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Carb Cycling Guide for Athletes

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Authored by Nate Martins •
January 9, 2019

10,080–that’s how many minutes are in a week. Maintaining a diet through all those minutes, for weeks or months, requires supreme, almost unwavering willpower.

Even The Rock doesn’t do it; his Sunday night cheat meals are stuff of legend, consisting of thousands of calories of his favorite food.

The social side of dieting is tough. It takes dedication to remain unmoved on a diet; happy hour invites, dinners out, work-sponsored lunches–saying “no” to all these are small wins on the battlefield of dieting. For a diet like the ketogenic diet, avoiding carbohydrates can feel like tip-toeing through a minefield of Western, carb-centric eating.

For athletes, it can be difficult because we rely so heavily on carbohydrates for fuel. Of course, there’s growing research about how to use bodily fat as a fuel source,1 but carbohydrates have been the gold standard exercise nutrition for years.

Carb cycling is planned consumption of different amounts of carbohydrates, usually throughout the week. Everyone can develop their own carb cycle based on need; for example, keto athletes might work in carb days during especially hard training blocks.

While carb cycling isn’t for everyone, it can be a great way to optimize a diet based on your personal needs.

What’s a Carb, Anyway?

There are three different types of macronutrient fuel sources in our food: fats, proteins and carbohydrates.

An image of an egg, granola, chicken and exogenous ketones to show the different ways the body uses fuel

The main function of dietary carbs is to be a source of energy. Some even argue they aren’t essential, and can be made from dietary protein and fat.2 This process is called gluconeogenesis, a metabolic pathway generating glucose from non-carbohydrate substrates.

Carbs (especially refined carbs) raise blood sugar, resulting in the body producing extra insulin to bring that blood sugar down. Insulin is a hormone that triggers fat storage–so more carbs means more insulin which means more conversion of carbs to fat stores.

As a fuel source, carbohydrates replenish glycogen stores in the muscle and liver. They also maintain blood glucose concentrations as fuel for the body, but also for the brain. That’s the spike in energy you experience after an afternoon stack, as blood glucose fluctuates throughout the day when we consume carbs.

Simply put, carbohydrates are the body’s most readily available fuel. But when we don’t use that fuel, carbohydrate manifest as fat.

When following a keto diet, lower carb intake is necessary (like 25g of carbs per day–the amount in a single banana). This encourages the body to burn fat and also to convert fat to ketones. Consuming carbohydrates causes insulin release, which inhibits ketone production in the liver.

Science Behind Carb Cycling

What is carb cycling, and why is it beneficial? Looking at the science can provide some clarity. Maybe a more accurate definition of carb cycling is carb manipulation.

The goal is to match the body’s need for glucose depending on activity or activity level overall.

High-Carb Days

High-carb days are usually matched with workouts when you might need more glucose–like high-intensity interval sessions or a long day in the weight room.

An image of a man at the gym showing how high-carb days can help performance

When you exercise at a high intensity, the body makes most of its energy from carbohydrates, either breaking it down aerobically (with oxygen), or anaerobically (without oxygen), forming lactic acid. This would be the optimal time to introduce a higher amount of carbohydrates into the diet because the body uses more carbohydrate during the workout itself, and then after the workout to make glycogen to refuel and decrease muscle breakdown.3

When looking for your highest possible power or speed output, carbs are often necessary for the body to produce its best results during intense training sessions.

Low-Carb Days

In traditional carb-cycling, low-carb days are meant for days on which you do not train–the idea is the body doesn’t need carbs because its demand for fuel is far less than on workout days.

A man stretching backwards doing yoga on a pillow

But further investigation by scientists have shown some of the advantages of training on these low carb days, which has two main benefits: it helps to speed up general adaptations to aerobic training, and it increases fat burning and thus improves endurance.

One of the key, groundbreaking experiments in this field was conducted using single-legged cycling exercise. Athletes had to cycle using just one leg at a time; the left leg cycled one hour straight, and the right leg did two half hours with a few hours in between where no recovery fuel was given. This means that the right leg was training in a carb depleted state during the second session. Muscle biopsy samples revealed that the twice-trained leg saw bigger gains in the enzymes that are key for aerobic respiration. This led to the conclusion that low-carb training could accelerate aerobic gains.4

Strategic low-carb days focus on switching the body back to using fat as energy and increase aerobic capacity. Research is continuing on this topic, but athletes are looking to boost the ability of the body to tap into fat as a fuel source, since we store more fat than carbohydrates.

Training in a low-carb state has been shown to increase the ability of the body to burn fat over the long haul, improving metabolic flexibility.5 There have even been studies noting keto-adapted athletes can use fat in preference to carbohydrates for moderate intensity endurance exercises, in which carbohydrates would usually be used as fuel.6

But it takes time. Robert Sikes is a professional bodybuilder and founder/owner of Keto Savage. He’s a bodybuilder on the keto diet; backstage at events, he receives inquisitive looks from competitors when they find out he’s keto. But the results speak for themselves and after events, he’ll even get asked about he’s able to train with such little carb intake. He says it can take years to full fat-adapt, and that it’s something that doesn’t happen in the short term.

“You need to allow yourself to be completely adapted to life without carbs. Play the long game. Be diligent with hitting macros and eating wholesome foods.”Robert Sikes

By controlling carbs, and the types of carbs consumed, there also may be a benefit in manipulating insulin and insulin responses.7,8 This would likely help with improving metabolic health.

It is becoming widely accepted that athletes should adopt carb cycling or periodization of carbs based on training needs. This ensures fuel for the work required (so training intensity isn’t compromised), while also empowering the body to metabolically trapeze between carbohydrates and fats as fuel sources as available.9

Is your training yielding minimal results?

Diet and training regimen should go hand-in-hand. We’re analyzing research to help athletes optimize training for their goals.

Benefits of Carb Cycling

The benefits are carb cycling are measured against personal goals. Do you want to improve body composition? How about improve training or recovery?

Ask yourself what you want to achieve with carb cycling to best understand its benefits.

An image of a male soccer player kicking the ball on the field

Body Composition

As with most diets, a major goal is usually weight loss. Because we consume such a high amount of calories as carbohydrates in Western diets, limiting those calories and carbs will ultimately lead to fat loss. The process aligns with most other diets: consume fewer calories than the body burns, enter a calorie deficit and promote weight loss.10

Though specific research on carb cycling is limited, generally studies show that limiting carb intake works well for weight loss. One study analyzed overweight women who had a family history of breast cancer. Three groups were randomly assigned different diets: calorie-restricted and low-carb diet, low-carb but unlimited protein and healthy fat, and a standard, calorie-restricted diet. Women in both low-carbohydrate groups showed better results for weight loss.11

Performance and Recovery

Training in a low-carb state can help with weight loss, boost fat burning capacity, and can speed up aerobic adaptation to training. However, athletes face a compromise when employing low-carb diets; they need the carbohydrates to perform at the highest intensity (especially in a race), and want to keep that energy system working well, but still want the benefits of carb restriction.

Making sure the body has carbs for tough training can help performance. The body needs fuel for the most difficult exercise days. Since carbohydrates are the body’s most readily available fuel source, consuming carbs before a workout enables the body to train harder for high-intensity, short-duration exercise.12 Interestingly, even the presence of carbohydrates in the mouth (meaning, not actually ingested) can lead to increased performance, because they activated brain regions believed to be involved in reward and motor control.13

Carbs can also help accelerate recovery. After exercise, consuming carbohydrates can lead to glycogen resynthesis and protein synthesis (after resistance training).14,3 So, it’s easier to perform and recover if you have enough carbohydrate in your diet. Carb cycling means those big training days can be high quality.

Other Benefits

By cycling carbohydrate consumption, you may be afforded some of the benefits of both higher-carb and lower-carb diets–and avoid some of the common negative side-effects.

Metabolic Health: The combination of two types of diets may help you become metabolically flexible.5

The days with low-carbs may have a positive impact on insulin sensitivity; this study showed the benefits of a low-carb, high-fat diet on glucose metabolism, lowering fasting glucose and insulin values.8 And when compared to a low-fat diet, a low-carb diet led to greater weight loss, which in turn led to a decrease in triglyceride levels15–high levels of triglycerides have been associated with cardiovascular disease.16

Hormone Health: There are some concerns that hormones might be negatively affected by a badly put together low-carb diet, but this could be mitigated by strategic carb feeding.

High-carb feeding periods can potentially boost the levels of some vital hormones, like cortisol. There are some concerns that cortisol can decline when following a low-carbohydrate or ketogenic diet (although not much research supports this fear). To combat this possibility, either make sure your keto diet is well-formulated with enough calories and nutrients,17 or cycle periods of carbohydrate feeding to give your body a break.

In men, testosterone concentrations were higher after a ten-day high-carbohydrate diet, while cortisol concentrations were consistently lowered on the same diet, suggesting the power of diet (specifically the ratio of carbohydrate to protein) as a factor in hormone regulation.16

Thyroid hormones are essential to regulating metabolism,18 being crucial determinants of resting metabolic rate. But they themselves are in turn regulated by diet and metabolism because glucose fuels the production of those thyroid hormones. The thyroid produces a large amount of T4 hormones, which are then converted into T3 hormones (T3 is the active thyroid hormone influencing many body processes). When carb intake is reduced, conversion of T4 to T3 reduces.19 People worry that this might lead to a lower metabolic rate and thus slow down weight loss with a low-carb diet

Longevity: The ketogenic diet may help to increase lifespan and health.

This might be increased further by taking a cyclical approach to the diet: alternating high-carb and low-carb weeks. One study fed a ketogenic diet to mice every other week. Results showed avoidance of obesity, reducing midlife mortality, and prevented memory decline.20

How to Carb Cycle

Anyone from the amateur dieter to the serious athlete can carb cycle. There are different options for how carefully you implement carb cycling, depending on training and recovery needs as well as your overall goals.

Creating a schedule, tracking your progress and targeting carbohydrate intake can help develop a well-formulated plan to succeed cycling carbs.

Create a Schedule

Before a single carb touches your lips, think about your goals. These will formulate your carb cycling plan.

A guide to scheduling carb cycles, with a woman studying, a woman lifting weights, an avocado and a fitness watch

Do you want to lose weight, or maintain weight? Do you want to boost aerobic fat burning capacity or target a lean body composition?

Then consider your typical training week. Which days are your most intense workouts? Which days can you recover, even without carbs? Do you meal prep to make sure you get enough quality, low-carb foods?

Serious athletes might want to take it one step further and consider carb cycling over a longer period, to keep up with training or competition cycle. Instead of breaking up a single week into high-carb and low-carb days, each week would have a different carbohydrate goal. Weeks with a heavy training load would be carb-heavy, while weeks with a lower training load or coming into a weigh-in could be more low/moderate-carb.

Your answers to these questions will determine how you go about cycling carbs. Don’t be afraid to change the schedule and be a bit flexible once you get started.

Log calories and macros

Establishing a calorie goal could prove helpful (especially if you’re trying to lose weight). Multiply your bodyweight by ten, and that’s the amount of calories to work toward if you want to lose weight. To gain weight, you can multiply your bodyweight by 15 to garner a ballpark daily calorie target.

Tracking your macros in a food journal or an app will help keep you accountable. Taking note of everything you eat will let you make sure you get enough calories from the right type of macronutrients while giving you a better understanding of how diet impacts your training output.

Target for a High-Carb Day

High-carb days should accompany your toughest training sessions of the week, such as intense intervals or prolonged weight training. These days call for about 2g of carbs per pound of bodyweight, and they’ll be your highest calories days. If you’re working out four times a week, and weight training once or twice a week, then you should have about one or two high-carb days each week.

Note that you might want to eat high-carb the night before a heavy morning workout to make sure that you are fueled up and ready to go, even if the training on that day was not that intense.

Target for a Medium or Low-Carb Day

Low-carb or medium-carb days can be used to fuel less-intense workouts or recovery days. Depending on training volume, low/medium carb days can be anywhere from 50g – 150g of carbs.

Training low doesn’t mean training on zero carbohydrates. On low-carb days, be sure to prioritize other macronutrients such as good quality protein and fat. High protein intake is important for post-workout recovery and the development of muscle mass. When cutting back on carbs, make sure you get enough calories, and the bulk of these should come from fat.

There are a few strategies that you can use to control your carb intake around your training sessions.

Training low: start your training having limited your carb intake beforehand. Implementing this strategy is simple. You may wake up and workout in the morning without eating before. You may even increase the effect by limiting carb intake the night before. If you workout during the evening, you may limit carbs from morning until that evening training session.

Sleeping low: don’t refuel using carbs after a workout, and stretch out the period before you refuel by sleeping overnight before refuelling with carbs at breakfast. This has shown promise, with a recent review in elite cyclists describing how the “sleep low, train low” method (where morning exercise commences with less than 200 mM of glycogen), improved results for cycling efficiency.20

On low-carb days, be clever to ensure quality training and recovery. Performing on a low-carb day can be difficult, so consider taking a low-carb or keto energy source, such as HVMN Ketone. Elite athletes have used HVMN Ketone to give them BHB as a fuel during high intensity time trials, showing that if you really want to avoid carbs, swapping in ketones can be a great energy alternative.

Another way to get a boost is to mouth rinse with carbs; this can improve performance without needing to actually eat carbs. You can also use caffeine before your workout, which is another reliable, carb-free way to get your body ready to perform.

What about recovery? BHB from HVMN Ketone is a carb-free alternative for recovery on low-carb days. Studies have shown that not only is less glycogen broken down in training with HVMN Ketone,21 but glycogen22 and protein resynthesis23 are also increased by 60% and 2x respectively. BHB could be a great way to help protect your recovery but also keep carb intake low.

Foods to Remember

An image of oats, broccoli and blueberries showing helpful carbs, food low in carbs and foods with fiber

With all this talk of carbs, you need to know where to find them so you can either stock up or steer clear.

A carb cycling diet requires high quality, healthy carbs and whole foods. Every once in a while it’s fine to treat yourself in epic, The Rock-like proportions, but from day-to-day, it’s all about maintaining balance. Good carbs include whole grains (like brown rice and oats), legumes (like beans, a good slow-digesting carb) and tubers (sweet potatoes).

Foods low in carbs include meat (beef, chicken, fish), eggs, vegetables (like bell peppers, broccoli and mushrooms), nuts (almonds, walnuts) and dairy (cheese, yogurt). Building a meal plan to incorporate all these types of food should help with each phase of the carb cycling. Even better? Meal prepping, so the stress of cooking depending on the day goes out the window.

But don’t forget about fiber; it plays an important role in weight loss, energy maintenance, regulating blood sugar and controlling hunger. Though fiber is a carb, it doesn’t raise blood sugar like other carbs and plays an important metabolic role because it doesn’t convert to glucose.

Is Carb Cycling Right For You?

It depends on your goals. It also requires some experimentation–based on your lifestyle and fitness routine, finding the right balance of high-carb and low-carb days can take some time and will probably change over the long-term.

What’s nice about carb cycling is the flexibility. It empowers a dieter some choice, while also providing the ability to fuel on days where it’s required, like ahead of intense training sessions. Benefiting from each could help an athlete reach goals for exercise, as well as goals for body composition. But remember to check with your doctor before implementing such wholesale changes to the way you eat.

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Make 2019 Your Best Year Yet!

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We’re a few month into 2019 already, but there’s still plenty of time left to switch things up, have some fun, and become the best version of yourself. You don’t have to make a ton of resolutions in January to have a good year. In fact, doing this can be demotivating. We’re all still full from the festivities in January, of course we’re not going to want to head to the gym and turn our lives around just yet!

Whatever point in the year it is for you, you can make a change if you want to. Here, we’re going to talk about things you can do to make this year your best yet – even if you’re reading this from the future!

  1. Do Something About That Thing You Keep Thinking About

Most people have a little tingle in the back of their heads telling them they should do something. We often ignore it, because we tend to wonder what the point is. What’s the point of doing something for the enjoyment of it, when nothing will probably come from it? Plus, you probably have more important things to do, right?

This attitude is not going to get you the life you want. Having fun for fun’s sake is a totally valid and important way to spend your time. You’ll learn new things, have fun, lower your stress levels, and you never know who you might meet. Plus, you never know where it might take you eventually. This might become a long-held hobby of yours that helps you to relax after a long day. You might even decide to create a side business out of it. You just don’t know unless you try.

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  1. Set Some Goals and Be Specific

When it comes to setting goals, you should be specific. Rather than thinking to yourself, ‘I want to buy a nice car’, be specific. Say you want to buy a New Audi A5 Sportback. The more specific you are, the more you can picture these things in your brain. Once you can picture them, you’re more likely to work towards them – even subconsciously!

  1. Create a Vision Board

A vision board can help you to keep your goals in the forefront of your mind. Seeing them everyday should get you excited, and thinking about where you’re going to be. Many people credit their vision boards with feeling motivated and exciting for what’s to come. Make one now and put it somewhere you see it all the time!

  1. Vow To Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Nobody ever, ever, ever, did anything good inside of their comfort zone. It’s comfortable, sure, but you need to get out of it from time to time. Once you do, you’ll see just what you’re capable of. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

  1. Keep A Journal

A journal can help you to figure out patterns in your behaviour and emotions, which can help you to move forward if you’re feeling stuck. Not only that, they can be so fun to read back on!

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Affordable Home Upgrades Anyone Can Do

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While we’d all love to live in a grand and comfortable home, it’s definitely not something that everyone is able to afford. Bills need to be paid, after all, and you have other expenses to keep up with as well – so how are you going to be able to afford the kind of home you’ve been looking for without having to wait for too long?

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Luckily, there are a few sure ways to make the dream happen a bit faster. You’ll just have to do it yourself, that’s all, and be prepared to pull your sleeves up to do some work. Here is a handful of excellent DIYs that can both improve your home and your lifestyle a bit faster.

Go for crown moulding

This simple task is always a DIY winner as it makes your room look elegant and professional without much time and energy at all. Before you get started on your projects, it’s a good idea to invest in a no-contact measurement system as it will help you to make the renovations a bit more precise.

Use a polystyrene foam in hard plastic so that you’re able to get the corners right without too much frustration, by the way, and this one shouldn’t take you more than a short weekend to get through.

Think about the light

If you’d like to make a massive difference to the way your home looks and feels without having to pay up too much, you should look towards the light. Those who are experts at interior design tend to say that light is like jewellery because it adds the finishing touches to a room; just like a beautiful necklace can do to you.

Besides from focusing on making the light bathe your room in a soft and calming colour, you can change the light fixture to something dazzling and unexpected. It goes without saying that a chandelier can seriously lift a room from average to pristine, but you don’t have to spend much to achieve the look.

Opt for something unusual and eye-catching that gives your room a bit more personality than a regular old fixture.

Upgrade your kitchen cabinets

Another easy way to get a brand new look in your home without putting in too much effort is to simply change out your kitchen cabinets. You could build them yourself too, by the way, if you’re crafty like that; just make sure that you have a decent bench for woodwork as well as some pipe clamps and you’ll be good to go.

In case you’re not up for a complete cabinet renovation project, you can always give the ones you currently have a fresh coat of paint for a brand new look.

Sprucing up your home doesn’t have to cost too much, after all, and as long as you have a good guide to follow, it won’t really require too much energy either.

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Making Your Work Mornings That Bit More Bearable

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Some people manage to leap out of bed in the morning in a great mood, they’re naturally more energised at this time of day and waking up is no real issue to them. Aren’t they annoying? For us mere mortals, mornings are far more of a struggle. If you’re finding yourself snoozing your alarm over and over and generally feel rubbish however, then something needs to change. You might not ever love mornings but they can be far easier to deal with if you follow these tips.

Get enough sleep the night before

It goes without saying that without enough sleep, your morning (and your day in general) is going to be pretty miserable. No one likes the sound of the alarm clock when they wake up, but when you’ve had a solid sleep it’s far easier to drag yourself out of bed. Make this a priority and your life will genuinely improve. You’ll be much more alert, in a better mood and even things like controlling your appetite will be easier. This is because without enough sleep, our hunger hormones are thrown out of whack.

Organise your work stuff ahead of time

Leaving everything until the morning is never a good idea. When you wake up and are already pressed for time, the last thing you need is to be running around like a headless chicken and panicking because you can’t find the things you need. Before going to bed, pack up your lunch and your work stuff, and get your clothes ready. Lay out everything you need on a chair in your bedroom so you can get up and get changed without any messing around. Having a shower before bed will save you a few minutes in the morning too.

Eat breakfast

It’s easy to forfeit breakfast for a little extra sleep in the morning, but making the time to eat can most definitely help you to get your day off to a good start. A bowl of cereal with chopped fruit, a smoothie made up with yoghurt or some wholemeal toast all wouldn’t take long to make in the morning. You’ll feel more alert and it can give you an energy boost when you need it most.

Find the best method of transport to work

For some people, public transport will be the best way to get to work. If you work in a busy city for example, the traffic will be bad but trains, buses and trams will be very good and run regularly. However, for others, driving will be the best option. Maybe your work is a little out of the city centre, or is far from where you live. Perhaps your work hours involve you getting there before or after rush hour. If so, then getting your own vehicle could be the best way to go. You can find used cars that won’t break the bank and would be ideal for getting you from A to B.

Use your commute to be productive

Get your morning off to a good start by using your commute to be productive. If you’re on public transport you could answer emails or tick off smaller items from your to-do list to get ahead for the day. If you’re driving, you could listen to an inspirational podcast on your way to get you in the best frame of mind.

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Brand Building: When You Are Your Brand

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In the age of social media, branding has been changing. Instagrammers, YouTubers, and bloggers forged ahead into a space where a person became the brand.  As this was happening, bigger businesses wanted to downsize their ‘big corporate’ branding to becoming more personable and approachable.

Both really interesting changes that bring a certain synergy – and is also just a lot of fun to work with.

You will often hear the words authentic, transparent, trustworthy, reliable linked closely with a brands name. Their social media will use a tone of voice that communicates directly to their audience and uses language that is common in those demographics.

Branding isn’t just about a pretty logo and a nice letterhead. It is about having a story that runs through everything. Showing the public your ethos, ideas, and letting them become part of your story. This is even more important when you are looking after your personal reputation and brand.

Due to the internet, customers can be very picky about where they spend their money, and whose pocket it is going on. So you need to be the person, and company, that they believe in.

You might be a dog groomer, you might be a blogger who needs help with personal branding or maybe it is law firm branding and lawyer personal brands you are interested in learning more about.

The chances are you have read plenty of articles that take about starting your branding, like working with a graphic design company or outsourcing your copy. And that is great, but there is more to it.

Photo by Patrik Michalicka on Unsplash

Why?

Think about your why. What is your purpose? Why should people interact with you? What do you bring that they can’t get elsewhere? If you started knitting scarves because you saw a homeless person needed one, and now you donate a scarf for every one purchased – that is your why and your story. So share it. Talk about WHY you do what you do, and WHY they should get involved too.

Ideas

Consider all of your ideas as art. All of those thoughts that you have about products you have the capability to make them come alive. If you don’t create mass items, but instead you are creating one or two pieces of artwork, or sculptures, or painting – maybe even movies. Bring it to life. Of course, you should look to make money on your things where you can, but try and create things outside of that just to showcase.

Make Links

Make firm, and transparent links between what you design and produce and what your ethos and goals are for your business. For example, most beauty companies are going cruelty-free and vegan. Meaning that people feel good about spending their money with a company they feel cares. Be respectful if you choose to work with charities, and really consider where you’re products are sourced from.

Be Truthful

People grow and change, and so do businesses and products. While it’s impractical to have a branding overhaul every year, you can share your journey with your audience and take them with you. They will understand the changes they see in your company and products if you are honest with them.

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Warning: Running A Business Could Be Hazardous To Your Health!

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Sorry to be alarmist, but it’s true!

While we aren’t trying to put you off from running your own business; there are plenty of reasons why you should work for yourself instead of ‘working for the man,’ but in terms of your health, there are definite hazards that need to be avoided.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to hurriedly shape up your resumé to return to the safer confines of a 9 to 5 job to preserve your life, but you should consider the following issues.

#1: The sedentary lifestyle. For those business owners working from home, especially when seated in front of a computer screen for many hours during the day, it is worth knowing the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle. These risks include weight gain, high blood pressure, and the increased chances of a stroke and heart disease. You can find out more here. Therefore, make every effort to exercise each day, both before and after work, and take regular breaks to stretch your legs and give your eyes a rest from the computer screen, to offset any issues associated with the sedentary lifestyle.

#2: Feelings of stress. We can all feel stress, but if not dealt with, there are consequences to our health, both physically, with headaches and high blood pressure, and mentally, with issues around depression, anxiety, and burnout. So, should you run a business, it is important to deal with your stressors. If you have strict deadlines to meet, as an example of one common stressor, you might want to hire other staff to help you tackle other work pressures, or outsource certain tasks, so you have time to commit to the project deadline at hand. Within your business life, you should also improve your work-life balance as this can reduce feelings of stress. And forming good habits within your lifestyle will also help, as by eating a healthy diet, and by exercising regularly, you will be more physically and mentally able to deal with the stress in your life.

#3: Neglecting health problems. When working for yourself, you don’t have the sickness benefits that are provided within a usual 9 to 5 job. Therefore, you are more likely to neglect and fight through any health problems instead of taking time off, especially when you are reliant on money coming in. And you might neglect a visit to the doctor or to the pharmacy, especially if you are snowed under with work. By being neglectful in either way, you might suffer the consequences to your health later on. So, here’s our advice. For starters, get into the habit of saving money so you can afford to have time off when you are unwell. Secondly, if you notice any symptoms of ill health, don’t ignore them, hoping they will go away. The sooner you get to see your doctor, the sooner you will be able to deal with any issues and get back to work. And finally, you might also consider registering with a doctor dispensing of medication, so when you are working, you won’t have to disrupt your working day too much because of long queues at the pharmacy.

Running your own business is an excellent idea, but you won’t make a success of it if you fall prey to ill health. Follow our suggestions, then, and not only will you have better health physically and emotionally, but your business should also be healthy on a financial level too!

Take care, and thanks for reading!

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Taking Active Steps to Improve Your Life

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Whether you are in a slump or leading a lifestyle that leaves you relatively content, it’s always important to bear in mind that things can get better. There’s always opportunity for improvement and increased levels of happiness in your living! Something else to bear in mind? Positive change rarely makes its way towards you. You have to actively seek it out yourself. So, what kind of steps can you take to actively improve your life? Here are just a few to consider!

Cutting Out Bad Habits

We all have some sort of bad habit – after all, nobody’s perfect. But acknowledging your bad habits and taking steps to remove them from your life can significantly boost your happiness. So, take a moment to mull over some bad habits that you have. They could pertain to your physical health or your mental health. Common bad habits for your physical health that you might want to cut out could include:

  • Smoking – smoking is highly addictive, so admittedly, it is a pretty difficult habit to kick. But we are all well aware that it is highly detrimental to us, as it can cause cancer, cardiovascular disease, and a whole host of other health issues. Consider making use of alternatives that can be used to cut out smoking and ween you off nicotine, such as nicotine patches, nicotine gum, or vaping.

 

  • Excessive Drinking – sure, alcohol may well be legal for adults to consume. But excessive drinking can cause liver damage and can prove addictive. If you feel dependent on alcohol, you might want to consider sober living for men.

 

There are also plenty of bad habits out there that can have a negative impact on your mental and emotional wellbeing. Some to consider removing from your life could include:

 

  • Procrastination – as the old saying goes, procrastination is the thief of time. We tend to procrastinate when we feel anxious about something, but putting off the task at hand only serves to increase anxiety levels in the end.

 

 

  • Perfectionism – being a perfectionist can result in high quality work. But you’ll often find that it unnecessarily places excessive pressure on you. Don’t allow yourself to become distressed by setting unachievable or unrealistic targets!

 

Spend More Time Doing What You Love

Many of us end up spending most of our time doing things that we feel we have to do. But why not spend more time doing things that you love? This can give you a greater feeling of satisfaction with life. Sometimes it just means turning down plans and events that you feel obligated to attend when your attendance isn’t actually necessary. If you have an interest, chase it. Join a class, attend a club, dedicate your free time to it.

Sure, life might be coming along just fine for you right now. But why settle for mediocrity? “Okay” shouldn’t be enough! Taking active steps to improve your life can see you become a much happier and more rounded individual, placing a smile on your face!

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Genuine Ways To Make Money From Home

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The concept of making money from home is something that has really taken off over the last decade, and although it’s been something that people have talked about for a good bit longer than that, previously it was considered to be something sleazy or in some cases illegal.

However thanks to things like social media and the internet making it easier than ever for people to set up online businesses and work according to their own terms and set their own hours, this is now becoming the norm, so if you’re looking for a way to make money from home but you’re worried about getting caught up in a scam then in this post we’re going to share with you some of the genuine ways that you can make money from home.

Freelancing:

Setting yourself up as a freelancer is possibly one of the easiest ways to start making money from home, and doesn’t require much in the way of start-up costs like other businesses do. The easiest way to get started as a freelancer is to decide on a professional service that you could offer that people would pay for. For example, you could offer copywriting for businesses, you could offer a graphic design, or you could even offer something like accounting or bookkeeping services. There are endless ways that you could work as a freelancer, and the great thing about it is you get to decide your own hours, work on your own schedule and effectively decide how much you earn as well, so it’s a very flexible way to make money from home especially if you have a family and other commitments to work around.

Physical Products:

If you’re someone who likes to create things by yourself then you could have a good chance of creating a business from home that allows you to sell your products. You could sell things like skin care, candles, or even t-shirts and then have them branded and have the labels made for them by hiring a branding company to do this – to find out more about getting labels made for your physical products, you can click here for more info. Of course setting up a physical product business takes a bit more effort than an online business  where you’re only selling digital products, but it’s still a great way to make money from home selling your own items.

Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing is a very popular way to make money from home, and it really doesn’t require much of an effort once you get it set up properly. Affiliate marketing works by recommending the products and services of other people, such as skin care products, technology gadgets, or even clothing. Pretty much anything can be used by affiliate marketers in order to generate revenue for themselves and for the people who own the products that they are recommending. A good way to start with affiliate marketing is to set up a blog around a niche topic, such as vegan skin care and then create content that links back to this product through an affiliate link whereby you then receive a commission for every person who clicks on your link and buys the product.

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Technology And The Workplace

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In the last few decades, we have all seen technology creep into every part of our lives, and the workplace is no different. Whether you run a business or are just an employee, you should always be looking for ways to make the most of tech in your role. This could cover a broad range of areas and so we are going to take a look at some of the way the digital landscape could be beneficial to you.

Productivity

There is an old saying that it is better to work smarter rather than harder, it can be used as a joke but when it comes to productivity it is actually a good philosophy. The reason for that is the smarter your working environment is, the more likely it is that you are going to produce better more efficient work. And that is where technology comes in, through the use of a variety of applications and software you will be able to improve productivity across your workforce and personally. Now, that could be through cloud computing software like Vertex or apps that are designed specifically for the workplace.

 

  • Project Management

 

One of the areas of work that has been boosted exponentially by technology is project management. Through apps that have been designed specifically to assist your team with getting results with their respective projects, you can manage tasks through a single portal that is accessible by anyone you give permissions to. This means that team leaders and managers can have complete control over their team’s workload from a remote location thanks to apps like Todoist and Asana.

 

  • Communications

 

If there is one thing that gets in the way of productivity it is the role communications plays in our workforce. While email has been a time-saver compared to the more traditional methods, it can still slow down the process of getting a task complete. Likewise the endless meetings and telephone calls that have become a regular fixture in the working calendar. That is why apps like Basecamp and Microsoft Teams are so useful, it allows you to set up chat groups and instant messaging services so your teams can be in constant communications or use video chat for meetings instead of organising time away from the desk.

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Security

Another area of working life that needs to be helped by ever-evolving technology is that of security. It is fair to say that the business world has seen a range of new threats that have arisen as a result of moving towards digital working spaces. However, the answers are also through using technology and shouldn’t be ignored. The only way to be confident that you can combat the rise of cyber crime is by having a comprehensive strategy to fight against it.

The previously mentioned cloud systems can be incredibly helpful in preventing cyber crimes, but so too is just ensuring you have a strong antivirus and firewall system installed. Educating your staff in the threats that could arrive in their inbox is also an absolute must and but using combative software first and foremost is the best route to take.

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A Few Good Reasons to Get a Boat and Spend Some Time in the Water

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We live in a pretty cool time, today. There are all sorts of interesting and exciting hobbies and pastimes available to us that the average person even a few short years ago would have had no access to at all.

Without too much trouble, assuming you have an Internet connection, you can get yourself involved in hobbies ranging from mountain climbing to tabletop gaming, to historical re-enactment, to wood-whittling, to all sorts of DIY projects, to amateur web design and blogging, and more.

The thing is, with all of this choice available, many people find themselves a bit perplexed on where to start, and end up following the path of least resistance. And the path of least resistance tends to be passively consuming media and entertainment content, ad nauseam.

There’s nothing wrong with watching some shows on Netflix, playing video games, or any of that sort of stuff. But when these pastimes make up the majority of the way you spend your free time, you may be missing out on some more fulfilling hobbies.

The academic and author Cal Newport writes in his book Digital Minimalism that in order to remain balanced, happy, and healthy, it’s important to find the time for forms of recreation that get us physically involved in the world around us. He is especially fond of “old-fashioned” pastimes, of the sort our grandparents would have been familiar with.

Fishing and boating are some of the oldest forms of recreation around – and developed directly out of lifestyles and cultural practices of the past that were necessary for survival. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, finding out about what these pastimes entail, and even sourcing replacement parts for a boat, such as via Marine Battery Guy’s boat battery reviews, is also easier than ever before.

Here are a few good reasons to get a boat and spend some time in the water.

Fishing and boating are primal, ancient pastimes

Many of us these days feel kind of disconnected and detached from the natural world around us, and the “primal” and essential elements of life. If in doubt, you only need to look at the popularity of recent movements such as the Paleo movement, and the popularity of hobbies such as historical re-enactment, to confirm this.

There’s a good argument to be made that getting “back to basics” can help us to orient ourselves in the world more productively, feel better about ourselves, and simply have a better time.

Fishing and boating – as mentioned at the start of this article – are primal, ancient pastimes. When you’re out there in a boat, on the water, you’re engaging in an activity that humans have been engaging in since at least the Mesolithic era.

Just like camping, hunting, and woodworking, engaging in this ancient pastime can help you to feel “alive” in a way that surfing the web might not.

It’s a great way of experiencing space and calm, in an increasingly packed and busy world

We live in very busy and “noisy” times. Virtually no matter where you go these days, you’re going to be “on the grid” and will be bombarded by billboards and adverts, the latest celebrity gossip, the latest world news, and the latest updates from all your friends on social media.

There’s some evidence that being constantly bombarded in this way can erode people’s psychological health and sense of well-being. The mindfulness and meditation movements are a direct reaction against this “always on” phenomenon, and serve to encourage people to take a deep breath, find a bit of stillness, and relax for a while.

Boating and fishing are excellent ways of achieving this. When you’re out there on the water, even if only on a narrow river, you have a real tangible sense of being “away from it all” and are able to relax with your own thoughts, and the gentle lapping of the water against the hull.

A boat is a great way of exploring and seeing the world in a different way, through a different lens, and at a different pace

Things just look and feel different from a boat, in a way that can be truly breathtaking in its own right.

When people go on vacation and travel to new places, they are largely looking to experience the unfamiliar, and to see the world in a new light.

Since we spend the vast majority of our time on land, getting out onto the water offers a similar experience to getting away to a new country. It’s a great way of exploring, and seeing the world in a different light, through a different lens, and also at a different pace.

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