7 Ways To Manage Your Health

Health, Fitness, Diet, Nutrition, Healthy Weight Week, Sugar Cravings

This week is Healthy Weight Week, so it’s the perfect time to reassess your lifestyle goals and better manage your health. Whether you want to incorporate more greens into your diet, curb your sugar cravings or crank up that exercise regime, we have tips from a variety of health and fitness gurus to help you get there.

1. Front-load

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. Heard the saying? Mandy Bahn, creator of Change Room Foods says: “eating your largest meal upon rising means that you have a longer period of time to use up the energy you’ve consumed, reducing your odds of having it accumulate as fat.” Upon waking your metabolism is also at its fastest, meaning you’ll burn more calories in a shorter period of time, she advises.

2. Go grocery shopping after a nutritious breakfast

They say you should never shop when you’re hungry, and dietitian and nutritionist, Larina Robinson, agrees. Instead, she insists hitting the grocer’s mid-morning after breakfast because “you’re less likely to let hunger, stress or tiredness rule your decisions in the morning.” Not only will you “bypass cravings for a sweet treat or sneaky extras,” you’ll save some extra cash by not buying impulsively out of hunger.

3. Eat intuitively

A nutrition plan that works for your friend won’t necessarily work for you. We all have different types of bodies, so the requirements for losing or maintaining weight differ with each individual. “The key is to listen to your body, and figure out what makes you feel YOUR best,” insists holistic wellness coach Jordanna Levin.

4. Always put fat on your veggies

Low-fat diets have been a popular weight-loss option for many years, but plans such as the Paleo diet and the Atkins program have recently put fat back on our plates. Valeria Ramirez from The Well Nest says: “Adding fat like butter or oil or avocado to your salad or steamed veg will allow your body to absorb the fat soluble vitamins… If you don’t absorb nutrition, you may become nutritionally deficient which will present itself as cravings leading to over eating. ” This isn’t a free pass to add lashings of butter to your baked potato, however. Be mindful of the types of fats you’re putting into your body and remember; everything in moderation.

5. Break the sugar addiction

So it turns out that a spoon full of sugar really doesn’t make the medicine go down. Instead it causes all sorts of health problems, including insulin resistance and weight-gain. Going cold turkey on sugar can be challenging, so it’s best to slowly cut down in order to avoid any nasty withdrawal symptoms such as headaches and cravings. Nutritionist, Lindsay-Anne Dunsmore suggests: “If you like two teaspoons of sugar in your tea, work on cutting back to one teaspoon for a week or two then try half a teaspoon, working down to eventually none. If you usually have 2 biscuits of an evening, try only having one.”

6. Leave the skin on

The skin that you might peel away from your apple or cut off from a pumpkin before roasting actually has loads of nutrition! It contains concentrated sources of nutrients, including fibre which is essential for gut health, advises Dietitian Larina Robinson. Be sure to give them a good wash before eating to avoid ingesting any nasty pesticides that may be present.

7. Exercise for your brain

We all know that exercising is great for the body, but did you know that it’s also great for the brain? ”Exercise cranks up the body’s production of serotonin and dopamine, brain chemicals that are crucial to happy mood, and it boosts levels of the feel-good chemicals called endorphins,” insists former Gymnast, Lauren Hannaford.

Image Via ThinkVidya

Tips Courtesy Of Isowhey