Self-help options for Seasonal Affective Disorder

Are you feeling SAD these days? You might be craving light now that the days are getting shorter and darker. For some people the lack of daylight in autumn and winter can lead to seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD is a condition that typically causes feelings of lethargy and sadness throughout the winter months. Have you noticed a change in your motivation to attend your usual activities such as Yoga class or going to the gym? Maybe you feel less centred, you get irritable more easily and you feel like pulling the blanked back over your eyes when your alarm rings in the morning. Even sweet cravings can be a side effect of feeling the winter blues.

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How to plan an effective workout routine with your gyms time table

Have you asked yourself or your group fitness instructor “how many times should I go to the gym to lose weight or get stronger”? I often get asked “how many classes do you teach a week?”. I suspect that the idea is to copy the amount of classes I teach in the hope that it will speed up getting stronger or achieving weight loss results. We fitness instructors exercise for a living and doing so is neither health promoting, nor does it help us get in shape; in fact it actually hinders the body from adapting to the work load because we have the same exact routine/ class schedule every week. Often we do not get enough rest and recovery days. Instructors need to take the classes that they can get so we can not plan a nice alternation between a hard days and a easy recovery or mind body days. You as a participant have the opportunity to plan out your own gym schedule from the time table your gym provides. I will explain how I would go about choosing which classes to do on each day of the week and what kind of rules you should bear in mind when doing the planning to get the most out of working out. After all non of us have endless amount of time to spend in the gym or patience to endure not getting results as soon as possible.

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Put all your eggs in your fuel basket - eggs are a superfood

Easter is normally the time when people eat more eggs than usual. Some still restrict themselves because of being scared of possible health risks. Others just hate doing the peeling because fresh eggs don’t peel well; they usually rip some of the outer layers off with the shell, very annoying as it takes much longer. Fortunately, one lady has done some experimenting and found the best way to get fresh eggs to peel easily and cleanly is steaming them in their shells. Here is the full experiment. Did you know that eggs are filled to the brim with valuable nutrients? Eggs are similar to breast milk by nature; intended to deliver as many important nutrients as possible to help new life grow, after all an egg has everything needed to make a new chicken. Why you shouldn’t eat just any average egg…

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The easy tai chi sequence - Tai Chi Qigong Shibashi

Today I will give a short introduction to the Shibashi sequence I teach and practice. Shibashi is really nice as it is simple and allows everyone, novice or experienced, to practice and relax together. If you thought tai chi has to be serious and martial arts focused think again, this is definitely different, much more in line with a group fitness class such as Yoga. If you have been following me for a while you may have already read the “5 benefits of stress management and reasons to do tai chi before you draw your pension” and “I didn’t like tai chi…”, I think both of these posts are helpful for anyone that is hesitant about incorporating a slow movement practice into their fitness schedule just as much as I was once.

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