CHAPTER 4: TIPS FOR PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
In this chapter, we look at how physical well-being affects our mental health, how to increase the amount of movement and exercise you do and how sleeping and eating well helps your well-being.
Activity and mood
Physical exercise improves how you feel, how you think and how much energy you have to do things. It is one of the most powerful mood-enhancing activities. Physical activity increases the levels of endorphins (feel-good chemicals) in the brain which are natural mood boosters and help you feel more relaxed. Physical exercise reduces anxiety and depression, boosts energy and brainpower as well as enhancing self-esteem.
Case study
Daniel is an IT manager at a large global services firm.
He has had little time or motivation in the past year to undertake any regular exercise. The past 12 months have been extremely demanding, both from work and personal perspectives.
Like the rest of his colleagues, Daniel has been working remotely for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been extremely busy with a large project.
In the past year Daniel has also split from his long-term partner, with whom he has a 13-year-old daughter. He is now living in a rented studio flat with very little room to spare.
Daniel used to exercise at a gym near his office three times a week, but as he now rarely goes into the office, he has stopped this routine. He seldom leaves his flat during the week and spends most evenings either working or playing video games. Daniel feels he is a victim of difficult circumstances. He acknowledges he may be depressed and should start exercising again, but it all seems too difficult.
Does this scenario sound familiar?
•“More than a quarter of the world’s adult population (1.4 billion adults) are insufficiently active
•Worldwide, around 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men do not do enough physical activity to stay healthy
•Insufficient activity increased by 5% (from 31.6% to 36.8%) in high-income countries between 2001 and 2016”6
Humans are programmed to move, but as the nature of work has changed over time, we are spending less and less time being physically active. This has long-term consequences. The more we stay ‘glued’ to our screens, the more difficult it is for us to become active. Inactivity breeds inactivity. Furthermore, if you are already feeling stressed or depressed, it is very likely that you lack the motivation to physically move. This lack of movement can lead to a downward spiral of inactivity, poor mental well-being and ill-health.
Building physical activity into your daily routine
Most of us know that physical activity is good for us, but in practice the resolutions we make to increase our levels of fitness often dissipate over time. Other priorities take over or we set ourselves unrealistic objectives that become too challenging or difficult to achieve. We end up feeling demotivated and bad about ourselves as we have not reached our goal.
If you are leading a sedentary lifestyle and currently do little or no exercise, it’s useful to identify where to start. Consider the following questions:
•Have you ever exercised before – if so, what did you do and why did you give it up?
•If you have never exercised before, what stopped you?
•What type of exercise appeals to you?
•How important is it that you exercise with others?
•How do you feel about online exercise?
•What is the optimum time of day for you to exercise?
•What one thing could you do tomorrow to start exercising?
Here are some tips to embed exercise into your routine so it does not become an obligation or chore:
•Choose something that you enjoy doing that elevates the heart rate.
•Find easy ways to get more exercise into your day – for example, walk at a faster tempo, take the stairs.
•It is better to ‘start small’ and set yourself a realistic goal – e.g. five minutes of exercise a day rather than an hour. Completing an hour’s workout simply to achieve a goal rather than enjoying it is short-sighted and not sustainable.
•Piggyback your exercise onto any activity you do on a regular basis – for example if you start each morning by making a fresh juice, do a five-minute stretch beforehand. By ‘piggybacking’ a new activity onto an existing habit, we are more likely to remember to do it.
Remember that activity isn’t just about working out or sport – there are other ways you can exercise. Doing the gardening, cleaning or taking the dog for a walk are all ways to stay physically active.
Making plans to do manageable activities helps to get the wheels in motion. The process will get easier as the days and weeks go by.
For example, pre-lockdown, I realised I needed to increase the amount of physical activity I undertook each week, particularly on work days, as I often came home feeling very tired. I started by setting myself the goal of walking for an hour after work one day a week. This seemed (and was) an achievable goal. I found I liked the activity and felt I could increase my walking after work to twice a week. After three to four weeks, I noticed I was less tired, and this spurred me to walk three days a week. This is manageable for me (I find three days is an achievable goal) and I have kept up this routine even in lockdown. As a result, I’ve noticed a marked increase in my energy levels.
Eating well
When we eat well, we feel and think better, and we have more energy. How nutritious is your food? Eating regularly and healthily is important:
•Drink water regularly throughout the day. This helps you think clearly, concentrate as well as helping memory. It also has physical benefits such as helping reduce blood pressure.
•Avoid caffeine intake in the afternoons and evening as it disrupts sleep patterns.
•Ensure your diet is rich in healthy whole foods, fruit and vegetables.
One way to help you take control of what you are eating is to keep a food diary. Write down everything you eat and drink over the course of a week, then review what you have consumed.
Consider:
•How were your mood, sleep and energy levels impacted by what you ate?
•What were you happy with regarding your food and drink intake for the week?
•What changes do you want to make to the type of food and drinks you consume?
•What do you need to do to make the changes you want?
Quality sleep
Having between seven and eight hours’ sleep each night is important to our well-being. There are many factors that can interfere with a good night's sleep — from work stress to family worries, illnesses, and other unexpected challenges.
While you might not be able to control the factors that interfere with your sleep, you can adopt habits that encourage better sleep. Here are some simple tips:
•Make sure you have between seven and nine hours’ sleep each day.
•Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Your body’s sleep–wake cycle is reinforced by a regular sleep pattern. Even on the days you are not working, get up no more than an hour after your normal waking time.
•Ensure the room you sleep in is cool, quiet and dark. Avoid exposure to light, especially screen time, just before bedtime.
•Avoid heavy or large meals, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine within a couple of hours of bedtime.
•Regular physical activity and spending time outside can promote better sleep, but try not to be too active just before you go to bed.
•To promote sleep, do relaxation activities before bedtime, such as taking a bath or using relaxation techniques. Examples include deep breathing, taking three long breaths in and then three long breaths out and starting from your head and moving down the body, visualising relaxing your muscles in each part of the body.
•If you have trouble going to sleep, use simple relaxation techniques. Meditation also can ease anxiety.
•If you wake up in the middle of the night and start to think about things, keep a notepad and pen by the side of your bed and write down what you want to remember without turning the light on.
Take regular breaks
We can only focus for a maximum of 90 minutes before our concentration wanes. Our sedentary lifestyles mean that we need to consciously get up from our desks or the sofa and move and take regular breaks.
•Put a timer on your phone or a reminder on your laptop to take a break after a maximum of 90 minutes.
•Stop and make yourself a drink away from your desk.
•Walk round the block, the garden or even the next room.
•Meet someone you know for a short catch up.
•Meditate for a few minutes.
•Doodle or do something to distract yourself from your screen.
It is important to manage boundaries between work and home, especially if you are working from home, so find ways to switch off such as having a set time limit for finishing work, and putting your laptop and work phone away at night and when you are on holiday. Importantly, turn off your work social media notifications when you finish work and refrain from sending emails, posting on social media or messaging colleagues outside working hours.
Reflection and action points from this chapter
If you had to make an improvement in one of four areas outlined in this chapter (physical activity, eating well, quality sleep and taking regular breaks), which would it be?
Write a paragraph describing what your life would be like if you made this improvement. What would you be doing differently? What would change around you? What would the impact be?
Now consider how you can make these changes – and when and how you will do this.
6www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity.