The Healthy Living Blog

The lead up to year-end holidays can be full of routine disruptors which can make skipped workouts, overeating and weight gain feel inevitable. But it doesn't have to be that way. 

Anticipating the challenges to come and arming yourself with some strategies to get through the holidays relatively unscathed is they key to surviving them.

There's lots of tips and tricks that I can give you, but I want to give you just 4 to focus on that I think are the most important and I'll include some infographics from Precision Nutrition that will help arm you with some strategies. These will help you to prioritise health, fitness and nutrition no matter what life throws at you - including the holiday season.

1. Eat slowly and until you feel "satisfied" rather than "stuffed"

One of the best ways that you can reduce your calorie intake immediately (without restrictive dieting) is with this one simple and effective tool. It helps in two ways:

• It takes 15-20 mins for your satiety hormones to kick
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I'm currently at Day 7 of running my 30 Day Challenge. And in my email to them yesterday, I talked about the problems with pressing the "pause button" on your health and fitness. What do I mean by that?

Well, whenever I run a Challenge of some sort, things always start off with a hiss and a roar - those doing it are very excited to start something new or to have a re-start! But then there's always those who drop off. Why?

Because unexpected (or even expected) things come up. We're dealing with real life. Work gets crazy busy, your kids get sick, family birthdays, weddings... the list goes on. When you miss a workout or eat the wrong thing, the thought process for most people is "I've failed". So you stop completely. And you reason that you'll just take a break – it’s not the right time - and start again when things calm down...when you have more time, when your kids aren't sick.

Except things never really slow down or get any easier. And you just keep putting it off. Or you start ag...

Most people know what a healthy, balanced meal looks like. Knowledge is not usually the problem. After all, we live in the digital age - nutrition information is readily available to us 24/7.

However, the battle for most people when it comes to consistently eating healthy, balanced meals is HOW to do it "in real life", whilst juggling the constant challenges. 

You know, like those days when you are late home from work because you get stuck in traffic from an accident on the motorway, your kids are tired and hangry and having near meltdowns... and then one of your kids vomits on the floor!

Without being prepared and having healthy options to grab, it's too easy to just go for those convenient, processed fast foods. 

As a Precision Nutrition certified Nutrition Coach, I teach my clients exactly how to have meal prep strategies in place. The result? Healthy food options to choose from when life throws us those never ending curve balls!

The below free infographic by Precision Nutritio...

Mealtime. It's a source of frustration and anxiety for SO many parents out there. 

Trying to balance the challenges of busy life and getting nutritious food into your kids is REALLY hard, and you wouldn't be alone if you feel like you're failing. 

But it is possible to win the battle and create a harmonious, stress-free environment at meal times, without having to make the world's healthiest meals or demand your kids eat all their vegetables. 

HOW?

By being gently persistent and taking a long term approach. Allowing your children to feel like they have some choices and control, by helping them to have a basic understanding of why nutrition is important and providing a safe, low-stress environment at mealtimes. 

The below infographic is an awesome visual guide which provides 9 low stress strategies to help kids get the nutrients they need, plus there are 5 family friendly recipes that most kids will love. 

Download the full version here, in a tablet or printer friendly version so ...

Motivation! Arrghhh. 

It seems like everyone else has it but you sometimes! Those people you know who get up at 5am to get to the gym. They must just be naturally motivated people right?

Wrong. Motivation is not intrinsic. People are not born with it.

I'm going to share with you two simple strategies that you can do right now to get you feeling motivated and moving closer to your goals each day. 

1. MAKE TIME FOR YOU

This is a commitment to YOU and YOUR values, priorities and goals. Making time is a crucial survival habit. If you don't make the time, time will be taken from you. You'll be pushed and pulled by other obligations. Something will always come up, and there's never a perfect time! So don't wait for the perfect time. MAKE the time. Book an appointment with yourself to move each day or to do whatever needs to be done to move you closer to your goals. 

Making time for yourself also helps you to develop practical and valuable life skills such as:

• Identifying what's impo
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