Eat Slowly
Research shows that people who eat slower have better digestion which can assist in weight loss or simple weight maintenance. It will also leave you feeling satisfied after each meal.
Your first good habit will be to try eating more slowly. It can provide a huge benefit with very little effort. It takes about 20 minutes from the start of your meal for your brain to send out satiety signals. Give it a chance…
- Here are some clever ways you can try to slow down your eating habits:
- Put the knife and fork down between mouthfuls
- Eat away from the TV – try the dining room table.
- Don’t start cutting your next mouthful until you have finished chewing
- Move away from your phone or you computer.
You don’t need to slow down so much that a meal is taking you 30 mins to eat. Simply spend an extra 5-10 minutes enjoying your meal.
Eat Green Veggies Daily
Introducing green vegetables into your daily diet is one of the best steps you can do to improve your health. Vegetables are high in antioxidants, beneficial micronutrients, and contain a great amount of useful fibre that helps to feed the good bacteria in our intestines for better digestion and gut health, increases fullness and satiety, reduces blood sugar spikes, and improves cholesterol.
If you are not ‘big’ on green vegetables then search for some tasty recipes online and get creative with how you will include them into the meals that you love. Sometimes just putting them in a soup or blending them up into a smoothy can help!
Here are some benefits of a few favourite greens
Broccoli: With 25 calories a serving broccoli is rich in vitamin C and is also a good source of vitamin A, potassium, and folate. Some say your body uses more calories to digest the broccoli than what you actually ingest from it. Isn’t that great!? Its stalks and florets add both crunch and colour to stir-fries. Great raw or steamed.
Kale: Another excellent source of vitamins A C, and K. Kale has a good amount of calcium for a vegetable, and also supplies folate and potassium.
Swiss chard: With red stems, stalks, and veins on its leaves, Swiss chard has a beet-like taste and soft texture that’s perfect for sauteeing. Both Swiss chard and spinach contain oxalates, which are slightly reduced by cooking and can bind to calcium, a concern for people prone to kidney stones. Chard contains 15 calories in one-half cup and is a good source of vitamins A and C.
Spinach: Popeye’s favorite vegetable has 20 calories per serving, plus it’s packed with vitamins A and C, as well as folate. And because heat reduces the green’s oxalate content, freeing up its dietary calcium, “cooked spinach gives you more nutrition than raw,”. Spinach leaves can be cooked quickly in the water that remains on them after rinsing, or they can be eaten raw in salads. Bags of frozen chopped spinach are more convenient to use than block kinds, and this mild-flavoured vegetable can be added to soups, pasta dishes, and casseroles.
Here is a great recipe for Kale Salad with Balsamic, Pine Nuts and Parmesan.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries, chopped (or whole golden raisins or currants)
- 1/3 cup pine nuts (can substitute slivered almonds)
- 1 pound fresh Lacinato kale (also called Tuscan kale or dinosaur kale), about 2-3 bunches, rinsed and patted dry
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, packed
Method
1 Heat a small skilled on medium high heat. Spread the pine nuts in an even layer on the bottom of the pan, cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Then remove to a bowl to allow to cool. Hint when toasting nuts: do not take your eyes off of them! Nuts can go from browned to burned very quickly.
2 Use a sharp knife to cut out the tough midrib of each kale leaf, and discard or compost. Slice the leaves crosswise into thin, 1/4 inch wide, slices. The easiest way to do this is to work with a small bunch of leaves at a time, stack the leaves and roll them into a loose cigar shape. Then using a sharp knife, work from one end of the “cigar” to the other, slicing a 1/4 inch off from the end. Place the kale slices into a large bowl.
3 In a smaller bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rice vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper. A half hour to an hour before serving, toss the kale together with the toasted pine nuts, the dried cranberries, and the dressing, allowing the kale to marinate a bit. Right before serving, stir in the grated Parmesan cheese.
Why not share your great recipes with us on our FB page: https://www.facebook.com/Kellys-Wellness-Centre-168665856825901/
Avoid Electronic Devices 1 hour before bed
Technology is a way of life for us today and sometimes it can be difficult to put down that phone or not wind down after a long day by watching TV.
But this next tip is to avoid watching TV, being on your computer, looking at your mobile phone or tablet, or anything else that has a bright screen for at least 1 hour before you go to bed.
Light exposure, especially blue light from electronics can negatively affect both the quantity and quality of our sleep. It becomes harder and takes longer for our brains to ‘switch-off’ and fall asleep. When using these electronics our brain interprets this LED blue light to mean that it is day time and so melatonin production gets suppressed.
I know you are thinking that this is going to be hard. But really using our electronic devices has become an addiction for many. So like quitting smoking this is going to take some effort. But the benefits are endless so try to curb the craving and power through.
2 hours before going to bed:
- Turn off any unnecessary lighting. Use dimmer switches or candles for a softer lighting option.
- Avoid watching TV, being on your computer, looking at your mobile phone or tablet, or anything else that has a bright screen.
- If you like to read before bed, read a real book or a Kindle – avoiding the backlit electronics.
- Try listening to music, pampering yourself, having a long bath or trying one of those adult colouring in books?
Good sleep is one of the most important factors when living a healthy lifestyle. Try in as many ways as possible to increase the quality and quantity of your sleep.
Sweet dreams!
Take the stairs!
Ever noticed how many people will queue for an elevator instead of taking the stairs, even just to the 2nd or 3rd floor? What about the people who will drive around and around a parking area waiting for a parking to become available closer to the entrance?
Why not try to adopt a healthy habit of always (whenever possible) taking the stairs, parking in the furthest away parking spot or simply going for a stroll around the block.
Including small amounts of exercise into your everyday life can assist you in increasing the overall caloric expenditure of the day thus helping you to lose or maintain weight simply by moving more.
Of course I would like to encourage you to plan time in your schedule to exercise more, but for this who say they do not possibly have the time or the money to start an exercise class or program with a personal trainer – Why not just move more?
This generation has become very sedentary with it bordering on lazy. So the challenge for this healthy habit is simply to use that spare 15 mins in your day whilst you are waiting for your lift club or defrosting tonights dinner to walk around the garden or the block.
Why not incorporate a few calf raises whilst brushing your teeth every morning?
Choose the stairs rather than the lift… If you work on the 10th floor then take the lift to 7/8 if you must and walk the rest?
Park in that furthest parking spot where your car wont get ‘dinged’ and walk to the entrance.
So there are a few Healthy Habits to get started with.
Lets see how you get on with these 4 and if you enjoy them I will send out another 4 to help you improve your lifestyle a little bit at a time.
Love of love
Kelly
xxx
Kelly's Wellness Centre 