Want a Balanced Lifestyle and Healthy Diet
Here’s a Good Start (and a recipe too!)
What is a balanced lifestyle after all?
So many of my patients talk to me about diet and nutrition. They ask how to keep a balanced diet, and how to support their sport or just their day-to-day life with good nutritious food. They ask me for recipes and ask me about supplements.
The truth is, I’m not a nutritionist, I’m just a physiotherapist, but I have a huge interest in nutrition so I do a lot of reading and research to ensure I am doing the best I can to nourish my body and mind with the right stuff.
I’m all about balance. I love chocolate, and I love good red wine and champagne. I love naughty carbs like white bread and I love healthy nourishing greens like broccoli. I think what I have found to be the most important in MY life (and this does not work for everybody!) is that a balance of a little bit of everything is key.
I thought it was mainly women who felt guilty about eating ‘naughty’ foods, or ‘cheating’ on their diet, but the more I engage with my clients and I get to know them, the more I realise that men get hung up too. Men do like to be healthy too. We all want to be healthy and feel and look good, don’t we?
For this reason I wanted to share with you the basics I try to stick to in order to keep my diet clean, but also nourishing and exciting.
Here are the tips that may turn your life around, and achieve the balance lifestyle you have always wanted, without missing out on the fun stuff:
- Breakfast should be based around protein and healthy fats. This aids to kick start the metabolism.
- Aim to eat relatively regularly. I have 5 meals per day as a minimum. This keeps the metabolism active and keeps your energy levels fuelled. It prevents you from dropping low on energy and feeling the need to binge.
- Try to have something green with every meal. Leafy greens are alkalising (cancer fighters!) that help to keep the bodys pH at a neutral level to prevent disease.
- Have a few healthy go-to snacks that are always accessible and easy to whipup in no time, so if hunger does strike quite quickly you have something deliciously healthy to turn to.
- Avoid over-dosing on sugars! When I say sugars I mean processed sugars. I wouldn’t say NEVER eat anything processed, but try to stick to the 80%-20% rule. 80% of your total intake should be good, healthy food. 20% can be slightly naughty. If you feel you don’t want naughty food, just don’t have it!
- Replace your standard chocolates with 80-99% raw cacao with limited added sugars. I promise little changes like this help.
- Carbs should be lower on days you don’t do any exercise. Carbs are harder to burn so be wise with when you consume them. The best time is around a workout (yes, before AND after!).
- Fruit is SUGAR and DOES have calories. A fresh fruit smoothie is nutritious, but just because it is liquid it doesn’t mean that it’s not got any calories…. just don’t forget to factor it into your total consumption.
- Eating out is easy, just make the right decisions. Choose a lean protein (fish, chicken, beef etc), have some veggie sides (broccoli, spinach, salad etc), add some clean carbs (boiled potatoes, sweet potato wedges, rice etc) and bang, you’ve got a balanced healthy meal! (avoid fried foods when you can!)
- Get into the habit of reading the labels of your food packaging, to pick up on any added nasties and sugars. Avoid the E’s!
Here are some easily accessible and healthy food type examples to add to your shopping list to enhance your balance lifestyle;
Protein:
White fish
Prawns
0% greek yogurt
Egg whites
Chicken
Beef fillet
Turkey
Carbs:
Potatoes
Fruit
Oats
Rice
Quinoa
Veggies
Fats:
Egg yolk
Salmon
Coconut oil
Nuts
Avocado
Fatty meats - lamb, sirloin steak etc.
My favourite CLEAN & EASY, low calorie but nutritious recipe for your kick start to a balanced lifestyle.
SMOOTHIE BOWL RECIPE:
Ingredients:
1 scoop protein powder (try to go for one that tastes great BUT also isn’t artificial. I highly recommend Nuzest Rich Chocolate)
100g frozen blueberries
50g frozen banana
150ml coconut milk (I like Alpo for this)
100ml cold water
3-5 ice cubes
BLEND all the ingredients together and pour into your bowl.
You can use any toppings you like, some of my favourites are:
Pomegranate
More blueberries
Chopped banana
Mixed seeds
Coconut flakes
Enjoy and let me know what your first smoothie bowl tastes like. YUM! Here are some of the smoothie bowls I have made recently.. Click HERE for more healthy recipes!
