Lighter meals

In winter it can be tempting to ditch the salads and go for the warmer meals, but this doesn’t necessarily have to mean higher in calories. Healthy lean protein and fresh seasonal vegetables in a healthy clear soup is a fantastic way to enjoy a lighter meal that will warm you up from the tips of your toes to the top of your head!

Lighter exercise

While it can be tempting to really rug up in heavy sweatpants and a bulky hooded jumper, there are in fact lightweight exercise clothing available that helps keep you insulated while not restricting your movement during a workout. Think lightweight jumpers that you can easily tie around your waist if you get too warm, leggings, and maybe a beanie.

Lighter workload

Think of ways that you can reduce the amount of work that you do around the house so that you have more time for physical activity, meal planning, or preparing healthy meals and snacks.Take inventory of the time you spend at home, where could things be streamlined?

Could you do a little declutter and live off a minimalist wardrobe and cut down on your loads of washing? How about getting your home clutter free so you spend less time cleaning and maintaining it? Think about ways to free up your time for healthy behaviours.

Lighter environment

The winter months come with less natural light through the day, and this can result in mood changes. You might find that you are feeling a little less energetic, or positive. Setting automatic timers for your bedroom lights so that you wake up to light instead of dark, sitting near a window during the workday if possible, and walking to and from your car 5 minutes each way in the sunlight can all help.

Lighter mindset

Try and set aside some time for meditation or mindfulness exercises. This can help bring you back into the moment and clear your mind of stress or concerns, allowing your brain to recharge and process things better.

Lighten that guilt

Having a perfectionist attitude towards health can lead to some serious guilt if you deviate from your plan. Give yourself a little more room to move, and allow yourself occasional indulgences and slip-ups and understand that this is all part of the process. If the majority of your choices are healthy, chances are those times when things don’t go to plan really aren’t going to have too much of an impact. After all, life is to be enjoyed!

So what can you do to turn things around? It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3.

1: Change your standards of measurement

How do you measure success… is it perfection? Change it up. Instead adopting an 80% rule can not only lead to incredible benefits for you, but also a higher likelihood that you are going to keep making these changes long term. If 80% of the time you stick to the plan, then you can actual enjoy yourself when you deviate from it on occasion.

Said you will exercise every day but did 5 days instead? Well done! Now really maximise that downtime on the days you have off and enjoy every minute.

2: Shorten your list

Do you have a lot of resolutions you are working on? Choose the three that will have the biggest impact on your life, and stick to those. Having too many resolutions means that you end up feeling too restricted, too pressures, and is a pretty impossible standard to maintain. So keep it short.

3: Ditch the hard ones

Have you set yourself resolutions that are going to be incredibly difficult to achieve, and that deep down you know that there is no way that you could ever get there? The danger in this is that is sets you up for failure, which makes you have less confidence in yourself, and makes you less likely to succeed in the future. Instead tone down your resolutions so that the overall goal is actually reasonable, can be done in the time frame that you set for yourself, and that isn’t going to make your life so miserable that it can’t be maintained.

Fingers crossed that working through this list gets you on a better path to achieving your health goals in 2018.

So what can you do to keep making progress but also take care of your body?

Rest weeks. Now before you jump in and tell us that you couldn’t possibly stop exercising for a whole week, let us explain what we mean by “rest”,

Lets use a very basic example of weights training. A progression plan might look like this:

Week 1: 10kg

Week 2: 11kg

Week 3: 12kg

Week 4: 13kg

Week 5: 14kg

Week 6: 15kg

So small increases in weight (resistance) each week. If we know that the improvements you have made to your fitness and strength can start to deteriorate in as little as 7 days, then of course we don’t want to be taking every second week off do we?

But what we can do is give our body a break in a different way, by implementing a “rest” week, which is a week where exercise is done at a slightly lower intensity, and so is putting less strain on the entire system. A 4 week rest cycle might look something like this:

Week 1: 10kg

Week 2: 11kg

Week 3: 12 kg

Week 4: 11kg

Week 5: 12kg

Week 6: 13kg

At week 4 you drop back to the level you were at in week 2, so you are still exercising, don’t lose the fitness gains you have already made, but your body treats this like it is a rest week, and can repair and restore, setting you up for better results in the future, and minimised your risk of injury or overtraining.

What about recovery between sessions?

Cardio you are generally fine to do every day as long as the duration isn’t extreme, but resistance exercises or weights training is ideally spaced 48 hours apart to allow for recovery and your muscles to repair and rebuild micro-tears. One option if you exercise daily is to work upper body and lower body on alternating days, so that the individual muscle groups worked are getting a 48 hour break.

Lastly, make sure you are providing your muscles with adequate carbohydrate and protein in the hour before or after exercise, to offer the building blocks required for recovery.

Feeling anxious, a racing heartbeat, an inability to concentrate, insomnia, and dehydration due to caffeine being a diuretic are some of the negative side effects of consuming too much caffeine. To make sure you can enjoy that coffee and get the most out of it, follow these tips…

Space them out

Did you know it takes around 50 minutes for caffeine to take full effect? If you are waking up in the morning and doubling up, thinking after 20-30 minutes that you are still tired and need another cup, you may find yourself with the jitters by mid morning.

Hydrate

To counteract the dehydrating effects of caffeine, the rule of thumb is to have a glass of water with every caffeinated beverage you consume. Although contrary to this advice, evidence has shown that the greater your tolerance to caffeine- such as if you have been regularly drinking coffee a few times a day for years- your body learns to process caffeine more efficiently and so the dehydrating effect is less than for someone who only occasionally consumes caffeine.

Still, many of us don’t drink the recommended amount of water in a day, so it may pay to increase your intake anyway. Keeping a full drink bottle with you during the day that you can sip on is a great trick- you might also be less likely to make yourself another coffee out of thirst this way.

Warm up other ways

Hot beverages are a great way to warm yourself up, whether you are getting a chill in the cooler seasons, or from the air conditioning at work. Dress a little warmer, and try caffeine free hot drinks such as fruity herbal tea, decaf black tea, or even just hot water with a little lemon for flavour. This way you still warm up but aren’t overdoing the caffeine.

Keep to the guidelines

In general it is a good idea to limit yourself to under 200-300mg of caffeine. To put this in perspective, a cup of instant coffee has roughly 70-80mg of caffeine, black tea has 30-40mg, green tea has 10-20mg, barista/brewed coffee can have anywhere between 100-200mg depending on where you buy it from, and you need to watch sizing- a large takeaway coffee may have more than one shot in it.

Be aware of lasting effects

The half life of caffeine – that is, the amount of time it takes for the body to eliminate half of the caffeine ingested- is anywhere between 3-7 hours depending on a number of factors such as body weight, pregnancy, liver function, age, and whether there are any other drugs such as prescription medication that the body is simultaneously trying to process.

This means that if you are having a caffeinated beverage every few hours, there is probably going to be a build up effect, and each subsequent dose will have a greater effect. Experiment with this yourself- what is the optimum timing for you?

Is one in the morning and one mid afternoon just right? Or does one is the morning and one at lunch time mean you sleep better at night? Does one last you all day?

Occasionally detox

What we mean by this, is that if you regularly drink caffeinated beverages you will build up a tolerance, which means that you will no longer get the same boost to your energy levels, and will instead need a caffeine hit just to feel normal, let alone energised.

Occasionally cutting back or cutting out caffeine for a few days or a week allows your body to reset to some extent, and when you start drinking coffee again you will notice more of an effect. Of course, one could argue that exercise, good diet, and drinking enough water should be your primary method for improving energy levels, and caffeine should be only an occasional indulgence.

But really, it comes down to what works for you, your body, and your lifestyle.

You were too busy and forgot to eat during the day. You woke up late and missed breakfast. You just weren’t hungry. Whatever the reason, skipping a meal can be one of the biggest triggers for overeating, as you aren’t just hungry at your next meal, you are ready to eat a whole buffet. Your blood sugar levels are low and so your ability to make rational decisions is impaired, you are more emotional, and much more driven to choose the fastest and worst foods- in big portions- to just stop the shaking, that awful gnawing in your stomach, and the urge to eat anything in sight. Another unhelpful side effect of meal skipping is that your metabolism slows down, as your body is incapable of knowing the difference between a missed meal through choice and a shortage of available food in the vicinity. As a survival mechanism, your body is fantastic at conserving energy in periods of starvation. It’s also just as talented at storing extra energy (as body fat) after a period of starvation, so that it’s there in case of another period of starvation. If your diet involves consuming less energy than you are burning off, your body will perceive this as starvation, whether this is short term or long term. This is why so many people regain the weight after a fast weight loss, usually plus more. The key to losing body fat and keeping it off, is to eat regularly spaced meals containing moderate amounts of low GI carbohydrate to help keep your blood sugars stable and essentially trick your body into thinking there is plenty of food around. A slower rate of weight loss, 0.5-1kg a week for females (after the initial week which will be higher due to some fluid losses) over a longer period of time has been found to be the most effective method for maintaining a goal weight once you have reached it.

The solution?

Meal planning. If you have your week planned out and all the supplies already in your fridge, it makes meal prep simple and requires no thought. Takeaway will be less of a temptation if you have healthy meals frozen and ready to go at home. Prepare lunches ahead of time and bring them with you so you can eat at your desk if need be, or in the car. Find a quick, portable meal replacement that fits in with your diet plan that you can keep as an emergency stash in case you get caught out. A glass of low fat milk and a couple of grainy crackers or fruit will be enough to keep you going until the next meal time.

When you think of being on a diet, you probably immediately think of all your favourite foods that you will no longer be “allowed” to eat, you will remember the feelings of being hungry, and think of all the times your friends or family happily indulged in yummy food while you angrily gnawed at a carrot stick. Why is it that the word “diet” immediately makes us feel like we are being deprived, and therefore makes us want to run in the opposite direction?

A diet is short term, and it’s difficult.

A month, three months, six months, a diet is a painful experience that you have to get through… and at the end of it, when you have reached your goal weight, it’s highly likely that you will regain the weight you lost plus more, because you have felt so deprived for so long, and you indulge so much more once the diet is finished to make up for it.

Studies shave been done looking at peoples perceived happiness with a choice they have made when they a) were stuck with that choice and couldn’t change it or b) were able to go back and change their minds if they wanted. What they found is that once people were locked into something that couldn’t be changed, their minds accepted this, and decided to make the most of it and their perception of how happy they were with their choice was high. On the other hand, if they knew they could change their minds, their perceived happiness about that choice was much, much lower.

The issue is that you know it’s only short term, you know you could break your diet at any time because there are infinite food choices out there you could pick from, and so you are much more dissatisfied with your diet.

How to get around this? First you need to get your reasons for losing weight to be strong enough that you don’t see it as something that would be nice but not essential, or something that can be put off for later on. The most determined and motivated people are often those who have found out they have something wrong- they are diagnosed with diabetes and really don’t want to have to start insulin injections, or they have a heart attack and never want to feel that fear again etc. You can show your mind that it’s no longer a choice to eat the wrong things, by doing some research into all the health problems that come as a result of being overweight/obese, and have the realization that you need to change things now before it’s too late. You also need to consider all the positives that would come from your weight loss- better energy levels, less joint pain, better self confidence, independence. Write down everything, and you can come back to this whenever you feel yourself wavering. Make the commitment to a lifetime of healthy eating, a lifestyle change not a diet.

Food is your comfort, stress relief, happy place.

Emotional eating is a big one. It’s a 100% effective sure fire way to pull yourself out of a feeling of discomfort into one of pleasure for a lot of people. It’s often the only real form of stress relief people understand. So if eating is your coping mechanism for unpleasant things in life… and all of a sudden that’s taken away? Of course your brain is going to fight you on it, and you are going to have intense cravings and feelings of deprivation.

Rather than starting a diet, why not keep a diary for a week and notice all the times you are eating out of genuine hunger (growling stomach etc.) and all the times you are eating for other reasons, and figure out what your triggers were, and then work towards finding alternatives to deal with these feelings. Whether you make yourself a cup of hot chamomile tea, go for a walk, talk to a friend, journal, meditate, breathing exercises, whatever it is you choose as a substitute, if you work on changing so that food is no longer your stress relief because it’s been replaced with something else, you will automatically reduce your intake of food without it being a diet.

You’re being deprived.

Say you have a chocolate addiction. You adore it. Have you ever had a period of time when you were overloaded with chocolate at home, maybe after Christmas or Easter, and it just sat in the fridge untouched? You knew it was there, you could have it, as much as you wanted, whenever you wanted, but you just didn’t feel like it? Now remember a time when you were trying to diet and weren’t allowed any, and you would have given anything for just one little bite! This is the psychology of deprivation. As soon as we can have something it loses its appeal, as soon as we think we are missing out on something we can’t stop thinking about it.

How to tackle this? As part of your healthy lifestyle plan, why not factor in a “treat” food every day, in a small portion. If you are eating 99% healthy whole foods, and exercising daily, there’s no reason a small little extra can’t become a daily thing. A couple of squares of that chocolate, every day, for the rest of your life. Feeling a little less deprived now? Funny thing is, you may not even want it anymore, and that’s ok too. The important thing is that our minds don’t perceive that we are missing out, and this little trick works wonders.

There are innumerable ways to work out, but just as with fashion; fitness also follows trends. Workouts that were all the rage in recent years, such as Zumba and Pilates, have lost some steam while others are coming into the limelight. If you’re tired of the same old workout and need a change, the new year brings the perfect opportunity to experiment. So what are the hot new fitness trends you can expect to see in the upcoming year?

High intensity interval training + body weight workouts:

You can expect high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, to be one of the hottest workouts of the year. HIIT stays popular because of its huge metabolic effects, the high number of calories it burns, and the spectacular results many exercisers who try it experience. Think bursts of high intensity calorie burning exercise, with mini breaks in between- allowing maximum benefits in shorter time periods. A word of caution- there are higher rates of injury + overtraining effects for this type of exercise if you aren’t already fit. Take things at your own pace.

The other top workout is the body weight workout. Just as effective as HIIT, body weight workouts feature squats, planks, push-ups and more to get exercisers into shape without requiring them to spend money on equipment.

Exercise technology:

Wearable technology is another chart topper. Fitness trackers allow you to track things like your steps, mileage, speed, heart rate, route, and much more – all hands-free. People are also increasingly taking part in online workouts because they offer the motivation and instruction of a personal trainer without the hassle of heading to the gym every day.

Post workout:

Recovery classes are also gaining in popularity. These classes use tools such as the foam roller to help the muscles bounce back, correct muscular tightness that affects posture, and relieve tension.

All ages:

Finally, fitness classes for people 50 and over are predicted to be a huge 2016 trend. This one really should come as no surprise since there are 77 million baby boomers, and preventative health care (such as diet and fitness) is far preferable to reactive health care.

None of this is to say that other workouts, such as Zumba, Pilates, and indoor cycling, are any less effective or fun – but they are expected to be edged out by the above choices when it comes to popularity. There are so many fun and challenging ways to exercise these days – why not see if there’s something on the list you haven’t tried yet and might enjoy in 2016?

If you, like so many others, have spent the last month overindulging on sweets, booze, or other high-calorie foods, and now you’re reaping what you sowed on the scale, don’t worry. Follow these easy tips for undoing the damage and, in no time, you’ll be wearing your skinny jeans again.

1: Keep eating. Skipping meals in an effort to shed holiday weight quickly will only make you hungrier and set you up for overeating later. Start each day with some protein, such as eggs, to keep you satisfied throughout the morning, and don’t skip lunch, either.

2: Stay away from the white stuff. Sugar and white breads and rice can cause you to retain water as well as making your energy level spike – and then drop, sending you in search of more carbs to boost you back up. Cut these foods out of your diet, and you’ll notice a drop in your weight as well as an increase in your energy.

3: Toss the holiday leftovers. When the holidays are over, get rid of all the holiday food. Keeping temptation sitting in your refrigerator is a recipe for disaster.

4: Write down your goals. Come up with a specific goal and write it down – that way, it becomes verifiable and real. You can also keep a record of what you eat and what exercise you complete to give yourself accountability and motivation.

5: Exercise. If the busy-ness of the holidays kept you from your workouts, now is the time to get back into the habit of exercising regularly. Exercise burns calories and also improves your mood, which may help you make better food choices.

6: Drink more water. Water helps fill you up, keeps you from mistaking thirst for hunger, and helps flush out the “bad” stuff you’ve been overdoing during the holidays.

7: Be patient. You didn’t gain ten pounds in five days; you won’t lose it that fast, either. Changing your diet is a challenge, and it’s the long-term that matters.

8: Don’t beat yourself up. Enjoying festive food with family and friends is part of the holiday experience, and that’s okay. Accept that what’s done is done, and move forward.

If your clothes got a little tighter this December, no problem – making a few simple changes may be all you need to get back on track after the holiday season.

Lets take a look at what is causing the the increased risks of cancer from meat.

Nitrate curing

The use of nitrate salts for processing meats such as ham, bacon, sausages etc. has been around since the middle ages, as a way of preserving meat, as well as contributing to the characteristic pink colouring. It was an extremely helpful process to allow meat to be included in diets, contibuting essential nutrients in times before refrigeration/freezing was possible. Tastewise, preserved meats are incredibly popular, doesn’t bacon make pretty much anything taste amazing?

The issue with nitrates is that when they are digested, they lead to carcinogenic byproducts forming in the gut.

Smoking

The smoking process, which has fantastic antibacterial and tenderising qualities, has the unfortunate side effect of producing a type of hydrocarbon which is cancer causing.

High temperature cooking

There are also carcinogenic effects that come with the high temperatures used in smoking meats, but this can also come with any high temperature form of cooking, such as if you are grilling, sautéing, caramelizing, or searing red meat, especially on a BBQ.

Which cancers?

Colorectal (bowel) cancer appears to be the big one affected by processed meats. However… the Cancer Council Australia explains that of all people who are diagnosed with bowel cancer, only 1 in 6 of these people develop it from excess red/processed meat. So while overall risk for a 50 year old male may sit at 1 in 300, the risk of it being caused from any sort of meat is much lower.

How do I reduce my risk?

Keep to moderate portions of red meat, a few times a week, as it is actually a fantastic source of a lot of important nutrients, such as iron. A rough guide is the size of the palm of your hand. Try and include fish or white meat a few meals a week, and even a day or two of vegetarian options like tofu, lentils, or nuts is a great way to ensure a balanced diet while still getting in your protein. Cook meat with gentler methods, at lower temperatures, and a bit of pink is much better than well done. Use a marinate, or cook in liquids.

A byproduct of reducing your meat portions is that your meals should include extra vegetables/salad to make up for it, which are rich in cancer fighting antioxidants. Pick richly coloured vegetables, and ensure you have some dark green ones in the mix. The added fibre in your diet is yet another protective element against cancer.

Lastly- just use your common sense, try and limit processed meats to just occasional foods, not everyday foods. There’s no reason you can’t enjoy a hot Sunday morning breakfast! Processed meats are often higher in fat, salt, and calories anyway, so limiting them, regardless of any cancer causing factors, is a sensible healthy choice regardless.