Lifestyle Overhaul

Cooking a meal, servicing a car, teaching a child to kick a ball or giving your lifestyle an overhaul is not always easy. In fact, it’s a challenge: it takes stamina, perseverance, time and dedication… it takes change –  and you’ve done it! Congratulations! Live in what you’ve accomplished and let it  go deep into your lifestyle. Every time you repeat the activity, you are consolidating the changes you’ve made. Your perception of ‘normal’ will start to shift. We can embrace the change or slip out of it….. What are you going to do?
 
Here’s some tips to help you make the most of your health and fitness reboot:

Start your day in a positive way.

• Affirm who you are and where you’re headed (read your goals regularly)
• Eat Breakfast
• Drink water

Kick start and stay smart

• Be active every day
• Work hard and smart – High intensity intervals are ideal!
• Stretch and relax. Allow your body mind to wind down

Replenish energy spent

• Drink at least 6 glasses of water a day
• Two fruit and five serving on vegetables is your foundation
• Protein sustains  – include it in every meal

The investment you put into your health has guaranteed returns. Many happy returns to you!

One Easy Step to Weight Loss

Keeping a food diary is an extremely powerful tool in optimising your diet and changing your life for the better. It is a task that can initially seem arduous and monotonous but can deliver outstanding results in a short space of time.
 
The first question we must ask ourselves is ‘what is a food diary?’
A food diary is used to record everything you eat and drink.
It should include the following information about what you consume:
1. The type of food/drink
2. The amount of food/ drink
3. The calories of food/ drink
4. The activities carried out while eating/ drinking
5. Your thoughts and feelings before eating/drinking
The last two points are very important in identifying certain behaviours or habits when eating. After utilising a food diary it may become apparent that you eat too much when watching TV or that you eat a lot of foods high in sugar when you are tired. Look for patterns that are present that lead to the intake of too much food or the intake of unhealthy foods. For example, if you find that you are eating a chocolate bar regularly at 4 pm because you are tired, replace this with a food that is healthier and will provide better energy, i.e. an apple.
Constructing a food diary is easy. Just purchase a cheap exercise book and copy in these headings across the top of the page: Food Eaten, Amount Eaten, CaloriesActivities while Eating, Thoughts & Feelings

It is really this simple! Tally up your total calories at the end of everyday and check that this is a healthy amount for your age, height, weight and dietary goals. If more specific information is needed on your calorie intake, then contact us.
Now if you are really diligent, you can also add protein, carbohydrates and fat columns and record the breakdown of the food in these columns. This is a great way of checking that you are getting the correct nutritional breakdown.
The food diary will provide some great realisations. You will quickly become aware if you eat too much, or you too little vegetables or if your morning teas are full of sugar, etc.
 
Accountability is key to making the food diary work; show your food diary regularly to someone you trust. Let them know what foods you’re aiming to eat and what you’re avoiding. This will give you good motivation and ensure you keep your food diary regularly.
 

Feeling Peckish

Tackle your snacking with a wide variety of ideas from Coastal Bodies Dietician Jess.

One of the most common questions I receive from clients is “what can I snack on to tie me over between meals?”  Fruit and nuts are what I personally love, but realistically it’s good to have variety. So I approached out Dietician Jess for some professional advice. She is oozing with snack ideas that taste great and give you long lasting energy fix!

Snacks

-          1 piece of fruit + 10 untoasted almonds/walnuts

-          1 cup popcorn (no oil)

-          Small handful of trail mix

-          Skim hot chocolate/ latte (1 cup)

-          2 vitaweets with a hardboiled egg

-          100g low fat yoghurt (e.g fromaige frais- fruche) or 150g Forme’ yoghurt

-          4 small vitaweets/ 2 ryvitas with reduced fat cheese and vegemite

-          Capsicum, celery, carrot, cucumber sticks with low fat hummous/ low fat cottage cheese

-          Mountain bread wrap with fresh salad and low fat hummous

-          2-3 corn thins with low fat cheese and vegemite

-          Hearty vegetable soup with beans/legumes

-          Miso soup

-          Seaweed salad

-          Small sushi roll with chicken/salmon/tuna/prawn/tofu and vegetables

-          1 corn on the cob (no butter)

-          Small baked potato with low fat cheese, fresh vegetables and beans

-          Fresh garden salad with 2 tbs low fat fetta and low fat dressing

-          1 slice of multigrain bread with low fat cheese/ low fat hummous/ small tin of tuna and fresh veggies

As you can see there are endless ideas that are healthy and filling. A bonus to most of these is that they include some vegetables to help you get all the vitamins and nutrients your body needs to function at its optimum. Remember it is recommended that you have 5 serves of vegies a day!