How you can eat yourself to better health.

 Hello everyone!

A warm welcome to your weekly dose of good vibes!!

3 Amazing quotes I would like to highlight are:

-'Don't dig your own grave with your own knife and fork.'

-'One should eat to live, not live to eat.'

-'Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.'

I am extremely passionate about promoting a balanced relationship with food because I have personally tried all of the fad diets on the market and nothing works. It only leaves you feeling even more stressed, depressed and not good enough. 

Therefore I want to highlight 10 top tips to improve your overall health by encouraging a more balanced approach to eating. 

1. Go dairy free or try and lower your intake of dairy. Something I do is I replace cow's milk with oat milk. Which is surprisingly a really lovely substitute. Instead of using butter on your bread, why not try using cold pressed olive oil and spread that over your freshly sliced bread. Choose to enjoy gelato instead of always choosing ice cream and try your best to avoid chocolate. 

2. Avoid preservatives and artificial additives in food. Learn to avoid processed foods with lots of preservatives for example- fizzy drinks, dried fruit, fruit juices, cordials, frozen fries, preserved meats, certain breads, cakes and of course fast foods. 

3. Enjoy a variety of grains for example try avoid consuming too much bread all the time, instead of always having bread with every meal, why not eat more rice or mix it up and try eating sourdough, rye, multi grain or whole meal. 

4. Eat more salads and vegetables or snack on vegetables throughout the day. Eat as many vegetables as you can and try and not always fill up your plate with potatoes only, try and eat more rice and sweet potato instead. 

5. Lower your intake of fruit juice because they are high in natural sugars as well as simple sugars and basically fruit juices further concentrate the sugar content and that happens especially when more sugar is added. 

6. Low GI is always a good idea. For example choose a carrot and celery stick instead of sweets, eat nuts instead of biscuits and chocolates, choose a pear over an apple, eat whole grain bread instead of white bread and perhaps try choosing a rice dish instead of a full plate of deep fried potatoes or cheese fries. 

7. Hydration is key because the energy boost you receive when keeping hydrated throughout the day really helps you get things done and be more productive instead of feeling sluggish and de motivated, and I will take feeling energetic and ready for the day over feeling exhausted from not being hydrated. Also try and avoid beverages which only dehydrate you for example- fizzy drinks, energy drinks, sweetened fruit juices, alcohol or coffee. 

8. Plan your snacks for the day because they really keep you goin throughout your day by helping you maintain sustained energy. Snack on vegetable snacks, nuts , seeds, home made muesli bars and a small intake of fruit.

9. Use good fats and oils, for example use cold pressed olive oil when cooking or even as a spread for bread. 

10. Diversify your protein intake, so basically incorporate red meat, chicken or fish between meals and try and eat lots of broccoli as it is the highest vegetable that contains protein. 

A well balanced eating regime really encourages firstly a healthy relationship with food, it also provides enough nutrients and vitamins that your body needs to heal, repair, grow and replenish. Eating really well can also help to avoid health complications and diseases. One of the main reasons that it is so important to focus on being healthy is because it helps you to maintain a healthy body weight, provides your body with energy, improves the functioning of your brain, increases an overall better mood and sleep pattern. It is also so important to maintain a healthy heart because our heart gives us life and we really should become more aware of the choices we make so that we can focus on making better ones. 

Life will have meaning to you when you understand that life is a true gift. Think for a moment on the things you worry about and that cause you stress- are they benefiting your life in anyway? Are you focusing rather on improving your health or your relationships in life so that you can live life to the fullest, be your best self, have the energy to enjoy time with your family, be motivated to get up each day with a purpose and passion for life. 

We need to learn to appreciate the life we have and focus on putting our best foot forward first. That means focusing on improving our health and daily lives so that we can live our life to the fullest and experience all of the beauty whether good or bad- we never lose. We gain positive growth from every negative situation and we become stronger. So take the much needed time to focus on your health and happiness because you are worth it and life is worth it. 

I love you all. 

Wishing you lots of good vibes, happiness and amazing health.