No sooner have we mastered exercise and eating – by which I mean we’re eating the rainbow, walking daily and lifting a few weights – than those pesky scientists discover it’s timing that matters. OK I exaggerate. But recent studies suggest that when we move is almost as important as how we move, with new…
WHY WRITING BY HAND IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN, A PRIZE DRAW TO SPUR YOU ON, AND SIMPLE STUFFED PEPPERS
Has anyone else noticed the surging number of people writing in public? In London, where I walk beside the River Thames every day, I’ve become increasingly aware of people sitting on benches, writing. Not playing with their phones or ipads, but writing by hand in note books and on paper. I began lamenting the loss…
SLEEP IN THE TIME OF CORONA
How are you sleeping in these days of Covid? A straw poll on a recent Zoom call with friends revealed everything from ‘sleeping like a baby’ to ‘I’m up at 3am every night sanitising door handles’. Much to my surprise, I’m sleeping better than I’ve done for years, with less traffic noise and work-related stress…
HOW I SOLVED MY SLEEP PROBLEMS
How do you sleep? Annabel and I compare our nightly tallies: obsessively texting each other, ‘I got seven hours!’, ‘I lay awake all night’, ‘I woke up at 5am’. You get the picture. Sleep has become a midlife obsession for us, and we’re not alone. 80% of Brits suffer from lack of sleep, which costs…
ENHANCING MEMORY, AND AN ICE CREAM TO HELP YOU SLEEP!
Why did nobody tell me that midlife would be a constant battle to get enough sleep?! I took sleep for granted until I had children, but since then it’s been a scarce commodity. The broken nights of early parenthood have given way to the broken nights of middle age, menopause and beyond. A steady stream…
WHY EVENING IS THE BEST TIME FOR EXERCISE: CELERIAC AND RADISH SALAD
Happy new year to all our readers! We love the beginning of a new year. It’s the perfect time for thinking about the future and for making adjustments to our lives. Naturally we want a long, healthy and happy future. So we’re taking the opportunity to make small lifestyle changes that promise big benefits. Just…
SLEEP: THE KEY TO A GOOD MEMORY, TIPS FROM AN EXPERT AND CARROT TOP PESTO
I forgot to go to an appointment yesterday. Embarrassing. I would never have forgotten something like this in my youth. But could it be the poor sleep I’d had the night before? A new study links memory and everyday errors to sleep deprivation. The study (which points out that many human-caused disasters from Chernobyl to…
GREEN SPACE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH
Do you have time in the countryside planned this summer? I hope so. If not, find a bit of green space nearby (city parks are great) and aim for some Green Time every day. We’ve been singing the praises of trees and the great outdoors for some time now, but in the last few weeks…
THE POWER OF A NAP & VENISON WITH BLACKBERRY AND APPLE SAUCE
It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to fending off the inevitable coughs and colds of winter. Already my son is back from school with a streaming nose and a rasping cough. I’ve not caught it yet, but I’ve had a week of poor sleep, and in my experience, tiredness is a short step…
CAN A KIWI FRUIT HELP YOU SLEEP? PEACH AND MOZARELLA SALAD WITH SMOKED ALMOND PESTO
Teenagers everywhere are pushing through, red-eyed and exhausted, to the end of exam period (in the UK, at any rate). My eighteen-year old daughter is no different. With a head full of hay fever, she spends her days revising before collapsing into a night of inadequate sleep and waking at dawn as the light streams…