This follows on from part 1 here. Here are a few more ways that you can get yourself to sleep!

Sleep schedule

Perhaps the most important part of getting good sleep is having the same sleep times each day. This is very hard to stick to but if you are having a lot of trouble sleeping it is worth trying it for at least a few weeks. Most importantly, try to get up at a similar time each day. Weekends make this very difficult for a lot of people as they like to sleep in. If you do enjoy sleeping in try to limit how late you get up as it will have a huge effect on your ability to sleep during the rest of the week. 

Having trouble sleeping? You are not alone, it is one of the most common problems people have. Getting enough sleep is a fundamental need for humans in order to live a healthy life and sleep deprivation can contribute to many chronic health problems, physically and mentally. Worse still is that a lack of sleep causes us to feel terrible the next day. 

Below are a few ideas that you can try to implement to improve your ability to get to sleep at night. These won’t work for everyone but trying these will not hurt and will hopefully help you feel more rested each day:

We often use the term eating better when we want to improve our health. This generally means to eat better food. Today I want to talk about the actual process of eating and that eating better means chewing your food properly. A complete dinner will be prepared and we can scoff it down in 5 minutes and feel sick and hungry afterwards, or we can eat it over 20 minutes and enjoy it more and not feel the digestive discomfort afterwards. 

Regardless of what type of food it is, it will always be better for you to chew more. The first stage of the digestive system is your mouth. Your teeth and saliva are an active part of the digestive system yet too many people leave this job entirely up to the stomach. The stomach digests food by breaking it down with acid and enzymes, this process is very difficult if the food has not been thoroughly chewed before swallowing. 

Running can be a great exercise, it can also be boring, tedious and painful. If you love running then by all means keep doing it. If you don’t like it then do not feel obliged to do it just to be healthy. There is nothing about running that makes it a more healthy activity than any other and you can have incredibly good heart health without ever running at all. Today I will share with you some alternatives to running that will give you just as much benefit as running if not more.

Eating healthy is generally thought to be an expensive option. Even if this were true, I would argue that it is an investment, but that’s an entire post for another day. The idea that a healthy diet is expensive is not entirely true and there are many ways to reduce the cost of food. Today I will share a few simple ways to reduce your food bill so that you can afford to eat well.

Buy in bulk only when it makes sense

Buying in bulk is a good option as long as you actually eat the food. Don’t buy 50 tins of tuna if you rarely ever eat it. Items such as nuts can cost over $100/kg when bought in small packets, in bigger quantities this cost will go down to as low as $10-$20/kg. There are many online vendors that will sell food items in bulk and these can be a great way to stock up on staples. You can also consider buying big amounts of items at these online stores and splitting the cost between friends or family.          

The humble potato, demonized and marginalized by diets everywhere. In recent years many people have warned against eating potatoes, saying that they are void of nutrition and full of empty calories. This may be true in the case of hot chips/French fries but not for the potato as a vegetable. Today I will show you some reasons why you should eat potatoes. 

Welcome to my new blog on the Freeman's Fitness page. First a little about me, I work full-time as a personal trainer helping people to improve their health, mood and fitness. I spend most of my spare time with my partner and friends, reading, hiking and being a member of a local fire brigade with all that it entails. I am lucky enough to live surrounded by the Australian bush in a great part of Sydney.

Why did I start this blog?
The inspiration for this blog comes from seeing the effect that poor food choices and a lack of physical activity is having on the enjoyment of our lives. We all know what effect this has on our health so I don't need to bore you with details. Another reason for this blog came from looking at the current fitness environment and its emphasis on body image. Whilst this can be a motivating factor for people to improve their health, it often neglects real health and is approached in an unsustainable way.

How will this blog help you?

• Make better choices in everyday life to feel better physically and mentally
  
• Improve your overall health
• Learn how to source the best quality food and make it affordable
  
• Learn how to cook basic meals
• How to work out to improve your health
  
• How to set up basic home gyms that are scalable and work for your goals
• How to reduce the problems associated with working in offices all day
• Form long term sustainable lifestyle changes to support better health
• Discuss how healthy habits can be applied to whole families
• Discuss lifestyle habits outside of just food and exercise such as sleep, stress, long term dieting and many others

I welcome any questions you have

I will be posting up two articles each week. If you have any questions or comments, you can either comment on the article, send me a contact through the website or send me an email at [email protected]. Each Monday I will post a short video Q and A on youtube. Here I will answer questions taken from people in regards to the topics mentioned above.

Thanks for reading!