A Simple Multi-Coloured Salad Idea

We had a fantastic multicoloured salad for lunch today and I just wanted to encourage you to do the same for one or more of your meals over the next few days. If you don't know where to start then go to the fruit n vege market and pick up some fresh:

• Rocket lettuce
• Red onion
• Avocado
• Fetta cheese
• Seedless olives
• Semi dried tomatoes 
• Salad seed mix
• Dressing - plain yoghurt, tahini and a dash of lemon and honey. 

Also had 2 eggs for a protein fix and it was so filling! We had white, yellow, red, purple and green - all natural with no numbers :)

What fresh colour combo will you come up with? 

PEAZ! 

John

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Why Exercising Can Quickly Go Pear Shaped

It is common for people wanting to control weight and in particular reduce their body fat to join a gym, play more sport or ramp up an exercise plan. This is generally a good decision, but why do people often find that the harder they work they either see no change in their weight and percentage body fat or worse their weight increases? Then being discouraged by poor or negative results they ditch their regular exercise only to see that their weight continues to go pear shaped - literally. The reasons and common steps are:

1. Exercising is great but will naturally create more demand for fuel and cause a greater desire for more food due to increased hunger and feeling the need to eat larger portions at mealtimes.
2. Without good nutrition we will usually pump in more of the same foods with high sugars, carbs and fat content with far greater calorie content than the calories we burn during the exercise.
3. The good thing is our cardiovascular fitness and strength can improve steadily but on the negative side we see a maintenance or worsening of our weight situation and our fat stores can increase.
4. Then we stop exercise through discouragement but are now accustomed to having larger meal sizes and don't cut down which leads to a rapid burst of weight and fat gain until our body reaches relative equilibrium.
5. The end result being heavier with more body fat than when we began :(

So should we not exercise? NO! - exercise and activity is an essential ingredient to achieving our heath goals and especially for weight management but exercise alone contributes only about 30-40% of weight control where good nutrition contributes the larger 60-70% portion. So what can we do?

1. Develop and implement a healthy nutrition plan low in processed foods, fats and sugar and high in protein and fibre before you launch into a new exercise regime.
2. Learn the real demands your body needs in your normal day to day activity and meet those demands with good nutritious and nourishing food that is particularly high in protein such as eggs, lean chicken, turkey, fish, lentils and nuts - especially almonds!
3. Get into the habit of drinking more water - work up to 8 glasses a day. Your body metabolism will improve and you will feel fuller and desire less food.
4. Begin your exercise plan and adjust your calorie intake up to meet it especially by increasing your mid morning and mid afternoon meals being careful to not to increase the sizes of your regular breakfast, lunch and dinner.
5. A combination of great nutrition and varied moderate impact exercise which is well monitored will help you to meet your health goals.

By the way what are your health goals?

Make a list and if you need help - ask your impact health coach for help!

PEAZ!
John

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed - The Importance of Accountability and Support in Optimal Health

Most of us need a helping hand along the way when it comes to goal setting and achieving great health results. If weight management, cardiovascular fitness, disease prevention and management were easy there would be no need for a highly complex health and medical industry. The following is a short list of essential friends we recommend to help achieve and maintain optimal health for you.

• A local GP you can trust and that you visit regularly for checkups is essential for positive long term health outcomes
• An ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL - be it physio, chiro, osteo - try them out and go with whatever works best for you. They have more to offer than help with your stiff back.
• your local DENTIST - there are so many systemic health problems that are related to poor dental health.
• And of course A HEALTH COACH! - will help to put the pieces of the health puzzle together for you and delver a personalised nutrition, exercise and illness prevention management plan that fits you and your lifestyle

HAVE YOU BUILT YOUR HEALTH FREIND NETWORK?

 If not start building for your future NOW to live your best and healthiest life :)

Peace,

John

Cholesterol Facts #1: LDL and HDL Cholesterol

1. Our bodies synthesise (make) enough of both types of cholesterol for our needs and there is no actual need to consume any cholesterol in our diet
2. Small amounts of both LDL (known commonly as bad) and HDL (good) cholesterol are essential for our bodies for cell health
3. Typically high levels of LDL are found in our blood when we are overweight and/or have an unhealthy diet
4. Both types of cholesterol are found only in food products containing animal fats but the following is a list of foods particularly high in LDL (bad) cholesterol:

• animal meat (especially with high levels of fat)
• processed meats such as salami and sausages
• foods cooked in animal fat - most fast foods, hot chips, etc
• cheese and eggs
• shellfish & prawns
• cake, baked desserts and bread
• butter, cream, milk

Most of the above foods can be eaten in moderation - except for fast foods, cake and desserts and cream which are best kept to a minimum as occasional treats.

And the food with the highest amount of cholesterol content? Lambs Brains!!

The Benefits of a 20 Minute Walk 3 times a week

A 20 minute good paced walk is great for our muscle health, good for our cardiovascular fitness, excellent for well being and can burn around 135 calories. Only 3 of these per week will make a positive change in our health :)

Weight Management is about the Trend

Weight management is less about the daily swings and more about the overall trend. that makes it important to weigh yourself daily at the same time under the same conditions but not to stress about the actual number. Over time we need to guide our bodyweight to go down, up or stay the same - according to our personal goals.

If you find this helpful please Share :)

Why You Should Eat Almonds Regularly Between Meals

3 Reasons why I recommend my clients to eat Almonds as a regular part of their nutrition plan:

1. Almonds between meals keeps your metabolism chugging and feeling full.
2. Almonds are a great source of protein and have a small amount of good fats with ZERO cholesterol.
3. Almonds are full of other nutrients such as magnesium, potassium and antioxidants and are great for your skin

This post is not sponsored by an almond factory :)

LET'S EAT!!