Common Sense Maxims #1

20 years ago I was reading an interview with Amy Grant. In it she related a conversation she had with the veteran preacher/author Chuck Swindoll.

At the end of their time together, Amy asked him if he had any life-advice for her, and braced herself for a challenging anecdote laced with deep spiritual truths.

To her surprise, Chuck's advice consisted of just two words:

"Turn up".

20 years later, I still consider it to be one of the most profound pieces of advice I have ever read.
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Get up!

Author/playwright Jean Kerr is quoted as saying:

"The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at seven-thirty in the morning feeling just plain terrible."

The web is full of advice on why this is the case, including:

- lack of sleep

- too much light/noise in the room

- going to bed too early/too late

- wrong mattress

- wrong room temperature

- too much alcohol

- too much food

- irregular sleep patterns

All of these factors probably play a part. But from the anecdotal evidence of many people, I don't know of anyone who bounds out of bed in the morning, raring to face another day!

The two main reasons for this are:

1. Our metabolism has slowed to a crawl, and we have been without food for as much as half a day. When we wake up, our body is on a 'go-slow'.

2. Bed is a 'safe place'. While we are in bed, we don't have to face up to the responsibilities of the day.

I have learned not to trust my feelings when I first wake up. I often feel a bit 'under the weather'. The tasks ahead of me often seem much more dificult than they are. I never feel like getting up and going to the gym. I always feel like 'just a few more minutes sleep' would be a good idea.

So, I tell the little red cartoon devil on my shoulder that I know he is a liar, that I've tried his tactics, and they really don't work. Then I haul myself out of my rack, make myself a coffee, eat a protein bar, brush my teeth, pull on my sweatshirt and baggies, and drive to the gym.

On weekends/days off/holidays, I get up, make myself some breakfast, and do some light manual tasks like tidying the kitchen, putting clothes in the washing machine or going for a brisk walk.

After about an hour (assuming you really aren't unwell), your body will have 'defrosted', and you're as ready as you'll ever be to face a new day.
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The carrots principle

I hate the taste of carrots. My mum also dislikes them but, convinced that my eyesight depended on it (yes, she did ask me "Have you ever seen a rabbit with glasses?") she diligently applied herself to including them in my evening meals. Mum put carrots behind things, under things, wrapped in things, even mashing them into potatoes (which meant I hated the taste of the potatoes as well!).

With all attempts at escaping this torture finally exhausted (reasoning, begging, moaning, feigning death, moving the carrots onto my brother's plate...) I resigned myself to my miserable fate, and began working on coping strategies. The one that worked best for me was eating the carrots first, getting the foul deed over and done with, so I could enjoy the rest of my meal.

Why am I telling you this? Because when you have a variety of tasks to perform with similar priority levels, do the ones you want to do least, first. You'll get more done, and you'll finish the day in a better frame of mind.
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Keys

If possible, keep all the keys you need on one ring.

Regularly check your keyring's contents, and remove the ones you don't need.

Have backups of all your important keys, hidden in a safe place, or better still, with friends who live nearby.

Keep your keys in the same place all the time. I have a clip on my laptop bag for them.

Don't leave them on the ledge by the front door window. Bad people know people leave them there. The keys also give the bad people access to a courtesy getaway vehicle.

Oh, and if you are by yourself in a house, and leave the house to put stuff in the bin, take your keys with you. It is a little known fact that all front doors have a 'self-close when the house is empty and the last person to leave hasn't got any keys on them' function (SCWTHIEATLPTLHGAKOT™). And, yes, it has happened to me. Twice.
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Nutrition #2 - Food groups

The three basic food groups are - protein, carbohydrates and fat. Making sure your diet contains the the correct proportions and quantities of these food groups will help your body work efficiently.

Current recommendations from clever people who 'know a thing or two about what we should and shouldn't eat' say you should aim for:

• 40% carbohydrate
• 30% protein
• 30% fat

Carbohydrates - sugars and starches - are found in bread, potatoes, rice, cereals and pasta. Undigestible carbohydrate called 'fibre' is present in wholegrain and unprocessed foods such as wholemeal pasta, brown rice and whole-wheat bread. Fibre helps food move through your body at the correct pace. Fresh fruit and vegetables are an excellent source of carbohydrates and fibre.

Protein is found in meat and fish. Nuts, eggs, beans, peas and lentils are also rich in protein.

Fat is found in just about everything you like the taste of. Bodies (especially female bodies) need fat to function properly.

There are four different types of fat. The first three are (in the right proportions) good for you.

• Polyunsaturated fats: Sunflower oil, Safflower oil, Corn oil

• Monounsaturated fats: Peanut oil, Olive oil, Avocado oil

• Saturated fats: Butter, Coconut oil

The 'baddies' of the bunch are synthetic trans fats. Synthetic trans fats are created by bubbling hydrogen through vegetable oil. They are what make most margarines and spreads 'spreadable'. And they are currently being blamed for everything from high cholesterol, heart disease, narrowing blood vessels, obesity and diabetes, to gun crime and global warming.

In the UK the term 'trans fats' doesn't have to be included on food labels, but when you see 'hydrogenated vegetable oil' on the ingredients list this means there are trans fats in the product. Other aliases for trans fats include partially hydrogenated vegetable fat or trans fatty acids.

Trans fats can be found in just about all processed foods from biscuits to pastry and cereal. Most fast food and take-out restaurants use hydrogenated vegetable oils for deep fat frying.

In Denmark trans fats are banned and in America it is now obligatory to put them on nutritional labels.

The occasional portion of chips is not going to kill you. But minimising trans fat consumption is a good idea.

Oh, and to make these three food groups usable, we need vitamins and minerals. These are the ingredients that facilitate the thousands of chemical reactions that make our body work, as well as providing the building blocks for bones and other structural tissues. Fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, beans, whole grains, meat and fish are good sources.
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Now is good

Humans live in time and space. And until someone finds a way to make practical use of quantum theory, each of us is allotted the same linear 24 hours each day in which to get things done. And each of us has thousands of things that we could do at any one time.

I'm going to look at procrastination in more detail another time (that wasn't meant to be funny), however, here's a maxim that (I think) I made up all by myself:

"If it is definitely going to need to be done, and you can do it now, do it now."

It's never going to win any prizes for succinctnessness, but as a principle for getting things done, it takes a lot of beating.

Someone has sent you an email suggesting you get together some time. The temptation is to reply some time in the future. Why not check your diary, and reply now?

A friend's birthday is coming up in a week or so. You've got a couple of minutes spare while a document is printing. You've got an appropriate card (What do you mean, you don't keep a stock of appropriate cards? I can feel another blog coming on...). Write an appropriately hilarious age-related missive, address the envelope, write 'not to be opened until *insert birthdate*' on the flap and pop it in the first pillar box you see(yes, yes, you WILL need to put a stamp on it as well!).

Your car's petrol tank is a quarter-full (or, for the pessimists amongst you, three-quarters empty). You're in plenty of time for whatever appointment you're driving towards, and you're approaching a petrol station. Pull over, and fill up now. Not when the needle is hovering on the 'E', and you're already running late!

Give it a try, you'll be surprised how applying the IIIDGTNTBDAYCDINDIN™ maxim frees up your days, and minimises that awful 'there's no way I'm going to get everything done that I need to get done' (TNWIAGTGEDTINTGD™, damn, I'm good at this acronym thing!) feeling.
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Getting organised #4

When you've taken a container out of the fridge and dispensed its contents into another vessel, return the container to the fridge. Unless the container is now empty, in which case put it in the appropriate recycling/disposal receptacle.

Do the same with tins and cereal boxes taken out of cupboards.

And when you've finished with a drinking vessel/plate, clean it, dry it and put it back where it came from. (If there isn't a place for it, make one!)

Books, magazines, writing implements, remote control units... none of them put themselves back either. It's your job.

It's not a difficult concept to grasp. It's not a difficult habit to cultivate. But most people don't do it, resulting in a cluttered house, hours wasted searching for stuff and (eventually) extended tidying sessions.
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Hydration

Contrary to popular wisdom there is a dearth of scientific evidence to support the health benefits regularly touted for drinking huge amounts of water. And by strange coincidence, a lot of research that does support it has been sponsored by companies who market the bottled version.

In fact drinking more water than your kidneys can filter dilutes your blood, reversing important osmotic processes, eventually putting you into a coma. Jennifer Strange (yes, really) had taken part in a "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" (again, yes, really) game on an American radio station. Afterwards she reportedly said her head was hurting and went home, where she was later found dead. Initial tests have shown her death is consistent with water intoxication.

However, a healthy adult's kidneys can comfortably handle about a litre of liquid per hour, so this is unlikely to be a problem for most people. In fact, many people could do with introducing more liquid into their diet.

Not ingesting enough liquid prevents the liver and kidneys from functioning properly, resulting in a wide range of symptoms, including:

Thirst (yes, really), restless or irritable behaviour, decreased skin turgor, dry mucous membranes and sunken eyes... moving on to, constipation, flushed face, dry, warm skin, dizziness, weakness, cramping in the arms and legs, lack of concentration, headaches, dry mouth and tongue with thick saliva.

How much liquid we need varies, depending on body size, activity levels and environmental conditions, but 1.5 litres a day is a basic yardstick. This doesn't all have to come from water, it can come from our food (especially fruit), soft drinks, tea, coffee and even (hurray!) alcoholic drinks. Of course, caffeine and alcohol are both diuretics, so the liquid will be expelled quicker, but liquid is liquid, your body will extract what it needs.

Any liquid that enters our stomach is absorbed only after it has been warmed to body temperature. So if you need hydrating quickly, warm drinks are actually better than cold (yes mum, tea is an excellent example).

If you can bear the taste of green tea, there is growing evidence that it provides a host of health benefits. I've tried to like it, really I have, but personally I'm going to have to find other routes to whatever advantages it offers!

There are benefits to drinking plenty of water:

1. It is calorie, alcohol, caffeine and acid-free.

2. It contains a wide range of beneficial minerals.

3. It keeps your stomach feeling 'full', helping avoid the urge to 'snack'.

4. It improves the efficiency of your digestive system.

5. It improves concentration levels.

6. It stabilises mood swings.

The colour of your urine acts as a good gauge of whether you are properly hydrated. Clear to straw-coloured is fine. Darker than this means you probably need more liquid. Also, frequency of 'loo-breaks' will soon tell you if you're drinking too much liquid. Once every couple of hours is fine, more than this means you're probably drinking too much. Of course, caffeine and alcohol will increase the 'loo-break' factor!

In Europe, standards for tap water are very high. So water (from the cold water tap) should be fine. However, my personal experience has been that some tap water tastes atrocious. Filtering the water can help, but make sure the filters don't remove minerals from the water.

My favourite bottled water is Pellegrino, I think it tastes great (my kidz HATE it, which is another bonus cos they don't steal it!), it has a balanced mineral content, and I've found that drinking it with my evening meal (instead of wine) means that I enjoy the taste of the food more, with the added benefit that my hunger isn't alcohol-assisted (yes, alcohol increases hunger by lowering blood-sugar levels).

I then have a glass (or three) of my favourite inky red as a dessert. Cheers!
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Stop flitting!

There was a time when long-distance messages arrived once (or twice) a day, delivered by a real person, to a real mailbox.

Then came the telephone.

Then the fax machine.

Then voicemail.

Then email.

Then texting.

Then instant messaging.

Then blogs.

Then RSS feeds.

Which is all well and good, but the plethora of conduits by which people can contact you (and by which you contact other people), can become a powerful procrastination tool (especially when there are things you need to get done, but really don't want to do!).

There are no hard-and-fast rules for how to deal with this. I need to check my email frequently during work hours, not so frequently at home. RSS feeds are things I browse during coffee breaks. If I find myself checking them every half-hour of a weekend, I know it's time to give myself a talking to!

There is a good chance that you already know whether you are exhibiting 'obsessive-compulsive' tendencies in this area... but as a guideline, if you are spending more time checking whether you have a text/ voicemail/ email than you spend reading them, you could probably scale the frequency down a notch!
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HYBW #7 - Joints

Joints are the bits that hold our bodies together. Some joints act as hinges (such as knees and elbows), while others allow for more complicated movement - a shoulder or hip joint, for example, allows for backward, forward, sideways, and rotating movements. And some don't move much at all.

Fibrous joints are the ones that don't move much. The dome of the skull is made of a number of bony plates. Between the edges of these plates are joints of fibrous tissue. Fibrous joints also hold the teeth in the jawbone.

Cartilaginous joints allow very limited movement. Each of the vertebrae in the spine is held together by cartilaginous joints. They give the spine its combination of strength and flexibility.

Synovial joints are filled with synovial fluid, which acts as a lubricant to help the joints move easily. There are three kinds of synovial joints that play a big part in voluntary movement:

Hinge joints allow movement in one direction, as seen in the knees and elbows.

Pivot joints allow a rotating or twisting motion, like the ones that support our head.

Ball-and-socket joints allow the greatest freedom of movement. The hips and shoulders have this type of joint, in which the round end of a long bone fits into the hollow of another bone.
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