Let’s say you are at the top of your mental performance and clarity game at 10am Monday. You’re feeling mentally fit, successful, positive, efficient, focused and confident. Your stress levels are low and your memory is like an elephant’s. You are experiencing high levels of perception, arousal, information processing, accuracy and speed of movement. You congratulate yourself inwardly: ‘Winner’.

However, come 3pm Friday (or even 3pm Monday!) and you may feel that you have morphed into someone else. You’re exhausted, can’t think straight, can’t be bothered and procrastinate wildly. You feel like the game’s over. You subconsciously mutter to yourself: ‘Loser’.

So, what contributes to your mental sharpness and your subsequent degree of perceived loser or winner-dom? Nutrition, exercise, sleep and other psychological factors (like wellbeing and stress) will directly impact things like blood flow and fuel supply to your brain (e.g., glucose and oxygen). All of which directly affects your mental capacity.

The importance of glucose

Nutritionally speaking, macronutrients are the biggest short term influence on your cognition/mental performance. There is strong evidence to show that glucose sugar has beneficial effects on mental performance, because this is your brain’s preferred fuel. Dietary carbohydrates are metabolised to produce glucose sugar in your blood, which can travel to your brain.

Let’s say you didn’t eat anything for a week; your body’s glycogen stores (in the liver and muscles) would be entirely depleted, leaving you feeling very dull; most likely moping around the office like a goldfish, forgetting everyone’s name. This is because these carbohydrate stores provide glucose sugar most easily to your brain, more effectively than other sources like fatty tissue.

The best way to get glucose to your brain in this situation (or in the 3pm Friday situation) is to eat low glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates, such as fruit (i.e., a less-ripe banana). You should also make sure you have low GI carbs in your breakfast, as these provide your brain with carbohydrate in a steady way, as opposed to high GI carbs (e.g., an energy drink), which will give your brain a high and then a low spike of fuel. Brains don’t enjoy extreme lows in blood glucose levels (they get very antsy and hungry!), so try and avoid high GI carbohydrates in the lead up to whenever you need to feel sharp.

Eat proteins and fat

The impact of protein and fat on mental performance is less clear than the impact of glucose. However, if you were malnourished in either of these macronutrients, you would not be functioning at your best in any capacity. Fat can reduce oxidative damage to your brain. For this reason, we should consume unsaturated fats such as olive oil and fish oil. Olive oil can be consumed every day (e.g., used as the main component of a salad dressing) and oily fish a few times a week, in addition to 1g to 3g of (ecological) fish oil capsules taken daily.

Become juice-tastic

Fresh juices can be a helpful way to help enhance mental sharpness. This is because both vegetable and fruit juices contain water, antioxidants and other micronutrients – three components that may improve mental clarity. They are also often carbohydrates with a lower GI. If you are watching your weight then opt for vegetable juices over fruit juices as they are typically lower in calories.

Avoid the booze

We all know that alcohol can have detrimental effects on mental capacity; drink a wine or few at lunch and you’re guaranteed to be drooping at your desk shortly afterwards! This is because alcohol is a sedative (sleep-inducing) drug, so will not help you get that promotion (based on mental performance output, anyway!). If you do drink alcohol when you need to perform at your best, eat food (ideally a meal of some sort, such as a tomato-based pasta, or at minimum a glass of milk!) to help minimise some of its effects.

Add micronutrients to your menu

Micronutrients include vitamins and minerals and other smaller molecules, and not getting enough of these can have adverse effects on your mental performance over the longer term. For example, low levels of B vitamins, choline and other antioxidants can impair your cognition. For a sharper mind, make sure you have a healthy and balanced diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables; animal products like eggs, meat, fish and dairy; olive oil; vegetarian products like tofu; nuts; and nutritious low GI carbs like quinoa.

Don’t ditch the caffeine

Regarding nutrition and performance – there’s no harm in having some caffeine for a wee pick-me-up, as long as you’re adhering to sensible levels. By this I mean, don’t drink energy drinks all day, every day and reduce your intake if you are beginning to feel agitated, anxious or dependent on the drug
(yes, caffeine is a drug!).

Get physical

There is evidence that physical activity – including exercise that is organised/planned but NOT to the point of exhaustion – can improve aspects of mental and physical health (e.g., decreased anxiety and depression; improved self-esteem, enhanced wellbeing and improved sleep quality). Of course, these improvements would flow on to enhance your mental performance.

Exercise can also directly improve mental performance, possibly due to increased blood flow to the brain and general stimulation. Remember though, exercise can be detrimental for your mental wellbeing if you become obsessed with it. After all, it’s difficult to concentrate properly if you are worrying about when you’ll get your next ‘gym fix’ and/or you are feeling physically exhausted from the three classes you participated in that morning!

For optimal mental clarity follow these steps:

• Eat some low GI carbohydrates (e.g., a piece of fruit), as a snack
  AND as part of your breakfast (e.g., with muesli or porridge).
• Avoid big meals shortly before you need to perform.
• Drink a few large glasses of water to ensure you’re not dehydrated.
• Have an alcohol-free week before that big meeting! If you do consume alcohol, eat food to mitigate its detrimental effects.
• Ensure you eat a balanced and healthy diet most of the time in the longer term, so you get enough micronutrients (like B-vitamins).
• Have a cup of tea or coffee for a caffeine fix, if you find it helpful.
• Exercise regularly, but not to exhaustion. Ideally, at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most, preferably all, days. Also increase your incidental physical activity (e.g., walk/bus it to work instead of driving).

When you’re feeling slightly unwell, exercise can make you feel better. Keeping your exercise sessions below 60 minutes can boost your immune system, which is probably why people often feel better afterwards.

However, if you have the flu then you’ll struggle to get out of bed, let alone exercise so this is the time to rest, rest and rest. Only once your symptoms have subsided for at least 3 days should you think about getting back to exercise.

Am I well enough to exercise?

If your cold symptoms are above the neck (runny nose, sneezing etc) it’s OK to continue with moderate exercise.

Should your symptoms include:

• Below the neck issues including joint pain, chesty cough, etc
• Fever
• Faintness / dizziness
• Tight chest
• Flu

…then you need to rest until your symptoms have subsided. You can then start back with low to moderate exercise. Don’t return to intense exercise until 3 days after your symptoms have gone. If you have full-blown flu then you might have to take up to 2 weeks off intense training. Rest is key to your recovery, you don’t want to put extra stress on your body.

Should you have any other medical conditions such as asthma, heart disease etc., then you should always check with your doctor as to whether exercising with a cold will affect your pre-existing conditions.

What type of exercise should I do with a cold?

It’s fine to carry on with your regular workouts but now’s not the time to try something new or try to break records. Traditional advice dictates that if you have a simple cold without a fever, then it is generally safe to continue with moderate exercise; aiming to keep your workouts less than 60 minutes.

Scientists use the technical term hormesis when referring to exercise & the immune system’s response. In short, a low to moderate dose of exercise can increase your immune function after exercise, whereas a high dose of prolonged exercise (90+ minutes) or intense exercise decreases the effectiveness of the immune system.

I’ve got a cold. Is there an exercise plan I can follow?

Yes. Using a moderate loaded weight, this plan will workout your whole body allowing you to maintain your fitness & strength gains without aggravating your symptoms.

• 3×6 Swiss Ball Press Up
• 3×6 Single Leg Swiss Ball Leg Curl
• 3×6 Goblet Squat
• 3×6 BB bent over row
• 3 x 1000m upright bike – 2 minute rest between each set – moderate pace

OR

• 15 minute brisk walk (on a slight incline)

If you experience chest pain, difficulty catching your breath, wheezing or feeling feint whilst exercising then you should stop immediately.

How can I prevent passing my cold on to others?

There are a few basic ‘gym etiquette’ actions that will help prevent germs spreading at the gym:

• Cover your mouth when coughing & sneezing
• Throw away used tissues
• Wash your hands before & after your workout
• Wipe down any gym equipment you use

Top Tips to help prevent catching a cold

• Eat a clean, well balanced diet – proper nutrition does wonders for your immune system
• Keep external stress to a minimum
• Get at least 7 hours sleep per night
• Calorie restriction can lower your immune system – in some studies having carbs before & after exercise has been shown to help your immune system
• During the winter months wash your hands / use hand gel – the majority of cold viruses are passed via touch and hand to mouth contact

Great sources of protein

The first question most people ask when discussing a vegetarian diet is how to get enough protein. But there’s a simple answer: plenty of other foods contain protein – it’s not exclusive to meat.

If you stock your cupboards with beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, quinoa and tofu, then you should have no problems. Conveniently, many of these foods are also versatile ingredients, which mean you can vary your diet significantly without losing out on protein.

One point to bear in mind is that while received wisdom says that you should have lots of protein if you want to reach your optimum fitness, many professional athletes claim they feel fitter after cutting their casino games online protein intake.

Try these fantastic alternatives

There are three other nutritional areas in which vegetarians are often casino online uk accused of lacking: vitamin B12; iron; and fatty acids. In all three cases, there are options open to you.

Vitamin B12 is only found naturally in foods coming from animals, which sounds like an insurmountable problem until you realise that eggs, milk and cheese can do the job. For vegans, it’s trickier and must be solved with supplements or fortified foods.

To keep your iron levels up, eat plenty of eggs, dried fruit, wholemeal bread, pulses and certain dark green vegetables like broccoli and okra.

Eggs make it three in three by being a potential source of Omega-3 fatty acids as well, although people will need to look out for the kind that is fortified with Omega-3. Other options include flaxseed, soya and canola oils, walnuts and tofu.

Vegetarian role models

The vast majority of top professional sportsmen and women are meat eaters, but there are enough veggies out there to provide inspiration and suggest that it’s possible to reach your physical peak while not eating meat.

In terms of agility, the achievements of British pro skateboarder Geoff Rowley take some beating, while Czech-American tennis star Martina Navratilova is arguably one of the greatest players to grace the game, having won 59 Grand Slam titles (singles, doubles and mixed doubles).

Not convinced? Seven-foot tall basketball player Robert Parish was also a vegetarian and is an NBA Hall of Famer. Finally, there is Dave Scott. The American triathlete was the first six-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion, winning the Hawaii event six times between 1980 and 1987. He later started eating meat, but was strictly vegetarian during his heyday.

So get out there and be the best, meat or no meat.

1. Create the right fat loss environment

Healthy eating and weight loss all starts in the kitchen. Do your own kitchen audit. Throw out all the junk, packets of chips, processed foods and cereal boxes filled with air and sugar. If you keep your kitchen free of junk you’ll be less likely to eat junk. When health is your focus, you need to accept a little responsibility and take control of your wellbeing and what you’re putting into your body.Keep it real — keep it simple — make it yourself!

2. Cook for health as well as for taste

Rethink your plate and how you serve food. Make fruit and veggies the main component of each meal then compliment with protein. Throw fresh berries into a power smoothie for breakfast and add a few scoops of WPI (whey protein isolate), make a huge leafy salad for lunch and top with chickpeas or walnuts, enjoy veggies for dinner and serve with steamed white fish. Choose quality carbs like sweet potato or pumpkin over white bread. If you’re time poor, you could even have a few bags of mixed frozen veggies in the freezer so you can cook them up quicker than you would a take away pizza.

3. Eat the right fat

Don’t be afraid of eating a little fat when losing fat! Your body needs a little of the good fats, like those found in avocado, olives, nuts and seeds. These are full of monounsaturated fats, MCTs (medium-chain triacylglyercols) and omega-3 fats, which are anti-inflammatory to the body, help usto absorb more nutrients from the foods we eat and nourish the skin, as well as protecting us from disease and illness. Studies show that diets high in good mono-unsaturated fats and omega-3 help to facilitate weight loss and are associated with a longer, healthy life.

4. Keep an eye out for portion distortion

Most serving slots online sizes are twice the amount that we need to eat, and eating out normally means that we have very little control over where our food comes from, how the food is prepared orhow large the portion size. We tend to eat more and drink more alcohol; we’re happy to eat more fat, pastry and salt than we care to admit; and we don’t eat enough vegetables and salad.

5. Have a protein drink

A protein drink made from natural ingredients can replace a meal or snack. It helps curb sweet cravings and supports the body’s metabolism. Protein drinks are a great source of the casino internet amino acids casino internet needed to repair, rebuild and support a healthy body. Enjoying a protein drink immediately after exercise can also increase muscle protein synthesis (the process of muscle growth and repair). Not all protein shakes are created equal. Become a label reader and look for powders that are natural and not artificially sweetened or loaded with fillers.

6. Think 80/20

If you’re too strict for too long, you’ll eventually end up falling off the wagon and throwing your healthy eating plan down the toilet. Diets fail because people can’t sustain the strict eating regime for long periods of time, so they give up. This is why my 80/20 principle works so well. Enjoy small portions of your favourite foods in moderation or design healthier versions that will help to keep you sane and able to sustain a healthy lifelong diet.

7. Curb sugar cravings with fresh whole fruit

The best way to beat sugar cravings is to munch down on delicious high-fibre fresh fruit. High-fibre, low–medium GI fruits such as berries, pears, apples, oranges, grapefruit, peaches, plums, cherries, pomegranates and figs contain whopping amounts of antioxidants. These will curb that sweet craving and fill you up. Low–medium GI fruits don’t spike blood sugar levels because they are so high in fibre and keep insulin levels steady. Don’t forget to eat the skin or right underneath the skin if you can, because this is where you find a lot of the fruit’s phytonutrients and goodness.