Tom’s Daily Plan: Over 80 fuss-free recipes for a happier, healthier you. All day, every day.. Tom Daley
target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_96f054fa-44dc-5475-a158-a074ae2853b0.jpg"/> MEDITATION
You might think meditation is not for you. I wasn’t too sure at first, but I started meditating in 2013 and now I’m hooked. Most mornings I like to get up early enough to eat a proper breakfast and to meditate. Then I head off for training feeling calm, focused and rested. Here’s a ten-minute meditation exercise you could do at home before you start your day. It’s so worth it.
1 Find a quiet spot and sit comfortably on a chair with a straight back.
2 Shut the door, set an alarm if you like and try to make sure you’ll be left undisturbed for ten minutes.
3 Close your eyes. Take three deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and breathing out through your mouth.
4 Focus on the physical sensations in your body. Think about how your feet feel against the floor and your back against the chair. Can you feel your abdomen rise and fall with each breath you take?
5 From your head downwards, scan through your body, working down to your feet. Notice the feelings you have: which parts feel relaxed, tight or numb? Note the sensations but don’t try to change them.
6 Once you’ve scanned right down to the tips of your toes, come back to focusing your mind. Notice your breath and how it feels. Count ten breaths. If thoughts come into your mind, just bring your attention back to your breath.
7 Now turn your thoughts to your body. Count to three and then gently open your eyes when you feel ready. All done!
MORNING LIFE HACKS
Do you ever think about where you want to be in one month, one year or five years’ time? I know – there’s more than enough to think about every day without that, but setting goals can help you grow in ways you might not have imagined. So whether you want to improve your fitness, get a promotion or simply have more adventures in life, here are my goal-setting tips.
HAVE GOALS THAT MOTIVATE YOU
Set goals that have a high priority in your life, so you are committed to maximising your chance of success. If your goals are important to you, there’s value in achieving them.
SET ACHIEVABLE GOALS
Break down your ultimate goal into steps that are easy to achieve. For example, if you want to lose a stone in weight, start by aiming to lose one or two pounds a week through healthy eating and exercise. Shedding a stone might seem impossible but a pound or two you can manage. An achievable goal makes it easier to stay on track, reach your targets and experience the thrill of success. This all helps to spur you on to reach your ultimate goal.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
It’s easy to become so focused on the outcome that you forget all the small steps needed to get there. Write these steps down and cross them off as you complete them, so you can see you’re making progress
VISUALISE SUCCESS
Before you can really believe you can achieve something, you need a clear idea of what it might look like. When you visualise your goal, you can begin to ‘see’ the possibility of achieving it. Take that moment and feeling and run with it! It will help to make you more motivated and prepared to make sacrifices to achieve your target.
MAKE THE TIME
Goal setting is more than just saying you want to do something. Most of us have a routine in our lives and it’s important to build in the time for whatever it is you want to achieve so it actually does happen.
WHEN YOU VISUALISE YOUR GOAL, YOU BEGIN TO ‘SEE’ THE POSSIBILITY OF ACHIEVING IT
MORNING LIFE HACKS
We all lead such busy lives and I often used to find myself saying ‘I’m too busy’ as an excuse for not doing something. Do you feel you don’t have time for exercise, to meet up with old friends or to cook a healthy meal? Here are some tips that I’ve picked up about time management that you might find helpful too.
PRIORITISE
Think about what you want to achieve on a daily basis and decide on your priorities. Choose your top five tasks and work at them in order of importance. They don’t all have to be chores. On a weekend, your priorities might be doing some exercise, calling your mum or doing some grocery shopping so you can cook meals for the week ahead.
GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP
I like to get nine hours sleep a night when I’m training. I appreciate many people might need less, but cutting out sleep to have more fun or to get more work done is not a great idea because being tired in the day will mean that you can’t make the most of your time. Whatever your sleep needs, it’s really worth getting to bed early enough to get a good night’s sleep.
STOP MULTI-TASKING
Do you find yourself browsing Instagram while you’re on the phone? Do you sneak a peek at Facebook during an important meeting? Multi-tasking doesn’t work because it lessens productivity. Try to focus on one task at a time and be present in the moment.
LEARN TO SAY ‘NO’
Like many people, I find it very hard to say no. We all want to be liked and we don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings, but saying yes to everything will leave you feeling stressed and without time for the stuff that really matters. If you don’t want to do something or simply don’t have time for it, say no with conviction. Thank the person for thinking of you, but don’t offer maybes or find yourself caught up in excuses and feeling guilty
DON’T PUT THINGS OFF
Is there something important you’ve been meaning to do for ages but you’re putting off? Constantly putting things off makes us feel guilty for what we haven’t started. I find it helps me to start the task I’ve been meaning to do and break it down into manageable steps. Then I tell myself I’m going to spend ten minutes on it, rather than complete the whole thing. I take it step by step and get there in the end.
WITH CHEESY TORTILLA WEDGES