HEALTHY LIFE STYLE

I enjoy getting up early in the mornings, especially during school term, so I can have breakfast with my children and make lunches for them.I often work through until mid-evening, so this before school time is the only real quality time I have with them during the week.I like to put some effort into their sandwiches and, as you can see below, the mesclun salad we planted as a seed mat in a pot just six weeks ago is now a riot of green leaves that are great as part of the sandwich mix, as well as providing a constant supply of salad side dishes with evening meals.

And the best part is that the more leaves you break off for a sandwich or salad the more new shoots seem to sprout.If you havent tried one of these salad seed mats you really should give it a go – I guarantee that if you do you won't have to mutter any more about buying wilted and browning salads.Click here to check out the entire "beginner's guide to vege gardens" series BRAIN FOOD School lunches are brain food. Our kids need to eat to remain active and alert, so I aim to make sandwiches as tasty as possible, to keep my two interested in reasonably healthy food.

So, one sandwich each, with a slice of corned beef as a base and topped with cheese, tomato, salad picked fresh from the pot, spring onion, thinly sliced radish and a sprinkling of dressing. Add two pieces of fruit – we try to mix it up with apples, bananas, Kiwifruit, mandarins or whatever is fresh in the shops – a muffi n or slice of cake and each has a selection of food that will keep them going all day.

The lunches take no more than five minutes to make and the beauty of it is that, apart from meat and cheese, all the sandwich ingredients have been planted in our step-by-step guide to vege gardening. Already the mesclun and radish are ready to use and in a few weeks we will have our own spring onions, with the first of our home-grown tomatoes likely to be ready to eat only a few weeks after that.It sure beats pies, sausage rolls or packets of chippies with a Coke.

If you’re having a particularly stressful day at work, you might want to head for the peaches or nectarines in the office fruit delivery.

Potassium, which is present in high quantities in the office fruits, helps balance the nervous system with its beneficial effect on heartbeat and muscular contraction.

Women might want to head to the office fruit basket to help combat their emotional stress levels, which a new study has revealed to be far higher than in men.

The brain chemistry in the fairer sex makes them more sensitive to lower levels of a key stress hormone, corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF).

Researchers in the US, who conducted the study on rats, found that females have neurons that are more sensitive to CRF.

Study leader Dr Rita Valentino from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia said: "This may help to explain why women are twice as vulnerable as men to stress-related disorders."

So if you’re a female suffering from a particularly stressful experience at work, you might want to delve into the office fruit box quickly in an attempt to stave off some of that CRF sensitivity.