Get your Zzzzz...
try to set limits on your day: log off and enjoy a lunchtime walk, and spend evenings away from the laptop. And make sure weekends feel different, whether you take the opportunity to enjoy a home spa experience, board games with the kids or a refreshing afternoon nap.
Practise relaxation techniques to help with difficult emotions – check out the Every Mind
Matters website.
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AND GET SOME G SLEEP Good-quality sleep makes a big difference to how you feel, so it’s important to get enough. Try to maintain your regular sleeping pattern, even though it’s tempting to let routine go out of the window when you’re at home all the time.
KEEP REGULAR HOURS
Go to bed when you feel tired and get up at roughly the same time. And avoid naps.
CREATE A RESTFUL ENVIRONMENT ake sure your bedroom is dark, quiet and cool.
OVE MORE emember, being active during the day helps you to sleep better.
ON’T FORCE SLEEP f you’re wide awake, get up and do something relaxing, like reading a book, until you feel sleepy.
WRITE DOWN YOUR WORRIES
Making a list can help put your mind at rest.
CUT DOWN ON CAFFEINE AND BOOZE Especially so near bedtime, as they can stop you falling asleep or affect the quality of your sleep.
FOR many, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted our plans.
But this 83-year-old great-grandmother has proven that age and a pandemic are no barriers to achieving your goals.
Marie Gallagher, of Washington, struggled with her asthma, back pain and began to lose confidence as she started to feel “fat and frumpy”.
Her sweet tooth and love of eating out a few times a week soon began to take their toll and she started to pile on the pounds.
Stepping on the scales at 14st 9.5Ibs at her heaviest, Marie realised enough was enough.
Inspired by her niece’s weight loss transformation, she joined Slimming World in January 2020.
But the coronavirus pandemic hit soon after which put Slimming World group meetings on hold.
Determined to not let this stop her progress, Marie turned a bad situation into a positive one and has since dropped an incredible five dress sizes.
Now fitting into a size 12 after losing nearly 4st, Marie said she is now full of confidence.
The retired palliative care nurse said: “It was coming up to Christmas and I just felt down about myself.
“It was overwhelming and I felt fat and frumpy. I have always eaten healthy foods, my problem was overeating and eating out three of four times a week.
“I loved desserts, cheesecake and strawberry tarts with fresh cream. Always had desserts that I would defrost and eat them all, binge eating them now and then.”
Marie began to learn how to use technology so she could join in Slimming World’s virtual sessions every week.
Using her group for ideas and motivation, Marie was delighted in September to be voted the Woman of Year by her fellow members.
After swapping her sugar treats for fresh foods and Slimming World recipes, Marie’s healthy diet has left her feeling more energetic.
And since losing 3st 11lb she has been able to go on walks without struggling and has been taking part in fitness classes.
She added: “I do lots of walking now, around Herrington Country Park, which I could not do because I was overweight and it affected my asthma. I walk around five miles there.
“I also do shorter walks around Washington Village, one to three miles at a time. On days when the weather is not good, I do Mr and Mrs Motivator, it is good exercise and it’s entertaining.
“It feels amazing to receive all the compliments I get and is a great confidence boost.”
A TEENAGE environmental activist left the comforts of her home, putting her safety at risk, to live underground in protest of HS2.
Rollie, 17, who is originally from Elwick in Hartlepool, was one of nine activists who began occupying a network of tunnels under Euston on January 27.
She has since left voluntarily, but four activists remain, hoping to inhibit the high-speed rail link due to come into the London station.
A high court judge has now granted a possession order to HS2 for the site in London, following an injunction against the protesters ordering them to cease any further tunnelling and to cooperate with the authorities to leave the site safely.
The occupation isn’t Rollie’s first experience with direct action; she’s been an “environmentalist and animal liberation activist” for several years, and decided six months ago to move full-time to a Stop HS2 camp.
She said: “I used to organise Youth Climate Strikes in Teesside, but it didn’t feel like it was enough.
“It wasn’t hitting corporations and the government where it hurts, which is in their pockets”.
“We’ve tried lobbying, so now the only option we have left is peaceful, direct action,” she explained.
“Tunnelling, in particular, is an old form of eviction resistance. It’s expensive for HS2 and it helps delay the construction work considerably.
“Also the shock of it forces people new to the topic to make a decision about whether they agree with it, and it’s these new individuals who further the cause the most.”
The former Dyke House and Manor Academy pupil was in the Euston tunnel for 10 days but made the decision to exit the tunnels after her health began to take a decline.
She is critical of the actions of the bailiffs involved in the protests, whose actions she claims potentially put protesters’ safety at risk.
Rollie added: “Apart from that, it was a lovely experience. There were a number of people living down there of different ages and from different backgrounds.
“We all know each other and get on well – there’s a lot of camaraderie.
“We made the collective decision that I should leave to get medical attention” she said. “But I would have loved to have stayed down there for longer.”
Rollie said her family is “really supportive” of the move, because “they know what I’m doing is the right thing.”
The HS2 project is predicted to cost up to £230bn and has long been embroiled with controversy.
The protesters are hoping the recent encampment of Euston Square Gardens will put the question of its viability back onto the national stage.
Rollie said: “HS2 is fuelling the climate crisis – which is the biggest existential threat we face today. It’s
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HS2 is fuelling the climate crisis – which is the biggest existential threat we face today
ROLLIE
construction means going through numerous ancient woodlands, which will cause a steep decline in biodiversity.”
Proponents argue the train line will allow for shorter commuting times between London and Birmingham and will “level up the country” and help to deliver “the Northern Powerhouse”.
A spokesperson for HS2 Ltd also said that a new railway is “the greenest form of public transport.”
However, campaigners say these claims negate the project’s environmental and social impacts, because the majority of the land dispossessed belongs to working class people, farmers and those who run small businesses.
Coming from the North East, Rollie feels strongly about the impact HS2 will have on the area: “For decades the North has been underfunded by those in the ivory towers of Westminster.
“Working class people here have been ordered to pay the price for a debt that was never theirs through the stripping of necessities, funding and land to pave the way for desolate and destructive industry.”
The National Infrastructure Commission set up by Boris Johnson last February to undertake an assessment of major rail schemes concluded that prioritising regional links in the North would deliver greater local economic benefits than building the eastern leg of HS2.
Campaigners argue the Department of Transport’s decision to build yet another transport link to London will drain commuters from the North.
Alongside this they say local transport investment would be of greater benefit to working class people, as opposed to “hundred mile commuter networks only used by the middle and upper classes”.
Also among those critical of HS2 has been Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen who argued in 2019 that the project would not benefit the North East and the Government should instead invest in Northern Powerhouse Rail and other transport schemes across the North.
A HS2 Ltd spokesperson said: “The illegal and irresponsible actions of those at Euston Square Gardens are placing unnecessary strain on the emergency services during the pandemic.
“It is disappointing that activists are standing in opposition to a new railway – the greenest form of public transport. We urge everyone who cares about our natural environment to support a project that is providing work across the UK today, and in the future will get people out of cars, off planes and onto low carbon rail travel.”