Energise Blog: Natural Health & Alkaline Diet

I’ve just read yet another article telling me that diets don’t work. This troubles me.

Hundreds of millions of people have the desire to change their body, or change the way they feel about their body every year. And hundreds of millions of people do something about it. Often they do something about it more than once.

So what exactly is it that troubles me?

The false situation of helplessness that this creates

When I read headline after headline telling the world that ‘Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits’ I cringe. I cringe in the same way that I do when I read that ‘detoxing is bad for you’. The same way as when I read that ‘red wine and chocolate are good for you’.

For the majority of us - our health and the way we look and feel about our body occupies our thoughts and goals and ambitions more than most other subjects. And so accordingly, when an article hits our newspaper/magazine/rss feed/website etc with a headline such as ‘Dieting Does Not Work’ we tend to take note and have a look. The ease of information spread in the technological age can be such a damaging thing at times!

So, Ross, You’re Telling Me That Diets DO Work?

No, well not exactly. But let’s have a look at the article.

“You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back,”

We decided to dig up and analyze every study that followed people on diets for two to five years. We concluded most of them would have been better off not going on the diet at all.

“Several studies indicate that dieting is actually a consistent predictor of future weight gain,”

one of the best predictors of weight gain over the four years was having lost weight on a diet at some point during the years before the study started

This creates a pretty negative and powerless situation. And one which I think does not exist like this.

Now, lets not get carried away here because my message is not that diets ALWAYS DO work but I think that studies and articles such as this are riddled with shortcomings and they actually can do more harm than good. I mean, if I were someone who was looking to change my body and was looking for solutions then this article would leave me feeling rather helpless and wondering where I should turn next.

So what are my concerns with the article?

• There is no definition of what a diet actually is
• There is no consistency (admitted by them) in terms of how the diet was measured and scored
• There is no evidence of how consistent and hardworking/committed the ‘dieters’ were
• There is no mention of a spread of ages, weights, sex, nationality, goals etc
• There is no mention of timeframes consistent across the study
• There is no mention of those who DID succeed and what they did differently
• There is no mention of the quality of the journals/publications that the separate studies were published within
• And on and on…

But - don’t get me wrong. I know that this kind of research is just an amalgamation of other papers (and so some of the points above are inherent to all papers of this type), but nowhere are any of these point alluded to in the article. And given the shortcomings – WHY ARE SUCH DAMNING CLAIMS BEING MADE?

In my opinion some diets do work and some diets don’t. I usually tend to steer clear of the term ‘diet’ when it relates to weight loss or gain due to the negative (and often unhealthy) connotations it has. But in this case I’m sticking with it.

So If Some Diets DO Work – What Makes A Diet Successful?

In my opinion – these are the KEY common factors to successful dieting:

1. Long-termism: most diets become unstuck (and see results found in that study) when they are short-term. Short-term strategies include: making changes that are so dramatic that you know they are unsustainable; dieting for a specific event; simply eating less; not incorporating exercise.
2. Exercise: you simply cannot have a sustainable, long-term successful diet without exercise. If you just eat less calories you will not be able to achieve long-term success. Exercise increases your metabolism and increases the healthy of your organs which gives your body the tools it needs to cleanse and rid your body of fat. In the absence of exercise you will likely just lose water and muscle weight and your body fat will stay the same – and your weight will plateau.
3. Transitioning: nothing is more likely to kill a diet than the cold turkey method. You simply have to build things up slowly. Start with breakfast. Once you have nailed that and you are having a nice healthy breakfast every day with ease, move on to lunch.
4. Allowing ‘vices’: you know you can’t, and you know it’s a slippery slope. So swap your vice for a healthier alternative. If you know that once you open a slab of chocolate you can’t put it down til it is finished then just don’t allow yourself to get into that situation. An alternative is absolutely key though – as with transitioning, if you don’t do things slowly and become too restrictive then you are going to find it extremely tough.
5. Changing Perception of Food: the one thing that kills more diets more often than not is not being able to disassociate the positive feelings we have towards certain foods. This is very closely related to the above point on vices. When we associate such strong pleasurable feelings to certain foods we are always going to be coming from the position of deprivation and restriction. If we change our perception of food to that of FUEL rather than something we do for pleasure then we will start to view things like chocolate a lot more differently. Tony Robbins also suggests asking the question ‘will this cleanse me or clog me’ and I have found that to be incredibly useful.
6. Being kind to yourself: this is one that stops diets in their tracks more than others. So you’ve had a bad day. What do you do? Give up? Thing f*** it, I’m going to the pub? Well DON’T! People who are dieting are often FAR too hard on themselves. If you have a bad day, don’t beat yourself up – just look at what went wrong and put it behind you. One bad day does not undo three weeks hard work. Don’t throw it all away!
7. Setting Goals: I know I sometimes sound like a broken record when it comes to goalsetting, but it is SOOO effective. All you have to do is write them down, make them measurable, set short, medium and long term goals and (write under each one) why they are important, what life will be like if you succeed and what life will be like if you don’t. Now, keep that master goal sheet safe and every morning when you get up and every evening before you go to sleep WRITE OUT YOUR MOST IMPORTANT GOALS. Every day. The power this has is unbelievable. Seriously.

So. Here is hope for you. Of course, not every diet for every person will work. But the world is full of success stories. Just look around the blogosphere. People can do it and people DO do it. And if you follow my seven success traits above then you might just find yourself with the body you dream of quicker than you thought!

So, in the absence of blog posts lately - here is an update on everything that has been happening at Energise…

• We’ve been busy developing Energise Success! For those of you who don’t know, this is our specialist Personal Development site which we (soft) launched last year. Keep your ears close to the ground on this one because we’re going to be doing quite a bit with it over the next 12 months!
• Fixing the Energise Forum. It was a long, slow and frustrating mission trying to get rid of and stop the tidal wave of spam which had all but killed the forum. Now we are spam free everything is up and running again and the old regulars are back posting as normal! Head on over and say hi!
• Blog Redesign. The design of this blog has been giving me headaches for months now. So I have been busily customising a lovely new design ready (fingers crossed) to be launched in the next couple of weeks.
• UPW 2007! Can you believe it is coming around again so quickly? This year Team Energise is going to be bigger and better than ever before with easily more than DOUBLE the amount of people heading down with Energise for Life this year than last. We’ve also got some very special tickets (VERY special) for the following event too, so another one to look out for.
• Giles is now a father! Wooohoo. Congratulations mate!
• We’ve also been working on a specific site for all of our distributors, resellers and affiliates - so if that is you or you think that is something that sounds interesting then do get in touch…!

And obviously plenty, plenty more (but we’re keeping some stuff under wraps!).

So, the blogging will be building back up to full steam again over the next few weeks! Thanks for being patient!

Ross

MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is probably one of the singlemost blamed ingredients of all time. Alongside yeast, dairy and gluten it is often the reason we give for our feelings of illness and lethargy after eating a meal (*cough* takeaway) and many of us now actively seek to avoid it at all costs.

Technically speaking, MSG is the sodium salt of the amino acid L-glutamic. In practice it is used as a potent flavour enhancer which was first used in Japan over a thousand years ago. While it is generally seen as an additive (and therefore unnatural), glutamate is also found in the proteins of meat, vegetables, poultry and milk.

There are two different forms of glutamate, bound and free. Bound glutamate is linked to other amino acids and forms a protein molecule whereas and free glutamate is not linked to protein - and hence is ‘free’. It is free glutamate that is used in enhancing the flavours of food and it is abundant in foods such as tomatoes and mushrooms.

While we tend to largely think of Asian foods when we are on the lookout for MSG, it is also used in foods like canned soups, stocks, junk foods such crisps (chips) and other snacks, most frozen meals and instant meals. As such I would speculate that in each of these types of foods there are likely to be other things to look out for alongside the MSG content!

But is MSG actually BAD for me?

The answer to that is yes and no. While the FDA consider it to generally be safe and the Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization placed decided that MSG should be put into one of the safest categories of ingredients in 1987.

So while that suggests that, yes, MSG is OK - the FDA do make some strange decisions and I would wonder what else is on the safe list, and what factors constitute ’safe’.

On the, ‘no, it’s actually pretty bad’ side of the fence the FDA have also noted that there is evidence to suggest that some people may actually react negatively to MSG and exhibit the following symptoms:

• burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest
• numbness in the back of the neck, radiating to the arms and back
• tingling, warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms
• facial pressure or tightness
• chest pain
• headache
• nausea
• rapid heartbeat
• bronchospasm (difficulty breathing) in MSG-intolerant people with asthma
• drowsiness
• weakness

There is also masses of anecdotal evidence and a number of research articles appearing which draw a link between MSG and negative reactions such as migranes, obesity and fibromyalgia.

There is also the concern about MSG spiking blood plasma levels of glutamate. Glutamic acid is an excitotoxin and studies have shown this to cause damage to the brain and can cause the onset of chronic disease. It doesn’t sounds so good…

But in my mind, you just have to look at the type of foods it is used in and make an assessment from there. Thats the easiest way to decide whether to exclude it from your diet or not. Are you going to be eating takeaways and processed foods as part of a healthy diet? Is there MSG in fresh foods?

I can’t say I’m going to be able to avoid it 100% - so how much is safe?

Well, if you feel like you’re not one of the people who react badly to MSG there are ’safe’ levels that you should try and stick to. These levels have not been defined by the FDA or the UK Govt. so there is no RDA amount, but you can probably say that as a rule of thumb you should eat no more than one meal containing added MSG per day. There is ‘free’ glutamate in all sorts of foods as mentioned, and as such the ‘average person’ (whatever that means) will consume somewhere between 10k and 20k milligrams of naturally occuring free glutamate from normal foods (i.e. where MSG has not been purposefully added).

Having said that, I personally try to avoid which is not too difficult as I avoid the foods it is found in anyway for their extremely high levels of trans-fats, salts, sugars and other crap!

I generally save my ’shout out’ posts for specific, excellent stuff and this is certainly one of them.

These Come From Trees is a really simple, but incredibly effective ‘ guerrilla public service announcement’ which is doing great things for our environment.

The concept is simple: when people are reminded about their ability to act responsibly, they usually do. So tapping into this, These Come From Trees sell packs of the sticker (over there to your right) which you can then use to stick in the right place (see their flickr for examples).

So how can this help? Well, if you look at the stats on their site you can see the magnitude of the problem and the TCFT crew believe that ‘each sticker deployed saves about a tree’s worth of paper (~100 lbs.) a year’.

Quick Facts about “These Come From Trees”

• Testing shows a “These Come From Trees” sticker on a paper towel dispenser reduces paper towel consumption by ~15%
• A typical fast food restaurant with two bathrooms can use up to 2000 pounds of paper towels a year
• The average coffee shop uses 1000 pounds of paper towels a year
• A single tree produces around 100 pounds of paper
• A single “These Come From Trees” sticker can save around a tree’s worth of paper, every year
  Roughly 50,000 fast food restaurants in the US
• 200,00 gas stations in the US
• 14,000 McDonalds’ in the US
• There are 10,000 Starbucks in the US

So why not buy some and/or talk to your bosses about buying some for the building you work in?

After two months of torrential spam, we’ve finally got the forum cleaned, secured and running again!

It has been hard and it has been heartbreaking, but finally the problem has been solved. We tried a lot of different things over the past 3 months or so and came within a whisker of calling it a day and shutting the forum down, but thankfully we perservered and now its all fresh, clean and great again!

A massively massive thanks to everyone who posted and emailed with suggestions, supportive cheers and general help - without that we’d never have cracked it.

Anyway, it’s all back up and is slowly getting busy again so why don’t you head on over and say hi or post a question?

Visit the forum!

Hello! Sorry there have not been more posts of late, but here I am again to try and impart some words of wisdom/kill five minutes of your day…

So anyway, this is a bit of an experiential post again (much like the jet lag one) in that I’m not actually making any science-based claims but more letting you know about something I have done which has improved my health. I quite like these posts. They’re a bit more real and fun - but rest assured, once I’ve got a couple of big projects out of the way with the site I will get back to more how-to/resource type posts as I know they’re probably more useful.

Now, unless you’re a first time visitor and have not noticed the fact that health is written all over this site - this blog is all about health, wellbeing and (ultimately) happiness. And this weekend I started on my new trend of trying new things and I went along to an African drumming workshop in North Sydney.

It was awesome!

The drumming (largely on a djembe) and the rhythms have had a huge impact upon me! I totally didn’t expect this response from my body but I feel:

• fresh
• focused
• clear
• and absolutely energised

Now, you might just think that this is me being overexcited about playing a djembe but I can assure you it is not! The rhythm, the group/community nature of it, the experience of learning and, if I’m being totally honest, the act of physically creating music totally got me into the zone. I think it is kinda similar to the laughing yoga thing I blogged a while back in that it is all about movement, joy and quite possibly the big Djun-Djun bass drum reverberating around inside me!

Anyway, I guess that what I am saying, similarly to the last post I made, is that the actual trigger could be different for you (maybe you will get the same from origami - I don’t know?!).

But my experience was this:

• I committed to trying something new
• I played a djembe with a large group for an afternoon
• And now I feel physically and mentally charged!

So maybe you should try too. You’re already on t’Internet - why not open a new window and search for some African drumming lessons in your area, or for some other totally new, totally random experience.

It’s all good…

P.S. I’ve gotta give a big shout out to Philipe Lincy, our teacher for the day. Philipe gave not only an amazing lesson in African drumming but he also taught us all about the culture and history of Africa and African music. He was also a top fella and gives lessons at Bondi Pavillion every Sunday. And I can promise you this - if you get the chance to head down there then you will definitely see me drumming away!

As some of you may or may not know, I’ve just had a 2 week quick trip back to the UK to head into Energise HQ and work with Callum to plan our year ahead (very exciting). Now, normally I suffer jet lag pretty badly - lots of passing out at 5pm and waking up bright and breezy at 4am. Not good. Especially when you have travelled to work AND socialise.

But this time around I managed to almost entirely escape the lag once I got back to Sydney. It was quite excellent. Now, these are not scientifically proven techniques and in the large part the results may have been quite random. But nonetheless, I’ll tell you exactly what I did and then try to generalise it out to something you could do too!

Ross’ Jet Lag Escape Plan

1. The first thing I did when I got back was…I met up with friends. We headed out to my favourite coffee house (Don Adan) had some beverages and breakfast (containing chillis!) and talked about good times, music and whats been going on in our lives. It was nice and it totally took my mind off the fact that three hours earlier I was at the end of a 23 hour flight.
2. After breakfast we all pootled over to another friends place in Queenscliff for some relaxing on his balcony in the sunshine, sweet music and more chatter. Nice. This was good because I had never been over to his place before so it was all new. I think doing new things is important because it prevents you from falling into a comfy-zone where sleep can easily kick in. He also had a cool little cat too which kept me entertained for quite a long time…
3. After that we all headed to the beach. I bascially chucked myself into the sea and got battered by waves for a good hour or so. It was pretty cool.
4. But the next thing that kept me going was getting myself stung by a jellyfish! It was only a bluebottle so it was not too harsh and in fact, it wiped out any creeping sleep that was building up!
5. After the swelling and stinging had gone, I got myself home and settled in for an afternoon of cricket. Now, normally you might say that would be the one thing that would guarantee sleep - but this was a very special match!
6. The cricket took me through to 10:30pm, which was nothing short of a miracle, and after hitting the sack I slept solidly through to 7:30am and voila! Jet lag gone!

Now, there are a lot of things in there that are obviously not possible for everyone. Going to the beach for example. Oh, and getting stung by a jellyfish on purpose is not recommended!

BUT - before you think this is a useless post, here are my thoughts on what ANYONE can do to help aliviate their lag:

1. Be active! Don’t (however tempting it is) just chill at home and creep off to bed. You’ve just got to ignore the tiredness, it does go away…
2. Get sunshine! This is VITAL. The sun’s rays hitting your eyes produces the chemicals/hormones in your brain that regulate sleep. If you are getting plenty of daylight then your brain will hold back on sending the ‘bedtime’ message until it gets dark. If you don’t get sunshine then you might want to consider a bright light to help your body get the summer feeling.
3. Do something out of the ordinary! I found it very useful to stay away from slipping straight back into a normal routine when I got back. Even if it just for a few hours - getting outside and going somewhere new was a great idea.
4. See friends! Friends keep you awake, they talk and move and stop you from dozing! Just surround yourself with some of your favourite people and shoot the breeze for a bit. Works wonders.
5. Watch what you eat and drink! This is vital. Crikey, I can almost hear you groan! Seriously though, if you want to keep yourself going and stave off the lag then it is vital that you give your body the fuel it needs after the sleep-deprived, nutrition-deprived, daylight-deprived flight. Personally, on that first day back I consumed:
   • 4 litres of green drink with alkaline water
   • 3 extra green capsules
   • a multivitamin with minerals
   • 3 tablespoons of Udo’s Choice
   • several cups of green tea
   • salad & veggies
   • and I avoided all of the things you know to avoid such as booze and coffee

   So there you go. Get outside, do fun stuff, see friends and eat well. Easy!

I have been troubled by the constantly recurring soy debate for quite a while now. But whenever you try to research it you quickly notice that you are entering into a hot topic zone because the majority of things you read (articles, blog posts, forum posts etc.) are so over-the-top and biased that it is difficult to come to any real conclusion without feeling slightly misinformed.

Well, from having a browse through my mybloglog community I found a nice site that has a very well written, and very pragmatic view on the debate which I think mirrors my feelings exactly.

…You would think that these people would spend their time warning you about the dangers of eating too much fat, sugar, dairy, hydrogenated fat, eating too much period, the dangers of prescription drugs, or even visiting your local hospital. I think that people should be more concerned with the high hormone and bacteria counts and allergens in meat and dairy, fluoridated water, environmental toxins and the long lists of chemicals added to processed and packaged foods.

When you think about it in this context, it is not surprising that the majority of the criticism of soy actually comes from the dairy industry. Especially not surprising when you think about the other types of biased research and campaigning that they do on a regular basis.

Personally, I am not opposed to soy one bit. But that does not mean that there are not still dangers for soy-users. Bear in mind that many of the large dairy companies chose the ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ route - so if you have an ethical issue with the way that milk is produced and farmed then check the manufacturer of your soy products too.

Ethical and environmental issues aside, there are still some quick points to remember when you are buying your soy products (especially soy milk):

• Make sure it is unsweetened
• Check that it is organic
• Look out for bleaching agents - soy milk should be an off-white colour. If yours looks like cows milk - it is probably bleached
• Look out for hidden flavourings

Ideally, we would all make our own almond milk - but as that is not a possibility for most people, I think soy is absolutely fine.

Whenever I find a blog I like I write it down in a special little notebook. Which I then forget about for weeks on end. But then when I remember it again it is extremely cool - so from now on I am just going to blog them as I go along!

So here are some blogs I have recently found that I think are pretty cool! Most are health & personal development related, but there are a few random ones there too:

• Arvind Devalia: Arvind has got two things I am jealous of - 1) a beautiful blog, and 2) a beautiful way with words. He also seems to talk about penguins a lot which is something that I like a lot! He has not been blogging for too long I don’t think but he is posting with impressive regularity and quality which makes me think that he could be destined for the Steve Pavlina echelons of the blogosphere before long!
• Kavit Haria: I like Kavit’s blog a lot just because it oozes quality - but also partly because you can almost witness Kavit’s growth as a blogger in realtime! This blog is developing all of the time and the subject matter is always engaging. Good stuff.
• Phil Newton: Another one in the Stevie P mould - and I mean that in a totally complementary way. Phil has done everything right so far, and fair play to him as he has provided some excellent personal development and success articles which I know I have benefitted from.
• Mik Parekh: another great blogger. I believe that Mik set up cynergise with Sol and he blogs on a load of topics including health, wealth and happiness.
• Missed Manners: is a very entertaining read and the dude who writes it just has that knack of writing in a way that makes you want to shake his hand and buy him a coffee. He is also another person who is using Chris Pearson’s incredible Cutline blog theme. I MUST move over to Cutline!!!
• Pearsonified: Chris Pearson’s blog is just superb. He writes well, he creates beautiful designs and he has got a sense of humour. Like the blog above, his writing style is such that you really feel like you have gotten to know him. From what I have seen and read he is also a very kind fella and does a lot just for the sake of being helpful.
• Harry Hotspur: this one won’t mean much to any of you because a) it is about football and b) more specifically it is about Tottenham Hotspur - officially the best club of all. There are gazillions of football/Spurs blogs out there but I like this one because Harry writes honestly and with the realist-humour that only the years of torture of being a Spurs fan can lead to.

And thats all. If you know I know you and I have forgotten about you let me know below. OR if you think your blog is cooler than all of those above then holler below as I would love to get in touch.

Research, published today by the British Psychological Society, has shown that owning a dog is great for your mental and physical health.

In a strange way, the research has led to a kind of league table of pets, with dogs finishing top of the pile - above the main contender - cats. While most people just have a general preference and are either a cat person or a dog person, for those who might be more methodical about their pet purchasing decision this could be a big factor!

Dr Deborah Wells, a senior lecturer at the Canine Behaviour Centre of Queens University led the research which has shown that that dog owners have lower cholesterol, blood pressure, fewer minor ailments, and are not as likely to develop more serious problems.

Now, this would appear to be due to two primary reasons. 1) whether the pet actually changes your lifestyle and 2) whether there are psychological differences in your life upon ownership of the pet.

From this it is easy to see how doggies scored well. Not only do they insist on making you go for exceptionally long walks sometimes two to three times per day, but they also offer unconditional love 24/7. Cats on the other hand do not increase the owner’s physical activity and they sometimes like you. With cats, the amount of love you get back is entirely random, depending on the cat itself - whereas with dogs it is always there.

So what about fish? Hmmm, I think they score a 0/10 on both counts.

The added bonus with dogs - which is where the more interesting research should follow - is that they are starting to prove the ability of dogs to detect serious illnesses such as cancer and epilepsy. Now that would be a bigger influencer for a lot of people though I’m sure.

Personally, I say that the best thing in the world (relatively) is having both cats AND dogs. But that’s just me

P.S. by the way - if you are looking to get a pet, please visit the shelters first, they really do an amazing job and the pets that we have always got from shelters are just fantastic

Affecting at least 1 in 20 people, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a specific type of depression that occurs generally during the dark winter months. Caused by a lack of natural light, SAD is most prevalent during the October to February period in countries such as the UK where there is far fewer hours of daylight and a heavy reliance upon artificial lighting (i.e. those that live the furthest away from the equator).

Experts believe that this lack of light is overwhelmingly the primary cause of SAD as the amount of sunlight that hits our eyes directly affects the levels of certain chemicals and hormones in our brain.

Symptoms of SAD

Millions and millions of people struggle through the cold winter months without even knowing that they have SAD. According to SADA (The Seasonal Affective Disorder Association of the UK) symptoms include:

• Sleep problems

• Lethargy

• Overeating

• Depression

• Social problems

• Anxiety & lowered tolerance to stress

• Loss of libido

• Mood changes

Personally, I can immediately think of a couple of people I know who suffer these symptoms during the winter months and the chances are that you can too. So how does SAD occur and what can we do to combat it?

Seasonal Affective Disorder and our Dependancy on Sunlight

As discussed, SAD is primarily caused by a lack of sunlight affecting the balance and production of certain hormones and chemicals in the brain. To understand how something as simple as this could have such an affect on our mental wellbeing it is important to consider how much sunlight we actually receive from different sources.

Light is measured in units of lux - which is defined as roughly being:

The amount of visible light per square meter incident on a surface.

It is roughly accepted that one lux is equal to the illuminance provided by an ordinary wax candle (more definitions here).

To put this into context the lux provided to our eyes by a normal sunny day is approximately 100,000 lux, whereas a normal lightbulb or desk lamp provides just 300-500 lux.

When you look at it like this it is easy to see how this can have such a harsh effect on our mental health. Especially when you consider how many of us wake up in the dark, drive to work in the dark, sit in artificial light all day, and then drive home in the dark etc.

So What Effect Does the Lack of Lux Have?

In essence, the amount of sunlight we receive controls two key chemicals in the brain, melatonin and seratonin. According to BUPA.co.uk:

• serotonin plays a role in ‘lifting’ mood. It is thought that people with SAD may have abnormally low levels of chemicals such as serotonin in winter.
• melatonin slows down the body clock, and affects sleeping and mood patterns.

During the low-light winter months the imbalance of the production of these chemicals creates abnormalities in the way that our body manages its biological rhythms. As melatonin is produced largely during the darker hours and serotonin during the lighter hours there becomes a huge imbalance in how the body performs throughout the day and night.

People with SAD are generally those that produce far more melatonin than serotonin and far more than is required, leading to many of the symptoms above. As many of you will no doubt be aware, the production melatonin is also key in stabalising our internal body clock which explains the symptoms such as lethargy, unrestful sleep, low energy and anxiety and certainly compounds the symptoms such as stress tolerance, diet, socialability, loss of libido etc.

How Can I Combat Seasonal Affective Disorder?

The first thing you need to do is visit your doctor or speak to someone who is medically qualified to deal with these types of problems. However, there are several steps you can also take which have been shown to have a remarkable effect on the symptoms of SAD:

1. Light Therapy

   According to the NHS, research studies have shown that light therapy can greatly improve symptoms in about 2 in 3 cases of SAD. Light therapy (discussed in great detail here) involves an individual sitting at a recommended distance from a fluorescent light box which produces a light intensity of between 2500 and 10000 lux.

   Light therapy combats SAD by exposing the eyes to intense light. When the light hits the retina the light is transmitted by nerve impulses to the pineal gland which is responsible for melatonin secretion. This function can help moderate the body’s internal clock, also known as the circadian rhythm. Light therapy is also able to reduce the daytime melatonin levels, while also enhancing the effectiveness of serotonin and other neuro-transmitters - which explains its ability to be able to effectively treat seasonal affective disorder.

   I have personally used light therapy to combat jet-lag on more than one occasion (including right now as I type) and others I know have also had great success in treating SAD with this treatment. However, it is still recommended that you speak to your Doctor about your symptoms before you start any form of self treatment. (click here for light therapy products)

2. Increasing Exposure to Natural Sunlight

   As an alterative to, or alongside light therapy, increasing exposure to natural light can obviously have a great effect on SAD symptoms. This is particularly important to those who work in an office environment where most of the scant light winter hours are spent indoors. Try to find time to exercise outdoors every day - even if this only equates to an hour long walk at lunch time. While this is obviously dependent upon the weather, even just one hour outside during the day can have a huge impact upon SAD.

3. Physical Activity

   Related to this is exercise, as this can have a great effect on the body’s ability to function properly and can also assist with the sleep and energy problems related to SAD. Try to do at least 30-60 minutes of aerobic exercise at least 3 times per week.

4. Diet

   What we feed our bodies can also either increase or decrease the effects of SAD. By giving your body fresh, nutrient dense foods you are arming it with all of the tools it needs to work as effectively and efficiently as possible. Diet has been inextricably linked to mood, sleep, anxiety and depression so it is wise not to further compound any symptoms that may be showing. Of particular importance are omega oils, so if you do not eat fish, flax seeds or other sources of omega 3, consider supplementation.

It is clear that SAD can be treated both naturally and inexpensively, however, DO speak to your doctor as there may be other underlying causes of these symptoms and self-diagnosis is not always the most accurate.

Further Sources of Information

• The UK SAD Association
• Light Therapy Products
• BUPA’s Guide to SAD
• Mayoclinic’s Article about Treating SAD with Light Therapy
• SAD and Teens
• LiteBooks Light Therapy & SAD Articles and FAQs

Now that the new year is in full swing, we’re all back to work, back to the gym and back into our routines and the hopeful, exciting and ambitious New Years Resolutions are long forgotten.

And so what do we do now? The chances are that regardless of your medium and long-term goals, you are likely to turn over your new leaf by setting yourself daily goals (or to-do’s as most people call them) which will hopefully give your life more drive, accomplishment and ultimately success.

However, a to-do list is not just a list - there is a technique - and I see lots of people getting it wrong.

So to help you to get it right - here are my Top 7 Ways Not To Do a To-Do!

Top 7 Ways Not To Do a To-Do!

1. Set & Forget: This is the classic and the one thing that most people do wrong. Setting a to-do list is all about consistency, not just writing it all down, feeling better about yourself and then ignoring it once the going gets tough. In fact, sticking with your to-do is probably more important when your day is hectic and your life is hard to handle as it will let you crack on with the most important things and ease the pressure on yourself.

   If you are feeling overwhelmed and cannot stand the thought of facing the day ahead - just get your top 3 priorities done and dusted and you will avoid any more worry - because lets face it, you can control your own stress and worry by taking the initiative and throwing yourself into your work. And once these top 3 tasks are done and dusted, the momentum will help you to smash through the others in no time and make some real progress.

2. Lost in Vagueness: this is also a common goal killer. Writing simply ‘get a job’, or ‘write report’ means nothing. How will you know whether you have made progress, what you need to do or how you are going to get to the finish line? Goals and list items MUST be stated in a more specific, measurable way - with sub-actions which break down your exact roadmap to completion. By breaking things down into manageable, easy chunks you can also give yourself the opportunity to build more momentum and feel positive as you cross things off.
3. Dream On: while goal setting should include some element of stretching ambition/dreaming - the to-do list requires far more practicality as it is short-term, here and now stuff. If you write a list solving all of the world’s problems in a day then you are likely to become discouraged very quickly. Keep your long-term goals to your goals list and your short-term steps to your to-do. As I saw somewhere recently (more than likely on stevepavlina.com) your 3, 5 and 10-year plans are the result of 1,000’s of individual actions on your to-do’s.
4. Chop and Change: start your report, answer an email, go to the shop, get back to the report, book a flight, call your accountant, get back to the report…If you don’t plan and manage your time then your list is almost pointless. Block out time, switch off your phone, ignore your emails and get things done!
5. Prioritise by Fun: this is so familiar to me it is untrue and this is probably one of the single most important bits of advice in this post: RANK YOUR TO-DO ITEMS BY IMPORTANCE, NOT BY FUN. OK, so you may well have to book your next holiday and this is a valid to-do, BUT if you also have a deadline to meet, an article to right or your tax to sort out then browsing online for a holiday should probably come 4th in your list. You may also find that you are one of those perverse people (PhD students are prime candidates for this) who get some sort of strange prcrastination-force which makes them suddenly rank cleaning the oven, hoovering the spare room or baking a cake as priorities on their daily to-do list. If you are one of those odd ones - then always use this technique: picture yourself at the end of the day having completed your 3 most important tasks. Vividly imagine how you will feel, picturing yourself looking at your completed work. Now do the opposite and vividly picture yourself having completed your procrastination tasks while the real, important tasks remain a mess on your desk - untidy and uncomplete. You will be amazed how well this works.
6. Fuzzy Focus: If you don’t have an ultimate goals list then make that #1 on today’s to-do list. Without goals your to-do’s won’t have focus, and if your to-do’s don’t have focus then, really, what is the point? What are you working towards? What are you trying to achieve? If you completed every to-do for a month - what would you be closer to accomplishing?
7. Set 99 To-Do’s a Day: a to-do is not intended to take all day to read. It should not be so long that writing it and reading it become to-do’s in themselves. It should be focused, short and definitely fit on to one piece of paper. If there is too much on there you are only going to become overwhelmed - especially when items 10-100 get shifted onto tomorrow’s list. You don’t want to be forever chasing your tail so stick with the most important tasks which will make the biggest positive impact to your life.

If you take heed of these not-to-do’s you will likely see a big improvement in your productivity - but I reiterate - without an ultimate, up-to-date goals list your to-do’s will not actually be moving you towards anything exciting or inspirational.

So if you haven’t already got one - create a goals list!

Ross’ Goals Resources:

Energise Goal Setting Resources
Steve Pavlina Goal Setting
Mindtools Goal Setting
Tony Robbins Goals Document

Goal Setting & Time Management Products