Water Drinking Challenge

Aim: To drink 2 litres of water every day

Duration: 40 Days

Our bodies need at least 2 litres of water every day to keep ourselves hydrated. If you don't know about the benefits that your body gains from drinking lots of water, I'm not going to go into it on this post as I have already written an article about that which can be found here: 10 Reasons for Drinking Water. 


Seeing that I have just mentioned that our bodies need 2 litres of water a day, it should come of no surprise that this challenge is all about getting yourself to drink 2 litres of water a day. This challenge will have you drinking that amount for 40 consecutive days.
To give you an idea about how much 2 litres is, it is roughly equivalent to 8 average sized glasses. Before starting this challenge I would recommend reading a previous post of mine; 11 Tips to Drink more Water, for some ideas and advice to help you drink more water.

The goal of this challenge is to get you to drink 2 litres of water a day, however, this target is only a minimum so feel free to drink more than this if you can manage - don't go overboard though and don't drink too much water in one go. 

On a calendar mark down the day that you start this challenge, and for every day that you complete, cross that day off (to show that you have completed it). Once this string of crossed-off-days reaches 40, you will have completed the challenge. :)

30 Day Pushup Challenge

After posting the 30 Day Squat Challenge for the ladies, I thought it fair to post one for the men...so here it is: the 30 day pushup challenge.
Depending upon how good you are at pushups will determine which challenge I think you should go for. If you can do 0 - 25 I would suggest trying the beginners 30 day pushup challenge. If you are someone who can do 50 pushups or upwards then I would recommend trying the advanced 30 day pushup challenge. For anyone who falls within the 26 - 49 range I would leave up to you to decide which challenge you should go for, in fact however many pushups you can do it's up to you which challenge you take on - just try to stay realistic about your abilities and don't go so far as to injure yourself.

The challenge is based on a number of reps & sets for you to complete per day. Many people who know about reps and sets won't need this explaining to them but for those of you who don't it's not something that is hard to grasp. Basically a 'rep' stands for a repetition, so if I were to do 10 reps of pushups that would mean that I have done 10 pushups - 10 repetitions.
A set is a group of reps. For example if I were to do 2 sets of 10 pushup reps that would mean I did two lots of 10 pushups. 

Beginners Pushup Challenge (30 - 90 seconds rest in between each set)

The number of sets is displayed first before the number of reps followed by the total of pushups.

Day 1: 2 x 10 (20)

Day 2: 2 x 12 (24)

Day 3: 2 x 14 (28)

Day 4: 2 x16 (32)

Day 5: Rest

Day 6: 2 x 20 (40)

Day 7: 2 x 22 (44)

Day 8: 2 x 24 (48)

Day 9: 2 x 26 (52)

Day 10: Rest

Day 11: 3 x 14 (42)

Day 12: 3 x 16 (48)

Day 13: 3 x 18 (54)

Day 14: 3 x 20 (60)

Day 15: Rest

Day 16: 3 x 22 (66)

Day 17: 3 x 24 (72)

Day 18: 3 x 26 (78)

Day 19: 3 x 28 (84)

Day 20: Rest

Day 21: 4 x 12 (48)

Day 22: 4 x 14 (56)

Day 23: 4 x 16 (62)

Day 24: 4 x 18 (68)

Day 25: Rest

Day 26: 4 x 22 (88)

Day 27: 4 x 24 (96)

Day 28: 4 x 26 (104)

Day 29: 4 x 28 (112)

Day 30: 4x 30 (120)

Total = 1,546

Advanced Pushup Challenge (30 - 90 seconds rest in between each set)

The number of sets is displayed first before the number of reps followed by the total of pushups.

Day 1: 2 x 20 (40)

Day 2: 2 x 24 (48)

Day 3: 2 x 28 (56)

Day 4: 2 x 32 (64)

Day 5: Rest

Day 6: 2 x 40 (80)

Day 7: 2 x 44 (88)

Day 8: 2 x 48 (96)

Day 9: 2 x 52 (104)

Day 10: Rest

Day 11: 3 x 28 (84)

Day 12: 3 x 32 (96)

Day 13: 3 x 36 (108)

Day 14: 3 x 40 (120)

Day 15: Rest

Day 16: 3 x 44 (132)

Day 17: 3 x 48 (144)

Day 18: 3 x 52 (156)

Day 19: 3 x 56 (168)

Day 20: Rest

Day 21: 4 x 24 (96)

Day 22: 4 x 28 (112)

Day 23: 4 x 32 (128)

Day 24: 4 x 36 (144)

Day 25: Rest

Day 26: 4 x 44 (176)

Day 27: 4 x 48 (192)

Day 28: 4 x 52 (208)

Day 29: 4 x 56 (224)

Day 30: 4 x 60 (240)

Total = 3,104

30 Day Squat Challenge

Quite recently there has been a challenge for women floating around the web that has gained much interest. It seems to becoming more and more popular, having Facebook, Tumbler, and other website pages devoted to it. I first heard about this challenge through my sister who decided to take it up, in fact it was yesterday she started. After hearing it from my sister I also found out that 3 female colleagues from work, well actually 2 colleagues as 1 of them has now got another job, so 2 colleagues and 1 ex-colleague has taken up this 30 day squat challenge. 
I hear that it is quite the challenge so prepare for some hard work!
So here is the plan:

Day 1: 50 Squats

Day 2: 55 Squats

Day 3: 60 Squats

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: 70 Squats

Day 6: 75 Squats

Day 7: 80 Squats

Day 8: Rest

Day 9: 100 Squats

Day 10: 105 Squats

Day 11: 110 Squats

Day 12: Rest

Day 13: 130 Squats

Day 14: 135 Squats

Day 15: 140 Squats

Day 16: Rest

Day 17: 150 Squats

Day 18: 155 Squats

Day 19: 160 Squats

Day 20: Rest

Day 21: 180 Squats

Day 22: 185 Squats

Day 23: 190 Squats

Day 24: Rest

Day 25: 220 Squats

Day 26: 225 Squats

Day 27: 230 Squats

Day 28: Rest

Day 29: 240 Squats

Day 30: 250 Squats

A useful motivational and tracking technique you can use to go alongside this would be the 'Don't Break the Chain' technique.
 

How to Improve your Mood: 12 Tips

Having to go through low moods and/or depression is a tough and hard thing to escape. With practical changes to ones life though these feelings can be suppressed and you can improve your mood. 

Depending upon how bad a persons depression/low mood is, will have an impact to how well these tips will work. If they are mild enough then these tips may be all that is needed to help them, however if it is more serious then whilst these tips will be helpful for the individual - professional medical advice will be needed.

1. Talk to other People

Having problems and life-dramas can certainly bring your mood down and make it hard for you to deal with them, and when you've got no-one to talk to about it, it can be all the more difficult.

Just having someone to talk to (even if they can't actually change the situation) can really make a big difference because they can offer their moral support and advice.

We all need help sometimes and having people who you trust to depend upon is a comforting prospect. There are those who will offer you emotional help and those who will be able to offer you practical help, both of which you should be (and would be I'm sure) grateful of in a bad situation.

Friends and family members are an obvious choice to start with and can simply be by letting them know of your situation and what you're experiencing. Friends and family members aren't the only choice you have, their are people who you know and are friendly with, yet don't class as a close friend (e.g. A person at work) who you can ask for advice. You can also arrange to go and see support groups in your area or can even phone up support lines. Help from other people can make all the difference.

2. Exercise

Exercise is a great way to lift your mood and is often advised to place into your daily routine as a form of dealing with low moods and/or depression, in fact, it's advised for you to include it in your life anyway in general.

It keeps you active both physically and mentally, keeps you fit, gets you out (unless if you do home exercises), and just makes you feel better in general. It's such a simple thing to start yet so many people push it aside as they doubt that something as simple as exercise can help...but it can.

A couple of reasons to why people don't take up an exercise routine are 1. They see the whole exercising and creating a routine too much of a hassle to organise and to follow-through with, and 2. They believe that it's going to consume too much of their time and they don't have that time to spare.

Well as a matter of fact these people need not worry as it isn't hard to get yourself into a routine and you can work around your time allowance, even if it's only 10-20 minutes a day.

It doesn't have to be something that you hate to do, find something that you enjoy doing, for example: walking, football, swimming, going to the gym, etc.

If you would like to start exercising but aren't sure where to start or to how you go about doing it then here's an article that you may find useful: How to Create an Exercise Plan.

3.Wake-up Early

Waking up early is a fantastic way to kick-start your day. Getting up earlier will allow you to have more time in your day to do things (maybe start that exercise plan), you will feel as if you have more energy throughout the day - which will lead to a more positive outlook.

I won't go into any more detail to why getting up early is good for you but if you would like to read more into it then this is the full article: 10 Benefits of Being an Early Riser.

4. Do Something Fun

Try doing something fun to lighten your mood. It may seem a little childish to some of you who are reading this but is something that will prove its worth soon enough. Whatever you feel like doing (within the law of course:) ): maybe go for some exercise, play some sports, play some games with people? Whatever.

You want to be able to have some enjoyment in your life and by doing something fun can really help you feel better.

I don't include t.v, browsing the Internet, or video games, as doing something fun. Whilst I'm not saying that these can't be fun and/or entertaining, they're really just wasting your time. Coming away from t.v. and the like, I don't know how all of you feel, but I never feel like I have benefited or gained anything when I come away from watching t.v?

The full article about this is here: Is T.V Wasting your Time?

Often it's not even about doing something fun, it's normally about doing something and we will appreciate doing anything to keep our minds off of what is bothering us - it's just nice for it to be fun. 

5. Get a Hobby

Similar to point #5 however this is more of a regular and consistent way to cheer yourself up rather than just doing anything that is fun. Having an activity to partake in which is your hobby is an excellent way to take your mind away from the stress you're going through. If you share your hobby with a friend and you both do it together (for example: golf, tennis, pool/snooker, bird-watching, etc,) you can use point #1 and talk to them about your situation.

6. Get enough Daylight

There are depressive moods that scientists know about that are linked to not having enough exposure to daylight.

I watched a documentary about a year or so ago about the effects of varying light exposure to a person but can't remember what it was called. On this program there was an experiment where they made a person stay inside of their house for a week with his windows boarded up and only a limited amount of the usual light making it through, and throughout the week they monitored his mood. As the week progressed his mood declined and by the end of the week he hated the lack of natural light. When he was allowed to have his house un-boarded and the sunlight was able to shine in again - his mood dramatically improved.

Get outdoors more too and expose yourself to the natural light (don't get burnt when it's sunny though :) ). Morning light is said to be the most beneficial and is something I recommend everyone should get-up to experience.

7. Eat Healthy

Eating the right food with the essential vitamins and minerals your body needs to be sustained is what it needs to have a consistent amount of energy lasting throughout the day. making sure that you eat your 5 fruit and/or veg a day is definitely beneficial for your overall health and well being.

If you are interested here are some posts about fruit and veg: The Benefits of individual Fruits (Part 1), The Benefits of Individual Vegetables (Part 1), and Top 10 Most Popular Fruits.

When people are feeling down they can often turn to alcohol, when they are feeling low on energy they turn to things that are high in caffeine (for example: energy drinks or coffee), it's not too hard to see a slight connection to a persons feelings and food.

8. Get Enough Sleep

There is still a lot that is unknown about sleep that science has yet to uncover but it has been advised that people with depression or low moods should make sure that they are getting enough sleep. People who feel refreshed and aren't tired allow their mind to function better than that of a sleep deprived person because our bodies need sleep to recharge, and will prevent, or at least limit, tiredness bringing down their mood.

Not only is it advised that you should get enough sleep but also that you should stick to a regular sleeping routine.

Here are two articles that go more into sleep: The Functions of Sleep and How much Sleep do we Need?

9. Deal with Stressful Problems 

There are so many stressful problems that enter our lives that we have to deal with. Sometimes they appear like a bull in a china shop and other times they very discretely enter into your life without you realising it and cause you hassle. 

Stress is a killer and can definitely without a shadow of a doubt bring down a  person's mood. 

Go through what stresses are in your life (if you have them which most people do) and then decide what you are going to do about it. A lot of stressful things are things that can be sorted or will get sorted, for example: starting a new job, moving house,meeting new people, having more work than usual to get through, etc.

Sometimes there wont be a quick fix to your problem(s) and so will have to be something that you have to make the best of a bad situation about, for example: losing a job, dealing with an illness, having social problems, etc.

I've written an article about stress before if you would like to read more about it: The Common Causes of Stress and how to Deal With it. 

10. Smile More

Such a small and simple action to do yet can still have an effect on your mood. Forcing yourself to smile and telling yourself that you are happy can have a positive effect on how you view situations in life. If you're always optimistic and are trying to look on the bright side of life, then you won't have as much time for dwelling on the negatives. 

11. Stick to a Plan

A suggestion that is often made by professionals and is normally encouraged for those dealing with depression, is to make sure that your life has structure to it. If your mind isn't kept busy then it can start to dwell on matters and make it seem worse than it is, which is why suggested that you stick to a schedule.

Make sure you are strict about keeping to your schedule as it is very easy to skip one or two things on it, and once that happens you can be sure that you are likely going to stop doing more jobs that you are supposed to do, and then next give up on it all together. 

Productivity is a great way to make use of your time and has an uplifting response once you've completed what needs to be done and it's this positive effect that is good for your mind. You can see that you are getting things done and you like the results you are seeing and in return for your labour you are able to experience the satisfying feeling of productivity.  

Two posts that you may find helpful are: 7 Benefits of a Schedule and How to Plan a Schedule.

12. Don't Over-schedule

Another thing that can quite easily bring your mood down is having too much on your plate. When you have too much to get through and it becomes an endless fight trying to finish it all, can make life feel like you're living for the schedule - which it shouldn't be about. 

There's nothing wrong with having a lot of things to get through daily because for some people they thrive in that environment, but for others (and in fact for those workaholics too) when there is too much to do it can become too much for us to cope with and handle.

10 Benefits of Growing your own Food

You hear it all the time nowadays about how human-impact is affecting the planet and how we need to cut-down on fuel and other resources. Some people do take this to heart and start trying to help where they can: switching off lights when unnecessary, walking or cycling to work, using public transport more often, etc. These people, whilst their efforts are good and they are doing a great job in helping to lower our impact on the environment, remain a minority and the majority of us don't change at all. 

One thing that can be done to help reduce our affect on the environment would be to simply grow our own food which comes with many benefits for doing so. Obviously when I say simply grow your own food I mean the concept is simple, the actual work that is needed to produce your own fruit and vegetables can be quite hard work but that's something that usually comes with something beneficial.

1. Health

A great benefit that will come with growing your own fruit and veg will be in the form of the health benefits. What you are going to be growing is going to be healthy (I hope anyway) and so you will be getting these nutritional foods into your system which your body needs. 

I won't talk to much into the healthiness of fruits and vegetables but instead refer you to two different posts you may be interested in: Benefits of Individual Vegetables (Part 1), and Benefits of Individual Fruits (Part 1).
Also a third post you may like: The Benefits of a Healthy Diet.  

2. Keeps you Productive

When at home their is often a temptation to not do much and relax, and why not? I mean that's what homes are for - relaxing and getting some time to ourselves. However, being productive is a great way to pass time and can in itself be not only relaxing and enjoyable but also rewarding.
In fact it's good to keep ourselves productive and busy as we're designed to work, it's in our nature. Often people who have worked their whole life and then later on go into retirement find it boring as they have nothing to do (this isn't the case for everyone but it's something that a lot of people do feel, and maybe that's why a lot of the older generation like to spend their time gardening as it does keep them busy). You can set yourself personal goals too which is always good to do.

Here's a related post to this point: 21 Ways to Boost Productivity.

3. Saves Money

Another great benefit you will gain with growing your on food, which I'm sure that a lot of us will welcome, is the money-saving part. If you're going to grow your own fruit and veg then you will not have to pay for them at the shops and packets of seeds don't cost much at all. Of course when you first start out you will have to as you will need to wait for your plants to grow, and will have to go through a trial-and-error approach to how much of a certain thing you should grow etc, but after these things you will certainly start to notice a reduction in financial payouts towards food. Some people become almost self-sufficient once they have a system up and running. 

You can also preserve food for use during other seasons and grow different variates of fruit and vegetables during the different seasons of the year.  

4. Better Taste

This is often said about home-grown fruit and veg. The food will be straight from your garden (or allotment or somewhere) and will be what is really fresh. Fresh fruit and veg from the shops are fresh but won't be nearly as fresh as your home-grown stuff, they could have been sat there for a day or two and would have taken some time in getting delivered to the store too, all-in-all not being as fresh as yours.  

The satisfaction that comes with growing your own food could also enhance the taste in your mind but the freshness will definitely make the taste better.

5. Exercise

Whilst it may not be on the same level as cross-country and other exercise of that nature, gardening can be quite the strenuous activity in itself. Of course the more you have to do the more hard work it will be but when you have to lift and dig and walk here and there, can after some time become quite the form of activity. 

6. Satisfaction

As briefly mentioned in point # 4 growing your own fruit and veg will bring you a sense of satisfaction. It's great when you put in hard work and see the fruits of your labour (excuse the pun), not only does it inspire you to continue your work but it also is a very rewarding and satisfactory experience. From nursing them from small saplings to full-grown plants - this joy is a great feeling and will help with confidence of your own abilities. 

7. Reduces food waste

People throw away hundreds of pounds-worth of food every year. The reason why growing your own fruit and veg will reduce the amount of food you throw-away will be because after weeks of loving-care that you have put into growing these plants you will be less inclined to throw them rather than ones bought from the supermarket in 10 minutes. You'll want to get full-use of all your plants and so wasting them will not be on your agenda.
You will still have food waste but less of it.

8. Composting

Any food that is of waste or is bad that you have grown can be put immediately into a compost bin. This will save you money on compost (if you're a keen gardener) which you can use in the future for helping future fruit and vegetables grow, a great way to recycle. This is another benefit which can come from the growing your own food and which can help with reducing your impact on the environment.

9. Pesticide-free food

Contamination of food from pesticides and other chemicals that many farms spray onto their food because of the mass-production of crops that they don't want to be touched by insects and various other things, will not be upon your home-grown food and is something that you will not need to worry about. You will know that your food is clean and safe to eat.

10. Family activity

Growing your own food can become a daily commitment and if you are looking for a family activity for you all to participate in - this could be it. It will be a great chance to talk to one another and the fresh air is great for your mood and health.

Is T.V Wasting Your Time?

Often we wonder where all our free time goes to? one minute we seem to have some - the next it's gone. The first thing a lot of us say is that it's work that wastes so much of our time but that's something that we need to do and is something that society needs us to do - it's just part of our daily routine so can't be blamed for wasting our 'free time'. 

One thing that definitely does waste a lot of time would be t.v. Now when I say waste time I mean it's not anything that is productive or beneficial or outside or social, but is just something that causes you to sit and do nothing. Now I'm not saying that t.v isn't fun to watch or nice to have a sit down to but when you think about it - it does consume quite a lot of your life. 

For example: a quick calculation you could do would be to tally up how many minutes or hours of t.v you watch a day, let's say 1 hour which is fairly easy for most of us to accomplish during a day. Now if you watch t.v for 1 hour every day for a whole year that would be 365 hours of t.v watching. To put that into a bit more perspective that's the equivalent to watching t.v 24 hours a day for just over 15 days (just over 2 weeks)! 

That calculation was only with 1 hour of daily t.v watching. The average daily t.v viewing consumption time for British people is 3.5 hours!!! That's the equivalent to over 50 hours of t.v watching a year, which is equivalent to over 7.5 weeks of non-stop t.v watching!!!

Here's a really shocking figure, in the United States the average amount of time watching television daily is a whopping 8 hours!!!!! On average the only thing that consumes as much time or more is sleeping. If we did a calculation to 8 hours of t.v watching a day we could figure out that that would be the equivalent to watching 2,920 hours a year! 2,920 Hours a year is the equivalent of just over 17 weeks or 4 months of non-stop t.v watching! That is a huge waste of time. 1/3 Of the year in fact!

Think about one thing that you would want to do or want to get better at. Maybe that's improving reading ability, learning to play an instrument, exercising, blogging, whatever it is it would be time better spent. 1 Hour a day of that chosen activity would be (like stated above) the equivalent to doing over 2 weeks of that thing relentlessly a year.

Now there was a time in my life when I became a huge t.v watcher and at the start I really enjoyed it. But after a while I noticed that that was all I did and I didn't do anything else. So after a while of doing this and wasting a lot of my time, I managed to get a job and start doing other things rather than watching t.v - and now I don't really watch that much of it at all and can easily turn it off whilst in the middle of something.

A question to ask yourself is if you had a room with a sofa in but no t.v, would you go and sit down on that sofa for an hour or more every day and just do nothing? I'm guessing the answer for most of us would be no, and why? well because that would be a waste of our time as you're doing nothing...well that's essentially what t.v watching is too.

Now if you're reading this post you will probably be under the impression that I think that t.v isn't something that we should do, but actually I don't think there is anything wrong with watching t.v but it's how much you let it rule your life that I think is wrong. I watch t.v myself but I don't let it consume me to the point where I can't turn it off and I can quite happily turn it off and not watch it for extended periods of time, and it's this what I'm trying to get at.

Ask yourself how much your time do you spend watching t.v and if you can honestly go without it. A good experiment you can do would be to not watch t.v for 2 weeks, no exceptions. It may prove a lot harder than you first think.

If however you know you do watch a lot of t.v and you can't really go without watching it here's a previous post of mine: 8 Steps to Reduce T.V Watching.

9 Effects of Sleep Deprivation

Most of you who are reading this post will know what sleep deprivation feels like. To wake-up and still feel tired and then for that feeling to remain with you for most of the day, if not all of it. It's not just this feeling of tiredness that is of consequence of sleep deprivation but also many other things. Here's some of the effects that a lack of sleep can bring.

1. Behaviour

Sleep has a direct effect on behaviour. Often when you have a young child and they're crying or playing-up they're normally just tired and so their behaviour becomes worse. It's not only young children who can suffer from bad behaviour as sleep deprivation can effect people of all ages.

When your body stays awake for extended periods of time, regeneration and maintenance of certain parts of the body, such as the brain, begins to falter. It is this incomplete-regeneration/re-charge of the brain through sleeping that has the impact on behaviour and will worsen a persons behaviour.

2. Concentration

Concentration is another thing that is substituted for tiredness.When you can feel your tiredness hanging over you throughout the day you know that you wont be able to concentrate properly because all you want to do is go to sleep. Your body is having to use more energy than usual (when you're not sleep deprived) to keep you going and so other functions like concentration for instance, will see a decline. 

Here's another post of mine: 6 Benefits of Concentration.

3. Head Aches

If you don't like headaches then don't skip sleep as it has been shown that having a lack of sleep can actually bring them on. If you're someone that suffers from chronic headaches/migraines then make sure that you get enough sleep.

4. Weakened Immune System 

Hate colds, coughs, the flu, and other infections and illnesses? I thought so. Well not getting the sleep that your body needs will actually have a negative effect on the immune system, and immune functions that help to fight against illness and infection will start to diminish making you a lot more susceptible to them.  

5. Increased Blood Pressure

Another negativity of sleep deprivation is an increased blood pressure which in itself can bring on many unwanted illnesses and problems.

If you want to read more on high blood pressure then here's the link: Reduce High Blood Pressure.

6. Depression

Another thing about sleep deprivation is that it can lead to depression. This is as regular tiredness will bring your mood down and behaviour (as discussed in point #1), and then when you've reached this level, not getting enough sleep can lower your state even further until it reaches the lower levels of depression, and this is another thing that can bring about some more individual problems. You'd be surprised how much better you can feel when you're getting enough sleep.

7. Memory Loss

This may sound like a bit on the extreme side but tiredness really can have an effect upon memory. Sleep is very necessary for the cognitive functions of the brain and making sure that they are healthy, and it is something that helps us with remembering and recalling information. However, when we don't get enough sleep then the cognitive functions of the brain don't function as-well and will cause our ability to remember and learn new things a lot harder than it should be. 

8. Weight Gain

Many sleep deprived nights may also be contributing to your waistline. Your bodies natural calorie burner comes in the form of your metabolism and it is this that burns the vast majority of your calories. Your body needs sleep so that it can process hormones that aid in the maintenance of your metabolic rate and your appetite. When you don't get enough sleep your body will find it more and more difficult to use these hormones to mange metabolism and appetite which will only add to the waist. 

If you're are struggling with weight and are wanting to lose some pounds, then here's a previous post of mine: How to Lose Weight.

9. Type-2 Diabetes

As discussed in point #7, when your body doesn't get the sleep that it needs it will find it harder to process the hormones needed to regulate bodily functions such as metabolic rate. Well another bodily function that will see a cutback in regulation is sugar processing. And it's this, your body not being able to properly process sugar, that can lead to type-2 diabetes.

Conclusion

It's also interesting to note that if we live by a sleep-deprived life, even though we may feel okay because our bodies have gotten used to sleep deprivation, our bodies will require more and more sleep. So in a sense we're getting into debt with our bodies every time we don't get enough sleep. I do hope that this post has highlighted some key points to keep in mind when it comes to sleep.

How to Get a Good Nights Sleep

It's horrible when you can't get a good nights sleep and however much you try, it just seems to become harder and harder to slip into that state of unconsciousness. Then when the next day comes around and it's time to get up you can definitely feel the lack of sleep. The good thing to note is that you're not alone when it comes to sleep deprivation, and the good thing is that normally it has something to do with your daily routine. 

You'll be surprised how much daily and evening habits can have an affect on sleep, and can either help you with sleeping or hinder you from sleeping. 

After saying this I'm hoping these tips provided will help you to get a better nights sleep.

1. Consistency

The body naturally likes consistency as its internal body clock relies on it. Making sure that you get in tune with your bodies natural sleep and wake-up times is one of the first essential things for you to do. If you go to bed and wake-up at varying times over the week then that means that your body is out of sync with its internal body clock, but there is a way to reset it.

To get your internal body clock back into sync with your body all you need to do is keep to a sleeping schedule - go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time, simple. Set an alarm clock as-well to make sure that you get up at the right time, I've written a previous post about the amount of sleep people should get: How Much Sleep do we Need?

It may take your body a couple of weeks or more to adjust to the new sleeping schedule and once it has will make going to sleep easier.

2. Relax

I've already written a post about this so I wont go into too much detail here. Basically, relaxing before bed will cause your body to become more susceptible to sleep and is great for unwinding from what has felt like a long day. One example of what you could do to relax before bed would be to read.

If you are interested in reading about this in more detail I'll refer you to the main article: How to Relax Before Bed.  

3. Amount of Light-Exposure

Our bodies need light-exposure to properly function, when it gets dark a hormone called melatonin that is regulated by your body will start to kick-in and make you tired. This is as the production of this hormone is based upon light-exposure. The more light-exposure your body has - the less melatonin is produced, and vice-versa the darker it gets the more melatonin is produced.

Now you may be saying, "okay, well that's fine as its light when it's day and dark when it's night, so why are you telling me this". That's a good question. Well there are things that can mess with the production of melatonin during the day and night, and can make it difficult for you to get to sleep.

Things like having a day job where you aren't exposed to as much daylight (an office for example) or wearing sunglasses all the time can cause a increase in the amount of melatonin that is produced making you feel sleepy during the day. Similarly watching t.v, being at a computer or around some other source of artificial light at night can cause a deduction in melatonin levels making you more awake and making it harder for you to relax and fall to sleep.

4. Watch what You Eat and Drink

Food is another thing that will affect the body during sleep and depending when and what you eat can also depend how good a nights sleep you could get. 

Fatty foods and other 'heavy' foods will take a lot of energy for your stomach to digest and so should try to be avoided within a couple of hours leading up to bed. Also try to eat your meals earlier in the evening as this will give your stomach more time to digest the food. I know for some people this isn't possible but if it is then give it a try. 

Avoid alcohol  before bed and avoid caffeine altogether (for example in coffee) if possible. Alcohol can send a person to sleep quicker, which you may be thinking that's a good thing, however it reduces the quality of sleep and your body will find it harder to go through all of the stages of sleep.  

Caffeine whilst okay in smaller doses can actually provide a restless nights sleep even after as much as 10 hours after consumption.  

Another thing, drinking too much water before you go to bed can also mean a midnight walk to the bathroom, so if you're going to drink lots of water I would suggest 1-2 hours before you go to bed. 

5. Exercise More

Daily exercise is another thing that you can do during the day to help yourself get a better nights sleep. Something like only 30 minutes a day can make a big difference. As I've said in other posts, daily exercise doesn't have to be in one go and can be split into smaller chunks (10 minutes for a section lets say) spread across the course of the day. 

If you're wanting to get into exercise more, then here's a previous post of mine: How to Create an Exercise Plan.

6. Avoid Smoking

As-well as being bad for your health in numerous ways, it can also be detrimental to sleep quality and can have you awake for much of the night in some cases. This is as nicotine is a stimulant which will disrupt sleep. As-well as this, depending on how much you smoke a day, you may find yourself getting up during the night to smoke as the withdrawal is too strong. 

Here's another previous post of mine: How to Stop Smoking.

7. Avoid Stress

Another thing that's detrimental to sleeping and health in general is stress and anxiety. Being stressed and anxious can make it very difficult for you to sleep, I know from where I've been stressed in the past and as a result have experienced sleepless nights and then long drawn-out mornings. Try to reduce stress levels as best you can. When first starting this blog I wrote an article about stress which I will direct you to if you want to read about it in more detail: The common causes of stress and how to deal with it. 

Conclusion

Whether you only need to change one aspect of your life or many aspects, I hope that doing so will help you to get a better nights sleep. Remember, if you're trying to get back into a regular sleep pattern then you may not see results for a couple of weeks or so as your body is adjusting to the change you've made.Good luck.

How to Create an Exercise Plan

Setting yourself the challenge to exercise regularly can seem like a daunting goal. Not knowing where to start or which exercises to do, and can be off-putting before you've even begun. A lot of people who exercise regularly will have faced this at the start and many of them have an exercise plan set in place to allow them to consistently get the exercise their body needs. For these people, their exercise plan is usually already in their heads as they've got into a routine, but for anyone who's just starting to exercise (maybe you who's reading this post), then an exercise plan would be a good thing to set in place.

1. Determine the amount of time available

It's no good setting yourself the goal of exercising an hour a day if you only have 20 minutes to spare. When you first start an exercise plan you'll want to determine straight away how much time you have to spare. Then once you've done that you can then decide what exercises to do.

You may have 20 minutes as a whole to spare a day but that's 10 minute sessions at two parts of the day, and that's fine. A workout plan doesn't need you to do your whole workout for the day in a single session, breaking it into chunks will make it more manageable anyway - especially when first starting out.

If you don't have enough time in the day to manage an exercise session then there are things you can do to make time. For example: you may decide to get up an hour earlier to allow yourself 30 minutes of exercise. Or, if you go to work, decide to cycle to work - which can count as your exercise for the day, depending upon how long it is for you to cycle. If it's only five minutes, you may want to consider finding time to do some more. Just look where you could spare some time - you may be surprised. 
If you want to know how you can get up earlier, here's a previous post of mine 'How to get up Early in the morning'.

2. Decide what exercises you're going to do

When creating an exercise plan you'll want the right kind of workout for you. If you're looking to lose weight, then cardiovascular exercises are the best things to go for. Doing cardio boosts your metabolism to help burn fat quicker and helps to promote a healthy heart helping in the prevention of heart diseases and strokes.

If you're wanting to gain muscle then you would do a muscle workout. Muscle workouts also help to burn fat because increasing muscle will also help to speed up metabolism - not to the same extent that cardio does though. Although, having muscle does help burn fat quicker because there is less space for the fat to be - that's not to say that just doing muscle workouts will help you lose all the weight you want because it wont and that's where cardio is required.

You may decide to do a mixture of both cardio and muscle exercises.

If you're wanting to do cardio exercises then it's normally best to do them most days or everyday. It's alright if you can't do it everyday - it's your exercise routine. 

Examples of cardio exercises:

• Running (probably the most popular cardio exercise)
• Swimming
• Walking
• Dancing
• Skipping rope/Jump roping
• Cycling

 Examples of muscle exercise:

• Glutes and hamstrings - Knee to chest, hip raises, split squats, step-ups.
• Triceps, chest and shoulders - push-ups, chair-dips, bench press,
• Abdominals and lower back - Leg raises, cycles, crunches, mountain climbers, jumping knee tucks
• Forearms and biceps - pull-ups, inverse body weight rows,
• Quads - Squats, lunges, heel slides, wall slides, backward drag, alternate leg diagonal bound, frog hops, standing hip flexors.

There are many more cardio and muscle exercises that you can do, these are just some examples to give you an idea. If you decide to do muscle exercises then it's best to do them every 2-3 days (48-72 hours) to give your muscles time to expand and repair.

3. Consistency

Now when I'm talking about consistency I'm talking about two things. The first is how often you're going to exercise and the second is at what time.

If you don't have much time to spare during your busy week you may decide to do 30 minutes of exercise every other day or if you're really pushed for time maybe just once or twice a week. The main thing is the consistency of the exercise. Our bodies like routine and so by being consistent with your exercise will not only allow your body to adapt naturally, but also carve out a scheduled space in your life in which you set aside specifically for exercise. People who are consistent with their exercise are much more likely to stick to it than that of an inconsistent person.

Also applying a time of day is helpful to make a much more specific exercise time, and if consistent, will help you to stick to it even easier. For example: you may decide that every week-day you're going to jog for half an hour. The only thing is, not only do you have work during the day, but you also have family commitments afterwards. You may then decide that waking up an extra hour earlier in the mornings will give you time to go for a 20-30 minute jog and be back in time for when you would usually wake-up. So, the mornings at, let's say for example 6:30, you leave the house to go for your 30 minute jog.

A quote I mentioned in my 'don't break the chain' article was "consistency breeds momentum", and it really does.

4. Keep a record of what you do

When you're caught-up in your exercise sessions it can be easy to not keep track of what you do and how long for. Also, because strenuous exercise can get exhausting it can be easy to over-exaggerate or under-exaggerate the amount of time used up.

This is where keeping a record of what you do is useful. Make a mental note of when you start and when you finish write down how much time has passed. Over time you will be able to compare these workouts with each other and will be able to make slight adjustments.

Try to record how much you do in terms of exercise as well, distances or repetitions. For example: I ran to the park and back today, I did 50 push-ups, I cycled a mile, etc.    

Conclusion

When first creating an exercise plan it may seem like an alien concept, and you may find it challenging - this is normal. Don't start off too ambitious. Create a manageable plan, and if it is too easy and not challenging enough for you, make the changes to it that will make it that bit harder. The best thing to do is to stick to it, and before you know it you'll have worked exercise into your daily life. Good luck. 

Update: If you have an iPhone, then you can get some useful apps to help your workout. 

How to Lose Weight

Obesity rates are on the rise. People want to know how to lose weight, and some are trying to, however, society is not letting them. This is as society is putting more and more obstacles in the way of losing weight. It now seems that it is wrong for our bodies to ever feel hunger, but really this is totally normal and our bodies are equipped to handle this.

There are so many advertisements around telling you about these unhealthy foods and how you need to try them and mentioning how cheap they are. And in comparison, unhealthy foods are relatively cheap, whilst the healthier options (for instance: fruits and veg) are a bit more on the pricey side. That's not to say that it's only because of society that a person is overweight, that's not true, there can be many factors that contribute towards a persons weight. These tips are known to work it's just making sure that you stick to them.

1. Exercise

Exercise is essential for wanting to lose weight. Exercise is great for helping shed those calories and helps to speed up metabolism, which is what burns the majority of calories. Adults are recommended to do at least 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise 5-7 days a week, whilst overweight and obese people should aim for 60 minutes and upwards.  

There are so many different forms exercise can take, so there should be one for you somewhere. That could be in the form of swimming, cycling, running, etc.

You may be thinking "I don't have 20 minutes to spare, let alone 30 minutes or more". Well this is common for many people, but the good thing is you can break it up into smaller chunks as long as you manage to hit your guideline for the day. For example, you may decide to do a 10 minute walk to work and a 10 minute walk back from work. That then only leaves the remainder of your time to spend doing something else. 

Try adapting to a more physically engaging lifestyle; try walking instead of taking the car or bus, or take up cycling, take stairs instead of lifts, take regular short-session intervals for something as small as 5 minutes of activity. Maybe even join a club. Over time it really does do your body good. 

2. Drink water

What you drink also plays a vital part in weight reduction as well, so sugary drinks are best to be avoided. If you like to enjoy an alcoholic beverage then try to limit the amount you have or stop completely. Water is the best liquid to go with and helps with metabolism. In fact one way to see a reduction in calorie consumption is simply to switch to water as being your 'main drink'.  

You can read more about drinking water here: 10 Reasons for Drinking Water.

3. Eat healthier

Eating healthier is something that, if you're serious about weight loss, will need to be implemented into your life. The truth is that your body needs vitamins and minerals to help sustain it and keep it functioning properly, not to mention helping with metabolism. 

Sugary foods and fatty foods are the big contributors to weight gain so cutting these out of your diet, or at least limiting their intake will definitely be beneficial.

If possible, try and get your recommended 5-fruits-and-veg a day. They are very low in calories and are great for snacks. 

4. Watch your calorie intake

You're body naturally burns calories, the majority is done through sleeping, but it is affected about what you do during the day. If you're consuming more calories per day than your body is burning then you are inevitably going to gain weight and not lose it. A lot of people who are doing this will not even realise the amount of calories they're taking in. When I started to have a look on the nutritional labels on the sides of food packaging, I was shocked about how easy it is to consume more than your daily calorie intake-guideline. Healthier foods seem to be lower in calories and so are the ones to go for, and they provide a steady energy use throughout the day.

Men's guideline intake of calories is 2,500. Women's calorie intake is 2,000 per day. 

5. Don't suddenly change your lifestyle

Your body will not adapt well to all of these sudden changes if you drastically change what you're doing. When wanting to train-up for a marathon without having any running experience, you don't just start by trying to do 26 miles. You slowly build up to that, maybe only starting with half a mile until your body has adapted to the change you are making.

So with trying to lose weight, for a lot of people anyway, a gradual change should be made so as to adapt better to the changes. This will keep you more inclined to keep these new good habits.

It's definitely possible to make a lot of big sudden changes and stick with them, however, only more disciplined people can do it this way. It is the quickest way though, but the way that isn't normally stuck to with most people.

If you do decide to start by making a gradual change to your lifestyle, don't let your self make excuses and allow lots of bad habits to continue because your making a gradual change. The emphasis shouldn't be on the gradual (because that could cause you to be very gradual about the process) but on the change, which is after all what you're after. Also a gradual change doesn't mean that you can't set challenging goals, just not as big as a full-blown lifestyle turn-around.  

6. Eat breakfast

Despite the rumour floating around that avoiding breakfast is good for you - it's not. Breakfast is essential for kick-starting your day and providing you with the energy your body needs. Whilst you sleep your metabolism will slow down and by having breakfast in the morning will help to get it going for another day. If you do miss breakfast you can lose fat, however, your body can also start to break down muscle as a a source of energy and that's not good. Having more muscle will mean there is less space for fat (if you don't eat excessively and do exercise) and actually helps with the promotion of a healthy metabolism, making burning fat easier.

7. Stop snacking

This is where a lot of people trip up and I can see why. Snacking is an incredibly easy thing to do, especially when you're bored or have had a stressful time - acting as comfort food. When people change their diet, often they seem to forget about snacking and it seems that one or two biscuits here and there won't hurt - but they do. Unhealthy snacks (such as biscuits, chocolate, sweets, and the like) are all high in calories and sugar, and will prevent you from losing as much weight as you could, if at all. 

I've written a post about snacking named: How to Stop Snacking. 

8. Keep a food diary

This is just to let you know what your calorie consumption is for each day. What you will need to do is to record the day's date and then record everything that you eat as your day goes along - and I mean EVERYTHING. Do not let anything get missed. If you want a truly accurate total of the calories that you consume then it is vital that you do not miss anything. Make sure to record saturated fat contents and sugar contents for each thing that you eat as-well, as these all contribute towards putting on weight. Your recommended daily sugar intake should be no more than 120g (for men) and 90g (for women). Saturated fat intake should be no more than 30g (for men) and 20g (for women).

Conclusion

Weight loss is not something that will happen overnight but is something that you will have to adapt to for the long term. If you are wanting to see serious results then you will need to adopt all of these tips and then have the self-discipline and motivation to stick to them. If you can afford to, getting a personal trainer who knows what they're doing will help you to keep to your goal. Good luck.