Meditation: An Experiment

Meditation apparently reduces stress. I am, however, the least mindful, grounded person I know so it’s never really appealed to me. Sitting still for 5 minutes whilst awake is unusual – I get bored and cold in the laying down at the end bit of yoga!

But it’s good to try things before judging- otherwise you can’t really say they aren’t for you. So I decided to commit to trying to meditate every day this week, with an open mind to see what happened:

Monday

I was about to go to bed when I realised I hadn’t tried to mediate – almost a day 1 fail! But from what I’ve read even 1 minute can be a good place to start so I searched You Tube for some beginners 1 minute meditations, lied down closed my eyes a tried to focus only on their voice. As much as I tried to clear my brain and focus on breathing, even for just 60 seconds, all my brain could think was how much the voice sounded like Hugh Dennis from Mock The Week. Feeling like this probably wasn’t what should be going through my mind I found another 1 minute meditation with no speaking, settled down and tried again. When focused on nothing other than being and breathing and trying not to think it’s suprising how long 60 seconds can feel. By the time the bell went to signal the end of the minute I did feel like my breathing had slowed my body had relaxed a little and I fell asleep quite easily.

Tuesday

Today I tried Mountain Pose. This is supposed to improve posture and balance as well as calming the mind and improving focus. Essentially, you scoop your hands overhead and bring them together standing tall. I just did this slowly about eight times, with my eyes closed and reaching as high as I could, holding the pose for a few seconds each time before bed. Strangely calming, yet very easy to do, I can see why people say meditation is good for you and actually doesn’t take as long as you imagine to get some benefit from it.

Mountain Pose

Mountain Post- Image taken from Google Search for illustration only – I did this in my bedroom in my pyjamas, not by the sea, and didn’t look anything like this!

Wednesday

Tuesday hadn’t been a great day and I went into Wednesday in a bad mood. I had a busy day leaving the house at 6 am and knowing I wouldn’t get home until around 9 pm. I was teaching the new Body Combat for the first time by myself and so was a bit stressed. Knowing that finding time to be still might be hard but also knowing that some form of mindfulness might help I decided (after a morning of mini internal tantrums) to try and look for the positive in things. This isn’t the easiest thing to do when you’re in a bad mood and I definitely didn’t manage it at every point throughout the day but attempting to put a positive spin on frustrating events did help relax me and put perspective on the things I was getting myself upset about. This is something I’ve realised I should make an effort to do every day as it does help relax you even if it isn’t always easy to do. Warning- I suspect continuously doing this makes you one of those annoying people who is always smiling (but then I’m sure there is something positive to be found in that too!).

Thursday

Having found a book on Mindfullness exercises on my bookcase at home (no idea why I have this!) today i tried Cat pose for a few minutes upon waking up. This felt like a nice gentle stretch and was quick and easy to do whilst also being calming. I’m starting to see how taking a couple of minutes a day to just be still can be benifical to your mindset.

Friday

Having a bit more time today I tried another exercise from my book – a full body scan. This involved laying down still and quiet and relaxing my body. Then focusing on the feeeling in my toes, relaxing the rest of the body and just thinking about my toes. Then moving on to my calfs, then thighs and so on, slowly moving up my body, body part by body part. This took quite some time so by the end of it I felt relaxed and chilled out. Not something I would have the patience to do everyday but it was a good way of calming the mind and body.

Saturday

This afternoon I spent 5 minutes just sitting and focusing on my breathing. As time went on my breathing slowed and became deeper and my body relaxed and my mind felt calm. It doesn’t have to be complicated to calm the body.

Sunday

Today I covered a HIIT and Body Pump class and there was a Pilates class afterwards so i decided to stay. I know Pilates isn’t meditation but its the sort of class I struggle with because it’s slow and controlled and my mind wanders. I tried to spend the hour focusing on the movements keeping them slow and deliberate and not thinking beyond what i was doing in the moment.

My takeout from the week. Even just one minute a day of just sittting or lying still and focusing on breathing or streching and not letting your mibd race can have a dramatic effect on your mind and your stress levels. I’m relatively sure you will never see me becoming a meditation guru but I am going to make more of an effort to take a few minutes each day to just be.

Your What and Your Why

Hands up if you’ve ever heard people talk about their ‘Why’ and done a little eye roll?

I’d put a little hands up emoji here except I haven’t worked out how to do that on here yet.

I always found memes and Facebook posts or inspirational lines about motivation a bit cheesy. Generally speaking the only cheese I have time for is the type I put in my mouth or the type produced musically by the likes of Busted or McFly.

That is until recently.

I’ve come to realise that the reason I felt like understanding what your Why is was pointless was because I didn’t really have a ‘What’.

I’d done the same job for over twelve years and did what I really enjoy (teaching) on the side and kind of thought that I had left it too late to look into making any big changes and to be honest didn’t really know what changes I’d make anyway. When people talked about being passionate about what they do I always felt a bit bemused.

I realise this makes me sound quite shallow.

I probably am.

Over the last few months however, with a bit (ok maybe a lot) of prodding, I’ve started to get an idea of what I’d like to do going forward.

I’ve worked out where my passion lies, what I believe is worthwhile doing.

I know the changes I can make now to work towards those goals and I have an idea of how I can get to where I’d ultimately like to be. How I can wok my own passions into my work life.

Once I worked this out I returned to the idea of my ‘Why’. The truth is once you know what you are working towards finding the Why is actually pretty easy. The Why is also the thing that motivates you to get stuff done now – even when you’re tired and it’s hard – because you know you need to do it to get to where you want to be.

So I’m still a ‘just get shit done type of person’. I can’t really stand fanfare. Those who need to know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it do, and for everyone else the chances are you won’t know I’ve been working towards something until I decide to write something sarcastic on Facebook!

That being said I’ve come to appreciate the power of knowing your own aims / goals / passions in your head because it’s only when you understand them that you will start to work towards them with any kind of focus.

Easter eggs and the art of patience

Happy Easter.

Probably my favourite holiday.

Because I like Easter Egg chocolate more than any other chocolate

And I get four whole days off of work.

Thats four lie ins, four days with no classes to teach (well that’s a lie I’m teaching a Body Pump tomorrow night but almost four days), four days to slow down, do the bare minimum, do it at a leisurely pace, drink too much champagne in my pajamas on a whim because I can.

I have trained each day too – just 30 to 60 minutes – because I wanted to.

Friday I did weights and went for a short run

Yesterday I did Murph (I don’t like Murph, I’ll write about that one day)

Today I did 30 minutes of HIIT in my living room.

So far I have eaten 3 easter eggs. Plus a fair few mini easter eggs. I still have one left.

My calorie intake this week will probably be double my energy expenditure.

I don’t feel guilty about this. It’s just one week.

After I trained this morning I looked at myself in the mirror and saw some definition in my stomach.

Only a little (and excuse the mismatched outfit i threw on – i wasn’t planning on taking a selfie!) but it’s progress. And this was after I’d eaten a whole easter egg for breakfast.

This was my breakfast today by the way.

You can not have the perfect diet, not be the best athlete in the world, not be 100% ‘on it’ all the time and still get results.

The fact is lasting results take time. Lifestyles have to be compatible with your actual life and sometimes you will have days where you aren’t as ‘on it’ as others.

Consistency is a word banded about in gym land a lot. It’s important. So is patience. Most of us have no patience. I know i’m often guilty of this. But I also know I’m starting to see real results – from a years worth of hard work. Not 6 weeks or a few months but from not giving in after a few weeks because I didn’t already have a six pac. Patience.

When i started writing this post I wasn’t really sure what it’s point would be.

I’m still not. I was just feeling reflective. Sometimes you need to reflect a bit to gain some perspective.

Now excuse me whilst I go and find that last easter egg…

Meal Prep Time

If you are into fitness the chances are at some point you will have given meal prep a go.

During the week I leave the house around 6am most days and return around around 9/10pm so having food with me is vital if i don’t want to live off a diet of McDonalds and junk. So i tend to meal prep twice a week -Sunday and Wednesday.

Now I a) hate cooking and b) am not very good at it so meal prep companies that deliver food to your door to pop in the microwave always sounded appealing. It also has the added bonus of variety (when you cook yourself its cheaper and more efficient to make many portions of the same meal). It is however expensive which has always put me off. Last week, however, I got an offer for 10 meals for £2.90 per meal from Nutribox Meals so I gave it a go and placed an order to see if it is in fact worth the money.

I placed my order via email and the customer service was brilliant. My first 6 meals arrived on Monday and the last 4 arrived Thursday so they were all fresh. The food was well packaged, so far so good.

Nutribox offer a variety of options from 1 meal a day upwards. I selected 2 meals a day. You have the option of picking from set meals (of which I picked five) or building your own meal from a list of proteins, carbs, veg and sauces (I selected the option to substitute my carb for a second veg on the five meals I ordered from this option). Normal prices are around £4 per meal depending on volume ordered.

Every day I made my own breakfast and snacks and then had a Nutribox meal for lunch and dinner. The food was tasty, portions for me felt small (but i eat a lot so this doesn’t actually mean they are small) but flavours were nice. On a couple of meals one of the veg portions ordered were missing but overall I enjoyed all the meals.

My take on the good and bad moments from my week on meal prep delivery:

Pros

Reduces cooking time
Plenty of variety
Flexibility on what meals contain
Decent amounts of protein in each meal
Variety of vegetables available
Plenty of flavour
Great taste
Portions are controlled
Can get delivered anywhere – i got mine delivered to the office for ease!
UK wide delivery

Cons

Unless you can afford to order ALL your food online you will still have to do some meal prep
Expensive
Need fridge space!
If you eat a lot like me the meals may feel small!
Human error means you may get the odd ‘wrong’ meal
The sauces are a bit on the small side

My takeout after a week- if i had more disposable income I would order meals every week to take away having to meal prep and to know I was eating sensible portions and good quality meals. Plus I would order from this company – their service was great. However given that i eat around 3,000- 3,500 calories daily the amount of additional food I would still need to buy mean it isn’t financially viable for me right now.

So for now I will stick to making my own meals but I won’t say that I won’t revisit the idea of meal prep delivery again in the future. If you are interested in the idea of using a meal prep company I would suggest you check out this site! http://www.nutriboxmeals.com

I should note that this review is independant of Nutribox Meals. I purchased the meals as a customer using a general offer and not in return for a review.

A Fishy Post Today

I was always slightly bemused by people taking supplements –what can these little tablets do to help you? If you eat well surely you shouldn’t need anything extra?

This may be the case but in the last few years I have started taking, and been converted to the value of two supplements – and ant to focus on one of those in particular.

Let me just start by clarifying – this is not a sales pitch! I don’t work for Herbalife, Forever Living, Juice Plus or any other company. I don’t believe that taking a tablet every day can get the nutrients of 30 different fruits into your body. You need to eat proper food, a variety of foods and actual foods with lots of colour in them in order to look and feel good. This being said taken in conjunction with a good diet some supplements can add benefit. A multi vitamin is a no brainer just to ensure you get anything you might have missed from your diet that day (like having a protein shake to increase your protein intake). The other supplement with huge benefits in fish oil.

I started taking fish oil a few years ago whilst I was suffering badly with depression. I was on anti-depressants and had tried several types without finding one that suited me. I had never been one to try alternative therapies but I was at a point where I didn’t feel I had anything to lose so I bought a self-help book and tried the things it suggested- including taking a high dose of fish oil.

Obviously it took time and a lot more than just some fish oil to get better but I think it made a difference and I have continued to take the supplement ever since and I notice the drop in my mood if I forget to take it for a few days.

Apart from being proven to a help alleviate depression and anxiety it has shown to potentially have numerous other benefits including: reducing the risk of diabetes / cancer / cardiovascular diseases, improving brain function, increasing your sex drive, improving fertility, improving the condition of skin and hair, helping the immune system and even helping manage your weight.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money- the pots of vitamins which some companies charge £10 plus for will provide nothing that you can’t get from a supermarket own brand. The one thing I would mention about fish oil is it comes in different doses and you need to establish how much you want to take and then work out how many tablets you need to take from there (ideally you want to take as few tablets as possible to hit your daily dose). You can buy fish oil in a bottle (in case you don’t like taking tablets) however be warned fish oil in this form TASTES LIKE FISH OIL.

If you are considering taking any supplements I’d recommend this be something you look at.

Do Less – Achieve More

The other day I wrote about one way you can reduce stress.

Here’s another.

I’m stealing this one from someone who knows a lot more about health and fitness than me. You can follow him too, in fact I’d recommend it.

https://rickylong42.wordpress.com

Do less.

Easy.

Everyone is so busy now. We all have multiple commitments and responsibilities and it can often feel like there are not enough hours in the day.

When you have a lot of things to do and feel stressed, assess your to do list. Do you actually need to do it? If you don’t then don’t. Simple as that. Get what has to be done done, let all the ideals go and feel your stress levels lower. Just the idea of this stressed me out at first but it works.

It works with training too.

First – “Will your workout compliment or complicate your day” – this is an actual quote.

If it will compliment it do it. If it will make life harder let it go that day – as long as you don’t let it go every day missing a session won’t hurt. Trying to squeeze one in when you really have more pressing things to do could cause stress though. Do less but make it count.

Second- Training doesn’t have to take hours (if you make it count)

I used to think it did.

Now I can train hard in 20-30 minutes. My lunch break. I can break a sweat, get out of breath and fatigue my muscles. I’m doing fewer hours in the gym and getting bigger results. I believe the saying is ‘more bang for your buck’. There’s a good reason why HIIT training has become so popular.

This one was short- a long post on doing less would be hypocritical!

Reduce Stress: Rise Early

I am a stress head. I’m honest enough to admit I get stressed about silly things. But I also have a busy life. I have two jobs and work an average of around 55 hours a week, I’m normally away from my flat for about 16 hours a day during the week and I don’t get much down time at the weekend either. Looking at it this way it’s not surprising I can sometimes feel highly strung. So when I see a simple idea or suggestion of how I could reduce stress I’m open to give it a go.

The idea of rising early to reduce stress sounded a bit bonkers to me on face value. Getting less sleep – how can that help? But the theory goes that it both gives you more time to get the things that are important to you done (exercise, all those little admin tasks, whatever is important to you) and means you are more likely to get into a fixed routine. So I considered it.

I start work at 7 am Monday to Thursday so I already get up at around 5.30 am – and when I thought about it by I realised that by the time I get to the office at 9 am I normally feel pretty good because I’ve been up a few hours, I’ve worked out and I feel awake. In contrast a lot of my colleagues who have just woken up and rushed in feel more (not less) frazzled than me. The theory could be right.

So I’ve started trying to get up at 5 am some days. That extra half an hour means I rush less, sometimes have time to do some housework, and leave for work calmer than when I grab that extra half an hour in bed. Of course some days I need that extra bit of sleep and don’t feel guilty about taking it, but it’s a simple habit to get into that can help make your day feel less rushed, make you feel more accomplished early on (which in turn sets you up for a good day) and can help you be more productive – all of which does help reduce that feeling of stress.

Do you have any simple habits which can reduce stress? Does rising early work for you or do you need as much sleep as possible?