Drab to fab lunches

I have always made up a lunch to take to work, mainly for financial reasons. It was tedious to make up and unexciting to eat, mainly consisting of a sandwich or a dry salad on a good day. By the end of the afternoon I was often bloated, uncomfortable and lacked energy. That was always my weakest point, often leading to poor nutritional choices. I’m sure we’ve all reached for the biscuits as our sugar levels have dropped!

Preparing food the old fashioned way—at home in your own kitchen—doesn’t have to be time consuming, complicated or expensive. With our simple guidelines, taking a few minutes to prepare quick, healthy and delicious lunches will give you more control over what you and your family are eating, help you master your blood sugar levels to avoid getting too hungry and save you money too!

The ideal lunch should provide a mixture of vitamins, minerals, fat, carbohydrates and protein. The carbohydrates and fat provide the energy which helps keep our blood sugar level - the body's fuel system which draws on glucose (sugar) – stable.

Why should we maintain a balanced diet by healthy eating? It can:

• give you vitality and energy
• help you stay at a weight that's right for you
• boost your immune system
• improve your sports performance and fitness levels
• delay the effects of ageing
• keep you active and fit into old age
• help beat tiredness and fatigue
• protect teeth and keep gums healthy
• enhance your memory and ability to concentrate 
• minimise the risk of serious illnesses like heart disease, certain cancers, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes 

Fab lunches

It only takes a few minutes to make up any combination of the following healthy lunch ingredients: 

avocado

edamame/ green beans 

chickpeas

red cabbage in cider vinegar

quinoa (Tesco and Merchand Gourmet sell their own ready-made quinoa)

couscous with a squeeze of lemon

hummus
tzatziki

pesto

tomato/ pepper/ cucumber red onion/ spring onion

spinach/ lettuce

pumpkin/ chia/ flax/ sunflower seeds

beetroot/ courgette/ cauliflower/ carrot grated

flatbread

Protein sources - boiled egg, goats cheese, chicken, turkey, salmon or mackerel

Add a simple dressing of cider vinegar and olive oil dressing (1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil), you just need to remember that a little bit of dressing goes long way. Chilli flakes and/or black pepper will add extra heat if desired. Recipes for pesto, tzatziki, hummus and flatbread are available on the ‘side recipes’ on our blog.

Dessert...yes really!

natural, Greek or soya yoghurt with cinnamon, berries, nuts or seeds 

coconut/ almond/ soya milk with chia seeds and berries

Tips for making the change and staying with it:

1. Stock up with a variety of foods from the list.
2. Prepare batches of grated vegetables, quinoa, couscous, hummus, pickled red cabbage or pesto at the weekend.
3. Make extra portions when you’re cooking dinner in the evening for leftovers the next day. 
4. Buddy up with a work colleague or friend - you are more likely to keep motivated with mutual support.
5. Ditch the junk and get rid of sweets, biscuits, crisps and other unhealthy snacks. The less you’re tempted by junk food, the healthier you’ll eat.
6. Make time for meals. Try to have 30 minutes each day to eat a healthy meal. You’ll come back refreshed and re-energised.
7. Plan your meals. If you know you’re going to eat a meal and two snacks at work, plan ahead. If you’re prepared it will help you avoid getting too hungry and indulging on unhealthy junk food. 
8. Start each day with a full bottle of water and make an effort to drink water often starting first thing in the morning.
9. Choose balanced snacks with a combination of carbohydrates, healthy fats, and lean proteins to boost your metabolism, increase energy, and feel fuller longer, for example peanut butter and oatcakes or a handful of almonds.
10. Soup is an excellent dish for lunch because it is warming, nutritious and low in calories.

Nowadays, I choose to prepare my own lunch for nutritional reasons. Making positive changes to this important meal of the day will help you - just like it did me - feel your best in no time at all. What woman doesn’t enjoy receiving compliments about their weight loss?  Moreover, I feel full of energy, my cravings have subsided, I have fewer mood swings and am free from regular headaches too.  As a self-confessed ‘foodie’, I certainly don’t feel deprived in any way at all.

Bon appetit!  

Alison x

How can I lose weight and feel good too?

In my teens I was convinced I would be happy if I was skinny, happiness was wrapped up in another body that I had yet to attain. I was forever trying to eat less to the point that my blood sugars were low, and I was so hungry that I would crave high sugar foods.

I did not understand these things and was stuck in a vicious circle of not eating then eating too much. After trying numerous crash diets, well known and not so, I decided that diets just didn't work for me and that I had to work on my mindset first. However even in my twenties whilst slowly losing nearly 3 stone over a period of two years, I was still convinced that it was all about eating less, and my energy levels and moods would dip (really it was like a roller coaster!). Of course losing weight and achieving your goals is fantastic, the complements from friends are wonderful and the new clothes (such a great feeling), however achieving that weight loss is not a magic happy pill.

Embarking on a bachelor of Science degree in Food and Nutrition, I decided I wanted to learn more about nutrients and eating for wellness. It was such a fantastic journey and thinking of food as medicine was a completely new idea to me (but so true!).

There are so many diets and ways of eating and just because your friend or a celebrity eats a certain way, that does not mean that it will work for you. We are all so different and our dietary habits change as we age. I think the goals change too, reducing the risks of cancers, illness, looking younger, having energy and feeling healthy become the aims. 

Remember healthy weight and the number on the scales are just a side effect of eating for true wellness!

How do you know you are not eating the right foods for you? Do you feel well, or do you feel tired? Eating food should give you energy and make you feel well, happy and healthy. Feeling bloated and tired should not be a normal state of being.

However it is not easy to know which foods to eat. What is being marketed as healthy, is not always as good for us as it should be e.g. a low fat yoghurt generally contains high levels of sugar, also the amount of conflicting information and studies makes it difficult to know what to do for the best. 

Believe me slaving over a hot cooker is not my idea of fun. I love to prepare and cook easy quick healthy meals, and you can cook from scratch using spices in the same amount of time as you can open a jar of sauce. So please feel free to try out the recipes we post and have a look at the blog list for other recipe websites (if you haven't done so already, subscribe by adding your email on the bottom of our home page and we will send you a free food plan with recipes and a shopping list).

10 Tips to eating for wellness

1. Read food labels -  Avoid foods which contain over 5g per 100g of sugar (Opt for full fat greek yoghurt - yes full fat your body and brain need it).
2. Aim to eat naturally 90% of the time - this means avoiding processed foods (subscribe by email for the free food plan for recipe ideas).
3. Do not drink with your meals - this dilutes the digestive enzymes and causes bloating. 
4. Eat 3-5 different types of vegetables each day and no more than 2 pieces of fruit. (Also avoid fruit juices - the fructose levels are very high).
5. Eat no more than 2 slices of bread (choose wholemeal/Rye/spelt if possible) per day.
6. Swap pasta for brown rice, quinoa or amaranth - remember a portion should be the size of your fist.
7. Drink lots of water - being hydrated will show in your skin, energy levels and concentration. Every cell in your body requires water (approximately 2 litres/6 glasses per day - fruit and herbal teas can be included in this).
8. If you like coffee or tea, limit this to maximum two cups per day.
9. Give your taste buds time and try different textures, sometimes when you try foods for the first time the taste is so different you think you are unable to eat them. Especially if your typical diet includes high carbohydrate foods.
10. Use chilli, black pepper, garlic and trial different spices and herbs to flavour foods.

Remember it is a journey to find the best way of eating for you, so enjoy experimenting and be good to yourself.

Enjoy life!

Kelly x

Exercise...It's never too late to start

I was a late starter to exercise. Although I have always enjoyed skiing, I didn't really do any regular exercise until my early forties but am now totally addicted, enjoy the many benefits of a wide range of different sports and wish I had started sooner. 

So what are the health benefits of exercise?

There's an overwhelming amount of evidence confirming that exercise is a key player in disease reduction, optimal mental, emotional and physical health and longevity. After reviewing some 40 papers published between 2006 and 2010, researchers found that exercise reduces the risk of about two dozen health conditions, ranging from cancer and heart disease to type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and depression. What is more, exercise also slows down the rate of ageing itself, providing perhaps the closest example of a real life fountain of youth as we will ever find.

Research has shown that regular exercise - even initiated late in life - offers profound health benefits. Among those who started exercising at age 50 and continued for 10 years, the rate of premature death declined dramatically, similar to giving up smoking and mirroring the level seen among people who had been working out their entire lives.

Optimal health is dependent on an active lifestyle, eating fresh, whole foods, avoiding as many processed foods as possible, and addressing the stress in your life. Ignoring any of these basic principles will eventually lead to a decline in health and any number of diseases.

No excuses...

Women in their 30s and 40s are busy. We have families, friends, work commitments and not much time for ourselves. Often we give up time spent taking care of our own health to care for those around us. We give up our exercise programs and find we don't have the energy we once had. We gain some weight or feel our body starting to sag, or both! The good news is, it's not too late to regain your health, energy and body with exercise.

The government goal is 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity on at least five days of the week, but at the beginning, your goal should simply be to start moving more. That might mean around the home, or in the garden - and it certainly doesn't have to be in a brightly lit, noisy gym.

But whatever you choose - whether it's Tai Chi, kick boxing or even cheerleading - the activity you do needs to be consistent and keep you motivated in order to reap the rewards. I would also advise a workout buddy to go with (friend, partner or fitness instructor both for motivation and support and safety. 

Start off slowly and gradually increase intensity as you grow stronger, avoiding activities that aggravate or cause pain. Just keep in mind that while you need to use caution, you do need to exercise at a level that is challenging to your body.

And what about exercise type? Aerobic activity - brisk walking, cycling or swimming - is the gold standard, as far as government guidelines are concerned, but strength, flexibility and balance training are also important and often ignored. 

One concern many women have as they age is the loss of bone density. While bone loss typically occurs more predominantly after age 50 (around menopause), it is wise to start incorporating exercises that will promote bone health earlier on. Weight-bearing cardiovascular exercises, such as walking or jogging are preferred over non-weight-bearing activities like swimming or cycling. Moderate or high intensity activities elicit the most bone-building benefits and should be added as tolerated to your workout program. As with all workout programs, consult your doctor before starting.

The importance of nutrition

There are several unavoidable truths about what you eat.

The first is, you cannot ‘out train poor nutritional choices’.

What this means is, regardless of how hard you exercise, if your diet is poor, you simply will never get the results you are longing for. The fact is, you will never actually see those muscles, or improve your trouble spots unless you make sound nutritional choices.

Secondly, going ‘on a diet’ is one of the most effective ways to GAIN weight!

Lowering your calories excessively can lead eventually lead to more body fat, and for most women, this is a recurring cycle. This will make you unhappy, and unhealthy. Making sure that your diet is jammed with nutritionally dense whole foods will multiply the results you will get from any workout regime you decide to use.

Top nutritional tips:

Include protein with every meal. This will help to stabilise blood sugar and help to control your appetite.

Steer clear of refined sugar.  

Eat your veggies!  

Eat bread and pasta in moderation.  

Never drink your calories, so stay away from soft drinks and fruit juice.

Physical exercise is particularly important to maintain a high quality of life, as limited mobility can take a great toll…So start moving, and don't stop no matter what your age!

Some useful ways to get you started:

Couch to 5K free NHS podcast and iOS & Android app running plan to get you started

Myfitnesspal free iOS & Android - easy to use app highly recommended by fitness instructors (Alison and Kelly have both used this successfully too)

Fitocracy free iOS & Android app that provides a reward system for anyone struggling with motivation

Garminfit 69p iOS & Android app which uses the GPS tracker on your phone to track your speed, distance and elevation whilst measuring how many calories you've burnt

Happy exercising 

Alison

Are your habits healthy?

It is only in the past few years that I have started to think about my habits and actually become quite fascinated with forming good habits and breaking unhealthy/self sabotaging habits. Through analysis of my own habits and research I have found these are crucial to enjoying a healthy lifestyle or not as the case maybe. 

We generally default to the habits we form in early years, those that we observe everyday in childhood. We then beat ourselves up for not being able to break unhealthy habits that we have been following for 20 or more years! As a species we can be extremely tough on ourselves and if we are not able to stick to a diet or exercise plan, then outwardly we may make an excuse but inwardly feel useless, and label ourselves as undisciplined, weak, lazy and so the list goes on. Forgive me for the generalisation that was maybe just me.

Charles Duhigg explains in his book ‘The Power of Habit: why we do the things we do’, that an understanding of the nature of habits and the triggers associated with each one, allows us to practice new routines in order to form new habits. This has been my experience in forming healthy habits not only for eating and exercise, but also for problem solving, thinking positively and many other factors which are important in leading a life full of Joie de vivre. 

After years of trial and error and self punishment (I am not even joking!) I have come to realise that making the smallest of changes gradually is the best approach to breaking a bad habit or forming a new healthy habit or doing both. As a society we want everything to be quick and happen now, one of the main reasons diets did not work for me was that I wanted to lose lots of weight by next week, and if it did not happen then I gave up. Does this sound familiar? 

It is the small things you do every day on a consistent basis that will make the big differences. You have the choice to eat the extra chocolate biscuit every day for 1 year gaining 6 pound in weight, or you have the choice to reduce your daily intake by 60 calories (same amount as the biscuit) in a year and lose the 6 pound. This is just a small example and of course this can be magnified. Think about this and examine your day, you do not have to starve yourself to attain your goals, but if you are willing to make one small change each day in 30 days you will notice a difference.

30 day habit challenge

It has been proven that it takes between 21 and 30 days to form a new habit, are you willing to give it a try? We would love you to pick a habit from the ideas below or think of another habit that will improve your life in some way. Please comment on your progress or feel free to contact us ak.joiedevivre@gmail.com for any support we can give. It helps to declare your habit challenge to make it feel like an actual commitment, so feel free to declare it on our blog. It is exciting setting your self a challenge so enjoy it!

1. Do you take sugar in tea/coffee? If you do aim to reduce the amount each day for 30 days e.g. 2 sugars - reduce to 1.5, 1 sugar reduce to half or if this is too difficult at first reduce to three quarters.
2. Do you sleep less than 7 hours each night? This is detrimental to your state of mind and preventing an enjoyment life. If this is a life choice and you generally have 6 hours for example, aim to go to bed an hour earlier for the 30 days. It helps to have a routine at bedtime and avoid too much TV.
3. Do you exercise? If you have been unable to start a routine exercise plan, commit to walk/run ten minutes each day (preferably at the same time every day e.g. after dinner or every morning before breakfast)
4. Have you been through a tough time or find it difficult to think positive? Commit to spending 5 minutes when you wake up and another 5 minutes at bedtime to list as many things you are grateful for e.g. the sun is shining etc.
5. Do you skip breakfast? - There are conflicting views on wether eating breakfast affects your health or weight, but I find that a healthy breakfast is a wonderful way to kick start the day, and evidence shows that in general people within a healthy weight range do eat breakfast. Choose a breakfast from our free food plan (subscribe by entering your email below) and commit to eating even a very small serving every day for 30 days.
6. Do you eat a sugary snack at a certain time each day (at slump o clock)? Try swapping the sugary snack for a healthy habit e.g. a little walk, a drink of water, a handful of nuts etc.
7. Do you eat less than 3 servings of vegetables a day? Include one more serving of vegetables each day for 30 days(subscribe to the free food plan for ideas).

Enjoy life!

Lots of love

Kelly x