Goal Setting for the Win

By: Jill Andrews
Passion and PURPOSE, , , , 3 Comments on Goal Setting for the Win

I love to set goals! I’ve been setting annual goals for a number of years. I love the challenge of achieving a goal. I love the focus of attention on improving myself that a goal provides. I love having a track to follow, from where I am now to where I want to be. For me, goal setting is about saying to myself, “Where I am NOW is fine, but where I CAN BE is even better.” This is my commitment to my own self-development, personal growth and continuous improvement.

I can’t imagine there will ever come a time when I won’t set goals for the year and hold myself accountable to achieving them. For that would be saying to myself “I’m as good as I’m ever going to get; I’ve learned all I can; I’ve achieved all I want to achieve; my health is perfect; my relationships don’t need improving; etc etc.”

The year I say, “I’m done with setting goals” is the year I say, “I’m done with life and living”.

My favourite goal-setting time of the year is the last few days of one year and the first few days of the next, when I reflect, ponder, and ultimately indulge myself with a few hours of time devoted to putting pen to paper, taking stock of my life and getting excited about what is to come in the future.

My personal planning session includes a reflection on the previous year. What were my biggest wins of 2021? What did I learn? How did I grow? Did I stay committed to my endeavour to be the best me that I can be?  After some reflection on the year that was, I spend time putting the new year’s goals in place – what do I want to achieve in 2022? When I look ahead and see the ideal me, what characteristics do I have? How do I want to ‘feel’ at the end of each day?

I set goals within four ‘Life Pillars’: Health and Wellness, Career/Business/Finance, Relationships, and Passion and Purpose. Having a focus of attention across all areas of life ensures balance and equilibrium. A goal that cultivates your creativity in some way is equally as important as the goals that get you fitter or more financial. Arguably, the goals that improve your relationships with loved ones are the most important of all.

If you have never been a goal setter now is your time! Request the Reflections and Goal Setting Worksheet and follow the tips below to set yourself up for a fabulous 2022.

These tips will help you stay on track with your goals and ensure that they don’t become a handful of New Year’s Resolutions that get forgotten along the wayside of life.

1. Set realistic goals. Create goals that will challenge you, but not goals that are so unrealistic that you are likely to become frustrated in your results as you go. By all means, stretch yourself out of your comfort zone (that is where the growth is) but don’t set yourself up to ultimately give up because your goals are “too hard”.

2. Write them down. This cannot be stressed enough. Research shows that people who create goals and write them down are far more likely to achieve their goals and live a successful life than those who set goals and leave them in their heads to be forgotten, let alone those who never set goals at all.

3. Find a buddy who will hold you accountable. This is key to not letting yourself off the hook. If you have created a goal and gone to the effort of writing it down, then you owe it to yourself to take the next step of telling someone and asking them to help hold you accountable.  Having an accountability buddy is key to my success. My buddy and I meet at the end of each month over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee. We reflect on what we achieved in the previous month, celebrate our wins and look for ways to improve. Then we spend a few minutes writing down the next month’s goals and committing to hold each other accountable. Knowing that in a month I need to turn up and share what I have or haven’t achieved is one of the things that keeps me focused on my goal achievement.

4. Don’t have too many goals. Even having just one goal per ‘Life Pillar’ is likely to yield amazing results in your life. I encourage you to focus on a few great goals rather than lots of little ones. Too many goals can result in you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, and you run the risk of not achieving any.

5. Establish good habits.  Establishing systems and habits are critical to support your goals. Focus on getting 1% better every day with new habits that will ensure you make your way slowly but surely to success.

Follow these tips and at the end of the year you are guaranteed to be able to say, “Wow! Look what I achieved in the last 12 months. I am awesome!”

Now it’s your turn! If you’d like a Worksheet to guide you through a Reflection and Goal Setting process. Click here and you’ll be emailed one.

Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

By: Jill Andrews
Matters of the MIND, , , 2 Comments on Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

We have all experienced the difference between getting a good night’s sleep, or not.  The difference between firing on all pistons with eight hours under your belt, or feeling sluggish, heavy headed, lacking energy, willpower and good humour, having slept less than the optimum amount.  More and more research is identifying that a lack of quality sleep goes far beyond how you feel the day after a bad night, and that poor sleep patterns can have serious long term effects on overall health.

The Conclusion in Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker, is so emphatic on the importance of getting good sleep that I’m going to open this article by including it verbatim:

Conclusion – To Sleep, or Not to Sleep
Within the space of a mere 100 years, human beings have abandoned their biologically mandated need for adequate sleep – one that evolution spent 3,400,000 years perfecting in service of life-support functions. As a result, the decimation of sleep throughout industrialised nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health, our life expectancy, our safety, our productivity and the education of our children…
I believe it is time for us to reclaim our right to a full night of sleep, without embarrassment or the damaging stigma of laziness. In doing so, we can be reunited with that most powerful elixir of wellness and vitality, dispensed through every conceivable biological pathway. Then we may remember what it feels like to be truly awake during the day, infused with the very deepest plenitude of being.

His point is clear that sleep is fundamental to good health! Over the last decade or so sleep research has identified that sleep is even more important than nutrition and exercise. For that reason, I will write a series of articles on different aspects of sleep and the role it plays in our overall health, such as brain health, cardiovascular health, gut health, weight management, mental health, and more. Because a healthy brain is so key to healthy aging, this inaugural sleep blog is posted in Matters of the Mind.

Sleep As We Age

A 2014 study found that the less we sleep as we grow older, the faster our brains age. Matthew Walker assures us that it is a myth that older adults need less sleep. Older adults need just as much sleep as every other age group. However, as you are probably well aware, sleep is more problematic as we age. Two of the key changes in sleep patterns that occur as we age are worth noting.

The first is a reduced quantity and quality of sleep, in particular a reduction in deep sleep. By our mid to late 40’s deep sleep reduces by 60 to 70%, and by the time we reach 70 years old, we’ll have lost 80 to 90% of our youthful deep sleep.

The second change in sleep as we age is more fragmented sleep. In other words, getting up or waking up more frequently throughout the night. The most notable cause of this is a weakened bladder. Due to sleep fragmentation, older adults will suffer a reduction in sleep efficiency, which is defined as the percent of time you’re asleep while in bed.

Studies assessing tens of thousands of older adults have shown that the lower an older individual’s sleep efficiency, the higher their mortality risk, the worse their physical health, the more likely they are to suffer from depression and low energy and the lower their cognitive function, typified by forgetfulness.

Often seniors progress through their later years not fully realizing how degraded their deep sleep quantity and quality have become. They fail to connect their deterioration in health with their deterioration in deep sleep. Matthew Walker suggests that far more age related physical and mental health issues are related to sleep impairment than realized.

The bad news for women is that we typically report poorer quality and more disrupted sleep across various stages of life. Research shows that changes in hormone levels (oestrogen and progesterone) influence sleep quality and a study of women’s health identified that the prevalence of sleep disorders increases with age.  Hot flushes and night sweats, frequent waking, insomnia and restless leg syndrome all contribute to poor sleep experienced by peri and postmenopausal women. The challenge for a good night’s sleep is real!

Tips for Improving Sleep

What can you do to improve the quality and effectiveness of your sleep? Here are some tips that Dr Mark Hyman and his panel of experts delivered in an eight week Sleep Master Class, plus some strategies suggested by Ariana Huffington author of The Sleep Revolution and Matthew Walker.

Having a good night’s sleep starts with setting up your day in a way that supports the body’s natural 24 hour clock, known as it’s Circadian Rhythm. Wakefulness and sleep are influenced by the light and dark in a 24 hour period. As dawn approaches, a hormone called adenosine is released to wake up the body. You can send a very clear message to the body that it’s day time by taking a walk outside for 10 to 20 minutes first thing in the morning. This helps to set the Circadian Rhythm for the day. Melatonin is released with the going down of the sun. This hormone signals to the body that sleep is in its future and starts to get the body prepared for sleep. An ideal situation would be to show your eyeballs the sunrise and the sunset, to clearly trigger the release and suppression of these wake and sleep hormones.

Give yourself the opportunity to sleep for 8 hours a night. To achieve this you might need to go to bed earlier and/or set your alarm later, to accommodate not being able to get to sleep or being awake in the middle of the night.  Ideally go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. This supports your circadian rhythm and avoids you suffering something called ‘social jet lag’ – when you shift your sleep-wake cycle without actually going anywhere.

If you need another reason to be physically active daily you can add ‘improved sleep’ to the list of reasons why even the basic recommended guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week (that’s only 22 minutes per day) helps you sleep better at night. It doesn’t matter when you do it – morning, noon or night, just do it!

Create a good bedtime routine. The primary purpose of this is to send a clear message to your body that it can start getting ready to sleep. Start your routine with your dinner. It takes two to three hours to digest your food, so make sure you aren’t eating dinner too late and keeping the body busy digesting food while you’re wanting it to be in rest mode.

Next is to adjust the lighting in your house. In this day and age it’s near impossible to eliminate light entirely, but do what you can to turn lights off and dim lighting. Reducing lighting will signal melatonin to be released and conversely too much lighting will suppress melatonin release.

You have no doubt by now heard about ‘blue light’- the light given off by our various electronic devices and which suppresses melatonin and therefor supresses the urge to sleep. There are now various things on the market to block blue light, including glasses. Up to date smart phones have a blue light reduction setting that can be customised to turn off blue light at sunset and on again at sunrise. Similarly, you can download a free computer program called f.lux which adjusts your screen’s colour temperature according to your location and time of day eg at night in turns down blue and turns up yellow.

Say good night to your phone. One of the habits that I’m most proud of creating in 2021 is putting my phone on its charger in my study by 8:30pm every night and closing the door. I don’t look at my phone again until the next morning. (I have an old mobile phone that I use as my alarm in the morning).

Thirty minutes before you’re going to get into bed ramp up your sleep routine to put yourself into a super relaxed state. Again, you’re wanting to send the message to your body that it’s time to get ready to sleep.

Giving yourself a facial, having a shower or bath, reading a book, having a cup of herbal tea, meditating, breath work (4-7-8…breathe in through the nose for 4 counts, hold for 7 counts and breathe out through the mouth for 8 counts). Do whatever it takes to send the message loud and clear to your body that it’s time to sleep. Habit triggers such as brushing your teeth or doing your nightly skin care routine also send a subliminal but clear message that sleep is imminent (don’t forget to keep the lights dim in the bathroom, even while performing these tasks).

If you are going to watch any TV before bed make sure isn’t something that is stressful or anxiety inducing. Don’t watch any news or suspenseful, action packed series that will get your adrenaline pumping in the last half hour before bed. Remember, you want to stay in a restful state.

Keep all screens OUT of your bedroom. It needs to be a sanctuary that invites either sleep or sex, and screen devices inhibit both!

Other things to avoid at night time include an alcoholic nightcap. Contrary to popular belief, an alcoholic beverage does not help you sleep. It may help you get to sleep, but it doesn’t help you stay asleep. You run the risk of making your liver work hard during the night causing your body to rouse out of deep sleep. If you’re someone who struggles to get back to sleep during the night, an alcoholic night cap might be something to cut out. Eliminating alcohol before bed may also assist with snoring, if that’s something keeping you awake at night, because alcohol weakens the throat muscles, making it harder to keep your airwaves open at night.

In addition, be mindful of what you eat and drink during the day, especially the meal and foods consumed in the last few hours of the day. Don’t drink caffeinated beverages from early afternoon. Caffeine can stay in your system for at least six hours and have an impact on how easily you get to sleep. Processed, sugary foods, or large quantities of food can influence the digestive processes at night so as usual the message is to keep it healthy and in moderation.

Tips for Getting Back to Sleep

Many of us don’t have a problem getting to sleep when we go to bed, but struggle to get back to sleep when we wake in the middle of the night. This is especially an issue for older people who need to get up to go to the toilet. Many people think that this is why they wake up, but waking during the night is a natural part of the sleep cycle as we move through deep sleep and light sleep. Here are some strategies that have helped people get back to sleep in the middle of the night:

  • Count backwards from 10,000 (it takes a lot of focus to count back from that large number and in focusing on counting you aren’t focused on other thoughts running through your brain).
  • Walk through houses you have lived in or that are meaningful to you. This is a particular favourite of mine and is both enjoyable and interesting to see what your mind’s eye recalls of houses you may not have been in for years.
  • Perform the same breathing exercises or meditation that help you get to sleep at the beginning of the night.
  • Place a sleep mask on your face and put soft ear plugs in your ears. I find this sensory deprivation, coupled with breathing exercises, particularly helpful in getting back to sleep.
  • Live in America? The NODPOD comes highly recommended for helping to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Conclusion

Getting a good night’s sleep will reward you on a day to day basis, as well as banking those rewards as you head into old age, and I look forward to sharing more about this essential function of our amazing bodies in future articles.

Protein is Key for Healthy Ageing

By: Jill Andrews
Strong and Healthy BODY, , Leave a Comment on Protein is Key for Healthy Ageing

My dad has been keeping his muscles strong his entire life. He started lifting weights as a young man and for as long as I can remember we had a home gym in the garage that Dad used on a regular and frequent basis. On Dad’s 80th birthday he performed 40 x 20kg bicep curls on each arm, and not that long ago I timed him while he held the plank position for two minutes. Two minutes! Have you ever tried to plank for ONE minute? Thirty seconds is about my limit! And sometime in the late 1970’s he discovered protein shakes, which he called ‘Muscle Milk’. The result of Dad’s commitment to muscle strength and general fitness not only gave him a great physique, it enabled him to excel in Master’s athletics (he still carries the masters pole vaulting record for his age group in South Australia).

Even more importantly, Dad’s commitment has set up his body to be strong, resilient and well-functioning in older age. A few months ago he unfortunately fell and broke his hip, requiring a full hip replacement, however, thanks to his dedication to his overall health, and his strength maintenance in particular, Dad’s recovery was nothing short of astounding. His surgeon told him later that while he was operating he could see that Dad had good muscle tone and that this contributed greatly to his excellent recovery.

There are two key strategies to maintaining muscle mass: one is strength training and the other is ensuring we consume enough protein. The rest of this blog will cover the protein piece of the puzzle and a future blog will cover strength training.

Protein to Prevent Sarcopenia

So why is protein so important as we age? Because a condition called sarcopenia, characterised by loss of muscle mass and function, is a natural part of ageing. From about the age of 40 we lose 1% of muscle mass each year, so by the time we hit 70 we are probably working with about half the muscle mass we had in our twenties (Frank Lipman MD, The New Rules of Ageing Well).

Minimizing the loss of muscle is a priority for aging well and the importance of proactively maintaining muscle mass increases with age.

In a 2018 study that followed more than 2,900 seniors over 23 years, researchers found that those who ate the most protein were 30 percent less likely to become functionally impaired than those who ate the least amount. Functionality is defined as being able to perform daily tasks with ease.

People don’t end up in nursing homes because they’re sick, they end up in nursing homes with wasted muscles, hardly able to get out of a chair. And they fall more easily because they’re unsteady on their feet. So a key strategy to ensuring healthy ageing and avoiding frailty that comes with old age is focusing on muscle mass and muscle strength. The good news is that it’s never too late to start building muscle!

How much protein?

What is the right amount of protein to reduce the impact of muscle wastage? How can we ensure we eat as much protein as we need for muscle growth? It depends on how much you weigh and how old you are. For adults up to age 65, 0.8-1.0 grams of protein per kilogram of weight is recommended per day. For instance, a 50 year old woman weighing 60kg (132 pounds), will need up to 60 grams of protein a day.  A study by European experts recommends that older adults from the age of 65 increase their protein intake to at least 1.0 to 1.2 gms of protein/kg body weight/day. That same 60kg woman when she reaches age 65 should now be consuming around 75gm of protein a day.

To put that into perspective, 100gms of beef, chicken, lamb, fish or pork has 30gms of protein. A 200 gm tub of Greek yogurt has 10 grams; 3Tb cottage cheese 14 grams; 40 gms of hard cheese 10gms; 1 cup full cream milk 8 gms; a half-cup of lentils 9 grams; ¼ cup raw nuts 8 gms; 1 medium egg 7gms. (To check the protein content of other common foods, click here).

Dr. Elena Volpi, a professor of geriatrics and cell biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas advises that, in addition to the amount of protein consumed, there is also a need to spread the consumption throughout the day. She says “If I eat too little protein during a meal, I may not adequately stimulate the uptake of amino acids into skeletal muscle. If I eat too much, say from a large T-bone steak, I won’t be able to store all of it away.”

Based on her research, Volpi suggests that older adults rethink what they eat at breakfast, when protein intake tends to be lowest. “Oatmeal or cereal with milk isn’t enough; people should think of adding a Greek yogurt, an egg or a turkey sausage,” Volpi said.

Here are 14 easy ways to increase protein intake

  1. Eat your protein first
  2. Snack on cheese
  3. Replace cereal with eggs
  4. Top your food with chopped almonds
  5. Choose Greek yogurt
  6. Have a Protein Shake for breakfast
  7. Include a high-protein Food with every meal
  8. Choose leaner, slightly larger cuts of meat
  9. Add peanut butter to your diet
  10. Eat lean jerky
  11. Indulge in cottage cheese at any time
  12. Munch on edamame
  13. Eat canned fish
  14. Eat more whole grains

How Much of a Role Should Protein Shakes Play in Overall Protein Consumption?

While it is widely agreed that eating whole foods is always preferable, the right protein shake can supplement protein intake and provide an additional protein boost. Depending on the brand, protein shakes can have the added benefits of providing a nutrient boost too and effectively battling hunger if weight management is a goal.

Protein shakes can be an easy nutritious start to the day, especially for those short on time in the morning. Quick, portable, nutritious protein shakes can be tailored for your specific taste and preferences by adding berries and other fruit, spinach or kale and a healthy fat like avocado or nut butter.

Finding a protein shake that suits your needs can be difficult with so many products on the market, both in shops and online. I highly recommend this delicious and nutritious one from my own store. It delivers 20gms of vegan protein with 20 vitamins and minerals and all the essential amino acids to help support muscles. The plant-powered protein is derived from peas, rice and cranberries and it can be blended with a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables to further support nutrient values and taste.

To sum up… throughout adult life consuming an adequate amount of high quality protein throughout the day may prevent the onset or slow the progression of sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass). Paying particular attention to your protein intake from the age of 65 will contribute to maintaining a strong and well-functioning body in the later decades of life.

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