Feeling Down ? Your not on your own & this may be the reason !

Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as SAD, is a form of depression that comes and goes in a pattern with seasonal change. Over the course of the autumn/winter period, sufferers feel a change of mood, decreased energy or motivation, may sleep longer or lose focus.

Over a third of those aged 16 years+ suspect they may have SAD, suffering from low moods in autumn and winter and Londoners are significantly likelier than those anywhere else in the UK to have been diagnosed with SAD (over 11% of people in London).

Dr Sarah Perkins, a Clinical Psychologist specialising in anxiety and mood disorders at Schoen Clinic Chelsea, explains: “The symptoms of SAD usually peak in the months of January and February. The main cause noted is the lack of sunlight which could prevent a part of the brain, the hypothalamus,  from functioning properly which consequently affects a number of issues, such as:

  • The production of melatonin – a hormone that makes you feel sleepy.  Sufferers of SAD may produce higher levels.
  • The Production of serotonin – the hormone that affects your mood, appetite, and sleep; reduced serotonin is linked to feelings of depression.
  • The body’s internal clock (circadian rhythm) – your body uses sunlight to time various functions such as when you wake up.  Lower light levels can disrupt your body clock leading to SAD symptoms.

For some, SAD symptoms can come on during summer months and feel lighter during the wintertime, however that’s quite rare”.

The most common symptoms of SAD include:

  • Persistent low mood
  • Excessive sleep or sleeping longer than normal
  • Decreased ability to focus or concentrate
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities formerly enjoyed
  • Irritability and anxiety
  • Feelings of guilt and hopelessness
  • Fatigue, or low energy level
  • Decreased sex drive
  • Increased appetite, especially for sugary foods and carbohydrates
  • Physical issues, such as headaches

Dr Perkins continues: “For many people, SAD can cause significant disruption to their work, home-life and relationships. Regular exercise and getting natural light can alleviate or lessen the symptoms. An early morning walk is highly recommended.”

Ways to help if suffering with SAD;

  • Take in as much natural light as possible, go for a walk or try to wrap up and have your drinks out in the open.
  • Exercise can help boost your mood naturally. If you do not have the energy to overcome your SAD inertia. Try and co-ordinate exercise or a class workout with a friend and give them permission to be forceful in their encouragement insisting you accompany them to do exercise.
  • Dawn simulators or alarm clocks that mimic the sunrise by producing light that gradually increases in intensity, were as effective as light therapy for people with mild SAD, according to a study published in July 2015 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
  • Consider whether it would be helpful to talk to a mental health professional or carefully select people in your life to talk to when you are feeling low.
  • Taking a course of antidepressants from autumn until spring is an option to support the relief of symptoms such as depression.
  • Working to make sure you have social events planned so that any depression doesn’t leave you totally isolated and alone with your thoughts.
  • Spend time with a pet. Studies have shown that pets can improve mood, reduce stress and anxiety and even decrease high blood pressure.
  • Avoid isolating yourself. Keep in contact with others as this will be vital for your wellbeing. Even if you are reading a book, it is beneficial to do this in the same room as someone else

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  1. AJ Garcia
  2. Ethan Sykes
  3. Meghan Holmes
  4. Andrew Neel

Planning is the key to meeting healthy eating goals

Words by Dr Bunmi Aboaba, Food Addiction Coach

Puppies aren’t just for Christmas, and resolutions aren’t just for New Year. If you feel you need to make changes in your life, you don’t have to wait another eleven months to do something about it. But you do need to give yourself the best chance of success, and that means planning.

The top resolutions taken on each January (more exercise, weight loss, better diet) put food at the heart of most goals, and an important part of changing eating habits is identifying triggers. Do certain situations, feelings, moods or times of day prompt you to overeat? If so, it is likely you are being triggered. Triggers are habitual and operate unconsciously and will have you reaching for food, even when you’re not hungry, to satisfy an unmet need.

Ask yourself:

What are your trigger foods? 
What foods can you never resist? 

They’re likely to be highly refined carbohydrates as these are particularly addictive and satisfying due to having high concentrations of sugar, salt, and fat. These types of foods release feel-good hormones, which keep you wanting more!

Take some time to outline the specific foods you find hard to resist so that you can become more aware of your personal food triggers.

Additionally, try to understand what emotions and environments trigger you to self-sabotage.

Do you crave certain foods when stressed, sad, or happy?
Do you find it hard to resist foods when in certain situations or with particular people?

By acknowledging your triggers, you are taking the first step in gaining control of your eating habits.

After a challenging two years of lockdowns, illness, and uncertainty, I expect these results to be the same, if not more heightened, as we seek to improve our overall health and sense of wellbeing.

So, bearing in mind nearly 25% of us fail to keep our resolutions, what actions can we take to make them stick?

Set Your Intention

To progress and reach your goals, you must start with understanding where you’re at now. You can then set your intention of where you want to be.

Create a clear picture in your mind of where you are going and what you want to achieve. Intentions and beliefs are powerful – they will make all the difference to your journey.

It’s all to do with bringing your goals, hopes, and aspirations into conscious thought and connecting them to your whywhich will empower, motivate, and inspire you to keep going.

You must understand that you are not hopeless or the victim of uncontrollable urges and circumstances. Instead, remember that you hold the power to change direction and transform yourself into whatever you wish to be. This, however, requires time, honesty, and commitment. 

When setting your intentions, answer the following:

What are your goals? 
Where do you want to be at the end of your weight loss journey? 
What will you look like?
What will you feel like? 
What will you be able to achieve? 

Set SMART Goals

As a food addiction coach, I recommend that all my clients set themselves SMART goals. This acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-specific. An example of how this could be applied to a goal such as exercising more could look like this:

Specific – Setting a particular goal such as achieving couch to 5k.
Measurable – Logging progress each week.
Attainable – Understanding personal limitations which could prevent this goal from being reached.
Realistic – Altering the challenge accordingly and following through on a new basis rather than giving up.
Time-specific – Setting a date that this will be achieved, such as six months.

Those who do not set themselves SMART goals are the ones who are unlikely to achieve their preferred outcome. They are more likely to become disheartened, frustrated, and impatient. As a result, they lose sight of their goal and the intention behind it.

Practice Mindful Eating

How you eat and where you eat is also crucial to your fulfilment. Consider the atmosphere in which you consume your meals. To maintain healthy eating habits, you must actively consider your mind-body connection

How can you encourage a more mindful way of eating ?  

Remove as many distractions as possible – Turn off the TV and remove all smart/screen devices from your mealtimes. 
Eat in a positive space – Try to ensure it’s a clutter-free dining space, lay the table, use your favourite crockery, and perhaps light a candle. This will encourage you to be mindful and enjoy the moment.
Practice gratitude – Mindfully express thanks before and during your meal. This could be saying a blessing over your food or expressing thanks to yourself or the person who has prepared the meal. 
Share your meals – Where possible, do not eat alone. Instead, share food with loved ones. Try and choose people with a positive attitude who will encourage and support you with your eating goals.

These practices will strengthen positive messages to your body to nurture your mind-body connection and you will begin to find fulfilment and satisfaction from the act of being present and aware at mealtimes. 

Plan Your Meals

Meal planning involves thinking ahead and planning the foods you will consume. This helps ensure that you have healthy food choices to hand and are less likely to return to old habits and pick up unhealthy foods.

It is vital to focus on bringing joy and excitement into your meals rather than think about what you are missing out on. Changing what you eat requires dedication and forethought, so try and plan a week in advance.

Consider commitments, responsibilities, and who you will be eating with each day. Pay particular attention to those days when you might be tired or stressed and plan an easy option to avoid falling into detrimental stress eating habits.

Select foods that will nourish both mind and body. Think about colour, texture, flavour, and variety. This will help ensure that you do not get bored with your new eating routine.

Every meal you plan and eat should bring you health, emotional wellbeing, energy and pleasure.

Recognising your success and achievements is vital for your ongoing recovery and long-term health. Remember, achieving your new year goals is not a test of willpower. Instead, breaking habits is a journey. There will be times where you feel inclined to give up or where you make a detrimental choice. However, be kind to yourself, acknowledge how far you have come, and celebrate the path you are on!

To discover an alternative method to weight loss, healthy eating, and long-term food serenity, try my Craving Freedomcourse. A gentle approach to beating food cravings and developing a healthy relationship with food.

New Year New You, WHATEVER ! – Detox your skin

With the overindulgence of Christmas long behind us, has jog on January passed us by and the gym membership is already gathering dust ? After all the over doing it of eating, drinking, changeable weather, late nights and stress of the Seasonal period, it can REALLY take its toll on your skin.

We’ve search the length and breath of the market to find the best products to give the stuff that keeps you all in there, Skin, a well earned detox for the start of 2013, don’t worry it doesn’t involve wiping oneself with the branch of a birch tree or drinking only hot water and the occasional concoction from some quake. No this is the best products for breathing life back into you face and giving you a more healthy colour.

Firstly, we sort the advice of a medical practitioner , Naturopathic Doctor Nigma Talib, who advised us;

“Your body eliminates about 1/3 of bacteria, viruses, and toxins through the skin. The body removes toxins through the pores to the surface of the skin. These toxins clog the pores, cause breakouts, irritation and inflammation to the skin. This in turn accelerates your skin’s ageing process as your skin is no longer making healthy cells, but instead fighting off “foreign invaders” in order to protect the skin. In order to keep skin and hair healthy and detoxified on the outside, you must eat foods packed with vitamins and minerals, particularly foods rich in Vitamin A, C, B, Zinc and essential fatty acids. Obviously drinking plenty of water is key too and I suggest using the following treatment” – 

Screen Shot 2013-01-16 at 13.49.05The Clarifying Clay Masque, by Skin Ceuticals, is a wonder product at getting rid of dead skin cells, lifting impurities from the skin’s surface and deep cleansing the pores. Formulated with the highest quality natural earth clays; Kaolin and Bentonite, with extracts of aloe and chamomile, it helps to purify, clarify and refine skin.

Screen Shot 2013-01-16 at 14.23.44Weleda Birch Juice works to eliminate the toxins out of the body, accumulated over the indulgent seasonal period. Helping to kick start a detox programme, with a recommended as a 3-6 week course, a tablespoon of juice should be diluted into a large bottle of water and drank throughout the day to cleanse the system. Drinking the organic juice on a daily basis will boost lack lustre skin and restore vitality, ensuring a clear and bright complexion.

ClarinsMen Super Moisture Gel, offers a light gel which gives an almost instant energising boost to tired, stressed looking skin. As soon as it’s applied, skin appears fresher, healthier, firmer, even rested. It works with all skin types as a pick-me- up after a late night or heavy week at work. An active ingredient is wintergreen plant extract which removes dead surface cells which make skin look dull and grey. Marie Mckeever, Clarins Head of Treatment Development, believes –

“Over the festive period, late nights and an excess amount of alcohol will cause skin to become dehydrated, making it look dull and lacking in vitality.  Start the New Year by drinking plenty of water and stick to a time efficient skin care routine- it takes less than a minute per day and will keep those dehydration lines at bay in 2025”

 

Pure Athlete Detox Bath Salts (Soak) combines 15 pure essential oils and mineral rich salts sourced from the foothills of the Himalayas and the Dead Sea( Ohh it must be good then). This special blend is designed to draw out toxins, which may have accumulated as a result of training and competing, or overdoing it during Christmas even, which cleansing the body, soothing the soul and rejuvenating the skin.

Lastly to give our bodies a kick start and return them to the temples they normally are, a good course of multivitamins are essential. Centrum have tailored a course of multivitamins and minerals to the needs of the male gender. Specific levels of B vitamins and Iron in Centrum Men help to support much needed daily energy metabolism and heart health. Vitamin D and Calcium contribute to normal muscle function and antioxidants like vitamin C and E protect against physical stress, helping men to stay healthy and take on whatever the days bring.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR – SEE YOU ALL IN JANUARY

The Hottest Toys for Christmas 2024

Data tracking experts Circana, estimate the UK toy market to be worth £3.4 billion in the 12 months to September 2024. Last Christmas £900 million was spent on toys, accounting for 26% of annual toy sales.

Global leader in kids, young adults, and parents’ market intelligence, The Insights Family, has observed an increase in parental spending on gifts for children throughout 2024 and expects this trend to continue, consistent with the steady growth seen since 2021.

Research has found that from 2021 to 2024, monthly spending on gifts for children rose among parents of 1–16-year-olds by 35%, from £61 per month in 2021 to £82 per month in 2024.

With this in mind the Toy Retailers Association’s DreamToys top toys for Christmas 2024.

The DreamToys Christmas list is the most authoritative prediction of what are expected to be the hottest new toys on the high street this festive season. It is the only list selected by an independent panel of toy retailers and toy experts from small independents to large national chains.

The DreamToys list includes exciting interactive toys, new versions of family favourites and something for all the family, from preschool up to adults, with a diversity that reflects the many tastes and trends that define the UK’s toy industry today.

PLEASE NOTE: The list is presented alphabetically, as a full top 20, and is not ranked in any way.

Product Name

Supplier

Beyblade X Xtreme Battle Set

Hasbro

Bluey 3-in-1 Transforming Plane Set

Moose Toys

Despicable Me 4 The Ultimate Fart Blaster

Moose Toys

Disney Stitch

LEGO Company

FurReal Peanut the Playful Monkey

Just Play Products

Hatchimals Alive Mystery Hatch Pufficorn Egg

Spin Master

Hex Bots Wall Crawler Gecko

Spin Master

Icons Tiny Plants

LEGO Company

Hot Wheels Ultra Shark Car Wash playset

Mattel UK

Kinetic Sand SquishMotion

Spin Master

Little Live Pets My Walking Penguin – Waddles

Moose Toys

Littlest Pet Shop – Pet Shop Playset

Bandai UK

Miniverse Make It Mini Potions Class

MGA

Paw Patrol Rubble’s Bark Yard Deluxe Bulldozer

Spin Master

Pets Alive: Mama Duck & Baby Surprise

Zuru

RealFX Disney Stitch Puppetronic

Wow Stuff

Speed Champions Mclaren F1 Race Car

LEGO Company

Sticki Rolls Sticki Book Pack

Character Options

Unicorn Academy Interactive Rainbow Light-up Wildstar

Spin Master

UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy

Mattel UK

The DreamToys panel picked the toys based on the value they offer – to the pockets of gift-givers and their users’ play time – as well as the patterns of play they inspire and the emerging trends they represent.

This year’s top 20 range in price offering something for all ages and budgets.