Smart Living Tips

Have you started the New Year with the resolution to lose weight or improve your fitness level? Were you all gung ho about exercising and now the enthusiasm has deflated? If you answered yes, you are not alone! Many people stop exercising when the routine gets too boring or the results come too slowly. Here are five tips to get you off your seat and onto your feet:

The idea is to place your goal where you can see it every day. This keeps it fresh in your mind, so you think about them often. It’s easy to get caught up with day to day activities and lose sight of your goals. Keep your goals simple and realistic so you don’t get frustrated and give up easily. Set weekly goals to start off. This can then progress to more challenging long term goals.

The benefits of exercising with others are pretty clear – companionship, support, motivation and safety. It’s so easy to put off exercising when we do it on our own but when you’ve made an ‘exercise date’ with your friend, you are less likely to put it off.

If you’ve ever found it difficult to track your progress and see the results, a pedometer or heart rate monitor may be just the thing you need. You can set your heart rate monitor to beep when you fall below your target, urging you to pick up your pace. A pedometer keeps a record of the number of steps you take in a day or the distance you have achieved. This will push you to reach your target distance or steps in each routine. You can then set more challenging targets as you progress to keep you on top of your game.

We all know how hard it is to fit exercise into our busy schedule. The best way to maximise your limited exercise time is to monitor your heart rate. When you exercise by time or feel, you cannot tell if your heart rate is in the right zone, enough to generate cardiovascular and weight loss benefits. Monitoring your heart rate enables you to set your pace without wasting time at the wrong level that defeats the purpose of your exercise.

Positive reinforcement is one of the best ways to keep yourself motivated. Not everyone has what it takes to successfully stay on track, so it’s important for you to realise that you deserve a reward for all the hard work you’ve put in! Giving yourself a reward for reaching your exercise goals will also give you an extra incentive to stick to your long term exercise plan.

A recent article in The New York Times explores what the perfect room temperature may be for sleeping.

Avoiding caffeine, sticking to a schedule and drinking a glass of warm milk are the usual tips for a good night’s rest.

But the right room temperature can also play a crucial role.Studies have found that in general, the optimal temperature for sleep is quite cool, around 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. For some, temperatures that fall too far below or above this range can lead to restlessness.

Temperatures in this range, it seems, help facilitate the decrease in core body temperature that in turn initiates sleepiness. A growing number of studies are finding that temperature regulation plays a role in many cases of chronic insomnia. Researchers have shown, for example, that insomniacs tend to have a warmer core body temperature than normal sleepers just before bed, which leads to heightened arousal and a struggle to fall asleep as the body tries to reset its internal thermostat.

For normal sleepers, the drop in core temperature is marked by an increase in temperature in the hands and feet, as the blood vessels dilate and the body radiates heat. Studies show that for troubled sleepers, a cool room and a hot-water bottle placed at the feet, which rapidly dilates blood vessels, can push the internal thermostat to a better setting.

THE BOTTOM LINE A slightly cool room and a lower core temperature are optimal for sleep.

Source – New York Times

Here are 10 simple energy and power saving tips helping you to save money, reduce your carbon footprint and to live a more eco friendly life.

Make sure you are not standing by
The average family can save 150kg of CO2 a year just by turning things off? Appliances left in standby mode account for around 10% of UK household energy use - so unplug devices when not in use. You will also save you around £40 per year.

Energy efficient lighting
In most homes, lighting accounts for 10 to 15% of the electricity bill Switch to low energy and energy saving light bulbs - you'll be amazed at the difference, and at how much you can save (about 80% of the energy of normal bulbs, actually).

Rechargeable Batteries
In the UK we throw away over 650 million batteries every year, polluting the soil and filling landfill sites. Rechargeable batteries save energy and the slightly higher cost is recovered in the first five charges. Recharging costs are also minimal.

Turn down you Washing Machine
Washing your clothes at 30 degrees instead of 40 degrees reduces electricity consumption on average by 41%

Only fill your kettle with what you need
At first glance, the idea of only putting the water you need to use into the kettle seems pretty finicky as, boiling an electric kettle to make a cup of tea only requires about 0.03125kWh of electricity and generates around 0.015kg CO2.

However, according to the UK Tea Council, as a nation we guzzle 165m cups of tea and 70m cups of coffee each day. If, as some figures suggest, we habitually boil twice as much water as we need, we could be needlessly wasting some 3,525 tonnes of CO2 every day

Have a shower not a bath
If everyone in the UK swapped just one daily bath for a five-minute shower, the water saved would supply the annual water needs of over 15000 households .

Even if you forgo the luxury of a bath in favour of a shower just once a week, you can save about 30kg of CO2 emissions

Put on a Jumper
When wearing a jumper you can turn the heating down. Lowering your thermostat by just 1.5C can save up to 10% on heating bills and reduce the greenhouse gases your household produces by up to a tonne.

Also don't forget to regularly bleed your radiators to get rid of inefficient air bubbles.

How about a solar powered or wind up alternative?
Why not switch to a solar powered or wind up household gadget. It’s the little things that add up. Why not check out our new solar powered clocks and weather stations

Close your curtains
Close your curtains or window shades during the night to keep in heat and open them during the day to let the sun warm your room and reduce heating needs. In the winter, opening curtains and shades in the day can let in sunshine and heat up your home. Closing curtains at night will prevent some heat from escaping and will reduce the chill from windows.

Turn off your tumble dryer
Household appliances that give off heat such as tumble dryers, use lots of electricity. Whenever you can hang your clothes outside to dry. Turning off the tumble-dryer is a 100% energy saving solution.

Walking is great exercise. It:-

- Gets you outdoors to (hopefully) fresh air
- Strengthens your legs and calves
- Keeps your hip, knee and ankle joints well lubricated
- Improves circulation
- Builds stamina
- Improves your mood by reducing stress
- Burns calories, most importantly.

If you add just 2000 more steps a day to your regular activities, you may never gain another pound. So says research by Dr. James O. Hill of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. To lose weight, add in more steps.

Sedentary people generally move only 2000-3000 steps a day. Previous studies have shown that moving 6000 steps a day significantly reduces risk of death, and 8000-10,000 a day promotes weight loss.

How far is 2000 steps? It is about a mile. But the benefits for health and for weight management don't depend on you walking a mile all at one time, but simply adding in more steps throughout the day.

Pedometers Count Steps

By wearing a pedometer all day, you are motivated to add in extra steps whenever you can. There are many little trips that can add up to a mile or two a day - parking further from the door of your destination, taking the stairs rather than the elevator, pace around as you talk on the telephone, take a marching-in-place minute once an hour.

Here are some ways to add steps to your day - remember your goal is 10,000:

• Park in the far back of the parking car park work, or at shop car parks 
• If you take a bus, get off the bus a few stops before your usual stop and walk the rest of the way
• Take the stairs
• Pace while waiting for meetings to start or while making phone calls
• Rather than phone or email, walk to a coworker's office or neighbours house and talk to them live.
• When people stop to talk with you, make it a moving meeting and walk around together while chatting.
• Hide the TV remote and walk to the TV to change channels.
• Get up and walk around during commercial breaks
• Dedicate a few minutes to walking each hour
• Walk during your lunch break
• Form a workplace, neighborhood or friends walking group
• Make a family habit of walking in the morning or after dinner (or both)
• Take an extra trip up and down your stairs, just for fun
• Bring your groceries into the house one bag at a time
• Take the dog for a walk, they’ll love you for it. Take your neighbors dog for a walk if you don’t have one!
• Pace while waiting for a meal to cook
• "All in all, it is entertaining to ponder that such a seemingly insignificant gadget may be of practical importance in the war on obesity!" said Catrine Tudor-Locke, Ph.D., Department of Exercise and Wellness, Arizona State University in the conclusion of a report by the President's Council of Physical Fitness and Sports, June, 2002.

Walking Steps Equivalents

1 mile = 2100 average steps.
1 block = 200 average steps
10 minutes of walking = 1200 steps on average
Bicycling or swimming = 150 steps for each minute.
Weight lifting = 100 steps per minute
Rollerskating = 200 steps per minute

Measuring heart rate gives very important information about your health. Any change from normal heart rate can indicate a medical condition. It can help determine if the patient's heart is still pumping particularly in emergency situation.

The pulse measurement has another use as well. During exercise or immediately after exercise, the heart rate can give information about your cardiovascular fitness level and health. To receive the complete benefits of workout, you need to stay in your working heart rate range for at least 20 to 30 minutes continuously. Therefore, proper pacing during exercise is important.

There are three different heart rates which you should keep in mind:

Resting Heart Rate

This is a person's heart rate at rest. The best time to find out your resting heart rate is after sitting quietly for a while or before you get out of bed after a good night sleep. The normal resting heart rate is about 60 to 80 beats a minute when we are at rest. Resting heart rate usually rises with age, but generally lowers in physically fit people. Moreover, resting heart rate is used to determine one's training target heart rate and to find out if you are over-trained.

Working Heart Rate

Working heart rates let you measure your initial fitness level and monitor your progress in a fitness program. This approach requires measuring your pulse periodically as you workout and staying within 50 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. The table below shows estimated target heart rates for different ages.

Working Heart Rate Range
Chart Beats Per Minute (BPM)

Recovery Heart Rate

One way to determine if you are gaining the benefits from exercise is to calculate your Recovery Heart Rate, a measure of how quickly you return to your resting heart rate after a workout. Nevertheless, the heart rate is a convenient and reliable indicator of the intensity of your exercise. It is good to monitor it so that you can adjust depending on your fitness level and the goals you want to achieve by exercising. Thus, heart rate monitoring brings benefits to all levels of users.

Time is precious. Keeping up with time is essential for many people and thus clocks have become almost a necessity for every home.

Clocks come with many other functions nowadays: 

• An alarm clock is obviously something indispensible for most people;
• An alarm clock with snooze function is desirable for those who always want a few minutes sleep; 
• A projection clock that projects the time on the ceiling may show you the time in the dark more easily.

For those who would like to add some taste and add style to your home, a daylight projection clock which projects the time on the ceiling or wall at night or in daylight situations will work best.  

As you are creating the proper environment your wine storage space, keep in mind that different types of wine will require specific conditions to maintain their unique flavors and textures. Temperature, humidity and light are some of the most important factors that determine whether or not your wine will age with grace. Check with your local wine dealer to understand the right conditions for your wine type of choice.

Temperature  

Cooler temperatures, specifically those between 43°F and 68°F, are ideal for storing wine as it helps the wine age properly over time, lending it more body and character. However, when the temperature of your wine storage space falls below this range, the colder temperatures will slow down wine’s natural chemical reactions, causing ruinous deposits or suspensions to develop within the bottle. On the other hand, temperatures higher than 68°F will accelerate the aging process. Temperature of your chosen storage space will fluctuate, especially during seasonal changes. While seasonal temperature fluctuations within 10°F won’t damage the wine, daily or even weekly changes in temperature are likely to speed up the aging process of your wines. Typically, white wines are far more likely to spoil under temperature changes than reds wines. 

Humidity   

While humidity describes the amount of water vapor, or moisture, in the air, ullage is a term that refers to the distance between the wine’s cork and the wine itself. Along with affecting wine’s flavor, the humidity of your storage space will alter the ullage, which can allow oxygen to enter the wine bottle if the cork shrinks too much.

Over time, the wine’s contact with oxygen causes it to oxidize, spoiling the wine as it raises its acidity. Ultimately, oxidized wine will taste bitter. 

Ideal humidity for wine storage is any factor higher than 70 percent RH (relative humidity). Within this range, the cork will remain sufficiently expanded to protect wine from coming into contact with oxygen.