Now's the perfect time to get your bedroom ready for the cold nights coming, and make the most out of your current sleep.

Sleep is a natural process that is "designed" to revitalise and refresh both body and mind. We are programmed to get tired when the sun goes down, and wake up fully refreshed when the sun comes up - the way we have for thousands of years.

Whilst the lightbulb, late night TV, shift work and all-night entertainment have allowed us to stay up longer, it's not always better as our sleep is now often cut short - or worse yet, doesn't revitalise us fully.

Here's a couple of tips to get you sleeping better:

• Get your bedroom as close to pitch black when you finally turn off your lights to sleep;
• Unwind in the last hour before bed. Dim the lights, read a few pages of an inspirational or favourite book, make a warm cup of milk - something you can repeat regularly that helps your mind recognise that you are about to sleep;
• Take the TV out of the bedroom. Your bedroom should ideally be only used for sleep and, well, intimacy!
• Get 8 hours each night, and make up for shortfalls when you can. There really is nothing better than ensuring enough sleep each night and unfortunately less than 7-8 hours just doesn't cut it in the long run.

Click to see full guidelines

Deciding what to eat is often hard enough using the current Food Pyramid guidelines - without having to think about When to eat; or Which diet is the best.

There really is no one particular diet (South Beach, Atkins, Zone, Mediterranean, CSIRO Total Wellbeing etc) that I would recommend all the time - it really depends on your current goals and circumstances. Low-carb diets are great for faster fat-loss when done well, but can often be hard to follow over a year. Low-fat diets can also work to help lose weight, when coupled with some good levels of cardio exercise. The Mediterranean-style diet (lots of fresh vegetables and vegetable oils, fish, some wholegrains, fruit and nuts) is often regarded as a good, tasty long-term guide for eating.

As part of my education in metabolic biochemistry and sports nutrition, and experience working with nutritionists and dietitians, there's a few guidelines I generally follow, and use to assess how other diets are structured:

* Eating every 3-4 hours;

* A small amount (10-15g) of protein each meal;

* Plenty of veggies - greens, reds, yellows. The more salad, variety and cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower etc) the better;

* Dinner is the smallest meal of the day / low in carbohydrate;

* Some fruit each day, no more than 3 serves;

* Avoid fruit juices, soft drinks;

* Alcohol - no more than 2 drinks per day and ideally 3+ alcohol free days per week;

* Have a small handful each of: mixed raw nuts and berries each day or every second day;

* Fish 3 times per week or fish oil supplements daily;

 ...

There are others available on my website - print them out and keep them handy.

This was THE big event on the fitness industry calendar - the FILEX fitness industry conference, running on April 30, May 1 and May 2 2010. Covering everything imaginable in the industry - gym operators, personal trainers, fitness, group and aqua instruction, mind/body and nutrition - this was 3 full-on days to remember!!

Well hopefully remember as much as I can ! I'm still reviewing my notes and hoping to suck as much out of the amazing experience that it was!

You'll get to hear more about the conference in upcoming Blogs and training sessions :)