I know, 'lifestyle maintenance' sounds a little boring and you might be sat there thinking 'what the heck is that' but let me explain.

Until you take a step back and take inventory of your health, you might not realise that it's determined by a combination of really important factors that keep us ticking over and functioning as we should be. You are most likely more aware of lifestyle illnesses and diseases such as diabetes (type 2), obesity and heart diseases and I truly believe that as important as it is to look into the cure, care and medicine behind these illnesses it's also incredibly important to look at how we can prevent them.

One way we can begin to prevent lifestyle diseases is by looking after ourselves a little better and that's where 'lifestyle maintenance' comes into it. If our houses get messy, we tidy and clean them. If our car breaks down, we get it serviced and fixed. Why don't we treat our bodies and minds with the same respect?

There are many factors that contribute to our overall health but I thought I'd share with you over the course of four different posts, the factors that I think are crucial in maintaining our health - this is based on knowledge I've gained through my studies into health & nutrition and also gathered from a wide range of experts who have looked closely into what helps us live our lives to the fullest.

Today's post focuses on sleep.

Sleep

It's strange how maybe 3 or 4 years ago I wouldn't have even considered sleep to be crucial in my day-to-day health and simply functioning as a human being but it doesn't take much investigating to realise it's actually probably one of the most important things we can do for our mental and physical well-being.

So how much sleep do we need? 

It's advised that adults need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night in order to function well during the day. It's a bit of a myth that as we age we need less sleep as even adults 65 years old or older need 7 as a minimum. Children need a little more, sometimes 10-11 hours a night.

What type of 'sleep' is there?

This might seem like an odd question to answer but there are actually four stages of sleep we go through during our visit to the land of nod;

Non Rapid Eye Movement- or NREM - sleep is divided into three parts; 1, 2 and 3 with each part becoming gradually 'deeper' into sleep. Parts 1 and 2 are the stages where we're most easily woken (unless you're my boyfriend who could most likely sleep through World War III if it came about).
Part 3 of NREM is the deeper stage of sleep which we're more difficult to rouse from and if we are awoken from this stage of sleep we might feel quite dazed and disorientated.

Why is NREM sleep important?

We need to go through each stage of NREM sleep to wake up feeling well rested the next morning & each stage usually lasts for around an hour/hour and a half. If you wake up one morning feeling tired and not with it then it's most likely because on of your NREm

The final stage of sleep is Rapid Eye Movement - or REM- sleep. This is the closest stage to being awake and it's called 'Rapid Eye Movement' sleep because your eyes do literally that, they move rapidly under your eyelids, darting from side to side. During this stage of sleep is also when you have dreams as your pulse quickens and your brain activity increases.

Why is REM sleep important?

REM sleep is the stage of sleep where our brains are most stimulated especially in areas of the brain that work on making and retaining memories and learning new things.

How can I sleep better?

You might assume that it's what you do right before bed that means you have a well-rested night's sleep but actually there's lots you can do even from the moment you wake up that can lead to a better night's sleep.

Morning: 
Keep a regular schedule - Keep the peace with your body and try to stick to regular hours of sleeping/waking. It might seem a bit like you've reverted back to childhood by setting a 'bedtime' but going to sleep and waking up at the same time most days will really help.

Get some natural light - Getting some daylight as soon as possible in the morning can really help reset our internal body clocks (or circadian rhythm as it's sometimes called)

Daytime:
Quit The Caffeine:  The Sleep Council advises that you should try to avoid caffeine 8 hours before bed but personally I try to not have any caffeine (so that's a matcha latte for me) before 2pm. If it's gone 2pm then no matcha for me!

Get Moving: Try to indulge in some gentle exercise during the day, exercise promotes the quality and quantity of your sleep and even if it's just walking around your office block or taking the dog for a walk it can help us sleep better.

Evening:
Put down the phone: Evidence has shown that using our phones and other electronic devices before bedtime can keep us awake due to the blue light they emit. They also stimulate our brains a little too much during the time when we should be trying to wind them down before we sleep so have a break from your phone an hour or two before bed. Have a bath, read a book, stay away from Instagram!

Avoid the temptation of a night cap: If we can't sleep there are times we might turn to a cheeky alcoholic beverage to send us off to sleep but despite being a sedative this can do us more bad than good. It might get us off to sleep okay but our sleep will be disrupted and we can end up feeling unrefreshed in the morning.

Night:
Give your bedroom a calm-makeover: Basically, ensure the room you sleep is set to a cool temperature, make sure it's dark and keep it a quiet space. If you don't have them then try to invest is some blackout blinds to help keep the light out, these are especially handy in the summer months when it can come flooding through curtains uninvited!

Get rid of rude alarm clocks: I searched high and low through the alarm clock settings on my iPhone before resorting to downloading a new tune from the iTunes store for my alarm and now I don't dread the noise so much in the morning. Keep phone and alarm clock lights off and turn off the television before you sleep. Before we moved in together, my boyfriend would fall asleep to the television and I have no idea how he did it!

Top Tip: Something that has changed my attitude to sleep is keeping the bedroom peaceful and calm. When I worked from home I'd be tempted to have breakfast in bed and log onto my laptop, have conference calls etc but keeping the room strictly for relaxing and sleeping has really helped me to associate the bedroom with unwinding and calm. 

Credits: The Sleep Council

Ditch 'Diet Culture' For Good

Changing your mindset when it comes to eating and your relationship with food can seem really daunting and difficult at first. There's so much flying around world wide web that tells us what we should and shouldn't do when it comes to diet and fitness and it can all get overwhelming and very confusing.

I'd like to add that I'm not a health professional in anyway, I'm not qualified to offer health or nutrition advice but I've spent a lot of time researching the benefits of ditching so-called 'diet culture' and would love to share my findings with you!

What is 'diet-culture'?

Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CDN is an outspoken leader in the non-diet, weight-inclusive movement is and her definition of ‘diet culture’ has been widely quoted and referenced. She says:

“Diet culture is a system of beliefs that:

• Worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue, which means you can spend your whole life thinking you’re irreparably broken just because you don’t look like the impossibly thin “ideal.”

• Promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher status, which means you feel compelled to spend a massive amount of time, energy, and money trying to shrink your body, even though the research is very clear that almost no one can sustain intentional weight loss for more than a few years.

• Demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others, which means you’re forced to be hyper-vigilant about your eating, ashamed of making certain food choices, and distracted from your pleasure, your purpose, and your power.

• Oppresses people who don’t match up with its supposed picture of “health,” which disproportionately harms women, femmes, trans folks, people in larger bodies, people of color, and people with disabilities, damaging both their mental and physical health.”

Diet culture can make the idea of just nourishing and looking after your body by eating ALL kinds of foods seem kind of crazy, out-there and impossible. That's because diet culture has convinced us we can't possibly be healthy in body and mind without SOME kind of restrictive diet or special tea that will do the trick for us.

That's where Diet Culture does us dirty. 

Where might you find 'Diet Culture'?

Below are some good examples of diet culture around the web that you might come across on a regular, even a daily basis and not even really assosicate or label as diet culture. Well, you will now!

• Celebrities flogging ANYTHING that they claim helped them lose 2 stones in as many months
• I've recently seen an ex Love-Island contestant sharing her weight loss results all over Instagram, dropping to a size 6 and what came hand-in-hand with it? The weight-loss programme she created in order to do it! It's SO important to remember there's not one size that fits all when it comes to what you eat and how you exercise so there's no way that they can guarantee you'll have the exact same results and there's no reason why you should have to either! 
• Foods that claim to be 'guilt free' or perfect for 'cheat days'. 
• Guilt isn't an ingredient in any food. All food is guilt-free and labelling food as such simply leads to us making connections with food and creating unhealthy relationships with certain foods. The other end of the spectrum is 'cheat days'. If you start to feel like you're cheating on yourself then you'll be overwhelmed with negative feelings towards certain foods which can easily lead to more disordered types of eating.

How to Recognise Diet Culture & Ditch It For Good

Luckily, there are plenty of ways we can tailor our lives to ensure we're not plagued by diet culture and to help us live our best and healthiest lives! 

• Be Kind To Yourself
• Only use words to yourself that you'd say to someone else. Would you outwardly punish a friend for having a slice of cake at work when it's someone's birthday? Or grabbing a cheeky McDonalds on your way home from an evening out? No, so don't do it to yourself. Be kind. 
• De-Clutter Social Media
• Something huge that's helped me is keeping on top of my social media feeds. Even I follow someone at 3pm and by 3:15pm I've seen something from their feed which doesn't make me feel positive or inspired then I'll unfollow them straight away again. Go through accounts and people you follow and unfollow any that make you feel like you're not doing enough or ones who share diet culture (some celebs can be huge culprits of this as it makes them a few bob!).
• Educate Yourself
• Last week I shared four Health & Wellness podcasts which i'm currently listening to and loving at the moment and I love them so much because they're full of interesting, educational facts from registered professionals across the health industry. When you begin to learn more about health, nutrition and a healthy diet you'll start to easily see through the amount of bullsh*t there is on the internet. 

As I've mentioned previously, I'm not a professional and can't advise on what you should be eating and how you should be exercising but Diet Culture affects all of us negatively, there's no two ways about that so if we can all learn to ditch it and start loving ourselves despite what the internet might want us to think then that's a win!

4 Health & Wellness Podcasts You Need In Your Life

If - like me - in 2020 you've made the decision start looking after both your mind and your body a little more then - like me - you might need a little inspiration, motivation and guidance to get you going.

Luckily, there's an abundance of resources available for free at our fingertips these days and one of my favourite ways to soak up new information has been to listen to podcasts. I was never really a podcast person but over the last 6 months have really begun to enjoy them, especially whilst driving to and from work (as each journey is around 40 mins each).

I thought I would share you with the 5 podcasts I think you need in your life if you're looking to take control of your health and wellness this year, let me know if you take a listen to any of these and I'd love to know your thoughts!

4. Going For Goal
This 'cast is created by Women's Health and is brand new for 2020. The host, Roisin Dervish-O'Kane interviews leading nutrition, fitness and psychology experts each week to discuss their personal strategies for success.

3. Deliciously Ella
You might have seen Ella's products in the health aisle at your fave supermarket, well the health food guru also has a podcast and each episode she discusses a variety of important subjects with various experts from the importance of sleep, how and why we love, sexual health along with discussing food myths & facts!

2. Give Me Strength
Personal trainer Alice Liveing interviews extraordinary women during her podcasts episodes with each one delving into the importance of building mental and physical resilience and how this can empower us to be healthier and happier.

1. Food For Thought
This is my favourite podcast to listen to by far, created by certified nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert (aka Rhitrition), it discusses all of the important myths and subjects around health. She dives into the myths around carbs being bad for you (spoiler, they're not), Intermittent Fasting & so much more. I love Rhi's perspective and everything ultimately comes down to a healthy relationship with food.

Let me know what your favourite podcasts are as I'm always on the look out for something new to listen to! :) 

My 2020 Goals & Habits

Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's 2020, what the heck? When did that happen?! I hope you all had a lovely festive period and spent a lot of time with your loved ones. I find the time between Christmas and New Year is very good fore some self reflection.

I've always loved a New Year Resolution although maybe I see them slightly differently the older I'm getting; they always used to be 'LOSE WEIGHT' or 'GET FIT' or 'EAT LESS CHOCOLATE' etc and although none of those resolutions are bad if that's what you want to do, I always found them far too vague which in turn made me see them as intimidating and unattainable.

This year I've decided to set some more realistic and achievable goals and also define some new habits I'd like to start this year and I thought in case anyone needed any inspiration I'd share them with you today.

• Eat clean more often - It's slowly dawning on me that I need to be kinder to my body. That means less processed food that contains, well, who knows what in it?! Don't get me wrong, I can't eat clean all day everyday as I love the odd treat now and then but I'm definitely going to make better choices when I can which

• Attend 5 gym classes a week - I'm currently a member of a fantastic fitness club in my local area which is run by one lady - Jo - who holds 9 classes a week including Zumba, Full Body Workout, Barre, AbsTastic and Clubbercise at our local gym. I joined last Jan and I still try to make a few classes a week now but my 2020 goal is to attend 5 each week.

• Take multivitamins DAILY - I've already failed at this one so far but that's only because I can't actually find the multivitamins I pruchased a month or so ago *eye roll* so I need to get to Holland and Barratt and treat myself to some new ones before I can get going. This one's pretty important for me though as I don't really eat any fresh fruit so am missing out on some vital vits! 

• Keep up my daily skincare routine - Since Christmas I've treated myself to some new beauty products and tools to really up my game in 2020 (it's not difficult seeing as my 2019 game was a make-up wipe...) I've bought a jade and rose quartz roller/gua-sha set and am loving using these day and night along with my new Homedics Facial Cleanser. I want to make sure that I keep this up as i'm a week or so in and already seeing a difference in my skin!

• Have more structure/routine - When I told my boyfriend about this goal he panicked but that's coming from him, someone who had practically ZERO routine before we got together. I reassured him though that it was my goal and he didn't have to join in. However, I want to ensure I'm getting 8 hours of sleep each night, making more time in the mornings so I'm not rushing or late for work, keeping the house tidy (putting something away after using it). Basically just having my shit together a little more. 

• Say yes less - By this I mean, stop doing so much stuff that I don't want to do or being worried to say 'nah, I'm good thanks'. Even something as little as staying up late when really I want to just go to bed at 10pm and get a good night's sleep before work or turning down an invite to a party when I'd rather have some time to myself to relax and unwind. The only pressure that's on me to please everyone else is the pressure I put on myself!

What are your goals and resolutions for 2020, I'd love to know! Comment below or find me on social media over on Instagram @laurenefell

3 Ways To Manage Christmas Madness

As much as I love Christmas, I'd be lying if I said it didn't stress me the eff out sometimes.

Luckily this year we're not having to host at all over the Christmas period - last year I literally bought a new fridge/freezer to accommodate all of the food and drink - so there's a little less to think about in that respect, however there's still parties, presents & plans to make and organise so it can all get a little much.

 Last year when we were planning Christmas Day and Boxing Day at our house I discovered some useful tips & tricks to help manage the madness at Christmas time and I thought I'd share them with you in case - like me - you also lose your mind a little during the festive period!

 1. Remember it is JUST Christmas 

Yeah, this is a big one that my boyfriend has to regularly drill into me every time I fall into a mad panic around the first week of December. It's easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself to have everything just-so and perfect (hello, my name's Lauren and I'm a little neurotic about planning things...) but just remember what Christmas should really be about and that's spending quality time with your loved ones.

2. Plan effectively & make a list or two

Through my day job I discovered a really fantastic, free web-based programme called Trello. It's essentially an on-line To-Do list and you can create different boards and place cards in each board. 

Below is a screenshot of my Trello board for Christmas 2018, it really helped me to organise and prioritise hings and I could move things to a 'DONE' board once they were purchased or complete which was VERY satisfying. Trello also have an app which I downloaded to my phone so I could check what I needed on-the-go. 

However, if you're not a fan of a digital list then go old school, make a similar style list in a notebook or diary and keep track that way. Everything looks so much simpler when it's written out in front of you.

3. Take Some Time To Yourself

You know the motto 'treat yo'self'? Well blooming well listen to it! Don't forget to look after yourself and your mental well-being this Christmas. Christmas isn't worth losing your mind over so book yourself in at the hair/nail salon, grab those drinks with your colleagues or friends after work and enjoy this time of year!

How To Start A Healthy Routine

It didn't really dawn on me that my routine was out of whack until I'd lived with my boyfriend for around six months. Before then, I'd always lived with my parents (with the exception of an 8-month stint in a 1 bedroom flat a few years ago when I thought I could afford to live alone - spoiler, I couldn't.)

Before we moved in together my boyfriend lived just over an hour from me so the location we moved to was half-way between us and a completely new town to both of us. I'd visited once before we moved here and it definitely took a while for me to realise that I wasn't adjusting as easily as I'd hoped and that's not because I don't love living where we do or that I don't enjoy living with my boyfriend because I really do, I think it was just because it turned my life upside down.

Routine helps with feeling settled when you might otherwise feel a little out of your comfort zone and it can really be a great tool for managing your mental health. I want to share what I've done to carve out a new routine for myself and also what I'd like to do over the coming months myself - hopefully some of this helps.

5. HEALTHY EATING & DRINKING
It's a bit of a no-brainer that to start a new healthy routine you'd need to eat healthier and cut down on alcohol which is proven to have a very negative effect on mental health. Now, I am not a fruit or veg girl, it's terrible I know but I struggle to get my 5-a-day in (heck, I struggle with 5-a-week) but that doesn't mean you can't still eat well. I've cut out junk food and most processed foods and I stick very loosely to a Slimming World plan to give my diet some structure; in all honesty we love so many SW recipes and snacks so it's not difficult. Following a healthy living plan will become part of your daily routine and you'll start to form new eating habits in no time.

4. WORKOUT REGULARLY
Making exercise a part of your routine will take feeling good about yourself to a new level. As I was completely new to the area we moved to I was keen to join a new gym so that I'd be able to get into a new fitness routine...the only problem is I hate the gym and really didn't enjoy it. I stopped going and got into a bit of a rut about working out, I was in desperate need of finding some form of exercise that I enjoyed. Luckily I stumbled across an amazing fitness instructor who runs 8 different classes a week in a school hall only 5 minutes from our house - it couldn't have worked out better.

I now do Barre, Pound, Fight, Zumba, Clubbercise and a Full Body Workout class each and every week. It's probably my favourite part of my new routine as through these classes I've met some wonderful women and it's really made our new area start to feel like home. It also makes me appreciate the 3x days I get off from classes each week!

3. START A NEW HABIT
One way to make your routine interesting it to start doing something completely new and different. When your surroundings and circumstances change it can feel like the easiest thing to do is to revert back to your old routine to make everything feel somewhat normal again but it's probably the best opportunity to take up a new hobby. I started practicing yoga and blogging again and have tried to make both of these activities part of my routine. Why not start reading more or incorporating a daily walk into your routine?

2. TRY AND STICK TO A BEDTIME
I know bedtime sounds like it's for 5-year-old's but I think it's a really important part of a daily routine and definitely one that I've not nailed myself yet and still struggle with. Sleep is crazy important for mental health, it's the one time a day we can give our brains and bodies a rest and ensuring we get enough sleep is really important. I always try and turn off the telly each evening at 10pm, my boyfriend will usually watch something on his iPad for a further 20-25 minutes whilst I get ready for bed and then I'm in bed by 10:30pm at the latest. The problem is we then sit in bed and watch silly YouTube videos for a while or we'll play with the cat or end up chatting about something or other. It can be 11:30pm or even midnight before we go to sleep and then we're both up again at 6:30/7am for work. I'm slowly starting to realise I'm just not getting enough hours.

To correct this, I'm going to start switching off from 10pm onwards so that means limiting the time on my phone and not putting the television on in the bedroom before we go to sleep. I also want to start reading more and winding down before bed. One of our worst habits is my boyfriend going on Reddit or me going on social media then going to bed and going 'oh my god did you hear this story about that guy that did this? Look at this video! Look at this gif!' etc.

1. HAVE A MORNING ROUTINE MAPPED OUT
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous tip and because I haven't got the night routine figured out I haven't really got my morning one sorted yet but that doesn't mean I don't have good intentions set out.

If you've had a good night's sleep it's very likely that getting up earlier will be easier, that's just science (maybe?). I was actually doing really well in the new year and I'd get up half an hour earlier,  do ten minutes of yoga whilst the cat ate her breakfast, then I'd sort my breakfast, lunch and snacks out for work before getting ready. This meant I wasn't rushing round the house like a mad woman, I'd had a morning stretch and I was never late for work and that's all down to getting up just half an hour earlier.

If you suss out your evening/night routine and get enough sleep, setting your alarm for half an hour earlier the next day will only have a positive affect on your day and that's what I'm intending to try out this week!