Feel More Alive Eat Your 2 & 5
Are you tired of being tired and need more energy to get through the week or even just the day?
Do as the TV adds say and eat your 2 and 5. Simply increasing the amount of nutritionally dense foods in your diet will sky rocket your energy levels.
Now I know it can be a hard task to get your 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of veggies each day but with a little planning you can increase your serves and your energy easy.
Start your day with a serve of fruit to go with your usual breakfast. Then at morning-tea have your second serve of fruit. Too easy, 2 fruit down 5 veg to go.
At lunch have some form of salad, even if it is just in your sandwich or as a side salad. Make this in the morning or the night before, it takes less than 10 min so you have no excuse.
With dinner grate some carrot, zucchini or finely chop other veggies into a stew or pasta or other dish. It’s a great way to get the kids to eat extra veggies.
When selecting your veggies pick from a range of colours, choosing the darker ones especially greens, the darker the colour the more packed with vitamins and antioxidants.
A great way to make a salad is to chop a little of all the veggies you have in your fridge and toss together, you’ll be surprised at how great it tastes. Throw in some avocado, nuts, feta or parmesan cheese for a different taste. Change your dressing from balsamic vinegar to French to Italian each day so you don’t get bored.
Another great way to get extra veggies is to snack on veggies stick, you can make them out of just about anything. Celery carrot, cucumber, broccoli, zucchini, sweet potato, capsicum and add some soaked legumes, peas or beans to nibble on through out the day.
By adding these tips to your day not only will you increase your energy levels you will help your waist line and heart health.
3:30-itus will no longer hit with vengeance if you ditch the coffee and coke, and opt instead for your 2 and 5 to get energy and feel alive.
Serving Sizes
1 serve of vegetables equals
· 1 cup of salad veggies
· 75g or 1 med potato
· 1/2 cup of legumes or cooked veggies
· 1/4 of an avocado
1 serve of fruit equal
· 150g of fresh fruit
· 1 med apple
· 2 pieces of small fruit e.g. apricots
· 1 cup of chopped of tinned fruit
· 1 1/2 table spoons of dried fruit.
Oz Life Fitness- July 2010
How To Boost Your Metabolism
When you were 20, you could eat whatever you liked and not gain a gram right? But after hitting 30, just looking at a chocolate bar makes makes the scales jump. Our weightloss woes are often blamed on a slow metabolism, but it's a lot more complicated than that.
Metabolism refers to the countless chemical processes that allow you to function and live normally. An easier was to understand this is to think of your metabolism as your body’s engine, burning fuel (energy or kilojoules) and regulating your energy needs.
The number of kilojoules you burn at rest is called your resting metabolic rate (RMB), and this accounts for 60-75 per cent of your metabolism, Exercise also contributes to your metabolism, but its contribution depends on how active you are.
The third component of your metabolism is the energy you use to digest and metabolise food, which is also known as the thermic effect of food. A mixed diet accounts for about 5-15 per cent of your metabolism.
Metabolism alone does not determin your weight. However if you have a fast metabolism you will definitely find it a whole lot easier to manage your weight. Your metabolism is somewhat genetically determined, but there are many ways to speed it up.
Here are the five best ways to boost your metabolism to help achieve long-term weight loss and maintenance.
1. Exercise Regularly: the best way to boost your metabolism is to get your body moving. The harder and longer you workout the faster you burn kilojoules.
2. Eat Breakfast: People who eat breakfast tend to be in a healther weight rang than those who don't, and eating breakfast can actually prevent weight gain too. the early morning meal kick starts our metabolism into gear for the day.
3. Ditch the Crash Diets: Inadequate food encourages your body to conserve energy. It does this by slowing down your metabolism. Eating less than 4000kJ a day significantly decreases your resting metabolic rate.
4. Do Strenght Training: Resistance training increases your muscle mass and, as muscle is your furnace, the more muscle you have the more kilojoules you burn- even when you are not doing anything.
5. Fidget: Fidgeting or Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) as it is know, contributes to more to the kilojoules you burn than exercise. The more you move around in your day, the higher your NEAT is likely to be.
5 Key Foods,
Proven to Increase Weight Loss
Various studies were conducted to see if a particular food would increase weightloss.
In these studies all subjects were asked to eat the same diet but half was to have the extra food/suplements (egg, fish oil) the other half were asked to eat their regular diet.
The groups that ate the tested foods/supplements had an increase in weightloss with no other changes made to their diet or lifestyle.
These were the foods/suplements tested:
1. Nuts
Include 25-30g of nuts in your diet, preferable raw and unsalted. This really is a small amount so measure it out to see for yourself.
2. Tea Include 4-5 cups of Oolong or green tea per day. You can get Oolong tea from health shops, Rawganics has some in their store.
3. Dairy
2-3 serves of low fat dairy per day. Make a nice fruit smoothie to get that extra dairy into your diet.
4. Eggs An egg a day helps keep the fat away. Add just one egg to your breakfast each day will increase your weightloss and give you a great start to the day. Preferably not fried!
5. Fish oil
6000mg of fish oil tablets daily. It may seem like a lot but take two in the morning two at lunch and two in the evening if they are hard to get down all at once.
Oz Life Fitness- Feb 2010
D.I.Y. to Living Longer
New research suggests we can take steps into adding years to our life and reduce the risk of chronic disease. It is simple as following these 4 key lifestyle factors.
- Stay a healthy weight
- Walk for half an hour everyday
- Eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains
- Don't smoke
For more than 20 years, the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) has been investigating diet, lifestyle and environmental factors and their links with the incidence of chronic disease.
In new research, the EPIC-Potsdam study, reveals theses four key lifestyle factors have the potential to dramatically reduce the onset of chronic disease, diabetes and cancer, and therefore help us to live longer.
Australian statistics show that many of us will develop heart disease, diabetes or cancer - especially as we get older if we continue on our current path. So while adopting these four lifestyle factors seems logical, the fact is at this stage only one out of 10 Australians is actually managing to get even one of these important factors right.
The good news is that any positive changes you make to your lifestyle now will help.
The research shows that just by adopting one of the healthy living traits, you will lower your risk of developing long term chronic disease. So obviously the more lifestyle factors you follow, the better.
So let's take a closer look at these four key healthy lifestyle factors:
Healthy Weight Of the four recommendations, maintaining a healthy weight has the greatest impact on risk of disease and longevity. For most people, weight gain occurs in small amounts, the fact is it can sneak up over a number of years. Usually the most effective weight loss is small and sustainable (around half a kilo per week).
Activity
Walking is a great low impact activity that is easy for most people to do. Half an hour each day is all it takes. Remember, you can divide it into two, 15 minute blocks, so you can do a session in your lunch break and another before or after work. When you break it down like that, it could be as easy as choosing active options such as walking to the next bus stop or walking to the shops instead of taking the car.
Smoking
If you don't smoke, the best way is to never start. If you are a smoker, you need to be mindful that it carries some serious health consequences. But it is never too late to quit and the good news is there are many effective strategies and support groups that can help. The best place to start is to call
Quitline (137878)
Food Choices Our body needs food for survival, so naturally what we eat is going to have an effect on how well our body functions. The researchers in this particular study highlight the importance of a variety of fruits, vegetables, and wholegrains (wholemeal bread, wholegrain cereal, brown rice). Similar studies go further and saturated fat (meat, butter, cream) and limiting alcohol.
If is rare to find research with such conclusive results. One of the most impactful points the researchers highlight in their conclusion is that for people who are meeting none of the four key lifestyle factors that just by achieving even one, promises to increase the time free of chronic conditions.
It goes to show that small changes can make a big difference to our health and how long we live.
-good food news
Jan 2010
Train Smarter
If we can and would like to exercise for an hour or two each day but don’t physically have the time available, we might need to get a little smarter.
Including the family in your exercise, exercising before the family wakes up in the morning, during our lunch break, or after the kids have gone to bed.
Exercise more efficiently, for example jogging instead of walking or including some hills in your ride or walk.
Re-evaluate your life and set new priorities. Isn't your health more important than cleaning your house every day?
Oz Life Fitness- Jan 2010
