AUTUMN HEALTH AND FITNESS: TIPS AND TRICKS

As the days get shorter and colder the desire to move less and eat more energy-dense foods increases. A long time ago, and in some less developed parts of the world, this is a great survival trait. In most developed nations, however, it’s no longer necessary. We have farming, we have air conditioning, we have warm clothes. We’re not about to starve or freeze to death like we used to. So how can we overcome these primal urges? With some handy autumn health and fitness tips.

START PLANNING

In the warmer months it’s a lot easier to stay motivated to be active. The sun’s up early, the days are long, it’s fun to get outside. As we move into winter months, the motivation starts to shrivel up.

That’s why when it comes to autumn health and fitness it’s a good idea to start planning your exercise routines a bit more thoroughly. Just winging it like you might have been doing in summer won’t cut it. You’ll find excuse after excuse after excuse to not get outside and be active.

So set up a routine and get into a habit before it gets too cold. When you create a habit out of something you don’t need to constantly motivate yourself; you just do it on autopilot. This will help keep you fit and active through the cooling months.

ENJOY THE WEATHER

Autumn is the perfect time to start jogging, running, or cycling. Even long walks are better in autumn. There’s no oppressive heat, and the air is cool and crisp which is great for your body. If you’re the sort of person who puts off cardio due to the sweat and stickiness, this is the right time for you to get out there and get moving.

If you’re not terribly keen on intense cardio, walking is still a good exercise. Autumn is a beautiful time of year to go hiking and see the leaves change colours. For your autumn health and fitness, combining cool, clean air with stunning mountain views is not just a way to be healthy, but a good way to relax.

TEAM UP WITH SOMEONE

If you’re losing the fight to motivate yourself, and losing the fight to stick to a routine, find someone to help. It’s a lot easier to tell someone else they need to exercise or stick to a routine than it is to do it to ourselves.

With a training partner you’ll both act as each other’s whip-cracking motivation. When one person is feeling lazy, the other can step in to make sure they work. In fact, the bigger you can make your group, the better. There’s always a good chance two people will be too tired at the same time to exercise. Three or more, though, and you’re almost guaranteed at least one person will be up and motivated to do something.

ENJOY IN-SEASON FOOD

There’s a lot of great food coming into season in autumn. Apples, potatoes, pumpkin, brussels sprouts, onion, parsley, just to name a few. In fact we have a whole article on healthy autumn foods you should check out.

Enjoying food that’s in-season has many benefits. Firstly, your wallet will thank you. In-season fruit and vegetables are substantially cheaper than out-of-season foods. They’re growing in abundance and don’t need to be shipped in from far away.

Secondly, favouring seasonal foods helps you eat an organic diet. Organic diets in themselves have multitudes of benefits not just for yourself, but the environment. Chief amongst them for your personal health is you’ll be eating a lot less chemicals and pesticides.

Thirdly, it actually makes meal planning that little bit easier. Sticking to seasonal foods limits your options, but also gives you focus. Pumpkin, potato, leek and onion-based dishes can be high on the agenda.

Again, we’ve got another article on the subject, so check it out! Eating seasonal foods is a great way to maintain your autumn health and fitness levels.

FIGHT THE URGE TO BINGE

Just because you want to eat a lot of junk food doesn’t mean you have to. There are a lot of charts for how to convert your cravings for certain junk foods into healthy alternatives that will satiate those cravings. But those charts assume your craving is nutrient-based, not psychologically based.

Some of the best switches replace the highly unhealthy options with healthier alternatives. Nuts and seeds are popular substitutes for most cravings. They contain healthy fats and oils and shouldn’t be consumed in large quantities, but they’re better than eating a bag of potato chips.

So there's some substitution advice that might help. The kicker, however, is that the biggest challenge isn't to fight the cravings Doing that typically makes it worse. Eating celery when you want chocolate just makes most people want chocolate even more. Rather, the challenge is to fight the urge to binge on the craving.

If you have a craving for chocolate, eat some. But eat a little, and if possible, make it a darker chocolate. 70% and over is good and a fairly healthy snack itself.

Then go on a nice brisk jog in the clean crisp air, and get on with your autumn health and fitness routine! It’ll be easier than you think.

HEALTHY AUTUMN FOODS TO LOOK OUT FOR

It’s pretty much always better to eat food that’s in-season. For your wallet, it’s a lot cheaper. For your health, it’s generally a lot better. In-season foods are abundant and don’t have to be shipped in from far away, ensuring freshness and minimising the chance of preservatives. So now that we’ve shuffled out of summer and are heading into winter, here are some healthy autumn foods you can enjoy over the next few months.

Firstly, here are just a few of the awesome foods in season this autumn:

• apple


• blackberry


• butternut squash


• Brussels sprouts


• cabbage (savoy and spring green)


• carrot


• cauliflower


• celery


• kale


• leek


• onion


• parsnip


• pear


• potato


• pumpkin


• purple sprouting broccoli


• spinach


• turnip

And many, many more.

As you can see there are a lot of root vegetables coming out to play this time of year. All of these foods are super healthy — and yes, that includes potato. If you eat reasonable amounts and don’t deep fry it every time you eat it, it’s actually a wonderful addition to a healthy diet.

So now we’ve got an idea of what’s in season, what foods should we make? Below we’ve got some great recipes you can try out using in-season healthy autumn foods.

ROASTED VEGGIES WITH GREEN TAHINI SAUCE

From www.delish.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 c. semi-pearled farro


• 2 c. butternut squash, cubed


• 2 c. baby bello mushrooms, quartered


• 2 c. Brussels sprouts, quartered or halved


• 6 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided


• kosher salt


• Black pepper


• 3 tbsp. lemon juice


• 1 small garlic clove, minced


• 2 tbsp. tahini


• 1/4 c. parsley leaves

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 220C/425F. Cover two baking sheets with aluminium foil.


2. Place farro in large saucepan and cover with cold water. Soak for 15 minutes, drain, return to pan, and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and let simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and spread out on a paper-lined baking sheet to cool.


3. Arrange vegetables on baking sheets and drizzle with half the olive oil. Season and toss to coat. Roast for about 18 minutes, or until golden and tender. Remove from the oven.


4. While the vegetables are roasting, combine lemon juice, garlic, tahini, parsley, and remaining olive oil in a food processor or blender. Add 3 tablespoons of water to thin the mixture and season with salt and pepper.


5. In a large bowl, toss farro and roasted vegetables. Serve into bowls and drizzle with tahini.

This roasted salad is full of in-season produce like Brussel sprouts and butternut squash. It’s super simple to make an excellent way to get a good dose of healthy autumn foods.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND QUINOA SALAD

From www.joyfulhealthyeats.com

INGREDIENTS

• 2½ cups butternut squash, cut into 1cm cubes (about 1 half butternut squash)


• 1½ cups red onion, cut into 1cm cubes


• 2 tablespoons olive oil


• 1 teaspoon sea salt


• 1 cup uncooked quinoa


• 2 cups water


• ⅓ cup dried cherries


• ¼ cup pepitas


• ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped


• 2 oz. crumbed goat cheese


• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar


• 2 tablespoons olive oil


• 1½ teaspoons raw honey


• dash of ground cinnamon


• salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F


2. Add butternut squash and red onion to baking sheet. Season with olive oil and 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Toss to coat.


3. Bake for 20 minutes.


4. While the squash bakes, add quinoa and water to a small saucepan. Stir and bring mixture to a boil. Cover and reduce to simmer for 15 minutes, or until the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat, let the quinoa sit for 2 minutes then fluff with a fork.


5. To make the dressing: mix the apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of olive, raw honey, and ground cinnamon in a small bowl. Add salt to taste.


6. In a large bowl, add the squash, onion, quinio, dried cherries, pepitas, parsley, goat cheese, and dressing. Toss to mix together and serve.

Another roasted salad making the most of the in-season butternut squash. Don’t worry though! Not all of our healthy autumn foods are salads. Here’s some meals for the omnivores out there:

ONE-POT APPLE AND CHICKEN

From www.myrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided


• 4 (4-oz.) skinless, boneless chicken thighs


• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided


• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided


• 1/2 cup unsalted chicken stock (such as Swanson)


• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard


• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage


• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary


• 2 medium apples, thinly sliced


• 1 small red onion, thinly vertically sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 3/8 teaspoon salt and 3/8 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until chicken is done. Remove from pan.


2. Combine stock and mustard, stirring with a whisk. Add remaining oil to pan; swirl. Add remaining salt, pepper, sage, rosemary, apple, and onion to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in stock mixture. Return chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half.

How easy is that? This recipe is fast, simple, and only uses a single dish! This would go well with one of the salads listed above as a complete meal for 4-6 people.

We’ve got meat, we’ve got salad, time to finish it off with something for dessert.

PUMPKIN, DATE AND ALMOND LOAF

From www.foodmatters.com

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups raw grated pumpkin


• 1 cup dates, chopped


• 2 Cups almond meal


• 3 eggs


• 1/4 cup coconut oil


• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger


• Pumpkin seeds to garnish

Optional:

• Honey


• Cashews

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 150C/300F degrees fan forced or 170C/340F degrees no fan.


2. Combine pumpkin, eggs, coconut oil, cinnamon, ginger and dates. Add almond meal and mix through.


3. Pour into a loaf tin lined with baking paper and sprinkle pumpkin seeds on the top.


4. Bake for 1 hour or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.


5. Spread with organic butter to serve.


6. Optional: Instead of butter, glaze the loaf with honey and sprinkle with cashew nuts.

This loaf is excellent for people on gluten-free diets. It even becomes dairy free as well if you glaze with honey instead of butter at the end. Like the other recipes it’s simple and takes advantage of healthy autumn foods springing up around us.

We hope this has given you some ideas! Cooking in-season foods is cheaper, can be healthier, and makes life super simple if you prefer organic produce. Happy, healthy eating!

RETURNING TO A HEALTHY BALANCE

It can be easy for healthy life-styles to go out the window on holidays. Particularly busy ones in new countries, running around, seeing new sights, sampling far too much of the local food. Not only that, but after escaping your daily grind for a while it’s common to get overwhelmed by reality on your return. So after a holiday, it’s pretty important to start returning to a healthy balance as soon as possible.

FIRSTLY, ACCEPTANCE IS KEY

You went on holiday, likely ate and drank more than normal, and you’ve put on a few pounds. Obviously this can be very disheartening. Especially if you were actively trying to manage your food and exercise to not gain weight. But there’s one thing you must do now that you’re back:

Accept it. You went on holidays. You enjoyed yourself. So you put on a bit of weight. It’s not the end of the world. Stressing about it will only make things worse. Your self-confidence will plummet and you’ll be too busy feeling sorry for yourself to fix it.

Accepting these things happen and moving forward is the first step to returning to a healthy balance.

GET BACK TO A NORMAL DAILY ROUTINE ASAP

It’s tempting to spend the first few days on your return lounging about recovering from jet-lag, but this is counterproductive. The best thing to do is try to return to normal quickly. It will take a few days for your body to adjust and you’ll feel terrible. But it’ll take longer — and you’ll feel worse — if you don’t.

More specifically, and perhaps more importantly, you should get back to a normal sleep schedule as fast as possible. Good sleep is one of the pillars of healthy living, and one of the fastest steps to returning to a healthy balance.

Fight the sleepiness. Fight the jet-lag. Try to get to sleep as close to your regular bedtime as possible. If you wake too early, lie in bed and rest. Stay down until as close to your regular waking time as you can manage. You’ll be back to your old sleeping habits in no time.

YOU MIGHT NEED TO CUT DOWN ON SOME FOODS

We don’t advocate fad diets or cutting out food groups. But if you got used to certain foods, your body starts craving them. If you found yourself overindulging in sweets, alcohol, or carb-heavy meals, for example, you’ll be well served from cutting right down for a week or so. Your body will naturally adjust and you’ll experience less cravings, making it easier to return to your previous eating habits.

It’ll be hard, at first, but it’ll be worth it.

This can be particularly prudent for alcohol consumption, which is obviously habit-forming. Alcohol is also disruptive to healthy sleep and will prevent you from getting back into a good sleep cycle quickly. While it’s true alcohol makes us drowsy, metabolising it is a different matter. If you’ve ever woken up wide awake early in the morning after a night of drinking, you can thank your liver. When you’re trying to return to a healthy balance, disruption to your sleep is the last thing you need.

TRY MEDITATING

It’s back to paying bills, doing work, and all the things you escaped for a few weeks. Very quickly, stress and anxiety can pile themselves back on.

This is where meditation becomes a very useful tool. Mindfulness meditation is a great way of putting yourself in the “now”. By concentrating on the present you can ease yourself away from the worries of obligations. This in turn makes them seem less imposing and easier to manage. Easier to manage, less stress.

Going for a walk and concentrating on the sights and sounds around you can be an excellent way not just to clear your mind, but to bring it back to home. Walk familiar streets. Visit a park. Touch a tree. Little sensations that bring you closer to the present moment will calm you and focus your thoughts.

So to wrap it all up:

• Don’t beat yourself up about slipping on your healthy living on your trip. It happens. Stressing will only make it worse.


• Get back to your normal daily and sleep patterns as quickly as possible.


• Lay off the alcohol and energy-dense foods for a little bit. Give your body time to recover from any cravings you’ve developed.


• Clear your head and stay on top of mounting tasks with a little bit of mindful meditation.

Within a week of your return you’ll be right back on top of life again, returning to a healthy balance and living to the fullest.

How to Get Rid of a Yeast Infection

How to Get Rid of a Yeast Infection: Medical and Natural Remedies

When faced with a painful yeast infection, you desire fast relief and an effective cure as soon as possible. However, just as with any other medical condition, you must choose if you want the medical solutions or to go for an all-natural route instead. In addition, you may be surprised to know that some natural and home remedy cures work effectively in combination with over-the-counter (OTC) medicine. Let’s take a look at a few options on how to get rid of a yeast infection.

Medical Treatment
The treatment and length of time it takes to cure the yeast infection will highly depend on how severe your infection is. Traditional OTC medications such as Monistat, Mycelex, Micatin, Lotrimin or Terazol are the standard drugs that your doctor will prescribe for a yeast infection. There are a variety of dosages, ranging from 1 day, 7 day, or 3 day treatments, based on how severe your condition is, and how much treatment it will require.

The problem with utilizing medical treatments is the fact that they focus on only curing the symptoms as opposed to the root causes. As a result, the medications have the possibility of becoming less effective over time as a result of resistance to fungus build-ups.

Natural and Home-Remedy Solutions
• Cut Down on Stress – Believe it or not, you can actually assist in curing your yeast infection by decreasing your stress levels. Your immune system suffers when you’re under stress and it becomes weakened. As a result, it becomes difficult for your body to fight the infection. Some great solutions in decreasing stress include taking some “personal” time off to reflect and relax, sleeping the necessary hours each night, exercising, or rearranging your schedule. In addition, you should make time to do something that you enjoy doing every day, even if it is for an hour.

• Yogurt – Be sure to use all-natural yogurt that does not contain any form of fruit, sugar, additives or coloring. In addition to enjoying the fresh and delicious taste of the yogurt, it can also be utilized as a cream type treatment and applied to the yeast infection directly.

• Tea Tree Oil – Tea Tree Oil has become a popular home-remedy for yeast infection in recent years. It’s commonly found at your local pharmacy as well as many health stores.

• Garlic – You can choose to take garlic orally or inserting it inside your vagina. By taking a garlic clove and cutting it into two separate pieces, you can place the pieces directly into your genital region. This treatment works best for mild to less severe infections.
• Herbal Remedies – Natural herbs such as myrrh, cinnamon, turmeric, chamomile, black walnut, and goldenseal have properties within them that assist and aide in combating a yeast infection.

No matter what your solution may be, there are a variety of choices available to ensure that you’re able to heal and move on with life. However, as with any treatment methods, make sure you know the side effects prior to choosing a medical or home remedy.

MEDITATING ON A BUSY DAY: 5 TIPS

You get up early and rush to work and worry about deadlines. Then you sit in traffic or crowded public transport to get home. There are meals to make, obligations to meet, bills to pay. We all know meditation can relieve stress and anxiety, but on these hectic days it’s hard to find the time. Yet this is when we need to find the time the most. Meditating on a busy day helps us shoulder the burdens of our lives and live fully and happily.

So how do we find the time? It's easier than you think. You don't need to lock yourself away from the world to meditate. Mindful meditation can fit into just about any part of your existing day. Read below to see our top five suggestions for when to squeeze some meditating into your day.

FIRST THING WHEN YOU WAKE UP

You don’t need to be stressed to benefit from meditation. Quite the opposite, as meditation can help prevent stress. Spending a few minutes first thing in the morning before you get out of bed can help prepare you for what the day has in store for you. However, many people may find this only makes it harder to wake up in the morning. That, in turn, will only lead to more stress, which is the opposite of what we want! So they’ll need to find some other time during the day. What about …

ON THE WAY TO OR FROM WORK

Whether you walk, drive, or take public transport, there will be time during your transit for meditating. Mindful meditation really is as simple as focusing your mind on yourself. Breathing is the most obvious and popular choice, something rhythmic and mechanical that can ease you into a sense of relaxation. If you’re walking, you can concentrate on the feeling of your feet pressing into the ground. On a bus or a train, you can focus your mind on the rocking of the vehicle, or the sensation of your back pressing against the seat.

Whether it's on the way to work or to home, a few moments of meditation will either help prepare for, or get over, your stressful day.

AT YOUR DESK

If you work in an office, you can usually find a few minutes throughout the day to just sit and concentrate. Even if it’s just five minutes before you start work, or after your lunch break. Putting on some headphones and being mindful of yourself in the present will destress you and alleviate deadline and performance-related anxieties. If you find your mind drifting back to work, gently bring it back. The goal is to focus on the present just for a few minutes, to clear and calm your mind.

You might think that if your day is busy then you won’t have five minutes spare, or that finding these fives minutes will cause stress. But taking that time for yourself to engage in a little meditating on a busy day, even the busiest days, will make you more productive. You lose five minutes, but you gain peace and clarity. Your focus will improve and you’ll achieve more than if you hadn’t taken the time. The rewards far outweigh the cost!

WHILE EATING

Everybody has to eat at some point during the day, and eating can be used as the perfect chance for a bit of mindful meditation. Eating is loaded with sensations that we can concentrate on. The look of the food, the feel of it or cutlery in our hands, the taste, the smell. You don’t have to be mindful through the whole meal, but even taking a moment during those first few bites to truly savour all the sensations can be enough. On those truly tumultuous days where you eat at your desk, you’ll find a few minutes for meditating on a busy day while you eat.

But if all this fails, there’s one last, best place:

BEFORE GOING TO BED

You’ve had a big day and it’s time to wind down. Right before bed is perhaps the best and most convenient time for people for meditating on a busy day. It helps you de-stress from the day’s worries, clear your head of your concerns, and prepare yourself for sleep. Few things keep people awake at night as much as overthinking the events of the day. Mindful meditation will help melt away these lingering concerns and clear your mind ready for a full, restful night’s sleep.

Whether it’s in transit, at your desk, or even grabbing an all-important meal, it is always possible to find time for meditating on a busy day. It doesn’t need to be a full 10-30 minute session: just a few quiet, mindful moments is all it takes to clear your thoughts and enrich your life. We hope you found this helpful and find time during your next stressful day to be at peace.

HEALTHY LIVING TODAY IN 5 STEPS

There’s more to healthy living than having a slim, athletic body. Restrictive diets and big muscles don’t necessarily mean good health. Equally, eating meat and the occasional burger doesn’t necessarily mean poor health.

Healthy living is about taking care of yourself as a whole. What you eat and how much you exercise absolutely play an important part. But when it comes to healthy living there are other pillars that many people just don’t stop to consider. It’s entirely possible to be a sickly mess with the healthiest diet and the best exercise regime in the world. So here are our five tips for healthy living, from diet and exercise, through to your mental wellbeing.

STAY WELL HYDRATED

Obviously we need water to survive. We’ll die without it. And everyone’s heard that you need about eight glasses of water a day. But beyond “you’ll die if you don’t”, many people don’t understand the benefits of proper hydration. Aside from keeping you alive, being well hydrated:

Helps combat fatigue. Water helps your cells function and is one of many energy sources for your body. It’s even been shown that people who are well-hydrated before going to bed wake up easier in the morning. Find yourself consistently struggling to get out of bed? Keep some water next to you at night and sip when you wake during sleep.

Prevents histamine buildup that provokes asthma and allergies.

Helps your cardiovascular system. Well-hydrated blood is over 90% water, which helps keep your blood flowing and prevents high blood pressure.

Helps kidneys and liver function optimally.

Keeps your skin healthy and helps prevent skin conditions like acne.

Makes losing weight easier. Drinking plenty of water helps prevent you feeling hungry, so you don’t snack as much throughout the day. Replacing sugary beverages like soda with water is also a simple, but powerful, weightloss method.

To top it all off, you don’t actually need to drink 8 glasses of water. Fruits and vegetables with high water content also contribute to your daily water intake.

GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

How much sleep a person needs is fairly subjective. Whether you need 8 hours or not is up for some debate. Current thinking is that it’s closer to about 6 hours for most people. What’s not up for debate, though, is that a good night’s sleep is vitally important for healthy living.

Lack of good sleep has many negative consequences. Some of them are obvious, such as feeling fatigued throughout the day. Our ability to focus, concentrate, and retain information becomes seriously impaired. Loss of concentration or drowsiness can become particularly problematic when someone is driving.

But lack of sleep also has some wider-reaching consequences. It contributes to many major chronic cardiovascular issues. One night’s bad sleep can give people with hypertension elevated blood pressure for all of the following day. It makes us stressed and depressed, and kills our sex drive. It contributes to premature ageing of the skin.

People who get a good night’s sleep are generally more productive, less stressed, less depressed, and healthier overall.

MEDITATE

Not everybody goes for spirituality. Many are quick to dismiss meditation as nonsense. But when it comes to healthy living, particularly in this day and age, meditation can be very important.

The key benefit of meditation is to calm yourself. Stress and anxiety can majorly impact your wellbeing. Depressed people live shorter lives than non-depressed people. Meditation helps clear stress and anxiety from our minds. It helps us achieve that good night’s sleep, or prepare ourselves for a busy day ahead.

Even if you don’t believe in meditation, simply finding something every day that calms you is of great benefit. It’s important to not be emotionally and psychologically overwhelmed. Alcohol and drugs are not good methods, as they can lead to addiction and further problems. Whether it’s reading a book, drawing a picture, or watching a favourite film, find something in your life that takes your mind away from vague anxieties and puts it in the present.

YES, EAT A BALANCED DIET

There is more to healthy living than eating well and exercise, yes … but these are still vitally important. The important part here, though, is the word “balanced”. Eat junk food every now and then, but sparingly. Use it as a treat. Many people swing completely the other way and opt for a raw vegan diet. This isn’t particularly healthy either unless very carefully controlled.

Fat, carbs, and sugars are all necessary for life. Meat in moderation is very good for you. Even things like alcohol can be beneficial. The trick for healthy living is to eat foods in the right proportions. We’ve covered this in other articles and we encourage you to read further!

FINALLY, YOU CAN’T ESCAPE IT: EXERCISE

Anyone who tells you that you can live a healthy life with no exercise is lying! We don’t mean intense cardio or heavy weights, just be active. Move around as much as possible during the day. The optimum exercise for optimal health, it was found, was about 10 minutes of intense workout a few times a week. A quick run or a bike ride, and that’s it. You don’t need to torture yourself, just get the blood pumping for ten minutes every few days.

Again, we’ve got a longer article on exercise that you can read and we recommend you go have a browse. It’ll give you a better insight and some good ideas.

But that’s it! The five pillars of healthy living: hydration, sleep, relaxation, good food and a bit of sweat. It doesn’t take much. It doesn’t take the world. But it does take a little care and effort. Luckily, the payoff far outweighs the cost. Happy, healthy living!

HEALTHY BREAKFAST: 3 FAST, EASY OPTIONS

It’s very popular for people to skip breakfast. It’s also generally a bad idea. Many people feel they don’t have the time or interest to eat a proper, let alone healthy breakfast, every day, so they often resort to skipping the meal altogether.

But eating well first thing in the morning has many benefits. It gives you energy to be alert and productive throughout the day. It helps maintain your hunger levels so you don’t snack on energy-dense junk later. Starting the day with a healthy breakfast is the best way to go.

Below we’ve got three simple, healthy breakfasts you can build a lot of interesting, healthy variations on. We’ve gone for foods that don’t require a lot of time to prepare, so fresh fruit salads or big cooked breakfasts are out. They're great breakfast options to be sure, but people don’t always have time to make them. Even if you’re super busy in the morning you should have enough time to make one of the suggestions from this list.

So here we go: three fast, healthy breakfast options everyone can enjoy:

TOAST

Wholegrain or multigrain, preferably: gluten free if you need. Or whatever your favourite bread-substitute might be.

Toast embodies what this list is about: food that’s quick, simple to prepare, and versatile. It might seem like an old, boring staple, sure. But putting things on some gently cooked bread really is a great starting point for a good, healthy breakfast.

Fried egg on toast, for example, gives you fiber, protein, and carbs for energy throughout your morning. It takes as long to fry an egg as it does to cook a slice of toast, so it’s quick to prepare. Throw on a slice of ham or thinly sliced chicken (leave bacon for special occasions) and some spinach leaves and presto, a quick, healthy breakfast.

For vegetarians, nut spread (like peanut butter or almond butter), fruits, berries and chia seeds are also a good way to give you a solid meal in a heartbeat. Any combination of sliced fruit and berries is as tasty as it is healthy. Use natural honey for that extra kick of sweetness and energy.

Here are a few suggestions for filling, healthy breakfasts you can make starting with a humble slice of toast:

• NUT, BANANA AND CHIA


• SWEET BANANA BERRY


• CREAM CHEESE AND STRAWBERRIES


• RICOTTA CHEESE AND CUCUMBER


• AVOCADO AND EGG


• FRIED TOMATO AND MUSHROOM


• TOMATO, MOZZARELLA AND SPINACH


• BANANA AND CINNAMON


• MANGO AND MOZZARELLA


• AVOCADO, SPROUTS AND LEMON JUICE


• HUMMUS AND POMEGRANATE 


• SALMON AND CREAM CHEESE


• MANDARIN SLICES AND BERRIES


• PEAR, RICOTTA AND HONEY

SMOOTHIES

Smoothies are quick, easy, and highly customizable. They can also last a day or two in the fridge, so if you make a big batch one morning you’ll have breakfast for a few days. Fruits, veggies, spices and seeds can all be quickly thrown together for a nutritionally complete, healthy breakfast. 

Smoothies are also suitable for just about any diet. If you're lactose intolerant, then use almond or rice milk. If you want to watch your sugar intake, you can use more vegetables than fruit. Green smoothies full of leafy greens are also increasingly popular in this day and age. You can even add supplements that you might want or need, such as protein powder, to bulk up your meal and give you that extra energy kick.

Everyone has their go-to favorite smoothie ingredients. Here are some interesting flavor combinations, some you might not have thought of, that you can try for your next smoothies:

• MANGO AND PINEAPPLE


• APPLE, CARROT, AND GINGER


• BEETROOT AND ORANGE


• MANGO-STRAWBERRY


• BANANA-AVOCADO


• BANANA AND CASHEW


• BANANA AND PEANUT BUTTER


• WATERMELON AND MINT

OVERNIGHT OATS

And finally, overnight oats are a great option for people who don’t have a lot of spare time in the morning. They’re also super simple to prepare: 1/2 cup of rolled oats, 1/2 cup of milk of your choice. Combine the two together and leave in the fridge overnight. To save dishes and energy you can even prepare them in the same bowl you want to eat them out of. Now you've got a healthy breakfast and easy clean-up afterwards!

Of course, a bowl of plain oats first thing in the morning is hardly the most appetising breakfast for most people. Luckily, like everything else on this list, oats are a super versatile meal. You can add just about anything you want to them. They go amazingly well with fruits, nuts, berries, seeds, chocolate, and honey. Spices such as cinnamon go well with just about anything you'll add to overnight oats. A quarter teaspoon of essences and extracts, such as coconut, vanilla, or coffee bean, can absolutely transform a plain dish into something amazing.

Some suggested overnight oat toppings:

• STRAWBERRY AND CHIA


• CINNAMON AND BANANA


• PEANUT BUTTER AND BANANA


• CHOCOLATE AND CHIA OATS — Use cacao powder to stir into the mixture for that chocolate hit.


• BERRIES AND HONEY

And there you have it! Three super fast, super simple ways to get a healthy breakfast every morning. We hope you find some tasty-looking suggestions in the list that get you inspired to eat well every morning.

Healthy Life

How to Live an Extraordinary, Engaging, and more important a Healthy Life that Energizes You Every Day

All people strive to live that exciting and healthy lifestyle that we see so many celebrities, or even friends, live on a daily basis. We are constantly bombarded with examples of lifestyle perfection, whether it be through tabloid media in the grocery store line or walking by a group spin class that just let out the door. What do these individuals have that we do not? How can we motivate ourselves to get to the point where we are living a truly healthy and energetic lifestyle? The answer to an achievable overall healthy lifestyle, in our opinion, is by finding a balanced diet, routinely exercising, and achieving a focused mindset.

Why is eating a Balanced Diet is Important?

A balanced diet is exceptionally important for a long and Healthy Life. If you have ever heard that phrase “you are what you eat”, what goes into your body truly has either a positive or negative impact on your overall health and how you generally feel. Maintaining good nutrition, combined with physical activity, will help improve your overall health. A balanced healthy diet is a key to your success because eating a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, and proteins can help you obtain important nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

What are some foods we look for in order to maintain a balanced diet? It is all about maintaining a balance of healthy fats and proteins within your diet. Healthy and balanced diets should consist of lean proteins, such as poultry, fish, beans, nuts, and eggs. These foods are generally high sources of iron and fiber and can provide excellent sources of vitamins. It’s also very important to avoid sugary or fatty foods, as well as processed foods and drinks like frozen dinner meals and sodas. If you eat lean protein foods and kick processed foods and drinks out of your body, you will start to notice your body will feel much better overall.

In addition to proteins, it’s also important to eat a balance of fruits and vegetables. The juicing craze in today’s world is enormous and fun, and you can make your own fruit smoothies at home with a variety of recipes available on the internet. Smoothies are also an excellent way to get some nutrients if you are in a rush, such as on your way to work in the morning. An excellent tip is to overpower the taste of vegetables in your smoothie by adding more fruits.

How Consistent Exercise Helps You to Achieve an Extraordinary and Healthy Life

We all say that we should exercise more, and with competing life priorities, finding a balanced exercise routine tends to be something that falls by the wayside. Routine exercise is beneficial to both the body and the mind, giving us the energy to live a healthier life. This, combined with a healthy diet, will increase your chances of a balanced healthy life.

The most common complaint from people is that they do not have enough time to work out. However, a common misconception is that you need to exercise for long periods of time, almost 2 hours, in order to see any results. This is simply not true. If you do not exercise often, it’s important that you develop a routine exercise schedule. For example, if you work fulltime and have a family, you may only find it possible to exercise in the mornings before you go to work and your children wake up. If this is the case, focus on going to sleep earlier so that you can get up earlier to exercise. If you can incorporate exercise for 30 minutes a day 3-4 days per week, you will start to notice results in how you feel and how your body looks in only a few weeks.

Constant improvement of your general wellbeing can help maintain a healthy Heart    

The most important step we can take to achieve a healthy living is to first maintain a healthy heart. The heart is the organ that pumps blood to the body through the veins and arteries. Its work in the body is peculiar to balancing the flow of blood in the circulatory system. Blood moves oxygen and nourishments to other parts of the body, which strengthens other organs to function effectively; thereby removing carbon dioxide and other waste products.

Remember, our hearts work hard 24/7 on a non-stop basis; throughout a lifetime. It will be necessary to cultivate those habits that will make our hearts remain healthy.



A HEALTHY LIVING

A healthy living is not all about losing weight or building muscle. Healthy lifestyle cannot be made complete without any of the three activities highlighted below;

• Cardiovascular exercise,


• Strength exercise, and


• Balanced diet

1 Cardiovascular exercise

There are multiplicities of gains that cardiovascular exercise brings to our health. It comprises a healthy heart, improved muscle strength and good sleep, and the likes.

Research has revealed that some 180 calories can be burnt within 30 minutes of constant walking exercise; while aerobics with high intensity burns up to 450 calories at the same time. These Cardiovascular exercises are good; they include riding a bike, playing tennis, Swimming, Running, etc

2. Strength exercise

Strength exercise develops muscles and strengthens the bones, ligaments, and tendons. This is not a muscle building training. In this case, your muscles have the ability to burn calories while you are resting. It will make you look slimmer and healthier. It makes you feel better about your personality.

3. Healthy eating

Eating balanced diet is as important as the exercise.

Poor diet won't help you to achieve your health goals, lose weight or keep a healthy lifestyle. A healthy and balanced diet is important at all time in order to compliment the efforts of the exercise. There should be a small intake of saturated fats, sugar, and salt. The body also needs small unsaturated fat to be healthy. A good diet should include lean meat and fish, fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds, whole grains.

In a week you can lose a pound of weight, and burn more than 350 calories. Yes. You Can! It is possible to burn 500 per day. This can be achieved only through strength training, engaging in cardiovascular exercise and eating a balanced diet.

A Healthy life protects us from the detriments of unhealthy lifestyles which include diabetes, heart disease, obesity, stroke and a shortened life span. We can lose weight naturally when we engage in strength exercise, cardio training and eating a balanced diet.