Don’t think you’ve got enough time to overhaul your diet, your fitness level, your mood – or your health in general? Then think again: You can do a lot to get healthier in five, 10 or 15 minutes. Check out our speedy ideas and you’ll feel happier and healthier in no time.
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Text: Helen Foster, Bauersyndication.com.au
Five-minute journaling is a huge wellbeing trend in the US right now, and it sees you simply spending five minutes twice a day, morning and evening, answering some specific questions relating to happiness, like, ‘What would make today great?’, ‘What are you grateful for?’ or ‘What could have made today better?’ Some of the answers will simply help you realise how good life already is, others will give you actions to help make improvements.
“You’re not trying to create the perfect you – or a perfect day. It’s simply a reminder that you have the power to change things,” says UJ Ramdas from Intelligent Change, creators of The Five Minute Journal.
Black tea, green tea and oolong tea contain polyphenols, which have anti-oxidative properties which can help protect against inflammation and carcinogens, and may increase insulin activity. This can help to prevent type 2 diabetes, and cancer.
To boost the antioxidant properties in tea, the next time you brew a cup, don’t hurry. “By leaving your tea to brew for three to five minutes and by stirring your tea leaves in the pot at least twice during that time, you maximise the healthy antioxidants in the drink,” says Dilhan C Fernando from tea makers Dilmah.
Spend five minutes a day cleaning dooknobs and light switches with a damp cloth – described by experts as ‘targeted hygiene’. They think it could be the missing link in fighting common bugs like colds or flu as it focuses on areas that lots of people touch but that we often forget to clean as they don’t look dirty. Remember, what looks physically clean may not be hygienically clean – don’t forget that germs are invisible.
If you’re trying to stick to a new diet, reduce your alcohol intake or even quit smoking, download an engrossing video game like Tetris or PacMan to your phone and, if the cravings hit, fire up the game and start playing for a few minutes. The game distracts your mind so effectively, within five minutes people find their craving reduces by at least half, say researchers.
Spend five minutes working on the area you want to train with a foam roller before your workout and you’ll perform better. This works because stretching out the tissues helps extend how far your muscles move, say Canadian researchers. And this reduces risk of injury and gives you better results when working out – particularly if you’re strength training.
If you’ve never used a foam roller before, it’s simple: just position the part of the body you want to roll on top of the roller and move forwards and backwards. If you feel spots that are particularly tight, work a bit longer on that area, remembering to keep breathing regularly.