Aim to spend a few hours each week in a green space, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells. It’s great to just stop, look around, breathe in the smell of the trees and appreciate the pattern of light passing through the leaves. Pausing to notice your environment in this way shifts your focus outwards, makes […]
Spending a few minutes each day practising slow, controlled breathing is a perfect example of something that is simple, quick, and completely life-changing; it can transform your mood and your health, and bring a quiet joy to your day. That’s because just by changing how quickly and deeply you breathe, you can achieve amazing things: […]
Extending your overnight fast is known as time-restricted eating (TRE) and is based on research showing the multiple health benefits from having a slightly later breakfast and an earlier evening meal (and of course, no late night snack!). TRE is a very popular form of intermittent fasting and sometimes also known as 16:8 or 14:10. […]
Being more muscly not only makes you look good, it improves your posture and reduces the risk of developing back pain. Muscles burn calories, even when you are asleep, and they are also essential for keeping you active. One of the best ways to build up your muscles is to do resistance training. Body-weight exercises, […]
One in 20 people reading this will have a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease 15-fold. This gene, called AP0E4, doubles someone’s risk. And having two copies of this gene, as some people do, increases the risk significantly. However, experts say most carriers are able to ‘out-exercise’ their genetics, meaning that if they […]
It is often said that an apple a day keep the doctor away – but now in-depth research looking at more than 150 studies has shown this might well be true. It concluded that flavan-3-ols, a compound found in high quantities in apples, can improve blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. For maximum benefits, […]
If you’re planning to hit the gym this New Year, try adding raw ginger to your post workout smoothie. It contains gingerol and shogaols, with anti-inflammatory properties. A 2010 study on pain found that 2g of raw ginger reduced exercise-induced muscle pain by up to 25% for 24 hours compared with a placebo.
All exercise is beneficial as you age, but choose carefully and you can target the areas of your body you’re most concerned about to stay fit. Unfortunately there’s no magic exercise that’ll help you stay young forever. Ageing is a natural process – and a privilege – that we should whole heartedly embrace. However, if […]
Stress can lead to weight gain and make you more likely to overeat. We live in an increasingly hectic world, and stress is an unwelcome fixture in many lives. Emotional stressors are something we have to deal with on a daily (or in some cases, hourly) basis, and we are frequently exposed to physical stressors, too. […]
First things first: don’t beat yourself up if you’re not exercising as much or as hard as you think you should. Many people believe you have to be dripping with sweat and working as hard as you possibly can in order to make gains from a workout. But that’s not what exercise is all about. […]