Guilt-free pleasures - indulge yourself!

Guilt-free pleasures

party tips,treat yourself,chocolate,wine,emotional wellbeing,healthy living,coffee,brain booster smiling woman - guilt-free!

Read the papers and it\'s easy to assume that a morning parked in front of \'Balamory\' will turn your kids into 21-stone serial killers, a glass of wine will turn you into an alcoholic, or a sneaky bar of chocolate will slap on two dress sizes. But take heart - not everything fun is bad for you. Read on for our top guilt-free pleasures...

 

And once you\'ve seen all the guilt-free pleasures, take the poll to say which is yours - it\'s on the last page...

 

By Lucy Jolin

Chocolate

treat yourself,chocolate,emotional wellbeing,healthy living chocolate

When your partner questions your Maya Gold consumption, smile sweetly and explain. \'Well, dear, dark chocolate contains high levels of antioxidants, said to help prevent cancer and heart disease. Chocolate is also a great source of tryptophan and theobromine, \'feel-good\' brain chemicals. Sadly, it\'s only the expensive kind that\'s good for you - cheapo chocolate doesn\'t have the same level of antioxidants.\' And then refuse to share...

 

Find out more about why chocolate\'s good for you

Wine

wine,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living woman drinking wine A study from Wageningen University in The Netherlands found that wine drinkers live longer than beer fans or vodka bunnies. Red wine in particular is another antioxidant powerhouse. It increases your \'good\' cholesterol if you drink it regularly. And, oh happy day, it also apparently helps to keep you younger by protecting your cells from age-related damage. What\'s the catch? Well, you\'re supposed to drink it \'in moderation\'. Pah.

Long lie-ins

treat yourself,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living woman stretching in bed

Ever felt guilty about allowing your kids to spend their Saturday mornings in front of the TV while you catch up on some shut-eye? Feel guilty no more. Long hours and a 24-hour culture means we all have a \'sleep debt\' which need to pay off at weekends. However, make sure you don\'t sleep much more than an extra hour or so, otherwise you\'ll mess up your body clock

 

Read more on how to get a great night\'s sleep

Partying

party tips,treat yourself,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living couple at a party In the morning, with a throbbing head, and insanely loud noise levels, it\'s easy to regret last night\'s revels. Draw comfort from the fact that you were not partying irresponsibly. Studies have shown that party animals with strong social networks are likely to live longer, have less heart disease and sleep problems, and even suffer less from colds. Now that\'s worth a few sore heads.

Watching TV

treat yourself,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living woman with hand on TV remote control \'Celebrity Love Island\' a taxing intellectual challenge? Yep, says science writer Steven Johnson. In his gloriously titled book, \'Everything Bad is Good For You\', he argues that today\'s TV is far more stimulating to the brain than the one-plot, two-character series of the past. Fair enough. Although even anthropologists with PhDs have problems explaining the success of Paul Danan

Coffee

treat yourself,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living,coffee,brain booster cup of espresso coffee

Some people start the day with a glass of hot water and lemon. For the sane, however, a healthy shot of caffeine is the only way to go. Apart from being another antioxidant-rich substance, the caffeine in coffee acts as a stimulant for your brain. Scientists at the Medical University in Innsbruck, Austria, found that subjects given a small dose of caffeine did much better in short-term memory tests

 

Discover more ways to boost your memory

A good gossip

relationships,treat yourself,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living woman talking on sofa Psst... don\'t tell anyone, but without gossip we\'d still be dragging each other around campfires by our hair. Anthropologists at the University of Wisconsin say that merrily slagging off your boss\'s new hairstyle or discussing Britney\'s shaving antics helps outsiders feel more welcome in a group. Gossip also helps define boundaries and unwritten rules within sub-cultures such as the office or the playgroup.

Yelling

treat yourself,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living woman with a laptop, screaming Go on. Take a deep breath. Now let rip. Feel better? Good. You\'re not a crazed fishwife, you\'re a confident, forward-thinking woman. Psychologist Jennifer Lerner wound up 92 students for her experiments. She found that the ones who reacted with a burst of rage had more control over their lives and had a more optimistic outlook than those who reacted with fear

Sunbathing

treat yourself,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living,safe in the sun woman silhouetted against setting sun Of course, it\'s not a good idea to regularly fry yourself. But it\'s also a bad idea to never venture outdoors without the factor 50. Direct sunlight is the body\'s main source of vitamin D, which is synthesised when the rays hit skin. And vitamin D deficiency has recently been linked to an increased risk of a wide range of disorders including some cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and depression.

Untidiness

treat yourself,feeling creative,homecare tips,emotional wellbeing,health advice,healthy living messy kitchen

If your idea of neatness is being able to see the pattern on the rug, give yourself a pat on the back. You\'re allowing your creative flexibility to flourish, according to Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman, authors of \'A Perfect Mess: the Hidden Benefits of Disorder\'. They say messy methods can be more efficient - as anyone who\'s ever attempted to keep a baby clean at mealtimes will know

 

Find fabulous household cleaning tips here

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