There are lots of quick and easy ways to improve your health, but you can’t do them all, so it pays to be smart about which ones you choose to incorporate into your lifestyle.
One no-brainer is adding the new Yakult Plus to your morning routine. Like every Yakult, it increases the bacteria in the gut with its 20 billion friendly bacteria, scientifically proven to reach the gut alive. “The bacteria in our guts are hugely important and can impact our health and wellbeing, both physically and mentally” says Jennifer Low, a dietitian with a post-graduate diploma in dietetics, an MSc in nutrition and a degree in psychology.
That’s not the only benefit you get from drinking Yakult Plus. It’s rich in vitamin C – which supports the immune system and helps lower fatigue. It also contains fibre, which feed the bacteria in the gut.
That’s an impressive number of benefits from the small 65ml serving. It’s down in a couple of glugs, is fat-free, and has a refreshing fruity citrus flavour.
To help you transform your wellbeing with small but powerful changes, Jennifer Low has provided more lifestyle tips that you can easily achieve in your everyday routine, simply by taking a 22-minute morning walk around a park. This one easy act a day will help you increase the amount of exercise you do, your connection with nature and even improve your ability to get to sleep. Here’s how.
The Three Benefits Of Taking A Morning Walk In A Park
1. Getting more exercise
If you come to Coach for its gym workouts, you probably tick off the recommended two strength workouts a week without thinking twice, but perhaps you can’t bear the thought of cardio. “Exercise doesn’t have to mean training for a marathon,” says Low, and in fact the NHS suggests spreading its target of 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity across the week. That’s just 22 minutes of walking a day.
2. Connect with nature to feel happier
While you’re in the park, keep your phone in your pocket and take in your surroundings. “We can walk through the park and not notice a thing,” says Low, “or we can walk through the park and connect with how the birds sound, how the trees are outlined against the sky, or how the ground feels under our feet. This is true nature connection.”
“This is a relatively new area of research. It describes the way we experience nature, as opposed to just being in nature.”
“Studies indicate that if we have high levels of nature-connectedness we are happier in life and have lower levels of depression and anxiety, feel more vitality, positive feelings and increased satisfaction with life.”
“Two hours a week has been found to be a dosage that significantly boosts health and wellbeing.” And if you’re walking to hit the NHS’s 150-minute activity target, you’ll have clocked up two hours midway through Saturday morning’s stroll.
3. Falling asleep
Improving your physical fitness isn’t always easy, but at least when you arrive at the gym your body doesn’t refuse to exercise. Yet many of us will be familiar with going to bed and finding sleep won’t come. “Instead of listening to our internal natural cues to sleep, we use electric lighting, screens, caffeine and alcohol to keep us awake outside of the times we would naturally be asleep,” explains Low.
That’s why this final tip from Low caught our eye and convinced us to put our walking shoes by the door so we can head to the park first thing. “Expose yourself to five minutes of natural sunlight within 60 minutes of waking up,” says Low. “This has been shown to help you feel more awake throughout the day and improved ability to fall and stay asleep at night time.”
