Healthy Eating Shouldn’t Be Boring

Deciding to change your diet and improve your nutrition is an admirable step, but it can be difficult to stick to a new eating plan if you find healthy food “boring.” You’ll soon begin to lose interest in eating meals loaded with fruits and vegetables while limiting the foods you used to crave.

The good news is, there are plenty of ways that you can keep your new diet interesting and enjoyable, so you’ll be more likely to continue the diet long-term.

Here are a few ways that you can keep a balanced diet interesting and prevent yourself from becoming bored.

Drinking Shakes or Juices

The thought of adding fruits and especially vegetables to every meal might make you shudder, but there are simple ways to get your vitamins and minerals. The easiest and best way to get all those important nutrients is by making shakes and smoothies that are loaded with all the vitamins and minerals you need to live a healthy life.

We’re not talking shop-bought ones here, they’re usually loaded with more fruit than veggies and are super-sized, loading you up on calories more than nutrients!

What’s great about making your own shakes and smoothies is the serving size. Rather than having to eat several cups of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, you can get the same amount of nutrients in an 8 or 16-ounce beverage.

You also have full control over the ingredients you’re using and the nutrients you’re taking in. That means you can try out new recipes with your favourite fruits and vegetables without getting bored of the same old thing every day.

Focus on Variety

A monotonous diet is bleugh! One of the most common reasons that people give up on their diets is because of the monotony of it all. Though there are certain foods and beverages that’ll help to improve your health and nutritional intake, it can be incredibly boring to eat and drink the same few items every day.

That’s why variety is so important! There’s no shortage of healthy foods and beverages and there are practically unlimited recipes to keep you interested in your diet and health, all at the same time.

The best way to implement variety into your diet is by doing your own research and compiling a comprehensive list of healthy recipes. In addition to learning about new foods that you didn’t even know you liked, you’ll always have something new to look forward to on your diet!

Leave Some Room for Fun

Starting a new, healthy diet usually means leaving your favourite foods in the past, especially if they were full of salt, fat, or sugar. While you know it’s for your own good, it’s completely normal to crave these foods every once in a while, even if you’re on a strict diet.

Your body requires food and beverages to stay alive, but as humans, we also get an enormous amount of enjoyment in what we’re eating and drinking. So allow yourself a little indulgence occasionally. A new diet doesn’t always mean you have to eat healthy 100% of the time.

Though you should do so in moderation, you should leave some room for fun when it comes to your new diet. That means allowing yourself to eat some of your favourite foods, as long as you’re not doing so every day or seriously setting your goal back.

Final Thoughts

When you think about nutrition, you probably think about swapping out your entire current diet and replacing it with nutrient-dense foods. Though doing so will undoubtedly improve your health, it can be a bit boring and negatively impact your relationship with food. That’s why it’s so important to keep your new diet interesting and something you can stick to.

If you want some pointers to get you started then we can help you out at Inspire Fitness.  If you just want some ideas then we’ve got recipe packs which consist of healthy, nutritious but delicious recipes.  You can even subscribe and get a new recipe pack each month with 15 super, healthy recipes including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack options.  Every recipe has the macronutrient breakdown, simple instructions and MyFitnessPal barcodes if you’re tracking your intake.

If you’d like a bit more help, then perhaps our 21-day transformation is for you?  3 weeks of meal plans, grocery lists, coaching, and daily check-in to provide accountability.  Get in touch if you’d like to know more.

The Real Deal About Artificial Flavours

When was the last time you looked at a food label?  You know, those staple items that you pick up every week without thinking about it.  Have you looked at the ingredient list on that box of cereal, packet of biscuits or jar of sauce?

Do you even know what all those ingredients are?

There are a ton of artificial, chemical, “junky” ingredients in foods these days.  If you see an ingredient called “artificial flavour,” or “xxxx flavouring” what exactly is it?

For the most part, it’s a secret! Seriously! Big food companies don’t want their proprietary flavours to be known, so they’re allowed to say “artificial flavour” or “fruit flavouring” or “meat flavouring” and leave the actual details out.

Surely that shouldn’t be right?

Why use “artificial flavours’ in a product?

When you make an apple muffin at home, what gives it the apple flavour?

Apples of course! Like real, whole, chopped, or shredded apples or applesauce.

But let’s say you’re a big food company and you’re making thousands of apple muffins every day. In a factory. On an assembly line.

How would you process the huge amount of apples that are to be chopped, grated or made into applesauce? Would you have a separate “Apple Room” where all the apple processing happens? What if one batch is slightly riper, or tastes slightly different from the rest? Will your customers notice a different taste?

Apples are perishable – they go bad.  So how would you guarantee the apples won’t go bad? (Remember the saying “it only takes one bad apple to ruin the whole bunch?”).

And what if you can have an apple flavour that tastes better than using real apples? Something that makes people want to keep buying your muffins every week.  It is true – some of the artificial flavours are engineered to give an even better taste than the real food.

Companies will often opt for the easier and more profitable option like artificial flavours.

Artificial flavours last longer and will be virtually identical batch after batch.  In our apple muffin example, artificial flavours used to make an apple muffin are ready to go, so you don’t need to peel, cut, or worry about apples going brown, or that they’re not tasting “appley” enough.

Oh, and it’s way cheaper than using real, whole apples.

Pro Tip: If the package says “flavoured” in the description, then the flavour is artificial. For example, “apple muffin” contains at least some apple. But “apple flavoured muffin” contains artificial flavour and no apple.

Safety of artificial flavours

While there are some flavours banned for use in many countries, other countries allow them.

There is an approved list of flavours that are accepted to be safe and are used by the food industry. They are considered GRAS, or “generally recognized as safe.”

Even if they are 100% safe to ingest, the mere fact that an artificial flavour is in food makes it an artificial food.  It’s not a real, whole food. Having an artificial flavour as an ingredient almost defines that food to be a processed, “food-like product.” Sometimes referred to as “junk.”

Artificial flavours in food indicate that the food, regardless of the marketing on the package, or any health claims, is not a healthy choice and should be avoided or at least restricted to an occasional treat.

Conclusion

Artificial flavours are for the food companies benefit, not yours.  They don’t improve your food but make it more profitable for the manufacturer.  Try to limit the amount of food that you eat that contains flavourings.

Can I Eat More If I Work Out?

Ooh here’s a good one!

Usually, when we’re trying to lose weight the first thing we do is increase our exercise but what we eat has a far bigger impact on our weight and a common mistake a lot of people make if they’re not tracking their food is that they increase their exercise but also, what they eat!

More activity means you’re often hungrier and without even realising it you eat more, undoing the calorie burn benefit of the extra exercise you’re doing.

In fact, some people believe exercising more means you CAN eat more without negatively impacting the positive progression of your health. That’s especially true when they consider the calories and nutrients lost through intense and frequent exercise.

A combination of a balanced diet, a consistent exercise routine, and a stable sleep schedule is ideal when it comes to improving the current status of your health. Yet, there’s a point at which diet and exercise intertwine and make matters a bit more complicated.

Below, we’ll discuss the role that losing calories and nutrients plays in the amount of food you should be eating on days you work out.

Replacing Lost Calories

No matter what type of exercise you’re participating in, you’re burning a set number of calories based on how long and how intensely you perform the exercise.

When you burn more calories than you’re consuming throughout the average day, you’ll experience weight loss. That’s great if you’re looking to lose weight, but it’s not so great if you’re trying to build muscle and strength.

What if weight loss isn’t your goal?

To maintain your weight on days that you exercise, you’ll need to be taking in as many calories as you’re burning through exercise which means upping your calories on exercise days!

You should try to limit the extra calories to about how many calories you burned during your workout in order to maintain your current weight. A few extra or a few less won’t make much of a difference but being a few hundred calories off can make you gain or lose weight!

Eating More Nutrients to Refuel

When you exercise, your body is using carbohydrates, fats, and proteins to provide you with the energy you need to complete your workout. Additionally, your body loses electrolytes like sodium and potassium when you exercise intensely.

After you’re done with your workout, it’s incredibly important that you replace the nutrients you lost during exercise and supply your body with the fuel it needs to continue on with your day.

Though that means eating more over the course of your day, it also means eating the right food. The “extra” food that you’re eating on days in which you work out should be nutrient-dense and help to return your body to its natural state.

The Limitations

You can eat more during the day if you’re burning calories and losing nutrients during exercise, but there are quite a few limitations.

But working out doesn’t enable you to consume unhealthy foods and not experience the negative health consequences associated with them. That means working out doesn’t make it okay to hit up a local fast food joint on your way home from the gym.

Coming home from the gym after a 30-minute run only to eat a cheeseburger and French fries with a large soda won’t only put you above your daily recommended calories, but it’ll also overload your body with unhealthy fats, sugars, and salt.

Rather than burning calories and improving your health, your body must now work to rid itself of the unhealthy level of these nutrients that you just consumed. It practically reverses the positive effects of your workout!

You should be replacing the number of calories that you lost and focus on replenishing the nutrients that your body craves post-workout.

Final Thoughts

In short, yes. If you’re looking to maintain your current weight, you’ll need to be consuming more calories and nutrients on the days that you’re exercising. But you need to make sure that the additional calories and nutrients you’re consuming after a workout are healthy and support your health and fitness goals.

Balanced Meals Mean More Nutrients

If you’ve done one of our coaching programmes during lockdown you’ll know that we often add an action “Eat a balanced meal” and you’ll know exactly what a balanced meal is because we give you the information but what if you haven’t recently done one of our coaching programmes?

Do you even know what a “balanced meal” includes?

Everybody knows just how important it is to maintain a healthy diet to improve overall health. But, there’s much more to starting a healthy diet than simply eating foods that are regarded as stereotypically “healthy.”

When you’re trying to be healthy you need to understand why your body needs specific nutrients throughout the course of the day, the role that balanced meals play in improving health, and how to add variety to your diet to stay interested.

What Your Body Needs

When most people think about diets, they place a heavy emphasis on the number of calories they’re consuming over the course of the day. However, the actual nutrients that you’re consuming are much more important than the calorie count.

That’s because your body desperately needs each of the macronutrients and micronutrients to function properly. These nutrients include:

• Carbohydrates
• Proteins
• Fats
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Water

Think about it this way. If you’re eating the standard 2,000 calories per day, but you’re eating a diet loaded with fats and sugars, you’ll be much more likely to increase your risk of developing health conditions and gaining weight than if the diet were more balanced with nutrient-dense foods, rather than calorie-dense foods.

Your overall goal when it comes to consuming a more balanced diet should be to get the nutrients that your body requires without overdoing it.

Getting too much or too little of specific nutrients can cause negative health consequences that can effectively set your new diet back even further.

Why Balanced Meals are So Important

There are quite a few reasons that balanced diets are considered so important.

First of all, balanced meals contain plenty of nutrients in one meal and allow you to spread out your nutrient consumption throughout the day. Rather than getting all of your vitamin C in the morning, for example, you can get it in smaller portions throughout the day.

This can help you to maintain consistent levels of the required nutrients at all times rather than having them spike with specific meals.

Balanced meals are also much more interesting to consume. With a truly balanced meal, your meal will be stocked full of different tastes, textures, colours, and nutrients. That means you have many more options when it comes to different types of meals that you can make.

Adding Some Variety to Your Diet

In order to stick to any diet, particularly a more balanced one, you need to add a lot of variety. There are a few reasons for that.

Variety means that you’re getting a range of different foods and therefore a range of different nutrients.  Eating the same foods day in, day out could mean that you’re missing out on certain nutrients by never, or rarely, consuming foods that contain them.

Also, eating the same foods daily is boring and you’ll be far more likely to revert to your previously unhealthy habits. When you lose interest in eating because the food doesn’t appeal to you or it’s become too repetitive, then you’ll lose focus and get off track.

Also, it makes your diet and healthy eating more fun. When you’re constantly cooking new meals, trying out new ingredients, and pairing new foods, you’ll be much more interested in eating, even if it is considered a “healthy” balanced diet.

Variety also allows you to strategically select the nutrients that you’re getting with each meal. By selecting specific foods or ingredients, you can better target the nutrients that you’re lacking in and cut out on some of the nutrients that you’re getting too much of.

Final Thoughts

Before you completely revamp your current diet to eat only healthy foods, you need to take quite a few things into consideration. The most important thing you can do when trying to improve your health is by consuming more balanced meals that are loaded with a greater number of nutrients.  You can do this by increasing the variety of foods you eat both at individual meals and throughout the day or week.

What to Eat For A Healthy Brain

We all know that eating a healthy diet is one of the most important things to do in order to maintain or improve our quality of life. Normally the benefits that come to mind when we think of eating healthy are weight loss or reducing excess body fat, reducing or managing cholesterol to promote cardiovascular health and allowing the guts and digestive system to function properly.

Every one of these benefits is certainly true and has a massive impact on our quality of life. But one really important reason to maintain a proper diet that is grossly understated is the positive effects this habit has on the brain!

The brain may be the control centre of the body, but this organ depends on a necessary supply of nutrients in exactly the same way as all the body parts it manages. The focus of this blog post will be to illustrate a few key nutrients that allow the brain to maintain its heavy workload and optimize overall function.

Omega-3

Omega-3 is what is known as an essential fatty acid. This means that our bodies do not naturally produce this substance; therefore, it must be supplied solely through the foods we eat. Fortunately, omega-3 fatty acids can be found in a variety of foods that meet the needs of those adhering to a wide variety of diets. Oily fish products such as salmon and mackerel are loaded with this substance, while those following a vegan diet can turn to various seeds such a flaxseed, pumpkin seeds and walnuts.

Not only does omega-3 ensure the proper production of the hormone responsible for feelings of well-being, serotonin, consuming adequate amounts of this nutrient has repeatedly been linked to slowing cognitive decline and reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease! You can read more about this in a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (Kulzow et al.).

Vitamin K

 This nutrient is yet another tool in consuming a diet that supports optimal brain function. Vitamin K is known to aid in the function of neurotransmitters, which are basically the vehicles of the brain that carry information along the synapses.

Synapses can be thought of as the highway system of the brain in which information is shared. This remarkable benefit of Vitamin K is supported in a report published in the journal, Frontiers in Neurology, entitled “The Relationships Between Vitamin K and Cognition: A Review of Current Evidence (Ludovico et al.).

To make sure you are consuming enough vitamin K, try to consume various green leafy vegetables such as broccoli.

Turmeric

Despite being well known for its anti-inflammatory properties and being a delicious herb that can be added to many food recipes.  Turmeric also has significant effects on the brain when and intake is adequate.  Turmeric is known to contain the powerful antioxidant, curcumin, which has been shown time and time again to both enhance memory and stimulate the production of new brain cells.

The well-known research journal, Geroscience, described a study entitled, “Efficacy of curcumin for age-associated cognitive decline: a narrative review of preclinical and clinical studies” (Sarker et al.) in which researchers discovered a positive correlation between the consumption of curcumin and cognitive decline.

While this herb is probably best known for its role in creating many curry dishes, turmeric can also be used as a tasty additive to many other foods.

Conclusion

 A healthy diet should be a priority for every individual for an immense list of reasons. Given that the nutrients we consume are quite literally the fuel source for the body, every effort should be made to ensure our engines are able to safely keep us on the road for the long haul!

References:

Alisi, L., Cao, R., Angelis, C. D., Cafolla, A., Caramia, F., Cartocci, G., … Fiorelli, M. (2019). The Relationships Between Vitamin K and Cognition: A Review of Current Evidence. Frontiers in Neurology, 10. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2019.00239

Külzow, N., Witte, A. V., Kerti, L., Grittner, U., Schuchardt, J. P., Hahn, A., & Flöel, A. (2016). Impact of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation on Memory Functions in Healthy Older Adults. Journal of Alzheimers Disease, 51(3), 713–725. doi: 10.3233/jad-150886

Sarker, M. R., & Franks, S. F. (2018). Efficacy of curcumin for age-associated cognitive decline: a narrative review of preclinical and clinical studies. GeroScience, 40(2), 73–95. doi: 10.1007/s11357-018-0017-z

How to Avoid Unnecessary Snacking at Home

Healthy Comfort Food Options

Are you looking to soothe your loneliness or stress during isolation with some comfort food? If so, you aren’t alone! During this time, people are indulging in their favorite classics, but remember comfort food means something different for everyone. Some people want the recipes they enjoyed as children, others look for specific ingredients in their comfort food.

Either way, it’s not always the healthiest food, so we’ve put together some ways to make it a bit healthier for you and your family.

What Does Healthy Mean to You?

The first thing you should do is consider what “healthy” means to you during this time. It is an important detail, because that will determine what kind of swaps or comfort foods you want to choose from. Maybe healthy means adding in more fruits and veggies, enjoying whole grains instead or processed grains, cooking more from scratch, or more specific options like low-carb or low-fat. Once you know this, you can work on finding the best healthy comfort foods for your family.

Find Healthy Swaps for Your Favorites

Before finding healthy swaps, make a list of all your favorite comfort foods. What sounds good right now? Maybe it’s a big bowl of pasta or a pizza, a cheese and ham toastie (that’s mine! ?), brownies, or big bowls of crisps and dip. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it brings you joy and comfort. Once you have your list, you can start looking for simple swaps to make it a little healthier.

For example, you might add veggies inside your cheese toastie to increase the nutritional content, or maybe you make your favorite brownies with shredded zucchini and walnuts inside instead of just plain chocolate. You might try a healthier pizza crust by using almond flour, or try black bean spaghetti for a change. There are tons of swaps you can make that are super easy to do.

Add Healthy Elements to Your Comfort Dishes

Instead of trying to take things away from your comfort dishes, focus instead on what you add in. You can still enjoy your comfort foods, and let’s face it, a little bit of self-comfort wouldn’t go amiss at the moment.  Just try to improve them a little and those improvements will add up over time.

Make Your Food from Scratch

A super easy way to increase the health of your meals and snacks is to cook more from scratch. They will be healthier, whole food, and taste so much better.

Recipe: Creamy Prawn Noodles

Here’s a quick mid-week supper dish.  It takes about 10 minutes to prep and 10 minutes to cook so great for when you just want something super simple but healthy.

What you need:

• 7oz. (200g) frozen prawns
• 4 ½ oz. (125g) noodles (black rice, buckwheat)
• 1 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 10 cherry tomatoes, cut in quarters
• 2 tbsp. parsley, chopped
• ½ cup (125ml) oat cream

What you need to do:

Defrost the prawns, rinse and dry. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packaging.

Heat the coconut oil in a large frying pan and sauté the onion until soft. Add oregano and minced garlic, and fry for another 1-2 mins.

Add prawns and fry for about another minute, stirring constantly, season with salt and pepper.

Add the cherry tomatoes and parsley, mix and fry for another half a minute.

Pour in the cream and bring to a boil. Simmer everything for about 1 minute until the sauce thickens, season with freshly ground pepper and salt as needed.

Add strained pasta and heat everything together.

How Can You Avoid Stress Eating

When you are spending more time at home, it’s easier to turn to food when you feel stressed or anxious. This is a normal stress response, and not inherently bad, there may be better ways than just using food as a way to cope. Here are some tips for reducing how much you stress or emotionally eat.

Know Your Stress Triggers

To avoid stress eating, it helps a lot to first be aware of what causes you stress in the first place. For many people, it isn’t just a general feeling of stress, but specific things that can trigger it. This might be reading the same sad reports on the news, going on social media, talking to certain people, or even something like not getting enough sunshine or having a different routine. Start making note of how you feel, what worsens your stress or anxiety, and when you tend to emotionally eat.

Get Into a Mindful State

Being more mindful is a wonderful way to start reducing how often you turn to food because of stress, and not physical hunger. When you start to feel stressed, take a moment to just take some deep breaths, relax, and sit with your feelings for a few minutes. This doesn’t mean you are going to deprive yourself and not eat, but first understand if you are hungry, or your brain is just reacting to the stress.

People tend to stress eat because it feels like a temporary fix, a way to have some control over how you feel. But if you can just sit with those feelings and slow down a bit, you might find you don’t need the food until you are actually physically hungry.

Don’t Let Yourself Get Too Hungry

If you are going without meals or snacks for several hours at a time, you are naturally going to turn to food first to deal with stress, anxiety, or other uncomfortable emotions. You have gotten yourself so hungry that you are now ravenous. Not only will you be more likely to turn to food to deal with stress, but you’re unlikely to make the healthiest food choices and chances are, you’ll not stop until you’ve eaten way too much. At this point, your body wants the quickest and most convenient option, so maybe you choose a bag of chips and a cookie instead of cooking something more nutritious.

Emotional VS Physical Hunger

Lastly, learn the difference between emotional and physical hunger. This will help tremendously to figure out if you’re actually hungry, or your brain just wants food to distract from feelings. Here are a few ways to tell the difference:

Is your hunger coming on slowly or suddenly? Physical hunger tends to come on gradually, while emotional hunger will be urgent and sudden. One minute you’re fine, the next you feel like you’re starving.

Do you feel satisfied? If after a meal or snack, you feel full or satisfied, it was physical hunger. If you still feel “starving”, it was probably emotional hunger.

Can you eat anything? If you feel fine eating anything, it is more like physical hunger. But if you only want specific things, it might just be emotional hunger.

Hopefully those tips will help you be more aware of your triggers and recognising whether you’re eating because you’re hungry or it’s due to stress.  If you’d like more help then talk to us about our coaching programmes where we dive deeper into this subject.

Recipe: Chicken and Orange Stir Fry

Fancy something, healthy, zesty and filling?

Try this easy stir-fry recipe.

This serves 4.

Nutrition per serving:

397 kcal , 7g Fats,  53g Carbs,  34g Protein

What you need:

For the Sauce:

• 1 orange, juice only
• 1/3 cup (100g) marmalade (low sugar)
• ¼ cup (60ml) soy sauce
• 1 tsp. siracha (or as needed)
• 1 tbsp. buckwheat flour

For the Stir Fry:

• 1 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 lb. (450g) chicken breast, chopped
• 1 tbsp. garlic, minced
• 3 springs green onion, chopped
• 1 cup (150g) snap or mangetout peas
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3 cups (450g) cooked brown rice
• ½ cup (25g) carrot, grated
• 1 tbsp. sesame seeds
• 1 tsp. orange zest

What you need to do:

Mix all the sauce ingredients together. Add some water if necessary to thin it down slightly.

Cook rice according to instructions on packaging or use leftover rice.

Heat the coconut oil in a large pan over high heat. Add in the chicken breasts and cook for 4-5 mins until chicken is cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Lower the heat and add the garlic and green onion cooking for 1 min. Keep string to prevent burning.

Now add the mangetout peas and bell pepper and cook for another 3-4 mins. Add in cooked rice and mix well with the vegetables.

Next add in the cooked chicken, grated carrot and earlier made sauce. Stir well until heated.

Garnish with sesame seeds and more green onion to serve.