10 SIMPLE IDEA’S FOR MAKING YOUR HOME A HEALTHY ONE!
I know how easy it is to fall into bad habits that have a negative impact your health, happiness and wellbeing!
We all get so busy, that we try to find the fastest solutions to get everything done, get food on the table and keep a household afloat. We fall into bed at night exhausted, only to get up the next day and do it all over again…..sound familiar?
The price we pay for living on take-away, getting machines to do as much as possible and not making time for our wellbeing is draining our energy levels, increasing our weight and keeping us stuck in the downward spiral. The following 10 tips are easy to incorporate into daily life and get your family on the path to a fitter and happier lifestyle…….
I have lost 28 kilo’s and kept it off for well over a year now, and I know how damn good it feels and how much more I get done…it is soooooo worth it!
1. FIND A FITNESS FRIEND
Get your partner, buddy, bestie or the whole family to join you for a regular walk, visit to the gym or join a sports team. Just find someone else to share moving with, so you get up off the couch! When you know someone is waiting for you to show up, all those wonderful excuses you can come up with get put on the back burner. Create a simple goal chart with rewards for sticking with it.
2. DOUBLE UP DINNERS
Every healthy dinner you cook, double the recipe and freeze the other half. Quickly you will build up a good supply of dinners that can be ready to eat in a flash, certainly quicker than you can drive down to your local takeaway shop. Organise a ‘Swap Club’ with family, friends or co-workers, where you each provide a meal that you swap around with each other. Great for variety and discovering different recipies.
3. SUPER SNACKS
Only stock your fridge and panty with healthy snacks. Save money and your waistline by not allowing processed and expensive snacks into your shopping trolley. Dried fruit, nuts, fresh fruit, vegetable sticks, rice crackers and low fat biscuits are all you need to provide healthy snacks to fill tummies. Every now and then we bake a slice or biscuits for a treat, but not often (birthday parties excluded – then we go to town with all the naughties, ’cause it’s fun).
4. BANNING BUBBLES
Soft drink has got to be one of the worst things you can consume! It is nothing but a sugar laden, chemical cocktail that has not a single health benefit. Ban it from your place and replace it with water. Hydrated bodies are happy bodies. We do have Golden Circle Low Joule Cordial in our house for when we really feel like something sweet AND Champagne is excluded from the banning list, do like the odd glass if I may say so!
5. HEALTHY OPTION DINING
Find restaurants near you that provide healthy options on their menu’s. We all deserve to have a night off cooking occassionally, so find ones that will allow you to go out and enjoy your meal without the guilt and that heavy feeling after eating a meal ladden with fat.
6. CREATE A HEALTHY FOOD COOK BOOK
Get a ring binder and some plastic pockets next time you are out shoppping. Go through magazines or cook books and cut out the recipies that fit into the healthy catagory. Keep them all in the binder, so when you are meal planning or making a shopping list, you don’t sit and go through cook books full on fat laden options that tempt you. It is also handy when you are cooking as you simply remove the recipe from the folder still in it’s plastic pocket and it is protected from cooking spills and sticky fingers.
7. HEADING OUT THE DOOR
Before you leave the house, pack a water bottle and a bag of healthy snacks into your bag. No matter what happens during the day, you will have something healthy to sustain you, rather than buying something fat or sugar laden. If I don’t have something with me I cannot resist doughnuts, yummy but soooo bad, so I always have something with me to nibble on and it really helps me walk past Doughnut King (they really should discontinue Caramel Doughnuts just for my sake)!
8. DITCHING THE DRYER
It is so tempting to take the clothes out of the washing machine and pop them in the dryer. Save your money, save your clothes and do some stretching by hanging the clothes out on the line.
9. KEEPING IT HEALTHY AT ‘THE OFFICE’
Always take your own lunch to work, ducking out to get lunch will rarely see you making healthy choices. Try and get your co-workers in on the act and together you can all bring in something healthy and enjoy a ‘buffet’ of choices everyday. DO NOT eat lunch at your desk. Make sure you get up off the chair, move around, even if it is only for a short while. It will re-energise you, burn some calories and help you have a more productive afternoon.
10. DON’T GET SUCKED INTO THE AFTERNOON SLUMP SUGAR FIX
When the afternoon slump arrives it is so common to reach for a sugary treat to boost you back up! This is short term glory and adds so many extra calories. If you are feeling sluggish, have a big drink of water before you do anything else. Dehydration is usually the cause of this slump, so water will boost the energy levels to help you get through the rest of your day. Coffee is another ‘friend’ we often turn too for a pickup, but coffee only dehydrates you even more, so stick to water, works wonders.
Try the above tips for two weeks, you won’t believe how different you feel, and the belt will do up a notch down. If you have a blow out day, which we all do every now an then, just enjoy it, and don’t rinse and repeat the next day and the next day and the next!
A great recipe to start you off tonight is my Fast and Fabulous Asian Inspired Beef Salad. Whilst you can’t freeze fresh salad items, you can double up on the beef and it freezes really well. Just defrost overnight in the fridge when you want to use it next.
What is your favourite healthy restaurant?