Our daily lives are constant, we are always moving from one thing to the next with what seems like little or no rest, and our bodies do not have time to refresh of rejuvenate before the next barrage of activity. Our lives consist of work, exercise, family, socialising- there is always something to do. This is great as our lives are full and there is an element of excitement involved here, but all of this never-ending activity leads to us being run-down or stressed or even to our ill health.
Everybody wants to lead a full and productive life, but we also need to make time for adequate rest where our body which carries us through this chaos that is called life can revitalise and be restored with new energy. Without adequate rest - and especially if this continues for an extended period of time - we are running on our adrenaline, and this means that our natural energy resources have been depleted. We derive our energy from the food we eat, and this is why the types of food we eat are so important. This topic is on sleep though, so I won't talk about nutrition here but in a different post.
We allocate time in our daily lives for certain activities, so we also need to put aside time for rest where we can switch off from the world and restore essential vital energy. It is important that we utilise that 6-8 hours or sleep each night so we can perform at our best. Sleep is the great healer. it is better for us than any medicine and it will give us naturally what we need. As with anything, prevention is better than cure, if we do what is good for us now and in this moment, we will not need to pump our bodies full of drugs in the future because you have done wrong by it.
In our culture, we put so much emphasis on pushing on or forging forward that we do not listen to that which we rely on to allow us to do this - our bodies. The more we work with our bodies, the more attuned to it we become, the more in sync we become with our own bio-rhythyms that we innately know what is good for it. When we are at this point, we know when we need to rest, we know when we need to eat and we know what foods to eat to make it perform optimally. We need to work with our bodies, listen closely to what it is telling us.
When we are rundown, our body is telling us to rest, it is tired because we have pushed it too far.
When we do something, we want to do it well, and this extends to any arena in our lives. We cannot do this adequately without the proper rest that our body needs.
Sleep equals optimal performance. That is the take home message here;-)
Saturday, 28 November 2015
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Decisions...
Hi guys, hope you are all well! Okay, so this is really the inaugural post that is getting into the nitty-gritty! exciting, huh!
I was thinking about the matrix that is the world of health, and sometimes it can be a little bit overwhelming, especially if you are someone on the outside of this world and are looking at what lies within. It can be very daunting, you may not know where to begin, or even if you do know, what do you do! First and foremost, it is important to just do. get in there and do it! DO IT! Just like the old Nike adage...Just Do It! Whatever that 'it' may be! Tackle it, own it, get in its face, be its master! Procrastination is our worst enemy. We can all procrastinate on something for hours. But what if A..?But what if B..? But what if you do not question, and instead do?! You could save yourself a lot of time, and begin your change for the better sooner. Be the change in your world that you want to see.
So, we have decided to do something. Great. Weight training, swimming, running, bike riding, Crossfit for the more adventurous! Okay, maybe not to begin with...
When you have decided what you want to pursue, and especially if you have a goal in mind, it will be in your best interest to set short and long-term goals. A long-term goal might be that you want to run a half-marathon in 6 months. This is do-able... you just need to plan. After a couple of months training, you can do a 5km run, when you have done this you can aim for a 10km. The only thing stopping you will be your own motivation. We all want to see progress in what we set out to do, and if you are continually and progressively setting new goals and pushing boundaries...success will be yours.
I don't want to come across as gung-ho about this (okay, maybe I am just a bit..;-P), we do need to be smart about our training. We need to feed our bodies...fuel them. We need to give it the nutrients it needs. More protein to repair our muscles, limited fats, if we have a hard training session... give it more carbohydrates, as it will be in need of a prime energy source. The more we work with our body, the more in-sync we are with it.
To put it simply, our body is like a car. Look after it, service it regularly, fill it with the right fuel and she'll be running fine for years. But if you neglect it, fill it with E10 rather than prime unleaded, and forget to service it... she'll break down.
This is a subject that can be spoken about for ever...especially when I am so passionate about it. I will leave this here, and write another post on training and nutrition soon!
Ben. ;-)
I was thinking about the matrix that is the world of health, and sometimes it can be a little bit overwhelming, especially if you are someone on the outside of this world and are looking at what lies within. It can be very daunting, you may not know where to begin, or even if you do know, what do you do! First and foremost, it is important to just do. get in there and do it! DO IT! Just like the old Nike adage...Just Do It! Whatever that 'it' may be! Tackle it, own it, get in its face, be its master! Procrastination is our worst enemy. We can all procrastinate on something for hours. But what if A..?But what if B..? But what if you do not question, and instead do?! You could save yourself a lot of time, and begin your change for the better sooner. Be the change in your world that you want to see.
So, we have decided to do something. Great. Weight training, swimming, running, bike riding, Crossfit for the more adventurous! Okay, maybe not to begin with...
When you have decided what you want to pursue, and especially if you have a goal in mind, it will be in your best interest to set short and long-term goals. A long-term goal might be that you want to run a half-marathon in 6 months. This is do-able... you just need to plan. After a couple of months training, you can do a 5km run, when you have done this you can aim for a 10km. The only thing stopping you will be your own motivation. We all want to see progress in what we set out to do, and if you are continually and progressively setting new goals and pushing boundaries...success will be yours.
I don't want to come across as gung-ho about this (okay, maybe I am just a bit..;-P), we do need to be smart about our training. We need to feed our bodies...fuel them. We need to give it the nutrients it needs. More protein to repair our muscles, limited fats, if we have a hard training session... give it more carbohydrates, as it will be in need of a prime energy source. The more we work with our body, the more in-sync we are with it.
To put it simply, our body is like a car. Look after it, service it regularly, fill it with the right fuel and she'll be running fine for years. But if you neglect it, fill it with E10 rather than prime unleaded, and forget to service it... she'll break down.
This is a subject that can be spoken about for ever...especially when I am so passionate about it. I will leave this here, and write another post on training and nutrition soon!
Ben. ;-)
and then there were three...
Hi guys, how are you? Good I hope! My name is Ben, and I am an advocate of healthy living. okay, so a little about me....When I began my health and fitness journey 25 years ago, I just wanted to be the best I could physically. I was training in TaeKwonDo at this time in my life and I was 14 years old. I trained long and I trained hard. I became better and better at this Martial Art and through continual -and what may have seemed fanatical persistence- I could hold my own against the 'big boys'. During this time my knowledge of fitness increased, my training methods diversified and progressed, and what was once a rudimentary knowledge of fitness was now becoming quite thorough.
Anyway, history aside, I came to realise over time that what we put into our bodies plays just as big -if not a bigger- part in allowing us to achieve our fitness goals. I realised that we need to eat the correct nutrients to fuel our body so it works optimally.
After a long time i realised that health is not due to one particular thing that we do. It is not a result of how we work out, or what we eat, it is a combination of things. Our overall health depends on the state of our mind also. We need to be mentally healthy also. The triangle of health that we all need to achieve is made up of many things, but essentially it is constructed of three things. Physical health, mental health and spiritual health. Health , and our overall wellness, can be viewed as a triangle with each of these facets of health at a corner. Mind-Body-Spirit.
This blog will be about the connection of these three things, both individually and how each affects the other. It will also be about all things related to any of these areas of health. This will range from juicing to Ayurveda, from yoga to training methods. Nothing is out of bounds.
These days I train regularly, i practice yoga and meditation. I am a qualified personal trainer, an instructor in TaeKwonDo and a massage therapist. I am currently studying health science at uni.
I am now 39, and I feel that my knowledge of health is broadening daily, I work with my physical strengths and not against them. Life is a learning curve, and if we are open to the lessons that are given to us, we will learn until the day we die. We create that choice. Leave your ego at the door and move forward with renewed confidence.
Yours in Health,
Ben.
Anyway, history aside, I came to realise over time that what we put into our bodies plays just as big -if not a bigger- part in allowing us to achieve our fitness goals. I realised that we need to eat the correct nutrients to fuel our body so it works optimally.
After a long time i realised that health is not due to one particular thing that we do. It is not a result of how we work out, or what we eat, it is a combination of things. Our overall health depends on the state of our mind also. We need to be mentally healthy also. The triangle of health that we all need to achieve is made up of many things, but essentially it is constructed of three things. Physical health, mental health and spiritual health. Health , and our overall wellness, can be viewed as a triangle with each of these facets of health at a corner. Mind-Body-Spirit.
This blog will be about the connection of these three things, both individually and how each affects the other. It will also be about all things related to any of these areas of health. This will range from juicing to Ayurveda, from yoga to training methods. Nothing is out of bounds.
These days I train regularly, i practice yoga and meditation. I am a qualified personal trainer, an instructor in TaeKwonDo and a massage therapist. I am currently studying health science at uni.
I am now 39, and I feel that my knowledge of health is broadening daily, I work with my physical strengths and not against them. Life is a learning curve, and if we are open to the lessons that are given to us, we will learn until the day we die. We create that choice. Leave your ego at the door and move forward with renewed confidence.
Yours in Health,
Ben.
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