Eat well to make the most of Dry July
By Anne Finch on
Taking a break from booze is absolutely one of the best things you can do for your health. Not only are you giving your liver (and other organs!) a break, but you can expect these benefits:
- Better sleep – alcohol might help us fall asleep, but it leads to poorer quality sleep
- Less bar snacks – drinking stirs hunger, and can also lead to sub-optimal food choices (I’m looking at you late-night doner kebab)
- Less hangover remedies – greasy bacon and eggs, sugary drinks and fast food are pretty common on Sunday morning, meaning the effects of your weekend drag on
- More movement – not being glued to the couch recovering means more opportunities to get out and about
If you’re looking for even more ways to treat your body right, we’ve got some...
Ditch the diet pressure and think health this year
By Gael Myers on
It's that time of the year when we frown at the string of festive feasts and resolve to lose 20 kilos. We sign up for the gym, throw money at the fad program with the fastest weight loss claims and vow that this year will be different. Come the end of January, reality sets in and the only number going down is our bank account.
LiveLighter have shared three tips to refresh your New Year's resolution thinking and help you feel great in 2021.
1. It's not you, it's them
Most of us can stick to a crazy-restrictive diet for a while and lose a little weight. When we go back to our lifelong habits the kilos spring back on and we beat ourselves up about our lack of self-control. The truth is that being overly restrictive about what we eat does...
Healthy Foods on Supermarket Shelves
By Cindy O’Meara on
It’s easy to feel confused by the labeling on foods these days. And especially with products in organic grocery stores. They bring up more questions than they answer. Are they really worth the money? Are they actually a wonder ingredient? Will this overhyped product solve all my problems, make me super healthy and save me from Friday night’s alcohol binge? With this in mind, let’s step away from the bright lights and clever packaging, and look at some of the basic foods found in regular supermarkets, and how they can supercharge our health. Here’s some you’ll find in my basket:
1 - Cauliflower
A member of the brassica family, cauliflower is rich in sulfur containing nutrients and glucosinates, to reduce inflammation and support liver...
12 Healthy Snacks for Work
By Cindy O'Meara on
Most people take a briefcase to work, but I’m more likely to take a bag filled with healthy goodies. When you eat healthy foods, you not only improve your physical health, but you will also help your mind and body deal with stress.
When preparing snacks for work, the key is to be organised and prepared.
With the right nutrients, the brain performs better and stays alert during the day. Your thinking will be clearer and you will get tasks done faster, and the morning and afternoon slump will be a thing of the past!
Here are some examples of things I take on a regular basis to work. Pick and choose different ones during your week, to make sure you're getting a variety of healthy, nutrient rich, satisfying and delicious foods.
1. Morning...
Managing Sugar Cravings
By Peter Rule on
We all seek the taste of sweet foods naturally in our diet, however it can be easy to crave excess high sugar foods for many varied reasons.
We have 5 basic recognised tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (savoury) however we can become imbalanced in our food choices due to stress, low energy, eating on the run, looking for psychological reward or treat or nutritional deficiencies, just to name a few.
When assessing a person’s current eating plan, it is not uncommon to discover the following habits which can cause imbalances and sugar cravings to occur:
- Missing breakfast
- Added sugar in breakfast cereals
- Lack of protein and/or excessive complex carbohydrates during meals
- Dependence on alcohol, consuming 1-3 units per night
- ...
Junk food cravings? We’ve got your back
By Anne Finch on
Cravings are pretty common when we make changes to our diet. It’s a classic response to telling ourselves we can’t have something! Here’s our top tips for dealing with cravings.
1. Investigate your craving
Cravings can make us uncomfortable, so our instinct is to fulfill them at once. Next time, try taking a minute to think about what you really want. Are you tired and looking for a pick-me-up? Are you genuinely hungry? Or bored? Try and meet the underlying need of the craving, rather than a using a Band-Aid solution. If you’re tired, a brisk walk is invigorating (especially in the cold weather!). If you’re hungry, eat something satisfying rather than junk food that will leave you peckish again in half an hour.
2. Distract yourself
If...
10 Tips for Eating Out
By Olivia Horvat-Benson on
It can sometimes be a bit “too hard basket” to eat out when you’re on a “diet” or a specific health/food plan that limits what you can eat/drink, not to mention socially isolating; But it need not be like this. Firstly you need to remember that if you are on a “diet” or a specific plan, whether you’ve done it yourself or a healthcare practitioner has advised you of it, the intention for it was clearly to maximise optimal health, so it was a choice and when you make a choice you can’t say that you are missing out, because you’re not. All this means is that you’ll need to think outside the box a little from what you would normally opt for.
Here are some tips to help you.
1) Read the menu thoroughly & ASK questions.
Fancy words and...
What is a Balanced Diet
By Warren Maginn on
With health as the new currency, having a balanced diet plays an integral role in every path to wellness. What a balanced diet means, though, is open for interpretation. Clinical Nutritionist and Spokesperson for Nordic Naturals, Warren Maginn, shares his simplified guide to a balanced diet.
A balanced diet should contain a mix of vegetables, protein, carbohydrates and foods rich in omega-3s. Proportion is key to getting the ‘balance’ right.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when meal planning.
1. Colour Your Dinner Plate
Regardless of your fitness/weight loss goals, every diet should have a sufficient amount of vegetables. For the average adult, 5 serves of vegetables is the recommended amount. You can improve the nutritional value...