Eating Healthy

Eating a healthy, well balanced diet, coupled with an adequate amount of excercise is the best way to live a long, prosperous life; although this may sound redundant, research has proved this to be true time and time again. Below are some tips on how to prepare and eat a more healthy diet.

• Rein in your consumption of refined carbohydrates - cakes, cookies, biscuits, sweets and candy.
• Put the frying pan away. Steam, boil, bake, broil, grill - choose fat-free cooking methods every time. Remove visible fat from foods, pick lean cuts of meat (and serve red meat no more than twice a week), pre-fry ground/minced meat in a dry pan and pat with kitchen paper to soak up fat.
• Eat lots more fresh fruit and vegetables. Not only are they good for you and low in calories, but they help to bulk out meals by satisfying your appetite without adding many calories.
• Eat a mixed salad before your main meal to take the edge off your appetite.
• Add fruit to your breakfast, sliced on to cereal or served as it comes.
• Offer a plate of raw veg sticks and fruit pieces as a snack or pre-dinner appetiser.
• Use vegetables and pulses in pasta sauces, stews and casseroles and reduce the amount of meat you use.
• Serve two types of vegetable with every meal and again, serve less meat.
• Try to eat a healthy breakfast every morning. Research shows that eating breakfast is a characteristic of slender people, plus a sustaining meal first-thing can keep you going snack-free until lunch.
• Cut down on alcohol, or cut it out completely. It's stacked full of sugar - that is, calories - it's super-easy to drink it without even thinking about it. You'd need to jog for a mile to use up the calories from just one unit of alcohol - that's a small glass of wine, half a pint of beer or a measure of spirits.
• Don't buy wine boxes, which make it far too simple to drink a lot. Stick to one drink a day - choose the best time to have it and enjoy.
• Soft drinks are also bad news for slimmers, as they are laden with sugar and calories. You can switch to diet versions, but better, to avoid artificial sweeteners, is to take to drinking water instead.
• Fruit juice counts towards your daily intake of fruit and veg, but is also high in sugar, so limit yourself to one glass per day.
• Use skimmed milk in tea or coffee and cut out sugar.

Adequate excersise includes a variety of components. For example, it is recommended that you stretch and work on flexibility everyday. It is suggested to maintain and ideal weight or even to aid in weight losss you engage in:

• intense workout: swimming or biking for at least 30 min, 2-3 times a week
• moderate workout: brisk walking for at least 20 min, 4-5 times a week
• established weight lifting routine that does not put too much strain on otherwise sedentary muscles