Portion control...seven simple tricks to get into the habit

How can I eat less? I’ve probably been asked this question more than any other in my twenty years in the fitness industry. In times gone by I’d have probably talked about the importance of counting calories, weighing food, measuring out portions etc, and whilst they’ll certainly work, there are other, quicker, niftier little tricks you can use to ensure you don’t over-indulge. Here are a few of my favourites, taken from a mixture of scientific studies, my own thoughts and tricks my clients have taught me over the years.

Share and share alike

When it comes to takeaways and eating out, you’ll often find yourself with a massive portion that you just can’t eat. Fish and chips is a prime example, you’re sure that they’ve illegally battered a whale and wrapped it in paper for you. Why not just order one portion between two? You can also use this technique in pubs and restaurants; have a main meal each but share starters or desserts. It sounds simple but it literally halves the calories you could have consumed if you’d gone it alone.

The only issue you may have is if you’re like this guy!

The Rule of 3

Here’s one for buffets and takeaways - real danger spots when it comes to portion control; choice means calories. There’s a large element of FOMO at work here, you really must try a bit of everything just in case it’s amazing. Chinese and Indian takeaways are also notorious - you always order too much and even if you can’t eat it all, you don’t want it to go to waste so you stuff in as much as possible before you’re literally ready to burst.

With the Rule of 3 this won’t happen - you simply limit yourself to just three choices. Your absolute favourite things maybe, or possibly three different options every time if you’re an adventurous soul.

Halve it

Do you always have two slices of toast? Do you butter both of sides of the bread when making a sandwich? For that matter, do you use two slices of bread to make the sandwich? If so, try going halves. One slice of toast, butter only one side of your sarnie, or even take on slice of bread, cut it in half and cut your portions and calories in the process. Equally, if you know you normally spoon yourself two portions of roasties with Sunday lunch or two scoops of ice cream with dessert, you can cut one of these in half instead.

This doesn’t need to be an extreme measure; it’s certainly not something to do at every meal but done at times when you know you normally over-indulge or for just one meal each day, it can gradually add up to an effective change.

Get stuffed

In a nice way I mean; healthier food choices are generally higher in fibre and therefore more filling. Snacking on carrot sticks before a carb-heavy dinner can help you feel fuller quicker and control your eating. Celery or pre-dinner salads have the same effect.

All of the suggestions so far work, but they require willpower. If you want to make it easier to eat less, you can physically alter your eating environment using the following tips.

Is it small, or just far, far away?

Those of you’ve followed balance for a while know I’m a big fan of this one - it’s known as the Delboeuf Illusion. It’s all about perception; in much the same way that Dougall is confused about the proximity of the livestock in Father Ted.

Take a look at the image below from my book The Complete Guide to Weight Loss - which of the inner circles is the biggest?

If you’ve seen it before, you’ll know they’re the same size; if not that may come as something of a surprise. Even when you do know, it takes effort for your brain to overrule your eyes - the one on the left clearly looks bigger. The (apparent) size of the inner circle is directly related to the size of the larger outer one; the smaller the outer circle the bigger the one in the centre appears.

When it comes to plate and bowl size, this works wonders for making you feel full. Food tends to pile up when you use smaller china, also giving the appearance that there is more. And when you think there’s more, you feel full more quickly - downsize your plates and downsize your appetite.

Split it up

How often do you open a large bag of crisps, have a few, feel satisfied and put the rest away for another day? What about sweets? Biscuits? Or anything that comes in large portions for that matter. The human brain is incredibly poor at judging how many calories you have actually eaten - we all like to believe that we can total up how much we’ve had as we go along, stopping when we’re full. The reality is that we eat what’s there; maybe it’s still harking back to a time when if we had an opportunity to gorge, we took it, unsure when we might have that possibility again.

So what’s the solution? We have to prepare our food in such a way that it is much harder to eat more - portion things out into tupperware tubs or bags, buy smaller packets or multi-packs where at least the items are separately wrapped. You’re less likely to eat six small packets of crisps in one sitting than you are to much down a giant sharer bag. Having to stop and open a new packet acts as a natural pause; time to consider your choices. We also tend to naturally assume that if something is wrapped in its own packet then by default that is a sensible portion to consume.

Make it inconvenient

Want to eat less of something? Place it on a higher shelf, put it at the back of the cupboard or fridge, pop it in a drawer at work, better still, a lockable one and then place the key on the other side of the room. Use the method I mentioned above of individually wrapping foods so that it requires more effort on your part to get at it.

Studies have shown that people will eat considerably less peanuts when they come in their natural ‘monkey nut’ form with shells still on, compared to when they’re covered in shelled, covered in salt and conveniently placed in a giant bag for you. Usually laziness is a problem when it comes to weight control but here you can use it to your advantage to reduce your portion sizes.

You’ll have your own tools and techniques for controlling how much you eat; please do share them in the comments below to help others find their balance.

Souper duper soups

Soup is a classic part of a balanced diet; warming on a cold day, a great way of feeling full whilst keeping the calories under control and an opportunity to pack in an abundance of fruit, vegetables and nutrients.

Soup in fact is unique when it comes to helping stave off hunger - generally solid foods are consider more satiating (filling) than liquids but soup is the exception. In a range of studies it seems to curb appetite to the same level as eating solid foods. It’s thought that our perception of soups as hearty and filling may be responsible for this, but however it works, it’s a great reason to enjoy a bowl.

Here are three of our favourite recipes; all incredibly simple but ‘souper’ tasty!

Carrot & Lentil Soup

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Calories per serving: 100

Servings: 4-6 (depending on who’s eating it!)

Ingredients:

• 150g dried red lentils

• 600g Carrots chopped

• 1-litre water

• 2 x veg stock cubes

• Optional seasoning: Cumin, chilli, chipotle, coriander, black pepper, salt

Method

1) In a large pan add 1 litre of water and 2 veg stock cubes and bring to the boil

2) Add carrots and lentils and any seasoning you wish

3) Simmer for around 25 mins or until carrots and lentils are cooked

4) Allow to cool slightly and blend until smooth, then serve.

Creamy Tomato & Basil 

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Calories per serve: 80

Servings: 4-6

Method:

1) In a large saucepan add olive oil and sauté garlic and onions until lightly browned, then add the canned tomatoes

2) Add the whole tomatoes one at a time, breaking them up by squeezing them as you put them in the pan. Give it a good stir

3) Add the chicken stock, salt, pepper and sugar and allow to cook for 10 mins, stirring occasionally

4) Once cooked for 10 mins, reduce the heat to low and stir in cream and chopped basil, simmer for a few minutes and serve!

5) Optional topping, add parmesan or even an optional tasty side of a toasted cheese
sandwich. Soup and a sandwich - mmmm what's not to love!!

Ingredients:

• 4 cloves garlic

• 2 tbsp chopped white onion

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 2 cans chopped tomatoes

• 400g whole tomatoes

• 2 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock 

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp black pepper

• 1/3 cup heavy cream 

• 4 tbsp fresh basil

• Parmesan cheese (optional

Hearty Pasta Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 2 carrots

• 1 large onion, chopped 

• 1 litre veg stock

• 200g mixed peas / beans 

• 400g can chopped tomatoes

• 250g pack fresh filled tortellini (your choice
  of flavour) 

• Parmesan (optional)

• Seasoning of choice, salt, pepper, garlic

Method:

1) Heat oil in a pan

2) Fry onions and add carrots until they start to soften

3) Add the vegetable stock and tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes

4) Add the peas and beans (or any other veg) and cook for another 5 mins

5) Once the veg is tender add the tortellini and return to the boil for 2-5 mins until the pasta is cooked 

6) Season and sprinkle with parmesan

7) Optional garlic bread on the side

Seven reasons why we love books!

It’s World Book Day and as you know, we are absolute book fiends! The feel of the cover, the sound when the pages turn, the joy of getting completely lost inside a written world, there’s so much to shout about so let’s celebrate the wonderful book with a look at the many benefits to be gained by reading.

Relaxation: Books are a wonderful source of escape. Whether you’re climbing through those wardrobe doors into Narnia or summiting Everest with your favourite explorer, they help you to get away from the stresses and strains of life, maybe just for ten minutes or maybe an entire rainy Sunday morning. In 2009, a group of American researchers tested the effects of 30 minutes of either reading, yoga or comedy on stress levels. All three significantly reduced acute stress levels by a similar amount, lowering both heart rate and blood pressure in what is a relatively short period of time; great news for book lovers.

Escape from screens and technology: There’s something so different about reading on paper compared to a screen; maybe it’s the lack of brightness and glare, maybe it’s just the fact that so much of our lives these days is a marriage of our eyes and a luminescent screen. Whatever it is, books help you to feel like you’ve escaped to a bygone era, one where the world moves at a slower pace, everybody knows each other and still says good morning, one where the words ‘Brexit’ and ‘Coronavirus’ sound like the gibberish nonsense of an alien being recently crash-landed just outside the village.

Stories and adventures: books are like keys to the imagination, unlocking doors to incredible and unthought of possibilities, opening your mind to facts, ideas and plots beyond your wildest dreams. Through millennia the human brain has thrived on storytelling to pass on fables of quests, incredible feats, pride in our ancestry and just sheer imagination. For much of that time we had to rely on the spoken word but the book opened up the possibility of sharing those stories and ideas with so many more people. Interestingly, some studies have shown that reading fiction books can help improve a person’s empathy skills, possibly because the book takes the person deep into the thoughts and feelings of another character.

Learning: books teach us so much; non-fiction gives us facts, knowledge, records of people’s experiences and ideas for the future, but fiction can teach us many things too - to think in different ways, about politics, religion, love, art, crime and much more all through a cleverly woven story and all books broaden our language skills, introducing us to phrases, sayings, expressions, other languages, grammar and more besides.

Brain function: I don’t know about you but I always feel so much better able to concentrate through reading; to immerse myself in one thing without interruptions. You don’t get that with technology, you try to read an article but get one of an abundance of different noises to signify a message from a friend, an email offering you the best sale prices on your favourite stuff, or alerts to tell you how many people liked your Facebook post earlier. Only in a book can you truly focus - it’s almost meditative in its quality, your eyes scanning the pages line after line, only occasionally looking away to check how many pages until the chapter ends and wondering when would be best to put it down before it draws you in ever deeper.

Sleep routine: reading an actual book before sleep is our nightly ritual - phones safely stored away in another room, it’s where we can truly start to unwind. And because it’s a habit (and you know how much I love those), our brains know that what comes after reading is sleep. It’s a cue that we use to set up a desired behaviour, a extension of Pavlov’s dogs…words on a page = time to snooze soon. One of the biggest wins of a book over an e-reader is that it doesn’t rely on blue light. The brightness of a screen stimulates the brain into essentially believing it is daytime and can increase levels of stress hormones, delaying sleep.

Pleasure: There’s just sheer joy to be had from reading a book; maybe it’s one you read as a child and reading it again, for yourself or to your children evokes memories of happy times. Maybe it’s the places it takes you; to the ends of the earth, alien worlds, a parallel universe or your favourite town or country, to the middle of nowhere or the centre of the busiest city on Earth. Maybe it’s the enjoyment you get from talking through the twists and turns of the plot with friends, maybe it’s the powerful feelings evoked by the writer; happiness, sadness, fear, passion, intrigue, or maybe it’s just the weight of the book in your hand, the smell of the paper or the fact that it signifies time just for you.

Whatever you love about books, keep reading, they’ll definitely help you to find your balance.

What our house will look like one day!

Flipping brilliant pancake ideas

Here’s a whole load of inspiration for your pancake day…we’ve got something for every meal, savoury, desserts, gluten free, vegan and even boozy! A nice balance of healthy and tasty, so enjoy.

Breakfast ideas

• The North American Contintental - straightforward thick pancakes topped with bacon, maple syrup and blueberries

• Expresso pancakes with Nutella - mix an espresso shot (you can use normal ground coffee with water if you prefer) into the pancake batter mix, then top with Nutella once ready

• Eggs Benedict pancakes - top plain pancakes with thick-cut ham, spinach, a poached egg and readymade Hollandaise sauce (or you can make your own in about ten minutes)

Vegan and gluten free options

You can swap out traditional flour for buckwheat flour to make your pancakes gluten free. For a vegan option, use coconut oil and almond milk (there are loads of other oils you can use - olive, avocado or any vegetable or seed oils, and you can swap almond milk for soya, oat or rice). Try topping your pancakes with banana, maple syrup, berries, vegan chocolate chips or plant-based yoghurt.

How do you like yours? Thin and crispy crepes…

or thick and fluffy American style?

Lunchtime pancakes

• Tuna mayo and spinach - make thin pancakes and fill with the tuna mayo and spinach before rolling up

• Cheese and ham - the pancake equivalent of a toastie, perfect for days when the weather is horrid

• Vege protein pancakes - buckwheat is a good source of protein, so after you’ve made your pancakes, fill with the buckwheat, some rocket and some sliced cherry tomatoes (or salsa for added zing).

Savoury options

• Parsnip pancakes - roast some parsnips, mash them thoroughly and add to the batter mix. Serve with a honey and mustard dressing

• Quesadilla pancakes - fill plain pancakes with either mince or soya, roll up, cover with grated cheese then bake in the oven until the cheese is golden brown

• Butternut squash, goats cheese and rosemary pancakes - dice and sprinkle the squash with rosemary then roast for 20 minutes; you can crumble on the goats cheese for the last few minutes to warm it or add cold to the pancakes

Dessert options

For something a little more luxurious, why not try…

• Blueberry cheesecake pancakes - mix cream cheese into your batter mix and then serve topped with blueberries

• Cinammon crepes - stir the cinnamon into your batter and then make them thin and crispy before serving with the nut butter of your choice, some sliced banana and raspberries

• Lemon and sugar - no pancake list is complete without the ultimate traditional pancakes; you can use real lemons or Jif!

Boozy alternatives

Last but not least, here’s some inspiration if you fancy a pancake nightcap…

• Espresso Martini pancakes - mix espresso, sugar and coffee liqueur to make a syrup, whilst separately mixing vodka, mascarpone, yoghurt and icing sugar to form a cream. Dollop the cream onto plain pancakes and drizzle on the syrup

• Baileys Cream pancakes - mix Baileys and some thick double cream and whisk together thoroughly; once served top with a little more Baileys for good measure

• G&T pancakes - make a syrup by mixing a G&T, lemon juice and sugar, reducing down until nice and sticky. Pour another G&T into your batter mix and whisk until smooth. Once served, grate lemon zest over the top for an added touch.

Whatever you choose; healthy, tasty, main or dessert, make them with love and enjoy.

Use your loaf

Lou’s lovely no need to knead fruit bread

There’s no denying, fruit and bread go together like Torville and Dean, Morecambe and Wise, Ant and Dec even. Delicious sliced fresh off the loaf, made into a sandwich with vintage cheddar wedged between or simply toasted with a little butter…or my favourite, peanut butter.

Time to prepare:

15 minutes to put together, prove overnight and then 45 minutes in the oven

Nutritional highlights:

• Walnuts are rich in polyunsaturated fats, including alpha-linolenic acid, one of those wonderful Omega 3s. They pack a decent amount of protein and the phytonutrients (plant goodies) beta-carotene (vitamin A), lutein and zeaxanthin, plus fibre and a host of antioxidants. They’ve been linked to better heart, brain, bone and digestive health, improved mood, energy, weight management and reduced inflammation

• Dried cranberries and apricots are a good source of dietary fibre, important for healthy digestion and helping increase feelings of fullness. The apricots are also rich in potassium that helps regulate fluid levels in your body, iron (important for blood cells and oxygen carrying), plus more vitamin A and antioxidants to keep your immune system strong

Ingredients:

• 350g plain flour

• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

• 30g chopped walnuts

• 135g dried cranberries & apricots (or mixed currants
  of your choice)

• 85g agave or liquid honey, plus a little extra for brushing on after baking

• 375ml water at room temperature

• Dutch oven (a thick metal or ceramic pot with a lid that seals it completely)

1. Add the flour to a large mixing bowl. Add yeast to one side of the bowl, and the salt to the other side

2. Stir the yeast into the flour on its side of the bowl and then stir the salt into its side. This will prevent the salt mixing directly with the yeast. Then give the whole mixture a good stir until everything is combined

3. Add the dried fruit and walnuts and stir until it’s coated and distributed evenly

4. Measure the water, make sure it is room temperature; water that is too cold or warm can kill the yeast and prevent the bread from rising

5. Add the agave to the water and stir until combined

6. Pour the water into the flour and mix until combined; the dough will be rough and sticky. There’s no need to kneed this dough, just give it a good mix

7. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, leaving enough space for the dough to double in size. Put the bowl in a warm place to let it rise, proving for 12-18 hours

8. After proving, grab your dough and some grease-proof paper. Dust both the paper and your hands with flour, then scrape the dough out of the bowl onto the paper. It will still be sticky and look a little rustic.  Shape into a circular loaf on the paper, trying to handle the dough as little as possible to avoid it deflating

9. Sprinkle with flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap to let it rise again, this time just for 45 minutes

10. Pre-heat the oven to 210 fan/gas mark 8; put the Dutch oven in the top to warm up

11. After rising, remove the plastic wrap and trim around the grease proof paper as close to the dough as possible

12. Remove the Dutch oven and transfer the dough into the pot as carefully as possible. Place the lid on the pot and return to the oven for 30 minutes; do not take the lid off in this time. After half an hour,
remove the lid and cook for a further 15 minutes

13. Remove the pot and transfer the bread
to a wire rack to cool. Brush a little extra agave on top of the bread if you fancy it

14. Resist cutting into the bread until it’s
pretty much cooled. The bread continues to bake on the inside even after it’s been removed from the oven

15. Enjoy

What would a perfectly balanced day look like?

If finding your balance is all about repeating good habits over time, then the first step is to work out what one perfectly balanced day looks like, and then repeat it as often as possible.

Let’s have a look at what that nicely balanced day might contain…

1. Seven to nine hours of sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. That means the perfect day actually starts the evening before, going to bed at the right time in order to meet your requirements. One scientific study even went so far as to calculate the ideal time to get out out bed - apparently it’s 7:22. The researchers found that people who rose at or after this time had lower levels of cortisol, possibly because it enabled them to get adequate amounts of sleep.

2. The ideal breakfast. Some would argue for porridge; the oats and low Glycemic Index serving to fill you up and energise you throughout the day. If your dietary choices allow for them though, you can’t go wrong with eggs. They’re packed full of important proteins to stave off hunger and increase alertness, there’s vitamins for a healthy body and good fats to keep your brain and heart in peak working condition. A study by Direct Line, yep the ones with the musical phone, found that giving yourself 22 minutes to enjoy your breakfast in a calm environment was optimal.

3. The work bit. Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones, a book about why it is that people in certain parts of the world live longer, happier lives, has reviewed research on more than 20 million people worldwide through the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, and says “When it comes to your work, try to work part-time, 30–35 hours a week.” Working less is consistently linked to increased health and happiness, but maybe surprisingly, doesn’t seem to affect productivity - people get the same amount done in less time. A working day starting at 9/9:30 and finishing around 4/4:30 would meet these requirements comfortably.

4. Free time. Returning to the Direct Line survey, they claimed we should all have 6 hours 59 minutes of awake, non-work or ‘free’ time. This includes 18 minutes on social media (some of us may need to work on this one), 2 hrs 21 minutes eating, including 53 mins for lunch, 1 hour for TV watching and another hour for ‘me’ time.

5. Exercise. In terms of cardiovascular activity, the current guidelines are actually based on weekly totals - either 150 minutes of moderately hard exercise or 75 minutes of very hard training; working harder gives the benefits in half the time. As a daily average, that equates to around 21 minutes, 30 seconds of moderate activity, or 10 minutes 45 seconds of hard effort. A very short amount of time for a very large level of reward.

6. Socialising and family time. Back to Direct Line world again, where everyone is comprehensively insured. Their report suggested we get 45 minutes-1 hour of socialising each day and research is clear; people who spend more time with friends live longer, happier lives. Another hour is given for quality family time, whether you want it or not. ;-)

7. Bedtime. And so we’re back where we started, where all days start and end. Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, says that whilst there’s no specific time to get to sleep, there does appear to be an idea window somewhere between 8pm and 12 midnight. As I talked about right at the start, it’s worth working backwards to ensure you get your 7-9 hours. If you’re getting up at 7:22 this means anywhere from 10:22-12:22 should be fine. If you’re a night owl you may shift this later if you can rise at your own leisure, whilst if you’re a morning lark you’ll likely want to shift this forwards.

And there we have it, seven habits for a balanced day. Repeat them often enough and health, fitness and happiness are just around the corner. :-)

What's it like living with depression?

Some of you will have read my blog a few months ago about habits to help beat depression. You’ll know that this year I’ve had to face the challenge of living with depression for the first time in my life really. I thought I’d share with you a little about what it’s like so that you might better understand and be able to help others you know who will experience it. Of course, these are just my experiences and everyone is different so always bear that in mind and remember three things…

1) Nobody is defined by an illness, no matter what it is. They are not the illness, they are still themselves, they just happen to have a condition

2) Listen - never presume you know what it’s like, even if you’ve been through it yourself. Each person’s experience is different, so take time to listen to them

3) Ask - find out from them how you can best help and be patient, they won’t always know the answer straight away.

What is it like for me?

• Let’s start with what it’s not - it isn’t a constant thing, it comes and goes, sometimes suddenly, sometimes creeping up over days. Sometimes it lasts a few hours, sometimes it lasts a few days. Many days it isn’t there at all whilst on others it’s ever-present

• It also isn’t feeling sad, down or upset, rather it’s feeling empty, lacking in my usual drive to get on and do things which for me is a weird experience. All of my life has always been so driven thinking about my next work or exercise challenge, pushing myself to the next level. But when I feel like this, it’s a challenge to do more than a few hours of work each day, it exhausts me. Many people I’ve worked with find it hard to get the motivation to exercise when they feel this way; for me it’s the complete opposite - the simplicity of putting one foot in front of the other or jut turning those pedals appeals greatly, it’s the effort of thinking for work that’s the real challenge

• Some people might say ‘but you know how to deal with this as it’s you job to help people, so why don’t you just do the things you should and snap out of it?’ It doesn’t quite work like that; depression has many causes and the habits I talk about in balance are just one part of the process of recovery. They definitely help, I know they do - I exercise, I eat well, I drink very little and I don’t smoke or do drugs and all of these habits make me feel good

• The one area I have struggled with is socialising - it’s a strange contradiction as you know that being around people is good for you, yet the malaise you feel makes it hard for you to get out there. Withdrawal is a common challenge in depression and I’ve not quite worked out how to overcome this one yet. I find myself deliberately waiting in bed until my housemate has gone to work, not wanting to communicate. I think you also sometimes don’t want to be seen when you’re not on top of your game, or maybe that’s just me because I think I feel the pressure to always be energised and positive because of what I do

• That pressure to be ‘Mr Balance’ is a bigger one for me than I’d ever thought it would be. One of the main points of balance is that none of us is perfect, myself included - we all have days where we can’t be bothered to exercise, where we make poorer food choices, where we don’t feel perfectly balanced, but I’ve felt more expectation on me in recent times to be ‘perfect’. As an example, I recently posted a little rant on my personal page as I was just frustrated with the state of the world and with many people - I wasn’t feeling depressed or down that day, it’s normal to have a balance of emotions. We should feel positive, happy and energised at times, whilst at others we might feel anxious, sad or tired; most of the time we’ll probably just sit somewhere in the middle feeling not very much at all. For whatever reason, my whinge led to many well-meaning checks that I was ok - I guess it’s my own fault having created the persona of balance. Funnily enough, it was this that actually made me feel down that day, as if I was expected to be Mother Theresa or Nelson Mandela (and I don’t look like either of them…yet).

I started this short blog piece with some suggestions about things you should do with those challenged by depression, so I’ll finish with some considerations for what not to do:

1) I probably wouldn’t ask if they’re ok - they’re not right now. Instead, treat them as you normally would - talk about football, Love Island, the annoying lady at work, just be how you always are with them

2) Don’t make suggestions - ‘why don’t you…’ or ‘have you tried…’ aren’t always what’s required. As I said at the start, listen to them if and when they want to talk and then ask what would be most helpful for them.

Have a balanced week all (and remember, that means ups, downs and just fair to middling).

Paul

Re-use, recycle, upcycle

“Ending is better than mending…the more stitches, the less riches.”

I’ve recently finished reading A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, a dystopian future novel written in the 1930s where Henry Ford has essentially replaced God as the being that everybody worships. Part of this alternative religion sees mass consumerism placed at the very heart of society; nobody needs repair things as they can simply buy new and by doing so, they keep the wheels of society turning for the better.

Huxley foresaw this when visiting America in the early 1930s, little did he know how accurate his predictions would become. We might not sing songs about the Great Ford, but we do live in a society obsessed with consumerism and aghast at the thought of repairing something when it’s so easy to buy new. We live in the age of Amazon 1-click, of contactless, of computers that are only expected to last a few years before they’re considered ‘vintage’ (this very word was used by a young ‘genius’ on a recent visit to the Apple store where I had the gall to ask if my 2012 laptop might be repairable). New is always better – new cars, new houses, a new phone every year that does pretty much everything the ‘old’ one does, with a few tweaks. We truly are weapons of mass consumption.

But at what price? New things we need a constant supply of resources to produce them…metals, plastics, man-made fibres and all the fuel needed to power the plants and machinery that create them. And what do we do with the old things? We discard them. Into the bin, thrown onto the tip, or in the worst case, dumped by the side of the road or at a local nature spot.

The Savage in Huxley’s novel, a young man who’d grown up in the wilderness, brought up by Native Americans, was repulsed by this modern world and its endless consumerism and leisure time. His voice is beginning to resonate in our own society. Just this weekend I packed for a camping trip and got out my shiny new rucksack, bought to replace the previous incarnation, simply because the seam had begun to tear in the corner. At the time it never even crossed my mind to attempt to repair it. Why would I bother when I could get online and have a brand new one delivered by tomorrow for free? I say free; covered by my annual Amazon Prime subscription of course.

More recently though, I’ve begun to wonder how my shopping habits affect our planet? About how we will eventually run out of the fossil fuels and other resources needed to make and deliver this constant stream of new things. About how my shopping habits lead to deforestation and a continually shrinking habitat for the beautiful animals on our planet. About how my discarded items are sent abroad and piled into vast mounds of rubbish, damaging the health of local children and families, about how all of the plastics I’ve bought begin to degrade and end up in our oceans, filling the stomachs of marine life and ultimately, possibly ending up in my own through the process of the food chain. And about how reusing, repairing and buying second-hand can make a difference and save our forests, our oceans, our animals, our health and our bank balances.

How has this changed my habits?

In more ways than you can imagine…

• I look to repair things when they break and often, it’s eminently possible and works just as well afterwards, sometimes better

• If I need to buy something, I’ll check out Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Gumtree or Preloved for second-hand options. It’s become a bit of an obsession, searching for the best possible bargains and comparing with what it would’ve cost me to buy new

• I’ve found things in the house that can do a perfectly good job; examples include plates and a toast rack acting as soap dishes, a bathroom door bolt used to secure two scaffold planks together to make a raised bed and old towels turned into dusters and dishcloths

• I’ve worked on throwing away less and recycling more, so much so that for the last fortnight I haven’t even had a bin in the house. Wood, hard plastics and metals get recycled at the local tip, paper, card, plastic bottles, trays, glass and foil go into my recycling bins for collection, soft plastics are taken to Tesco stores here in Bristol where they’re melted down and used again for packaging and I avoid buying things in packaging I know I can’t recycle. The bin by the way, has been washed out and will be used to grow potatoes in future.

Your next challenge is simply to take one step towards less consumption and less waste…buy something from a second-hand shop or through online sites like Facebook Marketplace, reuse something in a novel way – a jam jar as a plant pot, cardboard boxes to store clothes or toys, whatever you can think of. Maybe upcycle an old piece of furniture, it could be a fun project, give you a new hobby and help you get active at the same time. Can you recycle more? Check out sites like Terracycle or Recycle Now to find ideas on what else you can do – maybe take crisp packets or toothbrushes to a local Terracycle collection point for example.

Re-use, recycle, upcycle and help our planet find to become fitter, healthier and happier once more.

Kindness - the most important habit of all?

Ebenezer Scrooge throws open the window on that snowy Christmas morning and throws the young boy in the street some money to get him the prize turkey from the poulterers shop, plus a generous tip for his time. What Dickens is showing us is that a new man has been born, a kind one. It’s the central theme of the book, the notion that being kind and generous not only makes others happy, but you too in the process. Of course it’s framed in Victorian godliness, with kindness ultimately being the way to redemption.

In more modern times, there’s a wonderful episode of Friends entitled ‘The one where Phoebe hates PBS’, where she tries to prove to Joey that selfless good deeds do exist. What follows are numerous attempts by her to show kindness, but frustratingly for her, she keeps feeling good about it, proving Joey’s point that when being kind to others, there’s always something in it for you too. But hey, that’s ok, it’s what the legendary self-help author Stephen Covey would call ‘Win:Win’.

I’ve spent my adult life searching for the magical formula for what makes us fitter, healthier and happier, my very own grail quest if you will. It led me down a long and winding path that ultimately brought me to the point where I realised it wasn’t one single thing that provides us with wellbeing, rather a broad collection of habits that must be regularly performed in much the same way as plants need regular feeding and watering to thrive.

But…what if there were one habit that may just be more important than all of the others? Partly because it’s such a powerful habit in terms of its ability to boost your mental wellbeing, but also because in turn, those changes in mental wellbeing boost your energy and motivation to perform the other healthy habits. I’ve come to suspect that the habit in question might be kindness.

Kindness isn’t an emotion, it’s an action and that’s why it’s so powerful. Unlike say happiness, which we’re all constantly seeking, which we feel pressure to experience more often, especially in the picture-perfect world of social media. But happiness is a feeling, and feelings can need experiences and actions for them to occur. Much like the recent piece I wrote noting that something makes you happy and that happiness makes you smile, but smiling as an action in itself can also make you happy. You can’t just feel happy, something has to happen to feel an emotion. Kindness is different, it’s an act and the wonderful thing is, that being kind makes you happy.

The Mental Health Foundation Report

Back in 2012, The Mental Health Foundation produced a great little free download for Mental Health Awareness Week. In it, they summarised the effects of doing good and helping others on our wellbeing. In brief, they reported that:

• Stress levels decrease and our immune system is strengthened

• There’s a decrease in negative feelings like anger, aggression and hostility

• Our mood improves, as does self-esteem and confidence

• Happiness levels rise quickly and this brings increased feelings of calm in the long-term

• Social connections improve; we have a greater sense of belonging and therefore feel less isolated

• We feel more optimistic about things

As well as just interacting more with people, these benefits could derive from a sense of perspective gained from helping others less fortunate than yourself, an increased level of support due to reciprocity (others tend to help you more when you help them and over time it appears that you can build a ‘kindness bank’ of memories that helps you to feel good about yourself.

Happy hormones

Numerous chemical changes occur through acts of kindness. Dopamine, serotonin, opioid and oxytocin are all increased in the ‘flood that comes from doing good’. Even witnessing others being kind releases the same substances, but doing it yourself delivers a greater dose. These hormones have a positive impact on mood, increase relaxation and lead to less feelings of depression, but also reduce physical measures like blood pressure and feelings of pain. One study showed that levels of the stress hormone cortisol were 23 per cent lower in people who were more kind, and kindness even appeared to slowed the ageing process.

The research

Here’s a collection of scientific studies and their findings in relation to kindness and wellbeing. Just cos you know, it’s nice to know I’m not just making it up! ;-)

• In one study, students from a university were tasked with performing five random acts of kindness (RAK’s) each week. They could be small like making someone a cup of tea or bigger like giving blood, the choice was theirs. Over six weeks, wellbeing scores improved in students who took part, versus those who didn’t

• Another study of Japanese university students found that happy people were generally kinder than unhappy folk. They also found that happiness increased through simply counting the number of acts of kindness you performed, which in turn made them kinder still and more grateful

• MS (Multiple Sclerosis) sufferers who provided peer support to others with the condition had less symptoms of depression and improved their confidence, self-awareness and self-esteem

• In a study looking at how the brain responded to acts of kinds, MRI scans showed that there was increased activity in the meso-limbic system, an area stimulated when we are rewarded. Helping others appears to give us pleasure sensation, a type of euphoria sometimes referred to as ‘helper’s high’ 

Of course, as with everything, we can have too much of a good thing and other research has noted that too much helping or volunteering can overwhelm us, leaving us feeling stressed and at times outweighing the benefits we derive. This has been referred to as compassion fatigue. Helping others to the extent that we don’t help ourselves enough, maybe financially, by not giving us enough time to do the things important to us, or just to the point where we become overly tired (being helpful takes effort) can all have a negative impact on wellbeing, so it’s important to find the right balance.

What can we do?

Acts of kindness can come in many forms, large to small - picking something up for someone if they drop it, holding a door or letting a car out in traffic can all be easy wins. You might go further and provide mentoring services to someone, raise money for good causes or even do some volunteering.

Apparently, we tend to volunteer more as we get older, maybe because we have more free time or generally a better income which allows us to be more generous, or maybe our values change as we age? Whatever the reason, clearly it’s a helpful thing to do; studies show that people of 55 or over had a 44% lower risk of dying young when they did volunteering.

I’ll leave you with two quotes from very different people, but both equally powerful.

“We cannot do great things on this earth, only small things with great love. ”

— Mother Theresa

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. ”

— Winston Churchill

Be kind,

Paul

Have a little.....................………patience

The stripes would fill the screen, constantly changing colour, accompanied by the noise; a mix of screeching, beeping and static, like some sort of futuristic rave. There were no drugs involved here, just the simple insertion of a cassette tape into the Spectrum ZX. The hope was that at some point in the future, it would finish loading and I’d get to enjoy the modern wonder that was the home computer game. Sadly, this didn’t always happen; with personal computers in their infancy, the error screen (like the one above) was all too common. When this happened, my mom would simply say ‘never mind, you’ll have to play it tomorrow instead.’

And this way I learned the art of patience. Fast forward 30 years and that art is all but lost. The mobile phone, not much larger than a credit card, has 15 times more memory than the Spectrum, is thousands of times quicker and more powerful, and with the advent of the internet, means that almost anything is available in seconds at the touch of a button. Where shall we eat later? Who played that character in Lord of the Rings? When can I get that delivered by? Oh, it’ll be here this afternoon.

We live in an instant world and it’s reflected in our behaviours and attitudes. We’re frustrated when we see the dreaded buffering symbol, when the image pauses, even briefly, whilst streaming a video. We send texts, emails and WhatsApp messages and don’t feel it’s unreasonable to expect an instant reply. Our phones tell us when a message has been read and when someone is online, making us irritated when the person appears to be ignoring us. We have no idea of course what they might be up to at that moment; they could be working, spending time with their family, delivering a baby by the side of the road or saving the planet, but we’re free so they should be too.

But wait, there’s power in patience

Take That told us to have a little, Yoda informed Luke that he must work on it and Guinness said that if we could wait for just under two minutes, good things would come. Science suggests they may well be right.

In 2007, Sarah Schnitker and Robert Emmons showed that people who demonstrated more patience tended to experience less depression and negative emotions, possibly because they could cope better in times of stress. The same authors showed in a separate study that people who demonstrate more patience towards others were more hopeful and satisfied with their lives. Those who get less stressed by traffic jams, queuing and malfunctioning technology also report better mental wellbeing in general.

In a 2012 study, patient people reported putting in more effort and making more progress towards important life goals, and it’s even been linked to less incidents of ill health; coughs and colds, ulcers, headaches, acne and poor sleep. At a physiological level, this may be because they have a better balance in their autonomic nervous system. One half is made up of the well-known, ‘fight or flight’ response, known more technically as your sympathetic nervous system and responsible for the increase in hormones like adrenaline during times of stress. This should be balanced by the parasympathetic nervous branch, your ‘rest and digest’ system, that releases hormones like melatonin to help you sleep, repair and recover. When these systems are not well balanced and you’re spending more time on your accelerator and less on the brake, you’re more likely to suffer physical and mental health issues.

Worth the wait

Back to my Spectrum ZX; I remember the joy and excitement when the game had finally loaded. It was extra special because I’d had to wait for it and because there was always that chance that I wouldn’t get to play Space Invaders or Manic Miner. When you think about it, there are countless wonderful examples of where patience is just better…

• Opening your Christmas or birthday presents without already knowing what they are

• That feeling when the ketchup finally starts to drip out of the bottle and onto your plate, even though the palm of your hand is a little sore from all the tapping

• When you counted the cash in your money box and you were finally able to afford the toy/sweets you so desperately wanted

• Waiting for a letter from your friend in response to the one you sent them ages ago

• The first leaves growing on the plant you’ve been caring for from a seed

• The day you notice those muscles poking through underneath your skin, a little more defined than before for sure, or when you get up that hill without stopping and it takes you by surprise.

What about you? Can you think of things that were just more enjoyable when you’d waited?

Getting fitter and healthier requires plenty of patience, firstly to get there, and secondly to keep it up. If you haven’t been active for a while, changes can happen relatively quickly to begin with, but the fitter you are the slower this change becomes and you’ll have to test those Jedi mind powers to the max. Always remember, your health is the sum of your most frequent, recent habits. You can’t get fitter and then just stop, it doesn’t work like that. Your health, fitness and wellbeing is a lifelong quest and the going isn’t always easy, patience is a must.

How do you stay patient?

In his brilliant book, Misbehaving, Richard Thaler discusses the infamous ‘Marshmallow Test’. In a series of scientific studies, children were offered either one marshmallow (or cookie) now, or they could have three if they waited for 15 minutes. Agonisingly, they were then left alone in the room with the single sugary treat calling to them, tempting them to scoff it down. And of course, many did. Thaler points out that if they’d been offered one cookie at 3pm tomorrow, or three at 3:15, they’d have no problem in waiting the extra quarter of an hour. It’s the immediacy of it that makes it challenging; they can have it NOW…so they do.

The human brain isn’t particularly good at waiting when it can get instant gratification and that’s an important message. It means that if there’s an option to eat all the sugary treats straight away, you probably will. Willpower works on making yourself feel bad for wanting to eat it all and guilt isn’t always the best motivator. Thaler gives the example of a man trapped on a desert island after a plane crash, with only ten energy bars for sustenance. In an ideal world he says, he’d have ten safes each locked and set to a timer, meaning only one bar would be released each day. That’s not the case on a desert island though, so he has to use willpower to restrict himself to just one each day, reminding himself about the long-term benefits of doing so, But our brains aren’t wired that way; studies where people are offered a set amount of money now, say £100, or £120 in a month’s time, often find that people take what’s on offer straight away.

What does this mean for you?

• If you buy lots of sweets, biscuits or crisps, you’ll probably eat them all more quickly than if you just bought one smaller portion at a time

• You have to set up the environment to make it less convenient for you to eat too much or poorly - portion things out into individual containers or even place them in different cupboards. Make it less simple to over consume. As well as being impatient, we’re also lazy. Studies have shown we’ll eat less peanuts if we have to shell them, so buying things like chocolates in individual wrappers will likely mean we eat less.

• When it comes to wanting to achieve big goals quickly, our impatience will often lead us to seek quick fixes, even when we know they’re not healthy and they probably won’t last.

Utilise the psychological tools I talk about so frequently, split the big goal down into smaller chunks and focus only on that. Watch how professional sportspeople talk about taking one game, round or stage at a time. They want the big prize, but they know that patience is the way to get it.

Involve someone else to assist you. Give them your portions of food treats to look after and ration out for you, or report your daily exercise or eating/drinking to them.

Put up visual prompts to remind you what you’re working towards. Bring it back to the forefront of your mind at every opportunity, or else it’ll fall somewhere down the pecking order, likely behind that big glass of wine.

And in life in general, next time you can’t remember what film that guy was in, leave your phone in your pocket and stay in the present enjoying the conversation with your friend or partner. When you’re stuck in traffic, take a breath, put a song on the radio, relax and remember that good things come to those who wait.

How long do habits take to form?

It’s 21 days right? Everyone knows that. Those of you who are qualified Personal Trainers and/or have studied the Stages of Behaviour Change model might be saying ‘isn’t it 6 months until you’ve made a permanent change?’

A study of 96 people at University College London came up with some different answers. Participants were asked to choose just one health behaviour to turn into a habit; maybe adding a piece of fruit to their diet or increasing their daily step target for example. On average it took 66 days for a habit to become automatic; one person took just 20 days for drinking water with a meal, a 10-minute morning walk took 50 days for another, whilst one had’t manage to form a habit of sit-ups in the morning by day 84. Indeed, simple habits seemed to be formed very quickly in a matter of weeks (18 days was the quickest), whereas harder ones were estimated to take just over eight months. Missing single opportunities to build new habits did not affect the overall chances of them forming; this is great news as it means there’s no reason for you to give up if you don’t manage a perfect transition to your newly desired habit straight away.

So where does the 21 days thing come from? In the 1950s a surgeon, Dr Maxwell Maltz, was interested in how long it took patients to get used to the effects of their surgery, including everything from nose jobs to amputations. The answer? About three weeks. He then observed that this seemed true of many habits in his own life and the seed was sewn in much the same way that we believe that body language makes up 55 per cent of communication (that’s definitely not always true, but that’s for another time). He didn’t do any formal studies into it so it’s impossible to say how accurate his observations were. Single scientific studies, or even a sentence (or just part of one) can easily be picked up and become catchy soundbites that spread to all four corners of the earth. What Maltz actually said was that it probably took AT LEAST 21 days, so even he recognised right from the outset that the time it can take may vary.

How is a new habit formed?

A new habit is said to be formed when we reach automaticity; that’s the ability to do it without really having to think about it. All habits have three distinct stages:

1) A stimulus - the thing that causes us to initiate the habit. For example, your morning alarm can trigger you to perform a variety of actions.

2) A response - that alarm first and foremost will act a stimulus to get up; and that in turn can be the stimulus to head to the bathroom and brush your teeth, or to make a morning brew

3) A reward - you’ll be rewarded for brushing your teeth with that clean feeling and in the longer term, with healthier teeth and gums and Colgate advert modelling potential. Your tea or coffee will reward you with that kickstart you need to face your day.

Building habits in your brain is like creating a path through a field of corn. At first, there’s no discernible route through, but once you start to tread down a path, it gets easier each time to get across the field. And then why would you bother trying to make a new path. In the same way, the more a stimulus leads to a set response and the reward is consistently reaped, the more defined the neural path becomes, reaching a point where it fires instinctively as soon as the stimulus is sensed. This can be good, in that it stops you having to consciously think about something you do every day, saving time and energy, but also detrimental if you want to make a change. The habit is engrained and it can take time to build a new path.

You might be sat there thinking, ‘I’m not very good at forming habits’ - oh yes you are! Your whole life revolves around them. Do you go to work every day? Remember to take the kids to school? Eat dinner, always watch your favourite tv show, put your clothes on? Then you’ve formed plenty of habits. It can just take time to blend new ones in when you already have so many in place.

Some changes come instantly; for example if you touch a hot stove when you’re a child, it doesn’t take you 21 days to learn not to do it again. If the motivation is high enough, it is possible for new habits to form straight away. It’s usually the exception rather than the rule, with most taking time to bed in to your routine. Elliot Berkman PhD, Director of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon considers that there are three main things that determine whether a new habit is likely to be formed…

1) The availability of an alternative - he notes that it appears much easier to replace a habit with another one than to merely stop doing something. Good examples are Vaping or chewing gum rather than smoking, or having a soft drink with dinner rather than a glass of wine.

2) The strength of motivation - using smoking as an example again, some people find that they’re able to quit when they hear they’re going to become a parent, and weight loss can be inspired when you can no longer fit into your favourite clothes.

3) The ability to change - you may need certain skills or resources in order to change. If you have these or they’re easily available, change can be quick. If planning and effort are needed, say you need to buy things or learn a new skill to make it happen, change will be slower.

The good news

As the University College London study mentioned earlier showed, failure to perform a new habit perfectly from the off is not fatal. Author Toni Bernhard refers to doing something differently just once as laying down a small groove towards changing the neural pathway. Think of it like this - imagine a river flowing through a valley. It has a set pathway, but it begins to erode a small section off to one side. At first, only a tiny bit of water flows in, the rest holds it’s course. Over time though, the new flow begins to further erode the bank, sending more and more water along the new path, until eventually a whole new route is formed. If you can work away, bit by bit, you can form a new route too. And along the journey, if you’re doing something more than you were before, then you’re improving your health, fitness and happiness.

Remember the 3 pillars of balance:

1) Your health is largely the sum of your most frequent, recent behaviours - what you do each day makes the biggest difference.

2) You have the power to change - new habits can be formed at any time in life. Sometimes it will be easy, sometimes it won’t, but it’s always possible.

3) There is no failure, only feedback - it’s not about trying once and giving up. Change is an ongoing process; you learn from your mistakes and you improve. Even then, you’ll never be perfect. Some days will be better than others, but the aim is to work towards more balanced days, more often.

Look out for the launch of my free online animated challenge coming soon; Habits for a Healthier Planet (working title) where I’ll be inviting you to join me in making small changes that help to protect our wonderful world.

Five saucy strategies

Flavour is hugely important to us when it comes to food. So often I’ve heard clients say that they’d like to eat more healthily but they’re worried that this means eating bland food and taking up an eating routine that they can’t sustain.

And when it comes to eating more healthily, many diets will encourage you to ditch the sauce and dips. It’s not bad advice in the sense that they are often the source (pun very much intended) of many additional calories. As you know though, the balance mentality is that being healthier doesn’t have to require living a monastic lifestyle, banishing all of your food pleasures permanently.

Here are a few strategies that can help you reduce your calorie intake from sauces and dips in a more balanced way…

1) Have the ones you love

An increased amount of choice leads to an increased calorie intake. Think ‘all you can eat’ buffets, pic n mix, or mezze platters and you get the idea. Our brains are terrible at counting the calories we’re consuming and if we’re given a choice, we don’t like to miss out, so we choose EVERYTHING.

Pick your absolute favourite sauce or dip and make sure that’ all you have available in your cupboards. Without even trying, you’ll decrease your calorie intake.

2) Are you eating it just out of habit?

Routines can be both helpful and unhelpful. Do you automatically reach for the sauce when you eat out, or do you always order a sharer starter with lots of dips? Do you always buy the biggest back of Doritos and a range of dips every time your friends come round? Analyse your eating habits and see if there are any times or places where you’re overdoing it and make a plan to overcome it in future. If you can’t think of anything, track your eating for a week or two and you’ll likely uncover some times when you could go easy on the condiments.

3) Plan your portions

As I mentioned earlier, we’re very bad at knowing how much of something we’ve had. In a study of people’s eating behaviours in a restaurant, Brian Wansink monitored how much of the free bread put on the table people consumed. They watched them via CCTV and afterwards, surveyed restaurant goers to ask how much food they had consumed. Over ten per cent of those who’d eaten some of the free bread didn’t even remember doing so!

So let’s relate this back to you. You place your dinner on the table and take the entire bottle of sauce with you. Whilst you’re eating, you chat away with your family or friends and don’t notice your hand automatically reaching for the bottle to add more sauce to your plate three or four times throughout your meal. Maybe you eat whilst looking at your phone or watching TV; your mind is distracted and the Ketchup or Reggae Reggae just slips in unnoticed.

Now I could tell you to always be conscious of exactly what you’re eating, but life doesn’t work like that. You can however put strategies in place to eat less without even trying. You could always eat at the dinner table, away from your phone or the Gogglebox, you could put some sauce on your plate and then put it back into the fridge before you sit down to munch, or you could steal a few of those little sachets of sauce when you eat out and limit yourself to one or two with your meal.

4) Don’t have it in the house

If you can’t trust yourself to control your portions, don’t. Make sure you never have the dips and sauces at home and then you’ll only be able to have them when you’re eating out.

5) Spice it up a bit

Sauce isn’t the only thing that can add flavour to your meals. Maybe swap it out for a spoonful of your favourite spice or some fresh or ground herbs. Whilst they still contain calories, they tend to pack a punch and so you only need small amounts to ramp up the flavour in your food.

Hopefully there’s an idea here you could try, or maybe it’s inspired you to come up with a plan of your own. Either way, as ever choose one small step to do and help yourself find a little better balance.

Habits to help beat depression

I’ve given many sessions over the years on mental health and wellbeing; it’s part of the courses I teach to Personal Trainers and I’m often asked to talk on the topic in workplaces too. I’ve written articles on it and done numerous pieces on social media, and in all of them, I’ve always argued that the statistic that 1 in 4 of us suffer mental health issues is just plain wrong. It’s undeniably 4 in 4; we all face challenges at some point or another, we don’t have or not have mental health problems, they simply slide up and down a scale. Sometimes we cope with them comfortably, at other times it’s harder.

In recent times, I’ve experienced what it’s like to be much further along that scale, challenged to the point that on some days it has gotten the better of me and I’ve felt unable to defeat it. Other days haven’t been so bad, and some have started well and got harder or started badly and become easier. I guess that’s the thing about it; the scale can move constantly.

What I have had to do though is to use my resources, the knowledge I have about things that might just help me move to a better place on the scale and bit by bit, I’ve found myself moving in the right direction again, back towards a better balance. Here are some of those things that have worked for me…

1) Do something small

One of the most powerful things about depression is its ability to leave you feeling flat, paralysed, unable to do anything. Even the most mundane of tasks can seem like a challenge and you can experience whole days unable to get anything done.

At this point, setting big, challenging goals might not be the best idea as they’ll often take sustained effort and it’s easy to lose motivation along the way, even when you manage to have a good day or even a good few days. Try instead using micro-goals, tiny stepping stone challenges you can set yourself to provide a sense of achievement. The great thing about achieving things, however small, is that your brain recognises it and fires off pleasure-giving chemicals as a reward. That’s why when people make lists, they put things on they’ve already done so they can tick them off straight away and get the feel-good factor response!

This reminded me of the ‘making your bed’ speech from the US Navy Admiral that went viral in recent times. His point is very clear, start small and take it one step at a time. If you have five minutes and you’ve never seen it, I’ve included it below for you. It’s well worth a watch.

2) Move

For people with mild to moderate depression the NHS says that exercise is known to have definite benefits. Studies suggest that the benefits, in particular of cardiovascular exercise, are comparable to medications or talking therapies. Depression often goes hand in hand with fatigue, but by using low-to moderate intensity exercise that you enjoy, you can actually increase your energy levels. Strange isn’t it? You’d assume that if you’re tired, exercise would only exacerbate this, but as long as it’s kept to a sensible level, it has the opposite effect.

There’s no need to worry about exactly what to do or how much to begin with, just pick something; it could be walking, dancing, jogging, swimming, yoga, weightlifting, gardening or anything else you enjoy. Aim to gradually build to up towards the 150-minutes per week of moderate intensity exercise recommended (if you work harder, every minute done counts double towards this target).

3) Even better, move outside

• Two thirds of volunteers for the Wildlife Trust, given tasks like helping to dig ditches or make bird tables, reported improved mental wellbeing within six weeks

• A Norwegian study of 30,000 participants found that just 1-2 hours movement outdoors each week could prevent depression

• In one study of those with depression, a short outdoor walk fared much better than an indoor session on an exercise bike, with participants larger reductions in depression and fatigue

• Exercising in green spaces has been shown to reduce the perceived difficulty of the exercise, increase people’s perception of their own health, leads to lower blood pressure after the workout when compared to exercise in urban environments, and also decrease stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol post-session too.

• Some studies have shown increased rates of depression in the darker months of the year and shown strong correlations between vitamin D levels and the ability to predict episodes of depression. Exposure to sunlight also affects hormone levels, your body’s ability to utilise energy stores, cell function, blood flow and your body clock, all of which can impact energy levels and mood

• Streams, rivers, lakes and the sea can also boost your mood. A study in Hong Kong showed that people who spent more time by natural water reported greater wellbeing and had a lower risk of depression. A review of studies into the subject identified 35 others that backed up these findings, consistently showing positive mental health and stress-reducing effects

Basically, my point is, get outside into natural light where there are trees, plants and water. Your body, and your mind love it!

4) Spend time with friends

When you’re feeling low, it’s common to withdraw. A 2012 study of 100 adults found that 20% had no contact with friends, 33% never interacted with their neighbours, 35% lived alone and 50% never attended social groups. The study supported these people to become more socially active through things like going to see a film, a play, a concert, visiting museums or simply going out for a coffee or a bite to eat. ALL of the 100 participants reported feeling better about themselves, having more confidence and experiencing less symptoms of depression.

People are ok, most of them anyway! ;-)

5) Choose healthier food and drinks whenever you can

A wide range of foods and drinks have been linked to depression, for better and worse. Things that might be helpful to increase include:

• Plant foods - fruit, vegetables, beans, legumes, herbs and spices (aim for your 5-a-day)

• Nuts/seeds - 1-2 handfuls per day

• Oily fish - 1-2 portions per week

• Wholegrains like unrefined rice and other grains, and lean proteins like chicken, turkey, eggs, yoghurt and soya produce - make these a staple part of most meals.

Minimise the more processed foods although there’s never a need to cut these out completely, it’s all about balance remember.

Summary

There are a range of habits that can help prevent or improve symptoms of depression. You can take actions that over time can lead you to a better place. Start small, remember that progress isn’t always linear, sometimes we have better days, sometimes worse, but that just the feeling of doing something can in itself boost your sense of confidence , mood and self-worth.

Why do habits stick?

Behaviours are things you do; habits are behaviours that you get into the ‘habit’ of performing time and again.

I’ve written a lot recently about the importance of building healthy habits in order to find your balance. That’s because health and fitness aren’t permanent, they improve as your health behaviours do and they worsen if you start to spend less time down the gym and more time up the pub.

Essentially, all of my work with clients is in helping them work out how they can increase their healthy behaviours, decrease their less healthy ones and turn these new actions into habits. But what is it that makes this most likely to happen?

The three bits of habits

Habits share three things in common:

1) They’re triggered by certain cues

2) After the cue, the behaviour (doing bit) occurs

3) They stick long-term because there’s some sort of reward for doing them

Cues (and behaviours that follow)

When you see a traffic light change to red, you hit the brakes and come to a stop (hopefully)! The colour of the light is the cue for your habit of pressing the middle pedal.

Cues come in various forms:

• Times - for example, it’s likely that most of you will brush your teeth just after getting up and going to bed, and when we eat certain meals and types of food is cued by the time of day

• Places - the dancefloor in your favourite club is likely where you’ll bust your moves, less likely is that you’ll get your groove on in the Post Office (unless you’ve watched the Full Monty recently)!

• People - it could be that your mate at work is the trigger for you to go for a pint after work, or your nan could be the trigger for cake consumption. Equally, you might have a running or gym buddy who’s a trigger for healthier habits

• Emotions - food and mood for example are inexorably linked. In fact, there are two types of hunger - homeostatic hunger is what you feel when you actually need calories; hedonistic hunger is when you want to eat because of your mood, it could be stress, tiredness, being upset or even feeling great that triggers you to chomp down the calories.

• Rituals - it’s Monday, you get up in the morning and go to work. You don’t debate it, even though you’d like to, you just go. Going to work has become a ritual and you have plenty more things that you just do because you always do. Some are routines that you do on autopilot because it’s much easier to spend most of your time not having to think about what you’re doing - driving being a great example. You change gear when you need to, indicate when required and know to put the handbrake on when you park.

Every day you’ll receive thousands of cues that lead you to respond in an almost automated way. You’ve programmed yourself to carry out specific behaviours in response to each one, and they’ve become habits.

Rewards

Rewards come in many guises; medals at the end of a race, the tingling of your taste-buds when you eat something you really like, the sense of satisfaction when you complete a challenging task like decorating a room, the happiness you get from helping others, that sense of relaxation when all the things on your to-do-list have been ticked off, or the buzz on your phone that lets you know your friends have contacted you.

They can be tangible things or feelings; and they may not always appear obvious. Ultimately it doesn’t matter what they are, as long as you feel they bring some gain, something positive to your life. When a behaviour leads to a rewards, much like in the original Pavlov’s Dog experiment, we repeat that behaviour hoping for and eventually expecting, the same outcome.

This reward mechanism is what makes certain habits so addictive; drugs, alcohol gambling, sugary foods - they all lead the brain to fire off a series of powerful chemicals including neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and endocannabinoids. The latter have a role to play in mediating the effects of cannabis, hence their name and are also thought to play a significant part in ‘runner’s high’, the state of euphoria that many people feel from exercising. And by the way, the reason why they can become addicted to it and over-train - they love the reward so they repeat the habit regularly.

The three bits of habits in action

Take brushing your teeth as a simple example of a habit that sticks for most people. What are the cues? Well, early in life when the habit isn’t as well embedded, one of the main cues is your mum pestering you to brush your teeth. There’s also the visual reminder of the toothbrush and paste often sat in the glass in front of the bathroom mirror. You’re bound to see it when you visit the bathroom in the morning and before you go to bed, and it acts to remind you what you need to do. There’s also the time of day; you probably don’t brush your teeth when you go to the loo mid-morning do you, but the same visual cues are there, it’s just not the right time for the teeth-brushing thing.

On the rewards side, there are a few reasons why you continue to brush your teeth. The smile is a hugely important part of body language, hence why marketing companies have been able to sell us more and more things that help to keep our teeth white and our breath fresh. We like to be seen to have white teeth, it’s a sign of beauty and health; we want fresh breath when we’re talking to colleagues at work, when we’re with our friends and if we’re out on a date. So brushing your teeth might reward you with confidence, with self-esteem, with a successful outcome at a job interview, or on that date! You’re also rewarded by doing something to move away from the fear of having yellow teeth, or worse still, no teeth at all. Fear of cavities and gum disease is a big part of the reason why we brush twice a day. Then of course there’s the knowledge that your mum would be proud of you!!

What does this mean for your health?

We often focus our efforts on the specific health behaviour that we want to work on; drinking less alcohol, going to the gym more often; eating more vegetables, but maybe we spend less time on the other two parts of the habits triad - the cues and the rewards.

Try the following:

1) If you have a specific behaviour that you’d like to turn into a habit, create a cue for it. Here are a few ways you might do that…

• Anchor it to an existing habit. Your physio gave you some calf raises to do to help with that sore Achilles. She suggested doing them twice a day but you just haven’t gotten round to doing them. Try linking them to something that you know you’ll definitely do twice a day, like for instance, brushing your teeth.

• Use visual or audio reminders. Post-it notes, phone alarms, placing fruit on your desk at work or a water bottle on your bedside cabinet. Better still, put stuff in the way - kit bags in front of the front door, fruit on your car seat so you have to move it to sit down; anything that makes it impossible to ignore.

• Get others to cue you - go to exercise classes with a friend so that they’ll text to ask if you’re going or pair up with a work collage to act as support partners in the fight against the office cake culture.

2) Next, spend some time ensuring there’s a strong reward system in place for your new behaviour…

• List the rewards that you’ll get from doing the behaviour and remind yourself of these regularly. You can even print them out and stick them somewhere you’ll see them - that way they can act as both the cue and the reward

• Be accountable to someone - and make it someone who you want to impress. Being able to tell them that you’ve been doing well will fire off all this mood-boosting chemicals, rewarding you with your own happiness high

Get these two things in place and the behaviour itself is much more likely to happen, until eventually you perform it instinctively and then you’re in the habit.

Stay balanced,

Paul :-)

HIIT isn't just for the superfit

HIIT training, or High Intensity Interval Training has become hugely popular over the last ten years, with numerous scientific studies showing it can improve health, fitness and assist in weight management as effectively, if not sometimes more so, than steady exercise.

Nothing is ever perfect of course, and HIIT has its potential downfalls, one being the increased risk of injury from such an intense workout, the other being that many people don’t like to push themselves that hard, they feel uncomfortable, unwell and generally fearful they might do themselves some harm. And rightly so, overdoing it certainly can lead to muscle and joint injuries and health issues.

The meaning of HIIT

When you thought about HIIT, I bet you pictured fit people sprinting, jumping, throwing heavy pieces of metal about and generally things that are HIGH intensity. Here’s the thing though; what does high really mean? High based on what? Compared to what? Measured how?

The general assumption is that HIIT is reserved for the ‘fitness freaks’, those lovers of exercise, Instagram selfies and ‘motivational’ quotes, protein shakes and Lycra. I’m going to try to change your mind on that right now.

When doing their qualifications, Personal Trainers learn about variables, the things that they can change to make workouts easier or harder, or in other words to make a low intensity workout a high one and vice versa. They learn this because people are not all the same, what is hard and therefore high intensity for one person may actually be low intensity for another. There are tonnes of variables that can be played with to ensure you’re working clients at the correct intensity. Here are just a few…

• Time (seconds or repetitions) - how long does each exercise last or how many do you do?

• Resistance - commonly referred to as the ‘weight’ lifted, it might be a heavy dumbbell, a band or just your own bodyweight.

• Sets - how many times do you perform each exercise?

• Rest - just giving someone a little longer between exercises alters the intensity.

• Exercise - changing the exercise itself or the piece of equipment used can make a substantial difference.

We can also change the angle at which an exercise is performed, the length of the lever (by bending the arms for example), the tempo (pace) at which movements are performed, the base of support (feet wide, narrow or even on one leg) and much more. Basically, any exercise can be adapted in some way to meet the needs of every human being on this planet.

How high?

Now we’ve established that we can change exercises in a multitude of ways, that means it’s possible to create a High Intensity workout for anyone pitched at the right level for them. We just need a simple way of describing what ‘high’ means, something universal that can be applied to Joe Bloggs who hasn’t exercised since school, or Mo Farah, who…well…hasn’t exercised since a few hours ago.

Here’s one such tool, the Rate of Perceived Exertion scale, or RPE.

The scale is designed to allow you to judge how hard you feel you’re working during exercise. For HIIT training, aim for a 7-8 on the scale if you’re new to it; keen beans can push to 9 and even 10 once they’ve built up their fitness. If you have a medical condition, it may still be possible to do some high intensity work for you at around a 5-6, but you should speak to your medical practitioner before doing so, to make sure it’s right for you at this stage.

How will you know you’re at a 7/8?

You’ll be breathing hard and you will start to feel tired as levels of lactic acid build up in your muscles. Don’t worry though, that’s a good thing as you’re burning calories and challenging your body to get fitter, meaning next time it won’t feel so tough. No challenge, no change as they saying goes, it just has to be the right one for you.

Workouts to try

Those of you who’ve seen Insanity or Joe Wickes in action will be expecting some routines here full of burpees, sprints, jumps and lunges. They’re cool if that’s right for you, but the following workouts have been taken down a notch to provide high intensity sessions for those of you who’d love to give it a go but feel that Insanity is insane!

Cardio - hill or stair climbs

Warm up with a 5-10-minute walk, getting gradually quicker until you feel warm and a bit breathless. Find a hill you consider quite steep or a big set of stairs. Walk up briskly for 10-20 seconds getting to the point where you feel like it’s hard to talk, then slowly back down. Repeat 4-8 times depending on how you find it.

You can do it on the flat too as long as you walk at a pace that challenges you.

Weights

This routine is created for absolute beginners to HIIT training. Do each exercise for 30 seconds with as little rest between them as you can. You only need to do the circuit once, but if you’d like to go round again, have a 3-minute rest before repeating.

1) Standing Press-Ups (with your hands against a wall)

2) Sit Down-Stand Up

3) Seated Band Back Extensions

4) Band Wide Rows

5) Floor Bridge

Here’s a little video with a few rep’s of each exercise as a demonstration for you…

You can of course make this harder by changing any of the variables I talked about earlier; harder versions of each exercise, increasing the time to 45 or even 60-seconds per exercise or repeating the workout three times. Whenever you progress, do so gradually; make sure the workout feels comfortable a few times in a row before making it more challenging.

Hopefully it helps you HIIT some of your goals and take you one step closer to balance.

Paul :-)

Love your heart

I’ve had this blog piece in mind for a while and I thought, what better time to write about the heart than on Valentine’s Day. The belief systems of both the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks believed that the heart was connected to the soul, with the latter believing it was the seat of reason. During Roman times the Greek philosopher Galen built on these ideas, arguing that emotions came from the heart, rational thought from the brain and strangely, passion from the liver!

In Mediaeval times, the symbol of the heart began to appear as a sign of love, although originally the image much more closely resembled an anatomically correct diagram of the heart, something that most of us wouldn’t find too romantic these days.

The use of the image continued and was gradually adapted to look more like the heart we know today. Martin Luther, the major figure of the Protestant Reformation, used the image of a traditional love heart surrounded by a white rose as the symbol of Lutheranism from around 1530, and by the Victorian era, the practice of sending love notes on Valentine’s Day was born.

The Lutheran symbol - reproduced from https://stainedglassinc.com

What your heart can tell you

Anyway, enough of the history lesson, the real reason I wanted to create this blog was to show you how you can use your resting heart rate for all sorts of useful things.

Your heart is a muscle and just like those in your arms and legs, it contracts to create movement. Its job though is to move blood around your body, pumping used blood back to the lungs to be topped up with oxygen and freshly O2-enriched blood out to your muscles and organs where oxygen is in constant demand to keep you functioning. It has some unique properties that distinguish it from the muscles of your skeleton:

• Unlike skeletal muscles, it’s involuntary, meaning you don’t have to think about it for it to beat. It would be slightly annoying if approximately every second your train of thought was interrupted whilst you remembered to contract your heart and keep oxygen-rich blood passing round your body.

• Instead, it is switched on automatically by its own electrical current. This passes through continuously, causing your heart to fill, contract and push blood around your body, then refill.

• Your heart muscle, or to give its fancy names, cardiac muscle or the myocardium, has to have oxygen to work. Your skeletal muscles can for a short period work anaerobically, or without oxygen, but this is bad news for the heart, one of the reasons why it beats continuously to ensure it gets what it needs.

Here’s how you can use your resting heart rate to learn more about yourself.

1. Fitness and health

Like the muscles attached to your skeleton, with exercise your heart becomes fitter. Regular cardiovascular exercise; walking briskly, running, cycling, swimming and gym work, causes the cardiac muscle to grow, in much the same way as your muscles grow if you lift big weights often enough.

As the heart grows in size and strength, that means it can pump out more blood with each beat and in response, it can perform its job more easily and not have to beat as often. This why measuring your resting heart rate is a good marker of your health and fitness. You can test it by feeling for your pulse in your wrist or neck using two fingers (don’t use a thumb as it has its own pulse), or many sports watches these days will provide data on your heart rate constantly, including your current average at rest.

Make sure you take readings when resting, having drunk no caffeine or alcohol, done no exercise and ideally not when stressed. First thing in the morning when you get up is a good time.

Here’s a guide to what the scores mean

60-80 beats per minute: a good resting score, well within the normal figures and showing that your heart is working at a normal level whilst at rest

Less than 60 beats per minute: If you’re active and generally lead a healthy lifestyle, this shows that your heart is strong and not having to pump too often to meet its demands. If you’re overweight and live an unhealthy lifestyle e.g. drink or smoke excessively, it’s worth visiting your GP to discuss this as low resting heart rates for you can be a sign that it’s not quite working as it should

Over 80 beats per minute: your heart is having to work hard even at rest. If you live an unhealthy lifestyle, you might want to consider what you can do to lose weight, increase your health or fitness and visit your GP to get a check-up. If it’s over 100, you should definitely see your GP to discuss actions and lifestyle changes.

2. Recovery

Resting heart rate will vary constantly by a couple of beats, but if you notice that yours has increased by 5 beats or more, it’s likely that you’re a bit fatigued. It could be that you haven’t recovered from a hard training session (or late night), or it could be a sign that you have a cold coming. For example, mine was hovering at around 45-48 last week, then all of a sudden it went up to 60 and was followed closely by a bout of man-flu.

Monitoring it daily can help you to keep an eye on training intensity, knowing when to ease back, and also to help you evaluate whether you’re on top of healthy habits like fruit and veg intake, water and sleep.

3. VO2max and other markers

Some of the fancier sports watches use something called Heart Rate Variability. Basically that’s the time-gap between your heart beats. When you’re fit and well, not too tired, training at the right level for you and free from colds etc, your heart naturally speeds up and slows down. That means that the time-gap between beats naturally changes too. Some watches can measure this change and actually use it to calculate an estimate of your cardiovascular fitness, known as your VO2max

V = Volume

O2 = Oxygen

Max = the maximum amount you can take in

The watch can provide you with a score, likely somewhere between 30 and 80 depending on your age and fitness, that shows you approximately how many millilitres of oxygen you can take in per kilogram of your bodyweight every minute. Fitter people can get more oxygen in, hence why they can work harder during exercise without getting tired.

You can find out more about VO2max here.

Love your heart

As you can see, your heart is a wonderful thing that can tell you all sorts about how well it’s working with some simple checks. Give it some exercise a few times a week, it loves it when it can see its muscles growing! ;-)

Stay balanced,

Paul

Going wild

Ever since I took hold of Optimus (my wonderful Transporter Kombi van) a few months ago, I’ve wanted to use him to get away for a weekend of adventure, wilderness and training. So what better time of year to do it than January; I was bound to get some glorious weather, right?

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

I’d been checking the weather all week and it wasn’t looking great, but it wasn’t awful either (for January). Late Friday afternoon I loaded up Optimus with the bike, sleeping bags (two for extra warmth), roll mat, a lot of thermal and waterproof clothing and just a few essentials I’d be needing - torch, map and a book.

My plan for the Friday night was to head for Appledore on the north Devon coast. I’d read that you could pay £5 to park your camper-van overnight right on the banks of the convergence of the Taw and Torridge rivers before they make their way out into the Bristol Channel. It looked like a stunning spot and I’d figured that on a cold, dark night in January the carpark would be deserted. I was surprised when I arrived to find plenty of grand campers, some stylish Transporters and some more weary looking converted vans already in place for the evening. There was still a spot though right next to the water and I grabbed it.

I’d already checked out Google Maps and knew there was a fish and chip shop just a few hundred metres away. I was imagining opening the boot, sitting in the back and listening to the sounds of the waves as that glorious odour of salt and vinegar-covered chips filled my nostrils. The first blow to this was when I discovered that the parking meter only took cash, of which I had none. No matter I thought, I’ll find a cashpoint, get my fish and chips then use the change to pay. Google Maps kindly revealed that the nearest cash point was in Bideford, a good drive back the way I’d just come.

Off I went, returning and, led by my nose, heading straight for the purveyors of battered cod and golden brown fried potatoes. I arrived just in time to witness the door being locked from the inside and, looking longingly through the window like Charlie salivating over the promise of a golden ticket, was greeted with an apologetic but helpless look in return. I’d spotted a decent-looking pub opposite the water and so headed there instead. You never know what sort of pub you’ll be walking into in the more remote parts of our great isle and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it looked cosy, not a single patron’s head swivelled in my direction as I walked through the door and I received a friendly welcome at the bar. There was only one thing on the menu I could choose; fish and chips with mushy peas. OK so it came on a plate and not in paper and I had only the slightest glimpse through the window of the water, but it tasted good nonetheless.

I returned to the van content, some of my fellow happy campers busy organising things in and around their vans. And organised they seemed, far more so than me as I hung sheets over my windows with electrical tape to act as curtains. They had foil-lined blinds that fitted each pane of glass in their vehicle perfectly, making them looking like some sort of Mars Rover vehicle. Makeshift soft furnishings in place, I lay my roll mats and sleeping bag on the floor of the van, using the other as a pillow as I felt surprisingly cosy, and fell asleep next to the bike.

Am I in a horror movie?

I woke to the sound of clanging metal and was instantly aware of the presence of a large number of people around the van. Peering through the sheet taped to the rear window, heavy with condensation, I could see a group assembling what looked like a makeshift fence blocking off the back of Optimus. Alongside me was parked one of those open-backed monster trucks so common on our roads these days and what I thought was a speedboat attached to the rear. I was already hemmed in at the front by another camper-van and for a moment I was concerned that I’d ended up in one of those low budget horror films where all of the locals are in on it. Was I going to be surrounded, set on fire and burned as a sacrifice to the local god of the sea? Nervously, I slid open the side door and climbed out, concerned I may be greeted by a mob wielding planks of two by two full of nails, pitch forks and rag-covered torches, dipped in oil and burning intensely.

Instead, what I found was a large amount of people milling about in wetsuits. An older gentleman, for some reason surprised to see me emerge from the van (there were at least 15 similar ones in the car park interspersed with actual camper vans) said good morning, and I asked him what was going on. Turns out, there was a sea rowing gala that morning (rather them than me) and he politely offered to get them to move the mini-marquee they’d been erecting which was blocking my escape…I mean exit route. With the van out of it’s temporary prison, I readied myself for the day’s ride and set off looking for something to eat. The Golden Arches reared their head at the side of the road and I took the opportunity to enjoy a sausage and egg mcmuffin, hash brown and a tea, safe in the knowledge that I’d be burning it off very soon.

The sun begins to rise across the water

An uphill start

I knew there weren’t many long-term parking spaces in Braunton where the Tarka Trail began, a 30-mile traffic-free cycle route that follows the Taw estuary and a section of disused railway line. It’s one of the longest traffic-free cycle paths in Britain and had been on my adventure bucket list for some time. The lack of parking meant i had to head a few miles out of town to the beautiful Saunton Sands, a huge expanse of beach popular with surfers and used for numerous films and pop videos, including that end of evening/wedding/party or any other event for that matter, classic, Angels by Robbie Williams.

I’d forgotten that the road down to the car park was a steep, slippery concrete track full of speed bumps, not the easiest start to what was planned as a gentle ride. Having parked up alongside numerous Transporter vans clearly belonging to surfers rather than cyclists, I mounted the bike and successfully climbed the hill back up to the main road without incident and I was on my way. A downhill stretch into town with the wind behind me made for a fast and easy start, the incredible vast and grass-tufted sand dunes of Braunton Burrows undulating their way to the shoreline on my right.

Saunton Sands with the beginning of the endless sand dunes behind

I found the signs for the Tarka Trail as soon as I entered Braunton and on the other side of a pay & display car park I found the beginnings of the route proper. The path was well maintained and headed out alongside marshland and then the perimeter fence of the former RAF Chivenor, now home to the Marines. It brought back fond memories of my childhood when I remember visiting for an airshow; we parked in a huge carpark and my dad said that we should remember that we were by an orange VW camper van. Upon leaving the show, we discovered that there must have been around 50 orange VW campers in the car park and it took us some time before we located our Nissan Bluebird. Strange that one of the reasons I was now visiting was to have my own adventure in my VW van, I wondered as I rode along how much of my desire to own the van stemmed from this memory.

The path reached the water and then skirted along its very edge, the waves lapping against the low wall to my right. It was Saturday morning and the path was alive with families on bikes, dog walkers and joggers. I’d forgotten my bell and this turned out to be an oversight. In my mind I was going to be travelling along completely alone in the wild, but with the path heading towards the busy town of Barnstaple, this proved to be far from the case.

Rising to meet a bridge busy with vehicles, I crossed in the cycle lane that ran alongside the main road, briefly jolted back into reality as the traffic streamed in both directions, before dropping back down to the estuary on the other side and instantly back into my peaceful cocoon accompanied by the sounds of the waves and the numerous birds swooping by and digging for their brunch on the banks of the estuary. The joggers and dog-walkers soon subsided and I was left to enjoy looking out for signs of what must once have been one of the most beautiful railway lines in the country. I was also left with the incredibly strong headwind buffeting me and making it feel as if I there was a tug-of-war rope wrapped around my waist and a local rugby team consisting mostly of ginormous farm workers pulling me backwards as I attempted to cycle away. My average speed plummeted as did the gear I was cycling in, and I accepted that my lot for the next 20 miles or so was to drag the entire squad of Old Bidefordonians along for the ride.

The great thing about going so slowly was that it gave me time to take in my surroundings. The bleak but beautiful natural environment and the constant reminders of the area’s rich industrial heritage kept me fascinated throughout and when I reached the old Bideford station and a pub that sat alongside the platform with a sign promising cream teas lured me in. I assume the sign sits outside all year round as when I asked at the bar, I was told that all they had was chocolate bars and crisps. A KitKat, a bag of salt and vinegar and a pot of tea later, it was time to head back out into the wind.

I continued along the line, passing over the same river time after time as it meandered through the countryside with numerous oxbows. Long forgotten canal locks, an impressive stone aqueduct and grand industrial buildings gradually gave way to thick forest and with this, so the quality of the path deteriorated too, evolving from the smooth tarmac surface I’d been riding for over 20 miles into compacted gravel with jagged slithers of bedrock poking through. On the cross bike this would have been fine, but my old-school 23mm road bike rubber wasn’t ideal for the job. And then it started to rain.

At 25 miles and still about seven from Meeth where the cycle path ended, I decided to turn back. I was more than happy that I’d get 50 miles in for the day and I was looking forward to turning round, knowing the wind would be behind me most of the way back. I figured I’d make good time because of this; I figured wrong. Not long after the tarmac returned, I felt my front tyre soften and upon inspection, I realised I had a slow puncture. I also realise that the torrential rain, 50mph winds and temperature of around 4 degrees had made my hands so cold even through my waterproof gloves, that I was unable to get the tyre off the wheel to change the inner tube. Pumping it up, I rode a few miles steadily, paying close attention to how it felt beneath me and so the routine was set for the journey back. Some time, I’m not sure how long exactly, and numerous tyre inflations later, I made it back to the van. A quick change and clean of both the bike and myself, a cup of tea from the beach cafe and I was on my way to my next planned overnight stay.

No room at the inn

The road towards Lynton and Lynmouth involved a series of ever-steepening hills, and I knew that when I got there, the steepest of all was waiting. Driving alongside the river, the road descended steeply, with signs warning of 25% sections, into the village of Lynmouth, a place once destroyed by an epic flood. It was easy to see why, flanked as it was by steep forested hills with powerful rivers careering downwards toward the harbour and the sea beyond. Climbing once again out of the village onto Countisbury Hill, I recalled the numerous times my family had visited during my childhood and how in my head, the hill seemed to be of epic proportions. It turns out, my childhood memories were accurate; Countisbury Hill was as steep as I remembered, with more 25% signs and to add to the sense of peril, the road clung to the cliffs, dropping away hundreds of feet at what seemed like an almost vertical angle to the rough sea below.

The top of the hill was to be my overnight stay…sort of. It was a 1.5-mile walk to my accommodation once I’d abandoned the van on the top of the moor. My plan had been to get there, settle in, then take a walk along the South West Coast Path back to a pub I’d already scouted out. The long day and the wild weather (it was by now a wind of proportion usually reserved for houses falling onto witches) dissuaded me and I chose to stop at the pub on the way. The pub was the kind you dream of finding in the countryside, flagstone floors and a roaring fire with an empty table right beside, hearty food and a fine selection of craft beers. Having warmed up considerably by the fire, satiated my hunger with the best steak and ale pie I’ve ever had (a real pie at that, one completely surrounded in pastry, not one of those pretend pies with a ceramic base that is disappointingly inedible) and rehydrated with a fine craft beer from Bath Ales, it was time to head for my…ahem…hotel of sorts. I had considered asking if the pub had any rooms left, or even if I could lay my sleeping bag alongside the dog bed nestled next to the fire, but my plan was already made and it was the main part of the adventure for the weekend.

From the car park, a narrow tarmac path led out across the moor into the darkness. It was pitch black; Exmoor is in fact Europe’s first Dark Sky Reserve, the lack of artificial lights protected to allow you to enjoy the true wonders of the cosmos. As i gathered my things, the clouds parted and above me I could see the distinctive band of the Milky Way traversing the night sky. The only light came from my bike light, a powerful USB rechargeable one I purchased a few years ago that allows you to actually see as opposed to just be seen like many basic bike lights. There was not a soul or sound, except for the wind which occasionally blasted me sideways across the narrow path; no cows, sheep, nothing. The path began to descend sharply in a series of twisting hairpins, down into a gulley which I knew only from studying the map beforehand, eventually made its way down to the sea. Originally flanked by thick gorse, as I descended further the valley sides were covered in rockfalls, piles of rubble that looked as if some village had been blown up and the ruins left where they lay. It was as close to being on the moon as I guess I’ll ever feel.

The walk seemed to take forever, the darkness never allowing me to know where my destination lay, but as the path straightened out I finally spotted my hotel for the night, a stone bothy. Bothies were originally places of refuge for farm hands or estate workers but these days are more commonly designated as refuges for walkers, mountaineers and others looking for adventure. This one is owned by the National Trust and for a paltry £22 you can stay for the night. After the usual challenge of getting into any holiday accommodation, which always reminds me of a Crystal Maze challenge, involving 4-digit codes and hidden key-safes (except with this one, there’s no automatic lock-in, just a permanent lock-out if you can’t solve it), I was in. Accommodation was basic, a wooden bunk-bed on which I could lay my roll mat and sleeping bag, a sink with cold-water tap, a few candles and a composting toilet that involved venturing back outside and mastering another door lock.

The door to the bothy had two parts, a sturdy outer barn-door shutter made of solid wood and an inner one with a single pane window. Once in and with the outer door closed, I was completely shut off from the outside world. The only light came from the few candles and my head torch which allowed me to sit and read my book, the tale of a man who decided to cycle the entire route of the 2000 Tour de France, albeit in twice the time as the pro’s, before settling down for the night. A peaceful night it was not; I frequently woke as the wind increased in strength, buffeting the outer wooden door and whistling across the tin roof, but I’ve never felt more alive. I felt like Ray Mears, Bear Grylls or my hero, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Short and windy

The wind was still going strong when I rose, and as the sun began to rise I took a walk further down the path to the lighthouse that I knew lay just around the headland. The whitecaps, the foam crests that sit atop the waves, were buffeting against the cliffs before falling away, and the wind was making it hard to stand. The view was breathtaking.

My plan had been to dump the kit in the van, get the bike out and get straight onto the country lanes of Exmoor. The wind however seemed so wild as to be dangerous, and after climbing back out of the gully, I drove down into the fishing village of Porlock for breakfast and to wait it out for a while.

I sat in the cafe, run by another Brummie who’d escaped to the south-west and checked the weather app. It looked as if the wind would ease slightly; already seeming lighter as I walked around the town, but I couldn’t tell if that was just because of the sheltered position at the foot of the fabled Porlock Hill. The steepest A-road in the UK was certainly not on my list of things to cycle that day, but there was a toll road that ran parallel and wound its way through the forest at a much gentler gradient of around 6 or 7%, not unlike many Alpine climbs. The toll road was just over 4 miles long and I figured it would be a good challenge to ride up and down as fast as I could.

Fuelled by tea and some an apricot jam-filled shortcake, I finally replaced the inner tube on the front wheel and I set off. The toll road split off just as Porlock Hill reared its ugly head and I gently rose out of town past the final few houses. The gradient changed gently up and down but never kicked too much, allowing me to push from the start. The road was strewn with branches and pine cones, requiring me to to weave in and out of them like some sort of Atari computer game. I felt strong and thought I was making good progress, only to look at my watch and realise that I wasn’t even halfway. I reached the toll booth, just £1 for bicycles and deposited my coin in the honesty box, watched over by the man I presumed manned the toll booth, from his kitchen window opposite. Just checking I was being honest I suppose.

The last section was the hardest, the loss of tree cover meaning I was hit full on by the winds again and about half a mile from the top, a hailstorm added to the sense of drama. It was also the steepest and I pushed hard to maintain my pace. After crossing a cattle grid I could see the junction with the main road ahead and knew that was where the Strava section came to an end so I put on a little sprint finish a la Tour de France and then slumped over my handlebars trying desperately to draw in air without ingesting a hailstone. My only choices to get down were to take on the nearly 30% main road, follow a cycle path through the forest which was a green line on my Sustrans map (green lines can mean everything from off-road but still beautifully laid tarmac, through to a vaguely distinguishable route through the swamps of Mordor), or to retrace my steps.

Descending the toll road I picked up speed quickly, leaning into the gusts of wind each time they hit to avoid being blown across to the other side. Not that it mattered, on the whole ride up and down, the only people I saw were the toll booth guy from his kitchen window and a woman out walking her dog. I wondered how much it was for dogs to use the road. I was conscious of the slippery surface and the remnants of evergreen lining the route, but i was also invigorated by picking up speed easily after a tough ascent. Whilst it took me over 27 minutes to reach the top (6th fastest on Strava this year), I was back down by the van inside 11 minutes (3rd fastest in 2019). I was pleased with these stats, until I saw that the fastest ascent ever had been made in 14 minutes, nearly twice as quickly as me and only a little longer than it had taken me to come down. I later realised that this was because the Tour of Britain had used this road so I was less disappointed.

The end of the adventure

With the bike safely stowed in the van, that was it, my mini-adventure was over. I drove the coast road back to Bristol, passing through places full of childhoods memories; Minehead where walks along the seafront and ice creams were common place, as well as searching for golf balls with my dad in the bushes and sand dunes alongside the links course. Car Hampton, where I consumed numerous sausage and chip dinners in the Butcher’s Arms after tiring myself out climbing up and sliding down the fibre glass house in the shape of a boot, long gone now likely for health and safety reasons. Blue Anchor bay, where we’d enjoyed weekends and school holidays in our static caravan, Watchet, its famous centuries old harbour and the place where, every summer Bank Holiday, we’d enjoyed taking part in their window-spotting competition.

This didn’t involve looking for panes of glass, oh no, it was far more complex than that. As part of their summer fete, the locals organised the competition and all the businesses took part. Their task was to place something in their window that didn’t belong there, often as simple as a staple or a coin but sometimes more complex and sneaky. Holiday-makers would traipse around the town with a paper form and pen, staring shoulder-to-shoulder into the windows. When one family member spotted the mystery item, hushed murmurs would signal it was time to move on, before cupping their mouth and whispering the item into the ear of the pen-holder, so as not to give the game away to fellow contestants. I can’t remember what the prize was, a free meal at a local pub or similar, but answers were treated with the secrecy of a coded message outlining the plans of D-Day. The fete had two other memorable features; a parachute display team would be dropped high above the Memorial Grounds where it took place and upon landing, would pick up the nearest square of numbered cork on the field. These had been placed there earlier in the day by entrants into what was a cross between a raffle, spot the ball and an RAF training exercise.

But most of all, I remember the annual Town Crier contest, I believe it may have been the UK championships, where men (and occasionally women) from all over the country would come dressed in their ancient garb, ring their bells and bellow out announcements, always beginning with ‘Oyez, oyez’ (pronounced Oh-yay) to get onlookers attention. These days it would resemble a sort of shout-off between Brian Blessed, Alan Dedicoat the ‘voice of the balls’ and Peter Dickson of X-Factor fame.

I climbed out of the town and headed for home on the twisting road wedged between the sea to my left and the Quantock Hills rising away to my right.

Had I enjoyed the adventure I’d set out for?

Oyez, oyez.

A heads up

The other day I shared a brief piece on Facebook about correct posture in common gym exercises, so I thought I’d expand a little more on it for those of you who may find it helpful. Nothing complicated, no fancy words, nothing too technical, just one key piece of advice that covers pretty much all exercises and will help to vastly improve posture during exercises, decreasing your risk of injury and making the exercise much more effective, meaning greater results.

Use your head

Your head is pretty heavy, around 8-12 pounds on average according to various reports. That’s a fairly reasonable chunk of your overall body weight and so its position can have big consequences for the rest of your body. It’s always going to be on top of your shoulders (hopefully) but how you align it during exercises might be more important than you know.

‘Head up’

If you’ve watched any fitness DVD, YouTube workout or spent time in a gym, you’ll no doubt have heard the trainer saying ‘keep your head up’ and that’s sort of right, sometimes, but not always.

Your head shouldn’t be up as such, rather it should be ‘in line with your spine’. The top part of your spine, known as the cervical spine, joins with your skull. The top two vertebrae, the ones directly underneath your head, are known as the atlas and axis, and they’re the ones that allow you to move your head up and down and left to right.

Atlas because it’s named after the Greek God that held up the world, just like this vertebra holds up your head. Axis because your head can rotate around on its axis.

What does this mean for movement?

As your head is so heavy, if it drops forwards, this can pull your spine out of its natural curve, rounding your upper back. If it tilts upwards, again you’ll alter your natural curve, this time by excessively arching the lower back.

In everyday life of course you need to move your head up and down; maybe to tie a shoe lace or to look at a bird in the sky, but when we’re loading the spine during exercise, it’s important to keep it in its natural curve and therefore your head position is key.

Let’s give you a few examples of where I see it done wrong and what you’re looking for instead…

Press-ups

You’ll often see someone doing a press-up and lifting their head so it faces forwards, maybe so they can check themselves out in the mirror, or maybe because that’s what the YouTube video showed them to do. In this exercise, the body is parallel to the floor and therefore the head should be the same, facing down and in its natural position above the spine.

Here’s a video of me and Vic doing some press-up variations. notice how the head stays in line with the spine whatever angle we perform the press-up from.

Squats and deadlifts

Similarly in squats and deadlifts, the head should stay in line with the angle of the spine. The difference here of course is that when you do these exercise, the bend at your hips causes your body to fold forwards slightly. That means your head should follow this movement, rather than tilting the head back to continue looking forwards like I see every time I visit a gym. If the neck tilts back, this forces the spine out of its natural alignment and places greater stress on your lower back. Aim to look forwards not up, like in the video below.

Core exercises

The same goes for crunches, back extensions and planks. The head should follow the line of the spine.

Crunches - as the spine bends forwards, the head should follow; at the top of the movement there’ll be a gap between chin and chest about the size of an orange and you’ll probably be looking at roughly the angle where the wall meets the ceiling. People often feel discomfort in their neck during sit-ups and one of the reasons is that they strain from the neck forcing the head upwards toward the sky, out of line with the spine which has flexed.

Plank - just like press-ups, the body is parallel to the floor so the head should stay down, eyes looking at the floor directly below.

Back extensions - in the video below, notice how it’s the lower back that does the lift. Your head does not move, it just stays in line with your spine.

If you’re after one simple way to remember it, that last tip is it…’head in line with spine’. Your head should simply follow where your spine goes, it has to because it’s attached to the top of it. Use your head right and you’re in for a much safer, much more effective workout with less stress on your neck and lower back in particular.

Stay balanced,

Paul

The 52 habits of balance

Part 2: eat

Last week I introduced you to the 15 habits that make up the think element of balance.

This time I’m going to give you a taste (pun very much intended) of the food and drink habits that I work on with my clients, highlighting seven I’d term ‘big rocks’, major behaviours to focus on. Some of them are about things you might want to do more often, whilst others are about things to consider doing less frequently.

Nothing is considered ‘good’ or ‘bad’, only better or worse. No foods are banned and you certainly shouldn’t feel guilty if you’re not perfectly balanced for all of the habits…very few people are (myself included).

So let’s go, score each habit and then afterwards, pick one that you feel you can work on to improve your balance.

Habit 1: Get your 5-a-day

Whilst there’s debate about how many portions of fruit and veg you should have, there’s good evidence that your health improves the more you get. Aim for a minimum of five portions a day, and get a good variety of types and colours over time.

Score:

1 point if you rarely eat fruit or veg at present

3 points if you often get close or sometimes you get your five, sometimes you don’t

5 points if you’re diet is always the colours of the rainbow

Habit 2: Go nuts and get a little seedy

Nuts and seeds provide a wealth of nutrients; protein, fibre and a wide range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Recommendations suggest we should have at least 1-2 handfuls every day.

Score:

1 point if you rarely eat nuts or seeds at present

3 points if you do so occasionally

5 points if nuts and seeds are a staple in your diet

Habit 3: Get the oh so mega Omega3

The essential fats found in high quantities in oily fish as well as flax and chia seeds, walnuts and soya beans, are as their name suggests, vital to your health. Healthy fats help to strengthen your immune system, prevent inflammation and help your brain to function at its best. We should aim to get at least 2 portions of fish every week with at least one of them being an oily fish like salmon, mackerel, herring or sardines.

Score:

1 point if you rarely eat fish, seeds or soya produce

3 points if you get one portion a week or don’t consistently have two

5 points if you regularly have two or more portions of fish a week or get your Omega 3 from alternative sources

Habit 4: Munch your wholegrains

Providing you with slow-release energy and plenty of fibre, wholegrains have been shown to keep your heart healthy, lower your cholesterol, look after your digestive system and help with weight management. An easy way to ensure you get the right amount is to aim for 6-8 cupped handfuls each day. That can include breakfast cereals, bread, rice, pasta, couscous, quinoa and other grains.

Score:

1 point if you rarely consume wholegrains

3 points if you have better and worse days or you have some every day but don’t hit the required portions

5 points if you regularly get your 6-8 portions a day

Habit 5: Daily dairy & alternatives

You’ll get plenty fo great things from dairy or alternatives like soya and alternative milks; protein, healthy fats, vitamin D, calcium and lots of other micronutrients. Research links them to better weight management, healthier bones and teeth, lower blood pressure and gut health. Aim for 3 portions a day, with a portion of milk or yoghurt the size of a clenched fist, and cheese equivalent to two thumbs.

Score:

1 point if you rarely get your daily dairy

3 points if you get some or hit your 3 portions on a few days each week

5 points if you’re king or queen of the dairy (or alternatives)

Habit 6: Hydrate and feel great

We all know we need to drink enough water. It makes up around half of your body and you’ll find it in every cell you possess. Figures vary on how much you need, with the average being around 1.6 litres for women and 2 litres for men, but food can contribute and exercise, age and environment can affect your needs. The easiest way to know you’re well hydrated is to check your pee colour. It should be light or straw-coloured; if it’s darker that suggests you’re dehydrated.

Score:

1 point if you know you don’t drink enough and your pee looks like Guinness

3 points if sometimes you’re well hydrated but not always

5 points if your water-bottle is like an extension of your arm

Habit 7: Alcohol

Some studies suggest that in small quantities there may well be cardiovascular health benefits but there’s much debate about this. What we do know for sure is that there’s no harm in not drinking and there’s definitely harm from having too much. A few years ago the guidelines were altered to be a maximum of 14 units per week for men and women, spread over the week with a few drink-free days.

14 units is roughly:

• 6 small glasses of wine

• 6 pints of standard strength beer

• 5 pints of standard strength cider

• 14 single shots of spirits

Score:

1 point if you are often over the 14 units per week, tend to drink lots in one go or rarely have drink-free days

3 points if you have better and worse weeks

5 points if you consistently meet the guidelines

How did you do?

Add up your scores, what was your total?

7-16: Out of balance at the moment

17-26: On the way to balance

27-35: Well balanced

Whatever you scored, if you feel there’s room for improvement and you’d like to do something about it, write down your answers to the following questions…

1) What is the one habit you’d like to work on?

2) What could you do to achieve that? List all the ideas you can think of, no matter what they are.

3) Pick your favourite three methods and number them 1, 2 and 3 in order of preference. This week, try method 1 and see how it goes. If it works then great, if it doesn’t, you have a ready-made back-up plan.

You know me by now; change is challenging and it requires a little effort on our part. Just by working through this you’ve shown you want to do something so good work. Give it a go and slowly work towards a better balance for you, it’s all about turning those behaviours into habits over time.

The 52 habits of balance

You may have read my recent blog on what balance is and what it isn’t. In that piece, I included the three fundamental principles of balance, including the first…

You are the sum of your most frequent, recent behaviours.”

Essentially, your health, fitness and happiness is most impacted by your habits, the things you do day in, day out. When interviewed, highly respected American Cardiologist Donald Lloyd-Jones cited research showing that even people over the age of 65 with existing heart disease could reduce risk of heart attacks by 45% through healthy habits.

The analogy I often use when explaining this to clients is the bullet and the gun. Some people have a higher genetic risk for certain medical conditions than others, with illnesses such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes common in their family. What this means is that the bullet is already loaded in their gun. For the bullet to be dangerous though, someone has to pull the trigger. The triggers in this case are lack of exercise, a poor diet, stress, alcohol, inadequate sleep, smoking and other behaviours. Leave the trigger well alone and you have a much higher chance of remaining fit and healthy.

Fifty two is a magic number

The number of white keys on a piano, the number of playing cards in a pack, the number of weeks in a year and now, the number of habits that make up the balance method.

I’ve spent years looking into all of the behaviours that could impact your overall wellbeing and as it stands, this is my total. They’re broken down across the four elements of balance; think, eat, live and move. Some are habits of the brain, some to do with eating and drinking, some from all aspects of your life from work to sleep, learning to socialising and some are exercise-related.

i’m not saying without a doubt that there aren’t more than 52, that would be naive and set me up to look foolish in future if and when I discover one. I remember reading the Stephen Covey book, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, (which by the way, is an awesome book) and then being somewhat disappointed a few years later when a sequel entitled ‘The Eighth Habit’ came out. I’ll keep looking and add other behaviours to the method if and when I find them, and you’ll be first to know of course!

Go on then…what are they?

I figured by now that you’re thinking ‘come on, get on with it, tell me what these healthy habits are then’. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do; just not all in one go. Fifty two things is a lot to take on board in and you know me, I'm all for breaking stuff down into more manageable chunks.

Over my next four blogs, I’m going to provide you with a short quiz where you can score yourself against the habits for each of the elements of balance. As everything always starts with a thought, in this first one we’re going to look at ‘think’, the 15 mind habits I’ve identified; the thinking and planning behaviours that those who successfully make lifestyle changes use to great effect.

The scoring system is simple; give yourself the following points based on whether there’s lots to be done, you’re getting there or you’ve got it nailed:

• Out of balance = 1 point

• On the way to balance = 3 points

• Perfectly balanced = 5 points

A score of 15-29 points means there’s a fair bit of work you can do, 30-55 points suggests you’re on the way to a good balance, and 56-75 points means you’re well balanced.

Before you even decide to make a change…

1) Do you have a clear idea of your values? By this I mean the things most important to you in your life. You’re likely to be more successful with attempts to get fitter and healthier if you make sure that any changes you make are in line with your values. If they conflict then it’ll be much harder to stick with them.

2) Are you really sure that you want to change? Sounds like a daft question doesn’t it? Thing is, sometimes we do want something different, but part of us also wants to cling on to the habits we have now. We know we need to cut down our alcohol but we’re concerned we’ll lose our social life, we want to stop smoking but it relaxes us, or we want to do more exercise but we’re embarrassed about joining a gym. That’s why I made this one of the habits; it’s important to spend a little time weighing up the pros and cons of change and making an informed decision. It doesn’t matter whether you decide to change or not at that time, but you know the decision is the right one.

When planning for change…

3) Do you have a goal that is clear, challenging and exciting? Knowing exactly what you’re after and being excited about what it will be like to achieve are great for motivation. It’s important that your goal doesn’t feel too easy either; studies suggest that something we really have to work for pushes us to strive harder to make it happen.

4) Do you know where you’re starting from? Do you take some form of measurement that you can track over time; weight, shape, fitness, mood or something else that let’s you know how far you have to go and if you’re making progress?

5) Do you focus on the process? Many people will have a clear idea of what they want, but it’s equally as important to know the actions to take to make it happen. These are known as Process Goals, for example, Usain Bolt wanted to be the fastest man on Earth but his process goals were set around how many training sessions he should do a week, the foods he should eat, hours sleep required and the other habits he had control of that could ultimately influence the outcome.

And when you’re actually making a change…

6) Do you do one thing at a time? Knowing the actions you need to take is one thing, prioritising which you need to work on is another entirely. Often, especially at this time of year, we make all sorts of commitments to change. It’s easy to be overconfident or just want to change so much that we try to do too much in one go. Focusing on just one thing at a time is a surefire way to increase your chances of success.

7) Do you identify the challenges you might face along the way and plan ahead for how you’ll deal with them? Pre-empting what could go wrong and identifying solutions can give you confidence when it doesn’t all quite go to plan. Many will fall at the first hurdle, but if you know it’s coming and have a way around, under or over it, then it’s much more likely you can stay on track.

8) Do you create an environment for change? What do I mean by this? Do you set things up that make it easier to change and harder to stay the same? For example, if you want to do more exercise, do you get your gym kit ready the night before and put your bag right in front of the door so that you’ll definitely pick it up on the way out? Or do you make sure there are no crisps in the house if you’re looking to cut down?

9) Do you use nudges or reminders to keep yourself on track? This could be post-it notes, alerts on your phone, pictures on the fridge or whatever it is that keeps your goal and actions right at the forefront of your mind.

10) Do you check your progress regularly? I mentioned taking starting measurements earlier; do you also have a schedule in place for checking how you’re getting on? Weekly weigh-ins, monthly fitness tests, or apps to track your food or exercise daily?

11) Do you get by with a little help from your friends? Do you have a support crew in place? People who can assist, remind, cajole, motivate, encourage and sometimes kick you up the backside? It’s much more likely you’ll succeed when you don’t go it alone.

12) Are you accountable to someone? Much like having a support crew, having to check in with someone about your actions or progress can be a fantastic tool for success. None of us like telling someone we’ve failed and so having a little pressure on you can make a major difference.

13) Is there an element of competition? It could be against yourself or someone else but competing is another way of helping you to up your game when it comes to achieving your goals.

14) Do you have rewards in place for success? Regularly rewarding yourself for reaching milestones along the way is a great idea. It gives you a boost of the neurotransmitter dopamine, making you feel good and increasing your confidence and desire to keep going. It also helps to make a big goal feel smaller with clear marker posts en route. Just be careful not to reward yourself too much with tasty stuff; using food and drink as a reward can lead to a cycle where you feel you need them to feel good.

15) Do you have bouncebackability? For me, this is the biggest of all the habits. The ability to keep going even when it’s not gone as you’d liked recently, to adapt and try a new method should the previous one have failed, is the difference between success and failure. It’s going to take time, it won’t be straightforward but you will make it if you persist.

How did you do?

What are the scores on the doors? Whatever you’ve scored, is there one behaviour that you feel you could do more often, turning it into a habit that will make you fitter, healthier and happier?