28th January – Movement Snacks
Move frequently throughout the day. 📚Evidence shows that sedentary behaviour (not moving for long periods of time) increases the likelihood of developing chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. What’s more, you can’t outrun sedentary behaviour – Even if you meet the recommended guideline targets for physical activity at other times during the day or week, having long periods of sedentary behaviour still increases your risk of chronic diseases. The good news is that you don’t have to do lots of exercise to avoid this – just getting up and walking around for 2minutes every 20minutes has been shown to have beneficial effect. I’m finding that I am…
27th January – Choose healthy snacks
I think snacks are one of the biggest challenges to healthy eating. Finding something that is easy to have to hand, that can be carried in your bag for whenever needed without getting squashed or gooey, that doesn’t melt or leak, or that doesn’t have lots of crumbs and bits to drop all over, and that can be eaten without getting sticky or messy… It’s almost impossible to buy healthy whole foods from most places that are easily accessible for snacks. The average cafe/takeaway offerings are sugar-laden cakes/cookies/baked-goods or highly processed pastries. Most quick snacks from convenience shops are brightly coloured shiny packets – crisps, sweets, chocolate and similar. Packets…
26th January – Daytime Sunshine
☀️Get some daytime sunshine. Exposure to natural light in the daytime, especially in the morning, can help improve sleep. Exposure to light signals the brain to reduce and stop producing melatonin, which is the hormone that makes us sleepy. The less melatonin in our system, the more awake we are. Normally, as the day progresses into evening, melatonin levels build up and make us feel ready for sleep. 🌤Getting bright light in the morning helps drive melatonin levels right down, and helps keep the sleep-wake cycle going. ☁️Even on a cloudy day, natural light is over 10times brighter than even the brightest indoor lighting. 🌥When we don’t get enough bright…
