Woody Wonders

Boost your energy and  stop the pyjama routine every night I bound through the door at 7pm following a run and discover a friend has called round.  Mavis (name changed to protect her identity!) is yawning and saying she's ready for bed.  This isn't a one-off, it's every single time we see her, she's always tired and always wanting to get home, put on her pyjamas and go to bed.  We all have days when we're tired, of course we do, but it shouldn't be the norm and, if it is, then you need to ask yourself why. I've since discovered that my friend survives on very little water throughout the day and usually ends up having a Mars bar for lunch and leftovers from the children's plates for tea.  Is it any wonder she's tired all the time?!! Fuelling your body with good nutrition has a huge effect on your energy levels so if you're constantly yawning and eager to put on your pyjamas the minute you walk through the door every evening, the...

Don't let an urban myth stop you learning 'It's harder to learn new things as you get older,  your memory isn't as good'    Utter nonsense!  This is one of those urban myths that we've heard so many times that we now actually believe it.   You can learn at any age.  It's nothing to do with our memory and not being able to learn things as fast.  What it comes down to is ... having the time .  Remember as a child when you'd do things over and over and over again to learn something new.  That snazzy little dance routine that you and your friends put together, the one where you practised almost every hour of every day for the whole summer holiday.  You didn't have to go to work, or do the bills, or look after the family, or do the shopping etc.  You had all the time in the world to learn something new. We simply don't have the luxury of time as an adult, there's always something else that needs doing.  S...

Our lives are constantly evolving so we have to re-focus when our circumstances change Around 10 years ago I was at the peak of my fitness, I was never a great runner but I was a decent runner and even won a few prizes in local races.  A few years ago I noticed that my times weren't as good despite feeling like I was still putting in the effort.  I used numerous excuses at first such  as 'well, I've had a busy week / not trained as much / not eaten as well etc etc'.   It took me some time to realise and accept that my times were getting worse because I'd been running for 20+ years, I'd hit my peak, maintained it for a good few years but I was now coming down the other side.   This had zero reasons to do with my age by the way, I'd simply reached my own physical limitations over the period of time I'd been running.  You can start exercising in your 50's, 60's and beyond and still see huge improvements.  Don't ever use age as a...

Conquering the challenges life throws at you and gaining strength from setbacks Towards the end of 2017 I started looking for a new job and, incredibly, I only had two interviews, one of which turned into my current job.  However, the two experiences couldn't have been any more different. The first interview started well, I had numerous 'tests' to do such as spelling and giving examples of how I'd react in certain situations.  I passed all these with flying colours apparently so I then went on to have the formal part of the interview.  I was answering everything that was thrown at me but I noticed that my interviewers kept coming back to the fact that I'd spent almost 14 years in  the same job in the public sector and were saying how different and fast paced it was in the private sector.  I knew this, I had always worked in the private sector previously and told them as such.  In the end I felt I was trying to justify my situation rather then g...