Here's a "hot take" - sleep is important.

No - stay with me, we will get deeper soon.

Anyone who has experienced the deep revitalising freshness of waking up from a great night's sleep will know this - as will anyone who has experienced the groggy brain-fog from dragging yourself out of bed from a rough night, shortened by work commitments, or disrupted by crying babies, shouting neighbours, or pressing bladders…

But what is a "good" sleep?  And if we all need 7-9 hours' sleep per night, why is a 20-minute nap better than a one-hour nap?  Why are some people night-owls, and some early-birds - and how can you tell which one you are and what to do about it?  Do teenagers really need more sleep than adults (quick answer: Yes!), and how can we optimise sleep when we can't always choose our bed-times - whether this is as shift-workers, or parents, caring for others, or recovering from jet-lag?

Once again, the interweb is full of really very-well researched advice and reports about sleep and how to sleep well.  A quick search for the term "sleep" on Pubmed immediately returns 351,721 results as of the time of writing - and that is Pubmed - a reliable source of scientifically valid, dependable, quality research.  The options for those looking to optimise are endless - and it is so easy to get lost, side-tracked, or simply to throw up your hands and give up!

Here at The New 5-A-Day, we have very intentionally chosen "Sleep Well" as the first of our guides - because we truly believe that EVERYTHING else is built on a solid base of good sleep.  We're building a Wellness Palace here - a beautiful place for everyone to be their best and enjoy their days - and every Palace has to be built on the firmest of foundations, and we truly believe that sleeping well drives these foundations deep into the bedrock.

We will look at the hints and the hacks; we'll try different techniques and share how we feel; we'll look into the research, boil it down and share it here for you to do with what you will.  All we ask is that you hear us out, try what looks good for you, and maybe share your experiences in the chat.

"You are what you eat" - possibly true, but impossibly unhelpful.

What are we even eating?  From whole foods to highly-processed foods, and everything in between, the list of ingredients seems to become more complex with each passing year.  Macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients - and what is a nutrient anyway..? Pre-, pro-, and post-biotics, the list feels endless, so how can we tell what we are even putting in our bodies.

And then the debate starts about what we SHOULD be putting in our bodies - from low-fat to whole-fat; are you keto or vegan? Fasting or grazing?  This debate creates more confusion than it resolves, so we won't spend our time at The New 5-a-Day recommending one approach or another; we won't condemn one approach or another either - unless the science is clear that this is baaaad for you.

We will take a look at the classic debates, and the latest fads and share what the science says so that you can take informed decisions about what you eat and how you eat it.

High Intensity Interval Training!!!

Crossfit!!!

Feel the burn!!!

Hyrox!!!

Well, OK - if you want to…. There's nothing wrong with any of these; they are all good ways to get some exercise.  If you want to - go ahead!

But how about having a nice walk… or throwing a ball for your dog… doing some stretches in front of Eastenders… or carrying the shopping back from town…

These all count as being Active, and studies across the world identify "Activity" as a key driver of increased life-span and health-span.  Blue Zones' Sardinian shepherds aren't doing exercise, but they are keeping active as they walk up and down the hills that are part of their natural environment; the women in Okinawa aren't exercising, but they are keeping active as they walk around their neighbourhoods, visiting friends, and sitting down and getting up from the floor regularly. And these are areas known for their high proportion of centenarians.

Exercise has become a multi-billion pound industry in the UK and across the world, with more options available than ever before and, as ever, with options comes confusion, with expectation comes trepidation, and with challenge comes anxiety.

These gyms form an excellent community, somewhere the fit and focused can commune; but every in-crowd creates outsiders of every else.  For every buff gym-bunny who feels at home pumping iron, there are many more of us who feel the anxiety rise at the mere thought of crossing the threshold into that sweaty box:

"What if I don't know what to do?"

"What if I drop something?"

"I'll only be able to do the lightest weights and everyone will laugh at me…"

Exercise is great - it is a great goal to target, and we will spend some time exploring and exploding some the myths that lie behind the anxieties and trepidations mentioned above.  For now, though, we are not targeting exercise - we are targeting activity.  Being active burns calories, it builds strength, and it keeps joints supple.  Strength, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, balance - these are all indicia of longer life-spans and longer health-spans; and they are all improved through regular activity.

No expectations, no grand schemes. 

Each one of us is different in our current level of activity and you are starting where you are - no judgment, no criticism. 

In our Be Active chats, we will try to create a world where you can be 1% more active today than you were yesterday; 1% more active tomorrow than you are today.  We'll look at simple ways we can all be more active, and share some basic science about WHY it is important and HOW being active will improve your life-span and health-span; we'll look at the latest trends and headlines and delve into the data behind them to help you decide if they are right for you; and we'll share some practical activities and trials that you might want to try for yourself.

We are all wrapped up in the busy-ness of modern life - whether you are working all hours to make ends meet, or rushing to collect the kids from nursery, looking after elderly parents or trying to make the next spin class, or zumba class, or just trying to make the bus home.  More likely, in this day and age, you are trying do all of the above.  It can often feel like the world is expecting us to be everything to everyone, all at once.

With every new request, the blood pressure rises, cortisol - the stress hormone - rushing through your veins just like you are rushing through the corridors to make it to your latest parents' evening.  A little bit of cortisol - a little bit of stress - can be a good thing: fitness gains are achieved, basically, by putting our bodies through short-term stress to make us stronger or fitter; we can achieve great things when the adrenaline kicks in and we enter that temporary fight-or-flight state where our minds and bodies can perform more than we ever thought possible.

But let's pull out two key words from that last sentence:

• short-term

• temporary

For sure, a little bit of stress can help drive us forward.  The problems come when that stress stops being short-term, when it stops being temporary.  With no release valve to reduce the pressure, we risk spiraling into a state of chronic stress, where cortisol levels remain high, blood pressure never has the chance to reduce, where everything piles on top of everything else, and we start to feel that there is no end, no way out.

And what happens next?

There are both short-term and long-term implications.  In both cases, the downward spiral kicks in.

In the short term, you know fully-well what happens next:  you snap at someone; you start shooting from the hip, making decisions and taking actions that you would never do if you were not caught up in the stress and the immediacy; you say things you would never normally say.  Every quick decision, every harsh word, every regrettable comment launches its own new vicious circle that compounds the stress and the cycle continues.

At the same time, in the long term, all this stress is doing a job on both your physical and mental health: high blood pressure, increased inflammation, distraction, poor concentration, increased anxiety, lower quality sleep as your mind never stops racing.  These have all been shown to have significant detrimental impacts on both life-span and health-span.

And all because we do not make the time to allow the stress levels to drop; because we do not take a moment for ourselves, a moment away from the action to just be.  I am not discounting the very real truth about how busy so many people are; I am not saying we have plenty of time to kick-back and relax.  But I am saying we all have "agency" - the ability to make decisions, and to choose how we see the world.

We have the agency to say - this moment is for me.

It may be 10 seconds looking at the photo of a loved one, or practicing a deep-breathing exercise before rushing into the next meeting; it may be a minute to calm out bodies and our minds; it may be 5 minutes to put on your favorite song and dance around like your life depends on it; it may be 10 minutes to sit quietly with a book before bedtime.  Let's be clear - it may also be an hour in the swimming pool, or a day hiking in the hills, or a weekend at a gaming convention or re-enacting the Battle of Naseby!

However long it is, we have the ability to say - this is my time and it is for me.  And taking some "Me Time" is the fourth pillar of the New 5-a-Day; it allows us a moment to reset; it reminds us that we, too, are important and deserve this; and it gives us something that is ours. It is for us, and that is important.  Further, from a long-term health perspective, taking some time to allow cortisol levels, stress levels, and blood pressure to drop is key to enabling us to lead out best lives, to improve our health-spans and life-spans and get the most out of time and our relationships.

In this blog we are going to look at some of the activities you may be choosing for how you spend your Me Time, from breathing exercises and self-talk for those short, grabbed moments on the run, to full-blown hobbies that give us a feeling of calm, of achievement, of pride.

We hope you find something and give it a try!

Loneliness has been flagged as the latest global "pandemic" and major risk to health.  Feeling lonely is being compared to smoking and obesity as a mortality risk.  And we can all see and feel the truth behind this as we look around ourselves at this modern world.

There is no question that modern living is driving us into ever-more isolated mind-spaces: young people moving away from families for work; the physical isolation of working from home; the increased reliance on technology to create "friends."  The world is getting increasingly isolated, and it is creating more lonely people.

Similarly, we have all felt that loneliness at some time: a feeling that you are alone in the world with your problems, and no-one can help/understand/care.

There is a big difference between being lonely and being alone.  Some me-time clearly focuses on being alone, and this can be an opportunity to take a break and feel refreshed.  But this is a "choice."  You can "choose" to be alone.  But you don't "choose" to be lonely - that is a negative emotion indicating that you are missing the company of others.

But how to find that company?  How to engage with Your People?

For some, it is easy - family, work-colleagues, old friends.  But others find it more difficult to make friends, or keep in contact.  Here, in Your People, we are going to look at different ways to find, connect with, and maintain contacts with Your People, so that everyone has a chance to engage and feel connections.