Welcome To Week Six
This week our theme is on Feeding Your Mental Health
Looking after your mental health has never been more important. The “New Normal” is far from normal and it takes a lot to deal with all of the changes of the last year. We can’t take away all of your stress or fix all your problems but we can give you some tips on things you can do to help feel better and cope with life as it is.
This week we will have a short meditation session and will look at benefits of mindfulness and explore all the ways you can use what you have learnt in your daily lives.
The workout regime will be enhanced for those that are ready to move on at this stage and there will also be additional recipes for you to try.
Feeding Your Mental Health
Looking after your mental health has never been more important. The “New Normal” is far from normal and it takes a lot to deal with all of the changes of the last year. We can’t take away all of your stress or fix all your problems but we can give you some tips on things you can do to help feel better and cope with life as it is.
Nutrition is an important part of mental health – your brain is made out of what you eat just like every other part of your body. Your concentration, focus and overall mood are impacted by what you eat. And your energy levels are based on what you feed your body. We have 1o tips below to help you make some changes to add some good nutrition to help you feel better and boost your mood.

Where To Start?
A healthy diet includes wide variety of foods from lots of different food groups. So what do you need?
Ready To Go?
Check out our recipes for this week. This is not a menu plan but a collection of ideas that you can try as you go. We will add some new recipes each week along with more tips and a focus on a different aspect of nutrition from immunity to heart health.
Pilates Week 6
Exercise
Welcome to week 6 of our exercise program. The final week!
You can now progress to week 6 of the couch to 5km or to whichever week suits your progress to date. The finish line is in sight. Whatever week you are at – you’ve been moving, you’ve committed to the process and you should be very proud of yourself.

In week 6 – sessions 1 and 2 – there are now 8 exercises per session.
Each exercise is performed 12 times (12 reps). Take a 15 seconds rest between each exercise as well as the 30 seconds rest after each set. Complete 3 sets to finish.
As always substitute exercises from previous sessions if you need to.
We’ve been building the number of sessions week by week and by now you should be as fit as a fiddle !! It’s a huge commitment to give yourself the time to commit to these sessions every week so give yourself a clap on the back.
On a related topic, do not underestimate the benefit of a good nights sleep. Ideally an average of 7-8 hours per night. If you don’t sleep well the body can feel slow and lethargic the next day – not ideal for exercising. I could write an essay on the importance of sleep but we all know how much better we feel if we sleep well. Give yourself time to wind down in the evening. Turn off the screens at least an hour before bed (yes I know this is a challenge), have some relaxing herbal tea, leave the stresses of the day to one side.
Enjoy your sixth week.
I truly hope this is only the beginning for you and you will continue to exercise and reap the benefits of healthy lifestyle. You are never too old or too young to start looking after your body. You only get the one body so do your best to look after it.
As always, feel free to contact me on suzanneclarkept@gmail.com with any questions or queries.
Night-time Mindfulness Meditation
Join Aideen Burke, Mindfulness and Yoga teacher from Eat.Create.Be for the week 5 of your mindfulness course. Today we will be looking at a night time routine as our task. We will be trying to harness in a mindful ritual for your evenings.
In this weeks session we will do a ten-minute evening mediation, to bring a mindful routine to close off your day, get yourself ready for bed and tune in to this relaxing body scan and mindfulness meditation.