Have a Happy Healthy Easter

I have roughly been starting the journey to a healthier, fitter, happier me since the start of the year – I started off slowly, and gradually I've increased healthier habits into my routine. This method works best for me, I’m not good at going cold turkey. Let’s not to say I don’t splurge on naughty things or miss the odd work out day once in a while – I definitely do, but the generally healthier habits are becoming more and more normal to me. However this weekend means I've hit my first festive season – Easter.

I come from a big catholic family, who like to celebrate with food – which is lovely. My Mother, my Aunts and some of my Uncles are great cooks and even though they are fairly fit and healthy, they see a family get together as a chance to show off their richest dishes. I know my family isn't the only family like this, so I have put together some tips to stay on track and have a healthy Easter.

Eat Chocolate

Probably not what you were expecting – but yes chocolate can be good for you and it’s Easter, a time that is now associated with chocolate is various different shapes or sizes. Plus some of us have giving up chocolate for lent, so we deserve it on Easter Sunday.

Try and go dark with your chocolate choice, as the health benefits are enormous:

• Dark chocolate improves blood flow and can help prevent the formation of blood clots, improve cognitive functions, and reduce the risk of stroke. It also contains sever chemical compounds that have a positive effect on your mood and cognitive health.
• It also helps control blood sugar as it contains flavonoids that help reduce insulin resistance by helping your cells to function normally and regain the ability to use your body’s insulin efficiency.
• Dark chocolate is also loaded with antioxidants, these help your body of free radicals which cause oxidative damage to cells. Free radicals are implicated in the aging process and may be a cause of cancer – so eating dark chocolate can prevent cancer and slow down the aging process (good bye anti-aging cream).

If dark chocolate isn’t your thing, why not try a smaller version of your usual favorites? Have you seen the little lindt bunnys, or only have 5 mini eggs, instead of the whole packet. It will be enough to satisfy your craving.

Get out and about

Humphrey
Running Partner &
Professional chewer
of balls and shoes

As I'm in the UK I am currently feeling the benefits of a glorious spring, where it’s lovely and sunny, but not too warm (which for me is my ideal climate). So why not head outside and go for a walk / run / skip / cycle / jog – spending 30mins outside will burn calories, put some fresh air into your lungs and make you feel awesome. Take the family or a friend with you and have a good catch up  or go solo and have some good me time. We have a 4 day weekend ahead, so half an hour a day will quickly top up to two hours of exercise.

I’m planning a 5K jog with Humphrey on Friday morning, 10K jog with Humphrey on Saturday morning, 5K power walk on Sunday with my Mum and 10K jog with Humphrey on Sunday. Humphrey is my little personal trainer, as he just doesn't stop and keeps on going, Sunday will be more of a relaxed morning and  I get some quality time with Mum too. Perfect.

Make your meals seasonal, healthy and tasty

As it’s Easter, it’s just another excuse for me to eat lots of eggs (I love eggs), but instead of my normal poached or boiled I’m going to mix is up and make some clean eating ‘party’ or ‘deviled’ eggs – check out the recipes here from The Kitchen Shed (this is my main source for clean eating recipes).

Try and eat the seasons – great spring vegetables are in season at the moment, including Kale*, Spinach*, Rhubarb, Cauliflower (which I’m not the biggest fan off, but I sometimes great or mash it as an alternative to potatoes).There are loads of recipes online with seasonal vegetables – so give it a google.

*As my family is half Indian, lots of curries will be made, so a good tip I learnt from my Mum is when making a lentil curry – chuck a bag of spinach of Kale in there and you get a good hearty soupy dish.

Due to the four day weekend, it’s also a good time to try out and experiment new recipes or ingredients – I’m going to spend more time experiment with Quinoa and trying to incorporate lots of seasonal vegetables into it. I'll be making The Kitchen Shed's Quinoa Salad as a test run before BBQ season starts. 

Enjoy it

More than anything, enjoy your time with your family and friends, enjoy being away from work and the office. Good times and memories are made over the festive season – so treasure them and don’t stress. Even if you don’t make the healthiest choices over the weekend, that’s OK as your still alive, healthy and moving in the right direction.

  

Thirsty Tuesday

My 500ml bottle,
that doesn't leave my side

So I’m slowly managing to make 6am alarms and 6:30am workouts a regular thing; you do something for two weeks and it slowly starts getting built into your routine. So the next thing on my agenda to build into my routine is drinking lots of water – around 3 liters a day, I'll be doing this by drinking six x 500ml bottles a day of water - one in the morning before work, two at work before lunch, two at work after lunch and one in the evening.

Why so much water I hear you ask? Aren't you going to spend all day on the toilet - well yes but the benefits outweigh my multiple toilet trips.

Water increases energy and relieves fatigue – since your brain is mostly water, drinking it helps you think, focus and concentrate batter and be more alert. Your brain needs a lot of oxygen in order to function at optimum levels. Drinking plenty of water ensures that your brain gets all the oxygen it needs. Drinking eight to ten cups of water per day can improve your levels of cognitive performance by as much as 30%! Drinking plenty of water also supports nerve function. It ensures that your body's electrolyte levels remain high enough to allow your nerves to relay messages to and from the brain in the way they were meant to.

Promotes Weight Loss – by removing the by-products of fat, reduces eating intake (by filling up your tummy if drank prior to meals), reduces hunger (yay, natural appetite suppressant J), raises metabolism and has zero calories.

Flushes out Toxins – Gets rid of waste though sweat and urination which reduces the risk of kidney stones and UTI’s.

Improve Skin Complexion – Moisturizes your skin, keeps it fresh, soft, glowing and smooth (basically a natural foundation) – helps get rid of wrinkles too, BONUS!

Maintain Regularity – helps with digestion as water is essential to digest your food and prevents constipation.

Boosts Immune System – your less likely to get sick, as drinking lots of water helps the fight against flu, cancer and other aliments.

Natural Headache Remedy – The most common cause of headaches are dehydration, so staying hydrated helps relieve and prevent headaches (migraines and back pains too).

Prevents Cramps and Sprains – Proper Hydration helps keep joints lubricated and muscles more elastic so joint pain is less likely.

Puts you in a Good Mood – when your body is functioning at its best, you feel great and happy.

I'm off to go re-fill my bottle up - Happy Drinking :) X

Monday Marathon Musings

                     

The title of this post might be a little deceiving, I did not run a marathon (far from it) – however I did go and watch my cousin Jude, my friend Mikey and the 35,898 others run the London marathon.

Both Jude and Mikey ran the marathon in roughly 4 hours – which is a very respectable time, so well done boys. Everyone running did such an amazing job, the dedication for months and months of preparation must have all been worth it for the feeling of accomplishment.

Jude and Mikey managed to inspire me to go from thinking to run the Blenheim half marathon, to signing up for it. which means I have 6 months to get 13 miles ready.  So in a weird twist of events, I'm slowly turning into a runner – who would have thought?

So the next month is going to be focusing on stamina and time; building up running for 30mins to 1 hour, to 1 hour and a half – then in 4 weeks I’ll start to look at distance. I’ll also be blogging about others things going on in my life, the love, the laughs, the travel.

I’ll be back for some Tuesday Thoughts…but first I must go for a run.