Thursday 31 March 2011

Time for a tweak

NITC will be on holiday next week with my good friend Ms Haribo and I'm afraid our plans won't leave any time for blogging so they'll be a break in service!

However that doesn't mean you need to take a break from giving your health the focus it deserves ... and to keep you on track I'm going to set some homework for whilst I'm away!

As Jack Lalanne expressed so well in the clip I posted on last week - if you give your body the best fuel it will run and run and repair itself when it gets damaged. Feed yourself rubbish and your health could quickly enter a downward spiral, but treat yourself like you'd treat your porsche (if you're lucky enough to have one) - by giving yourself only the best fuel, rather than the regular unleaded, and you'll keep yourself in tip top condition.

Not only does eating unhealthy food lead to poor health, but every time you eat low nutrient content food you are missing an opportunity to give yourself a nutrient injection.

So if you want to take part - homework for next week is to consciously make the effort to include a nutrient rich food with every meal and snack you eat. This means including wholegrains, fruit and veg, nuts and seeds.

I've set out an example below so you can see how straight forward this is, but by making simple tweaks you can make a big impact on your nutrient intake.

For example:

Breakfast:
Before: cereal with milk and americano
After: cereal with added blueberries (antioxidants and fibre) and a green tea (antioxidants).

Snack:
Before:
Salted crisps
After:
Salted nuts (essential fats) and an apple (fibre and antioxidants)

Lunch:
Before: Tuna salad baguette
After: Tuna salad sandwich on brown or rye bread (B vitamins and fibre) with an extra side salad (leafy greens are rich in a range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants) or small vegetable soup

Snack:
Before: chocolate bar
After: two squares dark chocolate (antioxidant rich) and a palmful of almonds (essential fats)

Dinner:
Before: Steak and chips (restaurant)
Afterwards: Steak with side salad and cooked seasonal veg

Even if you don't manage this for every meal, if you make a concerted effort to try and do this as often as possible it will quickly become second nature.
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