10 Tasty Tips

10 tasty tips for anyone wanting to be healthy..

1. Almonds, we know almonds are good but a 30g serving gives you 160 calories. They contain heart healthy fats. Lowering your risk of heart disease.
2. Dip in something else, change your fatty sour cream into something more like hummus or black bean dips. Raw vegetables like carrots and celery are great dipers!
3. DIY, skip yogurts with fruit already in. Jam is mostly the filler, containing as much sugar as a fizzy drink so buy your own and put fresh berries in.
4. Suck a mint or chew gum. This can satisfy your cravings and will leave your breath fresh!
5. Change up your garnish. Use healthy garnish to make bland food scrumptious. Worcestershire sauce is a great one!
6. Spice it up, adding a little spice will make you eat slower and this will increase you metabolism.
7. Drink the milk, in cereal your milk may absorb vitamins leaving you with no vitamins if you don't drink the milk!
8. Honey Honey Honey, Pure honey contains a huge amount of vitamins so put that on instead of Nutella or chocolate spread for a perfect start to the day.
9. Enjoy a bit of dark chocolate! This was a surprise to find that dark chocolate can be good for you with all the anti-oxidants! 
10. Brain Juice! A gulp of orange juice in the morning can kick start your day in the right way

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So there you are, 10 tips to help you make the right food choices! If you would like even more then send me a note in the contact form! 

 Good Luck!

20 Reasons to Lace up and Get Out Running

We all need motivating sometimes to get out and get exercising. We know we will feel much better once we have finished so here are 20 reasons why you should go out and run!

1. Teaches you discipline, keeping you focused.
2. That high you get when you have finished a run! The endorphins are kicking in. It's a priceless feeling and gets you pumped.
3. That PB (personal best) feeling when you have put the wok in and it's paid off..
4. Feeling like you belong to a club. Being a valued member to a club is a great feeling! You will also get to make many new friends.
5. Your body is great, you have a toned body after regular runs. You deserve to show it off!
6. You can afford a little treat..you won't need to worry if you ate a brownie because you know you'll just burn it off.
7. Free, now technically you need trainers and all the clothes but it's the cheapest sport because you don't need excess equipment. 
8. Joy of exploring, whether it's out on the trails or through the streets you can see new places you wouldn't of seen before.
9. Can replace a harmful habit. You can now make running your habit not something dangerous for your health.
10. Medals aren't just for Olympians. Finishing a race is enough to get you a medal, the pride of hanging up all your medals so everyone can see.
11. Get more kip, studies have shown running regularly can help reduce your time getting to sleep by a half.
12. Strong bones, many people think that running weakens your bones. On the contrary! 
13. You can do it in any weather, yes you may like it in the sun. But in the rain, it's still an adventure.
14. You don't need to learn rules, you just put one foot in front of each other. It's that simple.
15. You can compete in fun runs for charity or marathons. Or any distance, to raise money for people in need and get a feeling of pride.
16. Make friends, either at clubs or seeing them out regulaly. You will make many of friends just by getting active.
17. Gives an excuse to buy new clothes. "Well I need this to go for my run next week" 
18. Ultimate stress reliever. If your having trouble at work, lace up and get out!
19. You get out what you put in. Simple as!
20. Last one. The most obvious, it will do wonders for your health!

So there you go, 20 reasons to go out and run! Hope this inspires you. If you have anymore send them in the contact form! 

Good Luck and Lace Up!

Is a strong core beneficial?

If you think no matter what action you are doing you are involving your core. It may only be a small amount but you are still involving it.
 If you are running a lot then your core needs to be strong to keep you up right and so that you don't waste energy when you get tired. You core keeps all of these muscles working hard and it has a tough job. A simple way to strengthen your core without doing a physical workout is too sitting up straight. This helps keep your core strong. Your posture will also improve. If you think about it your tummy muscles are working so much harder to keep you up right than if you were to just slouch. If you want to go for a workout to work your core I have wrote a blog post on it called "super quick ab challenge" this has ways to make the moves easier or to make it more challenging for you. Go on, give it a try! What are you waiting for? http://behealthy2behappy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/super-quick-ab-challenge.html

Setting Goals the Right Way

So, we all have goals. Some may be more formal others just a small one at the back of their minds. We don't need to be aiming to go to the Olympics or anything like that, just maybe to get healthier by the wedding coming up or anything you want. You may of heard of setting goals called SMART GOALS, they are very strategic and too complicated for me so I thought I would find the do's and don'ts for goal setting.

Do's:

-Decide the end goal of what you want to achieve, what is the final achievement?

-Think of how you would be able to achieve your goals, do you need equipment?

-Set mini goals, if your end goal is long, break it up so it's more manageable! 

-Be specific, don't say "I want to eat more fruit!" It has to much wiggle room!

-Track your progress, whether it's weight or maybe the more energy you have.

-Reward yourself, after you have achieved one of your mini-goals give yourself a treat this can help to keep you motivated.

-Make sure your committed, don't do anything your not passionate about.


Don't:

-Be down if you feel yourself reaching a plateau (stage of not improving) the progress slows down after you start.

-Obsessively check your progress, instead of weighing yourself everyday check more like 1-2 times a week. 

-Think you will never fail, now no matter how hard you try you will fail at some point but it's how you bring yourself up from these failures that matters.

-Set too many goals. You can have many mini ones to achieve a big goal but don't have many separate ones. This could force you to loose focus and not achieve any.


 Stay focused and Good luck!



Thank you for reading my blog post, I hope this helped some of you. If you have any questions, leave them in the contact form and they will either go in my FAQ or I will contact you directly.

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Biggest Food Myths

We have all heard them, even believed them. They impact your food choices because you once heard something of someone, who told someone else and then they told another person. I thought, today we will bust these myths and laugh when we hear other people say them. Want to know them...keep reading.

1. Eggs are bad for your heart?

I have defiantly heard this one before, a shame to say believed it. Well, it makes perfect sense doesn't it, eggs contain a high amount of cholesterol in their yolks and we know that cholesterol is not good, it's the fatty stuff that cloggs our arteries.
That can lead to heart attacks. For me the facts were right there, no denying it. Though experts say labelling eggs as "bad for your heart" is not correct. A very healthy person can have an egg a day with no problems. Also, the cholesterol that we get from eggs we could easily get from other foods without knowing it. It also is proven that it doesn't have a huge impact on raising blood pressure.
 The body simply compensates and makes less cholesterol it's self. Now eggs aren't the healthiest food on the planet, I know so don't go crazy. For most people having 2 or 3 a week is perfectly fine.

2.  Carbohydrates make you fat?

This one I think is the most common. We have all heard of the diets that you take out all of the carbohydrates and just stay on other foods. Is this the right move? Mainly it all comes down to can you stick to these diets that don't let you have carbs. Now eating foods that are refined like white bread, pasta and doughnuts are not good for you but it doesn't mean you can't enjoy other types of carbohydrates. It's essential for a healthy body to eat fruits, whole-grains and beans. So cutting carbs out of your diet could be a mistake. It's also proven that it's more easy to stick to the diets that have "good carbs" in the long run. If you can stick to the diet of the Atkins, then stick with that! But carbs are vital for energy so don't cut yourself short.

These are good carbs, anything whole-grain is fantastic!

These are the bad carbs, they are full of sugar and don't give your body benefits.

3. Calories eaten at night are more fattening?

Calories are calories. No matter when they are eaten. All calories are is a measure of the amount of energy your being given so the energy won't change the time of day you eat them. However, to loose weight you have to burn more calories than you take in so if your eating loads of calories before bed then your not going to burn them off sleeping. However, your body needs an amount of energy to function so starving yourself from 7 on wards is not a good idea. The best plan would be to regularly take in food and keep drinking and not starving yourself because the energy your being given won't change the time of day.



If you want to find more about myths visit, http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/nutrition_news_information/the_13_biggest_nutrition_and_food_myths_busted?page=7 I chose the biggest myths that I thought most people would of heard of. Hope this busted some of your myths!

5 irresistible summer foods

This is a list of 5 super yummy foods that are perfect for the summer time, in this hot weather. Also, how to include them into your diet to get the benefits.

1. Blueberry's; these are good for you because with one serving of these you have got almost a quarter of your vitamin C recommendation for the day! Not to mention, they are packed with anti-oxidants that your skin and your body will love you for! An easy way to include them in your diet is to have them for a mid morning snack. Have these with some water to keep hydrated. These will then keep you going until lunchtime.

2. Bell Peppers; these are irresistible with a salad or added to any evening meal your cooking. Also, they contain a low amount of fat and a very important blood-sugar balancing property. Their vivid and bright colours are so summery and instantly lighten up any meal. Containing anti-inflammatory goodness your body will defiantly thank you! Caution; cooking bell peppers at a high temperature can destroy a important phytonutrient. Grilling has shown to destroy 40% of this anti-oxidant. so it's recommended that you cook low heat, short period of time. This is unless you need to keep the food in the oven for reasons such as; raw chicken cooking. You can always eat bell peppers raw!

3. Almonds; we all know that nuts are high in fat content, this can put a lot of people of these however, it's not saturated fat, it's mono saturated! The saturated fat comes from animals and mono saturated is good fat (in moderation). These are great as a snack by themselves or added to something. A favourite of mine is sliced almonds (often found with baking ingredient)  these are good to add to porridge or to add to any desert. Even though they are high fat, they still are good for your heart? Surely that can't be true? Well in studies it has been proved to be the case. 

4. Kiwifruits; these are a classic food to add to a fruit salad to make it exotic and summery. Containing more vitamin C than an orange, these are more of an unknown fruit. A particular favourite of mine would be the golden kiwi. Most haven't heard of this, it is a hard to get fruit but is so delicious. Much more sweet than a regular kiwi and only 60 calories!To include this into your diet try having strawberries in a bowl of cereal such as muesli, granola or porridge.

5. Strawberries; these are a favourite of many. So sweet and a easy food to snack on. Including these in your diet is so easy all you need to do is take them to work/school or out and about in a bag. Keep snacking on them and you only need to have seven to count as a portion of your FIVE A DAY. A indulgent that you don't need to feel guilty about. What more could you want?


If you want to find out more healthy foods that you can include into your diet visit,http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php just scroll down and view all of the foods in an easy to view list sub-titled format.

31 calorie snack?

So you were probably very optimistic about this post. Surely a 31 calorie snack doesn't exist? One that you can make at home? If you want to find out more, read on..


So the snack is popcorn, but you can buy popcorn at the shop and its over 200 calories? Ah well, in shops it is added with loads of oil and salt/sugar. If you make it at home you can control the levels of salt or any other flavorings. However, I personally like it plain.

You will need;

- Popcorn maker, cooking it over the hob can be very dangerous and you will need oil.
- Popcorn Kernels, available from any supermarket.

The popcorn maker I have is "American Original Popcorn Maker" this was £20 from Argos. Yes, it's quite pricey but it will avoid the danger and popcorn is my favorite snack so I use it all the time.

A cup of popcorn kernels makes over two cereal bowls of popcorn and only 31 calories, that's if you add no flavoring.

If you find this too plain I recommend adding some honey to it. This sounds strange but it sticks to the popcorn and gives it a lovely sweet flavor. Also honey has many health benefits and its all natural. If you like the healthy stuff, try Rowses "light and mild honey".



Hope you liked this blog post, leave any recommendations you want and thank you for visiting my blog.

Lacking Motivation

We all have those times when we feel like we simply can't be bothered. Whether it is to eat healthily or to workout, sometimes we just have no motivation.

Here are 5 tips to help you;

1. Change up your routine, if you usually do swimming on a Friday change it to a sunday and try a class on a Friday. If you usually run 3 miles, try 6x800m intervals with appropriate recovery imbetween. Or change up your breckfast to something more fun.

2. Get a friend involved, you will instantly feel more motivated if there is a two of you working out together. Or try and get your family to eat healthily aswell.

3. Invest in some new workout clothes. You can then feel motivated to show of your new clothes and that will get you into that gym or on the road running.

4. It sounds simple but, don't buy un-healthy food. We have all been there when we say that we will buy the half price chocolate and have it as a treat. Then we have a few too many treats and then left feeling  guilty, just buy nutritious food and start to love that instead.

5.  Create a playlist that you workout to, buy some new music and have that playlist specially for workouts. Then you can look forward to listing to your tunes and you know that you can only do that when your working out.


Okay, there is some tips that I hope helped you remember before your about to eat food think, is this good food? Do you want to be putting processed food into your body? Think of any food as fuel for your day or working out.

Controlling bad eating habits

So we all have those days when we are in the house and the cupboard snacks look so tempting. We have one snack, one more and another one. So today I am going to show you how to try and controll those habits.

1. Drink water, this sounds like an obvoius one but water has so many health benifits like its great for your skin! It makes you forget about the food you want to eat and its virtually free out of the tap!

2. Eat mints, these are great they only have about 1-5 calories and leave your breath smelling lush! Gum is great aswell if you don't like solid mints!

3. Keep busy, be out and about with a piece of fruit as a snack in your bag. You will not be tempted if your busy and you wont think about food.

4. Similar to number 3, take healthy snacks in tupperware containers. Take some greek yogurt and granola for a snack. Or even grapes and salad.

5. Set out snacks that you alow yourself throughout the day. Give yourself a ration, if you eat all of them in one go then you have none for the rest of the day.


So there you go, try these tips and see if you don't snack as much or if you eat a bit more healthily. Give them a go!

You are what you eat, what would YOU want to be?

Do's and Don'ts of exercise

Do;

• Listen to your body, if your feeling good then step it up. On the other hamd, if your in pain take a day of.
• Work your core, a solid core will do so many benifits. Make sure to include some twists and crunches into your routine.
• Recover, don't pile runs ontop of each other you'll just end up feelimg un-motivated and fatigued. Your mucels need to recover aswell.
• Write everything down, start a little training diary where you can note down any new workouts and keep your self motivated by looking back.

Don't,

• Set unrealistic goals, these will probably leave you feeling down and can fill you with doubt. Instead make small manageable goals to keep you motivated.
• Forget to hydrate yourself, dehydrated muscles will likely to tighten up. Don't forget to hydrate before and after exercise. 
• Do too much, this is common in new runners. They will go out to fast or they will try and do un achievable distances to early.

What are the benefits of being fit? (This is a poll found online)

52% feeling fit

45% better health

38% weight loss

30% satisfaction of achieving goals

22% doing something for themselves

22% weight maintenance 

21% stress relief

15% adrenaline rush

14% muscle mass

12% sense of community

9% muscle tone

What do you think? Leave it in the comments below..




always remember this..

Worked out hard?

Whenever I have worked out hard I always think, when will I benefit from this workout. Even though their is not an exact time span of when you will feel the benefits. Scientist have discovered certain timings that you can use to your advantage.

Pete Pfitzinger is an exercise physiologist and two-time Olympic marathoner says the process is cumulative. 

For running it is generally;

Training done within the past 5 days; Stress that leads to fatigue

Training done within 5 to eight days ago; Starting to lead to a positive adaption

Training done 8 days to 3 weeks ago; Stress has created a positive adaption.

Training done 3 weeks ago; Training is starting to loose its effect.


Fitness you have have today is a mix of all of these categories.
To exactly pin point a specific workout is hard but generally it takes about 8 to 10 days before you see the benefits.



To read the full article visit the link at the bottom of the page!

Thank you so much for checking out my blog, feel free to leave any comments suggesting improvements or ideas for future blogs. Good luck with all your training and don't forget to follow.






http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/how-long-does-it-take-benefit-hard-workout?page=single

5 Super Foods For Weight Loss

Hi Everyone, today I don't have a workout but I have a list of 5 super foods that are great for weight loss. These are important in a healthy diet.


First of all,

1. Apples- These are great quick low calorie snacks for on the go. Also their antioxidants in apples may help prevent metabolic syndrome. For a treat, sprinkle 1/2 a teaspoon of all spice and 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon. Then put in the microwave for 1 1/2 minuets.
2. Eggs- Even the yolks, they can help you trim inches. Enjoy as omelette's and scrambled eggs.
3. Pomegranates- Mostly known for their healthy juice but the seeds are also really good for you. Not only are they loaded with disease fighting antioxidants their also low in calories and high in fibre so they can satisfy your sweet tooth.
4. Yogurt- The best types of yogurt are Greek fat free yogurts. I always like to have a flavour so natural yogurt is hard for me. The yummiest I have found are "Muller Greek light style yogurts" in vanilla and coconut. So indulgent and fat free!
5. Avocado- Don't be put of by the high fat content of these because they are a very good weight loss food that you can add to your sandwich instead of mayo.

Thank you all for coming to my blog, hope you all liked this post. Comment any other foods you know of!

Circuit Routine; Only one workout away from a good mood.

Hi everyone, so today I have a circuit routine for you. Circuit training is super good for you and has so many benefits. Such as;  it doesn't require expensive gym equipment, can be used by elite athletes and by beginners and can really help tone your body.

Start by warming up, this is very important to prepare your mussels and your body for exercise.

15 push ups- To adapt these you can rest your knees on the floor, slowly try and work on bringing your knees further away from you.

5 burpees- Start as if you were about to do a press up then bring your knees together to your chest in a quick motion. Then jump up with your arms above your head and try and get height. That counts as one burpee.

15 triceps dips- on any low bend place your arms behingd your and lower your self to almost touchting the floor and come back up. That's one dip.

15 Back raises- Lying on your back slowly lift the up with your hand resting behind your ears for support.

20 Sit Up- To make this harder put your hands besides your head. If this is to hard put your hands across your body, holding your shoulders.

30 Squats- To adapt this jump up when you have finished your squat, straight into your next squat.

25 Alternate Leg Lunges- To make this harder jump into the next lunge to feel the burn!

(Repeat this once more.) 1 minuet rest

 Now cool down, finish with some stretches especially on your arms. Such as this one;

Photo from;  acchupehsprogram.blogspot.com 


Thank you all so much for checking out my blog, good luck with all your goals. 

Picture from: carrotsncake.com

Super Quick Ab Challenge

Hi Everyone, so today is the quick ab toner workout. So this is one you can do if you don't have much time. Ready to feel the burn and see results...

Start with;

20 ab crunches
5 lying leg raises
30 second plank
10 crunches
(Rest for 30 seconds)
10 mountain climbers
10 lying leg raises
20 bicycles
30 second plank
(Rest for 20 seconds)
10 oblique crunches (left)
40 second plank
10 oblique crunches (right)

To make this workout easier you can extend recovery to an extra 50%.

To make this workout harder you can reduce recovery by 50% and do 10% more reps on each exercise.




How to do the exercises:


Crunch: Lying on the ground on your back with your knees bent. Lift your chest slowly a tiny bit towards your knees and hold for 3 seconds. To make this harder hold for longer.

Lying leg raises: Lie on your back with your hand resting at your side. Keep your feet together and slowly lift your feet up. Hold for 3 seconds and slowly bring them back down. The aim is to keep your legs controlled.

Plank: Lie on your front and lift up with your feet and use your arms to balance your parallel. You want a straight line to run from your body.

Mountain Climbers: Standing on all fours, bring your knees towards your chest alternating each leg.

Bicycles: Lie on your back lift up your chest, the same amount you would for a crunch and then extend each leg out and in. The motion as if you were riding a bike.

Oblique crunch: These you do your Standard crunch but tilt towards one side. If it was a "left oblique crunch" you would go to the left side after you come up.