Top Ten Barriers to Weight Loss Success
July 10, 2017
Weight Loss Recipe | Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken
July 10, 2017
Being healthy can seem like a never-ending list of things that you should be doing, but can never quite keep up with. Should you be buying organic only? Going to cross-fit? Juicing? Taking supplements? Drinking filtered water? It’s all so overwhelming, let alone time consuming!
So instead, what are three easy and effective things that we can set into action straight away that will have fast and most importantly BIG impacts on our health today?
1: Reduce processed foods
By increasing your intake of whole foods or minimally processed foods, and reaching your intake of highly processed unhealthy foods, you may just find that you notice a significant improvement in your energy levels, avoiding those sugar crashes and cravings. Over time these more nutrient dense foods will start to have greater and greater effects on how healthy you feel, how you think, and how your whole body functions.
Foods to choose include more of are fresh whole fruit and vegetables (skin on preferably), whole grains or grainy/wholemeal breads and cereals, lentils, fresh cuts of lean meat, poultry, and fish, eggs, reduced fat dairy such as milk, low sugar/natural yoghurt, nuts, and seeds.
Foods to avoid include white bread or crackers, high sugar/highly processed cereals, high sugar foods like cookies, cakes, flavoured milk, or lollies, and high fat foods like crisps, chips, heavily salted high GI savoury crackers, or high fat processed meats.
2: A healthy breakfast
For starters, if you don’t normally eat breakfast then you will benefit greatly from including this important meal in your day, setting you up for better eating habits through the rest of the day. If you do normally eat breakfast but choose something like a sugary cereal, sweet jam on white toast, or an iced coffee, then changing to a grainy form of carbohydrate like whole oat porridge, muesli, grainy toast, or other low GI healthy cereal will help keep you feeling fuller for longer, with sustained energy levels.
You will want to pair this with some form of healthy protein, which will help you feel satisfied, and help stabilise blood sugar levels.Good choices include eggs, whole milk or natural yoghurt, fish (like salmon), or nuts and seeds.
3: Drink water
It’s amazing how many of us function every single day in a dehydrated state. Not only does this make it more difficult for our body to clear out toxins/waste when we don’t drink enough fluids, but we don’t think as clearly, have slower reflexes, and show a poorer performance in physical tasks.
Simply aiming to drink a glass of water with every meal, and then 1-2 in between meals will keep your hydration status topped up. Often sitting a drink bottle beside you will encourage you to sip periodically through the day, and may be easier to handle than drinking a whole glass at once.
