Hello and happy 2020 to all our followers out there. Firstly we thank you hugely for your ongoing support and words of recommendation.
Secondly, and more relevant to here and now, we wish you a healthy and happy 2020 and on that note we got our brains working over the Christmas break and came up with an amazing plan.
The festive season and the crazy year of 2019 just gone by, where Patrick got married, had a second boy, not to mention all the APC physio & sports clinic stuff, spurred a lot of ideas but in the end we decided to put a 20 day regimen together for you (and a friend) to follow.
Each day we posted a short video, piece of advice or some beneficial lifestyle tip to bring your health and wellbeing one step closer each day to being in balance, referred to as homeostasis. You can view each top tip in more detail on our Facebook page “here”.
The good thing is that each step is easy to do and requires little or no equipment or anything like that. All we ask of you is to ask yourself; can I stick to this 20 day step by step programme to see if I can learn something new and ultimately come out even slightly better by the start of February?
If you are up for it then we will be there everyday for 20 days to give you tips on how to improve sleep, deal with and reduce stress, what are the best stretches to do, essential nutrition advice, digital detox, core strength, the effects of screens, hydration, body-scanning and much more.
And they good news is, you can use this at any time of the year you feel like you need a helping hand with everyday life.
As we mentioned above we would encourage you to start this with a friend or family member so ye both can enjoy and share the positive experience together and with others.
Please let us know how you find it. We would advise you to do a quick check now of the main elements. Sleep, diet, exercise, mind work (as in meditation or similar) and general happiness and rate each one out of 10. So for example if you scored 7 /10 in each of the 5 areas your overall score equals 35. If you then multiply this by 2 you will get your overall score out of 100. So in this example it would be 70. Which would be pretty good. Anyways let’s see how you score and then simply retest in 21 or so days time to see if anything feels different and more than likely for the better.
As we say ‘Move well, Feel well, Be well’ .
Now, take a moment to watch this video Patrick prepared where he discusses each days topic!
- Sleep. Sleep is vital for our health. In the western world, sleep is significantly affected by over 25% of people at some stage.Check out our video “here” where we discuss sleep a little more!
2. Movement. General Exercise & Movement. 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲! Movement is what our bodies and minds need. If we are not moving we are starving our whole system, which is made up of muscles, bones, joints, nerves digestive, cardiovascular and immune systems of what they need to stay healthy. Check out our video “here” with more tips on Movement
3. Breath work. Get practicing on the more calming and relaxed breathing technique as demonstrated by Steven.
Watch our video “here” where we discuss this in more dept.
4. Nutrition- Do you feel sluggish or bloated after food? Do you crave sugary foods? You don’t give enough time to prepare homemade meals where you know exactly what the ingredients are?
By getting your nutritional choices better for your body you will reap the rewards. We fully understand the challenge of trying to change a lifestyle habit. The best advice is to keep it simple and start with the basics such as reducing your portion size and sugar in your diet and increasing vegetable intake for example.
With consistency, you will start to feel better and you will continue to build on those good habits and ride through the mini relapses that are to be expected on your journey.
5. Motivation – Quotes. Find your favourite quote to help get things done. Here’s my choice! Print yours off and leave it in many different locations in your house, office, or car.
6. Meditation- Body Scan. This video’s 8 minutes long and will be really useful to help you get familiar with how to do a full body scan to help you relax. Special thanks to Steven, who seemed to really enjoy it!
Meditations have demonstrated several health benefits such as helping reduce stress, pain and also help people get back in touch with themselves.
Our overly stimulated ‘go-go-go’ modern lifestyle is taking its toll on the population’s health.
7. Hydration. Drinking enough water each day is crucial for many reasons: to regulate body temperature, keep joints lubricated, prevent infections, deliver nutrients to cells, and keep organs functioning properly. Being well-hydrated also improves sleep quality, cognition, and mood.
8. Stress Reduction – Awareness. Here’s another “video” for you to watch where we discuss Stress in more dept.
9. Cardio. It helps you burn fat and calories for weight loss. It makes your heart strong so that it doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood. It increases your lung capacity. It helps reduce your risk of heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some forms of cancer. Check out our video “here”.
10. Walking in Nature. Research from Nippon Medical School in Tokyo shows a nature walk changes blood flow in the brain to a state of relaxation and increased the number of natural killer cells the body produces to battle infection.
11. Help a Friend. Engaging in acts of kindness produces endorphins, the brain’s natural painkiller! Perpetually kind people have 23% less cortisol (the stress hormone) and age slower than the average population! Here’s a great article from the folks at Action For Happiness
12. Give some the gift of your time. Its the greatest gift we can give. Perhaps you could help out an elderly neighbor, a friend you’ve not spoken to in a while or parents in need of a much needed rest? (This is definitely a hint to my own family!)
Here’s a good article on the many benefits! https://www.marketwatch.com/…/giving-your-time-rather-than-…
13. Massage. Here we’re gonna show you some simple hands on tips on how to do massage. We store a lot of tension in the Neck so this is a great one to try. See it on our Facebook “here”. Give it a try, it will leave you feeling great!
14. Cold therapy. Have you heard of the benefits of cold water? Frequent exposure to cold is linked to a number of different health benefits. Have you heard of the Wim Hoff Method. Find out more “here”.
15. Strength Training. Strength training can have many benefits when done twice a week. Give “these” videos from Paul & Steven a try and see how you get on!
16. Foam Rolling. Some benefits of foam rolling, it will increase mobility, it will increase the flexibility of muscles and the mobility of the joints around it! Here’s a short “video” we put together to tell you a little more!
17. Digital Detox.
If you feel your phone use is impacting negatively on your life in some way, a good first step is to try a digital detox. It doesn’t have to be a big change; you can start small. First, decide when you’re going to do your digital detox, and then decide how long you want it to last. The length of time is really up to you, but try and make it long enough to really feel a difference. Give this article a read for more info! https://spunout.ie/l…/article/is-it-time-for-a-digital-detox
18. Cook a new dish from scratch. Wednesdays are even greater days now in the clinic since we’ve started taking turns prepping lunch for each other and it has to be a new dish each week!! Give it a try and see how you get on!
Steven cooked this masterpiece!
19. Declutter & Donation Remove the excess and share to those in need. Pretty simple, find 20 things in your house you no longer need and give to those who perhaps could make better use of them.
Here’s another great article to help get you started!
20. Be Grateful – Gratitude.
We really hope you enjoyed the 20 days please tell us how you got on, even if you only tried 1 or 2 days that’s fine!
And what better way to end it? Gratitude!
“One of the simplest and most effortless habits to live a more positive life is to take a minute or two every day and focus on the wonder of life. Practising gratitude has many benefits; studies have proved that it can help us lead more peaceful, happy, appreciative and healthier lives as well.”
And the benefits of gratitude. I must say even this one surprised us with the amount fo health benefits and all-round awesomeness of gratitude!
Give it a read from the wonderful peeps over at Action for Happiness
https://www.actionforhappiness.org/…/spreading-the-benefits…
So, we hope you enjoyed that! Dont forget to retest in 21 or so days time to see if anything feels different and more than likely for the better. Be sure to write down your progress as you go along.
Also, check out all our latest classes running in Fermoy and Cork here.
These classes will leave you feeling even better with the 20-day challenge!
‘Move well, Feel well, Be well’.
If you have any other queries feel free to contact us online here, via email, or over the phone.
You can also avail of a free 15-minute physio consultation in the clinic with one of our physiotherapists.
You can book online at https://apcphysio.ie/speak-with-physio/ Or Give us a call on 02535015 Fermoy Main Office or APC Cork, Club Vitae Clinic calls can be made to 085 7740559 today to talk through any questions and concerns you may have. Thanks for reading!