The Health Files: Tips and tricks for eating well and maintaining a healthy lifestyle

      Making new year's resolutions is a great way to wipe the slate clean and begin to introduce some positive new habits into your life, but traditionally, come February 1st, the resolve you strode into January so full of has dwindled to almost nothing.

Often, our resolutions can prove harder to maintain than we might have imagined, and it only takes one bad day to have you taking a detour to the nearest shop as you head home from work,  in search of that emergency bar of chocolate. A huge part of the problem, in my eyes, is the approach that many of us take to achieving our goals - leaping in head-first with a complete lack of forethought. It might be tempting to think that you can change your entire life overnight, but realistically, it's unsustainable.

One thing I have learned the hard way is that you need to create your own support network if you really want to succeed. I'm not talking friends, but rather, looking at what needs to be done in order to give yourself the best possible chance of success, and putting measures in place before you begin to provide support as you go.

It's never an easy feat, but there's no such thing as can't. I've fallen off the wagon all too many time myself in the past, but I have slowly learned that the best way to achieve your goals is to be your own biggest cheerleader, and let go of the self-sabotage. We are all guilty of it, and it does us no favours at all.

Today, I wanted to share with you some of the handy tip and tricks I have picked up along the way - tips that I have found work for me, and ones that I hope will have us all waving out 2015 with a smile of satisfaction on our faces.

Here goes.

1. Plan and prep your meals for the week

Knowing what you're going to be eating for the days ahead helps you to stay focussed and prevents situations where you might find yourself reaching for a less than healthy option simiply because nothing else is available. Ensure that your fridge is always stocked with a selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, and fill your cupboards with staple foods such as quinoa and brown rice. Spend a couple of hours cooking up some one-pot meals on a Sunday, these can be stored in the fridge and dipped into as needed throughout the week. I tend to do this for lunches, so that all I have to do each evening is pop a portion into a plastic container along with some fresh salad, and grab it on my way out the next morning.

2. Be prepared

To give yourself the best possible chance of maintaining your healthy lifestyle, ensure that you are prepared for every eventuality. Pop your gym gear in the washing machine after each session, and make sure that it is dried and packed into your gym bag before you go to sleep. If you exercise after a day at work, then make sure you keep the necessaries in the car so that you can head straight to the gym, as often, coming home and sitting down will mean that you are far less likely to get back up again!

In term of eating, number 1 will have already tarted you off on the right foot, but it's a good idea to make sure that you always have some healthy snacks close at hand so that you're never tempted to reach for that chocolate bar. Empty your desk drawer of anything that might pose a risk to your eating plan, and instead, fill it with nutritious and low sugar alternatives. I keep bags of mixed nuts, sachets of miso oup, gluten-free oatcakes and Nak'd bars in mine.

3. Include complex carbs in your lunch

A sure-fire way to fall off the wagon is to deprive yourself completely of energy-providing carbohydrates. Cut out the white, refined baddies such as white bread, rice and pasta, as these are of little nutritional value and will cause a sudden spike in your blood sugar. All very well if you're after a quick energy hit, but it is soon followed by a crash and will leave you feeling lethargic and sleepy for the afternoon. Instead, replace them with high-protein grains which provide complex carbs and a slower stream of energy. Quinoa and bulgar wheat are both good options, as well as daily staple of mine. Alternatively, try sweet potato - I roast a few in tin foil in the oven each Sunday, and keep them in the fridge until needed.

4. Have a green smoothie every morning

The majority of us lead busy lives, and it can be difficult to find the time to ensure that you're getting your five a day. One of the best solutions, I have found, is to drink a green smoothie for breakfast each day. Every evening, I throw a handful of kale or spinach in the blender, along with a selection of berries, a spoonful of wheatgrass powder, some ginger, and some flaxseed or chia, and whizz them up, ready for the following day. The Blend Active has to be one of my best purchases, as you simply attach the blade to the flask provided, replacing it with a lid once done. It's a quick and easy way to make and store a smoothie until you need it, and saves on the washing up, too.

If I fancy something a bit more filling, I'll add some avocado to my smoothie, or sometimes I'll pop in some banana and a spoonful of almond butter.

5. Swap coffee for green tea

There's no excuse not to like green tea these days, as with the multitude of flavours now available on the market, there is something to suit even the fussiest of tastes. Personally, I gave up coffee some while ago after realising it exacerbated the anxiety I was suffering from at the time, and it continues to serve as a trigger. I don't miss it at all, and I enjoy the gentle uplift I get from a nice, hot cup of green tea. I do love my English breakfast tea though, and I will always have a cup or two to get me going each morning. After that, it's green tea all the way, and with the added benefit of health-boosting antioxidants and - so they say - a slightly accelerated metabolism, there's very little not to like about it. I often go for Matcha green tea, but if that' not to your taste then try my favourite flavoured versions - I like Twinings orange and Lotus flower or mango and lychee.

6. Bake some healthy treats to have on hand for weak moments

Like it or not, there are going to be time when you feel your willpower beginning to falter, and the best way to deal with it is to have something on hand that will satisfy a sweet craving without the high sugar content. Recently, I have started making brownies with sweet potato and avocado, which might sound odd but taste delicious. You wouldn't have a clue there were veggies in them, and the best bit is that they tate wonderfully chocolatey without the calories or sugar. I use raw cacao for the flavour, and add fat free natural yoghurt and honey, swapping plain flour for spelt flour or almond meal. There are lots of recipes out there for sugar free, clean-eating desserts, and the recipe I use i very much an improvisation based on several. If you'd like the recipe, then let me know in the comments.

7. Plan your exercise schedule ahead of time

I wish I could be one of those people who bound out of bed every day for a pre-work gym session, but alas, cold, dark, winter mornings are not for me. To ensure that I still get my exercise in following a tiring day at work, I take steps to plan exactly what I'm going to be doing, so I carry a screenshot of my gym's class timetable on my phone for reference. It's all too easy to arrive without a plan and to end up wasting valuable time as you um and ahh about which machine you want to go on or which body part you are going to target. I tend to choose which classes I'm going to be doing the weekend before, and choose suitable workouts for the days in between - so, for example, if the classes I'm doing don't involve much work on my legs, then I'll do some squats and lunges and try to focus on that area on a day where I'm doing my own thing.

If you don't have a gym membership, then hop onto Youtube via your TV - there are some brilliant channel which offer a range of fitne videos and programmes that you can do in your living room. A personal favourite of mine is Fitness Blender, but Blogilates and Tone It Up are also popular.

8. If you do slip up, then get straight back on the wagon.

So you caved in and ate that bar of chocolate. One little mistake doesn't have to mean throwing in the towel completely, and if you're serious about your goals then you shouldn't let it deter you. That said, nor should you simply use it as an excuse to continue the run of bad eating for a few more days. Tomorrow is another day, so get straight back into your healthy routine in order to minimise the impact. Having a cheat meal once a week is fine, a long a it doesn't signal the beginning of the end -  and a wave goodbye to your resolve.

What are you doing differently this year to help you to keep your resolutions?

xx

October Agenda

A bit of a late October Agenda this month. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but these past couple of weeks I really seemed to have lost my blogging mojo for a bit. I think it's probably something we all go through at some point or other, and I think in my case it was down to two things. One is that I had been so excited about the prospect of moving home next year - and I mean ridiculously so, as I have wanted it for so long - that after the initial burst of happiness had passed, I crashed back down to earth with a bump, as I realised that it's still almost a year until it actually happens. So that means eleven more months of 'this'. The second thing is that my anxiety symptoms have been really quite bad for the past couple of weeks, and when that's bothering me I really can't seem to sit down and get anything typed as it does get me down, and makes me feel really restless too.

I haven't really spoken about anxiety on here before, and I don't want to dedicate a whole post to it or anything like that, because I don't think it deserves the attention. The thing about anxiety is that the more you focus on it, the stronger its hold on you. But a quick explanation for you: I don't suffer from anxiety in the sense that I am constantly freaking out about everything, but I suppose the culmination of the fact that I have always been a worrier, coupled with the fact that I've spent so long living far from the ones I love, has led to this. Anxiety is something that affects me physically, so that means that on a day to day basis, I get this weird jittery feeling, pounding heart and shortness of breath, even when I am feeling fine and not at all anxious about anything! It's really frustrating, and when it first started I had a really hard time believing that that's all it was - I mean, who has anxiety without actually feeling anxious!? 

So anyway, that's that. Let's see how I did with the tasks I set myself last month, before moving on to this month's Agenda:

September

1. Save as much money as possible.

I'm pleased to report that I've been pretty well behaved on this one, and have stashed away a fair few pennies. I say this, but I suppose I'm slyly ignoring the fact that I might have had one or two Ebay mishaps - in other words, yes, I have spent money I shouldn't have. It's just so easily done when it's online, isn't it - it seems like it's not real money until you get the bill at the end of the month....not looking forward to that one!

2. Get back to healthy eating and exercising several times a week

So last month, I told you that, being someone who usually does eat healthily bar the odd slice of cake, I had fallen off the wagon somewhat and could not seem to stop eating sweet things. The evenings are my problem, as when I'm home alone I either boredom eat or boredom bake! Anyway, it took me until the latter half of the month but I do seem to have managed to rein it in a bit. I'm still baking at the weekends and having treats here and there, but in a much more controlled fashion. As for the exercise, I tend to go through phases of going for it and feeling good about it, and phases of not being remotely bothered about it (mostly the latter). However, after reading this week that exercise is the single most important thing you can do to help anxiety symptoms, I have got myself back into gear - I get  annoyed when people complain about things and yet do nothing to help themselves, so it's got to be done. I will let you know if I see any difference.

3. Get Skyping.

The idea here was to make sure Skype plans actually came to fruition. My friends and I are constantly making and breaking Skype dates and one way or another, our chats just never seem to happen. And because we are always saying that we must Skype, I never get messages telling me what's been going on in their lives, as it is always assumed that we will talk about that 'when we Skype'. Which never happens. Sadly, I am no further along on this one, although not for want of trying. 

Now, on to this month's Agenda:

1. Keep saving the pennies!

Self explanatory really, and must be done.

2. Stop being a hypochondriac.

I don't know if I actually am a hypochondriac, but I still get scared that my anxiety symptoms are something else, which in turn only serves to make me more anxious. Not fun.

3. Keep up the daily exercise.

Again, it's got to be done.

4. Blog brainstorming.

There is so much more I want to do with my blog, yet something always stops me. Outfit posts don't happen because I don't have someone patient enough to photograph me the amount of times necessary for me to get a photo I'm satisfied with. Or a tripod. Makeup (face) posts don't happen because I can never seem to get an acceptable picture for those either, despite the fact I can take them myself. Baking posts don't happen because I always bake in the evening and then the lighting for photos is awful. All of this is really starting to annoy me, as I feel that it's really limiting me and my blog, so my aimfor this month is to sit down and have a think about what I can do to make these things happen, as well as coming up with some new ideas for content. Usually, I just write about what comes to me, and I like to do it that way as I feel more inspired, but at the same time it's good to plan some bits and pieces for those days when you just don't feel like it.

Phew, that was a hefty post. If you made it this far then well done!

What'son your agenda for October?

xx