Category Archives: Well-being

Kombucha! Fizzy goodness!

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Kombucha

We’ve always known that our gut has some sort of influence over us…. “I’ve got a gut feeling”, “It was just a gut reaction”, “I just went for it – it was a gut instinct”. And interestingly these are about feelings, and about emotions.

We’ve known for a long time that a healthy gut has a good effect on our physical health, and science, relatively recently, has been uncovering compelling evidence that our gut biome effects our emotions and therefore our mental health. I wrote a little about it here.

I’ve been exploring fermented foods as we know that they support a healthy gut biome and I’ve discovered the wonderful drink Kombucha! Kombucha is a ‘live’ drink – full of stuff that, it is said, to improve your gut biome.

Kombucha brewing with the scoby (two of them actually) floating on the top

The origins of Kombucha are uncertain. It is thought to have originated in the Far East, probably China, and has been consumed there for at least two thousand years. The Tsin Dynasty (around 221 BC) referred to it as “The Tea of Immortality”. It is thought that the name comes from Japan in 415 AD when a Korean physician called Kombu or Kambu treated the Emperor Inyko with the tea and it took his name, “Kombu” and “cha” (cha meaning tea).

A word of caution…. this is a live drink and, it is reported that, during the brewing and storing of it, things can go astray and result in contaminants that may not be good for you. But, there are also lots of websites that report the benefits of this drink. Research has not been conclusive as to the benefits but certainly lots of people report subjective improvements in their health. The advice is the same as ever… if you have an underlying health condition are young, or old, or pregnant, then definitely consult your doctor first.

You’re going to need a few things to get going. You’re going to need a vessel to brew your kombucha in, green tea bags, sugar (organic ideally – same for the tea bags), and a Scoby. The Scoby looks like a beige rubbery pancake like disc. The Scoby is a culture of bacteria and yeasts. This culture is placed in sweetened green tea and turns a bowl full of sweet tea into a bowl full of the drink. I got my starter pack from the lovely people at Happy Kombucha.

My first scoby from Happy Kombucha!

The kit comes with instructions that are easy to follow but essentially you make 2 litres of green tea (using about 8 tea bags) and add 170g (or thereabouts) of sugar. It’s important to avoid metal utensils when making your kombcuha as contact with metal kills the scoby. You then pour the tea, once it’s cooled to room temperature, into your 2 litre vessel which you’ve popped your scoby into. You then leave this for a period of time (I leave mine for 7 days) at room temperature (low 20 degrees) and the as the Kombucha culture digests the sugar it produces a range of organic acids, vitamins, amino acids, and enzymes, plus the probiotic microorganisms themselves.

Then the brew is ready you decant into containers for storage. Some people let it continue to brew at room temperature for a little longer once decanted to get a more fizzy brew (you need to ‘burp’ your bottles by releasing the gas in them daily to avoid an explosion!) Personally I pop mine straight in the fridge and once it’s chilled it’s ready to drink! It tastes a little like apples juice to me. The longer you brew it the less sweet it becomes as more of the sugar is transformed. It has a slightly yeasty taste, and a lovely fizz. It can have traces of alcohol in it but nothing that’s going to cause you any problems – but worth noting in case you need to avoid alcohol completely.

…and then you start again with more tea, and your scoby that you will have left in a little of last weeks tea. In time your scoby will develop a baby scoby – mine grew one big enough to use in another 2 litre vessel during the first brew!

Scoby up close

You are advised to introduce it to your body gradually before having a bigger glass. I started with probably quarter of a pint a day and I’m now settled at a little under half a pint a day. I’ll keep you posted with how it’s going! It seems to have helped me with acid reflux which is a good thing!

There is more Kombucha know how on the City Homesteads website – click here

You are what you eat!?

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Remember Gillian McKeith? She said “you are what you eat” and had a successful TV show in the noughties examining peoples poo and telling them what to eat and what not to eat. And while I wasn’t a fan of her or the show it turns out she was probably ahead of the curve and was onto something!

Veg! Good!

Research has taken this idea of what we eat somehow influencing who we are and shown that what we eat, and more specifically how healthy our gut biome is, effects our emotions and therefore, because our emotions effect how we think, how we feel psychologically.

Your brain and gut are directly connected (along with all other major organs) by the vagus nerve. In fact, in her wonderful book ‘Gut’ Giulia Enders (link at the end of the blog) suggests the self is constructed by the brain drawing on information and feelings from every part of the body. This overturns somewhat the idea that ‘I think therefore I am’ bringing the impact of physical ‘feelings’ into the creation of self. Surely you’ve spotted when your toilet habits are not good, or you’ve overindulged, you feel lousy, sluggish, not motivated? This, it is increasingly being argued, is because your gut has a significant impact on your brain and therefore how you feel emotionally.

In their brilliant and entertaining podcast for Audible, ‘It Takes Guts’, Tim Anderson and Giles Yeo explore the impact of your gut biome on your emotions and find there are significant connections. (It’s free to listener to if you are an audible member…. and if you’re not… why not! It’s a great way to ‘read’ – and you get lots of free material… I’m not on commission – honest). They explore the science and offer some solutions – which I’m going to cover in future blogs. But, it is clear that how you feel in your guts has an impact on how you feel mentally and, in terms of your productivity, how you feel mentally has a huge impact. If you feel low in mood, unmotivated, lacking drive, you are not going to get the best out of each and every day – whether you’re in the office or at home.

Beans! Good! Turned these into ‘houmous’

I was already on a journey of starting to change my nutritional intake. I avoid the word diet at all costs as it has connotations for me and for other people that are about waist loss and are generally negative. What I’m talking about here is not losing weight to be a size 10 or have a 32 inch waist but rather to eat in such a way that it supports your body’s physical and mental function and therefore makes you more productive in life.

I stopped eating meat nearly 3 months ago now and I feel much better for it! But hang on! I don’t really feel it’s not eating meat that’s done this as I know lots of people who eat meat and do great. I feel, for me, that it has meant that I have started eating more vegetables and pulses to replace the meat and what we do know is that those things create a healthier gut biome.

I have also started experimenting with fermented foods. Fermented foods have lots of good bacteria in them that promote good health. I have started to make and drink Kombucha… and I’m going to stick my neck out here, only 7 days into drinking it and say, it definitely has had a positive effect on me overall as well as my guts and bowels improving! I’ve also been eating fermented beetroot and fermented courgette… and I’ll post how I’ve done that soon. They are essentially a sauerkraut which is traditionally made with cabbage. There some great advice about fermenting and more on the benefits of it on the City Homesteads website! Definitely worth a look!

My bottled Kombucha

So, nutrition is the third element of my self care triangle. The other being exercise and sleep. I feel we need these three elements all working effectively in order to improve our well being and our productivity. We will all have a balance of how much of each we need to be getting right to be functioning at our max but we will need some of all of these things. Good quality sleep and the right amount is crucial. Throw in some exercise and some good food and we should be on the road to winning the productivity battle so that wether we’re at work, out for the night, chilling in front of the TV, doing jobs around the house, or playing with the children, we’ll be on top form while we do it, full of energy and enthusiasm to get the most out of each and every thing we do!

Stay tuned! More coming! I’m excited and hope you are!
Stephen
x

Get outside!

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Outdoors is great! We love walking or being away in our folding camper. Get the sun on your face and the wind in you’re hair!

We’ve spent the day at Aysgarth Falls in North Yorkshire and it’s been wonderful! Some gentle exercise, some sunshine, some beautiful scenery…. and coffee and cake! Walking through the forest to the falls was wonderful. But interestingly did you know that a study found that forest walks resulted in decreased levels of anxiety and improved mood!?

Also a study at the University of Michigan showed students performed 20% better in memory tests after a walk around an arboretum compared to those who walked around the city. A further study on people experiencing depression showed that walks in nature boosted working memory much more than walks in built environments. Time in the forest has also been shown to reduce cortisol which is a by-product of stress.

My particular favourite is that time outside on a morning prepares you for the day and activates the brain chemistry you need to be awake and alert.

Research in America has also shown that just spending some time outside can improve sleep particularly for men and everyone over 65! Good stuff!

So how about starting your day with some time outside…. or how about having a walk outdoors during your lunch break…. and when you can get out amongst the trees and experience nature!



Homemade vegetable crisps!

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My drive, moving forward is to make as many of the things I eat as possible! I’m sure they’ll be healthier, have less additives, and just make me feel really good about myself! All good! So I thought this weekend I’d try one of our Friday night favs vegetable crisps! I mean how hard can it be! Not hard at all it turns out.

You’re going to need a mandolin – not the stringed instrument (!) but one of the slicing things from the kitchen utensils section. I got mine in Sainsbury’s for £10 – bargain! The one in the picture on the right. Then you are going to need whatever vegetables you want to crisp. I went for beetroot, celeriac, and carrots – just because that’s what I had in. I also did some normal potatoes but they need a slightly different approach – so more on that at the end.

I set the oven to 150 degrees and got slicing. There are 3 settings on the mandolin and I used the middle one. I sliced up the vegetables and the best advice is to slice long slivers as they crisp to nothing in the oven! They will reduce in size by about half. I laid the vegetables out on baking trays all separate – i.e. not overlapping – and popped them in the oven. The carrots, beetroot and celeriac all cooked at about the same rate. You will need to turn them a couple of times and some needed to be prized gently from the tray. Some recipes I looked at suggested spraying the tray with oil – I didn’t do that and none stuck. They took about 20 to 30 minutes to be crisp.

I used 3 trays and needed to do 3 batches to fill an average sized plastic lunch box and that took 2 small beet, half a celeriac and 3 carrots…. I can see why the ones in the shop are as expensive!

I’m going to experiment with flavours but for these I ground up some chilli flakes and salt in my pestle and then sprinkled. They taste gorgeous!! I’m thinking of adding dried herbs, maybe rosemary, to the next batch. I’m also going to try putting the salt and chilli on them while they are still in the oven and a little moist to get it to stick better – maybe you could give that a go and tell me how you get on!?

I also did some normal potatoes and I found I had to cut them a little thicker to get them to be like crisps. But apart from that, and they took a little longer in the oven with being thicker, the idea was the same!

Give it a go and let me know how you get on! Homemade has got to be better!!

Gonna make you sweat!

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So, what’s your relationship like with exercise!? On and off? Non existent? Gym bunny!? What exercise did you do last week? What are you planning this week? And why does it matter?

Exercise is the second element in the self care trinity (more here). We’ve already talked about the importance of sleep so let’s grapple with this component and figure out why it’s good for us… because it is…. honest!

There are obvious physical benefits to exercise like improving bone density, promoting muscle growth, keeping you supple, promoting healthy skin …and the list goes. But I’d like to concentrate here on the impact on our psychological and emotional well being. Is exercise a stress buster!?

You are sat at your desk and you have a million things to do, so many things you don’t know what to do next, and your boss pitches up and asks if you can fit in doing something else! How do you feel! Overwhelmed, angry, tearful? People feel a range of things in these situations and sometimes these emotions are not helpful. Some of these emotions activate our ‘fight or flight’ response. When we feel threatened in some way our body prepares us for action by flushing us full of cortisol and adrenaline so that we are ready to respond. This useful reaction harks back to our days as hunter gatherers where we would need to run away from big scary things like tigers! These chemicals prepare us for flight – a physical response…. or indeed ‘fight’ ….but maybe not in the tiger scenario!

But the modern world is not like that. For a lot of us we are sat at our desks when we feel threatened. Here we are threatened by the demands of the job, not an animal with hostile intent (unless that’s how you think about your boss! ;0)). But our bodies don’t know that. So, they sense the threat and prepare the response and you then…. continue to sit there. But your body is ready! Fully armed to fight or flee. In his book “When the Body Says No, The Cost of Hidden Stress”, Gabor Mate tells us that “stress affects and involves virtually every tissue in the body” (pg. 33) and acts on tissues in the immune system. When stress is chronic, that is long term, it leads to an overactive immune system that produces toxic chemicals in the body. He goes on to explain that for many who are in constant state of stress they normalise what stress feels like so are not conscious of feeling stressed despite their body still initiating the internal chemical stress response. He gives many examples in the book of current research that is making strong links between chronic stress and diseases like Alzheimers and MS.

So, what does this have to do with exercise? Well, exercise reduces, burns off if you like, cortisol and adrenaline. As I say, the fight or flight response has produced these chemicals to prepare you for physical action, so, physical action is required to use it up. Given the reality that stress is unavoidable in life, and in many ways short periods of stress can be useful as it give impetus and motivation, exercise needs to be an essential component of self care to mitigate against a bodily chemical response that, for most office based stressors, is not required in the way it once was.

Not only does exercise use up cortisol and adrenaline it produces dopamine. Dopamine is released during pleasurable activities like enjoying food and sex as well as physical exertion through exercise. Deficiency in dopamine has been linked to depression. You may well have heard the term ‘runners high’ which is that euphoric feeling you feel after a run. That’s where it comes from! Exercise also produces noradrenaline, which regulates mood, learning and memory, and produces serotonin, a lack of which has been linked to a range of health conditions.

Rest easy though… we are not talking about turning you into a marathon runner! One single session of exercise has been shown to improve mental performance, give faster mental processing, clear your head, make you more effective at planning, improve memory, and improve self control!

A study by Bristol University showed that exercise boosted mood and motivation by 41% and increased the ability to deal with stress by 20% …..and we’re only talking about a walk that leaves you a little out of breath – the perfect thing to do on your lunch break (have a look here to read about the importance of a lunch break)!

Researcher Pulg-Riberia and colleagues analysed a Sit Less Move More worked based programme and found that by simply engaging in some gentle exercise during the working day there was an improvement in staff retention, sickness levels, and a reduction in stress which led to more mindful work practice. What a huge benefit to employer and employee!

So, how are you going to go about this? Are you going to ‘go about’ it? I hope this little insight into some of the evidence suggest to you that you should….

Firstly, if you’ve not exercised in a while, or ever, get yourself checked out at you GP surgery and then make a plan! I love a plan! And here’s some tips!
– Walk before you run! Literally and metaphorically! Start small.
– Do what you love. If you try running and don’t like it – don’t do it! There are so many options… walking, yoga, resistance training, exercise classes, gardening, washing the car – they all count! Just do them at a pace that leaves you a little breathless
– Write it in your calendar. There is so much evidence that shows if you write it down you are more likely to do it.
– Prepare. Make sure you have what need. Make it easy for yourself. Put your kit out the night before, our your trainers by the door.
– Exercise with someone. This is probably the best advice for people starting out. If you commit to do something with someone else you won’t want to let them down. So get yourself a walking buddy and get going!

The Department of Health (UK) recommend 150 minutes of moderate exercise like walking or swimming per week. That’s two and a half hours, or, half an hour a day over 5 days. So if you go for a half hour walk everyday in your lunch break (….have you got the point about taking a lunch break yet!?) you’ll have done what the government recommend! That’s it! You’re done! Go you!!

If you want to be more vigorous and go for a run they suggest only 75 minutes is required! That’s a couple of half hour plus a bit runs and you’re done! Easy!

You should also include some stretching (have a look here) and strength training. Strength training doesn’t need to be lifting weights but can be simply engaging in some exercises that use your body weight. Have a look here.

There is also a fabulous workout for weight loss program here and lots of other very useful articles – check it out!

…and I’ll leave you with this

And sleep….

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Let’s look at the first and, I’d say, the most important element of the Mordue’s Self Care Triangle!

A good nights sleep sorts out all sorts of things! Sleep can be difficult for all sorts of reasons. This heat at the moment probably isn’t helping a lot of us. Then there’s things preying on your mind that you keep mulling over when you should be asleep. For some, sleep isn’t an easy thing to achieve but it’s absolutely crucial to well-being in ways that go far beyond you being grumpy the following day!

It is estimated that 1 in 2 people are not getting sufficient sleep!Physically our body uses the time to recover and replenish and sleep has an essential role in the consolidation of memories. “Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you develop Alzheimer’s disease. Inadequate sleep – even moderate reduction for just one week – disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic…” and the list goes on [from Matthew Walker’s ‘Why We Sleep’ (Page 3)] So, what advice is out there on getting to sleep!

Keep to a regular bedtime routine
As a parent I’ve said it myself and heard others say it. “Babies, they love a routine! Keeps them right!” Much as we kick against habit as adults we are creatures of routine. Your body is programmed into a chemical routine that does its best to achieve sleep, rest, and waking. And what do we do!? We ignore it. We stop up late and wonder why we are tired the next day. We get up late and wonder why we then can’t get to sleep the next night. Then there’s the impact of alcohol and caffeine. What we end up achieving is the disruption of our programmed chemical clock. And when we don’t attend to it for long enough the situation becomes chronic.

Sleep at regular times
Walker (2017) suggests that we need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night and that we should be sleeping from about 10 to 10.30 until 6 to 6.30. These timings are in tune with our natural rhythm. So that’s your starting point. You should also maintain this 7 days a week. Lost sleep is lost sleep. In terms of what your body is trying to achieve with sleep you can’t catch it up on a weekend. The opportunity has gone.

Don’t go to bed hyped
While exercise is an important aspect of self care you should avoid it for 2 or 3 hours before bed time. A good way to wind down is to have a warm bath – again…. isn’t that part of the routine we give babies. This clever little trick prepares your body for sleep. It’s not the heat on its own that creates the sleepy mood. It’s the impact of the heat on your core temperature. Do you feel cold when you are tired or when it’s late on a night? Part of your programmed sleep preparation is a drop in core body temperature. The hot bath draws the blood to the surface of your body and therefore reduces your core temperature. Clever body!

Do something that relaxes you
There are a huge range of yoga and relaxation CD’s and Apps out there that might help you. Anything that calms your mind and distracts you from your ‘racing’ thoughts. You could try audio books, or read a book, or maybe listen to the radio. You should try to avoid TV and smart phones as, not only do the stimulate, but the light they emit kids your brain into thinking it’s not dark out there! We need to prepare our bodies for sleep with a darkened environment.

Be comfortable and create a ‘clean’ environment
It sounds obvious I guess, but, have the best mattress and pillows you can afford. Try different numbers of pillows and different types. You may find a harder or softer pillow helps. You should keep your bedroom for sleep (and sex…. unlike most other vigorous activity sex makes you sleepy!) Avoid distractions like TV’s and ticking clocks and keep the room tidy. Make your bed when you first get up so when you eventually get to bed after that hard day it looks clean, tidy, and inviting. Your bedroom should be cool (between 18 and 24 centigrade – but go low) and dark. No glowing lights from inside or outside the bedroom.

and my favourite…. Write ‘to do‘ lists for tomorrow
One of the main things that keeps people awake is trying to remember things they need to do tomorrow. Before you go to bed (or ideally at the end of your working day… more on that in an upcoming blog) write down everything you need to do the next day, safely leaving them so you can find them when you need to, without having them going round and round in your head. Keep a note pad by your bed. If you think of something while in bed, write it down. There’s good evidence that externalising memories in this way can help us ‘put them to bed’ to help put us ‘to bed’!

What else…
Inevitably for some making such self care changes isn’t enough. These ideas are effective for many and you need to give them a good month or so to see what the impact is. But if you find that you are consistently trying these things and they are not working then you should seek medical advice. Walker (2017) has concern that this simply leads to the prescription pad and, in his view, drugs don’t work as they don’t achieve the right sort of sleep but are more of a sedative than good quality sleep. So, you feel you have been asleep, but have missed many of the benefits. Your GP should be able to refer you to sleep specialists. It would be useful while trying to make changes that you keep a sleep diary. This should detail what you have done during the day, how you have prepared for sleep, what it is that’s keeping you awake, how often do you wake – make sure you document as much as you can.

Try these things out… what have you got to lose?

Let me introduce you to the triangle!

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Here it is! Your route map to self care. My self care model (lovingly drawn for me by one of our fabulous students Anna Short). It’s simple and straightforward but it’s what you need to get sorted. And over the next few days I’ll tackle each element of the triangle in turn and then we can get on to figuring out how to organise it all!

The three things in the triangle won’t come as any surprise to you. In fact most of what I have to tell you won’t come as a huge surprise. Looking after yourself is one of those things where we all know what to do but we don’t always do it. And we don’t always fully understand the impact on us and our productivity.

So… we’ll talk about sleep, we’ll talk about exercise, and we’ll talk about nutrition. This is not to turn you into tofu eating (although I like tofu), marathon running (although I’ve ran marathons), zen like (although I like some meditation) creatures, but rather to show you how these three things interact and have a massive impact on your productivity in your job and in your home life.

Current research tells us that lack of sleep has a significant impact on the risk of us developing things like cancer or alzheimers, never mind the impact of a poor nights sleep on the next day. Your brain and your gut are connected directly by the vagus nerve and scientists are showing how the quality of what is going on in your gut directly effects your mood. And exercise has been shown to be effective in reducing levels of stress. Also, they are are interlinked….

I’ll tell you more…. stay tuned!

Let’s put a smile on your face…

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Emotions …..a strong and powerful force that sometimes get the better of us!? Agreed? Positive and negative emotions can lead us to lose focus and control and to respond in ways which we wish we hadn’t. In this area our evolutionary history is stacked against us. The oldest part of our brain, the amygdala, which regulates our emotional responses can easily take control. Our emotional response to the stress we are under in the work place can be very personalised. For some it’s anger, grumpiness (that ones me!), fear, or a whole range of others .

Did you know that simply by smiling you can change how you feel? Malcolm Gladwell (author of ‘Blink’ and ‘Tipping Point’ …among others) describes how contagious emotions are. He shows that if someone smiles, we smile back, even if only fleetingly.

He goes on to say that experiments have shown that merely the act of smiling can influence positively how we feel inside. In an experiment that Gladwell describes the researchers took two groups of volunteers and had one group call to mind a stressful experience that caused them sadness, anger or fear and had a second group merely make the facial expressions of these emotions without recalling anything. They discovered that the physiological responses in both groups were the same! Merely making a sad face had the same impact physiologically as actually recalling a sad event! The same is true of recalling a happy event and simply smiling. So when you’re feeling sad, or angry, or frustrated literally ‘put on a happy face’ and the science says you will feel happier!

Emotions work from the outside in – as well as the inside out
Stay in charge, stay in control!