My Top 5 Tips for a Healthy Happy Christmas

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year! Summer holidays, beach trips, family meals, new year parties… I love that there is always something fun happening, always something good to eat and the freedom of knowing that the past year is behind you and the best is yet to come!

A few years ago I was working in the weight loss industry and my boss at the time had a big sign made up that read “Christmas is a holiday from your work, not your health”. This was placed up on the wall right at the entrance where the members of the weight loss centre could see it clearly.

I really connected to the idea of that statement and every time the silly season comes around I remember

10 Easy Food Swaps to Keep You Healthy This Summer

Photo by Robert Michie

Healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact it’s actually as simple as making good choices every day. Here are 10 easy food swaps you can make that will go a long way on keeping you healthy this summer. Enjoy!

5 Things I Shouldn’t Admit About My Lifestyle

I’m studying to become a Registered Nutritionist and a lot of people assume that I’m super healthy and don’t eat any junk food. For those of you who don’t know me, here are 5 things that I shouldn’t admit about my lifestyle because I sometimes don’t practice what I preach.

Don’t stone me yet, I thought I’d come clean with a few of the weak areas in my life, in terms of eating well and exercising, and share with you what I’m trying to do to improve them. Hopefully you’ll feel motivated to do the same.

1. I am unorganised
I believe that being organised is a vital step to eating well, especially if you have a large family, are on a budget or live an extremely busy lifestyle. If you aren’t organised you wont eat as well as you could, simple as that. I try and plan my meals and write a shopping list, but at the moment I only achieve it 50% of the time. Last week, I decided that I didn’t need a list and could shop on budget without one. I spent over $250 on one weeks worth of groceries for 2 1/2 people (My husband, myself and a 2 year old!). I was way over my budget of $100-$140 for a week. Today I went shopping, with every meal planned and a comprehensive shopping list, I spent $120 and we’ll be eating really good this week, lots of fruit and vegetables and our favourite foods. You can blame inflation, the supermarket companies or the drought or you can take some time, get organised and be in control!

2. I’m a fad exerciser
I don’t believe in fad diets or detoxes or any other crazy eating plan that supposed to “clean out your insides” or “flush out your system”. I do, however, have a terrible habit of jumping on the latest exercise band wagon. I do pilates one week, running the next, oh this week I think I’ll do aqua aerobics, and this week, I just can’t be bothered, I’m too tired or busy… I have never been a regular exerciser even though I am totally aware of the incredible health benefits I would gain if I did it. One of my goals this year is to stick to one thing and see it to the end. I am aiming to run 10 km by the beginning of spring. Its achievable, measurable and now I’m accountable! Regular exercise here I come!

3. I snack when I study
A bad habit I picked up while I was at uni was snacking while I was studying. I have to have some kind of food or drink while I’m writing, reading or listening to lectures. One of the ways I’m trying to combat this is to keep a bottle of water at my desk and just sip it all the time. I gives me the ‘hand to mouth’ action and keeps me well hydrated on zero calories! Bonus!

4. I like to have something sweet after dinner
While I’ve been losing my post-baby weight, the craving for something sweet after dinner is my downfall. I am so weak in that moment, and if my husband says, “Want me to go buy an apple pie and icecream?” I say “Sure!” The thing is, however, if I didn’t give into the craving, after about half an hour the satisfaction feeling from my dinner would kick in and I would feel just fine. If I said no for a whole week, my body would stop associating after dinner with sweet things and eventually I wont crave it at all. I have decided to give my self a treat night, once a week where I enjoy dessert. Otherwise things like sugar free jelly, a low-kilojoule snack or just a cup of strawberry or raspberry tea will usually hit the spot just fine if you really just can’t say no.

5. I don’t drink enough water
Drinking enough water is not just to stop you from being thirsty, it’ll actually decrease you appetite, give you more energy and make you feel so much better in general. Sometimes I feel tired, sluggish and head achy all because I’m dehydrated. Once I make a concerted effort to drink more, I feel much better. You are well hydrated if you wee is a nice pale yellow colour. If its darker than this, than you need to drink more water. Drink herbals teas, sip on a water bottle all day, have a glass of water after every meal, or drink a glass of water every time you go to the loo. Associating water drinking with another habit you do all the time will help you drink more. When you are more hydrated it’ll also help you cut back on things like soft drink or coffee if you drink too much of them.

I hope this makes you feel motivated to make some healthy little changes in your life. What are some of the things that you need to admit about your eating and exercise habits? Please share your comments.

Techiniques You Must Master to Construct a Healthy Meal

Today’s post is all about technique! I believe that Eating Well is an art. It’s something that doesn’t come naturally to most people and like most forms of art we need to get the technique right before we start seeing good results.

Nutrition information is confusing and conflicting. Most of us spend our time rummaging through the mountain of nutrition advice thrown at us every day from professionals, doctors, magazines, TV shows only to find that its all too hard.

The truth is, healthy eating is quite simple and once you understand the techniques involved you’ll be a pro in no time at all.

Step 1: Make Fresh Vegetables the Star of the Show
Fresh food is better for you. The less processing the food has been through between the farm and you, the better. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat processed food and if you do you’re doomed to unhealthy land, it just shouldn’t be the main part of your meal. If the majority of your meal consists of fresh vegetables than you will be consuming a lot of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants but only a small amount of energy.

Step 2: Add some carbohydrate
Carbohydrate is vital for a healthy body and healthy weight loss. There are so many fad diets on the market today that promote low carbohydrate eating and it makes me cranky! Carbohydrates are the body’s primary fuel source and you shouldn’t eliminate them from your diet. The trick is to choose the right ones. Make high fibre and low GI your first choice and then control the portion size. About 1 cup of cooked carbohydrate is adequate and if you are making up the majority of your meal from fresh vegetables than you’ll find that you’ll feel nice and satisfied.

Step 3: Add some protein
Protein forms the building blocks of your body, so it is an important part of our diets. Protein will make the overall GI of the meal lower as it takes longer to digest than other nutrients and thus give you a feeling of fullness for longer. The key to good protein choices is to also make them low fat. Unless you are a Vegan, you will be getting the majority of protein from animal sources, such as chicken, fish, meat, dairy and eggs. Because animal protein tends to come with large amounts of fat as well its important to buy lean cuts of meat, remove visible fat from meat before cooking and choose low fat or skim dairy products.

Your healthy meal is now complete, full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre, protein and low in fat, sugar and kilojoules (energy).