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Our Health is In Our Hands

The pillars of our health are diet, exercise, sleep, emotional health and mindset.

Diet Is Pillar Number 1

Eat lots of vegetables and less packaged foods!

Exercise is Pillar Number 2

Movement is life!

You don’t have to do heaps of exercise.

Sleep Is Pillar Number 3

We’ve only recently come to realise how important sleep is to our health and productivity.

Emotional Health and Mindset are Integral to Our Wellbeing

Alcohol is Very Damaging to Our Health

See: How to Love Your Life Without Alcohol

2.Daily Routine is Everything

The small things add up to make or break our healthy lifestyle.

3.Value What You Have

It’s so easy to undervalue what we have. We all have something that we can be grateful for.

We need to take time to appreciate the good things in life.

Alcohol is widely accepted in society today. It’s considered normal to drink large amounts of alcohol because it’s fun and helps us to socialise.

We’ve all been there. I don’t know about you but I look back on my University years and my liver shudders. Medical students are some of the worst offenders when it comes to alcohol consumption.

Alcohol is Bad For Us

The sad thing is that alcohol is bad for us. I know many people don’t like to think about it but alcohol damages our bodies.

Much easier just to pour yourself another beer and forget about the consequences.

Alcohol is a risk factor for many cancers. Drinking alcohol in excess damages our livers, pancreas, hearts and immune system.

(For more horrible details of what alcohol can do, check out this article.)

See also: Reducing Your Risk of Cancer with Diet. Podcast Episode 11.

What is “Excess” Alcohol?

The problem is that none of us think we drink in excess. We think everyone else drinks...

We are creatures of habit. We do most of our daily actions out of habit. Without thinking.

This means that habits can help us feel better, get more fit and healthy.

Or they can make us feel worse. Eating out of habit. Not exercising out of habit.

Once we’re “in a habit”, it’s easy to maintain.

But why do we so often think, “I can’t be bothered to create that habit”?

Often it’s because we can’t see the benefit in that small action.

We only look at the “10 minute walk” and think, “how is that going to make a difference?”

How to Make Habits That Serve You Podcast

The Compound Affect of Habits

Instead of looking at the result of doing the habit once, we have to look at the result of doing the habit over a longer period of time.

What will happen if I do 10 minutes of yoga every day for a year?

Rather than looking at just 10 minutes of yoga.

Next Time You Think You Can’t Be Bothered With a Good Habit

...

In this podcast episode we’re looking at how to reduce our risk of cancer with lifestyle. Today’s message is that there are so many things that you can do. So many things that you can do that are easy!

Today I am talking to Dr Mhairi Morris, lecturer at Loughborough University UK and founder of Essential Cancer Education.

Reduce Your Risk of Cancer Podcast Episode 13

How to Reduce Your Risk Of Cancer with Lifestyle

1. Exercise
2. Don’t smoke.
3. Avoid sun damage.
4. Be a healthy weight.
5. Sleep 7-8 hours a night.
6. Avoid “bad stress”.
7. Breastfeed
8. Don’t take HRT.

How Exercise Can Reduce Your Risk of Cancer

Exercise can help you to not get cancer in the first place. It can reduce the risk of getting a second cancer. It can also help treatment to work better.

Exercise is part of a healthy life.

In contrast, a sedentary lifestyle increases your risk of cancer.

The Geeky Stuff

1. Exercise can prevent cancer growth.
2. Exercise can kill “wobbly cancer”...

It's easy to let the stresses of life overwhelm us. Our lives in modern society are busy and stuffed full of "things to do". We often don't even notice the underlying stress.

How to Make Big Changes Podcast

Today I want to tell you how I realised that I was in a chronic state of stress and anxiety. I wasn't showing up as the parent, wife or person that I wanted to be.

At times overwhelmed swept over me. Leaving me frustrated and angry.

I snapped at my kids. 

I whined at my husband.

I sabotaged myself.

Why Do We Get Stuck in Negative Behaviour?

Why would I do that you ask?

Because our brains are wired to be negative. It's easy to get into a spiral of negative thinking.

When you're aware of it, you can stop it and replace it with helpful and positive behaviour.

My journey started when I looked at my family and wanted to create a "harmonious and loving family".

I started by working on myself. Including loving myself and prioritising my own needs.

What Do You Want to...

You might be surprise to know that exercise isn’t a great way to lose weight (more about that in a bit.) There are loads of benefits to exercise. Both health benefits and feeling amazing benefits!

The Health Benefits of Exercise Podcast

Shout out to Hilary

Congratulations to Hilary for the “audacious exercise award”….swimming outdoors in the UK in winter….without a wet suit.

You are amazing. And slightly bonkers!

Exercise Isn’t a Great Way to Lose Weight

Unless you plan to become a marathon runner! If you’re overweight and want to make changes to lose weight, you’re better off making changes to your diet.

Exercise will HELP you lose weight. It will also help you to feel fit and fabulous.

As the saying goes: You can’t out run a bad diet!

Well Being Benefits of Exercise

• You feel amazing after doing exercise! (Not to begin with but once your body gets used to it.)
• Less stress (see Dr Marianne’s...

The vast majority of heart disease is preventable. In the first part of “how to reduce your risk of heart disease” we looked at nutrition and a heart healthy diet.

Today we’re going to look at lifestyle and how we can prevent heart disease.

Dr Zarrin Shaikh, Consultant Cardiolgist

Thank you so much to Dr Zarrin for coming and chatting to us.

A Heart Healthy Lifestyle Podcast Episode

How to Live a Heart Healthy Lifestyle

1. Exercise (at least 25 minutes of getting out of breath a day).
2. Reduce Stress.
3. Mindfulness and Meditation.
4. Sleep Well (7-8 hours a night).
5. Friends an\d Community.

Exercise Gives Us More than a Healthy Heart

A sedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor for heart disease. Regular exercise is associated with significantly lower risk of heart disease.

Walking 25 minutes a day can add up to 7 years to your life!

Exercise can also make you happier!

Exercise can lengthen your telomeres and help you live longer.

You need to do enough exercise...

Mediation is a fantastic way change your way of being from “grumpy, stressed and angry” to “calm and happy”. There are heaps of benefits of meditation. Health benefits, emotional benefits and even being more productive.

People have been meditating for thousands of years. In recent years, we’ve started to study the effects of meditation.

Meditation for Beginners Podcast

Benefits of Meditation

There are so many health benefits to meditation that I’m not going to list them all.

Meditation also helps us sleep well which helps us reduce our stress levels.

Meditation has a direct impact on stress as well.

1. Stress reduction
2. Weight loss (ref https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29076610)
3. Anxiety
4. Productivity
5. Self awareness
6. Sleep
7. Health benefits: Pain
8. Blood pressure

Article of 76 positive benefits: https://liveanddare.com/benefits-of-meditation/

What is Meditation?

Essentially meditation is shutting off that “constant train of...