are on a quinoa, raw foods and salad cleanse then you are going to be in for a rough ride. So take things slow and phase your way into better eating patterns.
Start by eating better, switching out a few of the nasties and adding a few core excesses into your daily routine (We love squats as an easy go to exercise) or pick up a 30-day challenge. It is important that you stick to the small things first, before you demand anything more radical from yourself. The harder you push from the start the harder it’ll be to stay on track.
GET MOVING
In order to get moving you don’t need loads of equipment or expensive memberships but you do need to find what will work for you. You have to enjoy your “fitness” time so that you commit to it, keep at it and so that you can fit it into your daily routine without it being a burden.
There are so many different fitness trends, gym classes and home workouts but if you push yourself into something you absolutely hate doing, your commitment however strong to begin with, will very soon wear off.
FUELING THE MACHINE
All you need is a guide, something you can easily follow without checking on a list of forbidden food and special instructions each time you want to have a meal. Calorie counting will only stress you out and make you feel miserable every time you bite into anything edible. What you want is something you can maintain your whole life, not just for a month or two. Eating reasonably and mindfully will very soon become the norm if the terms are minimal. Think of it this way, high value foods have to be earned - candy, baked goods, sodas. Just because you want to lead a healthy lifestyle it doesn’t mean you can never touch any of it ever again, it only means that they can no longer be on your daily menu. Real food is usually the way to go, cooked food with the fewest ingredients possible. We love whole foods, ideally homemade and fresh is what you want.
PREPARATION IS KEY
It sounds harder than it is, all of these things just need a little organisation and forethought. Its well known that around 80% of your body goals can be achieved by consuming the right foods but these same foods help to contribute to your overall health and recovery. What you eat is just as important as what you do exercise wise. Most of us know how easy it is to fall off track when you get hungry or if you are unprepared especially after a workout and you think.
To avoid those moment of weakness and the snap food related decisions you always regret, make sure you know what you eat in advance and have a clear plan for your every meal. More than that, buy all of the ingredients beforehand and make sure you cook and sit down for every dish. Cooking your own meals will work out cheaper and it'll be a lot better for you than a takeout. Optimise the cooking and eating processes and it'll be half the battle already won. We love to batch cook your meals for the week it makes such a difference.
THE TIME TRADE
One thing we can really relate to is the time trade off. It does not matter who you are or your starting point the results always take longer than you expect. Fast results may be very tempting, but every shortcut comes at a price. The slower you go the further you’ll get in your journey.
The faster your body changes, whether it is weight loss or muscle gain, the more of a shock it is to your system. It is so exciting to see positive changes but we believe the key to a healthy life is living a lifestyle that will help you live a long and healthy life without any side effects or illness.
Through consistency the results will come and although you may like what you see short term, in the long run your body will try and get back to what it knows, the comfortable weight and shape it had and it will do it in the blink of an eye the moment you get back to the lifestyle you used to have, when the program is finished and when the diet is over. With fitness, there is no end date, you make it part of who you are, the kind of thing you do as consistently as brushing your teeth. So slow and steady is the best kind of speed when it comes to body and lifestyle transformation.
GRATTITUDE
It’s important that you make time to be grateful and enjoy the process if you want to stick with it, after 30 days you will feel better, look better inside and out.
It takes those 30 days to build your new routines into a habit. If you can stick to something for as long as that the chances are you’ll get into a routine of making better choices naturally and without thinking about it later on. Don’t think about it as something you have to do for four weeks and just take it one day at a time. It’ll help if you keep a log and cross days out on the calendar to keep yourself accountable.
Keep on reminding yourself why you are doing this and keep on reminding yourself to get to it and do something today, tomorrow and the day after and when you look back you’ll realise what an amazing journey you have just walked, one day at a time, and how far you’ve come.
There will be more to follow with handy hints and tips along the way but when everyone is behind you it is a huge help in staying committed to your process. Share your journey along the way tag us at #dishonorlondon and lets help everyone on the journey of a lifetime.
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